I hope you encourage other teams to take a look at this thread. There are some interesting suggestions and unique concepts presented here. We appreciate your effort and understand that some of this is overboard but suggestion threads like this often become a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks”.
A move to consolidate items in mass can significantly affect some sales so our expectations shouldn’t be super high. The game practically throws everything to us we need to outfit more characters simply by playing, so shouldn’t we expect to need more bags and slots and storage?
What I’m saying is whatever creates more space will help and be appreciated, even if it isn’t everything that everyone came up with that might fit everyone’s definition of what might qualify.
By the time I run out of earned badges of honor, I will have converted all my precursors to legendarys. The method I described was for all the players who did not spend their badges of honor because the vendor was removed before it was announced when it would be removed.
These players don’t have to be forced to play WvW again, to get what they already earned.
(edited by Tumult.2578)
I suspect more gindy is ok because it’s an enjoyable game mode for so many players. I wouldn’t state that for WvW.
Didn’t say I want it without playing WvW. I said I will get it without playing WvW because I played it enough in the past. It’s not my game to design.
Like that makes sense. I didn’t ask for anything. Take another look.
How can so many players be wrong? I played enough WvW in the past to know I will not do it again. Yes, I will still get the GOB and only have to suffer the few seconds it takes to spend badges of honor on a daily. That coupled with the Ley-line matter converter’s ability to purchase an occasional box of WvW supplies, will get me to the GOB in a number of months.
I’d rather spend years this way, than ever actually play WvW.
The sad thing is I now see that the game is being designed to push me away and now I usually just do log in and dailys, less and less often, and I certainly don’t spend money of gold anymore.
Offering ways to lessen the pain by reducing the time spent in WvW or trying to justify this nonsense because of map completion is a true waste of everyone’s time. Say it like it is. Right or wrong, fair or unfair, WvW players want more inexperienced players to kill.
If you only look at the amount of time they expect it to take to make a Legendary, and already have plenty of unspendable badges of honor, start the method I described above. You can get the GOB before you get the other required components. It’s just far less pain and boredom.
(edited by Tumult.2578)
Funny, I did the dailies on my non-Hot account in about 10 minutes.
On my Hot account, I’m almost getting used to being penalized for buying Hot.
No interest in JP’s, so certainly no interest in finding ways to scam my way through them.
After the dailies, I play a game that doesn’t try to force me into content I don’t enjoy, just to get items I’d never use in that game mode ever anyway.
How many years for this forum bug now?
When defeated, if you have an orb in inventory, you will receive a UI option to ‘Consume a Revive Orb’ alongside the usual “Return to Waypoint” option.
Can this UI option be turned off? I like to try some crazy stuff sometimes and end up dying a few times. That doesn’t mean I want repeated reminders, OR have to go ditch the orbs to try it, when it was a spur of the moment thing.
That’s cool. I tend to be harsh when there appears to be no room for the opinion that the lemons should be changed. Wasn’t trying to offend.
Yours is certainly a more helpful approach. This just hasn’t made me feel like being helpful.
I highly disagree, it reflects the state of WvW and the reality that only a handful of servers are worth WvWing on. It reflects how poorly balanced WvW is and how poorly structured it is. It reflects how little people want to play it even when it is rewarding because the gamemode itself just isn’t good. If anything it reflects how wrong anet is to try and force people into it without fixing any of those issues.
We are all capable of choosing our attitude in how we approach anything we do. It just requires preliminary consideration.
edit: the poster I quoted above demonstrates them choosing to do a 9 hour stint, choosing to be afk while doing it, choosing to bring in a build that’d be useless and unengaging to them, and ultimately choosing to participate in such a poor way with such a poor attitude that they’re admitting wasting the valuable map space they’re taking up. Those problems stem from their choices in how they’re approaching WvW to be engaging for them… not a problem with the reward track system.
~EW
Look, I know your a sharp person and I respect your opinion but I have to disagree with this.
There is clearly absolutely no interest in approaching WvW in any way that is engaging, period. This is the case for very many players. There is no indication that this will ever change. This is not the reward track systems problem, it’s the game’s problem. Do you really think there is any interest in the reward track system at all for these players?
Players are fully prepared to play any way they see fit when forced like this and look at that game modes players as at least partially responsible so they feel no remorse because of their methods chosen.
Trying to blame this on a players attitude is no different that saying “You have to like WvW because I do”. It doesn’t work because attitude is personally developed. They will never see that map space as valuable.
And the best way to reinvigorate a dead game mode is to try and fill it with players who absolutely hate being there.
I’m NOT ok with this and my spending habits make that clear. If they don’t deal with this soon, their shot at my money will be gone.
But you have to understand that throwing a tantrum only makes the game more boring if they give in. I’d rather see you go than give you a legendary because you just want to avoid something you don’t want to do.
Because where does that end?
You cant be serious. Why must everyone only have your opinion of what is boring? What tantrum? Your statement is just as much a tantrum if not more.
My statement is accurate and my spending position has been determined over the long term.
Personally I enjoy cooperative PvE. Frankly, there is no game without it.
WvW is a long forgotten joke and if you have any experience with it, you’d know that. It’s been ignored by the Devs since the start.
It must be upsetting to know that I played and hated WvW enough to have several Legendary weapons already and the ability to go out and buy many more with coin earned in game. Playing WvW to attain a legendary weapon is doing it the very hard way now.
To answer your question, it ends with all the hardcore players leaving and the game becoming much more fun and more profitable, or it ends because of a lack of players. It was foolish to think they could keep you constantly happy with more and more and more difficult content. It’s not the same Devs that made this game. There’s too much of the original game they can’t change. This will become apparent to you soon if they continue trying to lock progress behind failed game modes.
And the best way to reinvigorate a dead game mode is to try and fill it with players who absolutely hate being there.
I’m NOT ok with this and my spending habits make that clear. If they don’t deal with this soon, their shot at my money will be gone.
I took a look at the stickys with the eyes of a new players and gotta say I’m not motivated to even try WvW.
What I saw was;
1. How not to anger the other players, no matter how angry you are.
2. Only the commander matters, you clearly don’t.
3. If we leave the zerg we must know the “conventions used” by at least some players regarding dueling and roaming.
4. Changes happen without reason given or notice.
5. Want loot? Wrong game mode.
6. Lot’s of unneeded karma available
7. Actual progress will take forever pushing 1 in a zerg.
8. Help everyone, don’t expect help.
9. Badges rewarded are worthless in other game modes.
10. You have to be here because we have to do PvE for map completion.
Where are the invitations and offers of help, of guilds offer to help. Where are the tips on gear, stats, weapons, traits, classes or anything designed to actually help and welcome new players.
It kind of seems like doing this means learning on your own by dying over and over because it is clear the goal is not loot, it’s to kill your opponent and by helping anyone, you help the opponent.
I suspect the game mode is not as bad as this makes it look.
My point is, where do we see the players effort to bring more players into this game mode?
It most certainly is gambling!
A lot of this game is designed around the image we display and I guess to me the single biggest long term goal is to be able to display a character with all legendary weapons of my choice. I think the game throws enough gold at us if we play consistently so it’s an attainable goal using that gold to gamble for what I want.
Gambling with game generated coin is still gambling, period.
Gotten lucky with the forge in the past but it’s not rare to put 40 to 80 gold worth of rares in the MF each week and not get anything at all for 7 months. Understand the commitment before going in and be prepared to persevere through some long droughts.
The world boss circuit will provide the rares if you put in the time. I’d suggest you get several characters to level 80 and geared in exotics so you can repeat good event chains after learning what events chain together. You improve your chances by using those other characters to repeat good events and to remove the “diminishing returns” effect.
The only way to not get a precursor eventually is to stop trying.
Non Raiders blocked from XP bar spirit shards
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Tumult.2578
I don’t think they need to remove any content. The problem is blocking progress by requiring us to complete that new content. It should be created and self sufficient enough to survive on it’s own rewards, and not be required to get something we used to get already in the past.
Blocking progress makes it punishment content. Regardless of how entertaining it is, when it’s required, many will refuse to take part. Block progress in enough areas and players simply leave. There are just too many other good games coming, and out, that allow us to play what WE like.
The sooner they get this, the longer the game will last.
9702 hours over 1443 days. (about a week after game start)
The lover
The Chosen
The Bard
The Hunter – 2 – one Leg – one dropped from the Queens Pavilion Champ
The Legend – 2 – one Leg – one from Princess eating bloodstone
Rage
Storm
Carcharais – 2
Finally bought Zap because I’m pretty sure I sold one to a vendor, not knowing what it really was during the first month of the game.
So 2 drops and one TP and the rest from forging 120 to 240 rares and subsequent exotics a week over the last year or so.
12 total.
I’m not liking the title of this thread because it detracts from the actual issue.
I have both a HoT and Non HoT accounts. I bet it is hard to see with only a HoT account but every time I play the Non Hot, a smile spreads across my face each time I notice a reward for completing a levels worth of experience.
I’m not smiling every time I notice my experience bar doesn’t move.
After a while it starts to seem like I’m doing the same amount of effort, but not receiving any rewards. The levels may be required to achieve the mastery rewards but why is there now, no credit for for the level? Doesn’t seem right.
A significant part of this is the games clear intent to provide rewards designed not for your main, but for your alts. Simple acts like logging in and Daily Achievements directly hand to us new levels and gear clearly designed to help us level and outfit all our characters.
This by itself enables us to play legitimately without suffering from DR while making it difficult for botters. I think this is a good system and while awareness is important, I really don’t want anymore screen clutter, no matter how helpful.
If you love your main character that much, simply duplicate it with your alts, and use them when DR becomes an issue.
Yeah, after thinking about it, by the time it becomes an issue, they don’t really need to be saved. Unless you are buying a lot of additional character slots.
Just used one of those potions and it did not advance the track or grant any WvW experience.
I understand some are different in the bonus they give but the majority which come from the first birthday and from achievement chests, do the same thing. Why don’t they stack? Got 3 stacks running now.
And you still don’t. Fill your reward track by spending all those badges when ‘Big Spender’ comes up. Not only that, but completing ‘Master of Monuments’ is no more difficult than your version of ‘mapping’. Now it’s twice as fast to fulfill your reward track.
No need to sully yourself in the ‘vile cess pool’ [sic].
Good luck.
But where do the badges of honor come from in the first place?
Same way they would have gotten them had the gift still been purchaseable from the vendor.
Sorry, but this is not clear.
You have to actually go into WvW and select a reward track first.
Master of Monuments is WvW content so I don’t see how this is helpful at all.
For that matter all the Daily WvW tasks are too.
I assume we simply receive the gift once the reward track is completed but doing the Daily Spender with badges does not appear to advance the track at all or reward any track progress, however it does reward some of the useless crap within that track.
Can anyone say they have actually seen the track complete, and received the Gift, by completing the Daily Spender task?
It might save a lot of time and opposing effort if this can be confirmed.
It also made all GoB worthless.
I am wondering why you think this. GoB only has value if you need one. Since it is account bound. Now, instead of passivly earning one with Achievement chest badges, you need to actively spend time in WvW. Time, is far more valuable than anything else, in or outside of game.
I will also relink the Dev response which renders anyone arguing against this change completely moot.
Absolutely hilarious.
3 simple things.
1. You are intentionally ignoring the fact that many players actually played WvW and earned the badges before they were added to achievement chests, and read all the patch notes, waiting for an announcement of when the changes would take affect, but it was not announced, just implemented. Wait till it happens to you. After all, you just said it’s ok to do.
2. Another 2500 plus views in this thread added to all those other threads mass merged to bury the issue, that resulted in 10 times that many views. Now add all the players who have not even discovered their loss due to poor communications and the resulting threads they will be posting here far into the future. All calling more and continued attention to this failure.
3. Where did you think new WvW players would be coming from? The PvE players have now seen first hand the bitterness there. The hatred of anyone not playing WvW at an elite level. The desperation of wanting the game mode to continue despite the obvious lack of interest by most players. (do you really think they will ever give up the transfer fee’s to actually fix WvW?) And, the fact that more and more people will see this issue with the next and the next and the next thread.
Seriously, the only thing I can agree with is that the Gift of battle has lost it’s value.
It’s now too risky to commit the time and effort to a legendary component hunt when what you have acquired can be made useless so easily without a common uproar from all players.
This matter’s little to me now. I’m moving on, but stop shooting yourselves in the foot and posting this nonsense about it having been done correctly. It’s only alienating the potential players you want and desperately need.
Just one thing I didn’t notice in the thread so far.
It takes a certain amount of inventory and bank slots and even additional character slots, to play the game effectively and everyone is likely a little different in what they need, but you will need to spend much more on those if you are crafting rather than buying a precursor. The value of those expenses continue to give after it is crafted but it is still a significant cost for crafting only, that doesn’t appear to be included in any crafting cost program or website.
Yes, the devtracker has the most to offer on the forums but again we only see what they choose to respond to there. I’m also reluctant to have them take time from game development but (in my opinion) too much goes ignored.
Nobody said anything about expecting a response to every good idea. When threads get huge though, there should be some response, even if it’s to simply say “We cant do this”, “We are looking at this”, “this is on our long term list”, or whatever is appropriate.
I don’t see this as a big time sink. I see it as a good chance at getting positive feedback and I think that is important.I agree with you: it’s a good opportunity for feedback. And you’re right: it’s not a big time sink. But, if you’ve worked on any dev teams (games or otherwise) or in business generally, you’ll find that your day can be filled with 1000s of “not a big time sink” things that could be important.
So whose to say what the right amount of developer responses would be? You say it’s not enough; others say it’s fine.
The title of this thread, however, suggests more than it’s simply too little. It could have read, “should ANet respond to long threads?” Instead, it asks if it’s a waste to even offer a suggestion. That doesn’t leave much room for anyone to work with.
Thanks for getting me to go back and re-read the OP’s title. There is more implied there than I saw at first and it looks like it may be more of an attempt to call attention to collective communication by asking the “waste of time” question. This does make it hard to respond to, but by being more encompassing, It did allowed me to present my concern over unanswered massive threads and some of the thread merging.
The position I retired from gave me a full understanding of how time comes at a premium, and even though the meaning of time has changed a lot since then for me, I agree that too often the choice is do this OR that, not do this AND that.
Frankly, I’d consider posting a more specific thread addressing just those two issues, but aside from maybe offering an answer to a specific question here or there, I’m really not feeling very motivated to provide constructive feedback when so many posters don’t even bother to read a thread before flinging insults, that make them look childish, and threatening to add things to the thread that are already there.
Maybe it’s burnout and time to step back for awhile. Thank you for an intelligent discussion.
Yes, the devtracker has the most to offer on the forums but again we only see what they choose to respond to there. I’m also reluctant to have them take time from game development but (in my opinion) too much goes ignored.
Nobody said anything about expecting a response to every good idea. When threads get huge though, there should be some response, even if it’s to simply say “We cant do this”, “We are looking at this”, “this is on our long term list”, or whatever is appropriate.
I don’t see this as a big time sink. I see it as a good chance at getting positive feedback and I think that is important.
Let’s simply say that after posting numerous times over a wide variety of issues and reading the same type of posts from many players, offering suggestions or simply offering idea’s for discussion to see if they should be suggested, because we really want the game to succeed, I find the obvious lack of response on Anet’s part very discouraging.
If you question the “lack of response” I believe comparing a few of the Very Large threads with the Dev Tracker posts in them, or lack there of, should clarify it..
It just seems to me to have reached a point where the game looses because posters trying to make it better are discouraged. Yes, much is simple whining and begging but alot is solid discussion on valid topics that may make the game better but they both get the same response.
If your already sorting through all those game communication methods and see how little actual response there is in the “official forums” where is the continuing motivation to try and suggest things? Isn’t this what the OP is asking?
Personally, I totally believe it’s wasted effort. The selective communications cannot be defended. Posts in the “so called” official forum can reach thousands of views and many hundreds of responses and most don’t get a single response. That’s not just poor communication it’s insulting.
This drives players away from posting good possible changes and I’m convinced the game could be more fun for everyone if they simply set a limit on the number of posts or views and when the limit was reached, they respond to the issue.
The way threads are merged also does the game a disservice by burying valid issues in big threads in wrong areas.
When so many players have limited time to play, how can there be an “expectation” of having to check the forums for threads, patch notes, survey results, Reddit, Sub reddit, Wiki, and other good intentioned personal websites for what seems to many players to be basic information? This tells me that the effort to hide and surprize outweighs the effort to communicate and what kind of business model is that?
Sorry if I missed it but I didn’t notice DIMINISHING RETURNS anywhere in this thread.
Please check it out. This affects Dungeons, Dynamic Events and LOOT FROM ENEMIES!
If you have thousands of hours ingame, I would hope you have several level 80 characters decked out in at least exotic gear. Use those other characters and significantly increase your chances of a precursor drop, and better loot.
(9457 hours over 1404 days – 1 drop, 1 from feeding Princess, many from the Forge)
“Did it work?” implies there was a motive.
If the motive was to push me to do jumping puzzles then no it failed.
If the motive was to push me to do WvW then no it failed.
If the motive was to push me away from completing 3 dailies, then it succeded.… huh? Being rewarded more to do something makes you want to not do it?
And the motive was “Get more of the game’s gold to people just playing”.
The type of content required for reward changed, in case you didn’t notice.
If what you claim was the motive, which I doubt entirely, then no it didn’t work because it required MORE than in the past. It required doing content which I don’t do because I don’t enjoy it. The net result is significantly less gold from Dailies. Make it 20 gold and I still wont do content I don’t enjoy. There’s plenty I do enjoy.
“Did it work?” implies there was a motive.
If the motive was to push me to do jumping puzzles then no it failed.
If the motive was to push me to do WvW then no it failed.
If the motive was to push me away from completing 3 dailies, then it succeded.
delete this comment please its full of non sense and ignorance ^^ ..
you can get badges through achievement chests & can you please teach me how to farm a full reward track 1 day ? because you are a little exaggerating here buddyYou all got free badges for no effort in wvw, how nice, if only they could have done that to say hmmm dungeon tokens.
It takes 8-9 hours to do a reward track, less if you have the wvw potions from the dailies.
Who is this that got free badges?
If you earned your wvw badges then good on you.
If you did it before the change for the purpose of getting the gift of battle, why did you wait to get it?
If you’re a wvw player, why are you complaining on something you can get for just playing wvw as usual?
Valid questions with easy answers.
I did buy 4 Gift of Battles. About to use the 4th. When you collect legendary components your storage space becomes filled up. There was never any reason to fill more spaces because for about 3.5 years this currency could always be held to spend when another gift was needed. The vendor was removed without including when it would happen in patch notes so while it was supposed to happen at some future date, it was implemented without advanced notice of when.
I also agree that RE-EARNING the gift is simple. Unfortunately, I have lost all trust that the game won’t simply destroy my efforts in WvW repeatedly, without advanced notice, like they just did. WvW is pointless to me now.
You do realize you had to WvW to get those 500 badges of honor before right? You also realize that with the decrease in drop rate it made it even harder for “PVE ONLY” people to get those 500 badges? Have you even tried the reward track yet? Its actually an improvement on the old system for those of you who don’t like WvW. If you are adverse to fighting in WvW, take the Karma train on Edge of the Mists with a buff. I did this track in one day running through the mists. Much faster than grinding out 500 badges. Just because something has become inconvenient because you now cant get it right away does not make it a bad method. Try it first then bring your criticism.
delete this comment please its full of non sense and ignorance ^^ ..
you can get badges through achievement chests & can you please teach me how to farm a full reward track 1 day ? because you are a little exaggerating here buddyYou all got free badges for no effort in wvw, how nice, if only they could have done that to say hmmm dungeon tokens.
It takes 8-9 hours to do a reward track, less if you have the wvw potions from the dailies.
Who is this that got free badges? I know I earned about 3k badges playing WvW. I did get more later from achievement chests but you can’t ignore the ones actually earned in WvW play and that is what you are doing. I should not have to play 8 or 9 seconds to spend the badges I actually earned playing WvW.
There is no requirement to play WvW for a Legendary weapon. Ever. Period.
Sell all the components you’ve collected and save the gold to buy the weapon.
Make saving gold for that weapon purchase, your goal, or future goals.
Stop spending gold on other skins or gem shop items.
You won’t even need additional bags or characters this way.
You may think Anet is promoting WvW play but this is the eventual results of their actions taken without proper communications. I know they are trying to fix WvW, but it works entirely against their effort and likely reduces their income, which is simply bad for the game.
Returning the vendor temporarily would prevent this, and stop player interference in WvW.
Anet doesn’t have to communicate. Don’t expect it, no matter how obviously appropriate it would be.
Sadly, we can look forward to hundreds if not thousands of threads exactly like this, each time another player discovers their loss and complains about the selective communication used by Anet here.
Of course all those other threads were buried in a massive merge into a WvW forum thread. If you are discovering your loss now, the issue is communication, not forced WvW, and if you make a thread in General Discussion with a communication title, that might get discussed. But, expect constant hijack attempts by players who don’t want to play WvW totally blurring the actual issue..
Did you get this resolved?
Did you find any possible use for those proofs beyond siege?
The wiki doesn’t look accurate.
Your asking for more, because you play less.
Wouldn’t it be more specific to your issue to try and get your employer to allow you more game time, than to change the game for everyone because of your specific limitation? Actually crafting the time gated item is faster than doing even one daily.
There are a number of valid reasons for crafting time gating.
I understand that the guild hall system works fine (although somewhat limited) for very big, big and some small guilds.
What I don’t understand is the effort to tell small guilds that they need to “suffer more” to get what they want, when they clearly are not going to. What good is saying “do it or leave”? Don’t we want more players?
If a suggestion can actually provide a reduced version of a hall with reduced functionality to small guilds, without affecting large guilds at all, and without massive Dev input required, why not? If it doesn’t negate or erode the value of the effort bigger guilds have made, why not? I don’t know that this suggestion is the one to do it, but why so much disagreement?
What’s so hard to understand about “WE ALREADY DID ALL THAT ALREADY”? WE EARNED IT ALREADY"?
If I want more Gifts of Battle, then I will play MORE WvW without problem.And I had to redo pve content when I decided to make HOT legendaries. Why can’t I automatically get credit on my collections for the jumping puzzles i’ve already done? I’ve already killed Mordy so why do I have to do him twice again? MORE PVE FORCED ON ME!!!!
At least you COULD have bought the GoB when you had the badges. You chose not to.
I could and I did buy some, but I was required to play that content and now I cant use the remaining reward currency, which is the only reason I played the content in the first place.
Did you do PvE content, gain reward currency and then have that currency changed so you can’t spend it on what you earned it for, without ever being given a date of when it would be changed?
Hot legendaries are a separate nightmare that have not been removed from the game, only delayed. Many of us are dealing with that, not just WvW players. Those things you mentioned affect everyone, not one game mode or another. Yes, it’s a problem but it’s not the same thing.
It’s not about being forced to do anything or play any specific game mode. It’s about a change that should have been communicated before implementation.
It seems like a genuine attempt to help understand, and provide understanding, to me, and it looks like it was a waste of time now. PvE players are not going to get past the first few responses before saying “nope, this is not for me”.
Just keep them till you have 4 and throw them in the Mystic forge. Many will become Major Runes you can use or actually sell for profit.
I dedicate 15 spots in my bank for the most commonly looted ones and then take hundreds to the Forge and walk away with many useful major runes I use or reForge for Superior Runes.
Actually, playing that content isn’t required if a mesmer is around. I’d expect more things to be removed from WvW to get the pairings as accurate as possible, like the Mystic Forge and other vendors that don’t require WvW play, and more.
Does everyone realize that just the login rewards alone will give us the ability to make all characters level 80 and to outfit them? While we can play some of those characters, at some point there are too many to play effectively. Anet doesn’t want that to be the end of the game, so options are available to still make those characters useful. It just makes sense.
(edited by Tumult.2578)
Lol, your basic premise is flawed and unsustainable because you have absolutely no idea how many people lost WvW currency with the change, no idea how many players are working on Legendaries, and no idea how many will in the future.
Are you really complaining because of what I said about it not applying to a large enough portion of the playerbase to justify a horde of announcements everywhere about that one minor detail? That it’s a small percentage was pretty heavily implied—if not outright stated—with the announcement that future legendaries would be postponed indefinitely to redirect the developers to things that actually do affect most of the playerbase.
But if that’s not good enough for you, then imagine how cluttered everyone’s mail would be if Anet sent a letter with every single change that affected as much of the playerbase as that one change to legendary weapons does. Most of the changes in the update notes would be sent out as their own letters, and then you’d be back where you started with people complaining that they weren’t informed because it’s too much reading.
Just one point of clarity… you always needed to do WvW for Legendary crafting.
No, you didn’t. And people in the thread have already explained why several times.
“Horde of announcements?” Those are your words, not mine.
When a future change will affect the value of currency, patch notes should include a simple sentence stating when it will actually occur.
I wasn’t involved right away but I believe the Gift of Battle was always purchased from a vendor for Badges of Honor and I don’t think the cost changed. Rank 5 was required to be able to make the purchase. Badges of Honor were scarcer and had fewer ways to get them.
As they became more available, the Rank requirement was changed to 14. There are even more was to get them now. But, there is no longer a vendor.
I understand the purpose, but why is the Mystic Forge still there?