Guild Wars 2

As in the horrific price of Damask, and the abundance of Elonian.

If Elonian was more expensive, and Damask less, so they met a nice equilibrium, it might be more affordable, and fairer on light armour characters, so they don’t have to shell out 500g+ for an ascended set, while medium characters can get one for only ~200g.

Or at least some form of gathering node for needed for cloths, which would hopefully bring the price of Damask down due to the higher supply.

Also, has anyone seen any developer discussion of ascended materials recently? The topic was discussed quite a lot a few months before HoT was announced, but its gone a bit quiet since then.

Map rewards might. We’ll find out next weekend.

The price of Damask is a compounded version of a problem with gear crafting in general. The only reason its obvious here is the sheer amount of materials required.

Essentially its the most commonly required material having the fewest potential sources. Cloth can only be generated from light armor salvage and random drops from bags. However, ALL armor recipes require roughly 66% cloth (half of the armor components, and the primary component of insignias). So only 1 out of 3 armors salvage into it, and a less then 50% chance (don’t know the exacts) as a possible drop from bags. You also have a 2:1 conversion rate to refine into bolts. Damask also has a higher consumption rate for Ascended insignias (3), while the armors are otherwise to scale.

This issue doesn’t exist with the metals (and to a lesser extent Wood), because those are easily obtained via gathering nodes. This removal of RNG and drop table dependance means the supply is reasonably steady. Thankfully its also enough to offset the high demand in weapon crafting. Wood’s higher price is largely attributed to the significantly larger amount of logs required to produce planks, which proportionally increased the demand for individual logs.

The reason Leather is so cheap is because it has far few uses, nor are large amounts of it needed in the few crafting disciples that call for it. The heaviest user would be leather working, with a hand full of MF recipes being the only area that even calls for them in large amounts. Whats ironic is that it has the same collection methods and rates to cloth…. but we ended up with so much surplus due to lack of crafting uses.

So there are 2 direct options. Increase the flow of cloth into the system, or find a popular use for Leather to drain the surplus. Preferably both.

starlinvf.1358:

So there are 2 direct options. Increase the flow of cloth into the system, or find a popular use for Leather to drain the surplus. Preferably both.

Silk wurm nodes that are fed leather by players to produce silk.

Bam.~ Get on it, dev team.

Argon.1563:

starlinvf.1358:

So there are 2 direct options. Increase the flow of cloth into the system, or find a popular use for Leather to drain the surplus. Preferably both.

Silk wurm nodes that are fed leather by players to produce silk.

Bam.~ Get on it, dev team.

And give them a taste for flesh? Do you even fathom the evil that lurks amid the Anet Dev team?!!

On a side thought….. why don’t we have passive mobs that drop stuff like this? And why feathers not a crafting material?

I’ve crafted 7 full sets of ascended armor and weapons and haven’t purchased a single mat. I had so much extra damask laying around that I used it to purchase a precursor.
The price seems fine. Never shelled out any money for gear.

If you want the gear now, you have to pay for it. If you make it all yourself, you don’t.

The prices seem fine.

Well, if they do increase the supply of silk, I hope we get a heads up so I can dump all my damask really quick.

I think if they make the requirements to make light med heavy all the same, it would alleviate some of the burden. make requirements along the lines of heavy armor and that should balance it out. damask is still required, but not near as much. just my opinion…..

Chobits.2430:

I’ve crafted 7 full sets of ascended armor and weapons and haven’t purchased a single mat. I had so much extra damask laying around that I used it to purchase a precursor.
The price seems fine. Never shelled out any money for gear.

If you want the gear now, you have to pay for it. If you make it all yourself, you don’t.

The prices seem fine.

So the thousands of people who struggle to get ascended armour sets are liars, and you’re correct, despite the fact you’re in the minority of players who can pull ascended items out of thin air? If they’re so redundantly easy to get for you, send me a set in the post, thanks.

I know more people who say they struggle to get ascended armor than don’t. The price isn’t fine for light armor characters. Its true that Medium and Heavy sets can be acquired with a bit of effort, but the light armours are just ridiculous.

Its great that you have loads of free time to make multiple ascended armour sets with, but i’d be quite happy with 1 set myself, so I can go into higher level fractals, the content I enjoy. The thing is with real life commitments, it gets difficult trying to produce money, or materials to get a hold of the Damask on a reasonable time-scale.

CorrynnStarr.7942:

I think if they make the requirements to make light med heavy all the same, it would alleviate some of the burden. make requirements along the lines of heavy armor and that should balance it out. damask is still required, but not near as much. just my opinion…..

Ya, I think this is part of the issue. The fact the light requirements are higher than the other 2 makes it difficult. More silk for a damask than leather for an elonian or mithril for a deldrimor.

I have a full set of ascended gear. I only bought a couple of demasks because that 5 hour crafting time gate is annoying but for the most part I had so much silk I had to store a good amount in my bank because storage has exceeded the cap twice fold

CodeHavoc.7926:

I have a full set of ascended gear. I only bought a couple of demasks because that 5 hour crafting time gate is annoying but for the most part I had so much silk I had to store a good amount in my bank because storage has exceeded the cap twice fold

It’s not 5 hours. It’s a one date gate for crafting one of the damask components.

Damask’s account-bound component also has a completely different recipe than other ascended items like it. 16 silver worth of gossamer thread (although you can only buy it in groups of 10) and 100 bolts of silk, which each require 3 silk scraps.

Compare that to all the other items, where the vendor portion costs 14s96c, you can buy exactly as much as you need from a vendor, it only requires 50 of the bolt of silk-equivalent item. For metal, it requires even less of the base material – only 100 mithril ore compared to the 300 silk scraps.

Now look at the part that players can buy from the trading post – silk scraps currently cost 1s96c. Thick leather sections cost 9c – less than 5% of the price. Mithril ore (56c) and elder wood logs (78c) are both below half of silk scrap price.

Didn’t they say that they’re fine with cloth prices in general?

Zero Day.2594:

Didn’t they say that they’re fine with cloth prices in general?

John Smith is the one who said he was ok with cloth prices on the forums, in big thread about the price of silk, while loads of players were in there talking about how they didn’t like the price of silk/damask, and his simple reply to everything was “I don’t agree with that.”, which doesn’t help at all, while hes surrounded by players talking about how they feel punished for playing light armour characters, and how they feel obligated to switch mains to a medium or heavy character so they can afford to do high level fractals.

Its a discussion that is 19 pages long, and it achieves nothing.
Thread link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Why-is-silk-going-up-in-price/first

I’d just like to point out though, it doesn’t speak for ArenaNet’s opinion as a collective whole. At certain events over time, when ive spoken to devs, there are ones who feel Damask is too expensive, and Elonian is too cheap, which gives hope for change.

Argon.1563:

If Elonian was more expensive […]

Whoa, stop.

You know what happened the last time people complained about a certain crafting material being too cheap? Damask happened.

If they “fix” Elonian prices, it will be to double the materials required for the Elonian cord recipe, nerf the drop rate of medium armor, and add Elonian squares to all recipes to jack up demand. Then we’ll have people complaining about Damask and Elonian.

Pandaman.4758:

Argon.1563:

If Elonian was more expensive […]

Whoa, stop.

You know what happened the last time people complained about a certain crafting material being too cheap? Damask happened.

If they “fix” Elonian prices, it will be to double the materials required for the Elonian cord recipe, nerf the drop rate of medium armor, and add Elonian squares to all recipes to jack up demand. Then we’ll have people complaining about Damask and Elonian.

Im not talking about just outright making Elonian more expensive, as I mentioned several times, I also said the price of Damask should be lowered, so they reach an equilibrium, where light, medium and heavy are similar(ish) in a price, to get rid of the 300g price difference between the sets.

Argon.1563:

Pandaman.4758:

Argon.1563:

If Elonian was more expensive […]

Whoa, stop.

You know what happened the last time people complained about a certain crafting material being too cheap? Damask happened.

If they “fix” Elonian prices, it will be to double the materials required for the Elonian cord recipe, nerf the drop rate of medium armor, and add Elonian squares to all recipes to jack up demand. Then we’ll have people complaining about Damask and Elonian.

Im not talking about just outright making Elonian more expensive, as I mentioned several times, I also said the price of Damask should be lowered, so they reach an equilibrium, where light, medium and heavy are similar(ish) in a price, to get rid of the 300g price difference between the sets.

I know, I’m just saying that what you suggest isn’t going to be what ANet implements. I don’t think anyone was asking for silk to become ridiculously overpriced thanks to how skewed recipes are in silk requirements, but it’s what we got. Currently thick leather is in the same position as silk was, so an equally heavy-handed adjustment is possible.

starlinvf.1358:

The price of Damask is a compounded version of a problem with gear crafting in general. The only reason its obvious here is the sheer amount of materials required.

Essentially its the most commonly required material having the fewest potential sources. Cloth can only be generated from light armor salvage and random drops from bags. However, ALL armor recipes require roughly 66% cloth (half of the armor components, and the primary component of insignias). So only 1 out of 3 armors salvage into it, and a less then 50% chance (don’t know the exacts) as a possible drop from bags. You also have a 2:1 conversion rate to refine into bolts. Damask also has a higher consumption rate for Ascended insignias (3), while the armors are otherwise to scale.

This issue doesn’t exist with the metals (and to a lesser extent Wood), because those are easily obtained via gathering nodes. This removal of RNG and drop table dependance means the supply is reasonably steady. Thankfully its also enough to offset the high demand in weapon crafting. Wood’s higher price is largely attributed to the significantly larger amount of logs required to produce planks, which proportionally increased the demand for individual logs.

The reason Leather is so cheap is because it has far few uses, nor are large amounts of it needed in the few crafting disciples that call for it. The heaviest user would be leather working, with a hand full of MF recipes being the only area that even calls for them in large amounts. Whats ironic is that it has the same collection methods and rates to cloth…. but we ended up with so much surplus due to lack of crafting uses.

So there are 2 direct options. Increase the flow of cloth into the system, or find a popular use for Leather to drain the surplus. Preferably both.

Also making damask uses twice more silk than Deldrimor steel uses Mithril, and its the same for all crafts. So basically the problem just compounds.
Its the hardest to salvage, its the most used material in armors, AND making the ascended material uses twice as much raw (T5) material as the others.
So that all makes it that much worse. Which is why its kind of trivial to have Ascended Weapons (many people end up getting them easily), but only a few people end up with full ascended armor.