Losing Birthday Boosters in Story Instance

At no point is it made clear that I would lose a full day Birthday booster instantly for going into a story instance. I haven't played in more than a year, finally buy Path of Fire last night, and this happens within the first hour of me getting back. I would like that booster refunded because it is ridiculous to lose it when I was just playing a key part of the game. It should've had some prompt come up on screen or something saying that I would lose it or I wouldn't have gone into the Story.

I need a refund on the Birthday booster or Path of Fire if you can't replace it. I don't want to devote any more time to this game if this is normal and unfixable.Thank you for your time.

I also lost a Magic Find Booster from old Black Lion Chests. This is a loss too because they equate to gems, but at least it wasn't a full day booster.

If you want a personalized response, you'll need to create a support ticket. (Third link from left on the option in the upper left of this page.) The support team can't do anything without a ticket.

As for losing boosters when entering an instance: this might be a bug introduced with SAB festival and might fix itself with the next scheduled update (this coming Tuesday). I know that as recently as 5 weeks ago, I didn't lose such buffs in a story instance. We will lose certain booster buffs when entering WvW and all buffs are lost when entering SAB, by design.

That's a bit of an overreaction for a single booster

I'm guessing the OP went into SAB and that's why he lost it, but that aside, this situation hilights what is a pretty frustrating user experience around buffs. Most of the various game modes (PVP, activities, WvW, raids, and assorted instances like SAB) all remove some subset of them, often without warning. The costs to the user can be quite high, and it requires the user to remember to always check their buffs before doing many things in the game, and either sideline certain characters currently carrying good buffs (e.g. primers with expensive food) or remember exactly which things get removed where. I am assuming there is some technical reason why you can't save a buff's duration for when the user returns from a restricted environment, but there has got to be a better way to handle this. Please take a look at a QoL pass on this area.

Also, as an aside, now that combat boosts don't work in WvW or raids (the only two parts of the game where they would provide any real benefit) they are basically a useless novelty.

It would be nice if buffs were not lost but instead suppressed whenever you enter content where they aren't allowed. I get that SAB may be a special case due to the nature of what it is, but it would be nice to not get penalized for changing what you are doing.

^Since when are Boosters removed in WvW? I mean, many even say 'WvW rank gain' or 'WvW Reward Track progress'.

@"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:^Since when are Boosters removed in WvW? I mean, many even say 'WvW rank gain' or 'WvW Reward Track progress'.

Its the strength, armour, rejuvenation, speed ones

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/27216/game-update-notes-february-6-2018#first

Ahh, thanks. The Wiki needs an update, as well.

I did not go into the SAB at all with it on. Call it an over reaction all you want. I paid for a working product. If it can't be replaced, or at least something equal to, then I want a refund. That's how our markets work.

I just bought the expansion, haven't played it beyond a Living Story Season 3 episode where you tame some little dragon, and lost it in there. I thought when I came out of the instance that it would be back but it wasn't.I would like to know if I can have it reimbursed please.

@Blocki.4931 said:That's a bit of an overreaction for a single booster

That's a bit of an inappropriate comment towards someone that simply expressed concern over a return. I just bought the expansion. I haven't played it at all. I lost the Booster in Living Story Season 3.Please don't try to insult me for being a smart consumer and only paying for products that work as intended.

As was suggested above, you'd need to submit a support ticket to start the process of getting your item replaced.

@Carmello Yello.4875 said:I did not go into the SAB at all with it on. Call it an over reaction all you want. I paid for a working product. If it can't be replaced, or at least something equal to, then I want a refund. That's how our markets work.

I just bought the expansion, haven't played it beyond a Living Story Season 3 episode where you tame some little dragon, and lost it in there. I thought when I came out of the instance that it would be back but it wasn't.I would like to know if I can have it reimbursed please.

@Carmello Yello.4875 said:That's a bit of an inappropriate comment towards someone that simply expressed concern over a return. I just bought the expansion. I haven't played it at all. I lost the Booster in Living Story Season 3.Please don't try to insult me for being a smart consumer and only paying for products that work as intended.

Incidentally, you didn't pay for that booster. It's a free thank-you reward on the occasion of a character's birthday that, AFAIK, free-to-play account characters also receive.

Even if we were talking about some piece of expansion-specific content that wasn't working correctly, you didn't pay for that thing specifically in a transactional sense. You paid for access to a set of features and content in a broad way. In a huge and dynamic MMO stuff is always changing and bugs happen and I am certain that the TOS has explicit terms to the effect that nothing in the game is warranted to work a certain way or always be available. If every player was entitled to a refund in an MMO every time something broke or a patch changed the way something worked or removed some feature there'd be no paying customers left.

All that said, ANet is usually quite cool about restoring things when possible via a ticket, and FAR more lenient than I'd think they should be about issuing refunds for people who get upset about piddly stuff like this, so godspeed with your option of choice.

You certainly can't be refunded for a Birthday Booster, as it is a gift; but, the CS Team is usually happy to replace items (as long as the request is polite).

Welcome return, and good luck.

You wont get anything via the forums. Submit a ticket, politely explaining the issue and cs will help from there. I’d also encourage submitting a bug report either sep or in the same ticket describing exactly how and where you lost the booster, since this is something ive not seen or heard anout either. Ive still got guild boosts on toons i havent played much of from a guild im not in snd i know ive taken them through instances, so i know this isnt what should be happening.

@Carmello Yello.4875 said:I did not go into the SAB at all with it on. Call it an over reaction all you want. I paid for a working product. If it can't be replaced, or at least something equal to, then I want a refund. That's how our markets work.

I just bought the expansion, haven't played it beyond a Living Story Season 3 episode where you tame some little dragon, and lost it in there. I thought when I came out of the instance that it would be back but it wasn't.I would like to know if I can have it reimbursed please.

I don't disagree with you but this is the wrong place to post it. That is, if you want a refund of a birthday booster, you should contact support. Posting here will accomplished nothing at all. It's like wanting a return on something at kmart and not going to the returns counter. You're not going to get help in sporting goods.

Thank you for the wise tips. Submitted a ticket as advised. They took care of it, and were able to send the replacement via in game mail. Sorry if I came off snippy, I was getting overly defensive since I made the mistake of posting on the forums. This game is great after a break, real easy to get back into. Thank you again, have a sweet one.