Guild Wars 2

I can understand having limited runs on tonics, minis, cosmetic skins and seasonal materials like snowflakes, nougat etc., but I cannot think of any good reason why crafting recipes (which provide functional and economic benefits) should only be made available during a specific one-off event, and then are never made available again. It’s even worse when some of those limited recipes are account bound on acquire so you can’t even get them on the TP. I’m talking about sigil, rune and food recipes that were only available during LW season 1, but there may be other “retirees” too.

There were recipes made available during several of the LWS1 episodes which are now impossible (or nearly so) to obtain, and this basically gives some players an exclusive market position on functional (as opposed to merely cosmetic) items. As it stands, no functional equivalents exist for the majority of these limited-run items. Some of the recipes are still available on the TP, but once the existing stock of them is sold there will be no more.

• Sigils
  • Bursting
  • Malice
  • Momentum
  • Renewal
• Runes
  • Exuberance
  • Perplexity
  • Resistance
  • Tormenting
• Food
  • Dragon’s Revelry Starcake
  • Marjory’s Experimental Chili
  • Bowl of Garlic Kale Sautee
  • Bowl of Refugee’s Beet Soup
  • Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup
  • Bowl of Zesty Turnip Soup
  • Carrot Soufflé
  • Mushroom Loaf
  • Plate of Frostgorge Clams
  • Plate of Spicy Herbed Chicken
  • Spicy Marinated Mushroom

Cosmetic items like skins and so forth are not relevant to this post, but the recipes for functional items should be made available again. With their continued unavailability, players who were able to obtain these recipes (during very brief windows of access) have effectively been granted permanent patents on those functional products by Anet.

To quote Stephane Lo Presti on a different but related GW1 topic a couple years ago:

Those items have been exclusive for years. If you haven’t gotten enjoyment out of your pumpkin head by now, then it isn’t really the item that you love – it’s the fact that someone else doesn’t have it. A hat is an item that is bound to your character, and the prestige associated relies on standing in an outpost and hoping that someone notices your character. I feel more comfortable offering up items like these than I do offering exclusives that convey tangible benefits, or undermine the spirit in which they were given. Festivals are a reason for players to get together and have fun in the game, and the hat is a nice bonus/reason for being there. With some of our holidays (Halloween, Wintersday), being there for those finales isn’t always possible, and we’ve made a few changes to make some of them more accessible. But there’s been no shortage of people asking to have a way to get hats from years prior.

Emphasis added. (source)

I want that Dragon Revelry Starcake recipe (it’s the ONLY learned recipe I’m missing), so /supported. I was hoping to get another chance for it during Dragon Bash this year, but as we all know that got cancelled…

It’s possible that we will get access to the various Molten Facility recipes again when LS1 is brought back (at an indeterminate time in the future).

If I remember right, the Starcake was supposed to be a gemstore rng-reward that was soon awarded to everyone that had bought one of the associated Dragon Chests due to some bug.

Aside from that and Marjorie’s Chili, the other food recipes are, seriously, NOT WORTH IT. Other than for completeness’ sake, the things use an exponentially increased amount of ingredients for an incremental boost over some other foodstuff that would serve just as well. You will buy the sheets but likely never make them. You can’t even make trays of them.

The runes/sigils are really handy, particularly Bursting and Perplexity. Those should make a return.