Guild Wars 2

TheVirtualFrog.8714:

Why would they nerf the class that the developers play with?

Warriors are climbing in yo game, snatching yo PvP rankings up. They’re tryna dominate the battlefield so ya all need to hide yo Rangers, hide yo Necromancers and hide yo Engineers cuz they ain’t worth a kitten out there.

That must be it. Surely the fact that there is one (!!!) warrior currently in the top ladder rankings is irrelevant.

On a less sarcastic note, Warrior is average bordering on underwhelming. The better the opponent, the more impotent the warrior.

’coz putting some thought into your character and testing it out with armor in HotM at level 2 is hard work. ~.^

Easy fight but also a well-designed fight. Definitely a step in the right direction from Anet.

Part 2/2

Ah but the article said it was in GW1, so what’s the problem?
Actually it wasn’t. There are two possible references in GW1 that this could mean. Neither equate to a gear check and a requirement to obtain new items.

• Infusion. This was a mechanic that greatly reduced the amount of damage you would incur against a single monster type. You got it automatically when you were doing the story line missions. It was free, did not give ANY improvement on stats and could be applied to your existing armor. You could even achieve all your objectives and content without it.
• PvE skills based on reputation points. The more you grinded reputation points, the more powerful the skill got. However, you could still achieve all the high end content in the game without it, or with zero reputation points
  Neither of these were in anyway shape or form a gate or gear check
  The article shows an item, it has a tiny increase. Surely this is a storm over nothing.
  On first glance yes the stats do seem only marginally higher. Ignoring the fact that min-maxers will demand people take it. However, If you do the math, on the item showed the stats actually give a not insignificant 7.9% increase. If you do any PvE, or WvW to a hardcore level, that number matters.. A lot.
  • Compared to its Exotic counterpart, new Ascended-rarity “Explorer” ring has: +5 Power • +5 Precision • +3% Magic Find • +infusion slot.
  While the percentages in themselves may be small, the actual increase in the stats behind them are significant, especially magic find which imho is already questionable as a game mechanic
  Ask a PvP or hardcore PvE player if they care about even a 1% difference. The fact there is one at all will shape player behavior

Hmm Ok, but it’s just a ring and back item so what’s the big deal?
It is right now. BUT the article clearly states:
“As we release more new end game content in the future, you’ll see more Infusions and Ascended item types being added to the game. Eventually, you’ll be able to kit yourself out with a full set of Ascended gear and high end Infusions to help give you the edge in end game content.”
So it’s not just a ring and a back item. It’s going to be a whole new tier of weapons and armor. The real worry is, is that is the just the start of a slippery slope of gear checking and treadmills

So what?
• It puts GW2 in the ‘me-too’ category of gear checking, gear treadmill games. Not only does it undermine Arenanets reputation, but it also undermines a key differentiator of the game. One in which seems to be a key factor in many people’s choice to play the game.
• For WvW players, it a problem because your best-in-slot gear may now be exclusively found in dungeons.
• For casual PvEers, it’s a problem because you’ll be behind the gear curve, and more hardcore players will start to exclude you because of it. This means you’ll have to keep playing just to keep up.
• For die-hard PvEers, it’s a problem because you’ll be pressured to do the latest dungeon (the one with the best stats and neccessary infusions) to the exclusion of all else. Otherwise you too will drop off the gear treadmill just as you do in WoW.

Thanks for reading. I’ll leave it up to you to decide how you will react to such news. But I think it’s clear to say this is the most controversial change to the GW franchise in the 7 years since its release.

Adding Shaenari’s post since it sums up everything nicely. It’s in 2 parts, to this is part 1.
_

I don’t understand what the fuss is about? Arenanet never said they wouldn’t add more powerful gear?

Actually they did, in fact they highlighted it in one of their blog posts. http://www.arena.net...easures-success
Colin Johanson wrote:
The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

Ok, but there is no gear check gate I need TO have is there?
In all the other areas of the game, then no. However it’s irrefutable that teams and players will soon start insisting on it, thus creating a clear division between the have gear and have nots(or hardcore and casual). Effectively if you wish to keep being competitive you will need to keep playing..
For example, You can access all of open world WoW without a gear check, but for raids and dungeons it is certainly there. The same is now true of GW2

So how does this gear check work?
The further you go into the new content the more you will encounter the new Agony condition. Without the special gear you will not be able to proceed.
“_Players who wish to delve deep into the Fractals will find that Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must. The only way to mitigate Agony damage is by building up resistance through Infusions, a new type of upgrade component that can be acquired in the Mystic Forge._”
For now, Infusions slots can only be found in gear of a new rarity type: Ascended."
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/

skuko.5783:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I’d like to respond to concerns players have raised about ascended items. Please keep in mind that we’re releasing this as one portion of a massive November update that introduces and improves many aspects of challenge, progression, and rewards. With this and upcoming updates, we view ourselves as introducing large amounts of content with supporting systems and features, akin to an expansion pack, building on Guild Wars 2 through a series of live releases. So it’s important for us to be able to add an expansion pack’s worth of progression and rewards to support that content.

Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.

Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. PvP will remain unaffected to ensure our intended PvP balance going forward. We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features. As you know we care very much about your support and opinion and are listening intently to what you say.

Finally we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming content, and we will ensure we share our thoughts with you on the experiences we share in the Lost Shores.

Chris Whiteside – Studio Design Director

let me get this straight – first you (Anet) state that the legendaries will be the same as exotics stat wise.

then you say there’s a GAP between exotics and legendaries? wtf there’s no gap. they have awesome skins that take a lot of effort to get, what’s wrong with that?

so then you’re going to introduce a higher tier item in order to close the gap (which isn’t there in the first place) and then you’re going to buff stats of legendaries?

how about just show a middle finger to the community, because that’s pretty much what you’re doing.

i bought this game with the premise that once i gather my gear (exotics), i will enjoy playing wvw (the endgame) with my guild and friends. now your’re going to force me into a dungeon/further grind (in wvw or whatever) just to keep up with the stats?

no thanks. if i want to treadmill my kitten off, i can find plenty of mmos for that.
so i got some advice for you.

first, go take a lesson from turbine, see how this BS mechanic with gated content worked out for them.

second, go take a look at CCP and how you should be communitacting with your playerbase.

and third, WTF is “we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming content”???? you don’t even publish any patch notes and want feedback? from what? a couple of PR BS on the website? wake the eff up. make the patch notes public a month before implementation, make the testing public, make your freaking release roadmap public for christs sake. or you want feedback on your buggy BS after you implement it?

way to go lol. sorry for my rude tone, but arenanet just lost all credibitly they had – introducing new content into a buggy game instead of fixing existing first just for the sake of retaining wow kids. turns out your company is just another developer full of BS.

time to move on i guess.

Harsh words, but just. Definitely justified anger, and one of the best posts in this thread.

Lomax.2463:

good god you people cant read !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i am amazed there so so many that cant comprehend what Anet is doing

OK FOR THOSE THAT HAVE NO CLUE.

1. There is no stat increase !!!!!! they took away the upgrade slot and put the points that you would have gotten from the upgrade slot into the main stats of the item!
that is right Ascended armor is worse then exotic as it is not as customizable as normal armor!

2. Infusion slot is for negating a new condition call Agony that will only be in this dungeon! that is right it is worthless in WvW or any place outside this dungeon.

3. getting exotic gear is easy and is full customizable with upgrade slots, Ascended armor is hard to get is less useful as real exotic gear outside of this dungeon.

4. this is a cool great new dungeon , it is scalable for the progression players but none of it is any use outside of this one dungeon. it will allow player to brag about i hit 27th level of infusion !!! woot for me but as infusion does nothing outside of the dungeon why would a WvW player even care ?

this is like a PVE dungeon version of the PVP ranking , i think its great .

You obviously didn’t comprehend what is in front of you.

Anyway, to counter your blatant arrogant belief that you comprehended something that 5000+ people didn’t: Ascended items are better than exotics. Now, go back, read, understand.

MajorMelchett.6042:

This just needs to be posted until they notice what THEY said.
—-
http://www.arena.net/blog/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success#more-8572

“Fun impacts loot collection. The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.” – Colin Johanson
—-
The last bolded part is key here.

That is so rich. Talk about one of the largest bait&switch’es in the history of gaming.

Tyr.1965:

I miss them too. It’s a shame they sold out after getting a whiff of that Warcraft pie. Too bad they’ll never get to taste it no matter how hard they try and now they’re going to lose everything they’ve built so far just trying to reach it. Idiots.

Agree with this so much. Idiocy is the best way to describe it. This is a sell-out.

JCrimson.5921:

Tons of my friends will be coming back. My guild now has personal goals to progress together. We are all super excited to see what more is to come! Thank you very much for making this game better!

… And what will happen when you’ve grinded your Ascended gear and the next update is months away?

Right, you and your friends will quit again. Funny thing is, this time alot of the loyal playerbase will quit with you.

velmeister.4187:

In November we’ll unveil the first Ascended items. This new rarity type falls between Exotic and Legendary on the spectrum of rarity and has slightly higher stats than Exotics.

Source: https://www.guildwar...-ascended-gear/

For me, more acceptable approach should have been as follows:

To bridge the Exotic to Legendary gap:

1. Introduce slots on existing items.
2. Introduce different upgrade components like runes that provide variety of effects, defense (such as KD resists, daze resists etc.) and offense benefits (Less chance to miss owing to elevation differences, more critical chances etc.) without impacting the stat numbers.

Why I hate this “slightly higher stats” concept?

1. It introduces power creep and way too early in the lifecycle of this MMO franchise. Given how old this game is, its like Nightfall just happened too early for this franchise.
2. The game is easy enough. Why would you introduce higher stat weapons that will simply murder the difficulty level of the current world mobs? I’d not even touch the issues that will impact the current dungeons. There are just too many existing already.

Why I hate this “Agony” condition?

1. Limiting this condition to only to the Fractal of Mists dungeon funnels the whole playerbase to one area/dungeon leaving the already empty world to its own fate.

Players will be able to acquire Ascended Rings in the Fractals of the Mists dungeon

2. It also marks the begining of the shift in the core of GW franchise philosophy.

The new additions in November are just the start of our item progression initiative. As we introduce the new high-level content, we’ll also roll out complimentary Ascended and Legendary items (to say nothing of the other rewards you can earn by playing the content).

Yeah, more gear to grind to grind more gear! And Mudflation begins..

What probably would have been sufficient for now?

1. Add “Storymode” dungeon content where players could get infused, much like GW1’s infusion mission mechanic, without resorting to grinding new gear.

2. Improve availability rate of the Legendary precursors.

We also have plans to add more fun ways to acquire Legendary precursor items with a more “scavenger hunt” feel than they are acquired currently.

Then… work on to

3. Add more PvP content – formats and maps. GW is a great game not because it had great PvE Storyline or missions or had more mobs to kill. It is a fun game because you can hop in and do any format of PvP that you want without having to dedicate a massive amount of time to enjoy it even when many formats were quite difficult to master.

4. Rethink WvW and make it so that more and more people participate in it without being motivated to complete the World Exploration or to do monthly or to farm BoH by doing jump puzzles while enjoying the content without being killed by invisible enemy zergers.

I did not spend $149 on this game to master the art of out-gearing 99% of the population as fast as I can so that I can grind more gear. I am very disappointed that GW2 has chosen to become another gear grind MMO. Is this WoW 2.0 since there are no Guild Wars in GuildWars 2?

It’s really very disheartening that ANET has decided to yield to the gear grind philosophy of every other MMO.

One of the best posts so far in this thread. Merits repetition.

Wintyre Fraust.6534:

Sky asks: The last question in my mind is – will Ascended be the final tier, and this was just a one time correction to a miscalculation… or is Ascended the first of many more to come?

They explicitly stated this is just the beginning of a new “item progression initiative” specifically intended to satisfy hardcore players and establish a new “end game” concept that directly contradicts their design manifesto about the “whole game” being the end game. They think they can kitten down our back and call it rain if they use horizontal paths to hide unique content only hardcore players can keep up with.

New “end game” mechanic Agony will enable you to exclusively farm Agony-specific content. Next – upper tier Agony content, or perhaps Psionic Content, or some other X, Y, Z – specific content that excludes everyone except the most hardcore players from pursuing that content. Meanwhile, where’s the investment of time and resources for the rest of us as ANET tries to keep ahead of the powergamer curve?

Quoted for great truth.

Wintyre Fraust.6534:

jboynton asks: “How does GW2 maintain its position as a revenue driver without that income in future quarters?”

How does aborting the design manifesto – which, arguably, drove those sales in the first place – help raise revenue from a game that has no subscription? Are hardcore players the top consumers of cash shop items? I doubt it. Are hardcore gear-grinders going to produce the same kind of B2P expansion sales (when one comes out) as launch? If ANET alienates everyone who bought GW2 because of that manifesto, and because of the non-grind “whole-world” end game philosophy, what are those expansion sales going to be?

It seems to me we’re witnessing a potential SWG moment here; ANET can alienate everyone who came here specifically because of what GW2 was billed as, promised to be, and for three months now has delivered by changing the core nature of the game. And for what? Players that endlessly run from game to game seeking a means to satiate a never-ending quest for avatar progression/power?

This post cannot be stated enough. This is the crux of the matter.

Safari.3021:

I’m anyone. I have a legendary.
Played the game as intended and found after 700 hours of play I already had 75% of the materials for one.

Anyone else spot the hilarious incongruity of this? ^^

Since I was told that my original topic “The Fall from the manifesto” got locked due to others derailing the OP, I will now repost it here. I apologize if this is not intended by Anet, but the reason I was given by CC Ivonne was as abovestated; OP got derailed. Hence I assume I am within the forum regulations by reposting this.
_______

In short: Gated content with power-creep. ArenaNet has fallen very far from what was promised in the manifesto. Sure, it was too good to be true in the first place (affect the world in a permanent way/no more 10 minutes respawn timer yadda yadda), but it was something people – to varying degrees – were able to live with.
This upcoming change radically changes the foundation for your game.

• Competitive WvW players need to grind this. Yes, need. Competitive. People – or rather fanboys – has to understand that this isn’t really optional for the truly competitive. And ArenaNet benefits from competitive trailblazers. Just look at WoW’s raiding scene for comparison.

• Old content becoming obsolete – you can craft exotic gear. You need to grind Fractal for Ascended gear. Arguably you can still go to the old places for skins, but as the post says, there’ll be additional Ascended gear. We have now the first steps of a gear-treadmill, regardless of how delusional Anet is and try to spin it. This runs counter to the core tenet of GW2.

Even more interesting, this shows a blatant lack of correspondance between the community and the developer. I’d argue that sub-10% of GW2’s playerbase want a gear treadmill. If people leave it is because:

• tPvP is in its death-spasms from lack of support.

• It’s because WvW has become extremely unstable due to transfers, with servers “dying” in a regular basis (formerly Ruins of Surmia/HoD/ET, now apparently Gunnar’s Hold).

• It’s because we were promised that the game “wouldn’t be this boring grind amongst occasionally fun tasks” (paraphrasing manifesto), yet what we received was a game whose endgame was the epitome of a korean mmo grind with an added RNG component that combines fantasy mmo with a shady Las Vegas casino.

It is NOT because people want to grind additional gear. It is NOT because people want to do even more work kitting out their alts. It is NOT because people feel a “lack of progression”. It is because the end-game activities – WvW, s/tPvP, Dungeons – are not being supported enough and suffer from bad design choices.

Going into how these three end-game areas could be improved would require entirely separate and long posts, hence I’ll leave that to others who have already done a wonderful job of highlighting the problems (see for instance Pray’s post regarding s/tPvP).

That being said, my own few bulletpoints:

• Don’t allow free transfers galore. Once every 3 months/free, otherwise paid. We need to build actual server communities.

• Tune dungeons properly so that fights become shorter, more intense and overall ‘make more sense’. Some fights already are, but a large segment of the fights are extremely long compared to the ease of their mechanics due to sheer amount of hp. In short, they become boring. If a mob telegraphs an attack in slow-motion every 10 seconds, it shouldn’t be necessary to slap it for 3 minutes. It gets stale when you have to do it ad naseum.

• Get to work on a proper ladder/ranking system in tPvP. ELO. Right now a fresh team of rank 1s can risk running into an established team of rank 40s+ and get demolished 500-10. It’s not enjoyable for either and it causes people to leave because there’s simply too steep an entry barrier. The alternative – paid tournaments – suffer from the same problems as there’s often 30 minutes+ waiting time. Fun fact: It requires two paid tournament finale wins to get on the “official ranking” Anet released. That is as clear a testimony as any that the current pvp environment is not in a healthy state.

Focus on getting proper ranking and matchmaking system first. ASAP even. Rented servers be kitten. You can’t make an e-sport without bottom-up player-support. The average Joe won’t have a rented server and won’t be inclined to start delving into which one he should join for proper scrims. After matchmaking, focus on Rented servers/spectator mode/et al.

Agreed.

Currently we have a thread mindlessly saying that it’s the oft-quoted “5% minority” complaining on the forum and now this thread that are being kept open.

Intelligent posts outlining some potential problems with the current direction the game is going are being locked, deleted or merged.

Admit. The. Hypocrisy.

Addendum:

I would also be very curious to hear how Anet came to the conclusion that “This is what the playerbase wants” – because all evidence points to the contrary. Anyone able to shed some light on that?

Consider that it might be the reverse; that – gosh, I know, inconceivable – the forums are actually fairly representative of the overall sentiment of the players.

I would argue the forum users are just more vocal and aware of possible implications of upcoming changes – something the average player won’t express due to ignorance but rather experience ‘on his/her own body’ – and then possibly quit the game. With no fanfare.

Consider for one moment – if you’re capable of that – that the forum users are working for the community. That our best interest is to help promote a good game. That we are as vocal as we are because we seem to understand – contrary to you – that this change will have wide-ranging implications for not only us but for all future players. That this change will segregate the community. That it risks further diminishing WvW. That it further pushes people away from tPvP due to lack of proper work being done there.

Heighten your perspective before posting. Please.

In short: Gated content with power-creep. ArenaNet has fallen very far from what was promised in the manifesto. Sure, it was too good to be true in the first place (affect the world in a permanent way/no more 10 minutes respawn timer yadda yadda), but it was something people – to varying degrees – were able to live with.

This upcoming change radically changes the foundation for your game.

• Competitive WvW players need to grind this. Yes, need. Competitive. People – or rather fanboys – has to understand that this isn’t really optional for the truly competitive. And ArenaNet benefits from competitive trailblazers. Just look at WoW’s raiding scene for comparison.

• Old content becoming obsolete – you can craft exotic gear. You need to grind Fractal for Ascended gear. Arguably you can still go to the old places for skins, but as the post says, there’ll be additional Ascended gear. We have now the first steps of a gear-treadmill, regardless of how delusional Anet is and try to spin it. This runs counter to the core tenet of GW2.

Even more interesting, this shows a blatant lack of correspondance between the community and the developer. I’d argue that sub-10% of GW2’s playerbase want a gear treadmill. If people leave it is because:

• tPvP is in its death-spasms from lack of support.

• It’s because WvW has become extremely unstable due to transfers, with servers “dying” in a regular basis (formerly Ruins of Surmia/HoD/ET, now apparently Gunnar’s Hold).

• It’s because we were promised that the game “wouldn’t be this boring grind amongst occasionally fun tasks” (paraphrasing manifesto), yet what we received was a game whose endgame was the epitome of a korean mmo grind with an added RNG component that combines fantasy mmo with a shady Las Vegas casino.

It is NOT because people want to grind additional gear. It is NOT because people want to do even more work kitting out their alts. It is NOT because people feel a “lack of progression”. It is because the end-game activities – WvW, s/tPvP, Dungeons – are not being supported enough and suffer from bad design choices.

Going into how these three end-game areas could be improved would require entirely separate and long posts, hence I’ll leave that to others who have already done a wonderful job of highlighting the problems (see for instance Pray’s post regarding s/tPvP).

That being said, my own few bulletpoints:

• Don’t allow free transfers galore. Once every 3 months/free, otherwise paid. We need to build actual server communities.

• Tune dungeons properly so that fights become shorter, more intense and overall ‘make more sense’. Some fights already are, but a large segment of the fights are extremely long compared to the ease of their mechanics due to sheer amount of hp. In short, they become boring. If a mob telegraphs an attack in slow-motion every 10 seconds, it shouldn’t be necessary to slap it for 3 minutes.

• Get to work on a proper ladder/ranking system in tPvP. ELO. Right now a fresh team of rank 1s can risk running into an established team of rank 40s+ and get demolished 500-10. It’s not enjoyable for either and it causes people to leave because there’s simply too steep an entry barrier. The alternative – paid tournaments – suffer from the same problems as there’s often 30 minutes+ waiting time. Fun fact: It requires two paid tournament finale wins to get on the “official ranking” Anet released. That is as clear a testimony as any that the current pvp environment is not in a healthy state.

Focus on getting proper ranking and matchmaking system first. ASAP even. Rented servers be kitten You can’t make an e-sport without bottom-up player-support. The average Joe won’t have a rented server and won’t be inclined to start delving into which one he should join for proper scrims. After matchmaking, focus on Rented servers/spectator mode/et al.

MagnusLL.8473:

The small groups only need ONE player on the big guild’s TS to start this. Believe me, the hardcore guilds would be ecstatic to hear someone log on TS and stating “hey guys I’m from guild XYZ with a small group of 10 people, do you have any suitable task for us?”

The 2 big problems are that A, most small groups want nothing to do with a guild’s TS for whatever reason, and this makes communication exponentially harder. B, not all “tasks” are created equal. Having a group of 10 reliable scouts on 10 different control points would be huge, but scouting is

• boring
• totally unrewarding in terms of karma/gold/xp

so you’d actually need to find something interesting and rewarding to do for the small group which doesn’t want to follow the big zerg. But there’s only a limited amount of those available; it’s not like you can have 5 different groups of supply camp raiders.

The last problem I can only agree with, and there’s not much to do in that regard; it is currently lacking rewards and thus enticement to random players who could otherwise fulfill such a duty.

However, to the former…

These people are random joe’s joining who may be sitting on their own TS with some friends. It’s not likely they’ll join a massive TS in which they cannot continue their own friendly conversation. They can, of course, have 2 VoIP’s open, but generally, people prefer to do things on their own terms. That includes hanging out with their friends in an environment of their choosing.

I am not saying you’re wrong or that it wouldn’t be better if it was the way you described. I think we can all agree that would be the ideal scenario. However, we got to work with what we got, and currently we need some way to organize ‘the masses’ since the aforementioned scenario isn’t accomplishing the job.

Desolation is potentially very strong with a very solid playerbase. However, people currently seem to feel (it is hard to make conclusive statements like this, but you get the idea) that in order to contribute, they have to make further commitments other than simply ‘showing up’, be it in form of donations, joining a stranger’s TS full of people they don’t know or following commanders whose primary competence is massive zergs. Failure to follow this commander’s zerg leaves… nothing. They’re left to fend for themselves. Again, I am loathe to generalize because there are alot of good commanders, but sometimes ‘the commander’ (general term) need to detach himself from the obviously profitable zerg and tend to the details as well.

Again, I am not criticizing people’s practices per se. I think it’s important to have a constructive discussion about how the current situation can be alleviated to the benefit of all, hardcore and casual alike. Current practices are obviously not working, so we have to try something new that can generate long-lasting interest and fun for a broader segment of people. This is especially evident after ‘the night zerg’ disappeared overnight and there’s no longer easy rewards to reap; people joined for easy rewards as opposed to commitment to the server’s succes. Our key to succes is to generate this lasting commitment.

One of the most prevalent impressions I’ve gotten from playing on Deso – and no offence meant, just relaying what I hear other people mostly say – is that there’s a huge incongruency between “the big fish” and “the pugs”. The big fish wants it ‘their way or the highway’, which leaves the pugs (most often actually just smaller guilds) to either conform to this or go about and ‘do their own thing’. The majority choose the latter.

There’s definitely advantages to all being on the same TS and following the directions of a select few. However, it’s not working and likely never will due to diversity in goals, abilities and even guilds, which currently leads to a widening gap between the ‘hardcore’ and the ‘casual’. If Desolation is to work coherently and competitively, the ‘big fish’ need to facilitate communication with the ‘smaller fish’ – on the smaller fish’s terms.

If a small guild joins WvW with 10 people, it would be far more conductive to the war effort if contact between them and the commander was established, and they were encouraged to do ‘their own thing’ – for instance raiding supply camps. As it is right now, people are constantly reminded to join X big guild’s TS and follow a CAPS-LOCK-SPAMMING leader whom they may never have met. On top of that, they are sometimes encouraged to send donations to certain commanders ‘for the war effort’ – an abstract and off-putting concept for rookies whose goals may be far more diverse than ‘just’ WvW and whose gold reserves are scarce. This would have worked far better in DAoC where you could gain access to Darkness Falls, but the bonuses garnered for the realm from WvW hardly make compelling reasons for strangers to send their hard-earned gold to a person they may or may not see again.

More than anything, Desolation needs to bridge the gap between the hardcore and the casual community. And as unfair as it may seem to the hardcore, they’re the ones who can facilitate such cohesion.

Edit: This is not a rant or critique at any guild or any person on Desolation, so don’t perceive it as such.

Still cannot iterate enough how badly Lodestones – particularly Charged – needs fixing. Right now they’re more expensive than most precursors.

The problem isn’t really precursors. Some of them are actually dirt cheap.

The problem is stuff like Charged Lodestones (this one in particular) and now also Ectoplasms/Vial of Powerful Blood/Elaborate Totem/Armored Scale.

Ping.5739:

By doing some research(mainly looking at your other posts), I found out that you did actually think “every one should be able to get a legendary relatively easy”. So chillax and work for it then.

No, I don’t, and I have never said so. I have always advocated that it needs to require a large time- and dedication investment, but that 1 year+ requirement is simply unsustainable and medieval. More to the point, it runs counter to everything Anet said they wanted to accomplish.

I don’t know why you keep twisting people’s word into something that suits you, but I have, once again, made my distinction for you. I think 3 months – 6 tops – is what can be required of a legendary, provided one plays 3 hour every single day. No, that is still not casual by the way. What you seem to argue is that that is too easy. I’d argue it precludes any sensible individual with anything even remotely resembling a life.

whiran.1473:

Just something to think about: while there will be a short term major rise in prices for farmable goods this price will stabilize lower than what it spikes at as players step into the role of farming.

Basically, it wasn’t worth spending the time farming for goods so people would just buy them. Now there is value for players to farm so they will. This will increase the supply which will lower the price. Will prices go as low as they were before? Probably not but they might since once players start doing an activity on a regular basis they continue to do so. This was demonstrated in EVE Online when CCP banned a huge number of farming bots.

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=687

I doubt this; first of all players do not enjoy farming – not that much. They can never compete with the bots on the supply-side.

Second, those T6 materials are primarily used for legendaries. Most people farming legendaries will not be getting alot of those materials. Furthermore, they won’t likely pursue those materials in Frostgorge where the primary (scarce) sources are because they gain so much more comparatively by farming Cursed Shore; Karma, the occasional ectos, orichalcum etc.

Third, is EVE Online a suitable comparison for GW2? Is this the direction Anet wants to take the game? EVE’s entry-barrier is insanely steep (something others have succinctly pointed out GW2’s is increasingly becoming) and the game is in many ways necessitating its players to utilize spreadsheets etc. in order to remain succesful.
Is this the model Anet is gunning for?

Right now it seems like this fluffy economic exercise in a free market is worth more than the players playing. Yes, banning bots will make farming more profitable. It will also make buying materials comparatively worse, particularly if you can’t unload alot of materials unto the TP (again, see legendary issues).

Do people want to be shoehorned into even more farming than they already are, provided they want more than ‘just’ standard skins? Doubt it, regardless of rewards. It is time to put fun before economics and increase drop-rates of some items such as Lodestones and T6 materials, either through actual increased drop-rates or additional drop sources.
Right now we’ve taken a time-machine back to EQ1. It’s medieval, draconian and a kittendation; GW2 was supposed to move the genre forward.

whiran.1473:

mangarrage.1062:

It is still market manipulation no matter what way you slice it
It is just manipulation from Anet
If they got rid of bots and deleted their listings, then they manipulated the market to force prices up

Could you define how you use the term manipulation in this sense?

Somehow I have the impression that you use it in a manner that is different than my use of it and it is confusing me.

Thanks.

John Smith’s quote, paraphrasing, that “prices are going up to their natural/supposed level again” is market-manipulative. It’s an authority making a normative statement, imposing a will upon/nudging the market. Right there we have an external factor telling us/defining what is apparently natural and normal and what isn’t.

Zaxares.5419:

I actually see things differently. I expect that ANet intended Legendaries to be items that players could obtain over the course of SEVERAL years. Guild Wars 1 had a lifetime for over 7 years; I fully expect GW2 to last for the same amount of time, if not more. In that timeline, Legendaries are probably items that your average player, playing 1 – 2 hours a day for 3 – 4 years, could definitely afford if they saved up with a mind to working towards a specific Legendary. ANet probably didn’t expect people to have Legendaries within 2 months of the game’s release. (Perhaps it was poor design, perhaps it was people exploiting the market, or perhaps it was people buying gold from gold sellers, but I’ll refrain from going too much into it since that’s not really what this thread is about.)

Let’s not compare GW1 and GW2 please; one was and is a niché mmo/CORPG, the other one is a triple A title with a persistent world and massive growth over its predecessor. Dangling carrots in front of a small, die-hard playerbase might have worked, but in a triple A title with massive populations it’s not a viable or sustainable strategy, unless they’re happy about the massive outrage legendaries are right now causing on the forums. I think it speaks volumes that pretty much every serious legendary guide comes with the caveat “don’t do this. Wait and see. It must get better.”.

Regarding people getting early legendaries, some exploited the initial precursor bug where level 65+ rares could yield precursors, making them a somewhat reliable source of massive income.

Anyway, do you honestly believe that ‘the average player’ will ‘put his mind to saving up for a legendary’ for 3-4 years? Of which the majority of the time will be spent repeating the same Cursed Shore events over and over and over? Instead of going to another games that, y’know, actually have a better measurement of effort/reward.

Did we just take a time machine back to EQ1?

Ping.5739:

@Nimraphel.7819

Your point completely base on “every one should be able to get a legendary relatively easily”, which, in fact, is not a reasonable opinion.

That is an outright lie. I have never ever written this anywhere nor even given even the slightest indication that this was my stance. This is either your pathetic attempt at slander or your inability to properly read. Either way, I challenge you to find a quote by me in which I say that ‘everyone should be able to get a legendary relatively easy’. Oh you can’t? Thank you. Let this kittendation stop.

I said that having a carrot dangling in front of players for 1+ year (and no, people, 3 hours a day every single day is not casual. 15+ hours a day are anomalies) is simply not sustainable. It is medieval.

monepipi.5160:

Nimraphel.7819:

monepipi.5160:

@Nimraphel.7819

well duh, a casual player shouldnt be able to get a legendary within months. IF thats the case, everyone will be running around with a legendary. Then they wouldn’t be legendary anymore, would they? a newly dinged 80 shouldn’t even be looking at legendaries, but rather normal rares and exotics. Its not like legendaries have any more stats than exotics, they are a want rather than a need. Nobody is forcing anyone to go after legendaries.

Please keep legendaries exclusive, tyvm.

You obviously didn’t pay attention to what I wrote.

I said that the average player wasn’t the intended target for a legendary BUT that the currenty entry-barrier for legendaries is obnoxiously high, even for the most dedicated no-lifer.

And I would hardly say that a guy averaging 3 hours/day every single day is casual. Far from it. He would be amongst the segment that should definitely have a shot at legendaries; 3 hours/day/365 days a year is not compatible with serious studies, family, career, work or whatever. It’s unsustainable. The hypothetical guy in my example would be a prime candidate for a legendary over considerable time. Considerable time, however, is not one year. As I said it’s an unsustainable model, particularly when alot of people exploited MF to acquire precursors early.

Right now, however, abovestated guy won’t have a regular shot at it. The entry barrier is so high he might as well not try, as it all hinges on MF luck and a volatile market.
Besides, how would you describe Average Joe playing 1 day/week who gets lucky and acquires a precursor? He could have just dinged 80 and acquired it. He might even – gosh, I know, it’s hard to fathom – be a casual player. Wow. Oh well, you’ve dictated he’s not the audience, so uhm… Yeah. Legendaries are skill and dedication y’know? Oh wait

You should reread what I wrote; would save you the time writing banalities and I wouldn’t have to endure repetition.

Average Joe would still have the rest of the materials to get, he still would not be able to get the legendary in months if he’s casual. My point still stands.

Of course; my point with the example was to show that legendary right now is not solely about dedication and a reasonably large time investment; it’s about luck and an obnoxious time-investment beyond any reason. I doubt you’ll find alot (any?) people willing to grind 3 hours every single day for a full year in order to obtain a legendary. If you think so then I find you deeply disturbing.

Besides, you conveniently ignored everything else – as well as the other post by Thrognar highlighting the problem in a coherent way. I can only assume you have no refutation for that.

Thrognar.4186:

Some very good points and reasonable suggestions have already been made above. The bots provided the supply to meet the demand from max-leveled characters, whether they be garbage rares for the mystic forge or crafting materials for exotics. With this supply gone, prices have already gone up and will continue to rise as demand builds. This is great news for people who like to farm, as their profits will be greater for now, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The math says that if 12S garbage rares result in 150-300G precursors, 17S garbage rares will soon cause an proportional adjustment in precursor prices as well. And it doesn’t stop there either, as other commodities will also catch up in price as well. If I have to pay more for an item, I have to sell my own items for more. It’s all relative.

I can understand if players want to farm for a Legendary Skin, because they are truly optional and don’t affect gameplay. Yes, the cost to build one is excessive, but it’s still a personal choice to pursue that particular endgame objective. On the other hand, I feel that a full set of exotics for a level 80 character is absolutely essential. It is required to stay competitive in WvW, dungeons, and improve overall playability. Throw in a full set of superior runes and sigils as well, and you could be running into a significant financial barrier for many players. The price increases of crafting materials directly influence the cost of obtaining end-game exotic gear. Fewer garbage rares, lodestones, and fine crafting materials will result in decreased supply of ectoplasm, runes, sigils, and exotics. This obviously doesn’t affect the hardcore players as much, since they will farm items to sell at inflated prices if they have to, but hits the casuals the hardest since they are on a fixed income of event rewards and vendor trash. I mean, seriously, who does higher prices hurt more, the Cursed Shore farmer who sells his proportionally priced rares at the TP, or the casual player who earns 1S 98C from selling the green item to the game vendor?

In the end, Mr. Smith indicates that we get one result from the loss of bots: the rise of more player farmers, hardcore and casual alike. Veterans will need to farm for their ambitious legendaries, and newly minted 80’s will need to farm for their competitive gear. Really? ANET wants more farmers? Are we are simply replacing bot farmers with player farmers, and all the while the price hikes will be felt across every aspect of the game, from eggs to ectoplasm? At least the bots didn’t increase demand. Is this a reversal in ideology, where farming is now definitely required of any player who wants to be competitive. I thought we could be competitive without grinding too much, if at all –wasn’t that what was originally advertised?

Despite what I just read, I still believe this is a supply problem, amplified by the ambitious and taxing requirements needed for building end-game gear (legendary or othewise), that was once alleviated by bots. Without increasing greater supply, or reducing demand, prices will continue to rise, and a vicious inflationary cycle continues. But, are people going to stop throwing rares into the mystic forge? No, but when they pull out a garbage exotic, they’ll sell it at a price proportional to how much the ingredients cost. Therefore, you can’t limit demand and the only other option is to fix the supply issue. While the idea to lessen the effect of diminishing returns or delay the effect of diminishing returns would help, that just further encourages grinding and farming. Even better would be a revamped loot table to allow for increased fine material and rare/exotic drops, such that casuals and semi-hardcore players would not have to rely so much on the trading post to get their materials. Having higher priced materials on the trading post doesn’t address the fundamental issue of low supply, it just makes everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, cost more. This doesn’t hurt player farmers, it hurts everyone else, especially the casuals, newly-minted 80’s, and especially the people who bought gems with real money. Their cash/gems/gold now has less buying power.

C’mon ANET, we’re happy you got rid of the bots, but please fix the supply problem too.

^
This guys gets it. Thank you for a great post.

monepipi.5160:

@Nimraphel.7819

well duh, a casual player shouldnt be able to get a legendary within months. IF thats the case, everyone will be running around with a legendary. Then they wouldn’t be legendary anymore, would they? a newly dinged 80 shouldn’t even be looking at legendaries, but rather normal rares and exotics. Its not like legendaries have any more stats than exotics, they are a want rather than a need. Nobody is forcing anyone to go after legendaries.

Please keep legendaries exclusive, tyvm.

You obviously didn’t pay attention to what I wrote.

I said that the average player wasn’t the intended target for a legendary BUT that the currenty entry-barrier for legendaries is obnoxiously high, even for the most dedicated no-lifer.

And I would hardly say that a guy averaging 3 hours/day every single day is casual. Far from it. He would be amongst the segment that should definitely have a shot at legendaries; 3 hours/day/365 days a year is not compatible with serious studies, family, career, work or whatever. It’s unsustainable. The hypothetical guy in my example would be a prime candidate for a legendary over considerable time. Considerable time, however, is not one year. As I said it’s an unsustainable model, particularly when alot of people exploited MF to acquire precursors early.

Right now, however, abovestated guy won’t have a regular shot at it. The entry barrier is so high he might as well not try, as it all hinges on MF luck and a volatile market.
Besides, how would you describe Average Joe playing 1 day/week who gets lucky and acquires a precursor? He could have just dinged 80 and acquired it. He might even – gosh, I know, it’s hard to fathom – be a casual player. Wow. Oh well, you’ve dictated he’s not the audience, so uhm… Yeah. Legendaries are skill and dedication y’know? Oh wait

You should reread what I wrote; would save you the time writing banalities and I wouldn’t have to endure repetition.

Fozee.1083:

Getting very nice things is not meant to be accomplished right away and with supreme ease. It’s going to take time and patience, and you have a long time to do it. There’s no need to get a legendary in the first couple of months and then quit because of “lack of content”.

This is not what anyone is saying. A friend and I are soon posting a legendary guide in which we describe how we’re acquiring 2x Sunrise in less than a month – but that is through playing the TP excessively and being ridiculously lucky with the MF.

Right now some people with legendaries acquired them early due to exploitation. They got it early. A normal, average player may not be intended to acquire a legendary. However, right now the entry-barrier for legendaries is nigh-insurmountable.
Take Sunrise: 350~g for precursor, 250~g for Charged Lodestones, 100g for Jormag Stones, 90~g for 500 Ectoplasms, 125-150g for all T6 fine materials, 75~g for all Orichalcum + other ores + Cured Leather…. We are already at roughly 1000 gold.
Assuming an average player, through time, averages at 3 hours a day (might be high considering we’re talking every single day average, but let’s roll with it). He makes 1 gold/hour average (after all, he will have to farm AC exp, 500 BoH, World Exploration etc). 3 Gold/Day means he will be done in little less than a year. Chances are he will have to spend even longer time. Most of it farming the same repetitive events over and over and over ad nauseum in Orr.

Do you honestly believe that is a viable design in any conceivable way anno 2012? Do you honestly think people will retain interest through such a journey? Do you honestly believe people will continue to put up with wildly fluctuating markets, mystic forge RNG that more often than not will rob like you a slot-machine?

Ping.5739:

I need to point out that seeing bots while I was playing the game is a very unpleasant experience. Bots could break down the economy system by rising item price

On the contrary, they were the reason you could acquire cheap materials. Right now prices are soaring because the primary suppliers have been banned. If you thought prices were high before, you’re in for a rude awakening. Several commodities have risen over 500%.

Ping.5739:

and cut human players’ profit.

Before we bought stuff cheap and sold stuff cheap. Now we buy stuff expensive and sell stuff expensive. Primary difference is that right now people who need to primarily acquire materials (for instance the people going for Legendary weapon) have to either pay a higher price or farm for even longer (on top of an already inhumane RNG grindfest).

Ping.5739:

Besides bots, GW2 is such an amazing game: nice graphic, good story line, world events , helping neighbor, and so on. So if you guys don’t what this game get ruined, please be strict on bots.

Honestly, take a step back and put yourself into perspective, no offence meant… But you’re not the norm if you’re as “no life” as you describe. The normal player will not have the same investment into the game as you have and likely not ever accumulate considerable wealth as you might be able to due to your excessive time-investment. For the average player (= the majority), the prices has skyrocketed out of proportions due to the bots being banned.

The bots ensured materials. Right now market prices rise to a level that is ridiculously high for the average player. "Yeah, go grind Cursed Shore karma events for 5 hours, you’ll be able to buy 25-30 Vial of Powerful Blood – only 225-220 left for legendary! (… plus another bunch of now-excessively expensive materials).

Anet is medieval in their handling of this. Right now the market is extremely volatile, particularly to newly dinged 80 players, and the soaring of prices will only lead to one thing: harder entry-barrier for newly dinged people. They will have a harder time buying materials, they will have a harder time crafting etc etc…

The drop-rate of some items – namely Charged Lodestones and to a lesser extent the other lodestones as well as the T6 materials – need to be upped. Right now they only exacerbate the problems with the TP and game, and particularly the legendary-situation that so desperately needs resolution (unless it’s intended that the average player would have to spend 1 year+ to acquire it – again a medieval notion although they should of course retain rarity).

John Smith.4610:

The price spike doesn’t represent a shortage, it represents prices returning to where they should be without bots. This change creates more opportunity for players playing the game to earn money. The oversupply the bots created hurt the legitimate producers of items. As the prices go up, more real players will enter the market.

This still doesn’t adress the ridiculous situation of legendaries highlighted above. While it’s becoming more profitable from a seller’s perspective, it is now more than ever nigh-impossible to craft a legendary. In sum, it’s a hellish market from a buyer’s perspective because even with the most optimal approach, gold/hour is still averaging at 1½-2½ at most from farming due to DR. And I am being generous here.

I think there is a serious need to re-examine what you want from this game. I can appreciate the TP and the market from a purely economic perspective, but that’s an occupational hazard; from a purely gaming perspective, we are a long, long, long shot away from anything even resembling fun.

As it is right now you might as well make a disclaimer whenever a new person hits level 80: “Do not bother with legendaries unless you are unemployed and got 10 hours/day for half a year. Oh and by the way, you should play the TP if you want money unless you belong to aforementioned demographic. Don’t like it? Tough luck.”

Campalishous.9076:

Kudos, but….

…clearly we need more areas to get the T6 mats from if bots were having that big of an impact on supply.

This. So. Much. This.

Legendaries now got even more problematic than before.

Ensign.2189:

When a whole class of assets changes in price it’s safe to assume there’s an underlying reason for the change, and that it isn’t targeted manipulation; you want to target a single asset with a reasonably low throughput to manipulate.

A wide variety of assets that were previously being kicked out in large numbers by bots have shot up in price. The assumption I would make, given that information, is that a bunch of bots have been banned, choking off the bot supply, and causing the prices of those items to rise as a result.

That was my first inclination as well, but this change happened almost overnight and affected other markets as well, such as Burgundy Dye (still nobody able to explain that one either). The price would have gone up gradually as the market would have dwindled gradually. Not as it is right now.

John Smith.4610:

This is not caused by market manipulation.

It’d be alot more enlightening if you then gave an indication of what we’re seeing; the Burgundy dye rise and to a lesser extent the T6 materials is extreme, particularly the former. Did demand suddenly rise with several hundred percentages overnight with no new apparent avenues for furthering demand? It’s not like some new items were added requiring T6 mats, Ectoplasms and Burgundy dye.

Or is it purely a bot-sweep and/or due to some obscure post that people are interpreting to include abovestated items?

Possible to get a link to the post regarding powertrader? Anything increasing the prices for our items is undesirable, right now people are struggling to make any profit at all.

Also lol @ Burgundy dye.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/20496

This is not people reacting to a statement made by Anet, which I’m sure the majority of the playerbase isn’t aware of. This is market manipulation by a few people likely enriched by early exploits, from which the rest of us now suffer.

oZii.2864:

1 person has a small effect on the TP since most T6 mats are farmed like crazy. Alot of people are buying in on T6 mats I know I have so when the time comes I’’ll make a pretty good profit I can cash in now for good returns.

Do you honestly belive they will keep rising? Right now the prices on T6 mats are ludicrous.

oZii.2864:

More people are starting to understand how the economy work in GW2 not everyone buying them up is also trying to resell like myself. I told friend that need them for whatever they are crafting to buy some while they are low now so they won’t have to pay more later.

This is not normal fluctuations. These are, I repeat, not normal economic fluctuations in a healthy economy.

Looking at GW2 Spidy, the prices on the following items:

Vial of Powerful Blood ( http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24295 )
Armored Scale ( http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24289 )
Elaborate Totems ( http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24300 )

And to a lesser extent:
Vicious Claw ( http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24351 )
Vicious Fang ( http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24357 )
Powerful Venom Sac ( http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/24283 )

… Are spiking extremely and madly. Is this market manipulation or are there other reasons for this? In a game where gold is scarce for the majority of the population, prices like these are, to put it frankly, ridiculously high.

Prices on unidentified dyes have plummeted rapidly ever since 1st of November. Abyss Dye has lost over 1½g in a day. This should tell you something.

This should be ample evidence that dye droprate has been increased dramatically, a sentiment echoed by everyone currently farming in Orr zones.

Curious, most nights last week we, Desolation, were getting “Outnumbered” buff on several Borderlands.

And when two full zergs meet and don’t touch each other, it’s wildly different than rushing past a force pursuing an overarching goal. It’s not like Desolation stops and /bow at the enemies like the French has done several times. Again, not personally accusing you Wothan, but it’s an unfortunate truth.

Again, people think our NA players is of mythical proportions; it is most certainly not. Last week it was even inferior to VZ’s numbers, which is partially due to holiday but also partially due to VZ simply having a nighttime presence – as they have always had, as all previous opponents can confirm. They’re the server who even coined the term “nightcapping”, which granted them several wins in a row.

Wothan.4673:

Oh Come on.. are you serious ? i mean what kind of drug you take ? We can see many bullkitten on this forum, but this.. really one of the best.. this is no way..
If not, i’m sure it’s Troma and this WL moving on AB !

Apparently not the same drugs as you take; I was asking a question, you’re immediately assuming I am accusing you. I guess the proverb “every thief assumes everyone steals” is applicable here, but alas, I digress.

That aside, I assume that even though it is inconceivable to you that any cooperation whatsoever exists between AB and VZ, it does ring hollow when you assure Desolation players that there is no alliance, yet there’s blatant occurrences where your forces refuse to fight each other, even going so far as to /bow to each other, and having spies wasting our supplies regularly.

On an entirely different note: I find it quite humorous how some people validates a 2v1 alliance to having full night-time coverage, regardless of means the latter is achieved with. No amount of coverage can compete with 166 fighting 332 people. It happened last weekend (the publicly admitted alliance) and it happened Thursday-Friday as well when Desolation was brought down sub-100 pts at times and Vizunah consolidated their lead. You can deny it all you want, and for you it might be true, but fact remains that some guilds/people blatantly continued to cooperate.

I am not saying that it was your personal fault; but you can’t absolve an entire server of responsibility. That would be completely inane, as I am sure you would agree.

The fact that both Arbor and VZ sandwiched Desolation at the sentry at Bluelake, and then proceeded to meet without touching each other, some of them even doing /bow to the “opposing” side, certainly seems to reinforce this notion. I guess it’s Arbor’s turn to win, too?

Word on the street is that Arb will indeed win this, as a large VZ guild has transferred to Arb to ensure that 2 French teams will stay in Tier1 – confirm/deny?

Can only agree; being a master in economics, I can easily appreciate what Anet is trying to do – and that their arguments seem logical from a purely objective perspective. However, they also completely neglect any responsibility towards skewered drop-rates leading to obscene lack of supply and skewering gold prices towards a level where only a select few can participate. That might be fine from an economic perspective, and I am certainly not advocating that legendaries should be strewn left and right, but I think it’s important to remember that this is a game; it’s supposed to be fun, a break from the tedium of everyday-work and ultimate rewarding in some way. As it is right now Charged Lodestone prices make that ‘difficult’. Economically there’s literally thousands of reasons as to why this is not a problem. Economics also rarely concern itself about people’s ‘fun’, as should be paramount for a game; talking from experience here

In short: Increase lodestones and cores’ drop rate, even if only slightly. Possibly guarantee one lodestone for each party member after a CoE explorable.

We are always considering exceptional applicants! However, the following classes are of particular interest:

iQ Bunker Elementalist
Bunker Engineer
Offensive Rifle Engineer
Bunker Guardian
Thief

Source would be appreciated.

Still looking for competent tPvP’ers!

We are particularly looking for:

Engineer, Mesmer, Thief

However, we are always on the lookout for exceptional players! If that’s you, throw us an application!