Guild Wars 2

Really nice post and helpful to the community. Thank you for your effort in compiling these.

To be fair while the Rev’s ranged options are lacking a bit, it has to be said that the hammer is kind of amazing for what it is. Kind of reminds me of mesmer staff in terms of its slowness and general weighty impacts. It having a projectile shield skill really makes me confident in my ability to win at long range.

So far I’m with Eldiora, I’m really digging my Rev. I think it still needs some finish from the developers, but it’s a very solid addition to GW2’s profession lineup. I’m kind of hoping it works out like Engineer or Elementalist where it’s impossible to know what an enemy revenant in PvP is capable of until you’re actually fighting them.

I find it a lot easier to use with action camera, in fact. Revenant really is not friendly to skill clickers since you’ll be hitting them a lot more often.

(which is good ’cuz Rev forces you to get good)

My main issue with this suggestion is that it seems too much like the OP is asking for Ventari to operate like other party healing skills do. You have to be careful with homogenization when balancing in MMOs, because you risk every class feeling the same.
The tablet as it is has a lot of flavor and potential to be fairly written off almost immediately before it even has a chance to be fully experimented with.

I’m even okay with the possibility of Ventari being mostly unsuited for PvP except in teams specifically built to make the most of it. Though again, way too early to condemn Ventari’s potential in PvP until the pros have had a month or two with it.

I’m wondering what the general opinion is on how versatile the Revenant is, or if the various Legends feel almost like class role switching. That’s part of what drew my interest to the profession, similar to how much fondness I had for the druid in WoW way back in the day.

I know engineer is the true Jack-of-All-Trades in GW2 but I like the flavor that comes with the role switching being magical in nature and requiring a degree of investment beyond switching up a utility or two. The Engineer sorta just has an answer for everything than the capacity to become anything. I’m just wondering if Rev players have felt that sort of versatility through their Legends and builds. The idea of a profession being a sort of swiss army knife of many other mini-professions (again, like the WoW druid) is attractive to me.

(confession: I’m about level 60 with my own Rev, using PvE Mallyx/Corruption but I don’t entirely trust my own judgment since I’m usually a casual when it comes to MMOs.)

I know it’s only been like a few days so I’m probably asking this way too early. But hey, it’s a good time to give feedback or clear up misconceptions.

I’d be happier if the tablet were better tuned for its clunkiness of use. Like, balance the fact it’s a target and its clunky mobility by better tuning its heals. That said, the rev is so young that it’s still too early to see if Ventari is undertuned yet with every possible setup/build. Emergent gameplay needs time to cook.

This isn’t to say your idea is bad, though. I’m sure engineers would instinctively wince at my suggesting this, but maybe the tablet temporarily replaces your backpiece in some way to keep the theme.
But at the same time, I’d also be a little sad to see the flavor of managing the tablet go away in favor of another “turn into this, now run around and faceroll buttons to support team” type skill. But the meta may ultimately demand that mobility and the general clunkiness of moving the tablet may be more complication than is desirable in the longterm.

I want to point out that while Revenant skills in general still need to be fine-tuned, being as the profession is brand new, the design of this skill could very well have the invulnerability in mind.

Something to keep in mind is that the Revenant player has no control over how that damage is divided among targets nor where their location will be when the skill ends, though I could be wrong there. In terms of counterplay that can understandably feel very frustrating to try and respond to but in terms of the bigger picture (i.e. its strategic worth beyond just a randomly distributed cluster of damage) it might still be balanced without changing its design in the way the OP is suggesting.

This heart quest is not well designed. It’s a neat idea in theory, but in practice it’s awful. There’s just way too many Seekers, they move erratically and you instantly have to start over with no warning if you move too close. Couldn’t we have them turn around to face you and an icon under them flashing going “You’re about to be discovered!” with a small grace period to move away?
The fact that there are almost no safe spots and the random nature of their movements can completely block you makes it even worse. The cherry on top is that you get a taunting message each time.

Thankfully you only have to do it once per character if cleaning the zone but every time I pass this part I just have to smack my forehead and wonder what the heck happened here.

EDIT: Almost forgot — you move so slow! Slow deliberate movements can be fun in a stealth game but they have to be intentional and thoughtful. This is just a cripple debuff and I don’t know anyone who thinks those are fun to have.

Zephyrus.9680:

midnight tea.3681:

Cyrus.8126:

Help!

I was doing the HOST change to .txt and i did that and it changed it to a txt file, now when i try to remove the .txt, nothing happens! its still a .txt file!

Can i revert it back? i cannot undo change at this point. Any help would be great!

Same here, I’m at a loss at how to revert it.

Only thing I can think is your PC is set to hide file extensions so when you remove the .txt, windows thinks you just want to remove it from the name and not the file extension.

Look up how to show file extensions on your operating system, then when you remove the .txt it should change the file type back.

Alternatively you may be able to copy another file from the “etc” folder, save the edited hosts txt file over that which will make it a ‘generic’ file again, then rename that to hosts.

Enabling Windows to show the file extension cleared that up. Thank you very much!

Cyrus.8126:

Help!

I was doing the HOST change to .txt and i did that and it changed it to a txt file, now when i try to remove the .txt, nothing happens! its still a .txt file!

Can i revert it back? i cannot undo change at this point. Any help would be great!

Same here, I’m at a loss at how to revert it.

It’s actually quite a tribute to the game design of the engineer class that you need an engineering mindset to try non-standard approaches.

I wouldn’t say the engineer is meant for long-range gameplay per se, but they are very good at area control and CC in my experience. I’m having a blast with PvE long range by combining the rifle with wrench throws and rockets from toolbelt. Not as crazy about nades because of ping issues but I’ve heard that traited right they quite viable.

I think looking just a little bit silly is kind of part and parcel for the asura. It’s part of their charm — extreme arrogance combined with a severe lack of understanding about ridiculous the world sees them. Definitely the nerd race

I don’t even have a norn character and I think the 240 sec cooldown is completely out of proportion. The shapeshifting was originally one of the core racial identities to the norn beyond the parties and brawling, a major selling point. Guild Wars 1 even made a huge point about it. So why is it so kitten and unwieldy in GW2 and why don’t NPCs ever take advantage of it?

Between this and a home instance that’s just one big room without any features or even basic privacy — I thought the norn prided themselves on solitude? — they seriously need some love from the devs. : \

Deleting my cache helped in my case, but it still blew my mind how difficult it was to do that. The instructions for this aren’t even on the main site, I had to google to at least three different places.

If anyone from ArenaNet is listening — say you knew of an awesome coffeeshop which makes the best bagels and has fresh grounds instead of stale beans. But because they don’t maintain their parking lot, you have to cross over a pit of vipers on a unicycle to get in the door. Sure you’ll still have the enthusiasts who’ll do that readily and insist that everyone should know how to use a unicycle, but most of us will just get our morning start elsewhere.

I love this game, so please — you’re bleeding money! I don’t know how crucial the TP’s income is to the future of the game but it kills me imagining people finding out that they’ll have to dig through their computer’s digestive tract and being paralyzed. They’re going to just decide it’s not worth it. I very nearly did. That should’ve been your commerce but now it’s not going to be!

Could you please tell the Lionguard that since they conscripted Evon Gnashblade, that maybe they could get him to clean up his store?

I can’t select anything in the Gem Store either, same as above posters. However I refuse on principle to go out of my way to reinstall the game or delete the cache or whatever. I consider being able to open the store on an unaltered client to be basic business and if a merchant isn’t willing to meet me halfway then I’m not going to give them my business.

Really, it kind of baffles me how a year after release the gem store is still so unreliable. ArenaNet is hemorrhaging money for every sale that’s denied as a result of it.

By the way, I’m saying all this as someone who would gladly and readily splurge on gems if it was just less of a hassle. I love this game and the universe around Tyria and it’s a great opportunity to show that love. But I’m not going to do whatever the equivalent is of a jumping puzzle just for the chance to spend my real money. Imma just gonna go out and get a sammich instead.

Cont’d

• Many players see straight through the LS as a smokescreen. It’s pretty obvious that the LS mostly came about because… well, the future of the game still wasn’t totally decided and there wasn’t a lot of planning. In essence, most players (or at least, your mesmers!) know that the LS is basically a guy pushed out on stage while the stagehands work furiously to put together a set they weren’t ready to present yet. You don’t need to distract us with shinies, skritt isn’t a playable race. Just explain that GW2 came out a bit before it was ready and that you want to take the year off to, say, revamp story Arah or the like. Trust in your players! Some will grumble, but many will accept that.

• Finish up the Super Adventure Box, and make it purchaseable by players! This is just a personal note, but the SAB was a great example of LS content that really really energized the fanbase. Not everyone liked it, but the passion and spirit in which it was made was evident. Would be fun if Moto eventually sold the game to players to put in their home instances. Maybe after a branch of the LS dealing with the Consortium? I know it’s been suggested many times before, but I might as well say it too!

I just want to finish by saying that I’m not saying the LS is bad. Or that it’s a bad idea on paper. Just that ArenaNet shouldn’t bank on it because an LS-heavy model for the game’s future presents many problems. But I think as a complementary aspect of the game, as part of introducing permanent content like with Southsun Cove, it can be a unique and wonderful part of GW2. It’s the difference between enjoying a cake with delicious frosting and eating the frosting straight out of the tube.

If the latter makes you feel a little bit queasy, now you understand the plight of the obsessive compulsive completionists who feel compelled to keep up with the LS and put their own enjoyment of the game on hold to gorge on frosting they’ll otherwise never get to taste. They will get tired and eventually uninstall GW2 to silence the compulsion. (Yes, it’s sad there are players like that, but the fact it’s sad doesn’t change that they do probably make up a non-trivial portion of the base)

Still…

Best of luck ArenaNet, and thank you for being different and experimenting in areas no one’s thought to try. I honestly do think GW2’s future is bright precisely because of your willingness to stand out and try drinking the crazy juice instead of trying to simply parrot established formula. I keep up with your game because I literally can never guess what you’ll do next.

First of all, let me just disclaim: I love Guild Wars 2. I’ve played it since beta and I still pick it up once in a while because it has an engaging economy and one of the few fantasy worlds that isn’t needlessly grimdark or hopeless. I wish I could love it more and I have plenty of my own suggestions. This forum has kind of become a gathering place for disparaging the Living Story, and while I’m glad that there is a great deal of negative feedback, I thought it’d be useful to give my thoughts as to the problems with the LS — but restricting my feedback to the issue of the game’s future.

• Calling attention to the temporal nature of your game is not a good idea. Why is this? Because MMORPGs are, by their nature, insubstantial from the perspective of the player. You can’t personally back up your character and if the game’s servers get pulled then you generally can never play again. Indeed, this is why the marketing for an MMO focuses so much on convincing players that their game is part of a cultural touchstone. Like one of the seven wonders, likely to outlive everyone. The Living Story is at odds with this because if you get players thinking about how temporary the content is, they’ll come to the realization that everything in the game is temporary. The logical step from there is to quit and play a game they know can last forever if properly backed up, like Minecraft or something.

• MMORPGs are based on obsessive completionism, not prestige. It’s easy to mistake the two, since they’re necessarily connected, but they’re not the same. If a player feels like it’s unreasonable to be able to “complete” your game, they’re not going to try. Most prestige in MMOs comes from completion, not from being suddenly rewarded for being in the right place at the right time. I do think some prestige and limited availability stuff can very much be a part of your game, but you certainly shouldn’t build a story around it or have vast swathes of content that the majority of your player base will never see. And with that…

• The LS model breeds resentment from completionists. Telling a completionist they can’t experience the majority of the 2013 content because the devs arbitrarily decided that they can’t keep up the illusion of a “living world” and still have stories retroactively available will wind up turning them against you. Make no mistake, the people who play MMOs are doing it because it fills their time. Like stamp collecting or putting together jigsaw puzzles. I know in theory people shouldn’t be spending five hours a day or more sitting in front of a screen but it still is how it shakes out. Most of the completionists you already have in your corner have long since seen and done it all, and the completionists you have yet to attract are going to be rebuffed by the wall. And those people are your base. And if you still insist that the Living Story’s temporality is a requirement for immersion, well…

• Guild Wars 2 has numerous immersion problems to fix as it is. Ever have this happen to you in GW2? You’re exploring a beautiful serene place like parts of the Shiverpeaks. The howling wind is in your speakers and you can see the homestead of the norn. You are almost one at nature and— SUDDENLY AN NPC RUNS UP TO YOU and gets pretty much uncomfortably close. Then you get an amateur dramatics voiceover “The Dredge/Hylek/Inquest/Whatever are doing SOMETHING to the something! We need help!”. The NPC will then just sit there in your personal space until someone else passes by and they run up to them “The Dredge are attacking! We need a dispenser here!”. Immersion gone with nary a farewell kiss. The rapid spawn rates of some of the aggressive mobs can do this too, you don’t get to stop and appreciate the art team’s work at times. Dynamic events spawning right on top of you or a town being invaded while you’re trying to take a breather can ruin pacing too. If you want a living world, you could start by putting GW2 on some ritalin and have an NPC mute button. There are many little ways you can achieve the same effect. A great example is the DEs that only trigger when players who did their personal stories pass by. This point obviously isn’t directly about the LS, but rather that if immersion and a living world is a high priority then there are more efficient ways to tackle that goal and fat that can still be trimmed.

SirMoogie.9263:

I guess I must ask what are you looking to get that you need the meta-achievement rewards? I have full exotics, no ascended backpiece or weapons on my main. I just stopped caring about these things like getting monthlies, dailies, or achievement points. I now just log in to see what new every two weeks, which is usually less than an hour or two of playtime to see. My only loot goals are to finish my infinite light to complete my knight in shining armor look. This will come in time, as any activity generates money slowly and I’m in no rush so long as more content is released. What has burned me out is the quality of the releases, not the feeling of having to do these things (as I don’t have those feelings).

I just want to say that I think you’re playing the game the “right” way. You’re there for you. I wish more players were like you. That would result in better content I think, too.

My best advice to people is to basically ignore the Living Story right now, unless the content in it is really making you chomp at the bit or speaks to you personally. It’ll drive you insane to try and keep up with it, otherwise. Try to rein in that obsessive compulsive completionist side of yourself. Try and tell yourself that if enough people are missing out on it, then ArenaNet’s investors will come down on them for wasting resources on what amounts to non-content.

But in return…

Try not to lose faith for the game itself. When you get down to it, GW2 is still a quite impressive game from both a mechanics and art standpoint. It’s also making a comfortable amount of money. It’s often easy to forget all that, but chances are still pretty good it’s on its way to becoming the premier MMO.

I think an in-between solution should be offered. I think if the charges just regenerated on their own post-combat, you’d lose some of the flavor of Mantras as skills. At the same time it is definitely an issue that you have to waste leftover charges, go through the CD, and then have to recast it.

So, proposed solution: Using a mantra out of combat recasts/recharges it. It retains the flavor of a mantra being this very planned, pre-meditated skill while not punishing the people who were canny enough to not fully need it.

If you think about it, the Inquest doesn’t make a lot of sense either. For a criminal (science!) organization that is supposedly pulling wool over the eyes of the Arcane Councils, they make no serious attempts to hide their acts of terrorism or asura’s rights violations.

Either the Arcane Council doesn’t care, or asura aren’t nearly as smart as they style themselves. I suspect the latter, Dunning-Kruger effect and all that.

morrolan.9608:

Arnath.2319:

Disappointed that this was moved to the Living World forums, this thread belongs in General Discussions as the feedback is universal and not particularly focused on the Living Story.

This just shows ArenaNets complete disregard and lack of respect towards us players.

Yeah seems either overzealous or they’re hiding it. The subject isn’t specific to LS and not all of the discussion is about LS.

To be fair, the body of the original post past the preamble was like 80% (if not closer to 100%) about the LS. If I were a moderator I might’ve moved it too, whether or not I agreed with the message.

I was always of the mind that some of the loss came, at least in part, due to the loss of traditional quests. I don’t mean to parrot Wooden Potatoes here, but the huge text walls we got prior to setting out did do a good job of at least fleshing out the world or implying deeper inner workings. A good example is some of the quests in Kaineng City Center that imply the incompetency/distance of the ministries.

Whereas… GW2 mostly wears its story on its sleeve and thinks “subtlety” just has too many darn syllables. It’s charming in its own way, though. And GW1 certainly had a number of overtly goofy moments too. That mesmer/warrior duo from Nightfall comes to mind.

That said… anyone who thinks the soul of GW1’s more mature and intense moments are gone, I invite you to talk to the NPCs in the Iron Marches after you bring down the fire shaman. Holy heck the flame legion has crossed some lines that I didn’t think video games were ready to cross yet.

The charr in general retain some of that subtlety and intensity more generally speaking, though.

Just posting to say I really like this thread and gave +1’s liberally to some of you.

I agree that they might want to cool it down. In general, I think it’s a problem with the games industry that everything must be EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC EEEEEEPIIIIIIIIICCCCC. The problem with epic is that if everything is epic, then nothing is epic.

I’d say in general Guild Wars 2’s biggest weakness is indeed that it doesn’t offer much in the way of cooldown moments. You rarely know which outpost or town is safe to take a breather on because a DE might pop up while you’re relaxing. You rarely can quietly immerse yourself because some amateur-dramatics voiced NPC will start yapping on a loop. (is there an option to mute ambient NPCs I’m not aware of/couldn’t find?)

And yeah, I got burned out on the game a while ago because there was no way I could keep up with the LS content and much of it is intentionally shut out to solo players. So that made me quit more than once. Given I’m someone who is rarely shy about patronizing the cash shop when I am ready to play GW2, ArenaNet is losing actual potential money from me. I’m not going to pretend to speak for anyone but myself, but if there are enough players like me, that’s going to be a problem in the future.

And yeah — trying to look at it from ANet’s POV, I think there’s definitely diminishing returns in pouring so many resources into the Living Story.

I honestly think they should consider making a lot of the content permanent. I know it’s exciting to feel like the world is always changing, but at the very least I’d play GW2 more regularly if I wasn’t forced to binge awesome stuff like the Super Adventure Box during the one month it’s available. I missed out on the August through October updates because I couldn’t even stand to look at GW2 for a while after needing to force feed myself everything I wouldn’t be getting a second chance on.

I’d also argue that the frantic pace of the LS and the limited-time window achievements is encouraging unhealthy playing habits. Remember back in GW1 where the game would actually encourage you to take a break if you play for more than two hours at a time? What happened to that philosophy? Is it going to take GW2 being scapegoated by a news program to ratchet it back a bit?

BTW — if anyone from ANet is reading, I LOVE your game and I wouldn’t have this much unless I deeply wanted to enjoy it more.

Been making threads on this topic since beta. It’s always, always been a near unanimously agreed idea that mesmers should have mainhand pistols even on forums typically defined by contrarian posters.

So here’s hoping we do eventually see this happen.

No, because if it’s not going to permanently be a part of the game then it can’t be weighed the same way as normal content.

That said, I do really love the LS stuff and think it’d be great if asura technology could be used to relive some of it for late arrivals or new players.

I’m actually mostly curious if Tara Strong enjoys playing her. I like Scarlet if she does, but am indifferent to her otherwise.

Jaric.5679:

For those who do not know, here is a link to Mary Sue on TvTropes. I am adding an excerpt which explains why most people hate her:

‘In other words, the term “Mary Sue” is generally slapped on a character who is important in the story, possesses unusual physical traits, and has an irrelevantly over-skilled or over-idealized nature.’

Yep, that’s a Sue.

And overwhelmingly a sexist double-standard.

http://adventuresofcomicbookgirl.tumblr.com/post/13913540194/mary-sue-what-are-you-or-why-the-concept-of-sue-is

EDIT: I want to say that I’m not defending Scarlet, nor do I think she’s particularly well written. Just that Mary Sue as a thought-stopping cliche buzzword can often be sexist, so I avoid using the term anymore.

The general sense I get about Scarlet is that if she is, in fact, infuriating you then she’s totally happy with that. Wouldn’t surprise me if she was aware of the fourth wall after coming out of the machine and want to explicitly troll players. Would be rather post-modern but…

Anyways, the Living Story content is largely temporary and optional. However good or bad Scarlet is, she’s temporary.

First of all, total agreement the Mesmer should have a mainhand pistol. I confess I also wish we could use a rifle and would have preferred it as our 1200 range option.

That said? The greatsword as a 1200 range option is totally a subversion of expectation. Deceptive, you could say. It does fit with the theme of the profession!

Small, localized boycotts = Nothing changes.

Large, organized whinefest = Mass Effect 3 gets new endings.

Whining is the future.

@Araushnee —Thanks. I really hope there isn’t an argument. I mean absolute no disrespect to others in other nations or timezones who are also sometimes inconvenienced for various reasons. Several of my best friends live in the oceanic timezone, and I’d ask on their behalf as well if they were in our shoes.

@Slark — Hurricane Sandy is unique in that it’s headed straight for areas that have never seen hurricanes head-on.

Account, that was awesome of you to write. My hats off to you.

I do think cheering on a natural disaster is more than a little tasteless, regardless of reasoning.

Hurricane Sandy is going to gobsmack us on the north east coast of the USA this Sunday. Many of us may not be able to make the opening because we won’t even have power, and might not for the rest of Halloween.

Does ArenaNet have any plans for east coast players unable to attend?

(And yes, I’m aware that a substantial part of the fanbase is in Europe and that they’re often inconvenienced by event timing as well. If I had my druthers, I’d do something for them if calamity hit as well.)

Finished it. Did it several more times.

Still think, design-wise, it’s utterly god-awful.

I finished it, did it several more times.

I still think the JP was incredibly poorly designed.

I do find it telling one side of this debate seems to constantly resort to excessive hostility. I’m not going to be able to do this jumping puzzle at this rate because I’m wearing out my mouse clicking the “report” button.

People, please respect each other. The people who say an achievement should stand for something — and that the game shouldn’t become too watered down — have a point. Guess what? So do the people who feel like disabled players are being unfairly locked out of content.

It’s not impossible for you to both to be right on an issue. But nonetheless whoever has this attitude of “I have no/serious problems so everyone/no-one does” has logic so faulty it hurts my brain to read. Stop hurting my brain.

EDIT: Also, the post Airyll made right above this one? It rocks. Read it.

You’d still get the unique skin exotic for being able to do the version driving everyone up the wall.

My suggestion is meant to offer a concession to elderly/disabled gamers while not taking away from the prestige (or being able to show off mastery) of a difficult challenge. Win win.

Shostie.6435:

People need to learn to take breaks because our unconscious minds do a lot of processing we’re not aware of. Work on it for a while, take a break, come back a few hours later or the next day and it will be easier because your brain will have been solving the problem without you even being aware of it. It might take more than a couple sessions for some people, but it will eventually work.

This would be excellent advice and I usually share that sentiment with any other frustrating game. The problem here is that the limited-time availability of the tower discourages that strategy.

Paranormal Bear.2539:

No dungeon in the game, nor boss in both gw1/gw2 forces 7 hours on you to conquer it.

I generally agree with you, but I wanted to say “Temple of the Intolerable” and “Battle for Lion’s Arch” both took me around that long to solo.

I’ll make this really brief: I want the achievement, and to complete the holiday. I could take or leave the exotic. I just want to finish this before I lose access to the JP for a year.

Why not a second version of the tower with a much more relaxed timer but with no real reward except the achievement and maybe a few ToT bags?

The reason for this change should be clear to anyone who thinks it through. ArenaNet isn’t doing it to “nerf” your fun. They’re doing it to control the speed of gold inflation. It’s so people who want to buy gems with gold don’t feel obligated to run the same dungeon over and over in order to keep up with the market.

Honestly, this is going to sound a little condescending, but if any of you out there have such a high tolerance for repetitive and mindless tasks I urge you to use it to find some extra real life work instead. It doesn’t have to be a formal wage. Just take up commission knitting or something, there’s lots of ways to make money. It’ll still get you more gold faster than dungeon running since your profits from that can be turned into gems.

Right, I don’t think mesmers should be able to “Unload” like the phantasm does.

But I really would like to get more use out of the Duelist’s Discipline trait

This elite is perfect when you feel like giving your archenemy the bird… form.

Could it be said you’re… rabidly anticipating a change here?

Don’t have the proper motivation to make a big case this time. I’m sure ArenaNet devs have seen it by now.

But you know what? Mesmers totally need to be able to use a pistol in their mainhand. Here’s where I go on to say that Revolver Ocelot from Metal Gear Solid would totally be a mesmer, how the mesmer’s other mainhand ranged weapon is kind of very specific to a build niche, etc. etc. it’s been discussed on this forum before and my pet thread on GW2 guru.

This is more of an obligatory/token “hey the forums are open again, time for me to pester ArenaNet!”.

You may now return to your normal programming.

Considering they cost karma and there currently aren’t many places to spend karma, I think so.

(This is mirrored from a thread I posted on GW2 Guru. Sorry if mirroring it isn’t kosher, I just want it to be in a place the devs might see it.)

The way the system currently works, when you use a transmutation stone you essentially combine two items. You pick a skin, which set of stats to use, and which item’s upgrades/runes to keep. A lot of people don’t like this system, for various reasons. One is that it does essentially consume your items. You lose resources, essentially, as a result. A lot of people also don’t like the system because they’re used to more lenient systems in other MMOs, such as appearance/costume slots or WoW’s transmogrification.

Of course, it’s my personal opinion that not every system is perfect for every game. I also believe that ArenaNet didn’t decide on the system they chose lightly. Perhaps they thought it was a good idea to have a system that removes equipment from the game so crafted items have a higher value? The problem with the current system, in my opinion, is that the way it works discourages people from using it. Most people just sit on their transmutation stones. It’s almost unthinkable to use them on exotic items.
So what to do? Well, the GW2guru user Ardene proposed an idea that I happened to like. I think what she proposed isn’t quite totally in line with what I think ArenaNet is trying to do here, but I want to give them credit because I’m proposing a modified version of their idea.

Alright. In my opinion, transmutation needs to work totally differently. When you use a transmutation stone on an item, it should actually break the item down into three parts. The skin, the base stats (let’s call it an “Armor Kit” for the purpose of the discussion), and whatever upgrades you had on that item.

The skin of the item would work like how it does for the heritage skins. You just double click the skin, drag an item to the window and you’re done. Furthermore, there should be a collections tab in the bank for armor skins that you can draw/deposit from, similar to how it works for minis.

The armor kit, when double clicked, will ask you to use a skin on it. Perhaps it’ll even let you pick one from your supply of them in your collections tab without having to withdraw it first. This essentially recreates the item you just disassembled, just with a new name and appearance. The item’s color rarity and whatever other suffix the item has would be attached to this part.

The rune or upgrade would just be returned to you, much like a successful salvage works now.

Wait, wouldn’t that make higher level salvage kits useless? Yeah, it pretty much would. You know what? I think that’s just fine. I think having to destroy your items for a chance to reclaim an upgrade is too harsh. Again, I think the purpose here is to remove equipment from the system so crafters can more readily provide. However, it’s somewhat self-defeating if it’s so harsh that most people won’t use it. I can’t think for the life of me why anyone willing to destroy their items to get a rune back would use anything but the valuable 100% success kit to do so. I’m no economist, but I believe this creates a market bottleneck.

So yes, I say remove all the fancier salvage kits from the game and let transmutation stones be the standard means for transferring upgrades. Once you’ve done so, if you want the original item back, then just double click on the armor kit and reapply its original skin.

So where does this leave crafters, then? Well, under the system I propose, I think they can still make a healthy profit by selling the skins. Or even playing the market by buying underpriced armor with a highly valued skin and then selling the skin high. I also think the trade and management of skins as a resource would be fun for both the crafters and their customers.