How to minimize PvE skills-oriented grind and keep the titles prestige

First off, I'd like to say that the Skill>Time and no-grind-necessary policy were the things that made me play and love GW way more than no monthly fees. I really loved the fact that I don't have to play 8h a day just to stick up with my friends and be as effective during gameplay as they were. Until Nightfall, those who farmed and grinded never got any advantage over those who didn't, apart from prestige of high-end armor and weapons, and this prestige was based purely on skin and not effectiveness.

Titles themselves are a great idea, something to aim for after one has beaten the game. I don't think that them being grind-oriented and very hard to gain is a problem itself, as they should mark prestige and high dedication for the game. But tying skills' effectiveness to those titles is a problem for casual players who do not plan to spend hours on maxing them, or to players who play many characters (when titles are character-based).

I think the problem now is, if we make gaining those titles easier, players who worked hard for them will protest ans their efford will be dimished. On the other hand, PvE skills are extremly useful and as such, their full effectivenes should not be limited only to hardcore players as the game's policy is still - as Devs proclaim - Skill>Time.

My suggestion is to keep them tied to those titles, but lower the level of the title at which they gain full effectiveness. By doing this, the maxed title itself will stay as prestigeous as it was, PvE skills will not loose their power but still will become easier to obtain for casuals.

For example, at the moment Alliance Title skill "Save yourselves" rises totally from 3 sec to 6 sec across all the levels of the title, lasting 3 seconds on rank 1 and 6 seconds on ranks 11 and 12. My suggestion would be, keep its min-max durations at 3 and 6 seconds, but make the rank at which the duration reaches maximum lower, for example 6th or 7th rank. I'd also considered this change for all titles and title-tied skills in GW:EN.

Please ANet, keep prestige and in-game effectiveness separate!

I'm shocked, no thoughts?

While i agree that PVE skills shouldn't be linked to a PVP title i think the amount of time to aquire either the Kurzick/Luxon PVE skills or Sunspear PVE skills are completely fair. Getting R10 Sunspear doesnt take more than 4-5 hours max and since adding these skills they doubled the amount of progress you can make on the Kurzick/Luxon titles effectively cutting it from 10mil to 5mil needed for that title, thats also considering that the Kurzick/Luxon titles are account wide and sunspear title is not.

You're right, it'd be better if they never added grind-title skills.

But, that ship has sailed. It just isn't fair to the people who already put tons of hours in to change the rules now.

And I don't hold out much hope for this improving in GWEN or GW2. I think somebody at Anet has decided that grind-for-power sells more games than skill-over-time-spent.

First of all, where the heck have you been collecting SS points? Even the HM wurm run only nets about 1,500 per hour.

Secondly, tying skills' effectiveness to alliance faction was a terrible idea. There's no incentive to accumulate it with regard to the storyline except the Befriend quests. So what if they cut the requirement in half for alliance donation. Yippee. You can finish in 500 hours instead of 1000. It's still ludicrous.

The fact of the matter is that before these skills were introduced, the only people with massive faction totals were ones in town-controlling alliances. For them, it's a free title for something they were doing anyway and will continue to do regardless of what happens to the pve skills. As for the rest of us...AB has seen a rise in activity, but I'd bet a lot of money that if this title changed those players would be elated not to have to be there anymore.

Well tahts exactly what I was trying to avoid with this proposition: people who already farmed alot title-wise or skill-wise would not loose anything... Ammount of faction required would stay the same! And I don't see any unfairness is making a GW skill aviable for everyone with less than 1k hour efford...

I've noticed this too... :/

I definitely agree that grind work should be reserved only for prestiege or cosmetics. What set guild wars apart from other RPG's and made it appealing to me was the fact that it was mainly a thought rather than time oriented game. I'd much rather devote time to trying out my 10 character slots and creating builds than to the specialization and tedium that rank based PVE skills demand. Aslo it's a nuissance to be shunned from groups later in the game for not having the appropriate rank. Please stick with the plan of guild wars prophecies, and keep it a game of creativity and skill. Maditory grind only makes me want to play the game less. There are better ways of keeping players hooked, such as the excellent and novel skills and classes in the expansions so far.

i love youre idea Titles prestige and kills should be usefull without spending day on day donating faction to ure guild yust so save yourselves is actually useful

/signed for kurzick/luxon (because its not needed to get over 10,000 in pve, should be adjusted to represent that its a pve skill, perhaps 10,000 per char for the rough equivalent of the r7 sunspear skill)

/notsigned for sunspear (because r7 is needed to progress and gives decent usage)