Gathering tool disappointment :(

For 6 maps in a row anet made it look like unbound magic was going to be a big important thing. I bought the unbound magic gathering tools ( which were spendy ) Anet now made volatile magic the big important thing. If I'd have know they were going to not keep with the unbound magic I'd have held off and bought the volatile magic tools. ALSO now that they've added those things that can give you cloth, leather, or wood. Some of the tools I bought have something like that on it, but certain tools had nothing extra about them. Example I bought a watchwork gathering tool ( gives off sprockets sometimes), but the molten one gives off nothing. I wondered if maybe anet can make it so something is attached to the ones in the gem store. Sort of a waste to not have anything on the tool if you buy it from the gem store.

Glyphs is a relatively new thing. Theyve had endless gathering tools for many years without any special effects, save the watchknight mining pick.

The unbound magic tools are great! lets you collect unbound magic outside the ls3 zones and making it easier to pay for the strong accessories sold there. Every zone have highly useful accessories that is mainly desired for being an easy source of vipers. Furthermore, they have longer channel time than other gathering tools, but will have more strikes at once. Which fits perfect with glyph of bounty with its 33% chance of extra strike. Only have to strike an extra time on rare double procs.

In comparision, ls4 has been -terrible with new offerings to use volatile magic on.

Can anet at least make it so you can trade unbound magic for volatile? X_X

And when season 5 get released you would feel the same about your volatile magic gathering tools becouse then the next for example unstable magic would be the new tools they release.

@aandiarie.7195 said:Can anet at least make it so you can trade unbound magic for volatile? X_X

They've definitively said no.

I’m going to guess that each Season will have its own currency. Unbound Magic was Season 3. Volatile is Season 4 and Season 5 will have another, with its own set of gathering tools (as well as each successive Season). If you buy a set of Permanent tools for Seasonal currency then expect it to be obsolete with the start of the newest Season.

@aandiarie.7195 said:Can anet at least make it so you can trade unbound magic for volatile? X_XWhy would you want to? Unbound magic is way more useful so far.

I'm not sure I'm going to get them this time around. I've kept on top of my magic with karma tools for 2-3 of my characters that it makes sense for. Everyone else shares my old unbound tools with the speedy gathering glyphs (?) in them. I think I have around 120K volatile, double that in unbound. I bought the unbound ones and it really helped me because I started playing again right before Lake Doric, so I was pretty behind with unbound magic, and had to do quite a bit of grinding to catch up to buy everything I wanted. Volatile, so far, I don't really need the boost.

Now, with my luck, the tools will go away, and 4.4 - 4.fin will have a huge jump in volatile magic requirements and I'll be sad, but I'm thinking about passing this time around just the same.

I do like the animation on the base tools, though.

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@aandiarie.7195 said:Can anet at least make it so you can trade unbound magic for volatile? X_XWhy would you want to? Unbound magic is way more useful so far.

Not really. Unbound magic is useful for trinkets, but the other sinks for unbound magic are quite meh. Volatile magic on the other hand... Shipments really are worthwhile.

you got shipments for unbound aswell

The magic warped containers contains random materials. not fixed like the shipmentshttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Magic-Warped_Packet the cheaper one contains ordinary crafting mats, but can yield ascended mats too. Ive gotten a good amount of them.

whereas the expensive one got the fine crafting mats, the upper tierhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Magic-Warped_Bundle

None of the volatile shipments can contain ascended mats, nor having any of the stuff in the magic warped bundle.

I recall Anet having stated the UM was going to be a season currency.

Found it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4wcg24/unbound_magic_is_a_seasonwide_currency/

tl;dr

• For pure gold, VM is significantly more profitable, assuming the tools generate about the same amounts.
• Pure gold is not the only consideration. So far, there are a lot more utility purchases funded by UM than VM.

@Raizel.8175 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@"aandiarie.7195" said:Can anet at least make it so you can trade unbound magic for volatile? X_XWhy would you want to? Unbound magic is way more useful so far.

Currently, the best conversion rate for unbound to gold is via either Magic Warped Packets of Bundles. Go with Bundles, though: prices is less volatile variable and for those making legendaries, the extra mystic clover makes them hands down better. Value: roughly 40-60s per 1000 unbound magic (after TP fees and package costs).

The best rate for volatile to gold is from Trophy Shipments. Roughly 140-160s per 1000 volatile magic (after all costs).

There are more non-gold uses for unbound magic (trinkets and what not) but if your primary goal is gold, excess VM is much more profitable than excess UM. (And both types are just about equally affected by the market trends for trophies.)

Sources:

• Volatile Magic, at GW2 Lunchbox (values are per shipment, which are only 250 VM; math is involved to get actual gold per 1000 VM0
• Unbound Magic, by Lonezolf (numbers differ from mine, since I used different data sets to estimate value; ballpark, they are close)

I'm also more conservative in estimating profit than either of these sources.

Well, lets hope that they sell Volatile Glyphs as an option instead of only the tool. I can't really justify buying more permanent tools, but a somewhat cheaper glyph option would fit much more nicely. Like 600~800 gems for a volatile glyph, and a 2000 gem option for 3?

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:tl;dr

• For pure gold, VM is significantly more profitable, assuming the tools generate about the same amounts.
• Pure gold is not the only consideration. So far, there are a lot more utility purchases funded by UM than VM.

---

@Raizel.8175 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@"aandiarie.7195" said:Can anet at least make it so you can trade unbound magic for volatile? X_XWhy would you want to? Unbound magic is way more useful so far.

• Volatile Magic, at GW2 Lunchbox
  (values are per shipment, which are only 250 VM; math is involved to get actual gold per 1000 VM0
• Unbound Magic, by Lonezwolf
  (numbers differ from mine, since I used different data sets to estimate value; ballpark, they are close)

Interesting..Seems Leather shipments is quite close in value to trophy shipments. Seems to exceed them right now according to the volatile magic list.And what is up with buying magic warped packs/bundles in ember bay?

@ReaverKane.7598 said:Well, lets hope that they sell Volatile Glyphs as an option instead of only the tool. I can't really justify buying more permanent tools, but a somewhat cheaper glyph option would fit much more nicely. Like 600~800 gems for a volatile glyph, and a 2000 gem option for 3?

Those are going to be Black Lion Chest drops that you either have to get as a drop or buy from other players on the TP.

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:I’m going to guess that each Season will have its own currency. Unbound Magic was Season 3. Volatile is Season 4 and Season 5 will have another, with its own set of gathering tools (as well as each successive Season). If you buy a set of Permanent tools for Seasonal currency then expect it to be obsolete with the start of the newest Season.

I wouldn't say obsolete, just not applicable to the current season. And so far as I've seen, Unbound Magic has far more it can do for a player than Volatile.

Yes, glyph of unbound magic became available on tp

@LucianDK.8615 said:Interesting..Seems Leather shipments is quite close in value to trophy shipments. Seems to exceed them right now according to the volatile magic list.

Sure, Leather & Trophies will be competitive, with each other.

And what is up with buying magic warped packs/bundles in ember bay?It costs 500 UM + 1g outside E-Bay and 1250 UM + 0.40g at the Volcano. So when the post-tax profit per bundle is 1.4g or more, the non-volcanic vendors are a better choice. Otherwise, E-Bay offers better profit per UM invested.

For example, with 5000 UM, you can get 4 bundles from E-Bay or 10 bundles elsewhere.

• E-Bay: 4 bundles x 1.35g * 0.85 = 4.59g gross, less 1.6g coin costs = ~3g net
• Elsewhere: 10 bundles 1.35g 0.85 = 11.475g, less 10g in coin costs = ~1.48g net

Discounting the value of Mystic Clover, EBay has been the more efficient choice since LS4 began (and mostly since PoF).

So both unbound and volatile magic is nearly equal in gold value.

@LucianDK.8615 said:So both unbound and volatile magic is nearly equal in gold value.

No, VM is objectively more coin per 1000 units. (The 'shipments' are only 250 VM, the bundles are 500 or 1400 UM, so you can't compare profit per container directly.)1000 UM is worth closer to 0.60 gold net, while 1000 VM is worth closer to 1.7-2.2g, i.e. several times more.

I see, good to know

@aandiarie.7195 said:For 6 maps in a row anet made it look like unbound magic was going to be a big important thing. I bought the unbound magic gathering tools ( which were spendy ) Anet now made volatile magic the big important thing. If I'd have know they were going to not keep with the unbound magic I'd have held off and bought the volatile magic tools. ALSO now that they've added those things that can give you cloth, leather, or wood. Some of the tools I bought have something like that on it, but certain tools had nothing extra about them. Example I bought a watchwork gathering tool ( gives off sprockets sometimes), but the molten one gives off nothing. I wondered if maybe anet can make it so something is attached to the ones in the gem store. Sort of a waste to not have anything on the tool if you buy it from the gem store.

I don't get that complaint ... almost all of the stat prefixes are available in trinkets that are bought with unbound magic ... it's not a big thing ... it's a HUGE thing.

Also, it's your choice to buy tools from the GS ... if they don't have 'things' on them, don't buy them. Clearly you already some form of equipment that is useful.

@Obtena.7952 said:

@aandiarie.7195 said:For 6 maps in a row anet made it look like unbound magic was going to be a big important thing. I bought the unbound magic gathering tools ( which were spendy ) Anet now made volatile magic the big important thing. If I'd have know they were going to not keep with the unbound magic I'd have held off and bought the volatile magic tools. ALSO now that they've added those things that can give you cloth, leather, or wood. Some of the tools I bought have something like that on it, but certain tools had nothing extra about them. Example I bought a watchwork gathering tool ( gives off sprockets sometimes), but the molten one gives off nothing. I wondered if maybe anet can make it so something is attached to the ones in the gem store. Sort of a waste to not have anything on the tool if you buy it from the gem store.

I kind of anticipated that, since the map currencies from older maps did not continue to be valuable. (I confess, the existence of an overall LS currency, not just per-episode currencies, was the biggest surprise to me.)

Anyway, they are not worthless now, as you can still transform volatile magic into gold, by way of the resource bundles. (Ember Bay for best value.)

That said ... @aandiarie.7195, I cannot say this strongly enough: If you are unhappy because the unbound magic tools became less valuable after LS3 finished, DO NOT BUY VOLATILE MAGIC TOOLS. DON'T DO IT. YOU WILL BE SAD AGAIN!!!!!

Seriously, the reasonable expectation at this point is that Volatile Magic will be, like Unbound Magic, something that only exists during LS4, and there will be a new equivalent in LS5. If you invest in the tools now, and were disappointed by the LS3 UBM specific tools, you will be even more disappointed when VM stops having the same value with xpac 3 and LS5.

Unbound magic is still very useful. I have a set of each in my bags. I just kinda go back and forth with which ones I'm using, unless I'm after a specific item. Don't get rid of them for sure.