Guild Wars 2

It seems to me the easiest temporary fix to the precursor RNG problem is guaranteeing a pre if you throw 4 ascended in the forge.

Say you’re going after Incinerator. I believe throwing 4 ascended daggers of different stat combinations (to account for the legendary flexibility) into the forge should yield spark.

This would be pretty kitten time consuming considering you’d need 4 weapon recipes and 4 stat recipes. Not to mention a level 500 crafting requirement, and all the mats required to make this happen.

The only tricky thing would be dawn/dusk but they could just allow for a selection option like after completing a personal story – or pop it based on the inputted stat combination (e.g. if it has a berzerker GS it’s dusk, if it has Cleric’s, it’s dawn or something).

Am I missing something? I mean, I’d prefer a better long term solution but to me this seems like an easy interim patch to get rid of the RNG frustration.

Honestly that would be too easy, but it would be nice if that would work. The only thing is that the pre created would have to be accountbound or else the precursor market would probably crash quite a bit.. which may not be such a bad thing. I have heard though that if pres were easier to obtain, T6 mats would raise in price as they are complements in production of a legendary.

And wouldn’t making it this way only cost you 5 laurels since you can reuse the recipe for say an ascended dagger? And the cost in terms of vision crystals seems relatively neglibible since those mats just pile up. I don’t know for sure though since I’m not making ascended weapons until after I finish my first legendary in a few weeks of dungeoneering.

And as for “what you are missing”, I don’t think an easy interim solution would be good for the game, as I’ve said it has grievous economic implications for related markets, and its unhealthy to do that to a game. I understand the RNG is frustrating, but I find it helpful to avoid thinking of it as RNG. If you do that, then you might as well think of the game as a whole is just a load of RNG.

I find it more frustrating that precursor costs are so variable over time, and that rich players are able to profit by flipping them. I’d rather have a high and constant cost gold cost per precursor than have to deal with flippers causing a 100 gold spike in price that lasts for months for no apparent reason. I can calculate how much gold I can make in day which will help me set a timeframe for my goals (usually 25 gold per day if I can squeeze in all of the easy dungeons and salvage stuff, which gets frustrating doing day after day).

While that’s not a bad idea, it does not need to be a guaranteed recipe for a precursor, but some percentage chance of a precursor (say the 20% for a promoted item) and all other would simply be another Ascended item. I’m also suspecting that the resultant Precursor would be Account Bound (up for debate, but very likely not for TP resale).

Also, Ascended Rings are NOT difficult to accumulate (via Fractals), so those would likely be excluded in some manner (tho, the idea of Legendary Trinkets have been mentioned in terms of Jewelry crafting to 500).

Not to be nitpicky but this would be Precursor “Forging”, not crafting, per se.

I would like this idea if the Time-gated crafting supplies were all Account Bound and not trad-able. Currently with enough gold anyone can craft ascended items in a few minutes.

If it were Truly all your own work with the Crafting, I could see it happening but like I said, Just go to the TP, buy your Ascended Crafted Mats and Craft said weapon.

Just add Precursors to the Laurel Vendor; 100 Laurels per Precursor! Seriously, you SHOULD be able to obtain a Precursor OR enough gold to buy one in 100 days anyway, but that’s clearly not the case in Guild Wars 2, as “How do we solve the unobtainable Precursor problem” has been a constant forum topic since October of 2012.

Precursors are not unobtainable. There is no Problem.

What makes people think precursor crafting is the answer? Like Anet would destabalise the market by making precursors easier and cheaper than just buying off the tp?

Otokomae.9356:

Just add Precursors to the Laurel Vendor; 100 Laurels per Precursor! Seriously, you SHOULD be able to obtain a Precursor OR enough gold to buy one in 100 days anyway, but that’s clearly not the case in Guild Wars 2, as “How do we solve the unobtainable Precursor problem” has been a constant forum topic since October of 2012.

You really think people should get a precursor for logging in for 10 minutes just for dailies for 3 months?

Yeah the daily idea is a little wack. I like an idea of using high amounts achievement points in some manner to get one.

Basically Safari the problem is that while these items are obtainable, people dislike having little control on acquiring them. The fact that RNG with the mystic forge or drops makes them rare is acceptable and needed for these items to maintain their value in the economy, but there are some problems with how the markets operate. For example, precursors have different costs based primarily on the popularity of that weapon, which is the main reason why the bifrost is so much more expensive than the minstrel. A lot of people would prefer to standardize precursor cost by whether the weapon is one handed two handed or an offhand, which is somewhat present in the market, but the differences between two legendaries of the same type of weapon are a bit disenheartening, such as the bard being 200-300 gold cheaper than howl.

Another source of frustration is that precursor markets are easily manipulated by wealthy flippers who can make a products buy and sell price face a sustained increase for reasons other than graphical or functional improvements to the legendary itself.

For example, take a look at Howl’s pricing over the past month and try to explain what happened to it on June 7th.
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/29184

The howler certainly didn’t get a shiny new aura that day.

Also just as a note, if precursors were easier to maintain, T6 mats would become so much more expensive. I think that economically they are in a decent place, however ways to obtain them at a fixed price, that are a significant but reliable way to achieve them in terms of gold would be ideal, because no one wants to save gold for so long only to see that they need 100s more to get it in a reasonable time frame.

nearlight.3064:

Yeah the daily idea is a little wack. I like an idea of using high amounts achievement points in some manner to get one.

Basically Safari the problem is that while these items are obtainable, people dislike having little control on acquiring them. The fact that RNG with the mystic forge or drops makes them rare is acceptable and needed for these items to maintain their value in the economy, but there are some problems with how the markets operate. For example, precursors have different costs based primarily on the popularity of that weapon, which is the main reason why the bifrost is so much more expensive than the minstrel. A lot of people would prefer to standardize precursor cost by whether the weapon is one handed two handed or an offhand, which is somewhat present in the market, but the differences between two legendaries of the same type of weapon are a bit disenheartening, such as the bard being 200-300 gold cheaper than howl.

Another source of frustration is that precursor markets are easily manipulated by wealthy flippers who can make a products buy and sell price face a sustained increase for reasons other than graphical or functional improvements to the legendary itself.

For example, take a look at Howl’s pricing over the past month and try to explain what happened to it on June 7th.
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/29184

The howler certainly didn’t get a shiny new aura that day.

Also just as a note, if precursors were easier to maintain, T6 mats would become so much more expensive. I think that economically they are in a decent place, however ways to obtain them at a fixed price, that are a significant but reliable way to achieve them in terms of gold would be ideal, because no one wants to save gold for so long only to see that they need 100s more to get it in a reasonable time frame.

Agreed. Daily would make them too easy to get but there is also a danger currently of the gold price getting too ridiculous levels. Perhaps tying them into pvp rank is an option? So say when you reach tiger rank you get one at random and the again when you get to the final (dragon) rank you get to pick one of your choice.

Or we could link it to the badges of Honor in some way? It might encourage people to do WvW more than just for map completion on servers with lower populations. If any such servers exist of course.

That howl listing jumped, what? 144g? thats not really a major bump when you are talking the most valuble family of items in the game and it quickly found a lower price soon enough. 144 isnt that much, it just looks worse on that graph because its a high % of the previous cost.

John Smith, the economy guy, has proved time and again that precursors are not manipulated, and are infact bought in batches of one by single people.

Prices of individual precursors differ because us, the players, set their worth.
That is the price we pay for a player driven economy.

Linking precursors to wvw would only encourage the eotm train further, not actual WvW.

Pvp rank is just a meter of time played in pvp. even if you lost every match you played, you’d get those ranks evntually.

As much as everyone hates random, random, by its very nature, is fair to everyone.

LeoWolfish.8917:

Agreed. Daily would make them too easy to get but there is also a danger currently of the gold price getting too ridiculous levels. Perhaps tying them into pvp rank is an option? So say when you reach tiger rank you get one at random and the again when you get to the final (dragon) rank you get to pick one of your choice.

Or we could link it to the badges of Honor in some way? It might encourage people to do WvW more than just for map completion on servers with lower populations. If any such servers exist of course.

Well for pvp, its already somewhat implemented by the tournament of legends prizes, as 1st place team gets legendaries, 2nd gets a precursor of their choice, and I think places 3-8 get some choice or combination of the gift of fortune, mastery, might or magic, which is a great addition, but only accessibly to top tier teams obviously.

It takes a huge amount of time to get to dragon these days, so I think it could be a fair idea, but tiger would be far too low.. I casual hotjoin and I’m 2 ranks away from tiger. And also for the many people who were promoted to dragon when rank got reworked, some controversy could arise.

And for WvW, badges are already incorporated into the gift of mastery. And as a primarily WvW player (although I like the other game modes too), people who are serious about WvW don’t play on low population servers. Right now, the other main NA guild on my server DB is going to SOS most likely this friday, and my guild could be next if DB drops from T3 (which we are dominating atm).

nearlight.3064:

LeoWolfish.8917:

Agreed. Daily would make them too easy to get but there is also a danger currently of the gold price getting too ridiculous levels. Perhaps tying them into pvp rank is an option? So say when you reach tiger rank you get one at random and the again when you get to the final (dragon) rank you get to pick one of your choice.

Or we could link it to the badges of Honor in some way? It might encourage people to do WvW more than just for map completion on servers with lower populations. If any such servers exist of course.

Well for pvp, its already somewhat implemented by the tournament of legends prizes, as 1st place team gets legendaries, 2nd gets a precursor of their choice, and I think places 3-8 get some choice or combination of the gift of fortune, mastery, might or magic, which is a great addition, but only accessibly to top tier teams obviously.

It takes a huge amount of time to get to dragon these days, so I think it could be a fair idea, but tiger would be far too low.. I casual hotjoin and I’m 2 ranks away from tiger. And also for the many people who were promoted to dragon when rank got reworked, some controversy could arise.

And for WvW, badges are already incorporated into the gift of mastery. And as a primarily WvW player (although I like the other game modes too), people who are serious about WvW don’t play on low population servers. Right now, the other main NA guild on my server DB is going to SOS most likely this friday, and my guild could be next if DB drops from T3 (which we are dominating atm).

True and I am guessing that there would be too many who were promoted to dragon for it top be viable? And by that I mean couldn’t they get the choice automatically once it was implemented or no?

I seem to be on a high server at the moment so hopefully it will stay that way when I get around to WvW.

What is your server Leo? And yeah I think they promoted every player rank 50 and above back then but I can’t remember exactly.

And the ToL placers can pick the legendary or precursor they want, and choose between the gift they want if they get a choice between fortune and mastery (hah such a hard choice) or between might and magic.

nearlight.3064:

What is your server Leo? And yeah I think they promoted every player rank 50 and above back then but I can’t remember exactly.

And the ToL placers can pick the legendary or precursor they want, and choose between the gift they want if they get a choice between fortune and mastery (hah such a hard choice) or between might and magic.

I just had to log in to look it up. The world/server I am in is called Vabbi. On a side note I am also part of a guild called TheHELLFEST or Goth for short but I haven’t been able to do much yet due to both being knew and the fact most of the messages seem to be in French and Polish. Which is fine it will give me something to learn on top of the Japanese I am doing but dungeons could end up being a problem if I don’t learn a few key phrases before then xD.

Also I did not know that about the ToL and gift choosing. Mastery all the way!

Oh a European Server! I’m on NA, so I don’t really know much about the EU wvw scene (off-topic post).

nearlight.3064:

Oh a European Server! I’m on NA, so I don’t really know much about the EU wvw scene (off-topic post).

Ah that OK I am a long way off anyway.

Back on topic another possibility aside from being able to chose one at dragon rank/ giving those already promoted an automatic choice. We could have it that everyone who completes the final boss at the end of the game (during their story mode instance only) gets one at random. But again you would have the issue of everyone who has already completed it and on multiple toons as well. So the dragon rank one and your previous idea are still probably the better ones.