Guild Wars 2

In my search for merchants that sell gathering tools for karma, I’ve come across some info on other tools that could gather all the materials (like orichalcum) and with increased chance of rarer materials (like Black Lion). Of course, the Black Lion gathering tools also work that way, but you can only find them from chests.

However, I’ve come across some inconsistencies that are just strange. This thread is both a report and a question on whether or not these tools are working as intended.

For reference:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gathering

Orichalcum Picks can gather: Orichalcum Ore and all lesser ores.
Price: 4s for 100 picks

Orichalcum Logging Axes can gather: Ancient and Orrian Saplings (both give ancient wood logs) and all lesser trees.
Price: 4s/350 karma for 100 axes

Orichalcum Sickles can gather: Black Crocus, Ghost Peppers, Lotus, Omnomberries, Orrian Truffles, Seaweed, Snow Truffles and all lesser plants.
Price: 4s/350 karma for 50 sickles

So far so good.

Then we have the tools I talked about. These can be found as the last tool in each section here:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gathering_tool

They are:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mining_Pick
Cost: 2408 karma for 100 picks – converted to gold with 1g = 8750 karma, ~27s
Almost 7 times the cost of an orichalcum pick

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Splitting_Axe
Cost: 2408 karma for 100 axes – converted to gold with 1g = 8750 karma, ~27s
Almost 7 times the cost of an orichalcum axe

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Foraging_Sickle
Cost: 1316 karma for 50 sickles – converted to gold with 1g = 8750 karma, ~15s (or 2632 karma/~30s for 100 sickles)
Almost 4 times the cost of an orichalcum sickle

The problem lies with what they can gather.
The foraging sickle can gather all of the nodes that the orichalcum sickle can.
The mining pick and the splitting axe, however, can only gather mithril ores and cypress saplings (elder wood logs) and below. They can’t be used to gather the top ore and tree materials.
Not only that, but as these tools have a chance of awarding you a material of greater rarity (an orichalcum ore from a mithril node, for example), and as they CAN’T be used to gather these materials from their respective nodes, you will get a “ruined ore chunk” or “ruined log” when the effect procs (triggers).

To illustrate it:
Say I’m using a Mining Pick on a Mithril Node. The chance of getting an orichalcum ore from it procs and I would get that ore, but I get a Ruined Ore Chunk instead, because the Mining Pick can’t be used on Orichalcum ores.
Say I’m using a Splitting Axe on a Cypress Sapling. The chance of getting an ancient wood log from it procs and I would get that log, but I get a Ruined Log instead, because the Splitting Axe can’t be used on Orichalcum ores.

That would be perfectly fine, really, if not for these problems:
a) these tools are all more expensive than the orichalcum ones. The karma conversion rate is the one used in the game, not something out of my dreams.
b)there’s an inconsistency, as while the mining pick and the splitting axe can’t be used on top level nodes, the Foraging Sickle can
c) There’s no reason for that inconsistency, as the prices for the mining pick, splitting axe and foraging sickle are all in the same range. In fact, the sickle is CHEAPER because 100 orichalcum sickle is 8s, while 100 foraging sickles are 30s, instead of 60s.
d) even if they couldn’t be used on top level nodes, despite the inconsistency of b), it seems illogical that the pick or the axe won’t award you a rarer ore or log when mining/cutting mithril/cypress saplings, respectively. I thought of another way that this would work: the pick/axe have a chance of successfully awarding a rarer ore/log, but it also has a chance of failing, which returns a ruined ore/ruined log, plus a chance of getting nothing at all, but that doesn’t sound right.

All that said, I would like some clarification – is this working as intended?

If not, well, here’s a report.

Additional notes: I noticed that the splitting axe and the mining pick have the same icon. At first I thought it was some special kind of axe that I haven’t heard of, but searching for the name it shows a regular logging axe in real life. If possible, can you change the icon for the splitting axe?

My theory: The chance isn’t to proc ori or ancient wood, its actually a crappy overpriced version of mithril pick/axe that fails on chance. The sickles no one cared about because most food is worthless anyway

:D

Nudal.5310:

My theory: The chance isn’t to proc ori or ancient wood, its actually a crappy overpriced version of mithril pick/axe that fails on chance. The sickles no one cared about because most food is worthless anyway

:D

except for

“Extremely efficient at gathering resources and uncovering rare compoments. "
in each tool’s tooltip.

Rare components are NOT a higher tier of mats. It refers to the crystals/orbs you get from veins, the bag from trees and dyes from the food stuff.

darknessproz.8209:

Rare components are NOT a higher tier of mats. It refers to the crystals/orbs you get from veins, the bag from trees and dyes from the food stuff.

While that may be so, it doesn’t exclude the fact that people have reported getting the higher tier of materials with these tools. More specifically, Ancient wood logs from elder wood log nodes.
And the fact that I got the ruined log/ore message/item at a rare chance also indicates it so.

Thanks for the clarification, though.

Now I found out something interesting:
I forgot to use my orichalcum pick in the orichalcum ore node in WvW, and the Mining Pick actually worked!
So I went to Cursed Shore to test it again, and it now works on orichalcum ores. So this was either fixed or there’s a bug related to using it in WvW.

At the same time, however, the Splitting Axe doesn’t work on ancient wood log nodes. I haven’t tried it in WvW (not even sure there’s nodes for it there), so it might be related to the above, or they simply forgot to fix it.