Guild Wars 2

In a nutshell, the ascended crafting armor types are completely imbalanced right now, as far as cost of production goes. Light armor is getting the worst of it, by far. We need a lot more Bolts of Damask than the other armor types. Depending on which pieces we’re crafting, we are paying over double the cost. Why not cut back on the amount of Damask needed for heavy and medium and substitute more Elonian and Deldrimor??? For some perspective:

Current market prices-
Elonian Leather Square: 1g12s84c
Deldrimor Steel Ingot: 4g73s98c
Bolt of Damask: 11g65s0c

I don’t believe constant micro-managing of prices and recipe requirements is the answer, but one well-planned adjustment of some of these recipes would serve everyone better. Doing this would also reduce some of the grossly overpriced cloth mats like linen and silk. Whatever the case, something should be done.

There are two important points to note when looking at the price of Bolts of Damask vs Elonian Leather Squares and Deldrimor Steel:

1.)

Elonian Leather Squares and Deldrimor Steel Ingots were craftable with the weapon professions. Because of this, sellers have had time to make more and so the market has a fair amount of suppply right now unlike damask.

Those with foresight who wanted to make these materials themselves have had time to produce leather and steel on their own thus lowering the market demand on these items.

high supply + low demand = lower prices

Damask is the new kid on the block so both self producers and manufacturers haven’t had the same amount of time to produce so the price is naturally higher than the other two mats. We haven’t even had ascended armor crafting for a month yet and you’re expecting the market to be as settled and balanced as it is for materials that have been available for months.

2.)

Before ascended armor crafting was released there was a mad scramble by speculators to buy as much silk as they could at super low prices. Every day I hear stories of people buying silk by the thousands at 8 copper a piece and turning around today to sell the mats for 1 silver and 44 copper. That’s a great turn around and wisely invested.

Even smarter, more money hungry, and cutthroat, (that’s capitalism for ya) are those that are actually taking these mats and refining them into damask so that they can price gouge the market before things have settled and while people are impatient and willing to pay whatever the price.

One of my guildies is sporting full ascended light armor and bragging about buying all her damask. I’m sure if she even waited till next month she could have saved herself hundreds of gold but was compelled to keep up with the Jonses. People like her are why people like these exist.

Profiteers know these prices aren’t going to stay high forever and so are trying to milk the timing and the situation for all it’s worth especially while they’re knee deep in pre bought mats. Once these financial monsters have had their fill it will be another catalyst for prices lowering and the market stabilizing.

I feel the recipes are fine and will settle down to match something near the leather and steel; this includes the mats needed to refine the Bolts of Damask. You just have to be patient and realize that this is how things go in a free market economy. In time it will be affordable. Until then, just make something with Elonian Leather Squares.

Uvatha.5476:

I feel the recipes are fine and will settle down to match something near the leather and steel; this includes the mats needed to refine the Bolts of Damask. You just have to be patient and realize that this is how things go in a free market economy. In time it will be affordable. Until then, just make something with Elonian Leather Squares.

Quoted for truth. Just let the market work itself out. (and take advantage of it until it does)

I may have not illustrated the point that all armor trades use generous amounts of Damask, but Tailoring much more so. Damask will always be higher priced than Deldrimor or Elonian, simply because for whatever reason, it was designed to hold more value. Each person wears 6 pieces of armor and holds 2-6 weapons at a time. Armor will be generated much more than weaponry. It’s unfair that Tailors need to wait X number of months for the market to stabilize, and it won’t completely. It matters less that Damask has been on the market for less time; it’s simply that it’s overused as a component compared to anything else.

It’s not a question of market stability. With some foresight, it’s evident that Damask will always grossly outprice Deldrimor or Elonian.

Hearte.6852:

It’s not a question of market stability. With some foresight, it’s evident that Damask will always grossly outprice Deldrimor or Elonian.

Not necessarily true. Most people will make 2-3+ weapons because you can wield 1-4 weapons at a time. However, most people will only make one set of ascended armor and once they are done, the demand for mats will drastically decrease, thus lowering prices.

You’re forgetting that cloth can only be obtained through bags and salvaging. Wood and ore are much more reliable to obtain.

The Wood and Mithril for the daily ingot and wood peg can be farmed in about half an hour. Farming 100 silk will take substantially longer and on top of that there is much more demand for the damask bolts because they’re so overused in recipes.

The combination of the two makes it pretty obvious that the current price disparities are not just a minor market hickup and won’t work themselves out.

Hearte.6852:

Why not cut back on the amount of Damask needed for heavy and medium and substitute more Elonian and Deldrimor???

They wouldn’t cut back on the amount of Damask because light armor is realistically made with more damask than leather or metal. You wouldn’t see your cloth robe made entirely of metal.

It’s definitely not the best time for casual players to acquire ascended armor, especially for those who wear light armor. I think the developers could have been more inventive regarding the crafting of light armor. For example, by introducing Bolts of Damask earlier into the game or by adding a separate material for light armor which is not used by other armor classes.

The only thing I can see in favour to make ascended armor rely heavily on Bolts of Damask is that it makes the GW2 economy more healthy. Rich players are spending a lot of gold to buy Bolts of Damask because of the time-gate restraints. This makes ascended armor an effective gold-sink, thereby warranting that the inflation isn’t spiraling up. For those that can’t afford ascended armor I advise to be patient since it’s mostly a matter of time before you are also able to craft it.

Hearte.6852:

You’re forgetting that cloth can only be obtained through bags and salvaging. Wood and ore are much more reliable to obtain.

You’re forgetting that you get bags from killing stuff (everyone does that) and wood/ore from farming, which involves killing stuff as well (not everyone does that)

I’m not sure the price of silk is going to drop anytime in the foreseeable future .

Tailoring is double the amount total, but you are talking about 5400 silk scrap for everyone who wants heavy, medium and light armor in insignia alone. For a full est leather is 7200 silk scrap and it’s the lowest.

The 100 silk bolts for damask is just too high. I’d change damask in heavy to elonian for the components at lest to offload some of the silk stress. Then when it’s still to high change the 100 bolts of silk for damask to 50 or 75.

Noah.4756:

It’s definitely not the best time for casual players to acquire ascended armor.

Fixed that for you, I don’t get it why everyone is in such a rush to get this things. Just wait until the kitten market stabilizes the price.

1 Dungeon path run = 1-1.5 gold

2 Dungeon path runs = 2-3 gold per day

2 Dungeon path runs per day for a week = 14-21 gold!

Making 14-21 gold per week you can buy what ever you need!!!

Lean to do Ascalonian Catacombs path 1 (1.5 gold) and Honor of the Waves path 1 (1.0 gold)

You can do both in under an hour, you will not only get gold but, lots of other goodies!

Damask costs

# Ingredient ea total
1 Glob of Ectoplasm 38 s 26 c 38 s 26 c
40 Wool Scrap 1 s 69 c 67 s 60 c
20 Cotton Scrap 3 s 35 c 67 s
40 Linen Scrap 6 s 24 c 2 g 49 s 60 c
300 Silk Scrap 1 s 53 c 4 g 59 s
25 Spool of Gossamer Thread 64 c 16 s

Total crafting cost: 8 g 97 s 46 c

Eloinian Leather Cost

Shopping list
# Ingredient ea total
1 Glob of Ectoplasm 38 s 26 c 38 s 26 c
40 Thin Leather Section 22 c 8 s 80 c
150 Thick Leather Section 10 c 15 s
40 Rugged Leather Section 1 s 2 c 40 s 80 c
10 Cured Coarse Leather Square 1 s 7 c 10 s 70 c
10 Thermocatalytic Reagent 1 s 50 c 15 s

Total crafting cost: 1 g 28 s 56 c

Deldrimor Steel

Shopping list
# Ingredient ea total
20 Iron Ingot 4 s 89 c 97 s 80 c
50 Mithril Ingot 92 c 46 s
30 Iron Ore 1 s 79 c 53 s 70 c
40 Platinum Ore 2 s 2 c 80 s 80 c
1 Glob of Ectoplasm 38 s 38 s
10 Lump of Coal 16 c 1 s 60 c
20 Lump of Primordium 48 c 9 s 60 c
10 Thermocatalytic Reagent 1 s 50 c 15 s

Total crafting cost: 3 g 42 s 50 c

Damask is required for all insignia 3 per each.
If it were 6 G it wouldn’t be an issue the Problem is you are saying spend time farming dungeons for 21 G a week to make 2 pieces. I already know you can make more than that. I’m already about to finish my 5th piece of ascended armor. I’m just saying the fact the silk costs more the the other 2 pieces is a joke.

Noah.4756:

Rich players are spending a lot of gold to buy Bolts of Damask because of the time-gate restraints. This makes ascended armor an effective gold-sink, thereby warranting that the inflation isn’t spiraling up.

That is not a gold sink. The gold has to be removed from the game to be a sink and reduce inflation.

When rich players buy damask, the gold goes to other crafters so it is not a sink. However, the reagents and gossamer spools that crafters buy from npcs are a sink and do reduce inflation, because that gold disappears from the game.

15% of the sale price goes away in listing and transaction fees, so it is a sink.

this is so unfair! Guild mates who play medium and heavy could cheaply buy their mats, now they all have asc sets. WE with kittening light have to farm golds or materials and wait daily to craft that stupid imballanced damask…. Really great ballance really

Many findings prove the understanding of supply and demand from more then 10 000 years ago, probably is even more ancient knoweldge we just not find it yet. Some forumers have still a long way to go until they reach that lvl