Guild Wars 2

I’ve ran some calculations after finding out that you can only get 3 marks per season (pretty dumb if you ask me).

I’ve used the Heavy Gloves as calculation point (since they all cost pretty much the same, with the armor being more expansive in both scenarios).

pvp
3 each rare ingredient (claw, fang, etc.)
450 mithril ingot
6 lump of mithrillium
3 Spool of Silk Weaving Thread
3 Spool of Thick Elonian Cord
60 iron ingot
30 steel ingot
60 darksteel ingot
3 glob of dark matter
30 bolt of wool
15 bolt of cotton
30 bolt of linen
30 cured thin
15 cured coarse
30 cured rugged

craft
1 lesser vision crystal (easy to get)
Exotic Insignia (1g)
5 globs of dark matter
20 crystalline Dust
4 spool of silk weaving thread
3 spool of thick elonian cord
2 lump of Mithrillium
40 iron ingot
20 steel ingot
40 darksteel ingot
80 bolts of wool
40 bolts of cotton
80 bolts of linen
60 cured thin
30 cured coarse
60 cured rugged

So through PvP… basically you save on some of the basic ingredients, but you trade 1 Spool of Silk Weaving Thread for… 3 Lumps of Mithrillium and 450 Mithril Ingot ! That’s a lot ! Honestly I feel like with the added Ascended Shards, it’s simply not worth it. Not to mention that in day-time, since you can only craft 1 ascended material (Lump of Mithrillium, etc.) a day, it takes 6 day to get your 3 marks, whereas it only takes 4 days to get your crafted glove.

The only situation I see it being worthwhile is to get those rarer prefixes like Celestial and etc.

Thoughts?

By the way… I haven’t played in a few months. Don’t I remember them being simply bought for gold and ascended shards?

Yeah you are 100% correct, it is not worth it. I think it either costs more or the same price to craft ascended normally or through the marks, it’s ridiculous especially if you multi class like me and do pve and wvw, you’ll likely want at least 2-3 sets for one character.

kitten ed if I’m ever going to buy/craft ascended armour, you’re better off doing daily fractals for 30mins and weekly raids then stat swapping the pieces you get so you can save your gold for legendary/skins.

Unless you absolutely want the pvp skins which I can’t imagine why because they are disgusting then there is no point even wasting ascended shards because you can get ascended armour for the same price of marks in fractals, then you can save your ascended shards for stat selectable trinkets instead.

Yes before there you didn’t need marks to get the armour, which I think was good considering a lot of people are strictly pvp and to get into wvw, that would be the only way for you to get ascended armour, and let’s face it you would only get maybe 3 pieces per season so why the hell they added the marks I don’t know. Seems outrageous to me especially in a game that constantly demands different classes and different stats for those classes.

Also yeah when I read chest of grandmaster marks I was a little excited, when I got my first chest only to find out you had to choose one mark from the box I was absolutely gutted. The rewards for spvp are terrible again, you’d think giving more ascended gear might encourage players from pvp to pve and vise versa but it seems like anet aren’t interested in anything other than capitalising off the gemstore during updates. I feel this is quickly becoming a money grabbing game.

Is it worth it for the trinkets though? Seems like a reasonable way to get HOT ascended trinkets, like vipers.

Absurdo.8309:

Is it worth it for the trinkets though? Seems like a reasonable way to get HOT ascended trinkets, like vipers.

It’s absolutely worth it for trinkets, as the costs are only the Ascended Shards and the Shards themselves. This makes getting full accessories incredibly easy, AND they can be HoT stats as well to boot.

That’s only if you are a WvW player that doesn’t want to even touch PvE but is fine with playing spvp. Otherwise farming berries in bitterfrost is much easier and faster.

Astralporing.1957:

That’s only if you are a WvW player that doesn’t want to even touch PvE but is fine with playing spvp. Otherwise farming berries in bitterfrost is much easier and faster.

I dunno, as long as you dont lose a lot it can go really quickly. The regular shards themselves can be bought off of the TP for cheap, and all it takes is 150 – 175 Ascended shards. Hardly an ordeal.

Frappuccino.6723:

Astralporing.1957:

That’s only if you are a WvW player that doesn’t want to even touch PvE but is fine with playing spvp. Otherwise farming berries in bitterfrost is much easier and faster.

I dunno, as long as you dont lose a lot it can go really quickly. The regular shards themselves can be bought off of the TP for cheap, and all it takes is 150 – 175 Ascended shards. Hardly an ordeal.

Also berry farming is boring.

Oh yeah, of course the trinkets are great. But I was quite surprised to find that the Ascended Armors and Weapons were so expansive now… Especially since they were available for only shards beforehand!

Anet’s mentality is this: you play PvP for fun/competitiveness, you get rewards while doing it. NOT: You play for rewards, so you just happen to play PvP. – I actually agree with Anet on this point.

There is a problem however with the AT rewards. If Anet actually believes that rewards are balanced there, then they simply have no idea what they are doing.

I disagree here, the rewards for playing a season; one ascended piece, a few trinkets. I think it’s abysmal, considering pvp is the hardest content in the game and the kitten you have to put up with on season I just don’t think it’s enough. The rewards were ok when you could buy ascended armour for shards.

Now any sole pvp players have a hell of a grind on their hands to get the armour. Also when you consider the population problems it doesn’t do much to bring more players in. I think if anet catered towards the population that want to see zero rewards for pvp to stop people “farming for rewards” I don’t think there would be any players left. Considering we have an MMR system I don’t understand this mentality in the slightest.

I do agree that the AT rewards are even worse. Kittened if I’m going to spend 2-3 hours to get 5-10 gold. You don’t even get any ascended shards or anything of non – liquid gold value. I don’t see AT’s going far if the rewards aren’t increased drastically, especially when you consider the same pro teams will be winning both the AT’s and monthly tournaments.

Thoth Divine.8642:

Thoughts?

The ones interested in the PvP ascended armor got 5 of 6 pieces in season 5 (like me), then the skin for the latest one in the 6th.

After that there’s no reason to play PvP for monetary gains, is all about trolling, and anyway PvP is ded.

The crappy part is that the ascended Glorious armor skins are quite nice, but I don’t want to have to craft the marks and other garbage for a whole suit of ascended armor just to get those skins. All of my characters have full ascended gear already, I don’t need another set. That, and being so prohibitively expensive, I’m still going to get all of the armor (at least the heavy pieces) but I’m sure as hell not going to like it.

The new way the acquisition of ascended armor in PvP works is definitely not worth the time and effort.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

The crappy part is that the ascended Glorious armor skins are quite nice, but I don’t want to have to craft the marks and other garbage for a whole suit of ascended armor just to get those skins. All of my characters have full ascended gear already, I don’t need another set. That, and being so prohibitively expensive, I’m still going to get all of the armor (at least the heavy pieces) but I’m sure as hell not going to like it.

You can just buy them as skins which only costs Ascended Shards.
It’s also worth noting this armor is intended to be a discount compared to out right crafting. (only certain pieces/stats mind you)
(Zojjas guise roughly 110g if you crafted it all yourself, compared to 85g ish, 78ish for the marks +raw gold, to buy the Ardent Glorius Brigandine)

Haleydawn.3764:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

The crappy part is that the ascended Glorious armor skins are quite nice, but I don’t want to have to craft the marks and other garbage for a whole suit of ascended armor just to get those skins. All of my characters have full ascended gear already, I don’t need another set. That, and being so prohibitively expensive, I’m still going to get all of the armor (at least the heavy pieces) but I’m sure as hell not going to like it.

You can just buy them as skins which only costs Ascended Shards.
It’s also worth noting this armor is intended to be a discount compared to out right crafting. (only certain pieces/stats mind you)
(Zojjas guise roughly 110g if you crafted it all yourself, compared to 85g ish, 78ish for the marks +raw gold, to buy the Ardent Glorius Brigandine)

Actually if you craft the cheapest ascended stat, then swap to the stat you want it would work out at around 65-70g, which is why I said it was roughly the same or even cheaper to craft normally.

Itz Jay.8941:

Haleydawn.3764:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

The crappy part is that the ascended Glorious armor skins are quite nice, but I don’t want to have to craft the marks and other garbage for a whole suit of ascended armor just to get those skins. All of my characters have full ascended gear already, I don’t need another set. That, and being so prohibitively expensive, I’m still going to get all of the armor (at least the heavy pieces) but I’m sure as hell not going to like it.

You can just buy them as skins which only costs Ascended Shards.
It’s also worth noting this armor is intended to be a discount compared to out right crafting. (only certain pieces/stats mind you)
(Zojjas guise roughly 110g if you crafted it all yourself, compared to 85g ish, 78ish for the marks +raw gold, to buy the Ardent Glorius Brigandine)

Actually if you craft the cheapest ascended stat, then swap to the stat you want it would work out at around 65-70g, which is why I said it was roughly the same or even cheaper to craft normally.

One of the cheapest stats to craft is Zintl (if you buy it on the TP), so I’ll use that as an example:
Using Gw2 Efficiency for costs, a 6 piece set, crafting Zintl armour will cost you between 350g and 450g, depending on the armour’s weight (Using your own Daily cooldowns, if you don’t use your own cooldowns, the cost is higher, 400g-500g)
Now you need to add onto that the cost of the 6 Insignias (slightly varies depending on stats, but we can ballpark it will cost 10g/Insignia due to leather and ectos),and 30 Ectoplasm (10g) to change the stats. So if you use this method, it will cost between 420g and 520g (Or 470g and 570g if you didn’t use daily cooldowns).
Example, if I crafted my own Zintl Armour for a light armoured Profession, it would cost me 405g ( +60g + 10G to change the stat) = 475g

Now, A set of Ardent armour from the vendor will cost 14g + 20 Marks of the desired weight + Both tokens.
20 Armorsmith Marks cost 348g with Daily cooldowns, 490g if you buy.
20 Tailor’s Marks cost 363g/520g.
20 Leatherworker’s Marks cost 382g/487g.
Example, if I crafted Tailor Marks to buy a Set of Ardent Glorious armor, which I can select the stat I want on, it would cost me 362g + the tokens I need.

475g or 362g?

So, you can definitely save yourself a decent amount of gold. If you still do your daily crafts of course.

The advice to stat swap was based on old information that had been outdated by patch changes. The only reason to do it previously was because fulgurite was a hassle to collect (for HoT stats), and Exotic insignias did not add any meaningful cost to the process. Neither of those statements is true any longer! (Hello overpriced Leather)

Tomiyou.3790:

Anet’s mentality is this: you play PvP for fun/competitiveness, you get rewards while doing it.

Those rewards are not aimed at this group of players however – they are clearly aimed at PvE. No need for ascended tier gear in sPvP after all.

That’s the problem with the reward system currently – the rewards themselves are aimed at non-sPvP players, but the method of obtaining them is balanced around those that sPvP primarily.

Astralporing.1957:

Tomiyou.3790:

Anet’s mentality is this: you play PvP for fun/competitiveness, you get rewards while doing it.

Those rewards are not aimed at this group of players however – they are clearly aimed at PvE. No need for ascended tier gear in sPvP after all.

That’s the problem with the reward system currently – the rewards themselves are aimed at non-sPvP players, but the method of obtaining them is balanced around those that sPvP primarily.

I think it’s actually for players who primarily enjoy either game mode.
PvE players get armour they want for Fractals/skins for fashion, they wouldn’t try PvP if it meant not earning what they would earn in PvE.
PvP players get armour they can use if they want to do fractals/raids or WvW.
Players who only play one game mode exclusively are probably the minority of the entire playerbase.

Haleydawn.3764:

Astralporing.1957:

Tomiyou.3790:

Anet’s mentality is this: you play PvP for fun/competitiveness, you get rewards while doing it.

Those rewards are not aimed at this group of players however – they are clearly aimed at PvE. No need for ascended tier gear in sPvP after all.

That’s the problem with the reward system currently – the rewards themselves are aimed at non-sPvP players, but the method of obtaining them is balanced around those that sPvP primarily.

I think it’s actually for players who primarily enjoy either game mode.
PvE players get armour they want for Fractals/skins for fashion, they wouldn’t try PvP if it meant not earning what they would earn in PvE.
PvP players get armour they can use if they want to do fractals/raids or WvW.
Players who only play one game mode exclusively are probably the minority of the entire playerbase.

People that pvp and need ascended for raids/fractals get those from…. drumroll…. raids and fractals (drops) because pvp is worst alternative for getting armor atm (coming from someone who actually raids/does fractals and has multiple geared classes). The only thing i used shards for is trinkets that is.

Cynz.9437:

Haleydawn.3764:

Astralporing.1957:

Tomiyou.3790:

Anet’s mentality is this: you play PvP for fun/competitiveness, you get rewards while doing it.

Those rewards are not aimed at this group of players however – they are clearly aimed at PvE. No need for ascended tier gear in sPvP after all.

That’s the problem with the reward system currently – the rewards themselves are aimed at non-sPvP players, but the method of obtaining them is balanced around those that sPvP primarily.

I think it’s actually for players who primarily enjoy either game mode.
PvE players get armour they want for Fractals/skins for fashion, they wouldn’t try PvP if it meant not earning what they would earn in PvE.
PvP players get armour they can use if they want to do fractals/raids or WvW.
Players who only play one game mode exclusively are probably the minority of the entire playerbase.

People that pvp and need ascended for raids/fractals get those from…. drumroll…. raids and fractals (drops) because pvp is worst alternative for getting armor atm (coming from someone who actually raids/does fractals and has multiple geared classes). The only thing i used shards for is trinkets that is.

No one is saying the contrary. It’s always good to have options though.