Guild Wars 2

Hi there everyone (and Devs, if Im lucky)

Wanted to bring up this for a long time now, finally got the courage to write about it. The 500 Watchwork Sprocket that goes into a single armor makes it inaccessible. Even the basic exotic armor version. But yeah Willy hears ya, you can stat change your ascended armor. Well whoopdi-doo still need 6×500 of the kitten things (so Willy don care).

Personally I would love to try out some healing Dps builds, but no other armor allows it so no theory-crafting for any of us with that kind of play-style. But wait, I`ve got a solution!

Decrease the requirement of Watchwork Sprocket to 50 instead of 500 per armor ( OMG ECONOMY BREAK – shus-) but ONLY for Exotics. Ascended can have its 500×6 little bundle of joy.

Now before you type a hateful or cynical comment, I just want to run a healer without Zerker gear (somewhat efficiently). Thank you for your time.

P.S.: I would even settle for a 100 Watchwork Sprocket per armor cost. Anything helps at this point.

Zealot’s armor needs to have it’s material costs re-examined, badly.

It was created when 500 sprockets were nothing and the current living story gave you tons, it’s not like that anymore. It was a sink for them when they needed one.

If the price on the TP would go up, I’d sell off some of my many, many stacks. Alas, still not worth the inventory spots.

OP: Do you have the sprocket generator in your home instance? When my bank is full (2000) I sell a stack or two, and I have a whole row of them in my personal guild bank, however many that is.

Oh, I also use the sprocket pick. And I cheat and take my other 4 accounts into my home most days, so that many more sprockets.

Still, doesn’t a stack sell for like 2g?

Yes. I do.

The point is…if they aren’t selling for enough to make me part with them, they can’t be that expensive to buy. Gather some mats, sell them off; there’s your 12 Gold or so. =)

25g plus the rest of the mats Im only asking for exotic.

I’ve made a set of exotic zealot’s gear, so I understand your frustration. I have on the back-burner a plan to make a set of ascended, too. To do either takes a lot of time to gather the sprockets, a lot of money to purchase the sprockets, or somewhere in the middle.

I approach it via time. I bought the sprocket generator for my home instance, and the watchwork mining pick. I have a few alts set to farm iron ore in Brisban Wildlands. I utilize the shared inventory slot for the mining pick, and any toon I have logged in equips that mining pick… farmer or main. You will get them faster than you think… but it will take some time.

As a side note, I do find Zealot’s useful for doing a dps/healing hybrid, so I can recommend it (otherwise I wouldn’t bother considering ascended, hehe).

~EW

Im thinking about makin it for either my tempes for aura healing or guardian for a pure of heart block healing build with aegis spamming (if they fix the overlapping block bugs). Both full set also wepons I only have the generator and also working on the aetherblade backpack so yeah…
Gated gear is gated.

Sprockets are close to a two year low. And there’s really nowhere that you’re going to wear exotic armor that would benefit from healing power. General and open world PvE don’t need it, nor do dungeons. For high level fractals and raids you’ll want ascended gear, and in that case if you’re worrying about a few gold worth of sprockets you’ll faint at what ascended will cost. If you’re really stubborn, mix and match some zerk and magi and you can get close to what zealot would look like, but I can’t imagine why anyone would bother.

Yeah, Sprockets are actually much cheaper than commensurate materials used to create Exotic gear. Heck, they’re even cheaper than Elder Wood these days!

Just flying by pointing out that to craft zerker insignias the cost is roughly the same and no one has complained(and yes I know there is other ways to get those other than crafting), and in reality raids are the only place you’d ever really need zealot gear so if you can’t cough up the cost needed to make them: play a dps~~~~~~~~

I’ve the generator in my home instance, and sell sprockets off relatively regularly. I don’t make a whole lot out of them (about which I’m not particularly bothered). Yet I can agree 3000 of the things might be a tad over zealous - pun entirely intended.

EDIT!! Over zealous in terms of exotic armour, I mean.

Im getting really tired of ppl telling me how to play the game and in what gear. I already play the most efficient stuff on 3 toons. Sue me for tryin to be clever with a build

Like I would like to play Tempest in melee range and sustain myself with heals (also allies), while doing realtively good dmg.
But yeah I KNOW >.> That is not the build on metabattle. booohoo
Again Willy hears ya, but Willy don care.

Anet mentioned, that they would like to improve the acessability of different armor stats. Now lowering only the exotics requirement ain’t that big of a deal. And like you said “Just flying by pointing out that to craft zerker insignias the cost is roughly the same and no one has complained.” Sure lets make a sub-favoured armor the same price like the highest bought and most popular, stat that 100% works. Seems logical

Ceridwen.6703:

I’ve the generator in my home instance, and sell sprockets off relatively regularly. I don’t make a whole lot out of them (about which I’m not particularly bothered). Yet I can agree 3000 of the things might be a tad over zealous – pun entirely intended.

EDIT!! Over zealous in terms of exotic armour, I mean.

Made my mornin! ty

Just buy the things? They’re really not expensive.

Szeraf.5781:

Im getting really tired of ppl telling me how to play the game and in what gear. I already play the most efficient stuff on 3 toons. Sue me for tryin to be clever with a build

Like I would like to play Tempest in melee range and sustain myself with heals (also allies), while doing realtively good dmg.
But yeah I KNOW >.> That is not the build on metabattle. booohoo
Again Willy hears ya, but Willy don care.

+1 Lol. Much of my endgame fun is playing with builds, and as I mentioned earlier I had some good success with a zealots/clerics mix…. though not on a tempest/ele, but my warrior. I hope you find it fun, too!

~EW

If you are buying sprockets for this you are definitely doing it wrong because the Watchwork Mechanisms are cheaper. I can get a stack a day if I try but at current prices it is not worth trying.

I made a set of Zealot armor. Only I made 6 ascended insignia and realized that I couldn’t get a recipe that used them. So, I made 6 exotic insignia and changed the stats in the forge. Oh, what a waste of gold.

Szeraf.5781:

Im getting really tired of ppl telling me how to play the game and in what gear. I already play the most efficient stuff on 3 toons. Sue me for tryin to be clever with a build

If you don’t post complaints about how hard it is to craft the gear you want, people won’t respond with alternatives and easier to make options. You’re inviting comments by posting in a public forum, then complaining that your post gets responses.

Try harder next time, don’t be so obvious about it.

Anet really need to balance the cost to make each of the armor stats. Maybe have it so you can just buy the insignia of any stat off a vender like soldier stats. The price to make some of the newer stat’s is stupid. Why should players be penalized for wanting to try a different play style, Using the same one over and over gets boring fast for some people.

Stiofan.6720:

Anet really need to balance the cost to make each of the armor stats. Maybe have it so you can just buy the insignia of any stat off a vender like soldier stats. The price to make some of the newer stat’s is stupid. Why should players be penalized for wanting to try a different play style, Using the same one over and over gets boring fast for some people.

I agree, this has been a problem for a while.

While viper is a TON cheaper than release, it’s still not comparable to walking up to a karma vendor and buying my full set of gear(zerker).

Zero reason for there to be any variance in difficulty of obtaining gear of the same tier regardless of stats. It’s just not good for the players.

tolunart.2095:

Szeraf.5781:

Im getting really tired of ppl telling me how to play the game and in what gear. I already play the most efficient stuff on 3 toons. Sue me for tryin to be clever with a build

If you don’t post complaints about how hard it is to craft the gear you want, people won’t respond with alternatives and easier to make options. You’re inviting comments by posting in a public forum, then complaining that your post gets responses.

Try harder next time, don’t be so obvious about it.

I showed my complaint and also added my own solution. I invited ppls opinion on my solution or to offer something constructive to achieve a 6piece exotic/ ascended zealot set. Not to tell me how I should play my characters. This is about gear acquisition,as the title shows, not builds or play-style. End of argument.

Watchwork Mechanism prices are up to 9gold a piece now. (2×250 Sprockets 8g50s)
9 gold x 6 exotic armor: 56 gold.
I think this is still a problem.

Szeraf.5781:

Watchwork Mechanism prices are up to 9gold a piece now. (2×250 Sprockets 8g50s)
9 gold x 6 exotic armor: 56 gold.
I think this is still a problem.

5 vials of powerful blood are currently running around 4.2g total on the TP. Whereas the Watchwork Mechanism is around 8g (according to GW2Spidy).

On one hand you could say: “the WM is almost double the price of its berserker counterpart!!!”

On the other hand you could say: “it’s roughly only 4 gold difference. 4 gold doesn’t take that much time to earn in the game.”

I don’t think this is the problem you do, sorry. Even celestial equipment requiring 125 quartz crystals each (costing an estimated 12.42g on the TP, plus a 5-day total time gate for each piece of equipment) is still doable.

~EW

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Szeraf.5781:

Watchwork Mechanism prices are up to 9gold a piece now. (2×250 Sprockets 8g50s)
9 gold x 6 exotic armor: 56 gold.
I think this is still a problem.

5 vials of powerful blood are currently running around 4.2g total on the TP. Whereas the Watchwork Mechanism is around 8g (according to GW2Spidy).

On one hand you could say: “the WM is almost double the price of its berserker counterpart!!!”

On the other hand you could say: “it’s roughly only 4 gold difference. 4 gold doesn’t take that much time to earn in the game.”

I don’t think this is the problem you do, sorry. Even celestial equipment requiring 125 quartz crystals each (costing an estimated 12.42g on the TP, plus a 5-day total time gate for each piece of equipment) is still doable.

~EW

Berzerker counterpart is 42K karma. I have almost over 1 mill Karma.
Quartz at least can be farmed: 3 nodes, 1 Skritt queen Rich node, 1 home instance node. The only way to acquier sprockets is to farm the Generator (12-18 daily) in home aaaaaand thats about it. OR to BUY a 1000 GEMS minepick.

So without spending 20 bucks to make it faster, lets calculate shall we?
Lets say we get 15 on average. 500/15 =33 days a piece or 8-9 gold.
Compare it to the low low cost of Berzerker meta armor for the total of freaking nothing 42K Karma.

Szeraf.5781:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Szeraf.5781:

Watchwork Mechanism prices are up to 9gold a piece now. (2×250 Sprockets 8g50s)
9 gold x 6 exotic armor: 56 gold.
I think this is still a problem.

5 vials of powerful blood are currently running around 4.2g total on the TP. Whereas the Watchwork Mechanism is around 8g (according to GW2Spidy).

On one hand you could say: “the WM is almost double the price of its berserker counterpart!!!”

On the other hand you could say: “it’s roughly only 4 gold difference. 4 gold doesn’t take that much time to earn in the game.”

I don’t think this is the problem you do, sorry. Even celestial equipment requiring 125 quartz crystals each (costing an estimated 12.42g on the TP, plus a 5-day total time gate for each piece of equipment) is still doable.

~EW

Berzerker counterpart is 42K karma. I have almost over 1 mill Karma.

This particular part of the overall discussion seems to be about purchasing the mats on the TP, so that’s what I restricted my comments to… otherwise I could have added other means such as karma use, home instances, etc.

~EW

The problem is that the system was established during LS1, when everything puked the stuff. The base idea again, lower the exotic armor cost and leave the Ascended. Let people play around with a damage healer hybrid. Diversity pls.

aaaand… since you added this next part….

Szeraf.5781:

Quartz at least can be farmed: 3 nodes, 1 Skritt queen Rich node, 1 home instance node. The only way to acquier sprockets is to farm the Generator (12-18 daily) in home aaaaaand thats about it. OR to BUY a 1000 GEMS minepick.

So without spending 20 bucks to make it faster, lets calculate shall we?
Lets say we get 15 on average. 500/15 =33 days a piece or 8-9 gold.
Compare it to the low low cost of Berzerker meta armor for the total of freaking nothing 42K Karma.

Comparing prices is dumb. It’s about accessibility. Does it require more effort to get watchwork? yes. Is it unobtainable or unreasonable? I think no. It’s about setting your priorities of what you want. 8-9g is NOT difficult or slow to obtain in-game. If you are having difficulties figuring out how, there are plenty of means and ways to do so that many players have posted about; so search the forums.

If you want something bad enough you find a way. If you don’t want something bad enough you find excuses and complain on the internet.

~EW

Szeraf.5781:

Watchwork Mechanism prices are up to 9gold a piece now. (2×250 Sprockets 8g50s)
9 gold x 6 exotic armor: 56 gold.
I think this is still a problem.

I go completely the other way here. That’s a few, very casual days, of farming or running Tarir meta (gold to buying sprockets). If you have the watchwork sprocket pick and/or the home instance sprocket generator, it’s even faster. If you’re serious, it can be done in less than a day.

Are entitled people just looking for instant gratification here?

Shademehr.1397:

Szeraf.5781:

Watchwork Mechanism prices are up to 9gold a piece now. (2×250 Sprockets 8g50s)
9 gold x 6 exotic armor: 56 gold.
I think this is still a problem.

I go completely the other way here. That’s a few, very casual days, of farming or running Tarir meta (gold to buying sprockets). If you have the watchwork sprocket pick and/or the home instance sprocket generator, it’s even faster. If you’re serious, it can be done in less than a day.

Are entitled people just looking for instant gratification here?

Yeah, Im a lazy slob sloth. A few Tarir, right íagain asking for THE EXOTIC VEWRSION to be less of a cost from the Sprockets side. Jesus do you even read?

Szeraf.5781:

Shademehr.1397:

Szeraf.5781:

Watchwork Mechanism prices are up to 9gold a piece now. (2×250 Sprockets 8g50s)
9 gold x 6 exotic armor: 56 gold.
I think this is still a problem.

I go completely the other way here. That’s a few, very casual days, of farming or running Tarir meta (gold to buying sprockets). If you have the watchwork sprocket pick and/or the home instance sprocket generator, it’s even faster. If you’re serious, it can be done in less than a day.

Are entitled people just looking for instant gratification here?

Yeah, Im a lazy slob sloth. A few Tarir, right íagain asking for THE EXOTIC VEWRSION to be less of a cost from the Sprockets side. Jesus do you even read?

My point was the cost is fine as-is. Thanks for pointing out that you’re a lazy slob sloth though I guess (your words not mine). Also, thanks for calling me Jesus I guess?

Just add some Karma vendors and lets get over it…

How do you even reliably get watchwork sprockets without paying gems for that mining pick? And for that matter I’ve looked in the gem store and it doesn’t even seem to always be available

OriOri.8724:

How do you even reliably get watchwork sprockets without paying gems for that mining pick? And for that matter I’ve looked in the gem store and it doesn’t even seem to always be available

The gift of sprockets is a reliable means, but it is slow. The mining pick is hands-down still the best way, though.

There are also community options if you don’t want to or can’t buy the gift or pick… Such as if you’re part of a larger guild, inquire if there’s anyone who’d sell you sprockets at a discount… or if someone would let you mine their home instance. There’s also the “Gifting Strangers” thread in the Players Helping Players sub-forum…. where you can request help, and find someone to help out in return in some other way.

~EW

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

OriOri.8724:

How do you even reliably get watchwork sprockets without paying gems for that mining pick? And for that matter I’ve looked in the gem store and it doesn’t even seem to always be available

The gift of sprockets is a reliable means, but it is slow. The mining pick is hands-down still the best way, though.

There are also community options if you don’t want to or can’t buy the gift or pick… Such as if you’re part of a larger guild, inquire if there’s anyone who’d sell you sprockets at a discount… or if someone would let you mine their home instance. There’s also the “Gifting Strangers” thread in the Players Helping Players sub-forum…. where you can request help, and find someone to help out in return in some other way.

~EW

Another way similar to the “Gifting Strangers” idea mentioned above ^^^, is to just watch the map chat in the main cities, especially DR. When I harvest my home instances, I typically ask if anyone else would like to join me. Conversely, you may be able to ask in map chat as well. There are many generous souls in GW2.

OriOri.8724:

How do you even reliably get watchwork sprockets without paying gems for that mining pick? And for that matter I’ve looked in the gem store and it doesn’t even seem to always be available

The mining pick costs 1000 gems = ~300 gold (since gems are reliably converted these days at ~30g/100). At less than 1.9 silver/sprocket, 300 gold gets you over 15000 sprockets, i.e. over 60 stacks. You only need 12 stacks for a set of Zealot’s.

Not that long ago, 1000 gems was 200 gold and sprox ran at 3.9s each, & 200g still would have got you over 20 stacks.

tl;dr don’t buy the mining pick to generate sprox; just buy what you need and be done with it
(If you plan on buying an everlasting tool for any reason, the Watchwork is by far the most economically efficient, as it will pay for itself more quickly than the others. But it’s not a good money-making tool unless you plan to spend hours mining, day-in/day-out)

On the question of the costs of Zealot’s exotic: it’s a little nuts. Which is why I go cleric’s instead for exotic. I’d only bother going zealot’s for Ascended. Either way, you might as well spend the coin for what you want now — ANet isn’t likely to change the acquisition methods anytime soon (if ever).