Guild Wars 2

Anyone else remember when Hero Points used to be Skill Points? And then any that weren’t used were converted to Spirit Shards. Well, my issue is that myself, and many other people, are now wanting more hero points. I do understand that there are some accessible, but when they used to be skill point scrolls, I stocked up and saved them. I held the belief that this was a wiser option that just spending them randomly on characters that may not have needed them at the time, since they had the option to be kept to use account wide. These later got converted to spirit shards, which seem to not be able to be converted back in the skill points/hero points that they once were and could have been. I have over 3,000 spirit shards, and not much use for them. The vast majority of those were initially earned as skill points (now hero points) and it almost feels as if they have just been revoked from me since they are no longer exchangeable or usable for the same purposes. I kept them instead of spending them because I have multiple characters, and felt like it was somewhat of an investment or safety measure for the future, if I wanted to use them later then I would still have the option to use what I had earned. I did not realize that the conversion to being spirit shards would negate their original purpose and function, this is the reason I feel that I have essentially been robbed of something that I earned. I understand mastery tracks and specializations being hard to earn, but I don’t feel like it is right to take away something that people have earned, to later make them need it again with no way to retrieve it, even if they never actually spent them. I’m not asking for anything “free” I just feel it would be better justice to reward players for the hard work they have done in the past if they didn’t spend certain points yet, such as my case. I legitimately earned them as one currency, which was valuable, and they were removed from that purpose and brought back as being needed again, but not retrievable in their original form. I feel my hard work and foresight to save them up as an investment has now greatly set me back, and that I have earned those hero points already, that I now would like to be able to apply to my account. I would love to have a way for them to be restored.

I sent in a support ticket to address this, and the GM responded: “With the change of the skill point functionality all players were awarded with the necessary Hero Points and Spirit Shards to continue having a good game experience. We are not offering any compensation for this change in the game mechanics, we can only advise that you keep playing to earn enough Hero Points to unlock the specializations.”

So if players were given a pre-determined number of points, that is quite unfair to players who already did grinding and saving of skill points before the change, only to have them taken. This wasn’t too big of an issue before, since there was not much of a need for hero points any further at the time of the change, but bringing back a use for them and having taken away points that players legitimately earned is wrong. That means that at any point in time, some particular currency of ours could be basically deleted or changed, then later have content re-introduced that requires it once we don’t have it anymore, forcing us to do more content that would have been otherwise unnecessary? How does that encourage players to even care about earning things if they may get revoked even when players earned them outright? The whole point of me saving them was to have as a future investment, to save up to use later if I needed them, so I grinded for them at the time, with the hopes that I could be a step ahead later, but still earned it rightfully. That’s like converting all players’ gold to geodes, stop using gold as a currency temporarily so it’s not too relevant, then reinstate gold as a currency forcing players to re-earn everything that had been converted to geodes… <just as an example. I earned them, it isn’t right for them to have been taken. I was not compensated adequate points that correlate to what I had saved, only the amount ArenaNet allowed. Removing something I earned is not “a good gaming experience.”

TL;DR : I had a few stacks of Skill Point Scrolls saved up before they were converted to Spirit Shards, which do not have the same purpose and function. Now that I need my Skill Points/Hero Points that I earned before, ArenaNet will not retrieve them or compensate for what they removed.

Bump. My thoughts as well. Anet let us use our spirit shards! I wasn’t a fan of my stockpiled skill points disappearing either.

I know this feels. Stolen is strong words, even in scare quotes, but still.

The scrolls you got for Hero Point challenges were refunded and stored as Hero Points. IIRC the other scrolls were from excess EXP over 80 and other rewards. Unless it is a bug, you should have the same amount of HP as the number of challenges you completed in Tyria.

If that is not that case, then I side with you…

The excess scrolls were converted to Spirit Shards, which did not serve the same purpose or function. I would love to have my hard-earned Skill point scrolls given back, and the right to spend them in the way that I choose for they way they were intended and for the reason I grinded in the first place. Not right to have them removed, then re-introduce a need for them later, but they won’t give back what you already earned. Completely negates the work that was done before, really deflating to know that you’ve already earned something, for it to be taken away and be told you need to re-do it with different standards on maps of their choosing.

You had no hero points stolen from you. There are only a finite number of hero points in the game.

There are 398 hero points awarded from leveling up to 80. There are 214 hero points available in Central Tyria (spread out over 214 hero challenges worth 1 point each). There are 400 hero points available in Heart of Maguuma (spread out over 40 hero challenges worth 10 points each).

Spirit shards were converted from skill points obtained for “leveling up” after you hit 80 and from the consumable skill point scrolls.

How they did this was, they reset everyone’s traits and skills. Then they deleted everyone’s skill points after recording the number of skill points they had. They took what level the character was and how many hero challenges they had completed and that became the number of hero points they have. The remaining number of skill points got converted to spirit shards.

In other words if a player had only gotten out of the tutorial instance before the change and a player consumed enough skill point scrolls to max out their skills before the change, they would have had 0 hero points and a bunch of spirit shards. Because they hadn’t hit the appropriate level to get hero points and they had done no hero challenges.

You had no hero points stolen from you because you didn’t use them on skills before the change happened.

They did a switcheroo on our skill points. All those levels we earned were turned into something else. Thought it was a crappy decision to end the skill point system. I think those skill scrolls messed it up. Wish we got to keep the levels we actually earned by doing stuff and not clicking on skill scrolls.

Seera, the skill point scrolls that were removed were usable to be Hero points, only thing required was clicking it, but I lost out on them because I didn’t use them yet. This doesn’t sound fair to take away what I earned just because I didn’t consume it yet. What if gold and karma were removed if you saved it for a period of time without using it? And boosters, champ bags, etc. stay in inventory for use until you decide to click and consume it. I still earned those skill point scrolls, which were used the same as hero points, and they were taken with no reinstatement now that they are needed again.

Vana.6879:

Seera, the skill point scrolls that were removed were usable to be Hero points, only thing required was clicking it, but I lost out on them because I didn’t use them yet. This doesn’t sound fair to take away what I earned just because I didn’t consume it yet. What if gold and karma were removed if you saved it for a period of time without using it? And boosters, champ bags, etc. stay in inventory for use until you decide to click and consume it. I still earned those skill point scrolls, which were used the same as hero points, and they were taken with no reinstatement now that they are needed again.

Okayn,this proves you dont understand the change. Everyone now has the exact same,amount of hero points at max level and map completion and the WvW rewards, there is no more then that. Skill points were endless. They wanted nobody to have the elite unlocked, they want people to work for it, considering that you need 400 points to unlock it, and roughly 400 points to unlock stuff wjile leveling to 80, you’re basically leveling 1 to 80 again without an increased level cap. whicb is fine, Wow and FFXIV do that too, making new level caps take as long aa it took to reach tbe original level cap,even if its ten levels. There was never going to be a hero point scroll like your first sentence in the quote implies, you just assumed there was.

tl:dr just level your masteries so you can get hero points and enjoy the game.