Guild Wars 2

I know this is over a year late but I wasn’t able to play for a while nor was I at the point of needing to buy cultural armor. However, now I’m to the point where I want to for my one char and I have discovered that they now cost coins!! Not the least of which is the fact that they are expensive. As someone who doesn’t have hours to invest in farming lots of gold I find 119 gold for a full set pretty steep. Why was it changed from karma anyway? I thought that system was really good, that cultural armor and weapons cost karma. For all I care it can be 40k-60k a piece like other armor sets but I’m not sure I’m too excited about them costing gold. Especially if you want the achievement that’s a LOT of gold to spend, not to mention that I wouldn’t keep the armor for most classes because it’s just plain ugly. What’s up with this?

cultural armor has never been a karma thing so im not sure what you’re talking about there . as for why it costs gold, to take gold out of the economy . It’s as simple as that .

Adine.2184:

cultural armor has never been a karma thing so im not sure what you’re talking about there . as for why it costs gold, to take gold out of the economy . It’s as simple as that .

Actually it was until September last year.

They should cost gems. How about grinding a real job for a month to pay for armor skins?

Nope. Always been bought with coins. Maybe you’re thinking about cultural weapons?

Surprisingly enough, they do seem to have been karma at one point. I thought they were always gold.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cultural_armorsmith
Cultural armorsmith
Cultural armorsmith icon.
Cultural armorsmiths are NPCs that sell racially restricted cultural armors to your character in exchange for gold (changed from karma, see below).
Armorsmiths have “[Cultural Armorsmith Tier #]” as a suffix to their names, where # is 1, 2, or 3.
Each armor set sold by cultural armorsmiths features a unique skin and increases in attribute bonuses, defense levels, and cost as the tier increases.

Doesn’t say there when it changed.

Astral Projections.7320:

Surprisingly enough, they do seem to have been karma at one point. I thought they were always gold.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cultural_armorsmith
Cultural armorsmith
Cultural armorsmith icon.
Cultural armorsmiths are NPCs that sell racially restricted cultural armors to your character in exchange for gold (changed from karma, see below).
Armorsmiths have “[Cultural Armorsmith Tier #]” as a suffix to their names, where # is 1, 2, or 3.

Each armor set sold by cultural armorsmiths features a unique skin and increases in attribute bonuses, defense levels, and cost as the tier increases.

Doesn’t say there when it changed.

It does: “see below” refers to a note where it says that it was changed to coins sometime in September 2012. I got there somehow but I don’t remember via which link exactly.

Aechidna.3084:

Astral Projections.7320:

Surprisingly enough, they do seem to have been karma at one point. I thought they were always gold.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cultural_armorsmith
Cultural armorsmith
Cultural armorsmith icon.
Cultural armorsmiths are NPCs that sell racially restricted cultural armors to your character in exchange for gold (changed from karma, see below).
Armorsmiths have “[Cultural Armorsmith Tier #]” as a suffix to their names, where # is 1, 2, or 3.

Each armor set sold by cultural armorsmiths features a unique skin and increases in attribute bonuses, defense levels, and cost as the tier increases.

Doesn’t say there when it changed.

It does: “see below” refers to a note where it says that it was changed to coins sometime in September 2012. I got there somehow but I don’t remember via which link exactly.

To explain this. I had to do some diggings. The wiki is maintained and handled by players. untill the september 7, 2012 the icon on the wiki was of an armorsmith with a karma symbol. However there is no indication when the actual in game change was. The update notes don’t mention it. In those days the active contributors to the wiki where extremely busy cause the game was just recently released. So it is very possible that the merchants where karma merchants only during beta.

A change like this magnitude would be noted i nthe update notes, I’ve gone through all update notes in august and september 2012, and it isn’t mentioned. so it is safe to say that from the release off the game the cultural armor always have sold for gold. Anything during beta falls udner a non-disclosure agreement that still stands, but should never been seen as a desirable state of the game.

As an example revisions of the achievement shows there where also plans to make 4 tiers of cultural armor instead of 3. This pre-release redesign can easily be done on purpose.

As for the suggestion to change it to karma armor (not back cause technically it has never been that way) I would say no. The recent karma patch made karma less available and harder to get.

The amount of gold needed to buy a set of cultural armor is cheap, but the achievment points rewarded are steep as well.

Also keep in mind the title is an elitst title. As in any game not all titles should be easy one-two click. most are, but some are not.

mercury ranique.2170:

AAnything during beta falls udner a non-disclosure agreement that still stands, but should never been seen as a desirable state of the game.

Just wanted to note that there was no NDA for the Beta weekends, which are what most players probably think of for Beta, since the ones that had a real NDA were invitation-only. By the time they were ready to open the floodgates for the massive number of pre-purchasers, the game was far enough along that they were more interested in getting good exposure than in protecting unfinished content/systems.

No idea when the cultural armors changed currencies, though. /shrug

I defintely know that Cultural armor has always been coin since headstart at least. And you only have to ask yourself 1 question: “Are the skins worth that much coin?”. If the answer is yes then obviously you’re willing to work for it. If the answer is no then suck it up and look for cheaper alternatives.

To the OP:
While I agree the price is over the top if you want the skin, earn the skin. It’s a skin, not a must have. And as for the achievement, well, are you likely to kill 1000 giants?

To get slightly off topic:
Why is Cultural Armour rare armour? Once you’ve spent a large chunk of gold on it you then also have to use transmutation crystals to actually use it. It should either be a skin that is applied or Exotic with the stat choice option, like the gloves from the Clocktower event.

puretom.4072:

To the OP:
While I agree the price is over the top if you want the skin, earn the skin. It’s a skin, not a must have. And as for the achievement, well, are you likely to kill 1000 giants?

To get slightly off topic:
Why is Cultural Armour rare armour? Once you’ve spent a large chunk of gold on it you then also have to use transmutation crystals to actually use it. It should either be a skin that is applied or Exotic with the stat choice option, like the gloves from the Clocktower event.

I completely agree. The cultural armor is rare making it useless in the long run anyway, making the high gold price more expensive than it needs to be. Also, 6 transmutation stones as well as over 100 gold solely for a skin is quite the price to pay. There really is no thought out reason behind selling the cultural armor other than for the skin or the achievement since the stats aren’t great and it’s only rare. The achievement may be an elitist one, yes, but I think to make an achievement (set) that big based solely on how much people have the time to blindly grind and then spend money on items that will be chucked after they’re worn is a little daft. (And when I first started playing over a year ago I could have sworn having gone to the armorsmiths and checking out what they offer and seeing prices in karma. I guess unless we get a red post on here we won’t really know 100%.)
Karma would be something different, even after the patch if I take with me almost every event I pass I gather a good deal of karma. I don’t play all too much and I’m heading towards 700k karma at the moment. It’s do-able.

It’s novelty and a slight bonus at certain levels. Let’s suppose that you want to do map completion through your race’s zone. Suppose further you are going to sell drops and ores. You will be able to buy T1 and T2. You will be op for a level or two, but it doesn’t matter. You look good, and you did something that you wanted to do. You also probably won’t change gear for 10 levels.

1.) That doesn’t apply to cultural weapons, which as bought with karma. You probably don’t have that kind of karma ready to spend unless you already had it saved.
2.) It doesn’t apply to T3 because of the drastic jump in price. But you are 80. Are you really wanting the T3 cultural set right away?

In my case, I have it on a character. But that’s only because I gave up on crafting a legendary, sold the T6 mats, and wanted something on the character to show for the work. She’s hawt, right?

See this exactly what I want to do. I don’t spend karma, like ever. Because there’s not that much worth buying with it. All the light armor skins for humans I don’t find nice except the one you’ve got there (that’s the one I plan on getting). I’m also not the type of player to farm or craft or buy lots of stuff pre 80 because I just don’t think it’s worth it. You bust your way through the stories, instances and areas fine with the stuff you find. Then you do dungeons and gear up. (Don’t get me started on crafting, my highest level atm is kind of a sad joke not to mention I don’t have the time to farm enough materials for me to get anywhere in this millennium.) However, the dungeon gear that I’m going for for the stats is ugly and plain as all heck. So yea, once I have my dungeon gear and am ready for the skin I do want the whole T3 set right away because it looks so nice!

puretom.4072:

To get slightly off topic:
Why is Cultural Armour rare armour? Once you’ve spent a large chunk of gold on it you then also have to use transmutation crystals to actually use it. It should either be a skin that is applied or Exotic with the stat choice option, like the gloves from the Clocktower event.

Excellent question. Order Armor is acceptable at rare quality because it’s 10g for an entire set, but as no single piece of t3 cultural armor costs less than 12g, it just seems reasonable that it should be exotic. 12g for a piece of soulbound exotic armor is hardly going to disrupt the TP market for exotics.

Someone could, and probably has, argued that it’s just an attempt to nickle and dime players via transmutation crystals, but I think it feels more like an oversight than anything, something that was decided early on and then never brought up to par with the availability of exotic stat gear. Even if it doesn’t get changed to “pick your own stat” gear like the Mad King gloves, I think it could at least stand to be exotic-quality.