Guild Wars 2

The whole outcome of having craftable precursors is still largely up in the air for me.

Introducing a reliable supply for precursors will most certainly lower their prices. However, the extent that such a price drop will increase the demand for legendaries (and subsequently their other materials) is a tough one to call because it is dependent upon so many variables.

The big one that comes to mind is this: how prohibitive is the effect of precursor prices (as they currently stand) to the overall demand for a legendary? Seeing big triple digit price tags can certainly be intimidating, but what I am interested in is to what degree, especially compared to the other prohibitive hurdles blocking the way to a purple weapon. While an increase in precursor supply would surely increase the number of legendaries crafted, to what extent would that number be mitigated by the already cost-prohibitive Gift of Fortune, Map Completion and other requirements? Compared to Ascended crafting, Legendary crafters are a niche, less-mainstream demographic, and a worst case scenario would be that only people on the fence about committing to a legendary would be swayed.

Another concern is that ArenaNet may not want legendaries to be commonplace things. While more legendaries are seen everyday, it would be bad for business if suddenly they became something like WoW’s sparkle pony mount, i.e., things of beauty made tacky and unremarkable because they are literally everywhere. Mock if you must, but there is BIG money to be made catering to the “Unique Snowflake” crowd. I believe it is to that crowd that Guild Wars 2 owes much of its success. That being said, one can reasonably expect the developers and designers to tightly leash the availability afforded by such changes. Such fine-tuning could be the very reason we haven’t seen or heard much about precursor crafting at all.

In any case, I can definitely foresee the overall cost of legendary materials going up. I also foresee several possible mitigating factors which could cut into potential profits from this venture, or at least shorten the window for that profit.

If they make crafting precursors equivalent in gold to the average cost (per precursor) of using the mystic toilet, there might not be much change in the number of precursors created.

I was thinking the same thing. If I recall a Dev post around the time they discussed the old “scavenger hunt” idea, they stated that they were concerned with the overall price growth of precursors in general.

In light of your comment, it might even be a good idea to adjust the cost of crafting the precursors to approximately match their target ideal price, and simply let natural market forces push the price back down.

I like your idea.

I think it’s much more likely that any precursor you can craft will be a new precursor for a new legendary (one that’s not available to be MF’ed or found).
Like when they added ascended, how every different type is from different sources. They seem to really like this.

I think the majority of mats for crafted pre cursors will be account bound currencies, or vendor stuff like Icy Runestones, if they want to put a gold value into it.
I would also prefer, if crafted pre cursors would be account bound as well, so they only influence the demand on “regular” ones, not the supply.

As the OP stated, the sudden demand in mats for the gifts and their most likely price spike are way more concerning for the overall economy, especially for stuff like Silver Doubloons.

Moreh.6385:

Another concern is that ArenaNet may not want legendaries to be commonplace things.

Except they are commonplace. And they are meaningless, being simply pretty objects to display. This is the issue with how anet have implemented the legendary system. It should be a trophy reflective of skill, of overcoming a hard challenge, but it aint. As it stands the liadri mini is a far better trophy than a legendary.

morrolan.9608:

Moreh.6385:

Another concern is that ArenaNet may not want legendaries to be commonplace things.

Except they are commonplace. And they are meaningless, being simply pretty objects to display. This is the issue with how anet have implemented the legendary system. It should be a trophy reflective of skill, of overcoming a hard challenge, but it aint. As it stands the liadri mini is a far better trophy than a legendary.

So your Mini Liadri can change stats?

morrolan.9608:

Except they are commonplace. And they are meaningless, being simply pretty objects to display. This is the issue with how anet have implemented the legendary system. It should be a trophy reflective of skill, of overcoming a hard challenge, but it aint. As it stands the liadri mini is a far better trophy than a legendary.

I would have to disagree that obtaining a legendary isn’t a challenge, as well as the notion that they are commonplace. There are certainly more than there used to be, but also keep in mind that many with legendaries like to strut around in main cities around each other, inadvertently giving the impression that everyone and their dogs has crafted a legendary in their sleep because “I can see 5 right there.”

Walking around max-level areas and taking samples of players with legendaries as a percentage of total players encountered, and you’ll find that the ratio is much lower than the concentrated show-offs in Lion’s Arch might have you believe.

Moreh.6385:

morrolan.9608:

Except they are commonplace. And they are meaningless, being simply pretty objects to display. This is the issue with how anet have implemented the legendary system. It should be a trophy reflective of skill, of overcoming a hard challenge, but it aint. As it stands the liadri mini is a far better trophy than a legendary.

I would have to disagree that obtaining a legendary isn’t a challenge, as well as the notion that they are commonplace. There are certainly more than there used to be, but also keep in mind that many with legendaries like to strut around in main cities around each other, inadvertently giving the impression that everyone and their dogs has crafted a legendary in their sleep because “I can see 5 right there.”

Walking around max-level areas and taking samples of players with legendaries as a percentage of total players encountered, and you’ll find that the ratio is much lower than the concentrated show-offs in Lion’s Arch might have you believe.

I think what he means is that Legendaries can be bought and sold on the TP, so having one is not as prestigious as it ought to be.

From my perspective, A precursor is just another material that you need, like any other material you can purchase; they should be sellable. I don’t think Anet actually cares if legendaries are commonplace or not; why would they? They obviously want all people have a means to get one …

Legendary aren’t about prestige or a fancy skin … it’s about a configurable weapon. My take is that precursors that you can sell might have some downward pressure because people will be able to gauge their time for the reward, as opposed to gambling on MF. ON the other hand, how many people are going to MF rares for a precursor? I think the biggest impact is that ectos are going to get really cheap.

Obtena.7952:

Legendary aren’t about prestige or a fancy skin … it’s about a configurable weapon.

Boy have things changed. Originally, Legendaries were definitely about the prestige and fancy skin. Now I see more and more people wanting them just because of the configurability (seeing as the Ascended grind is pretty unpleasant).

In my opinion ascended weapon are the perfect precursors for legendary weapons. Not directly of course, just as a basis for further refinements towards a precursor. For example stat combinations could be unlocked on an ascended item and once you got them all, it is a precursor.

Pros:

• Because ascended weapons are already in the game it is easier to implement.
• Getting ascended weapons is a part-success on the long road to a legendary weapon. Not many people use the current precursors, but lots of people use ascended weapons. This also makes ascended weapons are more short time goal than legendary ones and not an alternative path.
• If they introduce legendary armor/trinkets in the future they can do the same thing for their precursors.
• No progress is lost if you decide to make a legendary item after already getting its ascended counterpart.
• Ascended items are account bound, thereby limiting its impact on the trading post.
• The problem of ascended items locking you into on build is solved, as they are now extensible. You can just acquire the stat combinations you want and stop right there if you are not interested in legendary stuff.

I think if they introduce craftable precursors they should be account bound, and the legendaries that come from it accountbound as well. This way the market doesn’t crash and people can still obtain them.

What makes you think the market would crash if the were sellable …. other than just saying it?

Obtena.7952:

What makes you think the market would crash if the were sellable …. other than just saying it?

The market would crash if it was sellable and significantly cheaper than current precursors.

People are going to price based on demand/supply regardless of how their items are obtained. I’m pretty certain that Anet isn’t going to simply have them drop from trash mobs so it’s a safe bet that the whole market for precursors won’t crash. Frankly, the price could go up too, depending on the perception of players on how easy it is to craft vs. MF/purchasing it. We simply don’t know. What I do know is that a fear of something changing isn’t a reason to insist avoiding something be implemented.

I don’t see a problem if this crashed anyways … I hold little sympathy for people that speculate without acknowledging the risk associated with it. That’s just not a responsible approach.