QoL suggestion. Allow Tomes of knowledge to be interchangeable with Spirit Shards.

My suggestion. Currently you can buy Spirit Shards with Tomes of Knowledge. I suggest also letting us buy Tomes with Shards. When players want the Tomes again they can buy them back from Miyani by using Shards. This way players can sell their Tomes and store them in their wallet in the form of Shards.

somewhat on this subject, let us do something with the instant lvl 20/30 scrolls. between personal story and birthdays, i'm sitting at almost 20 i think, and no plans to make more characters unless a new class is added.

I meant to post exactly this suggestion, but then I forgot, so thanks for posting it. :)

I appreciate the option to trade tomes for spirit shards, but I'd really like the idea to trade spirit shards for tomes. Since we can earn 1 spirit shard for every level's worth of XP (once we get to level 80 and train the masteries) they seem fairly equivalent to tomes and it would be nice if they were interchangeable.

@Danikat.8537 said:I meant to post exactly this suggestion, but then I forgot, so thanks for posting it. :)

I appreciate the option to trade tomes for spirit shards, but I'd really like the idea to trade spirit shards for tomes. Since we can earn 1 spirit shard for every level's worth of XP (once we get to level 80 and train the masteries) they seem fairly equivalent to tomes and it would be nice if they were interchangeable.

You get one per level but you also get them from many other sources. I haven't bothered to keep track but leveling is potentially one of the slowest.

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:I meant to post exactly this suggestion, but then I forgot, so thanks for posting it. :)

I appreciate the option to trade tomes for spirit shards, but I'd really like the idea to trade spirit shards for tomes. Since we can earn 1 spirit shard for every level's worth of XP (once we get to level 80 and train the masteries) they seem fairly equivalent to tomes and it would be nice if they were interchangeable.

Oh I know there's other ways to get spirit shards. I'm just saying if 1 tome = 1 level and 1 level = 1 spirit shard then it seems reasonable to assume 1 spirit shard = 1 tome and it would be nice if we could actually trade them.

1 Spirit Shard for a Tome would be dirt cheap, but I’d gladly buy some if such a thing was introduced.

(I keep leveling chars and end up deleting them. I ran out of Tomes :pensive: )

I wouldn't say no to this idea, if only to have something else to do with my shards. 4000+ :cry:And if we could turn 80 tomes to a Level 80 boost, that'd be fantastic. Or shards. 200 shards for a Lv 80 boost? :)

I'm all for this, though I have plenty of both I still wouldn't mind easy wallet storage that converts back to key run utility. Only down side is I'd have to remember to convert the shards into tomes before starting the key run or if I forget, do some alt hopping before actually doing the run.

And my guildie who constantly comes up with new RP character ideas and is perpetually out of Tomes would be ecstatic.

They should revert Firebrand Tome of Courage nerfs before working on any other tome-related issues ;)

I'd be happy if ANet replaced "tome of knowledge" with a new currency and give Mayani the power to redeem them as levels or spirit shards. That would resolve some of the storage issue and turn it into an "out of sight" problem, much as "too many spirit shards" already is.

However, this is another of those things in which it's hard for ANet to reasonably balance "rewards" for all players. Those with too much of a certain currency|item can't imagine how they can possibly even make use of it (i.e. spend it), while those with too little feel blocked by how seemingly-difficult it is to obtain more in the near future. If ANet makes it even easier to obtain, this helps the low-supply folks but exacerbates the concern of the high-supply community. Likewise, if ANet adds interesting uses for the item|currency, that helps those with too many, but adds to the frustration of those with little.

There isn't going to be an entirely happy medium. (Or median ;) ).

Data

According to GW2 Efficiency:

• Half of all players with 4k hours have 3500 or more spirit shards.
• Of those with 500-1000 hours, half have 470 shards or more
• Of those with under 500 hours, half have fewer than 160 shards.

If you're short on shards, for whatever reason, it seems crazy-daunting to try to acquire any on short notice. But if you have plenty already, there's simply no practical way to spend them. (Yes, you can promote mats, but that's a very slow & tedious process... and, in fact, that's why it's profitable, because it's so onerous.)

Similar, for Tomes of Knowledge, GW2 Efficiency reports:

• 4k hours: half of players have 400+ tomes
• 500-1000 hrs: half have at least 24
• Under 500 hrs: half have 10 or less.

So again, plenty of people have more tomes than they can spend... and that's inconceivable to those who don't even have enough to shortcut a keyrun using tomes.

I'm one of those players with way more shards and tomes than I can ever use. What I wish they would do is add a way to easily convert them into something more useful. For example, have an NPC that lets us directly convert shards/tomes into other currency types, etc at some kind of ratio that makes sense.

I use 36 tomes per week. At the end of the week, I still have more tomes than I started with. I also never lack for spirit shards. The proposal won't do a lot for me. What I would like is a perhaps some fancy items that cost obscene amounts of spirit shards, like they did for some of the fractal currencies and drops. There just aren't a lot of good sinks for spirit shards, except for a few that let you make some gold.

(I do a double key-run, I start at lvl 37 and have ineffable equipment for that level, I automatically level up to 40 to qualify for the 2nd key story instance just from the personal story xp on the way there. Mounts have made this a very fast process.)

I wouldn’t mind. But I think the 1:1 ratio would be too cheap, given you get Spirit Shards from various other sources faster than it would be to “level” for a shard usually. (I have 7k Shards currently)All levels aren’t equal either (254k XP per level/spirit shard, whereas levelling 49-50 is 29,400 XP)

I think a ratio of 15 or 20 Shards for 1 tome would work. It would be a trade-off of being able to buy ToK with an ingame dropped currency.

I've been considering using some of my level 40/50 boosts plus tomes to grab some of these leveling rewards.Karma Booster(38)Item Booster(54)WXP Mini-Booster(60)Large Bag of Spirit Shards(69)[10]Huge Bag of Spirit Shards(80)[15](plus a key from level 10 story)

@preacher.9370 said:somewhat on this subject, let us do something with the instant lvl 20/30 scrolls. between personal story and birthdays, i'm sitting at almost 20 i think, and no plans to make more characters unless a new class is added.

That would be nice, but I think beyond encouraging you to buy another character slot, these are meant to be disposable. It's nice to get them, and maybe you'll use them, but it's not supposed to be some kind of guaranteed value added to your account.

@Haleydawn.3764 said:I wouldn’t mind. But I think the 1:1 ratio would be too cheap, given you get Spirit Shards from various other sources faster than it would be to “level” for a shard usually. (I have 7k Shards currently)All levels aren’t equal either (254k XP per level/spirit shard, whereas levelling 49-50 is 29,400 XP)

I think a ratio of 15 or 20 Shards for 1 tome would work. It would be a trade-off of being able to buy ToK with an ingame dropped currency.

Actually they are mostly equal. The flat value doesn't actually matter because pretty much everything that awards exp does it by a percentage.

I think it would be fair enough if Tomes cost more than 1 Shard to buy back. You get 3 Shards for doing each daily plus they are given as random drops for level 80 chars from killing mobs, from various loot bags, and for leveling past 80 if you don’t have masteries or if your masteries are completed for that region. So even if ANet set it to cost 3 Shards to buy one Tome you’d still be getting more Shards from the other sources and it would be worth it imo to have a place to store unused Tomes and not take up inventory slots.

why would you trade with miyani if you can just double click on the tomes... or do you get more shards at miyani?

@TheWolf.1602 said:why would you trade with miyani if you can just double click on the tomes... or do you get more shards at miyani?

Same amount of shards. The differences are that you can select how many (so fewer clicks) and there's none of the leveling up animation that bothers some people.

@TheWolf.1602 said:why would you trade with miyani if you can just double click on the tomes... or do you get more shards at miyani?

The post is about buying Tomes with Shards, not selling - consuming them.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 still feels pointless, but thanks anyway :)

@TheWolf.1602 said:why would you trade with miyani if you can just double click on the tomes... or do you get more shards at miyani?

because

1) faster2) less clicking3) you don't want to be that annoying person spamming the tome's visual and audio affect

thanks for answering my question, but can we get back on-topic? :)