Guild Wars 2

Please note that this is my personal opinion, and it doesn’t mean I’m right. These are just my thoughts on it.

To begin with, I want to get some things out of the way as a few posters might have recognized my posts in this sub-section.

Originally, as I continuously threw exotics and rares into the mystic forge and received nothing in return, I began to question why there was no set recipe for the items in the game and voiced this opinion on the forums. My opinion has changed on the matter, and this is why.

I have a friend who originally foresaw what would happen and purchased his dusk when it was still 60g, by selling every single item he had in deposit and well as in his inventory.

My friend is now almost complete his twilight, while I have the majority of items except Dawn/Dusk as well as the gift of x weapon, as I want to see what I get from the mystic forge before I work on that component.

Fast-forward to today, we get into a debate about this and I bring up having a set recipe for the weapon. My friend disagrees and I tell him he’s only against it because he already has the weapon.
For obvious reasons he gets annoyed, and tells me I am entitled and that having a set recipe would only ruin the game in the long-term and explained why.

After his explanation and examples from past games he gave where changes like this were made to a game, I realized he was right. Having a set recipe would only ruin the hunt in the long-term, and here’s why.

Legendary Weapons are meant to be very special, if there is a set recipe, that means everyone will eventually be able to get it so long as they invest the time in to it. You might say this is a selfish reasoning, but think about it.

The way it is right now, the other components aren’t very difficult to get as is. If a set recipe is introduced, a large amount of grinding will have to be introduced to justify it. I am afraid that if the requirements aren’t too difficult, lots of players will be running around with a legendary in 3-6 months.

I feel like there is a lot of reasons why people are feeling so much anger and frustration and this is because of a few reasons I will try to outline.

Lack of Information

There is a severe lack of information as to how to get these weapons, besides through the community’s efforts to figure them out. The only ways we know are the following:
1. Random world drop and from Temple events in Orr as well as Claw of Jormag.
2. (Post-patch) players reported only getting precursors from 80+ rares and 71+ Exotics.
3. Purchasing from the trading post for 200-300g.

It would greatly help if we could get some information or a breakdown on which level of rares or exotics gives us a higher chance to get a pre-cursor. This will help the economy and player-base get a better understanding of what their chances are.

Alpha Testers

The first person to technically(bugged temple) craft a legendary was an alpha tester. They were ahead of everyone else in regards to how to get the pre-cursor as everything besides the acquisition of it was changed.

Exploits

There was an exploit where players could use level 65 rares in combination with other higher leveled weapons and got a higher chance of receiving a pre-cursor through this method.

Their items were not destroyed.

Possible Market Manipulation

Nobody can confirm that it is going on, but many believe players who did the sword exploit are now controlling the market for these weapons. This can not be confirmed, so it’s a sketchy point.

Possible solutions

Let players know the odds

Right now, it’s a mindless gamble and there are so many differing opinions as to what item gives a higher probability of a pre-cursor.

I truly believe if people knew the probability of getting a pre-cursor and what level of item will give you a higher chance, the complaints would die down, as players would have nobody to blame but themselves if they received nothing from the Mystic Forge.

Put a reasonable cap on pre-cursors
This is a very difficult suggestion to implement, as I personally don’t think anyone should tell someone what their item is worth.

What it would do is let people know the items’ value and give them an idea of how much they have to work to purchase it. As it is now dusk is around 300g, I can’t see many trying to buy it if it continues going up.

It would most likely just lead to people ignoring the trading post and spamming map chat which could lead to scamming and various other issues. I don’t really think this is a good idea, but it’s an idea.

tl;dr People are mad and want pre-cursors. Give them numbers,or cap Pre-cursor price.

My guildbuddy just bought 4 Ebonblades, threw them into the Forge and got Dawn out of it. I don´t have the money and play Thief, but i guess that 4 named rares have a much higher chance to get a legendary precursor than the random exotics?

Did anyone else try throwing in 4 named exotics?

Funny that you chose to mention that you play Thief ^_~

In any case, this sounds like it’s worth trying, although your friend might have simply gotten lucky.

Your friend got lucky, I have met people who put 71’s random exotics and level 80 rares in and got precursors on their first try. It’s purely luck unless arenanet say’s otherwise.

Celestea.4105:

Your friend got lucky, I have met people who put 71’s random exotics and level 80 rares in and got precursors on their first try. It’s purely luck unless arenanet say’s otherwise.

I know that he was lucky, but still the chances should be higher the rarer the item is right?

Uder.9187:

Celestea.4105:

Your friend got lucky, I have met people who put 71’s random exotics and level 80 rares in and got precursors on their first try. It’s purely luck unless arenanet say’s otherwise.

I know that he was lucky, but still the chances should be higher the rarer the item is right?

It’s possible, but we can’t know for sure. We’ll have to find people willing enough to sacrifice =P

It’s possible that rarer items have higher odds, but it’s not what I would usually expect; the Mystic Forge typically seems to only care about the level of the item, and whether it’s white/blue/green/yellow/orange.

IF this is true (again its just mere speculation at this point), then this would be the method people have been searching for in getting precursors with no rng. However, I really doubt this is the case and your friend just got lucky (though possibly better odds
due to all weapons being exotic).

So is it confirmed that 71 exotics will do the trick? Will 71 rares as well or do they need to be 75+?

They’re going for around 4g right now on the TP, not sure if I want to buy 4 and try it out….

I wouldn’t bother, if I were you.

I wouldn’t either. I’m just sticking with rares when it comes to it.

1) Cheaper
2) You can atleast get an exotic out of it, so you get an upgrade. 4 exotics=exotic not much room for improvement…

FTR there was a scam going on with people trying to bump the price of named weapons. This sounds dangerously close to someone working on trying bumping the price of ebonblades…

So I’ve been reading a lot of legendary discussions here. Among threats of rage quits, “OMFG RNG is so broken,” and QQing about the TP hoarders for precursors. I’m curious if people think the legendary is “better” than you standard end game exotics…

So here’s what I see. Thousands of people are “going for a legendary” until they realize the amount of grind and RNG you go through. Then people are crying about price gouging on the TP for precursors.

Precursors are, IMHO, a smaller piece of the legendary to be farmed. I don’t think people understand this entirely. The grind to gather the hundreds of thousands of karma for shards, no less than 250 of EVERY tier 6 trophy, WvW badges, full world explore, giant piles of ecto, all of these overshadow the precursor as far as time investment.

If you’ve decided on your legendary, you have the two crafting gifts that need filled out as well, which is likely to have at least one stack of a tier 6 trophy, among other bits to be farmed aka dungeon trophies/lodestones….

I think too much focus is on the precursors, they will come as the grind continues. Don’t focus on just one step.

The other side of the coin here is the fact that the legendary weapons while uniquely skinned, are no “better” than your run-of-the-mill exotics as far as stats. They are unique skins for sure, but offer no technical benefit over their exotic counterparts.

Let the flaming and trolling continue. Like I said, this is my observations. and yes, I’m “going for a legendary” as well. I don’t even know what I’m gonna make yet, but I’ve thrown in 20-30 rare swords, 20 or so axes, couple longbows, 20 or so rifles, and a handful of harpoon guns. haven’t gotten lucky yet, but I have gotten a few named exotics that sold for 4-5 gold. can’t complain about that too much. and guess where that profit went? right back into the forge…. so should I be QQing too? I’m taking my time building up the rest of the stuff that will be needed….and OMG, enjoying just playing the game?!

To quote an old buddy from my UO days….

MOAR pew pew, less QQ.

The complaints, by and large, are not about the grind but about the blatent profiteering that is going on with the legendaries. Grind, time and money is all fine, seeing people buy them up just so that they can flip them on the TP though rubs many up the wrong way.

Karma is actually so easy to get especially after this update.
Badges apparently done in less then a week as well with alts.
Dungeon tokens – 180 per day…

All ectos and T6 mats can be bought from TP and u’ll probably get about 30% of them just farming karma.
I’m not worried about ANYTHING else, but the precursor. I only started farming for legendary 1 week ago, I decided to start from karma farming and I get a lot of cash + ectos + t6 mats while farming. I’ll need that cash for crafted gifts and icy runestones.
But after I have all 3 gifts I still need the precursor which is either 300 kittening gold for 1 item, or 0.1-1% chance from forge. Great stuff.

I can’t enjoy the game if I’d throw 100g into the forge and get nothing back, doesn’t work like that for me.

I dont mind the pre-cursors being rare thats fair enough but in the last few days i personally have dropped somewhere in the region of 13-1400 rares in the mystic forge and got nothing, then i see screenshots of players who used the karma bug to fill their bags with these precursors after being let of the leash as it were and cant help but feel like the general rule of thumb is if you exploit you get rich

someone on my server got a dusk drop doing plinx event, he sold it for 279G lol

Well, what was the original bug people were exploiting to get a lot of precursors for cheap? It was 4x some named rare called Godskull something-or-other, wasn’t it? Perhaps using a named in general does have a higher probability – I wouldn’t put it past the designers. Doubt it would be guaranteed, though.

I have also Mystic Forged a good sum of rares/exotics… maybe around 1000, and have yet to see any precursor. It definitely gives you that casino feel when you realize your aiming for that Corvette spinning above the Mystic Forge while getting the smaller rewards over and over. Going for greatswords I believe I have got every named exotic there is besides Dusk/Dawn. So the chances are reallllllllly slim. Which makes it so disheartening that some got away with a bunch just because the recipe table was borked.

Legendary items do have better stats than exotics. It’s not a lot but its enough.

My only complaint is how it doesn’t really feel legendary to get lucky from throwing money into a fountain and praying it spits out a precursor. I understand that the traditional methods of getting unique weaponry held by legendary figures are also luck, but it just felt great to strip them of their weapon and wield it in your own hands. Or to take pieces of an artifact lost long ago to create something powerful and extraordinary. Here you have to play the gambling game until you finally get the blasted thing.

Getting everything else in the meantime is simple, you just don’t think about it. Its the precursor that defines the rest of your farming adventure. I’m bad at making money and playing the TP, but I’ll still manage to toss in 4 rare X every so often. I’ll eventually get it but it just doesn’t feel like I’m really gearing towards a legendary. At least I have my Juju.

The dungeons are a right pain in my rear though.

My main frustration is of chasing a fleeting goal. Right now I could buy a precursor for a mere 135g. I would spend it if I had it. Last week it was 80g. before that it was 35g. So If I start saving up 135g the likelyhood is that 135g will not be near enough by the time I get there. I have no problem chasing a difficult goal…just don’t like chasing a goal moving away from me like a speeding train.

Andulvar.4265:

Legendary items do have better stats than exotics. It’s not a lot but its enough.

another player who has no clue. gotta love these guys.

@ OP youre just plain wrong with what you say. defending rng mechanics is only done by people who got lucky already or are blindsided fanboys. gw2 has MANY issues currently in its endgame content and leRNGderys are one of them.

RARE has nothing do to with RNG. rng is a bad and lazy game mechanic to make people play the same thing again and again and again without rewarding them. best way to kill an mmo comm. just look what happend to aion back then. there where the same people like you on thier forums defending the RNG mess and look where that game is now. this happens if you make endgame based 100% on RNG.

face it the system is stupid by design. the dev who tought of this should simply be fired on the spot. sorry.

We have been watching the prices climbing on Legendary precursors and share your concerns about some of them becoming too expensive. We will continue to monitor the situation and will make any adjustments we feel are necessary.

The need to monitor this is gone – it is time for action. The select few who EXPLOITED consistent recipes for creating the precursors are the ones dominating the market and causing this extreme instability. I highly doubt it is difficult to track those people down and take corrective measures. As I see it now, a very large portion of the issues in game, such as farming and diminished returns are directly related to the escalating prices of these legendary precursors. People will farm to pay the ridiculous price and the profiteering exploiters will raise the price since it will continue to be met.

/rant

On another note… There has been so little information shared on how to obtain precursors that allows this rampant economic instability to get worse. So throw us a bone here, help us to help you:

How are precursors INTENDED to be acquired?
Is RNG (Mystic Forge/Drop) the only way to get them or is there a specific recipe (Crafting/Mystic Forge) available for precursors as well?

Would appreciate any feedback. Thanks Anet.

So can you get a precursor using level 76+ Exotics or not? Must they be level 80+ now? I created 2 precursors using 76+ “Exotics”, note not rares, before. It would be really frustrating to know I have been throwing away money chasing what once worked just fine.

Its already been stated by the dev that the forge is the only way to get them. However, they throw around so many half truths (like this thread, and the one about no DR on the forge), anything they say can be taken with a grain of salt at this point.

Yeah, I agree. I’m fine with them being rare, but it’s a real slap in the face that the Godskull exploiter wasn’t banned/suspended/had his stuff rolled back. I’ve put hundreds of rares into the Forge with nothing to show for it. It does definitely feel like you’re just given a free pass to make massive sums of money and get the best items if you exploit, but have no chance by doing it the legitimate way.

I believe the pre cursors, specially the greatsword and staff is being monopolized by a few that managed to exploit it. They will keep buying from each other and jacking up the prices. Until someone else buys/place a high order and they have hundreds of gold of profit.

You guys really need to add a set recipe, even if it is an absurd of grind to keep the pre cursor prices reasonable. As right now, we either have to play hundreds of hours to farm for gold, or gamble on the mystic forge. And after seeing so many others gambling high numbers and getting nothing, i guess i will have to start the gold farming…

OH not mentioning that weapons like torches, swords will become extremely rare and almost never show up on the TP, because everyone and their mother is running for greatswords.

LinseyMurdock.4165:

This has had some effect on the drop rate when using lower level rares to attempt to get a precursor but it was never intended for that to be the best way of acquiring these weapons.

As of yet, I haven’t really been making any effort to craft a legendary weapon, but since you brought it up, what is intended to be the best way of acquiring the precursors? ; )

@ Linsey

Can you comment if it’s the average spec of all 4 items, the lowest or the highest?

As in is it the same percentage if you use 2 rares, 2 exotics; 4 exotics; or 4 rares? Or even more if you use 3 level 75 rares and one level 80 exotic will it be the same % if you use 4 level 80 exotics?

Well legendary is luck they are meant to be hard and not acquired by 70% of the population by the first year. Patience and you will get your precursor in time. I have not yet seen any half truth, I see the game evolving in time and a fast pace as devs do the best they can.

PS: I still have no rush in getting my legendary, in time I will for now just getting as most achievements I can.

Can you define rarity lynsey? Do you mean just any level 80 exotics or do you mean extremely hard to get exotics like named ones? Do crafted weapons constitute as less rare?

the higher the level and rarity of the thing*s* – i guess nothing else is meant…

but what are 4 legendarys transformed to? ^^

Ok are there specific recipeis for pre-cursors ?

I’ve personally put nothing but level 80 rares (about 300-400 now, don’t know precisely) into the Forge and it hardly ever gives me exotics out of any sort.

I saw a video of a guy that put 40 exotic greatswords into the Forge. It was seriously ridiculous, kept giving him junk after junk, all the way until he was left with a single greatsword worth aroung 1g.

@Lindsey, how many tries are we expected to blow on this? Some people have put 300g+ into just greatswords for the Forge and not received anything of note. Right now due to the Godskull exploiters messing with the prices, there’s no way you can “catch up” to the price by farming gold. I’d just like to know if we’re really expected to sink several thousand gold in rare weapons in order to get a precursor, or what?

Or is the idea that we should spend ~$1200 on gems to simply buy the precursor off the Trading Post? I’m just wondering if it’s intentional that these things are essentially impossible to get without exploiting/cheating or simply buying thousands of dollars worth of gems (to convert into gold) to buy the now cheater-inflated precursors from the TP.

If that’s the case I think most people might as well just give up on legendary weapons as the precursor is taking vastly more effort than the entirety of the rest of the (insanely long) grind required for all the Gifts etc. combined, which seems incredibly backwards and insane (that is, unless you’re one of the Godskull exploit cheaters, in which case you were given a free pass to cheat your way into thousands of gold and dozens of precursors for no effort).

Thank you for your observations OP. I know all about what getting the other mats for a legendary involves and while it is quite a daunting task it doesn’t worry me in the slightest, because like I said I know EXACTLY what it involves.

The precursors however I DON’T know what it’s going to take and that’s the problem. The numbers are so low they simply can’t be predicted even with a huge number of attempts.

@ Skar Hand
Thank you! I keep writing that this is the main problem. With so few precursors available on the TP it’s just too easy to manipulate the prices. Once again there are no Dusks on the TP and when a new one appears there’s nothing stopping the seller from adding another 50g or so to the price tag.

You know there are few people that control the price in the trade post on the huge demand stuff like Dusk,Dawn etc…

They just make the highest buy order and when some lucky guy get a dusk randomly from no skill event like Plinx he sell to them and they resell it for 300+ gold…

To fix this lotto system you have now is make a long long quest that let you do lot of stuff like get tokens from all dungeon +WvW + lot of gold + karma,its a legendary and the main mats now to get it is gold that make the gold sellers really happy….

Yeah…after seeing that guy tossing 40 swords and getting none, i don’t think i will ever try the forge. He could have gotten 80 gold by selling them.
The chances must be between 5%~1%

If we got a official number, then we could weight more if it is better to try the forge or just outright buy it. Come on Lynsey, throw us a bone. More people with pre cursors means the prices going down.

this note is insufficient. it doesnt solve any problems it just says they read the forums. how is allowing this price manipulation and price hiking of legendary precursors ok? i have read alot of forums on this topic and there aren’t alot of people that like the rng of this process and considering this…why aren’t the developers changing it? i mean if everyone hates a system you put in place then change it right?

shirashika.1026:

this note is insufficient. it doesnt solve any problems it just says they read the forums. how is allowing this price manipulation and price hiking of legendary precursors ok? i have read alot of forums on this topic and there aren’t alot of people that like the rng of this process and considering this…why aren’t the developers changing it? i mean if everyone hates a system you put in place then change it right?

What about the people who hate forums? Do they not get a vote?

Lets look at what the OP claims to be the larger piece:
1. Dungeon runs: Can be done in less than a weak. It is also enjoyable somewhat, and not as much as a grind as other areas.
2. WvW badges: Again not that time consuming and you can farm karma while doing it. It is probably the most enjoyable of all the farm as well.
3. Tier 6 mats: As someone said before, you farm them while karma farming, and the most of them are less than 3 silver on the TP. The two highest ones are Vial of Potent Blood and Armored Scales at 10s. This is only because CS does not drop them a lot.

The only things that require a ton of gold are Ectos (which is about 70g, but you can get them by salvaging low priced rares you find), the required gold spend (120g), and the precursor (250-300g right now….).

Linsey, is there a possibility that in the future you will add new forge recipes for precursors? For example, a recipe that have a low-moderate chance of yielding a “precursor component” and several of these components can be used to craft a precursor?

I can’t think of a better solution to this problem… Right now the precursors are 100% based on luck. Adding new recipes will be half luck and half progression, sort of like working towards those 77 Mystic Clovers. If I can do a few combines in the forge and get 1/77th of my precursor that makes me want to keep playing. If I do 1,000 combines and get nothing, that makes me want to quit the game.

Hey Linsey,

Well you can / must reveal information needed for Legendary Precursors.

With this information…

1. Players can really work hard for it.

1.a. Recipe must be around 10-20g
1.b. Mats must equal or little more with other named Mystic Forge weapon recipes like Naegling GS…

Naegling (Greatsword) = 1 Scroll + 20 Coins, + 100 Orichalcum Ingots + 50 Powerful Bloods

for example…

Dusk & Dawn (Greatsword) =

After buying recipe from special NPC ( like Claw of Jormag’s npc )

First Step = 50 x Dungeon 1 Token + 50 x Dungeon 2 Token + 50 x Dungeon 3 Token + 50 x Dungeon 4 Token = Specail Dungeon Mystic Forge Token

Last Step = 5 Scroll + 100 Coins, + 200 Orichalcum Ingots + Special Dungeon Mystic Forge Token

2. Gold / Item Sellers can’t profit with it. They are selling it for 355 USD $ atm like other Legendary Precursors.

3. Ah and Legendary Precursors must be Account Bound for sake of other mats price.

Just done another 150 in the forge in the last hour and half, i have to say you were right the whole rng element of this process is hugely entertaining…….. its a joke and while you do nothing the prices keep going up and up and those of us who have not used any of the bugs which have been abused are the ones worse off for it

I agree with the idea of making a semi-luck progression recipe or something like you mentioned psilosopher. As you say, doing 1000 combines and getting nothing is extremely brutal, and is exactly how I feel about it (I’ve done 100-200 combines, got nothing, so I know that pain), whereas being able to slowly progress towards it, even with a random component like Mystic Clovers, would be much more satisfying and take out much of the extreme frustration the current system (combined with the cheaters that were given a free pass messing up the market) causes.

I’m not sure how this is supposed to be “fun and rewarding”, throwing hundreds of gold into the Mystic Forge and getting nothing back while cheaters get dozens of precursors and thousands of gold, and also monopolize the entire precursor market on the Trading Post, and are given a free pass to do it on top of it.