So I have the 3 gifts required for Twilight suited up. All that I’m lacking is Dusk. Here’s my take on crafting a legendary:
It’s been legendarily boring.
Precursor: Outside of rising market cost, there is currently one way to obtain them. RNG. I’d say the RNG from receiving one via the MF is just as low or common as getting one as a mob/boss drop or chest drop. There is no way to validate this claim, but that’s my personal observation from talking with every legendary owner I’ve come across. On average, 2 out of 10 are newer owners. The vast majority had bought their precursor when it was under 50g in August/early September.
Obsidian Shards: The grind for these pre-Plinx nerf was tolerable. I knew nothing of acquiring or any information about legendary’s when I first started playing. I held onto my karma for no other reason than that I didn’t come across anything worth buying When I hit 80 I was well over 150k karma.
No doubt that the elitists on this thread had more than benefited from it. With this gone, people still in the process of acquiring karma and a stable income are further behind the 8-ball. everything pales in comparison to karma acquisition currently. Not even the dungeon “buffs” or fractals for gold income compensates to what Plinx delivered.
Lodestones: On average I was lucky to come out with 1 lodestone per 2 hours with or without full MgF. Intelligently avoiding the anti-farm code by changing zones and locations frequently.
Couple this with the fact that certain lodestones are dirt cheap when compared to onyx & charged. Not just the price, but the availability of the mobs around to even obtain them. Sparks are not up 100% of the time. On my server, it’d be generous to say they’re up 10% of the time. I’m well aware that lodestones can be upgraded in the MF, but the drop rate for cores, shards, fragments, and slivers is the same as lodestones. Past cores, lose you money in the MF because of Elonian wine.
Icy Runestones: Gold check that can’t be bypassed and as no alternatives. Only saving grace is it’s not a moving goal post based on the actions of other players. Still, needless and bad game design.
T6 Unique Mats: I wish I had known what was involved in making a legendary earlier on. I would have bought the T6 mats when they were going for under 3s a piece. More recently, the going rate on blood and such has been 20+s a piece. The big problem is that some mats are far more widely available than others. This truth is reflected with their respective price on the TP.
Skill points: No problem here, the necessary skill points required is fair between the bloodstone shard & the amount needed for clovers. The nicest thing about them is you can be working on this no matter what you’re doing in the game, unless doing sPvP. This is an example where Anet got it right.
Clovers: This is RNG but with measurable progress (also system in place to help you succeed) as opposed to tossing 4 exo/rare greatswords into the MF and hoping for Dusk/Dawn. It took me 160 ectos to come out with 80 clovers. I used the 10per method, Even when I didn’t get clovers, the RNG still put me closer to my goal, usually on the order of 28-40 t6 mats. There’s no alternative to these but no ridiculous punishment should you not wind up lucky.
Honor Tokens: Here is where Anet did a decent job at supplying at least an alternative, albeit fun at times to acquiring these items. No one is forced to zerg to get these. If a player completes all 4 BG jump puzzles, that nets them on average 30 tokens every day (with perk items). This helps break the monotony of only having one method of acquisition.
I don’t have any solutions myself to offer since Others have offered up good alternatives. People want fun alternatives to a truly boring/archaic way of obtaining the perceived “best” items.
If I could go back in time and tell myself to forget making a legendary (with the current process) I would. Hell, at this point, if I could auction off my gifts for Twilight I would.
The scavenger hunt can’t come soon enough. The rising cost of Dusk is outpacing the rate of which myself (and certainly lots of others just like me) can make the money to afford it. As has been discussed by other posters, the MF is not an acceptable way at getting a precursor. Nor is hoping to win the lotto to get rich. Anet letting the monopoly continue for this long is disheartening. I’m the most pro-capitalist guy out there, but this isn’t it.
There are two people who have been steadily controlling the supply and increasing the price of Dusk. And until alternative means are provided for precursors, this will only continue, most certainly when new legendarys are released later on.
