Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I’m sure I’m not the only one when I say that crafting a precursor is expensive.
Let me give one example:
- You need 250 Crystalline Ingot
- Each of those need 1 Amalgamated Gemstone
- Each of those need 9 Beryl Orb (for example)
- Those cost right now 27s, you need 2250!
- Total costs for only the Orbs is around 585 gold!
You can also buy Amalgamated Gemstone, that’s around 750g right now.

That’s just 1 item for the precursor, not to forget the 15 Deldrimor Steel Ingots, 10 Elonian Leather Squares, 10 Spiritwood Planks etc etc…

So it’s cheaper to buy a complete legendary rather than to craft a precursor!
I just realized this now when I’m in the middle of crafting The Device… I’m not sure if I’m going to continue this…

It all comes down to risk vs reward. You can get the item in the forge(Potentially low cost but high risk of never getting it), get a drop (Zero cost and very high risk of never getting it) or craft it (high cost, zero risk).

FlashAhAhh.4307:

It all comes down to risk vs reward. You can get the item in the forge(Potentially low cost but high risk of never getting it), get a drop (Zero cost and very high risk of never getting it) or craft it (high cost, zero risk).

Or you can go with the 0 risk, maximum reward plan of buying it.

It is only too expensive if you buy everything. So far, I’ve nearly built Rodgort and the precursor only cost me where impatience set in. The rest I have got from farming or playing events or mats gained from alt levelling/world completion.

I’m also stockpiling mats for Astralaria long term and I’m already doing well getting amalgamated gemstones. Orbs themselves maybe not be a fast drop, but you can craft them very easily.

The high costs exists, but only if you choose to shorten your journey.

Well, people do not have to make a legendary. That is more of an optional path for people to do if they tire of the remaining content.

For example, I am perfectly fine with just crafting epic gear for my guys for I do not want to do the grind for ascended just yet. I want to explore all of HoT and do the achievements, but if I have done all of that then I would be focusing on making ascended.

Nos Deserdi Veritas.4632:

Hi,

I’m sure I’m not the only one when I say that crafting a precursor is expensive.
Let me give one example:
- You need 250 Crystalline Ingot
- Each of those need 1 Amalgamated Gemstone
- Each of those need 9 Beryl Orb (for example)
- Those cost right now 27s, you need 2250!
- Total costs for only the Orbs is around 585 gold!
You can also buy Amalgamated Gemstone, that’s around 750g right now.

That’s just 1 item for the precursor, not to forget the 15 Deldrimor Steel Ingots, 10 Elonian Leather Squares, 10 Spiritwood Planks etc etc…

So it’s cheaper to buy a complete legendary rather than to craft a precursor!
I just realized this now when I’m in the middle of crafting The Device… I’m not sure if I’m going to continue this…

as has been said before, crafting precursors is not for those that simply want to buy the way to a legendary, its a long term goal for those looking for long term goals.

Yes, the new legendarys are more expensive and sought after (demand side in form of demand for materials by players) compared to legendarys available for over 3 years (supply side of old legendarys).

Checking our most basic economic understanding of supply and demand: http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics3.asp

We can thus realise that high demand leads to higher prices (if supply is unchanged) and high supply leads to lower prices (if demand is unchanged).

Working as intended.

Edit:
If your goal was to simply get a legendary axe, then yes, going for Frostfang would have been the economic sound choice. New precursors are not sellable though.

There are too many posts about the legendary/precursor prices…

Many many players already have legendaries, so they are not at all that legendary

Or, farm and don’t pay tp prices…. zero cost.

Nos Deserdi Veritas.4632:

Hi,

I’m sure I’m not the only one when I say that crafting a precursor is expensive.
Let me give one example:
- You need 250 Crystalline Ingot
- Each of those need 1 Amalgamated Gemstone
- Each of those need 9 Beryl Orb (for example)
- Those cost right now 27s, you need 2250!
- Total costs for only the Orbs is around 585 gold!
You can also buy Amalgamated Gemstone, that’s around 750g right now.

That’s just 1 item for the precursor, not to forget the 15 Deldrimor Steel Ingots, 10 Elonian Leather Squares, 10 Spiritwood Planks etc etc…

So it’s cheaper to buy a complete legendary rather than to craft a precursor!
I just realized this now when I’m in the middle of crafting The Device… I’m not sure if I’m going to continue this…

Your example is a poor one. Crystalline Ingots are only needed for HoT precursors (Raven Staff etc), which cannot be bought or found, must be crafted and form an account bound legendary that cannot be sold on the TP.

So it’s not cheaper to buy such legendaries, as it is impossible.

That said, everyone above me made good points as well.

FlashAhAhh.4307:

It all comes down to risk vs reward. You can get the item in the forge(Potentially low cost but high risk of never getting it), get a drop (Zero cost and very high risk of never getting it) or craft it (high cost, zero risk).

Since OP mentioned 250 Crystalline Ingots that means it’s one of the new ones which means you can’t get it in the forge.

Khisanth.2948:

FlashAhAhh.4307:

It all comes down to risk vs reward. You can get the item in the forge(Potentially low cost but high risk of never getting it), get a drop (Zero cost and very high risk of never getting it) or craft it (high cost, zero risk).

Since OP mentioned 250 Crystalline Ingots that means it’s one of the new ones which means you can’t get it in the forge.

and he is complaining about the precursor price, the ingots are part of the gift of maguuma mastery and NOT part of the precursor, so his complain is just wrong

I made Astralaria and the costs is not more than other popular legendaries. It is a vanity item and hence telling it is ‘too expensive’ is irrelevant.

This is about the new legendaries only, you can’t buy the precursor anyway, you have to make it yourself.

You are right about old precursors, where the process of making them is much more expensive than let’s say buying the minstrel precursor.

Nos Deserdi Veritas.4632:

Hi,

I’m sure I’m not the only one when I say that crafting a precursor is expensive.
Let me give one example:
- You need 250 Crystalline Ingot
- Each of those need 1 Amalgamated Gemstone
- Each of those need 9 Beryl Orb (for example)
- Those cost right now 27s, you need 2250!
- Total costs for only the Orbs is around 585 gold!
You can also buy Amalgamated Gemstone, that’s around 750g right now.

That’s the part for the legendary step. Not the precursor. -_-

Miellyn.6847:

and he is complaining about the precursor price, the ingots are part of the gift of maguuma mastery and NOT part of the precursor, so his complain is just wrong

Yes just that.

Randulf.7614:

It is only too expensive if you buy everything. So far, I’ve nearly built Rodgort and the precursor only cost me where impatience set in. The rest I have got from farming or playing events or mats gained from alt levelling/world completion.

I’m also stockpiling mats for Astralaria long term and I’m already doing well getting amalgamated gemstones. Orbs themselves maybe not be a fast drop, but you can craft them very easily.

The high costs exists, but only if you choose to shorten your journey.

Farming doesn’t actually make anything cheaper since you can always just sell all the resources and get that very same value (minus TP cut) in liquid gold.

I started the Kudzu precursor journey, and step 1 was expensive but fun, since the collection actually sent you on a journey and required me to do new things I wouldnt have done, like JP. It was a bit expensive with the ascended mats, but I did my math and it sounded like it was going to be cheaper than buying the pre on the TP for 700 gold

NOPE. Step 2 is no collection, the “collection” is just a bunch of endless kittening crafting of billions of kittening stick and strings. Hundreds of gold and days of farming later, and Im still only a third of the way through. Who the kitten thought it was a good idea to mouth the words “epic journey” and “discovering the soul of your weapon” and turn around and shaft the community with a kittening grindfest that takes months/years, or costs upwards of 1000 gold? Comparable to the market price my kitten .

ProtoGunner.4953:

I made Astralaria and the costs is not more than other popular legendaries. It is a vanity item and hence telling it is ‘too expensive’ is irrelevant.

This is about the new legendaries only, you can’t buy the precursor anyway, you have to make it yourself.

You are right about old precursors, where the process of making them is much more expensive than let’s say buying the minstrel precursor.

Astralaria is approximately 1,000g more than Frostfang.

Felahr.9830:

I started the Kudzu precursor journey, and step 1 was expensive but fun, since the collection actually sent you on a journey and required me to do new things I wouldnt have done, like JP. It was a bit expensive with the ascended mats, but I did my math and it sounded like it was going to be cheaper than buying the pre on the TP for 700 gold

NOPE. Step 2 is no collection, the “collection” is just a bunch of endless kittening crafting of billions of kittening stick and strings. Hundreds of gold and days of farming later, and Im still only a third of the way through. Who the kitten thought it was a good idea to mouth the words “epic journey” and “discovering the soul of your weapon” and turn around and shaft the community with a kittening grindfest that takes months/years, or costs upwards of 1000 gold? Comparable to the market price my kitten .

Total price of that is under 1000g but buying is cheaper by over 200g.

Khisanth.2948:

ProtoGunner.4953:

I made Astralaria and the costs is not more than other popular legendaries. It is a vanity item and hence telling it is ‘too expensive’ is irrelevant.

This is about the new legendaries only, you can’t buy the precursor anyway, you have to make it yourself.

You are right about old precursors, where the process of making them is much more expensive than let’s say buying the minstrel precursor.

Astralaria is approximately 1,000g more than Frostfang.

1000g is a very subjective amount.

The current cost to craft Frostfang is indeed ~1000g less than the current crafting cost of Astralria. However you need to do full map completion, 500 dungeon tokens, WvW and other account bound things to obtain it.

The new legendaries only need to complete 4 maps and everything else can be bought, which is included in the crafting cost. How you compare those costs is not clear.

For instance, straight up buying Frostfang costs 2700g while straight up buying everything you need to craft Astralaria costs 2400g. Anyone can buy frostfang for 2700g, but the only option is to craft the new legendary weapons yourself.

So it is a little more complicated than you make it out to be.

Nos Deserdi Veritas.4632:

Hi,

I’m sure I’m not the only one when I say that crafting a precursor is expensive.
Let me give one example:
- You need 250 Crystalline Ingot
- Each of those need 1 Amalgamated Gemstone
- Each of those need 9 Beryl Orb (for example)
- Those cost right now 27s, you need 2250!
- Total costs for only the Orbs is around 585 gold!
You can also buy Amalgamated Gemstone, that’s around 750g right now.

That’s just 1 item for the precursor, not to forget the 15 Deldrimor Steel Ingots, 10 Elonian Leather Squares, 10 Spiritwood Planks etc etc…

So it’s cheaper to buy a complete legendary rather than to craft a precursor!
I just realized this now when I’m in the middle of crafting The Device… I’m not sure if I’m going to continue this…

This is not the cost of the precursor. At all. Crystalline ingots are only for the Gift of magguma mastery needed for the legendary part. I don’t know where you get this false information and why you complain about it. The cost is barely identical, I don’t see any issue about the new legendary.

Oh and, Expensive and Legendary are synonyms, just in case if ever someone complain about the price.

• If cost is your primary concern, buy the first-generation precursor on the TP.
• If the journey is your interest, then use the collection method and do your best not to rush it.

The second generation legendaries have only one path to completion and those who want to rush will have to pay a premium to do so, just as one does for rushing to get anything else in the game.

I’ve recently been planning to try for Nevermore. Ravenswood Branch alone requires 35 Spiritwood Planks. Still planning to go for it but isn’t that a bit much for what isn’t even the complete precurser? Just the first tier.

Sinmir.6504:

I’ve recently been planning to try for Nevermore. Ravenswood Branch alone requires 35 Spiritwood Planks. Still planning to go for it but isn’t that a bit much for what isn’t even the complete precurser? Just the first tier.

240G out of the 797G you need to craft it.

I sort of agree with the OP. I would rather do more things (like a larger collection achievement) to get my legendary than farm for gold/items. There is no glory nor honor in farming, but there is in doing and completing game content.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Khisanth.2948:

ProtoGunner.4953:

I made Astralaria and the costs is not more than other popular legendaries. It is a vanity item and hence telling it is ‘too expensive’ is irrelevant.

This is about the new legendaries only, you can’t buy the precursor anyway, you have to make it yourself.

You are right about old precursors, where the process of making them is much more expensive than let’s say buying the minstrel precursor.

Astralaria is approximately 1,000g more than Frostfang.

1000g is a very subjective amount.

The current cost to craft Frostfang is indeed ~1000g less than the current crafting cost of Astralria. However you need to do full map completion, 500 dungeon tokens, WvW and other account bound things to obtain it.

The new legendaries only need to complete 4 maps and everything else can be bought, which is included in the crafting cost. How you compare those costs is not clear.

For instance, straight up buying Frostfang costs 2700g while straight up buying everything you need to craft Astralaria costs 2400g. Anyone can buy frostfang for 2700g, but the only option is to craft the new legendary weapons yourself.

So it is a little more complicated than you make it out to be.

The highlighted part is not true.

Rash.6514:

I sort of agree with the OP. I would rather do more things (like a larger collection achievement) to get my legendary than farm for gold/items. There is no glory nor honor in farming, but there is in doing and completing game content.

There is no glory in jumping puzzles or randomly getting spoon drops from bosses. Please, let us not argue about this, as we both know it true.

So many people falsely represent this issue, but ingame and here on the forums. We get it, you want easy legendaries. That’s not going to happen.

1.) As others have pointed out, this isn’t even a precursor issue as the gemstones are needed to craft the actual legendary.

2.) Saying Frostfang is 1000g cheaper than Astralaria is also true but a misuse of facts. There is no supply of Astralaria outside of the collections, so using the low end cost of Frostfang isn’t fair. Frostfang, the completed Legendary, is 200g+ more expensive than the final crafting cost of Astralaria.

3.) Collections weren’t meant as a cheap way for you to get tons of precursors, they were meant as guaranteed progression, which they are extremely successful at. Complaining about ‘having to farm’ is only accurate if you try to RUSH the process; These aren’t meant to be done in a week.

4.) Even though collections were not intended to be a cheaper alternative, they are in the case of most items. Under ‘Acquisition’ you can see the crafting cost vs the trading post price of items:

https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/item/29181-Zap
https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/item/29185-Dusk
https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/item/29180-The-Legend
https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/item/29169-Dawn
https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/item/29178-The-Lover

I included The Lover to illustrate that while ALL aren’t cheaper, most of the super popular ones are. The reason, I suspect, that The Lover has such a difference is that they can’t really control player interest in a particular legendary, and The Dreamer simply isn’t that popular. Thus, the supply vastly outweighs the demand, and it’s simply impossible to create a crafting system that would adjust on the fly like that. Thus, the crafting price is standardized.

5.) The new Precursor prices are not out of line with the old ones. I can’t provide links cause it’s on gw2efficiency, but these are the prices:

The Mechanism (Astralaria): 747g
The Raven Staff (Nevermore): 788g
Prototype (H.O.P.E.): 699g

In conclusion, stop. You’re not going to get precursors or legendaries handed to you for pennies on the dollar. They are meant as endgame rewards, not something you obtain in a day.