Curse

The Meth · Jun 17, 2007, 06:41 PM // 18:41

First off: I have rank 3 of the Luxon title, so don't take this as a random person complaining they cant have something for nothing. I am posting this because forcing people to grind a title for days to get level 1 of a title that add skills a great many parties will be demanding soon is against the idea of Guild Wars.

At first the faction skills (such and such of the kurzicks/luxons) were just something to show off, that's why I accepted the fact that maxing one would take nearly a year unless you farmed quests all day. But now that we have skills linked to them I believe the limits are WAY too high. Let me compare to a few other titles that give bonuses:

Sunspear you will be forced to get rank 7 of 10 if you started in Nightfall, and you will probably get rank 8 by the end if you just take all the bounties, no grinding required at all. Foreign characters get at least rank 5 just from primary quests, and will probably still get rank 7 if they take bounties along the way. 7 of 10 is very good and easily enough to make the sunspear skills useful, compare to rank 7 of 12 faction title requiring an average of 37 days of farming at over 5 hours a day (assuming you do faction runs of quests at about 2.5 minutes each, calculate that out.)
Furthermore, max sunspear is also by comparison very easy to max. I can't give out exact numbers, but i'm guessing it took me 10 hours to max it on the double sunspear weekend, so 20 hours to max it normally, assuming you are grinding it. So basically in sunspear you get the same level of skills just playing the game that would require over a month of grinding the same quest to get the faction titles. In the time required of a person farming to get even level 1 of a faction title, they can get the sunspear title almost maxed.

Wisdom, Treasure Hunter, Lucky, Unlucky: 4 titles that are all increased in the same manner, and all of them are once again, far easier to increase then the faction titles. Lets assume a basic 3 minute run of the 3 chests in witman's folly. At that rate, with 5 hours a day spent on running, you max treasure hunter in 33 days. Keep in mind wisdom is probably around 70-80% maxed by then, and lucky and unlucky are both cumulatively 1 maxed title (one may be 60% the other 40%, or 50/50 split). So we have 4 titles that are all easier to do at the same time then the faction titles, while doing the same thing: running around the same area over and over.

I believe the faction title ranks should be changed, and for this I would like to use Lightbringer as an example: The lower levels are easy, almost anyone can get 3 or 4 by playing through the game, while the highest levels DO require significant grind. The difference between the first and the last title of lightbringer is 500x, while the difference for the faction titles is only 100x. I believe the bottom edge of the faction titles should be downsized, so at least the common player can reach about 1/3rd to 1/2 the skill power that the maxed ranks are getting, while still keeping the maxed the same for those who are the grinders. The recent update did do this partially, but I think its still FAR too elitist compared to the other skills added to sunspear. I think starting around 30k, with rank 6 or 7 being around 250k, then increasing in the same manner the old ranks did, with next being 550k, 1.2 mil, 2.5 mil, and so on. This would make it a lot like the lightbringer ranks: casual players are able to get at least a few ranks, people who play a lot but don't faction farm will be able to make about a half way 5 or 6, while those who are going for max titles and those who have it maxed already are unaffected.

Let me summarize, because I know many people don't like reading this much stuff:

Faction skills are much harder to earn then sunspear skills, which basically require you to just plop down 1k for it.
Lower end of faction skills are pushed down within actual reach of common player, with 1/3rd to 1/2 of max rank being able to be earned with a few chars running through factions and mild farming, while upper end stays the same so as not to make the people who have it already mad.

Bazompora · Jun 17, 2007, 07:24 PM // 19:24

The current way makes utility of these skills attainable for less than 1% of the players ... far too elitist indeed (max Luxon/kurzick takes at least a year of dayly grinding).

OhCrapLions · Jun 17, 2007, 07:33 PM // 19:33

The skills are broken for a reason. Though I suppose the grinding needed for it is quite a lot...

AlienFromBeyond · Jun 17, 2007, 08:50 PM // 20:50

I agree with the people who think there should be a separate title track for Luxon/Kurzick skills, so people can get them without constant grinding, while earlier players can still show off their titles.

MithranArkanere · Jun 17, 2007, 10:02 PM // 22:02

Hm... it is true that getting 10 million points is not something you make in one month... no title should take more than one month...

So far, the one that took me most was the Tyrian explorer, three weeks.