Guild Wars 2

Perfect world scenario:
You sign in. You listen to the birds chirping outside (real life) and hear the menu music. Life is good. You load up your Level 80 warrior, and you find that he had gone to sleep in your guild hall. You peer around and admire the work of your guild scribe, TalosTinyMouse.
Then you are greeted by the thundering voice of MightySmith04. “Ha! I knew you would be back! I was forging these all night. The hall boomed with the cries of my anvil.”
You nearly squeal in delight. “Aha! Are they ready?”
MightySmith04 /nods and /bows. “I present to you your new chestplate and greaves – may they serve you well in battle.”
You accept the trade and don your fresh ascended armor. The farming was worth it. The whole guild had already pitched in for the lord’s set, and for TalosTinyMouse’s set, since he was usually so busy, but now, finally, your turn had come.
“The rest of the set may take a while,” says MightySmith04, “but for now, I need some rest. Go, go and break those in! And fetch me some more dragonite ore while you’re at it; I’m fresh out.”

Imperfect world scenario:
You sign in. Your guild armorer hasn’t signed in for several months now; he seems to have given up since the WvW changes took place. You go to the forge and half-heartedly pick up the hammer. You’ve only 200 more levels of armorsmithing to go – you’ll get there eventually. You put down the hammer and weave the lining for a pair of gloves. You pick the hammer up again and heat up the furnace – only to find out that you’re all out of platinum. Again. You slump to the floor, /cry, and sign out.

Pitch:
This has probably been brought up before, but Guild Wars really ought to be just that – guild wars. And as such, high-level crafting should be something that players can use to contribute to their guild. You didn’t get that far just to piece everything together all by yourself and all for yourself, did you?

I’m not saying ascended materials and equipment should be sellable – nope, not at all. I’m not trying to destroy economy here. I’m saying that it would be awesome if ascended materials could be passed along to guild craftsmen, after which the craftsman could craft ascended items and select an option to make the creation guild-bound. He/she can then send it to anyone in the same guild, or leave it in the guild bank. This adds value to each player in the guild, and emphasis on self-leveling (trying to get every crafting skill to 500) is not encouraged as much as specialization within the player’s community. It also increases guild-based building and development and encourages guild members to act like a guild outside guild missions/GvG/WvW.

Suggestion: ascended equipment to be given a guild-binding option, and materials to become guild-bound.
Exploits to be covered: guild members could take equipment and then leave – this can be covered/prevented by said items mailing themselves back to either the guild leader or the creator (or depositing themselves in the guild bank if slots are free).

I want to go more in-depth with this, so I may add edits at a later stage.

Thoughts?

(Note: all names are fictional. Any correspondence with real player names/tags is unintentional. Also, no player pets were harmed during the writing of this suggestion.)

Search up crafting guides and increase your account value by ‘forging’ ascended. How much are we willing to lean on others to accomplish benign personal account/character growth?

You want it. You make it. A guild can send you materials to help. But they won’t give you a shortcut. Earn you stripes.

Triangulator.2867:

Search up crafting guides and increase your account value by ‘forging’ ascended. How much are we willing to lean on others to accomplish benign personal account/character growth?

You want it. You make it. A guild can send you materials to help. But they won’t give you a shortcut. Earn you stripes.

You do know that in the military, each private does not forge their own rifle from solid cast steel, nor does every airman personally assemble their own jet right? A seaman does not build from scratch each boat in the Navy, etc.

The OP makes a great point. And I’ve seen other games allow players who enjoy crafting to set up shops after a fashion, and can craft items for other players, even traditionally super high end stuff that would be soulbound/accountbound on acquire as it is now in GW2.

His point isn’t to make it easier for everyone to get super high end gear, it was to increase the community and value of guilds in the first place. Having a central armorer would make it slightly quicker to get those items, with of course the bottleneck being that players would still have to farm the raw materials first.

With the advent of raids, the intent of the devs to deconstruct the Zerk meta, the plethora of gear stats AND the cost of individual pieces and sets, what the OP suggests is not only perfectly reasonable, it ends up adding value and longevity as well as a sense of community.

Earn your stripes. LOL. Its a game. Get a grip.

Triangulator.2867:

Search up crafting guides and increase your account value by ‘forging’ ascended. How much are we willing to lean on others to accomplish benign personal account/character growth?

You want it. You make it. A guild can send you materials to help. But they won’t give you a shortcut. Earn you stripes.

I believe I mentioned that the names were completely fictitious? So were the scenarios. I was taking creative license. I’ve personally reached ascended crafting on two of my characters (armor and smithing) and have high levels in other crafting areas as well. I’m not looking for a shortcut for myself; I like having ascended stuff, but I seriously want to help my guildmates out. It’s awesome to have the power to forge cool things – but if I could use it to benefit my guild, I would feel that it was also an accomplishment of importance.

And thanks for the support, Kaleban

My suggestion is guild-centered, with the intention of bringing more life and interaction to guilds as a whole. I mean, I could bring up a pretty long list of features for Anet to add (along with detailed plans for implementation), but this is something both simple and beneficial to the community that could revitalize guild gameplay.

Kaleban.9834:

Triangulator.2867:

Search up crafting guides and increase your account value by ‘forging’ ascended. How much are we willing to lean on others to accomplish benign personal account/character growth?

You want it. You make it. A guild can send you materials to help. But they won’t give you a shortcut. Earn you stripes.

You do know that in the military, each private does not forge their own rifle from solid cast steel, nor does every airman personally assemble their own jet right? A seaman does not build from scratch each boat in the Navy, etc..

This is a GAME .. some people seem to lose sight of that apparently.

Kraggy.4169:

Kaleban.9834:

Triangulator.2867:

Search up crafting guides and increase your account value by ‘forging’ ascended. How much are we willing to lean on others to accomplish benign personal account/character growth?

You want it. You make it. A guild can send you materials to help. But they won’t give you a shortcut. Earn you stripes.

You do know that in the military, each private does not forge their own rifle from solid cast steel, nor does every airman personally assemble their own jet right? A seaman does not build from scratch each boat in the Navy, etc..

This is a GAME .. some people seem to lose sight of that apparently.

I mean… that was still part of Kaleban’s point – as stated at the end of his reply.

Now that I think about it, as an feature, there could be a guild rank check-box for whether certain ranks can use guild-bound ascended equipment. That way (depending on how strict/lax the guild is), access to such equipment could still be “earned”. This would also prove to be a way to balance out the possible issue where a member could take equipment for all his/her characters when he/she doesn’t need to do so or has been forbidden to do so (a single-outfit guild rule).

Also, guild-bound ascended items would not be able to have their skins altered by other guild members. Doing so would only be an option for the creator, and doing so would (as usual) make the item soulbound. This would add a certain uniformity to a guild that builds up full ascended sets for everyone in them – they would be outfitted like armies. But of course people can still mix and match their own equipment with their guild-bound things.

Furthermore, should someone add runes to their armor, the runes would remove upon leaving the guild, putting the equipment in the guild bank, trading to another guild member, etc.

Kaleban.9834:

Triangulator.2867:

Search up crafting guides and increase your account value by ‘forging’ ascended. How much are we willing to lean on others to accomplish benign personal account/character growth?

You want it. You make it. A guild can send you materials to help. But they won’t give you a shortcut. Earn you stripes.

You do know that in the military, each private does not forge their own rifle from solid cast steel, nor does every airman personally assemble their own jet right? A seaman does not build from scratch each boat in the Navy, etc.

The OP makes a great point. And I’ve seen other games allow players who enjoy crafting to set up shops after a fashion, and can craft items for other players, even traditionally super high end stuff that would be soulbound/accountbound on acquire as it is now in GW2.

His point isn’t to make it easier for everyone to get super high end gear, it was to increase the community and value of guilds in the first place. Having a central armorer would make it slightly quicker to get those items, with of course the bottleneck being that players would still have to farm the raw materials first.

With the advent of raids, the intent of the devs to deconstruct the Zerk meta, the plethora of gear stats AND the cost of individual pieces and sets, what the OP suggests is not only perfectly reasonable, it ends up adding value and longevity as well as a sense of community.

Earn your stripes. LOL. Its a game. Get a grip.

You do know that privates in the army also dont get the best equipment to work with.

Its the same here.
Guild members can craft or buy you everything up to exotic gear and they can give you all the mats you need to level your armorsmith, too.

although if you farmed all the mats and your armorsmith just clicked for you, why should you lose the armor if you leave the guild?
i’m totally in favor of sharing crafting disciplines with people who just don’t want to craft… i would like to see crafting more meaningful in terms of gameplay instead of how it is. why can’t i have a character in this game who just is a crafter, can sell powerful stuff or receive orders from players with associated mats.
or why isn’t there a npc able to craft ascended which can do so if you bring him the mats he need so nobody is forced to craft to 500?

While the suggestion sounds nice and I’d really like to help out my guildmates with their crafting, there are some problems to be considered:

1. Who does the equipment belong to?
The player? The one wearing the equipment probably paid for the mats or farmed them, so it’s only fair to say that the equipment belongs to him and if he ever leaves the guild, gets to keep it. This opens the possibility to invite players and “sell” ascended stuff.

The guild? This would prevent people from joining a guild to buy ascended stuff and leave again, because the items would stay with the guild. However it would artificially force people to stick to their guild even if there is a dispute. It could even be used to threaten members.

I just thought about something good: The item stays with it’s wearer. Always. However if you leave the guild it was adjusted (or forged) in, then it becomes unusable until it’s either adjusted in another guild that you join, or you have the crafting profession at 500 and can turn the item into a personal one.

The same thing happens if the one who forged or adjusted the item leaves the guild.

A related story from Minecraft.
I love to build in Minecraft, on Servers, on Survival Setting.
Now getting all the materials there to build is pretty grindy when you have to do it alone. To my luck, there were dozens of players who had way more fun in farming and mining than building, thus, they gave/sold me hundreds of resources for me to build with.
Now I don’t want to imagine to be forced to gather all that stuff on my own because the game forbids the other players to give or trade there blocks with me, or to have found every diamond for tools I made for me and others myself.
Or let’s talk a higher tier. It would have sucked if I had to do all the enchanting myself instead of just getting enchanted tools from others.

Yet, that is the case in Guild Wars 2 with the high level crafting.

BunjiKugashira.9754:

While the suggestion sounds nice and I’d really like to help out my guildmates with their crafting, there are some problems to be considered:

1. Who does the equipment belong to?
The player? The one wearing the equipment probably paid for the mats or farmed them, so it’s only fair to say that the equipment belongs to him and if he ever leaves the guild, gets to keep it. This opens the possibility to invite players and “sell” ascended stuff.

The guild? This would prevent people from joining a guild to buy ascended stuff and leave again, because the items would stay with the guild. However it would artificially force people to stick to their guild even if there is a dispute. It could even be used to threaten members.

---

I just thought about something good: The item stays with it’s wearer. Always. However if you leave the guild it was adjusted (or forged) in, then it becomes unusable until it’s either adjusted in another guild that you join, or you have the crafting profession at 500 and can turn the item into a personal one.

The same thing happens if the one who forged or adjusted the item leaves the guild.

A completely valid point, but for the sake of discussion, let’s say that the idea is that people are aware that it would belong to the guild. That way, they can either level their own crafting levels and craft their own ascended items (and equip them and make them soulbound), or pitch in for the guild craftsman to make them, with full awareness that if they aren’t sure about sticking with the guild, they probably shouldn’t pitch in too heavily.

A similar issue was dealt with in Guild Wars 1 in that manner – you could farm Luxon/Kurzik points and invest them in your guild; they were not refundable if you left the guild.

However, I did notice another valid point that I previously overlooked. The guild armorer has no obligation to craft things and make them guild-bound. So another balance (again, a simple one) could be that crafting benches in the guild hall could stockpile items (maybe a crafting material storage panel in the guild bank). If an armorer/weaponsmith/etc creates items at a bench, he/she can either choose to use personal items or the guild cache. If using the cache, the crafted item is only going to be guild bound.

Perhaps there could even be a guild rune that automatically becomes part of the armor. The guild’s rune would be decided upon by the leader (or anyone authorized to update rune). The rune would then become part of the construction requirements.

Thoughts?

First of all, being able to craft ascended armor is a big incentive for players to level their crafting up to 500.
If players could rely on other players to craft that gear for them, less people would level their crafts to 500. Leveling your craft from 400-500 uses up a nice amount of mats, which now wont be needed anymore, as only a few level it.

Anet would have to account for that loss of material sink, which would probably mean that we will see mat requirements for leveling from 400-500 similar to the mat requirements needed to level scribing, which is so big, that basically many players have to pool their ressources in orderfor one player to level it.

This restricts access to crafting to newer players, which isnt an improvement in my opinion.

There are clear advantages of leveling your own profficiency to 500 and there are plenty of nice guides out there to help you do it.

For me it seems you only dont want to spend the mats to level your crafting but still would like to have access to the perks it provides.

This is a problem that shouldnt be solved by your guild and making mayor adjustments on item bindings.

Wanze.8410:

For me it seems you only dont want to spend the mats to level your crafting but still would like to have access to the perks it provides.

Then you read it wrong, he already has a view crafts on 500.

It is all about sharing.
Yes, leveling from 400-500 eats up a lot of resources, but you do it for what? One or two armor sets and a view weapons, only for your character, after that, you don’t need that craft anymore.

The Point of that Guild-Bound System is to make high level crafting useful for more player then just you, give you the opportunity to help others with the results of your hours of work.

But as said, there should still be reasons to level up your crafting yourself eventually, maybe to replace the Guild Smith, for a special Item/Gift or whatever. Maybe limit the stuff one can craft at a “Guild Forge” limited, so you can only make a hand full of stat-sets but not all, or maybe just one, celestial.
There are a lot of clever people here with a lot of ideas to keep the resource and money sink, or even build in more AND make high level crafting more useful.

Griffin.5379:

Wanze.8410:

For me it seems you only dont want to spend the mats to level your crafting but still would like to have access to the perks it provides.

Then you read it wrong, he already has a view crafts on 500.

It is all about sharing.
Yes, leveling from 400-500 eats up a lot of resources, but you do it for what? One or two armor sets and a view weapons, only for your character, after that, you don’t need that craft anymore.

The Point of that Guild-Bound System is to make high level crafting useful for more player then just you, give you the opportunity to help others with the results of your hours of work.

But as said, there should still be reasons to level up your crafting yourself eventually, maybe to replace the Guild Smith, for a special Item/Gift or whatever. Maybe limit the stuff one can craft at a “Guild Forge” limited, so you can only make a hand full of stat-sets but not all, or maybe just one, celestial.
There are a lot of clever people here with a lot of ideas to keep the resource and money sink, or even build in more AND make high level crafting more useful.

There is so much to share between guild members, i dont think ascended armor or account bound mats in general should be one of them, just for the sake of being able to share more as it would have too much impact on other parts of the game.

Wanze.8410:

Griffin.5379:

Wanze.8410:

For me it seems you only dont want to spend the mats to level your crafting but still would like to have access to the perks it provides.

Then you read it wrong, he already has a view crafts on 500.

It is all about sharing.
Yes, leveling from 400-500 eats up a lot of resources, but you do it for what? One or two armor sets and a view weapons, only for your character, after that, you don’t need that craft anymore.

The Point of that Guild-Bound System is to make high level crafting useful for more player then just you, give you the opportunity to help others with the results of your hours of work.

But as said, there should still be reasons to level up your crafting yourself eventually, maybe to replace the Guild Smith, for a special Item/Gift or whatever. Maybe limit the stuff one can craft at a “Guild Forge” limited, so you can only make a hand full of stat-sets but not all, or maybe just one, celestial.
There are a lot of clever people here with a lot of ideas to keep the resource and money sink, or even build in more AND make high level crafting more useful.

There is so much to share between guild members, i dont think ascended armor or account bound mats in general should be one of them, just for the sake of being able to share more as it would have too much impact on other parts of the game.

The way you put it sounds like you just don’t want an extra feature in the game. Plenty of similar systems already exist in guild/clan/outfit-based games: Warframe, for instance, has weapons and frames that you could create your own personal clan for and put aaaaaaall the materials into the research for – or you could join a clan of players who all farm up the pieces and chip in. Either way is acceptable and either way directly affects players and gameplay. Ascended equipment in Guild Wars doesn’t have crippling affects on gameplay, so I’m not sure what exactly you mean by “too much impact on other parts of the game”. For a game called “Guild Wars”, not “Craftsmen Wars”, I’d like to see Anet making guild interaction and collaboration and community a focus with increasingly-interesting and evolving features.

A system like this would also encourage the recruitment of new players who are long-standing friends of current players. (Yes, Anet, I just suggested that you could even market the idea. Uhoh.)

Wanze.8410:

You do know that privates in the army also dont get the best equipment to work with.

Its the same here.
Guild members can craft or buy you everything up to exotic gear and they can give you all the mats you need to level your armorsmith, too.

Sigh.

There is just no arguing with some people it seems.

A Private in the army gets the same quality M4 or M16 as a Sergeant. Its not like you’ve got Master Chiefs running around in Crysis armor, and Privates using dilapidated Fallout 3 hunting rifles.

And as ANY military or society has done since recorded history began, there has always been logistical support in the form of smiths who mass produce items for the warriors/soldiers. A fighting force could not function if every single man at arms had to learn how to make his own weapons, ammunition, not to mention the time taken away from actual fight training to learn the finer points of folding steel or casting molds.

And here’s the thing in terms of gameplay. Ascended gear means only a very small numerical advantage over exotics, generally, not including AR for Fractals. So if its a very marginal increase, and as you pointed out we can already do the trading/equipping with exotics, then from a gameplay/twinking aspect, Ascended offers no big advantage. Then, combine that with the massive number of different stat sets compared to other MMOs, the mat requirements per set, the fact that almost any profession can be built for power, condi, or any of several viable combinations AND ANet has stated it wants to break up the Zerk meta (which is likely what everyone’s primary or sole Ascended set is), and you begin to see that Ascended crafting as a Guild Service is a great idea.

On top of all that, ANet has said that in some unspecified way, Ascended will be REQUIRED to participate/succeed in the upcoming Raid content. No word on stat combinations (Do we need Nomad and Soldier or Berserk and Assassin?), so we’re left to guess as usual.

So when you break it down, combine all the points listed above, it becomes nearly logically inexcusable to NOT introduce something like a Guild Crafting ability.

I think the point of this thread here is to highlight how the game and guilds especially can be more community driven. I think this is an excellent idea and it’s things like this that Anet should be doing to encourage more people into joining guilds.

For those of you against, thinking the OP is out for an easier way to obtain Ascended gear or whatever, it is a shame that you can’t look beyond such a shallow outlook as this.

+1 from me.

Kaleban.9834:

And here’s the thing in terms of gameplay. Ascended gear means only a very small numerical advantage over exotics, generally, not including AR for Fractals. So if its a very marginal increase, and as you pointed out we can already do the trading/equipping with exotics, then from a gameplay/twinking aspect, Ascended offers no big advantage. Then, combine that with the massive number of different stat sets compared to other MMOs, the mat requirements per set, the fact that almost any profession can be built for power, condi, or any of several viable combinations AND ANet has stated it wants to break up the Zerk meta (which is likely what everyone’s primary or sole Ascended set is), and you begin to see that Ascended crafting as a Guild Service is a great idea.

On top of all that, ANet has said that in some unspecified way, Ascended will be REQUIRED to participate/succeed in the upcoming Raid content. No word on stat combinations (Do we need Nomad and Soldier or Berserk and Assassin?), so we’re left to guess as usual.

So when you break it down, combine all the points listed above, it becomes nearly logically inexcusable to NOT introduce something like a Guild Crafting ability.

Not saying I disagree with the idea, I think it would be a cool community thing.

However, you are overlooking a couple of key points.
Anet wants everyone to grind up their own smithing, that’s the only reason to start making it more necessary.

They want tons more players pouring gold and mats into that sink
(only reason to push for ascended for raids)

They want those sinks burning as many mats as possible
(only reason to increase the crafting cost of stuff people have said was already too expensive)

Given those two factors I doubt we’ll ever see anything of the sort that lets players help each other bypass those sinks, at least not on a direct level, they’d still be able to do stuff like carry friends through fractals or other content that has a higher chance for ascended, but I imagine that’s about it.

So you say ANET need that because they were not capable of thinking about one of the biggest problems in MMO economy? Currency inflation.
News for you, even with those sinks, the problem is not solved and will never be. To solve such a deep rooted problem, fighting against the symptoms didn’t help, they need something much much bigger.

So in other word, yes, those are “important” sinks, but in the whole picture, they are negligible.

To give you a picture. Those sinks are the buckets and glasses you place around the house to catch the dropping water instead of fixing the roof.

I’m not sure if this has been answered yet; what happens when guilds start “selling” access to ascended crafters?

Something in the direction of: “guild-bound stuff can’t be carried outside the guild”
was mentioned, though that is a topic for itself.

Hm, Idea based on that, a Guild-Shop, NPC to place in a town that can sell stuff from a special guild inventory.
With the AH this is pretty much useless, but would become interesting when you can buy things that can’t be sold in the AH.

Miku.6297:

I’m not sure if this has been answered yet; what happens when guilds start “selling” access to ascended crafters?

Essentially, jobs/job descriptions. I mean, so long as it works out for both the guild members and the crafters, that’s another positive community interaction. You could even have journeymen who craft in one guild for a couple of days, pick up some gold as payment, and then move on to another guild. Fullfill guild-member-determined “contracts” and move on with life. More cool ideas – nice input there!

Griffin.5379:

Something in the direction of: “guild-bound stuff can’t be carried outside the guild”
was mentioned, though that is a topic for itself.

Hm, Idea based on that, a Guild-Shop, NPC to place in a town that can sell stuff from a special guild inventory.
With the AH this is pretty much useless, but would become interesting when you can buy things that can’t be sold in the AH.

Not really sure how a shop would work out. It could, but I haven’t really considered that as a mechanic. I suppose it would be a bit like the guild shops in Elder Scrolls Online? Couldn’t really have ascended items in there due to the guild-binding mechanic, but other than that it’s a good idea (guildies could list items/materials/etc for cheaper to other guildies than they would on the trading post, for example). But that’s a whole new topic to think about.

Swift.1930:

Wanze.8410:

Griffin.5379:

Wanze.8410:

For me it seems you only dont want to spend the mats to level your crafting but still would like to have access to the perks it provides.

Then you read it wrong, he already has a view crafts on 500.

It is all about sharing.
Yes, leveling from 400-500 eats up a lot of resources, but you do it for what? One or two armor sets and a view weapons, only for your character, after that, you don’t need that craft anymore.

The Point of that Guild-Bound System is to make high level crafting useful for more player then just you, give you the opportunity to help others with the results of your hours of work.

But as said, there should still be reasons to level up your crafting yourself eventually, maybe to replace the Guild Smith, for a special Item/Gift or whatever. Maybe limit the stuff one can craft at a “Guild Forge” limited, so you can only make a hand full of stat-sets but not all, or maybe just one, celestial.
There are a lot of clever people here with a lot of ideas to keep the resource and money sink, or even build in more AND make high level crafting more useful.

There is so much to share between guild members, i dont think ascended armor or account bound mats in general should be one of them, just for the sake of being able to share more as it would have too much impact on other parts of the game.

The way you put it sounds like you just don’t want an extra feature in the game. Plenty of similar systems already exist in guild/clan/outfit-based games: Warframe, for instance, has weapons and frames that you could create your own personal clan for and put aaaaaaall the materials into the research for – or you could join a clan of players who all farm up the pieces and chip in. Either way is acceptable and either way directly affects players and gameplay. Ascended equipment in Guild Wars doesn’t have crippling affects on gameplay, so I’m not sure what exactly you mean by “too much impact on other parts of the game”. For a game called “Guild Wars”, not “Craftsmen Wars”, I’d like to see Anet making guild interaction and collaboration and community a focus with increasingly-interesting and evolving features.

A system like this would also encourage the recruitment of new players who are long-standing friends of current players. (Yes, Anet, I just suggested that you could even market the idea. Uhoh.)

I just dont want Anet to burn ressources for a feature that wouldnt make much of a difference for most of the player base. And the problem that OP described can easily be solved with the existing features. If you want to help a guildie craft their own ascended gear, you can support him with mats and advice on how to level their crafting proficiency and you can support him with plenty of tradeable mats to craft their ascended gear.

Account bound items, mats and curriencies are in game for a reason because their neccessity for certain recipes make sure that the payer completes certain content, achievements etc.

Why do you want to complete that content or achievements for them instead of helping them complete it for their own progression?
I think the 2nd option is way more social and embraces a sense of community compared to the first one.

Swift.1930:

Essentially, jobs/job descriptions. I mean, so long as it works out for both the guild members and the crafters, that’s another positive community interaction. You could even have journeymen who craft in one guild for a couple of days, pick up some gold as payment, and then move on to another guild. Fullfill guild-member-determined “contracts” and move on with life. More cool ideas – nice input there!

So why even bother having ascended as “account bound”? If guilds could be used to buy/sell the armor, why not just go ahead and have it be available on the TP?

What I might be able to support a bit more… Have the guild armor “rent” ascended stat armor. If the guild crafter is the proper level you can buy timed (3 day duration for example) ascended armor once per duration cycle. This way, you would need to be in a guild to have the armor. It would also let people try out different stat combos without having to fully invest in buying a new set.

ScribeTheMad.7614:

Kaleban.9834:

And here’s the thing in terms of gameplay. Ascended gear means only a very small numerical advantage over exotics, generally, not including AR for Fractals. So if its a very marginal increase, and as you pointed out we can already do the trading/equipping with exotics, then from a gameplay/twinking aspect, Ascended offers no big advantage. Then, combine that with the massive number of different stat sets compared to other MMOs, the mat requirements per set, the fact that almost any profession can be built for power, condi, or any of several viable combinations AND ANet has stated it wants to break up the Zerk meta (which is likely what everyone’s primary or sole Ascended set is), and you begin to see that Ascended crafting as a Guild Service is a great idea.

On top of all that, ANet has said that in some unspecified way, Ascended will be REQUIRED to participate/succeed in the upcoming Raid content. No word on stat combinations (Do we need Nomad and Soldier or Berserk and Assassin?), so we’re left to guess as usual.

So when you break it down, combine all the points listed above, it becomes nearly logically inexcusable to NOT introduce something like a Guild Crafting ability.

Not saying I disagree with the idea, I think it would be a cool community thing.

However, you are overlooking a couple of key points.
Anet wants everyone to grind up their own smithing, that’s the only reason to start making it more necessary.

They want tons more players pouring gold and mats into that sink
(only reason to push for ascended for raids)

They want those sinks burning as many mats as possible
(only reason to increase the crafting cost of stuff people have said was already too expensive)

Given those two factors I doubt we’ll ever see anything of the sort that lets players help each other bypass those sinks, at least not on a direct level, they’d still be able to do stuff like carry friends through fractals or other content that has a higher chance for ascended, but I imagine that’s about it.

Thing is, it’s insanely easy for developers to come up with new ways for people to spend materials and money. I could brainstorm a list of things they could implement without so much as blinking, let alone needing to budget for them. (Little deployable tents that can be crafted at level 300? Not to mention the cooler-looking gem store tents? Seriously, we’d be seeing massive and varied camps within hours.) If it’s all about economy/economic drive/individual farming/grinding/etc instead of about bringing guilds and communities together and encouraging player interaction, Anet may as well strip Guild Wars 2 down into a single-player game with hostable co-op gameplay and instanced WvW/PvP servers.

Miku.6297:

Swift.1930:

Essentially, jobs/job descriptions. I mean, so long as it works out for both the guild members and the crafters, that’s another positive community interaction. You could even have journeymen who craft in one guild for a couple of days, pick up some gold as payment, and then move on to another guild. Fullfill guild-member-determined “contracts” and move on with life. More cool ideas – nice input there!

So why even bother having ascended as “account bound”? If guilds could be used to buy/sell the armor, why not just go ahead and have it be available on the TP?

What I might be able to support a bit more… Have the guild armor “rent” ascended stat armor. If the guild crafter is the proper level you can buy timed (3 day duration for example) ascended armor once per duration cycle. This way, you would need to be in a guild to have the armor. It would also let people try out different stat combos without having to fully invest in buying a new set.

It doesn’t matter if there are journeyman crafters out there; materials or fees would still need to be collected. The idea is not to exchange exorbitant fees for ascended items, but rather to use them as guild community items. If a guild doesn’t want to hire an expensive journeyman, they train up their own craftsman. Either way, the guild still pitches in for the final result. Also, as I mentioned, the guild equipment would not be transmutable and would have a rune of the guild’s choice (in the same way a banner is chosen). That way, if you’re looking for customisability, you’re still going to need to craft your own armor/weapons.

Swift.1930:

It doesn’t matter if there are journeyman crafters out there; materials or fees would still need to be collected. The idea is not to exchange exorbitant fees for ascended items, but rather to use them as guild community items.

But my question about selling items and your answer does NOT support guild community items. It supports non guild members buying ascended armor.

Miku.6297:

Swift.1930:

It doesn’t matter if there are journeyman crafters out there; materials or fees would still need to be collected. The idea is not to exchange exorbitant fees for ascended items, but rather to use them as guild community items.

But my question about selling items and your answer does NOT support guild community items. It supports non guild members buying ascended armor.

I’m confused. When was that indicated? The whole idea so far has been that the armor would be bound to the guild. That way non-guild-members cannot, as you put it, buy it.

If you’re indicating that ascended equipment should be purchasable on the market, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Then it becomes an economy focus rather than a guild community focus. Anet already has plenty of cash sinks on the trading post that anyone (including guilds) can purchase at any time already purely for gold. The whole idea is to bring more importance and interaction to half of Guild Wars’s title.

Swift.1930:

I’m confused. When was that indicated? The whole idea so far has been that the armor would be bound to the guild. That way non-guild-members cannot, as you put it, buy it.

If you’re indicating that ascended equipment should be purchasable on the market, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Then it becomes an economy focus rather than a guild community focus. Anet already has plenty of cash sinks on the trading post that anyone (including guilds) can purchase at any time already purely for gold. The whole idea is to bring more importance and interaction to half of Guild Wars’s title.

If only guild members can buy it, how does that prevent someone from doing this..

/map tipping for guild with ascended armor crafters ready to use —→ join guild --→ buy/craft armor from guild crafters —→ pay inviter --→ leave guild. Unless you are saying that A-net would some how flag the armor to be useable by members only in a certain guild, and only when repping said guild, the final result would be a way to acquire ascended armor without having to level crafting or get RNG lucky.

Miku.6297:

Swift.1930:

I’m confused. When was that indicated? The whole idea so far has been that the armor would be bound to the guild. That way non-guild-members cannot, as you put it, buy it.

If you’re indicating that ascended equipment should be purchasable on the market, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Then it becomes an economy focus rather than a guild community focus. Anet already has plenty of cash sinks on the trading post that anyone (including guilds) can purchase at any time already purely for gold. The whole idea is to bring more importance and interaction to half of Guild Wars’s title.

If only guild members can buy it, how does that prevent someone from doing this..

/map tipping for guild with ascended armor crafters ready to use —-> join guild —-> buy/craft armor from guild crafters —-> pay inviter —-> leave guild. Unless you are saying that A-net would some how flag the armor to be useable by members only in a certain guild, and only when repping said guild, the final result would be a way to acquire ascended armor without having to level crafting or get RNG lucky.

Exactly like that, yep. Anything flagged as guild-bound is automatically (as part of the “leave guild” button’s programming sequence) sent to the guild’s ascended equipment vault (a material-storage-style panel which should also be added). The confiscation of guild-bound items is an extremely simple line of code.

Also, I just noticed something in Guild Wars that indicates that something like this is coming in the future: in the guild window, you can see what level and profession of craftsman fellow members are. If ascended crafting isn’t going to be accessible to guild members, why do you need to know crafting levels? It could just have the professions, or even just not show any profession information at all. As crafting and guild interaction currently stands, the last thing guild members need to even think of caring about is others’ crafting levels. The information is completely useless – exotic equipment is available anywhere and (mostly) for cheaper than crafting it yourself, so there’s no good reason to requisition it from fellow guildies.

Swift.1930:

Miku.6297:

Swift.1930:

I’m confused. When was that indicated? The whole idea so far has been that the armor would be bound to the guild. That way non-guild-members cannot, as you put it, buy it.

If you’re indicating that ascended equipment should be purchasable on the market, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Then it becomes an economy focus rather than a guild community focus. Anet already has plenty of cash sinks on the trading post that anyone (including guilds) can purchase at any time already purely for gold. The whole idea is to bring more importance and interaction to half of Guild Wars’s title.

If only guild members can buy it, how does that prevent someone from doing this..

/map tipping for guild with ascended armor crafters ready to use —-> join guild —-> buy/craft armor from guild crafters —-> pay inviter —-> leave guild. Unless you are saying that A-net would some how flag the armor to be useable by members only in a certain guild, and only when repping said guild, the final result would be a way to acquire ascended armor without having to level crafting or get RNG lucky.

Exactly like that, yep. Anything flagged as guild-bound is automatically (as part of the “leave guild” button’s programming sequence) sent to the guild’s ascended equipment vault (a material-storage-style panel which should also be added). The confiscation of guild-bound items is an extremely simple line of code.

Also, I just noticed something in Guild Wars that indicates that something like this is coming in the future: in the guild window, you can see what level and profession of craftsman fellow members are. If ascended crafting isn’t going to be accessible to guild members, why do you need to know crafting levels? It could just have the professions, or even just not show any profession information at all. As crafting and guild interaction currently stands, the last thing guild members need to even think of caring about is others’ crafting levels. The information is completely useless – exotic equipment is available anywhere and (mostly) for cheaper than crafting it yourself, so there’s no good reason to requisition it from fellow guildies.

The crafting proficiency of guild members has always been visible in the roster.

What would a guild leader stop to invite a new player, let him pay for guild bound ascended armor and then kick him?

Wanze.8410:

The crafting proficiency of guild members has always been visible in the roster.

What would a guild leader stop to invite a new player, let him pay for guild bound ascended armor and then kick him?

It certainly has; I remember it from all the way back at the start. The thing is, it has no use yet. There have been several placeholders in the game (Dominion of the Winds, the Tengu capital, is a big example of that) since launch.

If a player was hiring himself out as a journeyman smith (not journeyman in the Guild Wars sense of the word, but rather in the historical sense), it would make plenty of sense. I mean it also depends on what humans do; some guild leaders might kick them out, some might keep them, some journeymen might leave on their own accord, some might stay on, and so on and so forth. So long as Anet gives us the tools for interaction, the interactions themselves become organic. I’m not saying anyone’s going to get kicked out (but let’s face it, it can happen even now to someone who has donated a lot to a guild).

Swift.1930:

Exactly like that, yep. Anything flagged as guild-bound is automatically (as part of the “leave guild” button’s programming sequence) sent to the guild’s ascended equipment vault (a material-storage-style panel which should also be added). The confiscation of guild-bound items is an extremely simple line of code.

Guilder leader → recruits players who help progress the guild crafters, or donate/buy/whatever it takes to make this “guild bound ascended”… He then KICKS players and keeps the profit/items for himself or other guild members…

An extremely simple line of code that could become EXTREMELY abusive.

Miku.6297:

Swift.1930:

Exactly like that, yep. Anything flagged as guild-bound is automatically (as part of the “leave guild” button’s programming sequence) sent to the guild’s ascended equipment vault (a material-storage-style panel which should also be added). The confiscation of guild-bound items is an extremely simple line of code.

Guilder leader -> recruits players who help progress the guild crafters, or donate/buy/whatever it takes to make this “guild bound ascended”… He then KICKS players and keeps the profit/items for himself or other guild members…

An extremely simple line of code that could become EXTREMELY abusive.

But you do realize that this can already happen, right? Players can already put effort/time/etc into building up a guild hall and then get kicked out. Or building up a guild’s reputation. Etc. Etc. When you think about it, though, most players aren’t about to hand over everything right after joining a guild, and most guild leaders aren’t as evil as you’re giving them credit for. What people do with the system is up to them, certainly. Maybe some leaders take a regular tax (resources, money, influence). Maybe some guild leaders kick people out if they don’t represent them for a week.

Development is the key here; I’m using this thread as a brainstorm for collecting ideas about making something that could be a reality. You tell me it can be abused? Great! Now we brainstorm how to counter the abuse. A voting system for kicking abusive guild leaders? A minimum number of members to be maintained to be able to access its own ascended equipment? A small Anet support team to take complaints about events like that? Or even a player council (Greek oligarchy for the win) of proven reliable players who voluntarily view and vote on replacing abusive guild leaders at weekly gatherings? (Either in Lion’s Arch or somewhere less laggy, but my thoughts were on adding an actual voting module/location in this case, and LA is both central and neutral.)

But to restate the contents of my first paragraph, abuse is already possible and already there. Think of the human balances, though – if guild leaders are going to care SOLELY about ascended items, how many people will join them? And are people really gullible enough to say yes to “you can join us if you give us 99999 platinum ore”? Last I checked, people weren’t joining guilds to give their stuff away. And if human nature prevails, people concerned about losing resources will look for the “cheapest” guild anyways. Or create their own.

The game doesn’t have to be stale. Thinking within the box is an issue. I’m suggesting legitimate development; doing so means more than just adding a single module.

Why do people look at crafting like some kind of demon or something? Just gather the materials (as is done in the example anyway) and get to it. A few clicks here and there aren’t going to kill anyone.

As someone who crafted half a server’s end-game weaponry on another MMO, I’m glad that this isn’t possible on GW2. Why should some people (who “enjoy” crafting or something, it doesn’t work like that) put in the work, just for others to piggyback off of it. If crafting is so bad, why are you so happy to make someone else do it for you? If it’s not so bad, then stop slacking and get past level 100 tailor.

Everyone should put in the same effort and investment to get the same end reward, not just pushing the workload onto other people.

Chameleon Dude.1564:

Why do people look at crafting like some kind of demon or something? Just gather the materials (as is done in the example anyway) and get to it. A few clicks here and there aren’t going to kill anyone.

As someone who crafted half a server’s end-game weaponry on another MMO, I’m glad that this isn’t possible on GW2. Why should some people (who “enjoy” crafting or something, it doesn’t work like that) put in the work, just for others to piggyback off of it. If crafting is so bad, why are you so happy to make someone else do it for you? If it’s not so bad, then stop slacking and get past level 100 tailor.

Everyone should put in the same effort and investment to get the same end reward, not just pushing the workload onto other people.

And there’s nothing stopping you from doing that! Same way there’s nothing stopping someone from buying sufficient gems and gold to get to lvl 500 in any profession straight off the bat. Doesn’t mean we should applaud all current limitations; the game should be expanding, not narrowing.

If your comment was an attack on me, I mentioned earlier that I’ve already hit 500 with several crafting levels. I’m pro-development rather than pro-stagnation, and there’s a lot more that can be added to guild gameplay.

But as someone who has crafted half a server’s end-game weaponry, that’s something on your rep. You can claim that. You wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t 1) profitable, 2) fun, or 3) something to be proud of.

Swift.1930:

But you do realize that this can already happen, right? Players can already put effort/time/etc into building up a guild hall and then get kicked out. Or building up a guild’s reputation. Etc. Etc. When you think about it, though, most players aren’t about to hand over everything right after joining a guild, and most guild leaders aren’t as evil as you’re giving them credit for. What people do with the system is up to them, certainly. Maybe some leaders take a regular tax (resources, money, influence). Maybe some guild leaders kick people out if they don’t represent them for a week.

Right but as it stands, if you donate money/items to the guilds growth you know what you are doing, and you are NOT getting any item back, (theres no obvious temptation/reward for paying) If you purchase/craft armor that you THINK you will get to keep but then get removed to simply take your resources that is a very different situation then we currently have.

Swift.1930:

Development is the key here; I’m using this thread as a brainstorm for collecting ideas about making something that could be a reality. You tell me it can be abused? Great! Now we brainstorm how to counter the abuse. A voting system for kicking abusive guild leaders? A minimum number of members to be maintained to be able to access its own ascended equipment? A small Anet support team to take complaints about events like that? Or even a player council (Greek oligarchy for the win) of proven reliable players who voluntarily view and vote on replacing abusive guild leaders at weekly gatherings? (Either in Lion’s Arch or somewhere less laggy, but my thoughts were on adding an actual voting module/location in this case, and LA is both central and neutral.)

Brainstorming for successful development has to look at both sides the pros and the cons of any idea, if the cons out weigh the pros some times it’s better to just scrap or not carry through with a plan. The current crafting system works, the current guild system (minus guild missions for a large part) works. There is really no need to add more guild reliant dedication or interaction. As you said players can allready put time/effort/etc into building a guild and its reputation. Why does there need to be a crafting short cut or armor reward as well?

As far as anti abuse, I really don’t think A-net should invest any time or effort into something like this as there are other things that need their attention. As far as player brought justice is concerned, I’m not a big fan. To make something like that even remotely feasible the players voting would need to have evidence and facts presented concerning each individual case.

Swift.1930:

But to restate the contents of my first paragraph, abuse is already possible and already there. Think of the human balances, though – if guild leaders are going to care SOLELY about ascended items, how many people will join them? And are people really gullible enough to say yes to “you can join us if you give us 99999 platinum ore”? Last I checked, people weren’t joining guilds to give their stuff away. And if human nature prevails, people concerned about losing resources will look for the “cheapest” guild anyways. Or create their own.

The game doesn’t have to be stale. Thinking within the box is an issue. I’m suggesting legitimate development; doing so means more than just adding a single module.

You are 100% right people aren’t joining guilds to give their stuff away. Of course what I’m talking about isn’t giving it away either, they would be being tricked and exploited for gain. As I said, current “abuse” is an opt in NO personal equipment reward type of thing. This suggestion puts a potentially desirable armor set/weapon as a lure to get people to donate that could be removed from them at any time.

Adding something like this wouldn’t make content or play for the most part any more or less stale. As the only thing it affects is another way to gain ascended armor other then crafting or having it RNGd. It’s not about thinking inside, outside, or ontop of the box. The FIRST thing that needs to be addressed is does the game really need this to be enjoyed by the majority of players.

Fix guild missions, add the raids/more raids… Add some Guild vs Guild interactions… There are tons of gameplay related improvements and additions that would enhance guild gameplay. Making ascended armor without crafting really isn’t something that should be high on A-nets priority list.

Miku.6297:

Swift.1930:

But you do realize that this can already happen, right? Players can already put effort/time/etc into building up a guild hall and then get kicked out. Or building up a guild’s reputation. Etc. Etc. When you think about it, though, most players aren’t about to hand over everything right after joining a guild, and most guild leaders aren’t as evil as you’re giving them credit for. What people do with the system is up to them, certainly. Maybe some leaders take a regular tax (resources, money, influence). Maybe some guild leaders kick people out if they don’t represent them for a week.

Right but as it stands, if you donate money/items to the guilds growth you know what you are doing, and you are NOT getting any item back, (theres no obvious temptation/reward for paying) If you purchase/craft armor that you THINK you will get to keep but then get removed to simply take your resources that is a very different situation then we currently have.

Swift.1930:

Development is the key here; I’m using this thread as a brainstorm for collecting ideas about making something that could be a reality. You tell me it can be abused? Great! Now we brainstorm how to counter the abuse. A voting system for kicking abusive guild leaders? A minimum number of members to be maintained to be able to access its own ascended equipment? A small Anet support team to take complaints about events like that? Or even a player council (Greek oligarchy for the win) of proven reliable players who voluntarily view and vote on replacing abusive guild leaders at weekly gatherings? (Either in Lion’s Arch or somewhere less laggy, but my thoughts were on adding an actual voting module/location in this case, and LA is both central and neutral.)

Brainstorming for successful development has to look at both sides the pros and the cons of any idea, if the cons out weigh the pros some times it’s better to just scrap or not carry through with a plan. The current crafting system works, the current guild system (minus guild missions for a large part) works. There is really no need to add more guild reliant dedication or interaction. As you said players can allready put time/effort/etc into building a guild and its reputation. Why does there need to be a crafting short cut or armor reward as well?

As far as anti abuse, I really don’t think A-net should invest any time or effort into something like this as there are other things that need their attention. As far as player brought justice is concerned, I’m not a big fan. To make something like that even remotely feasible the players voting would need to have evidence and facts presented concerning each individual case.

Swift.1930:

But to restate the contents of my first paragraph, abuse is already possible and already there. Think of the human balances, though – if guild leaders are going to care SOLELY about ascended items, how many people will join them? And are people really gullible enough to say yes to “you can join us if you give us 99999 platinum ore”? Last I checked, people weren’t joining guilds to give their stuff away. And if human nature prevails, people concerned about losing resources will look for the “cheapest” guild anyways. Or create their own.

The game doesn’t have to be stale. Thinking within the box is an issue. I’m suggesting legitimate development; doing so means more than just adding a single module.

You are 100% right people aren’t joining guilds to give their stuff away. Of course what I’m talking about isn’t giving it away either, they would be being tricked and exploited for gain. As I said, current “abuse” is an opt in NO personal equipment reward type of thing. This suggestion puts a potentially desirable armor set/weapon as a lure to get people to donate that could be removed from them at any time.

Adding something like this wouldn’t make content or play for the most part any more or less stale. As the only thing it affects is another way to gain ascended armor other then crafting or having it RNGd. It’s not about thinking inside, outside, or ontop of the box. The FIRST thing that needs to be addressed is does the game really need this to be enjoyed by the majority of players.

Fix guild missions, add the raids/more raids… Add some Guild vs Guild interactions… There are tons of gameplay related improvements and additions that would enhance guild gameplay. Making ascended armor without crafting really isn’t something that should be high on A-nets priority list.

It’s not about the suggestion being the top priority list, it’s about it being on the list. More guild options, more guild gameplay, more development. Maybe it wouldn’t even be “ascended” equipment in the guild vault – maybe it would be a guild “uniform” or something. But, of course, that’s changing the thread.

One reason I brought this topic up was because as soon as I reached ascended crafting and had myself kitted out, I had no choice but to become bored of ascended crafting – I have no use for it anymore. I can’t use it to help others, and I can’t use it for myself (unless I’m desperate to kit out two of my other characters, who I don’t even use that much), even though it was quite a lengthy/expensive leveling process.

Swift.1930:

One reason I brought this topic up was because as soon as I reached ascended crafting and had myself kitted out, I had no choice but to become bored of ascended crafting – I have no use for it anymore. I can’t use it to help others, and I can’t use it for myself (unless I’m desperate to kit out two of my other characters, who I don’t even use that much), even though it was quite a lengthy/expensive leveling process.

So how does this solve that? I’m simply saying ascended crafting is fine where it is, having some sort of function that aloud guilds to “create” ascended armor for their members seems like extra work without much use, other then to short cut crafting or to abuse for gains.

Swift.1930:

One reason I brought this topic up was because as soon as I reached ascended crafting and had myself kitted out, I had no choice but to become bored of ascended crafting – I have no use for it anymore. I can’t use it to help others, and I can’t use it for myself (unless I’m desperate to kit out two of my other characters, who I don’t even use that much), even though it was quite a lengthy/expensive leveling process.

Of course you can use it to help your guildies.
I am sure there are guildies that would like to send you the wood, ore, leather or cloth to craft some ascended mats because they already crafted their daily one. They save a couple of gold, if you donate your daily cooldown.
If they arent able to craft ascended gear for themselves yet because they havent leveled their crafting profession yet, you could donate mats for leveling, if you wish to make a contribution, or help mentoring them, if they struggle to find the most effective way of leveling their crafts.
Helping out others isnt limited because Anet doesnt provide a UI or other mechanics for it.

Wanze.8410:

Swift.1930:

One reason I brought this topic up was because as soon as I reached ascended crafting and had myself kitted out, I had no choice but to become bored of ascended crafting – I have no use for it anymore. I can’t use it to help others, and I can’t use it for myself (unless I’m desperate to kit out two of my other characters, who I don’t even use that much), even though it was quite a lengthy/expensive leveling process.

Of course you can use it to help your guildies.
I am sure there are guildies that would like to send you the wood, ore, leather or cloth to craft some ascended mats because they already crafted their daily one. They save a couple of gold, if you donate your daily cooldown.
If they arent able to craft ascended gear for themselves yet because they havent leveled their crafting profession yet, you could donate mats for leveling, if you wish to make a contribution, or help mentoring them, if they struggle to find the most effective way of leveling their crafts.
Helping out others isnt limited because Anet doesnt provide a UI or other mechanics for it.

Yes, those are a couple of limited options. Giant resource sinks, but otherwise, sure, still options.

It still hurts like hell when you and a friend both focus on different crafting levels because you want to complement each other – and then you both get to the pricey top and realize that you can’t actually help each other.

This suggestion is (mostly, but definitely not solely) aimed at assisting small guilds and casual players. With all the fresh issues (and old ones that have been re-raised) that have hit Guild Wars 2 (see 60% of the other threads), the playerbase is going to sink somewhat – so even though you have a big, active (and apparently rich?) guild now, you’ll eventually know what I’m talking about.

And again – more support options, more guild interaction, more gameplay, more immersion, more (here’s one for Anet) addiction.

Swift.1930:

Yes, those are a couple of limited options. Giant resource sinks, but otherwise, sure, still options.

And again – more support options, more guild interaction, more gameplay, more immersion, more (here’s one for Anet) addiction.

And using or leveling up a guild crafter/armor vendor wouldn’t be a resource sink?

I just don’t see how this would be a large boost to interaction, gameplay and immersion. It’s really just a short cut for those that don’t want to level their crafting.

Wouldn’t be a resource sink anymore, no, because only one person needs to be leveled in each profession! But the system is just a tool; whether players choose to throw all their resources at profession leveling or just contribute for their guild equipment is up to them. More interaction choices. Or you can ignore helping fellow players with ascended equipment altogether – which is another interaction choice.

People who just don’t want to level their crafting are unlikely to be given access to equipment.

And like I said above, where there’s a problem there’s room for brainstorming a fix: maybe guild-bound ascended equipment cannot be equipped by a character who hasn’t mastered at least one profession.

Swift.1930:

This suggestion is (mostly, but definitely not solely) aimed at assisting small guilds and casual players.

Ascended gear is not intended for casual players. Its a long term reward for personal progress.

Why do you want this to be available to casuals? It will destroy alot of current rewards structures and just because its intended for small guilds and casuals doesnt mean the big and hardcore veteran guilds wont abuse it.

How much different craftable stat combos do we now have in the game, 30?
Maybe 10 popular sets?
So a big raiding guild would only need like 10 of each, maybe only 5 for some and 15 for for others.
Thats 100 sets, multiply that by 3 weight classes and a guild with 150 hardcore players would only have to craft 2 sets per member and would basically be all set for any gear they might want to run a couple of raid groups simoultaneously.
They would completely leave the demand crowd for ascended gear.

Swift.1930:

Wouldn’t be a resource sink anymore, no, because only one person needs to be leveled in each profession! But the system is just a tool; whether players choose to throw all their resources at profession leveling or just contribute for their guild equipment is up to them. More interaction choices. Or you can ignore helping fellow players with ascended equipment altogether – which is another interaction choice.

People who just don’t want to level their crafting are unlikely to be given access to equipment.

And like I said above, where there’s a problem there’s room for brainstorming a fix: maybe guild-bound ascended equipment cannot be equipped by a character who hasn’t mastered at least one profession.

If your set on something like this, I still feel like having the “guild crafted” ascended be timed for 3days to 1 week, after which the person would need to get another set from the crafter. (ideal an NPC vendor thing that you earn with donations/influence/gold/mats in the guild hall). Obviously the mats to make the armor would cost less and be easier to get, but there would still be a cost. This would also circumvent the issues with “buying” ascended armor and leaving, or “selling” ascended armor and kicking.

Miku.6297:

Swift.1930:

Wouldn’t be a resource sink anymore, no, because only one person needs to be leveled in each profession! But the system is just a tool; whether players choose to throw all their resources at profession leveling or just contribute for their guild equipment is up to them. More interaction choices. Or you can ignore helping fellow players with ascended equipment altogether – which is another interaction choice.

People who just don’t want to level their crafting are unlikely to be given access to equipment.

And like I said above, where there’s a problem there’s room for brainstorming a fix: maybe guild-bound ascended equipment cannot be equipped by a character who hasn’t mastered at least one profession.

If your set on something like this, I still feel like having the “guild crafted” ascended be timed for 3days to 1 week, after which the person would need to get another set from the crafter. (ideal an NPC vendor thing that you earn with donations/influence/gold/mats in the guild hall). Obviously the mats to make the armor would cost less and be easier to get, but there would still be a cost. This would also circumvent the issues with “buying” ascended armor and leaving, or “selling” ascended armor and kicking.

Or a repair function, perhaps; I can’t see any logic behind creating a whole new one every time. Yes, not a bad idea. Also increases interactions. Also encourages more people to get crafting levels if the main armorer/weaponsmith/etc goes offline for a few days. Good call!

I mean… I know this is veering off the original topic slightly, but what if I was to change the idea from it being ascended items to just guild uniforms or equipment that require lvl 500 (or 400, or 450) to craft and (as per the previous comment) repair/maintain?

I have changed the topic title, as it looks like I started off on the wrong foot. The last few posts have clarified the idea. My idea wasn’t to give ascended equipment to everyone and his dog for cheap, but rather to give more value to craftsmen in guild-centered gameplay. Something that makes their profession more than ornamental.