I’d like to thank you guys for pointing this out (even if I’m going to diss the reason to be so tricky about getting an armor you want for a particular character of yours in the following lines), because if ArenaNet doesn’t stop this silly armor-restriction/discrimination thing, I’m going to have to resort to this shrewd way to acquire the pieces I desire.
I think it is nonsense to prevent players from getting an item they want. Not only do they go back on their words about EVERY armor worn by NPCs in the game being available to EVERY player, this decision is just plain stupid from the viewpoint of the story. Let’s see:
Our characters are the godblessed Commanders of a coalition against the greatest threat that has ever plagued Tyria. Without the uber skills – diplomatic, martial, and arcane – that silly Pact of theirs would be trampled to death and reanimated by Zhaitan’s will. EVERY single Order of Tyria owes you a great debt for babysitting Trahearne and actually leading the forces to Arah and victory, thus effectively ensuring the survival of their orders and life on Tyria as we know it. (And then there are the personal debts, even if our characters were never part of one of the orders: helping countless Priory scholars to ancient lore (+ without our help they could’ve never ever gotten their grubby hands on the lore stored in Orr and Arah), the dozens of Whispers agents whose “kittens” we had to bail out of trouble, and the hundreds of Vigil crusaders we had to revive after they’d gotten themselves owned by rushing headlong into a Risen horde). If I was the leader of one of these Orders, I’d feel ashamed if I didn’t cater to every need of the hero that saved all of us… and yet they hush you away as if you were nothing more than a filthy vagrant who stumbled into their oh-so-important-and-secret-and-well-defended headquarters. >_<
And before someone would start screaming that by making all of these armor independent of the Order choice the whole fuss about choosing and Order and being a member in good standing would be made pointless, here are some things to consider:
If the whole Order choice comes down to the question of “which armor I want for my character” for so many people, then something had really gone south in the implementation and writing of the three Orders. This would mean that the orders are basically clones of each other and save for your mentor, a few quests, some extra dialogue here and there and the armor skins there’s nothing else to these organizations (storywise!) that would yield a different experience. And unfortunately, I’m afraid that this is the case.
How to solve all this? In future patches add more to the orders so the future personal story steps (hopefully there will be) all lead to divergent conclusion, post-Zhaitan. And at the same time they should lift this silly restriction and allow players to get whatever armor they want. No betrayal of design philosophies and no tricky ways needed to get items you want to get. What’s more, right now it feels like this tinkering was an intended loophole to milk people for money and gems: you need 2 Fine Transmutation Stones/armor piece in order to acquire your desired piece… food for thought.
