Guild Wars 2

+1 for preview and sort by armor type. I can’t believe this wasn’t implemented from the start and have been waiting (and waiting) for these two sensible, logical features to be added. It’s quite an oversight.

/crosses fingers and continues waiting

I have had this issue previously when I have spent ?$300? or more using a SAVED payment method. It is a bit of a safeguard from Anet to help players/parents control spending. You can work around this by not saving your payment method.

If you want to make another purchase, delete your saved CC info and manually re-enter it (without saving it) when you want to make a purchase. It is a bit of a hassle but I can understand what Anet is trying to do. It isn’t completely effectual, but it isn’t in their best interest to limit purchases either. Realistically, it is a small check system that reminds players they have capped a “reasonable” purchase limit. They’re trying to be helpful without actually limiting you or themselves.

Use the workaround and you can spend more.

Thank you arrownin.3128

I got my 3 endless tonics on the second, fifth, and second attempts (also making me think “stealth nerf” comments are unfounded). I really appreciate you passing on the info by starting this thread. Cheers, and thanks again!

While I think “having patience” sounds great, sparkbibo has a very valid point. I really enjoy GW2, but I am able to see that Anet has done a poor job of optimizing their store. The price point of many of their existing items do not entice enough players into a purchase. More so, there are so many untapped markets that Anet hasn’t even seem to have tried to reach. I don’t think they’ve grasped how much potential revenue they are missing out on.

It would well be worth their while to rethink their store and their approach to it. Until then, “patience, dear sparkbibo, patience.”

I have already bought gems to convert to gold in game. At release, the exchange rate was too expensive for me to consider it, but it has much improved. I know I could have gotten a better cheaper “deal” using black market gold, but I’ve never supported bots in 12+ years of MMOs and I see no reason to start supporting their ilk now. I AM very glad the cash to gem to gold rate has reached this point, and it looks like it is only going to get better.

Now if Anet could figure out how to stock their store with more desirable items and price them better, we’d really be talking. (And if a Dev sees this, you really need to look at other games with item shops to see what you’re doing wrong/what you should be doing better. Seriously.).

Corvindi.5734:

some rich snot can come along and buy something in an instant that you spent months grinding for.

Does wealth make one snotty or is it an attitude that is independent of wealth?

On topic: What statistical advantage is said “rich snot” gaining instantly for cash that doesn’t already exist in a different, but much cheaper, skin? The answer would be, “None.”

I thought it was widely accepted knowledge that the “free to play” game model makes up for a subscription “free” model with many small transactions, and that ultimately it is cheaper to play a game with the traditional subscription model to enjoy all the expected perks and conveniences.

If you didn’t know, now you do. The only way “free to play” games are cheaper is if you do without some of the expected convenience (or at least do without them longer), and keep your purse strings tied.

Many players don’t or won’t, which is why “free” has become the new trend in MMOs. Why villify spenders or the f2p game model, when that’s the model of game you chose to play? You still can play for no more cost than the box price if you are frugal and patient. I certainly wouldn’t expect a game publisher who is out to make a profit to change real world cash to game gold exchange rates in favor of players who do not spend real world cash. That expectation seems illogical, no?

I see a trend of supply and demand balancing themselves out as the game matures, and am enjoying the trend. I will continue to enjoy the trend as long as there are no items that fall into a “pay to win” category. No such items exist, so I have no problem with the system.

Bluesavanah.8562:

…lets have some realistic weekly graphs showing the amount of gold to gems and gems to gold, because atm I’m highly sceptical of the prices. Theres actually no proof Anet doesn’t put a notional figure on it whenever they plz

If you can’t trust their integrity now, why would you trust a graph they post? Does an image they create automatically make them honest in your eyes? Trust or don’t trust. A graph doesn’t change anything.

Back on topic:

The conversion of RL cash to gems to in game gold has increased in favor of RL cash. This has allowed me to buy four of the T3 cultural human cosmetic armor pieces, as opposed to the one that I previously bought with in game gold acquired in game. The armor is purely cosmetic, affects my enjoyment of my character, and perhaps makes me a better looking piece of scenery to others. That’s it. These purchases put money directly into Anet’s coffers. Hopefully that money is spent on keeping the game alive and improving.

At launch, I saw this option as quite unreasonable due to the gold cost of the cosmetic armors versus time spent acquiring gold in game versus gem to gold conversion rates. For me, it now is worthwhile. The in game gold cost is the same (still unrealistically high). The prices of ectos have also doubled (from14ish silver back when I started paying attention to 30ish silver now) so it is now easier to earn gold in game than before. However, the biggest change is that the real cash cost has gone down. I could spend weeks in game earning a cosmetic look, or hours IRL. I believe my time is worth money, so for me the trend in conversion ratios is positive.

If others would have their way, I’d be supporting Anet less via my wallet and spending more of my time focusing on pursuing gold in game to gain conveniences and cosmetics. I’d rather be socializing, exploring the map, harvesting, and doing Fractals. Thankfully, I now am.

Until the addition of Fractals, I mostly solo PvE’ed (leveling, complete map exploration, Orr farming). I wore full Berserker exotics and used a 10/30/30/0/0 dps/meditation heal build. Besides dps and self heals, it also offers good mobility (600 and 1200 range teleports: sword 2 & Judge’s Intervention) and condition removal (Smite Condition, Contemplation of Purity & can swap Retributive Armor for Purity as well if facing heavy conditions). Sword/torch main, swap is either mace/focus (defensive emergencies… a nice security blanket) or scepter/focus (ranged… boring but decent dps with this build).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsf5dlYgSDHHyNEf4Eh1DCCQ/VVIeXPgIFbIA

I don’t know if it is “the best” 1 hand damage build, but it certainly works. It has great burst by Guardian standards (sword 3 ftw). It can dps multiple mobs if you practice lining them up (the 3rd strike of sword 1 hits 3 mobs in a frontal cone + torch 4 & 5 + Smite Condition + Judge’s Intervention). The only mobs that are annoying with this build are Destroyers (immune to fire) and to a lesser degree Dredge (immune to blind). It is absolutely false to think that the great sword is the only viable damage dealer available to guardian. It is preferred by many because great sword is more AoE friendly, but it isn’t the only way. From a solo perspective, I think the 1 hand sword is superior to the great sword.

As much as I like playing an Altruistic Healing build for group content, I miss playing the build above. It just felt so much more fluid. I really do miss the mobility, faster kills, and animations. It was a lot of fun to play.

Previewing from the trading post would be a very welcomed addition by many players.

/signed

This is a very good idea. When I first started playing, I didn’t track my map completion at all. After a few maps done and a few more dabbled into, and not remembering which ones I finished, I realized the game didn’t display this info either. I then made some scribble notes, but they weren’t visually friendly for “information at a glance.”

In the end, I took a picture of the maps of Tyria from an interactive map site and saved it in my GW2 screenshots folder. Whenever I completed a map, I opened the image with Windows Paint and drew a big check mark on that zone. It works, but a zone complete icon would be very much preferred to the below:

http://i45.tinypic.com/24fk4sj.jpg

I heartily endorse the OP’s suggestion. /signed

Posting my personal results for other players contemplating purchasing keys to open chests.

My results: 78 chests opened = 2 Halloween themed skins dropped (1 deathly avian medium shoulder skin, 1 deathly avian heavy shoulder skin).

Edit: Converted the results from the above into 36 Mad King Chests.
My results: 36 chests opened = 0 (none, nada, nil, nothing, not one, zilch) Halloween themed skins dropped.

When you dangle the carrot too far away, the mule will not follow. Please learn from this choice Anet, because you can reduced your ARPU (average revenue per user) to ZERO dollars with just one event.

I have been solo PvEing a lot while exploring the world map (85% complete). I help others I come across along the way, but spend most of my time ungrouped. As such, this is a build tailored to dps and self-healing, but you may still find it helpful.

I use sword/torch for focused dps and mobility, and when things get rough I swap to mace/focus. I prefer focus over shield. YMMV. If I know I will need to have a ranged set in advance I will change out the mace/focus, but that has rarely been necessary for what I am doing. For defensive emergencies I have always liked knowing that mace/focus was in my secondary swap set. It has been a safe standby since the early days of my guardian.

This build uses three meditations for self healing, and they also provide damage, mobility, and condition removal. In higher level areas (60+ generally), I occasionally swap the Valor VI trait Retributive Armor (more dps) to Valor V Purity (for even more condition removal), but other than that the build stays the same. I play with glass cannon gear (berserker everything, ruby orbs) and the meditation heals compensate adequately ~for me~. Use whatever gear suits you and how you play the best.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsf5dlYgSDHHyNEf4Eh1DCCQ/VVIeXPgIFbIA

[Zeal 10 (2) / Radiance 30 (2, 6, 11) / Valor 30 (1, 6 or 5, 12)]
Signet of Resolve, Smite Condition, Judge’s Intervention, Contemplation of Purity, Renewed Focus