Guild Wars 2

It used to be a fun simple process that would open in a separate window.
You chose two items and which skin and stats you wanted.
Now, it’s all gone and weird to understand.
How do i know which items skin and which stats I’ll get?
I transmuted two items and the dyes on that item changed to the new item colors
which really messed it up.
And we cant choose which rune we want to keep.
We just sort of transmute and hope for the best now?

You pick a skin and apply it to the armor. The dyes are independent so just redo them as needed.

Now you have the skin permanently available to apply as many times as you want rather than chaining it from one armor to another.

Behellagh.1468:

Now you have the skin permanently available to apply as many times as you want rather than chaining it from one armor to another.

That is why it doesn’t feel special anymore to transmute. Now everything is just skins. Transmuting used to be a special thing. You would sacrifice an item but in return get exactly what you want and it would be more special to you to have.

Annnd now you can get exactly what you want without sacrificing an item. Win?

The “special” now lies in finding rare skins. You get to keep your stats and runes.

It’s confusing at first, but I think overall it’s actually simpler now. A lot of people were confused by the old system, I haven’t seen nearly as many topics asking how to transmute things or how to tell what you’ll get since they brought in the wardrobe.

Basically now any time you use an item (equip it, salvage it, put it in the mystic forge etc.) you unlock the skin in your wardrobe. From that point on it stays there, no matter what happens to the original item. (This is the first benefit, you can no longer lose skins by transmuting over them or deleting the item.)

Then when you want to apply it to another item you just equip the one you want to apply it to, go into the wardrobe tab, choose the skin you want and click ‘apply’.

The stats and everything else except the skin always come from the item you are applying the skin to (this is actually how it always worked, it wasn’t really combining two items so much as putting a different skin on one).

I’m not sure what you mean about the dyes changing to the new item colours. You can’t dye weapons so the colours are always determined by the skin and whenever I’ve transmuted armor the dyes are carried over from the old skin. But sometimes the same dyes can look very different on different items, because they’re different materials and the dye channels affect different parts.

In a sense, you do sacrifice an item. You have to salvage/soulbind/account bind it to put it in your wardrobe and unless you have a need for yet another item of its type with stats you don’t use, it gets mystic forge or salvaged or vendored and then it’s gone. You can’t get the skin and then resale it back on the trading post.

I want to know how the op was able to merge 2 items and lose 1 + said rune.

I thought I had the transmutation system figured out but I am confused with leveling an alt.

I have a transmuted greatsword thats a level 30 weapon I put in my wardrobe tab, but I am level 40 and switch over to equipment and I am wielding the wardrobe sword. Am I doing it wrong? I think I transmuted it before the change, not sure.

The wardrobe are just skins, you pick one and dress up the item your wearing to look like the skin you picked.

If you then take that item over to another character it will still look like the wardrobe skin you picked and be the same item underneath

Just a flesh wound.3589:

In a sense, you do sacrifice an item. You have to salvage/soulbind/account bind it to put it in your wardrobe and unless you have a need for yet another item of its type with stats you don’t use, it gets mystic forge or salvaged or vendored and then it’s gone. You can’t get the skin and then resale it back on the trading post.

Unless it’s a fine or lower rarity. Then you can resell.

Khisanth.2948:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

In a sense, you do sacrifice an item. You have to salvage/soulbind/account bind it to put it in your wardrobe and unless you have a need for yet another item of its type with stats you don’t use, it gets mystic forge or salvaged or vendored and then it’s gone. You can’t get the skin and then resale it back on the trading post.

Unless it’s a fine or lower rarity. Then you can resell.

How about that. Lol. I never knew that, I thought they would always be locked. Maybe I’ll buy a bunch of fine and white items to unlock the skins on my alt accounts then resale them, only slightly used.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Khisanth.2948:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

In a sense, you do sacrifice an item. You have to salvage/soulbind/account bind it to put it in your wardrobe and unless you have a need for yet another item of its type with stats you don’t use, it gets mystic forge or salvaged or vendored and then it’s gone. You can’t get the skin and then resale it back on the trading post.

Unless it’s a fine or lower rarity. Then you can resell.

How about that. Lol. I never knew that, I thought they would always be locked. Maybe I’ll buy a bunch of fine and white items to unlock the skins on my alt accounts then resale them, only slightly used.

I actually made a couple of silvers when I did that to unlock the crafted skins for something. Might have been an achievement.

my only gripe is that i have two transmutation crystals (need three to get a charge) sitting in my bank/inventory for the rest of time.

Dear Anet. Please refund one of my Aetherized Pistol skins.

Thanks

DS

Dreamslayer.7659:

Dear Anet. Please refund one of my Aetherized Pistol skins.

Thanks

DS

So you never used 2 skins before the wardrobe? if you did you got the use out of both skins, that it was changed later aint a reason to get 1 of those skins refunded.

You’re still sacrificing an item you could have sold.

Linken.6345:

Dreamslayer.7659:

Dear Anet. Please refund one of my Aetherized Pistol skins.

Thanks

DS

So you never used 2 skins before the wardrobe? if you did you got the use out of both skins, that it was changed later aint a reason to get 1 of those skins refunded.

It was a long time ago, but yes – I bought two Aetherized Pistol skins. I think they are around 1200g on the TP now. They refunded the dyes when they went account bound and they gave a title to people with two of the same legendary weapon, why not some of the skins that people bought two of?

I’ll be holding my breath…

emikochan.8504:

You’re still sacrificing an item you could have sold.

Yes but he used both becouse he wanted to, if he wanted to sell one he would have then been happy when wardrobe hit and he could dual wield his single skin

Lightsbane.9012:

my only gripe is that i have two transmutation crystals (need three to get a charge) sitting in my bank/inventory for the rest of time.

Sounds like you have to learn to let things go. I mean we get free charges through the login rewards now. Unless you’ve stopped playing you should have gotten more than that already.

Intuos.3210:

Behellagh.1468:

Now you have the skin permanently available to apply as many times as you want rather than chaining it from one armor to another.

That is why it doesn’t feel special anymore to transmute. Now everything is just skins. Transmuting used to be a special thing. You would sacrifice an item but in return get exactly what you want and it would be more special to you to have.

No thank you. It sucked before, I’m glad they changed it to the current system.

Intuos.3210:

It used to be a fun simple process that would open in a separate window.
You chose two items and which skin and stats you wanted.
Now, it’s all gone and weird to understand.
How do i know which items skin and which stats I’ll get?
I transmuted two items and the dyes on that item changed to the new item colors
which really messed it up.
And we cant choose which rune we want to keep.
We just sort of transmute and hope for the best now?

It’s been nine hours, please tell us you’ve finally realized how simple and superior the new system is compared to the old one.

It was changed because they figured out a way to make it easier whilst at the same time getting more money out of players (gems for charges) and cloaking it in an illusion of goodwill.

morrolan.9608:

It was changed because they figured out a way to make it easier whilst at the same time getting more money out of players (gems for charges) and cloaking it in an illusion of goodwill.

Unlocking skins account wide is cloaking something under the illusion of good will? lol Okay then.

Not to mention I’ve never paid for a transmutation charge ever and I have about 400 of them.

morrolan.9608:

It was changed because they figured out a way to make it easier whilst at the same time getting more money out of players (gems for charges) and cloaking it in an illusion of goodwill.

Did you forget how the old system worked? We had Transmutation Stones and Transmutation Crystals, the former was free from map completion but only worked on level 1-79 items, while the latter was only available in the gem store and the only option for transmuting level 80 skins.

We went from being required to buy Crystals to being able to use the free charges we get from map completion/PvP tracks/login rewards and you consider than an illusion of goodwill?

Donari.5237:

Annnd now you can get exactly what you want without sacrificing an item. Win?

The “special” now lies in finding rare skins. You get to keep your stats and runes.

You’re missing the point. OP is lamenting on the loss of consequence. By sacrificing an item to re-skin another the new item bore the weight of his decision, thus giving it an inherent value.

Vix.6730:

Donari.5237:

Annnd now you can get exactly what you want without sacrificing an item. Win?

The “special” now lies in finding rare skins. You get to keep your stats and runes.

You’re missing the point. OP is lamenting on the loss of consequence. By sacrificing an item to re-skin another the new item bore the weight of his decision, thus giving it an inherent value.

>lamenting the loss of consequence

What a masochist.

Lets say you have a thief, ele and necro that want to dualwield the legendary dagger. Ok, you built it and wasted 2000 gold on it. Now build 5 more, because they are all soulbound and you only get one transmuted skin to move around that character. That was what we had to work with on release.

Wasnt so bad for me since I only built one legendary back thenn, but I do remember spending 100g to dualwield a flaming sword since I had to built two of them. Now it cost pretty much nothing.

The wardrobe is far better than the old transmutation, save for one thing – items you cant salvage to get the rune/sigil back. With the old system, we could move it to another item at least.

Vix.6730:

Donari.5237:

Annnd now you can get exactly what you want without sacrificing an item. Win?

The “special” now lies in finding rare skins. You get to keep your stats and runes.

You’re missing the point. OP is lamenting on the loss of consequence. By sacrificing an item to re-skin another the new item bore the weight of his decision, thus giving it an inherent value.

Nothing is stopping him from deleting one of the items in order to give himself that special feeling of increased inherent value. Let him do so and then he can enjoy his old system while we enjoy the new.

Intuos.3210:

It used to be a fun simple process that would open in a separate window
We just sort of transmute and hope for the best now?

It is actually just as simple, if not more so, you chose your armor piece, chose the skin and then click the go button.

then you…

1) Don’t need to waste a weapon – under some circumstances this could be expensive.
2) Can make multiple weapons that have the same skin
3) you don’t even need to keep the original item the skin came on, this can save room
4) the item you are changing keeps it’s stats and Rune or sigil – no need to choose

The only down side to this is weapon sigils and armor runes you have put on Karma gear.. Originally by combining the two you could move the upgrade onto a salvageable piece of equipment and then recover it with a BL salvage kit. This is no longer possible and, as usual, anet refuse to comment on this issue.

The cure would have been simple, make karma gear salvageable but not give any materials. Then make the original upgrades account bound, zero value, and not accepted by Zommoros.

Pandaman.4758:

morrolan.9608:

It was changed because they figured out a way to make it easier whilst at the same time getting more money out of players (gems for charges) and cloaking it in an illusion of goodwill.

Did you forget how the old system worked? We had Transmutation Stones and Transmutation Crystals, the former was free from map completion but only worked on level 1-79 items, while the latter was only available in the gem store and the only option for transmuting level 80 skins.

We went from being required to buy Crystals to being able to use the free charges we get from map completion/PvP tracks/login rewards and you consider than an illusion of goodwill?

Not just that but before you also needed a skin for every transmutation you wanted to make. You had a thief with dual pistols? that required 2 Aetherized Pistol skins which as we know are quite expensive. Even not going to extremes, there are plenty of named exotics that are quite expensive to get before you had to fork out gold for every single skin you wanted which means there was a bigger chance for arenanet to get some money out of people converting gems to gold to cover said expenses.

I dont see how this change is supposed to be a clever way for Anet to make money, if anything they removed some of the opportunities they had to make money in the name for more player convenience.

you had fun transmuting?

Intuos.3210:

It used to be a fun simple process that would open in a separate window.

Now it’s a simpler process and arguably more fun:

• Select the item to transmute.
• Click the skin
• Repeat until done
• Accept changes.

No need to find two items for each transmute — it’s all in the same window. No need to be careful about which side you click; it’s always the skin on the left, item on the right. No need to be careful about keeping the “right” upgrade or stats; you always keep your original stats.

Intuos.3210:

How do i know which items skin and which stats I’ll get?

Skin is always on the left; stats always on the right.

Intuos.3210:

And we cant choose which rune we want to keep.

You don’t need to ‘choose’ the rune — you keep the one you already have.

Intuos.3210:

We just sort of transmute and hope for the best now?

No, you used to have to “hope” that you didn’t misclick. Now, you always retain the original stats/upgrades.

There is a preview so chances of misclicking are very low, and the charges are available free from just logging onto a toon regularly, as PvP rewards and for mapping. So even if you do put the wrong skin on it usually isn’t the end of the world.

Then they exchanged all the fairly useless up to lvl 79 Transmutation Stones for charges, 3 for 1. As I, and many others, rarely if ever used transmutation before level 80 those Transmutation Stones were fairly worthless. I had over a stack of them.

This was actually one of the biggest pieces of goodwill anet has ever done in GW history.

Unfortunately, for this user, it just seems to take something away from the whole process. In GW2 and GW1 before it everything was the skins – otherwise there wouldn’t be a price difference between weapons with rare skins and those with expensive skins. So really the change was just going back to previous principles.

This is all psychological, I thought about it when they first brought the Trans charges out. I won’t be volunteering to go back.

The old system sucked -extremely- hard. You needed to acquire the skin again for each item you wanted to have the look, e.g. on alts. You needed to destroy an item just to put its looks on another one. You needed real life money for it. You needed lots of bank space to store your “skins”. It was hands down the worst skin customization system I have seen in any MMO, ever.

The new one is MUCH better.

That being said, it still falls short when it still insists to charge real life money every time you’re changing your look. I firmly believe that this is wrong, wrong, wrong. Charging for unlocking skins is fine, charging for changing skins you already have unlocked is evil nickle and diming.
The new system still discourages characters from transmuting their skins until max level (why use real life money to customize a skin you’re going to throw away in a few levels?) and it still encourages characters to decide for one look at stick to it for a very long time. In contrast to what we’d do in real life, which is NOT wearing the same dress every day. What’s the point of collecting skins of the game discourages you from wearing more than one? I don’t get that.

Kimyrielle.3826:

The old system sucked -extremely- hard. You needed to acquire the skin again for each item you wanted to have the look, e.g. on alts. You needed to destroy an item just to put its looks on another one. You needed real life money for it. It was hands down the worst skin customization system I have seen in any MMO, ever.

The new one is MUCH better.

That being said, it still falls short when it still insists to charge you every time you’re changing your look. I firmly believe that this is wrong, wrong, wrong. Charging for unlocking skins is fine, charging for changing skins you already have unlocked is evil nickle and diming.
The new system still discourages characters from transmuting their skins until max level (why use real life money to customize a skin you’re going to throw away in a few levels?) and it still encourages characters to decide for one look at stick to it for a very long time. In contrast to what we’d do in real life, which is NOT wearing the same dress every day. What’s the point of collecting skins of the game discourages you from wearing more than one? I don’t get that.

And you don’t have to spend a single penny on transmutation charges if you do not want to.

And this new system is LESS discouraging for wearing multiple skins. I seem to recall the ONLY way to change the skins on level 80 items before the change was to BUY gems or convert gold to gems to get transmutation crystals. Now we get them for free for doing map completion and logging into the game.

Seera.5916:

Kimyrielle.3826:

The old system sucked -extremely- hard. You needed to acquire the skin again for each item you wanted to have the look, e.g. on alts. You needed to destroy an item just to put its looks on another one. You needed real life money for it. It was hands down the worst skin customization system I have seen in any MMO, ever.

The new one is MUCH better.

That being said, it still falls short when it still insists to charge you every time you’re changing your look. I firmly believe that this is wrong, wrong, wrong. Charging for unlocking skins is fine, charging for changing skins you already have unlocked is evil nickle and diming.
The new system still discourages characters from transmuting their skins until max level (why use real life money to customize a skin you’re going to throw away in a few levels?) and it still encourages characters to decide for one look at stick to it for a very long time. In contrast to what we’d do in real life, which is NOT wearing the same dress every day. What’s the point of collecting skins of the game discourages you from wearing more than one? I don’t get that.

And you don’t have to spend a single penny on transmutation charges if you do not want to.

And this new system is LESS discouraging for wearing multiple skins. I seem to recall the ONLY way to change the skins on level 80 items before the change was to BUY gems or convert gold to gems to get transmutation crystals. Now we get them for free for doing map completion and logging into the game.

You must have missed the line where I wrote that the new system is MUCH (in caps!) better than the utterly stupid one they launched the game with. And saying that I am not obliged to buy cash shop items is Captain Obvious at its finest. :p
Yes, you get free charges, but they are not enough to fund changing your wardrobe overly often (mine hasn’t changed in ages and I never use any charges for non-max characters either).
I wish they’d have just done what many other MMOs do and not charge for changing (unlocked) skins at all. They could still make money in other ways. Such as releasing more skins we can buy. shrug