Guild Wars 2

I been thinking about the unlimited Zenith Skins for the past week and I am wondering if this is going to mess up the weapons system/skin in GW2. Most of the Zenith skins are really nice ( GS/Staff/Bow/dagger, etc.) won’t this make players not want to buy or make other weapons?

Prices on weapons and skins have fell this past week. What is the point of ever wanting to buy or make Vision of the Mist or other Great Swords when I have unlimited Zenith Skins. I can just buy the cheapest weapon with the state I want and transmute it.

With the release of the Unlimited Zenith Skins I pretty much stop working on Legendary GS, etc. when the new skins looks great and is unlimited.

No wonder the Ugly rare items are so expensive!! j/k

Rai.3942:

I been thinking about the unlimited Zenith Skins for the past week and I am wondering if this is going to mess up the weapons system/skin in GW2. Most of the Zenith skins are really nice ( GS/Staff/Bow/dagger, etc.) won’t this make players not want to buy or make other weapons?

Prices on weapons and skins have fell this past week. What is the point of ever wanting to buy or make Vision of the Mist or other Great Swords when I have unlimited Zenith Skins. I can just buy the cheapest weapon with the state I want and transmute it.

With the release of the Unlimited Zenith Skins I pretty much stop working on Legendary GS, etc. when the new skins looks great and is unlimited.

The point has always been to obtain the actual skins, in other words the look of the weapon. The zenith weapons doesn’t look anything like the visions of the mists, nor twilight, nor eternity.. and so forth. The legendary weapons also have unique features such as the unicorns and the annoying sounds from the quip.

Zenith weapons only really provides people with a fancy weaponskin that is easily accessible, it doesn’t exactly replace any of the other skins availible tho.

I for one don’t like them. Not that they’re hideous or anything but they don’t interest me and they look out of place on my characters. That said, I think the same thing of legendaries, and for me rare or exotic skins have always been preferable for that reason.

In the end I chose the shield, simply because it reminds me of the retaliation effect and therefore I figure it kinda-sorta fits my guardian even though it looks nothing like their other gear.

You are assuming everyone shares your taste. They are decent looking, but not really my taste. Most of my characters won’t get one due to it not fitting their look. This will hardly impact the market for skins.

Untill the next big thing arrives you will see them everywhere.

Rai.3942:

Most of the Zenith skins are really nice ( GS/Staff/Bow/dagger, etc.) […] the new skins looks great and is unlimited.

Your opinion, and your opinion!

I don’t see myself using them on any of the characters I play right now. It’s just not the specific style of any of them.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Rai.3942:

Most of the Zenith skins are really nice ( GS/Staff/Bow/dagger, etc.) […] the new skins looks great and is unlimited.

Your opinion, and your opinion!

I don’t see myself using them on any of the characters I play right now. It’s just not the specific style of any of them.

Same here, but I like them, so I’m going to buy a new character slot and make a themed character just to use them. I’m just waiting for the 5k aps reward because I heard it will give us 400 gems, so I will just have to use my gold for the other 400, hopefully (I don’t know if that information is correct).
And answering to the OP’s question… Well, I won’t buy other weapons for THAT character in particular, but I don’t think that will screw up the market for other skins. I usually give my character dungeon weapons or weapons bought with badges in WvW instead of buying weapons from other players, anyway.

Meh. I don’t like them because they’re mostly just particle effects on floating rocks, but I will use them anyway just to get rid of those CoF weapons.

All we need is some crystal themed armor to match them with.

The only reason I use them is because I’m an engineer, and I just can’t see spending gold on a skin I’ll see one percent of the time.

Also because I’m a Asura engineer, and the Zenith skins are flashy and noticeable.

But yeah, they won’t have any more lasting effect than the Hall of Monuments skins. “Cheap” isn’t everything.

Personally I don’t like the look of these weapons for most of my characters. I am however unlocking ones that can be used by a mesmer since I am making one soon and I think the Zenith look will be amazing on that kind of character (my necro and my thief, not so much).

I know I won’t be done collecting different weapon skins anytime soon.

I am going with the mace, focus, torch and scepter because i am not a fan of the other skins in the game for them. I figure if I have the zenith ones i will always have cool skins for those particular weapons.

I think the Zeinth skins are great and they really fit my current character even down to the color scheme. I’m running an Asuran Gardian right now. So the release of these skins has made me very happy.

However with everyone running around with them, it does make the feel a little less special, I would still like to hunt down rare skins to be able to show off a little.

Also I just don’t think these skins work with the theme of all characters. I know that my Norn Ranger wouldn’t really care for these skins for example.

I like some of them but that doesn’t mean I am going to be using them on every character. I am probably still going to be using the Wintersday skins(Candy Cane, wooden stuff) more than the Zenith ones.

I should probably get the Trident skin. Too many of the existing ones are just reused staff skins.

I found with the Zeinth skins that some of the harder weapon types to find good skins for were actually pretty nice.

Torch and Focus for example I have a real hard time finding skins that I liked, and I really liked the Zeinth ones. I don’t think though that these are the best in slot skins by any means.

Most of them are great looking, but depending on the rest of your gear and your theme, there might be some better fitting skins.

Also for me personally because of the still rarity of the Legendary skinds I’d prefer one of them any day over a skin everyone has.

I think the skins are pretty good looking. Not really fitting for my main, but look ok on my guardian (mostly just needed a torch to match my silly princess wand :x). Overall, I still prefer the warden staff/trident for my elementalist. Though my alts can’t say no to free skins. :P

I never started working on a legendary for my main really. Mostly if I got stuff great, but it ususually ended up being sold whenever. Bifrost is of no interest to my elementalist. It clashes so bad with her. You’d think something made of rainbows would go with anything, that doesn’t seem to be the case. :P

I’d rather use a cheap/common skin that looks good with my character then some rare skin that doesn’t get the desired look. Just my opinion.

Oh … I think the hammer, mace and axe really missed the mark. The looks do not seem like they fit those weapons very well. Too much of their identify is lost.

Khisanth.2948:

Oh … I think the hammer, mace and axe really missed the mark. The looks do not seem like they fit those weapons very well. Too much of their identify is lost.

This is quite true. I saw someone holding the “hammer” yesterday. At first glance it looked like the staff, he was just holding it with the wrong animation. :/ Of course it was a hammer, somehow..

Will happen with all other weapon skins
1) The Novelty of having them will wear off
See the Wintersday skins, even though they were not unlimited they might as well be with the millions you could buy at the time for 5-10 copper a pop.

2) Better skins will be released and people will flock to those,
Remember everyone claiming they will never get rid of their wings?
Now everyone is after the catchers instead.

3) Look at Hall of Monument skins, they are unlimited and they aren’t impacting the market much o.O and I would argue that a couple of the weapon skins from HOM are better then most legendaries.

Katreyn.4218:

Khisanth.2948:

Oh … I think the hammer, mace and axe really missed the mark. The looks do not seem like they fit those weapons very well. Too much of their identify is lost.

This is quite true. I saw someone holding the “hammer” yesterday. At first glance it looked like the staff, he was just holding it with the wrong animation. :/ Of course it was a hammer, somehow..

I agree with this too. For the hammer I was hoping for something closer to the Lightening Hammer that the elementalist can summon.

I need my hammer to look.. ‘smashy’.

This game DESPERATELY needs more exclusive skins that are hard to get/make but don’t rely on ridiculous RNG. The Zenith skins are pretty amazing, but a lot of their awesomeness is undermined when you show up to an event and literally 70% of the people participating are using them. I thought the SAB weapons were bad in this regard, and these are even easier to get and even more common, so far.

panzer.6034:

This game DESPERATELY needs more exclusive skins that are hard to get/make but don’t rely on ridiculous RNG. The Zenith skins are pretty amazing, but a lot of their awesomeness is undermined when you show up to an event and literally 70% of the people participating are using them. I thought the SAB weapons were bad in this regard, and these are even easier to get and even more common, so far.

I’d like to hear your suggestion on how to make ‘hard’ content that more then half the player base won’t have completed with in the first week so make these skins just as common.

They are nice, but I’ll probably never use them due to their color and for some of them, their shape.

That and they all look the same. Unlike the jade weapons which shared a common thing, the zenith weapon are basically the same thing with a few crystals different.

I think zenit weapons are too mainstrams. You get the first one at 1000 achievement points and just unlock another one about every 1000 points. This makes them mainstream, since a 1000 achievement point person has access to the same weapon skin as someone with 10k, only difference the 10k person can have more of them unlocked. Pretty boring imho.
The two new armor sets are boring too, you cannot color them, so everyone who will unlock them will look the same.

Malediktus.9250:

I think zenit weapons are too mainstrams. You get the first one at 1000 achievement points and just unlock another one about every 1000 points. This makes them mainstream, since a 1000 achievement point person has access to the same weapon skin as someone with 10k, only difference the 10k person can have more of them unlocked. Pretty boring imho.
The two new armor sets are boring too, you cannot color them, so everyone who will unlock them will look the same.

To this point I do think it would be cool if the ones earned with higher achievment levels were a differnt color even.

They could go from gold to blue to green or something at least if you saw a guy carrying around a green zeinth great sword you would know he was a 9-10k guy.

Nah, people will get bored of the after a while, and will want new shinies.

Weirwynn.2390:

.

But yeah, they won’t have any more lasting effect than the Hall of Monuments skins. “Cheap” isn’t everything.

Worth pointing out I get asked daily how I got my icelord’s…………always ends with people being sad when they get the answer.

Of course, I also designed my norn’s set and even her hair around Icelord

CryxTryx.9208:

I’d like to hear your suggestion on how to make ‘hard’ content that more then half the player base won’t have completed with in the first week so make these skins just as common.

Just to put an example out there (not the basis for new exclusive weapons), but do you realize that most of the playerbase has never completed all of the paths of the Arah dungeon or level 40 or higher fractals? It’s a wild claim to say that gating behind this type of content would still render the rewards “just as common” as something that only requires 1,000 achievement points to get. For every person with the Dungeon Master title, there are probably 100 people who have never even done an explorable path or seen a pristine fractal relic. On the other hand, any casual player who has played for a month will have access to zenith weapons.

As some other people have said I suspect these will end up being used the same way as the Hall of Monuments items. Based on my own experience and what I’ve seen in-game most people seem to have one or two favourite items from those, but most of the skins only really get used early on when you don’t have many options or as a temporary fix for something with good stats but a boring or ugly skin.

I actually really like the Zenith weapons and I just got my first one today, I chose the longbow because it’s one of my main weapons and the bow I had was boring. But it hasn’t remotely affected my plan to get the Arah bow and then eventually Kudzu. The Zenith skin is just a gap-filler.

The HoM and Zenith weapons are especially suited to this type of use because once you’ve unlocked them you can get them easily, completely free, and as many times as you like. So you don’t need to worry about how much or how long you’re going to use them, or which character to give them too or anything like that. You can use them as you need to, discard them, and then get them again if you want them.

panzer.6034:

CryxTryx.9208:

I’d like to hear your suggestion on how to make ‘hard’ content that more then half the player base won’t have completed with in the first week so make these skins just as common.

Just to put an example out there (not the basis for new exclusive weapons), but do you realize that most of the playerbase has never completed all of the paths of the Arah dungeon or level 40 or higher fractals? It’s a wild claim to say that gating behind this type of content would still render the rewards “just as common” as something that only requires 1,000 achievement points to get. For every person with the Dungeon Master title, there are probably 100 people who have never even done an explorable path or seen a pristine fractal relic. On the other hand, any casual player who has played for a month will have access to zenith weapons.

To be fair I suspect a lot of that is down to people simply not trying. A lot of people seem to have heard that dungeons are harder than normal PvE and somewhat intended as end-game and decided they’ll obviously never complete it and then they don’t even try. I’m not saying dungeons are easy, but I think a lot of people who could actually do them haven’t just because they haven’t tried.

Danikat.8537:

To be fair I suspect a lot of that is down to people simply not trying. A lot of people seem to have heard that dungeons are harder than normal PvE and somewhat intended as end-game and decided they’ll obviously never complete it and then they don’t even try. I’m not saying dungeons are easy, but I think a lot of people who could actually do them haven’t just because they haven’t tried.

I think that accurately describes a portion of the playerbase, but i can’t help but notice all the anecdotes i read on these boards and in guild-chat about dungeons being too tough. In any case, having such content as a gate for some rarer rewards makes such rewards far less common that skins handed out to anyone that has logged in enough times to have 1,000 AP.

Well I like my zenith weapons – I have the staff and dagger so far, and as my only character who really fits well with yellow accessories is a Necro, its working out nicely. I have a second Z staff on one other alt because the default staves are generally pretty lame, and I have a perky thief who is sporting the dagger.

The other 12 characters are getting along jest fine without Zenith skins. Thy are the new shiny right now, but they’ll taper off to just the people who really like the look as time goes on.

They either look out of place or I have prettier weapons that fits my chars more.
I’m using the staff so far and picked the scepter as 2nd. The SAB ones are cooler though and I’m using nearly all of them.

I noticed the SAB skins prices dropped a bit, at least the GS.

Wolfey.3407:

Will happen with all other weapon skins
1) The Novelty of having them will wear off
See the Wintersday skins, even though they were not unlimited they might as well be with the millions you could buy at the time for 5-10 copper a pop.

2) Better skins will be released and people will flock to those,
Remember everyone claiming they will never get rid of their wings?
Now everyone is after the catchers instead.

3) Look at Hall of Monument skins, they are unlimited and they aren’t impacting the market much o.O and I would argue that a couple of the weapon skins from HOM are better then most legendaries.

I know it’s a bit off topic but the first weapon skin I got was the FDS. I remember the first one I ever got. I worked so hard for it. Then farming for my IDS. I kept my first FDS, and to this day my warrior still has it equiped. So it just felt right to be using it again. I guess I’m just posting to say that I agree with some of the HoM skins looking better than legendary skins. I wouldn’t trade my fds for anything. Though that new GS skin is the best in the game (again imo).

panzer.6034:

Danikat.8537:

To be fair I suspect a lot of that is down to people simply not trying. A lot of people seem to have heard that dungeons are harder than normal PvE and somewhat intended as end-game and decided they’ll obviously never complete it and then they don’t even try. I’m not saying dungeons are easy, but I think a lot of people who could actually do them haven’t just because they haven’t tried.

I think that accurately describes a portion of the playerbase, but i can’t help but notice all the anecdotes i read on these boards and in guild-chat about dungeons being too tough. In any case, having such content as a gate for some rarer rewards makes such rewards far less common that skins handed out to anyone that has logged in enough times to have 1,000 AP.

The reason you don’t see people running with fractal weapons is that those weapons take a ridiculous RNG filled grind which is gated by time. The reason you don’t see that many arah stuff is that they only fit for a necromancer…

I like the new Zenith weapons. Got pistol for my thief and then staff for mesmer and they fit very well.

Master of Timespace.2548:

The reason you don’t see people running with fractal weapons is that those weapons take a ridiculous RNG filled grind which is gated by time. The reason you don’t see that many arah stuff is that they only fit for a necromancer…

There is that, but I think there is a very skewed perception of how many people actually run dungeons. I know when i joined the largest of the guilds i’m in, there was only one other guy who had done over frac level 40 and most people were too busy doing wvw, map completion or other stuff. There are tons of people who don’t even touch dungeons. Just look at some of the perception of the achievement awards; some folks where freaking out, saying that everyone they know has over 6k and that the whole population of the game will have all the items in a week when, in reality, we can check the numbers and see that 90% of the player base doesn’t even have 3k AP.

People that do the harder dungeons, people that have over 5k AP, people that have legendaries, etc, are playing the game but we’re fooling ourselves if we believe they aren’t the minority of players.

The 90% line is currently sitting at ~3,400 AP.

The 50% mark is at ~806-1070 AP.

This means that 50% of all players have 1k or less AP.

40% of all players have 1-3.5k AP.

9% of all players have 3.5k-~8.4k (rank 1000 is near 8.4k).

1000 players have 8.4k-11.7k.

I think it’s safe to say that this system is not ruining the game. It is, however, a fairly new skin and it will be flavor of the month for a while.

Additionally, the numbers I have listed does take into consideration people who play the game and quit or have not played actively recently.

panzer.6034:

Master of Timespace.2548:

The reason you don’t see people running with fractal weapons is that those weapons take a ridiculous RNG filled grind which is gated by time. The reason you don’t see that many arah stuff is that they only fit for a necromancer…

There is that, but I think there is a very skewed perception of how many people actually run dungeons. I know when i joined the largest of the guilds i’m in, there was only one other guy who had done over frac level 40 and most people were too busy doing wvw, map completion or other stuff. There are tons of people who don’t even touch dungeons. Just look at some of the perception of the achievement awards; some folks where freaking out, saying that everyone they know has over 6k and that the whole population of the game will have all the items in a week when, in reality, we can check the numbers and see that 90% of the player base doesn’t even have 3k AP.

People that do the harder dungeons, people that have over 5k AP, people that have legendaries, etc, are playing the game but we’re fooling ourselves if we believe they aren’t the minority of players.

Well it’s not a suprise that people don’t do dungeons that much. The rewards aren’t that good and tbh they aren’t very fun unless you have nice people to do them with. I only ever do them with friends.
The dungeons have next to no variation (path X is always path X), no suprises and the loot sucks. Also, the boss fights almost always require you to use some stupid gimmick* instead of providing an interesting and intuitive fight.
That said, I still like some of the dungeons, Arah probably being my favorite because of it’s unique atmosphere.

*Bosses that require you to throw rocks or other nonsensical bundles at them are probably the best example.

Anyway, I don’t see a reason why all cool skins should be locked behind either money or something specific such as dungeons or Living Story. I think it’s good design that people can get new skins also by doing general things.

Anything that reduces the cost of expensive weapons is good in my book. Flippers have been price gouging them for too long.

Weirwynn.2390:

Also because I’m a Asura engineer, and the Zenith skins are flashy and noticeable tiny, tiny sparkles.

FTFY.

LameFox.6349:

Weirwynn.2390:

Also because I’m a Asura engineer, and the Zenith skins are flashy and noticeable tiny, tiny sparkles.

FTFY.

Better than tiny, tiny sticks :P

I like the zenith weapons for when I get a better but generic looking new weapon. Im currently happy with my Ebon Hawke staff, but if I get a new staff thats better, but looks boring, I will likely use my Zenith Staff skin, instead of my transmutation crystal, since I only have like 5.

Seeing as WvW is the “end game” of gw2, I don’t understand people’s need to get flashy weapons. It’s generally understand by anyone that plays the killer role that we target commanders first, then flashy weapons second. If you can get both, that’s just a bonus right there.

I know people might think it’s mean, but I love cutting down someone with a legendary. I will teleport to them first out of everyone, sometimes even over commanders. I run the zenith skins because they actually bring people to me. It works as a loot bag delivery system.

1) Equip zenith gs
2)spin to win
3)press f, and 1 at the same time
4) /laugh and profit.

Zenith aren’t the only cool looking weapon in the game. It’s not like you will have zenith weapons on all your characters.

Greatsword 1 looks epic on my Mesmer with the Zenith skin, shes holding together the thing WITH HER MIND as she holds it up and twirls it WITH HER MIND and then shoots freaking lazers out of it WITH HER MIND.

But on all my other characters its just ridiculous, especially my Engineer. I mean the weapons themselves look cool but they just dont mesh well with most classes and animations so I generally wont be using them.

I like the Zenith skins and my Norn Ranger is currently using the shortbow. I’m not sure what I should unlock next as I’m a bit of an altoholic.
For me these skins are dazzling but they’re not amazingly better than other skins. I’ll be using them as my alts level since they’re unlimited = unlimited transmutes but once a character hits 80 I’ll be looking for other awesome skins.
These will be purely leveling weapons for me.

I got vision of the mists, wisperblade and the anomaly on my mesmer and that isn’t changing anytime soon. Working on mirage and ignus fatus.

Where I am loving these new zeniths are on my warrior. Sword/shield/longbow wearing the shattered dragon wings,soon the radiant guants, the new wind helm, t3 norn female chest,shoulders,leggings and orr temple karma boots all dyed gold and white for a celestial angelic look.

panzer.6034:

CryxTryx.9208:

I’d like to hear your suggestion on how to make ‘hard’ content that more then half the player base won’t have completed with in the first week so make these skins just as common.

Just to put an example out there (not the basis for new exclusive weapons), but do you realize that most of the playerbase has never completed all of the paths of the Arah dungeon or level 40 or higher fractals? It’s a wild claim to say that gating behind this type of content would still render the rewards “just as common” as something that only requires 1,000 achievement points to get. For every person with the Dungeon Master title, there are probably 100 people who have never even done an explorable path or seen a pristine fractal relic. On the other hand, any casual player who has played for a month will have access to zenith weapons.

Did you ever stop to think the reason for this was because the rewards offered for these completions could be recieved elsewhere?

Put a legendary weapon at Fractal Level 40 and see that change.

CryxTryx.9208:

Did you ever stop to think the reason for this was because the rewards offered for these completions could be recieved elsewhere?

Where else do you get Arah armor or fractal weapons other than doing Arah and fractals? We’re talking about exclusive skins and when you see someone with one of these skins, you know immediately that they’ve completed a certain bit of content. If you’re talking only about stats, pointing out that people gravitate toward easier content to get something doesn’t necessarily counter my desire to put cool stuff behind a barrier of challenging content.

Put a legendary weapon at Fractal Level 40 and see that change.

A few more people would have legendaries but mostly there would be rage beyond belief from all the people populating this game who can barely leave a red circle. This is a game where most people just like to show up to world boss fights and get handed rares.