Guild Wars 2

I’ve been waiting for some power/condition duration for my engineer since I hit 80 on him. And finally, in the form of Prickly Pear Stuffed Nopale, I’ve got it. Unfortunately, it’s an account bound food. No problem, though, since I’ve level Cooking on each of my characters.

So I grab the recipe from the vendor and learn it on my engineer and go to cook me up a dozen or so of these bad boys. And…each one takes 20 prickly pears? That’s…a lot. They also take 5 napole. So that’s 5 of the common cactus yield and 20 of the rare? I can’t help but feel whomever inputted these values for this patch got them mixed up. Either way, for a 30 minute food that doesn’t offer any statistical bonus over the other common level 80 foods, 20 prickly pears seems prohibitively high.

These are, after all, consumables…they’re designed to be used. But with a cost as high at that, I’m going to wind up locking them away in some guarded vault along with the rest of my most cherished possession.

Make Pizza. Make a lot of them. Make a Feast of Pizza’s.

The affect will be the same, and your roaming camp protection party will love you.

Nopale Recipes:

Black Pepper Cactus Salad and Bowl of Cactus Salad – Health regen +70 Toughness. Like a mango pie except toughness. Both of these recipes are expensive so they aren’t worth it.

Loaf of Candy Cactus Cornbread and Bowl of Nopalitos Saute – 70 toughness + 20% Boon Duration. Both aren’t that expensive but I think the Candy Cactus Cornbread (30 min version) is the winner since it give sugar rush. Only food that increases boon duration with a combat stat so maybe there’s a build that might make use of it???

Prickly Pear ingredients:

Prickly Pear Pie (3o min) and Bowl of Cactus Fruit Salad (1hr) – 40% cond duration and life steal. The prickly pear pie is easier and more efficient since it doesn’t use omnom berries. Then again, why use this when we have koi cakes????

Prickly Pear Stuffed Nopale (30 min) and Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Beans - +40% Condition Duration +70 Power. I think there’s an error/bug in the prickly pear stuffed nopale recipe. For some strange reason, the Prickly pear stuffed nopale uses 5 nopales and 20 prickly pears. The 1 hour version only uses 10 prickly pears.

Bowl of Prickly Pear Sorbet and Plate of Roasted Cactus – Another one that has an error, I think. Both of these recipes gives ferocity and might on critical; however, the 30 min version actually has lower stats than the 60 min version unlike all the other food recipes. It lacks 20 ferocity and 5% might on critical. Other than this, this food is excellent for might stacking.

I’m not sure but is there ANY living story recipe that’s actually worth the cost to craft it? They’re all relatively short compared to everything else you can craft and their requirements are absurd.

Lil Puppy.5216:

I’m not sure but is there ANY living story recipe that’s actually worth the cost to craft it? They’re all relatively short compared to everything else you can craft and their requirements are absurd.

Boon Duration is always interesting for those classes that depend on them, like Guardian and Ele, but yeah, the mats needed are a bit expensive and so far the cactus can only be harvested from Dry Top.

It’s just more grind, but you know? Anet doesn’t make grindy games!

Prickly pear pie will be good for a condition engineer if they make more pears available in the next few zones they add.

I wouldn’t worry about the recopies just yet. I suspect new real estate will increase the number of nodes. Boon duration could be quite good too.

I think they need to make the prickly pear recipe use 1 pear for the 30 min version and 2 for the 60 min version considering the low drop rate of pears from cacti.

As for the nopale, 2 and 4 would have been alright. As it stands, there are a lot different level 80 foods that use level 400 food crafting materials. The effects of these dry top recipes don’t really warrant the amount of time and effort placed into making them. Orrian Steak Frittes and Koi Cakes for everyone!

They (anet) have a habit of doing this with recipes. Maybe they just pull numbers out of a hat to decide the quantities of ingredients used in some of the recent recipes.

It reminds me of this comedian Brian Regan, he did a bit about the serving size of Fig Newton’s. The joke was the serving size is like 2 newtons. So he is pretending he is the guy in the factory talking to another employee going “Hah, I put this serving size on the package as a joke but it went out like that….”

Kind of how these recipes are made. Someone writes it up as a joke but it “accidently” goes out like that.

Yujin.1785:

I think they need to make the prickly pear recipe use 1 pear for the 30 min version and 2 for the 60 min version considering the low drop rate of pears from cacti.

As for the nopale, 2 and 4 would have been alright. As it stands, there are a lot different level 80 foods that use level 400 food crafting materials. The effects of these dry top recipes don’t really warrant the amount of time and effort placed into making them. Orrian Steak Frittes and Koi Cakes for everyone!

I you havent noticed, we are running out of koi cakes. Sonder the Seller, who until the Bazaar arrived was trading 5 zhaitaffy for 1 koi cake in Vigil Keep, was nowhere to be found when everybody moved back into LA. People suspect that he was traveling with the Zepphyrites and we all know how that ended.

We went from over 500k supply in February to less than10k now.

Chop, chop!

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

Lil Puppy.5216:

I’m not sure but is there ANY living story recipe that’s actually worth the cost to craft it? They’re all relatively short compared to everything else you can craft and their requirements are absurd.

Boon Duration is always interesting for those classes that depend on them, like Guardian and Ele, but yeah, the mats needed are a bit expensive and so far the cactus can only be harvested from Dry Top.

It’s just more grind, but you know? Anet doesn’t make grindy games!

The Nopalitos Saute recipe actually isn’t expensive to craft – can’t get on atm, but it uses 10 Nopale, 10 Garlic, and some number of Tomato and Onion, if I remember correctly off the top of my head. Just got it today, since it’s the only food recipe I’m actually interested in from this event.

I do wish there were more cactus nodes though; it will take a fair amount of time running through the area on different characters each day to craft some of these.

I use Boon Duration food on my ele in WvW, so I’m ecstatic to see a BD food that has a stat instead of Magic Find (which, personally, I find largely useless, especially when it comes to WvW where stats would be more beneficial).

Some of the new recipes, though…I don’t really get what they were thinking when they created the ingredient list for them. Most aren’t at all worth it to craft. That toughness version of Mango Pie is interesting and tempting, to say the least, but the number of ingredients is more than a little daunting.

If that recipe the OP is talking about really requires that many of the rare cactus ingredients, though…that’s either a bug or a seriously terrible design. Even more so than the other ingredient-heavy recipes.

Anet proves again that they cannot develop a decent game apart from shiny graphics.

Bombsaway.7198:

Prickly pear pie will be good for a condition engineer if they make more pears available in the next few zones they add.

I wouldn’t worry about the recopies just yet. I suspect new real estate will increase the number of nodes. Boon duration could be quite good too.

Even if the rest of the Maguuma Wastes has more cactus nodes, that doesn’t change the fact that Version A of a food lasts half as long yet requires twice as much of a rare ingredient than Version B of the same food. That can’t be by design, can it?

darkace.8925:

Bombsaway.7198:

Prickly pear pie will be good for a condition engineer if they make more pears available in the next few zones they add.

I wouldn’t worry about the recopies just yet. I suspect new real estate will increase the number of nodes. Boon duration could be quite good too.

Even if the rest of the Maguuma Wastes has more cactus nodes, that doesn’t change the fact that Version A of a food lasts half as long yet requires twice as much of a rare ingredient than Version B of the same food. That can’t be by design, can it?

I’m wondering if it’s exactly that. I don’t know off the top of my head which recipes come from which vendor tiers. But it could very well be “This recipe comes from the tier 2 vendor. But if you manage to unlock the tier 4 vendor, it’s twice as long and half as crafty.”

Dakota.4591:

I’m wondering if it’s exactly that. I don’t know off the top of my head which recipes come from which vendor tiers. But it could very well be “This recipe comes from the tier 2 vendor. But if you manage to unlock the tier 4 vendor, it’s twice as long and half as crafty.”

Unless I’m mistaken, the only difference between Tiers 3 and 4 are prices. I think the list of offered items was exactly the same for both, but they were cheaper at T4.

Wanze.8410:

Yujin.1785:

I think they need to make the prickly pear recipe use 1 pear for the 30 min version and 2 for the 60 min version considering the low drop rate of pears from cacti.

As for the nopale, 2 and 4 would have been alright. As it stands, there are a lot different level 80 foods that use level 400 food crafting materials. The effects of these dry top recipes don’t really warrant the amount of time and effort placed into making them. Orrian Steak Frittes and Koi Cakes for everyone!

I you havent noticed, we are running out of koi cakes. Sonder the Seller, who until the Bazaar arrived was trading 5 zhaitaffy for 1 koi cake in Vigil Keep, was nowhere to be found when everybody moved back into LA. People suspect that he was traveling with the Zepphyrites and we all know how that ended.

We went from over 500k supply in February to less than10k now.

Chop, chop!

What are you talking about? He’s in the middle of LA near the Lion statue

Yujin.1785:

Wanze.8410:

Yujin.1785:

I think they need to make the prickly pear recipe use 1 pear for the 30 min version and 2 for the 60 min version considering the low drop rate of pears from cacti.

As for the nopale, 2 and 4 would have been alright. As it stands, there are a lot different level 80 foods that use level 400 food crafting materials. The effects of these dry top recipes don’t really warrant the amount of time and effort placed into making them. Orrian Steak Frittes and Koi Cakes for everyone!

I you havent noticed, we are running out of koi cakes. Sonder the Seller, who until the Bazaar arrived was trading 5 zhaitaffy for 1 koi cake in Vigil Keep, was nowhere to be found when everybody moved back into LA. People suspect that he was traveling with the Zepphyrites and we all know how that ended.

We went from over 500k supply in February to less than10k now.

Chop, chop!

What are you talking about? He’s in the middle of LA near the Lion statue

Nice! He wasnt there during the 6 weeks of the bazaar, they must have patched him in on Tuesday. Luckily, i bought 100 stacks of Zhaitaffy for 15c 2 weeks ago. Im off to sell those 75 copper Koi Cakes now…

Wanze.8410:

Yujin.1785:

Wanze.8410:

Yujin.1785:

I think they need to make the prickly pear recipe use 1 pear for the 30 min version and 2 for the 60 min version considering the low drop rate of pears from cacti.

As for the nopale, 2 and 4 would have been alright. As it stands, there are a lot different level 80 foods that use level 400 food crafting materials. The effects of these dry top recipes don’t really warrant the amount of time and effort placed into making them. Orrian Steak Frittes and Koi Cakes for everyone!

I you havent noticed, we are running out of koi cakes. Sonder the Seller, who until the Bazaar arrived was trading 5 zhaitaffy for 1 koi cake in Vigil Keep, was nowhere to be found when everybody moved back into LA. People suspect that he was traveling with the Zepphyrites and we all know how that ended.

We went from over 500k supply in February to less than10k now.

Chop, chop!

What are you talking about? He’s in the middle of LA near the Lion statue

Nice! He wasnt there during the 6 weeks of the bazaar, they must have patched him in on Tuesday. Luckily, i bought 100 stacks of Zhaitaffy for 15c 2 weeks ago. Im off to sell those 75 copper Koi Cakes now…

Happy clicking.

Yujin.1785:

Wanze.8410:

Yujin.1785:

Wanze.8410:

Yujin.1785:

I think they need to make the prickly pear recipe use 1 pear for the 30 min version and 2 for the 60 min version considering the low drop rate of pears from cacti.

As for the nopale, 2 and 4 would have been alright. As it stands, there are a lot different level 80 foods that use level 400 food crafting materials. The effects of these dry top recipes don’t really warrant the amount of time and effort placed into making them. Orrian Steak Frittes and Koi Cakes for everyone!

I you havent noticed, we are running out of koi cakes. Sonder the Seller, who until the Bazaar arrived was trading 5 zhaitaffy for 1 koi cake in Vigil Keep, was nowhere to be found when everybody moved back into LA. People suspect that he was traveling with the Zepphyrites and we all know how that ended.

We went from over 500k supply in February to less than10k now.

Chop, chop!

What are you talking about? He’s in the middle of LA near the Lion statue

Nice! He wasnt there during the 6 weeks of the bazaar, they must have patched him in on Tuesday. Luckily, i bought 100 stacks of Zhaitaffy for 15c 2 weeks ago. Im off to sell those 75 copper Koi Cakes now…

Happy clicking.

left click bound to mouse wheel

Oh, Sonders is back? Thanks for the heads-up! I’ve got some Candy Corn I’ve been waiting to convert into Cobs.

Zaxares.5419:

Oh, Sonders is back? Thanks for the heads-up! I’ve got some Candy Corn I’ve been waiting to convert into Cobs.

Make Candy Corn Ice Cream.

checks prices

Hmm… Thanks for the tip. I wonder why that particular ice cream is so pricey though…

Because all the cool kids in EotM use it to lvl their alts.
+15% exp
+5% karma

Aha! I knew there had to be a reason behind it. Well, once I do reach my personal “hoarding threshold” for Candy Corn Cobs (I am NOT stockpiling 1500 Cobs…), I’ll see about crafting some of these for some extra income then.

Using your candy corn to make some ice cream and use your profits to buy cobs would be more efficient, though…

Yah, something definitely seems off about the requirements for that recipe.

I mean, mind you, a lot of the previous LS-related recipes are a bit silly in terms of required ingredients. Namely a lot of the stuff from the Molten Facility which can take dozens of ingredients.

But as far as this update specifically, most of them are at least somewhat reasonable. Somewhat. Still somewhat higher than most comparable “normal” recipes, but they’re not completely outlandish.

Except for Prickly Pear Stuffed Nopale. 20 of a very rare ingredient is pretty ridiculous, especially considering the 1-hour version only requires half that. Maybe it was supposed to be 2? That’d honestly make a lot more sense, not only from the perspective of keeping the recipe reasonable, but also just from a logical perspective. Its one kind of cactus stuffed with another, you shouldn’t need 4x the amount for the stuffing compared to the “base”.

@Wanze: Good point! I do tend to like “making my own” stuff, but you make a darn good argument.

@Electro: These high-end recipes are meant to help act as sinks to consume vast quantities of unwanted cooking ingredients. I have a suspicion that when r500 Chef is released, a lot of these recipes will actually get their requirement buffed to 450.

Zaxares.5419:

@Wanze: Good point! I do tend to like “making my own” stuff, but you make a darn good argument.

@Electro: These high-end recipes are meant to help act as sinks to consume vast quantities of unwanted cooking ingredients. I have a suspicion that when r500 Chef is released, a lot of these recipes will actually get their requirement buffed to 450.

Also a good point .
I guess we all agree that ascended cooking and jewelering needs quite a different implementation compared to the other 6 professions. So the new recipes, foods, resources and their ways of implementation might actually be some kind of training ground for Anet to either test the waters and gather some feedback or they are already part of a bigger scheme to rebalance the economy (add new materials and remove some overstock of old mats) in anticipated changes to the markets they plan to do. My guess would be both because we have seen the same pattern when ascended weaponcrafting got introduced last year. For me, the introduction during last years bazaar of timegated craftable celestial gear, was the training ground for ascended crafting and the farmfests of pavillion/invasions pumped alot of mats and gold into the economy right before it got released.
They certainly learned quite a bit from that and one scenario could be that they realized that the farmfests were neccesary to inject more mats into the economy but the extra gold that got created through all the events wasnt as desireable.
Also, most tradeable materials used in ascended weapon and armor crafting were already available before, more or less in already existing maps.
If materials that are used in ascended cooking (or jeweler) are only available in new zones (or through content that they want to promote in the future) and not through already existing means, it gives them a better tool to steer the players towards it.

So my guess would be that Anet already has a good plan of how to implement jeweler/cook 500 and they are testing it atm. This year might just pan out like the last:
We will be mostly fed living story season 2 during the summer, maybe 1 more seasonal event and 1 balance patch. LS and festival will be used to prepare the economy for the new “Disequilibrium”. Along with the 2 last professions being raised to 500, I expect at least another market changer to appear simultaneously or in the weeks of autumn, like the changes to magic find last year, or to dungeon rewards, pvp reward tracks, champ bags or karma. I think precursor crafting and new legendaries will come around december, like asc armorcrafting last year. WvW will propably (hopefully) see some improvements and additions, in relation to the economy i could see wvw reward tracks being implemented, when season 3 goes live.

I have to agree that 20 PPs is a bit much. Maybe 5 (same as the Cactus). Maybe it should be 2 and an extra zero got added?

Even though the foods do seem expensive, Anet did introduce a gem store item to make any food last 24 hours.

I had some drop in a BLC but found that they can be bugged and were not always extending the time of my food but I’m guessing a lot of people have received a Metabolic Primer in a daily or a chest – these new foods might be good justification for that item.

I wanna know why they make these foods so expensive to make (Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup, Bowl of Prickly Pear Sorbet, Plate of Roasted Cactus) when they only give out 1 item. I could understand if they gave 5-10 but only 1? It’s ridiculous

Brother Grimm.5176:

I have to agree that 20 PPs is a bit much. Maybe 5 (same as the Cactus). Maybe it should be 2 and an extra zero got added?

That’s certainly a possibility. It would be really nice to get confirmation one way or the other from a red.

I actually submitted a bug report for this. There is no way that with them being account bound recipes and food and the materials that hard to acquire that these are the right recipes. How is the 1h version of some of the food less mats than the 30m?

Then again, the “wrench buff” stations are also weirdly expensive for being disposable by requiring ascended mats.

A red comment would be most welcome indeed.

digitalruse.9085:

I actually submitted a bug report for this. There is no way that with them being account bound recipes and food and the materials that hard to acquire that these are the right recipes. How is the 1h version of some of the food less mats than the 30m?

Then again, the “wrench buff” stations are also weirdly expensive for being disposable by requiring ascended mats.

A red comment would be most welcome indeed.

Yeah, it wouldn’t be the first time they introduced outrageous recipes.

Those maintenance oil/sharpening stone/crystal stations are probably the most moronic recipes to date due to their 20g cost for a single one, but the 20 prickly pears comes close.

What I don’t get, though, is why any of these recipes require more than 5 of the Nopale or like, 2 of the Prickly Pears. There’s only four cactus nodes in Dry Top. Total. That’s really not very farmable for an herb, which usually only gives one of whatever you’re gathering. And it’s really time-consuming to hop on various alts to farm a whopping 4 nodes, too, when it’s so tiring to get around the zone using the aspects. They all have to be 80, too, and have the zone unlocked.

digitalruse.9085:

I actually submitted a bug report for this.

And I created a thread in the bugs sub-forum. It didn’t get a response, so I’m assuming this, for whatever reason, is intentional. Hopefully a red will explain to us the rationale behind the decision to have the half hour version require twice as much of a rare ingredient as its one hour counterpart.

darkace.8925:

digitalruse.9085:

I actually submitted a bug report for this.

And I created a thread in the bugs sub-forum. It didn’t get a response, so I’m assuming this, for whatever reason, is intentional. Hopefully a red will explain to us the rationale behind the decision to have the half hour version require twice as much of a rare ingredient as its one hour counterpart.

You’ll probably never see a red post for something like this. At best, we might get a silent fix. The closest experience I have to something like this was from the Celestial exotic weapon and armor recipes.

Back when the Celestial recipes were initially released, learning the recipes required your character to be level 80 for some strange reason. It was only a couple updates after before they were silently fixed it. Wasn’t written on the patch notes or anything.; it was just a silent ninja patch.

When I saw what appeared to be a node farm in the newly opened Oasis I was hoping it was a Prickly Pear node farm. Alas, it’s mostly cabbage, carrots, and lettuce. There are three (or four?) cactus nodes, though, so hopefully that will make getting the hundreds of Prickly Pears I’m going to need to craft a handful of this food a bit more bearable.

darkace.8925:

When I saw what appeared to be a node farm in the newly opened Oasis I was hoping it was a Prickly Pear node farm. Alas, it’s mostly cabbage, carrots, and lettuce. There are three (or four?) cactus nodes, though, so hopefully that will make getting the hundreds of Prickly Pears I’m going to need to craft a handful of this food a bit more bearable.

Yeah, I was happy to spot that farm yesterday, as well as the numerous other cactus nodes that were added in the new area. Makes the new recipes a little less tedious. That said…I collected somewhere around 15-20 Nopale today while just running around doing events, and out of all of those nodes only got 2 Prickly Pears.

kitten’s way too rare to require 20 per craft.

I’m hoping they’ll do for cacti what they did for passifloras.

Original, passion flowers were rare harvests from passifloras, which meant the prices for them were exorbitantly high since you could not gather them with any semblance of reliability.

However, they later updated southsun cove to have a few blooming passifloras on the map, which were guaranteed to drop passion flowers. Thus, it provided a reliable (albeit slow) way to accumulate passion flowers, and the recipes requiring them were no more feasible to work towards.

So I’m hoping there will be a poriton of dry top (or a different map) in the future that will have a cactus variety (i.e. prickly cactus) that will guarantee a prickly pear upon harvesting, much like the blooming passiflora guarantees a passion flower. If they don’t do this, it could make those food recipes really silly to try and craft, and possibly balloon the prices of things like prickly pear out of control (although they’ll still probably be relatively low if they’re only used in specific food recipes).

I’m not sure why they’re making all the new food recipes require such high quantities of the ingredients though. I know some of them have 1 hour durations, but they’re still quite high in their costs. It’s like the people creating these are completely detached from the game.

I mean, I could buy like forty koi cakes for the price of twenty prickly pears, but the former gives me just over 12.5 hours worth of +40% condi duration food buffs, whereas the latter would give me 0.5 hours worth of +40% condi duration food buffs. Yes, the second instance does give power instead of condi damage, but do you really wanted to shell out 25 times the amount of money for a tiny stat adjustment? I for one don’t.

Yamsandjams.3267:

So I’m hoping there will be a poriton of dry top (or a different map) in the future that will have a cactus variety (i.e. prickly cactus) that will guarantee a prickly pear upon harvesting…

Hmmmm, maybe a pear tree? Just a thought..

darkace.8925:

When I saw what appeared to be a node farm in the newly opened Oasis I was hoping it was a Prickly Pear node farm. Alas, it’s mostly cabbage, carrots, and lettuce. There are three (or four?) cactus nodes, though, so hopefully that will make getting the hundreds of Prickly Pears I’m going to need to craft a handful of this food a bit more bearable.

That one does not appear to be a node farm. The nodes seem to respawn at the same rate as normal nodes.

I like the idea for a “Fruiting Cactus” node. Would definitely support that.

I hate to be a butt about this, but I’d really like to start crafting some of this food, but am worried that I will be wasting resources. So, I am bumping it again.

digitalruse.9085:

I hate to be a butt about this, but I’d really like to start crafting some of this food, but am worried that I will be wasting resources. So, I am bumping it again.

You would probably have better chances of having it looked at if you posted in the relevant LWD section.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/s2

Khisanth.2948:

digitalruse.9085:

I hate to be a butt about this, but I’d really like to start crafting some of this food, but am worried that I will be wasting resources. So, I am bumping it again.

You would probably have better chances of having it looked at if you posted in the relevant LWD section.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/s2

Or in the bugs forum.

digitalruse.9085:

I hate to be a butt about this, but I’d really like to start crafting some of this food, but am worried that I will be wasting resources. So, I am bumping it again.

Yeah, I’m with you. I’ve been asking for Power/Condition Duration food for my Engineer for too long not to craft any, but I just can’t bring myself to make any at this absurd cost.

Wanze.8410:

Khisanth.2948:

digitalruse.9085:

I hate to be a butt about this, but I’d really like to start crafting some of this food, but am worried that I will be wasting resources. So, I am bumping it again.

You would probably have better chances of having it looked at if you posted in the relevant LWD section.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/s2

Or in the bugs forum.

That doesn’t really seem to work or it much less effective.

Done. With math.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Dry-Top-Season-2-Food-Recipes/first#post4228133

digitalruse.9085:

Done. With math.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Dry-Top-Season-2-Food-Recipes/first#post4228133

So the half-hour version costs 20 silver more than the one hour version? Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

I could understand these exorbitant requirements if there was a glut of Prickly Pears, as in the case of something like Walnut Crumble Topping; but as PPs were just added to the game (as a rare drop, no less) this isn’t the case. So unless this is an error, I just can’t fathom why they’d set the cost where they did.

I also updated the thread will all the other Dry Top foods. It is kind of a mess. Though, as someone else commented, this seems to be the case for all foods added during events or LS updates.