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New Player - spend or save


Vincible.1065

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I'm a new player and have brought the PoF expansion. I'm not looking to spend any more, so won't be buying gems, however, i've seen a lot mentioned about gem store items like the copper fed salvage machine.

Would it be worth selling all the mats i'm gathering now to earn gold to buy gems to buy one off items like this, or am I better off waiting to accumulate this much gold 'naturally'?

In my mind lots of these mats in my bank are currently 'dead gold' as i'm not using them and don't plan to for the forseeable future.

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There's no right answer. I hoard every mat because I know eventually I'll use them for something, but that's not applicable to everyone.

If you genuinely have no foreseeable use for them, selling for gold is perfectly viable. The copper salvage is an excellent tool - just bear in mind it's pure convenience and you are essentially turning your materials into something you can already buy limited versions of from any vendor

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There's no definitive right or wrong answer to that question, it depends on how you want to play GW2. I'd wait to decide until you know:

1) Which gem store items you actually want. There's a lot of useful QoL items but everyone has different 'must have' items. I don't salvage that much so it's better for me to use Mystic Salvage Kits made with free Mystic Forge Stones from login rewards, but other people get through them too fast to be able to do that. On the other hand I get a lot of use from infinite gathering tools, which some people in my guilds regret buying because they hate moving them between characters so they never use them. I'd absolutely want to get all the Living World seasons as soon as I could, but other people will only ever buy odd episodes because they're not interested in the story. It's the same with all the gem store stuff, so it really depends on what you would use, not what someone else says is the best choice.

2) How quickly you can make gold. Again this depends on the type of player you are, especially what type of content you enjoy or how willing you are to devote time to things you're less interested in because they're more profitable. You might find that you get plenty of gold from other places, or that it takes you forever to save up enough for gems and you really need an alternative.

3) Which crafting materials you want to keep. Crafting in GW2 is quite different to many other games, for many people it's not a regular activity and doesn't take much time, but it's useful to have relevant crafting professions levelled so you can make one-off items when they would be useful. Many collections need crafted items, and it's one of the only reliable sources of ascended equipment, so you might find it's actually worth your time to level crafting and hold onto at least some materials.

4) How to get the best from market rates. Prices for crafting materials change all the time, as does the gold to gems exchange rate. Between the two getting the timing right (or wrong) can make a big difference, but that's not straight-forward as there's many factors which can affect both. Knowing how to predict the changes, or at least keeping an eye on them and taking advantage of changes as they happen, will make a big difference. (For example I wouldn't convert gold to gems right now, because new gem store items have just been introduced and the price has shot up.)

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I'm gonna keep it simple here.

Mats arent that crtical for a new player. You can safely sell them on TP, just make sure you list instead of insta sell.

There are some QoL upgrades you should get. Copper Salvage-o-Matic is definitely one of these, you will never have to carry multiple Basic Salvage Kits anymore as this one is infinite and only occupies 1 slot in your bag/shared bag slot.Material Storage Expansion is another big upgrade you can get, in my experience, I didn't run into the no-material-space on my bank anymore since I expanded it to 1500 cappacity.

However, buy these upgrades only when they're on sale. never at full price.

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@"Vincible.1065" said:I'm a new player and have brought the PoF expansion. I'm not looking to spend any more, so won't be buying gems, however, i've seen a lot mentioned about gem store items like the copper fed salvage machine.

Would it be worth selling all the mats i'm gathering now to earn gold to buy gems to buy one off items like this, or am I better off waiting to accumulate this much gold 'naturally'?

In my mind lots of these mats in my bank are currently 'dead gold' as i'm not using them and don't plan to for the forseeable future.

with the new LS5 maps, many material prices went down, so you're already a bit late at selling

anyways if you have a true main character the infinite gathering tools are a great deal, they may be expensive (1200 gems for a set of skinless versions on maximum discount) but the "upkeep" cost for gathering turns to zero from then on. while gathering tools don't cost a lot they still cost something, especially inventory space since you need at least a spare one of every kind, making 3 inventory slots that are constantly acquired, if you like gathering likely more.

on the other side if you have a shared inventory slot the copper-fed salvager or the runecrafter salvager shine. they're cheaper per use than their standard counterparts, so you also save (very few) money using them. silver-fed is mainly beaten by mystic kits which have a big enough durability to make the inventory space usage less of a problem anyways.

having those infinite tools is just a great QoL improvement.it also saves time not having to worry about bringing the kits and you never have to stop looting tarir because you ran out of space and kits ... but since unidentified gear was introduced that is less of a problem anyways.

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What most said basically.

If you want a short approach to what to get with gold:

  1. The Copper-Fed-Salvage-O-matic is one of the most useful QoL items in the game bar none. Paired with one of the shared inventory slots from the expansions, this thing is a beast
  2. There is value in getting some select living world episodes for easier gearing. Of special note is Living World Season 3 Episode 3 for the Winterberry forest and "easy" access to rings, accessories and backpack. Second would probably be access to Bjora Marches Living World Saga Episode 1+2 (not sure if having only 1 is sufficient) for easy access to amulet and accessory as well as Ice Shards which can be converted into Season 4 materials.
  3. Otherwise it depends on what else you could use gold on, for example larger inventory space (15 or 18 slot bags are not that expensive and should be a high priority for a new player).
  4. another QoL upgrade is getting the material expansion from 250 to 500 bank materials. This allows for more than 1 stack of a specific material to be stored, which makes it a low easier to manage bank characters if need be.
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@Gibson.4036 said:

@Wolfb.7025 said:I'm gonna keep it simple here.

Mats arent that crtical for a new player. You can safely sell them on TP, just make sure you list instead of insta sell.

Doesn't the TP tax make it better to insta sell on things that are relatively cheap and there is a small spread between the list and insta sell prices?

There is a 15% tax regardless if you list or insta sell.Most mats sells like hot bread so even if you list then on 1c lower than the best sell order you're gonna sell it in a few minutes.

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@Wolfb.7025 said:

There is a 15% tax regardless if you list or insta sell.Most mats sells like hot bread so even if you list then on 1c lower than the best sell order you're gonna sell it in a few minutes.

Ah, thanks, I didn't realize. I thought there was a seperate list fee and sell fee, and the list was only applied of you didn't insta sell. I must have come across bad info.

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@Morvran.8265 said:

@"Vincible.1065" said:Cheers for additional thoughts everyone, i'll be sure to keep an eye out for the tax, and will look at episodes and bank slots etc. as additional possible gem purchases.

If you're interested, here's a recommendation for
. Should help you get the most out of your gems.

solely from the fact that VIP passes are mentioned as "must have" i question the usefulness of this "guide". wvw starting location, pvp lobby or guild hall provide the necessary VIP functions (anvil, general vendor, bank access) in a better way: you can get back to your previous position and they are free.the things listed under lower tiers are way better, especially bag slots and bank tabs.

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@WorldofBay.8160 said:

@"Vincible.1065" said:Cheers for additional thoughts everyone, i'll be sure to keep an eye out for the tax, and will look at episodes and bank slots etc. as additional possible gem purchases.

If you're interested, here's a recommendation for
. Should help you get the most out of your gems.

solely from the fact that VIP passes are mentioned as "must have" i question the usefulness of this "guide". wvw starting location, pvp lobby or guild hall provide the necessary VIP functions (anvil, general vendor, bank access) in a better way: you can get back to your previous position and they are free.the things listed under lower tiers are way better, especially bag slots and bank tabs.

Bag slots and bank tabs don't do anything unless you have already reached the limits of your storage options. For new players that may be months away, possibly a year if they use their character slots well. VIP passes can be huge timesavers from day 1 especially if you are crafting a lot, but I agree, that one is questionable. I've been considering knocking that down a tier, might just go for it now. I tend to rate items higher if they get more value out of a shared slot, and passes certainly do.

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@Morvran.8265 said:

@"Vincible.1065" said:Cheers for additional thoughts everyone, i'll be sure to keep an eye out for the tax, and will look at episodes and bank slots etc. as additional possible gem purchases.

If you're interested, here's a recommendation for
. Should help you get the most out of your gems.

solely from the fact that VIP passes are mentioned as "must have" i question the usefulness of this "guide". wvw starting location, pvp lobby or guild hall provide the necessary VIP functions (anvil, general vendor, bank access) in a better way: you can get back to your previous position and they are free.the things listed under lower tiers are way better, especially bag slots and bank tabs.

Bag slots and bank tabs don't do anything unless you have already reached the limits of your storage options. For new players that may be
months
away, possibly a year if they use their character slots well. VIP passes can be huge timesavers from day 1 especially if you are crafting a lot, but I agree, that one is questionable. I've been considering knocking that down a tier, might just go for it now. I tend to rate items higher if they get more value out of a shared slot, and passes certainly do.

don't get me wrong, VIP passes would be a good idea ... if and only if they would not cause additional time spent getting back where you were. they are practically useless for emptying your inventory, guild hall is just faster in any aspect - loading times, finding the right NPC/object, getting back - while costing nothing more than finding a guild with anvil and scribe station (bank access + general vendor) which basically every guild with a hall has. and let's be honest: emptying your inventory or repairing equip are the major reasons to interrupt whatever you do. you don't interrupt your adventure for a fractal - instead you cancel it and then there is no difference to porting to LA where you got all you need as well (except that everything is spread further).it is a convenience item that imo provides a time benefit in situations i don't care about time (crafting, safe spot, lobby waiting for a start, etc) while not being able to straight out beat free versions in situations where time is important (inventory full in tarir loot, desired event about to start but armor is broken, etc)

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That's another reason I think it's a good idea to wait until you find yourself needing an item before buying it, a lot of useful QoL stuff is only really useful later on, and it helps to learn what the alternatives are before going for the paid option.

I find the infinite gathering tools extremely useful now, but I didn't get them when they first came out because I didn't need them until I reached the point where I was mainly playing on level 80 characters and therefore jumping around between maps a lot. Before that my characters were usually progressing through the maps based on level, so it was easy to make sure they had appropriate tools for the map they were in. Even after that I could have just used Ori tools for everything, but for some reason 'wasting' them by using them on low tier materials bothered me more than buying infinite tools to use on everything.

I think the first non-cosmetic gem store items I bought were character slots, but even then it's because I spent the betas planning characters I wanted to make and had more than 5 ideas planned. Now I think the one I use most is shared inventory slots, but those are only really useful if you're regularly going between characters. I think bank tabs are a definite must-have, but I only get 1 per year (and only when they're discounted) so again that's not something I'd buy right away.

I'd be especially wary of buying bag slots when you're new, because those are tied to the character, not the account or character slot, so if you decide you don't like your character and want to delete them you'll lose the slots you paid for.

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The "copper-fed salvage-o-matic" is the (!) QoL tool in the game and I recommend it to everyone that plans to play the game for more than a few weeks. Put it into your shared inventory slot and the game becomes much more fun.

I did buy it after playing the game for a few years, because I didn't know better and it still pisses me off a bit how much life time I wasted with manual salvaging before I had it. That thing is great ... seriously!

Everything else like unlimited gathering tools, more inventory space, more build tabs, more bank space and especially the VIP stuff is not that important.

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Great to hear more opinions and thoughts from more seasoned players than me. Seems that there is no 'best' or 'must have' options, but a lot is down to personal preference / needs which makes sense.

Currently, my main concern is inventory space. A guildy very kindly gave me 4x 18 slot bags which have helped a lot, but my bank is already full of things which look to be useful later on, but I currently have no use for, so some sort of inventory space is a hot contender right now. Are bank slots also tied to a specific character like bag slots are? Also if I use my level 80 boost, do I retain the shared slot it came in?

Someone else in the thread mentioned purchasing Story Modes, which if I understand correctly is extra content which is locked to me at the moment until i buy it. As GW2 seems huge, I don't think i'll run out of content any time soon, but is there anything from these stories (other than the experience of playing them) that would be beneficial in the short-ish term? Mounts, etc.?

All this is dependant on me being able to save up enough gold to trade for gems to actually make a purchase of gems anyway, and at the rate of me earning gold so far, that seems like quite a way off. I imagine earning gold is easier at max level, than my current level (46), though I am doing the daily quest trio for 2G / day!

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@"Vincible.1065" said:I'm a new player and have brought the PoF expansion. I'm not looking to spend any more, so won't be buying gems, however, i've seen a lot mentioned about gem store items like the copper fed salvage machine.

Would it be worth selling all the mats i'm gathering now to earn gold to buy gems to buy one off items like this, or am I better off waiting to accumulate this much gold 'naturally'?

In my mind lots of these mats in my bank are currently 'dead gold' as i'm not using them and don't plan to for the forseeable future.

Do you have any crafter character? In that case a lot material can be "compressed" like Ore made into Ingots and so on. Some material are easier to get on a low level character that you might need later on in game in large amount for crafting higher level items.

Take a look here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting

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@"Vincible.1065" said:Great to hear more opinions and thoughts from more seasoned players than me. Seems that there is no 'best' or 'must have' options, but a lot is down to personal preference / needs which makes sense.

Currently, my main concern is inventory space. A guildy very kindly gave me 4x 18 slot bags which have helped a lot, but my bank is already full of things which look to be useful later on, but I currently have no use for, so some sort of inventory space is a hot contender right now. Are bank slots also tied to a specific character like bag slots are? Also if I use my level 80 boost, do I retain the shared slot it came in?

Someone else in the thread mentioned purchasing Story Modes, which if I understand correctly is extra content which is locked to me at the moment until i buy it. As GW2 seems huge, I don't think i'll run out of content any time soon, but is there anything from these stories (other than the experience of playing them) that would be beneficial in the short-ish term? Mounts, etc.?

All this is dependant on me being able to save up enough gold to trade for gems to actually make a purchase of gems anyway, and at the rate of me earning gold so far, that seems like quite a way off. I imagine earning gold is easier at max level, than my current level (46), though I am doing the daily quest trio for 2G / day!

First of all as you gain more AP (Achievment Points) you will at some stages get a 2% increase from earning Gold as rewards. Here is a list of when that happens: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Achievement_point_rewards

I have been playing for around 6 years now (game have 8 years from it went public in 2012), so it is worth to use real money on Gems (and don't use Gems to Gold as that conversation rate is negative vs the Gold to Gem rate).

Most people here talk about Permanent Gather Tools, but don't explain with the last changes there where introduced Glyphs that you now can equip on all gathering tools. Some Permanent Gather Tools are sold with Glyphs for the same price as those which is only a skin with different type of animation. There is a difference in speed (from animation), so it is worth pick tools that have short animation then a flashy one.

Here is a full list of ALL Gather Tools in game: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gathering_toolTake look on Unlimited Gathering Tools section in that link and you see which glyphs that each tool are sold with. For my part Glyph of Reaping is the best as there plenty of plants (and on synthesizer nodes that you find in Guild Halls and in WvW - it will also collect clothing materials and so on in with one key press that is range [900 units] of being collected, so you don't have to go from node to node or synthesizer that in 900 units range.

Glyphs can be bought in BLTP as unused version (it means that they are not account bound and can therefore be sold or bought until they are being equipped. From wiki you can see their cost on TP as there is a linked API from site to GW2 servers. API make it possible for external sites to show in game information. On Trade post you need to filter by: packaged goods and use Glyph as search term.

Here is all Glyphs with prices: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glyph_(upgrade)You can also try out Glyphs with the Enhanced Gathering tools that are sold from NPC vendors that are found Lion's Arch and some other places. Here you can use your Karma to buy these tools, but be careful as you Karma will very fast get down when you only use these tools instead of Glyph or the Permanent version with Glyph.

You can equip Glyph on normal (non-permanent or non-infinite gathering tools) and when that tool have finished its charges your Glyph will be back in inventory. Independent on permanent or charged version you can change glyph (remove) and use (click on Glyph or open Hero Panel, make sure you are have filter set to show your Hero and Gathering Tool and click on one of three gather tools to only show that type of gathering tools that can be equipped or upgraded for that type of gathering tool; just make sure you are out of combat as in that case you can not change anything that is shown in Hero Panel; that is another reason why permanent gathering tools are more then a QoL investment, you can be sure to harvest without the trouble to kill every NPC that might be aggroed while harvesting).

As an example my Skyscale Hatchling Glyph of Reaping can be moved to my Unbound Magic (permanent for gather Ore), after I have first removed Glyph of the Unbound and then click on Reaping to active it and move it to Unbound Magic Mining Beam. You can't just click and move to another gathering tool which have already a Glyph. This cost nothing, so in that way you can collect or use any Glyph to what fits you need best. They are account bound (so you can not sell or move it to another account, if you would later have more then one account) .

(A) Make sure to keep an eye on Gem Store sales from GW2 wiki (look at historical date which is collapsed for each item) to know when sale might happen. Astral Projections are a player which have for some time been keeping a thread to track what is on sale and when possible to give information about expected sales in near future. https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/1317166#Comment_1317166 - add that tread to your daily updates and bookmark it in your browser.

(B)IInvest in at least in one character to be a crafter as that is need for all items that are account bound to be crafted. Also upgrade with Bag Slot Expansion when it will be on sale and all other character that you play on regular basis. The reason is that when you craft items those will need space as intermediate stage of the final crafting. Anniversary sale happens once a year and last time where now in August (40% reduction on Gem cost). You can see that on the last section on link I gave here in post to that item. The most common is 30% or 40% sales and compared to Shared Inventory sales this is happening more often.

© Next is increase your Bank Slot as those are shared access from all your characters (account bound). Is something is marked Soulbound it means it can only be accessed when you are on that character. I have some items which is in Bank, but can not move into Inventory until I am on that character as it is marked as Soulbound for that character. Just so you aware if that might happen in the future. Bank is important if you are crafting items and don't want to sell it or need it to continue crafting later (maybe change character), so Bank have more features then only for storage. There are items like Gizmos (class of items) that can useful on several characters.

Bank is the "cheaper" version of Shared Inventory and combined with Passes (Permanent) or from going to sPvP loung or WvW (look up wiki for those) you will have fast access to Bank from most places in world.

(D) Material Storage can be accessed from all craft station (same for bank as you can change tab on CS) and there a couple of those in Open World as well as in cities. From Inventory you can use (in the upper right corner) the option to dump all material into Material Storage. No, need to go anywhere when you have made items into material that can be stored (and some map token can be put in wallet from "consume option" (right click to see option).All passes have craft station (and if you need to check bank or MS you don't need to run back and forth as long you are at craft stations).

Increase at least once from 250 stack to 500 stack (each MS expansion bought in Gem Store increase it with 250 stack). Just be aware when you move stack into inventory you only have 250 stack in each slot. When I got more then 500 Ectos from salvage exotic (yellow) or rare (orange) items I sold them on BLTP for a fast way to get Gold. Today they are not sold for the same amount silver as they used to, so it is something to keep in mind. If you can sell a rare item for more then 20 Silver (what TP show from API in GW2 wiki that I linked earlier) as an example, then it might be good to list or sell on TP, but remember when you craft an item it often more then just Ectos that you use, so you might get more from Salvage if you also look at other items needed to craft it.

(E) In connection to (D) as already have been talked about Copper-Salvage-o-matic in this thread and those other salvage kit version, it is a space saving feature as you now can salvage (turn items into material that can be stored or used in crafting) all items that are of the same colour (tier) as green, blue or even yellow.

Here I would advice to actually get Invisible Bags/Invisible Packs/Safe Boxes/Courier's Bags as to keep all unID (stacks of green, blue and yellow) which is item that isn't identified for what item they are for as armour or weapon AND all other item that you might want to keep or sell that also belong to the same tier. Always move every item that want to secure from being accidentally salvaged into Invisible, Safe Boxes or Courier's Bag. In particular after you crafted an item, so you don't use Salvage all and move all mats into MS and wonder why you can't find that crafted item?

Levelling is rather fast up to level 80, so for most part it is better to just salvage everything less then rare (orange) or exotic (yellow) and buy what you need. There are items from story and low level that can not be salvaged or sold (check if NPC vendor will accept it to be sold for small coins). If you are doing WvW you will even get Tome of Knowledge (and from PvE too). For any character with less then level 80 you will increase with one level. There are also other consumable which increase your level that make levelling other characters rather fast. In short your low level green and blue is for materials and getting MF from luck that you get when you salvage items nowadays. In the "old" day before unID and mass salvage (kits in old day didn't have that option independent on bought from vendor or Gem Store).

Keep these unID in those Invisible Bags until you really want to use Salvage all up to green (Masterwork) item as an option. C-S-O-matic will continue salvage until you don't have money or there is nothing left which is not protected from bag slot status like being Invisible bag (check on GW2 wiki for Bag that have been linked).

(D) While we are talking bags: Get Oiled Bags to keep all junk items out of the rest of bags as long there is space in Oiled bag slots. At almost every NPC vendor including some repair station, you can find "sell junk" button and sell all junk items in one go. (If you by accident sell something that you regret it there is a "buy back" option - change tab, as long you don't change map or instance).

(E) Use tools like GW2 wiki both to learn how things work and to check prices. https://gw2efficiency.com/ offer also a lot of control for your account (you need to create an API key on GW2 account and copy that into https://gw2efficiency.com) - there are instruction on how to do that on https://gw2efficiency.com/ and on support page for GW2. API key is a key or coded. link that connect your accounts information to external sources while protecting your account.

https://gw2efficiency.com/ let you also right click and go directly to GW2 wiki if you need more information for an item. It give you full view of Material Storage and are easier to search for items when you don't know which character had it last. There are other sites that also might be useful for crafting to keep tab on changes on Gem to Gold conversion, but those isn't as important as these basic tools. As a rule only buy Gems with real money or from Gold and never the other way around. After some time you will have items in Material Storage that can be sold, if you need fast Gems to purchase something during a Gem Store sale.

(F) How to get Gold later in game. Do collect Watchwork sprocket (buy Gathering Tools with Karma that will give you small amount every time you use Gathering tool, just be careful to not use all your Karma as you can buy some ingredients for Karma and some exotic gear which can not be salvaged from Karma vendor in Orr) and go to Dry Top on regular basis to farm Quartz Crystal and use Hero Challenge which change into a Place of Power after it have been used to HP at Dry Top (look at link for PoP to find other place that you can do this) and turn 25 of these Quartz Crystal into the charged version. Charged Quartz Crystal as you will need Charged Quartz Crystal later in game as it is account bound.

Here is possible usage for that mat: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Extra-Pungent_Skyscale_Treat

The minimum cost for crafting this item is 4 Gold as you need to purchase from NPC vendore an item for 4 Gold, but this show that some account bound items can be turned into items that can sold at TP.

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@Vincible.1065 said:Someone else in the thread mentioned purchasing Story Modes, which if I understand correctly is extra content which is locked to me at the moment until i buy it. As GW2 seems huge, I don't think i'll run out of content any time soon, but is there anything from these stories (other than the experience of playing them) that would be beneficial in the short-ish term? Mounts, etc.?

To not add more wall of text as necessary: ALWAYS purchase your LW story in Gem Store as you get reduction in Gem price. If you buy story from Hero Panel you will be charged 200 Gems vs 160 Gems from Gems Store.

There is info about this in GW2 too if you want check, but I am too tired to dig up that link. :-D

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