Guild Wars 2

Vissarion.6509:

I really love the new mining pick but i don’t want to spend 2700 gems just for this, can we get an option to buy them separately??

pretty pls Anet…?!

Agreed. There should be an option to buy each individual tool for 1000 gems, or even 1100 gems due to the extra utility/reward of said items. Those who want the package deal can pay for the package.

And no self-respecting consumer [maybe I’m alone in said title, and if so, then so be it] is going to feel comfortable rewarding seedy, self-destructive tactics like this with money. And yes they’re seedy, and at the very least self-destructive. Imagine if Apple made it so you had to buy an iPod, an iPad, and an iMac for $2k [a deal] and there was no option to buy an iPod for regular price? Apple wouldn’t make more money. They’d go out of friggin’ business. The argument that Anet doing it this way makes them more money somehow rings in my ears like the “4-D chess” meme. shudder

And yea I don’t have to buy it, but I freakin’ love this game [i literally live for each new living world episode and the latest one i have literally no criticisms of] and want it to prosper. There’s no reason to act like this when you’re selling a product that by far beats any competition. As a regular customer I’m asking you to not chase money away. That’s all.

Please offer the individual tools and a package deal like every other respectable business out there. That’s all the OP is asking for. He’s not the one that’s acting completely unreasonable with his request here. Seeing the migraine-inducing template criticisms he and others like him get for this simple request [its like map chat except everywhere ] makes me wish I was on Tyria in the wildest parts of the Branded as opposed to simply playing with my character in it. I love your game hardcore and there is no reason to be this hostile to a simple request that is an attempt to help you make more money. You’re starting to make the same moves as desperate companies like Blizzard when you are simply better than them in every way and shouldn’t be stooping to their level. Its absurd. With this and everything else I swear South Park is proving to be nonfiction…
>_>

MUST READ!!

These infinite gathering tools are BiS!!!
The sickle version has the ability to harvest 3 times in 1 swing, same as the skritt scavenger one but the new version gives unbound magic as well.
The wood cutter has a faster harvest time than normal versions (solar powered has 4 harvests in 1 press f but unbound gatherer gives unbound magic)
The mining pick has the fastest gathering speed of all picks and gives unbound magic.

I have spend 6k gems on 2 sets of infinite gathering tools before this was released and even though those kits are powercreeped by the unbound one Im still fine with it.

THIS IS NOT PAY TO WIN!
THIS IS AN INVESTMENT, I INVEST 2700 GEMS TO GET BACK UNBOUND MAGIC WHILE GATHERING RESOURCES.

Psientist.6437:

I agree with Astralporing, item progression in the gem shop is a slippery slope. It is the studio monetizing their role as the sole source of innovation and their superior position in a pronounced disparity in information.

The new UM buffed tools aren’t the exact equivalent to the Sprocket buffed tools because there are UM buffed tools available in game; players who use the gem shop do not have an advantage over players who do not.

That’s a different argument. the first (watchwork pick does somehing that cannot be obtained outside of gemshop) is a p2w argument. It’s a valid complaint, but not the one i had in mind. What i was speaking against is the gear progression in the gemshop. It’s selling an infinite tool, one that’s not supposed to be replaced, and then, later on, introducing a newer, better one. Not only without prior warning, but after assurances that the first one will remain “BiS”.

It’s not a case of comparing the infinite version to the karma one. This, by itself, is fine, as it’s just a matter of QoL. No, it’s a matter of comparing those infinite tools to prior infinite tools. That difference is not fine, and, what’s worse, it’s a change to the previous, unspoken rules. Once those are broken, and we silently accept this, it opens the doors for more (and bigger) changes.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I think it’s more akin to the Basic Salvage Kit and Copper-Fed-Salvage-O-Matic, than OMG, this item has made my purchases obsolete. It’s not like one could not have already used the exact same item, but in a limited capacity, before.

Wrong comparison. Yours is the difference between normal tools and infinite tools. This case is as if Anet decided to introduce copper-fed 2.0, that cost as much (both in gemshop, and, more importantly, per salvage), that would offer, a chance at some extra something (be it a watchwork, unbound magic, ecto, or something else) per every salvage.

LOOOOL! I lived to see this too :-)) A harvesting tool giving you currency :-) A currency specific to a zone of HoT available now everywhere in core Tyria. I remember all the arguments in the case of Gift of Battle change in the acquisition method. One of the most used was that ANet wanted to make sure you step in WvW for the gift. And you will not use the tokens obtained elsewhere for this. And now? You can obtain the currency of some specific maps even if you don’t step in that maps :-))

I barely await a weapon skin giving you few coopers at every successful hit :-) Or a set of unbreakable harvesting tools giving you a chance to drop Mystic Coins. This fits perfectly the precedent created by ANet:

Illconceived Was Na.9781

Watchwork tools drop watchwork sprockets as a bonus item; there’s no other reliable way to farm the sprockets. This was an issue when the tools came out and sprockets were worth 4-6 silver and many metals were vendor price — that meant people could farm silver ore and still make more than someone using other infinite- or limited-use tools on certain ore.

However, this situation is different: unbound tools already exist in the game and are available to anyone with access to the newer maps. Thus the gem store is just selling convenience; there’ no extra functionality this time.

What happens with the persons having no access in the new maps? They will still be able to gather UM. But will be the UM added to the wallet? They have no way to access this currency.
And I think it is some extra functionality: You can have the special gathering tools only if you have karma. No karma, no UM from gathering. With the new permanent gathering set, you can forget about karma. You can forget about doing events :-)) With money you can solve all.

Setz.9675

These infinite gathering tools are BiS!!!
………………………………………………………………..
THIS IS NOT PAY TO WIN!

Well, BiS = Best in Slot. Best means BEST. Nothing better than … / the highest level of …. / etc.
If you can acquire the best item of its category only by paying don’t you think this smacks somehow as P2W?

Still, I think I will buy the set – it is too OP to miss it :-)).

From what we see it seems that ANet has little confidence in the next XPac. And want to make sure they will make some money using all the other methods they have. Even if this may start the P2W race.

Cristalyan.5728:

Illconceived Was Na.9781

Watchwork tools drop watchwork sprockets as a bonus item; there’s no other reliable way to farm the sprockets. This was an issue when the tools came out and sprockets were worth 4-6 silver and many metals were vendor price — that meant people could farm silver ore and still make more than someone using other infinite- or limited-use tools on certain ore.

However, this situation is different: unbound tools already exist in the game and are available to anyone with access to the newer maps. Thus the gem store is just selling convenience; there’ no extra functionality this time.

What happens with the persons having no access in the new maps? They will still be able to gather UM. But will be the UM added to the wallet? They have no way to access this currency.

There will always be items with functionalities bound to certain maps. If you don’t have access to a map it’s not p2w because you choose to not have access to it.
A rough example: a new recipe was added to the heart vendor in the south of Draconis Mons. The food was found to be fairly good (not BiS, but good), but you need access to Drac.Mons to buy the recipes. If they don’t go to the new maps, they will simply not have a way of spending the UM, but it will pile up in their wallets. But this is a case of “don’t buy the tools if you don’t want/need the UM”

All i can say is that they are to d*mn expensive.. sure i bought a set 2700 gems = 33 Euro.. thats insane.
Yeahh yeaahh .. then don’t buy them wah wah.. just think they should be cheaper.
1500 gems would be moarr then enough.. it would even tempt me to slowly get them on 5 other chars.
Now i will NOT pay 2700 again.. didn’t need the unbound that much anyway, have like 15k winterberries rotting in bank.

I have no real issue with the new unlimited tools. I can get why somebody might be annoyed (to put it lightly) if they bought a set of unlimited tools just a week ago or so, but if you bought them months or even years ago, you probably got your money’s worth. And there’s still plenty of people who buy tools without bonuses – looks are also important, you know!

I also disagree with the people who compare it to the watchwork pick – Unbound Magic can easily be gathered even without the new tools. Sure, having them will increase your UM gathering rate, especially if you mine/harvest a lot of nodes, but it’ll still take ages to earn it back. And if you really want to get UM every time you use a tool, you can buy the limited ones for karma. Sure, it’ll waste a number of inventory slots (more so since they have half the durability of normal tools), but it’s totally possible. These new unlimited tools mostly add convenience, with a small but non-game breaking bonus.

I won’t deny that functionally they are objectively better than most unlimited tools (with the potential exception of the Watchwork Pick), but not to the extent that I’ll mind it too much myself.

Getting back on topic, my only real complaint would be that you have to buy the entire bundle. As it is, I mostly want the axe, am unsure about the gathering sickle (that looks like a looooooooooooong animation) and don’t care for the pick axe (got my trusty Watchwork pickaxe (a few months before it went on sale and watchwork sprockets tanked, but you didn’t hear me complain about that! )). I’d much rather spend 1K gem per tool than buy the entire set for a small discount and have a pick axe I’d never really use.

To be honest, I’m mostly hoping they’ll offer the tools separately a week down the line. If they don’t, then I’ll vote with my wallet and probably not get them. It’s as simple as that, really.

I liked the enrichments for unlimited tools idea somebody mentioned earlier though. That could take away quite a few of the complaints too. Though they’d probably also get a ton of complaints of the people who already bought the tools… Still, I’d dig it.

Mercure.5689:

I have no real issue with the new unlimited tools. I can get why somebody might be annoyed (to put it lightly) if they bought a set of unlimited tools just a week ago or so, but if you bought them months or even years ago, you probably got your money’s worth. And there’s still plenty of people who buy tools without bonuses – looks are also important, you know!

Anet has been very lenient with last-week’s purchases.
If something goes on sale like a week after you buy it (or a very similar product), helpdesk is very supportive. So if you bought a full set of tools last week, I recommend you file a ticket. There isn’t really a worst case scenario

Last night was one of my “short nights” in GW, which means the basic dailies, harvest GH and Home, then if I have time do dailies on the other 4 accounts, and maybe something more fun.

So I bought the new tools, did the above mentioned harvesting plus a few nodes on the way to the daily JP, and gathered a few nodes in WvW. Just that netted me about 400 UM. Since I don’t always have time to venture into the newer maps, for me that’s a pretty sweet deal.

It will also change the way I think about some things. Passing near a copper node? Heck yeah I’ll swing over and get it now!

Mercure.5689:

I have no real issue with the new unlimited tools. I can get why somebody might be annoyed (to put it lightly) if they bought a set of unlimited tools just a week ago or so, but if you bought them months or even years ago, you probably got your money’s worth. And there’s still plenty of people who buy tools without bonuses – looks are also important, you know!

Actually, I bought unbreakable tools earlier in the season and no, I did not get my money’s worth from them. I bought them early enough that I could not get a refund (yes, I asked) but right after buying them I realized limited-charge UM tools were better. So basically I have a set of 3 tools that have nearly not been used that I can not do anything with. Not even send to an alt!

DeanBB.4268:

It will also change the way I think about some things. Passing near a copper node? Heck yeah I’ll swing over and get it now!

That was me touring several maps last night. Yes, I needed some iron but I was hitting almost every other node I came across for the UM and considering their mats a bonus!

DeanBB.4268:

Last night was one of my “short nights” in GW, which means the basic dailies, harvest GH and Home, then if I have time do dailies on the other 4 accounts, and maybe something more fun.

So I bought the new tools, did the above mentioned harvesting plus a few nodes on the way to the daily JP, and gathered a few nodes in WvW. Just that netted me about 400 UM. Since I don’t always have time to venture into the newer maps, for me that’s a pretty sweet deal.

It will also change the way I think about some things. Passing near a copper node? Heck yeah I’ll swing over and get it now!

Yes, me too. I have had the ww pick for years and slowly watched the value of sprox fall off. Last night after home looting, I sold the few sprox I had, and noticed a little uptick in the selling price, I guess with less supply the demand is bringing it back up. That was a nice bonus…. So I am happy these are available and I will gladly put my ww pick on ice, grab only the sprox I need from my home generator, and start tapping all the nodes I normally pass by because I don’t need more than 2K copper ingots….

Thanks anet!

Menadena.7482:

Mercure.5689:

I have no real issue with the new unlimited tools. I can get why somebody might be annoyed (to put it lightly) if they bought a set of unlimited tools just a week ago or so, but if you bought them months or even years ago, you probably got your money’s worth. And there’s still plenty of people who buy tools without bonuses – looks are also important, you know!

Actually, I bought unbreakable tools earlier in the season and no, I did not get my money’s worth from them. I bought them early enough that I could not get a refund (yes, I asked) but right after buying them I realized limited-charge UM tools were better. So basically I have a set of 3 tools that have nearly not been used that I can not do anything with. Not even send to an alt!

Why can’t you use the Unlimited Gathering Tools on an alt?

Sly.9518:

Astralporing.1957:

Oh kitten. Did the watchwork pick debacle teach them nothing?

The Unbound magic ones don’t make a liquid gold profit…..

With rng luck you could gain gold easily from https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Magic-Warped_Bundle

Trinnitty.8256:

Sly.9518:

Astralporing.1957:

Oh kitten. Did the watchwork pick debacle teach them nothing?

The Unbound magic ones don’t make a liquid gold profit…..

With rng luck you could gain gold easily from https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Magic-Warped_Bundle

Yup — and this is why anet got me to buy a full set infinite UM tools and shared inventory slots

The UM isn’t quite worth the money, and I don’t have 864 gold to convert to gems so… yeah, not quite worth it, since I already have unlimited tools.

Put the axe on sale separately though, and I’ll buy it.

Smeerlap.2698:

All i can say is that they are to d*mn expensive.. sure i bought a set 2700 gems = 33 Euro.. thats insane.
Yeahh yeaahh .. then don’t buy them wah wah.. just think they should be cheaper.
1500 gems would be moarr then enough.. it would even tempt me to slowly get them on 5 other chars.
Now i will NOT pay 2700 again.. didn’t need the unbound that much anyway, have like 15k winterberries rotting in bank.

They want you to get matching shared inventory slots, silly. ^^

Saeri.4576:

Smeerlap.2698:

All i can say is that they are to d*mn expensive.. sure i bought a set 2700 gems = 33 Euro.. thats insane.
Yeahh yeaahh .. then don’t buy them wah wah.. just think they should be cheaper.
1500 gems would be moarr then enough.. it would even tempt me to slowly get them on 5 other chars.
Now i will NOT pay 2700 again.. didn’t need the unbound that much anyway, have like 15k winterberries rotting in bank.

They want you to get matching shared inventory slots, silly. ^^

Which brings up another topic…we need more shared inventory slots. 17 is just not enough!

+1 for a new batch of shared slots!

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Why can’t you use the Unlimited Gathering Tools on an alt?

First ones were character bound. He may not known that they can be exchanged for account bound ones (though tbh i don’t know if the option is available still).

The poster said ‘earlier in the season’ and ‘right after buying them realized UM tools were better’, so that didn’t sound like way back before they were account-bound, as there were no UM tools back then.

Convenience? Accelerating the ability to get certain achievements and ascendeds is Convenience to you? But this argument is for another thread. Them being unlimited also circumvents a great gold sink….

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Astralporing.1957:

Oh kitten. Did the watchwork pick debacle teach them nothing?

I don’t see there being an issue here. We have items that do what these do in game – they cost karma.

The only difference between these and those is that these are unlimited, which is a convenience. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is no different than the original, basic unlimited tools in comparison to orichalcum gathering tools. You can get the same thing in game for gold or karma, but you need gems if you desire the convenience.

And that’s fine.

Now, do I wish we could buy and stack “like” gathering tools up to ‘x’ number of charges? Yes, that would be nice. Highly unlikely, but it’d still be nice.

The primary issue with the watchwork pick was there wasn’t anything else comparable, in game or otherwise.

I would consider getting them if they were account wide rather than character specific. There is no way I am getting them for each character though, and that pretty much precludes my buying them at all.

You are paying to circumvent the recurring karma cost, freeing up inventory space and the general goldsink that the breakable harvesting tools provide. That Karma can be used for other things, while being able to earn more items that provide a legitimate advantage.

Jhenn.5197:

I see nothing wrong with the new unlimited gathering tools. They are as mentioned numerous times, available for karma if you don’t want to spend the gems.

And I as well have several sets of the different types of unlimited gathering tools and still do not mind.

I just put the extra sets on alts so I don’t have to worry about switching the tools before switching tools.

I paid $10 and got the rest of the gems by transferring gold to gems – if you had sold them individually, you would have made $20 [Yes I had 1k gems, but I was saving them for a potential Draconis Mons pass which I no longer intend to buy]. Instead that $20 went to my friend in Indonesia trying to escape that country who who both needs AND deserves it, as opposed to just needing it.

I take back what I said earlier. Great deal you got going there. Three sickles for less than the cost of one, and all you had to do was consistently alienate a regular customer of your store to make that -$10 “profit”.

Relevant reddit thread:
Are the new Unbound Magic tools worth the cost?

Short answer: no, not for the gold equivalent and not for anyone who isn’t farming a lot of the LS3 map currencies anyhow.

(Obviously worth it if you want the convenience and especially if you don’t own unlimited tools already.)

Menadena.7482:

Mercure.5689:

I have no real issue with the new unlimited tools. I can get why somebody might be annoyed (to put it lightly) if they bought a set of unlimited tools just a week ago or so, but if you bought them months or even years ago, you probably got your money’s worth. And there’s still plenty of people who buy tools without bonuses – looks are also important, you know!

Actually, I bought unbreakable tools earlier in the season and no, I did not get my money’s worth from them. I bought them early enough that I could not get a refund (yes, I asked) but right after buying them I realized limited-charge UM tools were better. So basically I have a set of 3 tools that have nearly not been used that I can not do anything with. Not even send to an alt!

Errr… No?

I mean, whether you got your money’s worth from them or not is mostly subjective, so if you feel that that’s the case, then well, you’re right.

But you can still use these tools. They won’t give you UM, but you can certainly still use them to gather resources, so to say you can’t do anything with them is just objectively wrong. You might prefer to only use the UM tools (which is fair enough), but again, you can still use these tools if you want to.

Secondly, you can use them on other characters – when people refer to an “alt” in this game, they’re generally talking about their other characters. If you however meant an “alternative account” or as it is more commonly known, a second (or third/fourth/etc.) account, then yes, you can’t send it to other accounts because it’s an account-bound item. You could totally give these tools to a second character on the same account though.

Zeivu.3615:

Convenience? Accelerating the ability to get certain achievements and ascendeds is Convenience to you? But this argument is for another thread. Them being unlimited also circumvents a great gold sink….

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Astralporing.1957:

Oh kitten. Did the watchwork pick debacle teach them nothing?

I don’t see there being an issue here. We have items that do what these do in game – they cost karma.

The only difference between these and those is that these are unlimited, which is a convenience. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is no different than the original, basic unlimited tools in comparison to orichalcum gathering tools. You can get the same thing in game for gold or karma, but you need gems if you desire the convenience.

And that’s fine.

Now, do I wish we could buy and stack “like” gathering tools up to ‘x’ number of charges? Yes, that would be nice. Highly unlikely, but it’d still be nice.

The primary issue with the watchwork pick was there wasn’t anything else comparable, in game or otherwise.

Based on your statements, you were already purchasing and using the karma versions of these items then? At which point, yes these are simply convenience. You no longer have to purchase and replace a tool every 25 uses. The unlimited versions provide no more unbound magic per swing than their karma counterparts, thus it doesn’t accelerate anything any more than the existing option already did. The karma sink still exists, as there will be people that opt to go that route rather than converting gold to gems, or straight out buying gems.

If you were not using the karma versions of these tools, you were using any other tool what-so-ever, you have no argument to make. Obviously unbound magic wasn’t important enough for you to use the additional option to gather it via gathering already, so where’s the issue?

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Menadena.7482:

Mercure.5689:

I have no real issue with the new unlimited tools. I can get why somebody might be annoyed (to put it lightly) if they bought a set of unlimited tools just a week ago or so, but if you bought them months or even years ago, you probably got your money’s worth. And there’s still plenty of people who buy tools without bonuses – looks are also important, you know!

Actually, I bought unbreakable tools earlier in the season and no, I did not get my money’s worth from them. I bought them early enough that I could not get a refund (yes, I asked) but right after buying them I realized limited-charge UM tools were better. So basically I have a set of 3 tools that have nearly not been used that I can not do anything with. Not even send to an alt!

Why can’t you use the Unlimited Gathering Tools on an alt?

Do you mean alt character or alt account? If the latter they are account bound and anet will not let me gift them to my other account. If the former ….. that is basically leaving money (via UM) on the table.

Ok. Usually, players refer to other characters as an ‘alt’, and multiple accounts as ‘second’ or ‘other’.

Personally, I would find the convenience more valuable than the small amount of Gold attained from passing around the tools, since I owned an extra set, anyway. But, if you prefer to just store them, that’s fine.

What are the FOUR things you get?
There are only THREE Gathering tools : mining, harvesting, lumbering.
Yet it states FOUR things, FOUR bullet points when you scroll over the image???
*Unbound Magic logging pulse
*Unbound Magic mining beam
*Unbound Magic harvesting blast
*Unbound Magic magic gather
WHAT THE HECK IS MAGIC GATHER?

P.S. for people sad they got screwed over, why not use karma to buy fx tools and use those tools to load on your infinite tool.

Let’s pretend the infinite tool is a pez dispenser and the unbound magic/wintersdaysnowflakes tools are pez. If anet made it possible to load these tools bought with karma onto all previous lesser inifite tools (max capacity say 2000uses?) at least it would be something and would free up bag space.

As you use the tool if would burn thru the tools like normal and depending on how you load it, it could switch switch back n forth from magics to flakes. when those all get used up, you still have infinite normal uses.

Or this could be an ingame tool you buy for lots of karma instead.

I love the fact they listened to people and added these tools, but the one thing that frightens me is the price.

2700 gems is nearly 35 euros, and that’s half of what I paid for the core game AND Heart of Thorns combined. I can put €10 in the gem shop every now and then, but for me the price of the tools is simply way too high. Sure, it wouldn’t sting nearly as much if I had a few hundred gold to soften the price, but WvW being my main gamemode I make maybe 20 gold a week, so no help there.

Unless they lower the price a notch or sell the tools separately, I’ll be sticking to the regular UM tools.

Kelly.7019:

What are the FOUR things you get?
There are only THREE Gathering tools : mining, harvesting, lumbering.
Yet it states FOUR things, FOUR bullet points when you scroll over the image???
*Unbound Magic logging pulse
*Unbound Magic mining beam
*Unbound Magic harvesting blast
*Unbound Magic magic gather
WHAT THE HECK IS MAGIC GATHER?

P.S. for people sad they got screwed over, why not use karma to buy fx tools and use those tools to load on your infinite tool.

Let’s pretend the infinite tool is a pez dispenser and the unbound magic/wintersdaysnowflakes tools are pez. If anet made it possible to load these tools bought with karma onto all previous lesser inifite tools (max capacity say 2000uses?) at least it would be something and would free up bag space.

As you use the tool if would burn thru the tools like normal and depending on how you load it, it could switch switch back n forth from magics to flakes. when those all get used up, you still have infinite normal uses.

Or this could be an ingame tool you buy for lots of karma instead.

For those that do not own HoT, have yet to do the Story, or entered the prerequisite maps.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Unbound_Magic_Gatherer

Weve got another watchwork mining pick on our hande.

As someone who bought the first pick (molten) i complained about it. Honestly just assume that whenever you buy something of convience in the store that a better one will appear. Just my .02

Hevoskuuri.3891:

I love the fact they listened to people and added these tools, but the one thing that frightens me is the price.

2700 gems is nearly 35 euros, and that’s half of what I paid for the core game AND Heart of Thorns combined. I can put €10 in the gem shop every now and then, but for me the price of the tools is simply way too high. Sure, it wouldn’t sting nearly as much if I had a few hundred gold to soften the price, but WvW being my main gamemode I make maybe 20 gold a week, so no help there.

Unless they lower the price a notch or sell the tools separately, I’ll be sticking to the regular UM tools.

Yeah, I can’t justify a huge expense when I only want one of those tools. (Granted, the mining one looks hilarious, but Watchwork :P)

I really can’t justify using the karma tools, either. 5000 for 50 hits? That’s a fifth of the regular tools, and 100 karma per tap (potentially 30-100 karma per UM…). So for carrying one of these karma tools around, I can expect to:

• run out of them very quickly
• buy loads of them to clog my inventory
• get a measly 50-150 UM, probably only 100, for the cost
  Why were there not 250-count versions for 50k karma?
  Maybe even an unlimited tool for 5 million karma. It’d be a heck of a sink.

Really though, why weren’t these tools released separately?

Most likely because they get more income by selling them as a bundle, as people who only want the axe and the sickle (because they already have the watchwork pick) wouldn’t buy the pickaxe otherwise, thus spending less money. It would be interesting to see how much they’ve been earning from these new tools.

Still going to hope they eventually sell them separately though.

On another note, this actually motivated me to buy a ton of unbound axes and sickles for karma. Because I could, and it’s the cheaper option. Plus I had a mostly empty bank tab available for it. (^_^)

Well I for one am OK with the discount on buying all three vs the typical 1000 gems a piece. I don’t use the mining pick cause sprockets still sell for decent. But I’m actually surprised nobody figured out that maybe the AFK farming in Bitterfrost is why they did these. Much like the leather farm of Lake Doric this may be a viable solution to AFK Unbound Magic farming. Now instead of sitting in one place, you can go about gathering the mats you need and get your UM too. I’m OK with it and don’t regret buying it three times. I’m no longer needing to sacrifice Winterberries to get my UM numbers up, since they were the fastest way to get the resource. I need Maguuma Lillies and well None of the normal stuff that drops UM also drops them. They are rare and too pricey to buy without some coin.

I haven’t been in Bitterfrost for a while, but we’re talking about gathering the berries there, right? In which case you kind of need to walk around and collect them, which means you can’t be AFK (away from keyboard). Unless you use a bot or something, but that’s obviously against the game rules.

Did you perhaps mean “park your characters in bitterfrost just for the berry farm?” Because that’s slightly different from being AFK.

That said, what you said is true – having these unlimited tools – or even the tools you can buy with karma – does mean you don’t have to spend more time in certain areas (mostly Bitterfrost) just to get UM, potentially opening up more time to go and play in other areas, which could be quite a good thing for the population of those maps.

Of course, to be the devil’s advocate for a moment, one could also wonder if that might not cause some of the new maps to lose a portion of the population as they move to new areas. But only time will tell. And besides, it’s not like everybody will get those tools, so I think that the actual influence they have on the game and the maps will be fairly limited.

I’m still hoping that one day I can get them separately though! (~_^)

Mercure.5689

There has been a lot of talk about AFK Reapers UM farming by sitting under trees and killing spiders that spawn regularly. You can only collect the berries once per reset per toon so people have been parking Minion Mancers and just letting the minions kill the spiders while they sit under the tree. As for separate purchase option, I’m not against it. It’s a good option for other players and their wallets.

If these Reapers are only UM farming, why leave their characters logged in? Why not just log into the character once a day? Doesn’t sound like UM farming, but AFK loot farming.

I think it’s really wrong and unfair that some infinite tools have amazing effects, while others have absolutely nothing, and I also think it’s wrong and unfair that some tools are slightly faster than others, while the rest are as slow as a snail’s race. They should all be the same speed, and faster at gathering, than normal gathering tools.

For newbies coming into GW2, they shouldn’t have to be given the advice to go for unbound gathering tools, or the watchwork mining pick, or the consortium harvesting sickle specifically, because despite the infinite gathering tools all costing the same gemstore price (1000 gems each, usually), these ones are superior, when compared to the rest.

For example:

Watchwork mining pick – gives you extra watchwork sprockets every now and then. Meaning MORE money for you. Other pickaxes don’t give this. Why the hell would anyone want any other mining pick then? Probably for aesthetics, but come on, who would want to pass up making MORE money?

Consortium harvesting sickle – is the fastest (in my opinion) sickle gathering tool for herbs etc. compared to other tools. Who would want to pass this one up when it’s faster than other infinite gathering tools?

Unbound gathering tools – gives you unbound magic currency which helps in affording ascended gear from the various areas that have been added recently.

Now I’m not saying eliminate these effects. I personally think these extras/benefits are AWESOME. All I’m saying is, allow people to transmute their infinite gathering tool skins to others they’ve unlocked, take away all the ‘extra’ effects from the tools, and replace them with ‘infusions’ that attach to your tools for the extra benefits. So you could have the watchwork sprocket infusion, or the unbound magic infusion, that you could attach to your infinite gathering tools, for example. This way people get the skins they want, and they can put the infusions on any of their infinite gathering tools. It’s a win-win for everyone. Also, make it so that all infinite gathering tools have the same fastest gathering speed.

Any infinite gathering tools you already have, their skins would be unlocked for free of course. And any new gathering tool skins that Anet come up with, obviously would have to be bought.

I think Anet would benefit from this because apart from making everyone happy, this way, all infinite gathering tools have:

The same gathering speed as other infinite tools
The ability to swap out the ‘extras’ infusions on your tools
The skins people want

And above all, it makes it fair.

Anet could then sell gathering tool ‘skins’, gathering tool ‘special effect’ bundles (fireworks/flying dragons/fractal bosses/who knows what else, when you gather with your sickle/axe/mining pick), and infusions that give ‘extras’. Even more things Anet can sell!

Just an idea, but I think it would work brilliantly, personally.

I wouldn’t trade my current Unlimited Gathering Sickle for a Consortium one. I don’t care if it’s faster. I wouldn’t even trade my current Sickle for an Unbound Magic one.

I feel the hub-bub over Unbound Magic will die down. It probably won’t be long before Unbound Magic is a thing of the past; something that can get you a bit of coin, but no longer the flavor of the month. Sort of like Geodes, or such.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I feel the hub-bub over Unbound Magic will die down.

Of course. Every debacle eventually calms down, as people give up on ever persuading Anet to fix the problem. Notice however, than people deciding Anet’s never going to listen to them is usually one of the steps towards leaving the game. It definitely lessens their joy in the game, and the trust they put in devs.

In short, debacles die down because people that kept those topics alive become less and less active. In a game that’s otherwise healthy and thriving that most likely doesn’t mean much, but there’s a lot of debacles in GW2 these days.

You should really post why the hub-bub will die down, so the sentence isn’t taken out of context.

Thanks.

I don’t think i have taken it out of the context. For me at least it doesn’t matter if the bonus drop is Unbound Magic, geodes, or something else. It’s completely irrelevant to the crux of the problem. What is important that Anet opened the door to gear progression with gathering tools, and if they are not shown clearly that it is a problem, in future we will keep getting better and better tools, designed to replace old ones.

Gear progression started with ascended got stopped in time because people reacted really negatively towards it. Now Anet’s testig the waters for other forms of gear progression, seeing whether those will make it past the radar or not. Many people see that and protest.

Protests will stop when those people will stop caring about the issue. That will likely eventually happen, but only because those people will no longer care as much about the game as a whole as before.

UM becoming less interesting currency doesn’t have that much of an impact here.

the gathering endgame is very hard to get into if i dont have the bis gear lul