Guild Wars 2

Hi

I just saw the new Gathering Boost on TP
It costs 110 gems for 1h, if you buy 5
110 gems = 9g
You get 33% chance to get extra resources while salvaging (and 10sec swiftness)
What does that mean?
Does it mean you have 33% chance to salvage one more time?
Or does it mean that you have 33% chance to get stuff like ruby orbs?
Or does it mean that you have 33% chance to get 2 materials instead of 1? (like 2 ori instead of 1 per salvage)

And how can any of these effects be worth 9g/h?

Greetings from germany

Why do people always talk about Gold to Gem ratio when discussing prices in the store?

The gemstore prices are not based around that ratio, it is based around the real life money cost of gems. Always have been, always will be.

if you ask me, i would say not worth at all since i only farm oric and ancient wood….

1 hour only allow me to farm on 2 characters (yeah, i run a lot)

Since I gather orichalcum and ancient wood everyday, I jumped at the chance to buy one of these boosters to test it. I bought 5 for 550 gems, or 110gems each. I tried one for 30 minutes in cursed shore and malchers leap. My results :

8 Ancient wood nodes, expected 24 logs, got 26
9 Orichalcum nodes, expected 27 ore, got 28

I also got a few orbs and such, but that happens with or without a booster. I didn’t see any increase in the “bonus” resources. Now, it is NOT unusual at all to get an extra 1-2 ore or logs without a booster, so I can’t even say it gave me 2 logs and 1 ore as a bonus. For the sake of argument, lets say that was the bonus.

I could have taken 55gems (my cost for 1/2 hour of this boost) and converted to gold, and bought 55 oric ore right off the TP. This would of course be LOTS more had I used in game gold to buy the gems.

I am at a loss to try and understand what “boost” I got from this booster. Ok, I got the swiftness after gather, but I can get that for free with my Ele (air staff 4), my Mesmer (focus 4) and my ranger (warhorn 5).

Just what is the “booster” ? Other then a colossal waste of gems, I can not offer any theories. Maybe the item is bugged. But given that I can buy LOTS of bonus resources for my 150 gems, why on earth should anyone buy this booster that promises to deliver even less?

I now have 4 boosters that will clog my bank, as I can see no use for these whatsoever, other then as a reminder that I wasted 550 gems on them, and a reminder to do this kind of math before I spend my gems on “bonus” items that contain no actual bonus.

Well, I certainly hope they are not too efficient, they are pay to win items.

Asmodeus.5782:

Well, I certainly hope they are not too efficient, they are pay to win items.

P2W? Really?

Well, you buy them with gems and they enhance your gathering abilities. If that’s not P2W, I dunno what is. :P

Asmodeus.5782:

Well, you buy them with gems and they enhance your gathering abilities. If that’s not P2W, I dunno what is. :P

Lots of things, don’t think you can win at gathering though. Unless gathering more mats made you stronger in spvp.

These boosters are pretty useless regardless if you buy them with gold or cash, mainly because of the cost.

And they should stay like this, a bait for the naive.

it’s a gold sink…

a convenience ? not really….

lordkrall.7241:

Why do people always talk about Gold to Gem ratio when discussing prices in the store?

The gemstore prices are not based around that ratio, it is based around the real life money cost of gems. Always have been, always will be.

I will take a stab at this. If this item costs 9g (I haven’t checked) when converting gold to gems, you can still take that figure into account when the payment is cash. Instead of using your gems to purchase this item, you could simply have converted those gems to gold. This gold could then be used to buy crafting materials on the trading post. In that case you’d get exact materials for sure rather than an extra chance at whatever nodes you happen to come across. You’d still have the time to go harvest as you normally would. For this item to be “worthwhile” in the sense the OP expects, the extra resources picked up would have to exceed what you could buy for simply spending the equal value in gold.

The swiftness adds a dimension to this, so you would have to factor in that you can gather slightly faster, especially if your class doesn’t have good swiftness buffs. However, I doubt this would bring the figure close to the value put into the booster. This is true for many items on the gem store; they’re hardly even a convenience because they limit you, say, to an hour where you will then have to do your gathering to get the full benefit.

So, I think he has a point about many of these items being unable to fulfill their cost.

Simply saying that it’s meant to be bought for cash is not a compelling response. Also, the fact is that the gold to gems conversion does in fact exist in the game. It is not some sort of arbitrary feature that people have invented. ArenaNet posters have often been quick to point out that you can earn gems to buy stuff simply by playing the game (even before certain achievement tiers gave gems). In that sense, they indirectly say that gold is a legitimate currency for this purpose.

The truth is, some of the things in the gem store are just expensive. Even if you use cash, try pit some of the items against the value of the full game. I have spent a fair amount of money in the gem store (I’m lucky that my disposable income allows me to), but I am completely sympathetic to people who feel the prices are steep. They are.

Something is not right. Do not buy these. They do not increase anything mined over your regular gathering chances.

It only gives you a 15% chance. We get a lot more than that from WvW bonuses by the time Thursday rolls around.

Behellagh.1468:

It only gives you a 15% chance. We get a lot more than that from WvW bonuses by the time Thursday rolls around.

It says 33% in the item description. Which is total malarkey. It has no effect in the current state. The item is not working as advertised.

Firebaall.5127:

Behellagh.1468:

It only gives you a 15% chance. We get a lot more than that from WvW bonuses by the time Thursday rolls around.

It says 33% in the item description. Which is total malarkey. It has no effect in the current state. The item is not working as advertised.

Oops, mixed up the percentages, my server was at 15% bonus from WvW.

This item is made to assist bots hitting 100+ nodes/hr.

Striker.9413:

This item is made to assist bots hitting 100+ nodes/hr.

This. If you’re going to Ancient Wood/Ori farm, this isn’t for you. This is for the person who gathers a lot because it’s 33% per node. If you farm 100 nodes, you should get 33% more resources, but that’s always a ‘chance’ matter. RNG at work, people.

But its still not worth the gold. Ok, let’s talk about gems for real money. So you buy 150 gems and get the gathering booster. What purpose does it serve? Well, boosting up you gatherings… for gold! But.. 150 gems converted to gold in gemstore will always give you more gold than you can ever earn by 1 hour of gathering (and sure, one may be Lucky and get more, but that’s a avery poor chance).