Guild Wars 2

I fully support the upcoming update. Having played GW2 since day 1 of launch, I welcome the changes and feel they are well-timed. However, you probably know what I mean when I say that I stand to be penalized when we move to the new system.

I frequently have changed stats while trying to preserve my skins. I also have frequently bought the same outfit from the Gem store twice: once for PvE, once for PvP. Therefore, a significant focus of my gameplay up to this point has been acquiring gold to buy skins for both PvP and PvE, and buying Transmutation Crystals and new gear to put into old skins in PvE, and destroying old PvE gear and upgrades in the process.

Which is fine; I don’t expect to be compensated for that, necessarily. Anet is certainly not rushing to compensate old players like me.

My main issue is this: I’m sure I’m not the only player who has destroyed unique rewards in the process of navigating the current system. For example: one of the numerous transmutation tasks I undertook that I now regret was the transmutation of my karka shell backpiece from the second Southsun event with another backpiece, and the subsequent loss of the karka shell skin.

Unfortunately, this is the infamous “middle transmutation” problem, which the Transmutation Splitters failed to solve, and which the 4/15 update will fail to solve: originally, I transmuted the Karka Backpiece’s skin onto a Fractal Backpiece’s stats. Later, I put the Fervid Censer skin over the same backpiece—losing the Karka skin forever. My understanding is that the 4/15 update will only award me the Fractal and Censer skins (the “first and last” skins).

I would prefer it if Anet would, in this upcoming update, at least reward us the skins that we earned through Achievements, like living story events—regardless of whether we still have the skin, don’t have the skin, moved it to PvP and salvaged it, lost it in a middle transmutation, etc. Skins that, like the Karka Shell Backpiece, continue to be shown in our Achievements as having been awarded to us … SHOULD be awarded to us on 4/15, whether we still have it or not.

As the update stands now, it will prevent problems like the Middle Transmutation problem from happening for all new players, but continue to penalize players like me who have already encountered the problem: players that have played since Day 1, and who like skins. That doesn’t seem fair to me—especially since I actually like skins and am thus actually in Anet’s target audience for this game.

I have never posted anything like this (not even in the PvP forums, which is really what I care about), but I do feel strongly about this particular issue.

I can get behind this. Now, whether it would be an easy fix, i dont know. I think the biggest hurdle would be HOW. If they just reactivated them, that could cause server lag, those that didnt earn it get it, or earn the back plus the others. I would say mail, but that could be a long process (and lets tace it, many players arent patient).

But i do agree.

+1.

It’s not like players can scam the achievement and gemstore skins. All would be needed is for them to check Achievements and Transaction history.

If I haven’t misunderstood the contents of the blog entry related to the Wardrobe system, all skins that have been bound to your characters in the past will be retroactively added to the wardrobe, so this means even long lost skins.

Now while this would be optimal, I can’t say I’m really sure about it as I might have misunterstood that bit of information. If anyone else can confirm this?

That’s a really good solution to a thorny problem. +1 OP.

Hermes.7014:

If I haven’t misunderstood the contents of the blog entry related to the Wardrobe system, all skins that have been bound to your characters in the past will be retroactively added to the wardrobe, so this means even long lost skins.

Now while this would be optimal, I can’t say I’m really sure about it as I might have misunterstood that bit of information. If anyone else can confirm this?

This is what the KB has to say:

‘Please note that skins or partials skins that you previously purchased but which you no longer possess will not be unlocked on your account. The Guild Wars 2 Support Team cannot unlock skins that fall into this category.’

As of now, I doubt they will unlock earned items that were lost or destroyed, if they won’t unlock purchased items.

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/46419166-Wardrobe

I would agree with OP. I’m sure a lot of people did the exact same thing. And there were not that many achievement-unlocked skins; I’m sure it would be a simple matter to include them in the wardrobe based on each accounts unlocks. Or at least make them re-obtainable the way the Hellfire/Radiant/Zenith skins are.

+1