Guild Wars 2

[Suggestion] Adjust obsidian refinement recipes *original title was too long :/

I suggest adjusting the recipes to use only 1 or 2 reagents per 100 dust, ore, or fragments instead of 10.

Currently, to refine bloodstone dust, dragonite ore, or empyreal fragments a player must use 2 obsidian shards and 10 thermocatalytic reagents per 100. Right now 10 reagents cost a player 14s96c. I am currently sitting on more than 22k dust, 23k ore, and 9k frags (8 bank tabs worth) and I can no longer afford to refine them. At the current ratio it would cost me around 80g to refine (50 more than I have). And if this is situation is occurring to me, it is likely occurring to other players as well. I believe this price/ratio is acting as a barrier to players drowning in these ascended mats.

I thought about some of the alternative solution/arguments that might come up.

Use Maudry – I don’t have one, and only address’s dust in a time gated manor anyway (for now).
Let us vendor them – Not a good idea, gold generation instead of gold sink. I realize the game needs gold sinks, and this is one of them. Adjusting the recipe would still achieve that, but refinement needs to keep up with the influx.
Delete them – Not a good idea, wasteful. Why give as loot if we are just going to delete. Even junk item drops are worth copper.
It’s only a temporary solution – Players will eventually reach their bank cap for ingots, bricks, and stars. This is true, but I as a player would rather have a reduced number of refined item stacks in my regular bank tabs than the huge number of unrefined mats. My numbers for example would condense 8 bank tabs to 3 bank spaces. The rate of using additional bank spaces to store them would also be greatly reduced.
Not fair to other players who already refined – It is not fair, but I am one of those players too. I have currently 149 bricks, 173 ingots, and 23 stars. I have already made several ascended weapons and a full set of ascended heavy armor and still have this supply left. I would be a little upset, but I see this as a reasonable solution to the HUGE GLUT of raw ascended mats.
Keep making ascended items to use them up – This is not feasible. To use them a player will need all the other regular mats to make ascended items. The rate of acquisition of the regular mats does not keep in step with ascended mat acquisition.
Anet will never do this – This is not true. They have already set precedents for adjusting refinement recipes. In the past, they have adjusted recipes for the numbers of needed raw fabric and wood. Not exactly the same as a vendor supplied reagent I know, but raising the ascended mat quantity to adjust the ratio did not seem logical.

Heck, at this point I would be happy if Anet removed these ascended mats from Chest/drop/loot tables and let us purchase the completed brick, ingot, or star from the vendor instead. Then I could just buy it when I need it like I do for obsidian shards. There is no point to having it in crafting if I can’t craft it.

Any thoughts on this from other players?

It is unlikely that they will change the recipes as it is a gold sink.

My suggestion would be to add new account-bound skins and vanity gizmos which can be purchased with loads of ascended mats (both unrefined and refined). Similar to laurels, but unique and not having any kind of gold value.

It’s a gold sink, and it’s clearly doing its job well.

The fact that you’re storing tens of thousands of these items is also proof that it’s going well, because you’re wasting eight bank tabs that you bought either with real cash or with gold > gems on items that you’ll never be able to use.

Once you have all that you’re going to need for crafting, delete the rest and move on. If a new recipe winds up being added sometime in the future that makes you want more, it’s not like it’s going to be hard for you to find it. And you’ll free up your bank tabs for more important things, like earmuffs.

Xiahou Mao.9701:

It’s a gold sink, and it’s clearly doing its job well.

Once you have all that you’re going to need for crafting, delete the rest and move on.

Well I wouldn’t say its clearly doing its job well, unless it was purposely designed to clog inventories. The issue here is balance, and these mats don’t have it. Now I was not saying remove the gold sink, only to adjust it so that players can more easily manage glut vs cost. You even contradicted yourself in your argument. You said its a gold sink and doing its job well, yet you are recommending deleting excess as solution. As I said before, that is not a good idea. A deleted item does not sink gold.

Just because you don’t value the item, doesn’t mean everyone else does too. Some folks like myself keep everything they get in game. We don’t sell it nor do we buy it from other players, not when we can go out and get it ourselves. I guess you can say I’m a hoarder, but I’m sure there are a few more out there like me with full inventories.

But I do agree with you, If I do delete it, and then need more for some reason, it’s not going to be hard to go and find more. The game rains pink after all.

/balance

Evil Octopi.8253:

Xiahou Mao.9701:

It’s a gold sink, and it’s clearly doing its job well.

Once you have all that you’re going to need for crafting, delete the rest and move on.

Well I wouldn’t say its clearly doing its job well, unless it was purposely designed to clog inventories. The issue here is balance, and these mats don’t have it. Now I was not saying remove the gold sink, only to adjust it so that players can more easily manage glut vs cost. You even contradicted yourself in your argument. You said its a gold sink and doing its job well, yet you are recommending deleting excess as solution. As I said before, that is not a good idea. A deleted item does not sink gold.

Just because you don’t value the item, doesn’t mean everyone else does too. Some folks like myself keep everything they get in game. We don’t sell it nor do we buy it from other players, not when we can go out and get it ourselves. I guess you can say I’m a hoarder, but I’m sure there are a few more out there like me with full inventories.

But I do agree with you, If I do delete it, and then need more for some reason, it’s not going to be hard to go and find more. The game rains pink after all.

/balance

During the summer, i crafted 4 more sets for my warrior. The first 2 sets were easy for me, as gold isnt an obstacle. For the 3rd one, i actually ran out of Laurels and ascended mats. After that, i crafted a new item every 5 days (needed 5 laurels). At that rate, the acquisition of ascended mats was actually quite in line with my demand. The problem is not the rate of acquisition of mats for you, its your lack of crafting ascended gear.

Wanze is right. YOU have a ridiculous stockpile of mats. Most players do not. Why should anet add or change anything because a few players refuse to just delete the overabundance of mats that they have?

Sorry, I’ve been Wintersday’n.

It is a ridiculous amount! And I do craft ascended items, just not at the impressive rate of one every five days. I tend to stick to weapons, as again, the biggest problem for armor is the rate of acquisition for T2-T4 fabric mats vs ascended mats. They are not in balance. Anet has been great in adding the fabrics to chests and rewards recently. In fact if not for that, I wouldn’t even be able to make armor. But since those same loot instances provide more ascended mats than can be used with the regular fabric mat drops, it adds to the issue.

Now its just my style of play, almost exclusively PvE. I don’t dungeon except to get tokens for legendary gifts, don’t PvP, don’t WvW, and I don’t fractal. I keep everything I get and I very very rarely buy anything off the TP. Even if I had tons of gold, I wouldn’t buy the T2-T3 mats to make ascended stuff. I would be getting them myself the hard way. I play the game how I like, and its not really a problem to struggle for them. I have played since beta, clocked in at over 5200 hours, 2 map completes, 11 characters (all races/professions covered) in at least exotics, 15.5k achievement points, 3 legendary, and magic find at 208, all done the hard way. I already have 150 each bricks and ingots, and about 50 stars. The glut of unrefined ascended mats was just something I noticed when I consolidated them all into my bank. I thought since this was occurring to me it might be occurring to others. My suggestion was just the simplest solution I could think of that would probably have the least impact on the game. I appreciate the feedback, but I was really hoping to see more of “this might work” or “this is not a good idea because”. Deleting excess is not the appropriate answer for players like me.

Now the new Christmas Star has be great to help tame the ascended glut, and that’s an acceptable solution. I expect to see something for dragonite ore soon as well. Hopefully it will not be the fail that is Maudrey. Since I don’t fractal I cant complete. I have everything built except for the fractal relic part. If it is happening to me, its probably happening to others as well. Stuck with increasing dust we cannot get rid of. Thanks again for the input, I just wanted to help and thought I could suggest something that maybe was not thought of.

My solution was to keep ‘x’ amount in inventory and storage, and dump the rest, no need to keep something beyond a reasonable amount that is being handed out hand over fist in droves…and I don’t even really need it for Ascended because I’m not that interested in Ascended.

Deleting excess is not the appropriate answer for players like me

I don’t delete them either, so I make sure to either have gold to refine, or have characters available to store them (until I feel like refining).

… dump the rest …and I don’t even really need it for Ascended

I prefer knowing I have them if I need them, and avoid a “doh, should’ve kept ’em” moment. At their discretion, and at any time, they could release recipes — outside of weapons/armor — requiring X amount of unrefined/refined materials. When you have none left and really need them, it’ll be a pain — especially if there aren’t any events going with decent drop-rates (e.g., gifts right now). I went through that pain when Ascended crafting was first released, so I’ll definitely try to avoid it now — even if it costs.

I’m sitting on 300~ bricks and 150~ ingots/stars at the moment, and I don’t really farm. I shall not think about the gold went into refining those (or the ones I’ve already used)… ;P Out of mind, out of sight!

Invest in Mawdrey II and the Star of Generosity, this should at least alleviate this problem a little.