Mount Farming and the 99 Totem Issue

[Deveryn]

PvP is not literally running the exact same scripted content over and over and over and over. Tank mount grind and dungeon drop rates for some stuff are dumb too. I dunno why you thought I'd think differently regarding those, some grind is a given in an mmo, but there's really no reason to lock mounts behind that huge wall of tedious boring gameplay. They're not even prestigious mounts or rewards, anyone dedicated enough gets one, so why keep the time requirement so high if you're unlucky?

I have no interest in the ex mounts from the last couple expacs, they're super weirdly proportioned and I'm happy enough with the petrel. That really doesn't have much to do with thinking the grind is excessive for what it is though.

They're all luxuries. This is not a new concept. It's only ever a grind if you make it so. I don't know why people are getting so heated over this.

You forgot S rank / A rank, btw. If we're gonna rank them, that's the 2nd worst.
I put PvP at the top because you're depending on people that don't necessarily care to participate.

[LordGiggles]

They're all luxuries. This is not a new concept. It's only ever a grind if you make it so. I don't know why people are getting so heated over this.

You forgot S rank / A rank, btw. If we're gonna rank them, that's the 2nd worst.
I put PvP at the top because you're depending on people that don't necessarily care to participate.

The hunt ones are definitely a great example of an excessive grind, the numbers on some of them are pretty absurd (particularly for arr ones). PvP and the aforementioned triad ones aren't as bad imo just because the content you're grinding varies a lot. PvP can be annoying (and has pretty poor balance and some weird mechanics), but there's a lot of people who just enjoy playing it, with the rewards as just a secondary motivation. Triad covers basically every piece of content in the game. Ex mounts are just running the exact same fight way past the point there's any fun in it. There's no reason they couldn't drop the requirement down to 50.

Some grind is a given in an mmo, but I think that there's still a balance to be struck. Some grinds just are awful to actually to do, like does anyone enjoy doing books for arr relics? Or running aurum vale unsync like 40 times? Ideally a grind should be a motivator to keep doing stuff you enjoy to some degree, but might not come back to much otherwise.

I'm not sure what you mean by saying it's only a grind if you make it so. Spreading the grind out over a huge period of time doesn't change what it is, it just means you're slower doing it.

If you require everybody who wants the mount, but isn't lucky, to run the trial 99 times vs them needing to run it 50 times, that's 49 more times that the person who needs the mount will be in a trial while knowing what to do, and being able to instruct others on how to do the raid. 49 more times they can be forced to teach the new incoming player who has never done it before how to do it.

People just make farm parties, people entirely new to the raid generally aren't even allowed in those groups outside old unsync stuff. You get some helpers in clear runs, but you get those people anyway, even blu raids get helpers.

[Deveryn]

I'm not sure what you mean by saying it's only a grind if you make it so. Spreading the grind out over a huge period of time doesn't change what it is, it just means you're slower doing it.

Spreading it out means you're pacing yourself vs. grinding it out. Grinding is just going at it repeatedly. At least that's how I see it.

My approach to frontline mounts is to do one duty a day, as long as it's not borderlands. If I get a win, I'll do a bonus run. It's not a grind, but a pretty casual pace. Anytime the new EX comes out, I don't do more than a few a day. If I do, there's a big break in between. I don't consider that a grind.

Unsync groups for older mounts were a grind because it's normal to go for 10 or 20 runs in a row.

Someone said SE doesn't care about people's personal time. It's each individual that cares or doesn't care about their own time (or other people's) in one way or another. I want to keep enjoying the game and I have no interest in other games, so I'm not going to burn myself out.