Guild Wars 2

I feel like it’s being wasted, very few people equip their precursors mostly because it’s the last thing they get…

yes. both of mine. IMO pres are the first thing any legendary chaser should get. just doesn’t seem ‘right’ to have this long journey only to get the weapon last, never use it and suddenly ‘imbue’ it with legendary properties.

to each his own, though. some pres are just…not attractive so that might be a reason as well as their costliness

So I can equip my precursor and use it later to make my legendary? I don’t want to risk it :P.

kiba.2768:

yes. both of mine. IMO pres are the first thing any legendary chaser should get. just doesn’t seem ‘right’ to have this long journey only to get the weapon last, never use it and suddenly ‘imbue’ it with legendary properties.

to each his own, though. some pres are just…not attractive so that might be a reason as well as their costliness

If you could give me 700g up front I’d gladly buy my Colossus right now. As it stands now, the Precursor is the hardest part to get. No way are people gonna get it as their first piece of the Legendary puzzle.

kiba.2768:

yes. both of mine. IMO pres are the first thing any legendary chaser should get. just doesn’t seem ‘right’ to have this long journey only to get the weapon last, never use it and suddenly ‘imbue’ it with legendary properties.

to each his own, though. some pres are just…not attractive so that might be a reason as well as their costliness

I agree. I feel like precursors should be the first to be acquired in making a legendary. However, as it is now, most of the precursors cannot be acquired unless we grind for the gold… The other mats can be acquired in a much better pace imho.

In my case, I knew what legendary i was going to make first, but I just couldn’t bear equipping the precursor thinking it might be better as an investment instead since it’s a bit expensive.

I’ve equipped the precursor, rune’d it and I was still able to make my legenadary.

Oglaf.1074:

kiba.2768:

yes. both of mine. IMO pres are the first thing any legendary chaser should get. just doesn’t seem ‘right’ to have this long journey only to get the weapon last, never use it and suddenly ‘imbue’ it with legendary properties.

to each his own, though. some pres are just…not attractive so that might be a reason as well as their costliness

If you could give me 700g up front I’d gladly buy my Colossus right now. As it stands now, the Precursor is the hardest part to get. No way are people gonna get it as their first piece of the Legendary puzzle.

This is exactly why so many of us are against the current precursor setup, It kinda feels like the item should motivate you to continue the long boring grind for legendary, but as it is the precursor IS the long boring grind for legendary :p

let me bring up something that has already been discussed. the current price of legendary gifts are a bit more than the actual precursors themselves, yet people do not hesitate to go after them first.

is it that the gifts can be farmed directly so there is some semblance of progress? how is it different from farming for gold? is it because gold is liquid wealth vs mats as physical proof of progress? to me they are the same thing. I think that people hesitate to drop 500-700g in 1 purchase as opposed to dropping 500-700g over time, even if the time to acquire that much gold is equal. it is a strange thing, but people tend to think that way. I may be generalizing too much, but in both real life and gaming, this is what I’ve noticed.

so in that regard, getting the precursor first shouldn’t be an issue vs the purchasable gifts unless you want to feel the ‘physical progression.’

also keep in mind that usually the price of precursors is on the rise and in comparison to the inflation of individual t6 mats, it is greater, so purchasing the precursor first will actually save you gold in the end. it just takes dedication against spending the gold that you save up. I think that people who have liquid wealth cannot resist against spending it especially if there is a large sum just sitting in the bank or on your character.

[edit]
typos galore! ><

[edit2]
here is the post with gift prices I was referencing. for example, both the gifts of fortune and bolt cost more than zap itself. this won’t hold true for the precursors in the 700g range, but aside from dusk, colossus and the legend(expensive due to popularity ofc), the price of the gifts exceed the associated precursor.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Cost-of-each-Legendary-part/first#post1464944

The biggest difference is how the gifts are obtained as compared to a precursor, not the price per se. I don’t think anybody has ever bought every single material they’ve used in the gifts and this makes a lot of difference. Making the gifts also gives a better sense of accomplishment than taking the same amount of time and getting 1 item that will only be sitting on your inventory until you’ve finished collecting several, smaller pieces. Is it better to keep on grinding 1 dungeon (CoF path 1 for example) to try to get the gold you need asap to buy a precursor or go around the world – either in PvE or WvW, farming for the mats you need?

Ideally, I’d rather get the gifts while wielding the precursor to at least get a sense of attachment to it. It comes with a very hefty price afterall, might as well use it. But at the moment, it’s not possible for everyone.

What I don’t understand is why it should be the hardest part of a legendary to acquire (limited to either grinding gold or luck).

I do equip my Colossus, though I halfheartedly farm for a legendary. (IMO Colossus looks better anyway.)

Leo Paul.1659:

The biggest difference is how the gifts are obtained as compared to a precursor, not the price per se. I don’t think anybody has ever bought every single material they’ve used in the gifts and this makes a lot of difference. Making the gifts also gives a better sense of accomplishment than taking the same amount of time and getting 1 item that will only be sitting on your inventory until you’ve finished collecting several, smaller pieces. Is it better to keep on grinding 1 dungeon (CoF path 1 for example) to try to get the gold you need asap to buy a precursor or go around the world – either in PvE or WvW, farming for the mats you need?

Ideally, I’d rather get the gifts while wielding the precursor to at least get a sense of attachment to it. It comes with a very hefty price afterall, might as well use it. But at the moment, it’s not possible for everyone.

What I don’t understand is why it should be the hardest part of a legendary to acquire (limited to either grinding gold or luck).

if this is in reference to ‘physical progression’ then I will agree with you. otherwise farming vs buying mats with farmed gold makes little difference other than the mindset that you did not ‘buy’ the mat.

I guess what matters is how you feel about your playtime whether it be farming gold and indirectly obtaining what you need vs directly farming for what you need. a surprising number of players feel like their time is wasted indirectly buying mats, which i think is strange since the outcome is exactly the same.

<—- will never have a legendary or a precursor.

here’s another question that has been hinted at in every precursor thread:
if you could progress over time to obtain your precursor but still spend the exact same amount of gold on it(shifting market prices), would you?

I think the answer is yes because like I said above, people are more likely to spend the same amount of gold over time instead of 1 lump purchase

kiba.2768:

let me bring up something that has already been discussed. the current price of legendary gifts are a bit more than the actual precursors themselves, yet people do not hesitate to go after them first.

is it that the gifts can be farmed directly so there is some semblance of progress? how is it different from farming for gold? is it because gold is liquid wealth vs mats as physical proof of progress? to me they are the same thing. I think that people hesitate to drop 500-700g in 1 purchase as opposed to dropping 500-700g over time, even if the time to acquire that much gold is equal. it is a strange thing, but people tend to think that way. I may be generalizing too much, but in both real life and gaming, this is what I’ve noticed.

so in that regard, getting the precursor first shouldn’t be an issue vs the purchasable gifts unless you want to feel the ‘physical progression.’

also keep in mind that usually the price of precursors is on the rise and in comparison to the inflation of individual t6 mats, it is greater, so purchasing the precursor first will actually save you gold in the end. it just takes dedication against spending the gold that you save up. I think that people who have liquid wealth cannot resist against spending it especially if there is a large sum just sitting in the bank or on your character.

[edit]
typos galore! ><

[edit2]
here is the post with gift prices I was referencing. for example, both the gifts of fortune and bolt cost more than zap itself. this won’t hold true for the precursors in the 700g range, but aside from dusk, colossus and the legend(expensive due to popularity ofc), the price of the gifts exceed the associated precursor.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/Cost-of-each-Legendary-part/first#post1464944

The problem with this logic is that the other gifts can be earned – rather than simply bought. There is a material sense of progress every time you open up a Heavy Moldy Bag and find those 1-2 T6 mats that make you silently say “Nice!” or successfully salvage a rare for its glob(s) of ectoplasm. There’s a sense of progress every time a Risen Spider drops a Powerful Venom Sac or an Arctodus drops its Powerful Blood. You didn’t have to pay for that. All you had to do was kill something. Each Badge of Honor, Clover, Obsidian Shard, chunk of dungeon tokens, and % of the map makes you feel like you’ve made actual, legitimate progress towards your legendary – because you have.

Each time you gamble for a clover, you make progress (unless you get something really crappy like a Putrid Essence). Did you fail to get a Clover? Well, at least you got some t6 mats, or a lodestone, or another obsidian shard or something to bring you a tiny step closer in another area.

Compare that to the precursor. Each failure in the Mystic Forge is wasted gold – a disappointment that contributes no progress. You aren’t any closer to your legendary. Hell, you’ve taken a step back as you now have less gold to try it again.

It’s hard to feel that sense of progress when the hundredth dragon or temple has given you nothing but blues and greens.

It’s hard to feel like you’ve really done something when you look at the hundreds of gold in your inventory, realize that you need hundreds more for that one arbitrary weapon, and helplessly watch as the market continues to drive the price of that precursor further and further out of reach.

That is the truth of the matter – every other part of the legendary makes you feel like you’re accomplishing things. Every other part of the legendary is a gradual, reasonable grind that you can do at your own pace. Every other part of the legendary can be earned without needing to spend a single copper.

And lastly, to call the cost of the other gifts comparable to the cost of the precursor borderlines on ridiculous. T6 mats are NOT difficult to earn. They are earned just by doing other things that contribute to your legendary. Those globs of ectoplasms are not that difficult to earn – you can salvage them from rares or simply sell the rare and buy a glob. The lodestones will probably be purchased rather than earned, unless you are a dedicated Fractals player, but that does not come anywhere near the excessive cost of the precursor.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

-snipped-

since you agree with me on the material progression, i will address your other points.

as an engineer and a numbers man, i do not like RNG. i try to keep all aspects of the legendary process under my control. the clovers fulfill the necessary RNG aspect and that’s enough for me.

as for all the other parts, it is 100% within my control. the only thing i have to do is expend time. if you feel like you want to get lucky or burn yourself using the MF, that is YOUR prerogative. anet has made multiple avenues to obtain a precursor. why people use the MF and get mad when they get nothing in return is beyond me. going into it, people should know the risk of gambling. the game has no memory when it comes to RNG, so ‘expected’ return values are a load of crock. i don’t care how much evidence people have for ‘expected’ returns. if you fall on the bad end of the ‘scale’ and waste all your gold/mats, that is your fault. it is in NO way anet’s fault. you don’t have to use it.

precursors have an abysmally low drop rate and the only reason i can think of is to chalk it up to the ‘exclusiveness’ of legendaries, if that even means anything to you.

just because you don’t agree with saving gold as a ‘gradual, reasonable grind’ doesn’t mean that it isn’t an effective way to obtain a precursor. is it because gold doesn’t physically take up an inventory slot?

if you agree that you can sell rares and buy ectos, what’s wrong with selling rares to buy a precursor? your whole logic is flawed.

while i still stand by my original statement of not using a precursor while gathering everything else as strange, buying one vs using the MF or hoping one drops shouldn’t matter as long as you get one(without exploits, ofc).

on the topic of gifts vs precursor cost, you are wrong again. there is no difference whether you farmed for t6 mats or farmed for a precursor or farmed gold to pay for both. some gifts cost more than precursors and that is an undeniable fact, whether you like it or not. you can either save every single t6 mat until you reach the 2000 you need, or you can sell every one and get your precursor first; the order is up to you but the end result is the same.

lastly, excessive cost is arbitrary. are you saying that the cost of the gift of bolt is not excessive, but the cost of zap is? again, i do not see the logic in your argument.

I have carcharias which i bought for about 12gold. Thinking there might be more underwater combat and maybe bubbles with south sun cove coming out. But oh well at least underwater combat is much better with precursor.

they all look so bad compared to many many other skins that i don’t see the point

Nuka Cola.8520:

they all look so bad compared to many many other skins that i don’t see the point

Dusk, Dawn and The Colossus are pretty sweet.

I’d most likely sell any precursor I got…. the only Legendary that I think I really want is the shield. Dawn is pretty, but for now I’m happy with my Ghastly greatsword (although I wish the daytime skin didn’t get swapped out for an ugly blue skin during the night. I’m fine with the blue flames, I just don’t like the new skin that goes with it).

As soon as I got my Dusk it instantly went into the bank and sat there on the #1 slot in the first tab.

There are a few reason I did not equip it:
1)If ArenaNet announced they would make precursors easier to get, I would sell the Dusk as quickly as possible and try to get most of my money back, and just obtain the Dusk again with the easier method.
2)I did not want to accidentally salvage it or destroy it. I kept it in the bank to make sure the chance of this happening was 0%.

I would equip my precursor if I could decide which legendary I wanted to aim for….and once I managed to scrape enough gold together to buy one.

kiba.2768:

if this is in reference to ‘physical progression’ then I will agree with you. otherwise farming vs buying mats with farmed gold makes little difference other than the mindset that you did not ‘buy’ the mat.

I guess what matters is how you feel about your playtime whether it be farming gold and indirectly obtaining what you need vs directly farming for what you need. a surprising number of players feel like their time is wasted indirectly buying mats, which i think is strange since the outcome is exactly the same.

Yea I’m referring to the difference in acquiring, not the price or time spent. As per you argument, the optimum way to get a precursor is doing speed runs in CoF path 1 over and over to get enough gold to buy a precursor off of the TP – the other method (MF) is simply impractical. Getting gifts, however, is more varied – more left to taste than anything. It can be acquired via farming them where they drop (I don’t know whether this method is actually faster or slower than right off buying it from the TP via speed runs), but you have to agree that the options of favorable paths towards acquiring them is more diverse.

Leo Paul.1659:

but you have to agree that the options of favorable paths towards acquiring them is more diverse.

i want to agree with you here, but precursors can drop from just about anything that can drop t6 mats. that includes all lvl 80 zones as straits does not drop t6 nor precursors afaik.

t6 and precursors can be bought from tp.
t6 and precursors can drop from the same mobs.
t6 and precursors can be gotten from the MF(t6 being a random amount, precursor being a random event)

Yes but don’t specific mobs drop the mats you specifically want? Should they drop precursors though, you won’t know if it’s what you want/need.. At least in MF you have a bit more control. Anyway, I’m referring more towards the assurance that the relationship between one’s actions and the reward one wants is a bit more concise.

There really isn’t a point to equip your precursor unless you really like the skin. These things are worth hundreds of gold, and if you happen to change your mind about the legendary you want, you’re stuck with the weapon until your forge that particular legendary.

I personally put my dusk in my bank until I gathered the rest of the mats to craft Twilight, as I was still uncertain if I wanted it over sunrise.

Still though, everyone is different so if they want to equip their legendary that’s up to them.

I don’t know what it is, but it seems like some people have a mental block that keeps them from grasping that every drop they get has a monetary value. If mob A drops a crafting material you need that can be bought for 3 silver off the TP and mob B drops an item you can sell on the TP and make a 3 silver profit from, then obviously both mobs gave equal progression towards your goal. But it seems like a lot of people who post about how difficult it is to reach goals in this game look at the mob B situation and conclude they didn’t get anything they can help them. I don’t know if the TP seems scary to some people, or if there’s just some kind of mental tick that makes 3 silver outright seem so much more significant than an item that you can make 3 silver off of, or what.

It’s like that post earlier with the guy saying he threw 10,000 rares into the mystic forge and didn’t get a precursor. That is literal gold he was throwing away, he could have just sold all of those items and had enough gold to skip the precursor and outright buy just about any legendary he wanted. But in his mind he was just tossing out extra daggers, the thought never crossed his mind that they had a value associated with them beyond their status as forge fodder.

And crafting materials are similar. I see all the time that materials are expensive on the TP so someone will save money by gathering them themselves, but you’re still essentially paying for the materials anyway by using them and not selling them. There’s not a large difference between farming the actual materials vs acquiring gold to buy the materials when it comes to ultimately reaching their goals.

If anything I see farming for specific materials to be more restrictive to a player’s ability to reach their goals while playing the game the way they want to. Gathering specific materials requires farming specific areas, while coin can be earned pretty much anywhere (ignoring that certain spots are obviously going to be inherently more profitable to farm than others). But for some reason getting the materials outright seems to generally be more satisfying to people than the alternative.

I understand your point, but what you’re saying doesn’t really speak ‘legendary’ to me. Grind gold then TP as opposed to farm the mats going around the world and actually earning the mats and gaining ‘mastery’ over various aspects of the game. The difference here is that getting the gifts in various locations at least gives a sense of purpose as opposed to just randomly killing stuff (i.e. doing stuff what you want to do) which becomes more aimless than anything.

Ideally, imho, while working on each of the gifts required for a legendary, one should be able to at least get the precursor one needs, but that rarely happens. The drop rate is too low that farming mobs is almost moot in attempting to acquire them as a drop. Ultimately, one ends up finishing the gifts he needs and never getting a hold of the precursor.

So a question that comes to mind is why then, should these precursors be weapons, if equipping them is either disadvantageous financially (they mostly only end as investments sitting in storage) or too late since it usually ends up as the last part needed in making the legendary.

Leo Paul.1659:

I understand your point, but what you’re saying doesn’t really speak ‘legendary’ to me. Grind gold then TP as opposed to farm the mats going around the world and actually earning the mats and gaining ‘mastery’ over various aspects of the game. The difference here is that getting the gifts in various locations at least gives a sense of purpose as opposed to just randomly killing stuff (i.e. doing stuff what you want to do) which becomes more aimless than anything.

But, since getting gold can be done from almost any aspect of the game, while getting specific mats requires only doing specific content, gold acquisition is has more potential to allow the “mastery in various aspects of the game” than mat farming does. Sure someone could just endlessly farm CoF for cash, but that’s no different from someone farming specific spots for lodestones.

Anyway, I think anyone would agree that neither method (farming mats or farming gold) is really “legendary” in the way anyone but a business major or economist would typically imagine :P

Hopefully the scavenger hunt, whenever it comes, manages that aspect of it.

yea I hope so too.. at least if it’s a scavenger hunt, it holds the same merit in doing it first before working on the gifts, as opposed to saving your gold then buying it asap from the TP first only because the price will go up.

Sorry about not answering your question but I love telling this story… When I was new to the game and didn’t know what I was doing, I accidentally sold my Spark to a merchant. Statistically, I suppose I will never get another precursor.

Hey you didn’t know about the buy back option in merchants?! That sucks so much lol.

look at it this way:
if you think the 2000 t6 mats you need now are expensive, when the scavenger hunt starts to give out precursors, expect a HUGE inflation of the mats as they become scarce as people race to secure them. the total price of the legendary pre scav and post scav hunt COULD be virtually the same. pair that up with the fact that anet likes to do mass bot bans with patch releases and well…the results could be devastating, at least initially.

i agree with everyone here that says precursors should be equipped as a MANDATORY aspect of acquiring a legendary. if i were a dev, i would require players to earn 100,000 kills on the precursor that’s going to turn into a legendary, with a limit of 100 kills a day maximum. that time gated content will ensure that even casuals can reach 100 kills a day and prevent nolifers from reaching a legendary faster than anyone else just because they can play 8+ hours a day.

those that have all their gifts are stuck in a weird place as i believe in the time between now and the scavenger hunt release(which, btw if anet is smart, will be time-gated and won’t allow anyone to ‘finish’ it upon release…as in each monthly content update will ‘update’ the scav hunt), they could farm enough gold to buy a precursor, but instead have to sit around for another 3 months on their gifts in lieu of spending that gold.

when the scav hunt is released, i guess i have no choice but to chase that 3rd(and possibly 4th) legendary….

Leo Paul.1659:

Hey you didn’t know about the buy back option in merchants?! That sucks so much lol.

It was several weeks after I sold the precursor before I figured out exactly what I had done. It is such an epic screw up that it makes for a really good story.

Nice idea on how precursors should be used. It can also tie in with the weapon master achievement.

kiba.2768:

i agree with everyone here that says precursors should be equipped as a MANDATORY aspect of acquiring a legendary. if i were a dev, i would require players to earn 100,000 kills on the precursor that’s going to turn into a legendary, with a limit of 100 kills a day maximum. that time gated content will ensure that even casuals can reach 100 kills a day and prevent nolifers from reaching a legendary faster than anyone else just because they can play 8+ hours a day.

100,000 kills on 100 kills a day would take 1,000 days—or 2.7 years—to achieve. That’s on par with the absurd WvW achievements. Time gated content is fine when its a matter of a month or two. Not years. I once joked that I’d get a college degree alongside a Legendary. I didn’t mean it literally.

GoZero.9708:

kiba.2768:

i agree with everyone here that says precursors should be equipped as a MANDATORY aspect of acquiring a legendary. if i were a dev, i would require players to earn 100,000 kills on the precursor that’s going to turn into a legendary, with a limit of 100 kills a day maximum. that time gated content will ensure that even casuals can reach 100 kills a day and prevent nolifers from reaching a legendary faster than anyone else just because they can play 8+ hours a day.

100,000 kills on 100 kills a day would take 1,000 days—or 2.7 years—to achieve. That’s on par with the absurd WvW achievements. Time gated content is fine when its a matter of a month or two. Not years. I once joked that I’d rather get a college degree than a Legendary. I didn’t mean it literally.

haha i’m sorry, i meant 10,000. it’s been a long day(5am work day and kids from 4-9pm). i was aiming for a 3-4month killing period per precursor. thanks for catching that!

Hmm, it makes me think.. Maybe they can redo the weapon master achievement in which only by getting 5,000 kills via a specific weapon type can one upgrade his weapon to a precursor.

Honestly, I think that would be a terrible idea. Just because someone wants to get a certain legendary doesn’t mean they necessarily use that particular weapon a lot, they could want it just because that’s the skin for that weapon they like the most. Like I said earlier, if I were to ever get a legendary it would likely be the shield, but I almost never actually use shield on my Guardian. I’d just get it because it looks nice. If I had to grind shield kills for 4 months before I could even use the item I otherwise already earned then I’d probably get so sick of the weapon that I wouldn’t use the legendary once I got it.

Oglaf.1074:

Nuka Cola.8520:

they all look so bad compared to many many other skins that i don’t see the point

Dusk, Dawn and The Colossus are pretty sweet.

You forgot Lover.

Leo Paul.1659:

kiba.2768:

yes. both of mine. IMO pres are the first thing any legendary chaser should get. just doesn’t seem ‘right’ to have this long journey only to get the weapon last, never use it and suddenly ‘imbue’ it with legendary properties.

I agree. I feel like precursors should be the first to be acquired in making a legendary.

I would imagine most people get the precursor last on the remote but still possible chance that they’ll get it as a drop while gathering the other components. There’s no point taking a loss by buying a 700g precurosr, getting the same thing as a drop, and having to sell one on TP with a total of 105g in fees.

Most people who got the precursor as the first step probably never intended to get a legendary. But they got the precursor as a random drop, and couldn’t afford the listing fee to sell it. So they researched it, and figured they might as well do the rest of it to make a legendary.

right, but the chance of getting the precursor you need, let alone ANY precursor to drop while farming mats is so infinitesimally small.

like I said, I don’t rely on RNG. whatever I can control, I do. and I can control with 100% certainty that I will obtain my precursor using the method I choose.

Leo Paul.1659:

Hmm, it makes me think.. Maybe they can redo the weapon master achievement in which only by getting 5,000 kills via a specific weapon type can one upgrade his weapon to a precursor.

I wouldn’t mind this, but 5,000 kills is pretty quick. There is also the problem of dealing with the off-hand only weapons which don’t rack up the kills like a main-hand weapon does.

Yeah I have 5 precursors, but I have no money to take them become Legendary Weapons

why don’t you sell some of the precursors? you can’t equip 5 weapons in 1 character anyway :p

I did, just to see what it looked like. But I think Dusk is one of the uglier swords in the game. Went right back into the bank, not a kill on it ^__^

KINGRPG.3492:

Yeah I have 5 precursors, but I have no money to take them become Legendary Weapons

Lol, just looking at that makes my head hurt.

Sell one, or two. BOOM. Money.