Guild Wars 2

I’m talking about the collections for the base legendaries of the game. What purpose do they serve?
- They certainly aren’t enjoyable, unless repeating content you’ve already done often many times is your thing there’s nothing new for you to do. And the content they require you to repeat for completion can be extremely finnicky, you often have to wait hours for a specific event to pop just so you can get that single part of the collection.
- They are horrendously expensive to grind out, often costing far more gold than just buying one from the TP.
- They’ve added next to nothing to the lore of these weapons, not a shred of story about them has been added in any meaningful way.

In my person experience making Dawn, nothing about building the precursor through the collection system has given me an emotional connection to my weapon.
Nothing about it has made me feel compelled or intrigued or even curious about the next step, mostly due to the next step always consisting of repeated content or dumping gold.
And most importantly, nothing about this system has made me feel proud of, satisfied, or rewarded with what I’ve accomplished. It has only made me hate the weapon and myself for wasting a collosal amount of my gold and time on it.

So what purpose does it serve?
Why would someone want to grind old content and dump mountains of gold when they could farm the gold to just buy one for much less time and cost?
You can repeat old content any time you like, why would you willingly waste your time doing so when you can do recent/more enjoyable content for better rewards and thus the same result?

When I first heard about the change, I had thought the purpose of adding these collections was to make precursors more obtainable.
They are more obtainable, yes, but only because the TP price has dropped due to people being dumb enough to do the collections in the first place. If they wanted to achieve that result they could’ve just increased the droprates. If they wanted to add content to the game which made acquiring a precursor a more personal and compelling experience, then they have failed miserably by adding no new content or story to these weapons, merely a structure by which you repeat old content.

tldr; precursor collections for base game legendaries add no new content to the game and cost more to complete than buying from the trading post.
So why would any player be it casual, hardcore, veteran, or newbie want grind one out?

Master Cats Man.9037:

tldr; precursor collections for base game legendaries add no new content to the game and cost more to complete than buying from the trading post.
So why would any player be it casual, hardcore, veteran, or newbie want grind one out?

Because Nevermore is freaking awesome and I only lack 38 more MP’s to get it.

The precursor collections add flavor and a non-mystic forge non-rng method for people to work towards aquiring their percursor. Nothing more, nothing less.

It’s also a step to integrate them into the games lore by having players be actively involved with differents parts of the game instead of just going “poof” you now own a precursor.

Master Cats Man.9037:

tldr; precursor collections for base game legendaries add no new content to the game and cost more to complete than buying from the trading post.
So why would any player be it casual, hardcore, veteran, or newbie want grind one out?

Sure they do. They add tons of collections for people who enjoy this kind of content. Obviously you do not, so you are free to use any of the other methods available in aquiring your precursor.

Also your estimate of precursor crafting vs the TP is way off. Read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/42s4ot/new_legendaries_and_precursors_total_crafting/

for some people journey is more important than the goal
for others chasing carrots is the way of life
and then there are those who would build a snowman, just to incinerate it moments later with flamethrower of doom

rather ask yourself, what is the meaning of life?

“Also your estimate of precursor crafting vs the TP is way off. Read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/42s4ot/new_legendaries_and_precursors_total_crafting/”

Who in their right mind would buy a precursor at sell price?
Even so, the majority are still cheaper to buy from the TP.

Master Cats Man.9037:

“Also your estimate of precursor crafting vs the TP is way off. Read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/42s4ot/new_legendaries_and_precursors_total_crafting/”

Who in their right mind would buy a precursor at sell price?
Even so, the majority are still cheaper to buy from the TP.

All the people who make the price stay fixed and not drop. Was this a serious question?

We get it, you are heavily biased and do not enjoy the precursor collections. Your question as to why they exist was answered.

My experience with precursors is different. I crafted Leaf of Kudzu, since I want kudzu. It’s a bow that is like a living bow and the first step has me gathering flowers from all over Tyria. Some were in Fractals, some on the far side of JPs. There is no MMO I can think of where you don’t repeat content. It’s just usually the current raid. This gave me more variety.

Part 2 was the expensive part and it was painful. I could have just farmed gold and bought it, but by doing the work it made it more mine. Buying it feels like a cheat…to me anyway.

The third part had me go and gather seeds, fertilizer and water for my private garden. I thought it was a very cool thing to do.

There’s a lot of read between the line stuff. It doesn’t really give you a story of the legendary but I felt like I was doing stuff to work toward making something very cool. If you can’t do the read between the line bit, it’s just repeating events.

For an immersion player like me, I enjoyed it. A lot more than I would have enjoyed farming gold to buy it.

The purpose of collections is to kill the precursor trading market and make all the people that saved money in the original game either leave the game or be forced to grind for months.

In my experience, the system is terrible. One of the many black marks against HoT.

I did the first tier for Dawn. Colossal waste of time. A lot of WP-ing around the world and standing around waiting for specific events to spawn. Events I’ve done dozens of times before. Often waiting 20-30 minutes for events that last no more than a minute, if that. It was one of the most boring things I’ve done in this game.

It would be a fine system at launch, in august 2012, when everything involved with it would’ve been new and exiting. Now? It’s a dreadful bore, waiting around to repeat content I’ve chewed all the flavor out of long ago.

And then I saw the materials required to continue. I laughed, and bought Dawn on the TP. 650 gold at the time.

Manasa Devi.7958:

In my experience, the system is terrible. One of the many black marks against HoT.

I did the first tier for Dawn. Colossal waste of time. A lot of WP-ing around the world and standing around waiting for specific events to spawn. Events I’ve done dozens of times before. Often waiting 20-30 minutes for events that last no more than a minute, if that. It was one of the most boring things I’ve done in this game.

It would be a fine system at launch, in august 2012, when everything involved with it would’ve been new and exiting. Now? It’s a dreadful bore, waiting around to repeat content I’ve chewed all the flavor out of long ago.

And then I saw the materials required to continue. I laughed, and bought Dawn on the TP. 650 gold at the time.

What’s a good general rule for buying precursors off the TP? trying to help a friend craft twilight but debating on buying dusk or crafting it. And I mean putting up buy orders really.

Getting people to buy the expansion for content that was promised would be added to the base game for two and a half years.

Master Cats Man.9037:

I’m talking about the collections for the base legendaries of the game. What purpose do they serve?
- They certainly aren’t enjoyable, unless repeating content you’ve already done often many times is your thing there’s nothing new for you to do. And the content they require you to repeat for completion can be extremely finnicky, you often have to wait hours for a specific event to pop just so you can get that single part of the collection.
- They are horrendously expensive to grind out, often costing far more gold than just buying one from the TP.
- They’ve added next to nothing to the lore of these weapons, not a shred of story about them has been added in any meaningful way.

In my person experience making Dawn, nothing about building the precursor through the collection system has given me an emotional connection to my weapon.
Nothing about it has made me feel compelled or intrigued or even curious about the next step, mostly due to the next step always consisting of repeated content or dumping gold.
And most importantly, nothing about this system has made me feel proud of, satisfied, or rewarded with what I’ve accomplished. It has only made me hate the weapon and myself for wasting a collosal amount of my gold and time on it.

So what purpose does it serve?
Why would someone want to grind old content and dump mountains of gold when they could farm the gold to just buy one for much less time and cost?
You can repeat old content any time you like, why would you willingly waste your time doing so when you can do recent/more enjoyable content for better rewards and thus the same result?

When I first heard about the change, I had thought the purpose of adding these collections was to make precursors more obtainable.
They are more obtainable, yes, but only because the TP price has dropped due to people being dumb enough to do the collections in the first place. If they wanted to achieve that result they could’ve just increased the droprates. If they wanted to add content to the game which made acquiring a precursor a more personal and compelling experience, then they have failed miserably by adding no new content or story to these weapons, merely a structure by which you repeat old content.

tldr; precursor collections for base game legendaries add no new content to the game and cost more to complete than buying from the trading post.
So why would any player be it casual, hardcore, veteran, or newbie want grind one out?

Why play a game at all? Any new content will be old once you have done it.
I rather do “old” content with a goal (a precursor) than do “old” content hoping for a drop that is very rare (all precursors on TP are drops).

TheLastNobody.8319:

Manasa Devi.7958:

In my experience, the system is terrible. One of the many black marks against HoT.

I did the first tier for Dawn. Colossal waste of time. A lot of WP-ing around the world and standing around waiting for specific events to spawn. Events I’ve done dozens of times before. Often waiting 20-30 minutes for events that last no more than a minute, if that. It was one of the most boring things I’ve done in this game.

It would be a fine system at launch, in august 2012, when everything involved with it would’ve been new and exiting. Now? It’s a dreadful bore, waiting around to repeat content I’ve chewed all the flavor out of long ago.

And then I saw the materials required to continue. I laughed, and bought Dawn on the TP. 650 gold at the time.

What’s a good general rule for buying precursors off the TP? trying to help a friend craft twilight but debating on buying dusk or crafting it. And I mean putting up buy orders really.

Figure out how much it would take to craft the precursor using buy orders for the materials. Subtract that cost from the typical buy order price for the precursor. If the result is positive, divide it by how much gold you can typically earn within an hour. This gives you the number of hours you would need to complete the collections to break even. If it will take you more then you’re better off getting the precursor on a guy order.

Master Cats Man.9037:

tldr; precursor collections for base game legendaries add no new content to the game and cost more to complete than buying from the trading post.
So why would any player be it casual, hardcore, veteran, or newbie want grind one out?

Unfortunately I agree with your considerations, but seems to me the whole direction of the game since HOT : no lore except a brief main story, a lot of “optional” grind to keep people busy.
Nothing wrong in this as many seems to like the concept, but I too don’t like it so its just a dead feature.
The cost seems a bit overtuned but is the attitude n of the game designer, they want to be “safe” to not devaluate too much one of the most end-game mechanic.
Truth to be told a legendary itself doesn’t feel so legendary when you understand that with a insignificant amount of money (at least in my country for anyone who a have a job) anyone can buy it from the TP.
Your personal journey remain the same, but it feel kinda a waste, like going on top of mount everest to get a bottle of wine that is also sold in the market around the corner.

Master Cats Man.9037:

So what purpose does it serve?
Why would someone want to grind old content and dump mountains of gold when they could farm the gold to just buy one for much less time and cost?

There are dozens of threads about this topic. Why we need another one?

Here a few posts worth reading:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Legendary-precursor-journey-is-a-joke-Merged/first#post5772722
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Legendary-precursor-journey-is-a-joke-Merged/first#post5772797
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Legendary-precursor-journey-is-a-joke-Merged/first#post5772898

TL;DR;
TP prices of precursors only rarely reflect the costs to create them. In these context the prices for the “The Legendary precursor journey” are absolutely fair and the prices of some precursor in the TP are quite cheap.

Master Cats Man.9037:

…the collections for the base legendaries of the game. What purpose do they serve?

• They certainly aren’t enjoyable,

Speak for yourself. Many people have said they are a lot of fun. I know people who made the legendary the traditional way and then went back to make the precursor the new way, because it was fun …for them.

Master Cats Man.9037:

• They are horrendously expensive to grind out, often costing far more gold than just buying one from the TP.

Horrendously expensive? No, they are mostly competitive in price and as time goes on, they’ll keep getting closer. Everyone forgets that the demand for supplies to create them spiked like crazy (so many people rushing to finish things quickly) that prices also spiked. Now that the rushers have mostly completed their goals, a new equilibrium is setting in.

Plus, sites are publishing tools that make the comparisons easier, which in turn will influence the cost-conscious among us to reconsider which system to use.

Master Cats Man.9037:

• They’ve added next to nothing to the lore of these weapons, not a shred of story about them has been added in any meaningful way.

Again, speak for yourself. A lot of people love the lore leading up to the precursor. Sure, they could have done more for the precursor and even more for the legendary.

tl;dr The precursor collections are really fun (and cost competitive) for a significant fraction of the players. I’m sorry they aren’t your cup of tea.

All collections are completely optional and allow the user to participate in a scavenger hunt if they so choose. Is the reward worth the effort? That is up to you. I crafted Twilight after doing the Dusk collection, and I am working on Nevermore’s components after finishing the collection, which I thought was kind of cool raising a chick and teaching it to fly etc.

Q: What’s the purpose?
A: To waste materials and keep their value escalated while allowing a definitive progression to acquiring extremely rare exotics required for Legendary weapons.

The purpose of precursor was to provide a route for those that are more interested to play and collect gradually rather than farming gold. It’s the same type of people who ask this over and over – those who always see things in terns of fastest wins.

For me, they are fun. I have no issue repeating content. if I did I wouldn’t be playing an MMO, let alone GW2. It just happens most of GW2 I like replaying. Many of the collections encourage unique approaches – for example Rodgort collection 3.

They exist to give players a way to re-explore the World, maybe do some old content, maybe see content they glossed over first time, but ultimately get their precursor at minimal cost (I have nearly finished Rodgort and have barely spent any money).

To be honest I wish the entire legendary was crafted the same way via collections, but this is the next best thing. Will it appeal to everyone? No, but I personally am a fan.

People asked for an alternative way to get precursors. While the elimination of the all-or-nothing RNG of the MT or random drops was the main issue I saw, it’s my guess that they thought another method would be easier and/or less time consuming.

IndigoSundown.5419:

People asked for an alternative way to get precursors. While the elimination of the all-or-nothing RNG of the MT or random drops was the main issue I saw, it’s my guess that they thought another method would be easier and/or less time consuming.

Yea and anet never said it would be easier or less time consuming.
Infact they said the opposite dident want to devalue the precursors on the trading post already.

Linken.6345:

IndigoSundown.5419:

People asked for an alternative way to get precursors. While the elimination of the all-or-nothing RNG of the MT or random drops was the main issue I saw, it’s my guess that they thought another method would be easier and/or less time consuming.

Yea and anet never said it would be easier or less time consuming.
Infact they said the opposite dident want to devalue the precursors on the trading post already.

They also said that mobs in HoT would be harder than core, but that didn’t stop expectations either.