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View Full Version : GRIND or BUY? (High lvl weapons)



EXPFULL
Jul 23, 2012, 10:12 AM
Hi all,

In prep for our next show, I've been looking into the following and wanted to get an idea of what YOU do, or aim to do, when it comes to obtaining high lvl weapons.


BUY - Why do you choose this over grinding? I know many people choose to buy weapons with the exactly abilities and/or grinds they want because they don't quite understand the various methods (mostly due to the language barrier).

Also, this generally costs more. But it's also a whole lot simpler and requires no time other than a little market research.

GRIND - Is this because, in theory, it's more cost effective?
Grinding does give you the flexibility over what abilities and such you have on a weapon, but also is a risk.

There is no 'set cost' to creating the weapon you're after, but there's a good chance you'll spend a LOT less before you reach your goal for the weapons.

Really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Peace.

BIG OLAF
Jul 23, 2012, 10:15 AM
I picked "Buy", because my luck is complete shit and I'll never find any good (Hunter) rares ever anyway. Just like PSU, I gotta buy all my 'good' gear from the lucky "Chosen" players. You know, those handful of guys that find everything all the time?

Hobbez
Jul 23, 2012, 10:17 AM
Well, considering that I have yet to find a rare gun as a ranger, no matter how long I grind for the mobs that drop them, I usually just keep an eye on the auction house. I can usually farm up the meseta to buy what I want before it drops.

Of course, If I ever swap to hunter or force, I will NEVER need to buy a rare as I have found literally dozens of high-end rares for the other classes. And since can't trade or sell them to another player, they will prolly just rot in my bank.

sugarFO
Jul 23, 2012, 10:19 AM
I'll grind it myself, but not to +10. Only as high as I can get without it failing a bunch. I feel like rares are only there to look cool, so my next weapon will probably just be one of the regular ones (unless they make a Talis that SHOOTS HEART OMFG TAKE MY MONEY)

Dabian
Jul 23, 2012, 10:20 AM
Usually, Force weapons are reasonably priced. So I'd just skip the hassle of grinding and just buy.

Ryock
Jul 23, 2012, 10:21 AM
My luck has actually been quite good... for now... so I went with grind myself.

LatinWolf
Jul 23, 2012, 10:24 AM
Hmm, interesting question. Arguably both are grinding; if you purchase from the AH you still have the "grind"/farm the Meseta needed.

I don't have a problem with either, I wouldn't mind building my own weapon ( I did so with the Yellow Axe Sword thing) but not able to fully understand and read all the moonspeak while grinding can be a big obstacle though.

Dabian
Jul 23, 2012, 10:24 AM
Grinders are quite common at higher levels, so unless you grind everything you get your hands on, you should have a reasonable supply to test your luck with.

MelancholyWitch
Jul 23, 2012, 10:30 AM
Buy, because my luck with such things in any game is absolutely awful and I'd rather make another player richer instead of making dudu any richer than he already is.

Genji
Jul 23, 2012, 10:33 AM
I just end up buying my rares, though if it's super expensive (500k+), I'll hold off in the hopes of eventually finding my own. The way I see it, there's no reason to go blowing millions of meseta on weapons. I could understand for vanity items like the rappy suit, but with weapons, each new update is probably going to make a handful of weapons obsolete. Unless it's a weapon you MUST HAVE, you're better off sticking with the cheaper stuff and saving your meseta for the next update and the new weapons it brings.

I've only come across these 9* rares in my roughly 100+ hours of play time:
3-4 Vraolets (gunslash)
1 Kuscha Nebula (wired lance)
2 rare units
4-5 Talis Legacy

And I'm a partisan user.

CelestialBlade
Jul 23, 2012, 10:38 AM
I do both I guess. I tend to compare weapon stats at +10 so I can buy stuff that will be more beneficial to me when I do grind them. So I'll grind something and use it for a while, but if I see something that may be currently weaker than what I have but has better grinding potential, I'll buy it and grind it.

KrankItVZ
Jul 23, 2012, 10:58 AM
Personally I will buy ONLY if it follows the conditions:
- Extremely Rare
- Has the Abilities I want
- Reasonable Price

I had a +10 Alva Calibur with Power 3 and got greedy trying to get Vul Soul along. Ended up losing all 3 abilities and just pumped in Power 2 for now. Very bad experience... I did this before the new guide updated... Hope to get a Dinia Edge soon as I'm about to hit 40 anyways.

Macman
Jul 23, 2012, 11:00 AM
I picked "Buy", because my luck is complete shit and I'll never find any good (Hunter) rares ever anyway. Just like PSU, I gotta buy all my 'good' gear from the lucky "Chosen" players. You know, those handful of guys that find everything all the time?
This guy has it down pretty solid.

Also did the OP mean grind as in get the weapon to +10 on your own or to rare hunt the weapon yourself, or buy +10 weapons (lol) from the shops or what? :-?

BIG OLAF
Jul 23, 2012, 11:02 AM
This guy has it down pretty solid.

Also did the OP mean grind as in get the weapon to +10 on your own or to rare hunt the weapon yourself, or buy +10 weapons (lol) from the shops or what? :-?

I think he meant "buying weapons that have been pre-grinded" over "grinding weapons yourself."

But, since I'll never find the rares anyway, I only have one choice. Even though my grinding luck isn't bad by any means.

JeyKama
Jul 23, 2012, 11:07 AM
I had to buy myself an Urs Ragna because I was sick to death of the Rappy Cannon (which I still use anyway, bleh) and it's rough finding a group to specifically farm Snow Banshees (probably not even possible anymore)

I have found my share of Vol Dragon rares and 8-9* armors though, so I can't complain too much.

I reserve the right to complain every time I get a damn Talis Legacy/Daylight Scar though. Those just make me super-salty for still dropping in lv38-40 zones.

Macman
Jul 23, 2012, 11:10 AM
Man, I remember the days when Daylight Scar was the best twin dagger in the game. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. :(

Darse
Jul 23, 2012, 11:20 AM
I would much rather find and grind my self, gives me a sense of pride in my weapons and ability as a player, after all buying from the market of plays... is... eh... price range is to high, and people are greedy. Not mention the PSU market for buy and selling with broken, never could you find good weapons at fair prices. It was all, you gotta throw your heart out for a weapon, im not doing that again, I rather run on luck than spend my soul.

Vyscillius
Jul 23, 2012, 11:23 AM
I tend to do both.
When I want a "normal" weapon (1 to 6stars) +10, I'm gonna buy it since I don't really care, as long as it's better than my current weapon.

But when it comes to very rare (7stars and higher) I tend to :
1- drop them myself
2- grind them myself
The downside is I have a rotten luck, I spent 3days trying to drop Patty Lumeria and still didn't drop anything. Spent a day trying to drop Axeon and got it today when I forgot about it and was just screwing around in the cave.
I lost 2abilities at the same time with both 70% of success.

But hell with it, I'm still taking risks because I just love that satisfying feeling when I actually succeed in something that I fail, not because of my skills as a player but because of dumb luck.

ps : there's a wisdom to catch in PSO2 : screw your talent, skills, ability and efforts, with luck, you'll get your way. Why don't they make a system when the more you kill a monster, the better the drop rate gets? That would be fair for those of us who have absolutely no luck at all.

Broken_L_button
Jul 23, 2012, 11:29 AM
I do a mix of both, but I'm more inclined to grind the weapons myself. I just love the feeling of Dodo's hand drilling into my wallet.

Hobbez
Jul 23, 2012, 11:44 AM
I do believe I misunderstood the OPs question. I thought this was about finding rares, not putting +'s on them. If so, I voted incorrectly as I always buy unground / crappy affixes and do that work myself. Items with poor stats are always cheaper on the AH and I can take my time earning the meseta to build the affixes I want and grinding them up.

EXPFULL
Jul 23, 2012, 12:08 PM
Great comments guys - keep 'em coming! We're adding this to our HOT TOPICS section of the show this week.

I took a bit of a punt trying to get a スプレッドレガシー + 10 (Legacy Spread) with > Shoot III and マイザー・ソール (Mizer Soul - R-Atk + 30 PP+3 )

There was one in the shop last night for 3.something million, but with no element.

A good long while later, with lots of help from a friend, I ended up spending just under a mill on one that had all I was after, +10, Shoot IV rather than III, that awesome ranger soul, and a 18% element which is the last thing I've got to work on.

Kazzi
Jul 23, 2012, 01:06 PM
I buy. The more you try to grind something, the more the chance of the failure happens (I'm not saying the higher the grind number like +9 or +10, I mean repeatedly trying to grind it even after it breaking increases the difficulty on top). So it's cheaper and more efficient for me to just let other people grind them up and waste their money instead! Unless it's some kind of obscure rare with a great soul on it.

Zorafim
Jul 23, 2012, 01:10 PM
I hit "Grind myself", mainly because I don't feel satisfied buying things. It feels better finding, and doing things myself. Still, I don't know how the whole ability on weapons thing works, so I may need to look in to that.

Natsuma
Jul 23, 2012, 01:25 PM
I personally do both:
I try to buy weapons at the cheapest price, not grinded and then I grind them myself.

For example I just bought a Tarnada sword and grinded it rather easily (3 or 4 fails) to +8, I'm kinda afraid to try more to be honest :D

Abu Jumal
Jul 23, 2012, 02:54 PM
Always grind, never buy. With anything less than a 7* it doesn't take much to grind it up to +10. With anything greater than a 7* you can make an argument towards purchasing but they are often pretty overpriced.

soulpimpwizzurd
Jul 23, 2012, 02:55 PM
i hit neither since neither choice is always the best choice financially when it comes to different weapons. it depends always.

Skye-Fox713
Jul 23, 2012, 04:29 PM
I've actually bought just about all my gear from player shops because it was relatively cheap. Such weapons and gear that I used for a good bit like a Beam and Alba Beam assault rifle I got off the player shops for relatively cheap. I even got a the 9* yellow AR for about 130k with a shooting 1 attribute.

Also it depends on the weapon your after, how much meseta you have and how much your willing to spend.

edit - after re-reading the op I grind all my weapons myself. Much more control on what I get.

Lostbob117
Jul 23, 2012, 04:33 PM
You're talking about green rare or red rare?

youcantcatchtheblue
Jul 23, 2012, 08:31 PM
Sense of achievement is just much higher when you do it all yourself, so it's Grind for me.

gigawuts
Jul 23, 2012, 08:35 PM
There are two reasons something is on sale at +10

1. The person made a terrible mistake grinding that weapon (not worth it, buy a better one)
2. The person is making a wonderful profit selling that weapon (not worth it, buy one at a reasonable price)

As much as I hate RNG's, I'd rather just get rare weapons to +9 myself and leave it at that.

edit: Or 3. That person forgot a zero, BUY BUY BUY

Zeota
Jul 23, 2012, 10:05 PM
Feels more like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" proposition to me. If you're extremely unlucky in upgrading, you could easily spend as much money (if not more) as buying one that's already +10. I'm really not looking forward to the prospect of grinding 12-star items.

On something of a tangent, it could be worse though. Could be vanilla PSU's system. Thank God they didn't let us upgrade S-rank weapons pre-AOI.

kyojin
Jul 23, 2012, 10:13 PM
both for me (though it's leaning towards buying, since my luck is non-existent)
i grind/farm/hunt on the map of my targeted rare.
-farmed enough meseta? then buy it!
-got your rare? upgrade it!

Hansha
Jul 23, 2012, 10:27 PM
I just use my main character status to find anything I want. Then I'll grind and put abilities on them myself.

BogusKun
Jul 23, 2012, 11:37 PM
I do use the rares I normally find, and I recently found some good Hunter/FO weapons and newly updated armor. I tend to use the same thing depending on the attack strength so it doesn't matter. Since I am not interested in costume scratches... I buy anything in Black or White.

Arika
Jul 23, 2012, 11:45 PM
Grinding as in finding weapon and farming meseta ?
Or grinding as in make it to +10?

Because many rare weapon doesn't have option for you to buy at +10 since the base price is already high. Have to buy it and grind myself so I choose both buy and grind

Garnet_Moon
Jul 23, 2012, 11:50 PM
Depends how much it costs to grind that particular item versus the cost of an already +10 in a player shop. If it's somewhat close to the same, give or take a few breaks(yes, a few, fuck 20+ straight fails lol), then I buy in the shop. If it's stupidly overpriced, I'll buy a raw one(or wait until I get the drop) and grind it myself.

NoiseHERO
Jul 23, 2012, 11:51 PM
I choose buy, because this game has ASS drop-rates.

Coatl
Jul 24, 2012, 01:08 AM
You grind for it. If you don't get the weapon you want, but have 2 mil sitting in your bank from all that grind, then just buy it.

Gama
Jul 24, 2012, 02:42 AM
got my souleater for 700 k grinded it to +10 i'm quite happy about it. "end cost about 1 mil..."

Dammy
Jul 24, 2012, 03:13 AM
always grind
need to do something with those ~1100 grinders

Stegodon
Jul 24, 2012, 03:31 AM
I'v realized I go and hunt in search of 7+ Star rare items.. TO sell them for minimal gain.. to then turn around and buy 7+ star rarity items with good abilities and better stats... Grinding is simple enough. But for the life of me I cannot add attributes at all. i've read thru alot of pro guides on here NUMEROUS times. And everytime i get encouraged... go snag up all the required gear for implementing stronger abilities or stats. Go the shop. 500k later i loose all my fodder. and my weapon general ends up the same if not worse then where i started.... just dont understand how something can say like 65% chance for success and fail about 23 out of 25 times. Its a rediculous waste of money. And the fact that ONE failure erases ALL Stats and Abilities held previous on my weapon is rediculous.

I have no idea how people get weapons with 70+ striking and like 15 to all stats with poison IV all at the same time... im lucky if i can get 40 striking and 20 hp. So i leave it to the professionals who can read the language. and i glady pay for their overpriced grinded gears.

supersonix9
Jul 24, 2012, 03:32 AM
I want those rares on my weapons list. I grind 'em since I only use rares that I find.

Mystil
Jul 24, 2012, 07:37 AM
I picked "Buy", because my luck is complete shit and I'll never find any good (Hunter) rares ever anyway. Just like PSU, I gotta buy all my 'good' gear from the lucky "Chosen" players. You know, those handful of guys that find everything all the time?

That scenario used to make me angry so much. Then when I became "chosen" late in my "playing career" in PSU, I was met with bits of jealousy. So like, I'm cool being underpowered man.

Dycize
Jul 24, 2012, 08:07 AM
I grind all day everyday and plan to keep grinding. I'll probably buy grinders though.

Since I know I'll make another character at some point, I'll have plenty of awesome grinded gear to give to it.

I didn't hit the level cap (and am far from it, level 29) but I sure will get rares and grind them just because I can. I like seeing numbers go up. And eventually maybe I'll sell some too. But buying gear feels like it's not mine (...yeah).

Sayara
Jul 24, 2012, 09:45 AM
I grounded up my current weapon to +10 and its currently better than 90% of the items in the shops. amazingly only the 10billion rods outrank my crazy lvl4 star rabbit stick Alba striker or whatever.

GrieverXVII
Aug 4, 2012, 09:46 PM
after spending almost 2mil meseta on trying to grind my tigredor to +10, i end with a +7...

this is severely getting on my nerves...it almost feels like buying a +10 is easier than grinding it yourself, this is ridiculous.

Limbo_lag
Aug 4, 2012, 10:45 PM
I spent 400k on two grind protectors when upgrading my Tigre from 8 to 10, and used some -1 risks from levels 6-8. Might seem like a lot of meseta, but its a lot less frustrating ending up with something completely gimped :/ I'm pretty sure if it had failed, I would have spent about the same amount, if not more, trying to get it back up to that level again...

Mokyu
Aug 4, 2012, 10:47 PM
I chose grind because luck is luck, W/e but in THEORY grinding is better. :3

Chik'Tikka
Aug 4, 2012, 10:47 PM
i grind all of mine, got my 9* orange rifle 10^ pretty easy along with most my other equipment, grinders being free helps a lot+^_^+

goldwing
Aug 4, 2012, 10:58 PM
i grind my gear. well my weps anyway. all the ones i want to get to 10 i shell out for it. ppl charge way to much for the weps. i mean i understand they spend alot to get it that way but good god.

GrieverXVII
Aug 5, 2012, 12:04 AM
personally, i've come to realize the whole system seems broken. to actually make decent meseta in this game, you have to spend quite a bit to tweak something good, to be great. then you want profit, so because everything from grinding to attribute changes costs meseta and sometimes ridiculous amounts, people re-sell for really high amounts.

I feel like i'm constantly asking myself, how the hell do i make decent meseta to upgrade my gear :\ you can burn through 2 mil meseta just trying to get one weapon to +10 or attributes and not even succeed, but when you do...how can you even sell it on the auction while making profit? i...just don't understand the design behind all this. I love this game, but so far the attribute/grinding and auction house system has me the most frustrated. what am i misunderstanding?

Jay6
Aug 5, 2012, 12:20 AM
I picked Grind.
So far, I've grinded several 8 star weapons up to +10. Some I had little to no difficulty, and others I had great difficulty. So there's some balance in it all. 2/5 times I tried to grind an 8 star weapon from +9 to +10, it has failed. I have fairly good luck at that point.

NiteShadow
Aug 5, 2012, 12:34 AM
I'd say buy. Especially with the amount of meseta it takes to grind higher end rares.

Limbo_lag
Aug 5, 2012, 01:36 AM
Heck I can deal with the grinding, and even the slow meseta farm (much, much better prices than D3). The only thing that really annoys me are the item stat requirements. It basically means "spend money on AC and get a new mag, or enjoy playing your class without access to high end gear". Really should have been dependent on level, instead.

Kion
Aug 5, 2012, 02:19 AM
For some reason i have horrible luck with finding rares but i have good luck with grinding them.
30 vader runs -> no Strauss.
"fuck this *buys from player shop*
Grinds to +10 with remaining 100k