[Suggestions] Permanent Harvesting Tools

Can you make all similar permanent harvesting tools the same speed? All logging axes the same speed, all mining pickaxes the same speed, and all harvesting sickles the same speed... just so I don't feel like I have to buy the consortium sickle just for the speed, or avoid buying other tools because they're super slow...You could make them harvest at the same speed and then the extra animation continue to play. It does that anyway when you've finished chopping trees down and the tree falls, but you're still swinging >_> So basically, bring all sickles up to the same speed as the consortium sickle. and same thing for the pickaxes and axes. Then I think a lot more of us would actually buy tools for their looks ^.^

Edit: Thank you ANet for the glyphs. Now how about that uniform speed? xD

Fair enough.

But then, they will have to remove the benefits from the watchwork mining and unbound gathering tools because they are basically offering more than other gathering tools. In my opinion, i think it's quite nice for different gathering tools to have their own special benefit or features aside from the animation.

@Alchofas.8243 said:Fair enough.

But then, they will have to remove the benefits from the watchwork mining and unbound gathering tools because they are basically offering more than other gathering tools. In my opinion, i think it's quite nice for different gathering tools to have their own special benefit or features aside from the animation.

I think there's no evidence that ANet has intentionally offered a trade off between utility and speed. There's no rhyme or reason to the rate of gathering. It also seems churlish of ANet to charge 1000 gems (retail) to give people a slower experience, without letting folks know ahead of time that speed is part of what they'll buy with some tools.

However, for the OP, I'd far prefer that ANet spend time turning the tools into skins available via the wardrobe, as they did with mount outfits skins. Those that like speed could have it; those that like specific animations could choose that. (And yeah, my previous watchwork mining pick, actually three of them bought before shared inventory, they'd end up not dropping watchwork and I'd be sad... but the end result would probably be better for the game as a whole.)

No.Thats not how business works

I think all gemstore gathering tools should have the same speed and an upgrade slot.The gathering of extras like sprockets and unbound magic could be based on the upgrade in the tool, thus allowing you to use any skin you want with any bonus output.Arenanet could even monetize this: Sell infinite gathering tools and their upgrades seperately.

Or yeah, I guess having skins for the tools would work, too. Anet would still be making money. And we could choose our own speeds and animations and bonus drops :Dalso i never said anything about removing the bonus drops or changing them. I only want the rate of harvesting to be the same.

@Blood.5607 said:No.Thats not how business works

If you want to see items that provide a mild economic advantage sold in the gem store, just say so, don't make up nonsensical claims of further made up consequences to other peoples suggestions.

A business is just as likely, if not more, to lose people from fulfilling a desired service in a dishonest manner, as it is to lose them from not fulfilling that service at all. And ever since they introduced the jester sickle and watchwork mining pick, thousands of players have pointed out that these items, while minor, are steps down a slippery slope leaning towards pay to win options in the gemstore. You ever played a game called Black Desert Online? Actually a really fun game, better combat than GW2 by miles, but unfortunately other than that single advantage, a completely ruined multiplayer game, because the only way you are ever guaranteed to get top tier gear, the only way you can stay competitive from one level hike to another with each expansion, is by buying gear with real world cash. Now that's an extreme I doubt GW2 will ever reach, but isn't it better to not ever to take a step in that direction in the first place, no matter how minor?

All the OP is saying is that, in his opinion, your choice of infinite gathering tools should be solely cosmetic And as there are entire industries based solely around aesthetics, visual expression, and visual culture; and the vast majority of the items sold in the same store as the infinite gathering tools, are items whose value is cosmetic without any other effect on gameplay; there is absolutely zero argument that it's "not how business works" to sell items based on cosmetic appeal alone.

The time to gather based upon which tool you use for the same type of gather can vary soo much that it can literally take too long to pick a flower. Molten and Consortium is fairly swift and you can't interrupt the pick, missing out on picking the herb. On the opposite side Bone, Skritt, Unbound Magic, and Sickle all can be interrupted by moving or getting hit; not to mention you have to wait the entire gather animation to get your herb. It makes no sense that these items considered the same infinite gathering tool have such a wild inaccuracy in their gathering time.

Somehow it's only the herb picking tool that suffers this inaccuracy. Can you fix the pick so they are identical in their gathering time like all other tools are?

Already suggestedhttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/244937#Comment_244937

Unbound magic version gathers extra items in addition to Consortium Harvesting Sickle, so it can be a balancing factor.

@Umut.5471 said:Unbound magic version gathers extra items in addition to Consortium Harvesting Sickle, so it can be a balancing factor.

So does the Watchwork pick yet doesn't take longer to mine.

I don't think ones that give extra stuff like sprockets or unbound magic should be as fast, that's the trade off to make, but there does need to be some fast (Consortium Sickle speed) options for logging and mining tools.

There are times when I ignore tree and ore nodes because I simply don't care enough to wait for the length of time/animations it takes to get them, where as with the Consortium Sickle I harvest any plant I come across as I can just press F and run away immediately. If there were mining and logging tools that quick I'd buy them immediately.

Laughing my head off at the "eternity" of time waste folks suffer while harvesting.

The gathering time of any given tool should be the same. Since I believe we are running into delays due to animation speeds though I at least hope they strive to make the animation time to harvest closer in the future. But is this a game changer, no but isn't a bad thing to mention either.

Is it worth to buy them? I mean, they cost around 750g if we buy gems for gold, so it's a lot of money, at least for me.

It is all relative to how much you want to avoid farming Unbound Magic otherwise.

Hard to say, as our replies are going to be personal opinions.

My opinion: If you don't already have unlimited gathering tools, I would pick them up. If you already have unlimited gathering tools, I would not.

This post was made in reply to the question: are the unbound magic gathering tools worth it? A subsequent merge made it hard to see its relevance.

A friend of mine bought them. With a goal of gathering unbound magic quickly, they find now that they have excess that they need to spend all the time. (With that much UM, buying the Unbound Bundles has the best UM→gold profit, around 1.5-2g per 1000 UM.)

One of the biggest factors is how much do you gather? Do you do regular mining or logging runs? Then it's going to be worth it for you quickly, especially if you convert your spare UM. Do you mostly only gather when convenient? Then maybe not.

A final factor: it's a huge QoL improvement to have at least one set of infinite tools in shared inventory (or on a main, if you mostly stick to one toon at a time). I really enjoy not having to keep a set of tools on hand and not needing to remember to swap and so on; it makes the game ever so much more pleasant.

I bought a set of unbreakable tools. If you have LW season three, there is a lot you can buy with Unbound energy: Stat selectable Ascended accessories, ascended back pieces, rare infusions, home nodes, crafting ingredients for legendary and ascended weapons, and tons of achievements. If you double down with harvest boosters it's downright broken. You will get TWICE the unbound and more crafting items from nodes. I am surprised people never rioted about it, as it is a legitimate advantage. More so than those damn mount skins.

It kind of depends / varies per player. You have to look at how much of LS3 you have access to, what rewards you can gain from those vendors and how many of those rewards you want / need, and figure out what your "bottleneck" is. For some people the bottleneck to getting the rewards is the individual currencies (Rubies, Petrified Wood, ect). For others, the bottleneck is Unbound Magic. The tools help alleviate the latter to a degree, but if you're already swimming in UM and lacking the other stuff then getting even more UM isn't going to do much for ya.

You also have to weigh convenience, because you can buy individual unbound harvesting tools for karma on most of the LS3 maps, but they only have half as many uses as normal gathering tools so you're going to be making frequent trips back to buy more or using a lot of inventory space to store them all.

For me, the bottleneck to getting LS3 stuff has always been unbound magic and I still had a fair number of things I wanted to get from those vendors, so I snatched up a set of the infinite tools pretty quickly. Even though I play multiple characters and so a lot of the time I'm not even using the character I have them equipped to since I don't really care to shuffle them around each time I swap.

Another thing to consider is that LS4 will probably have a new currency. I would assume that they aren't going to continue using UM because that would mean people who have built up a stockpile of it would be able to frontload rewards and have less reason to play LS4 maps. And while I doubt they'll introduce new gathering tools for the new currency right away (the infinite gathering tools didn't show up for LS3 until... I wanna say Chapter 4 or 5) it is a possibility. The UB Gathering Tools are probably going to be 100% relegated to LS3 maps and rewards.

I do a lot of gathering with the UM tools. It has been great for me especially when I farm Bitterfrost and the other LS3 maps. I farm those areas regularly so that rubies, winterberries, etc. are not a bottleneck for me. I also have purchased all the nodes for my home instance to gain even more.

With unbound magic I have been able to purchase most of my ascended trinkets without ever having to use laurels, guild commendations, or other currencies that I can use for other things.

For me, the UM tools have been great.

Since I'm hunting for asc trinkets for all my toons, those UB tools are a lifesaver. Totally worth the money, and never again I need to carry 10 sets of karmavendor UB tools in my inventory.

Even if you don't need UB magic, they are still the only tools that give you something extra (excluding the Watchwork pick). You can still turn UB magic into gold if you don't need it. All this with the bundle price of 2700 (cheaper than buying 3 separate tools) they are the best set IMO.

Rather than worry about whether or not one type of permanent tool is faster than the other, I'd rather have the basic in game tools sped up a bit to come closer to the gem store tools. While I have many sets of unlimited tools, I also have 2 accounts where I haven't purchased a set and the difference in speed is striking, especially when gathering plant nodes.

I have no problem with the speed of the um tools as they give you an extra item when used so it balances out. I wouldn't mind if the watchwork pick was slowed down due to this addition item as well. The rest of the tools could be at the same speed but they are not. I stopped buying one of each tool that came out (which was before shared slots) due to the frost wasp logging tool. While I love the animation, the considerably slower logging speed put me off on buying any different tools in the future.

I would love to have a wardrobe system like we have for the gathering tools. Purchase a tool/set and unlock the skin for the account. You could freely mix and match the tools you wanted. I've seen it proposed for other items but I would also like to see the "additional item" unlock so you could customize the additional item as well as the look of the tool. I have a few fire themed characters and would love to have the molten tools look while still gathering the watchwork sprockets or UM but currently that isn't an option. You'd still have to buy the tools so Anet would benefit and since the addition of shared slots, no one would really buy more than one set any more unless the skins were an option.

This could be a huge area of the game to increase player QOL and also increase sales channels for a product that's core to the game, and you can do both at once (if tech allows)Players want customization and that varies a lot sometimes depending on their goals in game and that can change over time due to the game and not something they could plan, so I'd advocate combining everyone's great ideas in this thread and opening it up so people can adapt and customize to their liking. Details can be fine tuned to maintain balance and healthy gameplay, but here are some ideas.

Sell the base tools like below (options being akin to upgrade slots):

• Standard unlimited use
• Standard w/ Loot option
• +Speed unlimited use
• +Speed w/ Loot Option
• 50% speed increase w/ 150% loot (basically fiddle with #'s until you get where after a break point it's the most efficient tool, and that's feasible by people who do crazy gathering)

Then you sell all piece out all the fun stuff and options go as far as balance and technology allows, standard idea being like:

• Permanent selections by the item that you want (unbound magic or whatever else is offered, but it's a choice, and you can change it another time)
• Temporary loot bonuses scaling in cost to duration and how much it's going to gain per strike (specials!). That's not to say options are crazy varied, but you could have a "normal" rate and duration and then throw out sales occasionally with bonus gather rates per strike and so on and so forth.
• Skin them and put the skins in the wardrobe and allow transmutation or just have the old skin overwritten each time and bear that in mind with price points. And even if that sounds bad at first, I'm just thinking of the issue of transmutation charges when you tack all this on - maybe there's a way to address that also, though.)

Anyways, I've gone on and on and at some point the ideas will just get terrible if I continue lol, but those are just some things I'd thought of on the subject, and I honestly think it would be a win for both sides, because players can get exactly what they're looking for, adapt to changes down the road, and the company can reduce the price of the base item a fair amount for the functionality it gives and still make MORE down the road with customizations and options selling at a regular pace instead of it being this one big purchase that players may hesitate to make and then after that it's all over.

Ok....whew.....i'm done now i promise :smile: