Guild Wars 2

This is not true.

Before the “bug fix” every 1000 level 80 rare weapons thrown in the mystic forge produced on average 8 legendary base weapons.

This information was gathered by several people in my guild using only level 80 weapons, not the bugged level 65-75 weapon combinations. This was done with over 10000 weapons used and the average ended up being about 8 per 1000 So we ended up with a lot of base weapons. In other words, 1 per every 150 rare weapons.

After the “bug fix” this has been reduced to LESS than 2 per 1000 on average. We’ve gotten close 5000 trials(roughly 15000 weapons used) . In other words this is less than 1 per 500 rare weapons.

Other guilds I’m in contact with who have performed the same tests have gotten the same results.

“As a quick note, the higher the level and rarity of the things you are throwing into the forge, the better your chances of getting a Legendary Precursor.”

I saw a youtube video of a guy that started with sixteen, I believe it was, level 80 exotics, and after combining them all, and then combining the four it gave him back (junk), he just ended up with an even more worthless weapon.

The forge needs more consistency. I’m certainly never going to use it when people are burning through that much gold. In the few times I tried to use it, I regretted bothering, especially since I knew beforehand I’d probably be throwing my money away.

Which is more important? Using the forge as a big money trashcan as your personal solution to inflation? Or players enjoying themselves? Don’t treat the two as being mutually exclusive to one another.

Which is more important? Using the forge as a big money trashcan as your personal solution to inflation? Or players enjoying themselves? Don’t treat the two as being mutually exclusive to one another.

I think we all know which of those two should be a priority, and we also all know which one actually is. I think it requires being disingenuous to even claim that the Mystic Forge is “fun” or “rewarding” in its current state.

The only people that seem to be having fun are the Godskull cheaters that are all laughing at us plebes wasting money in the Mystic Forge, sitting with their thousands of gold and dozens of precursors.

The select few who EXPLOITED consistent recipes for creating the precursors are the ones dominating the market and causing this extreme instability.

I disagree with that. Someone in GW2Guru making the Legendary Hammer mentioned how he saw a guy buying all the hammer precursors and immediately selling them for three times the price. This wasn’t someone who crafted a lot of precursors – this was someone who made a lot of gold through other means, such as by farming, and used it to artificially inflate the price of the hammer.

This kind of thing is why Guild Wars 2 needs a DR system – otherwise people who farm a lot would be able to drive all prices up, as seen perfectly in this example. The issue is that the DR in farming doesn’t prevent people from playing the market and abusing the Trade House like this, to make insane amounts of gold way too easily.

Now, I’m sure the guy buying all the cheap hammers and selling them for three times the price must be patting himself on the back for being so smart. Meanwhile, he’s actually being detrimental to the game by artificially inflating the price of the precursos. IMO, by itself this deserves a punishment, but since I don’t believe ArenaNet would do anything to punish him, here are ways to fix this problem:

1) Add a cap to the price of legendary precursors. Since ArenaNet can limit the price of items in the Trade House (which, for the records, is a great way to keep inflation under control), there should be a cap to how much gold someone can sell a precursor for. Otherwise, adding more precursors to the market would only lead to more of what’s already happening – a guy would buy all of the cheap ones and resell them for a very high price. By itself this is not enough, though; ArenaNet also needs to…

2) Increase slightly the drop rate of legendary precursors in the Mystic Forge. This needs to happen concurrently with the step above, otherwise those currently hoarding the precursors would simply not sell them, waiting for an increase in the price cap. With a cap to the price of legendary precursors in the Trade House, plus making those items a bit more common, hoarders would still try to hoard, but they would not be able to resell the legendaries for an insane profit anymore. Meanwhile, more non hoarders would be selling, thus assuring that the precursors are traded at all, and that there is a flow of precursors in the economy even with hoarders doing their best to hoard as much as possible and keep those precursors in storage hoping ArenaNet would eventually increase the selling cap.

Why the hell we have exotics on TP, that cost 30 times more than any other? There is only one difference – “Used for crafting a legendary” note in tooltip. They don’t have a unique model, they don’t have unique stats, they are same as other exotics, but a terrible decision to make them available through gamble with Mystic Forge and TP flaw (you pay once and that item is sold on market forever) made them treated like legendary weapons itself.

Azazil gave a kind of good advice – make them account bound and a set recipe, and stop this whole bs precursor worship following, this is stupid. Or add a timer for putting items on TP, like 48 hours, after which a precursor holder must put it for another 48 hours and pay for placement on TP again. Eventually, prices will go down, because they’ll run out of money.

Edit: Also, nearly forgot – why passage for acquiring legendary precursor is money, luck or exploiting, and not skill? They look less like weapons of a very skilled player for me at this stage, more like a mark of some ahole, that probably cheated to get one.

2 Staffs of rage available today on Trading Post. If I remember correctly 290G?

.. errr xD

AnotherJaggens.1396:

Edit: Also, nearly forgot – why passage for acquiring legendary precursor is money, luck or exploiting, and not skill? They look less like weapons of a very skilled player for me at this stage, more like a mark of some ahole, that probably cheated to get one.

Yeah, that’s how it feels to me too, like these are less of a symbol of having worked hard and more a symbol of being a Godskull cheater, since aside from dropping $1200 in gems that’s the only way to get one.

Will you be punishing the people that did exploit and are currently dominating the precursor market?

Lirath.3841:

Will you be punishing the people that did exploit and are currently dominating the precursor market?

Seems like their answer is to nerf the chance for non-cheaters to get exotics instead of banning the cheaters.

Well, at least the devs have come out and explained it. I am thankful for that. So much in this game is hidden behind the scenes, from magic find to hidden cooldowns to the 10% fee on the BLTC, etc. While it may be in accordance with the whole theme of hidden secrets throughout the game, when it comes to game mechanics I find it insulting.

“Azazil gave a kind of good advice – make them account bound and a set recipe, and stop this whole bs precursor worship following, this is stupid. "

This. Period.

Would much rather see a recipe (even a really expensive one) to the wonderfull rng we get to deal with for the precursor. Using random luck in making a legendary weapon, why?!?!

Looking at the creation process of legendary weapons, we can see that each aspect of a player is tested, which I find amazing. Mastery utilizes karma, map completion, WvW. Fortune includes luck and money. Twilight or other gifts are unique to the legendary. However, it appears luck is in there twice. We gamble with clovers AND the precursor (with the precursor being 1/4 of the final combination)? The recipe should test each category equal, if not more bias to actual skill instead of luck.

Because it’s based solely on luck, rich specific people are in 100% control of the TP’s supply of these precursors and the price is simply out of hand. In short, there needs to be a specific recipe for precursors. It wouldn’t matter if they are account bound or not, however what NEEDS to be taken into consideration is that the recipe DOESN’T (solely) include mats that can be purchased from the TP because those mats will soar in price and people would look to monopolize those markets. Use pieces to craft the precursors that need karma and skill points. Even mystic coins would be fine because they are can be earned each day and for the monthly achievements.

A good example for Dusk:
Gift of Dusk – Karma (one for each precursor to make the recipe unique)
E. Scroll – Skill points
100 Mystic Coins – rewards for completing achievements
250 Ectos – luck from salvaging

With coins and ectos, yes they will increase in price, but they are also easily obtained through salvaging rares and completing dailies and monthly achievements.

I’m not against still selling precursors in the TP, but give us a static goal to shoot for instead of some ever inflating, luck based, component.

I created a thread talking about alternative ways to get the precursor weapons that would be both fun and make you feel like you’re actually making progress.

Sadly some people fail to understand the point entirely.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Suggestions-for-alternative-ways-to-get-precursor-weapons-legendaries/

Windklinge.4076:

Andulvar.4265:

Legendary items do have better stats than exotics. It’s not a lot but its enough.

another player who has no clue. gotta love these guys.

@ OP youre just plain wrong with what you say. defending rng mechanics is only done by people who got lucky already or are blindsided fanboys. gw2 has MANY issues currently in its endgame content and leRNGderys are one of them.

RARE has nothing do to with RNG. rng is a bad and lazy game mechanic to make people play the same thing again and again and again without rewarding them. best way to kill an mmo comm. just look what happend to aion back then. there where the same people like you on thier forums defending the RNG mess and look where that game is now. this happens if you make endgame based 100% on RNG.

face it the system is stupid by design. the dev who tought of this should simply be fired on the spot. sorry.

But he’s right. If level 80 exotics are “item level 80” then legendary weapons are “item level 81”. Meaning their starts are about 1-2% better than level 80 exotic weapons.

Everything else I agree with though. All of those points I tried to cover in my thread that I linked to up there. Be nice if people could post their support and maybe one day we’ll get Anet to change how those precursor weapons are acquired.

Proof:

Twilight:
http://www.gw2db.com/items/63469-twilight
Pearl Broadsword:
http://www.gw2db.com/items/56634-berserkers-pearl-broadsword

I just want to throw out there that farming Onyx Lodestones sucks as well

Thanks for posting, Linsey.

I’d just like to clarify that like a lot of people posting here, my issue isn’t even the current prices — it’s the RNG component and potential for market manipulation. A recipe that took me 250g to put together, plus some other stuffs (more karma, or mystic coins, or … something) I’m OK with. It’s the whole RNG aspect I’m not.

Quote cubed.2853 "...but what are 4 legendarys transformed to?...."

Four Legendarys (Legendaries?) transforms into way too much time on your hands.

Tomcat.8375:

A good example for Dusk:
Gift of Dusk – Karma (one for each precursor to make the recipe unique)
E. Scroll – Skill points
100 Mystic Coins – rewards for completing achievements
250 Ectos – luck from salvaging

I had a similar idea (using another one that was on a deleted thread):

Dusk = Hilt of Dusk + Blade of Dusk + 50 Globs of Ectoplasm + Gift of Dusk

Hilt of Dusk = 50 Orichalcum Greatsword Hilts + 50 Mystic Coins + Gift of Balthazar + 50 Crystals

Blade of Dusk = 50 Orichalcum Greatsword Blades + 50 Mystic Coins + Gift of Balthazar + 50 Crystals

Gift of Balthazar = Purchased at the temple of balthazar for 50k Karma, the point here is to make different gifts for reach legendary precursor, so we’ll have gift of balthazar, dwayna, etc.

Gift of Dusk = 20 Onyx Lodestones + Gift of Zhaitan + Gift of the Nobleman + 1 Eldrich Scroll.

x20 Onyx Lodestones = 80s x 20 = 16g
x1 Eldrich Scroll = 50 SP
100 Crystals = 60 SP

100 Mystic Coins = Not sure, cant log in now to see their price on TP, last time they were 2s, so 2g.

50 Orichalcum Greatsword Hilt = 3 Orichalcum Ingots/Hilt = 150 orichalcum ingots = 150 × 7s (not sure) = 10,5g

50 Orichalcum Greatsword Blade = 3 Orichalcum Ingots/Blade = 150 orichalcum ingots = 150 × 7s (not sure) = 10,5g

50 Globs of Ectoplasm = ~9g

2x Gift of “GodName” = 100k Karma

Total Cost: Time spent mastering different dungeons, 100k Karma, ~49g, 110 SP.

Pretty fair price, will improve your knowledge on other dungeons in the game, and will kitten you even more with karma farming

Agreed, I’d much rather have a fixed recipe of some sort than this endless money sink and constantly moving goal-post we have now.

Give up guys. They don’t want you to have a legendary. It’s a carrot on a stick just like every mmo. If they wanted us to have a legendary, the precursor would be a REWARD for finishing your personal story. They obviously don’t want you to own one.

I would be interested to hear from a game designer how gambling fits into the Arenanet mmo manifesto. There is a reason it has been looked down upon in society for over 2000 years…

I think they do want us to have a legendary (precursor), they just want us to spend $1200+ buying gems (for gold) to buy the hyper-inflated ones from the TP that the Godskull cheaters made.

Getting it from the Mystic Forge is obviously an elaborate and cruel joke.

Low chance gambling with expensive items sucks. Give us a guranted recipe.

Am i the only one who is dissapointed that the legendary journey has 0 uniqueness to it? Gathering a bunch of matts and throwing them in the mystic forge is hardly creative.. Even blizzard knew, early on in vanilla WoW, that going for a legendary should be a journey and as far as i know every legendary item besides the pure drop legendaries (i.e. warglaives) had a unique quest/event attached to it. Gambling or having it drop leaves me with a very lazy impression… : /

I’m not trying to be insulting or condescending to anyone in this thread, but many are in need of a reality check, so here goes:

You are not entitled to a legendary weapon. The name itself suggests that they are something only a small % of people will ever own, whether it’s through guild support, luck, spending tons of real life cash, or in some cases exploiting: they are not for every, or even most players. Many people are setting themselves up for disappointment and becoming disillusioned because they have unreasonable expectations. These are not “typical” end-game weapons that everyone should be able to get in a reasonable amount of time.

What makes them special, and desirable, is they are designed so that few people will ever have the time/money/luck to get them. If every dedicated 80 was walking around with legendaries, it would be completely ridiculous and would ruin the appeal: they’d be just like exotics are now, and the special particle effects and footprints would really mess with performance/aesthetics in high player-density areas like WvW or LA. I personally would be overjoyed to get one, but I realize it is very unlikely. I might gamble some rares/exotics here and there to try and get a precursor, and I’m sure I’ll try and make some headway now and then on the other ingredients just in case, but it’s not something I expect to ever get, and you know what? That’s just fine. I’m glad there are items in the game that few people will ever attain, even if I’m not one of those people.

The entitlement issue with MMO players nowadays is a huge issue. Certain games I won’t name here have led to the expectation that everyone deserves to have the same things and it just takes all the prestige and mystery away from top-end items like legendary weapons.

That said, I agree there is an issue w/some players who have attained legendaries through dishonest means. Playing the market might be sleazy, but it isn’t dishonest. People who actually exploited the game to achieve them should be punished, whether that’s a ban or deleting the item because it cheapens the achievement for those who earned it.

Overall though, there are far too many people who expect a legendary that really shouldn’t. It’s not even based on luck as much as people are saying: you can buy them off the TP. If you want a guaranteed shot at a precursor, worry about farming the gold instead of depositing endless rares and exotics hoping to get lucky. The request for a guaranteed recipe that’s a huge grind is redundant. There already is a guaranteed recipe that’s a huge grind, and there’s only one ingredient: a huge sum of gold. The price in general will reflect the difficulty of doing so, the most sure bet is simply saving the gold. If that price seems unattainable for you, then that means legendary weapons are unattainable for you and you would be much happier accepting that and appreciating the depth and mystery they add to the world.

I stopped reading your post at “your are not entitled” Jihoko.

Your entire post hinges on the straw man argument that we are expecting a precursor for no effort, which no one in this thread is saying at all.

They say: craft your legendary weapon to show every1 how good u are!
Well, IMHO legendary weapons can simply show that a player is a super-nerd iper-ultra-mega-farmer, who has been playing GW2 for months simply to get a legendary neon tube, whose stats are exactly the same as a “rusty” exotic sword/staff/axe/mace/whatever.
If I must play 300 hours to get (maybe) a legendary weapon, I want better stats compared to the exotic ones (not 20% better…even a 3/4% would be enough, but I want more than a mere light effect!).
Give me that and u devs can keep crafting them almost impossible: I’ll try my best to get one…give me only the hope to own a neon tube and I’ll keep using my old “exotic torch”.
…and for ppl who are ready to reply: this is how GW1 worked…only cosmetics for high end items, so GW2 does exactly the same…ask urself why GW1 had a playerbase which barely reached 1/10 of WoW’s one.
I know that Wow is too much dependant on gear and I don’t like that too…but in MMORPGs/RPGs what “pushes” most ppl is getting better gear, also (not only..also) regarding its stats.
Same gear (but “personalized”) for every1 is ok in sPVP , but why, if I work really hard, can’t I get a slight improvement of my gear’s stats?
U can say…because of the WvWvW! ..and u really think using legendary weapons only 3/4% more powerful than exo ones will turn u into an OP killing machine?
Come on!
It’s simply for personal “satisfation”…to get more than a mere (useless) cosmetic effect.

If u don’t have the chance to improve ur characters, even a little bit I repeat, (especially) PVE is going to become boring quite soon, considering how easy is leveling and getting a full exotic set.
I know many of u guys won’t agree, but it’s what I think…and that’s a pity, considering the amazing job the devs have made in the most part of the game (graphics, level designing, event system, music themes, etc.)..but a few mechanics are simply not enough…“rewarding”/“satisfying”…that is, they get boring too soon, as I wrote be4.
Just my opinion tough…probably I’m wrong ^^

@Jihoko… Sorry really i’m so sorry but you sound like another gold seller at this forum or at least you are after your own little fortune from TP or something like that. Since there is a enough adventure ( for money and time etc… ) after Legendary Precursors for Legendary Weapons.

For everyone calling for the forge to be removed from the equation to craft legendaries, your not getting something here. These legendary precursors are driving the market and doing a HUGE service for the economy. Namely removing the over-supply of crappy drops. This economy is very much centered around the mystic forge and its ability to remove items from the economy in order to stave off inflation. Think of the economy as a huge pyramid with these Legendary precursors at the top.

People throw blues in the forge to get Mastercrafts to throw in the forge to get rares so they can throw those rares in the forge to get exotics so they can throw exotics in to get the precursors. The precursor hunters are keeping the value of great deal of the current exotics high and there is a trickle down effect on the rest of the economy. Trust me, if precursors weren’t forge made the entire economy would change “overnight”.

That said if they changed the drop rate from the forge from 1 in 125 combines (some above mentioned 8 in 1000) to 1 in 500, then it could backfire on them. If legendaries are so rare as to be completely unheard of, then a great many people may just say screw it and never even try (further hurting what fuels item removal in the economy). There is a threshold where it can be “too” rare. If only 2% of the population are ever going to own these then the other 98% are wasting their time and shouldn’t even try. On the other hand once everyone gets one, what will fuel the economy? Personally I was expecting more “legendary” type things, like next expansion adds legendary armor pieces that also require the forge to create precursors for, etc.

Linsey, could you confirm or deny that the Magic Find stat has any effect on the outcome from the Mystic Forge?

Tomcat.8375:

Because it’s based solely on luck, rich specific people are in 100% control of the TP’s supply of these precursors and the price is simply out of hand. In short, there needs to be a specific recipe for precursors.

A good example for Dusk:
Gift of Dusk – Karma (one for each precursor to make the recipe unique)
E. Scroll – Skill points
100 Mystic Coins – rewards for completing achievements
250 Ectos – luck from salvaging

With coins and ectos, yes they will increase in price, but they are also easily obtained through salvaging rares and completing dailies and monthly achievements.

I’m not against still selling precursors in the TP, but give us a static goal to shoot for instead of some ever inflating, luck based, component.

The price is based off the supply and demand. Your suggested recipe would lead to legendary weapons being much more common than they are now, likely much more so than Arenanet intended them to be. When there are only meant to be a few of a given item on a server, to make them worthy of the “legendary” name, it is no surprise that they go for hundreds of gold. Hundreds or thousands of people wanting an item there are only a few of is what is skyrocketing the price, not market manipulation.

This may be hard to hear, because for most it will lead to the realization that they do not have the time nor wealth to attain a legendary, but there is already a non-luck based way to get a precursor: buying it from other players. It is a simple recipe with only one ingredient: gold. That cost is likely unattainable for most players, but this is intended.

If the legendary precursors were driven above their true value, then they wouldn’t be sold. Since people are buying precursors at those prices, that means they are priced correctly. An items true value is derived only from what people are willing to pay for it.

I feel this is simply a situation where the “solution” is a change in expectations rather than action from Arenanet. The alternative is they make them much easier to get, and in a month we’ll see everyone running around with legendary weaps lagging WvW to hell and covering the ground everywhere in trails of flowers :\.

What I would personally appreciate is simply some information regarding what the odds of getting a precursor from combining four level 80 rares actually is. Are we looking at a 5% chance, a 1% chance, a .5% chance… lower than that? What order of magnitude are we looking at here?

I ask so that as a player base we can make more informed decisions toward how we choose to acquire our precursors. I have the money to invest in buying around 1,000 rares and forging them away, but if the odds are well against me, then clearly it would be better for me to save up and purchase one off the trade post.

Furthermore, those that don’t have these means have something a bit more clear to look forward to in the future. If the chance is say 1%, that means it will cost, on average, roughly 80 gold to forge one (20s per rare x 400 rares). That means that the market price on these is eventually bound to drop. However many months this takes to occur is really just dependent on the capabilities of the rich to continue to control the precursor market.

Anyhow, if you’re willing to throw us another bone here, I’m sure many of us would be thankful =)

azazil.9541:

@Jihoko… Sorry really i’m so sorry but you sound like another gold seller at this forum or at least you are after your own little fortune from TP or something like that. Since there is a enough adventure ( for money and time etc… ) after Legendary Precursors for Legendary Weapons.

Heh, not surprised to see a passive-aggressive reply like this but you couldn’t be further from the truth. I just hit 80 the other day on my main, and I have a total of maybe 30s on my account. I have not benefited from any of the exploits nor have I profited greatly from the trading post. I’m not sure why you think my reply means I’m a gold-seller though. The point I am trying to make is that people should temper their expectations: everyone wants a legendary, but by their vary nature they are something only a small % of people will ever have. This is leading to a lot of (unnecessarily) frustrated people.

By encouraging people to simply abandon their extreme desire for a legendary in favor of more realistic goals, achievements, or activities, I’d be hurting my business if I was a gold seller. I just wish more people would enjoy the game instead of chasing an unrealistic goal simply because they are locked into the mindset that end-game is grinding for the “best” item, and nothing else. I am a concerned player and member of the community, only trying to appeal to the common sense of other players. There is no “angle” I’m trying to work here.

My only vested interest is in Arenanet not making legendary weapons easier, because I enjoy there being virtually unattainable but spectacular items that truly wow you when you see someone running around with one. This may seem bizarre to you, but I’m actually able to appreciate someone else’s achievement/luck/support/craziness rather than see something someone else has that I don’t, and going crazy with jealousy.

@jihoko I’m sorry you typed up such a huge post, but ChairGraveyard

Your post is aimed at “people who want a legendary base weapon with no effort”

These people do not exist, at least none of them have posted in this thread so far. So your whole argument is with people who don’t exist.

ChairGraveyard.2967:

I stopped reading your post at “your are not entitled” Jihoko.

Your entire post hinges on the straw man argument that we are expecting a precursor for no effort, which no one in this thread is saying at all.

You should have read the rest of my post, because I wasn’t saying that at all. Nowhere did I insinuate that people are expecting it for no effort. Clearly, even if the cost/time were reduced ten-fold, they would still require a large amount of effort to achieve. My point is that people they think that if they put in X amount of time/effort, they should be guaranteed a legendary.

The reality is that as they are “legendary” weapons, only a small % of people are intended to have them, or it would defeat the purpose. By feeling entitled to them based on X amount of effort, you are missing the point. They are not GW2’s end-game, they are a curiosity for the very rich, very lucky, or very, very, very determined. As I’ve pointed out multiple times now, there is a direct path to legendaries that does not require luck: buying them from the TP. That price, by definition, correlates exactly to the intended effort required to obtain one (namely, more than a large % of the server are willing/able).

I think what people are missing is that if they changed it to a fixed recipe, it wouldn’t be any easier than it is now to simply farm the gold. It would just be more obviously, outrageously out of reach for most players than it is now where the mystery surrounding the mystic forge and luck-based component lead to unrealistic expectations. My best advice is to simply look at whatever it costs on the trading post, and think of that as the recipe: if it is simply too far out of reach, then using the mystic forge will not be any easier (on average) now that people know how to create precursors.

@ Jihoko last time I knew this was not a Koran grind fest game so yeah I believe Anet will fix this insane gold amount you need to buy stuff like Rage,
it not like you need skill to farm gold just stay in orr and farm events + buy low /sell high in trade post.

Cerise.9045:

@jihoko I’m sorry you typed up such a huge post, but ChairGraveyard

Your post is aimed at “people who want a legendary base weapon with no effort”

These people do not exist, at least none of them have posted in this thread so far. So your whole argument is with people who don’t exist.

His post was directed at me, and the insinuation was that I was directing my statement at people who expected a legendary w/no effort, which as you rightly pointed out do not exist in this thread. I never said people were expecting them w/o effort, ChairGraveyard wrongly inferred that. My argument is directed at people who expect a legendary for an amount of effort that, while extraordinary in itself (I don’t expect to complete even the non-precursor components any time soon, if ever) is still less than what is intended for weapons that only a small % of players are ever meant to have.

Jihoko.3927:

Heh, not surprised to see a passive-aggressive reply like this but you couldn’t be further from the truth. I just hit 80 the other day on my main, and I have a total of maybe 30s on my account. I have not benefited from any of the exploits nor have I profited greatly from the trading post. I’m not sure why you think my reply means I’m a gold-seller though. The point I am trying to make is that people should temper their expectations: everyone wants a legendary, but by their vary nature they are something only a small % of people will ever have. This is leading to a lot of (unnecessarily) frustrated people.

By encouraging people to simply abandon their extreme desire for a legendary in favor of more realistic goals, achievements, or activities, I’d be hurting my business if I was a gold seller. I just wish more people would enjoy the game instead of chasing an unrealistic goal simply because they are locked into the mindset that end-game is grinding for the “best” item, and nothing else. I am a concerned player and member of the community, only trying to appeal to the common sense of other players. There is no “angle” I’m trying to work here.

My only vested interest is in Arenanet not making legendary weapons easier, because I enjoy there being virtually unattainable but spectacular items that truly wow you when you see someone running around with one. This may seem bizarre to you, but I’m actually able to appreciate someone else’s achievement/luck/support/craziness rather than see something someone else has that I don’t, and going crazy with jealousy.

No this is absolutely stupid game design and against every philosophy that manifesto sold us on. Putting something completely out of reach for 99.99% of the player base and then selling it as a “if you work hard enough you too could have one of these” items is the ultimate in bait and switch compound carrot chasing tactics. We were promised the end of those with the end of subs.

No I completely disagree, stupid game design is stupid game design. If truely only 1 in 10,000 players will ever have these then they never should have been included in the first place. This game was designed for masses not the 1% of the 1%. Achievement is achievement and doesn’t have to be relative to have personal value.

Shogoki- thanks for the information! Out of curiosity, are there any links you could direct me toward regarding the statistics you posted?

Going with the more generous 0.2%, that means it takes 2,000 rares to forge. Let’s suppose you are buying the materials when they are at a very cheap price, so that each rare costs 10s (a very low number only for the weapons that have low material requirements). That would make the average cost of a precursor 200g.

Assuming we go with the less generous 0.1%, that means it takes 4,000 rares to forge. If the materials are more realistically priced, so that each rare costs 15s, the average cost would be 600g.

If the average price to forge a precursor is 400g (or even as low as 200g), this means that we can only expect the market price to keep rising as time goes by.

I would still much more appreciate an official response regarding the chance values of forging the precursors.

Jihoko.3927:

The reality is that as they are “legendary” weapons, only a small % of people are intended to have them, or it would defeat the purpose.

It’s in Anet’s best interest to have the biggest long-term goal actually achievable by people who want to work toward them; otherwise the game is kind of lacking in long-term goal departments if PvE is your only thing. GW1 had Obsidian Armor; took a heinous amount of gold/materials, some dropped only in two of the “elite” areas of the game (probably on par with the drop rate for the GW2 lodestones, except with harsher penalties if you died because you had to pay to get into the zone and you got kicked out if you died). The difference is you COULD learn the builds, you COULD learn the pulls/runs and farm them yourself eventually without having to have gotten in early or learned to play the market.

I’m not sure why you presume to know Anet’s intent with these things.

Jihoko.3927:

I think what people are missing is that if they changed it to a fixed recipe, it wouldn’t be any easier than it is now to simply farm the gold. It would just be more obviously, outrageously out of reach for most players than it is now.

Absolutely not, because there are no moving goalposts with a fixed recipe. With the market, that’s absolutely NOT the case. One could take the “easier” route, learn to play the market and buy them still; or one could expend one hell of a lot of effort to slowly gather/purchase materials themselves. EDIT: With a fixed recipe, that is.

Killface.1896:

@ Jihoko last time I knew this was not a Koran grind fest game so yeah I believe Anet will fix this insane gold amount you need to buy stuff like Rage,
it not like you need skill to farm gold just stay in orr and farm events + buy low /sell high in trade post.

It’s not a Korean farm game if you never attempt to attain the legendary. It is not needed for end-game content. Getting geared out in exotics is all you need to do, and it is a very modest grind for end-game gear compared with most games.

I do sympathize and I’m not intending to anger or upset anyone, truly. I really think many would be happier and enjoy the game more if they simply abandoned this intense lust for a legendary weapon. Their names would not make sense if more than a small % of people had them, and the particle effects and things like flower-path footprints would lead to performance issues if too many did. It comes down to math and common sense:

1. of people grinding towards legendary weapons – # of legendary’s meant to exist = # of unhappy people whose time could be better spent on more reasonable pursuits.

Unfortunately, the current situation is there are far more people working towards legendaries than the # of them meant to exist, so there are a large # of unhappy people.

fellyn you also dont have a clue. gosh kitten i hate it when people spread FALSE informations and as a proof link to an external database. i believe what i SEE ingame. not on some stupid database.

leRNGdarys ARE THE SAME 100% as exotics there are not better no matter what your stupid database links says.

want real proof?

copy and paste THIS code in your chat anywere if you dont know someone who already has it(like i do thats the reason i posted the above i KNOW i am right and he is not because i have SEEN it in the game already on another player who linked it).

and have a good look at it. because thats sunrise you can aswell preview it. and then come here and tell me again its not 100% the same as an lvl 80 exotic. this rumor of leRNGdarys being better than exotics is getting on my nerves theres really still people who believe it.

code(copy WITH the [] things):

[&AgHvdwAA]

Jihoko.3927:

Heh, not surprised to see a passive-aggressive reply like this but you couldn’t be further from the truth. ……

Well first we are talking here about Legendary Precursors and not for Legendary Weapons.

Do you have any idea of making Legendary Weapons from Legendary Precursors ?

If is it not enough for you i don’t wanna say anything or you have no idea what you are talking about.

Since this topic for climbing prices of Legendary Precursors and etc… not about Legendary Weapons.

Rainshine.5493:

Jihoko.3927:

The reality is that as they are “legendary” weapons, only a small % of people are intended to have them, or it would defeat the purpose.

It’s in Anet’s best interest to have the biggest long-term goal actually achievable by people who want to work toward them; otherwise the game is kind of lacking in long-term goal departments if PvE is your only thing. GW1 had Obsidian Armor; took a heinous amount of gold/materials, some dropped only in two of the “elite” areas of the game (probably on par with the drop rate for the GW2 lodestones, except with harsher penalties if you died because you had to pay to get into the zone and you got kicked out if you died). The difference is you COULD learn the builds, you COULD learn the pulls/runs and farm them yourself eventually without having to have gotten in early or learned to play the market.

I’m not sure why you presume to know Anet’s intent with these things.

Jihoko.3927:

I think what people are missing is that if they changed it to a fixed recipe, it wouldn’t be any easier than it is now to simply farm the gold. It would just be more obviously, outrageously out of reach for most players than it is now.

Absolutely not, because there are no moving goalposts with a fixed recipe. With the market, that’s absolutely NOT the case. One could take the “easier” route, learn to play the market and buy them still; or one could expend one hell of a lot of effort to slowly gather/purchase materials themselves. EDIT: With a fixed recipe, that is.

Well, the name of the weapons themselves gives a good hint as to their intent. More importantly, the nature of the particle effects and appearance changes is such that if any more than a small % of people had them, performance would suffer greatly as would aesthetics. I mean, imagine a WvW battle where everyone was shooting off rainbows, leaving glowing trails of flowers as they run, etc. leading to this giant cluster of light, particle, and decal effects that would make combat not only look completely absurd, but would slow performance to a crawl. They are not your average hard-to-get end-game item, they are very, very special in how much they transform how your character looks, which is what makes them so desirable, but also what makes it necessary for only a small % to ever get them.

There are other hard-to-get items w/special skins in-game that are more reasonable that I’m guessing people going for legendary’s could go for instead. You have all the unique skins for each dungeon as well as honor badge items, and they all take quite a lot of time to achieve. The difference is that while they offer your character a unique skin, they don’t turn you into a bonified superhero of awesomness that lets you stand out from the crown, so people don’t crave them as badly. However, if they were easier to get, the irony is you wouldn’t want them as badly and honestly they would just look silly instead of special. They are extravagant, some might say overindulgent in the glam aspect, and it would be extremely undesirable for more than a small % of players to walk around w/them.

Jihoko.3927:

Killface.1896:

@ Jihoko last time I knew this was not a Koran grind fest game so yeah I believe Anet will fix this insane gold amount you need to buy stuff like Rage,
it not like you need skill to farm gold just stay in orr and farm events + buy low /sell high in trade post.

It’s not a Korean farm game if you never attempt to attain the legendary. It is not needed for end-game content. Getting geared out in exotics is all you need to do, and it is a very modest grind for end-game gear compared with most games.

I do sympathize and I’m not intending to anger or upset anyone, truly. I really think many would be happier and enjoy the game more if they simply abandoned this intense lust for a legendary weapon. Their names would not make sense if more than a small % of people had them, and the particle effects and things like flower-path footprints would lead to performance issues if too many did. It comes down to math and common sense:

1. of people grinding towards legendary weapons – # of legendary’s meant to exist = # of unhappy people whose time could be better spent on more reasonable pursuits.

Unfortunately, the current situation is there are far more people working towards legendaries than the # of them meant to exist, so there are a large # of unhappy people.

Meant to exist? So you’re implying that if I just buy the game now but so many people already have the legendarys I shouldn’t have a chance at them? Kindly pull your head out of your kitten Everybody is entitled to an equal chance to get a legendary regardless of how many have them already. Also the fairness and equality of legendarys has already gone to kitten with the people who exploited the system and now run the market. Not because I am entitled to an easy precursor. But because those people are not. They cheated, exploited and abused the system, got away with it, and are now destroying it.

The only message this sends for everybody else is that if you’re not willing to cheat and screw people over Anet doesn’t care about your time.

Anyways looks like you are trolling this topic Jihoko.3927… I’ll not answer your posts after this.

If they eventually do add a more solid option of making these precursors other than by RNG I would hope the components would come to a respectable price.

Some suggestions on here which have led to around 50ish G needed in constructing the weapon seems quite unfair to the people that have fleshed out well over 100g for the precursors.

I hate RNG too, and I believe there needs to be something done cos the market is inflating incredibly atm but …. asking for a set recipe costing well under what is needed to buy these precursors atm is unfair to the people that have legitimately farmed up all the gold.

And I doubt ANET do anything anyway, they want to ‘prolong’ it after all.

Jihoko.3927:

However, if they were easier to get, the irony is you wouldn’t want them as badly and honestly they would just look silly instead of special.

Perhaps true for you, but not for me. I think some of them are hideous; I don’t like any of the ones that my main (ele) can use, but I think Sunrise is gorgeous and worth working for (for my guardian alt). Not worth submitting myself to an RNG-driven system for, though; I swore off that nonsense in raids in other games, I’m not about to subject myself to that again here.

People don’t want moving goalposts; if you honestly think removing that single aspect would suddenly make everyone have them, I don’t really know what to say. I made myself a checklist, I know everything else required and … it’s hefty. I’d expect a fixed recipe for precursors to be equally, if not more, ridiculous than the other requirements.

You’re making a lot of assumptions that I don’t necessarily agree with.

azazil.9541:

Jihoko.3927:

Heh, not surprised to see a passive-aggressive reply like this but you couldn’t be further from the truth. ……

Well first we are talking here about Legendary Precursors and not for Legendary Weapons.

Do you have any idea of making Legendary Weapons from Legendary Precursors ?

How to Craft Legendary..

hide spoiler

Please read this before….

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/64363-legendary-weapons-guide/

If is it not enough for you i don’t wanna say anything or you have no idea what you are talking about.

Since this topic for climbing prices of Legendary Precursors and etc… not about Legendary Weapons.

I am aware of the basis of the discussion, as I am also aware that getting a legendary is a LOT of work even apart from the precursor. However, the precursors’ are the best way for Arenanet to limit the # of legendary’s in circulation. It’s hard for them to limit people from achieving time-based grinds as they are now, so their best avenue is making precursors absurdly hard to get. They have data on how many monsters are killed a day, how much loot drops, etc. so they can know exactly how many legendary weapons can be made on each server over a given time period since precursors are the current limiter. The alternative would be making precursors easier to get but greatly increasing the other grinds, which would also make people upset. They really can’t win.

I will say that it’s possibly a design flaw in this day and age, where gamers can’t accept the idea of items that are only meant for a very small % of all players. However, it seems pretty clear to me that is the intention for legendary weapons, as there are a # of other skins players can go for that still require effort but that won’t break the game if too many people have them. I personally am fine with items that only the top 1-3% will ever get, even though I am decidedly not in that group.

I enjoy games where there are haves and have nots, even though I am always in the “have nots” because to me it adds to the feeling that I’m in a virtual world. It would be silly for more than 1-3% of players to have legendary weapons that drastically alter the appearance and effects of combat. I might think one person shooting giant rainbows or leaving a trail of flowers in a battle is pretty neat, but it would get really tiresome if I saw dozens of rainbows shooting from all directions and the terrain was covered with flower decals every battle.

The supply of precursors is far too low. Without any known reliable way apart from a gamble, people are turning to the only known reliable way of getting the precursor: Spending gold in the TP and leave the chance to someone else.

That is not a good thing and is extremely unhealthy to the health of the economy. You are now creating a situation where the extremely wealthy can buy up all the supply and create a stranglehold because supply is just way too low. People who wish to sell it to legitimate buyers cannot do so because legitimate buyers who really want to buy it have to compete against price predators who want to price flip it. You cannot outprice the extremely wealthy price flippers because the sellers cannot price themselves out of normal buyer’s reach, yet the price flippers see these prices as too low and buy them up easily to create their own price point at their leisure.

And it all boils down to 1 simple reason, supply is too low. The supply is such a small trickle that the wealth of the tiny population of extremely rich price flippers can easily keep pace with buying up these cheap precursors to resell. You need to increase supply so that the supply can outstrip the ability of the price flippers to keep up with buying them up to maintain their monopoly.

Jihoko.3927:

It’s hard for them to limit people from achieving time-based grinds as they are now, so their best avenue is making precursors absurdly hard to get.

They could have looked at making them require actual skill (require unique, account-bound items from all jumping puzzles, off the top of my head, or created insanely difficult instances) rather than get lazy and turn to RNG. That’s all it is, it’s a lazy, lazy mechanic that many people tolerate in MMOs but do not enjoy.