Guild Wars 2

At 1600 gems, good value or not?

absolutely not. Most of the stuff there you won’t even use and not worth it. You are better off converting those gems to gold and crafting yourself up several levels.

it’s designed to trick new players into spending 1600 gems on stuff they don’t need

Not.

Very not.

Mind blowingly not.

Not even close. Most the stuff you don’t need or get when you grind AP and get the chests. The only thing close to value are the keys, but then you play the RNG game and in the majority of those cases, you lose bad. Another pass for me.

Definitely not good value.
Designed for impatient people or new players only.

The boosts/buffs and items included are not worth it at that price.

The individual items add up to 3150 gems though, so it’s just further proof that even at 50% off, most items in the gem store are not worth the money. At their regular prices they are scandalous rip-offs.

I have a hard and fast rule about buying gem store items. If it’s not permanent (skins, extra tabs, tools, makeover, etc.) it doesn’t even get considered. If it is permanent, I absolutely have to not be able to live without it before it becomes a sale. While I like to support ArenaNet with my money from time to time, I always only do it when there is value for me in it too.