Guild Wars 2

Trading by mail to avoid TP fees has a 10% chance to result in a 100% listing fee instead, and a 75% chance to result in a long grieving process.

Sell on trading post or to vendor.

I don’t think they have a vendor-value?

Looks like I’ll just be storing them for a long time, then, unless they’re reasonable enough to leave the exchange person. ;P

Deleting excess is not the appropriate answer for players like me

I don’t delete them either, so I make sure to either have gold to refine, or have characters available to store them (until I feel like refining).

… dump the rest …and I don’t even really need it for Ascended

I prefer knowing I have them if I need them, and avoid a “doh, should’ve kept ’em” moment. At their discretion, and at any time, they could release recipes — outside of weapons/armor — requiring X amount of unrefined/refined materials. When you have none left and really need them, it’ll be a pain — especially if there aren’t any events going with decent drop-rates (e.g., gifts right now). I went through that pain when Ascended crafting was first released, so I’ll definitely try to avoid it now — even if it costs.

I’m sitting on 300~ bricks and 150~ ingots/stars at the moment, and I don’t really farm. I shall not think about the gold went into refining those (or the ones I’ve already used)… ;P Out of mind, out of sight!

Presumably, this will be removed as-per the norm?

I normally wouldn’t care, but now with renewable sources of gifts, what are we expected to do with the Ugly Sweaters/etc. throughout the year?

But Tiny Snowflakes arent used in the forge recipe to make gifts/endless potions, only t2-5.

t1 flakes are used to promote into t2 flakes, which propably wont be feasable for a long time.

Hmm? Yes, that’s what I already said: “if the forge-recipe remains available”… “promotion from the tiny snowflakes may become a viable option”.

Their next use is promoting minor wintersday sigils and runes into mayor ones

I’d hate to do that… ;P

A couple of months ago, when tiny flakes were 10 silver

That’s the “problem” there, and it probably won’t exist again throughout the year. Since they’ll be dirt-cheap for a long time, then it’ll also be dirt-cheap-er (ha) to promote them — if need-be. It’ll probably hinge on the sinks of the higher-tier flakes, and those sinks may be somewhat appealing for quite some time.

They have “Rune of the Aristocracy” (cond. dmg + might duration)… which I only recall due to recent forge-fests. xD

EDIT: Oops, too slow.

Is it just not worth their money to have a functional search feature?

Probably not… ;P I’d say the biggest impact is on public-image (e.g., consider Microsoft having a broken website for 2~ years), but that’s far beyond repairing. For example, I’m already going to always remember this game for having a broken forum. :-)

Besides, it’s not like their playerbase doesn’t complain about a broken product every day instead, so why focus on a little problem that mostly everyone has accepted by now, when they have “bigger fish to fry”.

The least they could do is have somebody remove the box…

Yes, they should’ve at least done that. I’d assume the forum uses templates for the UI, so it should only be a matter of minutes to find & update. But… the same could be said about many quality-of-life changes that are put on the back-burner (in/out of game).

They (collectively, GW2, ANet, NCSoft, etc.) prioritize how they see fit, and that’s probably the most direct answer to everything.

Keep in mind that the gifts will still drop some desirable items for most people, and if the forge-recipe remains available after the event, it’ll eventually eat through the surplus of snowflakes, and promotion from the tiny snowflakes may become a viable option. Since these are very abundant, it’ll also keep the higher tiers from drastically increasing in value, and leave the gifts at a more attainable value. It’ll be interesting to see how well they balance-out in the next 6~ months.

As for the storage issue, I just list all of mine at X amount on TP, which I’ve probably done for couple hundred stacks at least thus far. If they ever reach X amount, that’s nice; if not, no biggie.

I don’t know what anyone ever called it “impossible"

In the first link, Gaile said: “it’s not possible for us to do”. ;P If, however, by saying “us”, Gaile implied the Customer Support/Communications/Whatever Team, then surely it is impossible for them to “fix”. Those crafty little communicators…

I would be very interested to hear why it is “impossible.”

Sometimes, developers don’t leave behind a nice cohesive breadcrumb-trail for future developers to follow. If you’re only taking a small walk into the forest, then that’s not a problem. However, in this case, if the forum engine needs critical components redesigned/rewritten, then you’re going to have to walk almost every inch of that forest to best do your job. To make matters worse (“the forums run on a web framework with which most of our programmers are not familiar”), then you’re going to first need to learn how to walk in that forest at all, and that might take quite some time. If you try to take any shortcuts in any of this, then expect to run into the Big Bad Wolf. ;P

It’s quite reasonable to replace the entire forum in this situation, but then they’d have to find a solution that could integrate with their systems, and that’s probably a… big obstacle. I’m assuming their relations with the previous contractor didn’t end gracefully, either, as that should’ve been a fairly cheap alternative (vs. replacement software, or a complete rewrite by another contractor).

I’ve been selling any Gifts that I get instead of opening them

… but, think of the shinies inside! ;P With recycling, I’ve been continuously buying/forging gifts, opening, and repeating, and haven’t lost any gold in the process. I still haven’t seen a Lyssa recipe yet though (looted 3x breathers before seeing a Grenth… ), so… I shall continue to chase the carrot.

EDIT: Err.. oops. Dwayna*, not Lyssa.

http://www.autohotkey.com/ — Map the mouse-wheel and/or a keyboard key to send double-clicks. It’s unfortunate to feel compelled to seek outside relief for a game’s UI, but hey, they… have their priorities. ;P

shiven.1892:

zzzz stuck at #1 in queue for 1 hr 30 min and counting……

same…

These are all required updates to make the game become the best out there.

True. ANet has done a fantastic job at refining their product since release.

However, I generally feel similar to the OP for some reason. Perhaps it’s the content? I can usually find something to waste my time with, but when I start finding I can’t, or begin to realize I’m actually “wasting” it, then it’s a bad signal. Not to disrespect GW2 or anything — it really is fantastic — but I’m losing interest for some reason.

DX10+ vs XP: Sounds like an excuse. The renderer can be backwards-compatible (e.g., platform-targetted at run-time). However, that requires time (and thus resources/money) — in both development, and training (if the programmers aren’t capable with DX10+). Bottom-line: is it “worth it” to ANet at this point?

As someone said earlier, transitioning towards more modern DX (or OpenGL) would primarily offer benefits in performance (CPU vs. GPU). In turn, however, this would allow for greater “eye-candy” because, well, it’ll allow for it.

If they’re going to rewrite the graphics engine I’d rather they move to OpenGL

I would agree on a move towards OpenGL. However, it would probably involve much more time (and resources) compared to just slowly transitioning into DX11/12. That’s probably one of the main reasons DX is still very widely used — it’s an easier path.

No repairs? Sounds like a nice quality-of-life change. I’ve only ever seen it as an inconvenience. Whatever purpose(s) it was originally supposed to serve are probably non-existent now.

In regards to content, it’s quantity vs. quality — there needs to be a reasonable balance. The last patch (before this “maintenance”), for example, required 5-8 additional “patches” for content that was prepared presumably months in advance. This is a common trend for their content, and it causes some players great frustration — to the point where some consider their time (hours) “wasted”.

(edit) Looks like the poster I was (mainly) replying to deleted their post.

If anything, I would say this activity is very healthy for the economy.

Whether or not the method is acceptable to ANet, however, is a different matter.

In free markets, economies usually do a good job in correcting themselves. Interfering — such as through what you’re suggesting — would probably just upset that balance (as in the “big picture”).

They also have to be careful how they respond. In many cases, it’s probably safer (and thus easier) for them not to, and that’s not considering policies they might work under.

Reputation is much more difficult to repair than it is to damage. If players have lost faith in ANet, then there’s probably very little they can do about it at this point. However, since it’s F2P, many might come back again — if it appeals to them.

If you can, just store them on a character you won’t be playing for a while. If you delete them, you might regret it. :-)

Nothing else to do…? :P

CC Danicia.1394:

Please don’t delete them!

You can hold on to your extra blade shards, as the team will be adding something later which will allow you to convert the shards to something of value. Dev will be announcing more on that later. Thanks!

Excellent. Although I do hope that “something” includes a fair variety of options. :-)

Aberrant.6749:

Auto is part of the weapon set.

Yes retal > PP (8x retal damage is over 1k damage back to you without any added power) and 900 range =‘s med distance without any evades or stealth =’s >.<

I started out as a PP thief. We were all so innocent back then though…

In 1v1, retal. is fairly ineffective — especially against hard-hitting setups (e.g., 6-10k spammable Unloads). This should be fairly obvious. Besides, the only profession that can probably maintain its up-time to some benefit would be a Guardian, and they’d have to soak-up much more damage from ranged, and wouldn’t be able maintain gap-closing before “panic mode”. If they’re “bunker”, and can absorb the damage, then they’re not going to do much else. Now, if a different profession (e.g., engineer or ele) decides to spam AoEs on a group buffed with retal., then that’s a different story. :-)

As for no stealth or evades…? Stealth isn’t necessary for the play-style (while you’re in stealth, you’re not doing anything!), and evasion/mobility is more than adequate from Withdraw/Roll/Step or even Inf. Arrow.

In these fights, I probably wouldn’t have any issues on my P/P thief (been playing engineer). It has high & sustained ranged-damage, limited condition application, and great mobility. Melee would obviously hit much harder, but this event (from start to finish) looks to favor ranged IMO.

Coincidentally, I started with a Guardian. ;P

Aberrant.6749:

I wouldn’t call it “very strong.” The auto attack damage is bad for a direct damage setup. The average channel time is also too long for how much damage it does.

In a PvP/WvW environment it has other additional weaknesses. 900 range + retal will tear you up + it’s very easy to mitigate while providing very little mitigation itself… PP just isn’t a good weaponset overall and could use a rework.

If you base the potential damage of P/P on its auto-attack, or believe its notable weaknesses are range and retaliation, then I can only assume you haven’t played with that setup very much at all — no offense intended.

However, most thief setups probably require much greater response-times than other professions (e.g., warrior or guardian). So, in this instance, a guardian might be more effective. ;P

Aberrant.6749:

RyuDragnier.9476:

I have one of every class. Favorites are the Ranger, Necromancer, Engineer, and Thief. The thief is currently my main, and I tend to build him tanky due to this reason so I can survive a lag spike. But since the knights are a DPS race, I had to pull out the zerker gear and retrait for the DPS setup. Besides, the Critical Strikes traitline alone can make P/P very very dangerous.

It’s still poor ranged DPS if that’s what you’re most concerned about.

Hmm? P/P thief is very strong single-target. Less damage than melee, of course, but during the year+ when I played mine, its single-target damage was much higher and more sustainable than mostly every other ranged profession I came across (WvW).

Wife got a Keeper’s recipe an hour ago — either from the final chest itself, or the Ultimate bag.

I’d rather have additional uses for them — especially if they’ll be stickin’ around after the event. I’m really not sure if I should delete 60+ stacks or not.

CynC.4765:

Randomness does not care about your previous result. Streaks will occur. It won’t balance out just so it looks “random” and “balanced” to your eyes.

If the pseudo-random algorithms didn’t include distribution (to “balance out” the results), then you wouldn’t have a reliable X% “chance”.

These algorithms can and probably have been altered many times since release without notice.

Well, the primary use of the Withdraw skill is to cleanse immobilize.

I would’ve considered the primary use a heal, and then an evade. ;P

I say it allows “skillful” play without the option to cancel, since you need to be aware of your surroundings before you use it.

I agree with that — especially if you’re also using Roll for Init. If I didn’t pay attention, I’d sometimes regret using them. :-) That’s especially problematic when your character<→screen is flipped and you don’t notice.

(in reference to WvW)

I’m not playing my thief anymore, but my full-ascended P/P (Valk + Beserker) only had issues with certain Mesmers builds, and the very occasional backstab Thief, and it usually had no problems melting bunkers.

Block projectiles, relfect projectiles, retaliation, dodge, and any other damage mitigation

Blocks or other immunities usually just prolong the fight, and offer no specific advantage to either. Reflections are limited (in availability, CD, and duration), and does very little to help. Unload can be almost infinitely spammable — depending on the build — and cancelling it and waiting for a reflection to drop will also just prolong the fight. I never worried about eating the damage from retaliation, either — the fights didn’t last long for it to amount to anything (and I could’ve always switched to boon-steal if needed for future encounters).

no stealth or evade abilities except what they might have for utility

Nothing more was necessary.

Insane burst does not make one over powered, especially when there are many counters to it. It makes them squishy, and only useful while they have access to their burst abilities. When focus fired, they have to run or die.

How do you counter spammable ranged damage when you can’t close the gap, and can’t do enough damage at ranged yourself to survive? The only hard counter I ever experienced was from confusion-stacking (i.e., perplexity runes), but that poses an issue for many professions.

Even against most bunker-condition necros/engineers, Basilisk would clear their initial conditions (Lyssa), and the fights would be over before needing it again.

You do realize that p/p has no skill whatsoever that grants survivability right!?

In regards to weapon-skills, no, not really — although BP can be useful. However, trait-lines and utilities provide more than enough survivability, and most of them provide offensive purposes as well.

P/p thief can’t kite, they can’t escape, no weapon skill of theirs dodges, and the damage is weak regardless.

If you compare melee vs. ranged, then of course the damage will be inferior, but you also must consider damage potential, and the applicability of that within different situations. I loved P/P thief in massive fights (50v50 or 50v50v50), because it was incredibly effective at single-target burning, and surviving horrible situations. A melee thief, however, would’ve had a much higher chance of being an easy rally for the enemy. Actually, any I saw that were silly enough to switch to shortbow… 1 Unload was enough to trigger their low-hp stealth trait.

P/p thieves just make me giggle in wvw.

Stealth-heavy thieves did the same for me. If they were glass, a single Unload (8-9k+, channeled through stealth) and Steal (2k+ if I recall correctly) gave them a nice surprise.

Warriors were also fun to play with; they’re very helpless against a good P/P build.

These are all comments in regards to 1v1 situations in WvW, but can apply to larger scales (5v5 or 50v50). Against unequal odds, however, such as the 2v1 in this topic, P/P (or at least my no-stealth setup) is very vulnerable. It can be done, but 2 equally skilled players vs. another should usually always have the same outcome.

Hmm? If you’ve made a “point” anywhere in this topic, then it’s very negligible.

To further address what I was commenting on, so you can “keep up”:

what you (and many others) fail to realize is that there is a 3rd kind, the kind that is poor and barely has time to play games.
answer me this since you’re sooo smart, how do you solve that problem huh?

That would be a personal problem, and you shouldn’t expect others to cater to its resolution. The gem-market, as already stated, is determined by the “majority”. Like it or not, you must accept that — it’s a fact of life. If others have more money, or more time, so be it. Some prefer to “farm gold” because they have the time, whereas others prefer to buy gems. What’s the problem?

This might cause “unrest” in casual players, sure, but keep this in mind: you’re rewarded for your efforts (figuratively speaking…). It looks like some societies nowadays (e.g., US) expect much from nothing. We’ll have a very sad future!

the kind that is poor and barely has time to play games.

… they can’t enjoy the game without using the shop?

If you enjoy “gambling”, and aren’t terribly attached to your gold, then it’s a not that bad. However, I wouldn’t go into this expecting to be successful — that usually won’t end well. :-)

^

The repeatable chests seem to have a very high chance for rares, and also drop additional fragments or key-bags. I’m not sure what’s all available from them, but they do include the new recipes (e.g., JC jewel).

@tolunart

Just because something can can be done, it doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable (by ANet). The majority of the “exploits” since release are an example. Buying karma-items, forging (certain) rares, or just farming quick-spawning mobs have come under heavy scrutiny, and it’s because of why people were conducting those activities.

Could simply have ‘rubbish piles

It would be… interesting, to run around sifting through trash. Maybe if Skritt become a playable race.

If you’re full ascended (except for breather…), then you don’t have to worry about it anymore. That’s worth it, isn’kitten :P

Big question: what does ANet think of someone falsifying demand for personal gain? Placing millions of buy-orders at 1c would be difficult to dispute.

Hmmm… speculators pushed the runes I bought months ago up to 600g+. In a week, it’ll probably be back down to dirt. ;P

@basepi

Wife and I did the same (gold → gems), and I think we each opened about 78 chests (got enough scrap for 2+ tickets each). If you don’t enjoy just opening them (to see what you get), and are just after the skins, then you should just buy them from TP.

Since the chests have other “goodies”, however, such as the tonics and contracts, I don’t mind dumping some gold into it once in a while. I don’t consider it a good way to get tickets, either, so the results don’t affect me.

Thieves also have enough teleportational abilities to make some sort of take people with them

… just thought about being able to Scorpion Wire allies. Fun times. :-)

Similar to portal mechanics, there would need to be an “activation” (confirmation), so that unfortunately limits some more-interesting possibilities.

If you keep it, and (eventually) farm the mats you need, by the time you have your Legendary, you’ll have nothing (financially) left. If that sounds acceptable (it is to many, I assume), then go for it.

If you sell it, you’ll have funds necessary to invest here/there. If your speculations fair well, you could have enough just to buy the Legendary from TP. If that sounds like a “cheap” way to get one, then you could always just sell it, wait for the scavenger hunt, and then just buy whatever mats you’ll need.

It’s really up to how you want to the play the game, and what’s the most enjoyable route to a certain goal.

Also I have heard that I can sell it on the TP for just over vendor price and it will go to the highest buyer w/o the huge TP fee, is this true?

I believe that works, unless it’s been “fixed”, but I think the fees might still come out from the final sale. I’ve never tried it.

For my last attempts at the forge some months ago, I usually listed 1c under highest-seller, and never had to re-list any (for 10+). If you sell to highest-buyer, it’ll of course be instant, but will probably cost you a potential 50-75g. So… it’s up to preference.

Demand will fall in a few months…. My prediction is it settles at around 8g in 3 months time.

That depends on future content. For example, if the legendary trinket is a back-item that requires 250x Damask (exaggeration, of course), do you think demand will go down?

I bought the shield & staff back then, and my wife bought the greatsword, sword, and staff. I think they were all around 20g-ish.

Back then, however, there was no way to know that it was both the beginning (impressive, free, and fairly easy to obtain), and the end (BL tickets). Most skins I’ve seen since then have been rather… disappointing.

The fact that a 9 ticket weapon will on average cost you $600 in keys is somehow considered acceptable is just crazy, imo.

ANet didn’t have to allow older skins to be purchased, but by doing so, they also had to preserve their “value”. Consider it a convenience that you can still acquire them, but expect to “pay”. It’s no different than the old Halloween skins, but this model benefits ANet more directly. :-)

something more than “prevents investments, figure the rest out on your own…”

That sounds like a good, catch-all reason. The high-volume investors help the economy survive shocks (i.e., constant fluctuation of supply/demand). With time-limited listings, and (probably) no refund on the listing-fees, the economy would probably lose a great source of stability.

For example, Cinnamon Stick is top-supplied at 5million. If a 2-week listing duration was implemented, 4million could very possibly just de-list and be vendored/trashed. After another 2 weeks, as long as there’s no reason to specifically speculate into its use, you might only have 300k on there. Eventually, if ANet decides to increase its demand, the supply is no longer there to absorb the sudden shock. Now, what if that happened to Silk in the many months prior to its eventual increase in demand?

Now, consider someone that finally made a Legendary, but wanted to sell it. They cough-up roughly 100g to list it, but are continuously faced with competition until the listing expires. Happy person? ;P

There’s also the case of server-side stability. For quite some time into its release, the TP could barely sustain the traffic. I’m not sure of its capabilities now, but handling a massive amount of additional listings and their expiration would undoubtedly increase stress. And for what?

@Wanze

If (when) they introduce the leather-sink, the ratio of profit would probably be much higher for the raw materials, come with less risk, and probably “move” much faster.

@Vol

I decided just to list whatever Thick Leather I had gotten in those few days (maybe 40k?) at roughly the price of the ore/wood. If the prices become balanced, then doing that long-term would probably be great (if you don’t have a multiple accounts). However, it’s quite tedious, so I’m never touching it again! :-)

Bottom line, damask is not going down in crafting price, and will probably slowly march upwards for some time as people run out of their pre-release storages

Depends on if ANet is satisfied with their “value”. They’ve had time to analyze the supply/demand, and could very well “fix” it in the next release, or… never do anything about it.

If they do try to “fix” it, then they have to be careful with long-term consequences. After half a year, for example, prices could stabilize on their own to an acceptable amount. Any early intervention, in that case, would just be counter-productive to their long-term balancing goals.

I caved and filled-up the guild vault with leather, but… the profit margins probably aren’t even worth the effort. If ANet wants to (eventually) balance the value of leather, then Hardened Leather @ 1-2s/scrap would probably be worth it, but I keep getting urges to just vendor the Thick. Maybe old habits die hard. :-)