How is the difficulty and grind?

[YOR]

How is the difficulty in GW2?

I prefer a game that has a lengthy, but fun grind, and one that is challenging. By challenging, I mean that there is content to do at most levels where there is a fair chance at failure unless the player is seasoned. I also enjoy the slower leveling from a game like Wow classic, original Aion, or pushing 100 SSF style in PoE.

About 4 months ago I tried out New World, and it was entirely too easy to get to level cap, and there was little challenge the entire game PvE wise other than M3s or the raid, which was quite disappointing. (Yes, it is by and large marketed as a PvP game, although there wasn't much of it in the open world and I did go to the PvP zone often.)

I am a bit cautious about diving into an MMO, because unlike other games, it can take quite some time to realize the direction the game will end up.

Also, by challenging I do not mean intentionally gimping oneself or doing content that is way above level to create a challenge.

edit: Also is there P2W? I don't mind boosts (exp boosts, not buy a level boosted character) and cosmetics, but buying gear/stats is a deal-breaker for me.

[Q]

no such thing as P2W, INB4 some well known anti-gw2 folk will furiously say otherwise, they don't know the meaning of P2W in mmorpgs.

P2W in mmo is like what i used to experience in Lineage 2 where you can actually buy power, better weapons with more stats, more critical damage and critical rage, buy stuff to augment, boost top gear and deal more damage.

I remember seeing a guy fighting like 8-10 people in lineage 2 in antharas lair zone, he killed em all, it was a p2w guy. That's power, Thats P2W.

In gw2 no amount of money will allow you to do such thing, there's just QoL and convenience that it. That being said, gw2 is super easy compared to good old school mmos like lineage 2, everquest 2 or WoW, you'll reach max lvl within weeks, then there's the "mastery" system that kind replaced the level cap and will take much more time to get all the masteries.
good thing is that you can come back whenever you want, you can quit, come back two months later and your friends and everyone else wont have an advantage over you forcing you to grind like crazy or use P2W mighty visa to catch up like in any korean mmorpg.

[Hefutoxin]

In general, the 1-80 F2P is EZPZ. There is some content spread in those areas that can be challenging, but just leveling through is easy.

First expansion is a sudden difficulty cliff. You learn pretty quick why every class has a dodge and active defensive skills.

Expansions are just expansions of content, not increases in level or gear power. The only possible exception is the Jade Bot (From End of Dragons expansion), which gives more Vitality (Health).

As for P2W. There is a Gold to Gems conversion in game. So you can buy Gems, then sell them for in game Gold. This is mainly done for crafting Legendary skins, not to "buy power". You could buy power this way, but it would be horribly inefficient way to get better gear.

[Dimax-men]

Cant speak about grind aspect, coz i am relatilevly new to the game (only 160hrs and currently playing season 2).

Originally posted by YOR:

edit: Also is there P2W? I don't mind boosts and cosmetics, but buying gear/stats is a deal-breaker for me.

You can exchange paid currency for gold and vice versa (convertion rates changes in real time, i suppose its player driven) so in theory you can buy everything from auction by using IRL cash, but i cannot imagine someone really doing that when convertion rate goes around 300 gold for 800 gems (10$) so its mostly veteran players converting gold to gems to get stuff they want.
Also you can get typical stuff for MMOs - more character slots, bank/material vault/build tabs/shared inventory slots (all that is account bound) and bag slots for characters (sadly must be bough individually for each character)

[Spirit]

yeah , i wish bag slots would be account unlocks , even for afterwards created characters

[cLoWnHaTe]

Guild Wars 2 is a special MMO. It's got the things you'd expect from an MMO, but it does them in its own way.

The grind is real, especially for legendary gears. Getting one takes ages – you need to explore tons of maps, become a master crafter, gather a mountain of materials, and make a lot of gold. Only generation 1 and 3 legendary weapons are tradable; everything else needs to be crafted (armor, jewelry, and other gear). Getting the gold alone takes a long time, even for experienced players.

Legendary gear has the same stats as ascended gear (which is easily obtainable in-game), so buying legendary weapon with real money won't make you overpowered. GW2 is more of a "pay for convenience or cosmetics" kind of game, which isn't for everyone, but it works for some.

But it's not just about gear. There's always something to improve – your skills, your mounts, your house, etc. You can even make gold by fishing or farming.

Fractals also have different tiers, requiring a grind to unlock the highest levels.

Reaching max level (on your character level, not fractal tier - edit 🤣) can take you a week or two, depending on how much you play. Most players say it takes around 30 hours on average.

If you want to find out more, check out this site - https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2 - it's full of information about the game.

Whether you'll find it fun and challenging depends on you, because those are personal things. I think it's both fun and challenging. It's definitely an MMO at its core, and you'll find a lot of classic MMO concepts here.

And the best part? The core game is free to play! You can experience about 60% of the game's content without paying a dime. That's a lot of exploring, questing, and battling to keep you entertained...or maybe even rage quit! But hey, that's part of the fun, right? So, take a leap and see if Guild Wars 2 is the MMO for you!

[Werecat101]

ok GW2 was never designed with real grind in mind, Grind is normally added to games with a subscription to slow your gameplay down so they get more money.

[Nico]

The difficulty in the base game, aka without expansions, is usually rather low, but it oes spik eup once you get into the first expansion. All expansion like content is probably on a somewhat similar difficulty. Though open world PvE will always stay somewhat easy (but there still are some harder meta events). The truely difficult content is usually in instanced content, especially Raids but also fractal CM's (Challenge Mode) or strike CM's. Though Open World PvE is much more casual.

Leveling up to max lvl, which is 80, is rather easy. Guildwars 2 was usually about you developing skill and getting gud and less about it being hard to get max level and the best gear. Which is also why the max level was never increased, meaning all expansion content is at lvl 80, the same with gear, exotic is trivial to get, ascended requires some work but is only like 5-10% better. And legendary gear is very grindy to get but offers no stat bonuses, only huge QoL and some fancy cosmetics. Which also means that no matter how long of a break you do, your character will always be strong enough for all new content.

And just to make sure: The game has many things you can grind for. But they're mostly optional and won't give you more power. It's mostly QoL, achievements or cosmetics.

And well, due to best in slot gear being pretty easy to get it is usually considered as not P2W because most players will have that best in slot gear anyways.

[ytisrite]

The hardest part is not using the lvl 80 boost after lvl 20.

[cannabis]

Originally posted by ytisrite:

The hardest part is not using the lvl 80 boost after lvl 20.

Never used one... Though I don't have an alt and play exclusively necro


There is a grind for any type of contents, someone said previously 30 hours to reach fractal max level, I wouldn't say that, as a daily fractal player, here my 2 cents comment :


Fractal are a mini dungeon, every day, 3 of those fractal will be on the daily rotation which offer a good amount of gold/reward doing them. Fractal that aren't in the rotation are still playable if you want to, nothing is stopping you, though the reward will be less, this is why most of the players are sticking with the daily one.

Fractal are divided in 4 tiers, the higher the fractal tiers, the higher the difficulty. after tier 1, each higher tier will require you to "glue" on your gear something called Agony resistance. Agony is a debuff that will drain your life, let's say tier 2 fractal require 35 agony resistance in order to survive, without it, you will just die almost instantly. Those Agony resistance drop in any fractal tier. so you will have to start by the tier 1 and grind small by small to have enough to get into tier 2 and so on... Now you have the possibility to buy those with your gold in the trading post.

First tier : can be done with any kind of group and without Agony Resistance

Second tier : Difficulty increased, require a bit of AR

Third tier : Start to feel the pain without healing, require decent amount of AR and understanding of the mechanic

Last tier : Need a full comp group (healing / alac and quick boon) and full knowledge of the mechanic.

You could in theory, with a full ascended gear and a minimum of 150 AR (agony resistance) start T4 level fractal, but if you do them wrong (aka no playing the mechanic, dying, making for your team harder to beat the fractal), you will risk some salty chat with your group.

Now that being said, 30 hours to reach max level fractal is, in theory possible, not in practice, it will take you several weeks (even month) on a daily basis to understand, perform properly your class, understand the mechanic of each fractal

And if this is not enough, you have the ultimate difficulty called CM fractal, which can be done everyday with great gold/reward, T4 tier feel like a cake walk compare to them...

Now you known a little bit about the fractal farming, do you want to known about the farming of :

- Meta
- Raid
- WvW
- Spvp
- Strike
- Wizard vault and associated daily LWS / IBS / EOD
....

? :)

[Finkleschtein]

GW2 level 1-80 isn't much of a grind, easy and doesn't take long, it's basically a tutorial.

However, the grind is horizontal, and there is a lot to grind if you enjoy that. You got reward tracks in both the big pvp (World vs World), and you got PvP ranking in battlegrounds, and besides that also horizontal reward track. I haven't tried these modes yet.
Then you got progression in the instanced PvE content called Fractals where you up your level and get access to more difficult tiers.
Each expansion has got grind for hero points to unlock elite specializations. Then each expansion also has got mastery reward tracks.
As well as achievements to hunt.
Legendary items, and unlocking mounts.

Ontop of this you also got currency grinding, and gold farming, since you can convert gold to gems to buy stuff in the gemshop.

So if you enjoy grind there is a lot, but its horizontal and not level or geargrind. I enjoy this much more than WoW tbh, as I am pretty worn out on geargrind. I much prefer cosmetic and horizontal grind.

I recommend trying it out, it's probably the best buy-to-play MMORPG right now, in my opinion.

[cLoWnHaTe]

Originally posted by cannabis:

Now that being said, 30 hours to reach max level fractal is, in theory possible, not in practice, it will take you several weeks (even month) on a daily basis to understand, perform properly your class, understand the mechanic of each fractal

My apologies for the confusion! I was referring to reaching maximum character level, which takes around 30 hours. 🤣

[Anne.Sullivan]

Ever drove a tractor, son?

[cannabis]

Originally posted by Anne.Sullivan:

Ever drove a tractor, son?

Ever consulted a psychiatrist ?

Reported. You want to troll, spilling non sense on your topic that's fine by me, now you come into a topic where you have nothing to share you get a report.

[ytisrite]

Originally posted by cannabis:

Originally posted by Anne.Sullivan:

Ever drove a tractor, son?

Ever consulted a psychiatrist ?

Reported. You want to troll, spilling non sense on your topic that's fine by me, now you come into a topic where you have nothing to share you get a report.

Lol this isn't the Arenanet forums bud.

[RotherHans]

GW2 isn't like all the other MMOs, where the "real game" starts at endgame.
As already mentioned, leveling up to 80 is basically an extended tutorial to figure out your class. The Character Adventure Guide achievment awards big XP boost for in-game tasks, further guiding you along.

If you're just about leveling, then this isn't the game for you.
Everybody is meant to be LVL80, which also means
there are no obsolete areas and just one or two obsolete content modes since the game launched 12 years ago!

Hope this helps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdE6JaSlkos