Guild Wars 2

Dear Anet,

The issue regarding legendary weapons is one that has obviously received a tremendous amount of attention from both your fans and from yourselves. But, I find myself becoming more and more irritated by the lack of sensibility from both sides. This is not a criticism of the game, nor is it intended to offend anyone at Anet. I am trying to be constructive and I apologize ahead of time if anyone is offended by what I have to say.

First off, why do people seem to think that legendaries are too hard or too expensive to attain? Is that not the point of legendaries? From the very beginning I understood that they are meant to be a long term goal and meant to be challenging both in terms of time commitment and in terms of cost. I am not even close to getting my legendary yet. Which is exactly the way it’s meant to be.

Second, people need to understand that major changes to the game’s top tier economic system has massive implications on everything and will completely destabilize the economy. Remember what happened with the karkas? My point is, we should not be constantly asking for some other means of obtaining things that are hard to get (like precursors). More than likely, that will mess up everything else in the game economy and no one will be happy. Let me give an example. There are currently many people asking for a scavenger hunt system to obtain precursors. Many of those people (not all) seem to think that this will give them easy precursors. Let’s say that this actually happens. What would follow? First, everyone who actually bought a precursor would rage, and you’d have another problem on your hands. Then, quickly after, all other materials needed for precursors would see massive increases in price. How is that good? People will always find something to complain about. The developer’s job is to make the game fun. Not to pander to people’s complaints about economy, especially when it’s all cosmetic anyway. Besides, I doubt anyone would be happy about the prices of everything else going up after precursors go down.

Finally, I want to mention that the system is flawed, but it is manageable. Messing with it more will not actually make anything better, it will just make someone else mad (and eventually the people who are “appeased” will be mad about something else). I personally believe that the legendary system should have been implemented completely differently from the beginning. For example, a system where the initial item is a very plain weapon that is upgraded stage wise over time, maybe over the course of 100 or more steps,to reach legendary level. This would solve your problem regarding progression and precursors at the same time. But as you decided on the current system, it is what it is. People will complain, but pandering to their wants will not actually make anyone anyone happier.

I know this is a rather long post and probably something not many people want to read about. But The truth of the matter is, the system is flawed, and no single change can make it all better. I am sick of people asking you to destabilize the economy over and over so that they can reach their own goals faster. It’s hard to get what you want. It’s like that in real life too. Work hard for what you want, don’t complain to people until you get your way. Besides, it’s not like other people’s legendaries were somehow easier to come by. So, to the anet devs that might be reading this. Please, please start thinking in terms of the game’s quality and the stability of the economy. You are not going to make anyone any happier (even though they might think they will be happier) by implementing some easy way of obtaining something that was meant to be hard to get. And to all those people who still think there is something wrong with the game. Stop thinking about why the game is bad and start enjoying it for what it is. If you want something. Work towards it. It’s more rewarding that way anyway.

Enigz

I don’t think coming from the angle of “start all over again” is the right way.

Small scale suggestions are far more likely to be implemented.

All i really think they need to do is get them off the TP and make them account bound on forging. And adjust the rate of some of the lodestones. Very simple changes with the right amount of impact.

Longer term I think they just need to add a legendary quest when you have all your mats together that involves a difficult JP and combat to overcome so it truly screams “legend of the game”

>Enigma

Very good read. I fully agree that freebies can throw the economy off balance. But the major flaw I see is that people have this “Entitled” mindset. If a Jumping Puzzle is too hard, they’ll complain for easy mode. If Lodestones don’t drop as often as a player would like, they’ll complain for more drops. And if the Scavenger Hunt gave a random Precursor, and not allow you to choose which you want, people will complain about that too.

People will complain about anything that doesn’t go their way. I don’t know if Anet, or any game developer, would be able to satisfy everyone in their games.

to jaxon

that’s not my point. I’m not saying they should start over. Also, making them account bound from forging would doesn’t make them any easier to get so people would still complain (but i agree legendaries should not be salable).

What I’m saying is Anet already made he decision to have this system. They are now trying to fix a system that has a bad foundation. That is not really doable without messing with the foundation. Unfortunately, most of the ideas being thrown around, especially by people who don’t want to work very hard, involve making it easier. That is not the solution at all. The lodestone drop rates are fine. It’s part of what makes the items legendary.

Honestly, My suggestion would be to not mess with it. It is what it is and its working decently well (a few people have legendaries and most don’t). The RNG aspect is there but a lot of the work is still grind based. Maybe add a bit more combat focus, like require every dungeon gift instead of just one.

But as a whole I still think they need to stop trying to fix it. it’s just making things less certain. And for everyone who thinks precursor prices will fall following the release of the scavenger hunt. I seriously doubt it. I’m pretty sure the SH will be extremely time consuming or very expensive (RNG and mats based). And considering how many people are “waiting for the scavenger hunt to buy”. It’s more likely that prices will go up.

to smooth,

thank you. I think a lot of people feel this way but the vocal minority seems to always get the dev’s attention. Most people I know are perfectly happy with the system. I wish they would speak up more.

With lodestone I just think the obtainable rate needs balancing, not increasing overall.

Otherwise I’m happy with the obtainability, in fact I think they should make it deeper by adding in sPvP req’s and jumping puzzle req’s to show case the entire game.

And of course they must not be able to be sold.

You are partially right Enigma. Thing is atm there is a much bigger demand for precursors than there are supply. Thus why they are so high. Problem is at this stage in the game, there are people sitting on big lumps of gold that can actually “control” the prices of the top precursors to keep em high. This applies to anything in this game where there is a very small quanity but a high demand aka lodestones.

The other part is if they made precursors easier to obtain, the “other mats” which i assume you are mostly talking about are T6 mats. These prolly will go up abit but remember, the amount of these that drop from people just doing anything is pretty good so to try to “control” the prices on all 8 of the T6 mats would be a job in itself.

I personally don’t see a problem with putting in a system that allows you to quest/scavenger hunt for a precursor as long as it involves a chunk of work. I’d much rather be able to at least see my playtime when i devote it trying to get a precursor going to a goal rather than just throwing stuff in the MF and hoping the RNG likes me. Now you can say “well, farming gold daily is a way to see progress for a precursor” but remember, the people controlling those wanted precursors prolly already have a very large headstart on gold and can keep em up around the 500-600g range…and people will still buy em. Take a look at ones like spark which 2 weeks ago was like 300g and now is like 500g.

Jaxon.5392:

With lodestone I just think the obtainable rate needs balancing, not increasing overall.
Otherwise I’m happy with the obtainability, in fact I think they should make it deeper by adding in sPvP req’s and jumping puzzle req’s to show case the entire game.
And of course they must not be able to be sold.

1) Agreed on Balancing of Lodestone drops
2) 150% disagree on sPvP requirements. That’s what WvWvW is for
3) Anet isn’t going to make them unsellable: the precursors themselves aren’t changing, just a new way to obtain them. They shouldn’t have been able to sell them at all IMO, would make them feel more legendary. Precursor prices will probably drop after the hunt, as no one will bother to buy them when they can just work hard for a bit and get one.

Well, this is assuming they put in a scavenger hunt or other way. I mean honestly, i bet ANet has made a nice chunk of change off gem sales alone because of precursors.

What I see is a few very wealthy players getting nervous that their ability to manipulate the market via the high end maybe in jeopardy. They are now trying to sow the seeds to defend their fiefdom of monopoly cause god forbid other people dont have a right to anything other then what they dictate.

Do asurans taze?

Jaxon.5392:

I don’t think coming from the angle of “start all over again” is the right way.

Small scale suggestions are far more likely to be implemented.

All i really think they need to do is get them off the TP and make them account bound on forging. And adjust the rate of some of the lodestones. Very simple changes with the right amount of impact.

Longer term I think they just need to add a legendary quest when you have all your mats together that involves a difficult JP and combat to overcome so it truly screams “legend of the game”

I would love a 2-3 hour mini story for obtaining legendaries, it would make the legendary feel more alive, rather than I grind dis lots gotz teh cool skinz now. But it would also give them a story, I mean they are legendaries and with a minor exception to the flameseeker none of them have stories to why they are legendary besides the fact the name is purple and there’s only a story about the book, not about how it became attached to the shield.

As to OP I don’t have a problem with a hunt at all. Especially if you can only get 1 or 2 per toon or account and they are account bound this would make it so that the first couple are considerably easier to get but not eliminating the need or want to sell or buy the precursors. However, Anets first remarks on legendaries was that they would be “very account bound” or something to that effect, and originally I had the belief that I could craft or do tasks to obtain them. Not grind the hell out of the game so much so that anet adds “innovative” things such as DR >.>

I think the point that there are a few very rich people controlling the economy is legitimate. But, I don’t think it’s as big of a problem as people seem to think. After all, look what happened with the karka event. Precursors went down, rich people controlled everything still, and they all got richer. As for this being a thread started by rich people, you could not be more wrong. I have about 3 gold at the moment. So, whatever you may think, I am writing this for reasons unrelated to “maintaining control” of the economy.

As for t6 mats, I was merely using that as an example. I don’t know what will happen to their prices, but I’m sick of people wanting everything to change so that they can benefit. That’s the problem i have.

As for the scavenger hunt. It should be, at minimum, a 50 hour quest, not 2-3. Otherwise it would make the process extremely trivial. Which makes a big chunk of legendaries trivial. I think what jaxon was saying is that after you have all the parts needed, then add in a 2-3 hour quest to actually craft it. I agree with like, it would make it similar to obby armor from gw1. If it only took 2-3 hours to get the legendary, like dempsey seems to want, that would ruin the point of legendaries.

To be brutally honest though, I think legendaries are way too easy to get. It used to be harder until Anet decided to add Karma jugs to daily and month as well as dungeon rewards. Even before all the additional karma rewards, legendary was never hard to make it was just a time sink. I remembered Dynamis weapons in FF11 was much harder to make than legendary in GW2, the first one was like 1 year after it was released. GW2 legendary took like 2-3 weeks top.

Legendary overall price is fine (can be higher imo). Only problem for me is lack of different stats.

I do agree that legendaries should have higher stats… If only slightly… Also what I think as far as buying them… Usually by the time you have enough of your gifts crafted you have found a few ways to make money.. Dungeons… Selling stuff from Fracs… So on… Great way to make money.. WvW get pretty good drops there as well… I think the journey to the legendary should be about getting there… But in all honesty I think the precursor will prolly drop very little still (hopefully those that exploited will have been dealt with by now) But i truly do think that by the time you have all your other gifts you will have found some ways to make gold through other means and if you haven’t got your legendary precursor by then through drops you will prolly have enough to buy it.. This is a long term goal after all. And the game is only a few months old lol

Riaky.8965:

To be brutally honest though, I think legendaries are way too easy to get. It used to be harder until Anet decided to add Karma jugs to daily and month as well as dungeon rewards. Even before all the additional karma rewards, legendary was never hard to make it was just a time sink. I remembered Dynamis weapons in FF11 was much harder to make than legendary in GW2, the first one was like 1 year after it was released. GW2 legendary took like 2-3 weeks top.

I disagree. I think they were easier a couple months ago. Sure, there were no karma jugs on daily and no karma from dungeons but you could spam farm Plinx for easy fast karma AND cash/drops. Not to mention precursors were also cheaper back then too. Regardless tho, legendaries really aren’t hard to make. Just a time sink….well unless you are trying for a dusk or dawn. Then its also an exercise in frustration/patience.

i dont really know if its an issue of making it easier to obtain i think its an issue of having more ways than one to obtain. Some people dont really want to do the pve or pvp.

I can’t imagine the 4.5k karma from jugs making it significantly easier. You would need to farm daily jugs for about 6 months for the karma for 1 of the 2H swords. Now I don’t know how much you get for thumping people in 3W but based on previous RvR type stuff on DAoC etc, I suspect a couple of hours, if you have the smallest iota of skill, in 3W would drown the karma you get from a jug.

OP is jsut saying “Don’t make change, coz it will be unfair to others, and anyway – somebody will be mad”.

Thats just… if system its – it should be chaged. Simple as that imo.

People are mad about precursors, coz they are expensive. In terms of gold, in some weapons price of 3 gifts = price of precursor, which is sad.

Legendary SHOUD be item which says "ow, this guy is good player, and spent a lot of time here.

Atm legendary says “ow, this guy likes to grind” or “this guy buy gold, kewl” or “this guy were so lucky during karka event”. Nothing more. This should be legendary? Don’t think so.

At current state its just legendary grind.

Riaky.8965:

To be brutally honest though, I think legendaries are way too easy to get. It used to be harder until Anet decided to add Karma jugs to daily and month as well as dungeon rewards. Even before all the additional karma rewards, legendary was never hard to make it was just a time sink. I remembered Dynamis weapons in FF11 was much harder to make than legendary in GW2, the first one was like 1 year after it was released. GW2 legendary took like 2-3 weeks top.

Believe me, there isn’t one single gw2 customer who bough this game not logically expecting anything different than a legendary weapon worthy, uber rare, an event meet a guy with one, after 1 year or more of incredible , legendary work. Not the actual junk. How they even dare to call it legendary, noone knows. It’s just a stupid grinddbased weapon ready in a month, and 90% of them are even trashly designed (just look at Ministrel lol). Was way better if those legendaries was a skin on sale on the store transmuting like hom rewards current exotics, more than what we have. Accept the system as is, not asking adjustments? True, i agree with the OP, stop to ask some TP mess about drops and fluctuation of price. Let’s just all together stop this idiot request asking something more important: a real worthy legendary path, a player wielding a legendary worthy to be called legendary, be admired. Not laugh on your back as a pathetic nolifer/cheater/goldseller customer, even if he crafted it regularly using just some exploits like the mesmer portal of the EB jp. Cheater ye, a bit, still a clown. Let’s get rid of the entire system. No, i will not accept the junk design we have. Nor surely i will ask a TP mess about price of goods