I’ve been alternating with my guardian between doing Orr zones and lower level zones. I find Orr very bug-ridden lately, and actually a number of the regular zones are developing bugs that are quite frustrating in nature too. I was in the human starter with my mesmer alt when I happened upon a skillpoint that was broken – but it was only broken in the overflow, not on my actual server (Sanctum of Rall) so I left the overflow and was able to complete it.
Normally I can ignore a number of issues before they start to get to me. I have pretty good patience and I can wait it out. There’s a few issues that are getting me quite frustrated these days. Last night the game randomly went down without any explanation (for everyone, not just me) and while there was thankfully no roll back this time, things didn’t work properly when I returned. It wasn’t recognizing that I was doing any events with a guild mate, and there for no influence was being earned. I couldn’t stand down or represent any new guilds. Mail wasn’t working. The trade post was lagging. Just little things that made game play difficult.
I’ve been trying to stay on a ‘main’ – mostly because one day, I want a legendary weapon, and if you look at the list of supplies required you’ll see that it really is best to stick with one character:
Each legendary weapon requires at least the following:
In addition to the above, the player must also gamble the following materials to obtain Mystic Clovers. One success results in a single Mystic Clover and 77 clovers are needed. The chances of success are currently unknown, therefore depending on the final chances, the recipe could require anywhere from 77 to 1,000 attempts.
That is the grocery list for ONE legendary item, and I would like at least two. A shield and a sword. I understand that this is the ‘end all be all’ of items in-game, and that it’s supposed to take a LONG time to achieve this, but still, eyeballing that list is daunting. Actually, only parts of it are.
Karma, over a million karma saved up. If karma was account bound instead of character unique, I wouldn’t have such a difficult time playing alts. In fact, why isn’t it account bound (dye too, for that matter). The 250 craft components doesn’t bother me that much, although the globs of ectoplasm will be difficult as those come from salvaging exotic pieces.
What does seem difficult (aside from the 120 gold) is the 500 WvWvW tokens. I’ve done world vs. world vs. world a handful of times now, putting in maybe 10 hours, and I’ve only earned FIVE of those tokens. 500 is an enormous amount if you’re on a server that perhaps doesn’t fair too well in PvP situations.
I’m also not a fan of the 77 random chance bits that players need to collect, listed at the end. I’ll do it, but it seems more of an annoyance than any skill required.
Discussing these things with my guild mates made me feel incredibly… lonely. I consider myself to be casual hardcore. A casual, with a lot of time to play. But I’m all for bettering my character. I enjoy being good at a game, knowing my class, and obtaining the gear and items that are required to do so. I don’t mind PUGs, and I alternate between exploration and discovery and simply getting things done. I take pride in having goals that include getting as much ‘done’ as I can. It felt like when I was discussing bettering my character and this type of ‘progress’ that I was completely alone, and I suppose in the end I’m more hardcore than casual. Keep in mind this is NOT bashing anyone in my amazing guild, I adore the Combat Wombats and everything they represent. I firmly believe that everyone has their own style and I embrace the fact that we’re all different. I wouldn’t pressure anyone to play “my way” if they didn’t want to. There’s been a bad connotation added over people who enjoy the “min/max” game, and I am one of those people who enjoy it, so I try to avoid speaking about it lest anyone suddenly decide that I too am some elite jerk unworthy of their time.
Anyhow, just a few of the thoughts bouncing around my head lately. I hope everyone had a great weekend, no matter where they found themselves! Happy gaming.
stargrace 
