Diviner's stat ingredient availability

Sorry, but I have to rant about this.

So, a new stat set has become available with the current episode. With basically berserker + boon duration it has the potential to become meta for some builds. In addition to that I need to craft 16 (!) weapons with this stat set for the episode's meta achievement and I think to unlock others. So far so good.

First of all I see a big problem with this stat set being bound to an episode. This means players, who do not have a specific episode unlocked, cannot get these stats. Maybe on some stat-select items, but depending on those undermines crafting. Yes, this has happened before, but those stats were useless to me and the crafted weapons were not required to finish the episode meta achievement.

Second, it is not only bound to the rather easily farmable map currency. That would be bad enough. No, of course it had to be bound to serpentite jewels. Which, unlike the stuff in Istan, are not even a rare drop but only available on successfully completing BOTH of the map's meta events. Even if megaserver algorithm doesn't hate you as much as me - I stopped bothering trying big events years ago, since my map instances fail to 99% anyway - this is a terrible idea.

These events lie 1 hour apart. That means a two hour wait after the event failed. Both supposedly have a chance to drop serpentite jewels. Supposedly. Not with my luck. I have yet to see one. For a guaranteed drop you need to successfully complete both of them (or buy at insane prices on the TP) and then do a (currently bugged) mini dungeon (?). Yeah, right what I need. More fixed timers I have to observe instead of just playing where and when I want.

At least I can't claim it was "waiting to have fun". If I feel forced to do something it takes all the fun out of it. If I need to grind the same non-fun thing over and over to achieve something, it will be quickly going from not-fun to hate-very-much. And this episode seems to put a lot of pressure to play the metas and then the catacombs.

And right now these events are done by many people. But what about in a few weeks or months!? The map is likely going to end pretty dead like most other Living World maps. At that point it is going to become near impossible to get the necessary ingredients. Not just terribly annoying to have to farm it but actually near impossible.

Practically speaking: I think getting a stat selectable item or even a legendary is going to be more convenient than to get fixed-stat diviner's gear. And that feels just plain wrong and terribly mal-designed!

Practical suggestions, assuming Diviner's will be forever bound to this episode:

• make serpentite jewels available through other means than the meta events-- maybe occasional drop in the branded mass nodes, incl. home instance?-- as someone suggested earlier: through PvP and WvW reward tracks?
• make both meta events drop a full plate, so that doing either suffices
• semi-related: make the catacomb POI available from outside

PS: I think the jewels are not even storable as a material? Why!?PPS: Since the weapons are expensive to make and potentially useful later, I'd need to store them. Now that I'm already angry about all this, this makes me feel like this is supposed to make me buy another bank tab. :(

I have not seen either of these meta events fail even once.

Apart from that, you are making several valid points. (You forgot to mention the crazy amount of laurels required for the collections, though. ;) Some of us don't have any left...)

My issue is solely with the jewels - rare drops, AND not even craftable? Not cool....not cool at all.

Still refusing to give jewelcrafters any significance....check.

@"Killerassel.2197" said:Sorry, but I have to rant about this.

So, a new stat set has become available with the current episode. With basically berserker + boon duration it has the potential to become meta for some builds. In addition to that I need to craft 16 (!) weapons with this stat set for the episode's meta achievement and I think to unlock others. So far so good.

First of all I see a big problem with this stat set being bound to an episode. This means players, who do not have a specific episode unlocked, cannot get these stats. Maybe on some stat-select items, but depending on those undermines crafting. Yes, this has happened before, but those stats were useless to me and the crafted weapons were not required to finish the episode meta achievement.

Second, it is not only bound to the rather easily farmable map currency. That would be bad enough. No, of course it had to be bound to serpentite jewels. Which, unlike the stuff in Istan, are not even a rare drop but only available on successfully completing BOTH of the map's meta events. Even if megaserver algorithm doesn't hate you as much as me - I stopped bothering trying big events years ago, since my map instances fail to 99% anyway - this is a terrible idea.

These events lie 1 hour apart. That means a two hour wait after the event failed. Both supposedly have a chance to drop serpentite jewels. Supposedly. Not with my luck. I have yet to see one. For a guaranteed drop you need to successfully complete both of them (or buy at insane prices on the TP) and then do a (currently bugged) mini dungeon (?). Yeah, right what I need. More fixed timers I have to observe instead of just playing where and when I want.

At least I can't claim it was "waiting to have fun". If I feel forced to do something it takes all the fun out of it. If I need to grind the same non-fun thing over and over to achieve something, it will be quickly going from not-fun to hate-very-much. And this episode seems to put a lot of pressure to play the metas and then the catacombs.

And right now these events are done by many people. But what about in a few weeks or months!? The map is likely going to end pretty dead like most other Living World maps. At that point it is going to become near impossible to get the necessary ingredients. Not just terribly annoying to have to farm it but actually near impossible.

Practically speaking: I think getting a stat selectable item or even a legendary is going to be more convenient than to get fixed-stat diviner's gear. And that feels just plain wrong and terribly mal-designed!

Practical suggestions, assuming Diviner's will be forever bound to this episode:

• make serpentite jewels available through other means than the meta events-- maybe occasional drop in the branded mass nodes, incl. home instance?-- as someone suggested earlier: through PvP and WvW reward tracks?
• make both meta events drop a full plate, so that doing either suffices
• semi-related: make the catacomb POI available from outside

PS: I think the jewels are not even storable as a material? Why!?PPS: Since the weapons are expensive to make and potentially useful later, I'd need to store them. Now that I'm already angry about all this, this makes me feel like this is supposed to make me buy another bank tab. :(

Jewels drop guaranteed in the Green room, 3/day, as long as you use the Light of deldrimor. Metas drop jewels rarely, as do dwarven chests. Hidden chests in the other dwarven rooms also have the potential to drop jewels, too. You can also buy the full plate from the tp) Last i checked it was 8g,hardly an "insane price") if you dont wanna do the metas. It takes approximately 5-7 mins to get through all other rooms in the dwarven catacombs, until you get to the Green room. It is hardly a long time. I can understand that you want the weapons NOW, but... Sorry. Do the events, it takes 15m maximum for each meta. What do you want next? Serpentine jewels by simply logging in?

I finally got the bottom half of the plate today. Of course one pump was destroyed, but the event progressed anyway. Is that supposed to happen?

Being afraid of the bugs and short of time earlier, I haven't used it yet.

@"Voltekka.2375" said:Jewels drop guaranteed in the Green room, 3/day, as long as you use the Light of deldrimor.The green room, is that before or after the progress blocking veteran?

The price seems to have come down since I last checked. I still think 8g is too much, and I don't like the idea to pay others to play the game for me. 128 gold, assuming no random drops and no random disconnects or other problems, is doable but not how I want to play the game.

I can understand that you want the weapons NOW, but... Sorry. Do the events, it takes 15m maximum for each meta. What do you want next? Serpentine jewels by simply logging in?

This is not about having the weapons now. So far I'm not seeing myself having the weapons eventually. If I had one single jewel drop from a resource node I'd still be unhappy but not as furious as I am now. Still doesn't solve the problem of how to get diviner's gear in a few months when noone does the meta events any longer.

Also: which of my suggestions comes actually close to "by simply logging in"? You could, if you want to, maybe read the home instance node suggestion that way. But I wasn't thinking one jewel per day but still as somewhat rare drop. Think: rose quartz.

Speaking of which, compare with Istan's weapon set. Takes a lot of resources and I haven't built one of them yet. It helps, that they were not tied to their episode's meta achievement progress. But I get the materials for them. Slowly, but I'm not depending on dozens of other players not kittening up. I know for certain I can get them - eventually. With the dragonsblood weapons I don't see that happening so far. Much less any other diviner's gear in the future.

15 minutes is not a lot of time, agreed. But the nature of these events requires me to be there on time. On two specific times a day. Which I need to fit into my schedule. And pray that the event doesn't fail. This is not fun, engaging gameplay, this feels more like a job.

@Killerassel.2197 said:I finally got the bottom half of the plate today. Of course one pump was destroyed, but the event progressed anyway. Is that supposed to happen?

Being afraid of the bugs and short of time earlier, I haven't used it yet.

@"Voltekka.2375" said:Jewels drop guaranteed in the Green room, 3/day, as long as you use the Light of deldrimor.The green room, is that before or after the progress blocking veteran?

I can understand that you want the weapons NOW, but... Sorry. Do the events, it takes 15m maximum for each meta. What do you want next? Serpentine jewels by simply logging in?

Never had issues with the veteran. It drops a plate, at least to me.Comparing rose quartz (which you need a ton of to make one weapon) to guaranteed 3 jewels/day (which makes for one exotic weapon), is moot. And if you try to solo farm the quartz for ALL weapons, well, good luck, it will take you a few years. Watching the sky every 15 mins for a meteor to drop isnt really fun, either.Since you are a fan of solo farming, and you like to do things at your own pace, here is what i would recommend:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dwarven_ChestHave fun!

@Voltekka.2375 said:

@Killerassel.2197 said:I finally got the bottom half of the plate today. Of course one pump was destroyed, but the event progressed anyway. Is that supposed to happen?

Being afraid of the bugs and short of time earlier, I haven't used it yet.

@Voltekka.2375 said:Jewels drop guaranteed in the Green room, 3/day, as long as you use the Light of deldrimor.The green room, is that before or after the progress blocking veteran?

I can understand that you want the weapons NOW, but... Sorry. Do the events, it takes 15m maximum for each meta. What do you want next? Serpentine jewels by simply logging in?

Each Stellar weapons uses 1 Rose Quartz. That means 16 for the whole set...

As for the Powdered Rose Quartz I have gotten enough for 1 weapon on my alt account simply from mining the home instance node of my main account which is about as passive as you can get. That is a maximum of 2.6 years while taking the most passive approach.

@Voltekka.2375 said:

@Killerassel.2197 said: What do you want next? Serpentine jewels by simply logging in?

An option to make them would be fantastic, but alas, apparently jewelcrafters aren't allowed to have any importance in this game.

@Odinens.5920 said:

@Voltekka.2375 said:

@Killerassel.2197 said: What do you want next? Serpentine jewels by simply logging in?

@phs.6089 said:

@Odinens.5920 said:

@Voltekka.2375 said:

@Killerassel.2197 said: What do you want next? Serpentine jewels by simply logging in?

Jewels are generally obtainable. Exquisite jewels, however, usually have to be crafted. So, a way to obtain the jewels themselves would be great, yes.

@"Voltekka.2375" said:Never had issues with the veteran. It drops a plate, at least to me.

Consider yourself lucky. Reports about this are all over the forum. We did the metas and catacombs yesterday in a community guild and many people complained about not getting the plate. I haven't traded in the meta plate yet, for this specific reason, waiting for a bugfix. Thanks to mesmers at least I got the POI and a few hidden achievements anyway.

Comparing rose quartz (which you need a ton of to make one weapon) to guaranteed 3 jewels/day (which makes for one exotic weapon), is moot. And if you try to solo farm the quartz for ALL weapons, well, good luck, it will take you a few years. Watching the sky every 15 mins for a meteor to drop isnt really fun, either.

Short term - maybe. Long term I disagree! For unrelated reasons I've returned to Istan a few days ago. I happened to be there when a meteor came down and got a rose quartz. I was the only player nearby. Sure, that can be considered lucky. But how high do you think the chances are that in half a year the thunderhead metas succeed? I still claim that the jewels become effectively unavailable in at most a few months.

Also regarding requiring a ton of rose quartz. I think with about 100 rose quartz I have enough. And I have more dust than Kralkatite to refine. This is mostly from my home instance node - again: slow, but steady and confident to get it eventually.

Since you are a fan of solo farming, and you like to do things at your own pace, here is what i would recommend:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dwarven_Chest

If they had a somewhat decent chance to drop the jewels that could be an option. Maybe my sample size is too small, but for now I have experienced a solid 0% drop chance from them.

Re jewelcrafting: The name of the jewels is a bit unfortunate. I've heard a lot that they should be craftable. But no-one was able to tell me from what base ingredient. Just ignore that they share a name component with jewels refined through jewelcrafting. :)