Guild Wars 2

Hello Guild Wars fans,

I’ve played quite a few MMOs in my day and I don’t think I’ve ever encountered such a system of charging for the ability to transmute items. I suppose that I could understand charging players to transmute gear found in the game, but the same restrictions apply to 10 dollar purchases from the cash shop. Why haven’t players spoken out against this? Being fairly new to the game I could be missing easy ways to gain the ability to transmute; and I would love to know how I can make use of these armor skins while leveling. However, as it appears, Arenanet is telling me not to indulge until I hit 80 and then some how managed to get a set of armor that I don’t intend to replace.

ElusiveOne.7352:

Why haven’t players spoken out against this?

Oh, we have. The only reply we ever got was the standard Arena Net silence.

ElusiveOne.7352:

I’ve played quite a few MMOs in my day and I don’t think I’ve ever encountered such a system of charging for the ability to transmute items. I suppose that I could understand charging players to transmute gear found in the game, but the same restrictions apply to 10 dollar purchases from the cash shop.

ElusiveOne.7352:

Being fairly new to the game I could be missing easy ways to gain the ability to transmute; and I would love to know how I can make use of these armor skins while leveling.

You get one transmutation charge (or one black lion key) for map completion of explorable areas. City completion always gives a charge and Rata Sum or the Grove can be done in about 10-20 minutes (depending on experience).

I haven’t spent a dime (or a gem) to transmute.

In addition, skins earned as rewards can be re-used without cost (e.g. heritage armor or zenith weapons) and outfits never require transmutation charges.

ElusiveOne.7352:

However, as it appears, Arenanet is telling me not to indulge until I hit 80 and then some how managed to get a set of armor that I don’t intend to replace.

Prior to the wardrobe system, it was easier to transmute low-level gear (using transmutation stones, which were abundant) and more costly to transmute L80 gear (that required transmutation crystals, which were less easily obtained than now).

I’m good with that, because I spend more time at L80 than I ever would below the max. Be nice if we could have both, of course.

ElusiveOne.7352:

Why haven’t players spoken out against this?

• There were complaints, but they died down rather quickly.
• Players have spoken with their wallets: they acquire new skins and they part with cash/gems to buy transmutation crystals.

My impression is that most people prefer the current system to the one in place at in March 2014. Over time, I’m sure people will start to notice more of the negatives, especially as new players, including yourself, start to comment.

A bigger complaint is about being able to swap valuable runes/sigils from karma or wvw gear: the old system allowed you to do this via transmutation; the current system doesn’t offer a cheap solution. At some point, they’ll probably address this and maybe they’ll take another look at making lowbie toons look spiffy.

I was highly critical of this system and furious about how this was implemented. Clearly they could care less about how many complaints they received. I am still upset about my situation as are many others. I have had this conversation about skins and how they are used with several new players who are very frustrated and upset. Wish I had a better response.

It is frustrating. Instead of getting into how my characters looked early on (which would have eventually led me to buy lots of clothes and makeover kits from the gem store), I just ignore any sort of customization of my character and play the game for the exploration, story and dungeons.

Which is great, because it saves me lots of money. Clearly Anet’s marketing fell short with certain gamers’ personalities. But I can see how anyone super into customizing their characters in MMOs would be extremely disappointed with the current restrictions.

You can usually get a decent amount of transmutation charges (although I have all mine saved because I never use them). But I think having to deal with knowing you are paying for a skin change is unpleasant and makes experimentation stressful and something to be avoided.

IMO, it’s better to just ignore all customization entirely.

Note that the only players upset about this are coming from a certain game that allows free transmutes but charges a monthly fee…..I will take the option to pay when I want to change my look, not because the date changes….and so will a lot of long time players.

Viewing this as a “money grab” is actually a “pay the bills” move. LOTS of content and BLING related items will follow this format in GW2 and the game is designed like that for a reason. If you can’t handle the change to this type of economic model, you were playing the alternative.

It’s a different psychology and not everyone will like either system.

• Some of us prefer paying a set fee and getting lots of freebies.
• Others prefer paying for what we use, as we we need it.

People will get frustrated when they have the first viewpoint and come to a game that is based on the second, or vice versa. It’s human nature.

What we shouldn’t do, however, is say that the game, alone, is at fault. Those of us willing to adopt our attitude to fit the circumstances will be happier with the game; those of us who prefer to promote our strong preferences… will be more frustrated.

And, of course, there are plenty of examples in any game where the development company doesn’t get it right in the first place — that is frustrating for both groups.

if i pay for a skin, i expect it to be freely applicable at all times.
we did pay $/€10,- for a skin, why do we need to ether farm/grind the chargers or pay even more for the skin?

I do think that gemstore skins should come with more than a single transmutation, however, this system is definitely the best one of any MMO out there.

You have several options to get transmutations for free, and they don’t cost that much if you do want to pay for them.

The only real issue, as you said, is that you are essentially “wasting” your transmutations on sub-80 gear.

I understand the desire to always look cool, but you can save yourself a ton of charges by looking silly and mismatched for the 1-2 weeks it takes you to get to level 80.

I agree with mtpelion, and also;

let’s say you come back to the game from a long time (I know many players that are returning to the game like this), and have some leftover transmuation stones from before. So if you have like 30 charges waiting for you from before, I don’t see it a problem spending it maybe once or twice on your new character on lvls 40-60 before 80, since you are getting new ones for the area completions on the way anyway, it’s not likely you will run out of them anytime soon.. (I spent a few, for exactly the reason so I can stop rushing the levels and actually enjoy the content when I’m still 40 with the skins that I like, even if it’s just two weeks, it’s a big deal for some people).

But for new players, yeah, less convenient and it will take a while, which is about reverse from what I’m seeing in other mmos that try to make things easier for a new player due to power creep.

Outfits partially “solves” two of the complaints I see here. 1st is non-weight specific and 2nd is unlimited transmutations. Of course the draw back is the lack of mix and match.

I forgot that one of the reasons why I don’t worry about this as much as the OP might is that I use the HoM heritage skins when I’m leveling. Without paying extra, I can use whatever had dropped recently or standardize.

The closest gem shop item to this option is using Outfits (also free to re-use).

Admittedly, not everyone will find those options (ahem) suitable.

games like rift, lotro, perfect world and such don’t have problems like that, there is a wardrobe system superior to that of GW2.
all you have to do is slot the skin in a separated slot and it will mask the armor with that of the skin, the original armor will still stay the same but you just don’t see it.
http://riftwardrobe.wikia.com/wiki/Wardrobe
read and judge for your self, i know rift doesn’t allow weapon skins that way but it can always be made that way in GW2.

I don’t pay for my transmutation charges, when leveling my toon I map easy areas and get 1 charge per area I complete while getting XP for him.

sorudo.9054:

games like rift, lotro, perfect world and such don’t have problems like that, there is a wardrobe system superior to that of GW2.
all you have to do is slot the skin in a separated slot and it will mask the armor with that of the skin, the original armor will still stay the same but you just don’t see it.
http://riftwardrobe.wikia.com/wiki/Wardrobe
read and judge for your self, i know rift doesn’t allow weapon skins that way but it can always be made that way in GW2.

Cool story brah, now if everything else in rift wasn’t so turrible. I like to think it is a fair trade off, great wardrobe system but turrible game.

silvermember.8941:

sorudo.9054:

games like rift, lotro, perfect world and such don’t have problems like that, there is a wardrobe system superior to that of GW2.
all you have to do is slot the skin in a separated slot and it will mask the armor with that of the skin, the original armor will still stay the same but you just don’t see it.
http://riftwardrobe.wikia.com/wiki/Wardrobe
read and judge for your self, i know rift doesn’t allow weapon skins that way but it can always be made that way in GW2.

Cool story brah, now if everything else in rift wasn’t so turrible. I like to think it is a fair trade off, great wardrobe system but turrible game.

it’s those dang bugs isn’t it

Well, thanks for this post. I was wondering if those Gem Store costumes worked like the Zenith skins, or if they were a one-time usable, then standard transmute after that. Just confirms that I will never buy them.

The means by which ANet has implemented hairs, faces, transmutations — basically, all the cosmetic recustomizing — is remarkably unappealing. It makes me NOT want to spend my money until I have carefully considered what I want to look like, and then only a small bit of it. They’ve gone completely backwards from the usual approach, and are successful in not suckering me out of my money. I guess I should be thankful.

Rift certainly has a leg up in the wardrobe department. I spent more on wardrobe slots there than I will ever spend on Transmutations here. Too bad the rest of the Rift isn’t as fabulous as its wardrobe.

GammaBreaker.9102:

Well, thanks for this post. I was wondering if those Gem Store costumes worked like the Zenith skins, or if they were a one-time usable, then standard transmute after that. Just confirms that I will never buy them.

“Costumes” are free; those are called “outfits” in GW2. Individual skins (applied to each of 6+1 pieces of gear) require transmutation charges, with a tiny number of exceptions (HoM/Heritage, Zenith/et al).

GammaBreaker.9102:

The means by which ANet has implemented hairs, faces, transmutations — basically, all the cosmetic recustomizing — is remarkably unappealing. It makes me NOT want to spend my money until I have carefully considered what I want to look like, and then only a small bit of it. They’ve gone completely backwards from the usual approach, and are successful in not suckering me out of my money. I guess I should be thankful.

It’s a matter of taste, tho. I far prefer playing for free and being able to convert in-game coin to use in the gem shop, whereas others, such as yourself, prefer spending something monthly and having a ton of stuff included in the deal, e.g. infinite-use skins.

GammaBreaker.9102:

Rift certainly has a leg up in the wardrobe department. I spent more on wardrobe slots there than I will ever spend on Transmutations here. Too bad the rest of the Rift isn’t as fabulous as its wardrobe.

Also a tradeoff. It’s a rare game that has zero awesome features. And even the best ones have some “features” that drive us crazy. All any of us can do as players is find the game that balances the best of what we like, minimizing the worst of what we hate.

edit: added a missing “prefer”

You don’t have to pay for the ability to transmute cash shopped item skins.
With a bit of patience, or repurposing a commonly used key farm to complete the home city nets you a key and a charge in about 30 – 45 minutes if you’re fast.

Also they toss charges at you left, right and center in PvP.

So there are ways to not have to “double pay” you just have to look for them.

I would agree if you If these items were cash ONLY. However, with everything in the game and gem store being available for in game currency, I have no problem with the system as it is now.

I didn’t mind it until they removed the PvP locker. I thought that was the coolest thing about GW2 PvP. I honestly don’t even feel like playing it anymore now that all the noob characters I dedicated PvP to look like garbage

If you want to pay with in-game gold for transmutation charges, one would cost you about 60 silver. That is not out of the world, albeit nothing to ignore either.

If ArenaNet would find it in their hearts to let you change your looks for free for characters below level 80, I would be even happier…

I bought my set of gem store armor (primeval) before the wardrobe was implemented, and it was a single use item. If I wanted to transfer the skin from one item to another item, I would have been required to spend a transmutation crystal to do so. If I transmuted another skin onto one of the items, I would have been required to buy the entire set again if I ever wanted to use the old skin again. I would also have to purchase another set if I wanted to use it on a second character.

I’m not going to complain about the current situation given it is a huge improvement on the previous situation and I was being charged to reapply gem store skins under the old system anyway.

there are many places in game you can easily get transmutation charges WITHOUT paying real world money so I don’t see what the problem is