Guild Wars 2

Anyone know if the new Noble’s Folly Pass takes you to an instance that you can return from or does it take you there on a one way trip?

I don’t know about your actual question (other passes are 1 way), but it may be worth noting that it loads the entire Verdant Brink map (not just the small area).

All pass-es are only one way.

However, I have my own questions.

1. In notes it states “Quick travel to all cities” but in presentation Youtube video from Dulfy there is no portal. So this might be a bug. Anyone with this item can please clarify?

2. Entrance to the area can pe reached from outside? I just can not find it.

3. On exit is there a loading screen (important information for people in PvP queue because loading screens gets players out of queue).

4. When double-click-ing on pass on other areas, does it teleport the person there, or the pass can be used only when going in through some specific entrance?

Thank you in advance.

Alin.2468:

All pass-es are only one way.

However, I have my own questions.

1. In notes it states “Quick travel to all cities” but in presentation Youtube video from Dulfy there is no portal. So this might be a bug. Anyone with this item can please clarify?

2. Entrance to the area can pe reached from outside? I just can not find it.

3. On exit is there a loading screen (important information for people in PvP queue because loading screens gets players out of queue).

4. When double-click-ing on pass on other areas, does it teleport the person there, or the pass can be used only when going in through some specific entrance?

Thank you in advance.

1. In notes it states “Quick travel to all cities” but in presentation Youtube video from Dulfy there is no portal. So this might be a bug. Anyone with this item can please clarify?

I haven’t been there, but if you look at the video there is an NPC standing at one end with a portal icon over his head. I’m guessing you speak to him to get the option to travel to the different cities.

DoctorDing.5890:

Anyone know if the new Noble’s Folly Pass takes you to an instance that you can return from or does it take you there on a one way trip?

Yeah I’d like to have this confirmed too, I’ve seen conflicting reports.

I’d be very surprised if the pass returned you to where you were as well.

That would make it a significant improvement over the Royal Terrace and Airship Passes, for the same price.

Danikat.8537:

I’d be very surprised if the pass returned you to where you were as well.

That would make it a significant improvement over the Royal Terrace and Airship Passes, for the same price.

Which is exactly why I may be interested in buying it ;p

So there are questions to be answered. I am glad that I’m not the only one curious about how this item functions, and it’s loading screens.

DoctorDing.5890:

Danikat.8537:

I’d be very surprised if the pass returned you to where you were as well.

That would make it a significant improvement over the Royal Terrace and Airship Passes, for the same price.

Which is exactly why I may be interested in buying it ;p

Me too, in fact it’d be the only reason to buy it for me. Otherwise I can just go to Lion’s Arch.

The Dulfy video shows that it’s not in its own instance. You can tell because when Dulfy shows the main map (and if you look at the mini map), you don’t see the red lines covering the areas outside of the Noble’s Folly area (which is what happens when you’re in an instance). So, just like with the airship and terrace, it’s just a blocked off section of an existing instance.

It’s exactly like the airship but on the ground with an NPC who can send you to any of the race cities or Lion’s Arch. And like the other two passes, it’s one way.

This simply provides a hub in the HoT area of the map so players don’t need to WP from DR or GF to get there or go back to CT to access services there.

OK thanks Behellagh. That’s a pity.

Well if it did provide a return trip unlike the other two passes @Pifil, it would upset everyone who has either of the other passes who will demand similar functionality or gem refunds.

There is convenience but then there’s too much convenience. Too much then players are able to process content quicker and accomplish all the goals they set for themselves quicker. Players who’ve done everything they wanted to do tend to leave and may come back for an expansion.

There is convenience but then there’s too much convenience.

wow, I didn’t realise that returning to where you originally were is ‘too much convenience’. good job they took those crafting stations out of wvw as quick as they did, I mean having that level of convenience (returning to your original position, and without spending 1000 gems no less) was just making the game leak people for 3+ years….

Thank you for the information provided so far.

As for returning to previous location… that is normal. It was asked many times in the past, but this idea was never set in game, never knew why. However, it was implemented in some other form to Heart of the Mists, after many requests and feedback on official forum. We have bank, trading-post, and laurel-merchant there for clearing bags, and after that with EXIT button character is returned to previous place in PvE.

http://dulfy.net/2016/08/02/gw2-gemstore-updatecaudecuss-weapons-and-noble-follys-pass/

A comment on Dulfy’s site said

that_Shaman on reddit says:
“If you manage to break out of Noble’s Folly you’ll find a completely deserted Verdant Brink.”

So there goes the selling point of a quick load all in one area.

And another comment

I posted a new comment above, people get out of map and find the entire VB map rendered (except mobs and updrafts).

It sounds like Noble’s Folly and Verdant Brink is a single map but its own instance. And if you manage to break out of Noble’s to get into VB you’ll find the whole environment rendered for VB but no NPCs, glider updrafts, or monsters.

So what’s the point of having VB fully rendered if you’re not suppose to get to it from Noble’s Folly? That’s a lot of extra stuff being loaded that serves no purpose, even if you manage to break out of the Noble’s Folly area.

I just had a thought.

It sounds like this Noble’s Folly functions like a home instance. I imagine if you were able to break out of a home instance into the city, you’d probably find the entire city rendered without any NPCs.

Charrbeque.8729:

I just had a thought.

It sounds like this Noble’s Folly functions like a home instance. I imagine if you were able to break out of a home instance into the city, you’d probably find the entire city rendered without any NPCs.

A home instance is an actual separate instance, though. Noble’s Folly itself isn’t, at least not the same kind of separate instance. If you somehow break out of the home instances, you’d probably end up under the map rather than actually getting out into the cities. If, for example, you jump off of the balconies (heading down into the main part of the Great Lodge) in the Hoelbrak home instance, you’ll just be insta-ported back to normal Hoelbrak.

You can, however, glide into the DR home instance from one of the higher areas of DR and see what you’re describing. You’ll land in the Salma District, but there won’t be any NPCs or anything interact with.

Um… I’m not sure what you guys are talking about…

I just exited right through the doorway from Noble’s Folly (the shimmering doorway – just walk through it, it’s right where you entered into NF) into Verdant Brink, and soared around for a while and saw lots of players. No issues at all. There were players, updrafts, even some events going on in VB.

Literally, you just walk into the shimmering doorway and it loads you right into Verdant Brink. And that’s after coming from other places in the world, i.e. I didn’t originate in VB.

Cameryn.5310:

Um… I’m not sure what you guys are talking about…

I just exited right through the doorway from Noble’s Folly (the shimmering doorway – just walk through it, it’s right where you entered into NF) into Verdant Brink, and soared around for a while and saw lots of players. No issues at all.

Literally, you just walk into the shimmering doorway and it loads you right into Verdant Brink. And that’s after coming from other places in the world, i.e. I didn’t originate in VB.

Yeah. I bought the pass. Earlier I was jut going by information posted by others.

Yes. There is a portal you can just walk into to enter Verdant Brink, and it’s the full VB map.

Also there is an NPC in Noble’s Folly named Warmaster Searle with a purple portal icon above his head that can send you to Lion’s Arch or any of the other racial cities, like the asura gates on the Captain’s Airship and Royal Terrace.

Of course. I exit into VB and 2 minutes later “would you like to move to a populated version of this map?”.

Well, at least my Sylvari ranger has a more suitable home now.

Im not one to complain, but seriously it needs a revamp. I don’t see anything Noble about the place and it really feels like the NPC at spots we sort of just arbitrary

Why is the armor smith not located with tailor and leatherworking ?

Can you please place the bank and TP on a pedastal or at least on a rock.. They need to be elevated. the mystic forge should not be on a cliff..

=======
Amoursmith- Leather- Tailor – this should be together
Weaponsmith, Artificer, Huntsman – this should be together

the mystic forge probably should be the campfire..

Some of us were also wondering why not tarir? its a noble camp right? dont they have fancy tents at least ?

Just my thoughts. It would be nice to see the place improved. Thanks
=====

Thank you very much for replies. So far many questions were answered in this post.

Yes, thanks for all the replies. Some good info there.

I was really hoping that it would function more like the Home Portal Stone or The Mists where you can portal in, do stuff and then return to wherever you came from. A one way portal does not really give me anything that I can’t achieve with normal waypoints. I guess it would give me “everything” in one place but I never want to do everything in one go so I can find a better use for the 1000 gems.

Of course, my absolute perfect solution would be to have all those vendors and services in my home instance.

Alin.2468:

Thank you for the information provided so far.

As for returning to previous location… that is normal. It was asked many times in the past, but this idea was never set in game, never knew why. However, it was implemented in some other form to Heart of the Mists, after many requests and feedback on official forum. We have bank, trading-post, and laurel-merchant there for clearing bags, and after that with EXIT button character is returned to previous place in PvE.

Exactly, it’s the same with the Hall of Monuments in the Eye of the North, you use your portal stone to go there, you can use it again to return to where you were (or click the exit button or walk out the asura gate or press F at the green circle). This is not crazy levels of convenience IMO, the permanent versions of all three passes should work like this.

I think it does not require so much programming to make it run as return to previous location. However it is strange how they design them regarding this feature.

All passes (except Royal Terrace ones) seem to teleport character in a special instance. This means extra content in a loading screen, while also pulling out of PvP queue, WvW position or instance location.

I’m not sure why they brought this out. They already have the airship pass and the Royal Terrace one plus the account wide usable Bloodstone Fen Portal scroll that is available to pop you to that map which is just a minor jump to the HoT maps. There is also the PvP lobby which doesn’t have the crafting stations or mystic portal but does take you back to where you left. It seems like a wasted effort to bring this out. They should have just brought the unlimited airship pass back out but added Camp Resolve or Verdant Brink to the pilot’s list.

Although I would be tempted to get a gem card to purchase an unlimited free account wide waypoint pass if they decided to bring it out. I would save me time bouncing around to take the least expensive path to get places. I would hope such a thing would just be something to unlock once.

I almost bought it, even converted the gold to gems, but chose not to as it’s really no more convenient than Rata Sum.

The reason I don´t buy any portal is that they don´t take you back to the place you were previously = fail. It is much easier just port to LA.

Is it really that convenient?

I mean if you go into HOTM you can sell and access their bank and keep where you were. The biggest to advantage to such a thing is that you could craft or mystic forge and come back, but it sends you back to a city anyways….

I’ve only used the temp airship pass about two times when they used to drop back then, and I ended up deleting the rest. I just don’t think they were useful, so I really think being able to stay where you are isn’t that big of an advantage especially when it costs so much to buy.

ArchonWing.9480:

Is it really that convenient?

I mean if you go into HOTM you can sell and access their bank and keep where you were. The biggest to advantage to such a thing is that you could craft or mystic forge and come back, but it sends you back to a city anyways….

I’ve only used the temp airship pass about two times when they used to drop back then, and I ended up deleting the rest. I just don’t think they were useful, so I really think being able to stay where you are isn’t that big of an advantage especially when it costs so much to buy.

That’s how I’ve felt about them, as well. Same for the Home Portal Stone. The cost isn’t worth it for me, but many people just like the convenience of it. So, at least someone is enjoying them, I suppose.

RoseofGilead.8907:

ArchonWing.9480:

Is it really that convenient?

I mean if you go into HOTM you can sell and access their bank and keep where you were. The biggest to advantage to such a thing is that you could craft or mystic forge and come back, but it sends you back to a city anyways….

I’ve only used the temp airship pass about two times when they used to drop back then, and I ended up deleting the rest. I just don’t think they were useful, so I really think being able to stay where you are isn’t that big of an advantage especially when it costs so much to buy.

That’s how I’ve felt about them, as well. Same for the Home Portal Stone. The cost isn’t worth it for me, but many people just like the convenience of it. So, at least someone is enjoying them, I suppose.

Well, to me it’s not just about cost; I suppose as you said some people do feel it’s worth it. I just can’t relate to it. I’ve bought a lot of silly things that will never pay for themselves. Sometimes I guess it’s just the novelty of spending on something different.

The Home Portal Stone and these passes aren’t worth it to me at any price in their current state as indicated by me not using them even when they were “free”. I do however think that their high price does justify bringing space saving and really wouldn’t be a big deal considering the options we already have. As for the fear that cities will be empty, I imagine a lot of people wouldn’t buy them anyways as well as the fact that Lion’s Arch has done a excellent job of driving me away from it on its own.

It might also be nice if it remembered you were there and you could load into there to begin with.

At this point, it feels like the main value of it is having exclusive access to an instance, which I guess is something.

RoseofGilead.8907:

ArchonWing.9480:

Is it really that convenient?

I mean if you go into HOTM you can sell and access their bank and keep where you were. The biggest to advantage to such a thing is that you could craft or mystic forge and come back, but it sends you back to a city anyways….

I’ve only used the temp airship pass about two times when they used to drop back then, and I ended up deleting the rest. I just don’t think they were useful, so I really think being able to stay where you are isn’t that big of an advantage especially when it costs so much to buy.

That’s how I’ve felt about them, as well. Same for the Home Portal Stone. The cost isn’t worth it for me, but many people just like the convenience of it. So, at least someone is enjoying them, I suppose.

Things like the home portal stone are costly, however I bought mine with gold spent on gems so as far as I’m concerned the cost wasn’t as big a consideration. I do like being able to port over to my home instance, do my daily harvest, and return to where I was. Especially for chars that are parked somewhere.

I have the Divinities Reach pass. I like being able to port over to somewhere with all conveniences a few steps from each other and I use it a an end of play time port, merch and park on chars that aren’t playing one place in particular.

Because…Waypoint Costs.

Consider having the Airship Pass for free travel to Cities and to the Gendarren Fields map, which enables players to map jump to other nearby maps at reduced cost.

The Noble pass does the same thing for Hot Maps, jumps you to a kind of central location reducing follow on WP costs.

Small saving individually, but over time they will mount up and pay for the pass. Worth the extra load screens in my opinion, only a few seconds.

Add in the Home Instance stone and HoM Portal stone to the mix and you have your own ‘free’ gate network to all key points, from which to move on to other maps at reduced cost.

Sure you can do the Cities through LA gates and La via PvP, but not with the same subsequent WP fee savings.

Gets my vote in favor overall.

Waypoint costs? Hmmm. This costs 1000 gems, 1000 gems would get you about 180g.

For the sake of argument, lets assume that the Airship Pass saves you 1 silver on every waypoint you took. The 180g would cover the savings of 18,000 waypoints without extra loading screens. If you play every day for another 5 years that 180g would cover the savings from 10 waypoints a day.

If you have two passes that’s 36,000 waypoints, the savings from not buying all three would be 54,000 “cheaper” waypoints (without 54,000 extra loading screens), if you buy the home portal stone as well then that’s another 900 gems.

That of course is assuming you save 1s on every waypoint you make, a lot of the time these passes are of no use, if you just want to go from Verdant Brink to Auric Basin, for example, you may save (or maybe lose) a few copper by diverting to Noble’s Folly and any other pass would be irrelevant. Similarly, if you’re going from Auric Basin to Dragon’s Stand or from Diessa Plateau to… just about anywhere in Ascalon outside of the Black Citadel then no pass would be of any use.

Also I don’t get why you wouldn’t get the save WP fee savings from going to the city through the PvP lobby than you would through these passes, assuming the load time’s aren’t an issue then it’s only one more load screen.

Pifil.5193:

Waypoint costs? Hmmm. This costs 1000 gems, 1000 gems would get you about 180g.

For the sake of argument, lets assume that the Airship Pass saves you 1 silver on every waypoint you took. The 180g would cover the savings of 18,000 waypoints without extra loading screens. If you play every day for another 5 years that 180g would cover the savings from 10 waypoints a day.

If you have two passes that’s 36,000 waypoints, the savings from not buying all three would be 54,000 “cheaper” waypoints (without 54,000 extra loading screens) and that’s assuming you save 1s on every waypoint.

Too many assumptions to be convincing, sorry.

~EW

For those who purchased the pass, do you lose map progression when using it?

Anchoku.8142:

For those who purchased the pass, do you lose map progression when using it?

Now that’s an excellent question. If you don’t lose progression, that would make it super convenient at least so long as you are working on the VB meta.

WP costs is pretty sketchy because you don’t get a return trip and you could accomplish something similar just HOTM’ing back to Lion’s Arch. So it’s more about the time saved.

But even assuming 4s a wp trip and 1000 gems being 250 gold (it’s still a bit more.), it would take over 6000 trips which is possible until you realize it’s more like 6000 trips to the relevant facilities that are unique to the instance [forge or crafting]. And of course there comes the opportunity cost during those 6000 trips.

Not that you should really buy gem store items for value. I suppose the Watchwork pick (still one of the worst ideas) was so before Sprockets took a dive or maybe the copper fed salvage kit count, But even for those, the time saved greatly dwarfs the actual gold saved and making any kind of value on these items is a very low priority. The WW pick only has priority just because it’s much better on value than the other infinite mining tools.

Of course, there can be an argument that gem store items shouldn’t be profitable or worth the weight in gold simply because if it something is too effective, then it offers too big of an advantage over people not getting things from the gem store, and thus P2W.

In the end, of course, it comes down to whether you want it or not. If you have too much excess gold in-game, then there really is no downside and gold is honestly everywhere. I bought a Permanent Bank Express (which will certainly never pay for itself) since I didn’t care about legendaries but I wanted to buy something expensive just because. After all, there are no end to skins that don’t provide in game value, and is mostly bought due to personal preference. Personally, I like to wait for sales on upgrades that save my time, but that’s just me. All I’m saying here is that if it did allow me to return to my spot then I would probably give it another look.

Oh boy my friend just told me the place is over run by low lvl new players. And they get direct access to HOT maps? Is this true? Are low lvl players buying this and not realizing if they leave the place they will be smack bang in the middle of a lvl 80 area?

Is this even purchasable for players who do not own HOT?

So many questions lol.

If people are looking for a way to quick portal or merchant, bank and repair, then there are a few really easy and fast way to do this.

1) Guild Hall: Sell, Repair, Bank.
Enter the “Guild Hall” button via the G tab. Bank via Scribe station, and master scribe serves as your sell merchant. Return to your original location by leaving the way you entered in the G tab.

2) The PvP Mists: Sell, Buy gathering items, TP & Bank.
PvP button is the last button at the top of your screen. Note the lack of repair options. Return to your original location by leaving the way you entered.

3) WvW: Sell, Buy gathering items, Repair, TP, Bank & possibly Mystic Forge.
Enter WvW via the B button. For bank you either portal to a keep with full access, or use Guild Master NPC at spawn and select “I want to access the guild bank” and toggle Account Vault via the top left tab. You have to open your bag and manually drag items in. Mystic Forge access requires your server owning Garrison in the Borderlands or Stonemist Castle in EBG. Return to your original location by going back to B tab and click Leave the Mists on the bottom right of the panel.

*Going to more than one of these in a row seems to default you in to Lions Arch so don’t hop from one to the other without loading out first.
_______________
Additional Tips and Mild Rant Section

This should serve perfectly for ppl who are whining about quick return access as it serves the 3-4 main functions one needs while adventuring (so you can enter right back into the fray after a quick merch break). If you are planning to settle down for some crafting, which is the only thing you don’t find in these places, you can use the traditional locations just like an self-respecting PvEer. Go pro and level all your important crafts on 2-3 of characters that hang out in LA and just switch toons real quick and stash items in bank to move to the other toon or even better use a shared inventory slot.

With all this said, if you are still whining about quick return then you need a crash course in realistic expectations and life.

The moral of the story is that there are a lot of creative ways in this game to turn things to your advantage. Just like any MMO that has love for adventuring, and ANET certainly does, a lot of it is not spelled out in black and white and sometimes they just don’t want to shovel things directly into your face on a long-armed golden spoon.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Pifil.5193:

Waypoint costs? Hmmm. This costs 1000 gems, 1000 gems would get you about 180g.

For the sake of argument, lets assume that the Airship Pass saves you 1 silver on every waypoint you took. The 180g would cover the savings of 18,000 waypoints without extra loading screens. If you play every day for another 5 years that 180g would cover the savings from 10 waypoints a day.

If you have two passes that’s 36,000 waypoints, the savings from not buying all three would be 54,000 “cheaper” waypoints (without 54,000 extra loading screens) and that’s assuming you save 1s on every waypoint.

Too many assumptions to be convincing, sorry.

~EW

Hardly. 1 assumption: a 1s saving per waypoint. But that’s OK, don’t worry about it.

Pifil.5193:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Pifil.5193:

Waypoint costs? Hmmm. This costs 1000 gems, 1000 gems would get you about 180g.

For the sake of argument, lets assume that the Airship Pass saves you 1 silver on every waypoint you took. The 180g would cover the savings of 18,000 waypoints without extra loading screens. If you play every day for another 5 years that 180g would cover the savings from 10 waypoints a day.

If you have two passes that’s 36,000 waypoints, the savings from not buying all three would be 54,000 “cheaper” waypoints (without 54,000 extra loading screens) and that’s assuming you save 1s on every waypoint.

Too many assumptions to be convincing, sorry.

~EW

Hardly. 1 assumption: a 1s saving per waypoint. But that’s OK, don’t worry about it.

1) Assuming a savings of 1s. (that is so abstract, how the heck did you come to that as anything approaching realistic? /rhetorical)
2) 10 waypoints a day
3) playing every day

All those assumptions are so grossly unrealistic (edit: except maybe #3, but it’s still not realistic for everyone) that your conclusion has no meaning. It gives no useful context by which to consider the situation. But that’s OK, don’t worry about it.

~EW

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Pifil.5193:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Pifil.5193:

Waypoint costs? Hmmm. This costs 1000 gems, 1000 gems would get you about 180g.

For the sake of argument, lets assume that the Airship Pass saves you 1 silver on every waypoint you took. The 180g would cover the savings of 18,000 waypoints without extra loading screens. If you play every day for another 5 years that 180g would cover the savings from 10 waypoints a day.

If you have two passes that’s 36,000 waypoints, the savings from not buying all three would be 54,000 “cheaper” waypoints (without 54,000 extra loading screens) and that’s assuming you save 1s on every waypoint.

Too many assumptions to be convincing, sorry.

~EW

Hardly. 1 assumption: a 1s saving per waypoint. But that’s OK, don’t worry about it.

1) Assuming a savings of 1s. (that is so abstract, how the heck did you come to that as anything approaching realistic? /rhetorical)
2) 10 waypoints a day
3) playing every day the exact same amount of waypoints.

All those assumptions are so grossly unrealistic that your conclusion has no meaning. It gives no useful context by which to consider the situation. But that’s OK, don’t worry about it.

~EW

Look up the term “for the sake of argument” some time: the 1s saving per waypoint is an assumption put forward to provide a basis for a discussion, it’s not intended to be an actual estimation of the savings here, it’s just a starting position.

The 10 waypoints a day is basic maths, 1000 gems is 180 gold. 180 gold is 18000 silver.
Now 5 years is 5 * 365 = 1825 days. 18000 / 1825 is 9.86s a day hence your 180g would give you the 1s saving for 10 waypoints a day for 5 years. This was just an example of how long the 180g might last.

I’m not assuming that anyone will do anything, whether or not they use the same number of waypoints every day is irrelevant. You completely failed to see the point at all so I will state it more plainly: using these passes to cut down the distance you waypoint in order to save on the cost of waypointing around is largely pointless when you could just buy gold with your 1000 gems and skip all those extra loading screens without losing money.

But it’s not about saving, just convenience of having just about every service within a hop skip.

Behellagh.1468:

But it’s not about saving, just convenience of having just about every service within a hop skip.

Yep, this is the real thing. I do crafting every day on at least a couple of characters. I use the forge often enough too. Having everything close together is a convenience thing. I usually use it on different characters than I’m playing so I don’t have to get back, because I have characters that basically live in that area, like my cook.

Because…Costs are variable by character level/location.

The WP cost from LA to Lights WP in Orr is different to the cost from say The Grove, because of the difference in distance. It is also different for characters at different level ranges – cheaper for lower level characters than for say L80’s.

On a return trip from Orr, assuming you want to next go to Gendarren Fileds Map or Verdant Brink Map, compare the WP costs of insta porting to Havoc’s Heir Airship (0)and exiting to the site of the old refugee camp against porting to LA through WvW (also 0) and then porting from there to Vigil Keep/Almuten WP (or exiting LA by the north gate and reaching Vigil Keep/Almuten on foot).

Apply the same logic to a run taking in sequence Queensdale (Garrison), Gendarren (Vigil Keep/Almuten), The Grove, Southsun (Pearl Inlet), Orr (Lights) and finally Splintered Coast (Teq). Consider that as a daily ore/wood/plant farming run, every day over the course of a year – then compare the WP costs of making those hops with/without using the various passes, against making them with the passes to cut the cost by shortening the distance of each ‘jump’.

Similarly, consider a run that goes from Gendaren to Harathi, back to Divinity’s Reach then on to VB and all of the HoT maps before ending back at DR. Being able to free hop from DR to Nobles and then on to any WP in HoT/Bloodston Fen before back to DR (Dwayner Plaza) via Airship, all without having to move to the LA Gate Hub just to reach DR (my ‘home’ base) that way.

Factor in the ability to sell/collect gold/bank items on the way at both Nobles and Airship, to keep free inventory space managed. I think you’ll find over the course of a year the savings add up positively – and even a copper saved is one copper less needed for buying Eternity (which thinking about it sounds like an advert for Forest Lawns LOL).

I call it as a convenience and a long-term saving through investment – increasing the return on clearing all nodes on each map, both financially and in terms of time taken.

Hence my reference to ‘a personal WP network’. Guess it depends on how important/convenient folks think LA actually is as a Hub, for anything other than purely social purposes or Sondar the Seller/Halloween access to the Mad Realm.

I realize its subjective from person to person, but I like it and ultimately that’s all the reason needed for getting all the passes/short cuts that contribute to the way I move around – to make my gold/collect my crafting materials as ‘efficient’ as possible, speaking as a casual with limited gametime available weekdays.

Breeze

I’d happily buy gems for a “HoM repair/refurbish contract” that’d fix the place a bit and add all those services to the main room, while keeping the tapestry room as a sanctuary. Actually, maybe the scrying pool could act as the Mystic Forge. The current locations don’t have the same emotional connection.

Bbear.7830:

Because…Costs are variable by character level/location.

The WP cost from LA to Lights WP in Orr is different to the cost from say The Grove, because of the difference in distance. It is also different for characters at different level ranges – cheaper for lower level characters than for say L80’s.

On a return trip from Orr, assuming you want to next go to Gendarren Fileds Map or Verdant Brink Map, compare the WP costs of insta porting to Havoc’s Heir Airship (0)and exiting to the site of the old refugee camp against porting to LA through WvW (also 0) and then porting from there to Vigil Keep/Almuten WP (or exiting LA by the north gate and reaching Vigil Keep/Almuten on foot).

Apply the same logic to a run taking in sequence Queensdale (Garrison), Gendarren (Vigil Keep/Almuten), The Grove, Southsun (Pearl Inlet), Orr (Lights) and finally Splintered Coast (Teq). Consider that as a daily ore/wood/plant farming run, every day over the course of a year – then compare the WP costs of making those hops with/without using the various passes, against making them with the passes to cut the cost by shortening the distance of each ‘jump’.

Similarly, consider a run that goes from Gendaren to Harathi, back to Divinity’s Reach then on to VB and all of the HoT maps before ending back at DR. Being able to free hop from DR to Nobles and then on to any WP in HoT/Bloodston Fen before back to DR (Dwayner Plaza) via Airship, all without having to move to the LA Gate Hub just to reach DR (my ‘home’ base) that way.

Factor in the ability to sell/collect gold/bank items on the way at both Nobles and Airship, to keep free inventory space managed. I think you’ll find over the course of a year the savings add up positively – and even a copper saved is one copper less needed for buying Eternity (which thinking about it sounds like an advert for Forest Lawns LOL).

I call it as a convenience and a long-term saving through investment – increasing the return on clearing all nodes on each map, both financially and in terms of time taken.

Hence my reference to ‘a personal WP network’. Guess it depends on how important/convenient folks think LA actually is as a Hub, for anything other than purely social purposes or Sondar the Seller/Halloween access to the Mad Realm.

I realize its subjective from person to person, but I like it and ultimately that’s all the reason needed for getting all the passes/short cuts that contribute to the way I move around – to make my gold/collect my crafting materials as ‘efficient’ as possible, speaking as a casual with limited gametime available weekdays.

Breeze

It’s hardly a shortcut to go through another loading screen. A shortcut would be going directly there rather than diverting to another area (any other area) to save a few coppers on your waypoint cost. As I pointed out, a single pass costs 1000 gems which is about 180g now. 180g is a lot of waypoints and, more importantly, loading screens that you can skip. If you’re talking about having all the passes then that’s 3,000 gems for the passes and say 900 gems for the home portal stone.

If you want to do what you do because you don’t mind having two or three times the loading screens then that’s great but both financially and time wise it’d be better to just have converted your gems to gold and forget about the cost of waypoints forever.

I don’t care too much about waypoint costs, based on experience in previous MMOs I decided early on that the cost of “fast travel” was definitely worth it because spending less time travelling (especially loading areas just to pass through them) meant I can get to what I want to do in game quicker. The quicker I get to what I want to do the quicker I’m actually killing mobs, doing events and getting loot drops and rewards which in turn more than cover any increase in waypoint costs.

Behellagh.1468:

But it’s not about saving, just convenience of having just about every service within a hop skip.

I agree, I’d buy one straight away if I could use the pass to go back to where I was before. That’s convenience I’d pay for but as it works now the convenience isn’t that great for me.

I have a Mystic Forge conduit (that I bought for the convenience) so any crafting area is about as convenient as any other so I use Rata Sum because I like the layout and the guild bank, bank and TP are right there by the Accountancy WP (and it’s handy that it’s next to the HoT areas).

All good reasons, both viewpoints are valid in their own ways – I think there are enough comments here for newcomers to form their own opinion of whether passes are a good QoL investment.

Happy to drop out from the debate at this point with no hard feelings

Breeze