Guild Wars 2

So I bought the Metabolic Primer. The text says:

Metabolic Primer(12 h): Any food eaten while the primer is active will have the same remaining time as the primer, rounded up to the next hour. The metabolic primer does not stack.

They way I read it is that if you eat your Primer and then your food, your food will last 12 hours of game time. It is why I purchased it. It was a very convenient way of not having worry about a food buff check. A bit overpriced, but the convenience of not having to click it during a weekend of WvWvW was worth it.

The way it actually is implemented is that it buffs your food for 1 hour as long as the Primer is activated. If this is the intended result, the text should read:

“Food consumed while the primer is active have their duration rounded up to the nearest hour.”

I have no problem about this, but the wording is very misleading. I was thankful that the A-NET team refunded my gems for this purchase, but I do not want others to fall into this pitfall.

By the way, is there any food that lasts more than 1 hr?

the food i ate after i took the primer got a the same duration as the primer, i.e.12h

Now I’m confused.

Can you change or consume another type of food within the 12h timefram and still benefit from the full effects of the primer?

Curtis Johnson.8456:

It should work that food eaten right after the primer lasts 12 hours. Scattered reports of a bug perhaps here.

Talmor, the way you read it originally is how it should work. Do you know exactly what food you were using? Also, what maps / areas you were in?

Spunkeimania, you can eat food during the 12 hours.. it will change which food buff you have but the duration should still last the rest of the 12 hours (rounded up, so never less than an hour)

I’m not sure what the point of this item is then, Curtis. I can’t think of a single item of food where purchasing 24x (half hour buffs) would be more expensive than the cost of coverting gold into 125 gems (or 105 gems if you buy en masse).

At an average rate of 5g/100 gems it would cost 6.25g to purchase 125 gems (or 5.25g for 105 gems if buying en mass) and a food item would have to cost more than 26s (or 22s if buying en masse) to make the cost work out. Right now the most expensive food item in game is Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup at 44.31s per item, but this item has a one hour duration giving it an effective cost of 22.15s per half hour. That’s right at the break even point for making the Metabolic Primer worthwhile, but that’s only if you’re buying the lowest listed price. If you’re willing to place buy orders you can get the item for 36.41s/hour, and the cost is even lower if you’re willing to place buy orders for the materials and craft the items yourself.

So what I’m saying is that I don’t understand this item…even if you’re willing to buy the most expensive food item at its highest possible cost, the Primer isn’t worthwhile. There’s not really an added convenience since opening the inventory to click another item isn’t a hassle and you’re arguably losing value on your food by having it active for 12h b/c you’ll rarely be doing nothing but combat on a character for 12 consecutive hours of gameplay. It just doesn’t seem useful from a cost-saving or convenience perspective =\

Errant Venture.9371:

Curtis Johnson.8456:

It should work that food eaten right after the primer lasts 12 hours. Scattered reports of a bug perhaps here.

Talmor, the way you read it originally is how it should work. Do you know exactly what food you were using? Also, what maps / areas you were in?

Spunkeimania, you can eat food during the 12 hours.. it will change which food buff you have but the duration should still last the rest of the 12 hours (rounded up, so never less than an hour)

I’m not sure what the point of this item is then, Curtis. I can’t think of a single item of food where purchasing 24x (half hour buffs) would be more expensive than the cost of coverting gold into 125 gems (or 105 gems if you buy en masse).

At an average rate of 5g/100 gems it would cost 6.25g to purchase 125 gems (or 5.25g for 105 gems if buying en mass) and a food item would have to cost more than 26s (or 22s if buying en masse) to make the cost work out. Right now the most expensive food item in game is Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup at 44.31s per item, but this item has a one hour duration giving it an effective cost of 22.15s per half hour. That’s right at the break even point for making the Metabolic Primer worthwhile, but that’s only if you’re buying the lowest listed price. If you’re willing to place buy orders you can get the item for 36.41s/hour, and the cost is even lower if you’re willing to place buy orders for the materials and craft the items yourself.

So what I’m saying is that I don’t understand this item…even if you’re willing to buy the most expensive food item at its highest possible cost, the Primer isn’t worthwhile. There’s not really an added convenience since opening the inventory to click another item isn’t a hassle and you’re arguably losing value on your food by having it active for 12h b/c you’ll rarely be doing nothing but combat on a character for 12 consecutive hours of gameplay. It just doesn’t seem useful from a cost-saving or convenience perspective =\

Those items are not designed to give you a gold rebate on using consumables but they are for convenience only. Same goes for permanent gathering tools, Salvage o matic, instant trait reset etc.

IF the Primer would actually be worth converting gold to gems to buy it to save on food costs, do you know what would happen?

Everybody would convert gold to gems to buy it until the gem rate is so high that it isnt cost effective anymore.

There are some nice foods available from NPC vendors for cheap, but they only last 15 minutes. Being able to round them up to a few hours is useful, but like almost every gem store item, it’s very situational and is balanced more against how you value real money and not gold.

Gold is a lot more annoying for me to accumulate than cash. When I look at an item in the gem store I never try to value it in gold. For me having to be aware of when my food is expiring and renew it is a hassle if it’s 30 minutes or less, so the primers would be worthwhile to me in cash if I was planning on a long play session. There is no equivalent item for me that can be bought for gold.

Folks that aren’t as annoyed by having to refresh their food or who have better things to spend that gold or cash on would value it differently.

Pandemoniac.4739:

There are some nice foods available from NPC vendors for cheap, but they only last 15 minutes. Being able to round them up to a few hours is useful, but like almost every gem store item, it’s very situational and is balanced more against how you value real money and not gold.

Gold is a lot more annoying for me to accumulate than cash. When I look at an item in the gem store I never try to value it in gold. For me having to be aware of when my food is expiring and renew it is a hassle if it’s 30 minutes or less, so the primers would be worthwhile to me in cash if I was planning on a long play session. There is no equivalent item for me that can be bought for gold.

Folks that aren’t as annoyed by having to refresh their food or who have better things to spend that gold or cash on would value it differently.

Fair enough

Even though I don’t think this gemstore item is designed for the current market but for the future ascended cooking market, I’d point out for completeness sake that dragon’s revelry starcake – a 30 minute foodbuff – sells for nearly 40 silver a piece.

Errant:

People were talking about having a special slot where you could drop stacks of food and they would be automatically consumed. This is basically that, but an expensive gem store version. (Which means, of course we’ll never get the special slot as a free QoL update.)

Lord Kuru.3685:

Errant:

People were talking about having a special slot where you could drop stacks of food and they would be automatically consumed. This is basically that, but an expensive gem store version. (Which means, of course we’ll never get the special slot as a free QoL update.)

I think that’s a pretty kittenumption. (lol at the kitten filter) There’s a difference between automatically consuming a stack of food and making one normally short duration food last an entire day. A small one perhaps given how inexpensive most food is right now, but it may not be in the future especially if they introduce time gated food recipes.

Does it last for 12 hours consecutively (12 noon to midnight real world time) or for 12 hours of play time spread over multiple sessions?

I know boosters are play time and stop counting down if you log out. Just wondering about this one.

RickPrice.2730:

Does it last for 12 hours consecutively (12 noon to midnight real world time) or for 12 hours of play time spread over multiple sessions?

I know boosters are play time and stop counting down if you log out. Just wondering about this one.

Has there ever been a buff that worked differently? It spreads over multiple sessions.

Thanks!

Rick

I was one of the bugged ones… my food lasted as long as the food normally would last. I still haven’t heard anything about getting a refund.