Guild Wars 2

flipyap.5789:

Not to mention that some full armor skins go as low as 500 gems. So why the hell are one piece the same amount. it should be 1/6 the price.

Just like how a bottle of water should cost 1/12th of a 12 pack of water bottles.

Right?

KOPPER.1458:

“Do you go to brand-named purse stores and complain that the effort/materials put into the purse is not worth the price tag?”

Google around a bit, yes people do.

Of course people do. It’s a stupid, pointless thing to do and it’s a display of inane selfishness as well as a lack of understanding of the factors which determine pricing.

You have a right to complain about prices, just as people have a right to complain about Prada and their insane pricing. I am going to point out to you that your complaints are meaningless and why effort of creation has little impact on desirability and pricing of said items.

I don’t understand the whining, really.

Do you go to brand-named purse stores and complain that the effort/materials put into the purse is not worth the price tag?

Prices are ultimately dictated not by the amount of effort put in by the devs, but by demand from the player base. There will always be a subset of players who will be things at a price which is unimaginable to you.

Lord Kuru.3685:

When the solution to every “where to I get…” question is “Champ farm gold and buy it off the TP,” the game has moved from being a game to being a real-life simulator.

The continued existence of players supplying the items these people farming champ trains are buying is proof enough that there’s plenty of people who actually don’t care about optimally achieving everything.

It’s really what you make of the game. Is the TP the most optimal way of getting (non-account bound) things? Yes. This will be true no matter how high/low drop rates are. If charged Lodestones dropped every 4th monster it would be dirt cheap (probably vendor-level prices) and it would still be faster to buy 100 of them instead of killing 400 monsters.

It’s what the free market is. Ultimately, players feeling the pressure to use the TP is good, since it means there’s demand the goods other players are selling on the TP. This leads to a healthy economy. GW2 was designed with this type uber-efficient free market in mind. If this bothers you that much, enough for you to stop viewing this game as a “game,” perhaps this game isn’t for you.

Lord of Rings.5371:

I have rephrased my post. I am learning the rules here.

You have posts that are a month old. Slow learner, eh?

I feel like, “vertical” progression in form of skills and titles, even with a slight power-creep associated with it, is ultimately good and better than progression via gear.

In GW1, newly introduced skill were clearly superior to old ones (i.e EotN skills are much more widely used overall than Prophesies skills.) while titles increased character’s power levels. It can be debated that, while they aren’t gear, these progression method were “vertical” in the sense that they made clearing content easier.

But these “vertical” progression methods (I put them in quotations because I know people will disagree with categorizing skills/titles as vertical progression) are much more welcoming than progression through gear. In gear progression, there’s an inherent sense of abandoning your previous progress and replacing it with something new. Whereas in skills and titles, progress just builds up, and you have none of that feeling, which I hypothesize is one of the reasons why GW1’s “vertical” progression was much more welcomed by both people who do like vertical progression (Your character undoubtedly gets stronger, often much more significantly than simple stat boosts, as you grind out titles and obtain new skills) and people who like horizontal progression (skill/title progression does not feel like traditional vertical progression.)

So in conclusion, I welcome in the future if the game introduced more potential progression through those two methods: skills and titles.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Behellagh.1468:

So who wins the Super Bowl in 2014?

49ers. I’m calling it now.

Your optimism is appreciated. The NFC is going to be TOUGH though.

Enokitake.1742:

You don’t have to … if you’re willing to be at a power disadvantage in most of gw2’s content.

Whereas before you did not have to, and were never at a real power disadvantage in GW1 except a very limited selection of minor content that wasn’t really important.

I’m sorry, but I mained an IMBAGon. Rocked it in practically everything I played. Your insistence at calling the PvE skills “minor” is very, very annoying.

You keep on trying to insinuate that the power creep in GW1 is somehow minor and unimportant. No sir, it was very important.

“Real” power advantage? A r4 IMBAgon was clearly inferior to an r6 IMBAgon. A r4 Asuran would deal less DPS than an r6 Asuran due to Asuran scan. Is this not a “real” power advantage? Of course I didn’t need r6 in the majority of the content (Missions, vanquishes), but I don’t need ascended for the majority of content in GW2 either (Dynamic events, world bosses).

I mean, player A has grinded out titles, and a few of his skills are more powerful than player B, who didn’t grind out titles. Player A is objectively more powerful than player B. This is a fact, just like how ascended gear, despite being only a 5% stat increase, is still an objective advantage in terms of stats.

“You don’t have to grind titles…If you don’t mind being at a power disadvantage due to some of your skills doing less in GW1”

“You did not have to, and the power disadvantage really doesn’t matter unless you do this minor content called WvW in GW2.”

I understand you dislike GW2’s grind and prefer GW1’s grind, but can you please stop spreading this misinformation?

stof.9341:

Ursan.7846:

42,000 from vanquishing (7 maps, around 300 creatures each, 20 factions per kill.)

Actually, it’s around 21000 faction points for vanquishing a 300 creature map. You get 20 faction per kill, and a vanquish bonus equal to 50 faction per kill.

21,000 * 7 = 147,000.

Thank you for your correction. There are still 800,000 more title points to go for.

Enokitake.1742:

Incorrect, there’s a huge difference.

Those stats from your title had no impact on the following: Jade Quarry, Fort Aspenwood, Alliance Battle.

The stats from exotics/ascended weapons certainly do have impact on World Versus World, which is gw2’s closest mechanism to those three from GW1.

You can try to do that in Blues/Greens like you do world bosses, but we both know what’s going to happen in a 1v1 versus an equally skilled player running the exact same build in full ascended gear.

There’s the difference.

You are absolutely correct.

This does not change the application of this concept on the PvE side of things.

If you think GW1’s grind was “better” because it doesn’t apply to PvP, go ahead.

Doesn’t change the fact that grind for more power on the PvE side does exist.

Phy.2913:

GW1 had grind, rose tinted glasses make you believe it didn’t. The discussion is over perceived grind vs real grind. Do you have anything to add that isn’t opinion based? Just because YOU didn’t feel like something was a grind doesn’t mean it’s not grindy.

I second this statement.

I don’t defend GW2’s grind. If you dislike it, and prefer GW1’s grind over GW2’s grind, so be it. It is your subjective opinion, I do not wish to argue that.

However, grind did exist in GW1. Even if you prefered the “better” grind in GW1, this does not change the fact that yes, grind existed.

DarkSpirit.7046:

Your estimate of 500 factions/quest is way too low. Many quests give an average of 750 and some even more than 1000. I suggest you look into the wiki to get more accurate numbers for your estimates:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Kurzick_Faction

You are also forgetting that Faction spent in kurzick bureaucrat or its luxon equivalent grants you double title points for each faction when donating to your guild or buying their PvE skills.

Furthermore, almost all people have more than one character and since kurz/luxon titles are account-wide, you can perform the same quests/missions etc. all over again. This is not a grind either because you need to complete the game for each character in either case, even in GW2.

30 quests for 1000 factions each is still 30,000.

Seriously though, doing everything in GW1 Factions-related ended up with me at r3 Kurzick. I grinded out the rest to r6.

Just doing the math.

30,000 from quests
5000 points from one AB
3000 points from one JQ
15,000 points from Urgoz’s, both normal/hard.
42,000 from vanquishing (7 maps, around 300 creatures each, 20 factions per kill.)

Add all this up, multiply it by 2, and it’s 175,600 title track points. Add in Shrio’s Return and Young Heroes of Tyria if you wish, for 210,000 more title points, and that’s still barely enough for r3. Where is the rest of the million title points coming from?

How are you achieving r6 by doing everything once? This statement defies my personal experience as well as this back-of-the-envelope calculations. No, there was definitely a repetition of content for power levels.

Enokitake.1742:

Apples and Oranges.

He’s talking about armor/weapons. You’re talking about titles. Of course it didn’t give you maximum efficient titles. But you didn’t need the maximum efficient titles to do any casual thing.

Stats are stats, whether they come from gear or titles.

I didn’t need exotics to do GW2 also. Heck, I farmed my Arah set in blues and greens. I’m pretty sure no one needs exotics to do casual things like World Bosses. There is no difference.

Obsidian.1328:

Sylv.5324:

Enokitake.1742:

You can with ascended gear in WvW though. Like said, its not the same.

You are shifting the goalposts.

Also, it was not possible to ever get rank 10 luxon or kurzick or deldrimor or norn or asura or ebon vanguard or lightbringer, etc, etc, through casual play, let alone quickly.

Now that’s just silly talk. I remember maxing Norn/Asura/Ebon.

I mean, to get to rank 10 required you doing hardmode vanquishes, or turning in hard mode Heroes/Dungeon guides since they don’t accept normal mode stuff beyond r8.

If you’re doing HM, I don’t consider you a casual player.

DarkSpirit.7046:

You forgot that farming is not the only way to gain allegiance title points? You can also get lots of allegiance title points by simply playing the game.

You are absolutely correct.

You can also earn ascended gear by simply playing the game in GW2. I listed the farming method because it’s the most efficient way. Doing other things (i.e Alliance Battles and JQ/FA were really inefficient in getting faction) would of course earn you faction, but it will take you much longer.

Just like in GW2, if you don’t want to grind dungeons or champ trains all day, you can slowly earn yourself an ascended weapon. Or two. I’m going to use myself as an example. Never do Champ trains, never grinded dungeons, and have 3 characters full of ascended gear.

Whatever you want to say about GW1’s grind, you can easily apply to GW2.

Valanga.5942:

What you guys tend to forget while trying to defend GW2’s grind, is that there is different kind of grind, and not always is bad.

You misunderstand me.

I don’t defend GW2’s grind. I don’t like it, I don’t participate in it.

It’s a pertinent point though, that people’s preference for GW1’s gameplay definitely colors their perception of GW1’s grind. Prefer GW1’s grind? I don’t argue that, that is a highly subjective topic.

But to say GW1 had NO grind? (Which people in this thread are claiming). No, that is definitely wrong.

DarkSpirit.7046:

In essence, after you have completed the game you have, or at least be able to afford, all required pieces of max stat gear. If you love grinding, you always have that option of grinding for cosmetic gear and titles but you don’t have to. This has always been the case for GW1.

“Completing the game” gave you nowhere NEAR the faction required for the statistical max. Using Kurzick again for example, (1,200,000)

Turning in Shiro’s Return gave you 40,000 in normal mode, 120,000 in hard mode. The quests individually gave around ~500 faction, and there were around maybe ~20 to 30 quests (~10,000-15,000). Alliance battles average around 5000 factions per game. JQ/FA averages around 2000-3000 factions per game. Urgoz’s gives 5000 in normal, 10,000 in hard mode.

Do all that, and you are still nowhere NEAR the 1,200,000 required for the maximum statistical rank (r6).

You will end up having to repeat some content in order to get to the statistical maximum. And repeating content is something I define as a grind. A grind to earn statistical power increases.

Rank 6 Kurzick took 1,200,000 faction to earn.

The most optimal Kurzick farm earned you like 40,000 an hour.

That’s approximately 30 horus STRAIGHT of doing a repetitive task over, and over, and over again. For one title track. How is this NOT a grind?

And these PvE skills are the bread and butter of PvE, especially in high-level content. IMBAgons were a huge staple, and completely relied on 2 PvE skills (Sunspear and Kurzick) which you had to grind out. Look at PvXwiki, skills such as Asuran Scan and the Ebon Vanguard battle standards are pretty common.

I mean seriously, if you want to talk about how these PvE skills weren’t “necessary,” then can’t the same argument be applied to Ascended gear? Nothing requires Ascended gear, just like it’s possible to do DoA without LightBringer. It’s going to be a lot more inefficient however, and this is the exact same across both games.

GW1 definitely had a grind.

Behellagh.1468:

I understand your point and it’s valid. This is the first time they’ve offered a free item with cash gem purchase that wasn’t available for gems in the gem store already. Of course to be really despicable it would have to be offered in the gem store after Jan 1st at a much more reasonable price. I want the pitchfork and torch concession if that happens.

To obtain the mini, the only avenue open to collectors is to spend $50 in the month of December on gems. Yes you get 4000 gems as well which is worth 236 gold as I’m writing this (the exchange rate has taken a sharp turn downward, lots of gem sales for gold? wonder where all those gems are coming from?).

And that’s the problem Smooth and the burning question, is this a new model to sell ultra exclusive items? Having them as a “bonus” for buying large amounts of gems with cash? That’s the concern here. Is it signaling a change in the way to encourage cash sales or is it just a one time thing?

People get too caught up on principle, and what they “could” do in the future.

Selling a mini (the fluffiest of fluff) for real money of all things? Perfectly reasonable. Getting angry that this could signal them selling more significant non-fluff things for real money? Slippery slope. Get angry when and if it really happens.

sorudo.9054:

uhmmm, you’re forgetting the 7 years of reputation GW1 made in order to get the number you’re talking about, without that GW2 would end up with less then half the income they currently have.

GW2 has yet to be released in China. That, the revenue from the Gem Store (A revenue source which GW1 lacked), and the fact that “reputation” of the game according to internet nerds rarely have impact on financial success of games, GW2 will easily push past GW1’s halfway mark given 7 total years.

sorudo.9054:

and even if we simply ignore all of that, they have, like you said, 300+ employees.
that’s at least 3X more then when they were making factions, so making an expansion would logically be made 3X faster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks's_law

“9 women giving birth doesn’t make the process last only 1 month.”

Farzo.8410:

Basically, ArenaNet could not create a game with long term rewards without having to add gear with increased stats to cater for something.

‘’The stats difference is so small it doesn’t even matter, you don’t need to get it.’’

Then why even add it to the game to begin with…

There was Original Guild Wars though…

Title grinds in GW1 for tiny stat increases~

Evilbeavers.3964:

I wouldn’t depend on them to make rational decisions.

I would also question the intelligence of people who doubt the logical decision-making process of an entity without any access at all to the information the said entity used for their decision making.

This act in itself is very irrational, indeed.

Are people still producing, exchanging, and consuming goods?

Yes? Then the economy is still fine.

Is your poverty somehow preventing upward mobility?

No? Economy is perfectly fine.

Lynie.6437:

skill =/= guild wars 2

Please post a video of you soloing Lupi. If skill is not a factor, then you should be able to do it with the correct gear/trait set-up.

I shall be looking forward to your demonstration that skill is not required in GW2.

Jesus Anet.

I don’t mind you putting out recycled, crappy skin on the Gem Store. Some people definitely will like it and buy it, I understand.

But can we not at the same time destroy the exclusivity of the skin I have?

errebi.7630:

mr. Smith is reffering to the wealth people earned during the Queen Jubilee event, so i dare to say he is contradicting himself, or maybe ascended crafting (more or less 200 golds for each craft from 400 to 500) is designed only for the ones who farmed the event, so a minority of the playerbase, as Mr Smith stated

I don’t see the contradiction.

In the article, he states that overall player wealth increased after the event.

In your quote, he basically states that wealth has increased, but hasn’t increased as much as Mr. Smooth says.

The two statements are not mutually exclusive.

Plebes is the plural form of plebeian.

errebi.7630:

John Smith.4610:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

But make no mistake. If you didn’t make your Gold from the Queen’s Gauntlet, or Champion farming, you’ll be left behind in terms of wealth. That’s why it’ll be interesting to see how Anet responds to this.

This is incredibly hyperbolous. In the last week, the median player earned less than 3 gold in the new content (that’s discounting all players who earned less than 1 gold).

Just a reminder for the OP: a statement by JM himself
some people didn’t farm the Queen Gauntlet/Pavilion or the Scarlett’s Invasions so they have no wealth that needs to be sunk
the poor “plebeians” as OP called them not so long ago

Of course some plebes didn’t farm the QJ or the Invasions. This doesn’t change the fact that people did, and this wealth needed to be sunk somehow. Ascended crafting did that. At the same time, champ bags and dungeon gold rewards were introduced, which gave people access to more permanent farming methods which they could farm, if they missed out on the temporary content.

Fror.2163:

Well, since it’s Thanksgiving, Europe is thanking you for installing this implementation of leaderboard right before Thanksgiving.

Have you ever used Anet’s leaderboards? If you have, you might notice that US and EU are separate.

https://leaderboards.guildwars2.com/en/eu/achievements

Smooth Penguin.5294:

3) White armor is only “trash” if you get something greater. I played my new character with white armor until I could afford different ones.

This confuses me greatly. How do you do this? Especially when blues/greens drop so frequently.

Paponzi.1637:

Ursan.7846:

closer to like 60%.

Where did this number come from?

There was an informal poll somewhere. Of the people who attempted Liadri, about 60% eventually managed to beat her.

Though I have to toss in a few disclaimers, as my memory isn’t perfect. That 5% maybe thrown out by Josh Foreman and the Clocktower, also, not too sure……

But regardless, there is plenty of evidence of Anet underestimating players. How shocked they were at how fast players got exotics, etc.

DarkSpirit.7046:

Ursan.7846:

There are games in which paying for gear/guns/tanks pretty much guarantees a win over other players in a competition.

In GW2, due to the nature of the combat, max gear is no guarantee of a victory.

Even so, it does help. Especially in sPvP/WvW, every single bit of stat helps you to win against your opponent.

Of course it helps. This isn’t a black and white argument though. It isn’t whether it does help or does not help. It is about the degree to which it helps. There is a huge difference between gear which is sold with $$$ being 1000% more effective than gear obtained in-game, and gear that is 5% better than gear that is EASILY obtained in-game. Combined with the fact that the same tier gear is still available through normal gameplay with a bit of effort.(not exclusive to real money), the existence of the “P2W” concept in GW2 is very weak.

(Assuming if you can buy Ascended gear, of course. Which you can’t.)

Wethospu.6437:

Maybe they don’t expect anyone to reach 50?

I remember they said something like they expected 5% of the playerbase to beat Liadri, but the actual number was closer to like 60%.

If anything, Anet has shown a discouraging incompetence in gauging how “difficult” the player base finds content.

Now this doesn’t mean it can’t happen. They could totally be difficult content which takes groups weeks to figure out. But given their track record, I doubt it.

There are games in which paying for gear/guns/tanks pretty much guarantees a win over other players in a competition.

In GW2, due to the nature of the combat, max gear is no guarantee of a victory.

I imagine it’ll affect lots of alt-holics negatively in terms of psychology. “Man, I want to play alts but Anet is forcing me to buy levels…” Whereas playing to slowly get levels is more accepted in the psyche of many players.

Essence Snow.3194:

Note that I did not say that A or B could or couldn’t lead to C. What I did say is that you cannot discount someone’s comment based off the information you gave in the OP.

Yes, and I have agreed with this fact in all my posts.

You then asserted that then it’s pointless to debate this fact. I merely replied that no, I’m not actually doing that. And that there is plenty of evidence in-game contrary to said person’s statement. You then continue to accuse me of discounting someone’s comment based purely in the information giving in the OP. And I continue to point out that no, I did not.

Essence Snow.3194:

Reread it for yourself:

It seems that you’re going off the theory that farming Queen’s Jubilee is the only method to earn lots of resources/$$.

This is simply not true, in light of the many ways to farm which currently exists and are as profitable than Queen’s Jubilee.

Are you really reading what you are writing?

Ignorant arrogance.

It’s a question I must ask also. Is your reading comprehension seriously that deficient?

Ursan.7846:

This is simply not true

My statement

Ursan.7846:

in light of the many ways to farm which currently exists and are as profitable than Queen’s Jubilee.

My reasoning for my statement. The fact that there are “Many ways to farm which currently exists.” There are many other methods, aside from the QJ, which gives players lots of wealth.

Hence the statement that only people who farmed the QJ has $$$, is untrue.

Essence Snow.3194:

This does not prove B leads to C either. Thus you cannot discount someone’s statement based on the same rational, specially when it is designated to your OP.

Full circle logic.

Yes. If you bothered thinking a bit after you read my post, you’ll notice in my post that I did not try to prove B leads to C, because A leads to C (Which is what you’re trying to accuse me of doing). I proved B leads to C by stating that B, which is not A, exists and will lead to the same C (wealth).

Which, if you play the game, you should know of. Champ farms. Dungeon farms. Orr farms. World Event farms. I didn’t mention the specific farms because I thought it was pretty self-evident. Apparently not.

Reading comprehension.

DarkSpirit.7046:

I wonder what he means by “nefarious” means. If someone looks up the charts in gw2spidy and gauge the prices, would that be considered “nefarious” means? I certainly hope not. But it is gaining knowledge that the general public may not know about if they don’t spend the time and effort analyzing market data.

I don’t think analysing data available to the public is “insider trading.”

However, things like people buying up the Crossing prior to the Halloween patch when we had absolutely no indicators of anything changing its recipe? That’s something you cannot predict with public knowledge.

Essence Snow.3194:

Obviously they were going off the #3 point, (which you posted btw) where JS said “Queen’s Jubilee gave”. There wasn’t a mention of any other event/activity, therefor the assumption based off the quote (again which you posted), is pointless to debate unless you are debating your own post or JS’s comment.

Yes. JS said Queen’s Jubilee pushed up player’s wealth quite a bit, which made ascended crafting accessible to a large group of people.

This doesn’t change the fact that ascended crafting is still accessible who haven’t grinded QJ. Many other sources of income still exist in the game. The fact that they were not mentioned does not mean they do not exist.

A leads to C. This does not prove that B cannot lead to C.

Logic.

morrolan.9608:

Another comment John refers to gaining inside info by ‘nefarious’ means when surely the biggest issue is the testers who are hardly gaining the info by ‘nefarious’ means.

It’s also possible that data miners can potentially obtain information from the client before the general public knows about it. For a while after every patch, some bits of information from future patches were included.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/36041

Just looking at the price/supply/buy differences from the end of last year’s halloween, and this year’s halloween.

I must say this year was a resounding success in terms of keeping afloat the value of candy corn.

Mad Rasputin.7809:

It seems ANet is going off the theory that everyone farmed the event and everyone has a lot of resources/$$. This is simply not true.

It seems that you’re going off the theory that farming Queen’s Jubilee is the only method to earn lots of resources/$$.

This is simply not true, in light of the many ways to farm which currently exists and are as profitable than Queen’s Jubilee.

morrolan.9608:

Ursan.7846:

3. Queen’s Jubilee really gave players lots of resources, ascended weapons a very good sink for them.

And for those of us that quickly got bored with the grind and opted out what were we supposed to do?

Quit the game, because you are not able to play the game without ascended weapons.

http://www.relicsoforr.com/?p=2861

Very interesting interview which goes over several topics which are discussed daily in this forum.

Some bullet points.

1. Attempts at monopolies/manipulation do occur, but are rarely successful/profitable.
2. Insider trading suspected, actions being planned.
3. Queen’s Jubilee really gave players lots of resources, ascended weapons a very good sink for them.

Gasoline.2570:

You guys are very cute.

I find you adorable as well. Very cuddly.

Pariah.8506:

All of GW1’s market was skin based.

Runes, Insignias, Minis.

Alcohol, sweets, unidentified golds.

-50 Cesta.

Ah, the good old days.

ITT: A severe ignorance of how economies work.

locoman.1974:

The transaction of the legendary would not sink gold out of the economy, since it still remains in the system but it just changed hands.

For every transaction in the TP, a 15% tax is removed. A 2700G legendary being purchased would mean 405G got removed from the economy.

EgonVenkman.1907:

Supply and Demand to a degree, a variety of factors outside of this keep the price artificially high.

As for gem inflation plan, unlikely that the market will turn south. It is in Anet’s best financial interest to increase the Gem to Gold ratio as that will take more money away from gold sellers. Outside of very large bulk purchases ($100+), the Gem to Gold Ratio is getting very close matching gold sellers. Why spend $10 on site A and risk getting banned when you get almost the same amount from Anet directly?

Good. If people are willing to buy Gems to convert to Gold to buy legendaries, we should cater to them since it’s a win-win-win: Anet makes real $, gem/gold ratio decreases for people like me who spend gold to buy gems, and the transaction of the Legendary will sink gold out of the economy.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Indeed. I love this game, bugs and all. I support NCSoft, through Anet, because I like their product. And with the way the system is, without people like me who spend real money on Gems, other players couldn’t enjoy being able to trade in game currency for Gems for free.

Thank you for your dedication and support. You allow us to play a great service for almost free.

CursedPanther.7851:

According to GW2Spidy the exchange rate increased by a ridiculous 1g just on the 13th of November. What exactly happened that day? Did someone suddenly decided to spend thousands of golds and turn them into gems?

Kasmeer/Marjory’s weapons, and account-bound unlimited harvesting tools came out.

Behellagh.1468:

But quartz isn’t available on the Gem Shop, this is where I’m losing you all. Or is my sarcasm sensor busted again?

The assumption is that this is driving prices of Quartz up. Which leads to players, who wishes to buy quartz, to buy gems and convert to gold to buy said Quartz.

Of course, I was using sarcasm to point that not everyone is a consumer of Quartz, and it’s doubtful that it’ll make a dent in Anet’s gem sales. However, if it does happen, it’s a win-win-win (Qnet gets money, gem/gold rates becomes lower, gold is sunk from transactions of quartz)

Behellagh.1468:

How would it boost gem sales?

Because every single potential gem purchaser are also consumers of Quartz, and not sellers of them, clearly.

Though I’m all for actions which encourages players to buy gems to convert to gold. Is nothing but positive to Anet and to players like me who exchange gold to gems.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Here’s how it works:

• Agony resist infusions are always +1 or above agony resist.
• Agony resist infusions only slot into the Agony Resist slot, which is currently only found Infused Asccended Rings and Back Items.
• Every time you finish a fractal, you’ll get at least a +1 out of the chest.
• An artificer can combine any two identical agony resist infusions with a Thermocatyltic Reagent o make one of a higher resistance.
• Existing Infused Ascended Rings and Back Items lose their natural +5 Agony Resist, and receive a +5 Agony Resist Infusion by default.
• New Infused Ascended Rings and Back Items will have an empty slot.

So…After I put in a 5 agony resist on my item, I can’t use it in the future to combine it with another +5?

This is the very definition of wasting your effort.