John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
i understand both sides, but i will say this, mastery points are designed to be an incentive to complete content. At the point at which they become surplus, with no purpose, they no longer achieve their goal.
If that was the sole purpose, then sure, that would be a mismatch.
However, I again urge people to read what the devs have actually written about this, they want a surplus of mastery point unlocks so that people feel free to pick and choose. Adding a potential reward for maxing changes that calculus.
It’s a deliberate design decision to offer a surplus, not an accident of different teams working independently.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Soloing Dungeons still possible?
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781
People have soloed all of the fractals that don’t have “gating by numbers” (and a few that do, sort of). There are also videos of people soloing various encounters of the challenge mode fractals.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Obviously, it’s possible for ANet to add an interface to the forge to simplify things, but that would have economic implications.
With the exception of mystic clover (and a few other recipes), the mystic forge recipes are often profitable. Part of the reason is that assembly-line production is as tedious as you describe, so in effect the impatient are willing to pay the patient to do their forging.
That doesn’t make it a bad idea. It does mean it’s not as simple as just changing the UI (which is, by itself, not as easy as it sounds).
What I’d prefer is that more of the recipes be moved from the forge to crafting. The “feast” recipe creations could be moved to e.g. scribing (since the result is the same). Likewise, mystic weapons could be created by their respective weapon-crafts. These shouldn’t have any economic repercussions, since they haven’t been profitable for ages and aren’t likely to as long as the price of mystic coins remains high.
The mystic clover recipe could also be changed so it’s no longer a random result (although that, too, has economic repercussions) and moved to e.g. Artificing.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
If you buy PoF, yes, you get a second insta-L80 in a new slot. Once you consume the boost (and confirm it), the slot transforms into a shared inventory slot, which you are free to use as you please.
Those purchasing both HoT & PoF get two boosters (in the same slot) and ultimately get two slots when the insta-L80 boosts are both consumed (and confirmed).
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
My comments have nothing to do with Arena Net’s “play as you want” statement
My points are comparing gw2 at launch gameplay as compared to gw2 today. At launch, the player had a choice of how to level their character and today not so much.
L1-80 is easier now than it ever has been, even for the newest players. Masteries, by their very nature, have fewer unlocks, but even more ways to gain XP. So I’m not sure what you mean by “today not so much” — in what ways are we more limited than before?
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Based on what you’ve said… it’s likely that you’ve somehow changed the order of discovery. At any given tier, there are usually 3 lesser and 3 greater recipes, that otherwise appear identical (they use nearly identical combinations of items). If you do the 3 lesser first, you can then discover the greaters still. But not the other way around (although this might vary a bit depending on critical crafting).
This is another reason why I prefer using gw2crafts.net — it’s always correct about the order (as well as the ingredients).
Again, nothing has changed in crafting recipes that would have had this big an impact. I can explain part of the difference by the loss of Power of the Mists.
I’ll keep an eye out for your update. Have fun on your trip.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
There’s nothing in the personal story about Elona and even if there were, ANet can’t retroactively edit characters — there are consequences behind the scenes.
If the expansion adds something like this (very doubtful), then you’d have to create a new toon.
For humans who said that they never found their sister, there is a point where you can state (talking to Logan) whether you were Canthan, Krytan, or Elonian. I’m guessing this wasn’t saved at all; after all, it is just dialogue.
Right, thanks for setting me straight. I forgot about that option (I remembered the ‘Cantha’, not the Elona part).
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
The word “casual” isn’t particular helpful in discussions. Nearly everyone calls themselves “casual”; it’s only other people that might consider them hardcore.
For example, there are people with over 6000 hours in the game who consider themselves “casual” because they just fiddle around. They don’t practice rotations or theory-craft builds; to them, it’s just playing casually
There are likewise people who spend huge fractions of their gaming time perfecting builds and footwork, who solo challenge mode bosses, and consider themselves to be casual because they don’t have very many hours in the game.
So please try to find another way to describe what is meant by “has ANet remembered the casuals” because as it’s written, it could mean all sorts of things to different people.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
There’s nothing in the personal story about Elona and even if there were, ANet can’t retroactively edit characters — there are consequences behind the scenes.
If the expansion adds something like this (very doubtful), then you’d have to create a new toon.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
A copy is made of the current game database — you don’t have to do anything; all your existing characters etc will be available to play. The only change is that progress from playing the demo will not be preserved.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Freshwater Pearl/Mussel farm nerfed
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781
Not sure why people write a “conclusion” thread based on only 2 anecdotes.
To be fair to the OP (if I understood their numbers), it was based off of 300+ gathers. If the drop rate was normally 50%, that would be plenty to suspect an issue; it’s just not enough for pearls dropping from mussels.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
The forums use proprietary software by a firm with which ANet no longer does business. Whatever needs to be done to update them would require replacing the system. Since the forums work and nearly all the bugs can be worked around easily, it seems like a needless expense.
It doesn’t have a night mode, which is pathetic in current times.
It doesn’t have an entire host of things that seem basic in 2017. That doesn’t change the economics that (at least as of recently), it wasn’t a good use of limited resources to replace the forums with new software.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I don’t have any character with the right states to test but in theory hovering over the the legend with the map open should be able to tell you which you are missing for map completion regardless of what it is showing for daily completion.
Of course that’s true. My point is that it’s hard to see the icons on the map to hover over them. The already-done ones stand out better than the not-done ones; I’d prefer it to be the other way around.
You hover over the icon in the top left corner not the individual ones on the map.
On the layered maps, this doesn’t always help. Maybe it’s not an issue for you. It is for me, which is why I’ve offered my opinion that I would prefer the never-done icons to stand out more.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Yeah, a lot of us have wondered for a long time why there isn’t a portal to the current activity. This idea is just an extension of that, specific to the guild hall.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
They won’t have any purpose.
But they do have a purpose. Their purpose is to provide you with a safety net so you don’t need to do every single mastery point.
Doing what OP proposes would destroy that purpose.How would a vendor destroy that purpose?
Its just like any other vendor, you don’t have to get every currency and spend it all if you don’t like it, or if there are alternative means to get what they sell. As long as the vendor doesn’t sell anything unique the safety net purpose remains.
I never finished the Chak collection, even though I have a bunch of eggs lying in my bank. My point is, just because you can spend the excess points for other things doesn’t mean you have to. The purpose of the safety net remains.It’s not a “safety net” — it’s a surplus, intended to reduce pressure on people. Giving it a value increases pressure.
More pressure than any of the other thousand neglected vendors in the game?
Do you feel pressured to collect orrian pearls?
Why would you claim that these are neglected vendors? Why do you think that people don’t feel pressure to collect Orrian Pearls?
Go back and read the dev quotes: they specifically added 9 more core Tyria points to reduce pressure.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I don’t have any character with the right states to test but in theory hovering over the the legend with the map open should be able to tell you which you are missing for map completion regardless of what it is showing for daily completion.
Of course that’s true. My point is that it’s hard to see the icons on the map to hover over them. The already-done ones stand out better than the not-done ones; I’d prefer it to be the other way around.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I am no fan of gating, but the mastery system is about as unobtrusive as possible. There are a lot of extra points to unlock, so you needn’t do adventures if you don’t want.
In any case, ArenaNet’s “play as you like” comment had to do with reaching max level and equipment; those remain completely unrestricted.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I’m not against the idea, although it doesn’t sound all that appealing to me. I prefer swapping toons to swap professions; there’s a lot less clutter for me.
However, this seems unlikely to be something they can do without lots of behind-the-scenes work, because profession is tied to some character-specific assumptions, such as armor weight.
In other words: interesting idea (doesn’t appeal to me); probably a lot more effort than assumed in the OP.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
tl;dr: claiming you know how Anet operates and what their priorities are and dismissing peoples’ suggestions and ideas adds no value and harms the discussion. Please don’t do it.
I will repeat things that ANet has said (sometimes quoting, sometimes paraphrasing). I will also add my own interpretations of the business realities.
And I will also offer my opinion about the proposed idea. And I’ll offer my opinion about whether I prefer this idea over 1000s of other ideas proposed on the forums.
Can the OP explain how any of that is unreasonable?
For example, ANet has said that making LS1 repeatable is not a priority; I’ve have posted specific quotes from them about it as well as paraphrased. I have also said I’d love to replay it, if it’s done well.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Do you think any of the 2 specs will see more play in high lvl fractals/raids? Or will they likely both still be dead weight
I think it’s likely that no one has any idea. Go back and look at what people thought before HoT, the first week of HoT, and compare it to the meta 6 weeks later. A lot of predictions were wrong.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I don’t think the icons are fine and never have. The ones you need for map completion are harder to find than the others. Instead, I think the ones you’ve never done should stand out the most, non-repeatable should be least noticeable.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Soloing Dungeons still possible?
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781
It’s easier to solo now than it ever has been.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
My experience is no less valid than Vayne’s.
Yes, that was exactly my point.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Be cool if that happens. They might be big enough to do it in-house now.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
HoT is only $20 if you bought POF. I guarantee you that if anet ever sold what you’re asking for it would cost more than $20.
idk. seems to me $5 per spec seems a reasonable price.
Even if $5/spec was ‘reasonable’, it’s moot — ANet wants people to play HoT.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
The forums use proprietary software by a firm with which ANet no longer does business. Whatever needs to be done to update them would require replacing the system. Since the forums work and nearly all the bugs can be worked around easily, it seems like a needless expense.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
They won’t have any purpose.
But they do have a purpose. Their purpose is to provide you with a safety net so you don’t need to do every single mastery point.
Doing what OP proposes would destroy that purpose.How would a vendor destroy that purpose?
Its just like any other vendor, you don’t have to get every currency and spend it all if you don’t like it, or if there are alternative means to get what they sell. As long as the vendor doesn’t sell anything unique the safety net purpose remains.
I never finished the Chak collection, even though I have a bunch of eggs lying in my bank. My point is, just because you can spend the excess points for other things doesn’t mean you have to. The purpose of the safety net remains.
It’s not a “safety net” — it’s a surplus, intended to reduce pressure on people. Giving it a value increases pressure.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Freshwater Pearl/Mussel farm nerfed
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781
That sounds more like bad luck than a drop rate change.
If I understand correctly, you were farming 300-400 mussel nodes/day and getting 5-7 pearls. 6/350 = 1.714%. For that rate, the chance of only getting a single pearl is ~1.7%, something that you’d see a few times a year. Seeing it two days in a row doesn’t seem unlikely.
Keep track for a week. If you’re still seeing a low amount, please report back.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Before HoT launched, people complained that mesmer shield looked fun but wouldn’t be all that useful in high-end content. Mesmers were rated last in value for things like raids. Now, people consider them essential.
Wait for the content to actually release and give it a month or three. Then we’ll have something to discuss. Until then, we can only guess about how useful/useless or over-/under-powered the new elites are going to be.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I love the system; I don’t like some of the mastery lines. Pact & Fractal mastery are pretty good and always useful. Legendary mastery is mostly just a gating tool.
Some of the LS3 masteries are great; some feel too-specific to the map. And the HoT masteries include a lot of things that are purely gates to prevent early access to certain areas.
They’re supposed to be gates. In most MMOs you have to level to get to areas you couldn’t normally do. But we don’t have leveling here. So how do you slow people down and stop them from burning through the content. You gate it.
No matter how much cointent is in an expansion some people are going to finish it in a matter of months or even faster. In normal games it’s leveling and gearing and in this game it’s masteries. They solve the poblem of progression,. Fortunately, they’re account bound which makes them much more appealing to me.
I don’t care if they are supposed to be gates; I find it boring that so many are nothing other than gates. I understand why gating is important to traditional MMOs (although whether it’s necessary or not is another discussion). My point is that something can gate content/progression and be enjoyable too.
Look, gliding gates access to some content and it’s fun. Itzel Poison Lore doesn’t do anything except make it hard for people to reach a couple of mastery points; Itzel leadership only prevents people from gaining a mastery point. The pinnacle of Exalted Lore is …unlocking Auric Slivers, which have a very limited use.
So again, I like the system; I don’t like some of the specific masteries for the reasons I’ve listed above.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
The fact that Icy Runes aren’t purchasable isn’t evidence one way or another; there’s almost always been a map in which Rohan doesn’t appear.
In terms of the pre-events, were the four initial crystals destroyed and did the fifth appear after? Did you happen to check the time remaining? Did you happen to make note of the /ip of any of the maps?
I was on a map (a while back) in which the fifth crystal didn’t spawn until the timer was nearly expired; we just barely managed to clear it in time. So I imagine it must happen sometimes that the events fall short of causing the Claw to appear.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Recipes haven’t changed that much and I’d really urge you to drop old crafting guides and go with gw2crafts.net — it dynamically adjusts to the game which your older guides don’t.
However, for the sake of troubleshooting, let’s ignore that. To troubleshoot, can you make some screenshots? What’s in discovery? What’s on the crafting panel? What’s in your bank?
While you’re doing that, have you checked to make sure you don’t have any filters turned on? Are you sure you’re using the relevant items rather than something with a near-identical name (of which there are many)?
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
There is no value in stat swapping to celestial, unless you already know the recipes for something else (and not for celestial). Either way, you use the same amount of charged quartz.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
they aren’t going to offer additional incentives to complete them all. Especially since we already get rewards with AP plus.
didnt know this…
kitten .. now i need to do all the masteries :/ majorly sucks, i almost just got the enjoyment of not having to grind for max stats…
sigh kitten Anet why?
Um, you don’t have to do them all. That’s the point. Some, like gold adventures, do offer AP and/or other rewards.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
You can do the events multiple times, but your rewards are limited. You can only get one “Hero” chest per day per account and some (ground) chests won’t open on subsequent successes. Generally, therefore, it’s more efficient to do different metas rather than repeat any. (DS is something of an exception, since you can use more machetes.)
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I understand your frustration. What I don’t understand is why you somehow assume that ANet doesn’t want to make money, that they haven’t considered exactly what you are asking them to review.
When you say things like “nonsensical argument”, it gives the impression that you can’t imagine any other way to see things other than through the eyes of the customer.
How big is the US & NA gaming market? How many big is the GW2 playerbase relative to that? How big is the Aussie/NZ market? If all things are equal, how many potential players would we be looking at? Of those, how many already own the game (those wouldn’t be new customers)?
How much does it cost to rent space in a data center that’s big enough to support this sort of game? What sort of additional staff does ANet need to maintain to deal with issues that come up? What sort of additional costs are there (taxes & other maintenance) by having a business presence in another country?
Now, neither of us are going to know most of these things with any sort of certainty, but we can come up with some numbers (as folks have done elsewhere). And we can get an idea of how plausible the idea is.
There are tons of games with servers in Australia… and tons without. Why do you think some companies decide to invest in more areas and others don’t?
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Well, I already know how often the Dragon Stand meta runs. I know how long the maps last and when they turn over, but it doesn’t do me any good. Even when I watch for every new map beginning, there is still no way to get into a fullish map. Either the maps are empty or they’re “closed” or “full.”
Trying to get the meta for weeks. I don’t need the condescension of people saying “Well, I can run DS 15 times a day every day whenever I want.” Great. But this is not the reality for everyone.
I cannot play 24/7. I can play usually between 6-10 pm. This is when I watch for events. And I’ve been able to find nothing for DS during this time for weeks now. It is not from lack of watching the times or trying.
People aren’t being condescending any more than you’re being argumentative. They are describing their reality which is: DS is running all the time; it’s always possible to get on a map. Your experience is that you can never find one.
So those who can find one have tried to explain what they do, so you can also do that and get into a DS map at will (when it’s up). (Ideally, they should also try to figure out what you are doing differently that is making this harder for you.)
If you’re already aware of the when:
- Are you getting to DS well before the relevant time?
- Do you go to DS first or look in LFG first?
- What do you see in the LFG? Is it empty? Or do you see listings that don’t seem to apply?
- What time zone are you in (and what region)? (So we know what you mean by “6-10 pm”)
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
I love the system; I don’t like some of the mastery lines. Pact & Fractal mastery are pretty good and always useful. Legendary mastery is mostly just a gating tool.
Some of the LS3 masteries are great; some feel too-specific to the map. And the HoT masteries include a lot of things that are purely gates to prevent early access to certain areas.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
It’s being worked on (dev responded to a similar post on reddit about it).
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Simple question, given the karma cost of UM tools or the gem cost of the Permanent tools.
Will the expansion have a new map currency like Unbound Magic that will be required for everything, or will ANet stick to UM keeping the current tools relevant?
The UM tools are always going to be relevant, because there’s always stuff you can buy with UM.
Based on past statements, my guess is that PoF will have a set of map-specific currencies and LS4 will have a single one (like UM) plus individual harvestable mats that act as currency, i.e parallel to what we’ve seen this last year.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
They are artificial.
Here’s some help to understand:
ar·ti·fi·cial
?ärd??fiSH?l/Submit
adjective
1.
made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, typically as a copy of something natural.You are 100% wrong in saying that it isn’t. The choice to implement the limit is in the programming, and therefore artificial by nature.
Sigh. You’re still missing the point by focusing on a narrow part of the definition (in the context of cooking, gardening, and yes, programming, the word has another context).
If the number was something they stuck in just to have a number, then sure, they could change it any time they like. But if it’s there because it provides useful limits on the size & shape of their data structures, then they can’t simply change it into something else. In that sense, it’s not an artifice.
Call it artificial if you want; it doesn’t affect the fact that they cannot just replace it with a bigger number.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
(edited by Illconceived Was Na.9781)
Revenants channel the powers of Legends, not heroes (and in any case, “heroes” were an accident of which NPCs we could choose as customizeable companions).
And I wouldn’t want to channel most of those named by the OP: Rurik killed himself for no reason, endangering the future of Humans in Kryta. Gwen was a cute kid, but a horribly angry young adult.
Further, they aren’t helping us in any sort of direct way. It’s more like an actor thinking of Nicholson or a wrestler imagining “what would Hogan do”. The revenant is invoking the spirit. Otherwise, we’d have to believe that Jalis exists in 20 different spots on every borderland.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Technically, the game “should” run only on secondary stats, to stop obscuring things. In fact, I wouldn’t mind it if that were the case.
That’s a preference argument, not a technical one.
Technically, it’s easier to balance when using a primary + secondary system; it’s just not as user-friendly. It’s hard to balance those two.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
2 out of 30 sounds… plausible. With a relatively low drop rate, some days you’ll get next to nothing.
Should the drop rate be buffed? Well, maybe not — the cost of the ascended gear from B-Fen would probably have to be increased, to account for being able to stat-swap it for cheap.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Are you sure it’s not a display issue unique to your machine? (In other words, does anyone else see the carpet? Or no one?)
There are quite a lot of graphical “artifacts” that are caused by the game losing track of files. (Happens with any huge data file, such as the one used for GW2.) This often fixes itself with a new update or restarting the game. If it doesn’t, it’s often helpful to do a -repair on the data file. (Instructions available in the knowledge base: click on “support” above and search for “repair”.)
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
To whom are you speaking Daddicus?
While I disagree with OP’s premise and conclusion, the facts about the patch changes are not in dispute: concentration is now the only thing that affects boon duration and expertise the only that affects condi duration. But that was not the case last week: doubloons (for example) affected boon duration directly as a straight up increase. Similarly all sorts of foods added to either, notably toxic focusing crystals added +10 condi duration directly and +100 condi damage; it now only affects condi damage (by an amount depending on other stats). Last week, Rare Veggie Pizza offered +70 condi duration (like a lot of other foods) and +20% condi duration; this week, it’s 100 expertise instead, which indirectly boosts condi duration.
In other words, OP is correct that boon duration and condi duration are no longer primary stats; they are secondary, dependent on other stats. That obscures the amount of gains, which bugs the OP. (And I can’t blame them — it is annoying; I just don’t think it’s “useless”.)
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Short story: craft your own and farm as many quartz crystals as you can to accelerate the process of acquiring charged quartz.
——————————————————
Here are the methods:
- Crafting: instant gratification, unless you lack charged quartz.
- Fractal or PvP crafting recipes. Full set requires 88 fractal journal pages, which takes a month (minimum) to collect.
- Random drops, as XBuff suggests. But that’s not fast. Doing three T4 fracts/day gets you about one ascended armor piece/week (random slot), so at least 6 weeks typically, but it’s easy to be unluck and have it take far longer (plus: chest pieces rarely drop) and you still need charged quartz.
- Raids. You need 1200 magnetite, which is 24 successful encounters (or ~5-10x more failures). A couple of weeks minimum for experienced raiders.
- WvW armor: longer still
- PvP armor: takes a couple of seasons, so also longer than crafting.
The fastest method is crafting your own. You can buy everything you need right now on the TP, except charged crystals. If you don’t have enough, you can reduce the amount of wait time by purchasing and opening Wintersday Gifts. (see below)
The total cost for light armor is approximately 505 gold
You can save 80 gold by crafting your own damask and elonian, which takes about 32 days.
You need 30 charged quartz, which takes 30 days, so fine if you’re already crafting damask/elonian. To accelerate the process, you have the following options:
- Farm ordinary quartz; charged is a rare drop. My guess is that you can expect 1 charged for every 10 nodes; I think there are about that many in a dry top instance.
- From Wintersday Gifts, the drop rate is about 0.23%. Thus, you’d get one every couple of stacks of Gifts, i.e. you’d need over 50 stacks of Gifts… and you guessed, that’s a lot… over 900 gold.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
You should try to understand how they are useful to the existing stat system rather than assume that they’re useless because they obscure the secondary stat (boon or cond duration) that interests us.
As a simplistic example, doubloons used to be available in increments of +1, +2, +3, +4. There was no room for tinkering. Currently they are 10, 20, 30, & 40 concentration, which allows adding a doubloon equivalent of 15 or 25. It also makes gives all prefixes the same numbering system, so that giver’s doesn’t use something different than soldier’s. It’s also inline with precision (which converts more obscurely to crit chance) and ferocity (15 points per 1% bonus crit damage).
I don’t happen to like the nerf that came along with the “normalization”; I wish they had done them separately. And like you, I would be happier with a system that had fewer secondary stats. But the reality of most MMOs/RPGs and GW2 in particular is that they are a necessary evil to make balancing more about choosing the right numbers rather than having to work around a limited set of potential numbers.
tl;dr annoying isn’t the same as useless
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
That’s kind of what I thought.
The devs could do it, if they wanted to, support can not.
As the game ages, and more and more of us altoholics are reaching the maximum, it’s time to lift these artificial limits, or at the very least be consistent in the gem store about addons.
The limits aren’t “artificial” — they are due to programming choices made long ago. They might seem arbitrary to us (and the specific number probably is), but that doesn’t mean it’s as easy as changing “70” to “80”. (Similarly, the reason for inconsistencies is also likely due to some of the existing code.)
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”