Guild Wars 2

Hey guys.

I’ve been running fractals for a long time now, and so I thought I’d share some experiences with you. I’ve run in ranges anywhere from level 1 up to level 50, and after what feels like hundreds of fractal runs, I’ve gotten around 7 different fractal weapons, none of which, mind you, are the ones I actually wanted.

I say seven different fractal weapons, because I’ve also gotten doubles, which really hurts when it happens because drops are rare enough as it is and it really stings to get something you already have and that you can’t sell or give to someone else.

Now, I know this has more than likely been bought up before, on more than one occasion, but I really think that the entire reward system for fractals is completely unbalanced. You get pristine relics for each run, but they have very little value as a reward because, despite allowing you to buy ascended rings, those rings drop so often from the fractals themselves that it ends up rendering pristine relics rather moot. I don’t even spend my pristine relics because I already have around 100 ascended rings stored away from fractal drops that’s after selling a few from my storage space becoming too limited).

You end up doing these long fractal runs on a daily basis, for very little return on your time investment, all for the hope of getting a specific drop that may take hundreds of more runs to materialize. Even dungeons give more gold at a faster rate and they allow you to at least spend tokens on dungeon specific weapons and armour on top of it.

So my suggestion is this, let us buy fractal weapons with pristine fractal relics. It would help alleviate the problem for a lot of us fractal runners who have been trying for ages to get a single fractal weapon drop with no success, and would give fractal runners a goal to work towards. Hell, even if it cost 50 pristine relics for one weapon that would still be fine because at least then we know we can get the one we want with some investment, rather than simply hoping.

I know your pain. But making them purchasable via pristine relics wouldn’t be the way to go. You’d get tons of noobs farming level 1-9 and the daily fractal for pristine relics. Fractal weapons are so awesome because they are so hard to get.

I’d rather them make fractal weapons craftable. Where the materials to craft them can only be farmed in the higher level fractals, so they players have to at least invested in some AR. I personally would like farming for tons of mats than farming for rng. At least then I’ll feel like I’m getting closer to my goal.

ChoChoBo.6503:

I know your pain. But making them purchasable via pristine relics wouldn’t be the way to go. You’d get tons of noobs farming level 1-9 and the daily fractal for pristine relics. Fractal weapons are so awesome because they are so hard to get.

I’d rather them make fractal weapons craftable. Where the materials to craft them can only be farmed in the higher level fractals, so they players have to at least invested in some AR. I personally would like farming for tons of mats than farming for rng. At least then I’ll feel like I’m getting closer to my goal.

I wouldn’t mind fractal weapons being craftable either, but I think pristine relics could form part of the process, because right now they are next to useless.

It might even be cool if they approach fractal weapons in a similar manner to how they approached capacitors, i.e. having a simple, base version that you buy with pristine relics, and then having upgraded versions that you have to make using gifts of ascension and other ingredients in the forge (like the globs and such that we use for capacitors, some of which can only be gotten in higher level fractals). The base versions would just be simple with no moving parts or particle effects, and the upgraded versions could have the moving parts, the particle effects and perhaps even glow effects added in each successive upgrade, kinda like the stages the capacitor goes through.

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

ChoChoBo.6503:

I know your pain. But making them purchasable via pristine relics wouldn’t be the way to go. You’d get tons of noobs farming level 1-9 and the daily fractal for pristine relics. Fractal weapons are so awesome because they are so hard to get.

I’d rather them make fractal weapons craftable. Where the materials to craft them can only be farmed in the higher level fractals, so they players have to at least invested in some AR. I personally would like farming for tons of mats than farming for rng. At least then I’ll feel like I’m getting closer to my goal.

I wouldn’t mind fractal weapons being craftable either, but I think pristine relics could form part of the process, because right now they are next to useless.

I like the idea of these being crafted. I’m not so keen on the idea to make them like the backpieces though – with different looks at different tiers.

I’d say make them semi-legendary. Sort of like mystic forge tier, but crafted.

Or there’s another thought. Maybe make them available via the forge, using the mats that drop at the higher tiers, maybe with orichalcum/ancient wood parts used for that specific weapon. Eg for a sword:

-10 orichalcum hilts
-10 orichalcum sword blades
-some Shards of mists essence (maybe 5 or 10. I’m not sure how hard these are to get, but I know you can craft them with the lower tiers. Having a higher amount than suggested might be desirable.)
-gift of ascension

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

It might even be cool if they approach fractal weapons in a similar manner to how they approached capacitors, i.e. having a simple, base version that you buy with pristine relics, and then having upgraded versions that you have to make using gifts of ascension and other ingredients in the forge (like the globs and such that we use for capacitors, some of which can only be gotten in higher level fractals). The base versions would just be simple with no moving parts or particle effects, and the upgraded versions could have the moving parts, the particle effects and perhaps even glow effects added in each successive upgrade, kinda like the stages the capacitor goes through.

This is it. This has to be it. If this is not it, then I don’t know left from right anymore.
I particularly like the idea of having to upgrade them several times too get their full visual effects.
Pristine Relics are pretty useless at the moment, I don’t bother saving them anymore. Its a double-click and out of my mind kind of thing these days.

Miss Lana.5276:

I like the idea of these being crafted. I’m not so keen on the idea to make them like the backpieces though – with different looks at different tiers.

I’d say make them semi-legendary. Sort of like mystic forge tier, but crafted.

Or there’s another thought. Maybe make them available via the forge, using the mats that drop at the higher tiers, maybe with orichalcum/ancient wood parts used for that specific weapon. Eg for a sword:

-10 orichalcum hilts
-10 orichalcum sword blades
-some Shards of mists essence (maybe 5 or 10. I’m not sure how hard these are to get, but I know you can craft them with the lower tiers. Having a higher amount than suggested might be desirable.)
-gift of ascension

Isn’t this kind of the same as the fractal capacitor back-piece? When he mentioned the back-piece, I was thinking, you buy the base/rare version of the weapon you want via pristine/relics. Then use a a mystic forge recipe with mist globs, etc to upgrade into the exotic versions with the particle aura. And then another recipe to upgrade it again for the trailing effect. Fractal weapons are rare and extremely desirable, it makes sense to tier them off for crafting like they did with capacitors and mawdrey.

They could even make it so you could upgrade your exotic fractal weapon to ascended versions of it too. But that’s the insomnia kicking in right now.

I was talking about this with some fractal friends and we came up with the question:
Why not give us the ability to trade unused fractal weapon skins for some sort of fractal weapon token which could then be used to buy a different skin?
This way, repeat skins are no longer an issue until one has already unlocked all the fractal weapon skins.

ChoChoBo.6503:

They could even make it so you could upgrade your exotic fractal weapon to ascended versions of it too. But that’s the insomnia kicking in right now.

I reckon this is exactly how it should be. The first two version of the fractal weapons could be exotic and the final version ascended, which would mean your reward is not just purely cosmetic. Fractals are basically the highest form of PvE end game content now anyway, so it makes sense for us to be able to reliably acquire ascended weapons from them.

That being said, I think the cost should reflect the reward. It shouldn’t be to easy to get, but it should be a process you can work at over time, just like the fractal capacitor, which was also costly as far as acquiring the final version was concerned.

Thanatos.2691:

I was talking about this with some fractal friends and we came up with the question:
Why not give us the ability to trade unused fractal weapon skins for some sort of fractal weapon token which could then be used to buy a different skin?
This way, repeat skins are no longer an issue until one has already unlocked all the fractal weapon skins.

And for those you could sell something different for the token.

I like the idea of the tokens. You could also grant one token for completing all fractal-achievements or for reaching fractal-lvl 50 (for those of us that have such poor luck that they don’t even get a single weapon any time soon).