Guild Wars 2

Look at that supply curve… http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24289

At the time of posting, supply is over twice that of demand (~19k vs 8.6k). (at an even greater ratio than Ancient bones are at! ~50k vs 30k)

This really doesn’t look natural.

Never farmed or traded in them, but I’m curious as to what happened.

underwater bots

Or is it just due to wintersday speculation? Cos the last time I was underwater farming for them at southsun cove, I only see me and another guy around, and the ither guy wasnt a bot.. and the drop rate was horrendeous.

Barracuda in frostgorge. There are several different types of bot operating there on my server. I briefly farmed on the weekend before the price started to collapse as it seemed worth my time. Now, not so much.

Somebody in Anet do something about the bots! Cos I have a large pile of armored scales! Lol…

Stuff in Southsun drop them. Sharks do, for sure, and there’s dozens of those things along the south side of the island.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

Stuff in Southsun drop them. Sharks do, for sure, and there’s dozens of those things along the south side of the island.

I don’t think that’s the cause of this glut; at least, not players farming them. I’ll put my money on bots, not many people go swimming if they can help it, swimming bots would draw even less attention than land based bots.

i had a few bad runs with 10 shot mystic clover recipes….

Fractals of the Mist.

The Underwater-one is dropping them like crazy (first part) additional the high suppy of Heavy Miner Bags that can drop these T6 Mats aswell.

Kind of interesting tough that Scales dropped in prices but totems not as much

I would think it’s not fotm since everything that drops there has been going up in price since it first came out (since obviously less people are running it now that the novelty wore off).

I would put my wager on underwater bots as well. There are a ton of bots in Frostgorge Sound farming armored scales from the barracudas under the Dimotiki Waypoint on the Blackgate server. I imagine other servers will have them too. Sad really…

I vote for bots too. They are far less noticeable underwater hence less likely to be reported.

before you get me stupidly banned Khaos, please talk to the PLAYERS before reporting on allegedly botting. I enjoy farming unlike most people (i have a legendary duh lol) and i farm there quite often and might look boring, and i have yet to see a bot on the blackgate server there cause well I farm there very often lol (probably 1-3 hours a day) . though thanks for helping ruin one of my farm spots :/

Edit: I’ll like to add in – upon doing personal research – barracudas appear more often. That is all + the fact each one can summon even more – it not uncommon for me to kill 10-15 from only 4 original mobs

it is easy, go to southsun cove where the shark champ spawns…….and profit lol, theresz a limitless amount of sharks,tuna and squid to farm and they all drop armored scales. it is fairly simple to gather 8-15 of them at once, and come out with 4-5 armored scales:), but be warned its best with a group^^.

Bought lots at 9s, seeing as people are getting precursors I think prices will go up again.

They won’t if it’s bots.

I have noticed an increase in the amount of Smooth and Armored Scales whilst doing the Dynamic Event near were Tequatl spawns. There’s a lab near there that gets attacked by Krait and I’ve been getting quite a few Armored and Smooth Scales from them.. Also in WvWvW you can fight Krait near were the Quaggan’s are, they have been dropping the Scales a lot more too.

Zappix.7928:

I have noticed an increase in the amount of Smooth and Armored Scales whilst doing the Dynamic Event near were Tequatl spawns. There’s a lab near there that gets attacked by Krait and I’ve been getting quite a few Armored and Smooth Scales from them.. Also in WvWvW you can fight Krait near were the Quaggan’s are, they have been dropping the Scales a lot more too.

The event by tequatl drops *large*scales and smooth scales….not armored ones…the krait there aren’t high enough lvl to drop t6

Zid.4196:

They won’t if it’s bots.

I would expect another round of bot bannings…

I farm at Dimokti Waypoint frequently on my Ranger; it makes it extremely efficient with the recent underwater buff for them—and you know what? I have fun with it. I swear, if you think someone is a bot you should whisper them and see before rushing to the forums to wave the bot flag.

But no, prices are dropping for T6 Mats in general. Why? Because the initial surge of Ascended Gear is wearing off and everyone who was farming those T6 items to make a tidy profit off of it begin to flood the market. Prices fluctuate, it happens. Please think before you report people for botting. It helps us all sleep better at night. -_-

Sir Wai.4052:

before you get me stupidly banned Khaos, please talk to the PLAYERS before reporting on allegedly botting. I enjoy farming unlike most people (i have a legendary duh lol) and i farm there quite often and might look boring, and i have yet to see a bot on the blackgate server there cause well I farm there very often lol (probably 1-3 hours a day) . though thanks for helping ruin one of my farm spots :/

Edit: I’ll like to add in – upon doing personal research – barracudas appear more often. That is all + the fact each one can summon even more – it not uncommon for me to kill 10-15 from only 4 original mobs

Don’t worry, I wasn’t referring to you. Besides, why would you automatically assume I was reporting you in the first place? Not to be nit-picky, but farming there 1-3 hours a day (a day containing 24 hours…) isn’t exactly a lot of time to determine if bots are farming a particular spot. They come and go throughout the day to minimize the chances of being reported. Also, this spot in Frostgorge Sound has been a great spot to farm armored scales since beta and everyone already knows about it — just google it if you don’t believe me. It isn’t like I gave away the cure for cancer or anything.

It is quite easy to spot the bots in question on the Blackgate server. There are usually 3-5 rangers clumped together, all swimming the same short path over and over again and don’t respond to whispers. That said, I have not seen them farming there again since reporting them all last week, so that is a good sign.

Yesterday I bought about 2000 armored scales at roughly 8s each. That’s 160G worth. Armored scales reached a high of 22S. Let’s assume a more reasonable average of 20S.

That’s 12S profit, or 240G profit.

Why is armored scale a good investment and why will it go up?

1.) Well, right now it is the only T6 that has had a dramatic decline (bloods are declining but very slowly)

You can point to the numerous bots that are operating underwater. More often than not, out of sight = out of mind. Bots like to farm the center lake in borderlands, as well as lost shore (which is pretty deserted to begin with). You can’t point out the fractals because the water instance is not guaranteed, and you only have a certain amount of mobs to farm (no more than 25). Just like the t6 prices before the initial bot ban early in November, this is a great opportunity to buy. I have utmost confidence that Arenanet will ban them, but you need to be quick. They ban in waves, so you can expect a dramatic increase in price when it happens.

2.) Armored scale, as well as all T6 mats, will go up as soon as the precursor scavenger hunt goes into effect. It’s safe to assume that this event will make precursors relatively easier to acquire. That means more people will gain confidence in starting/continuing their legendary quest, and will look to the other mats to complete it. T6 mats, lodestones, dyes, certain foods – any material that can be bought on the outpost will rise in price. How much? I don’t know, but it will rise due to demand.

3.) No one enjoys farming underwater, and mobs are highly spaced out. When people see high T6 prices, they often go out and farm it themselves. It’s common sense to target land-based mobs since they’re easier to cluster and aoe.

On a side note:
You may look at the prices of vial of powerful blood and totem and ask why they are still high?
Vial of Powerful Blood is still high because there are currently very limited choices in farming them. In the level 80 zones, you have the beasts south of Claw of Jormag, or the harpy fractal. There isn’t a whole lot of opportunity to farm them. Not to mention that there is a very nice sceptre out there, the Eye of Rodgort, that requires 500 total vial of powerful blood to craft. Because it looks nice, it’s high in demand, and this keeps pushing the price up.

Totems are still high because there is limited supply. The only mobs that drop them in the level 80 zone are the grawl and the inquest in malchor’s, the latter being underwater. So again, very limited supply.

Vol.5241:

Yesterday I bought about 2000 armored scales at roughly 8s each. That’s 160G worth. Armored scales reached a high of 22S. Let’s assume a more reasonable average of 20S.

That’s 12S profit, or 240G profit.

Why is armored scale a good investment and why will it go up?

1.) Well, right now it is the only T6 that has had a dramatic decline (bloods are declining but very slowly)

You can point to the numerous bots that are operating underwater. More often than not, out of sight = out of mind. Bots like to farm the center lake in borderlands, as well as lost shore (which is pretty deserted to begin with). You can’t point out the fractals because the water instance is not guaranteed, and you only have a certain amount of mobs to farm (no more than 25). Just like the t6 prices before the initial bot ban early in November, this is a great opportunity to buy. I have utmost confidence that Arenanet will ban them, but you need to be quick. They ban in waves, so you can expect a dramatic increase in price when it happens.

2.) Armored scale, as well as all T6 mats, will go up as soon as the precursor scavenger hunt goes into effect. It’s safe to assume that this event will make precursors relatively easier to acquire. That means more people will gain confidence in starting/continuing their legendary quest, and will look to the other mats to complete it. T6 mats, lodestones, dyes, certain foods – any material that can be bought on the outpost will rise in price. How much? I don’t know, but it will rise due to demand.

3.) No one enjoys farming underwater, and mobs are highly spaced out. When people see high T6 prices, they often go out and farm it themselves. It’s common sense to target land-based mobs since they’re easier to cluster and aoe.

On a side note:
You may look at the prices of vial of powerful blood and totem and ask why they are still high?
Vial of Powerful Blood is still high because there are currently very limited choices in farming them. In the level 80 zones, you have the beasts south of Claw of Jormag, or the harpy fractal. There isn’t a whole lot of opportunity to farm them. Not to mention that there is a very nice sceptre out there, the Eye of Rodgort, that requires 500 total vial of powerful blood to craft. Because it looks nice, it’s high in demand, and this keeps pushing the price up.

Totems are still high because there is limited supply. The only mobs that drop them in the level 80 zone are the grawl and the inquest in malchor’s, the latter being underwater. So again, very limited supply.

There is tons of tightly packed mobs that drop armored scales in southsun. A regular, non-botting, farmer can get like 10-15 or more in an hour easily. Factor in botting and prices are gonna stay low.

Never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually happy to see the return of the bots. Not fond of the other hacks/cheats, but a force out there keeping prices reasonable is fine with me.

captaincrunch.6731:

Never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually happy to see the return of the bots. Not fond of the other hacks/cheats, but a force out there keeping prices reasonable is fine with me.

Except if all the T5 and T6 materials sell high, it means you get more gold in your pocket, so the T5 and t6 materials don’t seem high, and you have more gold to spend on waypoints, cultural armour and other goodies.

The problem is that each time the bots depress the market, everyone gets shafted, the bots get banned, prices inevitably rise and then the prices rise and your gold hasn’t risen with it (Unless you’re a trader and being trading up through this). What we need is a STABLE economy.

If it stabilises low – ie bots are here to stay; then things like T3 will be harder for you to obtain and waypoints are a pain. If it stabilises high, you can afford more nice things like repairs and waypoint travel without worrying about breaking the bank.

Less gold, but cheaper prices. More gold, but higher prices. I prefer the former tbh. I’m not out there farming stacks of 250 t5 or t6 mats to sell for huge amounts of gold – I, and I’d assume most players at this point, need to buy them to craft things.

Endgame items become too hard to obtain w/ high prices and the requirement for 250 of everything to craft. T3 is pretty much the only static price endgame item – so its not really an issue.

There is a few bots starting to reappear…

Maybe China DDOSed Anet that one night, and Anet is letting bots go

Armored scale prices have now crashed to like 6 silver a piece. Must be the gold farmers dumping their stock of after anet announcement that they are going to tighten measures against bots. Maybe with wintersday anet will make more armored scale recipes to sink the over abundant stock? www.guildwars2riches.com/2012/12/wintersday-information-hot-off-preskittenml?m=1

@Vol – there’s a place to farm bloods underwater. It’s only a matter of time before botters expoit it too. The scepter is nice.

Zid.4196:

@Vol – there’s a place to farm bloods underwater. It’s only a matter of time before botters expoit it too. The scepter is nice.

If you’re talking about skelk in Southsun, they’re already there.

Did they ban a bunch of them recently? Since according to gw2spidy the supply has been dropping off sharply the last couple days, which was soon but not immediately followed by a large spike in price.

They fixed a bug that allowed Barracuda to drop loot, which was unintentional. This makes it very difficult to farm Armored Scales now, and so what’s on the market is pretty much ‘it’ barring T6 mat bags and the Krait in FotM. As that supply dries up, prices will rise.

I grabbed a couple hundred to set aside just if I want to make another legendary, heh. Better than payin 20s for them later (or whatever it is they go up to).

If they don’t go up, well I’ll save them for that anyway.