Attenuate the grind for the GW:EN armors.

I apologize if this is one of those spammed topics. I visit these forums everyday and I have not seen a topic of this nature for quite some time, though it has been brought up as a negative in other topics. And even in the topics specifically about this, there have been few suggestions offered about how to attenuate it, and mostly they are just complaints about the issue.

My backstory for this (skip if you're not interested. ):

I have been playing GW:EN since just around the start of September. One of the main features that made this game for me were the new armors, especially the Norn armors; both my Ele and my Dervish want a set. However, I was quite duanted by the fact that I would have to get 26,000 points for each of my characters. But, I thought, there are probably quests you can complete for them, like in Nightfall where you have loads of SS quests, or Luxon/Kurzik where you can go do Fort Aspenwood about five times and get all the 10,000 points you need to continue the game.

I was a little surprised when I looked up the Norn title on wiki, went to the title building quests, and discovered they had a maximum of 200 points at the most. But I thought there would be plenty of monsters to kill along the way, so with the Norn blessing I would easily get up to at least 20,000 points and the other 6,000 would be easily attainable afterwards through a few simple farming runs.

(start reading here if you skipped)

However, I was somewhat (<- understatment) disappointed when I completed all the Norn quests I could find, in game or on wiki, all of them with the Norn farming blessing active, and only got up to 7,000 points. Leaving me with another 19,000 points I would have to directly farm for, with no quests to complete or anything other than grinding and farming to gain them.

So, here I am at the beginning of October, one month after I started farming for these points, and last night I just got to rank four. So now I can get Norn weapons that I don't want. And I still have another 10,000 points to go before I can finally reach the 26,000 mark and get my armor.

I would like to ask Arenanet do at least one of the following:

1. (retroactively) Increase the quest rewards to a level so that after completing them you are left with very little, if any, farming neccessary to get the points neccessary for armor.
2. Lower the points required for the armor.
3. Increase the base reputation garnered from each kill from 1 point to 5 points (or even 2 points for that matter).
4. Give us farming scrolls like the Lightbringer title that would give us farming buffs so we can get the title more easily.
5. make the title account wide so that you only have to get to 26,000 points once, and then you can also complete the quests with another character and get up to 26,000 points without any grinding.
6. Add more Norn quests to complete for points, like what happened for the Vanguard title a few days ago.
7. Switch out consumables so they require rank five, and move weapons and armor down one notch.
8. Make it so that buying the armor is dependant upon completing the quests, not getting the title.

The ones that I would prefer are either 1, 3, especially 5, 6, and 8. If you agree with these, or only a few of these, sign for which ones you would prefer. If you don't agree, please say why. And if you're going to say that this is stupid becuase it only takes a few hours to get up to rank five and craft armor, please share your build and farming route.

I think that implimenting any one of these, especially 5, 6 or 8, would go a long way toward making the community as a whole happier. Right now, there appears to be a very high level of disconent with the way that GW is becoming more and more time and titles based and less about casual play and skill.

Don't misunderstand me. I am quite happy with the idea that if you're going to get armor you should have to work for it. Even though you have to farm or quest for the 50k + materials to buy the armor. All I'm asking for is for there to be less grind, going out and killing monsters simply for the sake of getting a title, and more lore, completing a lot of quests and then getting the ability to craft armor after you have completed these quests.
And I'm buying these armors for the way they look, not becuase I want to parade around LA and have a bunch of anonymous players be impressed with me; there is a difference between the two.

I got my r5 in the preview event... It took me, say, 3 one hour runs in Varajar Fells, active farming. 5 dungeon runs, 1 in each and an extra one in raven's point. The rest was gotten from quests. Nothing has really changed (to my knowledge) since the preview event. So yeah, maybe 6-7 hours to get the title, 3 hours of actual farming. I don't see that as hard.
Build was a hybrid Glass Arrows ranger with triple shot, "I am the strongest" (norn). I've added Asuran Scan now, but I didn't have that when I got the title. I also had protective stances and stuff. Just take any old group and run through Varajar Fells a coupla times. I was getting 2-3k a run.

/notsigned

I support these. Because we agree on the following:
So 6 and 8, /signed

If you "vanquish" (NM or HM) the area around Olafstead, you can easily make around 5-6k points for the norn title.

Since when was there HM in GW:EN?

Since the time they intend to introduce it, whenever that is. And when they do, they'll probably increase the base faction reward per kill.

Personally, I think the best option is probably 6 - I have no problem working for the armour and can see benefits to the economy for that requirement (although those benefits are probably fading as we speak), but I'd rather it just wasn't so darned repetitive. 8 makes the most sense in the lore (and to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't mind seeing the title itself based purely off questing, but that's a whole different argument) but lacks the economic effect.

I wouldn't mind a scroll that gave double faction rather than xp

Did you do the primary quests and the dungeons in Norn territory, OP? They give rep points too...

Also, the bounties really should be at least 4 points a kill (like Kourna).

I think it is great the way it is. I thought SS and LB were WAY too easy. This discourages people from maxing out every rank, but makes us choose (unless you have loads of free time). I picked Asura because I wanted the slim spectacles. r5 was no prob. I had r4 from all the quests, and 4 runs through Sparkfly Swamp saving all shrines and bosses until I got 200+ kills got me the last 10,000 points in less than 5 hours.

It's taking that long for you to farm Norn rep? That's the easy one, I got rank 5 in 3 days of casual play just by farming Varajar Fells after getting that quest "The Path to Revelations" or whatever it's called.
The grinding is definitely too much in my opinion though. Norn takes that gimmicky tactic to farm, and the others are just flat out horrible to raise, ever.

I'm farming the area around Olfstead. I'm averaging about 1k +-200 of faction per run out there, and I vanquish everything I come across. Granted, I tend to leave the Ice Imps and their surrounding area alone. However, I'm probably taking out at least 80% of the wildlife in the area, though probably more.

I go to the one shrine outside of olfstead, get the blessing, then kill 150 or so enemies. Then I just go on a psychopathic killing spree and kill everthing I can find. Then I run to all the different res shrines on the map and get the 100+ bonus points from talking to the res shrine vagrants. I know this is probably one of the least efficient ways of doing this, but it seems like I shouldn't have to worry about efficency....

I did all the quests I can find, either through looking on Guildwiki or looking for green exclamation points. I have done all the primaries that I know of in the Norn lands. Granted, I havn't advanced through the rest of the storyline past the Norn to any great extent becuase I have been farming for the armor, so it is possible that there are other quests later in the game I havn't come across.

Dungeons... I have done them, though I'm not sure where all of them are, nor which ones will give me Norn points vs. Dwarven points. I have finished the dungeon outside of Sifhalla, and I am not sure if the one outside of Olfstead (Ravens point) gives anything to the Norn title track since the res shrines there give out dwarven points (?). Also, about Ravens point, I've already done a few missions there so I'm not sure if all I'd be doing is playing through something I've already done which would garner me nothing more than some regular experience points.

Now it is probably prudent to point out that in the last month or so I have been taking classes and busy wih other things, so I really am only going out on farming runs on Thursday - Saturday. It probably equates to about 1 hour per run, so I'll probably have totaled about 17 hours simply farming when all is said and done. Not a terribly large investment, but when I have more entertaining things to do in the game, or people to help out, it irks me that I have to spend my time out farming for points so I can have the honor to pay a crafter to make armor for me.

Honestly, what I really want are just more quests. I don't really care about the time, but when I'm going out specifically just to farm points, and I'm not doing anything for the storyline that is interesting, it just seems like a very daunting task that frankly I don't want to do for the next month or so, especially not for a title I otherwise wouldn't care one whit about.

I had a lot of fun when I was going through the Norn storyline, doing every mission I could find, single handedly defeating terrible monsters, and gaining points by actually doing something noteworthy. Now I just feel like I'm a virtual exterminator with a scythe and seven lackys.

I know, thats why it's so daunting! After this, I want Norn armor for my Elementalist. And then after that I'm going to start getting sunglasses for everyone!

And I want to say, I appreciate the fact that you guys that were able to do this in a few hours were telling me how you did it. I will definately try to follow in your footsteps.

I whole heartedly agree with your ideas Operative. It took me atleast a month or so to get my Asura armor for my monk, purely because I refused to "grind" for it ... you get 2,500 rep points for each dungeon or heros handbook you complete and hand it to the representive of the title track you want the points to go into. In the end I gave up and gave into frustration. In a couple of runs I had more then enough to get the armor after farming Magus Stone of anything that moved. As I stated in another thread boarder lining this topic, it battles me the contradiction Anet and playNC gave themselfs after frowning apon farming and nerfing it then supporting it in GW:EN. Granted they didn't say "Go out and kill anything that moves" but in a way they did by making title specific crafters.

I hate to say this, but your obviously doing something wrong or you have missed some quests.

I had rank 4-5 on all races by the time you had finished QWEN!

That was from doing quests, dungeons and taking bounties while exploring. You should be atleast rank 4 by the time you finish. Any last few points are very easily gained by taking bounties and farming them.

I really wish people would realise that rank 5 is not hard to get in GWEN. Its achievable by just playing the entire game and doing all quests and dungeons. Norn and Drawf are especially the easiest.

Im currently on rank 8 Norn and Drawf, rank 6 (nearly 7) vanguard and rank 5 Asuran. This is only after a few weeks of playing. Rank 5 on all took about a week of playing (not hardcore).

If (for some odd reason) you are finding it hard to get rank 5, then once HM is added you will get double point for bounties. But you should seriously be atleast rank4-5 on all races once you finish.

QFT.

All of the Dungeons and side quests can push you to 20k points in any factions easily at the end of the game. I was R4 in dwarf before I fight the last boss, I got R5 after I killed him.

You might still need to farm for that 6k point though if you after the norm set but that's easy to come by. Do a few run at that icy lake area and you're set for the norm.

Azura side quests are the most fun for me and the rewards are great. That green staff is ace looking.

I think what you described here may be part of your problem.

When farming rep points, it is critical to get your hunt rank up to 4 as soon as possible. If you wait until you have 150 kills to hit a rez shrine, you're really hurting your chances there. Here is what you should do:

If you have at least 50 kills and are still on hunt rank 1, hit rez shrines until you get to 2.

If you have at least 75 kills and are still on hunt rank 2, hit rez shrines until you get to 3.

If you have at least 100 kills and are still on hunt rank 3 (or below), hit rez shrines until you get to 4.

Once you are at rank 4, THEN wait until 150 kills before getting last rez shrines.

Also, once you hit rank 4, pray for the rampage bonus - that's really where your points take off.

Follow this and you should get the 3,000 - 5,000 points people talk about instead of the 1,000-1,500 you've been getting.

It's too late for you if you've already done the quests, but when you do quests you should be watching your hunt rank. If you get to rank 3 after your 75th kill while doing the quest, you may consider just vanquishing the area. If you're still at rank 1, turn in the reward and go to the next quest. Take advantage of any luck you get.

Like Freek, I was at rank 4-5 by the time I finished all quests and dungeons.

I haven't even done all the dungeons and I already have level 5 dwarf title. For other races, I didn't even finish all the quests/dungeons and I'm pretty close. No farming at all...I don't even play through the game (just run everyone :O)

You just have to choose the right armor. Even at rank 1 or 2 bounty hunting, you can still come away with 1-2k points after clearing an area. It might not be the most you can get, but its still quite a bit.

If you consider there is usually only 16k points between each rank (except last 2) then it doesnt take long to increase, if your farming anything above rank 5.

In just a few weeks, im rank 8 drawf and Norn and rank 6 vanguard and rank 5 asuran. That didnt take a staggering amount of effort or even any hardcore playing.

Na you dont need to run all 10 pve charrs past the game for new armour for crying out loud.Theres a better thing in life and its called the great outdoors and if that fails you save up for Fow instead or just emo your self and make a another thread please about reskins already lol.cheers cya. I agree with fish btw.

freekedoutfish, hallomik; Thank you for your words of advice.

I did have a feeling I was doing something wrong. I usually get the rank 4 farming bonus after about 100 kills from the random 25 kill bonuses. I was thinking it would be better to get 100 bonus points from just talking to the people instead of just getting a +4 point bonus for each kill.

Now, here's a question. Do you continue to get any sort of Norn points after you have completed the quests in the far shiverpeaks? For instance, do you get points in all the titles for simply finishing the primary quests throughout the entire chapter? If so, that might be what I'm missing.

However, I would like to get Norn armor for at least one of my characters, and glasses for several of my characters. That does require that I run each character through the game, and that each of them get 26,000 points for each title track neccessary for the chosen armor.

And I am well aquainted with the outdoors. On average, I play about 3-5 hours a week in Guild Wars. The rest I spend on college work, household chores, or, as you said, spending time in the outdoors. That is, in fact, the point of this topic. I'm a casual player, with a limited amount of time I can invest in this game. As such, I would prefer to spend that time doing something productive and fun, not repetative and boring; such as trying to build up a title I don't want for an armor I do want.

I would never want nor work for FOW Armor. It is, in my opinon, the ugliest waste of money in the game. However, that set doesn't require that I do any repetative farming for an artificial requirement after I have worked to gain the required money and materials.

I don't quite understand what you mean by 'emo myself'. Nor have I ever made a single post about reskins. Please provide a link to where I have...?

/notsigned

It really doesn't take that long to farm the points. If anything there should be a dungeon like the lair fo the snowmen for each rep instead of just delver. But im fine with how it is. i got my asuran sin, my norn and monument derv, norn ranger and silver eagle tank. so im happy

Yes. You do not need to do the quests to get rep points. You only stop getting points once you reach rank 8 (I have read ). My only point was that you should get as many points as you can while you're doing the quests to minimize the need to grind later.

Also, there are 3 dungeons that give a total of 6,000 Norn points (Frostmaw's burrows gives 3,000, Darkrime Delves gives 1,500, and Raven's point gives 1,500). Warning - This only works the first time through. The second dungeon run give a lot less. See this link for what dungeons you need to do for other reputations. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Dungeon

I've taken 4 toons all the way thru EotN. I wanted Norn armor for my ranger. After doing all quests and dungeons, I vanquished 2 zones and was done. I wanted vanguard armor for my Rit. After getting all quests and dungeons, I was done - no grinding at all. I got sunglasses for my ele (I think he needs some eye protection from all that nuking). After doing all quests and dungeons, I vanquished magus stones twice and was done.

Really, all the complaining about forced grind rings false based on my experience. I read one thread where the guy was saying something like "what if I don't want to do quests or missions or dungeons or vanquish zones or mini-games to get my armor." All I could think was - dude, find a new game.

Ele sporting radiation shielding eyewear.

What ever happened to...

Skill > Grind

?

O....kay. I think I understand what you're saying hallomik.

So, you do;

-All the quests in the region, and make sure to have Norn blessing on.
-All of the dungeons
-All of the primary quests throughout the rest of the game

And after that I should only have to clear out a few map areas? That's pretty much what I've done already, though. Granted, I havn't done Frostmaws lair, so I'll probably run off to do that next.

Thanks for your help guys.

I'm still holding out for 5 or 8 on my list though.

an armor set does not equal your skill. just like buying a shirt that says "I (heart) NY" when youve never been there- its kind of lame and makes you just a step under being a tourist.

the pve-only skills are not necessary to finish the game, and by doing 'everything' along the way they are all near-elite in power if not more by the time you finish. even the elite slaver's exile 'group build' that seems to be forming involves only a couple set consistencies- meaning there is no child left behind.

I didn't comment much on your original suggestion. I do agree that a modified version of 8 would be a good idea. If you've done all the quests including the storyline and side-quests for a particular track, the armor should be available.

Vanquishing a few zones wasn't much, but it wasn't exactly fun either. And it sounds like you'll have to do a bit more vanquishing than I did because you may not have optimized getting Norn points as you did the quests. I see your point there.

I see two things:

I hate all the grind fests as meaningless crap.

The high points is to cover the extreme amount of time they don't want to do anything for us while they work on GW2.

I think that in order to get high ranks of titles there should be grind, otherwise everybody would be walking around sporting Holy Lightbringer, however, having to get rank 5 to get new armours is stupid. I was considering getting a piece or two of some of the new armours, but seeing at we have to get ranked 5 i really cannot be arsed. The last thing i want to do is have to repeatedly kill monsters over and over again just to get some bloody armour! I've killed the great destroyer, why should i have to repeatedly kill his plebby minions to be able to get some new armour!