Guild Wars 2

Can we please get some sort of confirmation on whether or not blade shards are going to have any other use apart from creating backpieces?

I ask this because my Mesmer is quickly becoming my final alt to store things on – despite not wanting her to be, she’s had no choice up until the abundance of blade shards these last 2 patches (and trust me, I’ve tried deleting as many items as I can to make room in my bank AND alts, but the remaining items on my alts and in my bank are essentials and I still want to play my Mesmer without being burdened by all these shards), and I simply have too many of them.

I don’t know whether to delete all these stacks or keep them :-/

Perhaps having 25 stacks of blade shards, you’ll probably have way more than you’ll ever need.

Becka Williams.4978:

Perhaps having 25 stacks of blade shards, you’ll probably have way more than you’ll ever need.

Thanks for the sarcasm but that reply isn’t exactly helpful… I’m asking a serious question. I don’t want to delete them all only to find out in a few days or weeks that Anet has added an NPC which offers Tomes of Knowledge for, say, 250 blade shards and 30 silver for example.

Edit: Sorry for misinterpreting your comment. I get a lot of trolls on threads I make so took yours as sarcastic :-/

I wasn’t being sarcastic. I was saying that 6250 blade shards, you have probably more than you’d ever need. You have almost half of what an light armor needs to get a full set of ascended armor, and that was specifically introduced to act as a material sink. Since blade shards can’t be sold, there’s no need to ever introduce a material sink for them.

Considering they have become a permanent drop, I would guess there is some use for them. But, maybe it’s just so people can still make back-pieces even a year or two from now. /shrug

Hmmmmm if they’re a permanent drop like you say, then most likely there won’t be any Tomes of Knowledge or other extras exchangeable for them. Perhaps I should just delete them?

Becka Williams.4978:

I wasn’t being sarcastic. I was saying that 6250 blade shards, you have probably more than you’d ever need. You have almost half of what an light armor needs to get a full set of ascended armor, and that was specifically introduced to act as a material sink. Since blade shards can’t be sold, there’s no need to ever introduce a material sink for them.

Ah, sorry I completely misinterpreted what you were saying. I just get a lot of troll comments on these forums (had to close threads sometimes) so immediately took your comment as sarcasm.

Here is the statement from the Patch Notes: ‘Note: Aetherblade enemies across Tyria now have an added chance to drop Blade Shards. This addition to their drop list is permanent.’

Since the Aetherblades can be found in ‘Not So Secret’, if nowhere else, I’m guessing there will be a ready supply available for some time.

You can find Aetherblades in EotM too, and they sometimes drop from harvesting the Sprocket node in your Home Instance.

I’m keeping mine around until March 18th rolls around. If nothing new (recipes or otherwise) has been introduced by then, then I’m dumping them.

Sweet! Thanks for all your help people. I think it’s safe to say then that I can delete them without worrying there’ll be extras for them after the patch is gone :-D yay for more room.

Another vote to please add these to a collection. They are almost as bad as Bloodstone Dust. XD

I wish we could dump them in the Mystic Forge for a chance at something…. Same with the bloodstone or anything else we have masses and masses of. Or be able to sell blades to vendors for more obsidan shards.

The average drop rate of blade shards from the home instance node is only 2-4 per day. It takes 425 blades hards to make a single exotic back piece, around double that for ascended, and the drop rate from the Aetherblades are also horrible. Now, imagine for a moment that you have 8 lv80s.

They also cannot be purchased or traded, so for those who didn’t farm this event day in and day out, it will take them around half a year to make one exotic backpiece. On top of that, its the only way to get many exotic backpieces without guild commendations, the only way to get some stat combinations and the only way to get celestial back armor without crafting an ascended item.

Sorry but this is not an "abundance of blade shards’. You just over-farmed.

I started deleting all blade shards I got after I finished the backpiece for my main. Probably 10+ stacks in total.