Guild Wars 2

I’m concerned that with precursor crafting, legendary weapons will lose the exclusivity associated with them. Part of the allure of such weapons for some players is that they are desired by many, yet attained by few. The old system has many drawbacks, but one advantage is that by controlling the precursor drop rate, the prevalence of legendary weapons can be controlled. If the drop rate of precursors is %0.01, then only the top %99.99 richest (or luckiest) players will have a certain legendary. A similar principle exists in PvP, where only the top x players on the leaderboard are awarded with mini llamas or glorious hero’s armor.

I believe that an account-bound precursor/legendary crafting would be an improved system if the requirements were extremely time intensive. I think that making the new legendaries exclusive by using time investment as an artificial limiter is the best solution. I think the new process should take at least 4-6 months and several hundred to a thousand hours to complete. This should deter everyone but the most patient and invested of players, and is “fair” in the sense that everyone can work on it at their own pace without losing progress and it is attainable to everyone who is willing to do so. It’s also fair in the sense that anyone who has one of the new account-bound legendaries will have gone through the same process.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Nope. I see Legendaries everywhere. What makes having a credit card prestigious?

Yup, this, basically.

We don’t know how much work will actually go into the precursor collections. Though from what I read, it’s a ton. It’ll probably be just as time-consuming as it would be to save up the gold to buy a precursor now, except probably more rewarding. And as Inculpatus said, so many have legendaries now they’re not rare or unique.

Honestly they arent prestigious now. Most people just farm the gold and buy them.

Hell, players like me who farm all the gold and mats themselves are probably the minority now really.

Only the legendaries that were earned through the PvP tournaments are legitimate legendaries, but you can’t tell the difference. For the rest of the game, it’s SAB TM weapons.

Quite the opposite, actually.

Exclusivity through RNG or high cost on the TP isn’t something I’d really call hard; more like tedious.

Now, however, gaining a Legendary – and precursor – will have a story behind it. The weapon has a place in the world and lore, whereas before they were just random weapons with the Legendary title.

chronometria.3708:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Nope. I see Legendaries everywhere. What makes having a credit card prestigious?

Yup, this, basically.

now what if thur was a system for crafting where you could choose the base weapon, for instance Lord Taeres’s Shadow, that has lore behind it. then choose to include which effects, like the steps u want, and turn it into a legendary.

since u got to choose some of the combination used, it’d be unique

I think the new set of legendaries , not being Sold on the TP (wtf were they thinking?), will be far more prestigious than the current batch ever were.

TheDaiBish.9735:

Quite the opposite, actually.

Exclusivity through RNG or high cost on the TP isn’t something I’d really call hard; more like tedious.

Now, however, gaining a Legendary – and precursor – will have a story behind it. The weapon has a place in the world and lore, whereas before they were just random weapons with the Legendary title.

Very much this. I will respect someone more that worked for a new legendary over someone that paid for a current legendary.

I’ve earned world completion on almost all of my characters to ensure the star is visible beside my name.. Well, and to get the gifts of exploration.

So I’ve made around 16 so far.. Equipped the ones I wanted and sold the ones I didn’t. No gold was purchased, but I am happy that the option is available, as well as farming mats to sell, as well as investing .. because it meant customers for those which I sold.

I don’t care how people get the skins they have, all I care about is how I earned it for myself.

I am excited for the new method (for new legendaries), and I am not concerned that they may “devalue” existing ones.

New cars come out each year that devalue last year’s model.. But that’s life! It doesn’t make my current car any worse than it was last year. It’s still the same car., just easier for people with less to purchase used.

Do the things you want and never look back.

Wonderly.1324:

I’m concerned that with precursor crafting, legendary weapons will lose the exclusivity and prestige associated with them.

LOL?

What “exclusivity”? What “prestige”?

Do you honestly think ANY kind of item in any kind of game is going to make people admire you?

There are some things worth admiring other people for. In-game accomplishments are not those things. Especially in a game like GW2, in which most of the time those “accomplishments” are mindless grind that could have been done by a bot.

Wonderly.1324:

I’m concerned that with precursor crafting, legendary weapons will lose the exclusivity and prestige associated with them. Part of the allure of such weapons for some players is that they are rare, unique, hard to obtain, and that there aren’t that many of them. The old system has many drawbacks, but one advantage is that by controlling the precursor drop rate, the prevalence of legendary weapons can be controlled. If the drop rate of precursors is %0.01, then only the top %99.99 richest (or luckiest) players will have a certain legendary. A similar principle exists in PvP, where only the top x players on the leaderboard are awarded with mini llamas or glorious hero’s armor. Does anyone else share my concern?

Precursors mean nothing but shear dumb luck (or a grind/credit card purchasing it off the BLTP). The actual Legendary itself is a matter of prestige. It requires getting 500 tokens from a specific dungeon; it requires getting map completion, i.e. running the entire game’s content; it requires amassing a great fortune (Gift of Fortune); it requires actually doing the game’s content in order to make and achieve such a thing.

So what if crafting Precursors cuts into your current profits (which is the real concern I get from you), the game needs to change where not 1% of the population is obtaining all the wealth through monopolizing something that A.Net meant to be something special, not a mongering market.

Since there’s nothing difficult in this game, nothing is rly prestigious. Instead of grinding gold in whatever way we want, now we’ll be forced to do specific things, probably lots of boring open world farming.

Legendaries are already a dime a dozen. TBH, the precursor is just a frustrating aspect of it, and it is no barrier to those who have money to spend – so it’s only those who are poor irl that suffer from not having precursor crafting.

The new legendaries will be rarer because you can’t just buy them (or the precursor).

The rarest particle-effecty skin i’ve ever seen is Aether/Azureflame. Next is SAB but they are a different kind of rare and tend to be a bit more common.

This is just me though.

Wonderly.1324:

I’m concerned that with precursor crafting, legendary weapons will lose the exclusivity and prestige associated with them. Part of the allure of such weapons for some players is that they are rare, unique, hard to obtain, and that there aren’t that many of them. The old system has many drawbacks, but one advantage is that by controlling the precursor drop rate, the prevalence of legendary weapons can be controlled. If the drop rate of precursors is %0.01, then only the top %99.99 richest (or luckiest) players will have a certain legendary. A similar principle exists in PvP, where only the top x players on the leaderboard are awarded with mini llamas or glorious hero’s armor. Does anyone else share my concern?

What exclusivity and prestige? Any credit card warrior can buy one at the moment. Under this new system, you’ll actually have to go adventuring and exploring to get them.

If I had a gold for every legendary I’ve seen in game I’d be able to buy my own legendary right now. Not exactly what I’d call “rare”.

And they’ll still be hard to obtain in the new system. Heck, they might even be harder to obtain than the current legendaries. Just not the kind of hard that involves copious amounts of luck / RNG, but rather the type of hard that requires some specific work and tasks to be completed.

they never have been “legendary”, they always were heavily dependant on sheer luck. The only noteworthy requirement that had nothing to do with farming/money and required some competence has been the WvW completion, and even that is gone now. So no, if anything, the kind of quest system they are now implementing does not make it worse – maybe even better, depending on the requirements. Though chances are, being the casual company for casual players, completing the quests will not require any excellence.

If the new lengendarys are like most of the old ones, I’m still not interested in them: a disco ball on a stick, a party gun, a bow that shoots unicorns etc. Most of this are joke shop items at best more suited to April 1st.

Legendary weapons stopped being legendary the second they took WvW complition out, in my opinion.

coglin.1867:

Legendary weapons stopped being legendary the second they took WvW complition out, in my opinion.

lol, wvw map completion makes them legendary? Please tell me you are kidding. I did that once before the change and didn’t fight one single other player. It just took time. SO LEGENDARY.

Wonderly.1324:

If the drop rate of precursors is %0.01, then only the top %99.99 richest (or luckiest) players will have a certain legendary.

That is patently not true. It would be true only if said drop chance was checked only once ever per each person, but, as you well know, it’s not so. In fact, there are people that are producing precursors (just as there are people that random dropped more than one).

Currently the precursors are being obtained by several categories of players, and the biggest one is neither the luckiest, or the wealthiest, but simply people that are willing to put some effort into it. And if currently most people are not willing to do that, i see no reason for the situation to change after HoT. It’s not like these new precursor collections will be a cakewalk.

And the new legendaries will not be buyable, by the way, which will make them far more “exclusive” and “prestigious” (as much as a virtual set of data in a computer game you are certain to get if you are willing to work for it can confer any prestige) than current ones.

Astralporing.1957:

Wonderly.1324:

If the drop rate of precursors is %0.01, then only the top %99.99 richest (or luckiest) players will have a certain legendary.

That is patently not true. It would be true only if said drop chance was checked only once ever per each person, but, as you well know, it’s not so. In fact, there are people that are producing precursors (just as there are people that random dropped more than one).

Currently the precursors are being obtained by several categories of players, and the biggest one is neither the luckiest, or the wealthiest, but simply* people that are willing to put some effort into it.* And if currently most people are not willing to do that, i see no reason for the situation to change after HoT. It’s not like these new precursor collections will be a cakewalk.

And the new legendaries will not be buyable, by the way, which will make them far more “exclusive” and “prestigious” (as much as a virtual set of data in a computer game you are certain to get if you are willing to work for it can confer any prestige) than current ones.

Effort has nothing to do with it. It’s all about luck or money.

Everyone else has already said it all, currently legendaries aren’t exclusive and they’re everywhere and have little to no prestige.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Nope. I see Legendaries everywhere. What makes having a credit card prestigious?

As a person who didn’t spent a dime of real money in more then 2 years i find my minstrel really prestigious.

Rofl prestige. I made sunrise for me, not for some imaginary internet points.

By the way, if you decide to buy a legendary off the credit. How much would it cost you anyways???

Wonderly.1324:

Does anyone else share my concern?

Nope. I don’t think anyone will agree with you with multiple reasons given in the replies above.

Ralanost.8913:

coglin.1867:

Legendary weapons stopped being legendary the second they took WvW complition out, in my opinion.

lol, wvw map completion makes them legendary? Please tell me you are kidding. I did that once before the change and didn’t fight one single other player. It just took time. SO LEGENDARY.

rofl, lol, lol, pmsl… I did not write legendary, but I guess you were too enarmored with last decade´s juvenile internet lingo to notice. And yes, WvW apparently stood out, telling from the incessant complaints by people not competent enough to do it in this very forum for years. Rofl.

Is really the exclusivity their grindy and RNG based nature provide the one you seek?

The only real prestige weapons/armour any more are SAB Tribulation Mode skins and Glorious Heros armor. They’re the only ones that require you complete difficult content, without being carried, without depending on rare RNG drops, or paying large amounts of money.

High cost non-legendary skins are still gold locked. (Infinite Light (for those who crafted it rather than got it in sPvP), Immobulus, Mjolnir, spirit weapons).

Fractal weapons are too RNG dependent to be considered prestige, plus if you’re lucky you can get them from as low as level 11 (I got my spear from a level 13 while helping a guildmate level up).

Arah armor was considered prestige, but due to the fact you can buy Arah completions, it’s not any more.

Some of the old sPVP only armor skins would also count, since they are available no other way. The only full set of this is Tribal. Parts of several other sets are available in the story, but the full set was sPVP only (Apostle, Marauder, Heavy Scale, Stalwart)

Healix.5819:

Only the legendaries that were earned through the PvP tournaments are legitimate legendaries, but you can’t tell the difference. For the rest of the game, it’s SAB TM weapons.

I fail to see how buying a gem store item and having 12 hours a day to RNG your way through a maze is any more legendary than farming gold for 12 hours a day. Neither require skill, just lots of money and/or time.

As you said the only legendary rewards in the game right now are through PvP, probably the glorious hero’s armor is the biggest skill based item. There just aren’t any other challenges in the game. If they rewarded S1 Lindari a unique skin then that would probably have come the closest.

Flamealchemist.2681:

By the way, if you decide to buy a legendary off the credit. How much would it cost you anyways???

$400+. I don’t think many people did that.

New ways of obtaining precursors and the current login rewards will certainly make legendary weapons more easily obtainable. Grinding gold for precursor (when they were 1300g each) / mats (when it actually required work to get laurels) would take much longer for an average player.

I looked at legendary weapons more in the way of….we all start out as heroes, and as such, we will all have the capability of becoming “legendary” heroes the more we progress through the story and make a name for ourselves. The legendary weapons just show off how we are progressing through the living story.

Legendary weapons in GW2 aren’t like the ones on other MMOs. They’re not super powerful weapons with interesting effects and higher stats. Sure, you can change their stats, but in terms of mechanics, they’re the same as ascended with fancy animations and looks.

If anything, the update is fixing Legendaries and adding personal prestige to them. What makes these weapons unique (well one thing) is the LEGEND. In history, named weapons like Excalibur were well known because of the story behind them and the hero that wielded them. In fact RP-wise, any weapon could have a legend behind it. It might not look fancy-schmancy, but it’ll still be legen….

wait for it…

wait for iiiiiit…

dary.

Legendaries had exclusivity??? Lol?
Who doesn’t have fourteen Twilights these days?

It’s a skin. It takes a bit of effort to get, but in the end, it’s a skin. I decided I liked Incinerator the other day. Guess what? I’m gonna go on a little journey to get it. If a new legendary comes out that I like, I might get it too. There’s nothing legendary about an item you can literally just decide. “You know, I’m gonna get that. Let me just go do a couple things that I can do by myself without thinking, aaaaaaaaand now it’s mine. Lovely.”

Considering most of the “legendaries” are either utterly vainglorious or joke weapons, not many people actually care if you or anyone else has one. Nevermind that every boss zerg I see has at least 10 of them floating around, they’re not all that exclusive.

I could have Meteorologicus already, but it’s kinda.. dumb, so I don’t care to go through the obvious RNG/cash grind to finish it. I’m more willing to do Ascended crafting for the BiS.

I’m usually more impressed by the people who have the rare exotics than the legends.

Excludee.3850:

Legendaries had exclusivity??? Lol?
Who doesn’t have fourteen Twilights these days?

I know you are being sarcastic, but i dont! the greatsword legendarys are ugly(imo) I much prefer my Minstrel

Excludee.3850:

I’m usually more impressed by the people who have the rare exotics than the legends.

but what if u could, say, craft your rare exotic into a legendary. with all the glowing, footsteppin, stat swapping?

Jaxom.7310:

Excludee.3850:

I’m usually more impressed by the people who have the rare exotics than the legends.

but what if u could, say, craft your rare exotic into a legendary. with all the glowing, footsteppin, stat swapping?

Then it would mean you were lucky enough to have a precursor. =P

Looking forward to the new Legendary task list. As long as it’s not RNG grinding.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Nope. I see Legendaries everywhere. What makes having a credit card prestigious?

As I said, the old system has flaws. One of the biggest one would be that it is indistinguishable whether someone got a legendary through luck (precursor drop), through rolling a credit card, or through effort and commitment (running dungeons or play the game to obtain gold and materials sheerly through gameplay).

I admit that the new legendaries eliminate the first two variables and ensures that everyone with a certain legendary has endured the same trials and put forth the same effort, which is great! It’s ideal. However the new system lacks the competitiveness inherent in a market. (In the old system, it’s not about having a set amount of gold- it’s about having MORE gold, or obtaining gold at a faster rate than everyone else. At one point in time, 30 gold could buy you a precursor, or 300 gold, or 1200 gold. The price adjusts as more gold enters the system such that it will always cost the amount of gold that reflects that which the most dedicated players can amass).

I like that the new system (for the new legendaries anyway) eliminate extraneous variables. I hope that it will be difficult and time intensive enough to attain that it will deter the majority of the population, or otherwise incorporate some element of competitiveness such that only the players who are willing and able to invest the most time and effort and perhaps some level of skill will be able to obtain them.

what ’’prestigious’’ are we talking about??? everyone and their mother has like 4-5 legendary already if they played since launch I don’t see point on whining for the old legendaries now since the new ones can only be get by crafting/doing with masteries and is NOT TRADEABLE. Which means that even if you get new precursors from Mystic Forge OR drop you cant sell it

Astralporing.1957:

Wonderly.1324:

If the drop rate of precursors is %0.01, then only the top %99.99 richest (or luckiest) players will have a certain legendary.

That is patently not true. It would be true only if said drop chance was checked only once ever per each person, but, as you well know, it’s not so. In fact, there are people that are producing precursors (just as there are people that random dropped more than one).

Currently the precursors are being obtained by several categories of players, and the biggest one is neither the luckiest, or the wealthiest, but simply people that are willing to put some effort into it. And if currently most people are not willing to do that, i see no reason for the situation to change after HoT. It’s not like these new precursor collections will be a cakewalk.

And the new legendaries will not be buyable, by the way, which will make them far more “exclusive” and “prestigious” (as much as a virtual set of data in a computer game you are certain to get if you are willing to work for it can confer any prestige) than current ones.

Thank you for thoughtfully addressing my concern. I would agree with the idea that in an ideal scenario, precursors should be obtained by neither the luckiest nor the wealthiest (though purchasing gems aside, in game wealth is usually an indicator of effort and/or skill), but by those who are willing to set forth effort. I do not believe that is the case for the current system because in-game wealth can indicate skill (dungeon solo/selling, speed clearing), effort and time commitment (doing the same dungeons or other easier tasks that generate gold… for a much longer period of time), or, as others have pointed out, luck or converting irl wealth to gems to gold. Please explain why you believe that in the current system and the new system, those who put in the most effort are those who produce the most precursors. Finally, I agree that the new legendaries would be more “prestigious” in the sense that they signify an amount of dedication and commitment because they can not be purchased, and I believe that is a good thing.

Mono.7320:

what ’’prestigious’’ are we talking about??? everyone and their mother has like 4-5 legendary already if they played since launch I don’t see point on whining for the old legendaries now since the new ones can only be get by crafting/doing with masteries and is NOT TRADEABLE. Which means that even if you get new precursors from Mystic Forge OR drop you cant sell it

Yall need so stop generalizing… Those people who played since launch and FARMED or got lucky and got one from an event, or the mystic toilet have one. I have been playing since launch.

One legendary to my name, got it 5 months ago after farming dungeons for a month, and i have another precursor, that i got by farming gold from SW, donations from lovely guild mates <3 and farming dungeons(Neither of my legendarys are among the most common). Been playing for 942 days, with about 2800 hours played.

My mother has 1 precursor(will seen be a legendary), that i bought her as a Christmas present. Been playing for more days than i have. with about 4000 hours played.

My dad has 0 precursors or legendarys. Been playing the same amount of days as my mom, but only about 1500 hours played.

But people who just started playing have gotten precursor drops…RNG is so fun..
So yea….

Wonderly.1324:

I’m concerned that with precursor crafting, legendary weapons will lose the exclusivity and prestige associated with them. Part of the allure of such weapons for some players is that they are rare, unique, hard to obtain, and that there aren’t that many of them. The old system has many drawbacks, but one advantage is that by controlling the precursor drop rate, the prevalence of legendary weapons can be controlled. If the drop rate of precursors is %0.01, then only the top %99.99 richest (or luckiest) players will have a certain legendary. A similar principle exists in PvP, where only the top x players on the leaderboard are awarded with mini llamas or glorious hero’s armor. Does anyone else share my concern?

No. I feel everyone should have an equal chance to enjoy GW2’s nicest weaponry. The journey to craft the precursors should be arduous and present a strong, rewarding feeling afterward. Legendaries have never been exclusive anyways. The ability to farm the gold to buy a precursor has been there. Granted its not the fastest method, but its how I attained mine.

I think this topic is a great example of why you should never get a legendary (or any other item) because of what you imagine other people will think of it, and of you for owning it.

If you’re getting a legendary for the prestige or the allure of having a rare, hard to obtain item then you are going to be disappointed. It doesn’t matter how you get it, how much (or little) effort or money you put in or how many other people have the same one, you are going to be disappointed. Because very, very few people will care and even fewer will let you know that they care.

In case anyone’s wondering no I’m not just being bitter. I’m very, very close to finishing my first legendary: The Dreamer and really excited about it. I was well aware before I even started that at best everyone else would be indifferent and that some people actually hate this particular legendary. I don’t care, I’m making it for me, not for them and I’m going to enjoy using it even if every single other person in the game gets one before me.

(Also I hate to add more disappointment for the OP but if mini llamas were ever prestigious that ended the moment Team Llama (yes, really) “won” ours in the Tournament of Legends 2 for a glorious default victory over a team who didn’t turn up. We were absolutely slaughtered in our second match, I don’t think we got even 1 point, but that’s hardly surprising considering I think our most experienced member had almost maxed Deer rank. But hey, what do rankings mean when we have a mini to show we’re elite top-ranked PvPers, equal only to people who won one in a Twitch give-away.)

What’s so special about weapons that are tradeable and can pretty much be acquired by anyone willing to spend hundreds of real life dollars for it? I like that now, people like me who can’t justify spending money like that and have terrible RNG luck will be able to actually work for it and achieve something worthwhile. A game shouldn’t be about who has the most money, but rather about how skilled you actually are.

Danikat.8537:

In case anyone’s wondering no I’m not just being bitter. I’m very, very close to finishing my first legendary: The Dreamer and really excited about it. I was well aware before I even started that at best everyone else would be indifferent and that some people actually hate this particular legendary. I don’t care, I’m making it for me, not for them and I’m going to enjoy using it even if every single other person in the game gets one before me.

No mark against you personally, but I hate, hate that weapon. =P I will ‘dream’ terrible things about those who wield it. But that’s the flipside of ‘legendary’ weapons, is it not? They’re so.. out of theme with the game that their presence detracts from it, occasionally.

But hey, glad for you personally, Danikat. You go make that horse-lobbing rainBOW and have fun!