Guild Wars 2

I was able to convert 147 gold to 1000 gems. Should I get the molten mining pick for the nice lava effect? Or should I get the watchwork mining pick for the sprockets that sell for over 3 silver each? I can also get neither if you have a valid reason for that.

Rage.9723:

I was able to convert 147 gold to 1000 gems. Should I get the molten mining pick for the nice lava effect? Or should I get the watchwork mining pick for the sprockets that sell for over 3 silver each? I can also get neither if you have a valid reason for that.

Without a doubt the Watchwork, love it.
It has nice effects besides the sprockets.

The lave effect is very nice and if you have a fiery theme going, then I’d go with that.

Otherwise, the watchwork pick will net you some extra coinage so go with that.
There is mine-o-tron as well dont forget. And the bone pick which is also on the gem store atm

Why would you ever get anything other than the Watchwork? Unless ofcourse you absolutely, passionately hate the graphics and absolutely adore the graphics on one of the other picks.

The Watchwork gives you quite a bit of extra coin. It has a fairly high chance to proc a Watchwork Sprocket, from a lot of personal experience I’d guesstimate it around 15% per swing. And it doesn’t interfere with chances of getting gems, as some people suggested it might.
So just playing around and mining stuff you would normally can quickly start making you a nice bit of extra coin, with sprockets going for well over 3s (infact, 3s60c at time of this post).

When talking about sheer performance, the Watchwork Miningpick is objectively the best permanent mining tool.

That lava effect is the bee’s knees.

I find it really annoying that one of the picks is better than the rest in game; they really should have been all cosmetic. And the sprockets are kinda significant. But yea, I got the watchwork and won’t bother with the others.

It’s sorta unfortunate.

ArchonWing.9480:

I find it really annoying that one of the picks is better than the rest in game; they really should have been all cosmetic. And the sprockets are kinda significant. But yea, I got the watchwork and won’t bother with the others.

It’s sorta unfortunate.

It is extra annoying to those of us who bought the molten picks back in the day and then the watchwork ones came out and was basically a big screw you.

Dinks.2478:

ArchonWing.9480:

I find it really annoying that one of the picks is better than the rest in game; they really should have been all cosmetic. And the sprockets are kinda significant. But yea, I got the watchwork and won’t bother with the others.

It’s sorta unfortunate.

It is extra annoying to those of us who bought the molten picks back in the day and then the watchwork ones came out and was basically a big screw you.

Ehh I bought both, but had I known (time travel) I would’ve just bought the Watchwork, but it’s not that big of a deal to me.

If it’s about a fire theme then Molten. But the Watchwork Pick brings in sprockets that are 3s each on top of the ore and various gems. From a value aspect the Watchwork Pick wins hands down.

watchwork pick definately, effect is not bad either

Watchwork pick. The fire effect is cool…the first 100 times. After that, you’ll wish you had the sprockets.

Unless you really, really like the flame/lava theme, Watchwork Pick, hands down. My Watchwork Picks at this stage have probably paid for themselves, and every new sprocket they give me is extra money in the bank.

I was gonna say Lava, but I can’t deny the advantage the Watchwork one gives as the others described.

Definitely Watchwork.

Edit: It was so good, I just bought it myself. Between edits, I got 12 sprockets. That’s 37 silver and some change. Not bad for just mining copper nodes.

Personally i often find the lava effect also a little over the top, and like the effect of the watchwork better.

Else i own now a total of 17 picks .. 10 watchwork, 4 molten and 3 bone

If you want to make money then convert your gems back into gold. it will take you ~4000 watchwork sprockets just to break even on the pick. at ~15% chance that is ~26,000 swings or 8600 nodes. Just get the one that you like the best, you will never make money from either one, it is solely for cosmetics.

Two words: Get the watchwork pick.

Bubi.7942:

Two words: Get the watchwork pick.

You mean four words!?

There is no reason to buy any pick other than the Watchwork. It is the only one that offers an extra chance at a rare item (the sprockets) which makes it the superior selection in every single scenario.

Cosmetic choices pale in comparison to the raw financial impact of those bonus sprockets.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

If you want to make money then convert your gems back into gold. it will take you ~4000 watchwork sprockets just to break even on the pick. at ~15% chance that is ~26,000 swings or 8600 nodes. Just get the one that you like the best, you will never make money from either one, it is solely for cosmetics.

If your calculations are correct then it took me only little over 8months to almost earn the cost of the Watchwork back. And making gold wasn’t even the reason to get a permanent tool, it was just for the sake of convenience and not having to rebuy tools constantly (a saving I noticed you didn’t factor in btw).

So unlike with other tools, where id just get the convenience, I am also turning a profit from it soon.

What exactly is a “small” chance anyways? Why are they even hiding the chance? It seems to give a sprocket 1 out of 3 times.

And it’s just a matter of principle in this case. Sure, it’ll take a while for the pick to pay for itself but remember all yield the benefit of convenience already and saved bag space so IMO it’s unfair for this one to pay for itself so much faster. Even assuming a 10% drop rate (which I doubt), that’s about 30c per swing, plus the 2-4c you save for use of a mining tool. Even in a best case scenario where you count a swing as 4c per use (always using an ori tool), that means the watchwork pick is still 7x better than any other pick except the snowflake ones.

It says a “small chance”, but based on my extensive mining experience with it ever since it was first released, I’m quite confident in saying that it’s actually about a 20% chance of getting a sprocket per swing.

~2 sigma distribution (~95%) on 100 whacks will yield between 13 to 27 sprockets at 20%.

Yeah, that seems about right. From harvesting, say, a Rich Vein, my average return is anywhere from 2 – 4 Sprockets.