Guild Wars 2

As it stands, the current Tier 3 Cultural armor price is extremely high. Clocking in at 119 gold for a full set, it is nigh impossible to attain this set in a reasonable time without grinding. I’ve given this a bit of thought and i can only see two logical solutions.

1: Lower the price (reasonably)

At the moment the jump from Tier 1 to Tier 2 is about 2.7x in terms of price. The jump from Tier 2 to Tier 3, however, is much larger. Around 15x the price. My solution would be to reduce the price of each piece to anywhere between 7-17 gold per piece. This would mean that the full set would cost around 70 gold. This is high enough that it would maintain exclusivity of the set but would still cut a sizable chunk of the grind and monotony out.

2. Raise the gear spec

Let’s be honest, when you churn out 119 gold for a set of armor, then realize you still have to hit up dungeons or find another 20-30 gold to spec out your character to full exotics, it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth. I would also find it equally acceptable if the current price was maintained, but the gear spec was raise to exotic level.

I have no intention of ditching the idea of Tier 3 cultural armor but I feel that the prices, as they stand, are unreasonable for a game which claims to have done away with the grind. In this sense, I guess a third option could be to create more viable ways of earning gold which are fun and non-grindy

TL;DR

Cultural armor price is unreasonably high. Raise gear level OR Lower total price by 30-40 gold.

I’m interested to see what the rest of the community makes of my ideas so feel free to post replies and maybe we’ll get a bit of discussion going

@Mods: Sorry if this is a duplicate post but my searches found nothing on this topic. Also, if you think this belongs in the “Suggestions” sub-forum, shift it.

No its not, I love the grind for the gold. It gives me a sense of character progression.

I love to sink tons of money into a Rare Armor Set that thereby demands I buy Fine Transmutation stones from the cash shop in order to put it on some Exo gear. It makes me feel very accomplished and leet!

Srsly, it does need to be offered in Exotic, and with a variety of stats, I mean it’s more expensive than any of the armor available on the TP, even the named Exo sets.

@kKagari

Then with my first suggestion, if you want, I guess you can still have the grind for the gold if you want the set super quick. But by cutting a third of the price off, it makes the set much more viable for people who earn money passively and don’t farm Orr and Dungeons.

@DootmasterX

I’m sure you’re joking but that’s exactly my point in my second solution. It demands the purchase of more items if you want to fully spec which, in my opinion, is unfair, and to be frank, unethical because, as you said, it necessitates the purchase of fine transmutation stones.

I keep meaning to save for it but I always end up finding things to spend my money on.

Will we get a Golem Financial Advisor in the future Anet?

It would be great to, maybe, get a comment from a ANet dev to justify or shed some light on their reasoning behind the prices.

Calsifer.6079:

It would be great to, maybe, get a comment from a ANet dev to justify or shed some light on their reasoning behind the prices.

Its for a sense of achievement, they said it already I believe. You want to know that the armor you bought costs way more than the armor someone else bought from their Order or something.

You can make gold pretty easy in this game if you know what you are doing. You can average anywhere from 5-10 gold an hour on just dungeon speed runs depending on drops.

119 gold takes longer to farm up compared to dungeon sets, but cultural armor is supposed to be some of the rarest armor in game.

Cultural tier 3 price is totally Okey. 130g is reasonable for one of the most nicest armors in game. You need about 600-800g for legendary. What is 130g? NOTHING …

Just farm for it if you want it …

come on

I was surprised that the expensive cultural level 80 was not Exotic. It was probably made as rare with the thought that if it were exotic, the next demand would be to have variations for Berserker, Clerics, etc. If you were going to transmute it anyway, one set works.

As for me, given that I’ve managed to accumulate 50-60G, not going to buy a cultural 80 set, ever. Rather, I’m going to transmute lower level armor that I like onto exotics or ascended.

Considering the situation (and the price of cultural t3 set) it might be good idea to make it Ascended now. With perhaps 3 different sets of stats (like with dungeon armors).

Considering I see people walking about in T3, surely the price must be about right – it’s rare and still draws attention. But not so rare that you can’t find people with it in any given zone

Do we really want everyone walking about in the same armour set?

It’s kinda expensive yes, but I think thats good because it’s one of cooler looking sets and shouldn’t be too cheap.

I think the price is quite reasonable. Think of it as the Obsidian armor of GW2. Trust me, it feels quite good when you’ve finally attained one t3 armor set after a good month.

‘Sides, if they didn’t have items as expensive as this; this game wouldn’t have such a long lifespan, as everyone would roll around with the slickest gear in the game.

I, do however agree that they should change it to exotic status. Lucky me, I had most crafting materials ready from my 1-80 experience, and a guildmate kindly put it together.

I think most tier 3 cultural armors are well worth the price for their style and uniqueness, but the stats should be par with that price – Instead of using transmutation stones, just offer us with bunch of different stats and please at-least make the gear exotic.
Making it Legendary stat sounds off a-bit but really for such kind of rarity, i’d like to keep my gear stats par with the best in slot gear.

Did most people just read the first paragraph and ignore the rest of the post? This isn’t just about the price, this is about the worth of cultural armor. I also, quite clearly I might add, brought in the matter of it being only Rare. Thank you to IndigoSundown, biscuit and ManiZach for noticing this facet of the discussion.

@IndigoSundown That’s an interesting point actually, the idea that it was kept at rare to prevent people wanting different stat comps. But they solved this problem with the dungeon vendors where the vendor lists more than one of the same item which have different stat comps. Why can’t they do that with the cultural vendors.

Ryuujin.8236:

Considering I see people walking about in T3, surely the price must be about right – it’s rare and still draws attention. But not so rare that you can’t find people with it in any given zone

Do we really want everyone walking about in the same armour set?

The solution would be to introduce more good-looking armor sets, not to keep one and restrict its acquisition by high price.

It should not be cheaper, but it should be a skin that you can generate from the vendor as many times as you like once you’ve paid to unlock it. Similar to the HoM items.

Totally agree buying skins is what GW was about but 119gold is just daft really for rares and only one set of stats seems a bit over the top to me, the first two tiers are just right, the third is pretty insane…

20 gold would be more than enough for it in my opinion especially as most tier 3 cultural isn’t all that special anyway…

It feels like a lot of rewards in this game have lost the plot…

Dante.1508:

Totally agree buying skins is what GW was about but 119gold is just daft really for rares and only one set of stats seems a bit over the top to me, the first two tiers are just right, the third is pretty insane…

20 gold would be more than enough for it in my opinion especially as most tier 3 cultural isn’t all that special anyway…

It feels like a lot of rewards in this game have lost the plot…

The stats don’t matter, you’re meant to transmute it. You’re paying for the skin. And 119g is perfectly fine for T3. Think of Vabbian armour in GW1. As for whether it looks special or not, that’s entirely a matter of personal taste.

kKagari.6804:

Calsifer.6079:

It would be great to, maybe, get a comment from a ANet dev to justify or shed some light on their reasoning behind the prices.

Its for a sense of achievement, they said it already I believe. You want to know that the armor you bought costs way more than the armor someone else bought from their Order or something.

How is losing 119 gold for a few skins a sense of achievement? Obviously we see things very differently.

And what do you say to people who spent the gold on these skins already?

Dante.1508:

How is losing 119 gold for a few skins a sense of achievement? Obviously we see things very differently.

If you feel they arent worth it, simply dont get them. Theyre merely cosmetic items.

Dante.1508:

How is losing 119 gold for a few skins a sense of achievement? Obviously we see things very differently.

Buying != Losing money. If you feel something is worth the money then it’s not been a loss but a trade. If you don’t feel it’s worth it, then don’t buy it.

I’m fine with the price as it is… the point is it’s supposed to be an epic looking armor for your character – not everyone should be running around with it – ala commander title. I do think it should be increased in rarity/stats though.

I don’t work the market so I don’t make a ton of money. I play the game and earn my cash in bits and pieces. I bought the T3 asuran headpiece and I am now working toward the second skin of the armor set.

It gives me something to casually work toward. Since it isn’t a “have to have” and is more a “I want to have” it alleviates the whole “cost” thing. I can slowly save up for a piece and get it and be happy.

All I can say is that it’s a gold dump and it’s an achievement to be able to invest into an armor set.

kKagari.6804:

No its not, I love the grind for the gold. It gives me a sense of character progression.

This statement makes absolutely no sense. Grinding money doesnt give anyone any sense of character progression.

And getting gear with same stats just different looks also doesnt give anyone sense of character progression..

I say if you are going to spend that amount of gold on a item and the amount of farming you would have to put in in game farming the gold it should match the stats of the current top gear Ascended cuz otherwise why buy it there is better out there

Looria.8019:

kKagari.6804:

No its not, I love the grind for the gold. It gives me a sense of character progression.

This statement makes absolutely no sense. Grinding money doesnt give anyone any sense of character progression.

Psst. like sound travels faster through water than it does air, sarcasm doesn’t travel through the internet very well

deborah.2068:

I say if you are going to spend that amount of gold on a item and the amount of farming you would have to put in in game farming the gold it should match the stats of the current top gear Ascended cuz otherwise why buy it there is better out there

Because the skins frequently kick kitten If you’re willing to throw down 120g on some armour then you’re probably not going to mind throwing down another 15g on top of the line exotics to transmute it into.

I’ve never heard anyone say “Man I’d love to buy that T3 armour, if only it’s stats didn’t suck”

deborah.2068:

I say if you are going to spend that amount of gold on a item and the amount of farming you would have to put in in game farming the gold it should match the stats of the current top gear Ascended cuz otherwise why buy it there is better out there

To have a relatively unique looking character?

Actually, I wish the price raised up.

It will actually make more armor look more grand if the other people didn’t look like me.

Ryuujin.8236:

Looria.8019:

kKagari.6804:

No its not, I love the grind for the gold. It gives me a sense of character progression.

This statement makes absolutely no sense. Grinding money doesnt give anyone any sense of character progression.

Psst. like sound travels faster through water than it does air, sarcasm doesn’t travel through the internet very well

deborah.2068:

I say if you are going to spend that amount of gold on a item and the amount of farming you would have to put in in game farming the gold it should match the stats of the current top gear Ascended cuz otherwise why buy it there is better out there

Because the skins frequently kick kitten If you’re willing to throw down 120g on some armour then you’re probably not going to mind throwing down another 15g on top of the line exotics to transmute it into.

I’ve never heard anyone say “Man I’d love to buy that T3 armour, if only it’s stats didn’t suck”

That might work for some but I m in to Vertical progression now and well lets face it Ascended gear will be the way to go with that so they would have to decrease their price to maybe a gold or two for me even to consider Cosmetic value of it

Calsifer.6079:

As it stands, the current Tier 3 Cultural armor price is extremely high. Clocking in at 119 gold for a full set, it is nigh impossible to attain this set in a reasonable time without grinding. I’ve given this a bit of thought and i can only see two logical solutions.

1: Lower the price (reasonably)

At the moment the jump from Tier 1 to Tier 2 is about 2.7x in terms of price. The jump from Tier 2 to Tier 3, however, is much larger. Around 15x the price. My solution would be to reduce the price of each piece to anywhere between 7-17 gold per piece. This would mean that the full set would cost around 70 gold. This is high enough that it would maintain exclusivity of the set but would still cut a sizable chunk of the grind and monotony out.

2. Raise the gear spec

Let’s be honest, when you churn out 119 gold for a set of armor, then realize you still have to hit up dungeons or find another 20-30 gold to spec out your character to full exotics, it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth. I would also find it equally acceptable if the current price was maintained, but the gear spec was raise to exotic level.

I have no intention of ditching the idea of Tier 3 cultural armor but I feel that the prices, as they stand, are unreasonable for a game which claims to have done away with the grind. In this sense, I guess a third option could be to create more viable ways of earning gold which are fun and non-grindy

TL;DR

Cultural armor price is unreasonably high. Raise gear level OR Lower total price by 30-40 gold.

I’m interested to see what the rest of the community makes of my ideas so feel free to post replies and maybe we’ll get a bit of discussion going

@Mods: Sorry if this is a duplicate post but my searches found nothing on this topic. Also, if you think this belongs in the “Suggestions” sub-forum, shift it.

I say remove the gold entirely. Make it all Karma it’s the honest thing to do. because the exchange rate for gems to gold is NEVER going to be viable option anyway since it’s never giving the amount that it should to make it a good deal. sorry but 50 silver per 100 gems is not a good deal. it’s even lower then 50cents on a dollar because 100 gems doesn’t even equal a dollar.

It should not be karma purchased. You have armor for that. If you are after some decent stats then use karma armor for that. This isn’t about character progression.

It’s a long term goal. Something to work toward slowly. It seems all of you just want the armor right now. That’s the issue. It’s not that you don’t like the armor it’s the opposite. You like that skin and you want it, but you don’t want to work for it.

Well then don’t. If you don’t feel it’s worth the money then don’t buy it. I see an uber expensive car that someone is driving. If I felt it was something I really wanted to have and worth the money I would work for it, but I don’t. I don’t ask them to lower the price to a point where I would pay for it.

I strongly disagree with solution 1 because it’ll make tier 3 skins loses it’s prestige. It’s suppose to be expensive so only few exclusive players can achieve it. It wouldn’t be fair to those who bought them at 120g. ~_~ The game needs to have some items that are extremely hard to get to differentiate between dedicated and casual players.

Solution 2 is pretty pointless because most people would just transmute their tier 3 with another exotic. What is 120g compared to 15g?

I suggest this solution. Turn cultural sets into skin items like halloween skins from BLC. You apply it to the armor you want. This way, players won’t mistake it as gears but rare skin items. Tier 3 culturals are only bought for it’s unique skin. That’s what players bought them for. No price changes too. (I get a weird aura from this topic that some players intent to influence the devs to drop the price. ~_~ )

deborah.2068:

Ryuujin.8236:

Looria.8019:

kKagari.6804:

No its not, I love the grind for the gold. It gives me a sense of character progression.

This statement makes absolutely no sense. Grinding money doesnt give anyone any sense of character progression.

Psst. like sound travels faster through water than it does air, sarcasm doesn’t travel through the internet very well

deborah.2068:

I say if you are going to spend that amount of gold on a item and the amount of farming you would have to put in in game farming the gold it should match the stats of the current top gear Ascended cuz otherwise why buy it there is better out there

Because the skins frequently kick kitten If you’re willing to throw down 120g on some armour then you’re probably not going to mind throwing down another 15g on top of the line exotics to transmute it into.

I’ve never heard anyone say “Man I’d love to buy that T3 armour, if only it’s stats didn’t suck”

That might work for some but I m in to Vertical progression now and well lets face it Ascended gear will be the way to go with that so they would have to decrease their price to maybe a gold or two for me even to consider Cosmetic value of it

It doesn’t matter if they release a billion tiers as the Cultural set, namely t3, is meant to be purely cosmetic. You are representing your ulture by wearing it. No other race can attain the armor you’re wearing once you get the set, and if you’re the champions gender you get to look just like them. That’s the whole 0loint in the armor. If you don’t like it then go after something else but don’t QQ about the costs to look like the champion of your race.

I am underwhelmed by the style of Tier 3 Cultural Armour,
so i shall never worry if i have enough gold to afford it,
because it’s fugly and i don’t want it.

The only Cultural Armour i actually like is the Tier 2 Norn Heavy & Medium.

After buying those two sets, i have not seen anyone else wearing them,
so the exclusivity is present at Tier 2, job done.

Mimizu,

I agree most of the sets are underwhelming to me. I found one though that captured my heart and so I work for it.

There are several T-2 sets I like for other characters and I will go with those. It’s the skin that matters and I can simply move it to the stats.

If you don’t like it or don’t feel it’s worth it move on to something you do. Simple as that.

I think if they want things to really be rare, they should limit the amount of times a merchant will sell the items.

So either make it a limited time offer and remove the merchant after so much time passes, or make the merchants have a limited number of inventory and once it is sold out it is gone.

That way, everyone won’t all be wearing the same armor, and those that put in the effort get what they deserve: a set of armor very few other people in the game will have. That way they’re rewarded for their hard work and are special.

I think it’s interesting that so many people say “Upgrade Tier 3 to Exotic” when the better choice is to say “Give me Brand New Exotic Tier 4 Cultural Armor” =).

Though looking at the prices of the Tier 3, I’d shudder at the price tag for the Tier 4. (some 200g+?). But then again, I don’t think it unreasonable. If you look at it, Cultural Armor can be considered the “Best Looking” or “most dazzling” armor in the game right now, in the same way that Legendary weapons are the “Most dazzling” weapons in the game. (Though there are many special weapons that look really cool out there for about 50-ish gold). Compared to the cost of a Legendary, Cultural Armor is a pittance. I think the cost is right where it should be.

That said, I’m excited to see what kind of NEW armors they introduce. (T4 Norn Cultural with a cape made of snow that falls apart and regrows as it hits objects and armor forged out of Icicles maybe?) Just think of the special effects they could add to armor pieces like they do legendaries.

=O

Cosmetics to me well unless you have the best to put it on is over rated I mean its like putting a wrapping over kitten in the end its still kitten so like I said a gold or two but i do like the karma idea

deborah.2068:

Cosmetics to me well unless you have the best to put it on is over rated I mean its like putting a wrapping over kitten in the end its still kitten so like I said a gold or two but i do like the karma idea

You should never wrap kittens, they could suffocate.

I still feel that at the price they make you pay for T3 culturals, it shouldn’t be anything less than exotic quality. Especially now.

runeblade.7514:

Actually, I wish the price raised up.

It will actually make more armor look more grand if the other people didn’t look like me.

Well… no. The armor would look exactly the same, regardless of the price tag. And, as i say before, the solution to the “everyone look the same” problem lies in introducing more of the good looking armor – that way more people can look good without looking the same.
Which would be very good, seeing as now at least half of the cultural armor are NOT very grand-looking at all.

Personally I think the Culture armors should be aquired through player storylines as you progress and help that culture out. IE Human storyline, you become a savior and get the gear rewarded, etc.

runeblade.7514:

Actually, I wish the price raised up.
It will actually make more armor look more grand if the other people didn’t look like me.

…and so only those who abused the early game would have it or those who buy gold with rl cash… by those who abused early game, I specifically mean the players who used cheats…then again, I suppose there are a few who ground the gold by doing dynamic events pre-nerf after rushing to 80.

Also, as a human elementalist, I’m not a fan of the t3 culture set so rest easy knowing at least 1 player won’t look like you.

Also, Dyes can make one stand out. Blame ArenaNet for not allowing guild emblems to be plasterd on the awesome t3 human heavy armors tabard. (Highly suggest they do so if they are reading this, it would def add a spark of interest towards aquirment!!)

Fairly, I think the price is perfectly reasonable. It is supposed to be an end-game unique looking armour, not everyone is supposed to be running around in it. If you like it, save gold and grind for it.

I see no reason to complain – the tier 3 cultural set is equivelant to a unique looking weapon which you’d spend a few hundred gold for.

A) Price is not “too high”. The item is up there in price related to the relative uniqueness as well as rareness of the pieces.

B) Not everyone in the game should have their cultural T3. If you can’t afford it, either drop it completely or set a long-term goal on it.

C) I do yet agree they might be better off being exotic, though it would still be an issue for someone who doesn’t get the right stat mix that they wanted.

@Nymeria: Yes, that’s what i was saying when i mentioned that half of them don’t look very good.

Actually, I was posting that picture of my ranger only to say how fabulous it looks. Suppose it’s a matter of taste.

When I found out it was 120g, I was ok with it, completely reasonable price tbh.
They should change them to exotic and have like 3 sets with different stats, like the dungeon sets. Price is good tho, nothing wrong with it.

why is the armor bought with money in the first place? and weapons with karma hmm… considering tier 2 weapons for asuran/sylvari are STILL either bugged or incomplete, that is sylvari vendor is selling asuran weapons which are easy to obtain, and asuran is selling sylvari stuff easily obtainable nothing unique about either of these, i don’t see them changing any culture based stuff any time soon price-wise or anything else or its just rly rly low on their to-do list.