Guild Wars 2

so, recently i was on ts with my guild mates and the topic was ascended armor. many people were complaining how difficult it is to get your ascended armor nowadays. especially newer player complained about the lower tier mats. i never had any problems with getting my armors since i’d just buy gold with cash and then buy all the stuff from the tp. obviously i got torn a new one for telling how i got my ascended equip up until now.
so i thought for the next one i’d gather the stuff by myself. just to shut up all the people that say getting ascended was difficult. well, what shall i say, in the end it was me who was shut up.
i have done a world completion since then because i need the gift for another legendary and the whole thing gave me just enough mats to create 3 of each ascended mats (leather/damask). metal and wood weren’t too bad although metal was the easiest by far. i had no problem getting my stuff for ascended weapons with world exploration.
the armor is a whole other topic. like i said the world exploration gave me 3 damask/leather (mostly from bags or level specific salvaging items) out of the 24|36 i need (leather/middle armor).
i’m still persistent on getting the mats myself and so i’m making this thread to ask for help. i’ve tried the method with the mystic forge and karma items but that’s not what i was looking for since i wanted to simulate the experience of a newer player. obviously i got the personal forge node and several million karma piled up over the years so this method might be viable for be but won’t for someone who hasn’t played that long.
opening champ bags with lower lvl toons is also out of question since a) i don’t have any left to level and b) this would kinda circumvent the whole purpose of the experiment.

so, what i’m looking for are method of farming lower tier mats ingame without having to use tricks and circumvent stuff by using the resources of a long time player.
i have tried farming several events for the mentioned salvaging items but after running a kittenload of events and stuff the returns were … well … let’s say they didn’t make a dent.
if you have any idea how a regular lvl 80 player can farm enough lower tier mats to craft one ascended mat a day with perhaps 2-3 hours of play time i’d love for you to share.
since i’ve never gathered the materials myself this is becoming a more and more frustrating experience where the tp seems to be the only viable source of those materials. however, the stock in the tp is limited and not a sustainable solution. if everybody uses the tp the prices will rise until there’s barely any stock left which will put an end to ascended crafting. there has to be a way around it, no game developer could be that stupid.

You pretty much listed all ways in your post. So afaik there is no other way.

are you serious? like i said this is not a sustainable way. they will have to introduce new ways of getting the stuff or ascended armor might become unattainable for many players in the somewhat near future.
the supply already more than halved and even if from time to time there are 5-10k new scraps thrown into the system the trend goes massively downward.

i’m not sure this is how you make a stable economy …

I would call the ways you have listed sustainable, but as you said, you need

to use tricks and circumvent stuff by using the resources of a long time player.

It might be that I missed something, maybe there is a new secret way to farm the mats with the new HoT content.

i don’t think those option are sustainable. you can’t earn karma fast enough to sustain the need of those materials. also you can’t farm champ boxes fast enough.
the huge decline of those mats in the tp proves that.
yes, there’s always gonna be some of those mats around. the problem is that if they get too expensive crafting an ascended armor might not be possible for most people in an acceptable time.
personally i have to trouble getting another set but what about all the people several months from now that want to advance in fractals but are looking at several months of farming gold?

zaced.7948:

i don’t think those option are sustainable. you can’t earn karma fast enough to sustain the need of those materials. also you can’t farm champ boxes fast enough.
the huge decline of those mats in the tp proves that.
yes, there’s always gonna be some of those mats around. the problem is that if they get too expensive crafting an ascended armor might not be possible for most people in an acceptable time.
personally i have to trouble getting another set but what about all the people several months from now that want to advance in fractals but are looking at several months of farming gold?

What low-level mats are you taking about specifically?

I was able to farm for most of the mats I needed for a full set of heavy ascended armor. It took about 3 months total doing nothing but farming. Do some research on the wiki for the specific mat you are looking for. Most of the time they drop from various bags (not champ bags).
For example: Supply bags in Harathi Hinter Lands drop wool, linen, and leather, as well as other low level maps. These are super easy to get a bunch of them. Just do the meta event.

Miners bags from dredge in Timber Line Fall give a good amount of linen.

Char in FireHeart Rise for silk.

And more.

It can be done. But you have to find the right places to go, with the right mobs to kill.

Why is gold not feasible for a new player? A single map-meta event in one of the HoT maps should get you at least a couple gold worth of loot, if not several. Salvaging all the rares will get you about 12 ectos. You also get about 60 silk, which significantly cuts down on the amount of gold you need to craft damask. And then there is everything else you pull in.

Free money, yo.

Well i don’t really know what you guys are talking about but i thought i might see if my stats can help out i am a fresh level 80 new player i have 20 gold, around 27000 karma, my tailoring is at 37 and artificing also 37 before i ran out of low end mats. I do not seem to get them anymore from salvaging even using the basic kits. This is after 9 or 10 days of playing.

@pdavis: i know all the sources for the mats. however, the need for those mats is by far larger than the supply those methods can bring into the market in a feasible time. it took me four hours of only farming those low level area events to get enough cloth for one single damast. given that most players don’t want to do only those events in their playtime most players will not have enough of those to craft the given material. this applies to leather and cloth since wood and iron can be gathered directly (wood is just so expensive because people don’t want to bother gathering random spawns).
the remaining need (if not all of it) for those materials will be filled through the tp where the supply of those mats is declining. this means this stuff will get more expensive in the future.
and here we get to a point (as for fluffballs argument) where the gold needed for those materials will exceed the amount of gold that can be farmed even on hot maps.

i’m also not talking about the status quo. right now those mats are still kinda affordable. but with declining supply the price will rise. once the price has risen enough people won’t be able to gather as much gold as is needed to buy them during their daily play time. at some point even the amounts that are stashed away by power traders will dry up. this is a basic problem if there is more need than supply.
if people think ascended armor is expensive now i’m curious how much it will cost half a year or a year from now. we were always between 100-200k supply but recently crashed down to even 30k. since the price is high many people are selling (went back up to 60k) but those reserves won’t last forever. how much will people have to pay if we’re down to 20k? or even 10k?
that’s the big question here. at some point the price will be high enough so either people farm those mats through all their play time (which they won’t) or it will take so long that people will be scared away by that perspective.

i personally am not bothered by it since i can always exchange some cash for gold but will many players, especially new ones (that want to play fractals/raids or just max out their numbers for f.e. wvw) want to stick around with the prospect of doing nothing but event farming for several months (after they’ve reached 80 and even done most masteries) in order to get their gear? i think to many this might become a gamebreaker in the future, especially with gw2 being marketed as a casual friendly game.

and i didn’t even think about the fact (that moondancer reminded me of) that those mats are also needed en masse in order to even reach the according crafting levels.

Moondancer.3874:

Well i don’t really know what you guys are talking about but i thought i might see if my stats can help out i am a fresh level 80 new player i have 20 gold, around 27000 karma, my tailoring is at 37 and artificing also 37 before i ran out of low end mats. I do not seem to get them anymore from salvaging even using the basic kits. This is after 9 or 10 days of playing.

Part of the problem is that at higher levels, gear drops more often to your current level, thus when you salvage, you get the mats for that level of gear. However, as I posted earlier, as a level 80, you can still get those lower level mats by getting loot bags (not champ bags). In some areas you can get them with a high rate of frequency. Use the wiki and look for a specific mat you are needing. Most of the bags have drop rates on the wiki as well, so you can get a better idea of where the best places to go are.

zaced.7948:

@pdavis:
~snip~

So in short it’s a matter of time. If you don’t want to spend the time doing what you need to do to get the mats, but would rather get the gold and buy them because it’s faster, of course it’s going to be expensive (not you specifically, but the general you).

Like I said, I did my full set just by farming. It took 3 months. It’s a long time, but it can be done.

i assume you haven’t read my whole post.
at some point the amount of time that needs to be invested (4 h daily just for one damask? i doubt many people will do that. there’s also the need for leather and other mats) will scare off possible players. you did it in 3 months. as you said you did nothing but farming. many others will want to do other stuff as well. let’s assume the cost of those mats got so high it exceeds any feasible means of acquiring for a casual somehow new player (6months f.e.). let’s say you can only play 1-2 h daily. that way if you just farm your mats it will take you 2-3 days just to craft one bolt of damask. let’s even assume you also got your leather with that. now let’s assume said person wants to do hot, dungeons and perhaps some low lvl fractals. maybe some pvp or wvw. suddenly you only farm those mats every 3. day because you can’t take grinding the same events over and over for a month or two. suddenly you’re looking at a week before you can craft one damask/leather. given you also need a lot of other stuff you’re looking at more than 6 months before you can finish your armor. wouldn’t that turn off many people?
not many people will be willing to grind those events for several months ( be it 1, 2 or 3, not even talking about 6+) just to have access to the content they actually want to play. you’re a bad example here because as you said you were very dedicated. you’re the absolute minority here. most people will want to dabble into dungeons, hot, pvp, wvw and other stuff and most likely look for a game that gives them access to similar content without the need of farming low level events for months.
obviously it can be done. the point is that as it is now (it might be a lot worse in the future) the time and dedicating it takes to do it might scare people away from the game. especially after they were promised a casual friendly experience.

The thing is that not everyone is investing their time getting the mats for ascended. There are a good number of players who happily sell off any mats they get because they can’t stand crafting. So the supply continues to enter the market and players that don’t want to wait as long as it will take to grind out the mats themselves continue to buy up the supply and the price actually stays fairly even. (Though mithril ore has had an interesting spike over the last week, I was selling my excess at 92 copper for a while when it had been in the low 70’s for a long time. I’m sure it’ll subside again).

nobody seems to understand basic english ….
if people can stand crafting or not doesn’t matter if they want ascended armor. many players might sell their mats off but at some point will have the need for them again once they want their ascended gear.
there will always be supply but at what price? as it seems right now players are using more than enters the market. this makes the price skyrocket which in turn makes the armor more difficult to get for people that don’t want to farm events 3h+ daily.

an example of what might be going on in somebodies mind (since actual explanations don’t seem to be comprehended)

“i want to play fractals above lvl xx / i want to play raids / i want to be on par with everybody else in wvw”
->
“i need ascended armor”
->
“i need cloth and leather”
->
“both are so expensive i can’t buy them with gold”
->
“i could farm low level events through all my playtime but i actually want to play dungeons/hot/wvw/whatever”
->
“if i just pile up gold it will take me more than half a year before i can actually play the content i want (after i’m max lvl, after map completion, after masteries …)”
->
“kitten this, i’m gonna play game x instead”

is this any kind of understandable?
and once again, i’m not talking about the situation right now. I’m talking about how this scarcity will influence the game several months from now. We went from Ø150k
to Ø45k in supply. Right now we’re burning through stockpiled stashes of powertraders that sell their stuff due to high prices. Once we’re gone through those the supply is gonna plummet constantly. There is way more demand than whoever is selling can supply as the numbers show. look it up on gw2spidy or some other tp page.

right now it’s fine, i’m not complaining about 5-8s per scrap. But how much higher will the price go once the private stashes are burnt through and people still want to craft their gear? Recently several farming options have been killed (which i found out today) and the only means of getting this stuff are time consuming and unreliable.

in short: supply has been severely crippled while demand has never been higher (raids, fractals; -> necessity of fulfilling several roles therefore need for several gearsets). this will raise the price to beyond affordable which will leave players that want ascended gear with the choice of farming low level events for hours daily or buy gold with gems (exactly here we put on our tinfoil hats) in order to get it.
this might lead many players to preferring other games which give them access to the content they actually want to play without the above mentioned means over gw2.

how about we think about what the development is and where it seems to go instead of just staring at the right now. because at some point we might be staring at the right now and think “oh kitten, wool/linen/cotton scraps at 40-50s. how did this happen?”.

edit: actually … whatever. it’s not a problem that’s gonna affect me so i’m going to stop discussing on others behalf (or for the sake of reason). i have wasted too much time on typing already.