End game: Whats the PvE focus of end game?

[Killilth]

For someone that typically does raiding or dungeon running I was curious what I will be looking forward to nce I hit max level? I'm not really a big PvPer.

I'm really enjoying the game atm and as someone that doesn't typically like to roll alts I was just curious.

Thanks!

[zito]

PvE end game is whatever you have been enjoying while leveling. There are some lvl 80 zones that are obviously a challenge with an incoming better reward but for the most part it's the same that you are doing now. Most dungeon's are scaled to a certain lvl and not lvl 80 but the reward is relevant to your level.

[Killilth]

I really enjoy long farming for gear/titles/skills, example: kill 300 of this to unlock this title, or this weapon skin. (like traits from LOTRO if firmiliar with that) Is there any of this at end game?

[Fencers]

There is no PVE endgame in any of the 5 Guild Wars titles. The question is simply inappropriate of the series.

That said, at level 80 one does all the activities they did as from 1-79. Guild Wars is not bimodal.

[mistahwilshire]

Basically what Fencers is saying. If you're a raider and hardcore PvE player from most other MMOs then you've got basically nothing to look forward to here. I made the mistake of not researching the franchise more before I bought the game.

Not saying I regret it. Leveling was fun for what it was. It's just a massive shame that there's nothing more interesting to do at max level with the gameplay being as decent and fluid as it is in this day and age of so many clunky and horrible f2p MMOs.

[Karizee]

Guild Missions, dungeons, achievements, meta events. There's content every 2 weeks - like this week there is Candidate Trials and the T4 level is causing crying all over the forums because of how hard it is. Very small stat progression through obtaining ascended gear, it's more about skill than gear.

[carnifex2005]

Here's a good list I stole from Massively. There's plenty to do if you don't want to raid at endgame. The thing is that all of the stuff below can be done at lower levels as well.

List of things to do at 80:

-Guild Missions

-Jumping Puzzles

-Mini-games

-sPvP

-World vs World

-Fractals

-Dungeons (Explorable & Story Mode)

-World Boss events

-Dynamic Events (any zone, due to down-scaling)

-Mini-Dungeons

-Map Completion

-Dailies

-Playing the Trading Post (apparently some see this as 'gameplay', and with EVE, I don't care to judge...though not my type).

-Living Story Content (which is new/different every 2 weeks)


Sure the "end-game" of GW2 isn't like raid/dungeon crawling games that have that one single focus; and of course it won't appeal to players looking for that kind of thing. But GW2 doesn't it's own thing, and it does it very well....spectacularly great, honestly. And the people that like the evolving story and open platter of choices for things to do, love GW2.

[Fhi]

I really enjoy long farming for gear/titles/skills, example: kill 300 of this to unlock this title, or this weapon skin. (like traits from LOTRO if firmiliar with that) Is there any of this at end game?

There's the legendary you can work towards. Lots of RNG and farming if that's your cup of tea. Currently I'm not really excited about hitting 80, but I like the overall concept of the 1-79 gameplay. I just wish there are more things to do, hopefully as more time passes ANet will come up with new ideas. Right idea, not so great execution.

[grandpab]

My biggest problem with the pve is that once you're 80 and have full exotics and everything the events just aren't interesting/challenging enough. We'll see what happens when they start the new "epic" events. Then the skill and trait progression should be pretty cool, so I think they're heading in a better direction.

The leveling is one of my favorites in a mmo. World boss fights at level 80 is real disappointing though.

I don't really worry about it with the no sub fee, and how things are always changing. You can at least log in when you want and see something new, but I'll be waiting to see if they can improve what I've got problems with.

[Fhi]

My biggest problem with the pve is that once you're 80 and have full exotics and everything the events just aren't interesting/challenging enough. We'll see what happens when they start the new "epic" events. Then the skill and tier progression should be pretty cool, so I think they're heading in a better direction.

Agree. It's a young game, and I believe the first of it's kind. ANet still has a lot to learn from, I mean, think back to how WoW was in '05. I'm all for giving them a chance to improve their direction of the game.

[zed zebes]

The Karka event is punishing and so nobody does it. PVE players are a walking contradiction. They cry for challenging PVE and then act like it doesn't exist when it's put in. At best, they try any way they can to trivialize the content. It's not unique to Guild Wars as raiders should be familiar with this process. (Sorry to burst some egos there.)

Also, I don't tend to use the term endgame because it's outdated. MOBAs have no endgame, but people keep playing them. They're not bimodal. They have continuous gaming and the continuous part is the important part.

Now to the topic at hand!

As carni said, what you do at 80 is varied and follows along the same mind of leveling. You choose how you want to do things, what you want to do and mostly when you want to do these things. The exceptions are Living World events that are limited to a month or two weeks. There is no singular monolith like raiding to point towards. There's a speedrun culture within the game where people try to run dungeons or down bosses faster than others. There's world exploration, and just getting 100% exploration actually leaves out a lot of cool stuff.

Which gets to the new Achievement Point system that made earning achievement points into a continuous game. The rewards for reaching certain plateaus in Achievement Points are very nice. I don't just mean titles, but account wide boosts to magic find, karma gained, experience gained and gold from monsters. You also get some of the shiniest gear in game from getting higher in Achievement Points.

The gear matters in skin only most of the time. You get exotic armor with the stats you want then apply the look you want through the rest of the game.

[Fencers]

Also, I don't tend to use the term endgame because it's outdated.

This is actually impossible to be "out dated".

[zed zebes]

I see what you mean if you're using it to refer to bimodal design in particular, but most people don't use it in that manner. Many mean "is there stuff to do at max level after I get there?" "What makes this a repeat log in?"

[Valeron]

Endgame is a misnomer.

[Fencers]

I see what you mean if you're using it to refer to bimodal design in particular, but most people don't use it in that manner. Many mean "is there stuff to do at max level after I get there?" "What makes this a repeat log in?"

It still wouldn't be "out of date" regardless of common usage. The endgame play system might not be appropriate for a particular game [or genre, as you suggested w/ MOBAs] or even may be out of fashion. But play systems can not truly become out of date.

It is more likely technology which facilitates a very specific play system(s) becomes out date. Such as, Tempest.

Endgame is a misnomer.

Not really. The term is not the same as game over or end of game. It does indicate the stage at which a game is effectively over by it's rule set.

Which doesn't necessarily even exclude the capacity to still play the game at the end of game or to the end game- i.e. game over.

Edit: But don't confuse Endgame Theory with endgame play systems. The former being the calculated exchange of resources to gain an advantage or stalemate on a field which is functionally at a loss.

[zed zebes]

Not saying endgame systems are out of date. I am saying the term in its popular usage is since its meaning has been lost and misused. New meanings and ideas require new words. The old term being misused must be thrown out of the conversation, but not out of use.

[Fencers]

Not saying endgame systems are out of date. I am saying the term in its popular usage is since its meaning has been lost and misused.

Well, "lost" is also impossible. The most popular and widely played MMO in the Western market uses the endgame term in practice and is still around!

Other MMOs receiving publicity & buzz are also using the endgame play system as popularized by the 2nd wave MMOs are on their way.

The concept is hardly lost as term or practice. Classical and vulgar usage.

Lack of endgame isn't necessarily a new idea either. Most games don't even have one in either the classical or vulgar sense. No endgame, Portal 2. No classical endgame, Call of Duty Modern Warfare. Et cetera.

The old term being misused must be thrown out of the conversation, but not out of use.

Agreed. The isolation of play systems in their absolute form should always be what we strive for in the conversation of this medium.

[Deleted]

There is no herding of players into one thing for better gear. You can work on ascended trinkets but they are not a huge power increase over exotic ones.

Things you can do

- Complete the dungeon master achievement for doing all explorable mode dungeons (range in difficulty from easy to medium-hard)
- Try to get your fractal personal level to 50 (gets quite hard, it's best if you have a regular group with voice chat)
- Finish the map completion (takes maybe an hour to get 2% if you are quick, can be slower, depends on the zone)
- Finish all the jumping puzzles/world boss/exploration achievements (quite a few of these)
- Finish random casual and minigame achievements (this takes forever but is grindy in nature)
- Work on crafting a legendary weapon (this also takes forever, and lots of gold)
- Run around killing the big meta events to make gold, using a website with timers
- Do the random fluff content they add/remove every 2 weeks

oh the guild rush/puzzle missions are surprisingly good too

[Gray_Matter]

I really enjoy long farming for gear/titles/skills, example: kill 300 of this to unlock this title, or this weapon skin. (like traits from LOTRO if firmiliar with that) Is there any of this at end game?

There are definitely titles (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Title) you can work for and achievements. The legendary is a lot of work. I will probably only get mine some time next year. I was lucky enough to get a precursor drop the other day but there is a lot needed to get one.

The biggest piece of advice I can give is don't rush leveling. Enjoy it. Try and get map completion on each zone. Also, if you like a challenge, try out some of the jumping puzzles, they can be a lot of fun.

[Gray_Matter]

It is? Weird, it drops like every other world boss when I go do it with the zerg.

The trick is to get it going with a zerg. There is a lot more work getting "ready" with the pre event. I also know that I spend a lot of time downed/dead in Karka as an engineer, even with the pre-events and the Karka queen. Those Karkas hit hard. The same definitely doesn't happen with any of the other world events. I am not saying that it's exceptionally tough (unless you have a small group), just that it's tougher than the other events. It was only really done often when the +MF % was active in Karkaville.