the grind for mounts needs to be toned down

[maddoctor.2738]

> @"scerevisiae.1972" said:

> doesn't need to stick. if you can buy it for real money, and the item/upgrade is not purely cosmetic, it's a pay-to-win item/upgrade by definition, even if the "win" impact appears small.

>

> most people would say just being able to purchase gold for real money automatically makes a game P2W.

>

> P2W is so common in the games industry today that expect all the white knighting is from younger players who are just used to it.

 

So expansions and subscriptions are pay 2 win too right? Since you buy them for real money and what they offer is not purely cosmetic. If everything is P2W according to your definition then we need something else here to differentiate the "seriousness" of P2W

[Tseison.4659]

I feel the only problem I’m having with said “grind” is the Skyscale one. Heck, I found the beetle and warclaw to be painless and easy going...

[hotskitty.8269]

I personally would have preferred a little more grind for the normal mounts. I think we were given mounts a little too easily. The skyscale was kinda the perfect amount for earning them.

 

The Griffon/Beetle/Warclaw was pretty cool, but I like to feel like I've earned and gone through a story to get my stuff. It means a story can be told.

[Luthan.5236]

I am now at the griffon. Just started with the whole PoF stuff only a few weeks ago and everything is super quick compared to HoT. The mastery for the 4 basic mounts are unlocked fast by just playing the game normally. (I did not rush the story but I did full map completion while doing it. And doing some events including meta events every now and then + going for the mastery points.)

 

Skimmer collection was nice and fun. I guess they wanted players to re-visit older maps and doing some of the older events there. (Totally new players might not have even been in those maps.) Yeah: The mastery exp needed there ... took a bit longer. It still accumulated normally. it only migh be annoying if you want to rush content ... wanting to play on later stuff (Icebrood Saga) and not staying in the PoF maps.

 

Currently I'm still playing in order of release and got the exp for underwater skimmer mastery by just completing other stuff in the 5 basic PoF maps: While going for the griffon collection I completed all the other minor map and story achievements (except bounties I will leave these for the last and maybe doing them later when revisiting the maps on daily achievements) I just earned enough exp.

 

Looking forward to the griffon. And the other (beetle and skyscale) later mounts. Nothing felt grindy so far. HoT took much longer. (But with a similar approach: Gaining exp while doing all the map completion and other minor achievements - it was fun and did not feel grindy.)

 

I can understand the thing with the money (gold). But I also remember that back then in WoW after release ... it felt pretty grindy to get a mount. Here in GW2 there are tons of ways to earn money. Even if you don't want to to raids and stuff. Just takes a lil bit longer. But you can get 2g from daily + a mystic coin to sell from anomaly. Then salvaging an selling ectos ... (Personally fractal rush got me into fractals. I usually try to avoid group content. But up until T2 they are fine for me now. And just the dailies make at least 10+ gold additionally.)

 

I guess Skyscale CAN be cheaper? (At least from the wiki it reads as if the most important part are items you can buy and use to skip certain JP collection steps. Which I might just do for fun and to save money. :D)

[QuirkyDM.2351]

Just want to add on to Luthan's comments. I'm in the middle of getting the griffin and I consider it some of the most entertaining content in PoF. The connection to the Sunspears feels like a better story than most of the actual story mode in PoF. It also lets you go back and pull together a lot of elements in the maps dealing with Sunspears and connect them into a story. I am also revisiting a few areas with new purpose and discovering some areas I didn't fully explore before even with map completion done. Besides that, this is a collection done right, as every time you recover a griffin egg, you can mount a griffin. This lets you fly through the maps and get a glimpse of what your final reward will be. (I recommend getting the Aurene mastery from LW4 first as it will let you enjoy the griffin even more) It's satisfying now while giving a look at the bigger payoff down the road. I wasn't planning on going for the Skyscale, but I might seriously look at it after the way the Griffin hunt is going.

[DarcShriek.5829]

The High percentage of players that have the griffon and skyscale mounts suggests that the effort to earn these mounts is not too much.

[Kirin.7306]

> @"KAipurge.2147" said:

> I feel like this all started once the original Anet founders left.

 

Amen. RIP to them all. Maybe they can make their own company again? Please do.

[maddoctor.2738]

> @"Kirin.7306" said:

> > @"KAipurge.2147" said:

> > I feel like this all started once the original Anet founders left.

>

> Amen. RIP to them all. Maybe they can make their own company again? Please do.

 

They didn't die, they left, so saying "RIP" is very inappropriate. By the way most of Anet's founders are in other companies now.

[Dawdler.8521]

> @"DarcShriek.5829" said:

> The High percentage of players that have the griffon and skyscale mounts suggests that the effort to earn these mounts is not too much.

Because it's really not.

 

The Skyscale steps are well document, there's youtube clips and all it does is take time and a minor amount of effort. A couple of weeks maybe.

 

But no, they want it *instantly*. Anything else wont do.

 

It's the exact same argument for GoB. Oh you've taken 6 months to almost craft your legendary but now when you have to spend like... *6 hours* in WvW then the game is suddenly **ruined**.

[mindcircus.1506]

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> It's the exact same argument for GoB. Oh you've taken 6 months to almost craft your legendary but now when you have to spend like... *6 hours* in WvW then the game is suddenly **ruined**.

Never mind the fact that these same players will spend 12 solid hours farming elder wood.

 

[XenoSpyro.1780]

In the time spent creating this thread, you could have put on Food/Utility consumables, with an XP and Celebration booster, followed relevant map meta events while tagging every nearby mob, and would have finished off your mastery leveling. Even consumables like Raptor/Beetle treats would have pushed you further.

[medivh.4725]

Agreed. The given list for skyscale is madness

[Sobx.1758]

> @"medivh.4725" said:

> Agreed. The given list for skyscale is madness

 

What you do is stop treating it as a single achievement and treat it like a list of achievements, completing them one-task-at-the-time. And suddenly it's not madness.

[Hesione.9412]

> @"Sobx.1758" said:

> > @"medivh.4725" said:

> > Agreed. The given list for skyscale is madness

>

> What you do is stop treating it as a single achievement and treat it like a list of achievements, completing them one-task-at-the-time. And suddenly it's not madness.

 

Yes, the skyscale isn't a goal that's designed to be knocked off in a couple of hours.

 

I find it interesting that a bunch of posts on the forums are from players who complain that there isn't enough new content in the game, and other posts are from players who complain that there is a series of events to complete in order to reach a goal.

 

Possibly this means that Anet has the balance about right. :)