Guild Wars 2

Summary
In this post I want to make apparent certain issues with the current relationship between fabric, leather and ascended armor and the new content introduced with HoT and changes to old content, namely fractals. This post is also about how the current mechanics are impeding new players progressing through the game.

Let me state beforehand, that I understand that ascended armor was meant to be difficult to get and that it is not necessarily required to play the game. I have been playing this game since the beta times and I have gathered a lot experience in almost every aspect of it. WvW is the exception here.

The playerbase has been discussing this topic a lot lately and already came up with a few solutions. I want to refer to this reddit thread for further information : https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2va9vq/is_arenanet_planning_to_do_anything_about_the/

Arenanet I want to appeal to you to become a part of those discussions and to communicate with us to find a reasonable solution.

Let me begin this by asking a question adressed to the devs: Are you currently working on or maybe considering to change the system of how a player aquires fabric or leather in Guildwars 2 ?
(I know the terms on how you communicate with the community, only to inform us about something when the decision is set in stone, but still, worth a try )

Now. Many of you, both devs and players, think: “sigh, this again”. Sadly, yes. This. Again.

This topic has been bothering me on and off again, but since the release of HoT it’s been bothering me a lot more. I’ll explain why a little later.

First let me summarize our current and most reliable methods of aquiring fabric and leather in the game. I want to do this to show you one, in my opinion, really screwed up point in the gamemechanics.

1. and most recent: Festive Bags of Materials (1,400 Karma per bag)
This method will probably only be available temporary. Also these aren’t really cost efficient considering the time it took you to gather the Karma and the output you get. Also these give you fabric and wood, leather is not even in those. Although not a bad method for those who are long time veterans of the game and probably have a lot of Karma to spare.

(However, with the better availability to craft a legendary which cost around 1,000,000 Karma each, this method might not be the most attractive, even more for new players)

2. Map completion.
Upon completing a certain map the reward chest gives you x Number of leather or fabric.

3. Salvaging gear.
This method is the most used in the game. The gear you aquire and which level this gear has, is dependant on the level of your character. Level 80 characters get level 80 gear. Problem is, the salvage output will also be high level. Meaning: If I want low level fabric or leather,which is required for ascended armor, the only way of getting it, is through the Trading Post for a really high price or through method 3.5 (the really screwed up point in the game mechanic)

Method 3.5
Create a character -> level it up to a certain level on which the required fabric or leather will come out of gear you salvage -> go into the silverwaste with your level 80 character -> gather as many bags as you can hold -> transfer them to your recently created character -> open them up to get the low level gear and salvage said gear to aquire your low level fabric or leather and let that character gather dust in your character selection because you can’t level it up and really play it otherwise you lose your best method of aquisition.

Now this. This is the point where I wonder if that is the right way to do things.
One of the core philosophies of Guildwars 2 has been: “Play the way you want”.
I can’t, because method 3.5 is the most costefficient for me. Otherwise I have to spent hundreds upon hundreds of gold just for fabric or leather to craft ascended light or medium armor. Heavy armor is not that difficult, I can just go out into the world and gather ore from nodes. But aquiring light or medium ascended armor has become a really bothersome and expensive task.

Another argument against the current mechanic is the game became really unfriendly to new players. Guildwars 2 went free to play recently. A wave of new players hit the game and now they have to deal with expensive low to mid level-range materials while the high level materials are cheap.
To put it into perspective at the current time a gossamer scrap is at 51 copper in the TP while a single linen scrap costs you 4 silver and 93 copper. The midrange material is almost 10 times more expensive than the highrange material. How is that new player friendly ?

Now this states the question: Why do I even want to get ascended armor ? For two and a half reasons. 1. Fractals 2. Raids. 0.5 Getting the most out of my characters.

Fractals have been remade, to reach the highest level you require 150 agony resistance. To achieve this, you require ascended armor or an astronomical number of +1 agony infusions. To craft an infusion that gives you +19 agony resistance you need 262,144 +1 infusions. Now think about how many you will need to achieve 150 agony resistance without ascended armor. So, ascended armor is mandatory for fractals.

Second come the raids. Raids were recently introduced high-end content. I already played the first wing many times and I love it. Thank you very much for that Arenanet, I mean it.
Now raids are meant to be difficult. They are not that difficult that they require you to have full ascended gear. It is NOT necessary, however, it is advised. Ascended equipment in raids dampens the difficulty by a small margin but not that small that it doesn’t make an impact. Your DPS is higher, your heal is higher and your tank is tougher.

Arenanet, you have given us new ways to play your game and I really appreciate them and really enjoy playing them. I also really appreciated that you listened to the community and increased the rewards in fractals. But I think you have to face a new problem, making this content available to your players, not just those who are sitting on mountains of gold.

tl;dr. Arenanet needs to rework our current methods of getting fabrics and leather because they are no longer feasible with the current content.

Don’t worry, Anet will find ways to boost gossamer price but keep linen price the same.

Thanks to all the cloth wearer complaining, leather price have sky rocket, but cloth scrap price remain the same.

I’ve been telling this for ages. Cloth and Leather need nodes like wood and metal. For example, Cloth Racks and Stacks of Pelts.

All over the game there’s lots of mostly empty spots featuring an enemy camp with no events or anything special going on most of the time. Sometimes there’s a chest, but these chests are mostly worthless.

They should add some life to those spots by adding there two new nodes:

• Cloth racks on ‘civilized’ camps such as bandits, nightmare courtiers and inquest.
• Stacks of pelts in tribal or hunter camps such as grawl, centaurs, and sons of svanir.

Instead requiring a gathering tool, you go to the camp, and there’s a mini boss. Usually a veteran or elite. If you participate on taking out out the mini-boss and their cronies, the node becomes usable for you to get a reasonable amount of cloth or leather.

And boom. Another nice reason to explore, and a way to aim towards specific materials better that killing countless game and hoping it’ll drop salvageable leather, or going after enemy factions for packaged goods and hoping there be some cloth inside instead freaking bananas, butter and gathering tools with no use for you now.

And maybe there should also be a way to ‘demote’ materials, cheaper than promoting, something like how you can salvage globs of ectoplasm into crystalline dust, which keeps the cost of crystalline dust in check.

MithranArkanere.8957:

I’ve been telling this for ages. Cloth and Leather need nodes like wood and metal. For example, Cloth Racks and Stacks of Pelts.

Except that the game doesn’t need every material to have a node source. There’s nothing inherently wrong or bad about various mats having different scarcities. That opens up opportunities for folks to make money, interesting dynamics in the economy, and gets people to pay more attention to how they acquire things — when it’s easy, people stop paying attention and start to undervalue the opportunity costs or hoarding or selling various items.

I’m not against ANet changing the nature of cloth and leather faucets; I just don’t think it’s necessary (and I don’t think it will have the effect people are expecting).

Are you complaining about the generally high price of cloth and leather or the fact that you cant farm them directly?

Would you be ok, if they added some nodes for leather and cloth in lower level maps but to keep scarcity at its current level, would scratch the ability to open gear bags from sw on lower level toons for t1-4 gear/mats and make karma gear unforgeable?

Wanze.8410:

Are you complaining about the generally high price of cloth and leather or the fact that you cant farm them directly?

Would you be ok, if they added some nodes for leather and cloth in lower level maps but to keep scarcity at its current level, would scratch the ability to open gear bags from sw on lower level toons for t1-4 gear/mats and make karma gear unforgeable?

It’s the generally high price that bothers me. The high prices are the result of the scarcity of fabric and leather in the game and the great amount you need to craft ascended armor. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest to implement nodes for cloth and leather.

In a different reddit thread I sadly can’t find anymore someone suggested to bind the gearlevel of dropped gear to the maplevel and no longer to the character level. Meaning on a say level 15-25 map the gear that will drop will have the same level range even if it dropped for your level 80 character. This would create a new incentive for players to play on low level maps. The exception should maybe be rare and exotic gear so the world bosses on lower level maps stay attractive for those who want to do them with their level 80 characters or world bosses are the general exception and will drop gear according to the character level.

A different idea I had is that plant nodes drop different kinds of fibres which a tailor then can process into scraps and those scraps into bolts. I got the idea because I noticed how rarely I gather plant nodes if they don’t give me something that I can then process into the bufffood and I think most players are thinking the same way about them. But, yes this would mean there are actual nodes for cloth at least.

The downgrade option through the mystic forge is another good idea I think. I have 11 characters, 10 of which are level 80, the exception is my bagopener (the name of the character is literally bagopener, I am not kidding). This means I am drowning in t5 and t6 materials. Giving me the option to downgrade something of it into lower level fabric and leather would be great and clear my bank because selling it isn’t that attricive because of the low prices.

+1 to this, hard to farm cloth, when metals are everywhere

Zervan.6785:

Wanze.8410:

Are you complaining about the generally high price of cloth and leather or the fact that you cant farm them directly?

Would you be ok, if they added some nodes for leather and cloth in lower level maps but to keep scarcity at its current level, would scratch the ability to open gear bags from sw on lower level toons for t1-4 gear/mats and make karma gear unforgeable?

It’s the generally high price that bothers me. The high prices are the result of the scarcity of fabric and leather in the game and the great amount you need to craft ascended armor. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest to implement nodes for cloth and leather.

In a different reddit thread I sadly can’t find anymore someone suggested to bind the gearlevel of dropped gear to the maplevel and no longer to the character level. Meaning on a say level 15-25 map the gear that will drop will have the same level range even if it dropped for your level 80 character. This would create a new incentive for players to play on low level maps. The exception should maybe be rare and exotic gear so the world bosses on lower level maps stay attractive for those who want to do them with their level 80 characters or world bosses are the general exception and will drop gear according to the character level.

A different idea I had is that plant nodes drop different kinds of fibres which a tailor then can process into scraps and those scraps into bolts. I got the idea because I noticed how rarely I gather plant nodes if they don’t give me something that I can then process into the bufffood and I think most players are thinking the same way about them. But, yes this would mean there are actual nodes for cloth at least.

The downgrade option through the mystic forge is another good idea I think. I have 11 characters, 10 of which are level 80, the exception is my bagopener (the name of the character is literally bagopener, I am not kidding). This means I am drowning in t5 and t6 materials. Giving me the option to downgrade something of it into lower level fabric and leather would be great and clear my bank because selling it isn’t that attricive because of the low prices.

It actually got a couple of gold cheaper to craft 1 each asc ingot, bolt and square since HoT arrived.
The reason why its more expensive atm to buy 1 each of those from the tp is because of they high demand and the timegate. People are willing to pay way more than the crafting costs, compared to pre HoT.

It has nothing to do with prices or scarcity for t2-5 mats.

Wanze.8410:

Zervan.6785:

Wanze.8410:

Are you complaining about the generally high price of cloth and leather or the fact that you cant farm them directly?

Would you be ok, if they added some nodes for leather and cloth in lower level maps but to keep scarcity at its current level, would scratch the ability to open gear bags from sw on lower level toons for t1-4 gear/mats and make karma gear unforgeable?

It’s the generally high price that bothers me. The high prices are the result of the scarcity of fabric and leather in the game and the great amount you need to craft ascended armor. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest to implement nodes for cloth and leather.

In a different reddit thread I sadly can’t find anymore someone suggested to bind the gearlevel of dropped gear to the maplevel and no longer to the character level. Meaning on a say level 15-25 map the gear that will drop will have the same level range even if it dropped for your level 80 character. This would create a new incentive for players to play on low level maps. The exception should maybe be rare and exotic gear so the world bosses on lower level maps stay attractive for those who want to do them with their level 80 characters or world bosses are the general exception and will drop gear according to the character level.

A different idea I had is that plant nodes drop different kinds of fibres which a tailor then can process into scraps and those scraps into bolts. I got the idea because I noticed how rarely I gather plant nodes if they don’t give me something that I can then process into the bufffood and I think most players are thinking the same way about them. But, yes this would mean there are actual nodes for cloth at least.

The downgrade option through the mystic forge is another good idea I think. I have 11 characters, 10 of which are level 80, the exception is my bagopener (the name of the character is literally bagopener, I am not kidding). This means I am drowning in t5 and t6 materials. Giving me the option to downgrade something of it into lower level fabric and leather would be great and clear my bank because selling it isn’t that attricive because of the low prices.

It actually got a couple of gold cheaper to craft 1 each asc ingot, bolt and square since HoT arrived.
The reason why its more expensive atm to buy 1 each of those from the tp is because of they high demand and the timegate. People are willing to pay way more than the crafting costs, compared to pre HoT.

It has nothing to do with prices or scarcity for t2-5 mats.

That is not entirely true. Yes people want more gold for their timegate, I don’t actually think that is a bad thing since the crafting of the material has become a service now and the price isn’t just determined by the material cost. It’s a legitimate way of making gold through crafting because you are also providing a service for other people.

What I am talking about is the prices of the raw material that have increased since the implementation of ascended armor. Yes the prices are driven by demand no questions asked here. The problem is the demand is so high that people are forced to circumvent certain game mechanics (i.e. creating a character and leaving it on a low level so it opens bags for you which yield the low tier crafting material) . This makes one of your characterslots almost useless because there isn’t a different way of aquiring the low tier materials that is actually feasible. Sure I can kill low level humanoid mobs (Centaurs, Charr) and gather their bags, but those have a big droptable. It will take me hundreds of hours to gather enough materials if I want to use that method.

It may be not as efficient as your method to acquire leather but… There is :

methode 4 : Go into [component level desired] map and spend time doing event to gather mobs “bag”. Work especially well for the leather you seem to want by doing Modniir ulgoth defense event.

Even with a bag opener, for some reason, linen has the lowest output. Personally I am really bothered by this, as my main playing characters are both clothies (ele and necro) so it’s a real pain to get their ascended gear done. I know it can be switched between characters but why have to do that all the time instead of fixing a game mechanic that is right now is obviously broken.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

MithranArkanere.8957:

I’ve been telling this for ages. Cloth and Leather need nodes like wood and metal. For example, Cloth Racks and Stacks of Pelts.

Except that the game doesn’t need every material to have a node source.

No. Not every material. Just the 4 basic materials.

Dadnir.5038:

It may be not as efficient as your method to acquire leather but… There is :

methode 4 : Go into [component level desired] map and spend time doing event to gather mobs “bag”. Work especially well for the leather you seem to want by doing Modniir ulgoth defense event.

This right here,

The current market rates are more favourable for newer players than anyone, because they don’t know what armor they want etc yet, so they can sell the mats off as they get them,

There are several ways to get the lower leather and cloth mats, but its going to mean you have to leave that level 80 zone.

And anyone who thinks that x or y mat is only 50copper, and that it will stay that way is only kidding themselves, for like 2 years the leather was worthless, and you could pick up a stack of is for less than 20-30silver, it will be the same for the mats that are lower atm, sooner or later something will be introduced that will use these mats,

Market prices are fair enough at the moment, you either farm for what you need, or you pay the market rate for the mats you need, its really that simple.

Anyandrell.6238:

Even with a bag opener, for some reason, linen has the lowest output. Personally I am really bothered by this, as my main playing characters are both clothies (ele and necro) so it’s a real pain to get their ascended gear done. I know it can be switched between characters but why have to do that all the time instead of fixing a game mechanic that is right now is obviously broken.

One thing I did with a bag opener toon was up the level. I know everyone says level ~53 but I was getting cotton more than linen at that level. I upped the char to level 60 and now most of the gear it gets from bags is about level 57. From that I normally get linen and not cotton, though I might get silk. The hard part is getting the light armor in the first place, even though it’s a Mesmer char. If you’re getting mats below the linen level you might want to bump your char up a level at a time till you get a level that gives you mats of the right range.

Zervan.6785:

Wanze.8410:

Zervan.6785:

Wanze.8410:

Are you complaining about the generally high price of cloth and leather or the fact that you cant farm them directly?

Would you be ok, if they added some nodes for leather and cloth in lower level maps but to keep scarcity at its current level, would scratch the ability to open gear bags from sw on lower level toons for t1-4 gear/mats and make karma gear unforgeable?

It’s the generally high price that bothers me. The high prices are the result of the scarcity of fabric and leather in the game and the great amount you need to craft ascended armor. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest to implement nodes for cloth and leather.

In a different reddit thread I sadly can’t find anymore someone suggested to bind the gearlevel of dropped gear to the maplevel and no longer to the character level. Meaning on a say level 15-25 map the gear that will drop will have the same level range even if it dropped for your level 80 character. This would create a new incentive for players to play on low level maps. The exception should maybe be rare and exotic gear so the world bosses on lower level maps stay attractive for those who want to do them with their level 80 characters or world bosses are the general exception and will drop gear according to the character level.

A different idea I had is that plant nodes drop different kinds of fibres which a tailor then can process into scraps and those scraps into bolts. I got the idea because I noticed how rarely I gather plant nodes if they don’t give me something that I can then process into the bufffood and I think most players are thinking the same way about them. But, yes this would mean there are actual nodes for cloth at least.

The downgrade option through the mystic forge is another good idea I think. I have 11 characters, 10 of which are level 80, the exception is my bagopener (the name of the character is literally bagopener, I am not kidding). This means I am drowning in t5 and t6 materials. Giving me the option to downgrade something of it into lower level fabric and leather would be great and clear my bank because selling it isn’t that attricive because of the low prices.

It actually got a couple of gold cheaper to craft 1 each asc ingot, bolt and square since HoT arrived.
The reason why its more expensive atm to buy 1 each of those from the tp is because of they high demand and the timegate. People are willing to pay way more than the crafting costs, compared to pre HoT.

It has nothing to do with prices or scarcity for t2-5 mats.

That is not entirely true. Yes people want more gold for their timegate, I don’t actually think that is a bad thing since the crafting of the material has become a service now and the price isn’t just determined by the material cost. It’s a legitimate way of making gold through crafting because you are also providing a service for other people.

What I am talking about is the prices of the raw material that have increased since the implementation of ascended armor. Yes the prices are driven by demand no questions asked here. The problem is the demand is so high that people are forced to circumvent certain game mechanics (i.e. creating a character and leaving it on a low level so it opens bags for you which yield the low tier crafting material) . This makes one of your characterslots almost useless because there isn’t a different way of aquiring the low tier materials that is actually feasible. Sure I can kill low level humanoid mobs (Centaurs, Charr) and gather their bags, but those have a big droptable. It will take me hundreds of hours to gather enough materials if I want to use that method.

The common mat market is basically set up so you arent able to gather everything yourself every day. This is working as intended, so the materials hold value and it also works as an excellent transfer mechanism to move gold from veteran players, who mostly play end game content towards newer players, whose droprate for lower tier mats is higher.

The high crafting cost for ascended materials is also intended by Anet, so it stays a long term goal for players.

I agree. It’s fundamentally flawed at the moment. I can totally understand what Anet was trying to achieve, but the reality is it hasn’t worked out at all. The biggest – and most important – problem at the moment is the impact these ridiculous prices have on new players. New players are the most important players in the game, and every effort should be made to make the new player experience as balanced as possible. Right now it’s a mess in relation to this topic.

The best way to fix this will be to change how Ascended Armour is crafted.

Things were relatively balanced before Ascended Armour became available. So rather than change the way the materials for it are acquired (which will have numerous additional knock-on effects) it would be simpler, easier, and smarter for development to modify how Ascended Armour is created.

Requirements for Ascended Armour at the moment are arguably the primary driving force for the high prices of the crafting materials at the moment. So a simple method to address the problem, at least in the first instance, is for Anet to have a look at the current pricing of materials and compare them to their ideal value they’d like it to be, then adjust accordingly.

For example: Linen is around ~5 silver per piece, but ideally Anet want it to be 50 copper per piece. That’s one tenth the current value, so reduce the ascended armour requirements of linen by 9/10th. This reduction in difficultly in ascended crafting can then be offset by modifying other component requirements, which make more sense in relation to the level the character is: level 80.

Tarn.1374:

For example: Linen is around ~5 silver per piece, but ideally Anet “players” want it to be 50 copper per piece.

The game have been out for 3 years already. Everyone should made enough money to craft a set of ascended gear.

Ascended gear is really cheap for new players too. 50 hours of grinding or a few more hours just playing the game and you should already made enough money to get a set.

laokoko.7403:

Tarn.1374:

For example: Linen is around ~5 silver per piece, but ideally Anet “players” want it to be 50 copper per piece.

The game have been out for 3 years already. Everyone should made enough money to craft a set of ascended gear.

Ascended gear is really cheap for new players too. 50 hours of grinding or a few more hours just playing the game and you should already made enough money to get a set.

That is in my opinion not a valid argument. Because there is a lot of stuff to spend your gold on Guildwars 2. Say you want a Ferrari and can’t afford it. Someone comes up and says : “Well it’s 2015 and Ferrari exists since 1947, you are 30 years old, should’ve been enough time to get the money”. 30 years is maybe enough time but you have to probably neglect spending your money elsewhere.

Also, some of us maybe want multiple sets of ascended armor. Sure you can interchange it between characters and switch your stats but you can’t switch the armor class from heavy to medium or light.

laokoko.7403:

Tarn.1374:

For example: Linen is around ~5 silver per piece, but ideally Anet “players” want it to be 50 copper per piece.

The game have been out for 3 years already. Everyone should made enough money to craft a set of ascended gear.

Ascended gear is really cheap for new players too. 50 hours of grinding or a few more hours just playing the game and you should already made enough money to get a set.

Being friends with a number of new players that have recently come to the game. I can say for a fact that this is simply not true. I honestly wish it was the case, but unfortunately it’s just not. But that’s not the point; the inflated prices adversely affect new players independently of any ascended equipment desires.

It’s at the point where just the other day I told a friend not to worry about crafting new level 30 armour, but wait until they’re level 35 and buy the cultural armour, because that was the cheaper option. That for me that is a clear indication something is very wrong with the fabric/leather mechanism in-game.

laokoko.7403:

Don’t worry, Anet will find ways to boost gossamer price but keep linen price the same.

Thanks to all the cloth wearer complaining, leather price have sky rocket, but cloth scrap price remain the same.

^ Mostly this.

Oh and btw. grinding for ascended is just so useless when there are actually no
new skins .. but thanks to people complaining about armor sets in the gemshop
we no longer get any new stuff.

Wanze.8410:

Zervan.6785:

Wanze.8410:

Zervan.6785:

Wanze.8410:

Are you complaining about the generally high price of cloth and leather or the fact that you cant farm them directly?

Would you be ok, if they added some nodes for leather and cloth in lower level maps but to keep scarcity at its current level, would scratch the ability to open gear bags from sw on lower level toons for t1-4 gear/mats and make karma gear unforgeable?

It’s the generally high price that bothers me. The high prices are the result of the scarcity of fabric and leather in the game and the great amount you need to craft ascended armor. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest to implement nodes for cloth and leather.

In a different reddit thread I sadly can’t find anymore someone suggested to bind the gearlevel of dropped gear to the maplevel and no longer to the character level. Meaning on a say level 15-25 map the gear that will drop will have the same level range even if it dropped for your level 80 character. This would create a new incentive for players to play on low level maps. The exception should maybe be rare and exotic gear so the world bosses on lower level maps stay attractive for those who want to do them with their level 80 characters or world bosses are the general exception and will drop gear according to the character level.

A different idea I had is that plant nodes drop different kinds of fibres which a tailor then can process into scraps and those scraps into bolts. I got the idea because I noticed how rarely I gather plant nodes if they don’t give me something that I can then process into the bufffood and I think most players are thinking the same way about them. But, yes this would mean there are actual nodes for cloth at least.

The downgrade option through the mystic forge is another good idea I think. I have 11 characters, 10 of which are level 80, the exception is my bagopener (the name of the character is literally bagopener, I am not kidding). This means I am drowning in t5 and t6 materials. Giving me the option to downgrade something of it into lower level fabric and leather would be great and clear my bank because selling it isn’t that attricive because of the low prices.

It actually got a couple of gold cheaper to craft 1 each asc ingot, bolt and square since HoT arrived.
The reason why its more expensive atm to buy 1 each of those from the tp is because of they high demand and the timegate. People are willing to pay way more than the crafting costs, compared to pre HoT.

It has nothing to do with prices or scarcity for t2-5 mats.

That is not entirely true. Yes people want more gold for their timegate, I don’t actually think that is a bad thing since the crafting of the material has become a service now and the price isn’t just determined by the material cost. It’s a legitimate way of making gold through crafting because you are also providing a service for other people.

What I am talking about is the prices of the raw material that have increased since the implementation of ascended armor. Yes the prices are driven by demand no questions asked here. The problem is the demand is so high that people are forced to circumvent certain game mechanics (i.e. creating a character and leaving it on a low level so it opens bags for you which yield the low tier crafting material) . This makes one of your characterslots almost useless because there isn’t a different way of aquiring the low tier materials that is actually feasible. Sure I can kill low level humanoid mobs (Centaurs, Charr) and gather their bags, but those have a big droptable. It will take me hundreds of hours to gather enough materials if I want to use that method.

The common mat market is basically set up so you arent able to gather everything yourself every day. This is working as intended, so the materials hold value and it also works as an excellent transfer mechanism to move gold from veteran players, who mostly play end game content towards newer players, whose droprate for lower tier mats is higher.

The high crafting cost for ascended materials is also intended by Anet, so it stays a long term goal for players.

yes, it is intended, but it is also unfun for most players. It primarily benefits those with the least desire for the item, or the desire to craft. It exists primarily for the sake of the market, and even in that its unbalanced, and creates odd playstyles.

short version it succeeds at giving lo level items value.
It fails at rewarding appropriate play, making crafting fulfilling/interesting or adding entertainment to normal play.

nobody besides marketers would shed a tear if linen went down to 1 silver, or recipes required half as much low level materials

Well either they make a recipe that allows us to demote leather & tissue with a desirable rate or they allows us when recycling medium/ligth armor at lvl80 to have a chance at any leater/tissue (minus T1).

MithranArkanere.8957:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

MithranArkanere.8957:

I’ve been telling this for ages. Cloth and Leather need nodes like wood and metal. For example, Cloth Racks and Stacks of Pelts.

Except that the game doesn’t need every material to have a node source.

No. Not every material. Just the 4 basic materials.

Again, no, the game doesn’t need to have a node for every basic material; it’s a preference, not a requirement.

And again: I’m not against it, I just don’t agree that it’s a priority, that it would make the game more interesting, or that it would have the sort of long-term benefit people are expecting.

In my mind the main problem is the DRASTIC increase in leather requirements from the change from Damask to Damask Patches in insignia. This led to a more than DOUBLING of leather requirements over the set of 18 ascended armor pieces. AND it’s even worse than that because the bump in demand for leather has caused prices to increase as well, meaning the cost of leather for armor has more than doubled in HoT.

FURTHERMORE lower level leather is the one thing that is very difficult for a lvl 80 char to obtain. There are no nodes, racks or piles. This makes the supply very inelastic – a price increase doesn’t result in much of a supply increase.

This really needs to be changed. It has really completely unbalanced this aspect of the game.

Glass Hand.7306:

In my mind the main problem is the DRASTIC increase in leather requirements from the change from Damask to Damask Patches in insignia. This led to a more than DOUBLING of leather requirements over the set of 18 ascended armor pieces. AND it’s even worse than that because the bump in demand for leather has caused prices to increase as well, meaning the cost of leather for armor has more than doubled in HoT.

FURTHERMORE lower level leather is the one thing that is very difficult for a lvl 80 char to obtain. There are no nodes, racks or piles. This makes the supply very inelastic – a price increase doesn’t result in much of a supply increase.

This really needs to be changed. It has really completely unbalanced this aspect of the game.

Player “asked” for the leather change. Especially from players playing mage class.

Players keep complaining why leather is so cheap and silk is so expensive.

Zervan.6785:

laokoko.7403:

Tarn.1374:

For example: Linen is around ~5 silver per piece, but ideally Anet “players” want it to be 50 copper per piece.

The game have been out for 3 years already. Everyone should made enough money to craft a set of ascended gear.

Ascended gear is really cheap for new players too. 50 hours of grinding or a few more hours just playing the game and you should already made enough money to get a set.

That is in my opinion not a valid argument. Because there is a lot of stuff to spend your gold on Guildwars 2. Say you want a Ferrari and can’t afford it. Someone comes up and says : “Well it’s 2015 and Ferrari exists since 1947, you are 30 years old, should’ve been enough time to get the money”. 30 years is maybe enough time but you have to probably neglect spending your money elsewhere.

Also, some of us maybe want multiple sets of ascended armor. Sure you can interchange it between characters and switch your stats but you can’t switch the armor class from heavy to medium or light.

It’s not even an opinion or argument.

I’m just saying if you need to have a Ferrari to have fun. Your life will probably be very miserable. Unless you have money.

If you don’t need a Ferrari to have fun. You might still be happy even if you dont’ have money.

And we shouldn’t even be talking about Ferrari. We should be talking about if you have enough money to get by. You don’t even need ascedned armor to get by. You just need exotic gear to play 90% of the content. After you finished 90% of the content, you should have enough money to get ascended armor for the rest 10%.

laokoko.7403:

Player “asked” for the leather change. Especially from players playing mage class.

Players keep complaining why leather is so cheap and silk is so expensive.

1. There is no mage class unless it is in some version of GW2 not sold where I live. Maybe you are thinking of Mesmer? By the way did you know there was actually a guy named Mesmer (a con man by the name of Franz Mesmer)?

2. Yes we asked for a change in thick leather because the price was too low, and a reduction in the price of silk because it was too high.

The adjustment in silk price worked well in my opinion. The adjustment in thick leather was totally botched. Instead of just the price of thick leather going up we ended up with a sharp rise in ALL leather prices and a huge increase in the cost of ascended crafting because not only did the price increase but we also need twice as much. Given the mechanic of how leather is harvested in this game it’s complete bullkitten. It needs to be fixed.