Guild Wars 2

Obviously this is a hot topic, and has been since launch, but it seems to me the problem really comes down to a feeling of progression.

I’m not the most ‘hardcore’ player by any stretch of the imagination but I’m not really a ‘casual’ player either. I’ve been slowly working towards my legendaries (yes plural) since launch and mostly enjoying it. Badges, T6 mats, Lodestones, other crafting materials, clovers, map completion, skill points, dungeon tokens, karma, and anything else I’m forgetting. None of that really bugs me (though some share similar problems outline below). Precursors do.

Almost every single aspect of any legendary weapon is based largely on time. If you invest the time, you’ll get it. If you engage in the appropriate activity you WILL get what you’re after. It’s guaranteed. You slowly but surely will make progress in an obvious way (e.g. Do the EB JP and you get 10-20 badges). You can clearly see if/when you are closer to your goal.

Precursors are different. Ignoring buying from the TP for a moment. I could spend thousands of hours and thousands of gold and literally be no closer to getting a precursor than I was when the game launched. Thus is the nature of RNG. It doesn’t matter how many combines I do in the mystic toilet. It’s all or nothing. If I dump 1000 exotics into the mystic toilet and don’t get a precursor I didn’t make ANY progress. If anything I lost progress. I went backwards and am now farther from my goal because I lost all that money.

Obviously there is the option to buy from the TP, but that actually doesn’t help many players. The reason is the ever-inflating prices. For many players the price of precursors is actually increasing at a rate which is greater than the rate they make money. If I make 5 gold in a day but the price of a precursor goes up by 10 gold today then I’m effectively further away from getting a precursor than I was yesterday. Since the beginning of October the price of Dusk (a popular example) has increased by ~500 gold (~200 to ~700). I’m willing to bet the vast majority of players who want a Dusk have less than 500 gold to their name which means they were ‘closer’ to getting a Dusk in October than they are now.

tl;dr The problem with precursors is that when chasing after a precursor players are far more likely to feel likely they are stagnant or slowly sliding backwards rather than making progress. This is because of a combination of RNG (no guarantee) and inflating prices (moving the goal posts). All other aspects of a legendary the goal posts remain relatively fixed and progress is guaranteed with time and effort because there are obvious activities which guarantee the desired outcome in a relatively fixed amount of time.