Guild Wars 2

Every computer RPG ever. Don’t expect it to make sense.

Pretty sure that email you get from the wife of a dead, wealthy Nigerian guy is a worse scam…

IndigoSundown.5419:

tolunart.2095:

Originally and ideally, Legendary weapons were to be a badge of honor demonstrating that you have mastered all aspects of the game, not just those parts you want to play while ignoring the rest. Open world PvE, PvP, WvW, dungeons and fractals, everything should contribute some aspect of the Legendary. They got away from this in the years after launch (for example removing WvW maps from 100% map completion and the Gift of Exploration) and being able to buy completed Legendary weapons for gold kind of rendered that whole “badge of honor” thing pointless. So now it’s more a badge of grinding.

While I understand and appreciate your point, the idea that taking nine hours to complete the GoB reward track is “grind” is representative of a lot of what’s gone wrong with the MMO consumer-base.

I’m referring to the entire process not just the single aspect OP complained about. Collecting hundreds of gold or going through the lengthy precursor-hunt, collecting stacks of various materials, forging lucky clovers and so on. I’ve gone back and forth about making a Legendary several times (and actually have about half the silver doubloons needed for Juggernaut) but ultimately it always seems like a lot of unfun stuff to do just to get a pretty skin for a weapon.

Originally and ideally, Legendary weapons were to be a badge of honor demonstrating that you have mastered all aspects of the game, not just those parts you want to play while ignoring the rest. Open world PvE, PvP, WvW, dungeons and fractals, everything should contribute some aspect of the Legendary. They got away from this in the years after launch (for example removing WvW maps from 100% map completion and the Gift of Exploration) and being able to buy completed Legendary weapons for gold kind of rendered that whole “badge of honor” thing pointless. So now it’s more a badge of grinding.

But, whichever way you look at it, a Legendary is little more than a pretty skin for your weapon, so if you don’t like the requirements to get one, save up your gold or find a different pretty skin to use.

cosmicegg.8502:

That may have been the reason they did this, but still they had no right to short change customers on advertised content. Look at Volkswagen for instance, they delivered great cars people love them and they still do but they advertised certain emission numbers that were fictitious and even though these cars were otherwise great they still were forced to buy back or make cash offers to every person that bought one of those models that they failed to or couldn’t deliver on advertised features. I cant see how this is any different.

So start a class-action lawsuit. I’m sure there’s a lawyer out there somewhere who could use a good laugh.

Dilligaf Wyt.1867:

Then why retract your bid after i retract mine and put it back up after i relist mine. Wouldnt you just leave your bid until you got it. And you mean to tell me this item becomes so sought after only when i place a bid.

Probably an automated program that places a bid just over the highest current buy order amount that is not its own. When you remove your order it adjusts to the new highest order. So other players can’t grief it and make the bot pay too much for stuff.

Or a human buyer with a buy order at his preferred price is outbidding you until you give up and stop trying to place the highest buy order so he gets the item instead of waiting. Once you drop out of the race, he deletes the overbid and is left with his original buy order on top.

Besides, there is no real benefit to trying to manipulate you like that to make a sale. If the “bidder” is trying to drive you to buy a sell order, the more likely result is that you’ll give up and come back later to place another bid. The item would sell faster if he lists a sell order between the highest buy/lowest sell amount as a compromise between selling fast and making more money.

If he wants to sell to your buy order, why waste time with a nickel-and-dime bidding war to make a few copper more? Either sell it immediately or place a (slightly higher than your buy) order sell like above. Drawing this out runs the risk of someone else filling your order, or worse filling his buy order leaving him with two items to sell.

Basically, there’s no reason to assume that the bidding war was seller manipulation, and going in that direction is a bit tinfoily.

Deihnyx.6318:

A lot of bidding systems actually have a mimimal incremental amount you have to put.
It’s usually done to save time, and it’s what I’m talking about here. It’s annoying to waste time to outbid people who only increment with 1c.

Then buy via sell order, you get the item immediately, there is no “bidding.” Or place a buy order for the maximum you are willing to pay, if someone is willing to pay more then just wait until their buy order is filled and you will be next.

You have the option of buying immediately or being patient. This topic is as old as the TP and the 532nd thread asking for it is not going to have any different result than the preceding 531.

When you get outbid by 1c, outbid that person by 1s or 1g. If they aren’t willing to spend that much to outbid you, you’ll get the item.

Gaile Gray.6029:

stale.9785:

I do like the idea of not receiving whispers from people who aren’t mutual friends. That is a worthy suggestion, in and of itself, regardless of the gold selling scum.

Frankly, I would agree with those of you who feel that way, and I do see the value of that. In my line of work, it wouldn’t be the best thing. But for most players, yep, it’s something I believe could make a good QoL change.

But I wanted to ask a question: How would you build a friend list without whispers? Or maybe I’m more wondering how would you discuss adding someone, mutually, without whispers? Open chat?

It would have to be an on/off toggle “Ignore whispers from non-friends” setting, you could turn it off when in a group, chatting with guildies or otherwise in situations where you might expect a private message from a legit source. But no matter what you’re still missing out on some random bits of pleasant conversation by using it. I’ve gotten occasional comments like “I like your character’s name,” or “nice outfit,” via whisper from strangers, I’d rather be open to that and put up with the occasional spammer.

The main obstacles are how to instruct players about its use and purpose, I rarely get these kinds of spams while others seem to be bombarded with every login. Many players will probably be confused by the setting and may forget to turn it on or off. The other concern is how many players would actually find it useful, I know that making changes to a program this complex is a difficult thing that can spawn many bugs, so if 99.5% of the players are going to ignore the setting anyway, there isn’t much incentive to put it into the game.

I don’t mess with the chat settings often, is there a way to move whispers to their own tab so that you can still see if someone whispers you but it won’t always be thrust into your face? That could be a better solution if you find them annoying.

It sounds nice but would be very difficult to add much more customization options – the more complex the game becomes, the easier it is to break something. So the main concern is whether it adds enough to the game to justify the work that goes into creating the initial system and fixing the unintended side effects.

It could be something to consider for future elite specializations, however. Like a “blood knight” guardian that uses mh axe and glows red, or a “dark assassin” mesmer with daggers and less flashy effects.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I only really know about a handful of them myself, so I understand that their closing wouldn’t impact me much either. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that even if no one took advantage of insider information, it’s still a race to log in and take advantage of game release notes. Anet considers that to be fair, since the notes are publicly released on the forums. It’s also inherently unfair to a lot, because not everyone is able to log in as soon as updates goes through (I’m always at work and my game is now firewalled by the government).

1: Quit your job.
2: Become one of these “insiders” who have access to info first.
3: ?
4: Profit!

If people are getting rich off this stuff, who needs a day job?

Dean Calaway.9718:

Not sure if someone did something like this already, but what the hell, my oldest screenshot and a recreated one today:

Congratulations on Growing The Beard.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GrowingTheBeard

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

It makes sense that the OP would want to submit a support ticket with the details (date+time, item name, prices|history, and screenshots to document). All the same, it won’t be something that ANet would respond to quickly.

Also, Anet does not discuss the outcome of any investigations, if there is any response it will be along the lines of “thank you for submitting your report,” and you will not be told if the reported user was a bot or not, if it was banned or any such info.

ShadowGryphon.6257:

It would be very difficult to prove that these toys came about spontaneously.

There’s a difference between legal procedure and common sense.

The burden of proof is on the accuser (Anet if they were to sue) to prove that the designs are theirs. Comparing digital artwork to a real-world item is not that simple. And that’s assuming both parties are based in the US and subject to US copyright law. International lawsuits are… complicated.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. There have been plenty of toys over the years, for example, that look like the lightsabers from Star Wars to the casual observer. But call them “laser swords” and change the design of the hilt and there’s little Lucasfilm can do to to stop them from being sold.

Danikat.8537:

The two dragon swords do look a lot like the GW1/2 versions.

But it’s not really for us to say. Especially since copyright law is can be horribly complicated in situations like this where it’s not a direct copy, it just looks similar enough that it could have been copied, or it could be a total coincidence.

Contact Support and let them know and then Anet can decide how they want to handle it and if necessary the legal system can make the final decision.

Yeah, it’s pretty obvious the designer has seen the flame/ice swords in GW2, along with a couple million other people. But the blade is different, the dragon heads are similar but not exact copies, and proving in court that he used them as the models for a derivative product isn’t as easy as it sounds.

They look like pretty poor quality knockoffs anyway, a C&D letter from Anet’s legal department might get them to redesign the dragon heads a bit but it’s unlikely they will stop it altogether.

ShadowGryphon.6257:

Dawdler.8521:

If you are thinking about that kittenty chinese mmo defense of the league of titans watch or whatever the kitten they call it then Anet already knows.

Oh no, this:
http://nerdapproved.com/toys/prime-swords-dragons/

Not a copyright violation. Neither “dragon sword” nor “steampunk sword” was originally an Anet thing.

It’s a non-issue. Legendary development was cut because it affected the least number of players (most players don’t even have a single Legendary, let alone are waiting for new ones) and difficult decisions had to be made.

There was a change in management, and the one who “promised” these things no longer has any influence on the game. We, as customers, are not given access to the long-term plans of the management, nor the changes in budget and data collected, etc. Of course customer feedback is considered when making these decisions, but ultimately the decisions that are made are not made by the customers. We don’t give orders to management.

Everyone is free to make their own decision whether to support the game when it changes direction. But no matter how much you yell and stomp your feet, the devs are not going to take orders from you.

vesica tempestas.1563:

Shovel Face.4512:

But on a lighter note, atleast I’ll still play your game, you’re just never going to get my money ever again

the gaming community needs more people like you

They can have as many as they want, there’s more than enough of them hanging out in these forums.

So, if so many people are converting cash to gems to gold and buying “win” why does the price of gems for gold keep going up? Looks to me like it’s more “part-time job that pays less than minimum wage so I don’t have to buy gems with a credit card.”

Crossaber.8934:

Mystic forge a precursor, you need to be rich, very rich.

Not really. The daily gives 2g for a brief effort, the loot you gather or accumulate while doing it can easily give you a couple more gold, enough to buy eight rare greatswords or whatever for an hour or two of “work.” That’s two Forge attempts per day and a bonus every other day as you Forge the output of those four attempts.

Your chance at a precursor per Forge never changes, 2-3 attempts per day over six months has the same chance of success as 500 attempts in one session. And that’s not even counting dungeon runs or Forging the rares you get from the world bosses. Having patience is more important than having gold, hardcore MMO players have been trained to rush through everything as quickly as possible. Then they get bored without goals to work on and demand more stuff to do. Which wouldn’t be a problem if they took their time and enjoyed the game for what it is instead of wanting everything a week ago Thursday.

I have a number of alts stationed at chests collecting silver doubloons against the possibility of crafting Juggernaut someday. That won’t happen tomorrow, but since June I’ve gone from 0 doubloons to 125 or so (halfway to the 250 I will need) without spending a copper… making money in fact because I can salvage or sell the other loot from the chests. And if I eventually decide against Juggernaut I can sell those doubloons (currently worth about 2.5g each) and pretty much buy a different precursor outright.

If you stop looking for “get rich quick” then it’s not that hard to achieve your goals.

The MF isn’t crafting in the sense that armorsmithing and weaponsmithing is. Anyone can toss four items into the MF and a random item that is similar with a chance to be higher quality will come out of it.

“Farming” precursors this way involves throwing hundreds of high level rare/exotic weapons into the Forge and hoping to get lucky (or eventually average out your chances) and get a precursor. You can farm gold/tokens/materials and buy or craft the weapons you Forge but as the poster above states you can’t really farm the precursor directly – they are valuable because the demand for some of them is very high while the supply is extremely low.

If there was a way to get many precursors quickly they would cost as much as any other exotic weapon.

You seem to be very new to the game, don’t be in such a hurry to make money, play the game and the money will come.

DeceiverX.8361:

I completely agree. It was done in D&D because it made the most sense on paper, and because it also made the game easier to design and play for people to get into. It’s not because it’s good design. Actually, most game designers will blatantly say it’s horrible design when looked at objectively. But it was kept alive through tradition.

D&D didn’t have a Trinity, that’s strictly an MMO thing. It doesn’t make sense at all, if you were in a life-or-death fight, who would you attack? The heavily armored guy with a short stick or the fellow in flimsy robes throwing balls of fiery death? Whenever fighting enemies intelligent enough to recognize the difference between warriors and mages, it was generally the rule that anyone capable of attacking the mages would do so, the fighters job was to intercept them and kill them quickly so the mages didn’t die. I remember this because I liked playing mages, and spent the latter half of many battles lying on the ground trying not to bleed to death.

Maybe it’s different now, but in the first two editions at least, enemies didn’t just pile on the armored guy and chip away at his hit points like mosquitoes on an elephant. If your party was outnumbered it was hard to protect the weakest members. And low level mages were definitely the weakest, I never heard the term “glass cannon” back then but beginning mages were glass slingshots, with maybe 2-3 offensive spells and dagger or staff for melee combat. And one or two hits could down them, so enemies often took out the weakest/most dangerous targets first.

Actually it looks to me like forum activity began to decline after a year and by June 2014 posting volume was about 50% of a year before. LS2 and HoT bumped activity up a bit but it never reached the levels of the first year.

This is not unusual, a lot of MMO players are not that heavily invested in a single game and the subless business model encourages players to wander and come back when something grabs their attention. So it’s not so much “HoT drove everyone away” as “the shiny wore off and after finishing the content on one or two characters most players drift away to other games and come back for a week or two when something new is added.”

Of course, forum activity by itself doesn’t tell us much about who is playing the game because it’s driven by a relative handful of deeply invested (sometimes non-)players who devote a lot of time to discussing the game. If you love or hate the game more than most, you read the forums a lot. If you don’t have strong feelings you don’t have much reason to come here if you don’t have a question or a problem. And most players who join or leave the game do so without announcing it to the forums.

This is just the min/max mentality at work, there’s no use arguing against it. To such individuals there are only two choices – best in slot and everything else. Don’t have Ascended gear? Might as well be naked. Didn’t slot the “correct” runes and sigils? Better grind the gold to buy them, then come back. Don’t have the max bonus from consumables? You’re taking a spot on the team away from someone who can give 100%.

Eventually, real life will happen and these individuals will realize that it’s just a game, and all those hours they spent grinding for the best stuff were ultimately wasted. But while in the middle of it they lack the perspective to see this, so anything less than the best is a temporary step on the path as they do whatever is necessary to get to the goal.

I get the complaints, really, but there’s a great deal of denial there, the grind is self-inflicted and actually expected – in most games there are periodic gear resets where the previously BiS gear becomes middle of the pack and everything gets replaced again and again. This is to ensure a maximum lifespan from expansion content and keep players subbed as long as possible in traditional MMOs, but doesn’t really have a use in a FTP game unless the company sells shortcuts for cash. But it’s become so accepted as part of the process that if there isn’t a constant grind they get bored and cranky without anything to focus on.

Still not sure what the problem is. The cap is only on dailies, and will take a new player 4 years to reach it, even if Anet does nothing to change the daily system.

There are also plenty of non-daily sources of AP, and by the time a new player reaches the shallow end of the pool there will have been many more added through LS seasons and expansions.

The cap only slows down the rate of AP for older players, giving newer players a chance to “catch up.” Changes to the game happen over time, and “retired” achievements will eventually be replaced by new ones. Yes, someone who has played constantly since the beginning will always have more AP, the only way to change that is to throw away the current system or score and start every player over at 0.

Even older players haven’t exhausted the sources of AP, I’ve been playing off and on since Sept 2012 and have <7500 AP. The system is not broken.

In the last day or two fish have been jumping out of the water and “swimming” on land nearby. When I attack them they jump back into the water.

I also occasionally see candy corn nodes flash into existence for half a second before disappearing.

Restrictions on FTP accounts are why the problem isn’t worse, and their addition to the game encourages more players to try it and gives more opportunities for Anet to make money, both are positive effects for every player.

I’ve tried FTP games where chat is a wall of blah-blah-dot-com advertisements, more gold sellers than players it seems. Anet does a very good job of managing them, but they follow the money like vultures circling a wounded cow. The new LS season means more new and returning players, more advertising and attention for the game, and more gold sellers.

Fortunately whatever “we” decide to do about it is of no consequence, as customers we don’t make those kinds of decisions and Anet is already well aware of the value of FTP offers.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

However, if ANet keeps the cap, I think they need to find a way to adjust it, so that each year, everyone has a similar chance of earning those later rewards…eventually.

Not sure what you mean, the cap is on the Daily AP, and a newer player still has the same cap as an older one. The new player also has AP from crafting, slayer, dungeons, etc. that come from playing the game just like everyone else. The daily cap is to make sure the new player can reach that same AP rating eventually, it only slows down older players.

And they do add new sources of AP, even if it’s not as fast as you’d like. Today I got 1 pt just for being in the area when a “Leyline Anomaly” was sighted. I was underground and didn’t actually see anything, but I got it anyway. I’m sure there will be plenty of AP sources added as the LS progresses, and with future expansions.

Tekoneiric.6817:

The thing about it is that while Jormag was asleep in GW1 he could have asserted an influence on his region keeping it the way he likes it. I think both are possible.

I would like to see his cold spreading to other maps like Harathi Hinterlands and more of Gendarran Fields than is already cold. They could do a whole plot where it starts snowing in LA and the Black Citadel.

Worth just to see a group of young charr wandering the citadel daring each other to lick the walls etc., then laughing when one’s tongue gets frozen to it.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

I wonder if replacing AP for dailies with AP for time spent logged into the game would be an improvement? (I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or bad idea yet, mind you, but maybe something worth exploring anyway)

This would reward AFK farmers and botters with a constant stream of APs (and the chest rewards that come with them) while punishing those who have jobs and lives IRL so they only log in for an hour or two here and there.

Although the current system isn’t perfect, the reverse is true – Dailies give a little boost of karma, gold and XP to players who spend a short time doing them, while botting or being AFK all day does nothing to advance them.

Oh look, a zombie thread. Mod will be a along with a rifle soone. Boom! Headshot.

In the meantime, the problem isn’t the cap on AP, as such, it’s the importance players place on the number. You can get AP by running around harvesting nodes and viewing vistas every day. You can get AP by buying skins off the TP (collections) and salvaging them (Agent of Entropy). How does any of this translate into being better at the game than someone who does none of these things but runs dungeons or PvPs constantly?

I remember threads about dungeon runners won’t take PUG players with less than x,000 AP. And players who felt compelled to do every single daily every single day because they couldn’t bear to leave a single AP unclaimed. And then complain because they couldn’t go back to get missed AP from past events.

Without a cap/restrictions that attitude of “bigger number means better player” and the compulsion to do everything that gives AP just gets worse. Imagine playing for a year or two, learning everything you can about how to play a chosen class, but being rejected from a raid because you have less than 100,000 AP. Especially when 50,000 of it comes from doing the daily every single day.

The numbers mean nothing, but it tickles the psychological buttons of certain players. Other than the chat/forum rage of those players, nothing would be lost by removing it from the game.

There is no limit, as long as you have the materials you can forge any Legendary even if you have forged it before. You can do this over and over.

Who is “we?” Are you planning to buy the company?

Fishae.2503:

every other game where theres some sort of premium for ingame currency trading dictated by players, the prices are never far off gold sellers prices, so theres little incentive to go to them, but gw2… i want to buy gold, but the rate comparison is extremely off putting

That’s because the market rate is automated, not controlled by Anet. There would be much worse problems in the game if they set the rates.

The claims that Anet “does nothing” are false. I’ve read the Support forum for years and there has been a constant stream of “my account was falsely banned for gold-selling, please reconsider” messages. They used to post a brief response to each ticket # – sometimes it was legit, someone got banned by mistake for sending a friend a few hundred gold to finish a Legendary or something, and the ban was overturned after a review.

But often the messages were posted by gold sellers who didn’t want to abandon the account and start over, and the response was “ban is legit, and will stand.” You can see by the ticket #s that only a tiny percentage of tickets received were disputed or otherwise mentioned in the forums, so for every ban mentioned there hundreds if not thousands of others were undisputed or upheld without being posted.

Clearing out these accounts are expensive for Anet – customer support costs money, the manpower used tracking and banning them costs money, chargebacks from accounts and gems bought with stolen accounts cost money, and players who buy from gold sellers cost money in lost revenue. So it is within Anet’s best interest to use the most effective methods to control them. If any of these suggestions had already been considered and were better than current methods – and these suggestions are either basic common sense or have been tried in the past – then they would be in use by now.

Fishae.2503:

so they say, but w/e algorithm they using ends up giving rates up to 5 times lower than gold sellers

Wow, and the gold sellers steal your cc and account, too, what a bargain!

Fishae.2503:

heres a solution, raise your gem to gold ratios, even the big sites have 2-3 times the exchange rate
i would buy from them if not the the risk of gold being taken by anet
and i dont mind changing gem to gold if not for the super low rate in comparison

Anet doesn’t influence the exchange rate, players do. When players exchange gold for gems, the value of gems increases. It has been increasing overall since the game launched, gems are worth many times more than they were in the beginning.

I thought everyone played drunk.

I know the asura do, have you seen them run?

Djinn.9245:

If they have a snapshot of my account, they can look at it and give me back anything that is missing. Or they can rollback my account to some time before my account was hacked which causes me to lose anything between that time and when my account was hacked. The first option returns more. So yes, a rollback would cause me to lose more than just returning what was lost.

You’re talking about the same thing. They can “roll back” the account to the most recent snapshot (not the last time you logged in, it doesn’t work like that) upon request, with specific requirements. They may have changed the policy recently (and appear to have developed new restoration tools) but for most of GW2’s lifetime they refused rollbacks for accidental deletions or if your account was accessed by someone else using your computer (the “my brother did it” defense). If your account was accessed by someone from a different IP address they could offer a rollback to the most recent snapshot.

I don’t know how often they save these snapshots but if your account was hacked today (August 6) the most recent snapshot may be from June 6, meaning you will lose everything you did in the last two months but regain whatever you had in June. That is usually a better option than being left with one toon standing there in his underwear.

crimlet.9872:

I will clarify. Downscaling does not work.

Wrong.

There’s nothing more to say.

crimlet.9872:

The way it is now, level down system doesn’t truly put higher level players on an even field. They are more powerful than you are. You might as well throw away your kb/mouse in frustration. Leave the game. Or quite playing altogether. Because who wants to play with somebody there that is clearly more powerful that it’s like you being there doesn’t even tip any scales?

And yet for four years and counting millions of players have done just that. You have convinced yourself the game is broken, and we tend to see what we expect to see.

I’m not your enemy. I’ve tried to explain as best I can that the game was designed to work as it does, and that “more powerful” is a natural and expected result of the progression of skills and stats every toon develops as it levels up.

This is a game for casual players, not hardcores seeking a challenge. They’ve added some goals for advanced players like Ascended gear and raids, but these were added a considerable time after launch (three years later for raids), while the dynamic level adjustments were built into the game before launch.

It was always intended to work this way, and while you may not be the only one who doesn’t like it, the problem is not as clear or as severe as you seem to have convinced yourself it is. Thus, the problem exists in your own mind, not in the game. No other explanation is necessary or even possible.

crimlet.9872:

What is your point for responding if all you’re doing is restating the question asked?

I responded to your OP and explained the situation but you refused to accept it. Others have done the same and you refuse to accept their responses. There is no problem with the game, the problem is your expectations. The game will not change, therefore the only solution is for you to change your expectations or play a different game.

This is a you problem, not a game problem. I suggest playing one of those countless other MMOs that handle it better.

Fan-made submissions don’t usually make it into finished products – the company employs people to plan out releases months or years in advance – but sometimes the work is good enough to lead to something in the future. But don’t post something like that out in a public forum like this, the chances of the right people seeing it are slim. Contact the company privately – Gaile would be a good person to talk to – about their policies regarding such things and go from there.

crimlet.9872:

There’s a reason why, in every single MMO, a higher level player can’t just party up with a lower level player, do everything for them, and everything is fine and dandy. Because it really screws the game up. Every MMO creates some way to prevent higher level players and lower level players from teaming together. And it makes sense to do so. GW2 doesn’t seem to care.

In Rift you can be in a party with any level toons. In SWTOR too, before they went to a down-leveling system like this one, you could do it too. I haven’t played an MMO that doesn’t let you team up with anyone regardless of level.

The situations you describe just aren’t happening. One cannot prove a negative – there’s no way to show you that this thing you claim is a problem is not a problem. This game has been chugging along for four years now as it is, and the level adjustments have never been a problem for most players.

It’s a design decision, while you may not agree with the decisions the devs made, that doesn’t make it wrong.

crimlet.9872:

Sure if they fixed it so that it actually made higher level players truly even, it would improve the game so that it would be easier to find players to party with on your level. But even if they just got rid of it altogether, I’d say it would be easier to find players of even level to party with that how it currently is. Which is pretty much impossible.

Not sure why you say gear doesn’t matter, it’s the stat bonuses from the gear that are a major reason why higher level toons are more powerful when down-leveled.

Regardless, you asked for an explanation, and I gave it to you. This is not a broken system and it doesn’t need to be fixed.

I’m not sure what you mean, I’ve played MMOs without level scaling, and a max-level toon can go to a lowbie zone and pretty much one-shot everything and wipe out whole areas with AOE before on-level toons can even get a single hit. That doesn’t happen here.

Yes, even when down-leveled an 80 toon is more powerful than an on-level toon in lowbie areas. But if you keep your gear up, even an on-level toon in masterwork or rare gear is much more powerful than most enemies. For most regular enemies, I only need a few shots regardless of level, veterans take a little longer and champions are challenging even for a down-leveled 80.

Are you keeping your gear at the same level as your toon? A level 30 warrior in level 10 white gear is not going to be as effective as one in level 26 greens. Likewise a level 80 in level 50-something blues is not going to be at full strength.

As for balance, the system is working as designed and as intended. There’s nothing to fix because it’s not broken. As a natural consequence of the progression of skills and gear, 80 level toons have access to things that lowbie toons do not, such as:

Exotic/Ascended gear
Three/Four stat bonuses per gear item (or more)
Trait lines – three traits with several bonuses to stats and additional effects per trait
Elite skills and professions

So they are by design more powerful – a down-leveled 80 in berserker gear is going to have bonuses to Power, Precision and Ferocity while a level 15 toon only has a bonus to Power, a level 25 toon maybe Power and Precision. In addition, traits give even more bonuses and do things like immobilize the target on a critical hit, etc.

This is by design, it is intended to be this way and while some people may not like it, the majority of players are fine with that and it’s not going to change.

In Rift, for example, downleveling is optional, and wasn’t even an option when the game launched. There are periodic zone-wide events with a giant boss at the end, it was common for max-level toons to sweep in and kill the boss so quickly that no one else could even get to it. That doesn’t happen here.

Crimson Clouds.4853:

My point is, sure, the nodes are very rare drops from BL chests, but they are priced so high not because of their content but because people are willing to spend that amount of gold for fulfillment purposes.
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Also, as a “mature” game (age-wise, not content) there are some veteran players who have a lot of currency to spare. Those who concentrate on one or two characters and have long since crafted their Legendary weapons, Ascended armor, etc. have piles of gold and nothing to spend it on. So when some new shiny comes along instead of buying piles of lottery tickets and hoping to win it, they just wait for one to appear on the TP and buy it.

Because these players have plenty of gold to spend, their concept of “too expensive” is not the same as the average player. So anything below the threshold they are willing to pay is bought quickly, leaving only those above the amount anyone is willing to pay. Once these players have their shinies, new listings have to compete for players with more down-to-earth budgets and prices gradually come down until other players can afford them… hopefully.

With rare items, there’s never a guarantee that it will be available at the price you want, but you can always place a buy order and update it as you farm more gold until someone is willing to sell to you for that price.

Endless Soul.5178:

I remember in the old days of Guild Wars 1 where random people would pop up in All Chat saying how World of Warcraft was soooo much better than Guild Wars, which was usually met with “Then why are you here?” comments.

There has been some evidence that large game companies send hired trolls to cause trouble in other games, though that was in Asian markets where I guess competition is pretty intense and the “whales” there spend more on in-game items than most people do on their cars in the US.

I’m sure Blizzard would never do something like that, even if their subscriptions have been down 50% or more in recent years compared to their high water mark of 12 million or so.

New items are expensive on the player-controlled market? Shocking!

Doggie.3184:

Never heard of it.

Same. I don’t WoW.