Guild Wars 2

I am at the stage where I am looking at different dungeon skins and cultural sets as well as there stats but I am a little worried about the way the transmutation stones seem to work by their description.

Do you permanently lose the item you use to change another items appearance by?
Is that transmuted item permanently changed to that skin with no way to revert?

If the answer is yes to these then this is utterly utterly horrible.

This would mean that if I wanted to have one skin for two sets with different stats I would have to get two copies of the skin. In the case of cultural armour that would be unbelievably expensive.

If I had one set with the correct stats but wanted to switch between two different skins (say the original skin and another) then I would have to grind out two sets of the original skin. In the case of dungeon armour that is a ridiculous amount of work.

I am aghast at this system, the idea of destroying hard earned gear is just not an option I want to pursue.

Why on earth does this not work like WoW’s transmogrification system where you do not lose either the original items appearance or the item that you use to transmute with. You could still charge gems for the actual transformation if the worry is the loss of income.

I would be far more likely to spend gems on a WoW like system then the current.

Right now the cost isn’t just gems ( I don’t mind about that) but an entire armour set.

it’s a GOLD SINK

You’re complaining that you can’t have two sets of armor with the same skin? One skin for one piece of equipment. Makes complete sense to me. Want two separate skins? Get the required money/tokens to do so.

To do it your way, every time that is ever transmuted via transmutation stones would have to be soulbound or anyone who got the skin could sell 1000’s of copys.

Also it would make skins common as no one would have to try again once they have a set.

End game its not about stats as all exotic items have the same total stats. End game is just about looks. (Legendary weapons stats are the same as exotic but just look cool)

Anet wants you to spent lots of time, gold and gems on getting ‘that look’ and if you ‘that look’ on TWO sets of armor….

Click on transmute stone. Select two items. Click on one appearance, one set of stats, one upgrade. Confirm. The stone and selected items disappear, you now have one item you created through the stone.

Sorry, but that’s how it works.

I don’t get why people aren’t more concerned by this. It’s because the game is about acquiring cosmetic skins that I’m frustrated that you lose a skin when you transmute one.

Like I said, the WoW system is far more elegant. I earned my tier 8 set and if I want my tier 9 and 10 set to look like that I can. If I want to then change back the look of my transformed tier 9 and 10 back to their originals I can as well.

It costs gold to do all these things and it could cost gems or gold in this game I don’t mind. Just don’t make me farm the same set twice if I don’t want to. I have enough things I want to do in this game thankyou very much.

This is why several other MMO’s have appearance slots instead, so you can change it whenever you want with no consequence. They also have sets of appearance slots, so you can switch to one of 2, 3 or 4 sets anytime, in-combat, pvp, pve, in town, anywhere, with no consequence or cost.

It’s very easy to see why ArenaNet did it this way: Gem Store.

I think it’s a pretty terrible system myself. I would really prefer something along the lines pf the appearance slots in LOTRO or Rift. The T-stones are so clunky by comparison.

I would even go as far as saying that I’d just prefer skins to be a sort of unlocking type situation. Once unlocked, you could apply the skin to whatever you choose. If the gold sink is necessary, then I can see charging for utilizing a skin swap. Perhaps even charge us for a wardrobe bank slot to store these things. I do appreciate hard work involved with acquiring nice looking things, and of course the time investment to go with that. However, I would just prefer it to almost operate as easy as changing a dye on your gear, and just make the acquisition of the initial skin be the hard work. Just my thoughts anyways.

One thing you forget, is Transmutation Stones are not just for cosmetic swaps.

In WoW, Transmogrification only does appearance. In Rift, the Wardrobe only uses appearance. In many other games, they only alter the appearance. All other games only let you change the appearance.

Transmutation Stones allow you to choose the appearance, stats, and upgrade off two sets of gear. Then you combine what you like from each piece, and get one. So say armor 1 had the appearance and upgrade you wanted. And armor 2 had the stats you wanted. Using a transmutation stone, you can take the appearance and the upgrade from armor 1, and combine it with the stats of armor 2, to make your new armor.

It does more than just appearance, thus the reason why it works the way it does. Otherwise, you could just transmute a ton of gear to have the exact same Rune and then salvage all those runes and have 1000’s of the same Rune easily. This would flood the market with billions of runes from people duplicating them using Transmutation Stones cause nothing would get destroyed. Thus giving you an endless supply of runes.

Turgon.8625:

Just don’t make me farm the same set twice if I don’t want to. I have enough things I want to do in this game thankyou very much.

They don’t “make you”. You’re the only person who take the decision of having 2.

vjek.4270:

It’s very easy to see why ArenaNet did it this way: Gem Store.

funny how I got 100+ transmutation stone and never ever used the gemstore. They must have forced me while I was unconscious or something right?

A fix to this would be to allow for a library of armor skins, similar to what we have for dyes. Transmutation stones would just transfer the skin to your library instead of combining them. Transmuting them to your library would make them soulbound so they couldn’t be traded.

You don’t lose the skin when you transmute… you just transfer it. You buy/make one set, you can only have one set – but you can put whatever stats you want on it. Makes perfect sense to me. If you want two sets with the same appearance (which seems like a waste to me, with so many cool skins out there that I like) then yes, you’d need to buy/make two sets. Sorry, I guess.

I don’t understand what the deal is… not really a big fan of the skins from dungeons though I’ll certainly farm them at some point for the stats.

The point of Transmutation is to take good gear’s stats and put them on skins you like. If you like the skins for said good gear then don’t transmute them… if you like the skins for good gear and want those stats on other armors why shouldn’t you have to get another set?

Afraid to earn yourself the armor again or something? It’s not a gold sink as mentioned above, it’s a time sink and nothing else. Personally have 11 fine and 21 basic transmutation stones and the most I’ve completed on a character is 35% world completion… so having a hard time believing that the stones can only be found via Gem Store as well.

Haishao.6851:

Turgon.8625:

Just don’t make me farm the same set twice if I don’t want to. I have enough things I want to do in this game thankyou very much.

They don’t “make you”. You’re the only person who take the decision of having 2.

vjek.4270:

It’s very easy to see why ArenaNet did it this way: Gem Store.

funny how I got 100+ transmutation stone and never ever used the gemstore. They must have forced me while I was unconscious or something right?

I completely agree with your first point, but Fine Transmutation Stones (which are required to transmute level 80 equipment) are more difficult to come by. Not that I really care either way, as if you plan out what gear you want to have, buying Fine Stones isn’t that big of a deal.

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

I don’t understand what the deal is… not really a big fan of the skins from dungeons though I’ll certainly farm them at some point for the stats.

They are really just a skin, to farm for the looks.. the stats are the same as any other exotic you could buy for ~2.5g

Why would I transmute them? Just keep multiple sets of armor.

@ Corew (sorry for some reason the quote button randomly never pops up for me in these forums =S )

I agree that the stats are the same, thus when I can spend a few hours a day and over the period of two weeks get all those stats for any armor without spending a single gold (considering I play with a group of people who get better with practice armor repair costs dwindle over time – if I end up spending a gold over 2 weeks on armor repair someone was playing while asleep), I don’t see why I wouldn’t take the time to do so. There’s hardly any true Gold sinks in this game and people are too tunnel visioned to tell that.

I prefer the LOTR system as well but max stat gear is pretty easy to get in this game so I’m not too concerned.

I’m definitely for a move to a ‘wardrobe’ style system or a ‘collections/library’ based system.

They don’t “make you”. You’re the only person who take the decision of having 2.

Ok sure, that phrasing was too extreme.

What they have done is make a system that requires far more farming and inventory management than the equivalent system of many other games.

This might be a great idea!

Do the right thing and toss it in the Suggestions Forum, and try to garner support for it.

It’s there for a reason.

If yer saving them as costumes, I get it; why can’t you put the lousy stats on one set and the good stats on the other. That way you get the good stats on the look you want, but you can keep the other look for playing dress up down the road … I have handfuls of armors in my bankittenep just for the look.

Maybe the costume appearances could be tagged … so say if you combine two “fancy Krytan coats” one of them gets destroyed because they look the same and they’re tagged that way … but if you combine two things that look different they don’t get destroyed because the tag doesn’t match up. (you still just switch, instead of copy the stats and upgrades, but you don’t disintegrate both outfits – you just end up with one with crappy stats)

The problem with that second approach is, a lot of people aren’t gonna want to keep a copy of the old thing and then they’ll have ta go through the extra work of destroying it after they transmute … and we’d here complaints about that next.

I think doing a combination of WoW’s transmog system and GW2’s collection system would be ideal.

For those who don’t know about how Warcraft’s Transmogrification system works:

- You walk up to an NPC wearing the gear you want to change the appearance of.
- Talking to the NPC brings up an interface with slots for all armour slots.
- Drag items from your inventory into these slots to change the appearance at the cost of gold per slot.
- Walk away wearing your gear with a new skin as well as the other items still in your inventory.
- Return at any point to undo the appearance change or change to a new look.

If this were combined with GW2’s collection interface any armour you find can be ‘collected’. This wouldn’t involve moving an item to a bank at all but simply ‘unlocks’ the skin in a collection interface.

When you went to the transmogrification NPC you would select from you collections tab instead of dragging an item from your inventory.

I’ll throw this in the suggestion forum later but what do people think?

I use them this way… drag drop … delete y/n ?

yes

There already is a limited way for storing and applying skins – i.e. the hall of monuments, if you played GW1. Would be great to have a similar library for armor you get in game. Presumably you could have an option when using the transmutation dialog of adding a skin to your library.

One idea might to have something similar to HOM in your home instance – you could then go there to apply the skins you already collected. Would be good if you had a hearthstone to take you there too.

Dibrom.6408:

it’s a GOLD SINK

Time, gold and token sink to be precise

There’s also multiple versions of all armors, the point of all this was to create a system wherein if you wanted to pay for aesthetics with real cash or some hard work and time spent then you’d get it faster to pay cash, hence the fine transmutation stones, and gold to gem conversions etc etc

You sadly, cannot have your cake and eat it, either we get given the options to pay for NECESSARY functional aspects like those FAIL gala.net upgrade systems where you have a infinitely small chance of upgrading to anything useful and have to buy CASH SHOP items to protect them from destruction or reset the fail potential rng generated bonuses you get from “awakening” them OR we just pay for aesthetics like League of Legends

Presumably, they went for a little of the latter and a tiny portion of the former.

All any of those pieces will cost you is 2 days doing each path ONCE,

60×6 = 360

Of course, honestly I haven’t counted this up exactly as reflected ingame so these are guesstimates, it’s been THAT trivial to me as gearing up wasn’t a rush for me as this game rewards skill highly over exotic gear

WHY.ARE.YOU.IN.SUCH.A.HURRY.TO.MIN.MAX?

there is only dungeons for challenge level content at the end, that’s the high end difficulty endgame option. If you’re coming across players who won’t take you unless you

1: are overgeared
2: no longer need the run and are just doing it to kill time
3: are a specific level or class

IGNORE THEM.THEY.ARE.NOOBS.

They can kick you for valid reasons, like you aren’t willing to play more team orientated by using utilities, but aside from horribly tuned segments in some paths you don’t NEED ubergeared 80’s to pass things, players are just lacking conviction and skill and passing it off as the games fault.

And I should know, I almost did it myself, as embarrassing as that is to admit

Hellkaiser.6025:

All any of those pieces will cost you is 2 days doing each path ONCE

I am not in a hurry but at the same time there is already far more that I want to do in this game then I have time for. I am not asking for easy unlocks for all gear. Having said that if I have earned the gear from a dungeon once I feel it should be a permanently unlocked skin and not a one time only use(if I wanted to apply the look to or have another look applied to it then it’s used up).

To clarify here I am not viewing the dungeons (or any other gear earning gameplay) as a ‘grind’ that I would not play if they did not provide rewards. There are just so many things I’d like to be doing in the game I don’t want to feel obligated to stay in one place.

Turgon.8625:

Hellkaiser.6025:

All any of those pieces will cost you is 2 days doing each path ONCE

I am not in a hurry but at the same time there is already far more that I want to do in this game then I have time for. I am not asking for easy unlocks for all gear. Having said that if I have earned the gear from a dungeon once I feel it should be a permanently unlocked skin and not a one time only use(if I wanted to apply the look to or have another look applied to it then it’s used up).

To clarify here I am not viewing the dungeons (or any other gear earning gameplay) as a ‘grind’ that I would not play if they did not provide rewards. There are just so many things I’d like to be doing in the game I don’t want to feel obligated to stay in one place.

MMOs aren’t supposed to be wrapped up in a month. If you’re not in a hurry no one is trying to rush you… or are you saying that you know exactly when your computer’s going to die and want to succeed in everything before that happens?

It’s not like everyone can spend even 4 hours a day on the game, but if others can put 32 hours (for example) into dungeons and get what they want why can’t you do that over a month long period and get the same stuff? You don’t have to have 20 copies of every skin this month do you? Play the game… the less time you spend here complaining the more skins you could be progressing towards without Anet having to redo a perfectly fine system.

I agree this system is pretty stupid and makes the player feels stupider by abiding it silently.

We all agree it is a gold sink, ok.

But i’d like to collect any style on the skins i hardly have work to purchase/drop/craft them and store every of them for further use without having to ever worry how to get it anew.

But the current system it is destructive, and also requires you to spend some gold/RM in it, so it look pure sadistic to me from a design point of view.

Style should be stored in an apposite space, like inks are stored, and only then i’m ok if they require a transmutation stone to apply it.

I cannot argue with their business choices even if i disagree, but the system they implemented for cosmetics is de-facto clunky and dis-functional.

Turgon.8625:

Hellkaiser.6025:

All any of those pieces will cost you is 2 days doing each path ONCE

I am not in a hurry but at the same time there is already far more that I want to do in this game then I have time for. I am not asking for easy unlocks for all gear. Having said that if I have earned the gear from a dungeon once I feel it should be a permanently unlocked skin and not a one time only use(if I wanted to apply the look to or have another look applied to it then it’s used up).

To clarify here I am not viewing the dungeons (or any other gear earning gameplay) as a ‘grind’ that I would not play if they did not provide rewards. There are just so many things I’d like to be doing in the game I don’t want to feel obligated to stay in one place.

I wholeheartedly am trying to see your points, and am not assuming you’re whingeing so apologies if I came across that way. Realistically if you want the gear it’s there but you will have to repeat content and honestly, it’s the BEST way of increasing your skill level with a class, working out combo’s between other players and seeing what works with what is rewarding and fun, for some.

I guess it’s a matter of replay-ability, if we didn’t have to repeatedly unlock the dungeon skins then eventually when people made alts, they would no longer need to do the dungeons, and then that places them in the awkward situation of going back on their own claims that they wouldn’t implement a random dungeon auto finder system “a la” WoW.

There is a bigger picture in play, and whilst at first our eyes which have gotten lazy at the fast food content changes and systems of modern mmo’s can’t see this, but over time if you really think about things there’s a lot more going on than you can see at first, you just gotta refocus and look at what’s better for EVERYONE, as opposed to just yourself, or those who haven’t got hours per day to play.

They will progress, as will you. But it will just take you a little longer til you can organise things better, I spend a lot of time LFG spamming in chat in L.A for groups, the hours I’m online are not always spent “productively” or “efficiently”

Perhaps if you were to look into a guild who focuses on dungeon teams they could help fit into your schedule and you’d get that “grind” outta the way in a far more efficient manner than even a borderline no-lifer loser like me :P

MrNobody.4357:

But the current system it is destructive, and also requires you to spend some gold/RM in it, so it look pure sadistic to me from a design point of view.

I used 2 Fine transmutation stones today… stil got 13 more as well as 32 basic trans stones now. Please oh please find where my account was charged any real money for these stones because I could’ve sworn I got them all from black lion chests (for free) and as completion awards for 100 percenting zones… it’s not a RM sink unless you choose for it to be.

And it’s not a gold sink it’s a time sink. You want to buy skins then it is, but all the best stats can all be found on dungeon armor so again, it’s only a gold sink if you choose it to be.

You can choose to get any stats for your armor in this game by spending time in it, end of story. The rest is optional and if that’s your problem then it sounds like it’s just that – YOUR PROBLEM.

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

MrNobody.4357:

But the current system it is destructive, and also requires you to spend some gold/RM in it, so it look pure sadistic to me from a design point of view.

I used 2 Fine transmutation stones today… stil got 13 more as well as 32 basic trans stones now. Please oh please find where my account was charged any real money for these stones because I could’ve sworn I got them all from black lion chests (for free) and as completion awards for 100 percenting zones… it’s not a RM sink unless you choose for it to be.

And it’s not a gold sink it’s a time sink. You want to buy skins then it is, but all the best stats can all be found on dungeon armor so again, it’s only a gold sink if you choose it to be.

You can choose to get any stats for your armor in this game by spending time in it, end of story. The rest is optional and if that’s your problem then it sounds like it’s just that – YOUR PROBLEM.

Sorry if you miss my point, don’t focus on gold or RM, that it was there just to say things correctly, in fact trans. stones are items featured on the gem store, it is not available from in-game merchants for gold

The system requires

A – 1 source style item
B – 1 target stat item
C – 1 transm stone

So you start getting A and B which both requires time and dedication, then you spend for C gold or RM, it is not important, they are just time and dedication too.

before the transmutation after the time and dedication you own
- 2 styles
- 2 items for stats (assuming the stats are different)
- the stone

after
- 1 style
- 1 item for stats

The point is that the stone is a gold sink ok, but being already a cost it shouldn’t have any further drawback, that is losing what you earned already.

So actually it is not a gold sink, it is a con, a life sink.

PS: Ahhh…… and yes, it might be a my problem, would you want me to shut up because you’ve decide that? ah! :D

It’s not utterly horrible.

You can get exotic gear quite easily, but yes getting skins for each set can cost a bit more. It gives you stuff to do as it is.

Hellkaiser.6025:

I wholeheartedly am trying to see your points, and am not assuming you’re whingeing so apologies if I came across that way. Realistically if you want the gear it’s there but you will have to repeat content and honestly, it’s the BEST way of increasing your skill level with a class, working out combo’s between other players and seeing what works with what is rewarding and fun, for some.

I guess it’s a matter of replay-ability, if we didn’t have to repeatedly unlock the dungeon skins then eventually when people made alts, they would no longer need to do the dungeons, and then that places them in the awkward situation of going back on their own claims that they wouldn’t implement a random dungeon auto finder system “a la” WoW.

There is a bigger picture in play, and whilst at first our eyes which have gotten lazy at the fast food content changes and systems of modern mmo’s can’t see this, but over time if you really think about things there’s a lot more going on than you can see at first, you just gotta refocus and look at what’s better for EVERYONE, as opposed to just yourself, or those who haven’t got hours per day to play.

They will progress, as will you. But it will just take you a little longer til you can organise things better, I spend a lot of time LFG spamming in chat in L.A for groups, the hours I’m online are not always spent “productively” or “efficiently”

Perhaps if you were to look into a guild who focuses on dungeon teams they could help fit into your schedule and you’d get that “grind” outta the way in a far more efficient manner than even a borderline no-lifer loser like me :P

I think you may misunderstand. I don’t have an issue with finding dungeon groups, I am already in an organised guild who are quite productive around WvW and dungeons. As I said though, if I have already spent time one weekend working on unlocking a skin I’d perhaps like to play some WvW the following weekend without feeling I need to get a second copy of that skin to cover up my magic find set.

I think it would appear that I was whinging if it weren’t for the fact that games like World of Warcraft, Rift and Lord of the Rings have already implemented systems along the lines of what I am suggesting. I can unlock a skin once in WoW and use it on my PvP healing set and my PvE tanking set.

I do admit though that this is definitely a case of me being spoilt in other games and hoping to see some of that rub off over here.

MrNobody.4357:

Sorry if you miss my point, don’t focus on gold or RM, that it was there just to say things correctly, in fact trans. stones are items featured on the gem store, it is not available from in-game merchants for gold

The system requires

A – 1 source style item
B – 1 target stat item
C – 1 transm stone

So you start getting A and B which both requires time and dedication, then you spend for C gold or RM, it is not important, they are just time and dedication too.

before the transmutation after the time and dedication you own
- 2 styles
- 2 items for stats (assuming the stats are different)
- the stone

after
- 1 style
- 1 item for stats

The point is that the stone is a gold sink ok, but being a cost it shouldn’t have a drawback, that is losing what you earned already.

So actually it is not a gold sink, it is a con, a life sink.

PS: Ahhh…… and yes, it might be a my problem, would you want me to shut up because you’ve decide that, ah!

I used 2 Fine transmutation stones today… stil got 13 more as well as 32 basic trans stones now. Please oh please find where my account was charged any real money for these stones because I could’ve sworn I got them all from black lion chests (for free) and as completion awards for 100 percenting zones… it’s not a RM sink unless you choose for it to be.

I repeated what I already said because you still believe that category C – the trans stone… can only be acquired through the gem store. That is entirely and utterly false, as I have said, and putting time into the game can earn you those just as well.

You can spend the time, to get 2 styles, 2 stats, and one stone and as a result get 1 style+stat combination for zero cost aside from the time you put in.

Please, feel free to completely ignore my more valid argument on the matter yet again…

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

MrNobody.4357:

Sorry if you miss my point, don’t focus on gold or RM, that it was there just to say things correctly, in fact trans. stones are items featured on the gem store, it is not available from in-game merchants for gold

The system requires

A – 1 source style item
B – 1 target stat item
C – 1 transm stone

So you start getting A and B which both requires time and dedication, then you spend for C gold or RM, it is not important, they are just time and dedication too.

before the transmutation after the time and dedication you own
- 2 styles
- 2 items for stats (assuming the stats are different)
- the stone

after
- 1 style
- 1 item for stats

The point is that the stone is a gold sink ok, but being a cost it shouldn’t have a drawback, that is losing what you earned already.

So actually it is not a gold sink, it is a con, a life sink.

PS: Ahhh…… and yes, it might be a my problem, would you want me to shut up because you’ve decide that, ah!

I used 2 Fine transmutation stones today… stil got 13 more as well as 32 basic trans stones now. Please oh please find where my account was charged any real money for these stones because I could’ve sworn I got them all from black lion chests (for free) and as completion awards for 100 percenting zones… it’s not a RM sink unless you choose for it to be.

I repeated what I already said because you still believe that category C – the trans stone… can only be acquired through the gem store. That is entirely and utterly false, as I have said, and putting time into the game can earn you those just as well.

You can spend the time, to get 2 styles, 2 stats, and one stone and as a result get 1 style+stat combination for zero cost aside from the time you put in.

Please, feel free to completely ignore my more valid argument on the matter yet again…

You don’t read me, your fault. Go back to primary school, learn to read.
I never implied you need to buy with RM, i wrote you need gems, i believe you and i both know we can buy gems with gold.
Although so, gems are not avoidable in the process if you have no stones.

But this was not the focus. But you cannot read, i forgot.

MrNobody.4357:

You don’t read me, your fault. Go back to primary school, learn to read.

don’t focus on gold or RM, that it was there just to say things correctly

I’m having trouble understanding this part, why not clear it up for me. How is it that you – with your higher level of education – can’t clearly say what problem you have with the trans stones is without using false terms.

Can you not say things correctly without lying about the cost of things? That certainly makes me feel like I’m the one with the higher level of education so lets see if I can get to the heart of the matter.

You – and everyone else crying about this system – don’t feel that trading 3 items for 1 item you want (aka the perfect look with the best stats) is a worthwhile investment. You feel that for the cost of a single item (the stone) you should get 2 items with inversed stats (or perhaps you want more and both skins should have the best stats for the cost of 1 item, hard to tell).

If I’m wrong about that please clarify and try not to throw in the terms RM, Gold, or Time since all three are perfectly viable CHOICES of how to get ANY of the items required for this process.

if you are ok, why are you on this thread?

trolling? messing up discussion?

MrNobody.4357:

if you are ok, why are you on this thread?

Because there’s not only tons of better things for the devs to focus on… the changes proposed are stupid imo and I’m just trying to understand why trading 3 items for 1 kitten item is such a problem for all you children.

I’m sorry your parents must have spoiled you – this ain’t IRL though so nows a good a time as any for you all to earn your own keep.

OT:
Still here? With so many important things you have to tell the devs? Godspeed pal.

Back in topic:
“The point is that the stone is a gold sink ok fine, but being already a cost it shouldn’t have any further drawbacks, that is losing what you earned already.”

Better have the styles saved likes inks, pretty ordered, without cluttering bank/inventory.

Then when you want to apply the style you buy a stone as you do now and you get the desired cosmetic effects.

When you grow tired of it, you buy another stone, use it and get a shiny new look.

Missing the previous look? Just buy another stone, browse your earned styles and use it.

If your earned styles were saved like inks, you shouldn’t have to re-farm to obtain the same exact styles you already earned before like you have to do now with the current transmutation system.

This is the point. Trolling free now

OT:
Of course the game have many more important problems, but these deserve their own proper thread.

I think transmutation stones are a barrier to the act of collecting styles. Taking a little bit from DC Universe and a little bit from WoW, I think a better way to this whole thing is to make each piece of armor and it’s style collectible in a “style” category in our hero’s menu. If you bought/made/found a gladiator helmet, then you will unlock that style to be used on any helmet in the future. If you want to change the style of your newly acquired cultural helmet, talk to an Asuran NPC or somebody. He/she will then pull up your hero’s style collection menu, you choose a helmet style from your collection, and then for a small fee your cultural helmet will look like a gladiator helm. Same thing for arms, pauldrons, legs, chest, and shoes.

I think that would make collecting a bit more easier rather than buying pieces of armor multiple times.

MrNobody.4357:

OT:
Still here? With so many important things you have to tell the devs? Godspeed pal.

Back in topic:
“The point is that the stone is a gold sink ok fine, but being already a cost it shouldn’t have any further drawbacks, that is losing what you earned already.”

Better have the styles saved likes inks, pretty ordered, without cluttering bank/inventory.

Then when you want to apply the style you buy a stone as you do now and you get the desired cosmetic effects.

When you grow tired of it, you buy another stone, use it and get a shiny new look.

Missing the previous look? Just buy another stone and use it, but if your earned styles were saved like inks, you shouldn’t re-farm to obtain the same exact styles you already earned before.

This is the point. Trolling free now

OT:
Of course the game have many more important problems, but these deserves their own proper thread.

All the major bugs I’d like to see them fix and complaints I have – they’ve all been addressed and are awaiting fixing… and I’m not opposed to new ideas having their own threads.

But inserting a wardrobe into this game just seems stupid to me. I get that there’s RPers and people who want to change their looks all the time. You can either invest money or time into the game to get all those looks – no one is saying you have to use T-stones. And if you want to use the stones to put awesome stats on different skins well, the cost is 3 items for 1 good one. In a game that has an economy not only is that balanced, but everyone collecting the skins permanently would mean that eventually no one needs to buy armors and then how do people that join 2-3 years down the road make coin to get on their feet. Should they be forced to sell to NPCs cause the rest of us have collected everything in a magic cupboard that doesn’t take up bank space?

The lack of foresight and balance into every suggestion I’ve seen put in this thread is what makes me dislike it, not the fact that people have ideas and want to voice them.

It is actually a lack of foresight too expecting that it is ok for every player to repeat the content even for the same rewards already earned, and that these players will stay.

When a good chunk of the playerbase will have all the styles collected will scream for new content, which is right from the developers to serve.

Cosmetics needs are variegate and volatile and this is good for their economy, what cost is not owning the style, but applying it, and being T-Stones services which require one of the 2:
a) money
b) players dedication, which translates in players base retainment, which keeps the game populated and popular, which brings always new players possibly until market saturation.
Some new players will never spend a dime in the gems, some will do, for A.Net it is always money to invest in new content and improvements.

I think the economy definitely needs to be balanced if adopting a wardrobe/collections feature that allows for one time skin unlocks.

A good way to do it is to have a gem charge for each time you transmute an item or remove a transmutation. This gem cost could be quite high.

This way you are still effectively having to play the game a lot to make use of the cosmetic system (to get money for gems) but you can then play the way you want to, be it getting gold from WvW, DE’s etc.

Its called, using the skin you want with the stats you want.
How is that unfair?
I transmuted all my Ascalonian dungeon gear to have beserker stats.

Turgon.8625:

I think the economy definitely needs to be balanced if adopting a wardrobe/collections feature that allows for one time skin unlocks.

A good way to do it is to have a gem charge for each time you transmute an item or remove a transmutation. This gem cost could be quite high.

This way you are still effectively having to play the game a lot to make use of the cosmetic system (to get money for gems) but you can then play the way you want to, be it getting gold from WvW, DE’s etc.

Another balancing method could be to offer a limited space where to collect looks/styles, and like they are selling bank/inventory space increase services, they could sell a service to increas the looks storage capability.

All I could see was basically: "People want one of the big “endgame” things in GW2 more casual and flexible."

Sorry, nope.

I hope they don’t implement a system where you only need to get an item once and then you can always change model with it. It works in WoW for example because that’s just a mediocre thing with no real purpose at all. Besides, even their system isn’t all that great.

People have to realize this is a different game with different rules. And difficulty is never a bad thing.

And they have to learn to some extension that IF you decide to change your armor with something expensive, you only change it with something you plan to use for a long time.

That’s called (in some sense) being moderate, and it’s fine.

I guess they could have something like, once you got the set you can buy it ON THAT CHARACTER ONLY for a reduced price or something.

But never, ever remove the price in full.

Cutsforhugs.9730:

All I could see was basically: "People want one of the big “endgame” things in GW2 more casual and flexible."

Sorry, nope.

I hope they don’t implement a system where you only need to get an item once and then you can always change model with it. It works in WoW for example because that’s just a mediocre thing with no real purpose at all. Besides, even their system isn’t all that great.

People have to realize this is a different game with different rules. And difficulty is never a bad thing.

And they have to learn to some extension that IF you decide to change your armor with something expensive, you only change it with something you plan to use for a long time.

That’s called (in some sense) being moderate, and it’s fine.

I guess they could have something like, once you got the set you can buy it ON THAT CHARACTER ONLY for a reduced price or something.

But never, ever remove the price in full.

Sine when has flexibility been viewed as a bad thing? Casual…well that’s a term that has a changing definition and is highly debatable over whether it’s a bad thing or not. let’s not get into that here.

‘Difficulty is never a bad thing’ – Not sure about the relevance of this here. If your saying all endgame content should be difficult I disagree but yeah, not sure on the relevance. If your saying that it adds difficulty to have to farm two sets of the same gear I also disagree.

I don’t really value time based difficulty very highly. That might just be me though. If you have overcome the difficulty many times repeating dungeons to get the gear in the first place having to do it a second time is a test of patience not a further test of skill.

Just to clarify for you though – I am not against really really difficult stuff. Especially when earning good looking sets of armour. I just think once the time has been invested into earning it it should be a permanent unlock (for that character).

I worry about situations where you make a +heal based set, transmute it with 100g worth of cultural gear and then heal or skills get nerfed next patch making your set redundant and your money wasted.

That’s when I want some flexibility.

Turgon.8625:

Why on earth does this not work like WoW’s transmogrification system

Because this is not WoW.

ExcretusMaximus.9120:

Turgon.8625:

Why on earth does this not work like WoW’s transmogrification system

Because this is not WoW.

How very clever (and witty!!) of you to point out.