Guild Wars 2

Vox Hollow.2736:

If you think about it, a mechanic that can swap to pets with various utilities on-the-fly was not being best served by options that encouraged pigeonholing. I think we’re moving towards the removal of ‘Tanking pets’ and ‘Glass Cannon pets’. And I think that’s a good thing. (Even if flattening the higher points of our damage curve in an effort to give optional higher sustained damage to all pets currently strikes an unfortunate juxtaposition with the burst-heavy meta, and pets that don’t have traits are taking an awful pounding right now)

While I agree with the outcome, less pigeonholing, I wholly disagree with the method used.

Rather, all other pets – particularly bears, spiders and devourers – needed a damage upgrade in DPS. The only pets that actually did something more than tickling other players will go back to just that – tickling other players. Again. This is why pets – until recently – were never taken seriously in the first place. Mind you, that’s the beating heart and soul of the class mechanic we’re talking about.

Which is exactly the reason why we can be “pessimistic”. We do so because we care, not because we enjoy being pessimistic. Ultimately, we see DPS being taken away from our class, which is not returned in full. Not even by a long shot. And given that we were lacking DPS in the first place, this stuff will – if not amended – will hit our class like a truck.

/agree with the above posters. I had looked into this as well. One poster at one point hinted that Anet would probably add them to the BL chests “later”, after the Wintersday event. However, this never happened. There is no update/patch note that indicates this was indeed ever added to the BL chest. The only thing that was added to the BL chest as a “rare drop”, on 3 December 2012 to be precise, is the “one-time-use” hairstylist contract.

Bubble? C’mon, everyone’s warehouse is basically stuffed with leather and silk. It has been for months on end, and it’s only growing worse. There’s millions of unused leather in silk floating around in this economy; we need a way to get rid of those to make the leather and silk markets healthy again.

My preparation for the next patch is that I’m levelling a mesmer.

Don’t get me wrong, my ranger was my main since beta, I’ve put about 2500 gold into her, she has everything. But with these patch notes in sight, even if they’re only partially implemented, I’ve come to realise (i) she will always be outmatched in everything she does by other classes, (ii) Arenanet doens’t want her to excel in anything, or be able to reliably match the DPS of other classes.

So after 10 months, and seeing these notes, I’ve finally given up.

I’m a bit amazed by people stating that these patch notes are good. They selectively choose the “OK” bits, but ignore the “we-will-nerf-the-already-subpar-ranger-DPS-to-the-ground” bits, which incidentally will render our “class mechanic” – pets – into a joke. Again.

We have one decent build, in which wonky unreliable pets feature as the shining star to partially make up for our subpar overall damage. Now, after this patch, we have 10 builds which all give less survivability and provide less DPS output overall.

This patch will be another nail into the coffin that is our class. Rangers in PvE? Don’t expect an invitation from the majority of players for dungeon groups. Dungeon mobs have a metroton of health, who cares about swiftness or regenaration; damage output is your no. 1 priority, it always has been in PvE. Do I agree with that attitude? Not in the least, I loathe it, for many different reasons. But I do understand that it follows as a result of sheer logic; why should other players have sympathy for a situation they didn’t create, and form a less effective group (including a ranger) as a result? If these notes are implemented “as is”, I won’t oppose the ranger-bashing any longer.

But hey, look at it from the bright side; leather squares will become even more worthless on the TP! (while the price of ore will go through the roof)

Dude, we had bad DPS, and now we have even worse DPS. It’s a no-brainer, this stuff is destructive for our class. You know, I never understood how come a heavy armored class could dish out more damage and bring more utility to the group? It makes no sense.

People want DPS. Rangers don’t have a lot of it. What DPS rangers have will be reduced even further; it’s taken away in one place (pets), but not returned in full in the other place (the ranger). On top of that, our very class mechanic, pets, will become a negligible nuisance. Again.

In short, our DPS, the one thing this class lacks and, unfortunately, the one thing everyone requires for cooperative competitive gameplay, is reduced to unacceptable standards for that kind of gameplay. Rangers have never been popular. The majority of rangers are not playing the ranger well, yes, that doesn’t help their image, but that is not the problem; the problem is that those same unskilled people would dish out tons of damage playing other classes.

The sad thing is, many players that chose to invest in their ranger will just leave. Patience is limited, as the OP hinted at. And players leaving is bad for everyone.

In a game with no dedicated healers, ultimately, damage is everything. Lack of damage is the problem. It has been the problem since we were nerfed to the ground right after beta. Yes, we can hold our own in sPvP, or small-time roaming in WvW. But no one cares about that. When people pick someone for a dungeon, WvW, or even a guild, they want a broad range of group utilities and damage. Not a pet that spoils the party due to bad AI. Because that’s our image right now. People don’t want rangers. Are those people stupid and narrow-minded for it? Yes and no. Anet does not give us the tools to shine, so only a few of us do well due to skill and dedication. The majority of rangers show the nay-sayers they are mostly right, that rangers bring nothing that other classes can’t do better. Rather, due to the wonky pet, rangers may be a liability, so better not run that risk. Do I agree with that attitude? No, but I see it spreading around me, like a bad virus. We need a cure, not fuel to the fire. People were very slowly taking pets, our class mechanic, seriously; now those pets will just be reduced back to the silly little mosquito that could be ignored. The only thing that could justify these nerfs is a 50% damage boost to the ranger across the board. The rest will simply kill off the remaining ranger player base.

Panda Shepard.1248:

If the tickets were up for sale in the gem store for 300 bucks each, would y’all buy them?

No, but setting up a system whereby you can either try RNG, or 2000+ gems per weapon, that could work. That would be 25 euro or 60g per skin.

- A permanent trait resetter.
- A permanent waypoint stone (port allowed only when selected WP is uncontested)

That reminds me, why can’t I switch armor sets with the flick of a button?

Behellagh.1468:

I opened around 75-85 normal dragon coffers, collected since Dragon Bash started, before logging off tonight, got a ticket. Seeing how the drop rate data on the wiki suggests a 1 in 2000 chance of that, I was indeed quite lucky.

Also got one mini, one Cold Potion and three types of food items (and of course fireworks but they are quite common relatively speaking).

With all due respect, I don’t see how this is relevant to the current thread, which is about rich coffers. I’m happy for you though that your slot machine cashed out. That’s at the heart of the RNG model, and the reason this community remains divided on the issue. Yet, false advertising and gambling are very real issues, that take a special place in legal systems around the world. Certain commercial companies have been taken to court – and lost – for far less as a result of false advertising. If these were items in a regular store, most national watchdogs would have intervened by now. But because they’re virtual items, people don’t know what to do yet. Anet is exploiting this uncertainty to the fullest; with each update, it’s checking where the boundaries are, and what people will still accept.

I checked as well. Spent 4000 gems, no ticket. Regardless of the gambling aspects, this is plain false advertising.

Astraea.6075:

@Buttercup: while it’s true that minis themselves are “gem generated”, the TP market for them is too divorced from the dollars to gems transactions to really back up your statement.

A mini collector could have obtained all the non-event minis without buying a single gem. Even discounting the tradeable minis, a mini collector could have used gold to purchase the required gems.

Yes, they could, but the price was somehow reflective of the gem cost. The jack-a-lop or the oakheart were like the dusk and dawn of minis. They were very special. You wouldn’t be able to “swim” in them, as one mass mini-risen-knight-forger proudly stated in this thread.

marnick.4305:

Malediktus.9250:

Its really great to see my mini collection I worked hard for devalue each day. (I am only missing two of the golems for guild tokens)

Nice isn’t it. Now others have a chance too.

If this had been a normal market following normal rules, it could have been nice. Yes. However, this is a very peculiar market, which thus far was entirely gem-generated. In other words, hordes of people spent money on this. You can think this is silly of them, but the fact is, they did. They bought gems with money, in order to buy minis with gems. In a way, they bought exclusivity, the same way some people buy exclusivity with skins from rich coffers or BL chests. The mini-buyers made their purchases in the reasonable assumption that this market would remain gem-generated and stable. In a way, they trusted Anet to safeguard their monetary investment. For them, that trust is pretty much out the window right now. And that is a much bigger problem than the value of any virtual item on the TP.

Salvaged at least a 1000 rares over the last 2 days; there really is no nerf. You have to understand that it’s entirely possible to get 10 rares of nothing but ore/wood. It’s not uncommon for this to happen.

However.

When you start salvaging more, it all evens out (i.e. those “bad” streaks" will always be compensated by “good streaks”). The salvage rate is still around 90% for globs, and 80% for upgrades, when using rare kits.

Working as intended. And yes, that’s really worrying. I mean, a track race? Which rewards you for playing more? (Just. Need. Three. More. Tickets. For. That. Higher. Reward. Just three more, c’monnnnnnnn Meeeeeep!) Everything screams “please place a bet in our casino! Is this your lucky day? No luck at the track race? Maybe try our coffers! No luck? Our BL chests will certainly give you something! You can’t be unlucky all the time, right?”

Osi.3504:

[…] all it means if Arena Net made the content too common and therefore those were the results [..].

Two things about this phrase.

First, you saw that Anet made the minis “too common”. In other words: it could not have been intended, certainly not in combination with its rarity level (rare/yellow), and certainly not in combination with the mystic forge! In fact, you knew this situation wasn’t normal, and that minis were normally gem-generated. As you stated in another thread:

Osi.3504:

Considering mini’s are regulated by gem store price […]

Second, when Anet makes a mistake which allows for unintended game play, this doesn’t give you a carte blanche to just use it at will, and say “well Anet, you designed it, this is the result!” What matters is whether you used it, to what extent you used it, and what the result was on the market. In your case, you contributed to a major market crash in a major way. You saw that your forging, and that of others, was crashing a market. You stated in this thread that you saw it; the prices kept dropping and dropping and dropping. Yet you kept forging and forging and forging ahead. Was it intended? No. The rarity level was changed very soon as a result. Now, I’ll happily admit I’m still confused with Anet’s decision to change it to masterwork quality, and allowing it to be forged as well. However, I don’t believe Anet’s decision to do so (make it masterwork + forgeable) can be interpreted as Anet having always intended to crash the mini market with the introduction of this event mini; I tend to believe they made it of masterwork quality because the damage had been done already. Most likely, Anet does not have a proper tracking system for (ab)use of the forge. This would explain why no measures were taken against the godskull abusers, either.

Lastly, coming back to your comparison with the glob to dust market. That game mechanic was explicitly in the patch notes, i.e. it was intended. The fora were filled with people requesting Anet to please crash the dust market. For months! When this mechanic was implemented, some people made a loss, some made a profit, both of which is irrelevant. What is relevant is that it was intended, it was announced in the patch notes, and that it made the dust and glob market a little bit healther for every user in this economy.

Ps. Please use the “reply” button for quoting! It now looks like I pumped 720g into these minis, whereas it was a quote from me, addressed to you.

Osi.3504:

@Buttercup, […] As I was saying previously, and my entire intent to the post, you lack a lot of sense as you’ve expressed multiple times that “making obvious profits is bannable” […]

Osi, your whole post is – again – premised on the above idea. You even put it in quotation marks this time, as if these were my words. Osi, I never said this. At all. It’s not even close to what I stated. Next time, when you want to paraphrase me, use the quotation system.

Maybe I should spell it out for you. Maybe I should. OK.

Scenario 1: gameplay affecting personal taste
Profit = Nice. I like profit. Mmmmmmm. Profit!
Loss = Not nice. I don’t like loss. Bleeeeeeh. Loss!

Scenario 2: gameplay affecting economy
Intended game play = good! Intends to make economy happy and stable.
Obviously unintended game play = bad! Can make economy unhappy and unstable.

My concern has always been with scenario 2 only.
So, for the last time, I don’t care whether you personally made a profit, or a loss, when you started pumping 720g worth of newly released event minis in the forge.

Astralporing.1957:

Buttercup.5871:

Wohoo! More trenchcoats for medium armored females. We really didn’t have enough of those!

/sarcasm off

Apparently you didn’t even look at the armors at all.

Hint: the pictures of the female versions are in the very first post of this thread.

I did. That’s where I saw the trenchcoat. This refers to a chest piece/ coat that is long, and doesn’t stop at the waist.

@Osi. Again, I have never said that making a profit is bad. Had you read between the lines, you would have seen I probably made more profit of this than you, without using the exploit. And that I didn’t feel “good” about this in the least. But let me refresh your memory on what I have said on the “profit” part, and how irrelevant it was:

Buttercup.5871:

You keep focusing on the “bad luck” part. What if you had had “good luck”? Would that have made a difference? The outcome of your forging is completely irrelevant. What is important is the effect it had on the market, and on the people you duped with it.

Buttercup.5871:

Of course, the big problem is not how much profit the exploiter makes, but what the effect is to the market.

Then, for the third or fourth time (I lost count), you bring up the “banning” thing. I have never said what the measures should be as a result of this, if any. I purposefully never even used the word, because I am well aware it is not up to me to decide on such matters, or even suggest what they should be. I’ll tell you, though, why you bring it up each and every time. A guilty conscience will do that for you.

I have nothing further to add to what I believe happened here.

I have a hunch why this solution was opted for. Deflation. This thing led people to start collecting minis and pumping money en masse into a useless item. Prices of many items have dropped across the board as a result. The new skins did this too, of course.

The price Anet paid is that no one will buy the gemstore mini pack in its current form anymore, and people who bought them in the past feel they’ve been scammed. They’ll find a solution to that, I hope.

When salvaging the jewelry you didn’t always get ecto back. Just the snowflake. One guy calculated the average crafting profit per snowflake jewelry was 2.4 silver. Of course, the big problem is not how much profit the exploiter makes, but what the effect is to the market. A guy in this thread proudly stated he is “swimming” in jack-a-lops. I’ll bet you 10 to 1 he’s not the only one. So while you could easily see the effect of the snowflake exploit, you just don’t see this one yet.

@Jake: you were always able to salvage jewelry as well. So why not snowflake jewelry? And yes, you always received a rare back that was worth more than the 4 products you put in. There was no loss, especially before the massive exploitational forging began, only profit. Minimum profit of 1g, max profit 180+g per forge.

Oh man, this was funny! Thank you.

All of the above. I would like it to be able to do everything the 3rd party programs currently out there can do, but which are strictly speaking “illegal” and which I and others therefore refuse to use (at our own detriment).

An API authorized by anet that does these things will level the playing field between those that don’t want use unauthorized programs and those that do. That should be your primary objective, leveling the playing field and making an authorized API that has similar or more functionalities as unauthorized third party programs. Particularly, notifiers (over/undercutting) create a huge advantage in this respect.

Wohoo! More trenchcoats for medium armored females. We really didn’t have enough of those!

/sarcasm off

Osi.3504:

Are you an idiot? A lot of special mini’s are not account bound, they are tradable, like karka pets, mini molten flamestorm. Making profit isn’t a bad thing, that’s what your focused on, you are kitten that people were making money off this […]

Osi, try and put one of those minis you referred to in the forge. Go ahead, I dare you. Try and make a bunny with ’m.

As to your other point, the “profit” bit: there were other ways to profit from this, that did not include using and the exploit and furthering the permanent mini market’s destruction. If you had looked into those, you’d have been much happier now. It rather seems that you are angry for not having made a profit, whereas other people did. You seem to focus too much on the “profit” bit, or the “bad luck” bit, and not enough on the “let’s stop and think at what I’m doing” bit.

And please refrain from using insults, it would be a real shame if this thread were to be closed as a result.

So Osi, let me get this straight. You spent 24 per exotic, and you got 30 exotics. This means you pumped at least 720g into this thing. Whether you did it in batches or in one go is irrelevant to me.

Now, you didn’t think it was weird that one event mini, one – which in the past has always been account bound – was virtually destroying a purely gem-generated market carefully built up by Anet over the last 10 months? Not only that, this was going on while you could still buy the normal 3 mini pack for 300 gems? A pack which renders a green mini at best, or very unusually, one rare mini? This didn’t strike you as odd? The more I read your reasoning, the more difficulty I have with understanding it.

You keep focusing on the “bad luck” part. What if you had had “good luck”? Would that have made a difference? The outcome of your forging is completely irrelevant. What is important is the effect it had on the market, and on the people you duped with it.

Osi.3504:

(1) It was a normal game mechanic in the first place.

[…]

(2) I crafted around 30 exotics but I lost 150g in the process. I had back luck getting Jack-a-lops which did yield a little profit.

1. No it’s not. See above posters. If you had this much dough (see 2, below), I seriously doubt that you were unaware of how permanent minis are obtained, and how this system has functioned since launch. But let’s assume that you did not.

2. That means you threw in about 600 risen knights (4 minis x 5 tries to get an exotic x 30 exotics). Now, I know there’s a gray area and all, but there’s a point where that line is crossed. Usually, when people start investing 500g and up, they’ll check out what’s going on, and why it’s going on. You could even say they should check this out before marching ahead (see the “if it’s too good to be true” motto). Anyway, we’ll see where Anet draws the line, if any.

Yes. /15 characters.

For those who genuinely don’t understand why this was significant, I’ll do my best to explain the part i think i understand. There are two separate mini “systems”. They are closed systems. One system consists of “event” minis, and the other has “permanent” minis. Permanent minis are a service to regular gem buyers, I guess. The event mini system is part “buy-with-gem” minis, part “free” minis. The systems were designed not to spill over to eachother. If they would, some people will be, simply put, duped. This is especially so for the permanent mini collector group. This is a very important group of clientele to arenanet. They usually spend money on gems, and then buy minis. Getting green or even rare minis through the normal “permanent” system (300 gems per 3 minis) is the exception to the rule. I’ve done this a bit in the past, so I know that getting rare minis is exceptional. Hence their high price on the TP. You also cannot get these permanent minis as a drop, you can only buy them, and forge them in the hope of getting something better.

Chiuna.2538:

Bans have been issued in the past for less serious offences, so I would be surprised if none are handed out now. I only wish that people who indirectly profited (such as buying the cheap minis on the TP) could also have those profits removed. Because the message lately seems to be – don’t exploit, find a way to profit from those that do.

You have a point on the “buying minis cheap” part. I thought about this before placing buy offers, and stated explicitly to Anet that I would, to be in the clear if anything would be decided on this later. You see, what could I, or Anet have done regarding cheap minis? Anet, what they always do, let the market correct itself. On the buyer, there is only an onus to report (which I did) but what is on the market will be sold, to me or to someone else. But you’re right, I thought about it quite long before I started placing buy offers. I still don’t know what the right thing to do was. Buying them, or not. Did I buy from exploiters? Probably, yes. Maybe some people frantically sold their legit minis as well, and I bought those too, but overall this is less than likely. What is on the market now, legit or not, you don’t know; it’s just expensive again.

Zumy.6318:

And what makes it pretty obvious, that it was unintended?
Any other rare mini can be forged.
[…]

The biggest QQ always comes from those who didnt notice until it wasnt lucrative anymore or didnt have the funds to participate.

Your premises are wrong. (i) Event minis cannot be forged, including rare ones. (ii) I reported part of the issue (green forgeable minis) shortly after the patch was up. I was aware of it, saw what the prices were doing, but my next step was different than yours. I reported it, through 2 different Anet channels, and stated to Anet I would NOT abuse the exploit, but that I would nonetheless place buy offers on existing minis. You just saw it, and abused it.

Thanks you: that’s what I misunderstood. I failed to take the risen knight in the equasion. Apologies. Still pretty obvious that that was entirely unintended, but we’ll see what anet decides to do with the “most serious offenders”, in the words of the snowflake saga. Thirty rares are peanuts compared to what must have happened last night.

Yes, that is always legit, because you cannot know whether the seller has gotten it through the normal channels or not. You cannot stop that. If that is what he meant my comment is moot.

Forged 30 rares? You converted 20.000 gems (500 gems for 3 minis, need 120 green minis for 30 rares. Actually, multiply this by 5 since the succesrate is 20%, so 100k gems) worth of minis and then you “understood what was happening”? Ehhhh… No? Too bad you didn’t get any exotics in this purely harmless undertaking, eh?

Reported this as an exploit 6 hours ago.

(1) Event minis can never be forged
(2) you never get 3 green minis through the normal system, which is still up.

The person(s) doing this knew it was an exploit, ie unintended use of a game mechanic.

Cause our inventory would overflow with weapons. I already carry about 18 weapons at all times (4 axes, 1 LB, 3 SB’s, 2 daggers, 2 swords, 2 GS’s, 2 warhorns, 2 torches. I know it’s excessive but I don’t care).

Other than that, I’d say increasing the functionality of our current weapons has priority.

Players have repeatedly suggested to add a blast finisher to the #2 greatsword skill.
The animation practically screams blast finisher.

I don’t like the frequency of the flapping. Drives me nuts just looking at it. They really need to decrease that frequency. These wings would be so much nicer to watch in slow motion. Additional colors would help, too.

Wow. These skins are incredible. Amazing attention to detail.

With the current information we have on rich dragon coffers, it means there’s a storm coming. I implore you Arenanet, don’t turn into a casino. Please don’t do it.

I bought a truckload of these once at 1.80 silver, around 2k I think. It was barely profitable, and my hand hurt afterwards. No more sigil forging for me.

They should revise that system to allow for forging 10 sigils at a time, or something that involves less clicking. That reminds me, anyone here understands why it is necessary to click “OK” one hundred times when buying icy runestones, of which you always need 100 pieces anyway? Or why, when salvaging, you cannot disable the the confirmation system (click “OK”) upon salvaging rares? The economy very much depends on people who mass forge sigils, mass salvage rares, etc, to keep the economy healthy and to keep the ecto coming at a low price. On the other hand, the system does nothing to cater these persons. I mean, salvaging one rare requires three steps alone: (i) “double click salvage tool”, (ii) “click item to be salvaged”, (iii) “click OK”. Times infinity.
It’s just clunky.

I doubt you’ll find many traders who would end that phrase with “sadly”. Including “hardcore” traders.

@creed: you and I differ on the reward bit. You see, Anet does specifically cater the reward crowd. People that went from the instigator to the karka’s:
http://youtu.be/PeSY21J-zAg
Or people that farm cof path 1 all day.
Now, why would you design that, but restrict the rest? Why would you make an open game, but restrict rewards in all zones when people like it there and would like to stay more than 1 hour?

I’ll tell you why. They used the reward crowd for what they deem necessary at that time. For southsun, this was an influx of bloods, karka shells and passion flowers. That’s why some zones contain thorough restrictions (specifically lodestone mob zones), and in other zones it’s encouraged gameplay.

Anet is trying to get us to learn the game through specific content. The F&F event learned us to combat condition mobs through high vitality (sentinel gear). The Southsun event learns us to combat high power mobs (karka) through toughness (settler gear). I know the bigger picture. I just don’t always like it. I don’t always like the “leash” in a game that pretends to be open but closes the back doors in every possible way. The back door being DR.

While the post contained no new info for me, I applaud the OP on the format (question and answer) and quality of his post. Nicely done! Artificial achievements (dungeon master, etc) are, unfortunately, not my thing though. I prefer to set my own goals, I get a kick out of achieving those instead usually doesn’t give me a title or points though, but they’re usually harder than the fixed ones.

This makes a lot of sense. It’s indeed very weird why this hasn’t been implemented yet. “Other priorities” cannot be an excuse here; it’s so basic to the whole combat system it blows your mind. Sigils are, mostly, not about damage, but about effects. And a 2 sigil system on 2-handers would simply have the same restrictions on sigil stacking as 1-handers.

Why Anet, why?

ProxyDamage.9826:

When you have content in a game it’s safe to say that it is expected that people will want to attain that content. When the only way to attain that content is either through very low odds random chance and/or through attaining a gigantic laundry list of rare items, you’re forced to grind the game – regardless of how you do it. When you also have other mechanics in the game that actively impede that, that is bad game design. No "if"s, "and"s or "but"s. That’s like having you run a marathon then forcing you to wear lead and stone shoes.

Additionally you shouldn’t tell people how they play the game. Some people can only play a little every day. Others can only play a lot on select days. Forcing one method of playing the game in detriment of all the others is, again, bad design.

Buttercup.5871:

Thus far, no one has been able to debunk the bolded quote. Because it’s impossble. It IS schizophrenic game design, even for casuals. Especially for casuals, actually.

Back on topic.

Arkham Creed.7358:

I’ll take a swing at that. I like a challenge.

First off this guy’s example has nothing to do with how you play the game. When you can play and for how long is a timing issue, not a content or experience issue.

You see, @Creed, I am grateful for your response and the fact that you tried. But your first premise is where it goes wrong.

The OP’s argument is that DR affects content. And it does. Say, you 4 hours a week, all in one evening. Say you just want to do one particular part of the game on that evening. DR will tell you to stop that content after less than 1 hour. Because, simply put, the rewards will stop. And rewards are part of the gaming experience. Take out the reward part, and – for most people – that dimishes the fun of experiencing that content. It’s that simple.

Now, let’s take it one step further and apply this example to practice. Let’s consider the above person is part of a guild that has more time on their hands. They run dungeons, competitive WvW, etc. Let’s say this person wants to deck him/herself out in one set of dungeon gear, within the least amount of time possible (of which that person has FAR less than the others), so that he/she can join the guild on their runs. To have a fun experience with his guild (and without dying every other minute due to a lack of gear, which is definitely not fun). Arenanet says: No. You shall do other dungeons first, or other zones, whatever you want – except what you want to do now. That’s part of the problem the OP was talking about. It’s schizophrenic game design. DR doesn’t just punish the “grinders”, it punishes everyone.

I know that the flipside, no DR, leads to inflation which punishes casuals even more. I know that. I’m not saying I have a solution, either. Nonetheless, the OP’s argument is spot on.

The rest of your argument focuses on “correct” and “incorrect” gameplay. I know what you’re saying; I just don’t want to be told by the game that what I do find fun – or to put it more accurately, relaxing – is “not fun” or relaxing.

tolunart.2095:

OliverT.9021:

In other words, we are virtually going into negative supply flow at the rate it is being used than the rate it is being “created”, so to speak.

Not long ago, sell order supply was nearly 0 and now it’s nearly 5000 units. It’s also been said that the dust is used in many crafting/forge recipes, do you have data on how much is sold and how much is consumed each day? You seem to be making a lot of assumptions based on little evidence.

From what I see there has been some manipulation of the market by opportunists, plus a drop in the number of people gathering the dust which led to an increase in price. This in turn leads to the dumping of hoarded supplies by those same opportunists, and an increase in gathering by people who notice the higher price, which leads to an increase in supply.

In the words of one of recent history’s greatest philosophers, “Don’t Panic.”

Ok, I’ll bite. A few months ago I crafted oils/sharpening stones. I’d say per hour, about 2k to 3k sharpening stones and 2k to 3k oils were sold. Let’s say 5000 together. 5000:5=1000 dust. Per hour. For just these two. Crystals sold much slower so I stopped selling those.

Now consider all the other recipes this is needed for, including t5 to t6 upgrades (pointless now due to the dust price), at least 20 potions, five or so mystic weapons (250 each), three pendants (250 each) which become the easymode ascended amulet, the gift of magic (legendary), container bags, and three gifts to create weapons. I probably missed a lot here, these are just a few I know of.

These drop rarely. In addition, I recently opened a truckload of every heavy bag (moldy etc) out there test the droprate of dust, which has become atrocious. In other words, no, it’s not just a price crisis. If this dropped enough the price would (and should) plummet.

(Edit: and 4k dust is nothing for a mat that everyone and their mother uses on an hourly basis (oil/sharpening stones) and is used in every important other recipe)

Red wings, pwetty please?

Some people flash their character up in flame themed items. Such as Volcanus, fused skins, cof armor, rodgort and flame (f&f) colors. Some go for blue colors: ghostly weapons and armor, foefire weapons, jormag’s breath, ebonguard skins, wintersday store skins, and frost (f&f) colors.

A back item cannot be colored. So if you want it to fit your char, you need to be able to pick one of the the two major color schemes (yes there are more, I know). This is why it’s so neat we have pink and blue quaggan back pieces.

TL;DR devs, please tell me you added red wings as well? If you haven’t already, now’s your chance!