Guild Wars 2

The gemstore was updated tonight with Shadow of the Dragon helm, shoulders and gloves armor pieces for 300 gems each. They have only 1 dye slot and have an animated yellow part that is not dyeable.

Here are some pics and video of the animated parts: http://dulfy.net/2015/01/16/gw2-shadow-of-the-dragon-helm-shoulders-and-gloves-in-gemstore/

noice….

/indeed

11$ for an incomplete set of armor that’s not even fully dyeable? Ehh…

Not really impressed, especially with the lack of customization and not even a bundled/full set.

Pass.
This is coming from a guy who leaps at the word ‘dragon’ in anything.

kittenit in the Gemstore AGAIN… GEZUS.

1 for 1 PLEASE Anet.

Novuake.2691:

kittenit in the Gemstore AGAIN… GEZUS.

1 for 1 PLEASE Anet.

I suppose we are totally disregarding multiple full sets that have been obtainable in-game during the last parts of S2..?

That’s…really ugly.

lordkrall.7241:

Novuake.2691:

kittenit in the Gemstore AGAIN… GEZUS.

1 for 1 PLEASE Anet.

I suppose we are totally disregarding multiple full sets that have been obtainable in-game during the last parts of S2..?

Which are those? Carapace / Luminescent.

What else?

Those are multiple.

6 of them to be exact.

3 Carapace
3 Luminescent.

That is as far as I am aware many more than have been released in the gem store during the same time period.

i like the new set but i HATE that its for every class to use equally, every1 will look the same if they keep this up, HEAVY, MEDIUM, LIGHT……dont mix the classes anet….or you will destroy the variety of the game’s professions, a guardian should look like a guardian

Explorer outfits.
So that arctic and jungle.

Fancy Winter Outfit

Mordrem weapons, which call it as you want, is gated mostly behind gem store BL keys.

Wintersday Weapons.

Chaos weapons.

Just of the top of my head.

Glorious armor too.

You can buy all the weapon skins from TP and they don’t even cost that much when the per 1 ticket is still active at the BL trader. Totally obtainable in-game.

Claiming anything else is just pure denial.

What a joke….
300 gems for each piece, that will be 1800 gems for the full set over time? And as people said not even fully dyeable. If I look back in the history(specially in the first year) there were many complete outfits and armor sets released for 800 gems.
Once again the usual Bait-and-switch tactic from NCSoft strikes again.
"Micro"transactions.

Will not be buying the XP, definitely.

Bigsexy.8302:

What a joke….
300 gems for each piece, that will be 1800 gems for the full set over time? And as people said not even fully dyeable. If I look back in the history(specially in the first year) there were many complete outfits and armor sets released for 800 gems.
Once again the usual Bait-and-switch tactic from NCSoft strikes again.
"Micro"transactions.

Will not be buying the XP, definitely.

Can we hold you to your word when the XP releases?

More lazy gemstore armor… no thanks..

same for every weight… no thanks
not a complete set… no thanks
not dyable… no thanks

Too bad, I think this could have been a really cool set if they had actually spent some time on it, made it dyable, and gave each weight a slightly different look.

Tom Gore.4035:

Glorious armor too.

You can buy all the weapon skins from TP and they don’t even cost that much when the per 1 ticket is still active at the BL trader. Totally obtainable in-game.

Claiming anything else is just pure denial.

Fair point. So then we can go into the ridiculous grindfest to get them?

Should be obtainable to a reasonable degree. To do this they can increase the ticket drop rate so that each skin hovers around 50-70Gold @ 5 tickets.

Novuake.2691:

Tom Gore.4035:

Glorious armor too.

You can buy all the weapon skins from TP and they don’t even cost that much when the per 1 ticket is still active at the BL trader. Totally obtainable in-game.

Claiming anything else is just pure denial.

Fair point. So then we can go into the ridiculous grindfest to get them?

Glorious armor – grindfest? Agreed. Unless of course you love PvP, which many do.
Carapace – grindfest? Sure, if you want all the weights and pieces. Otherwise, nah.
Luminescent – grindfest? A-yep.
BL weapons – grindfest? If you need them all, sure. Just one, though? Starting from ~50g or even less on a buy order. Nah. If it takes you longer than a couple of days to make 50 gold you’re doing something wrong.

You ninja edited so I will too:

It all depends on your expectations. If you want to collect everything in an MMO, you cannot avoid the grind. That just doesn’t work. 50-100gp for an exclusive weapon skin is not grindy.

oh come on… can we have something not made out of plants, not flamboyant, in a full pack of skin contained, fully dyeable for once in a while again on the darn gem store? I sit here on 3000 of these darn gems, bought them all in hope to get something… ANYTHING to work with here and you give me this stupid “armor”? Yea.. right…give me rytlocks (new) one instead kitten …

Tom Gore.4035:

Bigsexy.8302:

What a joke….
300 gems for each piece, that will be 1800 gems for the full set over time? And as people said not even fully dyeable. If I look back in the history(specially in the first year) there were many complete outfits and armor sets released for 800 gems.
Once again the usual Bait-and-switch tactic from NCSoft strikes again.
"Micro"transactions.

Will not be buying the XP, definitely.

Can we hold you to your word when the XP releases?

Yes, you can.
Black desert, EQ Next, CU, FFXIV, WoW.
I will be fine, don’t worry about me. xoxo

Tom Gore.4035:

Novuake.2691:

Tom Gore.4035:

Glorious armor too.

You can buy all the weapon skins from TP and they don’t even cost that much when the per 1 ticket is still active at the BL trader. Totally obtainable in-game.

Claiming anything else is just pure denial.

Fair point. So then we can go into the ridiculous grindfest to get them?

Glorious armor – grindfest? Agreed. Unless of course you love PvP, which many do.
Carapace – grindfest? Sure, if you want all the weights and pieces. Otherwise, nah.
Luminescent – grindfest? A-yep.
BL weapons – grindfest? If you need them all, sure. Just one, though? Starting from ~50g or even less on a buy order. Nah. If it takes you longer than a couple of days to make 50 gold you’re doing something wrong.

You ninja edited so I will too:

It all depends on your expectations. If you want to collect everything in an MMO, you cannot avoid the grind. That just doesn’t work. 50-100gp for an exclusive weapon skin is not grindy.

I normally agree with you, but the drop rate on tickets are just too low.
Gold is easy enough to come by, but to get just what you plan to use is costly enough to keep your pockets empty unless you grind gold pretty kitten a daily basis, that is not even considering the COMPLETIONIST way of doing things.

Duke Nukem.6783:

i like the new set but i HATE that its for every class to use equally, every1 will look the same if they keep this up, HEAVY, MEDIUM, LIGHT……dont mix the classes anet….or you will destroy the variety of the game’s professions, a guardian should look like a guardian

No…. every profession should have equal access to look as they choose. You want variety, then give the players choice. You want less variety, then shoe horn everyone into boxes. btw…. they never should have made light, medium, and heavy. That cookie cutter doesn’t belong in a game built around selling appearance items.

Novuake.2691:

I normally agree with you, but the drop rate on tickets are just too low.
Gold is easy enough to come by, but to get just what you plan to use is costly enough to keep your pockets empty unless you grind gold pretty kitten a daily basis, that is not even considering the COMPLETIONIST way of doing things.

Ascended is pretty much the only thing you will need to grind or invest money on. I’ve done it myself in the league of hundreds of gold. However, that’s not really something you need if you want to invest that money into skins, for example.

As said, if you want to have everything – as in best stats, no matter how insignificant the difference, and the best looking skins – you will have to grind. That’s just how MMOs work.

I still don’t agree that getting some nice skins along with an exotic set and ascended trinkets is grindy in GW2. Obviously if you’re an altoholic you’ll have to work a bit more.

But yeah I don’t think as players anyone would mind cheaper BL skins. I just don’t think they’re that bad to be honest. And if I really think there is a super cool skin and I want it, I don’t mind spending some RL money to get it.

I mean, you’re sounding almost like giving money to play a game you love is a bad thing. The game surely won’t force you to do it, like some other popular COUGHWOWCOUGH MMOs do.

honestly I previewed the shoulders and helm on my norn and it looks ok, but the helm on my asura looks awesome. its huge! I like like a mini dark helmet!

Duke Nukem.6783:

i like the new set but i HATE that its for every class to use equally, every1 will look the same if they keep this up, HEAVY, MEDIUM, LIGHT……dont mix the classes anet….or you will destroy the variety of the game’s professions, a guardian should look like a guardian

All armor outfits I put together are ones I find visually appealing, not ‘matching’ the class at all, as I find that incredibly boring to look at.

Basaltface.2786:

give me rytlocks (new) one instead kitten …

This.. :<

One day I’d really like to see ANet’s justification for charging a premium for individual armor pieces, particularly for pieces that don’t appear to require any extra work to implement across weight classes (only chests and legs need separate models for each weight class).

will the missing armorparts for this set be available later??

because in the past Anet NEVER finished any sets where they just put up a few pieces in the gemstore

See:

only Shoulders, Gloves for Toxic Armor
only Helmet, Shoulders, Gloves for Scarlets Armor
only Helmet, Shoulders, Gloves, Boots for Lawless Armor

not one of them ever fully finished yet

so i really doubt they will finish this set… since they have never done it before for a gemshop armor

so why would there be a reason to buy it if they wont bring out a fitting chestpiece, legpiece and boots…??

Pandaman.4758:

One day I’d really like to see ANet’s justification for charging a premium for individual armor pieces, particularly for pieces that don’t appear to require any extra work to implement across weight classes (only chests and legs need separate models for each weight class).

Why would they need justification?

But alright then: They need to make money in order to survive. They choose to do so by charging for completely useless optional things rather than things that actively effects game-play.

Would you prefer being able to buy items that makes you more powerful than people that can’t/won’t buy stuff in the gemstore?

lordkrall.7241:

Pandaman.4758:

One day I’d really like to see ANet’s justification for charging a premium for individual armor pieces, particularly for pieces that don’t appear to require any extra work to implement across weight classes (only chests and legs need separate models for each weight class).

Why would they need justification?

But alright then: They need to make money in order to survive. They choose to do so by charging for completely useless optional things rather than things that actively effects game-play.

Would you prefer being able to buy items that makes you more powerful than people that can’t/won’t buy stuff in the gemstore?

What? Re-read what I wrote. I’m not complaining that they’re charging at all, I’m complaining they’re charging extra for less work.

These pieces that they make individual are always so ugly, no offense…
I want some good high fantasy models but these last few bee so ugly.i rather take some of the skins from blue gear over these… Just saying.
Been disappointed by the options in the gen store. I already have the heavy armor sets from the gem store. I want some more cool models.

Pandaman.4758:

What? Re-read what I wrote. I’m not complaining that they’re charging at all, I’m complaining they’re charging extra for less work.

Doesn’t really change the point of my post though.
They need to charge extra for something. And I am rather certain that most people prefer they charge extra for something completely useless than something that gives actual advantages.

Pandaman.4758:

lordkrall.7241:

Pandaman.4758:

One day I’d really like to see ANet’s justification for charging a premium for individual armor pieces, particularly for pieces that don’t appear to require any extra work to implement across weight classes (only chests and legs need separate models for each weight class).

Why would they need justification?

But alright then: They need to make money in order to survive. They choose to do so by charging for completely useless optional things rather than things that actively effects game-play.

Would you prefer being able to buy items that makes you more powerful than people that can’t/won’t buy stuff in the gemstore?

What? Re-read what I wrote. I’m not complaining that they’re charging at all, I’m complaining they’re charging extra for less work.

I don’t think they really make an effort to justify the cost of items on the gemstore much at all. Isn’t that a case of “knowing how the sausage is made”? Price points are set internally without needing to communicate a clear justification of it to consumers and are changed (like with the infinite use tools) based on customer reaction and what they feel they are worth. They could have kept the lower price point on infinite mining picks etc. but they chose not to. In the end, whatever justification they used internally would never match the desire of people who wanted the lower price point so why argue?

Edit: And for some of the interesting issues being raised here, I would also like to point out —
1) Players in the past have complained about not being able to mix heavy/light/medium looking armors and having a uniform armor piece is a compromise on that issue.
2) It’s rather presumptuous to believe that the armor sets like lawless, scarlet (spiky version), are unfinished. It’s entirely possible, even likely at this point, that they were finished as they were. It’s a matter of perspective.

lordkrall.7241:

Pandaman.4758:

What? Re-read what I wrote. I’m not complaining that they’re charging at all, I’m complaining they’re charging extra for less work.

Doesn’t really change the point of my post though.
They need to charge extra for something. And I am rather certain that most people prefer they charge extra for something completely useless than something that gives actual advantages.

It doesn’t change the point of his post either, so if you try to quote someone and answer, do it by answering his question instead of saying stuff like “It doesn’t matter what you wrote, because my point is the important one.”

Novuake.2691:

kittenit in the Gemstore AGAIN… GEZUS.

1 for 1 PLEASE Anet.

Non gem store skins
Sets
sovereign, radiant, hellfire, zenith, pinnacle, amberite, carapace/luminescent, glorious/glorious hero’s, sunless, ascended, wurmslayer, hero/mistforged, Wintersday weapons (from Wintersday gifts), King toad, Super, Storm,
Others:
Annelid Rifle, Scarlet’s kiss, Scarlet’s Rainbow, Scarlet’s veil, Adventurer’s mantle/scarf/spectacles, celebration cap (gemstore but free), gas mask, horns of the dragon, Southsun mask, mask of the night, wizard’s ‘hat (free, from gemstore), witch’s ‘hat, zephyrite helms, twisted watchwork shoulders, consortium breathing mask, benthic waterbreather, fused gauntlet. Rime-Rimmed Mariner’s Rebreather, island shoulder,
Backpieces (too many to list)

grrr, wish they would design it so you could dye the animated part. YELLOW? no ty .. I like the skins, but just not the colour

Hmm, when was the last time we saw a complete armor set with 6 individual pieces that could be mixed and matched and individually dyed for 800gems (or less)?

Seems the complete sets are now all broken into 6 pieces with a +125% price hike. Or the slightly cheaper (700gems) outfits that is just a costume that cannot be separately matched or dyed.
And by the way, why do we still have armor classes when a Thief can just pick a full plate armor outfit, or a Warrior can look like a ninja?

nightwulf.1986:

I don’t think they really make an effort to justify the cost of items on the gemstore much at all. Isn’t that a case of “knowing how the sausage is made”? Price points are set internally without needing to communicate a clear justification of it to consumers and are changed (like with the infinite use tools) based on customer reaction and what they feel they are worth. They could have kept the lower price point on infinite mining picks etc. but they chose not to. In the end, whatever justification they used internally would never match the desire of people who wanted the lower price point so why argue?

Fair enough, it’s just a vain hope on my part that ANet be a bit more transparent on pricing decisions. I don’t want to assume the worst, but the truth is likely they just do it because they know they can get away with it.

Astral Projections.7320:

Novuake.2691:

kittenit in the Gemstore AGAIN… GEZUS.

1 for 1 PLEASE Anet.

Non gem store skins
Sets
sovereign, radiant, hellfire, zenith, pinnacle, amberite, carapace/luminescent, glorious/glorious hero’s, sunless, ascended, wurmslayer, hero/mistforged, Wintersday weapons (from Wintersday gifts), King toad, Super, Storm,
Others:
Annelid Rifle, Scarlet’s kiss, Scarlet’s Rainbow, Scarlet’s veil, Adventurer’s mantle/scarf/spectacles, celebration cap (gemstore but free), gas mask, horns of the dragon, Southsun mask, mask of the night, wizard’s ‘hat (free, from gemstore), witch’s ‘hat, zephyrite helms, twisted watchwork shoulders, consortium breathing mask, benthic waterbreather, fused gauntlet. Rime-Rimmed Mariner’s Rebreather, island shoulder,
Backpieces (too many to list)

Yet BL stuff is:
Weapon Sets: Aetherized, Bloody Prince’s (2nd/3rd Halloween set), Chaos, Dragon/Jade, Dreamthistle, Fused, Ley Line, Lovestruck, Modrem, Pact Fleet, Phoenix, Sclerite, Tempest, Tormented, Winters (first Wintersday set), Wintersday (this past years), and Zodiac.

Individual Armors: shoulder scarf, glint’s gaze/mask, Belinda’s greatsword, Braham’s mace, Braham’s shield, Fuzzy bear/panda/quaggan/quaggan w/ bow, glowing crimson mask, glowing green mask, Lawless helm/shoulders/gloves/boots, mask(s) of the crown/jubilee/queen, mask of the silent, mask of the wanderer, magnus’ eyepatches, wreath of cooperation, Stag helm, Grenth hood, Scarlets grasp, Scarlets shoulders, Bunny ears, Kasmeer’s staff, Marjory’s axe, Marjory’s dagger, Toxic glove, Toxic shoulders, wizards’ hat, Rox’s bow, Rox’s quiver. (and now the three new shadow of the dragon skins)

All the old town clothes they release (hoodies/riding/shirts/etc)

Armor Sets: Aetherized Heavy, Aetherized Medium, Aetherized Light, Brahams Heavy armor, Flamewrath Heavy, Flamewalker Medium, Flamekissed Light (and original Flamekissed light- T3 version), Incarate Light, Krytan Medium armor, Magitech medium, Rampart heavy, Phalanx heavy, Phoenix light, Primeval heavy, Profane light, Striders medium, Trickster’s light, Viper’s medium, Zodiac heavy, Zodiac Light, Zodiac medium,

Outfits: Jungle, Arctic, Ancestral, Ceremonial Plate, Noble Court, Shadow Assassin, Fancy wintersday, bloody prince, executioner’s, mad king’s, witch’s, rainment of the lich,

Backpacks: quite a few, though they are cheap(ish) on the TP now.

(ignore the non capitalizations, got tired of trying to capitalize everything that needed it, and am at work trying to do this quickly)
Thats just the stuff I found on the “BL weapon collections”: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Collections, current gemstore items , and previous gemstore stuff pages on the wiki (which doesn’t have everything, since Rox’s stuff and Braham’s weren’t on those pages).

Now, I’m ok with them selling stuff on the gemstore, but stuff needs to be reasonably priced (like 100-200 for individual armor pieces if its not gonna be a full set), and it should be a ratio of 1:1 (maybe 1:2) of things added in game to gemstore. And I’m definitely in the crowd that wants BL tickets drop rate increased. For me, each BL chest should always drop a scrap (as a separate 4th item).

Ugly in my opinion, and in the end i mainly care about chest and leg pieces.
Shoulders are always hidden and helms that hide hairs also.

I like the Helm, but that is about it.

This could work… if it was a full set. Well lets hope this doesn’t go Lawless i.e. never completed. Well it does come off as bad value, when a fullset (Aetherblade, incarnate, krytan etc.) all cost 800 but collectively these incomplete pieces cost 900 gems. Man ANet got 900 gems just sitting there in the BLTC waiting for something to spend them on (unlike the other players apparently, I actually like the creepy ugly looking sets) :P

What’s even wrong with gem store skins? Gold → Gems exchange, anyone?

and the eternal milking continues…

Andred.1087:

What’s even wrong with gem store skins? Gold -> Gems exchange, anyone?

geee I don’t know, maybe Anet gutting economy and any source of ingame income to make gold → gems as unprofitable as possible?

What are you all talking about? Making gold is effortless unless you avoid world bosses and dungeons completely. Gold to gem = problem solved

Varrg.2704:

Andred.1087:

What’s even wrong with gem store skins? Gold -> Gems exchange, anyone?

geee I don’t know, maybe Anet gutting economy and any source of ingame income to make gold -> gems as unprofitable as possible?

That’s absurd. There are plenty of ways to make tons of gold in game.

A Gem Store update with new items on a Friday? Madness, what is the world coming to?!?!

Can’t say I’m a huge fan of these. They don’t actually look very plant-like, and I’m not usually too keen on fancy particle effects on armor (though they aren’t TOO showy).

I do appreciate the price drop compared to previous standalone skins. Still a tad overpriced I think, but a lot better than 400 or 500 a piece.

At least they can be individually purchased. I don’t care for the helmet or shoulders, but the gloves can work with a number of looks. So I bought those and will leave the helm and pauldrons alone.

I do hope that future whole armor sets will be available, and available piece-meal as well. And that they will remain available, so one can buy the pieces wanted when wanted. My bank has too many skins not yet assigned to alts as it is ><

Helm looks great, only one I’ll probably get.

I wonder how many people complaining that they cost anything at all would even use them if they were free?