TL;DR- greens/blues —> increase magic find; plz, bloodstone dust --> increase karma gain, dragonite ore —> increase experience gain, emphyreal fragments --> increase gold gain
With the introduction of ascended crafting, a variety of account bound crafting materials were also introduced. However, as the game progresses, many players have found themselves with a surplus of one crafting material or another. I would like to create a place to gather and discuss suggestions for utilizing the excess ascended crafting materials.
I will begin by identifying the “problem”. Account bound crafting material such as bloodstone dust, dragonite ore, and emphyreal fragments were added to give players a non-gold oriented sense of reward and progression towards something bigger (ascended weapons/armor) for participating in various activities. Most players will have an abundance of at least one of these materials, because individuals are likely to have different preferences and spend different amounts of time in various content (i.e. dungeons, world boss hunting, champ farming). In addition, not everyone aspires for ascended weapon, and even for those who do, it is a finite goal (meaning eventually they will craft the weapon or armor they want and run out of use for these things). Furthermore, even those players who desire to craft an “endless” amount of ascended gear will always find themselves bottle-necked by gold, not any of the account bound crafting materials. For any player who has more of any bloodstone, dragonite, or emphyreal than they need (and I would wager that would be a great many of us), these mats lose their original purpose: We do not feel rewarded when we get extra bloodstone dust. We do not feel like it contributes or progresses towards a goal that we care about, even incrementally. In contrast, there’s a high potential for negative reinforcement- either mild annoyance at getting more useless mats, or the negative feeling of having to choose between hording more useless material in hopes that it will one day be made useful, or deleting it and with every delete serving as a constant reminder that something that was supposed to be rewarding was deemed literally a useless waste of time (to destroy).
Next, I would like to talk about possible solutions. Before we throw out suggestions though, I feel it is important to examine what types of suggestions are inappropriate and why. First and foremost, these materials were made account bound on acquire for a reason- to give us a reward and sense of progression towards goals that are separate from gold. Therefore, any suggested end product or use that allows in financial (gold) gain is inappropriate. I want to turn my stacks of bloodstone bricks and dragonite ingots into a legendary or lots of gold just as much as the next guy, but we have to be fair, we have to try and restore the original intention of these materials without negating its original purpose.
I want to give a quick look at how Anet has handled something like this historically, and then I’ll give my suggestion. When the magic find system was revamped, greens and blues were changed to increase magic find on salvage. It was a subtle change, but linking those items to a bar that I can visibly see progress has changed my attitude so that when I get these blues and greens, I no longer feel like I’m just getting more trash, but that I’m progressing towards a permanent perk that will serve to set me apart from those who haven’t played as long and remind me of the time and effort I’ve invested in the game.
I propose that the most ideal solution to excess ascended crafting material is to somehow allow us to use it to contribute towards permanently increasing the other account bonuses. For example, let us craft bloodstone dust into an item that increases karma gain, dragonite ore into an item that increases experience gain, and emphyreal fragments into an item that increases gold gain. Heck, you can even require the brick, ingot, and star versions if you want to create pressure on karma, I’d be happy just to find a use for those things.
…Alternatively, you can let us rebuild Lion’s Arch with bloodstone bricks.
(edited by Wonderly.1324)