Guild Wars 2

I see in the blog post that, and I quote from https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/updating-your-wallet/ , “Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards.”

When I was still playing I had spent many, many hours farming skill point scrolls specifically for my Revenant. Is all that time spent getting skill points for my Revenant wasted time? If so, I am pretty ticked. If not, then no harm no foul. I put time into getting those.

Guess you’re ticked, then.

You’ll be able to level up your Rev just fine using tomes of knowledge, but any skill points you want beyond what you get for level 80 will require doing skill hero challenges.

Iason Evan.3806:

I see in the blog post that, and I quote from https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/updating-your-wallet/ , “Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards.”

When I was still playing I had spent many, many hours farming skill point scrolls specifically for my Revenant. Is all that time spent getting skill points for my Revenant wasted time? If so, I am pretty ticked. If not, then no harm no foul. I put time into getting those.

They annouced the skill point change maybe a month or two ago.

SO yes, skill point scrolls wont be a thing, hero points are the future.

As far as you being ticked..

Read the blogs next time?
I dunno what to tell you besides that really :I

Solori.6025:

Iason Evan.3806:

I see in the blog post that, and I quote from https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/updating-your-wallet/ , “Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards.”

When I was still playing I had spent many, many hours farming skill point scrolls specifically for my Revenant. Is all that time spent getting skill points for my Revenant wasted time? If so, I am pretty ticked. If not, then no harm no foul. I put time into getting those.

They annouced the skill point change maybe a month or two ago.

SO yes, skill point scrolls wont be a thing, hero points are the future.

As far as you being ticked..

Read the blogs next time?
I dunno what to tell you besides that really :I

Like I said, I quit playing. Wasn’t paying too much attention. I farmed those months ago. They should have said that skill points would not be viable to use for the Rev back then to prevent this kind of thing. I was putting time into acquiring these preemptively. When vets have little to nothing new to do at the current time they spend time doing things prior to changes. I put my time into getting my Revenant where I wanted it to be and it’s really disappointing that my time isn’t being honored.

Iason Evan.3806:

Solori.6025:

Iason Evan.3806:

I see in the blog post that, and I quote from https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/updating-your-wallet/ , “Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards.”

When I was still playing I had spent many, many hours farming skill point scrolls specifically for my Revenant. Is all that time spent getting skill points for my Revenant wasted time? If so, I am pretty ticked. If not, then no harm no foul. I put time into getting those.

They annouced the skill point change maybe a month or two ago.

SO yes, skill point scrolls wont be a thing, hero points are the future.

As far as you being ticked..

Read the blogs next time?
I dunno what to tell you besides that really :I

Like I said, I quit playing. Wasn’t paying too much attention. I farmed those months ago. They should have said that skill points would not be viable to use for the Rev back then to prevent this kind of thing. I was putting time into acquiring these preemptively. When vets have little to nothing new to do at the current time they spend time doing things prior to changes. I put my time into getting my Revenant where I wanted it to be and it’s really disappointing that my time isn’t being honored.

I’m failing to see how it’s their fault and that you deserve compensation of some sort. They might not have known that they were going to overhaul the skill point system back when they first announced it, and what were they going to do, tell people “don’t farm skill scrolls because in 9 months from now it won’t matter!” We’re still a ways out from the expansion.

What will work is using Tomes of Knowledge on your Revenant. Leveling to 80 will get you almost all of the hero points you need to unlock everything (right now). They also said in the blog post that you can exchange skill scrolls in for Tomes, so if you have a mountain of these things you can theoretically cash in and rush to 80.

They said in the very first announcement at PAX South that they intended Revenant to be something new players could start at HoT launch and be at parity with veterans. It’s meant to be new for everyone. Vets will still have the fast track to 80 if they want and will only need 65 challenges to have all core specs for their Revenant. 65 challenges can be done in one afternoon, with bonuses such as wp unlocks.

The spirit shards will be a usable currency, not a complete waste of your time (depending on how much you care about MF materials).

you just trying to cheat your way in with all unlocked …. if your are a Vet .. what did you do with your characters before the scrolls of knowledge existed ? you played them to unlock skills and Utilities ? yes ? then just do it once more …

we will all use the tomes for instant lvl 80 but we will have to do at least 65hero challenge to unlock the rest ..

at HoT launch every Revenant will be the same : Fresh lvl 80 with no experience on how to play them.

They did mention the new Hero Point system months ago.

The new system will mean in order to get PvE skills & traits, you have to do PvE content! Imagine that?? More specifically, Skillpoint Challenges (as well as through levelling).

On the bright side, they’ve said once you’re at level 80, you’ll have been awarded enough Hero Points to have a fairly diverse set of builds, even if you haven’t done a single Skillpoint Challenge.

While I appreciate everyone’s opinion on the subject(I also appreciate some people’s attitudes more than others)the main draw for me with this game was having multiple ways to do things. I could level with exploration. Or with dungeons. Or with open world events. Or other ways. Taking away the ability to play the game how I want is really limiting. I spent a really good chunk of time doing this. I think my opinion is valid that this chunk of time I spent doing what I did to earn skill point scrolls shouldn’t be brushed aside.

We should be able to choose if we want to keep the skill point scrolls we earned previously instead of them automatically being converted. I don’t think having options like that is too much to ask for.

Iason Evan.3806:

While I appreciate everyone’s opinion on the subject(I also appreciate some people’s attitudes more than others)the main draw for me with this game was having multiple ways to do things. I could level with exploration. Or with dungeons. Or with open world events. Or other ways. Taking away the ability to play the game how I want is really limiting. I spent a really good chunk of time doing this. I think my opinion is valid that this chunk of time I spent doing what I did to earn skill point scrolls shouldn’t be brushed aside.

We should be able to choose if we want to keep the skill point scrolls we earned previously instead of them automatically being converted. I don’t think having options like that is too much to ask for.

In the event they let you keep them and give you the choice to convert them to MF materials what would you do with them instead of convert them? You must understand that they of course would not allow you to use them to unlock skills as that is what hero points will do. So what would you use them for?

Iason Evan.3806:

While I appreciate everyone’s opinion on the subject(I also appreciate some people’s attitudes more than others)the main draw for me with this game was having multiple ways to do things. I could level with exploration. Or with dungeons. Or with open world events. Or other ways. Taking away the ability to play the game how I want is really limiting. I spent a really good chunk of time doing this. I think my opinion is valid that this chunk of time I spent doing what I did to earn skill point scrolls shouldn’t be brushed aside.

We should be able to choose if we want to keep the skill point scrolls we earned previously instead of them automatically being converted. I don’t think having options like that is too much to ask for.

Actually, there will be no mechanism to spend skill points as they currently exist in the game after the specializations patch, so… yeah… making Anet run two parallel skill systems because a segment of the player population doesn’t want to adapt to (a very necessary, long-overdue) change is probably too much to ask for.

Iason Evan.3806:

Solori.6025:

Iason Evan.3806:

I see in the blog post that, and I quote from https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/updating-your-wallet/ , “Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards.”

When I was still playing I had spent many, many hours farming skill point scrolls specifically for my Revenant. Is all that time spent getting skill points for my Revenant wasted time? If so, I am pretty ticked. If not, then no harm no foul. I put time into getting those.

They annouced the skill point change maybe a month or two ago.

SO yes, skill point scrolls wont be a thing, hero points are the future.

As far as you being ticked..

Read the blogs next time?
I dunno what to tell you besides that really :I

Like I said, I quit playing. Wasn’t paying too much attention. I farmed those months ago. They should have said that skill points would not be viable to use for the Rev back then to prevent this kind of thing. I was putting time into acquiring these preemptively. When vets have little to nothing new to do at the current time they spend time doing things prior to changes. I put my time into getting my Revenant where I wanted it to be and it’s really disappointing that my time isn’t being honored.

LOL if only the world worked that way.
It’s not fair that you spent time for something that changes.
It’s almost like things change and they never ask your permission.

I mean, people should honor the time you spent, doing everything.

I drove to work this morning, I should be compensated for taking the time out of my life to make it to a place of business that wouldn’t function without me.
I demand that A-net write new legislation to make employers pay employees mileage for the trips they make to and from work.

Solori.6025:

Iason Evan.3806:

Solori.6025:

Iason Evan.3806:

I see in the blog post that, and I quote from https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/updating-your-wallet/ , “Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards.”

When I was still playing I had spent many, many hours farming skill point scrolls specifically for my Revenant. Is all that time spent getting skill points for my Revenant wasted time? If so, I am pretty ticked. If not, then no harm no foul. I put time into getting those.

They annouced the skill point change maybe a month or two ago.

SO yes, skill point scrolls wont be a thing, hero points are the future.

As far as you being ticked..

Read the blogs next time?
I dunno what to tell you besides that really :I

Like I said, I quit playing. Wasn’t paying too much attention. I farmed those months ago. They should have said that skill points would not be viable to use for the Rev back then to prevent this kind of thing. I was putting time into acquiring these preemptively. When vets have little to nothing new to do at the current time they spend time doing things prior to changes. I put my time into getting my Revenant where I wanted it to be and it’s really disappointing that my time isn’t being honored.

LOL if only the world worked that way.
It’s not fair that you spent time for something that changes.
It’s almost like things change and they never ask your permission.

I mean, people should honor the time you spent, doing everything.

I drove to work this morning, I should be compensated for taking the time out of my life to make it to a place of business that wouldn’t function without me.
I demand that A-net write new legislation to make employers pay employees mileage for the trips they make to and from work.

Apples and oranges comparisons. ArenaNet used to be very good about progression coming in many forms. Skill point scrolls were put in the game so that you could earn them on one character and then use them on your whole account. It’s not like I am asking for something that was never a thing. I am asking to be able to use these on a new character(Rev.)just like I always have.

Thanks for your rude tone and dismissive comments though. They are adding a ton to the discussion.

I understand your point about skill points being transferable earnings. However, think about how many skill points have been needed to buy skills. A slew of skills costing anything from 1 to 30 points.

In the new system, an alt will only need to do 65 challenges. That plus leveling gets every single trait and skill for their profession. (And then some more challenges to get the Elite, but not nearly what it would be if the Elite were a completely new profession requiring a new alt). It strikes me that in the end the time and effort investment involved in a full unlock will be far less than under the current system.

Skill scrolls are wholly incompatible with the new system for unlocking things. There is a set, finite number of Hero Points in the new system whereas now there is no limit to the number of scrolls you could have. Enabling a scenario where someone could have more Hero Points than normally obtainable would be game breaking when future elite specs are released.

Also, the new currency is account-bound so allowing scrolls to be used for unlocking stuff would further break the progression scheme.

In response to the “oh well, suck it up” response that is being offered, I’ll just point out that not everyone will just suck it up.

The more ArenaNet decides to monkey with core systems and completely ignore lost progression, the more people will just decide it’s not worth playing the game any more. I didn’t go farming skill scrolls just for Revenant, but I did go back and make sure to get at least 65 skill challenges done on all of my characters. All but one already had access to every trait and most skills.

It took considerably more play than an afternoon. And it left a sour taste in my mouth, and I haven’t played much since.

I could be off on this, but i distinctly remember reading in one of the recent blogs that they would be converting the scrolls to the Shards. let me see if i can find it.

Wait…am I missing something? is your concern that you won’t be able to use your accumulated skill scrolls?

The conversion to skill shards basically means that you use the shards instead, right? so instead of clicking on a scroll…you click on a shard.

Unless the shards are bind to character instead of account…

I’m sorry about the sour taste When I said an afternoon, I meant for one alt as it was in regard to the OP talking about needing it for his/her Revenant. I do know it takes longer for a bunch of alts since I only had two alts with world completion and I don’t think any of my other 12 80’s had much over 40 challenges done. I’ve pushed them all to 100, the bulk of that effort coming after I finished farming SW for portals.

And yeah, once I got the last one to 100, I didn’t feel that much need to get in game for a bit other than for dailies and outfits. Though for me it wasn’t a sour taste, it was just “what now? I have no projects.”

funkyfuzz.9142:

I could be off on this, but i distinctly remember reading in one of the recent blogs that they would be converting the scrolls to the Shards. let me see if i can find it.

Edit: Just found it, in the release today on Updating your Wallet:

“Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards. "

Towards the bottom, bullet point in, “What about Skill points?”

So it’s good news. you won’t lose all those scrolls you’ve been accumulating.

The OP is complaining that he won’t be able to use the scrolls for points to unlock skills, not losing the scrolls entirely.

Palindrome.8904:

funkyfuzz.9142:

I could be off on this, but i distinctly remember reading in one of the recent blogs that they would be converting the scrolls to the Shards. let me see if i can find it.

Edit: Just found it, in the release today on Updating your Wallet:

“Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards. "

Towards the bottom, bullet point in, “What about Skill points?”

So it’s good news. you won’t lose all those scrolls you’ve been accumulating.

The OP is complaining that he won’t be able to use the scrolls for points to unlock skills, not losing the scrolls entirely.

Thanks for the correction. edited my original post, noticed that at the same time you posted

Are the spirit shards going to be used for the same thing? My impression was that they would be…so scrolls wouldn’t be lost, you would just click on the shard instead of the scroll…

Edit: seems like I’m playing catchup. Sorry. other threads have discussed that the points may become account-wide, this could open up possibilities.

funkyfuzz.9142:

Thanks for the correction. edited my original post, noticed that at the same time you posted

Are the spirit shards going to be used for the same thing? My impression was that they would be…so scrolls wouldn’t be lost, you would just click on the shard instead of the scroll…

Edit: seems like I’m playing catchup. Sorry. other threads have discussed that the points may become account-wide, this could open up possibilities.

If you take a look at today’s wallet post, they said that all current methods of getting the currency (skillpoints today) will still exist except for the shards on leveling beyond 80. Scrolls or whatever the new drop item is will still be a thing. Spirit shards will be used at Miyani for Mystic Toilet materials. The shards will be a currency, so yes, they will be account-wide.

so working with my logic…that would seem to indicate (to me at least), that the points would be available for the OP to use on their new Rev, and thus they don’t have anything to worry about. Am i close to the mark here?

I wonder what i am supposed to say. Yeah pretty much i dont care. 65 hero points or w/e they are called is not a problem. At least now i can finally free my bank space a bit.

funkyfuzz.9142:

Palindrome.8904:

funkyfuzz.9142:

I could be off on this, but i distinctly remember reading in one of the recent blogs that they would be converting the scrolls to the Shards. let me see if i can find it.

Edit: Just found it, in the release today on Updating your Wallet:

“Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards. "

Towards the bottom, bullet point in, “What about Skill points?”

So it’s good news. you won’t lose all those scrolls you’ve been accumulating.

The OP is complaining that he won’t be able to use the scrolls for points to unlock skills, not losing the scrolls entirely.

Thanks for the correction. edited my original post, noticed that at the same time you posted

Are the spirit shards going to be used for the same thing? My impression was that they would be…so scrolls wouldn’t be lost, you would just click on the shard instead of the scroll…

Edit: seems like I’m playing catchup. Sorry. other threads have discussed that the points may become account-wide, this could open up possibilities.

You won’t be able to use shards to unlock skills. Shards will be used as a currency where where skill points where used.

funkyfuzz.9142:

so working with my logic…that would seem to indicate (to me at least), that the points would be available for the OP to use on their new Rev, and thus they don’t have anything to worry about. Am i close to the mark here?

Not quite. The shards will only be a MF currency. You can’t use them for skills or traits.

funkyfuzz.9142:

so working with my logic…that would seem to indicate (to me at least), that the points would be available for the OP to use on their new Rev, and thus they don’t have anything to worry about. Am i close to the mark here?

Nope. The two functions of the skill points (skill unlocking and currency for MF/craft items) will be separated. The first one will be replaced by hero points, obtainable (only) through levelling up to level 80 and doing skill challenges (called hero challenges in the new system). The second functionality (craft currency) will be assumed by spirit shards. OP wants the first function of scrolls of knowledge (skill unlocking), but will be given only the craft currency option he is not interested in.

MiniEquine.6014:

They also said in the blog post that you can exchange skill scrolls in for Tomes, so if you have a mountain of these things you can theoretically cash in and rush to 80.

Not actually. Blog states:

• Writs of experience can only be used if you’re under level 80, and they can be traded in to Miyani for a tome of knowledge at a rate of 20 writs per tome.
• Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards.

Thing is: what will be used to convert to Tomes are Writs, Scrolls will be converted to Spirit Shards.

Iason Evan.3806:

the main draw for me with this game was having multiple ways to do things. [..] Taking away the ability to play the game how I want is really limiting.

Have you even heard about the NPE? :P jk

@OP
you quit playing months ago….so if you missed their announcement…its your fault. it sucks that the scrolls can’t be used to unlock skills anymore, but kitten happens.

If ArenaNet wanted to do right by the veteran community that has spent countless hours earning progression via earning skill point scrolls and myriad other forms of progression they would give us a way to convert skill point scrolls to hero points.

The thing is, I don’t have faith this system will be any better than the Trait system debacle. And why should I? They want to limit progression and arbitrarily gate content. It’s disheartening to see a game I adore go the way of cookie cutter MMO mechanics in the form of playing how they want me to play as opposed to how this game was when it came out and allowing me to play the way I want.

I’ve said my piece on the issue and I also don’t appreciate the rude comments I have had in here(sincere thanks to people that added to the conversation though that weren’t rude)and it is really lame that this thread has had zero dev response.

You are taking away tons of progression and only allowing me to turn it into a currency for the Mystic Forge? What happened to options? Please reconsider allowing us to turn our hard work(aka I already earned the skill points and I should get to spend them on unlocking skills when the x-pac comes out)and aren’t even allowing us to apply it to our account’s progression. It’s backwards design.

why are people even complaining. Now you get 80% of your skills unlock automatically at lvl80. And you only need to spend about 2 hours doing skill challenge to get the rest.

And skill points is really valuable. It can be converted to gold with promotion. And you can use it to make legendary and ascended gear.

laokoko.7403:

why are people even complaining. Now you get 80% of your skills unlock automatically at lvl80. And you only need to spend about 2 hours doing skill challenge to get the rest.

per alt. to get to the point i am already at now.

Having to work in order to just not lose anything is something that i don’t enjoy. If i put an effort in something, i want to actually gain something for it.

well you guys are too hardcore for me.

The traits and skill points could cost like 30 gold + 250 skill points. Which could easily be turned to like 300 gold.

You guys would spend 300 gold just to save 2 hours of skill challenge. That’s hardcore.

laokoko.7403:

well you guys are too hardcore for me.

The traits and skill points could cost like 30 gold + 250 skill points. Which could easily be turned to like 300 gold.

You guys would spend 300 gold just to save 2 hours of skill challenge. That’s hardcore.

Why would i do that? All the alts i am talking were grandfathered from the original trait system, and got enough sp from scrolls and levelling to unlock all skills.

I was also unaware that skill points can be traded for gold at a 1:1.1 rate.

Iason Evan.3806:

If ArenaNet wanted to do right by the veteran community that has spent countless hours earning progression via earning skill point scrolls and myriad other forms of progression they would give us a way to convert skill point scrolls to hero points.

This goes against their intention, because they want skill points to be limtied by a finite number, with the sole purpose of unlocking skills/ specs and nothing else. If players were able to transform skill scrolls into hero points, then they would be left with leftover HPs with no use after all skills/ specs were unlocked.

The thing is, I don’t have faith this system will be any better than the Trait system debacle. And why should I? They want to limit progression and arbitrarily gate content. It’s disheartening to see a game I adore go the way of cookie cutter MMO mechanics in the form of playing how they want me to play as opposed to how this game was when it came out and allowing me to play the way I want.

The previous trait system changes were a good idea in practice, but poor at execution. For it to have worked, anet would need a higher budget to implement it in a satisfying manner, which they hadn’t. So, what we have gotten was a very generic and broad “trait X unlocked after doing Y”, with no clear UI information/ guiding and with no unique boss or explorable scenario to give flavor to it, etc. GW1 was much better in this regard because it was designed around skill capture in mind from the ground up. In contrast, the new spec system does not demand such a high budget, resources and time to implement correctly, because it is simpler to unlock, simpler to understand and has better UI support. It is, in this regard, much closer to the original system, but improved upon.

Also “play how I want” can be a good or a bad philosophy in game design. It’s important that there’s enough content diversity for different players, but that should not come at the cost of unique and thematically-fitting reward systems. If all rewards are generic, then we get to deal with the much bigger problem in GW2: how unrewarding it feels like. With the new change, hero challenges will give you hero points, and outside of levels, nothing else will. And that’s as it should be, because that’s the entire point of hero/ skill challenges in the first place. If a player can simply get all skills unlocked with consumables, then skill/ hero challenges will no longer feel rewarding.

You are taking away tons of progression and only allowing me to turn it into a currency for the Mystic Forge?

Actually, progression is not changing with this update. You either use skill points to unlock skills or to buy mystic forge materials. After the patch, skill points for skills will be called hero points, and skill points for the mystic forge will be called spirit shards. It’s kind of the same thing, really, but with a clearer division between both.

On a final note, you’ll still be able to use tomes and writes of experience for your revenant, so you should save those.

Iason Evan.3806:

What happened to options?

Options? That has been denied along with logic long time ago :P Jk

And yeah, DiogoSilva explained it well, same as I also thought of it.

well, OP, you think all your effort in getting those skill point scrolls are wasted ? i have wasted my gold getting my engi traited, because that’s the way i wanted to play, by purchasing traits . now, with the upcoming trait system changes, we would be able to unlock almost everything in core specialization.

do you think anet will refund my gold that i spent in getting those traits ? i don’t think so. what would i do, complain ? no, just live with it…..