Guild Wars 2

I’m not a fan of crafting in most games. GW2’s system is definitely more fun than a lot of games I have played, but it’s just not my thing. Why is it that so many items, especially end-game items, require max level crafting?

Last night, I went to complete the Caladbolg quest again on another character. Didn’t realize I couldn’t do the scavenger hunt twice, looked up what I needed to do: Crafting.

Okay. I’ll do some fractals, to see if I have enough to get some armor or weapons from the merchant. Looks like the merchant was changed recently so now you need 500 crafting in different professions to get armor, weapons, etc.

Mawdrey, legendaries, ascended gear. This is the only game I know of that forces a specific playstyle (i.e. crafting) if you want the best gear in the game. Can we get some systems in place (and revert the change in fractals) for those of us who don’t want to craft or am I in the minority here?

There are two ways to obtain gear:
1. sure-fire method
2. RNG

If you want a 100% guaranteed chance of obtaining an item, then craft it. If you’d rather pray to RNGesus to bless you with stuff, pray/grind away my friend.

Well, you can rely on drops of chests of ascended gear (raids, fractals, reward tracks, certain events) if you don’t like to craft. It is just very unreliable.

To the question “why”: It is probably to keep the economy healthy, to ensure a steady demand of materials and encourage trade. Also, full asceneded gear is not really needed except for higher tier fractals and there are plenty of ways to aquire exotics beyond crafting.

…because ANet wants me to minimize real money expenditures on the game.

The focus on crafting goes hand in hand with the focus on the Trading Post being the primary means of acquiring crafting materials. The reason is to keep the economy healthy and to allow you to play any kind of content and still be able to get rewarded for it.

The “Play how you want” philosophy requires rewards to be distributed this way.

Ashen.2907:

…because ANet wants me to minimize real money expenditures on the game.

Or promote them by forcing everyone to use the trading post with all its TP barons and inflated materials prices and…
[/tinfoilhat]

Rauderi.8706:

Ashen.2907:

…because ANet wants me to minimize real money expenditures on the game.

Or promote them by forcing everyone to use the trading post with all its TP barons and inflated materials prices and…
[/tinfoilhat]

I cant speak for others, but for me it has guaranteed less spending on the game. For one thing it drives prices for crafting mats up so I sell everything, making quite significant amounts of gold in the process. For another, I dont spend much if I cannot get my main into BiS gear.

Spending time setting up a new build and craft new gear (or convert ascended gear) is actually very rewarding. But getting the the professions to 500 can be a bit boring.

Rauderi.8706:

Ashen.2907:

…because ANet wants me to minimize real money expenditures on the game.

Or promote them by forcing everyone to use the trading post with all its TP barons and inflated materials prices and…
[/tinfoilhat]

You’ve got it backwards. The more people using the TP, the more likely it is that most items are easily obtained at lower prices, as suppliers undercut each others. There’s a lot of attention devoted to the exceptions; don’t let that distract from the value that a truly global economy has. For comparison, just look at how much can be made in other games with server-local economies, by buying in one location and selling in another.

The sell-unwanted-to-buy-desired-goods philosophy isn’t without problems, of course. But like democracy, as bad as it sometimes is in practice, it’s better than anything else out there for most people, most of the time.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Rauderi.8706:

Ashen.2907:

…because ANet wants me to minimize real money expenditures on the game.

Or promote them by forcing everyone to use the trading post with all its TP barons and inflated materials prices and…
[/tinfoilhat]

You’ve got it backwards. The more people using the TP, the more likely it is that most items are easily obtained at lower prices, as suppliers undercut each others. There’s a lot of attention devoted to the exceptions; don’t let that distract from the value that a truly global economy has. For comparison, just look at how much can be made in other games with server-local economies, by buying in one location and selling in another.

The sell-unwanted-to-buy-desired-goods philosophy isn’t without problems, of course. But like democracy, as bad as it sometimes is in practice, it’s better than anything else out there for most people, most of the time.

I made a fortune in GW1 buying in Kamadan and selling in LA. The GW2 TP does impact that sort of flipping.

Ashen.2907:

I made a fortune in GW1 buying in Kamadan and selling in LA. The GW2 TP does impact that sort of flipping.

Yes. You could even make a fortune buying e.g. Nick’s gifts and reselling them… even on the same map. Mostly because the lack of a TP meant that only savvy traders knew the “market prices” for anything. Those who hated trading tended to take the first offer they got.

paperclip.7014:

But getting the the professions to 500 can be a bit boring.

This, and the gold sink to level, are the biggest problems for me, really. I could maybe stomach doing 1-2 in the case of a legendary, but with the change to Fractal Ascended gear, I would need to do it more than that.

I don’t mind some RNG, honestly. But the drop rates on Ascended gear seems SO low. I’ve only gotten I think three drops in all my time in the game (playing since early access). Two of which have been more recent, since I’ve finally broken into T3 fractals. But I hit a wall there because I didn’t have AR high enough, so I couldn’t get into T3, so I couldn’t get Ascended gear to raise my AR, etc. Hoping to see some more now that I can do a good chunk of T3.

I was excited when I read about the legendary journeys, but that has turned out to be mostly just another crafting barrier. There are lots of cool things in the game I would like to work toward, but with so much gated behind crafting, I’m personally not going to achieve a lot.

I’m not saying nothing should be available for crafting, just that I wish there were more things that didn’t require it.

EDIT to add: RE: Economy. Do folks actually find that the economy is healthy and in good shape? Not asking this sarcastically. From my perspective, the economy is pretty poor, but since people brought it up, I’m wondering if people are happy with it the way it is.

Ashen.2907:

I made a fortune in GW1 buying in Kamadan and selling in LA. The GW2 TP does impact that sort of flipping.

Sure. It prevents TP barons from doing the same thing you did and fleecing the majority of players.

It’s only natural that crafting doesn’t have any value unless it’s associated with top level gear. Though I suppose it’s an issue when it’s seemingly everywhere.

That being said I think they should take a look at the crafter only exotics.

RDarken.2495:

…

Last night, I went to complete the Caladbolg quest again on another character. Didn’t realize I couldn’t do the scavenger hunt twice, looked up what I needed to do: Crafting.

…

If you want the other skins you can take the Caladbolg you got to your home instance and “reforge” it for 1000 unbound magic. This is the fastest way I’ve found…and less expensive.

Because what’s better than to sunk thousands of hours into crafting? Surely that’s a great strategy.

It’s their way of forcing players into grind. Not only it is a huge waste of potential and opportunities, it quickly makes the game feel repetitive, monotonous and unrewarding. There’s nothing rewarding about farming the same-old-same-old stuff when you could’ve used those hours to do something else and way more entertaining.

moonstarmac.4603:

RDarken.2495:

…

Last night, I went to complete the Caladbolg quest again on another character. Didn’t realize I couldn’t do the scavenger hunt twice, looked up what I needed to do: Crafting.

…

If you want the other skins you can take the Caladbolg you got to your home instance and “reforge” it for 1000 unbound magic. This is the fastest way I’ve found…and less expensive.

Thanks. I was trying to get one of my other characters an ascended weapon, though

RandomWolf.3986:

Because what’s better than to sunk thousands of hours into crafting? Surely that’s a great strategy.

It’s their way of forcing players into grind. Not only it is a huge waste of potential and opportunities, it quickly makes the game feel repetitive, monotonous and unrewarding. There’s nothing rewarding about farming the same-old-same-old stuff when you could’ve used those hours to do something else and way more entertaining.

Yeah, that’s kind of how I feel. I think back to epic quests in EverQuest and I wish there was something more like that to build a Legendary.

Astralporing.1957:

Ashen.2907:

I made a fortune in GW1 buying in Kamadan and selling in LA. The GW2 TP does impact that sort of flipping.

Sure. It prevents TP barons from doing the same thing you did and fleecing the majority of players.

That was the point of Ashen’s response to my post.

Mind you, you’ve mischaracterized trading in a game without a central marketplace — not everyone takes advantage of other players’ ignorance. When I traded in GW1, I was scrupulously honest in my dealings. I always shared my knowledge of the market to anyone who seemed interested (even if they didn’t ask directly) and did my best to point out scams.

The fact is that sellers often want gold quickly and are willing to take less to save time, so they can get back to playing (and likewise buyers are willing to pay more for speedy transactions). Without a trader brokering the deal between them, those in a rush would spend more time haggling than they want.

Astralporing.1957:

Ashen.2907:

I made a fortune in GW1 buying in Kamadan and selling in LA. The GW2 TP does impact that sort of flipping.

Sure. It prevents TP barons from doing the same thing you did and fleecing the majority of players.

I am not sure that paying people the price they wanted to sell for to be fleecing them.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Astralporing.1957:

Ashen.2907:

I made a fortune in GW1 buying in Kamadan and selling in LA. The GW2 TP does impact that sort of flipping.

Sure. It prevents TP barons from doing the same thing you did and fleecing the majority of players.

That was the point of Ashen’s response to my post.

Mind you, you’ve mischaracterized trading in a game without a central marketplace — not everyone takes advantage of other players’ ignorance. When I traded in GW1, I was scrupulously honest in my dealings. I always shared my knowledge of the market to anyone who seemed interested (even if they didn’t ask directly) and did my best to point out scams.

The fact is that sellers often want gold quickly and are willing to take less to save time, so they can get back to playing (and likewise buyers are willing to pay more for speedy transactions). Without a trader brokering the deal between them, those in a rush would spend more time haggling than they want.

Pretty much this. The profits I made were not from attempting to play off of the ignorance of new players but rather trad8ng my willingness to spend the time to find a higher price. Or the patience to buy now and wait for prices to go up. Sometimes it just meant being willing to map back and forth between Kamadan and LA during extended trading sessions.