Guild Wars 2

Syeria.4812:

You’re making the (incredibly inaccurate) assumption that no one derives again enjoyment from opening chests.

The problem isn’t randomness. I do not mind randomness. I can completely understand the appeal of it.

I don’t like it but I live with with it because there are options presented to me in order to avoid it (TP.) Whereas with the Fused weapon skins, randomness is the only option presented. That is a terrible decision.

However, with that being said…. Dishonest business? Get real. Regarding this topic, Anet has never said anything that is not true today (I think I posted the quotes maybe in this topic, or the other one.). If you don’t like it, don’t purchase it. If you purchase it, don’t blame Anet, blame yourself.

Nike.2631:

Or maybe the nuance “your behaviors are not automatically reflected into the larger populace” escapes you. Could go either way on that one.

Do you understand why people rarely farm SB SPECIFICALLY for Final Rest?

Because there’s another option of obtaining it: through the TP. It is much more efficient to farm the gold and buy it outright from the TP than doing the Behemoth once a day for god knows how long. And because of the huge difference in efficiency, it’s pretty safe to assume people don’t see SB RNG as the sole method of obtaining Final Rest.

Nike.2631:

-stares at Final Rest-
-checks Shadow Behemoth timer-
-looks at Ursan-
-stares at Final Rest somemore-

You sure about that?

Apparently the nuance between “rarely” and “never” escapes you.

Because rarely do people farm bosses with an specific goal in mind.

When I farm X boss, I’m not doing it with the goal of obtaining Y skin. I just want loot. Any generic loot keeps me happy, because I’m more concerned about obtaining overall wealth, instead of a specific item.

BLT chests are aggravating because you want to get something very specific. And you are forced to go with the RNG option to obtain it, not even through the less-RNG method of TP (Like Halloween/Lost Shores/Wintersday. WTF ANET?)

It’s stupid. But I don’t blame them, because there’s a ton of anecdotal evidence in this forum alone that people are paying for it.

munkiman.3068:

They will when there are only 2 items listed (as there was in this specific case). The sell offer only works with high priced low volume offers.

Basically, you’re dealing with things you don’t directly control. Which feeds into my original point. High risk, minimal profit.

Also, it’s incredibly hard to take you seriously when in one thread you flip-flop so hard on your own idea that you propose. I suggest you collect your thoughts and ideas and try to communicate them in a more coherent manner.

munkiman.3068:

You buy out the lower buy listings over time, once you have 3 or 4 you put one up at like that 900g sell offer for the hunter in the OP. You wait till you get 4 buy offers in or around the price that at least breaks even the cost of pulling the listing fee and sell off the to the buy orders that are (in this case) 100g more than before you listed the 900g offer.

You first use the 900G example as just a sell listing in order to bring up Buy Order listings, to be removed later.

munkiman.3068:

Trust me, if someone thinks they can buy an item @ 700 and resell @ 900, they’ll do it in a heartbeat.

Then you talk about the 900G sell listing as something to actually sell.

When you’re trying to convince someone, the very least you can do is stay consistent with yourself. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your own time by diluting your own arguments.

munkiman.3068:

When people see an item sold for 900g (regardless if it is a pulled price (remember there is limited data available here) they will push up the price of buy orders, it’s pretty simple. I can’t help you with the math.

Whoooooooooooooooooooosh.

That is the sound of you completely missing my point.

My point is pretty simple too (If you post a 900G sell listing, most people won’t see it unless it’s the lowest sell listing, something which you cannot completely control) and has nothing to do with math. But you either struggle to comprehend it, or misrepresenting my point purposefully. Why?

munkiman.3068:

It’s actually less risky than putting in high buy orders on high volume items but it works that way too. By simply establishing a gap in price to reestablish market value you created wealth for your stock (albeit in a very short window) that you can easily profit from your initial loss. This is a trading 101 that happens all the time with reproducible results. It’s how to manipulate the market in your favor by acting quickly against peoples reactions. In the case mentioned, above, slower moving higher priced items won’t roll for at least a day, giving you a larger window of opportunity. Trust me, if someone thinks they can buy an item @ 700 and resell @ 900, they’ll do it in a heartbeat. That’s a fairly quick 65g for doing nothing.

I’m not sure if you’re purposefully ignoring my points or simply misunderstanding them.

How do you “establish a gap in price” if you have no direct control over the other sell listings? When you post a sell-listing for 900G, you’re never going to see it, unless you remove all other sell listings.

You have no control over the lowest sell listing (which is what everyone sees on both the TP and on Spidy) unless you 1. Post something lower or 2. Buy it out and post something higher.

1. Will lead to negligible profit, since you’re not creating a big enough “gap”
2. Will lead to negligible profit, since you’re purchasing a lot more baggage.

Pandemoniac.4739:

I can see how it would work with items that had very few sell listings and a bunch of buy orders. I think there’s a reason why it would have been done with The Hunter instead of say Dusk. It’s a tricky niche though. You have to count on there not being a lot of supply to have to buy out, and count on demand to be high enough that folks will raise their buy listings significantly enough in a short enough period of time. Very risky.

I’m going to re-iterate my whole point. Of course it’s possible, but the risk is huge and the potential profit is very minimal considering the size of your investment.

munkiman.3068:

Look at the chart on spidy, look how the buy offers went up 100g simply because one person listed one for 900g.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/29175

April 4th. Sell Listing of The Hunter jumps from 700G to 900G. Buy Listing was originally at 561 G, at 581G when the highest sell listing dropped back to 699G. Buy Order increases to 660G a day later, but that’s a full day after the price spike. You have no way to say if the buy order rise was due to the sell listing rise or not. Two days later, buy listings crash down to 500G. So much for that bubble.

You’re again making the assumption that A. in your hypothetical situation, all 3-4 items were bought at 561 G and B. all 3-4 items are sold at 660G. Which is just an assumption.

Also, are you purposefully ignoring the 15% tax? If you bought 4 items at 561 G and sold them each at a 100G higher, you’re only making 15G profit EACH. That’s again assuming if you sell everything at those prices, which is an assumption.

Then if you add the listing fee of the 900G sell listing (45G) you’ve just earned absolutely NOTHING (0G if 3 items, 15G if 4 items) for all the trouble you just went through, assuming everything went perfectly for you.

And this is not mentioning the fact that if you just post an item for 900G, it will not show up at ALL because there’s most likely lower sell-orders than that. What are you doing to make sure that 900G listing is the lowest? Buying up all the sell orders? Your profits suddenly go way negative.

Your method has so many holes, I’m actually kinda shocked that you’re insisting on this method, because it’s a great way to lose money.

munkiman.3068:

You buy out the lower buy listings over time, once you have 3 or 4 you put one up at like that 900g sell offer for the hunter in the OP. You wait till you get 4 buy offers in or around the price that at least breaks even the cost of pulling the listing fee and sell off the to the buy orders that are (in this case) 100g more than before you listed the 900g offer. You’re basically inflating the buy offers, so you lose the listing fee, big deal you just got 400g more than if you hadn’t done it in the first place.

But this isn’t “Manipulation” in the strictest sense since you’re not changing the sell listing. You’ve just put up a 900G sell offer, but what about the other sell orders that already exists and are invariably lower than yours?

Also no, you won’t get 400G more because you have to take into account the 15% tax. If those buy orders were 600G, then to break even you’d have to wait for a 90G increase. And buy orders are not magically increasing by 90G simply because you posted a really high sell-order, most likely much higher than already existing ones.

munkiman.3068:

That’s why there are a few people that blow up the sell price, you only need a few buyers placing higher buy orders to ditch the rest of your stock, then pull the sell order off and sell that at buy list too. That’s why you’ll see stuff like that 900G sell offer that lasted a few hours till the buy orders caught up enough to sell off the stock at those orders which were 100g more than before the one 900g item went up in the first place. It’s actually not nearly as risky then trying to just inflate the price by leaving it in @ break even.

Come again? I have no idea what what you’re trying to say. From my understanding, you’re saying that people should

munkiman.3068:

then pull the sell order off and sell that at buy list too

Buy out the sell listing, re-list it, un-list it (losing the listing fee) and then sell it to BUY ORDERS? For a massive loss of money? Why?

We are strictly talking about the concept of buying out all the sell listings and re-listing them for a much higher sell listing. Where does the buy listings come into this discussion?

Astraea.6075:

@Ursan: I believe that’s part of what Amun Ra was referring to the last sentence of his post. If you have enough gold to do this sort of thing, you’re also likely to realize the risk isn’t worth the reward given the other profitable flipping options available on the TP.

I mainly have problems with his statement “it wouldn’t be extremely hard.”

Of course it’s hard. Minimal returns and a ton of risk makes it “hard” to make a profit on this strategy.

Amun Ra.6435:

I wouldn’t say it would be extremely hard…but a 10, 20 or even 40 gold profit can easily be made flipping, lets say, Dusk and probably any other of the more popular precursors. Yeah it would be a risk and waiting game.

Just have to think…would that 10-40 gold profit be worth the time invested for someone with the gold to flip a precursor in the first place?

There’s several things you need to think about if you want to try this strategy of “buying out all sell orders and then re-listing them for a higher price.”

Firstly, if you try to buy out sell listings, you’re not buying every single item at the lowest sell price. You’ll be buying several of your items with even higher prices than what is listed at the lowest sell listing, something which you have to take into account when calculating the profitability of this method.

Say for example, there are two sell listings, 600G and 650G. If you buy only the 600G listed and re-list it for for 705G (the cut-off), you just posted a sell-listing 55G higher than the lowest. If you post it for 649G, you’ll be losing money. If you buy both out, you have to list one at 705G, and the other at 765G in order to profit from both. This is quite a hike in prices for 0 profit, especially on the second item.

Second follows naturally from the first. Since you’ve just hiked the prices by so much, will your new sell listings sell? With margins small like this, you’ll have to sell everything. The first might sell, sure, but how about the second? There’s 10 precursors that sell a day. The chances of you selling your entire stock is very minimal.

Possible? Of course it’s possible. But the risk is huge for such a minimal return.

It now drops from Maw and Jormag’s chests, and ever since people have been farming the hell out of them due to the rares, quite a bit of it has been dropping.

It’s actually a really interesting statement, the whole “GW2 has limited skills” argument.

I don’t see it as a case. Take for examples Warriors. They have 4 2-hand weapons, 3 main-hand weapons, and 5 off-hand weapons. That is a total of 19 possible weapon combinations that you can hold. (4 + 3*5). With weapon swapping, that is a total of 342 possible weapon combinations you can have (19 * 18).

So there’s really no lack of choices. What’s the problem? When’s the last time you’ve seen a S/S Warrior? Or a Mace/Warhorn Warrior? Heck just a non-GS Warrior really.

The problem isn’t lack of variety, the problem is the lack of viability. Most of the possible Warrior weapon combos just fail at things required in the meta-game of PvP currently (Bunkering/Bursting/Roaming). Which hamstrings the variability and limits Warriors to a few specific builds.

People say how GW2’s skillbar limits options. I don’t see it like that at all. Each classes (save Engi/Eles perhaps, but that’s a whole different discussion). Have quite a wide pool of pre-set skill combos to choose from. The problem lies in the fact that all this variability is USELESS when only a few of them is truly useful.

Then there is the flipside argument of course, whether these builds are truly useless, or just because players just haven’t given them a fair chance? The evolving meta is the crux of the argument when people resist big sweeping balance changes.

EDIT: oh, that’s 342 combinations with just weapon skills. When you add in the healing (3), utility (20) and elite (3) skills, you get a TON more combinations of skills. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation yields a total of 21,053,520 possible skill permutations. That is variability folks, most of it useless. And this isn’t even talking about traits.

I think this topic has gone slightly off-topic.

PvP balancing and PvE balancing are two different beasts. The video the OP posts is strictly about PvP balancing, since it requires an adaptable human mind on both sides of the competition for an evolving meta to occur.

PvE balancing is much different beast due to the fact that it deals with NPC enemies that have no abilities to adapt. The meta cannot evolve, and the devs must take a much heavier hand when it comes to balancing PvE. However, it also can be argued that PvE balance is much less important than PvP balance simply due to the absence of competition, because “balance” is incredibly important from a competitive stand-point but less so from a “My War clears CoF in 7 minutes, but my Ranger clears it in 10 minutes.”

I know IronFist is a hammer with a pretty big, solid iron head. Very simple.

“Manipulate” is such a vague term. What do you think is happening exactly? And why is it “manipulated badly?” Because you think it’s happening very frequently?

From your OP, I’m assuming you mean people are buying up all the sell listings and re-pricing them? It’s been discussed how incredibly difficult it is to profit from it due to 1. the 15% tax and 2. significant volume of precursor transactions.

Wait, but the Hunter is at 600G now.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/29175

Vayne.8563:

AFAIK it’s been there since launch.

Cannot be, because early on I distinctly remember being disappointed that it didn’t have it.

All’s well I suppose, now that it’s in. I’m just kinda wierded out because I do not remember it being mentioned anywhere at all.

So I remember clearly being very disappointed that when I drank alcoholic beverages, I didn’t get the drunk affect I did in GW1.

First time in a while though, I randomly decided to chug a ton of alcohol….And what do you know, my character got drunk! Everything was pretty trippy.

Is this something they recently added?

I think the video points out a big problem in GW2, that cyclic balance occurs with a huge variety of builds.

That simply isn’t happening right now, what with most classes being restricted to 1-2 viable builds. Once we truly see Anet’s vision of one class being able to do anything as long as they are slotted correctly, will we see a more interesting and deep meta in their PvP portion of the game.

For example, Guardian bunkers are strong because they bunker well against EVERYTHING. Now suppose Necros/Rangers had some sorta viable anti-bunker build that countered Guardian Bunkers. But they DON’T counter Ele Bunkers. But then Ele bunkers are more easily countered by Thief/Wars, and etc…

Would be ideal. Even more ideal is if a Guardian could build for 2 different types of bunkers, one ideal against Condition Damage, one ideal against direct damage.

But alas, that is far away.

Lokheit.7943:

snip

While that’s all good and well, you’ve yet to explain clearly why the Inquest are the first ones wearing that style of armor.

The Inquest in SE clearly wear that style of armor, this can’t be argued. So why are they wearing the armor, is the question.

1. The Dredge helped craft it for them so that they can work in the SE environment.

This seems unlikely, especially for a race like the Asura to accept help from a lesser race like the Dredge. Also, it’s very likely that the Inquest visited the Dredge by their own volition, not through an invitation by the Dredge, which makes the thought of the Dredge preparing anything for them unlikely.

2. It’s a general Asuran hazmat suit, tailored for specific use in SE by the Inquest.

This seems the more likely, especially because you see the same style armor with Dessa’s krewe in Fractals. The dredge influence can be seen of course, but the origins of the armor can be traced to Asura.

It’s much more believable that the SE armor style has Asuran origins and dredge influence, as opposed to it being Dredge origin with Asuran influence, especially since both Inquest in SE and Dessa’s Krewe in Fractals use it.

3. Developers are limited, and just working with what they have.

Very likely, as evidenced by White Mantle wearing Order armor (Screenshots appreciated.). The designers for the new units probably just tossed in the armor because that’s the best “connection” they had to connect the Flame Legion to the Dredge.

Still, I find it interesting how vehemently you oppose any association between the SE armor set and Inquest. Especially in light of the fact that they are the ones who actually wear that armor set in SE. The association is definitely there. Whether it has any significance or not, I don’t know, but it definitely exists, at least superficially to a casual observer. Using your same word, I see this connection as very “obvious.”

Has this been confirmed? I’ve heard of multiple people getting over 100 laurels in the other thread…

FourthVariety.5463:

How many developers does ArenaNet have and yet many players will call something a bad idea.
How many programmers does ArenaNet have, yet there are still bugs.
How many translators were required yet there are bad translations.

Uh.

1. Anything a developer does, some players will always call it a bad idea because not everyone thinks the same.
2. By that same logic, how many programmers do you think Microsoft has, since all of their software has bugs, you know.

But do you seriously think a triple-A MMO HASN’T done their legal homework before investing millions of dollars into it? Really?

Aha, thank you!

Hey! So it seems the new leaderboard only shows the top 100 people. Is there a way to check where I individually stand? I don’t care if I’m in the thousands, I just wanted to know. Thanks!

FourthVariety.5463:

Online gambling is heavily regulated/prohibited by law. I only hope ArenaNet know what they tinker with. Because Black Lion chests sure fit the description.

We had a discussion earlier, but since virtual property legally does not have any real-life value, what Anet is doing is not legally “gambling.”

Lokheit.7943:

Dredge heritaged Dwarven technology from the time they were slaves and developed that technology in a huge way by their own. Their sonic weapons, steam mechanisms, drills, tanks, their own mechanic suits, their mortars… that’s all 100% Dredge technology. The armor from that dungeon is inspired by that steamy feeling from their technology, and Inquest didn’t inspire them for that.

Right. And obviously the Inquest designed these gas-mask-y helms in order to work in these environments.

Lokheit.7943:

Sorrow’s Embrace is the Dredge capitol, the Inquest just came there to try to get benefits by manipulating the moletariate, but the moletariate had all that stuff before the Asura came with their experiments.

Right. And the Inquest came in wearing these armor styles.

Regardless, I think my original point got lost. I’m not saying the Dredge received their technology from the Inquest. My original point was that the armor the Inquest wears in SE is most likely their own design, not influenced by the Dredge themselves.

Lokheit.7943:

For example, there is a event in Brisban Wildlands where you recreate a GW1 battle between ghosts from the Shinning Blade and the White Mantle. The White Mantle ghosts on that event use Order of Whispers armor and I’m 100% sure the White Mantle is not related to the Order of Whispers.

This is pretty interesting, and probably the best evidence against my theory. Screenshots will be appreciated of course, but this could very well be a symptom of designers just working with what they have and not being super strict about lore, and me reading into their technical limitations way too much.

Lokheit.7943:

LoL so apparently your only answer to everyone is “you’re wrong”.

Dredge don’t wear that armor because most minor races don’t wear player armor.

=/

Because you are. The Inquest in SE (And thank you for pointing out, the Asura in Fracals) wear that style of armor. The armor obviously originate from the Asura.

Lokheit.7943:

That armor was designed as player armor with influence with Sorrow’s Embrace and Dredge culture. If you still want to insist in that it’s Inquest related (that would be Crucible of Eternity armor which is their base unlike Sorrow’s that is Dredge territory that they’re trying to use in their benefit) then it’s your problem, but it’s not proof of anything.

But…the only NPCs that wear the SE style armor are Asura, and Asura only. Until the Flame Legion now, of course.

Of course CoE armor is Inquest related. That doesn’t change the fact Inquest working in SE do wear the SE-style armor though. That most of the inquest wears CoE-style armor does NOT change the fact that a portion of Inquest do wear SE armor in SE (As can be seen in the screenshot.)

Lokheit.7943:

PS: The statement “Lore-wise, the Inquest are the ones providing Dredge with technology.” is soooooooooooooo wrong! Check their lore before calling everyone wrong and then come with that as your argument.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sorrow%27s_Embrace

And I quote

the moletariat have become corrupted and influenced by the Inquest, turning to enslave their own kind in continuous mining.

The heroes find a great dredge army massing in the depths, aided by the asuran technology of the Inquest

Why am I wrong? Are you somehow implying that the Dredge provided Inquest with their armor? That Asura would be influenced by a minor race like the Dredge is very un-lore-like.

EDIT: Actually, I can see how you can misunderstand my post. I meant more they “Influenced” their technology, not straight-up gave them technology. My apologies.

PS2: If it’s inquest armor… why the Asura workers in the Fractals instance wear it?? Because some times in the game devs make particular armor combinations to provide the look they want for something. Are they Inquest? Nope, they aren’t, just Asura with science suits and the closest thing they found to a scientific mask.

That’s a great point. Perhaps the armor’s origin is a general Asura hazmat suit then, and not just Inquest-specific.

I feel like by insisting what the “Style” is, you’re seeing the woods and missing the trees. Of course it’s themed like Sorrow’s Embrace and Dredge in mind. However, it doesn’t change the fact that the NPC who wear these armor are the Asura (Mostly Inquest).

lordkrall.7241:

The STYLE is still Dredge though. Even if asura is wearing them.
Wearing the Nightmare armor from Twilight Arbor on my charr does not make the Twilight Arbor set charr in origin. It is still sylvari.

Yes. TA armor is obviously Nightmare origin. Because the Nightmare Court are the ones originally wearing them.

SE armor is obviously of Inquest origin, because the Inquest working in SE are the ones originally wearing them.

So what’s the problem?

lordkrall.7241:

Dredge themed != Dredge worn.

They are still themed after the dredge, not the asura.
If it were we would see asura with those gas masks outside SE, but we don’t.
We do however see plenty of Dredge around the world with that general theme.

You don’t see a single Dredge wearing that gas mask helm. Whereas Inquest does.

Lore-wise, the Inquest are the ones providing Dredge with technology. It seems highly doubtful the Inquest would adopt things from the Dredge. The Inquest were the first ones brandishing that style armor. Then the Flame Legion came with a strikingly similar style.

The armor style originates from the Inquest, not the Dredge. Look at the screenshot.

lordkrall.7241:

It is still Dredge themed though.
There are no Asura anywhere else wearing those, so clearly it is more of a dredge thing than a Asura thing.

No, you’re also wrong.

There’s Asura in Sorrow’s Embrace, Inquest specifically, who wear the gas-mask-y style of armor. Look at my screenshot. Obviously Asura. Then look at the Flame Legion on the right. Look at how similar their styles are.

There are no Dredge units who wears those gas-mask-y style of armor/helm. None at all in the game, while there are Inquest units that do.

Lokheit.7943:

The “Inquest” armor is the one from Crucible of Eternity. The gas masks are Dredge themed armor from Sorrow’s Embrace (even though you find the Inquest there, that dungeon is more about the Dredge with the Inquest being just the tie in with the overal story).

I think it’s possible that other evil groups will appear as their allies for a bigger plot, but this in particular isn’t related to that. That armor has more to do with Dredge and their machinary culture.

Uh…

Well, you’re wrong. If you ever done SE story or SE path 1, you will see that it’s the Inquest in Sorrow’s Embrace that wears that gas-mask-y style of armor.

EDIT: attached screenshot. Left is a screenshot of Inquest units in SE path 1. To the right is a Molten Flame Legion unit wearing a similar style armor in Wayfarer’s

So like, the new Flame Legion enemies are wearing Inquest armor.

The gas-mask-y armor that players can obtain through the Sorrow’s Embrace dungeon. Dredge don’t wear it though, it’s the Inquest who works with the dredge who can be seen this armor style.

Is there perhaps an Inquest involvement in the Molten Alliance?

peacemaker.5634:

That isn’t my point.

No, your original point is this.

peacemaker.5634:

Conclusion: ArenaNet lied.

Which they didn’t, and why I’m calling you out on it.

I thought all the Mystic Weapons don’t require Dust, no? They only take an Eldritch scroll and a bit of Orichalcum/WOod. and still sell for 8G+.

Just like to add, it’s a problem that occurs really frequently to me because I have Shift/Alt binded to utility skills.

If you go to your language bar and go to the settings, under the “Advanced Key Settings” tab, there will be an option to disable these hotkeys.

goldenwing.8473:

My guild has been 4-manning explorables and feels locked out of this content.

This is an interesting statement. If you do content and fail at it, do you define that as being locked out of the content?

I won’t lie, my small guild has failed as much Bounties as we have succeeded. But we have DONE bounties, and each one of them is unique and fun in their own way.

Highly doubtful. I know for a fact if you transmute the Legendary Sunrise/Twilight with something else, you can’t combine them again for Eternity.

peacemaker.5634:

This is getting ridiculous. I’m going to make this even more clear, one last time, and then I’m done. I really don’t care what you think, but I want ArenaNet to straighten up, so I’d rather you not convince people of false things.

Whooooooooooosh.

That, again, is the sound of you completely and utterly missing my point. What his this “false thing” I’m trying to convince people of? That the three quotes you attributed to them aren’t a lie?

“If you want something, whether it’s an in-game item or a microtransaction, you ultimately have two ways to get it: you can play to earn gold or you can use money to buy gems. We think that’s important, because it lets more players participate on a level playing field, whether they use their free time or their disposable income to do it.”

Translation: “There are two way to purchase microtransaction items, in-game gold or real money.”

Verdict: Still true. You can purchase Gem Store items with both in-game gold and real money.

“Punch number two is that there’s now an equivalence between time and money. If I’m a player who can play the game a lot and there’s something I want, I don’t need to pay for it. If I’m a player who can’t play the game a lot, but I want things in the game also, I can spend money on microtransactions.”

Translation: “Players can convert time spend either in-game or in real life to purchase microtransaction items.”

Verdict: Still true. Players can spend time in-game to earn in-game gold, or players can convert time spent in life and earn money. Both can be used to purchase Gem Store items.

One really important thing to note is, we don’t ever sell anything in there that makes your character more powerful. That’s really important to us.
We like to do the – we like to call it the Is it Evil? test. Every micro-transaction that we do in the game, we have everyone in the company look at it and say Is it Evil? Is it really something we should be selling?
Generally, the stuff in our store is purely cosmetic; it’s bonus stuff, it’s extra stuff you can get if you want to, but it’s not stuff you have to buy to play the game.

Translation: Things sold in the Gem store will be all cosmetic or luxury items.

Verdict: Still true. Nothing in the Gem Store grants you items with extra stats or anything. Everything is really a luxury that is not required to play the game.

Upon repeated examinations, for the life of me I cannot see ANYWHERE where Anet has lied, because everything they stated in these quotes still hold true.

I’m going to repeat myself again. I do not like RNG, which is why I do not support RNG by not purchasing Keys. However, digging up some quotes, twisting them, and claiming your interpretation of them are a “lie” is a very silly thing to do.

I just look at fractal skins as a badge of good luck and dedicated fractal running. More of the former than latter.

Because I think that and the Fused weapon skins are currently the only skins where the method of obtaining is purely luck, no?

Small guild of 4 IRL friends here. Did Big Mayani (sp? The big hylek in trees) the other day and it was a TON of fun. We only killed him, couldn’t get to the other target (Rikkiti?) But we got our commendations and we are happy! Big Mayani is a TON of fun to fight too.

Of course, we were all on TS and talking constantly, but that’s part of the fun! This is my experience of bounties anyways. The mystery factor definitely makes it more…satisfying, in my opinion!

laokoko.7403:

The “difference” of precursor price is set by the players. But the price of precursor is really set by Anet.

Uh.

No, the price of precursors are set by Anet (supply) and players (demand.)

You’re trying to make a distinction between the impact on prices by the players (demand) and the impact on prices by Anet (supply.) I’m not sure why you’re trying to make that distinction.

Both affect prices. Supply AND demand.

Ooshi.8607:

Ursan.7846:

But why just Knights and not any other stat combos?

Slight oversight, Beserker’s and Apothecary’s Pearl Shells are also up, Apothecary’s by quite a bit having broken the 6g mark. Beserker seems a waste on a shield but i can see how apothecary would be appealing.

Well then you’d expect other t6 mats used rise in price too, like Fangs, Claws, whatever is used. You don’t really see that though.

I personally lean towards some specific underwater farming bots got mass banned.

Ooshi.8607:

Armored Scales are a component in crafting Knight’s Orichalcum Imbued Inscription which is a component in crafting Knight’s Pearl Shell, which is used as a base to apply the new Super Shield Skin.
If you see on spidy the Knight’s Pearl Shell has risen from the middle 4gs to the middle 5gs as the demand for it has increased. Naturally the scales will increase in price also.
The other types of Pearl Shells haven’t risen as much in price as the stats aren’t as appealing for a shield user.
Or I could really be making all this stuff up, as we all know that the TP is heavily manipulated and crafting is useless anyway.

But why just Knights and not any other stat combos?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This is because spiders are the only thing in the game that still have a decent farming spot. So now everyone is farming spiders and venoms are going down until they nerf those spots as well.

I dunno. Farming the Spiders at Shelt drops a good amount of Crystalline Dusts for me, but I don’t really see their prices affected too much either.

Syeria.4812:

Well the prices haven’t “doubled.” They went from around 17s to aroung 26s. That’s closer to a 50% increase than 100%. But looking at the chart, it seems the excess supply of scales has completely disappeared coinciding with the spike. My first suspicion would probably be bot bans as that’s usually what that indicates. If it’s limited to scales and scales alone, it’s worth pointing out that the spike coincided with the release of Super Adventure Box. It’s possible that many of the suppliers of scales simply have been engaged in other activities. There’s always a chance that something’s broken as well.

None of the other t6 mats has seen the same trend. Heck, prices of Powerful Venom Sacs have been dropping steadily for the past month or two.

Ugggggggggggggggh.

I need to get off my lazy kitten and just buy those t6 mats.

laokoko.7403:

I never get why people keep defending “cash shop mmorpg” with the “supply and demand” theory.

Uh.

Because it is supply and demand?

See: Venom.

If there are people willing to purchase a legendary outright for money though, who are we to condemn them? Anet is happy because they got money, the purchaser is happy because they are able to convert their time spend in the real life into an in-game item they really want. And on top of it, none of this affects us. If the purchaser is unskilled, he will still be a jobber and you will still easily squish him in WvW.