Guild Wars 2

I have a simple suggestion that would be a solution to all the “I can’t afford a Precursor” talk. In addition to Precursor crafting, which will probably have a lot of high requirements, why not allow players to purchase Precursors for 1,000 Laurels? Here are reason why this would work:

• It would combat the complaints that acquiring Precursors are too much RNG. By allowing it to be purchase from a Laurel merchant, people will then have something they can aim for, with guaranteed results

• By making it 1,000 Laurels, it shows the player’s dedication to the game. In order to reach such a number, the player must be highly active in doing Dailies and Monthlies. Precursors are one of the most sought after Luxury items in game, and what better way to reward dedicated players than to let them buy it? Also, the 1,000 Laurel benchmark helps to keep the value of Precursors high on the Trading Post.

• Options. Players like to have options. Right now, Precursors can only be received through luck or TP purchasing. Once Precursor crafting comes out, offering the ability to purchase directly from a merchant will then give players four (4) different way to acquire one.

In conclusion, allow players to buy Precursors with Laurels, but at a high price to keep their values steady. It’s good for the game!

There’s already a thread going on over here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/Suggestion-Precursor-at-10-or-15k-AP/

The problem with using karma, AP, laurels or WvW badges for precursors is that some players already have stockpiles of them, and/or will stockpile them as soon as plans to do this are announced. This means that some players will be able to get a precursor immediately, while those who are unprepared will complain about those who already had a stockpile prepared.

There is no “fair” way to do this. Saving up the money for a precursor already requires a certain amount of dedication, it’s not that hard to run a few dungeons every day or learn how to flip on the TP and you can save up enough money to buy a precursor in a few weeks to a few months if you really want to.

Those who claim otherwise simply aren’t trying hard enough. You can’t save up the money if you keep buying other stuff, or if you aren’t selling the drops you are getting… players who lack the dedication to play the way they need to play in order to buy a precursor, or to buy/craft enough weapons for the Mystic Forge until they get one, will just complain that they can’t do the dailies every day, or don’t have enough AP or don’t want to be forced into playing WvW, etc.

These ideas are not going to stop people from complaining, because at the heart of the complaints is one thing: the complainer does not want to do what is required to obtain a precursor, they want a precursor given to them for doing what they are already doing.

The biggest problem with raising the precursor droprate through any means, is that the economy is simply not prepared for it. You cant just simply inject a high volume of precursors into the market without imbalancing all ingredients for the other gifts.

We will have t6 fine mats at 1g, silver doubloons at 3g and who knows where lodestones will be?

So alot of droprates would have to be adjusted, otherwise it wouldnt make much sense. Sure, the people that have every gift except the precursor wouldnt care but in the long run, i dont think adjusting precursor droprates in any way is a wise move.

It’s already there. Use your laurel to trade for t6 material and buy precursor.

It is a bit better this way, since that’ll also stabilize the price of t6 material.

The market might get scary if there is a huge supply of precusor without the ability to stabalize other crafting material.

laokoko.7403:

It’s already there. Use your laurel to trade for t6 material and buy precursor.

It is a bit better this way, since that’ll also stabilize the price of t6 material.

The market might get scary if there is a huge supply of precusor without the ability to stabalize other crafting material.

It will do anything but stabilize the price. There’s barely enough supply for 20 people on the TP right now. When that gets wiped out within minutes of people getting their precursors, what price do you think all of the newly added crafting materials will be put for? Also, 1 laurel gives you one bag which contains only 3 of the T6 fine materials. You need 250 of each.

Have you thought this through?

Ayrilana.1396:

laokoko.7403:

It’s already there. Use your laurel to trade for t6 material and buy precursor.

It is a bit better this way, since that’ll also stabilize the price of t6 material.

The market might get scary if there is a huge supply of precusor without the ability to stabalize other crafting material.

It will do anything but stabilize the price. There’s barely enough supply for 20 people on the TP right now. When that gets wiped out within minutes of people getting their precursors, what price do you think all of the newly added crafting materials will be put for? Also, 1 laurel gives you one bag which contains only 3 of the T6 fine materials. You need 250 of each.

Have you thought this through?

I honestly didn’t think too much of it. Basically just saying what Wanze already said. If you increase the precursor supply directly all the other crafting material will sky rocket.

Besides that laurel is just money, people who want to trade laurel for precursor can already do so. That’ll also increase the t6 material on the market, the price is already pretty expensive right?

I love the idea of having some in game currency to exchange for the pre of your choice.

I hate the idea of using any current in game currency. See everything above.

I think a new currency would be fair (I know, not like we don’t have enough as is). And how to obtain said currency which wouldn’t overlap with existing ones would take some thought as well.

Make them craftable with Base item specific to the precursor + 250 dragonite bars + 250 empyreal stars + 250 bloodstone bricks

would you call that base item a ‘precursor to a precursor’? (depending upon rarity/how its acquired)

if so, don’t see how that would be an appreciably difference

the base item should be something as simple as an orichalcum greatsword

Wanze.8410:

The biggest problem with raising the precursor droprate through any means, is that the economy is simply not prepared for it. You cant just simply inject a high volume of precursors into the market without imbalancing all ingredients for the other gifts.

We will have t6 fine mats at 1g, silver doubloons at 3g and who knows where lodestones will be?

So alot of droprates would have to be adjusted, otherwise it wouldnt make much sense. Sure, the people that have every gift except the precursor wouldnt care but in the long run, i dont think adjusting precursor droprates in any way is a wise move.

You saw through my veil. And here I thought you were on the TP Traders’ side. I don’t even know you anymore.

:3

a new way for more precursors yes
but not for laurels

low pre price = high material price ?
fine
why?
because we are able to go to specific mobs and farm specific materials
don t get me wrong

if theres a way to farm precursors
thats rly not the solution

but with the momenthly rng system in place
based on stuff only devs know
(maybe random numers in a formula on acc creation and other stuff)

there are accounts out there with crazy luck 22+ precursors monster drops
and a ton more players with 1000+hours playing not get a single one
and this is wrong
there are acc magicfind rly works but for most players a rly useless number

i would like if anet change the actualy account based rng system to a character based one first before precursor hunt/crafting what ever
so you are able to have good characters and bad characters
but you are not doomed with a bad accound rng anymore ….

Lol too funny, make the precursor recipe an orichalcum greatsword and then 250 empyreal stars, 250 bloodstone bricks and 250 dragonite ingots? Can you imagine the price jump on T6 mats!! Bloods are already 64s each, they alone would probably jump up to 1g+ each as well as im sure all the other T6 mats. So now you got a cheap way to make a precursor and yay you saved 1200g. Now you gotta pay 2000g+ to make gift of fortune….like I’ve said before, trading one evil for another. Of course I don’t mind this as I’d be happy as a clam to sell people my T6 mats for 1-2g each

Yeah. If they vastly increased the supply of Precursors, they’d also need to increase supply of the other mats needed to make a Legendary to match. Otherwise you’re just shifting the price burden from one area to another.

Zaxares.5419:

Yeah. If they vastly increased the supply of Precursors, they’d also need to increase supply of the other mats needed to make a Legendary to match. Otherwise you’re just shifting the price burden from one area to another.

Or just make the scavenger hunt force players to do things where they would get those materials as drops. Doing Orr temple events is one example. They get those materials as well as make progress towards getting a precursor at the same time.

Mmm, I think that would still be insufficient. Especially in the case of Legendaries whose gifts require expensive Lodestones. Unless they also increased drop rates of those across the board.

Too instantaneous. You need to think like GW2 devs… implement new materials involved in crafting a precursor with a low drop rate, a number of 500 level recipes that each cost at least 5-10 gold with all of the components being time-gated, and a scavenger hunt that involves killing high level mobs in popular zones.

no thanks leave laurels for other things

i do like the laurel idea: though 1000 laurels seems to insane of cost
doing math 12×10 (monthlys)= 120 laurels +365 if you do daily every day and that 485 per year… over 2 years of work(estimating 2 years 30 days if monthly is not done). game hasnt been out for 2 years yet: i could see 150-200 lauruls being a lot better. even at 150 each it still requires dedication for not just spending them on other things that would benifit you, like buying bags of t6 mats to sell for money, or ascended trinkets or recipies for ascended armor/weapons or even the laurel MF booster.

Zaxares.5419:

Yeah. If they vastly increased the supply of Precursors, they’d also need to increase supply of the other mats needed to make a Legendary to match. Otherwise you’re just shifting the price burden from one area to another.

Yes and no. Mats are largely farmable, the precursor isn’t. We’d see an increase of T6 mats but you’d also see an increase of farming and upgrading t5 mats.

As for the idea…..please no more time gates (especially ones that takes 2 years) they turn fun into chore so quickly.

Not just Fine mats though. The Legendary Gifts often require various Lodestones or more esoteric ingredients. All those would go up in price too. Silver Doubloons are already straining in price. I shudder to think what their prices would be like if the supply of the Colossus shot up.

Zaxares.5419:

Silver Doubloons are already straining in price. I shudder to think what their prices would be like if the supply of the Colossus shot up.

That’s one of the edge cases that cause problems with any plan that makes precursors easier to get. They’re not that easy to farm, so the devs either need to adjust the recipe or pump more into the game to keep it from becoming a bottleneck for anyone who wants the Juggernaut. And the most obvious method, promoting copper doubloons to silver, will just crash the value of them very quickly, kittening the players who created them in large numbers.

I don’t know if it’s still going on, but I used to make tons of gold just by following the price trends of copper doubloons. It’s like every two weeks speculators would go into a buying frenzy thinking that Anet would introduce a promotion recipe, then sell them off when it didn’t happen. By doing the opposite (selling to speculators then buying when the price drops) I could almost double my money in a few days. I suspect there are millions upon millions of coppers out there waiting for the day when players can make them into silvers.

If I were to adjust the Doubloon situation, I’d change it so that the Gift of Quicksilver now requires Platinum Doubloons instead of Silver ones, then introduce promotion recipes for Copper through to Platinum Doubloons.

Labjax.2465:

and a scavenger hunt that involves killing high level mobs in dead zones causing them to become popular.

FTFY

I’m glad you’re realistic about how many laurels they should charge for a precursor. most people that suggest something like this quote around 100 laurels per precursor.
I’ll note that right now: 1 laurel = 3 T6 mats = ~1g. so 1000 laurel = 1000g = ~1 precursor
so it would be a fair rate, at least right now. T6 mats are higher now than normal, so in the future 1000 laurels would be maybe 700g while precursors would be 1500. something to consider.

But beyond that, while I agree that it would shut people up about demanding an alternative to grinding gold and buying from the TP, a lot would complain about how unreasonable the price is; how it would take 2 years to save up for it, and who has the patience for that, yada yada yada. Judging from recent overpriced items, that complaining should last about 2 weeks. then they would turn into that sad OK guy.

All in all, I would say this implementation would be good only if Anet wanted to stop people from demanding the ability to buy precursors outright. It should not be interpreted as an honest update. Because of this, I would recommend against the OPs suggestion. My reason? it’s the easy way out. If they let them be laurel purchasable, then they wouldn’t work on a real way to get them non-TP. You’re not going to get both worlds, so wouldn’t you prefer a world where you have to wait longer to get something actually useful rather than something asap that is not useful?

Isn’t laurel like 1g in average nowadays? or maybe even more now when T6 got up that much.
Get 1000 laurels, get 1000 – 1100 gold by cashing them and buy a precursor.