Guild Wars 2

I’m just wondering if someone could answer this for me. Why would Anet sell skins in the Gemstore that rival or exceed the looks or a Legendary skin? Legendaries are supposed to be the pinnacle of all items in game. They require a lot of time and currency investments to craft. But now, I’m looking at a really awesome Crystalline backpack. I want to buy it, but I already have the Ascension.

The way I see it, if Anet is going to sell something extraordinary in the Gem Store, that would take away the need to get Legendary skins. If this Crystalline skin came out before the Ascension did, I wouldn’t have bothered farming and grinding PvP for it. The same could happen if Gem Store weapon skins were as good.

I appreciate that Anet did release a Legendary back item. And I also appreciate that Anet is selling a really high quality backpack skin. But I think that if you’re aiming for quality, the Legendary skin should always be better. I suggest someone revamp the Ascension and make the auras larger, or increase the particle effects to make it truly worthy of being a Legendary skin.

I couldn’t agree with you more. I am in the exact same position as you are. I’ve also always felt that Ascension always felt so top-heavy. I would love to see it become a quad-wing.

Also, the gliding animation for the Crystalline Wings is so much more impressive than the static nonsense we have on the Ascension.

As a person who doesn’t own a legendary backpack, I totally agree with you. The first thing that went through my mind when I equiped those wings was “well I’m glad I didn’t grind out Ad-Infinitum because this looks better”.

I’ve always loved the pvp wings and been jealous, but these wings are on almost on par in terms of looks.

I still see them and think “that person put in a lot of effort” though. So you still have the respect factor.

I think it’s difficult because it comes down to personal taste.

I think Bolt is a flickering mess and my Chaos sword looks much better. At least one of my friends thinks I could not possibly be more wrong and the chaos weapons are one of the ‘laziest’ sets of skins ever made and shouldn’t even be black lion skins. Likewise I actually think Ascension looks better than the crystal wings.

It might well be that people at Anet think the Ascension (and the Fractal one) look far better than the crystal wings and it never occurred to them there could be a problem.

Or it could be simply that they hadn’t come up with the design for the crystal wings when they made the Ascension. What are they supposed to do in that case? Never put a cool design into the game in case some people think it’s better than a legendary? Hold it back indefinitely until there’s an opportunity to make another legendary backpack?

Danikat.8537:

Or it could be simply that they hadn’t come up with the design for the crystal wings when they made the Ascension. What are they supposed to do in that case? Never put a cool design into the game in case some people think it’s better than a legendary? Hold it back indefinitely until there’s an opportunity to make another legendary backpack?

Update the legendary perhaps?

It’s all well and good that the Crystalline Wings look so great, and I’ll probably get it for a character that I haven’t got the Ascension on because it looks so good, but it’s just a shame that the Ascension, a legendary item that took so much blood, sweat and literal tears to obtain, seems so lazily implemented (gliding).

At least give it a nice gliding animation like the Crystalline Wings have. Let’s be honest, the Crystalline Wings look far more "legendary’ than Ascension or Ad-infinitum.

Maybe the wvw or raid backapack will have the animations you know got to keep people in those modes.
Who am I kidding scratch the wvw backapack of the list.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I’m just wondering if someone could answer this for me. Why would Anet sell skins in the Gemstore that rival or exceed the looks or a Legendary skin? Legendaries are supposed to be the pinnacle of all items in game. They require a lot of time and currency investments to craft. But now, I’m looking at a really awesome Crystalline backpack. I want to buy it, but I already have the Ascension.

The way I see it, if Anet is going to sell something extraordinary in the Gem Store, that would take away the need to get Legendary skins. If this Crystalline skin came out before the Ascension did, I wouldn’t have bothered farming and grinding PvP for it. The same could happen if Gem Store weapon skins were as good.

I appreciate that Anet did release a Legendary back item. And I also appreciate that Anet is selling a really high quality backpack skin. But I think that if you’re aiming for quality, the Legendary skin should always be better. I suggest someone revamp the Ascension and make the auras larger, or increase the particle effects to make it truly worthy of being a Legendary skin.

I have to agree (even though I don’t have Ascension). The Crystalline back is too much and competes too directly in color and effect with Ascension.

DeathReign.7821:

Danikat.8537:

Or it could be simply that they hadn’t come up with the design for the crystal wings when they made the Ascension. What are they supposed to do in that case? Never put a cool design into the game in case some people think it’s better than a legendary? Hold it back indefinitely until there’s an opportunity to make another legendary backpack?

Update the legendary perhaps?

It’s all well and good that the Crystalline Wings look so great, and I’ll probably get it for a character that I haven’t got the Ascension on because it looks so good, but it’s just a shame that the Ascension, a legendary item that took so much blood, sweat and literal tears to obtain, seems so lazily implemented (gliding).

At least give it a nice gliding animation like the Crystalline Wings have. Let’s be honest, the Crystalline Wings look far more "legendary’ than Ascension or Ad-infinitum.

And then anger the people who got the legendary because it looked like it did?

ANet’s gotten into hot water with people for changing the appearance of items after the fact. So much so that they now post threads asking for player opinions on whether or not an item should be fixed or not.

They’d be better off adding it as a new legendary if they went that route.

Unpopular opinion: I’m actually glad Gem store stuff look nice because I’d rather spend 200 Gold on 800 Gems than thousands of Gold and/or lots of time on Legendary items. :c

I’m probably crazy here, but in my mind Legendries are about their stat change abilities. How they look is a matter of opinion. I know a good number of that make their legendries just so they can switch stats, but rarely show off the legendary skin. Don’t like Ascension, transmute the skin. Seems pretty simple. Can’t force your personal taste as the benchmark of what things should look like.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I’m just wondering if someone could answer this for me. Why would Anet sell skins in the Gemstore that rival or exceed the looks or a Legendary skin? Legendaries are supposed to be the pinnacle of all items in game. They require a lot of time and currency investments to craft. But now, I’m looking at a really awesome Crystalline backpack. I want to buy it, but I already have the Ascension.

The way I see it, if Anet is going to sell something extraordinary in the Gem Store, that would take away the need to get Legendary skins. If this Crystalline skin came out before the Ascension did, I wouldn’t have bothered farming and grinding PvP for it. The same could happen if Gem Store weapon skins were as good.

I appreciate that Anet did release a Legendary back item. And I also appreciate that Anet is selling a really high quality backpack skin. But I think that if you’re aiming for quality, the Legendary skin should always be better. I suggest someone revamp the Ascension and make the auras larger, or increase the particle effects to make it truly worthy of being a Legendary skin.

attractive skins on gemstore or a sub, how would you like to pay for the game?

Djinn.9245:

I have to agree (even though I don’t have Ascension). The Crystalline back is too much and competes too directly in color and effect with Ascension.

In regards to color, I see more similarities between Ad infinitum (Fractal Backpack) then the Ascension.

There are a couple of responses to the title question that come to mind immediately:

1) gemstore skins are not better than legendaries. For the most part they are as ugly as sin.

2) It is nearly impossible for gem store skins to not be better than legendaries because legendaries are, for the most part, uglier than sin.

Of course the merits of one skin compared to another are subjective so your mileage may very.

The only reason I see this being better animation/Sound and visual as a Glider only is that they had the animations/Skin and sounds already in game so all they had to do was port it and tweak the animations to a glider skin, so less work and they were able to monetize it, the actual backpiece skin is very lazy in the fact that it is a retexture of the white/black wings, if they would have animated that I could see huge backlash.

The design is better than The Ascension…

They are also not as stiff so to say when moving around, meaning the Ascension looks like it’s German Engineered from WW2 while the new ones look like some digital age technology.

sephiroth.4217:

The design is better than The Ascension…

They are also not as stiff so to say when moving around, meaning the Ascension looks like it’s German Engineered from WW2 while the new ones look like some digital age technology.

Well the ascension is made out of glass and Gold while the wings are just that Crystalline magical wings…….

if the gem store skins are so much better why not buy them and skin them to your legendary kind?

sophiewhite.3149:

if the gem store skins are so much better why not buy them and skin them to your legendary kind?

The backpiece skin is pretty kittenty, the Glider on the other hand is worthy of a legendary imo.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One of my favorite weapon skins is the Fiery Dragon Sword, which is free to a huge fraction of GW1 players. Some people think plain weapons without effects are better than ones that sparkle and pass rainbows like gas after eating bad chili.

Ask yourself why you like Gemstore skins better than Legendary skins — you’re the only one who can answer that, for yourself.

Speaking for myself, I haven’t liked any of the gemshop weapon, armor, or backpack skins enough to spend on them. All the ones I use are from collections, TP, achievements, or karma.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One of my favorite weapon skins is the Fiery Dragon Sword, which is free to a huge fraction of GW1 players. Some people think plain weapons without effects are better than ones that sparkle and pass rainbows like gas after eating bad chili.

Ask yourself why you like Gemstore skins better than Legendary skins — you’re the only one who can answer that, for yourself.

Speaking for myself, I haven’t liked any of the gemshop weapon, armor, or backpack skins enough to spend on them. All the ones I use are from collections, TP, achievements, or karma.

In the case of Legendary items, it is clear that Anet means for more effects = better. And I read the OP as speaking from that perspective. The Crystalline Wings are in a similar color category as the Legendary, but are brighter, bigger, and move more than the Legendary. I.e. they are more noticable.

Certainly if your taste runs toward the more subtle, then you don’t want any Legendary. But you wouldn’t want the Crystalline wings either so I don’t know why you would speak out for either in this thread.

tl;dr: The Ascension is great as it is, please don’t change it. I also think the Crystalline wings are kinda ugly, but that’s just my opinion.

I love the Ascension and I would be disappointed if they changed its appearance to look more like the crystalline wings. I also don’t really like the look of the crystalline wings. I think they’re almost too flashy, and for me that’s saying something because typically I love items that have lots of particle effects or glows/auras. I’m just not a fan of the new crystalline wings.

Having said that, I think it’s awesome that Anet introduced these wings because I know a lot of players love them. That’s great. It’s a good thing for them to continue releasing gem store skins that appeal to wider audiences—this makes Anet more money through gem sales and that translates into increased payroll/etc for employees and thus more/better content.

The wings and glider skins are evolving. They have been ever since the very first type of wings were introduced in the game. I think the first set was probably the holographic dragon wings, or the shattered holographic wings? Not sure. But when those initially came, a lot of players hated them because they seemed to ignore physics—as your player would run, the wings wouldn’t react to the movement in any way and it looked unnatural.

Some time later, the white and black feather wings were introduced and these also suffered the same problem of ignoring physics, but Anet patched them to address this and the wings now sort of “flow” around your character as you move through the world. Some players didn’t like that the feather wings did this and also said it seemed too unnatural, and a lot of the playerbase still to this day seems torn between liking or disliking physics based wings, which I assume is why we have some wings that react to in-game physics and some wings that don’t.

When gliders were first introduced, there were absolutely no wing glider skins which “flapped” as you were gliding. This is no longer the case, since the new Crystalline wings apparently flap while you glide (I don’t own them, so I can’t say from experience that this is the case but that’s my understanding based on other forum posts). This alone should be proof that gliders and wings are evolving as Anet gets more experience in working with these types of skins.

This evolution is a good thing, but again, I don’t feel that it’s necessary to retroactively change all of the gliders and wings to include a “flapping” feature. It may look great on some wings, but others it may seem just as unnatural to certain players as non-physics based wings do.

Regarding The Ascension or Ad Infinitum, I think it would be a mistake for Anet to make any significant changes to the design of those legendary back items without first consulting the playerbase in the form of a poll or something similar. A lot of players worked really hard to get these skins unlocked and a lot of folks are likely pretty happy with the outcome and the way they look. I haven’t unlocked Ad Infinitum, but I love The Ascension and one of my characters uses that skin almost exclusively.

And as a side-note, remember that we don’t have a “flying” mastery, we have a “gliding” mastery. To me, it doesn’t make sense that all wings should have a flapping animation, since we’re always gliding in a downward trajectory.

Im thankful we get shiny things in gemstore too, i wouldnt be buying their stuff otherwise. I find grinding legendaries idiotic and waste of time. Nevermore was my first and last legendary thing forever. I’ll just rather give my money to anet in exchange for shiny stuff. Besides its only a skin, you get no stat exchange or that “statussymbol” for grinding it.

Pretty sure legendary pvp wings were gem store reject lol

That being said, they should have allowed player to change colors on legendary wings.

Ashen.2907:

There are a couple of responses to the title question that come to mind immediately:

1) gemstore skins are not better than legendaries. For the most part they are as ugly as sin.

2) It is nearly impossible for gem store skins to not be better than legendaries because legendaries are, for the most part, uglier than sin.

Of course the merits of one skin compared to another are subjective so your mileage may very.

+1 Complete Agreement.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

But I think that if you’re aiming for quality, the Legendary skin should always be better.

1. Estimate the number of players who own a legendary backpack.
2. Estimate the number of players who buy skins from the gem store.
3. Realize that the latter is a far bigger and more lucrative demographic.

Djinn.9245:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One of my favorite weapon skins is the Fiery Dragon Sword, which is free to a huge fraction of GW1 players. Some people think plain weapons without effects are better than ones that sparkle and pass rainbows like gas after eating bad chili.

Ask yourself why you like Gemstore skins better than Legendary skins — you’re the only one who can answer that, for yourself.

Speaking for myself, I haven’t liked any of the gemshop weapon, armor, or backpack skins enough to spend on them. All the ones I use are from collections, TP, achievements, or karma.

In the case of Legendary items, it is clear that Anet means for more effects = better. And I read the OP as speaking from that perspective. The Crystalline Wings are in a similar color category as the Legendary, but are brighter, bigger, and move more than the Legendary. I.e. they are more noticable.

Certainly if your taste runs toward the more subtle, then you don’t want any Legendary. But you wouldn’t want the Crystalline wings either so I don’t know why you would speak out for either in this thread.

My point is that “gem store skins > legendary skins” is an opinion, not a statement of fact. The OP can say that they like the new backpack skin a lot more than the legendaries; they can’t say that it’s true for others.

The OP could have made a thread saying that they, the OP, believes that the gem shop skin is more noticeable than the legendary skins. In that thread, they can say that they don’t think that’s appropriate. But they don’t speak for me about either topic — frankly, I think every single Wing skin/glider is more noticeable.

PS I’m not sure what gave you the impression that I only like subtle effects — some people do, but my taste runs to whatever seems to look good to me. Some understated skins are great, others are boring; some flashy effects are a lot of fun and some are over-the-top.

That crystalline glider looks horribly twitchy in the preview, interspersed with senseless flaps. I wouldn’t want to be looking at that whenever I glide. Definitely not better than the legendary ones in my book.

I’ve always found legendary weapons and back items ugly. I’ve sound over them all bar the flameseeker.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Djinn.9245:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One of my favorite weapon skins is the Fiery Dragon Sword, which is free to a huge fraction of GW1 players. Some people think plain weapons without effects are better than ones that sparkle and pass rainbows like gas after eating bad chili.

Ask yourself why you like Gemstore skins better than Legendary skins — you’re the only one who can answer that, for yourself.

Speaking for myself, I haven’t liked any of the gemshop weapon, armor, or backpack skins enough to spend on them. All the ones I use are from collections, TP, achievements, or karma.

In the case of Legendary items, it is clear that Anet means for more effects = better. And I read the OP as speaking from that perspective. The Crystalline Wings are in a similar color category as the Legendary, but are brighter, bigger, and move more than the Legendary. I.e. they are more noticable.

Certainly if your taste runs toward the more subtle, then you don’t want any Legendary. But you wouldn’t want the Crystalline wings either so I don’t know why you would speak out for either in this thread.

My point is that “gem store skins > legendary skins” is an opinion, not a statement of fact. The OP can say that they like the new backpack skin a lot more than the legendaries; they can’t say that it’s true for others.

The OP could have made a thread saying that they, the OP, believes that the gem shop skin is more noticeable than the legendary skins. In that thread, they can say that they don’t think that’s appropriate. But they don’t speak for me about either topic — frankly, I think every single Wing skin/glider is more noticeable.

PS I’m not sure what gave you the impression that I only like subtle effects — some people do, but my taste runs to whatever seems to look good to me. Some understated skins are great, others are boring; some flashy effects are a lot of fun and some are over-the-top.

well, the op is showing his displeasure of skin choice.

I find this game skin divide quite strange. This game keep reminding me of the capitol in the Hunger Games.