I believe there should be a new pair of headgear for the Laurel Merchants, mostly to give Laurels another small nudge into being “useful” again. This could be considered after Ascended armor is released. The price would be very high to justify it being a “free” ascended armor, as well as turn these into somewhat prestigious equipment (investing a huge time into it).
[Laurels]
- Cost: 250 Laurels (Slightly more than half a year)
- Stats: Ascended, Magic Find (Since Magic Find comes with no stats, you can select it one time on double-click)
- Appearance: Looks like green laurels placed upon your head (Pretty much wearing the ones you’ve been collecting), no Dye slots
- Effects: Has a slow & small leafy trail coming from it when you move
- Reasoning: How come a Laurel Merchant can’t even sell you back wearable Laurels? Adding this item will mend that and also provide a way to obtain a single Ascended armor without crafting. The only difference this has over any other Ascended armor would be it’s unique skin and effects (as well as method of obtaining it). Wearing this, people will know you’ve been active for quite a while.
[Golden Laurels]
- Cost: 500 Laurels (Over an entire year)
- Stats: Legendary (Change stats any time out-of-combat) or Ascended, Magic Find (Comes with no stats, but you can select it one time on double-click)
- Appearance: Looks like the above [Laurels], but given a natural golden color/look to them, could have some kind of jewel on it which is effected by a single Dye slot
- Effects: Has a slow & small golden leafy trail coming from it, sparkles & gleams
- Reasoning: Legendary equipment should certainly take a long time to obtain, and for an alternative to whatever Legendary Helms will be available through crafting-chains, 500 Laurels seems like a worthy time investment to yield its own exclusive Legendary skin. The effects are still probably going to be subtle compared to the full sets of Legendary armor, but that reflects how Laurels are mostly just time but not much effort and extreme crafting. This would essentially be the “mastery” item from the Laurel Merchant, and wearing this people would know you’ve been active for over a whole year plus.
I was expecting some kind of Laurel skin from the Laurel Merchants when they first introduced them. But then they became the main way to get max tier accessories. After obtaining Ascended accessories, there isn’t much left to strive for (besides the Minis or the Cat Tonic) and then Laurels stop becoming something to care about and really save up.
Adding in [Laurels] & [Golden Laurels] would add a reason to save up Laurels as well as play more often. Making the actual Ascended Helms would most likely be much quicker than working for [Laurels], and same goes for the Legendary Helms and [Golden Laurels]. They would only add a steady & far goal for players if they would like to obtain these exclusive skins.
The only sort of “flaw” I see with this is that in a few years, a lot of people will have them. But to me, that’s fine because they’ve put a lot of time into playing the game.
What do you guys think?