Guild Wars 2

What title says, this weapons and armours are all so awesome looking and all, but to me they are worthless on some way. It just doesn’t feel right that you can purchase them with tickets or gold. Where is old fashion questing? Way more rewarding to do PvE if you go out there and collect your favourite weapon skin set. That’s why i don’t do PvE in GW2 ( i used to do PvE a lot in GW1). But now i have no lust to do so.

That’s my opinion, i miss quality PvE content that would include quests or something to acquire this skins which would make me feel rewarding not RNG. ( i know arena net has to earn something from GEM store). So i have suggestion:

Just going into the store and buy it is kind of meh to me. I would rather pay 200-300 gems per quest to unlock it, and you would be able to do decent quest that would be hard enough to acquire, and end of quest would give you one of the skins.

EDIT1:
Sure there is some skins that we cannot acquire anywhere else but doing specific thing, but that’s less then 1%, and rest of gear fairly easy to get, while all awesome looking weap/arm are for gems, and nothing but grind or buy RNG keys which is not my favourite thing to spend money on (else i would play euro-jackpot).

EDIT2:
I did read each and every comment I and see that you guys feel pretty much the same on few aspects of my view. Just pointing out PvE was my expression that we have game mechanics that should and would be way more exciting to get them, I’m a PvP person in GW2 just because PvE is not what i would desire. ( and i must say i Love the landscape)

GEM store viable options to unlock ways of acquiring skins:
- PvE quests
- PvP tracks
- crafting (collecting unique materials)
- Being a mentor to newbies below 500 AP

EDIT3:
If they would make what EDIT2 says, i would actually buy 4-5 tracks/quests or what ever to get the skins. On the way we currently have, i just grind the gold, and buy it from TP. I have them skins, but they are worthless.

Yeah, I would prefer to actually earn things. Not pay for them.

You may like the Luminescent equipment set. You could also look up Caparace which you will unlock in-game while gaining Luminescent, Ambrite weapons or any of the dungeon armor and/or weapon skins for that matter (and don’t forget the Fractals ones). While there’s not too many things limited to being earned from things done in-game, there are things you can unlock. It’s not completely void of that.

The reason why they chose not to do that was they didnt want to exclude anyone’s playstyle, meaning you should be able to get any weapon regardless of how and what you play. I don’t agree with this at all, but i do understand the reason behind it. However I feel like they will introduce some skins that are only available through content in the expansion. Maybe maybe not we will see.

There is one place you can get skins through content, although it has really sucky rng: FoTM

Carapace/luminescent armor and ambrite weapons are recently introduced in-game sets that you can work towards (with a moderate degree of rng and a larger degree of “working” involved). Dungeon weapon and armor skin fit your definition, too, as do the region-specific weapon skins that can drop (from common skins like the krytan weapons to rare ones like the ceremonial weapons).

There’s a good variety of skins to unlock in-game, as well as a variety to buy or trade for tickets. I wouldn’t mind some more in-game sets, since I’ve gathered most of the not-super-rare skins by now, but seeing how ANet has continued to introduce new skins through different channels, I fully expect more to come in the future.

Not quests, however there are ingame methods to get some items.
There is the PvP reward tracks that give you the Glorious armor set as well as the Balthazar backpiece and the dungeon weapons and armors. Dry Top and PvP have the Ambrite weapons also. There are a number of backpieces that each crafting profession can make. Also through crafting are the ascended armors and weapons. The WvW tournament seasons allow you to get the Mistforged and Hero weapons. Tequatl and the 3 headed wurms have weapons or armor as a (very) rare drop. There are a number of karma weapons and armor from heart venders and cultural weapons from vendors in the cities that are ingame. The mystic forge allows you to craft unique weapon skins.

Glorious armor: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glorious_armor
Ambrite weapons: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ambrite_weapons
Mistforged: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mistforged_Hero%27s_weapons
Ascended armor: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_armor
Ascended weapons: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_weapons
Sunless weapons (Tequatl): http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sunless_weapons
Wurmslayer’s armor pieces: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wurmslayer%27s_armor
Cultural weapons: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cultural_weapon
Mystic forge: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Forge/Equipment
Crafter’s backpieces: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Crafter%27s_backpacks

In addition, each living story arc also has had some sort of item as the reward, usually a piece of gear.

When content is locked behind boring grindfest there’s no much difference to putting it in gem store instead. The rng locked content is even worse, because with arena net fashion its either worthless i rng is too good for you or its unobtainable at all because rolls are nerfed to oblivion.

The only guaranteed reward in this game is gold or broken finger because of terribly designed bags without option to open them when stacked.

Well we just had a set of that and some more things, the Carapace/Luminescent armors, Sinister stat gear, minipets from the new zones, etc.

It’s not perfect ofc but it’s quite a lot of content and after a long drought might indicate that they accepted the criticism and will add more items ingame again instead of the gemstore.

Paying for items is all well and good if you have the gold and want to flaunt it, but I totally agree that certain items should be drop-only, and down to skill/area/luck/effort.

After all, what better incentive for a casual or relative newcomer to continue in GW2 than a surprise drop of an unexpected and original item?

This has been my opinion on the matter of Store vs Gaming in MMORPG’s from the beginning OP.
I remember the feeling in EQ2 when I started playing, and how it simply faded away after the store was introduced and everything was attainable in there, with nothing being left to just game for.
Every game being released today is all about the store and what can be bought there, instead of the game and what can be attained through playing. It is rather boring and depressing.

Nyx.7342:

The reason why they chose not to do that was they didnt want to exclude anyone’s playstyle, meaning you should be able to get any weapon regardless of how and what you play

That’s ridiculous because there is only one reasonable way of getting weapons that require gold, such as all those skins obtained either through RNG gambling crap or buying them outright on the TP: farming gold through dungeon tours. Anything else would take so much time it isn’t even funny.

Nikaido.3457:

Nyx.7342:

The reason why they chose not to do that was they didnt want to exclude anyone’s playstyle, meaning you should be able to get any weapon regardless of how and what you play

That’s ridiculous because there is only one reasonable way of getting weapons that require gold, such as all those skins obtained either through RNG gambling crap or buying them outright on the TP: farming gold through dungeon tours. Anything else would take so much time it isn’t even funny.

actually farming gold through dungeon runs isnt the best way

TP playing is probably number one
And though i havent run the numbers in awhile, effecient open world farming is probably number 2

ok looking at it, with close to record runs on every path, it would still take you 180 minutes to run all paths, im guessing the record runs dont include loading transit, cutscenes etc,
running every path would give you 36 gold,

so 12 gold an hour, but only if your a doing record times on every path.
now, if your just above average, you will probably take twice as long. (whens the last time you did a path in under 3 minutes?)

which puts it at 6 gold an hour, which isnt really a lot.

phys.7689:

Nikaido.3457:

Nyx.7342:

The reason why they chose not to do that was they didnt want to exclude anyone’s playstyle, meaning you should be able to get any weapon regardless of how and what you play

That’s ridiculous because there is only one reasonable way of getting weapons that require gold, such as all those skins obtained either through RNG gambling crap or buying them outright on the TP: farming gold through dungeon tours. Anything else would take so much time it isn’t even funny.

actually farming gold through dungeon runs isnt the best way

TP playing is probably number one
And though i havent run the numbers in awhile, effecient open world farming is probably number 2

ok looking at it, with close to record runs on every path, it would still take you 180 minutes to run all paths, im guessing the record runs dont include loading transit, cutscenes etc,
running every path would give you 36 gold,

so 12 gold an hour, but only if your a doing record times on every path.
now, if your just above average, you will probably take twice as long. (whens the last time you did a path in under 3 minutes?)

which puts it at 6 gold an hour, which isnt really a lot.

You get a lot more than 36 gold with dungeon tours if you sell your drops and mat. I sell all exotic/rare drops, salvage the rest, sell the mat at the end of the tours. Also record runs aren’t meant for gold farming. Killing things like the little mobs in CoE p2/p3 is well worth doing for example. Core/lodestones drops in that dungeon are common.
TP playing is number one only when you already have enough gold to invest and even then it isn’t particularly accessible to people without business acumen. You can’t make money with the TP if you don’t already have a lot of money.

And then if you have dungeon recipes you also make money from the token earned. If you don’t, you still can add a small amount of money through salvaging dungeon gear. Salvaging will get you globs of ecto and sometimes things like insignia which fetch a nice amount of gold on the TP.

I would find it awesoem, if ANet would begin with it to make slowly the very old sets also obtainable normally fro mthe game and removing them from the Ticket Vendor Lists without bringing them back as Ticket Sales.

Seriously, ANet has anyway the upperhand in this and an unendless source. Whenever they need more money, than can bring up whenever needed constantly new ticket weapon skins.
But the amount of those skin weapons has been sicne a long time now already so much ,that anet had to remove multiple sets from the vendor list, makign it impossible to get those skins leading only to the prices of those skins raising way too high.

If Anet would begin to make the oldest skins for a start also obtainable to normal playing the game, prices of those skins would fall again to a normal level and peopel would be also able to get maybe skins, that currently are totally sold out and nobody sellign them anymore in the TP, plus achievement hunters would get also a way to work on those collections without having to grind for multiple tens of thousands of gold, just to complete all thouse collection,s but coudl earn them with SKILL and ENDURANCE in different ways through other game content that doesn#t force you to grind for such inhuman amounts of gold to just buy only the skins

Anet should make for a Start the 2-3 Skin Sets

• Fused Weapons
• Sclerite Weapons
• Dragons Jade Weapons

obtainable through the game in normal ways by makign these Skins:

• Rewards from World Boss Chests from some exotic Skin Containers
• Rewards from exotic Skin Containers rarely found in Jumping Puzzle Chests
• Rewards as Meta Achievements for upcoming Living Story Achievements
• Rewards found in WvW Rank Chests
• Rewards found in 1 time doable PvP Reward Tracks, that work like the Balthazar Reward Track (Fused Reward Track, Dragon Jade Reward Track, ect.)

If something along those options would be in the game, makign it possible, that players could earn in different ways also with slow progression those skins, more or less in random/limited ways so that players also would have an alternative over farming incredible amounts of gold or forcing people into flipping the TP to get anyhow the needed amounts of gold, because playing with lady luck for Tickets is just a waste of money, then this would be a huge improvement of GW2.

Sure, there would be peopel like always whining about, that they wouldn’t be able to make like 350-1000 gold of profit from such skin sales, but in the end just everyone would profit from it, if those skins would become slowly also earnable step by step.without that Anet needs to bring them back as ticket sales somewhen anymore.
For that the game has simply already way too many of those black lion skin sets and Anet surelly will keep on increasing the total amount of them every few months.

PS: making those skins somehow also craftable would be also an awesome nice method of earnign them in a normal way that might be alot cheaper, than to stupidly buy them from TP for an insane amoutn of Gold.

I don’t mind having some weapon / armor skins in the store. Anet is a business after all. However, I think they are putting too many of them there. Yes, we had the Lumi set come into the game recently, which was great, but we need a few more in the game to earn to help balance out the store.

The problem I have with getting items is that if they are done through chance. With paying for something either through the gold I farm or through cakitten least know I have a plan in mind on how I intend to get it. But that said, I do agree in that additional skins do need to be unlocked through the gameplay content we have. It can just be skins unique to those questlines.

Doing a quest to get a drop is different to doing PvE that could easily be the same as a quest, selling the drops and buying the skin… how?

I’m not a fan of everything being gem store either, but let’s be honest: aside from a couple of lines of rushed dialogue – it’s the same. Well, apart from it being 100% chance instead of RNG… oh, and you can earn the money through whatever playstyle you prefer.

I hope they follow the trend of carapace, luminescent, and ambrite skins. I don’t mind most skins being available for gold, but it’s cool to have things that say “I was there!” If only the wvw skins had more “I was there” and less “I pressed B once.” :p

Chameleon Dude.1564:

Doing a quest to get a drop is different to doing PvE that could easily be the same as a quest, selling the drops and buying the skin… how?

I’m not a fan of everything being gem store either, but let’s be honest: aside from a couple of lines of rushed dialogue – it’s the same. Well, apart from it being 100% chance instead of RNG… oh, and you can earn the money through whatever playstyle you prefer.

is buying from a restaurant the same as cooking a meal?

is buying a table the same as designing and building one?

i mean if you dont care about the process, sure its the same, but people who enjoy the game, want more of it to involve the best parts of the game.
making money in this game seldom represents the best parts of it.

I’m optimistic. They have recently started adding more skins obtainable through in-game content, some of them gorgeous (yes, carapace armor, I’m thinking about you). Furthermore, with the reward tracks, we know have the possibility of having different methods of unlocking certain skins. Naturally, you’ll still see a lot of gemstore exclusive skins, but that’s better than a subscription fee, so I’m not complaining.

There’s not that much in the gemstore. Arenanet releases weaponsets for tickets, which can be acquired through gold more easily than gems tbh.

If you think there is a shortage of gear you can “only” get through working for them, there is quite a long list. I’d suggest you take a look at everything you can get from the Mystic Forge f.e.

With costs involving complete stacks of ecto’s, T6 mats, Lodestones, etc, you’ll find quite some projects you can put effort into that will get you skins hardly anyone has.

Don’t forget that all the karma skins that can only be unlocked by “doing stuff”.
(i.e. hearts, events, etc.)

Lyssa temple has some pretty neat skins IMO that can only be bought with karma, which means you have to do stuff to earn it, and the vendor has to be unlocked by doing the temple events.

So yeah there are some ways to get some cool skins by questing and doing stuff in game rather than swiping a credit card and buying it off the TP or gem store.

phys.7689:

Chameleon Dude.1564:

Doing a quest to get a drop is different to doing PvE that could easily be the same as a quest, selling the drops and buying the skin… how?

I’m not a fan of everything being gem store either, but let’s be honest: aside from a couple of lines of rushed dialogue – it’s the same. Well, apart from it being 100% chance instead of RNG… oh, and you can earn the money through whatever playstyle you prefer.

is buying from a restaurant the same as cooking a meal?

is buying a table the same as designing and building one?

i mean if you dont care about the process, sure its the same, but people who enjoy the game, want more of it to involve the best parts of the game.
making money in this game seldom represents the best parts of it.

Sir.phys.7689 you won a medal, this is directly what i want to tell devs. They have awesome content, and i would spend so much more REAL MONEY if i had this option. Rather then buying keys, and let PvE die?!

phys.7689:

Chameleon Dude.1564:

Doing a quest to get a drop is different to doing PvE that could easily be the same as a quest, selling the drops and buying the skin… how?

I’m not a fan of everything being gem store either, but let’s be honest: aside from a couple of lines of rushed dialogue – it’s the same. Well, apart from it being 100% chance instead of RNG… oh, and you can earn the money through whatever playstyle you prefer.

is buying from a restaurant the same as cooking a meal?

is buying a table the same as designing and building one?

i mean if you dont care about the process, sure its the same, but people who enjoy the game, want more of it to involve the best parts of the game.
making money in this game seldom represents the best parts of it.

For the outright buying with money option, yes, that comparison works. Nothing stops gold to gems conversion though. When you do that, it’s more like cooking a meal in a different way, or building that table with a Swedish instruction manual and a few pieces needing to be adjusted. We’ve got an expansion coming just around the corner – we’ll have some more in-game only loot with that for sure. Until then, let them make a little money if people do want to go to the restaurant – you can still cook that same metaphorical meal yourself; be it in the Silverwastes, your favourite dungeon or just having fun wandering around Tyria.

Again, I’m not the biggest fan of the gem store, but you don’t have to buy that stuff with your credit card every time. And while I’m a big fan of lore, I’d rather see the current method than a really forced mini-quest style thing giving it as a reward – possibly even a limited time, RNG-based reward; as is the trend with games nowadays.