Eve players use the word "grind" to mean things they have to do in order to get the ISK they need to PvP. Those that don't like PvP use the word to refer to activities that increase standings with NPC corporations or factions. I'm currently grinding level 4 distribution missions with the Sisters of Eve in order to not only get the loyalty points but to get full use of Sisters of Eve station services like refining for free (or in the case of the market at a vastly reduced price). With current standings of 5.68, I think I can finish my grind this weekend and then do a week or so of exploration and bookmarking systems before going back to another standings grind.
Guild Wars 2, on the other hand, is full of grind. Just a warning to all the crafters out there: gathering materials is a grind! The best advice for playing Guild Wars 2 is to not just play through the story and quest lines if you want to make gear that is useful as you level up. When I finished up Queensdale, the human starter area, I don't think I was level 15 in either of my crafting professions. I've spent my time the past couple of weeks gathering copper, cloth and leather in the attempt to level up. I think I'd rather mine in high-sec. Ugh! Hopefully once I hit level 25 in my crafting professions I'll have enough materials to make the unneeded items to level my crafting to the next level of items. On the plus side, since I've now hit level 20 because I get adventure experience for gathering and crafting I'm not worried about content being too difficult anymore. Of course, I am playing a ranger and I hear rangers are OP.
I think the reason that I find the grind in Guild Wars 2 more irritating than the one in Eve Online are my goals. In Guild Wars 2 my goal is to reach max level in adventuring and in all the crafting lines. I don't really have to have any intermediate goals because the game will supply those. That means making a lot of items that I'm just going to salvage to reuse the materials so I can craft more useless items. Sure, at the end of the line I can craft legendary items, but is the payoff after months of effort worth it?
In Eve, the goals I set are my own, so the grind is something I really impose on myself. Here are just some of the goals I've set over the past three years.
- Join Eve University and begin to get a clue how to play.
- Get jump clones.
- Get perfect refining for Wandering Rose.
- Get capability to manufacture all my own ammunition.
- Buy a Rupture.
- Buy a Cheetah.
- Buy a Hurricane.
- Buy a Maelstrom.
- Manufacture my own tech 2 ships.
- Get blueprints to make meta items from COSMOS missions.
- Set up a home in low sec.
- Upgrade exploration equipment.
In contrast to Eve, will the things I'm doing in this first tier of content in Guild Wars 2 prove useful further down the line except as a stepping stone to further content? Perhaps I'm wrong but I doubt it. Of course, I have to finish this stupid grind I'm on in order to find out.
If you want standing, watch out for storylines! The storyline gives more standing than all the 15 distributions before it combined. Make sure that the 15th mission agent is closest to a Sisters storyline agent, even if the 15th is NOT a Sister
ReplyDeleteYou do know that most GW professions (excl cooking) are best ground by discovery, not by actual crafting.
ReplyDeleteEVE Online is a massive multiplayer online game that offers limitless potential to discover, explore and conquer an amazing science fiction universe
ReplyDeleteWell, at GW2 I have a level 80, two level 40 and one level 25 toons. Let me say you are doing two things wrong:
ReplyDelete1- you harvest nodes while you are completing a zone, not after you completed it: take note there is not competition for node and you can send the mats directly to you bank account from any place at the game;
2- the fastest way to advance crafting is experimenting new recipes: the game give you a limited number of recipes and you need discover new recipes, but that will give you enough xp each time you discover a new recipe that you will advance a full level at crafting.
The first tier of gear you can craft is level 10. Some discovered recipes will be level 15. If you had harvested the nodes since the start, you was to have a crafted gear while advancing from level 10 to level 20. Now, level 20 gear is tier 2, need crafting at 75 for craft it. So, it is important to harvest nodes and craft gear since the start.
At level 80 you can craft a nice set of exotic (orange) gear with a craft profession at skill 400. My level 80 toon have a full set of exotic armor and an exotic staff. My level 40 necro is jeweller 400 and it crafted exotic level 80 jewells for my level 80 toon. Take note that it is easier to your alts advacne crafting because your main accumulated a lot of mats.
If you are interested at legendary weapons, let me inform that will need a lot of mats and items, legendary weapons are a real grind. The best option is start to store them since the lowest levels. Make some pvp for gain pvp coins (you will need 500 that coins for a legendary), explore all places at each zone you are advancing level (you will need 100% map completion for a legendary), start to explore dungeons at level 35 (the first dungeon at story mode is level 30, but the explorable mode is level 35).
The problem is that I was harvesting mats but when I finished the zone I was only up to level 15. The grind in GW2 is much worse than the crafting grind I experienced in Everquest 2. I'm now up to level 23 in both leatherworking and jeweler. Getting materials for leatherworking is a pain because there are no drops or spawns. You have to kill things.
DeleteOn the plus side my adventuring level is up to level 21.
Oh, and if I have to explore dungeons, that means I won't be getting a legendary.
DeleteNoizy, legendary are just cool skins. They have not better stats than an exotic everyone can craft at 400.
DeleteI will agree legendary are a big grind, they were made for be a big grind, need a lot of patience and effort for gain a legendary. But everyone that is trying get a legendary know it and know it is only for a cool skin. It is only for a social aspect, because we humans are social apes: we want show to everyone at the game we have that shinny.
But the rest of game is not so grindy how you think. You can make a lot of diferent activities at same time and you can choose what you will do. If pve is going boring, just go to spvp or to wvw. Or just take an asura gate to other starter area. By the wya, the human areas are the most boring zones at all game, try the asura starter zone. It is just two asura gates to tehre (queensdale > Lion Arch > metrica).