Guild Wars 2

So, with the Watchwork Pick it gave a controversial 20% chance to harvest sprockets. This new sickle has no extra chance for anything. Does this mean that the pick was a one time thing, perhaps an experiment on customer reaction that showed the community called foul?

What are your thoughts?

Doesn’t change the fact that they didn’t listen to the community and revert the Watchwork Mining Pick to the same level as the previous Infinite-Use Tools.

Not like I care to be honest, complaining about virtual assets like these is such a first world problem.

Dunno….

Maybe they couldn’t come up with a ‘plausible’ extra for it to drop.

Maybe they just didn’t want to deal with the bullkitten they encountered when they did the watchwork pick (not that I can blame them there).

Regardless, it’s cute and I want one. Guess what I’m doing when I get home tonight…

Invictus.1503:

So, with the Watchwork Pick it gave a controversial 20% chance to harvest sprockets. This new sickle has no extra chance for anything. Does this mean that the pick was a one time thing, perhaps an experiment on customer reaction that showed the community called foul?

What are your thoughts?

You think an uproar was caused the first time? If they added another P2W item in the gem store the kitten would hit the fan.

Are you sure it doesn’t have a 20% increased chance for a Dandelion?

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Dunno….

Maybe they couldn’t come up with a ‘plausible’ extra for it to drop.

For the sickle? Pristine Toxic Spores. Hell it would even be thematically consistent to have a golem harvesting it so there’s no danger of being affected by the toxicity.

Thematic consistency is a bit weak in this game though. There are a lot of changes that could be made to every profession for the sake of thematic consistency that would also benefit the balance of the class, and those things will never happen.

Archmortal.1027:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Dunno….

Maybe they couldn’t come up with a ‘plausible’ extra for it to drop.

For the sickle? Pristine Toxic Spores. Hell it would even be thematically consistent to have a golem harvesting it so there’s no danger of being affected by the toxicity.

This is what I was expecting, and personally a little disappointed that it didn’t (though I know many others will disagree).

Most of the ‘leaked’ patch notes are done so they can experiment and have plausible deniability. They obviously never thought the added bonus of the watchwork pick would cause an uproar or we’d have seen ‘leaked’ patch notes for it before hand.

This scares me because it means they truly have no grasp on their customer base.

DiamondMeteor.8345:

Doesn’t change the fact that they didn’t listen to the community and revert the Watchwork Mining Pick to the same level as the previous Infinite-Use Tools.

Not like I care to be honest, complaining about virtual assets like these is such a first world problem.

I wouldn’t consider the small number of people that complained “the community”.

I just bought since I missed out on the other perma sickles. It would be cool for that 20% thing, but I do like that it’s account bound even after putting it on my engineer. maybe that’s why it costs more :P

Hobbitz.5831:

Most of the ‘leaked’ patch notes are done so they can experiment and have plausible deniability. They obviously never thought the added bonus of the watchwork pick would cause an uproar or we’d have seen ‘leaked’ patch notes for it before hand.

This scares me because it means they truly have no grasp on their customer base.

How do you know why the patch notes are leaked? What’s your source?

If it looks alright then I’ll buy it. I only buy these things for aesthetics. Don’t really care for other people’s conspiracy theories.

Watchwork pick should have never had that bonus, so it’s good that this scythe doesn’t have any extra bonuses.

DiamondMeteor.8345:

Doesn’t change the fact that they didn’t listen to the community and revert the Watchwork Mining Pick to the same level as the previous Infinite-Use Tools.

Not like I care to be honest, complaining about virtual assets like these is such a first world problem.

This made me smile, thank you for that

I missed out on the pick, was going to buy the next version……but not buying this because it doesn’t have 20% of something extra. I see no reason to go for a gem item when ingame “temporary” items do the same.

I was hoping it would be a continued theme. ):

Personally I’m glad that the Thresher doesn’t have an added bonus; it would be locking ANet into a power creep path that I REALLY don’t want them to go down. These tools should offer convenience and aesthetic rewards only.

There is still the issue of the Watchwork Pick and its bonus Sprockets, but I’m willing to let it slide into obscurity if ANet never brings it (or something like it) back again.

DiamondMeteor.8345:

Doesn’t change the fact that they didn’t listen to the community and revert the Watchwork Mining Pick to the same level as the previous Infinite-Use Tools.

Not like I care to be honest, complaining about virtual assets like these is such a first world problem.

Sorry but did the majority of the player base really think the Watchwork Mining Pick was supposed to be removed or have its 20% chance of sprockets removed? no.

The Watchwork Mining Pick doesn’t have a 20% chance of something ‘extra’. It converts the chance to gain additional ore nodes (harvesting critical chance, if you will) to gaining WW Sprockets instead.
And as it was pointed out, you actually lose money this way, compared to a Molten or Bone Pick, because instead of ore that’s worth 30c-2s, you gain a sprocket that sells for 30c.
It’s a convenience item in the way that you don’t need to sell stuff to buy sprockets off the TP but get them right away.

To me the Consortium Sickle is still the best out of all the Permasickles, simply because the animation is fast, the sickle isn’t ugly and the effect is pretty. And I don’t think they will add one that gives Pristine samples, because you can always get them in Kessex, and you need only a few for recipes and a sickle would break that.

I guess I was one of those crazy fools who did not think it was a good idea to have something other than pure cosmetic/convenience items in the gem store. I am glad that this new item does not also have an add-on capability.

Sourde Noire.5286:

The Watchwork Mining Pick doesn’t have a 20% chance of something ‘extra’. It converts the chance to gain additional ore nodes (harvesting critical chance, if you will) to gaining WW Sprockets instead.
And as it was pointed out, you actually lose money this way, compared to a Molten or Bone Pick, because instead of ore that’s worth 30c-2s, you gain a sprocket that sells for 30c.
It’s a convenience item in the way that you don’t need to sell stuff to buy sprockets off the TP but get them right away.

To me the Consortium Sickle is still the best out of all the Permasickles, simply because the animation is fast, the sickle isn’t ugly and the effect is pretty. And I don’t think they will add one that gives Pristine samples, because you can always get them in Kessex, and you need only a few for recipes and a sickle would break that.

Actually this is wrong. I’ve pulled 4 ori ores, 2 sprockets and 1 sapphire off of 1 ori node. I’ve also pulled a gem AND sprocket off of 1 hit on the node and still got 3 ores. From what I’ve seen of it, the chance of sprockets is an independent table from gems and ores just like the table from gems and ores are separate.

I didn’t see anything wrong with the bonus on the picks. I have the molten and watch work, I’ll also own the two sickles. To many people were given a participation ribbon growing up and now think EVERYTHING must be equal. It’s sad life is not equal. Plus I love the golem in a barrel outfit!

I am still under the belief that sprockets are garbage to begin with, and once this current LS is gone they will drop back down to ~30c range. If they had released a pickaxe of copper gathering, sure I’d be worried about “this path anet is taking” since, you know, copper has a much more wider use. Until then, the assumption anet will continue to 1up previous items is somewhat silly. Even the kittening about how the captains pass and terrace pass aren’t equal is starting to get old. Get over it.

While writing this I also came up with a rediculous theory that justifies the ww pick. What if its all because anet were worried about sprockets skyrocketing with the new back piece? It would make the cost to craft even higher. The ww pick makes a good way to make money off some entitled few who “have to have the best gem items” and pad the already high supply on sprockets. Seems legit.

Sauzo.6821:

Sourde Noire.5286:

The Watchwork Mining Pick doesn’t have a 20% chance of something ‘extra’. It converts the chance to gain additional ore nodes (harvesting critical chance, if you will) to gaining WW Sprockets instead.
And as it was pointed out, you actually lose money this way, compared to a Molten or Bone Pick, because instead of ore that’s worth 30c-2s, you gain a sprocket that sells for 30c.
It’s a convenience item in the way that you don’t need to sell stuff to buy sprockets off the TP but get them right away.

To me the Consortium Sickle is still the best out of all the Permasickles, simply because the animation is fast, the sickle isn’t ugly and the effect is pretty. And I don’t think they will add one that gives Pristine samples, because you can always get them in Kessex, and you need only a few for recipes and a sickle would break that.

Actually this is wrong. I’ve pulled 4 ori ores, 2 sprockets and 1 sapphire off of 1 ori node. I’ve also pulled a gem AND sprocket off of 1 hit on the node and still got 3 ores. From what I’ve seen of it, the chance of sprockets is an independent table from gems and ores just like the table from gems and ores are separate.

There was a huge thread where people posted their findings and I was also under the impression from personal experience that you get sprockets instead of ore. The ‘extra ore’ I mentioned was the critical harvesting success that you sometimes get, as in 2 ores instead of one (excluding rich veins), not the extra ore use. Or maybe the other way around.
Maybe it’s only a chance to get a sprocket instead of ore, so you can have it proc multiple times with different results?

That was my real complaint with it, that Anet advertised the pick without going into details what it actually does and how it works.

What is about the speed of the sickle ? Is it normal speed or faster like the Consortium Sickle ?

Btw.: I wonder that there was no massive uproar about the P2W factor of the speed of that sickle.

On one side I’m glad that it doesn’t have a bonus and we don’t seem to get better infinite tools every few months that we need to rebuy to replace our old ones.

On the other hand Anet never replied to the original issue and while I still need an infinite sickle, I’m not planning to buy anything until they made a statement about these tools and what we can expect in this regard in the future. Else I fear they just MIGHT release a better sickle in 6 weeks and I’m stuck with a bad one.

Beldin.5498:

What is about the speed of the sickle ? Is it normal speed or faster like the Consortium Sickle ?

Btw.: I wonder that there was no massive uproar about the P2W factor of the speed of that sickle.

You can’t have P2W when an item can be purchased with in-game gold. P2W would mean an item is blocked by a money gate, that you must use real world money to purchase. Since every item in the gem store can be purchased with in game gold. There is no item that is P2W.

Zypher.7609:

Beldin.5498:

What is about the speed of the sickle ? Is it normal speed or faster like the Consortium Sickle ?

Btw.: I wonder that there was no massive uproar about the P2W factor of the speed of that sickle.

You can’t have P2W when an item can be purchased with in-game gold. P2W would mean an item is blocked by a money gate, that you must use real world money to purchase. Since every item in the gem store can be purchased with in game gold. There is no item that is P2W.

You don’t have to tell me that. That was more or less just a joke about all these P2W nonsense

Oh yeah .. you can either directly buy masses of sprocktes for 80 gold, or buy a pick for 80 gold and harvest 100.000 times the next 2 years to get those sprockts ..

Beldin.5498:

Zypher.7609:

Beldin.5498:

What is about the speed of the sickle ? Is it normal speed or faster like the Consortium Sickle ?

Btw.: I wonder that there was no massive uproar about the P2W factor of the speed of that sickle.

You can’t have P2W when an item can be purchased with in-game gold. P2W would mean an item is blocked by a money gate, that you must use real world money to purchase. Since every item in the gem store can be purchased with in game gold. There is no item that is P2W.

You don’t have to tell me that. That was more or less just a joke about all these P2W nonsense

Oh yeah .. you can either directly buy masses of sprocktes for 80 gold, or buy a pick for 80 gold and harvest 100.000 times the next 2 years to get those sprockts ..

Wait… I thought having the most sprockets was how you won this game?! Have I been stockpiling them for no reason?

mtpelion.4562:

Have I been stockpiling them for no reason?

Yes, since they will never be valuable…

To quote another user:

Stiofan.6720:

(try and guess why that is)

And while we are at it:

Stiofan.6720:

Say they release a cool new armor stat set that requires pristine spore’s, the price of those are gonna skyrocket because of limited supply.

Yes, let’s release a new tool with a 20% chance for Toxic Spores Azurite Orbs Precursors.

Since everyone can get one they’ll soon be at 40c as well, which means it’s all perfectly balanced according to you.

Archmortal.1027:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Dunno….

Maybe they couldn’t come up with a ‘plausible’ extra for it to drop.

For the sickle? Pristine Toxic Spores. Hell it would even be thematically consistent to have a golem harvesting it so there’s no danger of being affected by the toxicity.

Thematic consistency is a bit weak in this game though. There are a lot of changes that could be made to every profession for the sake of thematic consistency that would also benefit the balance of the class, and those things will never happen.

See, that’s not ‘plausible’ to me. How would you get a toxic spore from a healthy plant? I mean, sure it’s a game, but that logically doesn’t fit. Imo anyway. I’m sure others will differ.

To me blade shards would be more plausible. Ie, as the wear and tear on the blades builds from use, they break. The golem fixes the broken blades so the tool remains usable (obviously) but the shard still ‘drops’ for the player’s consumption.

I look at the sprocket pick similarly. It’s a self-repairing device. It’s not the node that’s giving you the sprockets, its the pick shedding them from getting damaged. Which is why you get sprockets of a consistent material. Otherwise I would expect to get different sprocket types for different nodes, much as you get different types of gems (shard vs orb) from different nodes.

Yes I know, I’m a little… weird

I’m really glad they didn’t continue with the added bonus materials. I refused to buy the Watchwork pick even though I had a character that could have used it. I’ll probably buy the Golem.

DarcShriek.5829:

I wouldn’t consider the small number of people that complained “the community”.

Heh, you’ve got it backwards matey, the ‘small number of people’ are the ones that want pay to win features in the game.

Zoid.2568:

Sorry but did the majority of the player base really think the Watchwork Mining Pick was supposed to be removed or have its 20% chance of sprockets removed? no.

Yes, yes the majority did.

Regardless of whether of you could buy it with $$ or gold (at a ridiculous gold cost), limited time real money items of this nature are automatically PAY TO WIN.

Play to win? Sure I’m all for it. (candy corn/sprocket node (both time gated))

Pay to win? No, go back to some dodgey KMMORPG. (limit time mining pick gem store item that provides monetary benefits, not time gated, unlimited gains)

Realist.5812:

DarcShriek.5829:

I wouldn’t consider the small number of people that complained “the community”.

Heh, you’ve got it backwards matey, the ‘small number of people’ are the ones that want pay to win features in the game.

Zoid.2568:

Sorry but did the majority of the player base really think the Watchwork Mining Pick was supposed to be removed or have its 20% chance of sprockets removed? no.

Yes, yes the majority did.

Regardless of whether of you could buy it with $$ or gold (at a ridiculous gold cost), limited time real money items of this nature are automatically PAY TO WIN.

Play to win? Sure I’m all for it. (candy corn/sprocket node (both time gated))

Pay to win? No, go back to some dodgey KMMORPG. (limit time mining pick gem store item that provides monetary benefits, not time gated, unlimited gains)

Actually neither of you know for certain.

On a side note, the “monetary benefit” made me giggle.

Sourde Noire.5286:

Sauzo.6821:

Sourde Noire.5286:

The Watchwork Mining Pick doesn’t have a 20% chance of something ‘extra’. It converts the chance to gain additional ore nodes (harvesting critical chance, if you will) to gaining WW Sprockets instead.
And as it was pointed out, you actually lose money this way, compared to a Molten or Bone Pick, because instead of ore that’s worth 30c-2s, you gain a sprocket that sells for 30c.
It’s a convenience item in the way that you don’t need to sell stuff to buy sprockets off the TP but get them right away.

To me the Consortium Sickle is still the best out of all the Permasickles, simply because the animation is fast, the sickle isn’t ugly and the effect is pretty. And I don’t think they will add one that gives Pristine samples, because you can always get them in Kessex, and you need only a few for recipes and a sickle would break that.

Actually this is wrong. I’ve pulled 4 ori ores, 2 sprockets and 1 sapphire off of 1 ori node. I’ve also pulled a gem AND sprocket off of 1 hit on the node and still got 3 ores. From what I’ve seen of it, the chance of sprockets is an independent table from gems and ores just like the table from gems and ores are separate.

There was a huge thread where people posted their findings and I was also under the impression from personal experience that you get sprockets instead of ore. The ‘extra ore’ I mentioned was the critical harvesting success that you sometimes get, as in 2 ores instead of one (excluding rich veins), not the extra ore use. Or maybe the other way around.
Maybe it’s only a chance to get a sprocket instead of ore, so you can have it proc multiple times with different results?

That was my real complaint with it, that Anet advertised the pick without going into details what it actually does and how it works.

I don’t think that’s actually been confirmed. We know that you CAN get extra strikes using the Watchwork Pick, and that you CAN still get gemstones from strikes with the Watchwork Pick, even at the same time as sprockets.

At the same time, I do a LOT of harvesting, and I can honestly say that I cannot, in the last year or so, ever remember getting 2 × 1 ore from a single strike (with the exception of Rich Iron Veins, but they’re a special case). Because I’ve been using the Molten Pick more or less exclusively since it came out, at first I thought maybe it was a bug in the Molten Pick (that got carried over to the Watchwork Pick), but then I remembered that, prior to the Watchwork Pick coming out, I was using an ordinary Steel Pick on my mule that I’d parked in my Home Instance for farming all the nodes, and I can’t recall him ever getting 2 × 1 ore from the nodes either. There was another player who still uses normal picks on his alts, and he corroborated my experience.

So, unless we’re both extremely unlucky, ore nodes have never given out 2 × 1 ore per strike. (Unlike trees and plants, which do.)

So that WOULD make the Watchwork Pick the objectively best variant of all the picks, but as I said, I’m willing to let it rest as long as ANet never brings it, or something like it, back again.

Yargesh.4965:

I guess I was one of those crazy fools who did not think it was a good idea to have something other than pure cosmetic/convenience items in the gem store. I am glad that this new item does not also have an add-on capability.

this-

I love the permanent tools and I have several.

I didn’t buy the watchwork pick even though I really could have used another one.
I am very very glad to see that Anet added another permanent item without any added benefits- yay

I do need another sickle

All of the infinite use harvesting tools have a special effect: You don’t need to constantly spend silver to replace your old tool. That alone will save you a few gold over the next few months.