Inflation pushes progression beyond reach

Inflation pushes progression beyond reach

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Posted by: lordhelmos.7623

lordhelmos.7623

Lately I have been playing less and less of Gw2, which in a way can be a good thing as I am now rediscovering some good single player games I missed out on while time sinking into Gw2.

Let me start off by saying that “Progression” in Gw2 is very different from other games. By progression I mean having nice things, building towards something of value, collecting legendaries, and generally having nice things.

Ascended armor and Legendaries has soared up to astronomical value, with forging a set of light armor totaling over 1200-1500g in materials and/or months worth of time performing tedious grind tasks and mat collecting. Forging legendaries is even worse.

Inflation has caused all basic necessities for “Progression” to soar to levels way beyond the reach of anyone but a Black Lion tycoon.

The acquisition of any high end items is directly tied into crafting and the market, with minimal ways of obtaining them alternatively (considering the randomness of chests, and the even lower likelyhood of any reward being of a specific stat combination that is usable to you).

When “progressing” towards things such as Legendaries and Ascended Armor, players can work hard and seemingly get nowhere.

The game’s end progression has essentially turned into a giant wallstreet simulation that greatly rewards investors and marketers (especially ones with large amount of gold) vs. people who actually play the game for standard rewards.

Lackluster rewards and incentive has always been a problem in Gw2. I thought the addition of the collections was a good idea, but even the rewards from them are still pretty terrible.

Many people I know are just getting tired of logging in because there is nothing to do but grind for a goal that is further away then pluto, get fed up and buy gold to get what they want, or log in for a few minutes to stand in front of the black lion and play the market because its easier to advance via trading than playing the actual game.

This has lead to this sort of era of stagnation in Gw2, where people are just feeling like they are wasting time due to all the rewards being tied to the market and very little incentive or advancement beyond hoarding gold and manipulating trades.

The game has become a splitting image of the great American Depression, complete with the sad carnies begging for coins in the middle of lions arch.

While I see the need to keep gold valuable in order to support the game through the gemstore, I feel that the balance and the emphasis on wallstreet play in the game is too much. So much to the point where standard players who are doing basic reward play are scratching their heads wondering why they are wasting all their time and what this secret is in order to get into the mile high club (who are really just a collection of investors that gained all their wealth before the market inflated and everything valued up to a point to where its out of reach of normal players).

This kind of world is just not fun. I for one will be taking a break, with sparse logins to check the health of the game, unlock stories, and generally see what changes in the future.

(edited by lordhelmos.7623)

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Posted by: Zeivu.3615

Zeivu.3615

I just sell the raw ingredients for bank. Eventually, it will get to the point where the mats will saturate the market and the prices will go down. How long it takes though is solely dependent on the userbase’s desire for them. I am content using exotics on 12 toons until then.

(edited by Zeivu.3615)

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Posted by: Taku.6352

Taku.6352

Kinda hard to take you seriously when you just throw random numbers around. Full light armor sets costs less than 600g to craft and considering how easy it is to get money these days it’s not that much.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/crafting/6?sort_profit=desc&min_level=80&max_level=80&min_rating=500&max_rating=500&min_supply=&max_supply=

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Posted by: laokoko.7403

laokoko.7403

Ascended armor and Legendaries has soared up to astronomical value, with forging a set of light armor totaling over 1200-1500g in materials and/or months worth of time performing tedious grind tasks and mat collecting. Forging legendaries is even worse.

If you are willing to craft your own damask, it cost 478 gold for a set of celestial. If you are impatient, it cost 636 gold.

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Posted by: Wanze.8410

Wanze.8410

So investors and TP traders are now also responsible for ascended armor prices?

Tin Foil [HATS]-Hardcore BLTC-PvP Guild
Bloin – Running around, tagging Keeps, getting whack on Scoobie Snacks.

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Posted by: Bandit.8279

Bandit.8279

Kinda hard to take you seriously when you just throw random numbers around. Full light armor sets costs less than 600g to craft and considering how easy it is to get money these days it’s not that much.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/crafting/6?sort_profit=desc&min_level=80&max_level=80&min_rating=500&max_rating=500&min_supply=&max_supply=

Exactly this^^ My friend started playing in August and just finished her first full set of ascended armor for her ele the other day. She also has an ascended weapon. She works 40 hours a week, does WvW and jumping puzzles. Has no idea what a speed dungeon run looks like and still has trouble dodging. But she knows how to farm and what and when to sell.

If she can do it anyone can if they set their mind to it.

Fools N Gold [FNG] of Tarnished Coast

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Posted by: Weindrasi.3805

Weindrasi.3805

Kinda hard to take you seriously when you just throw random numbers around. Full light armor sets costs less than 600g to craft and considering how easy it is to get money these days it’s not that much.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/crafting/6?sort_profit=desc&min_level=80&max_level=80&min_rating=500&max_rating=500&min_supply=&max_supply=

The exact number is irrelevant, the core to the OP’s message is true. 1,500g or 600g, that’s way above the average player’s reach. Certainly way above mine. You may not be one of the “rich investor” types, but if you’re able to get 600g with ease, you’re certainly not in the majority either.

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Posted by: Yargesh.4965

Yargesh.4965

Kinda hard to take you seriously when you just throw random numbers around. Full light armor sets costs less than 600g to craft and considering how easy it is to get money these days it’s not that much.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/crafting/6?sort_profit=desc&min_level=80&max_level=80&min_rating=500&max_rating=500&min_supply=&max_supply=

The exact number is irrelevant, the core to the OP’s message is true. 1,500g or 600g, that’s way above the average player’s reach. Certainly way above mine. You may not be one of the “rich investor” types, but if you’re able to get 600g with ease, you’re certainly not in the majority either.

I make on average 10 gold for doing two events (wurm and teq). I can make a damask roughly every two weeks from mats I get from regular playing and breaking down drops.
60 days if I just use in game gold, less since I make damask on the way.

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Posted by: Bandit.8279

Bandit.8279

Kinda hard to take you seriously when you just throw random numbers around. Full light armor sets costs less than 600g to craft and considering how easy it is to get money these days it’s not that much.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/crafting/6?sort_profit=desc&min_level=80&max_level=80&min_rating=500&max_rating=500&min_supply=&max_supply=

The exact number is irrelevant, the core to the OP’s message is true. 1,500g or 600g, that’s way above the average player’s reach. Certainly way above mine. You may not be one of the “rich investor” types, but if you’re able to get 600g with ease, you’re certainly not in the majority either.

I make about 500g or so a month, work 50+ hours a week and help guild members level and so on. The average player should have no problem making 150 to 200g a month if they focus on it. 3-4 months for a full set of end-game ascended armor is very doable. I can do one full set every 2 months.

Do Tequatl & Karka Queen once a day. Hang out a lot in Dry Top and Silverwastes. Do champ farming and or speed dungeon runs. Gather everything. Break everything down. There are a lot of ways to make gold in the game.

New players I recommend you find a good guild and make friends in it. Find the farmers. Watch, listen, follow and ask them questions. Be goal oriented and work on those goals.

Fools N Gold [FNG] of Tarnished Coast

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Posted by: Theftwind.8976

Theftwind.8976

It would be interesting to know what the average amount of gold/wealth is per account and how much wealth the top 5-10% hold. If the OP is on track I would expect that as in the real world the top percentile holds the majority of wealth in the game. The problem is for the average person is once you have the wealth it is easy to make more via the TP.

I suspect that those at the top more then likely invested early in the game in buying gems. I mean, if the game were to restart tomorrow,from scratch, I would not hesitate to drop a hundred real dollars into gems as the eventual profit would be far in excess of that and I would not have to buy gems again.

Theftwind (HoD)

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Posted by: BlueBoy.1236

BlueBoy.1236

Ascended and legendaries are luxury items. It’s supposed to be expensive, and a long-term goal. That’s the reason why anet make it time-gated.

Take a look at ecto’s price instead. It’s relatively stable for the last 6 months. The gem price is maybe a bit out of control, compared to 2 years ago. But it happens to any gemstore/market store items in all mmos

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Posted by: CMF.5461

CMF.5461

Here, I’m a failure story. I have played the game since launch with a break or two in the past six months. At most I think I had 300g, but that involved having excess gems from purchasing things like infinite pick axe or other temporary/seasonal items.

On average I hover around 50g in my pocket. right now I have 20g and it does not move very far.

I do not farm to any huge extent, I salvage everything as I am still farming mats. I upgrade full stacks to higher tiers when capped out on lower level mats.

I salvage yellows for ectos and bank or use them myself and I save exotics to try to mystic forge on the off chance for a precursor.

I have gotten a few random exotic items I was able to sell for short term boosts in gold, but nothing concrete.

I have “tried” to play the market. Flipping I fail at and investing never pays off, so I fail at understanding how to do it….buy low sell high? I use gw2spidy and look at trends, I buy low and sit on things but after a week or two I give up and sell it back to break even or minimize loss.

So I either need to farm for hours and do large community events, or I need to learn how to trading post better….or both

Majority of my time is spent in spvp and theory crafting builds.

Am I the average player, or is everyone else way better off than me?

(edited by CMF.5461)

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Posted by: Scrivs.4501

Scrivs.4501

Here, I’m a failure story. I have played the game since launch with a break or two in the past six months. At most I think I had 300g, but that involved having excess gems from purchasing things like infinite pick axe or other temporary/seasonal items.

On average I hover around 50g in my pocket. right now I have 20g and it does not move very far.

I do not farm to any huge extent, I salvage everything as I am still farming mats. I upgrade full stacks to higher tiers when capped out on lower level mats.

I salvage yellows for ectos and bank or use them myself and I save exotics to try to mystic forge on the off chance for a precursor.

I have gotten a few random exotic items I was able to sell for short term boosts in gold, but nothing concrete.

I have “tried” to play the market. Flipping I fail at and investing never pays off, so I fail at understanding how to do it….buy low sell high? I use gw2spidy and look at trends, I buy low and sit on things but after a week or two I give up and sell it back to break even or minimize loss.

So I either need to farm for hours and do large community events, or I need to learn how to trading post better….or both

Majority of my time is spent in spvp and theory crafting builds.

Am I the average player, or is everyone else way better off than me?

Nah don’t worry, I’m exactly the same. I think at one time I had little over a 100g but then I reached lv80 on an alt and due to having to gear him up I got back to around 20g.
On average I also hover around 50-60g or so.

That’s why I never even bothered trying to craft a legendary. It has always just seemed like an impossible task for me.

[EU] Desolation
Mesmer – Necromancer – Ranger – Elementalist – Revenant

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Posted by: ZudetGambeous.9573

ZudetGambeous.9573

Lets look at some actual numbers instead of made up ones.

6 months ago a full ascended light set of armor cost ~850g, today that same set can be had for ~650g… not exactly inflation.

I think a better way to look at inflation is to look at items that have had a constant demand since launch. T6 mats have been used for the exact same items since launch, not much has changed about them. If you figure the first year of the game the ecnomy was still settling then we can look at everything after that as a good measure of gold in the economy.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24295

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24357

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24300

You’ll notice these items are all very similar, as they react to the economy in the same way, and they have all doubled in price over the last year and a half. I would say from looking at that we can conclude that gold is worth about half of what it was a year ago.

The problem is you need a common material with constant demand, and no major changes to get a good feel of the economy, and there just aren’t that many of those. Most regular materials are either so poorly tuned that they sit at vendor price, or they have had significant changes over the game and don’t represent the economy very well, just those changes (i.e. silk)

Ectos are probably the most in demand and highly traded item:
http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/19721

they also show a devaluing of gold by half.

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Posted by: eithinan.9841

eithinan.9841

I mean, if the game were to restart tomorrow,from scratch, I would not hesitate to drop a hundred real dollars into gems as the eventual profit would be far in excess of that and I would not have to buy gems again.

The exchange rate for RMT has not changed. you would have gotten the same amount of gems at release for $100 as you will today. Those gems just had a lower value in gold back then.

You should be talking about gold to gem conversion.

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Posted by: Morsus.5106

Morsus.5106

So investors and TP traders are now also responsible for ascended armor prices?

Haven’t you heard, we’re responsible for everything people can’t afford.

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Posted by: LanfearShadowflame.3189

LanfearShadowflame.3189

Let’s see 650g per light set…..

1 zerk, 1 assassin, 1 sinister, 1 celestial, 1 soldier for light….
(not even factoring in medium and heavy sets)

so 5 * 650g…… and that’s just for my account….

Yeah…I’m going to be “working” for quite a long time. I don’t make anywhere near as much gold kitten many people keep saying they do. Obviously I’m playing “wrong” and I need to start looking at GW2 as a part time job rather than a game.

I topped out at 525g (got lucky and sold 2 chaos weapons) and that has been rapidly dwindling as I buy silk, linen, rugged leather, and t6 blood. Not sure why I have no luck farming those 4 things, but it sure as hell eats my gold reserves.

Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.

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Posted by: joe.7684

joe.7684

Ascended and legendaries are luxury items. It’s supposed to be expensive, and a long-term goal. That’s the reason why anet make it time-gated.

Take a look at ecto’s price instead. It’s relatively stable for the last 6 months. The gem price is maybe a bit out of control, compared to 2 years ago. But it happens to any gemstore/market store items in all mmos

I agree with this. Personally, I’m just not interested in participating in the ascended/legendary rat race, and if this means I have armor and weapons that aren’t quite as cool-looking/have stats as nice as those who are willing to put the unholy amount of time and gold into getting those items, so be it. There’s a lot of nice stuff in the Exotic category, and I do get Ascended chest drops every so often – I got Tequatl’s Hoard Monday evening and for me and my friends that do “reset Teq” with me every evening at 4 Pacific/7 Eastern (look for us at the South Hills defense position), it was a Great Big Deal™. And I get at least a couple of Exotic drops every week; in fact, this week so far I’ve gotten two high-value Exotic axes out of embroidered coin purses and heirloom seed pouches in the Silverwastes.

Speaking of the Silverwastes, I’ve spent a couple of hours almost every day since the area went live doing the events (defenses, rubble, breach, etc.) and farming lost bandit chests and bandit crests, as well as killing champions in the “in-between” periods since the latest patch and doing the Labyrinth whenever I have enough key shards or complete keys. Right now, I have over 500 loot bags in my engineer’s packs (there’s an ongoing in-joke with my guild leader where I make her get all twitchy-eyed by saving up those bags instead of opening them). I’ve made enough money from opening and selling from those bags to satisfy any reasonable person.

I make a decent amount of gold from TP dealings since I sell all my rare drops there, as well as Cabalist and (recently) many Berserker’s items and daggers, which seem to be in high demand currently. I’m also collecting mats and salvage items (which can get shockingly high prices on the TP) for sale. When I came back to the game after nearly a year’s absence in August, I had only 120g in my wallet; by Halloween, I had 650g (which I spent a big chunk of to equip several characters properly with Exotic armor and weapons as well as suitable runes, sigils and accessories), then got up to nearly 950g by Thanksgiving, went on a TP shopping spree, dropped to about 255g, and as of this morning I’m back up to 560g with decent prospects of cracking 700g again by Christmas. TL:DR – I’m not a big player like the guys who toss around legendaries casually on the TP, but I think I’ve done all right for myself over the last four months.

(edited by joe.7684)

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Posted by: LanfearShadowflame.3189

LanfearShadowflame.3189

I disagree that ascended should be a luxury item. I do not agree that best in slot gear is a “luxury.” Of course, I come from playing GW1 where stats weren’t a luxury thing. Cosmetics where.

I can agree that legendaries should be a luxury. And I can agree that their stat swapping should remain unique to them, to enhance that luxury.

But not ascended.

Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.

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Posted by: Astralporing.1957

Astralporing.1957

Ascended and legendaries are luxury items.

BiS is not a luxury.

Actions, not words.
Remember, remember, 15th of November

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Posted by: ZudetGambeous.9573

ZudetGambeous.9573

Ascended and legendaries are luxury items.

BiS is not a luxury.

Please point to the content that you can’t complete in exotics… if there is some content that is physically impossible to complete in full exotic gear then ascended is no longer a luxury but is required. Otherwise it is a luxury item.

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Posted by: LanfearShadowflame.3189

LanfearShadowflame.3189

Ascended and legendaries are luxury items.

BiS is not a luxury.

Please point to the content that you can’t complete in exotics… if there is some content that is physically impossible to complete in full exotic gear then ascended is no longer a luxury but is required. Otherwise it is a luxury item.

That’s not the point Zudet. Technically you can complete everything (except maybe SIlverwastes) naked. Everything can be done in blues and greens (Been doing so quite successfully on my ranger until recently, even SW). By your argument armor is a luxury, period.

Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.

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Posted by: munkiman.3068

munkiman.3068

Ascended and legendaries are luxury items.

BiS is not a luxury.

Please point to the content that you can’t complete in exotics… if there is some content that is physically impossible to complete in full exotic gear then ascended is no longer a luxury but is required. Otherwise it is a luxury item.

It’s also very blah skins. The only high-end thing about them is the cost. Also, they touched on progression methods that might tie in with ascended gear at some point. Regardless, there is always fractals that “requires” ascended pieces, just not armor. I might actually consider them a luxury item if they at least looked nice. I know that’s subjective, but the only reason for me to craft them is that they are BiS gear. Realistically, you can play most of the content in your undies.

[TAO] Founder/Owner and Administrator for the NSP Server Website

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Posted by: SonOfJacob.7396

SonOfJacob.7396

Here, I’m a failure story. I have played the game since launch with a break or two in the past six months. At most I think I had 300g, but that involved having excess gems from purchasing things like infinite pick axe or other temporary/seasonal items.

On average I hover around 50g in my pocket. right now I have 20g and it does not move very far.

I do not farm to any huge extent, I salvage everything as I am still farming mats. I upgrade full stacks to higher tiers when capped out on lower level mats.

I salvage yellows for ectos and bank or use them myself and I save exotics to try to mystic forge on the off chance for a precursor.

I have gotten a few random exotic items I was able to sell for short term boosts in gold, but nothing concrete.

I have “tried” to play the market. Flipping I fail at and investing never pays off, so I fail at understanding how to do it….buy low sell high? I use gw2spidy and look at trends, I buy low and sit on things but after a week or two I give up and sell it back to break even or minimize loss.

So I either need to farm for hours and do large community events, or I need to learn how to trading post better….or both

Majority of my time is spent in spvp and theory crafting builds.

Am I the average player, or is everyone else way better off than me?

Nah don’t worry, I’m exactly the same. I think at one time I had little over a 100g but then I reached lv80 on an alt and due to having to gear him up I got back to around 20g.
On average I also hover around 50-60g or so.

That’s why I never even bothered trying to craft a legendary. It has always just seemed like an impossible task for me.

You guys are pretty much the average players – and there is NOTHING wrong with that. I think what I’ve learned in the last two years is that you CAN get what you want out of this game. But most people don’t actually DETERMINE what they actually want first – they just assume “the best” must be what they want. Do you REALLY want a greatsword (for example) that you can select “Giver” stats on? Then why would you craft a Legendary? I use two Ascended greatswords: a Berserker and a Sentinel. And it’s pretty much faster to swap between the two than it is to select from the Legendary stats.

The only Legendary I crafted was the Flameseeker Prophecies. It’s a shield, and isn’t all that useful except to look at and take screen shots with. None of the other Legendaries look anywhere near as cool. And functionally speaking, I’d rather have the two Ascended greatswords that I can keep different sigils on for TOTALLY different purposes.

I have all Ascended. MUCH cheaper and faster to produce relative to Legendaries. Personally, I think everyone should be awarded a precursor at every 10k or 15k achievement points. This would actually HELP the economy for both the “wealthy” and the “poor”.

For those that currently think a Legendary equals progression, perhaps you have not thought through what you want out of this game.

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Posted by: Morsus.5106

Morsus.5106

Ascended and legendaries are luxury items.

BiS is not a luxury.

They are in this game. Whether or not they should be is a different matter.

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Posted by: Newbstr.4871

Newbstr.4871

this is guild wars, you can use exotics and dodge, you only really need dps and fps add some decent gear, and you’re golden.

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Posted by: Bogy.2953

Bogy.2953

Kinda hard to take you seriously when you just throw random numbers around. Full light armor sets costs less than 600g to craft and considering how easy it is to get money these days it’s not that much.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/crafting/6?sort_profit=desc&min_level=80&max_level=80&min_rating=500&max_rating=500&min_supply=&max_supply=

The exact number is irrelevant, the core to the OP’s message is true. 1,500g or 600g, that’s way above the average player’s reach. Certainly way above mine. You may not be one of the “rich investor” types, but if you’re able to get 600g with ease, you’re certainly not in the majority either.

the exact numbers are relevant and op’s core message is false

legendary weps are just a skin you do not need them at all

as for ascended you only need them for lvl 50+ fractals

if you actually do dungeons and world events the money and materials will come pouring in , if you spend all day crying on forums it won’t , pretty simple

(edited by Bogy.2953)

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Posted by: Carighan.6758

Carighan.6758

I still don’t quite get why people “need” an ascended set or a legendary. They serve as nice long-term goals, don’t chase them directly. It’s not like you’ll ever notice the difference to exotics outside of FotM, anyhow.

The strength of heart to face oneself has been made manifest. The persona Carighan has appeared.

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Posted by: DarkWasp.7291

DarkWasp.7291

Everything can be done in blues and greens (Been doing so quite successfully on my ranger until recently, even SW).

Was that you in my last fractals group? :P


Anyway, while I agree with the OP’s mindset. (Cosmetics are part of progression, they are a part of gameplay, they are a part of the reason people keep playing the game.) I do not agree that they are beyond reach.

GW2 is a “just go do something” type of game. You want to go do the new zone? Go do it. Was it fun, want to do it again? Go do it again. Got bored after three times? Go do something else. Guild is doing CoF? Tag along. Need a half hour break? Go to Sparkfly to get in a decent Tequatl group. Running across a canyon and you see a jumping puzzle you like? Go jump the puzzle.

I don’t consider that playstyle grinding at all, yet it’s causing me to jump up 40-100g on weekends and zoom in mats toward my next ascended item.

^ Uses Guild Wars 2 character screenshots for desktop wallpapers.

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Posted by: LanfearShadowflame.3189

LanfearShadowflame.3189

I still don’t quite get why people “need” an ascended set or a legendary. They serve as nice long-term goals, don’t chase them directly. It’s not like you’ll ever notice the difference to exotics outside of FotM, anyhow.

I agree that asended isn’t “needed.” It definitely didn’t need to be added to the game, but hey we got it. Still, both of those are beside the point. The original intent of the game (and one many GW1 vets still take issue with them changing stance on) was that BiS was not a luxury. Its something every player should readily, and easily have access to by the time they hit 80. Ascended does not fit this design, not as it currently stands. It’s a distinct step in the opposite direction, which is not ok. It opens the door for them to continue taking steps in that direction, potentially turning the game into another “preparing to have fun” gear grind mmo.

Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.

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Posted by: LanfearShadowflame.3189

LanfearShadowflame.3189

Everything can be done in blues and greens (Been doing so quite successfully on my ranger until recently, even SW).

Was that you in my last fractals group? :P

Only if you were doing like a lvl 6 fractal lol! But no, I dont fractal with my ranger. Typically I take my mes or my ele, if and when I fractal (which you can probably tell isn’t often)

GW2 is a “just go do something” type of game. You want to go do the new zone? Go do it. Was it fun, want to do it again? Go do it again. Got bored after three times? Go do something else. Guild is doing CoF? Tag along. Need a half hour break? Go to Sparkfly to get in a decent Tequatl group. Running across a canyon and you see a jumping puzzle you like? Go jump the puzzle.

I don’t consider that playstyle grinding at all, yet it’s causing me to jump up 40-100g on weekends and zoom in mats toward my next ascended item.

I play like that; but I don’t make anywhere near that amount of gold on weekends (when I obviously play the most).

Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.

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Posted by: kylwilson.9137

kylwilson.9137

Let’s see 650g per light set…..

1 zerk, 1 assassin, 1 sinister, 1 celestial, 1 soldier for light….
(not even factoring in medium and heavy sets)

so 5 * 650g…… and that’s just for my account….

.

What light armored profession are you playing to take advantage of each of these stat spreads to warrant even making an ascended set of each of these? I’m genuinely curious.

\o/

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Posted by: CMF.5461

CMF.5461

Everything can be done in blues and greens (Been doing so quite successfully on my ranger until recently, even SW).

Was that you in my last fractals group? :P


Anyway, while I agree with the OP’s mindset. (Cosmetics are part of progression, they are a part of gameplay, they are a part of the reason people keep playing the game.) I do not agree that they are beyond reach.

GW2 is a “just go do something” type of game. You want to go do the new zone? Go do it. Was it fun, want to do it again? Go do it again. Got bored after three times? Go do something else. Guild is doing CoF? Tag along. Need a half hour break? Go to Sparkfly to get in a decent Tequatl group. Running across a canyon and you see a jumping puzzle you like? Go jump the puzzle.

I don’t consider that playstyle grinding at all, yet it’s causing me to jump up 40-100g on weekends and zoom in mats toward my next ascended item.

You described pretty much what I do and how I choose to do it, yet I don’t jump 40-100g on weekends or zoom in mats.

So while you are “just doing it”, are you selling EVERYTHING that drops, to include mats? Are you getting exotics that you sell on the trading post? Are you harvesting every node you walk by? How many hours do you play on average on the weekends?

At the end of a JP or opening public event or boss chests, I get mostly greens and maybe an odd yellow. I salvage them and keep the mats, sell the sigil or rune that dropped for maybe 2-5s. I typically open all the materials bags and store the crafting mats that are inside. If I were to clear out my bank, I might have a ton of money, but I keep saving those to make other things in the future. Such as ascended or legendary, which have not happened since launch. The ascended items I do have are from drops or bought with laurels.

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Posted by: LanfearShadowflame.3189

LanfearShadowflame.3189

Let’s see 650g per light set…..

1 zerk, 1 assassin, 1 sinister, 1 celestial, 1 soldier for light….
(not even factoring in medium and heavy sets)

so 5 * 650g…… and that’s just for my account….

.

What light armored profession are you playing to take advantage of each of these stat spreads to warrant even making an ascended set of each of these? I’m genuinely curious.

Zerk – all purpose, pugging, farming, desire a little extra punch on occasion (shared)
Cele – Ele, general everyday play
Assassin – Mes, standard set
Sinister – Necro, (eotm, wvw, farming)
Soldier – wvw purposes (shared)

I have more than one of each light class for assorted reasons.

Edit: To be specific, I have 2 of each light class currently. Still need to make a light class charr, not sure whether she will be an ele or a necro tho. Prob an ele.

Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.

(edited by LanfearShadowflame.3189)

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Posted by: pdavis.8031

pdavis.8031

@OP

The biggest issue is the assumption that the games economy is “inflated”. While it’s true some mat prices have gone up in price, you are forgetting that it is the players that set the demand and the prices. You don’t need to be a “TP tycoon” in oder to get the best gear. I was able to craft a full set of ascended, and a legendary, and only have about 5g at any given time. Sure it takes time, but having such a goal is what keeps people playing. There are plenty of people who do have the patience to work toward their goals, and are not worried about how long it takes, these items are mostly cosmetic and are not keeping players from doing any content at all.

While many people look at T6 prices, or precursors, or gold to gem conversion as sure signs that the economy is inflated because these things slowly increase in price, you have to look at the whole picture and not take just a few items as a sign of inflation. For example, Elder wood logs have gone way up and way down over the past 2 years. And their peak points have coinsided with WvW tournaments. Right now, it’s sitting at 22c. If there was indeed inflation, these prices would have gone steadly upwards. There are hundreds of items that have actually goen down in price, and many others that have remained steady with small flucuations.

The biggest problem is that there are less people willing to farm and work for what they want. If you ask anyone the best place to gather X mat, 95% of the responses will be, run dungeons and buy it off the TP, it’s easier and faster. While this is true, it only causes the prices to increase as there is a higher demand and people are still willing to pay a higher price for them.

As far as gold to gem converstion, it’s working as intended. The more people buy gems with gold, the higher the price is going to be. Which should be an incentive to buy gems to convert to gold, which lowers the price. But right now, because so many people are using gold for gems it’s not as feasible to do that. The gems prices themselves have remained constant for the past 2 years. It’s always been 100 gems for $1.25 USD, and always will be.

TL;DR

Inflation in the game is tightly controlled and not getting out of hand. The prices for the things we need to get the best stuff is set solely by the players, and what they are willing to sell for and what people are willing to buy. Don’t like the prices? Don’t buy them. Do some research, put in some work, and you’ll find you can get everything you could ever want with a little bit of effort.

“You know what the chain of command is?
It’s the chain I beat you with until you
recognize my command!”

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Posted by: DarkWasp.7291

DarkWasp.7291

You described pretty much what I do and how I choose to do it, yet I don’t jump 40-100g on weekends or zoom in mats.

So while you are “just doing it”, are you selling EVERYTHING that drops, to include mats? Are you getting exotics that you sell on the trading post? Are you harvesting every node you walk by? How many hours do you play on average on the weekends?

For rares I sell stuff like GSs, Staves and Hammers that are over 60s each. My MF is at 171% and I tend to get an exotic or two on weekends. I sell T5 mats and keep T6s. Sometimes I clear out my cooking section because I never use cooking anyway.

I merch my crystally/orby things unless they are worth more sold.

Mithril and Silk gets listed on the post as I have exceeded 1k.

I forge sigils and runes which usually leads to a worthless exotic with a few big hits on scholar and divinity from time to time.

I rush to sell new stuff. Made 21g off one of the new ascended SW recipies, the next day it went down to 5g.

Dungeon runs give their own money of course.

I tend to get a lot of Charged Cores too. I always sell cores.

I rarely gather nodes at all.

Champ bags I open, I don’t let them stack up.

^ Uses Guild Wars 2 character screenshots for desktop wallpapers.

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Posted by: Wanze.8410

Wanze.8410

I merch my crystally/orby things unless they are worth more sold.

You might want to double check them orby things these days.
Amalgamated Gemstones say hello.

Tin Foil [HATS]-Hardcore BLTC-PvP Guild
Bloin – Running around, tagging Keeps, getting whack on Scoobie Snacks.

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Posted by: DarkWasp.7291

DarkWasp.7291

I merch my crystally/orby things unless they are worth more sold.

You might want to double check them orby things these days.
Amalgamated Gemstones say hello.

Thanks for the heads up!

I’m sure my daily routine makes a lot of waste :P

^ Uses Guild Wars 2 character screenshots for desktop wallpapers.

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Posted by: CMF.5461

CMF.5461

Thank you for the break down, any advice helps a ton.

I’ll try forging the excess runes and sigils and it may pay off, but it also sounds like a bit of rng needs to fall in my favor and/or I need to play more to give more chances at rng.

I think the play more part is my problem, I don’t spent “quality” time in game, and mostly doing spvp and not constantly looting and making profit.

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Posted by: Theftwind.8976

Theftwind.8976

You may not need the legendary or the ascended but in a game where the progression is horizontal you have to have something as a goal. Going out to Sparkfly once a day, standing around for 30 minutes and then killing a dragon is not a goal it is a chore and therein lies the issue with end game content in every game I have played in.

Eventually when there is no more progression, either vertical or horizontal or when that progression is set too far out of reach for the time you have to invest in the game that game becomes a chore. There is a special term used in games for people that log in on patch day, burn through new content and then disappear until the next patch day and the reason for them doing so is the lack of reasonably attainable goals over a reasonable period of time. They can either do it all in a day or 2 (Silverwastes) or keep plugging away hoping for that precursor. On one hand the goals are too easily met while on the other it is all wrapped up in RNG and therefore out of reach.

The problem game companies have is how to meet the demands of everyone. Which portion of the population do they cater to? The ultra casuals? The casuals? Average or the over-achievers? The economy of the game will eventually be decided by the over-achievers and not by the average player, the over achievers will be those that amass huge amounts of gold, but the game content is usually made for the average player.

Theftwind (HoD)

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Posted by: Yumiko Ishida.3769

Yumiko Ishida.3769

I don’t know where anyone is getting these figures…I never really spent more than 50 gold to make my Zojja’s staff as I had the mats over time and knew where to farm the wood and other stuff.

Its doesn’t take more than an hour running through a few 15-50 level maps hitting every tree for wood. Leather is now cheep except for t4. Ori/mithril form salvaging everything metallic. Silk from cloth stuff.

Cloth of any type can be a problem. But Harathi centaur bags are for wool and cotton respectively based on level. The mystic forge is your friend with blue karma gear from certain vendors to make salvageable stuff for cloth/linen.

I have 161 gold and I have no issues.

Yumiko Emi Ishida 80 Ele, Hikari Kyoko Ishida 80 Guard TC-NA. Active RPer of NA megaserver.

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Posted by: Goose.5196

Goose.5196

Anet would have to make challenging content for you to be able to get these items by playing the game. Instead, they can just make you farm for it. Farming is easier for them. Some people actually view “farming” as fun. That’s cute.

I don’t want more things to get, I want more things to do.

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Posted by: Thaddeus.4891

Thaddeus.4891

But ascended and legendary are not the only goal in the game. There is plenty of really cool looking weapons and gear that are less costly. Things like Volcanus at 440 gold, or Eye of Rodgort at 300 gold, or Abyssal Scepter at 200 gold, or the Crossing at 100 gold, or Lord Taeres’s Shadow at 50 gold. Everybody can find a weapon or a piece of gear that is feasible with the amount of time they want to spend in game and the profit you can turn during this time.

Ok so 3k gold for a legendary and 400-600 gold for a ascended armor is too much? At which level you want it? 1K gold for a legendary? Ok, but for some ppl 1k is way too much and they will still complain, while hardcore player will complain that they don,t have anything else to do because they have all the legendary.

Ya Legendary and Ascended armor are costly, because those are the best item in the game.

Thaddeauz [xQCx]- QC GUILD

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Posted by: LanfearShadowflame.3189

LanfearShadowflame.3189

Our point is that it is the skins that should be the costly part. Things that take the time to hunt or farm or save for.

Not the stats. They should be mutually exclusive; however, in the case of ascended (which I don’t think is all the wonderful a skin to begin with) they are not.

Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.

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Posted by: Thaddeus.4891

Thaddeus.4891

Our point is that it is the skins that should be the costly part. Things that take the time to hunt or farm or save for.

Not the stats. They should be mutually exclusive; however, in the case of ascended (which I don’t think is all the wonderful a skin to begin with) they are not.

Well obviously, Anet don’t agree with you. The best stats was exotic and they added ascended because ppl complained that it was too easy to get the best gear. Can we please don’t get back into a 18 months old discussion about ascended.

Thaddeauz [xQCx]- QC GUILD

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Posted by: LanfearShadowflame.3189

LanfearShadowflame.3189

Our point is that it is the skins that should be the costly part. Things that take the time to hunt or farm or save for.

Not the stats. They should be mutually exclusive; however, in the case of ascended (which I don’t think is all the wonderful a skin to begin with) they are not.

Well obviously, Anet don’t agree with you. The best stats was exotic and they added ascended because ppl complained that it was too easy to get the best gear. Can we please don’t get back into a 18 months old discussion about ascended.

Maybe one of these days they’ll listen. They’ve started adding other things that are that old, suggestion wise, so here’s to hoping.

Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.

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Posted by: hybrid.5027

hybrid.5027

The BLTC subforum is gone, but the confused people who don’t know what inflation is and make posts like this haven’t gone anywhere!

The prices of damask and deldrimore haven’t really moved very much in the last half year, in fact delidrimore ingots were once well over 4g each, and now they are less. There is no inflation boogeyman here, you just want high demand, expensive items and can’t afford them. That isn’t what inflation is.

I know who I am, do you know who you are?

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Posted by: Bernie.8674

Bernie.8674

Inflation has caused all basic necessities for “Progression” to soar to levels way beyond the reach of anyone but a Black Lion tycoon.

The acquisition of any high end items is directly tied into crafting and the market, with minimal ways of obtaining them alternatively (considering the randomness of chests, and the even lower likelyhood of any reward being of a specific stat combination that is usable to you).

In my experience, a large portion of this issue is the tremendous disparity between dungeon rewards and everything else in the game. I chained four dungeons back to back for a guildie one night and came out with more gold from that evening than I had gained from farming champions in the Straits of Devestation and/or Drytop the entire month prior to that. I suddenly understood why T6 mats were going for half a gold or more. For a game that supposedly wasn’t about grinding dungeons, this gold gap is odd, to say the least.

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Posted by: Danikat.8537

Danikat.8537

If you’re not in a hurry it’s a lot easier and less intimidating to make these things.

I bought The Lover for just under 800g 4 months ago. It took me about 7 months (playing a couple of hours a day) to save up the gold, but that was preferable to me because it meant I didn’t have to spend my time farming areas I wouldn’t otherwise want to play. I did do some quick and easy things like making and selling plant food when it first came out and was worth about 9g each but other than that I just played normally and avoided spending money on other things.

In the 4 months since then I’ve also managed to make an ascended coat for my ranger (obviously I was saving materials for a while before then, just without a specific purpose in mind) and I’m close to finishing the Triforge Amulet I started working on before deciding to save for a precursor.

I never set myself a deadline for any of these goals, or even really think about how I’m progressing, I just add the necessary materials to a mental list of things I shouldn’t sell and whenever I find myself with a chunk of gold I buy some more. Sooner or later I have enough to complete it.

Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).

“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”

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Posted by: Astralporing.1957

Astralporing.1957

Our point is that it is the skins that should be the costly part. Things that take the time to hunt or farm or save for.

Not the stats. They should be mutually exclusive; however, in the case of ascended (which I don’t think is all the wonderful a skin to begin with) they are not.

Well obviously, Anet don’t agree with you. The best stats was exotic and they added ascended because ppl complained that it was too easy to get the best gear. Can we please don’t get back into a 18 months old discussion about ascended.

Err, no. They added ascended because people asked about new maps, bosses, dungeons and dynamic events. They couldn’t do what people asked for, so they decided on cheap surrogate which was the vertical gear progression. Which caused kittenstorm big enough, that they shelved the idea after one tier. At least for now, anyway.

Actions, not words.
Remember, remember, 15th of November