Guild Wars 2

So, the other day i decided to start the collection for The Hunter. The first tier was nice and easy and all was ok untill I saw the required ingredients to actualy craft the first tier precursor (it’s 30 spiritwood planks and 30 deldrimor steel ingots). So I did some simple math and since I had the required materials I sold them at the TP, bought the entire precursor and made 100 g profit.
My question is “How exactly are collections the easier way to get precursors?”

They weren’t meant to be “easier” or cheaper; they’re just meant to be an alternative way (one that doesn’t involve RNG or buying from the TP, which some people don’t want to do) of obtaining the precursor.

Collections are not easier and were never intended to be easier or cheaper.

The point was to offer a method that didn’t rely on RNG (either finding one yourself or buying it from someone who had).

The advantage of the collections is that it’s a fixed goal that you can work towards at your own pace, instead of throwing items into the Mystic Forge with the possibility that you’d never get a precursor, or trying to save up enough to buy one from the TP. Before collectors were introduced all precursors were much more expensive and the prices were rising steadily. It was only the announcement, and then the release, of collections that put a stop to that.

They aren’t, and they never were.

Collections are “The LESS RNG, NON TP way to get precursors”.

Are you saying there is a person who would prefer to farm iron, platinum, mithril, and all kinds of wood everyday for 30 days, so he/she can craft the thing, rather than sell all the stuff and buy it from the TP?

The rng excuse doesn’t work anymore :p. You can craft the ingredients and get the pre cheaper, by selling said ingredients. The precursor hunts are nothing more than the old saying “it’s the journey, not the destination”

But what is the point if the collection is more expensive than the precursor itself?

The point is as was already said: to provide a way to obtain a precursor that does not rely on RNG (either your own luck with it or someone else’s). That’s it. I, personally, haven’t made a precursor with the collection system yet, and I don’t know if I ever will.

Yeah? How much luck do you need to open the TP type the name of the precursor weapon and left click your mouse? However I understand your point. But IMO collections are not worth doing at the moment.

The person you’re buying it from got it via RNG, as I said above; so, you’re still relying on someone’s RNG. I don’t have a problem with buying a precursor from the TP (did it for Kudzu back when I made it), but others do have a problem with it. Those players (for whatever reason) would prefer to not buy it.

Look the point is there used to be only 2 ways to get a precusor: getting a lucky drop or buying it from someone who got it as a lucky drop. And a lot of people were unhappy with both of those, for a variety of reasons.

Now there are 3 options. If you like the first two then great, they’re still available to you and there is no need to take the 3rd option. But it’s there for people who want it, who are much happier to have it than before.

This way (almost) everyone wins.

(I’m not sure who loses out this way, but it’s the internet so there will be someone who hates all 3 options and is mortally offended that Anet would even conceive of doing this to them.)

Sadismo.7508:

Are you saying there is a person who would prefer to farm iron, platinum, mithril, and all kinds of wood everyday for 30 days, so he/she can craft the thing, rather than sell all the stuff and buy it from the TP?

Yes. Me for one.

I bought my first precursor, which meant logging in every day I could to farm as much gold as I could manage, selling anything and everything I didn’t need and hoping I could do it fast enough to outpace the constantly rising cost on the TP. I have no good memories of that process, except a friend being kind enough to give me the last 10g so I could finally get it. Once I had the precusor I took a break from the game for about a week and from making my legendary for about a month because I was so sick of it.

I crafted my second one and I found it much more enjoyable because I could take my time with it, if I decided to take a break I could easily catch up later because my target hadn’t changed. I did a pretty even split between farming the materials myself and buying them (and saved a lot over some estimates by buying the raw materials instead of the finished components), and I got Artificer to 500 and Huntsman to 488 in the process and got to repeat some events, jumping puzzles and things I’d not done in ages. Overall I found it much more interesting that franticly farming gold and it actually made me feel more motivated to carry on with the final legendary.

Danikat.8537:

Sadismo.7508:

Are you saying there is a person who would prefer to farm iron, platinum, mithril, and all kinds of wood everyday for 30 days, so he/she can craft the thing, rather than sell all the stuff and buy it from the TP?

Yes. Me for one.

I bought my first precursor, which meant logging in every day I could to farm as much gold as I could manage, selling anything and everything I didn’t need and hoping I could do it fast enough to outpace the constantly rising cost on the TP. I have no good memories of that process, except a friend being kind enough to give me the last 10g so I could finally get it. Once I had the precusor I took a break from the game for about a week and from making my legendary for about a month because I was so sick of it.

I crafted my second one and I found it much more enjoyable because I could take my time with it, if I decided to take a break I could easily catch up later because my target hadn’t changed. I did a pretty even split between farming the materials myself and buying them (and saved a lot over some estimates by buying the raw materials instead of the finished components), and I got Artificer to 500 and Huntsman to 488 in the process and got to repeat some events, jumping puzzles and things I’d not done in ages. Overall I found it much more interesting that franticly farming gold and it actually made me feel more motivated to carry on with the final legendary.

You’ve got a point there.

I pretty much agree with what others have said. I crafted a precursor for The Bifrost. Would not ever do another. I’ve purchased another precursor off the TP and crafted the legendary since then…and this is what I’ll do in the future. Still, I’m glad that I did one, if for no other reason that to say I tried it. Others I know have really enjoyed the precursor crafting process. I think it’s great that we have a choice…which I believe was Anet’s intent when they introduced precursor crafting.

Sadismo.7508:

So, the other day i decided to start the collection for The Hunter. The first tier was nice and easy and all was ok untill I saw the required ingredients to actualy craft the first tier precursor (it’s 30 spiritwood planks and 30 deldrimor steel ingots). So I did some simple math and since I had the required materials I sold them at the TP, bought the entire precursor and made 100 g profit.
My question is “How exactly are collections the easier way to get precursors?”

they aren’t meant to be easier they are meant to be on par with the tp.

Sadismo.7508:

But what is the point if the collection is more expensive than the precursor itself?

The point is to provide a way to get it without RNG. And for a lot of precursors its still cheaper to do the collection than it is to buy it

Congratulations, you’ve discovered that precursor crafting is both a scam and a trap.

It should have been a slower but cheaper way to get a precursor (as opposed to the instant but expensive way: buying it off the TP), but that would be good for poorer players and hurt the robber barons so Anet couldn’t very well have that.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

Congratulations, you’ve discovered that precursor crafting is both a scam and a trap.

It should have been a slower but cheaper way to get a precursor (as opposed to the instant but expensive way: buying it off the TP), but that would be good for poorer players and hurt the robber barons so Anet couldn’t very well have that.

There are 2 main reasons it isn’t cheaper to craft them:

1) The prices crashed when precursor crafting was first announced, recovered slightly then crashed again when HoT was released. Pick the precursor and TP price tracking site of your choice and look at the prices around January 2015 – that’s when the announcement was made. If that hadn’t happened crafting them would be much cheaper.

2) Prices on the TP are set by players.
2a) Precursors come from 3 places: random drops, the Mystic Forge and crafting.

• Dropped precursors are essentially free, so establishing a value based on that is pretty impossible, it’d have to go entirely on what people are willing to pay (in other words the existing price on the TP).
• Forged precursors vary hugely in price. For every story of someone getting one on their first attempt there’s someone who spent over 1,000g on rares to throw in. Or there’s people who say they “only threw in 4 random items” and got it right away and forget all the dozens of times they did that on different days and got an item worth less than the ones they had. I highly doubt more than a fraction of people actually keep track of how much a forged precursor cost them, and even then it would vary a lot. Which means once again it’s not a good way to determine the price and the listing price will be mainly decided by the existing prices.
• Crafted precursors are very easy to give an exact value to (especially with websites providing tools to add up all the materials at current market rates) so people listing crafted precursors can make sure they list it at the appropriate price to make their money back, plus a bit more.

2b) Players who want a precursor have 3 options: Forge it themselves, buy it from the TP or craft it. Using the forge to get the specific precursor you want was always an unpopular choice so I think it’s safe to assume they’re a minority. The most common argument against crafting it is that it’s cheaper to buy it. Which means any time that isn’t the case all the people who are indifferent to which method they use will choose to craft it. Unless the people who refuse to craft it and will buy it no matter what massively out number them (which seems unlikely to me) that is going to cause a drop in demand on the TP, which always results in falling prices.

So if we combine 2a and 2b we get a system where crafted precursors determine the price. If it becomes cheaper to craft them then more people do that, demand drops, prices drop (as new precursors are added undercutting current ones, or people re-list for a quick sale), they reach the point where they’re slightly cheaper than crafting – which is to be expected because we’ve still got free dropped precursors entering the market, and then it shifts back.

And the overall effect is to maintain the system we’ve got, without Anet ever having to do anything.

Everyone who compares the price of crafting a precursor to buying them fundamentally misunderstands why the collections exist. Its just that simple.

https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/legendaries

It depends…..

Hyper Cutter.9376:

Congratulations, you’ve discovered that precursor crafting is both a scam and a trap.

It should have been a slower but cheaper way to get a precursor (as opposed to the instant but expensive way: buying it off the TP), but that would be good for poorer players and hurt the robber barons so Anet couldn’t very well have that.

and it is for a number of precursors.

OriOri.8724:

Everyone who compares the price of crafting a precursor to buying them fundamentally misunderstands why the collections exist. Its just that simple.

The comparison is for people who understand the value of time and money. If it’s cheaper AND faster to buy the precursor then there is little value to crafting. It’s not a comparison for the good feeling of accomplishment or whatever. It’s about economics.