Guild Wars 2

Are these pretty much only able to be obtained by buying gems? I have 3 80’s one with map completion and two with like 40-50%, I do dailys every day (at least for the past couple months) and I have never gotten one of these at least that I can recall.

Haven’t got one in a real long time. Had a few drops early on. I just figured it was another nerf since you can buy them with gems. Ditto for the black keys, haven’t had a drop in a while. They were more freguent, not a lot, but at least you got one every now and then.

I get them often with Black Lion chests, sometimes daily’s I think.

Haven’t got one from a daily for a real long time, just karma, laurel and mystic.

Keys and transmutation stones are still chance rewards for completing an area or personal story event, I think. Correct me if I am wrong, though.

I have never gotten one in my entire time while playing with 100% map completion on one character. I have about 80 of the basic stones, but no fine stones. Had to buy them for 4g, which isn’t awful, but still frustrating.

I just got a black lion key upon completing one of the WvW borderlands maps about 3 days ago.

I wonder if it’s only in lvl 80 zone completions.

map completion and daily had a decent chance to drop these and keys when I started playing. I’m so so so happy my very first goal in GW2 was 100% map completion. Fine T stones can also come out of BL chests. Until recently, I was sitting on 40 Fine T stones and 100 Basic T stones.
In the first month of playing, I opened around 30 BL chests. Recently: of the 4 chests I’ve opened in the last 4 months, I haven’t got a single fine T stone. all I have are just saved from better days.
that’s also how I have 11 extra crafting boosters and various other boosters :P

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation_Stone

Ty, I could have sworn I’ve seen people post on here they got them from dailies and map competition guess I was mistaken.

I got some from the bl-chest 2 days ago when I decided that keys and chests were taking up 2 slots in my bank and I didn’t want them to.

I apparently got all my keys just from map completions. I got some fine trans stones from chests here and there.

But I haven’t gotten any stones in months, nor even any keys.

I used to get the fine stones from BL chests, but I haven’t in many months. Meanwhile, I have almost a full stack of 250 of the regular ones sitting in the bank.

Lane.3410:

I used to get the fine stones from BL chests, but I haven’t in many months. Meanwhile, I have almost a full stack of 250 of the regular ones sitting in the bank.

I think they should make it so you can toss a stack of them (regular transmutation stones) in the forge and get some fine stones. Either that or make it so you can use the regular ones as long as the skin you are applying is not exotic. In my case I have a few sets on each of my characters and I am trying to apply a non 80 skin onto an 80 item for many of them. I can understand that they do this to make money but you should be able to get them other ways if you are willing to make the effort.

I would love a forge recipe, but whenever it’s suggested people chime in that it’d be a loss of money for them since it’s a gem store item.

I’ve just started equipping my alts in level 79 gear solely so I can have the freedom to transmute as I wish (and use up the copious amounts of regular stones I have).

See that what I really hate about cash shops. To me a game that does cash shop right offers the option to get something that takes time/effort to get in game if you are willing to spend the money. Since gw2 isn’t really a min/max type of game and armor or weapons are more about looks than stats this is the perfect environment for this type of shop. Instead the way the BLTP is set up comes off as a scam or cash grab and it actually drives me away from using it at all. There are lots of little shady things that make me feel this way for example; you have 6 armor slots yet fine stones are sold in packs of 5, so you have to buy 2. Or in most games how currency is sold. Usually the bigger the amount you buy the cheaper it is. On GW2 its no cheaper to buy 4000 gems than it is to buy 800 x5. I guess there is the option to trade gold (as many will always say) but lets be honest anet is doing everything in there power to make this an undesirable option. Just put cool fun stuff in the store and we will buy it, they don’t need to sink to this level.

Wait…you just complained that you liked that a ‘cash shop done right’ will offer you the “option to get something that takes time/effort to get in the game” then you later acknowledge that you can get gems in trade for in-game gold, which…takes time/effort to get in the game. You’re essentially lauding one thing and slapping another yet they are both the same. You may not like the trade rate, but those gems remain acquirable—and unambiguously so—entirely from within the game, rather than your wallet.

As for gems being sold cheaper by the dozen, so to speak, it’s a good thing they aren’t. They need to be to keep the value of a gem consistent to all players regardless of how much pocket change they happen to have to throw at the shop.

As for selling Fine Trans stones in blocks of 5…wellll…I tend to agree with you. They should be sold in blocks of 6 at the reduced price (over buying 6 one at a time), just to acknowledge the reality of their likely primary use. However, they can be used on weapons, so it’s not always going to be 6 that’s best, either.

As an aside: Fine Trans stones do pop up occasionally from either Dailies or Map Completion, as I got one a couple days ago (just don’t recall which event gave it).

With regard to ANet doing anything to make gems:gold trading undesirable, I don’t think so. It’s a market thing. It can be manipulated from the inside, of course, but the rate is most likely rising simply because of more gold in the system being generated by increasingly wealthy characters. Not to mention more items being added to the shop which will loosen the in-game purse strings of many new buyers. A lot of players have an ‘excess’ of gold, whether or not you or I happen to, and are willing to blow large sums of it on tchotchkes, thus helping to gradually drive up the price of gems for gold. I’m certainly no economist, so this is simple connecting of the dots on my part. Would unfairly manipulating the gold:gem ratio be in ANet’s favor as another gold sink (so <gold means >gems bought with real $$$)…no doubt. I prefer to believe, in the absence of contrary evidence, that they have enough integrity not to do such things. There are better ways to reach the same end if they felt it necessary, anyway.

Fine transmutation stones are available for sale from the Black Lion Trading Company. I have purchased many of them and recommend everyone else do the same. Most of the armor skins I like are mob drops or low-level craft or karma styles so I use fine stones frequently. My alts are using regular transmutation stones.

You are correct. Which is why I did edit my post moments after making it to reflect the option to buy the stones with converted gold. Still, what I am referring to is the forced use of the store to get an item that is otherwise not available in the game for the most part. The best example of this is actually black lions chest keys. Anyone who played the head start saw in the first few days the keys were rare but actually did drop at a decent rate and that there was even a chance to get them from opening a chest. This lasted for about 3 days till the drop rate was adjusted and the keys removed from chests to make more money selling keys. The key to a cash shop that does not feel like a cheap money grab is balance which at this point is lacking. If the player does not feel like they can get something another way while playing the game in a reasonable manner then the shop starts to become an intrusive element in the play experience.

I got like 98 or them or more. no clue how I got so many since I never bought them (did open chests back around halloween?)

Lysico.4906:

I got like 98 or them or more. no clue how I got so many since I never bought them (did open chests back around halloween?)

I know the feeling lol

I have 38 of them despite never purchasing any. I know for a fact I had received them for map completion in the past, although they could have made that no longer possible. Usually for map completion if you received normal transmutation stones you’d receive 3, but if you were awarded fine stones you only got one.

I really want to say that I got some early on and uses them not knowing the difference buy I really cannot be sure. If I did it was not many (4-7). I guess maybe they removed getting them that way. Probably something that you would expect to see in patch notes huh.

According to the wiki the only place you can get them outside of the gem store is via BL chests. I have 25 sitting in the bank, but those are from many months back, I want to say even before the Halloween event.

I recently opened about 20 chests and didn’t get a single transmutation stone, or really anything of value. :P