A Farmer's Paradise

ANet has an apparent and illogical distaste for all farmers and it shows itself with every update since pre-release. I say illogical because the farming community represents a huge portion of any MMO game. There is no reason to abuse such a large part of your buying audience.

That said, I'd like to see the next update be farmer friendly. I don't see ANet willing to do that within the realm of the normal part of the game and they can't do it with skills lest they impact PvP. So make a new area called Farmer's Paradise and let it be the pinnacle of PvE achievement much like the Hall is for the PvP crowd. It also gives the PvE crowd something to work for (aside from loot) which has been sorely lacking.

Barriers to entry could be a 500k entry fee plus any number of rare materials which should provide the biggest gold sink known to man. There could also be a series of individual and team challenges/quests to prove that you're ready to be in such an area which would make grouping that much more intelligent.

The area itself, I dare to even dream this. Huge open fields much like the farms in pre-sear of nothing but enormous clusters of high-level monsters from every walk of life. No enchantment removal, no "improved AI", no knockdowns and impossible interrupts. Groups of 10 boss monsters carrying all manner of elite skills and dropping green items.

Oh it would be heaven. As it is, I simply can't tolerate the way ANet abuses such a large part of the community that made them, and every other MMO out there, what they are today.

Lol - "I play PvE better than you"

Cool, I like challenges

Umm, so a non-plot driven area full of everything? Well, I don't like it.

Wow, you are a glutton for punishment!

Oh wait, no you aren't. "All manner of elite skills" indeed! Yeah, except enchantment removal, interrupts, knockdowns and so on. Solo 55 anything FTW. What's the point? It sounds like the most annoying snorefest in the world.

Lol, I hope they keep it up. We have no need for farming. Farming is pointless, and a waste of time. I'd rather they offered great PvE rewards for PvP and nerfed farming to pieces. That way there would be thousands of folks in PvP instead of solo farming minotaurs and griffons.

lol most of the legit farmers farm-
1)because they want to and as long as there not botting they why should they not be able to.

2)because they have done everything else in pve and can't stand pvp(even more so nowadays what with the leet rank only system).

but so it would be a real challenge have lots of bosses yeah but don't leave anything out or it would just be far to easy and should be an extreme challenge.but more over what would be the point of a farmers area if you have to pay far more than your ever gonna get back just to get in there.most people farm to get cash for the weapon/armor they want so if some 1 had the 500k and mats to get in it would make sence that they have it to get fow armor or a crys/serpent.i would much rather see extreme quests you have to finish to gain entry much like the titan quests but twice as hard with say 3 quests to do to gain entry to "farmers paradise".but then again this is a fruitless idea because regardless of how many times they state to the not do it is clear they do not like farming and so this idea is never gonna get implemented.

Anet is only against solo farming.

Epi, there's a fact of life you must know in order to understand this debate. Some people like to do the same thing for hours on end with a tiny chance of getting something sweet. That's just the way they are, and you really can't argue with what people like. GvG is not relaxing for a lot of people. They just don't enjoy having to work with their minds continuously. I know there are days where I would not even think about PvP because I'm tired and want to do something easier. So I play games where I kill like a thousand guys in thirty minutes and it's awesome. I'm also doing it partly to try to get some really awesome weapon. Why? I'm not sure, but sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's the other way around, and I want to go strategize and work on GvG stuff. It all depends on mood. Once I played chinese (paper) football with a friend for 4 hours straight. Pointless? Yeah, but it was still fun. Guild Wars has two parts, and it always will have two parts.

PvE and PvP are different and will remain different because for the most part they appeal to different people. It's a matter of opinion, and there's no point in either side trying to bash the other becuase "Xyz is full of elitists/is boring/takes no skill/whatever," since I really doubt you could change a hardcore farmer's mind that he should go fight other people, or a PvPer's mind that he should go farm ettins for hours on end.

Sorry, I agree, different people like different things.

But a huge area with just random high level stuff thrown in and no challenge (no interrupts, knockdowns, enchantment removal etc...) - are people ACTUALLY interested in that? I mean, what would the point be? Put on your prot spirit, mash the illusionary weaponry from time to time and hack thigs to death? I do try to understand, but I don't get this particular suggestion at all. It happens that I find Sorrow's Furnace, the FoW and the UW, as well as the new tombbs all terminally boring - especially going in with ideal "farming" groups - but I can see why people might like it, there is something to them. This just sounds silly...

Oh jesus, I've never seen such a blatantly biased response. Some people buy the game for the PvE aspect of it, and wish to have nothing to do with PvP, and vice versa. But come on, don't belittle someone because they choose PvE.

Harvest Moon MMO?

I would admit that sometime, farming is a mindless fun. However, I don't think GW need to go into that extrem degree to please the farming crowd. GW is not a true MMO, and there are a whole list of MMO for you if you really want to farm.

In the general trend of things, I would hope to see GW move more out of the MMO style of play (force PUG for one thing), and more toward as a single player RPG that can be share with other. It has a great potential to be something different, and that is what I hope to see.

There is no cow level.

just get a group. i bet you can group farm anywhere!

this is just another rant by another one of the legion of players who wants to take the half-assed way out of things because they are either incapable, or too lazy to exert an effort and/or thought process into playing the game. people like this are incapable of playing the games themselves, they have to be spoon-fed the builds they use, and expect items and wealth to also be spoon-fed to them. they are the PvE equivilant of FOTM fame-farmers.
a massive area where you can fight fantastically easy foes with fantastically high drop-rates, for hours on end, with absolutly no challenge?
why dont we just save you the time, and give everyone a free perfect item of every type.

One thing I don't get, is this: What's wrong with farming?

You almost HAVE to farm to get anything you want or need. The ingame rewards are so pitiful that there isn't enough cash to buy what you need/want from the NPCs unless you "waste" time farming.
I see 100k items for sale all the time. Who can, without farming, afford that?
So, unless Anet is pro-fixing the economy, I can't see any other way of getting stuff you want/need.

Group farming seems what Anet is all about. That's fine, but why? Originaly the game was about being able to solo or group as you wanted. Lately, it's all about forced the grouping.

For green items, I can understand a "forced" grouping situation, but for simple junk drops to sell and for gold coins... come on.

The Prophets Path... uh, fix [coughnerf] took 500 gold from me in a 20 minute run. So, instead of 3k I make 2.5k (or real close to it). Other places, I still make about that if not more. It all depending on what I was in the mood for farming.

The only problem I have with forced grouping is this; sitting around saying "LFG" in the amount of time I could be doing something fun... and LFGing is not fun. I left EQ after many many years for having to sit and do that hour on end. Not saying I will leave here, just saying, I did leave there. GW is nothing like that game... thank goodness.

So either, Anet finds a way to force an economy cap on dropped items to fit into thier rewards system* or farming will have to be done.

* Meaning, players would be unable to trade more than X amount of money at a time for X item. This could be easily done by forcing a trade via a vendor or auction controlled NPC system. I don't see this happening, as the current system encourages farming: see ecto, black dye and other "crafting" material costs right now.

for the record; i have nothing against farming or farmers...just the people who couldnt form a unique build to save their lives, and bitch and moan about how they dont get enough in-game handouts. the people who can and do form their own builds dont complain about farming, because instead of wasting their time complaining about farming nerfs; they find new ways of doing it...hats off to them.

no, farming is still allowed by A-net. If they wanted to nerf farming, they would have nerfed 55 monks. They only did away with griffon farming because it was a fast, cheap way to get money which required no skill whatsoever.

The only thing I "farm" for is salvage goods. Very rarely do nice weapons drop, the chests are usually full of non-max, but I always need (or can sell) salvage materials. Occasionally a rune will drop....but have only had *1* green drop since the end of August (Flint's Artifact, woohoo), so that surely does not keep me coming back for more .

Farmers paradise-love it. I would like an arena where I could pick the type of enemy,amount of enemy,and enemy spawn points and/or number of rounds.Now this would create a mass amount of drops/gold/possible rares.So much so that you would have to salvage 75% of drops to make room for on hand storage.Maybe even throw in a merchant right within the arena.Make a 1K entry fee and this would be the MOST popular arena in the history of any game.And it would be a hell of a lotta fun

Actually you are half right on the solo farming. They don't like people doing Extreme Solo Farming, but they do try encourage group farming (see the griffin change and ToPK) instead. You might say well your only saying that because you solo farm and that is correct, but I only do it around 30 mins to hour every day to every few (I am not too obssesed with getting rich just enough to get a few basics and a nice looking items (I do love the collector Crimson Carapace Skin ^^). Also one advantage of solo farming for pve is that it can be a good way to test limits on some builds that can be group used in PvE (not 55/105 I-<insert Profession / W/Mo>).

Reguarding the Scarabs if you read the scarab Hunter NPC text it seems to imply AN's intention is to make the Mob Moveable when they decide to tone down a New over farmed area though that is just my take of it. Well anyways this is what I have to say and keep on having fun kicking player butt/Monster butt and hope to see you all around.

~Konohamaru

P.S. 20 Day Count Down to FPE

Of course people love farming. Why shouldn't they?

The most addictive things are those with intermittent rewards. Like lotteries. Or slot machines. Or farming ettins for hours in the hopes of getting that elusive Superior Absorbtion rune. People can't resist it.

Farmer's Paradise, would, paradoxically, kill that. If anyone could go, farm their ass off, get all the crap they could ever want, what would be the point? Prices would plummet, for starters. Stuff would be way easier to get, and way cheaper to buy if you couldn't be bothered.

Now, I would like that. But I'm not a farmer. The hardcore farmers would probably hate something like that.

I personally don't think people enjoy farming, but me, like many other people, have been forced to do it to get anything PVE wise.

Here are some examples:

Superior Vigor
Droknor's Armor (I didn't have a problem here, but some people did)
Superior Runes
Good items to compete with PVP (AKA Green items would be sufficient)
Fissure Armor
15k Armor
New Secondary classes
Dyes

Now, I understand some of those things are uneeded, but that doesn't stop the fact that they're in the game and insanely high prices. Now I know ebaying money is illegal, but I've really considered maybe getting some because I don't want to waste my time playing so many endless hours when I could be doing PVP.

The prices are high as a result of farming. You couldn't charge outrageous prices if people didn't have piles of platinum. They only have piles of platinum from farming like mad. Farming drops the prices of common stuff ( minor runes for example are dirt cheap) but creates the elitism that makes a +27 health grip worthless, a +28 ok, a +29 worth a lot and +30 priceless. You know what? + 27 is fine for PvE.