Guild Wars 2

It just dawned on me: the new ascended tier is a huge cashcow for the gemstore.

Take the following example. One of my eight characters has 5 exotic sets, all of them with the skins I like. That’s 30 transmutation stones if I want my ascended armor to have the same appearance as the exotic version, with the same runes.

Then there’s my weapons. Same story. Need about 16 stones for one character.
We’re at 46 rare transmutation stones now for one character.

Now, I’ll probably be grinding a year to make those armor sets and weapons. But of course, I want to get my lvl 500 ascended materials faster! Have no fear, I can use the black lion mining pick (gemstore)! From experience, I know BL mining picks work better than my ori/fused pick on the home instance quartz node, giving me a higher chance of receiving charged quartz.

Then there will of course be the datamined (see reddit) new stones to separate appearance items from the transmuted original items. This also allows you to salvage the runes/sigils from the original exotic set [you’d be foolish not to use the 100% success rate black lion kit (gemstore)!], and separately transmute the appearance set onto the ascended set using rare transmutation stones (gemstore).

You gotta admit: it’s pretty brilliant design to increase revenue.

The transmutation stones aren’t that big of a deal given they drop from dailies, a few map completion rewards iirc, can be easily key farmed as well.

You don’t need to put in that much effort for them. Honestly a 5% rough increase in stats so far seems only beneficial for farming or FoTM. I wouldn’t rush things.

Talonblaze.3175:

The transmutation stones aren’t that big of a deal given they drop from dailies, a few map completion rewards iirc, can be easily key farmed as well.
.

Uhhmm what? We must be playing different games. I have maybe gotten 1 fine stone with dailies since launch playing most every day. I don’t think I have ever received one from map completion and as for chances from keys/chests…those have decreased as items have been added to the chests.

Essence Snow.3194:

Uhhmm what? We must be playing different games. I have maybe gotten 1 fine stone with dailies since launch playing most every day. I don’t think I have ever received one from map completion and as for chances from keys/chests…those have decreased as items have been added to the chests.

Guess my luck is merely better than others in that regard. I get BL Kits and Stones fairly regularly from dailies.
Chests are even more so, and thats only an hour of my time, can do it again if I don’t get any.
As I said, I thought I recalled them being a map reward (hence the iirc), I never said it was fact. I just remember some saying that there was some, most notably in the higher level tiers. I just find the other methods easier anyways. Get em as they come.

So are you trying to concoct some massive conspiracy theory that ascended gear is only introduced to make money for Anet?

Transmutation stones from dailies and map completion are not that uncommon.

Transmutation crystals from dailies are pretty rare. And these are the important ones. And I don’t believe these drop as map rewards. Gem store/BLTC Chest/and very rare drop from daily.

Crystals are like 50 cents each, just skip adding cheese to your whopper for a couple days.

Solo.9027:

Crystals are like 50 cents each, just skip adding cheese to your whopper for a couple days.

This made me LOL out loud for 2 minutes!

Vol.5241:

So are you trying to concoct some massive conspiracy theory that ascended gear is only introduced to make money for Anet?

Technically speaking, it’s completely true. The whole game is.

Vol.5241:

So are you trying to concoct some massive conspiracy theory that ascended gear is only introduced to make money for Anet?

Everything in this game is designed to make money. Nothing on the game’s path thus far has been a coincidence, including the massive influx of coin + materials from the last patch, or the insane precursor prices in the months following launch until now (for the latter, see my thread regarding RNG weapon skins and legendaries – which I don’t want to repeat here).

In fact, I’m specifically not saying it’s a conspiracy theory, I’m saying it’s intended design, which is pretty thoroughly designed to make piles of money. Did I say that was a bad thing? No. But I am interested in hearing people’s opinions about it, which is why I’m sharing this here. I have 120 crystals in my bank from playing and opening stuff since launch; the purpose of this thread is not to complain, it’s to hear your views.

On that thought, I like the whopper analogy. It made me smile.

its not a Conspiracy.

Ascended adds a ingle skin to the game that is quite nothing….

While players have many weapons for each character due to build diversity.

How many players can t really say they have at least 1 of each weapon their profession can use?

How many of them with time did try to get nice skins for each weapon?

Just on my elementalist i have 2 focuses 2 scepter, 2 staves, 5 daggers, each one with skins i worked for…and its not even my main :<

The Level 80 transmutation crystals rarely if ever drop, the Level 79 and under transmutation stones I have hundred plus of from map clears and the occasional daily/monthly and that’s just from two characters.

Crystals are only 40 to 50 cents apiece but obviously it’ll add up and the influx of gold to gems will skyrocket the exchange rate. But that just might backfire and drive players away. The only upside is that it’ll take a long time to craft each item if the T7 mats are like charged crystals. It should prevent a shock to the gem exchange.

Solo.9027:

Crystals are like 50 cents each, just skip adding cheese to your whopper for a couple days.

But I feel I’m entitled to my Whopper with cheese.

Talonblaze.3175:

The transmutation stones aren’t that big of a deal given they drop from dailies

FALLACY ALERT

… Transmutation CRYSTALS which would be the only thing that could be used for Ascended Gear, do not drop in-game on their own or drop so extremely rarely that they’re on par with PreCursors (or maybe even worse in some cases).

I agree with the OP, if Anet’s going to foist the Ascended Race on us then they have to also provide a more reliable way of getting T-Crystals. (preferably by forging T-Stones together which no one uses anyway once all their characters have dinged 80)

Solo.9027:

Crystals are like 50 cents each, just skip adding cheese to your whopper for a couple days.

If it’s not a big deal…
then give me all of yours please. I’ll even get a Pay pal account to hold all of the Cheese you’d be willing to give up assuming you’re not a total hypocrite on this claim…

Buttercup.5871:

From experience, I know BL mining picks work better than my ori/fused pick on the home instance quartz node, giving me a higher chance of receiving charged quartz.

:O I did not know this. Finally, a use for all the ones I get out of BLCs!

As for the rest, I’m not buying into transmutation crystals. As an altoholic with multiple gear sets per character there’s just no way. I don’t care if they’re “only” 50 cents each, that stuff adds up fast especially if you tend to change your mind a lot (hard not to when they release new skins every month). GW2’s appearance system is the most punishing, money sucking system I’ve encountered. I do not like it at all.

Tempted as I am to have someone in ascended gear, I will probably stick to using level 78-79 exotics. I’ll kill a little slower, but I can change looks on a whim with the nearly 500 transmutation stones I have and not have to worry about shelling out RL $ or the ridiculous gold→gem exchange rate.

Also, I have played almost every day since September of last year and I only have about 20 transmutation crystals, which I haven’t gotten since at least December. I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten any from map completion, I’ve definitely never gotten one from dailies, and I assume the small stash I have are from early BLC openings before the drop rate was nerfed/adjusted for multiple items/whatever.

ilr.9675:

If it’s not a big deal…
then give me all of yours please. I’ll even get a Pay pal account to hold all of the Cheese you’d be willing to give up assuming you’re not a total hypocrite on this claim…

I don’t use paypal but I would be glad to snail mail you a slice.

Buttercup.5871:

From experience, I know BL mining picks work better than my ori/fused pick on the home instance quartz node, giving me a higher chance of receiving charged quartz.

I’m not sure about this. I had a spare BL mining pick that I used on my quartz harvesting mule, but I did not observe any increased chance for Charged Quartz over the Copper tools he was using previously. Granted, it’s a pretty small sample size, so perhaps your assertion could still be correct. I’d like to see more research data performed on this.

Solo.9027:

Crystals are like 50 cents each, just skip adding cheese to your whopper for a couple days.

Not everyone has a credit card/paypal account. It’s hard to convert this 100 peso bill I have here into digital credits. =/