Guild Wars 2

What a huge gold sink. This alone increases the prices of a legendary by 400-500g. WTF. What a cheap move by Anet.

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

Excited I started Astralaria, but when I realized the incredible grind and costs of items such as Amalgamated Gemstones, I feel very bored and left the collection. (It was like a pffffffff, bye bye Astralaria!).

cptaylor.2670:

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

That statement is wrong, as you didn’t consider opportunity costs.
Amalgamated Gemstones HAVE costs, but it is cheaper to forge them than to buy them off of the TP.
People are impatient, that is the reason why it still nets a profit to sell those gemstones if you buy and forge wisely.

Well, it is supposed to be LEGENDARY.

Shovel Face.4512:

What a huge gold sink. This alone increases the prices of a legendary by 400-500g. WTF. What a cheap move by Anet.

The costs are supposed to be high.

(I only object to the silly amount of clicks required to forge them — that’s way too much tedium for a legendary ‘journey’)

There is the recipe that forges 10 at a time now and it is even cheaper too.

cptaylor.2670:

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

Making them yourself with the cheaper bulk recipe is cheaper than buying them, but I wouldn’t call it next to no cost.

Until very recently, it was cheaper to buy crests/orbs/whatnot rather than upgrading them with a jeweler, but it’s not much of a savings either way.

All in all, I’m skeptical that it can be done at “next to no cost”, unless you mean using/upgrading gems that drop. Technically, then you don’t need to buy anything, but you’re still not getting the money you would get from selling the loot either.

ekarat.1085:

cptaylor.2670:

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

Making them yourself with the cheaper bulk recipe is cheaper than buying them, but I wouldn’t call it next to no cost.

Until very recently, it was cheaper to buy crests/orbs/whatnot rather than upgrading them with a jeweler, but it’s not much of a savings either way.

All in all, I’m skeptical that it can be done at “next to no cost”, unless you mean using/upgrading gems that drop. Technically, then you don’t need to buy anything, but you’re still not getting the money you would get from selling the loot either.

There is also the t5 upgrades but that might come at the cost of breaking your hand.

Khisanth.2948:

ekarat.1085:

cptaylor.2670:

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

Making them yourself with the cheaper bulk recipe is cheaper than buying them, but I wouldn’t call it next to no cost.

Until very recently, it was cheaper to buy crests/orbs/whatnot rather than upgrading them with a jeweler, but it’s not much of a savings either way.

All in all, I’m skeptical that it can be done at “next to no cost”, unless you mean using/upgrading gems that drop. Technically, then you don’t need to buy anything, but you’re still not getting the money you would get from selling the loot either.

There is also the t5 upgrades but that might come at the cost of breaking your hand.

True. That can give amalgamated gemstones occasionally, but trying to get all of them that way is absurd and eats up a ton of spirit shards. If you want to convert spirit shards to gold anyway, then sure, but I try to conserve mine somewhat, since I can’t farm more. (Now, if they created a mastery track that dropped a single spirit shard every time the bar fills, then that’s different…)

ekarat.1085:

Khisanth.2948:

ekarat.1085:

cptaylor.2670:

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

Making them yourself with the cheaper bulk recipe is cheaper than buying them, but I wouldn’t call it next to no cost.

Until very recently, it was cheaper to buy crests/orbs/whatnot rather than upgrading them with a jeweler, but it’s not much of a savings either way.

All in all, I’m skeptical that it can be done at “next to no cost”, unless you mean using/upgrading gems that drop. Technically, then you don’t need to buy anything, but you’re still not getting the money you would get from selling the loot either.

There is also the t5 upgrades but that might come at the cost of breaking your hand.

True. That can give amalgamated gemstones occasionally, but trying to get all of them that way is absurd and eats up a ton of spirit shards. If you want to convert spirit shards to gold anyway, then sure, but I try to conserve mine somewhat, since I can’t farm more. (Now, if they created a mastery track that dropped a single spirit shard every time the bar fills, then that’s different…)

There are no shards involved. 4xt5 => 1 t5/t6/amalgamated gemstone

As for getting spirit shards that is pretty easy with HoT too. They are in the airship cargo/exalted chest/crystallized cache/noxious pod. Before the patch those weren’t a good option but now that they are practically showering you with currency and keys that isn’t a big deal.

Khisanth.2948:

ekarat.1085:

Khisanth.2948:

ekarat.1085:

cptaylor.2670:

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

Making them yourself with the cheaper bulk recipe is cheaper than buying them, but I wouldn’t call it next to no cost.

Until very recently, it was cheaper to buy crests/orbs/whatnot rather than upgrading them with a jeweler, but it’s not much of a savings either way.

All in all, I’m skeptical that it can be done at “next to no cost”, unless you mean using/upgrading gems that drop. Technically, then you don’t need to buy anything, but you’re still not getting the money you would get from selling the loot either.

There is also the t5 upgrades but that might come at the cost of breaking your hand.

True. That can give amalgamated gemstones occasionally, but trying to get all of them that way is absurd and eats up a ton of spirit shards. If you want to convert spirit shards to gold anyway, then sure, but I try to conserve mine somewhat, since I can’t farm more. (Now, if they created a mastery track that dropped a single spirit shard every time the bar fills, then that’s different…)

There are no shards involved. 4xt5 => 1 t5/t6/amalgamated gemstone

As for getting spirit shards that is pretty easy with HoT too. They are in the airship cargo/exalted chest/crystallized cache/noxious pod. Before the patch those weren’t a good option but now that they are practically showering you with currency and keys that isn’t a big deal.

Oh, the other t5 upgrades (common, fine, and rare) do require spirit shards, but universal upgrades (eg gems/crests/doubloons) don’t. You are right — I stand corrected, as I was thinking it followed the pattern of the common/fine/rare recipes.

How frequent is this? I generally think there is a 20% chance of getting a t6 upgrade back from t5 upgrades, but how often is it an amalgamated gemstone?

DoctorDing.5890:

Well, it is supposed to be LEGENDARY.

Legendary shouldn’t just mean you throw money at it. That was the big issue with the original implementation, with unbound precursors. It should be about the journey, playing the game, and sure, throw in a bit of grind. The issue with Amalgamated Gemstones in particular is that they either take an incredibly long time to accumulate on your own, since there’s not a great way to farm the gems, or you have to buy it. And it costs a ton. What it turns into is making the player find the most profitably thing they can and then grinding that to slowly get enough money, and that’s not fun, especially if they can’t easily or at all do something that they know would make them more money (such as raids, just as an example of structural gating).

Pittcrew.6592:

DoctorDing.5890:

Well, it is supposed to be LEGENDARY.

Legendary shouldn’t just mean you throw money at it. That was the big issue with the original implementation, with unbound precursors. It should be about the journey, playing the game, and sure, throw in a bit of grind. The issue with Amalgamated Gemstones in particular is that they either take an incredibly long time to accumulate on your own, since there’s not a great way to farm the gems, or you have to buy it. And it costs a ton. What it turns into is making the player find the most profitably thing they can and then grinding that to slowly get enough money, and that’s not fun, especially if they can’t easily or at all do something that they know would make them more money (such as raids, just as an example of structural gating).

This. I would not mind at all if there was a daily Achievemnt that could net you between 1-7 gem stones. It would be way better than doing some silly farm over and over again to grind out gold.

I never had this problem, comes from playing the game for years and having a ton of Orbs, making a second HoT legendary is never going to happen, I ain’t going through that Amalgamated struggles lol..

ekarat.1085:

Khisanth.2948:

ekarat.1085:

Khisanth.2948:

ekarat.1085:

cptaylor.2670:

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

Making them yourself with the cheaper bulk recipe is cheaper than buying them, but I wouldn’t call it next to no cost.

Until very recently, it was cheaper to buy crests/orbs/whatnot rather than upgrading them with a jeweler, but it’s not much of a savings either way.

All in all, I’m skeptical that it can be done at “next to no cost”, unless you mean using/upgrading gems that drop. Technically, then you don’t need to buy anything, but you’re still not getting the money you would get from selling the loot either.

There is also the t5 upgrades but that might come at the cost of breaking your hand.

True. That can give amalgamated gemstones occasionally, but trying to get all of them that way is absurd and eats up a ton of spirit shards. If you want to convert spirit shards to gold anyway, then sure, but I try to conserve mine somewhat, since I can’t farm more. (Now, if they created a mastery track that dropped a single spirit shard every time the bar fills, then that’s different…)

There are no shards involved. 4xt5 => 1 t5/t6/amalgamated gemstone

As for getting spirit shards that is pretty easy with HoT too. They are in the airship cargo/exalted chest/crystallized cache/noxious pod. Before the patch those weren’t a good option but now that they are practically showering you with currency and keys that isn’t a big deal.

Oh, the other t5 upgrades (common, fine, and rare) do require spirit shards, but universal upgrades (eg gems/crests/doubloons) don’t. You are right — I stand corrected, as I was thinking it followed the pattern of the common/fine/rare recipes.

How frequent is this? I generally think there is a 20% chance of getting a t6 upgrade back from t5 upgrades, but how often is it an amalgamated gemstone?

The result of forging 4×250 t5.

So a bit under 7/250 since that t5s generated some medallions and I also forged those together as well.

Khisanth.2948:

There is the recipe that forges 10 at a time now and it is even cheaper too.

It’s still a crazy amount of clicking. Assuming no critical successes, that’s 125 clicks that can be done assembly line style (since you have to move your mouse for each different one). This is in addition to the crazy amount of clicking required for mystic clover.

Khisanth.2948:

ekarat.1085:

Khisanth.2948:

ekarat.1085:

Khisanth.2948:

ekarat.1085:

cptaylor.2670:

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

Making them yourself with the cheaper bulk recipe is cheaper than buying them, but I wouldn’t call it next to no cost.

Until very recently, it was cheaper to buy crests/orbs/whatnot rather than upgrading them with a jeweler, but it’s not much of a savings either way.

All in all, I’m skeptical that it can be done at “next to no cost”, unless you mean using/upgrading gems that drop. Technically, then you don’t need to buy anything, but you’re still not getting the money you would get from selling the loot either.

There is also the t5 upgrades but that might come at the cost of breaking your hand.

True. That can give amalgamated gemstones occasionally, but trying to get all of them that way is absurd and eats up a ton of spirit shards. If you want to convert spirit shards to gold anyway, then sure, but I try to conserve mine somewhat, since I can’t farm more. (Now, if they created a mastery track that dropped a single spirit shard every time the bar fills, then that’s different…)

There are no shards involved. 4xt5 => 1 t5/t6/amalgamated gemstone

As for getting spirit shards that is pretty easy with HoT too. They are in the airship cargo/exalted chest/crystallized cache/noxious pod. Before the patch those weren’t a good option but now that they are practically showering you with currency and keys that isn’t a big deal.

Oh, the other t5 upgrades (common, fine, and rare) do require spirit shards, but universal upgrades (eg gems/crests/doubloons) don’t. You are right — I stand corrected, as I was thinking it followed the pattern of the common/fine/rare recipes.

How frequent is this? I generally think there is a 20% chance of getting a t6 upgrade back from t5 upgrades, but how often is it an amalgamated gemstone?

The result of forging 4×250 t5.

So a bit under 7/250 since that t5s generated some medallions and I also forged those together as well.

So, I count 100 t6s and 7 amalgamated gemstones.

Let’s say you spent ~4×250×.0335 gold and got ~100*.30 g + 7 gemstones out. That’s approximately 33.5 gold in and 30 gold out + 7 gemstones, so approximately .5 gold per gemstone, with a lot of clicking.

According to gw2profits, the 10/25-gemstone recipe costs 22g04s30c for an expected 11.7 gemstones — for 1g88s40c per gemstone, but for a single forge attempt, as opposed to the 300+ forge attempts from forging t5s.

So, with the bulk method, you get more gemstones out than from the t5 method, but the t5 method is much cheaper, yet saves you much less money per click.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Khisanth.2948:

There is the recipe that forges 10 at a time now and it is even cheaper too.

It’s still a crazy amount of clicking. Assuming no critical successes, that’s 125 clicks that can be done assembly line style (since you have to move your mouse for each different one). This is in addition to the crazy amount of clicking required for mystic clover.

I always use the 10X recipe for clover (until I need less than 10) so not really much clicking at all. I also seem to have better luck with the 10X recipe and prefer to get the non clover returns as you end up making money a lot of the time.

Elric Of Melnibone.4781:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Khisanth.2948:

There is the recipe that forges 10 at a time now and it is even cheaper too.

It’s still a crazy amount of clicking. Assuming no critical successes, that’s 125 clicks that can be done assembly line style (since you have to move your mouse for each different one). This is in addition to the crazy amount of clicking required for mystic clover.

I always use the 10X recipe for clover (until I need less than 10) so not really much clicking at all. I also seem to have better luck with the 10X recipe and prefer to get the non clover returns as you end up making money a lot of the time.

Your idea of “making money” is different from mine. I’ve kept careful track of all my mystic clover results and I’ve found:

• I have worse average luck than the community’s, which means I’d spend noticeably more on the 10x recipe.
• The non-clover drops don’t add up anywhere near good value for the time or karma that I spend (better than nothing, to be sure).

If you’re lucky, the 10x clover recipe is much better. But it’s more likely that you’ll be just unlucky enough that the 1x recipe is the better bargain. Since I have been demonstrably unlucky, I’ve stuck with the 1x recipe, even though I know that past performance (bad or good) doesn’t guarantee future earnings; I just mean I have reason to avoid the risk.

However, that misses the point I was trying to make about finishing a legendary: there’s a lot about it that’s fun and legendary, but whether I use the 10x or 1x recipes, I still need to spend a long time in front of the mystic forge (not to mention ensuring I have just the right amount of ingredients, without overspending) — I can see no reason that “legendary” needs to require that much tedium.

Or to repeat my earlier observation:
I have no problem with the costs associated with building a legendary weapon; I just wish it didn’t include so many mouse clicks in the same 5 places, over and over.

cptaylor.2670:

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

I might know what you’re talking about but I assume Anet will find and nerf it. XD

You have to remember the time taken to put in 250 t5 crystals vs gold / hr you could get doing actual content?

Forging can take a very long time and it’s horrendously slow..esp 1 thing at a time.

Doggie.3184:

cptaylor.2670:

I’ve found a way to make them at next to no cost with a slight initial investment that might net me some profit later. Unfortunately it’s a slow process and will take awhile to accumulate all of them. Do some research, I’m sure you’ll find a more affordable way.

I might know what you’re talking about but I assume Anet will find and nerf it. XD

Probably. Probably just as I finish getting all the ones I need for my legendary.

Hope not though.

Farmed TD, made Ley Line tools = Gold!
(although can only make the required charged crystals are once per day… I was sitting on a bunch pre HoT so that made making Gemstones alot easier.)

As someone who just made Astralaria, some tips:

Don’t straight buy amalgamated gemstones, make your own.

Ask friends/guildmates to throw any unwanted medallions your way. Most people still think of them as vendor trash and just chuck em out…so they won’t mind tossing them your way.

Use your/a friends Jeweler profession. Incandescent dustx5 (you can get this for like 10.5g a stack) and 2x T5 gems make a T6. If you’ve been playing a while and just storing them without looking at them you might be surprised how many you have.

Make use of the ecto Mystic Forge recipe mentioned previously. Sometimes you get a 25 gemstone return.

Sell everything you don’t need for your weapon. Do as many high income events as you can. If you have a tag…tag up and lead a karka train between big events…still surprisingly decent money.

If I can do it you can do it…just takes a lot of time and dedication.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Elric Of Melnibone.4781:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Khisanth.2948:

There is the recipe that forges 10 at a time now and it is even cheaper too.

It’s still a crazy amount of clicking. Assuming no critical successes, that’s 125 clicks that can be done assembly line style (since you have to move your mouse for each different one). This is in addition to the crazy amount of clicking required for mystic clover.

I always use the 10X recipe for clover (until I need less than 10) so not really much clicking at all. I also seem to have better luck with the 10X recipe and prefer to get the non clover returns as you end up making money a lot of the time.

Your idea of “making money” is different from mine. I’ve kept careful track of all my mystic clover results and I’ve found:

• I have worse average luck than the community’s, which means I’d spend noticeably more on the 10x recipe.
• The non-clover drops don’t add up anywhere near good value for the time or karma that I spend (better than nothing, to be sure).

If you’re lucky, the 10x clover recipe is much better. But it’s more likely that you’ll be just unlucky enough that the 1x recipe is the better bargain. Since I have been demonstrably unlucky, I’ve stuck with the 1x recipe, even though I know that past performance (bad or good) doesn’t guarantee future earnings; I just mean I have reason to avoid the risk.

---

However, that misses the point I was trying to make about finishing a legendary: there’s a lot about it that’s fun and legendary, but whether I use the 10x or 1x recipes, I still need to spend a long time in front of the mystic forge (not to mention ensuring I have just the right amount of ingredients, without overspending) — I can see no reason that “legendary” needs to require that much tedium.

Or to repeat my earlier observation:
I have no problem with the costs associated with building a legendary weapon; I just wish it didn’t include so many mouse clicks in the same 5 places, over and over.

What are you talking about? Even if you are maximally unlucky, it’s at most 25 forges to get a full stack of 250 gemstones. Fewer if you have average or better luck.

Of course, that’s with the new recipe — if you are talking about the old recipe, then you have more of a point, but that’s why they introduced the new recipe.

ekarat.1085:

What are you talking about? Even if you are maximally unlucky, it’s at most 25 forges to get a full stack of 250 gemstones. Fewer if you have average or better luck.

Of course, that’s with the new recipe — if you are talking about the old recipe, then you have more of a point, but that’s why they introduced the new recipe.

That’s a minimum 25 forges for AmGem after also creating 77 mystic clover, not counting other forges. That’s still a ton of clicking and I find it tedious.

How many thousand trees did you harvest? How many thousand green and blue drops did you salvage? How many points of interest and vistas did you find? How many players did you kill in WvW and/or PvP? This seems trivial compared with all the other inputs to a Legendary.