Any official reply to this would shock the precursor market. All I can say is we’re watching.
So basically this statement itself could shock the precursor market, but it probably won’t because most people won’t read between the lines.
But, let’s assume for the sake of argument that some significant change to precursor acquisition does eventually come. Wouldn’t the market be “shocked” at that point in time, if it was even meant to make any particular difference (and not just the illusion of one) in their ease of acquisition?
I’m not sure you can read between the lines only one meaning. It might just as easily be true that they have no plans to change anything, and to announce that would shock the markets as well, by removing risk for investors and sending prices soaring.
But to your second point, yes, an unannounced change would shock the market, or the announcement of a change would shock the market. So if they are planning on making a change, it makes little difference to the shock whether they announce it beforehand, except in when that shock occurs.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Any official reply to this would shock the precursor market. All I can say is we’re watching.
I guess I hadn’t considered the third option: that an announcement that the market would never be manipulated would skyrocket prices.
A suggestion for fixing the Precursor inflation situation: Take a snapshot of current market prices and have an NPC sell all Precursors for that amount, plus say 5%. Any investors holding an un-Soulbound Precursor can’t complain because they are free to undercut the NPC on the TP and get their gold back. Buyers will be happy because inflation will end, albeit at exorbitant prices. And Anet even gets to benefit from creating a massive NPC gold sink, which should help regulate the economy by removing large amounts of gold from the game, instead of just shifting it between players, as is happening now. In the future, if players are discouraged by those NPC prices, Anet is still free to launch Lost Shore or Scavenger Hunt style events, as they see fit.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Is Anet satisfied with the current price/inflation of Precursors on the TP, or does it plan to do anything that would manipulate those prices in the next few months?
It’s important information for people to decide which part of their Legendary to spend their money on first: Will Precursor prices continue to inflate, unchecked by Anet? If that’s the case, then the first 500g a player collects should probably be spent on the Precursor. Or will Anet artificially reduce the price of Precursors in the near future? If that’s the case, then the first 500g should be spent on other components.
Also, what is the latest word on the “Precursor Scavenger Hunt?”
If Anet is planning a manipulation from outside the market, I think players would like to be well-informed.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
My little trick for when the TP displays the “loading” ring: Instead of typing several words like “Superior Sigil of the Night,” try just typing just “Night.” Even if your results aren’t as filtered, your item should be there, and the server won’t try to match so many different words to so many different items.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
3- If an NPC sold precursors for 10k gold and that was the only way to obtain them, it would be better than it is now. It would be a long term goal that doesn’t change when a player gets close. And everyone gets it at the same price.
Just want to mention on the subject of the price inflation of Precursors… i.e., the moving target issue. Everything inflates over time. This means that anything you farm that isn’t a direct money reward or an item to be vendored also increases over time. So, suppose approximately half of your income from farming comes from the TP and half from the vendor. Then you can expect that the inflation will benefit that half of your farming income that benefits from the inflated prices. I.e., your rares and T6 mats will keep pace with the inflation of Precursors.
And if you are wise enough to hang on to your TP-able items until the moment you are ready to spend the gold (as opposed to constantly exchanging those farmed items for a devaluing currency), you will be even better off.
I’m just saying this so those losing hope over farming for Precursors don’t feel disheartened. It’s a moving target, yes, but your farming time is gaining value over time as well — though at a slower pace due to vendor trash.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
People really want, or even need, to feel like they are making progress. Even if the actual amount of time, energy, and work remains the same under a new system people would feel significantly better about it if they could see their progress in an clear and substantial way (like lodestones).
It’s interesting you phrase it like that. I’ve read articles about modern video game psychology. At a very basic level, games are designed to addict you to “progress” and “achievement.” Once addicted, by say, letting you get to level 10 quickly, they can reduce the pace of these achievements.
The argument in this thread, as I see it, is whether precursors’ ultra-rarity represents such a departure from this reward dynamic that it is fundamentally disturbing to players’ expectations. Can a thusly addicted gamer really be expected to go maybe 100 game hours (500g precursor = 100 hours of farming, obviously very rough estimates) without a reward? Is this a satisfactory endgame? Are we seeing achievement-addicts rebel?
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Easiest solution is to abandon this idiotic Glicko system and just let 1st place advance, 2nd stay, and 3rd move down every week. I don’t understand how they can’t see their Glicko system is terrible and leads to stale matchups.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
T6 prices and lodestones will go up when they release scavenger hunt, which I suspect (with no proof) will come out during or immediately after summer.
Yeah, I’ve been counting on this. I hope it happens, I’ve been saving these things for a while.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
I’ll be honest about how to obtain highest DPS with engineer:
Time to play it like it’s starcraft.
You’ll be 30/10/0/0/30 (if I could go 10/30/0/0/30 and still have grenadier, I would for more precision), and using rifle, medkit, grenade kit, elixir gun, and tool kit. Elite is negligible. You’ll juggle Blunderbuss, Jump Shot, Elixir F, Acid Bomb (hit ~ in mid-air to avoid flying too far back, unless you want to make some distance), Prybar, Throw Wrench (line yourself up if you can so it won’t collide with a wall – if it will, don’t bother using this, your auto will do more damage than half of Throw Wrench), Shrapnel Grenade, Freeze Grenade, and Grenade Barrage. Since Scope doesn’t work, you’ll be running power tools, alongside kit refinement, 50% more endurance regen, grenadier, 10% more explosive damage, shrapnel, and 20% rifle CDR. The build takes a lot of memorization, but you’re basically bursting nonstop, with 2-3 second downtimes at which point you primarily use Grenade. You’ll hit 9-11 vuln without using jump shot or grenade barrage on bosses (when you do it can spike up to 15-17 for a few seconds), and can easily hit ~16-20 bleeds if you simply keep using the grenade auto attack + shrapnel, although I don’t advise this as you’re neglecting all your other VERY hard hitting skills.
This is awesome. But in practice, it doesn’t seem like it would actually lead to highest DPS. If I’m min/maxing DPS, I’m probably in berserker gear. As such, I need distance to stay alive because I have no defense other than dodging… which lowers DPS. So the Tool Kit attacks and Blunderbuss are probably out.
But by all means, prove me wrong. I want to believe this rotation is sustainable!
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Please allow Gifts of Mastery to be freely traded.
I am short on gold and long on everything that goes into making these. I haven’t been saving up for them, but I could make 2 of them the next time I log on.
Already been addressed, no changes in the foreseeable future.
That’s too bad.
A waypoint indicates that a keep has been held for a very long period of time. WvW is more fun (I think) when sieges are successful and property changes hands. I hate seeing a borderland that’s the same color all week. Also, the dominant server will usually be in control of the most keep waypoints across the four maps. Nerfing waypoints would be a simple step to bringing more balance.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Well, I’ve been stacking 25 Precisions plus Flame, and then switching to Force plus Flame (or Night plus Flame at night). After rereading the Strength in /wiki, I’m wondering if I should be switching to Strength plus Flame. As a static discharge GC Grenadier, I get a lot of crits every attack.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
All of these systems reward servers that benefit from a terrible Glicko system which failed to move servers down a tier for losing. This causes them to accrue points even while taking losses in Tier 1. Even a system that rewarded 2 points for a win, 1 point for second, and 0 for third AT ANY LEVEL, would be a better indication of how this season went.
Why would you reward Jade Quarry and SBI for getting stomped week after week in Tier One? Makes no sense.
So for 600 gems, roughly 11g at the moment, I can buy a 30 slot (is it 30?) bank expansion.
OR…
I can start a solo guild for free, buy 2500 influence from the Guild Promoter for 5g, and research the guild vault for 50 slots.
Granted, a guild vault disappears during character transfer. So that’s one tradeoff. But I’m curious if anyone has tried this? Any personal guild bank vaults out there?
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
The “exotic level weapon rating” is different for every weapon — Greatsword, Pistols, Hammer, Longbow, etc. It follow that it would also be different for Kits.
Greatsword gives 1100. My Rifle gives 1205 weapon rating. My pistols are 1029. Dagger is 981. Shield is 909. Kits happen to be 969. Because it’s lower than the Rifle or Pistols, people think it’s not exotic-level or something. But I think it’s working as intended.
*I think! Could definitely be wrong.
**If you’re going to do the math, Weapon Rating = Attack Rating – Power Rating
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
After some maths (Weapon Rating = Attack Rating – Power Rating), our Kits have a weapon power of 969, regardless of whether blues or exotics are equipped “underneath” them. (Quick testing — definitely could use verification from other Engineers.)
This is lower than exotic weapons usually have — Greatsword 1100, Hammer 1111, Rifle 1205, Pistol 1029, Mace 1010, Longbow 1080, Shortbow 1000, Axe 1048, etc. But a few are lower than 969 —Focus 883, Shield 909.
So our kits’ damage scales to do a little more than a shield…
Yeah, sorry I took this down – I suspect it’s not accurate, the part about blues and exotics giving the same Kit Weapon Dmg. I did maths for about 45 minutes and I was flummoxed. I leave it to someone more mathematically inclined.
I’ve been reading around and the conclusion I’ve come up with is to not trust the in-game tooltips/UI. My gut reaction is that, if there has been a change, it must affect the lower lvls because at the higher level zones there isn’t much of a difference in damage.
Yes. I suspected the in-game tooltips were unreliable. But I’m a firm believer in pebkac and so I figured I was possibly screwing up somewhere. My best guess is that the lower rated gear does lower your Kit attack rating. But the tooltips are squirrely.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
After some maths (Weapon Rating = Attack Rating – Power Rating), our Kits have a weapon power of 969, regardless of whether blues or exotics are equipped “underneath” them. (Quick testing — definitely could use verification from other Engineers.)
This is lower than exotic weapons usually have — Greatsword 1100, Hammer 1111, Rifle 1205, Pistol 1029, Mace 1010, Longbow 1080, Shortbow 1000, Axe 1048, etc. But a few are lower than 969 —Focus 883, Shield 909.
So our kits’ damage scales to do a little more than a shield…
Yeah, sorry I took this down – I suspect it’s not accurate, the part about blues and exotics giving the same Kit Weapon Dmg. I did maths for about 45 minutes and I was flummoxed. I leave it to someone more mathematically inclined.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Nonetheless, JQ has never been ahead of SoS on reset night.
I must’ve missed something, I thought the war time-frame was a week? Like Friday night – Friday night (NA time of course).
The weeklong timeframe improves JQ’s record only slightly.
But I was having a conversation with a dude about even numbers, which can only be guaranteed on reset night. But I guess that idea has been lost to the thread.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Name: The Jumpin Puzzlers [PZLR]
Raid Size: < 5
Specialty: Jumping Puzzles
Server: Sea of Sorrows
Reason: Total puzzle domination. If you see these guys in the jumping puzzle, your fate is sealed. Your fate begins with a “friendly” /wave. If you’re smart enough to /wave back, they MIGHT let you live. If you don’t, then you’re in for it. What you’re in for is them not engaging in combat with you, allowing you another chance to continue the puzzle in a friendly manner. But if you engage them? Then you’re kittened. Your kittening begins with them running away, trying to complete the puzzle despite your attacks. And if you don’t play it perfectly — PERFECTLY — you may very well accidentally fall down to your death through no fault of theirs. That’s jumping puzzle domination. That, and they spam their jump buttons better than anyone I’ve seen in T1.
Couldn’t agree more, Stinky. The Puzzlers are a force to be reckoned with. I guess you could say they’ve got the JUMP on the competition.
Haha, good one.
No, great one!
PZLR!
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
The next few weeks will reveal a lot (especially after 1/28). If SoS ends up winning consistently with a 100k-200k point lead, I’m not sure I’ll want to get into WvW regularly, because, while I do want to play for a challenge, that isn’t a challenge, that’s being farmed for badges. I am not willing to be farmed. I am not a Orrian undead.
Just wanted to add, Feisty has the BEST score updates.
I agree with both of your points.
Feisty had some of the best score update shots during our marathon with SoR.
Regarding how the servers match up when the dust settles, we shall see. We just won’t know until we can look at the scoreboards the week of the 28th and the couple of weeks that follow. Until then we’re just making guesses. Well founded and educated guesses maybe, but still guesses.
If the servers don’t magically become balanced or close to balanced on 1/28, the game could lose players quickly — especially if A-net fails to improve server ranking/matching in the grand February (now March?) WvW update.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Name: The Jumpin Puzzlers [PZLR]
Raid Size: < 5
Specialty: Jumping Puzzles
Server: Sea of Sorrows
Reason: Total puzzle domination. If you see these guys in the jumping puzzle, your fate is sealed. Your fate begins with a “friendly” /wave. If you’re smart enough to /wave back, they MIGHT let you live. If you don’t, then you’re in for it. What you’re in for is them not engaging in combat with you, allowing you another chance to continue the puzzle in a friendly manner. But if you engage them? Then you’re kittened. Your kittening begins with them running away, trying to complete the puzzle despite your attacks. And if you don’t play it perfectly — PERFECTLY — you may very well accidentally fall down to your death through no fault of theirs. That’s jumping puzzle domination. That, and they spam their jump buttons better than anyone I’ve seen in T1.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
I always keep the Fire one on for extra explosions. Fire for AoE, Air for single-target.
In the other hand, I run Accuracy until I have 25 precision stacks. Then I swap over to Force, or, for the 40 minutes of every 2 hours considered “night,” Night.
If you prefer, use Bloodlust to stack power instead of the precision sigil.
Oh, and I keep a shield in my inventory with Restoration sigil on it.
That’s how I do it, but I am anxious to hear if other people have better setups.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Re: 2v1. When server A and server B are fighting, the only thing server C can do is attack A or B. 2v1’s aren’t just a possibility. They’re a near certainty.
And, if anyone hasn’t figured it out yet, you’re best shot at not being 2v1’d is to be server C and just wait for the other two to engage.
But there is one benefit to being 2v1’d: more action!
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Whether it’s no repair costs, or increased loot, they need to do something to make WvW more profitable. It seems to be by far the least profitable thing in the game.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Yeah. Good video. Well explained. When I want to insta-kill something, this is pretty much how I spec. Analyze and Surprise Shot have no cast time and can be used during other attacks, which is what makes them so great. Build has very little defense, but Gear Shield does have 3 seconds of overpoweredness.
/approved
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Seems to me “exploit” implies you’re doing something wrong for gain. Romping around the Citadel seems to me like you’re just having fun with a broken game, not even looking for gain.
how did they get in the garrison? did they walk in? if they weren’t able to just enter in normally then its not intended. using terrain jumps like wallleaps are exploits.
No idea. I’m just noting the absence of malice, at a time when it seems like plenty of people are cheating for gain. To me, that ss looked like they were cheating to not be bored.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Seems to me “exploit” implies you’re doing something wrong for gain. Romping around the Citadel seems to me like you’re just having fun with a broken game, not even looking for gain.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Nice thread idea, Loybo. Two quick things — while SD is a fairly high DPS build (but probably not as high as HGH Elixirs), I think it’s even more notable for being our highest burst build (important for player killing). The other thing is that SD pairs great with Grenades and because you don’t yet have a link to a build for that, here is a thread I wrote on that build:
Now that’s something I missed. If these 2 persons meet in game, I’d also vote hands down for the engineer simply because he’s much more skilled and knows how to utilize his skills.
On the other hand, what I was trying to point out was that when 2 players of the same skill level meet using this GC build, I doubt that the engineer can beat the warrior simply because a warrior is much more OP than an engineer, I doubt anybody disagrees. Sorry for the confusion there.
You know what? I was flippant, and you remained reasonable and cool in your reply. 10 points for Gryffindor.
Yeah, I agree that given two equally skilled players designing characters fresh, you would generally expect the Warrior to beat the Engineer. That’s a good argument to convince people that the Engineer class could use a buff.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Not sure why people are concluding Warrior is a better class. If the glass cannons in these two videos ever met in combat, the Engineer wins pretty easily.
Let’s see… no special tactics/setup or whatever, GC Warrior would 1 shot GC Engineer before he is in the engineer’s range.
Oh, please. Kill Shot has the most obvious wind up in the history of video games. He literally has to kneel down and wait almost two seconds. The Engineer can skip and dance to any range he wants, all invincible like with Gear Shield, and then lay the smack down far quicker than the Warrior can. Plus, the Engineer has Supply Crate while the Warrior Elite is essentially a slightly-improved Elixir B he already used. Glass cannon rifle Warriors are truly useless creatures if anyone is paying attention to them.
And while Volley is equally easy to dodge, no one is going to dodge 7 hits that are instantaneous from the Engineer unless they are super lucky. (Analyze, Suprise Shot, Throw Wrench, SDx3, Sigil of Air.)
Funny how I clearly said that No special tactics/setup then you put them both in a situation. More importantly, you only put how an engineer could advance and counter the warrior while you didn’t even specify how a warrior could counter an engineer as well.
Please don’t be biased. Been playing engineer for 600 hours now and I clearly know how to counter/be countered. If you want to say an engineer can get close to a warrior by using Gear Shield while he loads his Kill Shot, then the warrior can definitely use Stability and Endure Pain to prevent from being CCed/out DPSed before he can launch Kill Shot.
If you’re putting those 2 in a situation, you better put how we can be countered as well. We need constructive ideas/criticism, not just some biased opinion where you don’t even give the other class a chance at all. That’s why I didn’t even mention any tactics and just put those 2 classes head on which would obviously result in the Warrior’s win simply because he has long base range and higher damage output.
Dude. What?
What are you even talking about?
I said if the two glass cannons in the two videos met, the Engineer would destroy the Warrior. Which he would.
Balanced Stance? Endure Pain? Do you see those skills on that Warrior’s utility bar?
Let me be as clear as I can. The glass cannon Engineer in this video would destroy the glass cannon Warrior in that video because he has more utility and his abilities are more difficult to avoid.
Now I’m going to go see if my new sweater fits and never think about this horrible discussion again.
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
Not sure why people are concluding Warrior is a better class. If the glass cannons in these two videos ever met in combat, the Engineer wins pretty easily.
Let’s see… no special tactics/setup or whatever, GC Warrior would 1 shot GC Engineer before he is in the engineer’s range.
Oh, please. Kill Shot has the most obvious wind up in the history of video games. He literally has to kneel down and wait almost two seconds. The Engineer can skip and dance to any range he wants, all invincible like with Gear Shield, and then lay the smack down far quicker than the Warrior can. Plus, the Engineer has Supply Crate while the Warrior Elite is essentially a slightly-improved Elixir B he already used. Glass cannon rifle Warriors are truly useless creatures if anyone is paying attention to them.
And while Volley is equally easy to dodge, no one is going to dodge 7 hits that are instantaneous from the Engineer unless they are super lucky. (Analyze, Suprise Shot, Throw Wrench, SDx3, Sigil of Air.)
Stinky Garbage, Engineer. Meatbag, Guardian. Dum Dums, Elementalist.
It has a derogatory and downgrading tone towards others.
