Graymatter.4723

Yes, you are correct. I was too focused on not having empty infinite gathering tools 🙂 I am not saying that they shouldn't include the glyphs, just that the ultimate is better than buying the gems separately. I still think that the tools should include a glyph selection box but that doesn't mean that ultimate is worse than buying standard + gems.

You aren't missing something. I was missing something. The calculations are sound but don't take into account that the ultimate gives you the same 4000 gems that you would buy separately so you may as well just get that. My first calculation assumed that a person would buy the gathering tools that include the glyphs on special. You can get those for 2160 every couple of months and the character slots for 640 every couple of months but it missed that point that you could just get the ultimate and the same amount of gems which included everything for free..

You are 100% correct. I was so focused on not having "empty" gathering tools that I missed the forest for the trees.

I included the character slot. You get the shared inventory slot (including the boost) with the the standard edition too and also the title. Yes, you do get the table but I can't put a value on that because it doesn't have one.

The ultimate only looks good when you compare it to the deluxe but you would still be better off buying the standard edition and then gems for the difference and getting the volatile gathering tools. See my other post or the calculations.

Even with ultimate it's not worth it. The best way to look at this is by looking at your gain in "account value" in terms of gems. I am not sure how to add a table here but here is a list: Deluxe will give you an account value gain of 4200 gems for $50: Character Slot - 800 gems Unbreakable Tools - 2400 gems Identity Repair Kit - 1000 gems Ultimate will give you 8200 gems for $75: Raw gems - 4000 gems Character Slot - 800 gems Unbreakable Tools - 2400 gems Identity Repair Kit - 1000 gems If we buy standard and gems for a total of $60 and then buy the individual components we get a gain of 7922 gems at bid price or 10466 gems at buy now price : Character Slot - 800 gems Unbreakable Tools - 2400 gems Glyphs - 4722 gems at bid price or 7267 gems at buy now price If we buy standard and gems for a total of $75 (same price as ultimate) and then buy the individual components we get a gain of 9122 gems at bid price or 11666 gems at buy now price : Raw gems - 1200 gems Character Slot - 800 gems Unbreakable Tools - 2400 gems Glyphs - 4722 gems at bid price or 7267 gems at buy now price So, for the same price as ultimate, we get better value by buying gems with the difference and then getting the volatile gathering set or one of the sets that includes a set of selectable glyphs. The value of the glyphs just completely outweighs everything else. If a set of selectable glyph boxes was included then I would get 3 ultimate packs in a heartbeat (for me and my 2 kids). Without it, I will wait and see but probably get 3 standard editions.

Glyph of volatility is the best in terms of gold by quite a big margin, but it is also more expensive. The issue is more that some gathering tools have the option of including the glyph of volatility. In your example, glyph of alchemy is 130g (bid). You make an extra 56 copper for each ore that you mine (mithril to orichalcum). It would take 23214 gathers to pay back the gold to buy a glyph of alchemy. Lets look at glyph of volatility. The bid price there is now 423g so buying one on the trading post would pay back in just over 20000 gathers. But that isn't the real story. There is no point in buying them on the trading post. You are better off waiting until one of the infinite gathering tools that includes it go on sale on the TP. Without a sale, a set of 3 costs 1084g or 361g each. That is already cheaper than buying the 3 glyphs on the TP, and you get a free set of gathering tools thrown in. On the typical sale (2160 gems), it would cost 867g for a set of 3 which is 289g each. That is a much quicker pay off in terms of gathers (13.7k), you get a full set of infinite tools included, and you don't have to wait for someone to sell it to you. Ultimately the point is that getting these without glyphs makes the deluxe and ultimate packs not really worth getting. Sure you get a character slot and identity repair kit thrown in but why bother when you can buy them separately and get them for cheaper than buying the ultimate and having to buy the glyphs on the trading post. Perhaps if they increased the drop rate of glyphs from the BL chests then that may change in the future but we aren't there at the moment.

Most of those other glyphs are basically placeholders. It would take you something like 150k gathers to cover the cost of a glyph of leatherworking, as an example. There isn't a point in buying them. I have bought a bunch of placeholder glyphs for my extra tools and swore never to make the mistake again of getting a set without a selectable glyph. You may as well run without one on those cases.

I get that but even as part of the ultimate edition this is uninspiring. If I get the ultimate then I would need to buy 3 glyphs. The bid price on the TP for a glyph of volatility is 423g (it's over 700 buy price). 3 of those would cost 1269g which is 3135 gems if converted (gold->gems). It would save me money to buy some gems and then get the items included with the deluxe compared to buying the deluxe and then getting the glyphs. That's crazy. If I got ultimate and then converted all the gems into gold to buy the three glyphs, I wouldn't have enough gold to get 3 glyphs of volatility. A much better option is to get standard, buy some gems and buy a 3 pack of gathering tools that include glyphs.

The deluxe and ultimate packs make no sense without glyphs included with tools. I have a lot of infinite gathering tools and will only get more if they include glyphs because the cost of buying glyphs for them is exorbitant. For me it's the difference between an ultimate and standard edition and I will probably only end up getting the standard edition if there isn't a change.

It's a lot more nuanced that that. A/Net have to cater for population variances across the different timezones. Changes that make it easier for a smaller group to defend their keep against superior numbers could make it impossible for anyone to take a keep during prime time when servers are queued regardless of how well they play. The changes also benefit outnumbered servers when they try and take back their objectives. Prior to these changes, a smaller opposing group could hold onto your EBG keep for a long time, despite you having more people. Someone could put a few golems in the lord's ring and stop people from capturing their keep until reinforcements arrive from across the map.

The problem is that you can't damage the siege with a boon ball attacking. If you stand on the wall they will pull you off. The point of the siege disabler is to buy time so more people can arrive. Now the boon ball will be inside by the time support arrives and at that point, it's too late because you can't pick apart the boon ball if you don't at the very least have the same number of people as them.

My server is no longer defending things if there isn't an organized group online. There isn't a point. They are just going around back capping stuff. It used to be a lot of fun holding out against a bigger group but now it's impossible. You can't stop them from getting in and once they are in it's just a rolling boon ball.

That's what we have been doing. If we have an organized group online then we will certainly engage them but if we only have a bunch of randoms then we are ignoring them. Letting them take structures. If we can block them before they get inside then good but once they breach inner the calls are for people to leave. These boon balls want easy kills so let them run around capping empty structures and see how much fun it is for them.

Please revert the siege disabler change. It's close to impossible for scouts to stall groups now and once the boon balls get inside there is no way you can take them down without an organized boon ball of your own. Not all servers have these boon balls running 24/7. There is no point in defending now because all you are doing is feeding them bags.

There is nothing in the game that tells people what gear they should be using for regular strikes, let alone CM's. There isn't anything in game that tells people what they should be doing in instanced content. If you want people to join more serious instanced content, then the game should push them in the right direction. If I create a group tonight saying "CO CM, anyone allowed" in the training LFG, what gear will the players who join that group have? What build will they have? If the game wants people to do this content, then the game needs to give them guidance on how to do the content and how to prepare for the content. A person joining will only find out when someone calls them out.

It's not that simple. There is a range of skills levels and experience across the player base. Typically, with new instanced content, the more experienced players will attempt that content first. Gradually, the people attempting the content over time will shift towards the less experienced and less knowledgeable players. It's easy for players who have completed more difficult content to say "form your own group" but the player base that they are pulling from is far less experienced than the players that they grouped together with when they first did the content. Lets take AH CM, as an example. I completed that a long time back and can join any AH CM run that I would like. A player who wants to complete a AH CM run now will have a much harder time creating their own group and completing it than what I had when I first completed AH CM. In that respect, gatekeeping becomes a way that more experienced players block newer players from joining their groups. I am not saying that people shouldn't want an easy run, etc. I am also not saying that people shouldn't gatekeep the groups that they create. I am just saying that people "can form groups" doesn't mean that there is no gatekeeping. Gatekeeping simply means "to control or limit access to something". In this case, it's certainly limiting access to groups.

It's very unlikely that you would have the same experience with CO CM. KO only needs people to finish. There isn't an enrage timer in a KO turtle run and you don't wipe if people don't bring enough CC. You have 10 minutes to kill Dagda in CM. That's an average of 12k damage for each of the dps and support dps. It's not high for experienced strike players but will be a real problem for regular open world players. I have helped out turtle runs where dps players are doing 6k damage. I have done regular CO runs where most of the dps players are under 12k. I am not saying that there is a problem sticking the CM into the wizards vault. Just don't expect this to be something that regular open world players will be able to do. Expect a lot more gate keeping in LFG because it will be chaos otherwise.

I am happy for more people to try out CM's, but do you realize what these "easier to find" groups are going to look like? A lot of players battle with regular strikes. I don't even go to OLC regulars anymore because 1/2 are of the pugs are wipe fests. Now stick a CM strike into the wizard's vault and see what happens to LFG.

It's not even when allies are around. People will get to a camp with 2 min left on RI, run in and demolish the yaks like it's a raid, and then sit and patiently wait for RI to finish so they can cap the camp. Like why? If you are waiting anyway, why not wait for people to get there? Everyone needs to get 15 yak kills for the weekly.

You seem to be forgetting that immob is also a form of cc. Getting away when chain cc'd and immob is not an option. The only one is avoidance which is identical to your scenario.

"Except, as I keep saying, ordinary CC-builds can and should be anticipated and prepped for, even if that simply means avoiding them." "Nope. A half-decent Herald can still deal with a CC-build, even if that's just to get away." You keep changing your story. Either avoiding a build is a tactic or it's not. The top player in the game wouldn't get caught with their pants down and would have seen the pull a mile away.

By your argument, you should have avoided the engineer in the same way that a herald should avoid a cc-build. Case closed. What did I say?

How so? Please elaborate.

Exactly. Now you are getting the point. The moa/cc thing isn't an issue for anyone else except a glass cannon thief. It's a occupational hazard so to speak. You get upside from that build but there are also some drawbacks. It's no different from a person running around with a Herald and getting chain cc'd. This isn't a problem with the moa/cc. I don't play thief because I don't like that play style. Instead, I have other benefits (and limitations) from the builds that I do play. Sometimes that means switching characters so I can play in a comp group and other times I want to roam on X so I use a different character. Each of them has good things and bad things.