Guild Wars 2

The Karmic Retribution boost is a great idea. How about getting it for the rest of the HoT/LS zones?

By the way, the Empowerment boost for XP? Not such a good idea. Almost nobody can use it, so why buy it? (The XP is wasted for most players.)

I would have liked the XP one on Doric Lake.

The XP helps players gain spirit shards or to train their masteries. It’s far from useless or wasted.

Ayrilana.1396:

I would have liked the XP one on Doric Lake.

The XP helps players gain spirit shards or to train their masteries. It’s far from useless or wasted.

Unless you don’t raid.

Ayrilana.1396:

I would have liked the XP one on Doric Lake.

The XP helps players gain spirit shards or to train their masteries. It’s far from useless or wasted.

Both Karma & XP boosters are entirely useless … until you actually need karma or xp. Karma seems to have more sinks for more people more often than XP does, but it’s moot if you happen to have 10M karma and want to finish off the latest mastery.

I prefer Karma boosters, because I have far more uses for karma. Despite having spent 2000 spirit shards to unlock all the antique weapon skins, my surplus was higher afterward than when I started (and that was without unlocking raid masteries). Whereas, I spend karma like crazy and can’t seem to maintain it as well.

Still, I recognize that my preference won’t be shared by others. What I wish is that we got to choose which currency would be granted by retribution in each zone: karma, xp, gold find, magic find, or even gathering.

perilisk.1874:

Ayrilana.1396:

I would have liked the XP one on Doric Lake.

The XP helps players gain spirit shards or to train their masteries. It’s far from useless or wasted.

Unless you don’t raid.

If the player is at that point where all that they have left is the raid mastery line. Unless most players are at that point, the OP is incorrect.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Ayrilana.1396:

I would have liked the XP one on Doric Lake.

The XP helps players gain spirit shards or to train their masteries. It’s far from useless or wasted.

Both Karma & XP boosters are entirely useless … until you actually need karma or xp. Karma seems to have more sinks for more people more often than XP does, but it’s moot if you happen to have 10M karma and want to finish off the latest mastery.

I prefer Karma boosters, because I have far more uses for karma. Despite having spent 2000 spirit shards to unlock all the antique weapon skins, my surplus was higher afterward than when I started (and that was without unlocking raid masteries). Whereas, I spend karma like crazy and can’t seem to maintain it as well.

Still, I recognize that my preference won’t be shared by others. What I wish is that we got to choose which currency would be granted by retribution in each zone: karma, xp, gold find, magic find, or even gathering.

Just like gold is entirely useless unless you actually need it. What’s “useless” will vary from player to player which was what I was getting at when stating that I had a need for XP and that others may as well.

Ayrilana.1396:

perilisk.1874:

Ayrilana.1396:

I would have liked the XP one on Doric Lake.

The XP helps players gain spirit shards or to train their masteries. It’s far from useless or wasted.

Unless you don’t raid.

If the player is at that point where all that they have left is the raid mastery line. Unless most players are at that point, the OP is incorrect.

There are also going to be people who haven’t gone hunting the mastery points, and thus have full XP bars on all their currently available masteries but don’t have the mastery points to unlock them. I was in that situation myself until a few months ago, when I finally got around to hunting down enough mastery points to unlock everything.

In that situation, XP boosts are literally worthless because you can’t gain XP in the first place.

perilisk.1874:

Ayrilana.1396:

I would have liked the XP one on Doric Lake.

The XP helps players gain spirit shards or to train their masteries. It’s far from useless or wasted.

Unless you don’t raid.

This.

There are also going to be people who haven’t gone hunting the mastery points, and thus have full XP bars on all their currently available masteries but don’t have the mastery points to unlock them. I was in that situation myself until a few months ago, when I finally got around to hunting down enough mastery points to unlock everything.

In that situation, XP boosts are literally worthless because you can’t gain XP in the first place.

Also this.

In my case I’m just not terribly interested in raiding. I did try it a number of times – mostly to try and unlock the raid masteries – but I just didn’t like the whole raid experience, or even just how much time would go into it (including the preparation). All the more power to you if you’re into raiding, I just don’t care for it all that much.

(Add to that the fact that timezones combined with tons of work in real life can make it hard to set things up, but that’s an issue on my end, not a universal one.)

The Karmix Retribution is one of the reasons I spend so much time in Ember Bay compared to other LWS3 areas. I might spend more time in Bloodstone Fen if the experience boosters (also map rewards) weren’t so bloody useless. At least I get bonus karma in Ember Bay. Also those funky unbound tools for Karma.

A fix for this issue would be simple though: Treat the spirit shard thing as a “repeatable” mastery which you can toggle on or off. That way, if you haven’t unlocked raid masteries and/or you haven’t got enough mastery points to proceed to the next mastery, you can still make use of your XP.

And sure, there are some people that say that “spirit shards are a reward for completing the masteries” and that people should just buckle down and get those masteries/do at least one raid (AKA “git gud”). However, I would argue that other people getting spirit shards doesn’t effect you negatively in any way. I only see positives to it. I certainly wouldn’t go “NO I HAD TO WORK FOR MY TYRIA SPIRIT SHARDS, YOU SHOULD TOO!” Other people being rewarded for doing stuff ingame and getting spirit shards (and thus having a more enjoyable experience) wouldn’t influence me negatively in any way.

And before somebody comes up with the “but spirit shards aren’t worth that much/you get tons already” – Sure. True. But it’s all about the feeling of being rewarded for stuff you get. Seeing tons of XP numbers and knowing they just get wasted can be a bit demoralizing. It makes very little sense to me. Besides, if one of the rewards for an activity is effectively a non-reward which instantly evaporates without adding anything (like XP under certain circumstances right now) for a sizeable people, then why even have it as a reward?

Unless it’s their way of punishing people for not raiding/hunting enough achievements, but that somehow seems counterproductive to the whole “making sure people have fun.”

PS: Before anybody interprets the above wrongly, I’m not opposed to having to get mastery points (through achievements) to unlock masteries, I’m totally cool with that.

Yeah, I’ve called for spirit shards to be treated as a repeatable mastery myself. It really does seem to be a simple solution.

The demoralisation thing is real, too. There are some achievements I deliberately avoided getting, in fact, because they had autoconsumed XP rewards. Come to think on it, I probably should get around to killing Lenner the Eagle-Eyed sometime.

(I also built up a lot of chests from the Season 3 map dailies that I left unopened until I finished off the HoM masteries. There’s some I still have stockpiled, in fact, so I can immediately unlock the chapter 6 mastery.)

Have to disagree here. The last thing I would want to see is the afk plague to extend to every single new living world map.

I think the karmic boost is a great idea concept wise but its effect on the game has been such that I’d prefer they remove it entirely and definately not spread it even more.

That said, should afk issues finally get under control I’d love for them to add karmic retribution to new maps.

draxynnic.3719:

Ayrilana.1396:

perilisk.1874:

Ayrilana.1396:

I would have liked the XP one on Doric Lake.

The XP helps players gain spirit shards or to train their masteries. It’s far from useless or wasted.

Unless you don’t raid.

If the player is at that point where all that they have left is the raid mastery line. Unless most players are at that point, the OP is incorrect.

There are also going to be people who haven’t gone hunting the mastery points, and thus have full XP bars on all their currently available masteries but don’t have the mastery points to unlock them. I was in that situation myself until a few months ago, when I finally got around to hunting down enough mastery points to unlock everything.

In that situation, XP boosts are literally worthless because you can’t gain XP in the first place.

But would that be most players? There can be 4,329,473,987,432 ways that someone cannot have XP be useful. If those ways don’t impact most players when the OP is wrong.

perilisk.1874:

Ayrilana.1396:

I would have liked the XP one on Doric Lake.

The XP helps players gain spirit shards or to train their masteries. It’s far from useless or wasted.

Unless you don’t raid.

Buy a boss kill or join an escort training.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Both Karma & XP boosters are entirely useless … until you actually need karma or xp.

Yeah, that was my point on XP. The only way you can use XP is if you:

• Are training masteries for which you already have MPs, or
• Have all masteries completed (including raiding MPs)

The vast majority of players are in neither group. (According to ANet, raids are designed for about 10% of the player population. So, 90% are excluded immediately.)

However, karma boosts are still useful. There are tons of things karma can buy, and ANet seems to be adding them all the time now. I may have 10+ million karma available, but I spend some of it almost every day. I would buy the karmic retribution boosts in every map if it were available (including core Tyria, although that doesn’t seem likely to be on the table for ANet).

Ayrilana.1396:

Just like gold is entirely useless unless you actually need it. What’s “useless” will vary from player to player which was what I was getting at when stating that I had a need for XP and that others may as well.

That doesn’t follow. There are tons of things to spend gold on, and you receive it all the time.

But, XP doesn’t even get granted in HoT/LS zones (unless you’re in one of the tiny groups of people — see my previous post).

Daddicus.6128:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Both Karma & XP boosters are entirely useless … until you actually need karma or xp.

Yeah, that was my point on XP. The only way you can use XP is if you:

• Are training masteries for which you already have MPs, or
• Have all masteries completed (including raiding MPs)

The vast majority of players are in neither group. (According to ANet, raids are designed for about 10% of the player population. So, 90% are excluded immediately.)

However, karma boosts are still useful. There are tons of things karma can buy, and ANet seems to be adding them all the time now. I may have 10+ million karma available, but I spend some of it almost every day. I would buy the karmic retribution boosts in every map if it were available (including core Tyria, although that doesn’t seem likely to be on the table for ANet).

Is there a source for “the vast majority are in neither group”?

Exclusion and who content was designed for are two different things. WvW and PvP were designed for specific types of players but does that mean that Anet is trying to exclude PvE players from those modes? No. As for raids, Anet has been adding easier encounters at the beginning of each wing. Wing 3’s escort is essentially an event.

Mercure.5689:

This is a BRILLIANT idea! I hope someone from ANet sees it.

Ayrilana.1396:

Daddicus.6128:

The vast majority of players are in neither group. (According to ANet, raids are designed for about 10% of the player population. So, 90% are excluded immediately.)

Is there a source for “the vast majority are in neither group”?

Yeah. Immediately after the statement.

Daddicus.6128:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Both Karma & XP boosters are entirely useless … until you actually need karma or xp.

Yeah, that was my point on XP. The only way you can use XP is if you:

• Are training masteries for which you already have MPs, or
• Have all masteries completed (including raiding MPs)

The vast majority of players are in neither group. (According to ANet, raids are designed for about 10% of the player population. So, 90% are excluded immediately.)

However, karma boosts are still useful. There are tons of things karma can buy, and ANet seems to be adding them all the time now. I may have 10+ million karma available, but I spend some of it almost every day. I would buy the karmic retribution boosts in every map if it were available (including core Tyria, although that doesn’t seem likely to be on the table for ANet).

I don’t have a problem with the OP asking for more karmic retribution. As I’ve said, I’d make use of this.

But please don’t attempt to justify it based on whether other boosters are or are not useful to you and the people you know. New people join GW2 every day; they will have different needs than the OP.

Further, while 10% of people raid in other games, the number appears to be bigger in GW2. Plus, to max raid mastery, it only takes completing any of the major encounters — that’s something people have bought or leeched.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I prefer Karma boosters, because I have far more uses for karma. Despite having spent 2000 spirit shards to unlock all the antique weapon skins, my surplus was higher afterward than when I started (and that was without unlocking raid masteries). Whereas, I spend karma like crazy and can’t seem to maintain it as well.

How would I spend spirit shards to get those skins? (Feel free to start another thread if you think it would derail this one.)

Thank you!

Daddicus.6128:

Ayrilana.1396:

Daddicus.6128:

The vast majority of players are in neither group. (According to ANet, raids are designed for about 10% of the player population. So, 90% are excluded immediately.)

Is there a source for “the vast majority are in neither group”?

Yeah. Immediately after the statement.

That’s not a source…

Daddicus.6128:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I prefer Karma boosters, because I have far more uses for karma. Despite having spent 2000 spirit shards to unlock all the antique weapon skins, my surplus was higher afterward than when I started (and that was without unlocking raid masteries). Whereas, I spend karma like crazy and can’t seem to maintain it as well.

How would I spend spirit shards to get those skins? (Feel free to start another thread if you think it would derail this one.)

Thank you!

Probably on the Augur’s Stones. And anything else needed for Ascended Weapon crafting, I guess.

Ah, OK. Thanks!

Ayrilana.1396:

That’s not a source…

Someone quoted that on the forums, but with no search capability…

But, I compared it to my own experience. I’m a non-raider in the top 12% of all players. I may be atypical, but the real number can’t be a whole lot off from that.

Daddicus.6128:

Ayrilana.1396:

That’s not a source…

Someone quoted that on the forums, but with no search capability…

But, I compared it to my own experience. I’m a non-raider in the top 12% of all players. I may be atypical, but the real number can’t be a whole lot off from that.

I was referring to it as not being a source to your statement that “the vast majority are in neither group” in regards to XP.

Citing that raids was only designed specifically for 10% of the player population is not a valid source to state the above. Just because something is designed for specific players, does not mean that everyone is excluded. There are many PvE players with the PvP legendary backpack and there are WvW players with the new legendary weapons. As for raids, there are encounters at the beginning of the wings to give players just starting out a way to ease into raiding. The escort encounter of wing three is one such example.

You’re also making the assumption that everyone, or the majority of players, are at a point that they cannot progress their masteries. This is something that you cannot know or claim.

What I stated that the XP version helps players is true. Whether those that care less for spirit shards, or can no longer progress their masteries, does not matter.