Guild Wars 2

Suggestion: Add a “precursor” page to the laurel vendors. Similar to amulets, you can have the precursors require laurels and additional mats (if necessary).

Rationale: Make precursors available through a non-RNG mechanism. A similar ‘fix’ was added for ascended rings in fractals using the super-relics.

NOTE: I didn’t specify costs in laurels or materials — that’s not the point. I don’t want to lose the forest in the trees.

Um… I am not so sure on that.

1. Not sure whether time gating the Precursors is the best possible thing
2. Regardless of how much it would cost, I am against people getting something as pricy as a Precursor for doing essentially nothing
3. The pricing on the Laurels might/could/should (pick your preference) affect the price of the Precursors already on the TP
4. Even if they’re Accountbound on Acquire, it would still kitten off people if they put in something like Venom at the same price as Dusk

I’m much more in favor of the scavenger hunt type quest they have proposed in the past as it has the potential to establish lore and background for these “legendary” weapons that have no legends associated with them.

Dailies are not a sufficient parameter of playing the game. I think achievement points give a way clearer indication of who deserves to get one.

Sirendor.1394:

Dailies are not a sufficient parameter of playing the game. I think achievement points give a way clearer indication of who deserves to get one.

Not really, considering that there’s plenty of people who got thousands of Achievement points from spamming salvages before it was capped.

Only 5-10% of the gamers have more than 5k achievement points. I think 5k would be enough to buy a precursor.

I broke Olba’s post into the separate points for formatting purposes… not to take anything out of context:

Olba.5376:

1. Not sure whether time gating the Precursors is the best possible thing

Not sure why it would be harmful as you can still obtain the precursor through the RNG. The goal is a deterministic method in addition to the RNG method. Similar to what happened with fractals — play 10 times you can get a ring. It’s the backup for folks who have a bad RNG week.

Olba.5376:

2. Regardless of how much it would cost, I am against people getting something as pricy as a Precursor for doing essentially nothing

I disagree with this point more than any of your others — if you consider playing the game as “something” and not “nothing”, then laurels is a very legitimate approach to obtaining a precursor. Conversely, someone who was extremely fortunate and obtained a precursor in a few hours of play didn’t really do much at all — agreed? Finally consider that any player can spend RL money and simply buy one off the TP — obviously not really playing the game for this method either.

Olba.5376:

3. The pricing on the Laurels might/could/should (pick your preference) affect the price of the Precursors already on the TP

Maybe, but I’m not sure that’s necessary. Even if it was, then this is really just an implementation detail. Current TP prices are based upon demand. If nobody wants “Venom” then nobody will buy it using Laurel’s either. A cheap precursor doesn’t mean legendaries will magically come afterwards. Significant cost is still involved in the various Gifts which this suggestion doesn’t eliminate.

Olba.5376:

4. Even if they’re Accountbound on Acquire, it would still kitten off people if they put in something like Venom at the same price as Dusk

I like the idea of Account Bount for Laurel purchased precursors — nice addition, thx! This would reduce (but not eliminate) the impact on the TP precursor market.

Sirendor.1394:

Only 5-10% of the gamers have more than 5k achievement points. I think 5k would be enough to buy a precursor.

I’m not interested in talking about “costs” as that’s not the point. The point is a deterministic method of obtaining a precursor.

I suspect that Skill Points won’t fly as an acceptable alternative to Laurels. First, you have the concerns already noted regarding some players who “played the system” before the system was coded properly by the developers. Laurels is a newer mechanic and hasn’t had abusive loopholes (that we’re aware of).

In addition, the upper limit on the rate of acquisition is not known. This could favor gold farmers as they could switch to 24hr skill point farming as a mechanism to farm gold. We know that laurels are capped at 38-41 per month (depending upon the specific month). This is also a useful metric in determining price (again which we aren’t discussing).

Laurels are considered a burden by most of the players, and dailies are a farm that only rewards people who play daily. I don’t think that’s fair towards people who have work or school in weeks.

Sirendor.1394:

Laurels are considered a burden by most of the players, and dailies are a farm that only rewards people who play daily. I don’t think that’s fair towards people who have work or school in weeks.

Keep in mind this doesn’t replace the current RNG method of obtaining a precursor. It simply provides a deterministic “fail-safe” method as a backup. If you like the current system in place then you are not impacted (other than possible reduction in TP costs from increase supply, or reduced demand — depending if the laurel precursors are account bound or not).

Given your situation, is there an acceptable, deterministic method to obtaining a precursor that would be fair (in your eyes)?

On a side note, I don’t think your statement “Laurels are considered a burden by most of the players” is accurate. I think it applies to you, but definitely not to me. I doubt you could back up “most” factually.

I think I can, in my guild, I hear about every evening, ‘ah kitten I need to do the daily’, or ‘hold on I need to farm this node to complete daily’. Most people try to complete it, but they go out of their way for doing it, and they don’t enjoy doing it.

There’s also a complete post with complains about dailies, I think in the “guild wars 2 discussion” subforum.

Sirendor.1394:

Only 5-10% of the gamers have more than 5k achievement points. I think 5k would be enough to buy a precursor.

And that is because most of the people doesn’t care about the achivement points. If you will give precursors for 5k achiv points people will start to farm them, as for now it doesn’t make any sense to farm the achievement points on purpose.

I would like to buy a precursor using achievement points or laurels. Yes please.

I would prefer a mission, scavenger type hunt… That could really test your skills as a player if ANet implemented it correctly.

Again, this post is about entitlement. Everyone feels entitled to a legendary weapon and if you log on often enough you should have one. Unfortunately this sort of entitlement makes legendary weapons effectively worthless and not at all legendary.

Stooperdale.3560:

Again, this post is about entitlement. Everyone feels entitled to a legendary weapon and if you log on often enough you should have one. Unfortunately this sort of entitlement makes legendary weapons effectively worthless and not at all legendary.

Completely untrue and bigoted.

Nobody asked for anything for “free”, nor for simply “logging on”. This is a discussion on how to obtain a precursor in a deterministic way (if you don’t understand deterministic then crack open a dictionary — check out bigoted as well).

Precursor != Legendary
Deterministic != Free
RNG != “I earned it”

(Legend: “!=” is “not equals”)