Templates Preview Guild Chat -- We want your questions!

[Game of Bones.8975]

@GloomxWar.8793 said:Why do you force players to pay for something that they already got for free with a third party program?I think making players pay for this is one of the worst things Anet could do.

No one is forcing you to use this update. It's there because many people were asking about it for years.

[Rising Dusk.2408]

What do the three-packs of build templates cost in the gem store?

What do the equipment templates cost in the gem store and how are they sold? (ie. single-purchase, two-pack, etc)

Do build templates include Ranger pets and Revenant legends?

Is it possible to increase the default available number of equipment and build templates available freely beyond what is listed in the blog post? My least played characters all have at a minimum 4 unique setups right now, so it's going to be extremely costly I imagine to get back to where my characters are actually usable again.

[Neutra.6857]

Why would you buy additional build templates when you can simply paste the template in an external notepad for use?

"Build Templates can also be copied as a chat link in the game. You can send them to friends to help them prepare for a raid—or to your enemies to boast of your superior build. These chat links can also be copied and pasted out of the game and back into it from your clipboard, making trying a new build from another player or an external website a breeze."

Just like Gw1 use a notepad to save the build template or use a personal guild to do so....

[Magnus Godrik.5841]

@Donari.5237 said:

@Magnus Godrik.5841 said:So you cant attach weapons, armor, runes or sigils to it. I guess it makes it a bit easier but not what i was hoping for. Maybe later they will add that portion. No need to make the legendary runes now.

I am not sure where you get that idea. Tomorrow's stream will show details but from the blog:

Sorry i was mistaken and missed the equipment portion of the paragraph. Guess i will be crafting them, maybe.

[Agrotera.1254]

First let me say, everyone needs to read the article before you come on here and comment. I mean seriously people most of what I read is answered right there in the article. Let me link a couple of lines to answer what quite a few of you have said.

"A character’s combat customization is split into two parts. The first is your choice of utility skills, specializations, and major trait choices. The second is your choice of equipment, along with any attribute choices and upgrades. "

First you will have this one ....... "Your account will have access to three Build Storage Spaces for free. To obtain more, you can purchase them in packs of three in the Gem Store. For a limited time after release, you’ll be able to pick up a free pack in the Gem Store for a total of six free Build Storage Spaces."

Second you will have this one ....... "Each of your characters will have access to two Equipment Template tabs for free, and the first will be automatically populated with an Equipment Template containing the gear your character was wearing when you last logged in. You can purchase additional Equipment Template tabs from the Gem Store."

Now on to my question. The article makes this statement ....... "Equipment Templates can also record the customization of legendary items, which can freely change attributes and upgrades. You can equip a single legendary item to multiple Equipment Templates with different attributes and upgrade choices for each."

My question is this, Ascended items, armor and weapons, can also be shared between characters so will we be able to equip them to multiple Equipment Templates?

[Safandula.8723]

thats a freaking joke, lmao

[Linus The One.7432]

@Vagrant.7206 said:

To add onto this:

Several DPS meters offer plugins for build and gear templates (completely free, btw). ArcDPS notably has had the feature for years now.

My questions are thus: Why should players even bother with the in-game system if they are locked by limited slots? Why should they pay when this stuff will continue to be offered for free by addons?

Or do you plan on hunting down ArcDPS' devs and suing them?

The agreement with ArcDPS back when build templates were introduced was that those will be shut down once the official ones are released. So that will not be an option anymore.

[Agrotera.1254]

@"Dzjudz.9142" said:What would you say to people who have legendary gear for the convenience of swapping between lots of builds (many runes, stat combinations) and now being locked to only two possibilities (with having to buy gems for more options)? A ranger can for example use power soulbeast (berserker), condi soulbeast (viper), heal druid (harrier), deimos hand kiter (minstrel or whatever), wvw condi (trailblazer), and many more. What is the benefit of legendary gear if you lock the options via build templates?

I believe this statement answers your question ...... "Equipment Templates can also record the customization of legendary items, which can freely change attributes and upgrades. You can equip a single legendary item to multiple Equipment Templates with different attributes and upgrade choices for each."

[Agrotera.1254]

@"Magnus Godrik.5841" said:So you cant attach weapons, armor, runes or sigils to it. I guess it makes it a bit easier but not what i was hoping for. Maybe later they will add that portion. No need to make the legendary runes now.

Did you actually read the article? I think you missed this part.

"Your character’s equipment, attributes, and upgrades—excluding gathering tools—can be stored in Equipment Templates. To add an item to an Equipment Template, navigate to the Equipment Template tab you want to store the template in and equip your item."

[Neutra.6857]

@Agrotera.1254 said:

@"Dzjudz.9142" said:What would you say to people who have legendary gear for the convenience of swapping between lots of builds (many runes, stat combinations) and now being locked to only two possibilities (with having to buy gems for more options)? A ranger can for example use power soulbeast (berserker), condi soulbeast (viper), heal druid (harrier), deimos hand kiter (minstrel or whatever), wvw condi (trailblazer), and many more. What is the benefit of legendary gear if you lock the options via build templates?

I believe this statement answers your question ...... "Equipment Templates can also record the customization of legendary items, which can freely change attributes and upgrades. You can equip a single legendary item to multiple Equipment Templates with different attributes and upgrade choices for each."

The issue is that those who will most likely use templates can use a large number of different runes/sigils for different scenarios (like changing runes/sigils between fractals) an can easily have wy more then 3 or 4 different varieties all for the same armor stats. Legendary runes and sigils where already not worth it, this setup means that they are even less worth it.

[MakubeC.3026]

I just wanted to say: great job Anet!This is a great feature and it is way more than what I expected.Sadly, there will always be people who complain. But matters not. Kudos.

[DeathIsVirtue.4105]

So, you're telling me I'm pretty much going to have to pay (partially) for a feature that has been requested for years (because the slots you're giving us for "free" doesn't even cover the amount of professions you have in your game...) and was free in GW1? Considering this should have been a feature when the game came out and has taken you 7 years to implement, I think putting it partially in the gemstore is pretty abhorrent.

My question is this:Do you think this will hurt your player base (especially people that run fractals/raids) due to having such a limited number of build templates available for "free"? Will people that have numerous builds for their characters be able to make this work without spending a lot of money via the gemstore?

[Sharen Graves.1276]

Ok sure....why monotize the #1 requested feature since launch that was free in GW1?

[Dzjudz.9142]

@Agrotera.1254 said:

@"Dzjudz.9142" said:What would you say to people who have legendary gear for the convenience of swapping between lots of builds (many runes, stat combinations) and now being locked to only two possibilities (with having to buy gems for more options)? A ranger can for example use power soulbeast (berserker), condi soulbeast (viper), heal druid (harrier), deimos hand kiter (minstrel or whatever), wvw condi (trailblazer), and many more. What is the benefit of legendary gear if you lock the options via build templates?

I believe this statement answers your question ...... "Equipment Templates can also record the customization of legendary items, which can freely change attributes and upgrades. You can equip a single legendary item to multiple Equipment Templates with different attributes and upgrade choices for each."

Yes and I use my legendary gear for berserker, viper (two different rune sets), harrier, minstrel, trailblazer for example. My legendary gear only takes one slot, so I don't care about storage space, I care about convenience of stat/gear/rune swapping. This new system will lock me to 2 options after having spent thousands upon thousands of gold getting that gear specifically for the convenience factor. Where's the sense in that?

[EagleDelta.4726]

@Neutra.6857 said:

@Agrotera.1254 said:

@"Dzjudz.9142" said:What would you say to people who have legendary gear for the convenience of swapping between lots of builds (many runes, stat combinations) and now being locked to only two possibilities (with having to buy gems for more options)? A ranger can for example use power soulbeast (berserker), condi soulbeast (viper), heal druid (harrier), deimos hand kiter (minstrel or whatever), wvw condi (trailblazer), and many more. What is the benefit of legendary gear if you lock the options via build templates?

I believe this statement answers your question ...... "Equipment Templates can also record the customization of legendary items, which can freely change attributes and upgrades. You can equip a single legendary item to multiple Equipment Templates with different attributes and upgrade choices for each."

The issue is that those who will most likely use templates can use a large number of different runes/sigils for different scenarios (like changing runes/sigils between fractals) an can easily have wy more then 3 or 4 different varieties all for the same armor stats.

The impression I've gotten from the people I play with and the average player is that the player base that needs more than the 3 build, 2 equipment, 3 storage (+3 more) is actually a huge (but vocal) minority. The company has to make money or the game goes away. Developers are expensive to have on staff, so to justify the time spent on this feature, they have to charge money somehow.

[Dumat.1479]

I have a question.

Lets say I have an Equipment Template with legendary greatsword and legendary staff. And I am using 4 legendary sigils in those 2 weapons. Now lets say I have a second Equipment Template with legendary longbow and legendary shortbow. Will I be able to use the SAME 4 legendary sigils in this second Equipment Template? Will game understand, that it needs to remove those sigils from weapons in my first Equipment Template and put them into the weapons of my second Equipment Template? What about infusions? Will game understand where I saved my infusion? Will it remove infusions from legendary item of one Equipment Template to place them into another legendary item in another Equipment Template?

p.s. Thanks a lot for this QoL update, I love the idea and I am ok with paying for more slots in Build Templates Tabs, Build Templates Storage and Equipment Storage. <3

[Neutra.6857]

@EagleDelta.4726 said:

@Neutra.6857 said:

@Agrotera.1254 said:

@"Dzjudz.9142" said:What would you say to people who have legendary gear for the convenience of swapping between lots of builds (many runes, stat combinations) and now being locked to only two possibilities (with having to buy gems for more options)? A ranger can for example use power soulbeast (berserker), condi soulbeast (viper), heal druid (harrier), deimos hand kiter (minstrel or whatever), wvw condi (trailblazer), and many more. What is the benefit of legendary gear if you lock the options via build templates?

I believe this statement answers your question ...... "Equipment Templates can also record the customization of legendary items, which can freely change attributes and upgrades. You can equip a single legendary item to multiple Equipment Templates with different attributes and upgrade choices for each."

The issue is that those who will most likely use templates can use a large number of different runes/sigils for different scenarios (like changing runes/sigils between fractals) an can easily have wy more then 3 or 4 different varieties all for the same armor stats.

The impression I've gotten from the people I play with and the average player is that the player base that needs more than the 3 build, 2 equipment, 3 storage (+3 more) is actually a huge (but vocal) minority. The company has to make money or the game goes away. Developers are expensive to have on staff, so to justify the time spent on this feature, they have to charge money somehow.

And doing so will only piss of the player base, because they are losing what is a free system with infinite options that they have had access to for years.

[EagleDelta.4726]

@Vagrant.7206 said:

@FrigginPaco.4178 said:I'm very disappointed, but not surprised, to see that additional templates will need to be purchased via gemstore. People who play a higher number of build variations and game modes are ironically the ones hit hardest by this decision. I play across PvE, WvW, and PvP. Even if you get a new set of fresh templates per game mode that's an astonishing amount of locking done by this marketing decision.

To add onto this:

Several DPS meters offer plugins for build and gear templates (completely free, btw). ArcDPS notably has had the feature for years now. These templates supported theoretically infinite numbers of build and gear templates.

My questions are thus: Why are you downgrading players on a feature that we have been promised for years? And charging for the privilege too? I thought Nintendo Switch Online was a bad joke, but jeez.

ArcDPS agreed to discontinue their build template tool if ANet ever made their own. Not only that, but the dev announced back when the work on Build Templates was made known that he was discontinuing development on the Arc templates. Once this goes live and the Arc Dev no longer maintains his, then it will be a bannable offense to use the template tool.

[Sirius.4510]

Question for Guild Chat: how many test cases did QA have to run for this? It looks mind-bogglingly complicated and bugs could be scary (imagine if your gear suddenly became unreachable when you deleted a template)... :o

[SonicTHI.3217]

Is it 3 build slots per character or 3 slots per character per game mode (3x3)?Or is it 3 for WvW and PvE, and then PvP (once it is done) will have separate slots or a different system?If it is shared do you have to manually switch your build (unlike now) once you go into WvW/PvE?

Only 3 across all game modes would be really bad for the game as people would not want to sacrifice their slots to try other game modes.Not to mention it is technically the amount of build slots we already have.

[EagleDelta.4726]

@Neutra.6857 said:

@EagleDelta.4726 said:

@Neutra.6857 said:

@Agrotera.1254 said:

@"Dzjudz.9142" said:What would you say to people who have legendary gear for the convenience of swapping between lots of builds (many runes, stat combinations) and now being locked to only two possibilities (with having to buy gems for more options)? A ranger can for example use power soulbeast (berserker), condi soulbeast (viper), heal druid (harrier), deimos hand kiter (minstrel or whatever), wvw condi (trailblazer), and many more. What is the benefit of legendary gear if you lock the options via build templates?

I believe this statement answers your question ...... "Equipment Templates can also record the customization of legendary items, which can freely change attributes and upgrades. You can equip a single legendary item to multiple Equipment Templates with different attributes and upgrade choices for each."

The issue is that those who will most likely use templates can use a large number of different runes/sigils for different scenarios (like changing runes/sigils between fractals) an can easily have wy more then 3 or 4 different varieties all for the same armor stats.

The impression I've gotten from the people I play with and the average player is that the player base that needs more than the 3 build, 2 equipment, 3 storage (+3 more) is actually a huge (but vocal) minority. The company has to make money or the game goes away. Developers are expensive to have on staff, so to justify the time spent on this feature, they have to charge money somehow.

And doing so will only kitten of the player base, because they are losing what is a free system with infinite options that they have had access to for years.

It think you're being overly dramatic about this. Most people I play GW2 with don't even use ArcDPS, let alone Arc Templates. It breaks after every update and doesn't add enough to be worth the effort when it does work. Even then builds randomly disappear from it and if your PC/Laptop/Harddrive went down/died you lost the templates.I know non-technical users like to compare things like this as if they're the same..... they're not. To you it may seem that way, but you're comparing a plugin someone worked on in their spare time to something a company put money, a lot of it too, into.

Additionally, a dev can cost between $70-100K per dev/per year (sometimes less for junior devs, and a lot more for senior devs). You have to justify where that dev spends his time otherwise the company (whose goal is to make money) won't approve the work. It's this or a subscription, you choose.

[ArmoredVehicle.2849]

So technically we're getting a base of 3 slots per character, shared between PvE and WvW and further unlocks requires gems. After 7 years of waiting I have to say I expected a lot better. This is also what killed my interest in the game, almost everything has a relationship with the gemstore.

In GW1:You want more inventory space = Play and work your way up for these stuff.All Weapon Skins = Run specific dungeons, open chests, do special events...aka play the game.Armor Skins = Get materials + MoneyTemplates = You can have hundreds of them, sort them in different folders, name them.

In GW2:More Storage = GemsWeapon Skins = Basic skins obtainable in game, but exotics and flashy stuff = tldr. GemsArmor Skins = Even more GemsTemplates = Heavily limited > more Gems are required

If I were given the choice between paying €40 (each) for 7 expansions or the gemstore stuff, I'd pick the former without thinking twice.

[Vagrant.7206]

@EagleDelta.4726 said:

@Vagrant.7206 said:

@FrigginPaco.4178 said:I'm very disappointed, but not surprised, to see that additional templates will need to be purchased via gemstore. People who play a higher number of build variations and game modes are ironically the ones hit hardest by this decision. I play across PvE, WvW, and PvP. Even if you get a new set of fresh templates per game mode that's an astonishing amount of locking done by this marketing decision.

To add onto this:

Several DPS meters offer plugins for build and gear templates (completely free, btw). ArcDPS notably has had the feature for years now. These templates supported theoretically infinite numbers of build and gear templates.

My questions are thus: Why are you downgrading players on a feature that we have been promised for years? And charging for the privilege too? I thought Nintendo Switch Online was a bad joke, but jeez.

ArcDPS agreed to discontinue their build template tool if ANet ever made their own. Not only that, but the dev announced back when the work on Build Templates was made known that he was discontinuing development on the Arc templates. Once this goes live and the Arc Dev no longer maintains his, then it will be a bannable offense to use the template tool.

Which is pretty sad, because as others have pointed out in this thread, you could just save the traits chat code in a text file, thereby circumventing their monetization. The only thing you couldn't save independently would be the equipment setup.

[Yami.8321]

im here just to post my toxic comment...couse took you 7 years 7 YEARS to put it out.....and you had the NERVE to kill arcdps template couse you want to monetize a FEATURE than EVEN GW1 HAD!?!...... SHAME on you anet...this is why the game is dying....12M players m a**.....

[NeHoMaR.9812]

Finally! everything looks good. I think a way to use equipment template in a different character could be really useful.

Example, use Celestial armor saved template on Necromancer, in an Elementalist, with one click. Without unequipping everything, storing in bank, and reequipping everything on the other character.