Guild Wars 2

Why is there only 3 pieces to this armor? There’s no chest, legs or boots. I personally really like the way it looks but I’m not going to spend gems on something where I only get half the look I want. Any insight is appreciated.

It’s the same deal with things like the lawless armour pieces that don’t feature a chest or leggings, and the toxic pieces (or whatever they’re called) that only ever had shoulders and gloves. Instead of doing art for a full armour set, they just have pieces that you can buy separately.

As to why they’re this way, I can’t say for certain. One plausible reason is that they weren’t able to make as big an investment for the art assets for a full armour set, so they just made some pieces (I imagine things like gloves and helms are less complicated to make than chests and leggings). Or it could be related to variations on their business model, seeing how selling armour sets in piecemeal rather than in one bundle.

I think it’s a bit of a shame. If you want something like the lawless armour pieces, you end up paying at 50% more compared to other armour skins, but you only get 4 pieces instead of six. I don’t think it’s that big a deal for some of the specialty items (i.e. buying a decorative hat that you use with five armour pieces from a different set), but these piecemeal and unbundled “armour-sets-that-aren’t-sets” really don’t sit well with me.

Personally, I boycott such items like the lawless, shadow of the dragon, and toxic armour piece skins because I feel it’s a less consumer-friendly business model and I don’t want to support that in any way.

I’m not sure why there are no boots but there is no chest or leg armor since the seem (the division between chest and legging armor) is different depending on the armor type (heavy, medium or light).

Ya i won’t buy them at all. I’ll save me gems for complete sets. Thanks for the replies.

Palimow.6342:

Why is there only 3 pieces to this armor? There’s no chest, legs or boots. I personally really like the way it looks but I’m not going to spend gems on something where I only get half the look I want. Any insight is appreciated.

The Shadow of the Dragon armor skins cost a total of 900 gems (300 per piece). Each piece unlocks for all 3 weights. A full 6 piece set at that rate would cost 1,800 gems for all 3 weights. You’re paying 100 gems per weight per piece for the 3 pieces we do have.

Now if you were to buy, for example, the Aetherblade armor sets for each weight it would cost 2,400 gems total (800 per weight set). For a single weight you’re paying 133.33 gems per piece of the set.

If it was a full set that could be obtained with a single purchase it would probably cost at least 2,400 gems and I don’t think some players want to pay that much at 1 time, especially for anybody who only wants the set for a single weight. It would be a waste of gems.

Now what they could have done was make the Shadow of the Dragon armor skins a full set but sell each weight separately, like they do for the Aetherblade sets. That way if you only wanted the light armor set you’d pay around 800 gems instead of 2,400 for all 3 weights at once. Just my 2g. Edit: The thing is all armor pieces look the same for all 3 weights. If they sold full sets of separate weight classes you’d be paying up to 3 times for the same exact skins.

Laziness is the only answer.

It’s because they can’t make one separate chest or leg piece that will work for all three armor classes. This is also why town clothes became tonics and outfits can’t be broken into separate parts. (They said a little more about this back when people were complaining about town clothes being turned into tonics.)

They might wish they could go back in time and design their armor system differently, but as it stands, they haven’t yet gone through and overhauled all the armor in the game. It sucks, but we’re stuck with it.

Charrbeque.8729:

Edit: The thing is all armor pieces look the same for all 3 weights. If they sold full sets of separate weight classes you’d be paying up to 3 times for the same exact skins.

I feel this point you make at the end contradicts your earlier conjecture about how the shadow of the dragon skins can be considered to be of better value than something like the aetherblade armour sets. While you get the skin unlocked for each weight class, the skin is exactly the same. The only value this provides to the consumer is that they can use it on a larger number of characters. However, this assumes that the consumer wants to use said skins on multiple characters, and that they have the multiple characters with which to use the skins in the first place.

Now everyone has different preferences in regards to these things. However, I have 16 different level 80 characters, most of which have 2 or 3 different sets of armour for different builds. Each of these armour sets use a different skin. I never repeat the use of these armour skins because I want it to be unique to that character instead of dressing everyone the same. In some cases I have reused a few weapon skins, but those are for underwater weapons that I just don’t care too much about.

So while you do effectively get better value per unique wardrobe unlock by purchasing something like a piece of the shadow of the dragon armour set, the inherent value in it is lost in my case because I would only ever purchase that skin to use it on one specific character for one specific armour set for one specific build. I wouldn’t go and apply it to more than one character.

In comparison, things like the aetherblade sets are unique skins in each case. So while the consumer does not obtain as many unique wardrobe unlocks as they would if they purchase the shadow of the dragon pieces, they do obtain more unique appearances. As such, I would consider the aetherblade (or similar bundled full armour sets) to be of better value for me because I consider the uniqueness of the appearance to be more valuable than multiple wardrobe unlocks for each armour weight that look exactly the same.

Furthermore, I would make a comparison for outfits. Outfits can be used on any character, regardless of armour weight, and effectively works as a 6-piece skin set similar to something like the aetherblade armour set. These tend to be a bit more on the festive or casually-clothed side, but they serve the same function for a price similar to any of the bundled 6-piece armour sets. As such, one could pose the question as to why they didn’t make a “shadow of the dragon outfit” whose appearance incorporated the look from the existing 3 pieces but also had the other 3 pieces done, all for the standard shelf price that one would expect from outfits. I think the real reason for that is that they just didn’t have the resources to invest in such a thing at the time, but I’d rather they release something more complete instead of pieces that are just meant to drum up some quick money.

Now not everyone plays the game the same as me and perhaps they want to dress their characters in all the same armour. In that sense, purchasing a shadow of the dragon piece may have greater value for them. However, they still are deprived from having a complete armour set. That is, there is no chest, leggings, or boots (I think it’s boots that are missing). So if someone wanted a coordinating, matching armour set with that look, they can’t get it. Instead they have to make mix-and-match armour, and while some people enjoy doing that, others don’t.

My fear with supporting these sorts of items in the gem store is that they will look at converting all future released armour skins to be sold in a similar piecemeal fashion. I feel this is bad for the consumer because you will need to pay more for each “set”, and it means they may make less skins overall. That is, they might release something like an aetherblade set, but it would only have one appearance for all armour weights that must be bought piece-by-piece for about double the price that we are currently paying. As a consumer, why would I want to pay more money to have less variety?

Perhaps if the piecemeal sets they’ve currently implemented were less expensive per piece, I wouldn’t have an issue with it. But if they see that they can make more money selling the amour skins that way, there’s little incentive for them not to do so.

I think all the stand-alone piece collections were specifically designed that wayl, something you buy a piece of to complement your armor rather than sets in and of themselves (the same as all the other standalone items, just there’s more than one item with a given theme).

Tim.6450:

I’m not sure why there are no boots but there is no chest or leg armor since the seem (the division between chest and legging armor) is different depending on the armor type (heavy, medium or light).

^^ Exactly this .. the biggest problem we have in the whole armor design here.

So how many people here remember when you could mix armor weights on the preview screen? Yeah, there were some buggy interactions that smeared bit maps all over the place, though applying the offending item a second time tended to clear it up.

I think I still have some screen shots of looks that are now fully blocked.