Guild Wars 2

Hi,

is there any official statement by Anet about this feature? I mean the chance to unlock runes once and change them whenever you want with a Legendary armor. And I think Legendary weapons should have the same feature with sigils.

Considering the super high cost for Legendary, this would be the definitive feature for them.

I doubt legendary armor will let you switch runes, as the weapons don’t let you switch sigils. I agree that it makes the stat switching functionality of questionable value. I don’t think anet needs to change it though, as legendaries are prestige skins anyway.

Well, the meta (raids) now is more dynamic, I Mean before HoT and Raids was all zerker and gg

Now we have Zerker and Viper like META prefix + some variance in professions like Ranger and Mesmer (magi/cleric/viper/zerker/zealot/commander etc.)

For 3k gold+ (more or less the cost of a single legendary armor) I think it would be a really nice feature.

Absurdo.8309:

I doubt legendary armor will let you switch runes, as the weapons don’t let you switch sigils. I agree that it makes the stat switching functionality of questionable value. I don’t think anet needs to change it though, as legendaries are prestige skins anyway.

Armor is a lot more versitile then weapons, most of my characters have multiple sets if armor to change their roles: all of which have different runes: imo runes make a bugger impact towards the role ofthe character then sigils

philheat.3956:

Hi,

is there any official statement by Anet about this feature? I mean the chance to unlock runes once and change them whenever you want with a Legendary armor. And I think Legendary weapons should have the same feature with sigils.

Considering the super high cost for Legendary, this would be the definitive feature for them.

We basically have zero idea about legendary armor and it’s closing in on a year.

The last known statement on this was from the economist who felt runes needed to be left as is so they have a place in the market.

TexZero.7910:

The last known statement on this was from the economist who felt runes needed to be left as is so they have a place in the market.

For example They could use a system where you require to buy once 1 single rune/sigil for every piece of armor/weapons and after that you have unlocked it on that piece and you can switch it as much as you can.

I don’t think it would have a big impact on the market BUT it would be great for legendaries.

TexZero.7910:

The last known statement on this was from the economist who felt runes needed to be left as is so they have a place in the market.

hmm iirc there was something over on reddit, maybe in the ama, addressing this. basically, they know its an issue to players, but nothing concrete as to systemic changes.

philheat.3956:

Hi,

is there any official statement by Anet about this feature? I mean the chance to unlock runes once and change them whenever you want with a Legendary armor. And I think Legendary weapons should have the same feature with sigils.

Considering the super high cost for Legendary, this would be the definitive feature for them.

Stat switching was supposed to be a minor bonus feature for legendaries. Rune switching is a way too much.

I don’t expect ANet to comment definitively on this until they are nearly ready to deliver something (if ever).

TexZero.7910:

The last known statement on this was from the economist who felt runes needed to be left as is so they have a place in the market.

I can’t find a quote in the last six months from John Smith about runes or legendary armor. I looked in:

• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/John-Smith-4610/showposts
• https://www.reddit.com/user/ProbablyJohnSmith

My memory is that a long time ago, he said he was fine with minor runes and superior runes being generally at vendor price (with several exceptions, especially for the exotics) and that had nothing to do with whether legendary armor (and weapons for that matter) should offer a new mechanic for dealing with the issue of having to replace upgrades.

I can see why ANet hasn’t tackled this: it’s a big can of worms.

• In-game, there’s the issue of whether legendary owners need to unlock the upgrades (and if so, how they do that) and what the UI should look like, to not overwhelm the already ungainly [h]ero tab and its equipment panel. While an extension of the wardrobe seems like the obvious solution, there seem to be some issues with extending that to non-skin mechanics.
• For the community, ANet has to be careful with how they explain it. We already know that people blow a fuse due to imagined slights. There are people who opted out of legendaries who will say, “no, this makes them better than ‘just a skin’” or “this gives an advantage to the 1%, since it allows them to swap expensive upgrades without concern for costs”
• And yes, there are significant implications for the upgrade market, as Tex suggested above (regardless of whether John Smith said anything about it or not).

Obviously, there are ways to address all of the above (some good, a lot that are bad). None of them, however, are free or quick to implement.

tl;dr I don’t expect ANet to comment definitively on this until they are nearly ready to deliver something.

Rednik.3809:

philheat.3956:

Hi,

is there any official statement by Anet about this feature? I mean the chance to unlock runes once and change them whenever you want with a Legendary armor. And I think Legendary weapons should have the same feature with sigils.

Considering the super high cost for Legendary, this would be the definitive feature for them.

Stat switching was supposed to be a minor bonus feature for legendaries. Rune switching is a way too much.

stat switching is pointless without upgrade switching. 1 set of stats is clearly adequate for a game mode for as long as the cost to switch upgrades at will is 3-10g per switch.

Runes and Sigils should just not be attached to gear at all. (Like in sPvP) I don’t see what we have at the moment changing ever though.

I hope someday we get jeweler 500 who can craft legendary runes and sigils which are switchable.

What we really need is a complete overhaul of how runes and sigils work, along with addition of build templates/loadouts.

The least complex way to do it would be to combine minor, major, and superior sigils and runes (numbers balanced based on relative supply) into a permanent rune or sigil that can be placed in a separate slot that’s decoupled from the weapon (similar to PvP). Due to the high cost of some of the superior runes/sigils, those will need more sources to balance the overall cost of the permanent rune/sigils.

There will always be people making permanent runes and sigils ensuring a continuous sink of minor/major/superior ones.

Infusions are fine as is (method of acquisition), but need to be decoupled from the armor/weapons/trinkets as well.

Remove both the upgrade and infusion extractors. Freely slotting them in removes the need for both.

The other option is to replicate the PvP build interface. The permanent rune/sigil could be an unlock item which unlocks the upgrade account-wide. Infusions themselves can be done that way too (with some form of compensation for extra ones made). This would make it easier to gear out alt characters. Then they can be slotted into armor/weapons/trinkets using a dropdown menu which has all of your unlocked upgrades.

I got an idea for a new rune/sigil system:

First you need the rune you want to unlock ~30 times or the sigil you want to unlock ~5 times. (Account or character bound).

Now make runes and sigils salvagable and add new materials like “Rune Essence” and “Sigil Essense”. Superior runes/sigils have a 100% chance to drop one, Major runes/sigils have a 10% chance to drop one and Minor runes/sigils have a 1% chance to drop one.

To change a rune/sigil to one that you have unlocked you need one (or maybe more) “Rune Essence”/“Sigil Essence”.

This would increase the value of all runes and sigils except the expensive ones which however should still have a higher value compared to the others.

Just make legendary runes.

Maybe they’ll just do the same with what they’re doing with AR.