Guild Wars 2

Vol.7601:

Eh I’m pretty overrated. I’m a speculator, not a flipper, so my gains take awhile to show profit. I’m just a farmer that makes a ton of gold and invests it

Kind of like a lawyer or accountant who makes a huge salary and decides to invest in in a high interest ING account, bonds or GICs

Psssht. The really ballsy move would be to invest in GAK, not GIC.

Hesperon.9687:

Bunda.2691:

Why would you want to have your characters’ names upside down?

it’s because i want to change both characters’ gender and a female character called “Good Guy Hespe” is just a bitt odd

I was simply making a joke on your use of the word “inverted,” and jumped at the opportunity to reference inverted analog-calculator 5318008. No harm intended.

On a separate note, thank god you didn’t accidentally misspell your name with an “r” instead of the “s.” Not sure Anet would have approved.

Why would you want to have your characters’ names upside down?

Best I can suggest is using letters like d, p, o, u, n, m, w, and so forth, and hope that other players play with inverted monitors . Alternatively, you could use those upside-down analog calculator spellings like 80085 or 5318008, but problems with that include a) names in GW2 not being written in digital calculator font, and b) the non-analog calculator generation failing to understand what you are doing.

Or you could buy three name change contracts (unfortunately), but I like my previous (and sarcastic) answer better.

I appreciate the thought and work you’ve put into this. And you have some great ideas. But the main issues with mesmers are really just the need for:
- more condi removal
- more aoe (non-phantasm reliant)
- improved shatter mechanics and potency
- improved scepter
- improved mantras (maybe by reducing charge time)
- change to confusion (either buffing duration giving it some other effect)

In return, most mesmers would be happy to see PU nerfed (if not removed entirely), vigor uptime reduced (though there is an argument both ways on this, as a light armor class should perhaps be able to dodge more), changes to clone-death traits, and other things.

The biggest issue though is condi removal, especially in our condi-heavy meta (immobilize frequently being my death sentence). Its very hard for a mesmer to trait lots of condi removal without seriously gimping (if not entirely neutering) the damage output. Most other classes have skills or mechanisms (shouts, ire, dogged, stealth, multiple necro/ele skills, diamond, engine resistance, etc.) to mitigate conditions. The closest mesmers have is removal on shatter, but that a) requires illusions to hit, and b) wrecks phantasm damage output, which is generally the only real damage of someone going 30 in inspiration.

Personally, I’d like to see F2 changed to a condi removal shatter, but that’s a different story altogether.

Come on, who wouldn’t want to invest in an LBS once precursor crafting arrives?

@Behellagh
Short selling would actually be the best thing to be able to add, but I can’t think of a good way to implement it.

I’d love to see the introduction of some sort of futures market, and I’d welcome ideas on how to implement it. Mostly it would add a bit of fun to the trading post game, as it would allow you to make bets against the price of materials (as of now, it’s hard to place bets that items are going to decrease in value) and hedge other bets or prepare for future releases.

There are plenty of items for which you could no doubt find speculators on both sides. Take Ruby Orbs for example. One camp might believe that they will lose value with the ferocity implementation and the buffing of other rune sets, while another camp might expect them to increase in value with the introduction of ascended crafting.

Anyway, the one way I could see this being done is through some third-party site, but simultaneously requiring participants to deposit enough gold into a transparent guild bank (controlled by some community-agreed-upon honest broker) to cover losses in case they try to reneg. But I’m sure there are other ways to implement this as well.

And because it would likely only involve wealthy players, I can’t see this having any real impact on the economy as a whole, but rather serve as a fun and entertaining activity for people who like to play the TP.

This all said, anyone want to sell me a contract for a stack of ectos at 35s per on Mar 19th?

I would actually like to test the effect of chaos storm on multiple opponents. I’m assuming that the effect is random for each one of them each tick, but I’d love to be sure. And I’d like to know the probabilities as well, because I feel like I never see chill proc (but no doubt it’s just skewed anecdotal observation)

Most of all, I just want to see scepter projectiles … do something. Maybe illusionary elasticity lets them bounce to another enemy, maybe they explode for a small aoe, maybe they fill your opponent’s screen with butterflies. But something, please!

Don’t forget a 0/20/10/20/20 with malicious sorcery. Illusionary counter on a six second cooldown is pretty juicy, and mender’s provides the condi removal.

If deceptive evasion is nerfed (re: no clone-death effects when additional clone is created), then there is actually a lot of new room for builds that don’t take DE, such as 0/0/30/20/20 or 10/0/20/20/20. And then, in the off off off chance that confusion is made more viable, there is the long-shot possibility of a confusion shatter build going 30 in illusions.

Anyway, long story short is that I’m looking forward to whatever creativity the changes provide. It’s a bit too bad that they’re all condi focused instead of direct damage, but still…

Naz.2607:

Agreed, I still have 2 more toons I’d like name changes for & I may never get to it cuz my gem store list is so long….

And this is why they are so expensive. Name change contract is a perfect example of a cosmetic non-consequential item that players want, and thus is something that aNet should be able to profit from.

Edit: changes to come in feature build, not Mar. 18. But still…

Staff clones + Illusionary Elasticity = delicious
Phantasmal haste fixes.
More fixes as well.

Easiest to read at http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/206wu0/tyler_chapman_on_mesmer_bugs_fixes/

Source at
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/20-Mesmer-s-Bugged-Skills-and-Counting/page/3#post3750901

Nyel.1843:

It would be awesome to hear or see some videos from heavy Mantra using builds.

Anybody knows some of that?

They’re situational, but very potent in certain situations. For example, 30/x/x/10/x with mantras of recovery and concentration plus mender’s purity is very helpful in zergs. Lots of spike healing, condi removal, and sun breaks allow you to run higherbdps gear than you might otherwise.

Very few “mantra builds” per se (outside of pve), but that doesnt mean you cant build them in in the right situations.

morrolan.9608:

Bunda.2691:

The “anti-TP” crowd, as you call them, is simply making a mistake of applying real life market externalities to those in a video game. Much of what they argue holds real currency in the real world, just a bit less so in an MMORPG.

I actually would say the complete opposite.

So say it. What are the negative externalatis produced by the TP? (And don’t just say “wealthy players,” because that is not a problem in and of itself.)

Neural.1824:

Fenrir.3609:

The fact that not one credible, specific, evidence based argument has been given by the anti-TP crowd doesn’t seem to faze them at all. They just keep ploughing on and having a good old cry.

The worst part is they have the same attitude towards real life economies. Want to know why countries that are prospering collapse? Look no further than the attitudes of the anti-tp crowd. It’s pretty sick that they are so obsessed with other peoples money that they don’t even want anyone to succeed virtually, let alone in RL

Don’t push your luck here. There is a whole lot different between the real world and a video game economy.

The “anti-TP” crowd, as you call them, is simply making a mistake of applying real life market externalities to those in a video game. Much of what they argue holds real currency in the real world, just a bit less so in an MMORPG.

Wanze.8410:

Again, getting back in topic:

Rugged leather (tier4) has become the most expensive common mat, surpassing linen and orichalcum. Seems like more and more elonian leather is being crafted and people level their leatherworkers in order to craft it. Too bad thatthe other leather doesnt follow suit as the rugged leather seems to be the bottleneck.

Leather is actually my favorite market, not because there is a lot of gold to be made in it, but because it always seems so remarkably balanced and in equilibrium (both re: trading and promoting).

I am wondering why Anet has chosen to increase the iron sinks but not mithril ones. Thoughts?

laokoko.7403:

I already know you are going to say that. Most pure WvW cant’ even afford to wear ascended gear. Fractal is somewhat gated by agony(gold) too. Not to mention there really isn’t much update in this game over the past 2 years.

This has been mentioned elsewhere, but this is part of Anet’s revenue model, not unlike farmville, candy crush, or other f2p games. They make the majority of their revenue from a minority of the most committed players. In GW2’s case, that tends to be the extreme WvW and fractals players, as well as others who are invested in other parts of the game that, as makes sense, don’t provide a ton of gold. So in order to buy the things they need/want, these dedicated players are incentivized to buy gems, which they do. And in this regard, (a little) inflation and high prices are not the worst things in the world, because they encourage purchasing gems as opposed to farming the gold.

If WvW or fractals or PvP awarded the same amount of gold as all other areas (TP included), then those players wouldn’t spend as much money.

I agree with most people here that the real gold to be made is through one or two step — buying, salvaging, forging, selling, or something similar. But let’s not kid ourselves that there is not a ton of gold to be made working the spreads, especially in the days surrounding patches or updates. But even then, I question what the problem with this is.

Everyone needs to accept that the TP is a remarkable tool for anet to analyze trends and subsequently change drop rates. No data analysis can fully predict what players will do, and the wisdom of crowds is a fantastic way for them to kitten the economy and then provide stimulus accordingly. As I mentioned in another post, I see very few negative externalities to the (mostly) free market as it currently exists, aside from perhaps a little higher prices of top-shelf items.

KOPPER.1458:

I just avoid the TP. I don’t want to be taken advantage of any more than I am already in game.

This comment does a good job encapsulating the problem. From an economist’s perspective, you’re not being taken advantage of, because you’re selling your goods for immediate remuneration. From a trader’s perspective, your letting him take the risk and making a small percentage off his work. Yet from your perspective, you feel taken advantage of even though your selling at bid prices is still netting you 100% profit.

This problem exists, I think, because of the cooperative nature of the game (in general), and the distaste that others may be profiting from your “work.” But as this is a game, there is actually nothing wrong with this, as it lets different types of players play and profit in the ways they enjoy — you from PvE, someone else from the TP. Try to think of it less as being taken advantage of and more contributing to the sizeand diversity of the player base. Because both that size and diversity contribute to the game’s success and longevity.

laokoko.7403:

There is a real world stock market out there for you to play.

I rather just play it as an adventure game.

And others might say that there are hunting licenses and animals for you to go kill out there as well. Or thta if you want a pure adventure game, play Zelda. But if you want to maximize the gold available in an MMO, at least respect the TP. There are plenty of people on this forum who are more than happy to help better utilize it.

Just some friendly advice to those confused about trading and those who are not fans of the TP. Patch/update days (such as today) are where the real money is. Look at the new achievements and available items, see what people will need to get these things, and trade accordingly. The TP is all about psychology (and part of the reason I enjoy it so much), and understanding average-player psychology is what seperates the lions from the lambs. So today, think about what achievements were added, how players will react, and what items they will buy. There is still gold to be made here even 12 hours post patch.

Anyway, once you start trying to look at how various markets are interwoven, you realize the awesome complexity of the system Anet has created, and why the TP mind games are fun for traders. And honestly, I want to see as many people playing the TP as possible, because it forces me to be more creative in how I position my gold.

In short, don’t hate on the TP; rather, come join in on the thinking man’s PvP.

I can post the gs/staff build I use of you want, but its basically a glass GS clone-death build with staff for defense and support. 30/20/10/10/0, mantra heal, and as much zerker as you are comfortable with. Note that it loses potency if you have less then 3-4 people.

The whole point of gs/staff is to bomb at range with GS and then use staff for defense, kiting, and creating distance. It shines in big fights because you can drop target in a crowd, but it fails in small encounters when your opponents can track you and hone in,because your melee damage and damage mitigation are both subpar.

Moreover: THIS IS A GAME!

As such, three priorities:
1. A sufficiently critical mass of players remains engaged.
2. Gameplay facilitates the ability of that critical mass to keep accomplishing new things.
3. Anet makes money.

The TP helps all three. Sure, its problems (and consequences of it allowing flipping and speculation) might annoy some players, but at the end of the day it supports the above three principles. And those principles trump all.

Jabberwock.9014:

imo bad investment. Items that don’t get soulbound never rise that much. Although I suppose the power of quaggan could trump that, I don’t think it’s likely. Do you know how many of these things are floating around? That supply will never diminish.

Quaggan awesomeness aside, these will still increase. Even if, say 10k drop per day, that’s still 280k total of an item that everyone will want. Plus, there is a recipe that combines 10 of each endless to create a mystery tonic, which will further decrease numbers and increase price. In short, buy now.

(But wait, you ask. Is this post but a shameless attempt to inflate their price? Seems we will never know!)

medohgeuh.4650:

I can’t even imagine that weapon combo being viable in any game mode.

I often run a glassy GS/Staff when running in a 15+ organized group (either a 30/20/10/10/0 or 20/15/20/0/15). Support from range while doing a good amount of ranged dps with GS, and use staff for survival to mitigate the near-full glass). Works well except in the face of skill lag.

When I’m looking to sell something, I can no longer switch items without hitting the “x” or “sell” buttons. Anyone else having the same issue?

I would ditch either the staff or gs and instead go sc/t or s/p or torch or some combo thereof. In a hybrid build you’ll get a lot more mileage out of your 1-handed weapons.

Note too that Anet has designed this game so that the most “fun” and “challenging” content — sPvP, WvW, Fractals — has the worst gold payoff. Instead, it is the “boring” and repetitive stuff, like champ training, flipping, and so forth, that is the most profitable. This is by design, so that the most passionate players, who frequently play for reasons other than gold, have an incentive to buy gems.

This is a good thing, as it keeps the game in the black and well supported. It also incentivizes harvesting and farming, which make goods available to those players who spend dollars.

There’s more to the system than straight-up economics. Most of the things are the way they are for a reason, and that is to maximize enjoyment amongst the player base while ensuring a substantial minority continues to buy gems. A free and open trading post actively contributes to this.

There’s this awesome build that uses dual staves buried somewhere in the forum. It’s super secret and super OP, so if you find and use it be prepared to get majorly hated as you easily beat all other classes. Plus, no one really expects dual staves either, so most opponents just run away crying.

Out of the box idea:

A heavy support class that projects 600 range fields/shields that can, depending on alighnemnt, protect allies from condis, cc, (some) direct damage, etc. Obviously limited and one at a time. This would encourage zerging, so the class would also have skills to combat other and disrupt said fields.

Curunen.8729:

I’m tempted to hoard cheap runes to sell after the patch.

Ha. You’re a little late to that game, my friend.

hihey.1075:

Bunda.2691:

Apologies to those in these markets, but why do a few people have very large orders for fine and masterwork quality of these weapons, when most other weapons and armor of similar lvl and quality sell only for around vendor price?

It may be luck, but i think it’s because these items have a higher chance if dropping a t6 than others.

Is this really true? And if so, why do they have a higher chance at dropping T6? First I’ve heard of comparable items having different drop rates.

Essence Snow.3194:

Wanze.8410:

Ohoni.6057:

I’ve been playing a few games lately that have no market at all, and it’s a nightmare. Nobody’s asking them to remove the market entirely, just to make it all about players A and C, and cutting player B entirely out of the equation, UNLESS he’s willing to actually provide a useful function, like converting items around. No, price manipulation alone is NOT a useful function.

Speculators actually have a useful function because they help level out sudden demand spikes.

Plz elaborate on this further. How do they do this? Why is it useful?

When the price gets high, it encourages people to sell rather then hold or craft. This helps bring the price back down.

If the price gets too low, it encourages people to buy to either hold or craft. This helps bring the price back up.

I wholeheartedly agree. I never understood the rationale behind the stat penalty for mixing sets.

Wanze.8410:

Depends on the levels but most probably they put in buy orders to salvage them for luck and common mats. Some weapons also drop inscriptions.

There are much cheaper and more profitable things to salvage for luck, though, and no profit to be made flipping these items. I’ve been trying to figure it out for a while, and likely there’s a dumb reason I’m just missing, but I remain curious.

Anyway, here is an example: http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/25865

Apologies to those in these markets, but why do a few people have very large orders for fine and masterwork quality of these weapons, when most other weapons and armor of similar lvl and quality sell only for around vendor price?

mtpelion.4562:

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

It is what facilitates trade. Drives people to do more. Encourages people to take risks. Motivates people to succeed beyond basic sustenance.

Greed is the thing that takes transactions and makes them into an economy.

Without greed, we’d all still be farmers, growing just enough food to live on and hoping we don’t have a drought.

So while greed may be the black stain that we love to point at and condemn (and granted, it frequently leads to horrible acts when you allow it to control you), it is the main reason we have civilization (well, greed and beer).

Mmmmmmm. Greeeeed. I mean, beeeeeer.

I know what you’re saying, but don’t conflate greed with self interest. Lizards are self interested. So are dogs. And so are we. It’s biological. Economic and familial self interest may have helped advance civilization, but not greed. Rather, greed is by definition taking to excess, and we as a society look down upon this for good reason: it has the potential to harm others. This is why we punish autocrats and ponzi schemers, because unchecked greed harms others more than is benefits them. Idi Amin’s or Bernie Madoff’s wealth does not float all ships.

But that is the real world. In a video game … meh? I see no reason not to let people embrace their less socially beneficial feelings and have fun being whatever hero or villain they want—so long as their doing so doesn’t harm others’ gameplay. After all, we’re ok “killing” others in video games. Why is it then considered uncouth to take their gold?

mtpelion.4562:

I get that. All people are jealous. In fact, jealousy is what drives economies.

However, jealous is not a valid reason to limit the freedoms of others, especially when those freedoms do not in any way prevent you from doing what you want.

Not to be mean, but it’s mainly this type of attitude the breeds anger and resentment against those who play the TP. So I just want to establish that this opinion is likely not shared by others (at least publicly).

Jealously is a perfectly valid reason to suggest changes to a video games. So is inequality, and unfairness, and corruption. But in the case here, I don’t think anyone is jealous of wealthy players, they’re just upset at perceived imbalance in the ability to obtain high end goods. Overvaluing the role traders play in the economy is going to do nothing to decrease this sentiment.

Also, jealousy does not drive an economy. Rather, labor and capital do. Pretending otherwise glorifies the middleman at the expense of thinkers, creators, and hard workers. People who say greed and jealousy drive the economy are just making excuses for their own.

That all said, in the case of GW2, there is no reason to remove the tools that facilitate trading, because a) the economy is relatively stable and b) the TP serves important functions that improve the game for both the players and Anet. If this changes, and if extreme wealth starts making goods unobtainable for newer players (thus discouraging them from continuing to play), then we’ll no doubt see changes to the TP. But until then, accept the benefits that it produces, and ignore the self-agrandized traders who overvalue their individual role.

Ohoni.6057:

So wealth disparity IS a problem, and if there are better ways to fix them, then what would these ways be? If you can offer a better alternative then I’m all ears.

You missed the main point of my wall of text (which is understandable, because it was a wall).

Allowing the relisting of items smooths out the edges of the economy by preventing massive spikes in the cost of items. Sure, prices still rise and fall, but the added supply and ability to resell mitigates risk, which helps keep prices stable. Moreover, flippers’ and speculators’ motives may be self serving, but they do provide (some) liquidity, which in turn further promotes long-term price stability. I agree they shouldn’t be rewarded for this (beyond a motivation to keep doing it), but they shouldn’t be penalized either (unless they convince themselves they are doing noble work for the good of the community, which is just obnoxious).

Furthermore, you do need to understand how much the free market helps Anet manage the economy. Because reselling allows players on their own to best allocate items to those that most value them, Anet can take a step back and let the economy self correct, only stepping in when it becomes clear that there is a severe oversupply or shortage of an item (like they are doing now with cloth). If they had to manage every single item and supply chain for each recipe and good, they’d have way too much on their plate. Instead, they can look at trends on the TP and see if things get out of whack, instead of crunching the numbers for every permutation of drop rates and recipe lists.

re: Unidentified dyes; if that example is not to your liking , how about Silver Doubloon instead. Very expensive, and very limited in use

Finally, I never said wealth disparity is an issue in GW2. If it does become one, as would be evidenced by a huge increase in price of legendaries and other super rare goods, than some corrective force would need to introduced. Examples could be progressively higher fees for more expensive goods sold on the TP, or forcing wealthy players to subsidize an Ascalonian Care Act that provides discounted repair fees to new players, or something similar. But restricting reselling has way too many problems to even consider, for both Anet and the player base. And right now, there’s nothing I see that calls for such corrective action, though please do give me examples if you have them.

2) Allowing reselling makes Anet’s job much, much, much easier.

In other words, preventing reselling would require them to spend significantly more resources managing the economy. They would have to ensure the exact amount of available mats and items to satisfy the player base across all activities, because players would not be able to change their decision making as the game changes and/or new content is released, and in turn reallocate their resources to others, even if those other people value them more.

To go back to my first example of Bifrost, say you’ve accumulated 100 unidentified dyes when some new use for them appears and the price increases. Well, tough luck, you can’t resell them, even if they otherwise would have allowed you to buy a different weapon that you similarly value. Instead, Anet has to ensure a constant supply of unidentified dye drops to meet both your needs (as you still need the remainder) and the needs of others, or else fine tune recipes so that they don’t produce these effects. This is incredibly difficult (if not impossible), and it’s much easier to just allow the market of players to determine value and shift goods to where they are more valued. Preventing reselling would make this impossible.

There would be other effects as well, including the need to increase drops across the board so as to provide sufficiently fair mat accessibility to each player, the unforgivingness of making a mistake on the TP, the destruction of fine armor/weapons as a category, which let you try out gear for free or essentially “rent” it as you level, and so forth. But the main problems are discussed above.

Anyway, I commend the basis of your thinking, as fairness and equity are important principles (more so in real life, a bit less in a mmorpg). But eliminating reselling would present a number of problems and exacerbate others, while simultaneously eliminating a feature that both helps Anet and much of the player base.

You don’t have to love the market or its potential to increase wealth disparity, but you should at least recognize its efficiency in allocating resources to those who value them most. And in a game like this, we want to maximize such value allocation, not restrict it.

Sorry again for the wall of text.

tl;dr if wealth disparity does prove to be a problem then there are ways to combat it. preventing reselling, however, is likely not one of them

Re: Preventing reselling on the trading post
(prepare for wall of economic text)

There are a number of reasons why this is not a good idea, but for the sake of brevity I’m just going to touch on two of them.

1) Making everything sold on the TP account bound significantly reduces flexibility and dynamism of player decision making.

Here, I’ll give you an example: Say you want to craft the legendary staff Bifrost, which among other things requires 250 unidentified dyes. Now, you have two choices. You can wait until you have enough gold to buy the stack, or you can buy them over time as you accumulate money. Let’s say you choose the first path. Since many people are accumulating gold at the same rate (which has now been standardized a bit), they will be in the position to buy the stack at the same time. So all of a sudden, the price of the unidentified dyes has increased (with demand), and so you’re forced to farm some more gold. You thus realize that you should have been buying the dyes over time, when they were cheaper. But this too has problems in a world where you can’t resell. Notably, once you’ve invested in some of the dyes, you have no choice but to keep buying more, because you can’t change your mind and relist. So, you’re locked into creating that legendary, even if your taste or goals have changed.

But wait, it gets worse. Because you can’t change your mind and cut your losses by dumping on the TP, you’re forced to buy the remainder of the dyes on TP (or else painfully grind them out). The market will realize this, and the price will increase because you’re caught in a bad situation where those dyes you have are valueless to you without more, and others can’t unload them to keep the price down. So there’s little downward pressure on the price. (Sure, anet could just increase drop rates, but this requires them to pay incredibly close attention to every market and combination of mats, something I’ll discuss later in point two.)

The opposite effect can occur as well. Let’s say you want to craft that new ascended armor that is soon to be released. Well, before you know the recipe ingredients you’re unlikely to invest in mats, because if you buy the wrong ones you can’t resell them. So you decide to wait, no one buys mats, and the price stays low. All of a sudden, the recipe is released and everyone wants the ingredients, so the price spikes, preventing you from crafting the item. Had you been able to resell, you would have been able to buy earlier. So would have others. This would have smoothed out the peaks and troughs and allowed there to always be a market for items, both when they are in low and high demand. This is important as it provides a self correcting force in the market, and prevents items from getting too cheap or too expensive. This is also one of the open market’s most incredible and amazing functions, and takes major pressure off the developer.

The point here is that removing the flexibility providing by reselling can have serious effects on both prices and player enjoyment (by preventing them from changing their minds, or by annoying them if a better skin arrives when they are invested in another). Now, the developer could of course try to remedy this by carefully balancing the supply, demand, and accessibility of goods, but this leads me to my second point.

(continued in next post)

Ulion.5476:

It is a free market and people want A-net to regulate it? Flippers profit off of player trying to make fast gold. If people think A-net controlling how many item you can put on TP would help prices you are wrong. It will have the opposite effect and greatly reduce the supply of items. It would shock the TP system.

Remember this is a game and it is suppose to be fun to play. You have to work hard to get a good looking skin or ascended gear(armor is not worthwhile). The problem is people want to have easier access to those type of gear or remove one of the long goals for casuals in the game.

Flippers do also profit off new players, who either don’t have much gold or don’t have a thorough understanding of the TP and the economy. Those of us who flip do have to understand that we are at times taking advantage of others’ ignorance or lack of skill. But seeing as this is a video game with a PvP component, I personally don’t have a problem with it. But it’s understandable too that others might.

Ohoni.6057:

Would you be ok with some form of progressive taxation, based, say, on total gold? Each month you pay a (small) percent of your wealth back to aNet, and this rate could be increased the more you have (though not too extreme).

That alone likely wouldn’t help, because from what I understand, most flippers do not remain “liquid” and probably have less gold at any given time than I do, but they have thousands of gold in high value items that they can easily flip when they do need the cash. If they don’t already employ this tactic then they probably would if liquid assets were taxed. I don’t think there would be a good taxation system than wouldn’t cut players as hard as TPers.

I still think the solution is just to add Bind on Purchase.

You’re in cahoots with anet as part of their plan to sell bank and inventory slots, right?

Seriously though, bind on purchase is a fine system that would significantly decrease the complexity of the game and likely drive away a ton of creative players. Both of these things are bad.

And I’m with you man when it comes to real world wealth distribution. But this is a sandbox-y game that caters to all types. And nothing others are doing is harming your or my ability to have fun playing it (save for those pre-cooldown perplexity engines or thieves, but that is a whole different story).

Ohoni.6057:

..removed for brevity..

Would you be ok with some form of progressive taxation, based, say, on total gold? Each month you pay a (small) percent of your wealth back to aNet, and this rate could be increased the more you have (though not too extreme). Because I bet most TP players would be fine with such a system as well. Not that it would really accomplish anything (unless the rates were really high, but this is a bad idea for other reasons), but it could add an impression of fairness to the game, even though it would have little effect on the activities of traders and the accumulation of gold.

Azo.5860:

yes PU is a trait but, i ll complain about Build who use PU
i ll try be objective, if i would face with PU mesmer example who is using,
Mantra PU Condi Dire set 0 20 30 20 0

and if i am Burst Raw damage build (example: Power shatter, dd thief)

• my burst ll just giggle them,

This Build Survival

• Damage Reduction: %33 to %59 to %92
  Base: %33 (from 2744 armor)
  if Protected mantras will have +%12 DR
  If have active 3 clones +%9 DR
  If have protection +%33 DR

• Protection:
  Lets check Max % of protection buff can be on u!
  - Mass Inv: in 97.45 sec 1 x use
  (if Pu triggers Protection on use with 1/3 chance with every 1 internal on invis.)
  12sec inv avaragely can trigger protecion 7.5sec
  - Torch: 99sec 3x use = avg 11.15sec
  - Decoy: 88sec 2x use = avg 15sec
  in 100 sec can have 33.45sec = 1/3 u ll have protection

24k to 26.5k Health + www bonusses

lets kill clones Weaknesses = % 50 DR for attackers + -vigor etc..

PU = Boost your Mantra`s efficients with aegis + +1 inv time to not be interupted
Self Heal = u can spam #6 skill to heal your self 8k hp every 10 sec with mastery
+ MoC will heal u + 2640 and your clones (wich makes confusing for attacker or clones phantasms take aggro with confusing being healed) = + Survival

Scepter Block + Confusions = Survival as awell
——————————————
cleanse: in every 25.5 sec can cleanse 2*6= 12 theorically in every 2 sec 1 condicleanse
+ Lyssa + confusion weakness on u are not efficient + High Health Pool

scepter block can give 0 to 5k to 12k Damage with every 10 sec
1600 to 1925 condition damage
how tank is he, still have potential to take down enemies..
etc etc

Mobility High to Very High, IF want more instead staff focus with sword?

bla bla bla sorry just bored for now…

so UNBEATABLE.. just i would ignore this build if i see on WvW field..

BUT Why IMBA? is the reward of being lack in large scale groups?

You are right. A full dire bunker PU mesmer is not a good matchup for your zerker thief or mes. So go gank someone else. This is not imbalance, just a matchup issue. And keep in mind too that this build will have real trouble chasing and holding points, and will do limited damage with low crit. So who cares?

Hugs.1856:

To all the apprentices in game design and Economics:

In a game where gold is the only currency (upcoming patch), how healthy is it to have flipping being the most efficient way of making gold as opposed to playing through actual content?

Even if this is the case, why are the vast majority of players out playing the game and not camped by the TP?

Because it just doesn’t matter. Sure, the wealthier players may have some impact on a few high-priced skins, but besides that they have no real effect on your and my gameplay. So to each their own.

Ohoni.6057:

Flipping definitely has ruined the economy for everyone else, since the only people with a lot of capital are those that flip and anyone who doesn’t flip will never be able to afford anything good in the game, but ANet so far doesn’t seem to care. If they did, they could just implement something like making most items Bind on Purchase, so that anything that drops could be sold once, but anything that you buy on the market you’re stuck with it, unable to flip it at all.

I think they just like to troll the players though, by allowing the market tycoons to just run roughshod over everyone else. who just wants to play the game and still be able to afford nice things

Lothirieth.3408:

I wouldn’t say I dislike or disapprove of economic PvP, but I really dislike that those who partake in it and are successful are able to get much more cooler stuff than the rest of us. This has always been a ‘thing’ in every game, but this TP seems to facilitate it even more and to extremes due to the ease of buy orders…

The main purpose of the TP is to facilitate the ease of transferring unwanted goods to others and subsequently to obtain goods that you value more than others or have trouble obtaining in the open world. The TP does this excellently.

A side effect of a large, fluid, and dynamic market is that it allows those with time and knowledge to profit off it. This is a small price to pay for the many benefits the TP provides to the rest of the player base.

Azo.5860:

there is no chance u can win this build! with no class or build.. and if fully stacked it can goes 2100 condi damage.. if not still 1700 cond damage..
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNArfWl4zipHSzoGb9IipHBXvBcnUAdOXJF32FC-jUCBoOCi0CIk0A0HRMTqIasl1FRjV3ATxiIq2joIa1SBAx0I-w

can u win this build? or u will just better ignore when u see some one using this and let him /laugh /dance :P

Just understand how to play them. Keep moving, use ranged weapons, apply conditions if you can (their condi removal is awful), avoid scepter block, and if all else fails, just walk away. They are slow as kitten.

Wanze.8410:

Bunda.2691:

Wanze.8410:

And this is where we have different perceptions of the market and wealth distribution (which is fine by me, as neither of us will be able to prove he is right). I dont think the amount of precursors bought by wealthy players is substancial enough to make an impact. Just because i might make 10 times more gold per day than the guy next to me who works on his 1st Legendary, doesnt mean i feel the same dire need to craft 10 just because i can afford it.

This still ignores the fact that crafting a legendary is very expensive (in both gild and/or time, which are basically the same thing). What percentage of the players do you really think has the time/gold/gems to acquire one? It has to be quite small.

You are right but you are arguing my point towards the impact of wealthy players on the price of pre cursors.

Even though I have some alts at lvl 80, I mostly use them for crafting (and lvled them that way) or storage. I have done world Completion once on my main, so i can craft 2 Legendaries myself. After my 2nd precursor, i feel less inclined to buy a 3rd one because i would have to do world completion again for the gift of exploration. I dont have a problem with buying all the tradeable mats for crafting multiple Legendaries and i have enough karma as well for a couple of Leggies because im quite active in wvw and do the LS metas.
I do dungeon runs occasionally to help out guildies or to get some shards for vision crystals and wouldnt have a problem to grind the dungeon tokens neccessary to craft a 3rd or 4th Legendary but map exploration on an alt would seriously put me off crafting my 3rd/4th Legendary myself. So my impact on the precursor prices as a wealthy player is zip, as i never bought or sold one myself, while my guild of around 50 active members bought and sold dozens of them.

Just be careful basing your assumptions on personal and anecdotal experience. The majority of players simply don’t have the gold or time to acquire a legendary. Part (but not all) of the reason is the high cost of the precursor, which doesn’t simply track the availability. For example, notice how the price of dusk didn’t really decrease when GS forging became popular. Rather, the price of rare greatswords increased. So the price of the precursor is determined by factors other than the cost of its mats. One of those factors is luxury-good demand, which is driven by disposable wealth.

Wanze.8410:

Bunda.2691:

Ensign.2189:

As much as people like to point at precursors as a dysfunctional market full of manipulation, my experience is that it’s nothing of the sort – it’s a very efficient, rational market with prices that reflect fundamentals.

I completely agree, and nothing I’ve said previously is meant to convey anything but. All I’ve said is that when looking at the price of high-demand, low supply luxury items, a higher percentage of the price is inflated by a small percentage of the player base than for most other goods. After all, part of having a legendary is displaying to others your wealth or grinding time (which is really just another form of wealth).

I dont know about other TP players but alot of my profit comes from high velocity markets, not low supply luxury items.

That’s a completely separate issue. All I’m talking about is the portion of the price that is driven by high-wealth players. Think Manhattan penthouses, first class airline tickets, and expensive bottles of wine; legendaries are the same thing.