Most useful Gemstore Item ?

[Dawanarth.4601]

I'm going to spend a few euros to get some gems to unlock the LS and what not (no key at the moment as I'm in belgium currently) during the Black Friday

Other than the LS, what interesting/useful item are are worth the expense ?

• World Boss Portal Device
• Maguuma Pact Operation Portal Device
• Bank Tab Expansion
• Storage Expander

Atm, I'm thinking about taking the WB Portal Device and possibly a Bank or Storage tab, whether one is more useful than the other

[Danikat.8537]

It really depends on what you like doing and what you're interested in.

For example I know some people who think the world boss portal device is one of the best additions the game has ever had, whereas I don't think it's worth the inventory/bank space it would take up, let alone the cost of buying it. If I do world bosses it's usually because I'm nearby when they're starting up (so I don't need a portal) or because I want to fight a specific one for some reason and then I can check the Wiki to see when it's starting and use a waypoint to get there.

Bank tabs are the only thing on your list I really use. I did buy a storage expander at some point when they were on sale but I'm not sure it's really worth it for me as on the rare occasions I need large amounts of some material it will only be temporary and then I can store them somewhere else.
 

Other than bank tabs I'd say my most useful purchase has been character slots, and possibly a set of infinite gathering tools.

[deatine.2498]

Out of those, the latter two, imo.

I got the bank tab expansion, and by now, I sometimes would really like the storage expander, too.

I used to do world boss tours a lot, but never felt the need for the portal devices.

However, the very first convenient items I ever bought were the copper and silver fed salvage-o-matics.

Edited November 23, 2021 by deatine.2498

[mtpelion.4562]

In order of usefulness:

1. Shared Inventory Slots

2. Infinite Gathering Tools

3. Copper Fed Salvage-O-Matic + Silver/Rune Salvage-O-Matic

4. Storage Expanders & Bank Tabs (make sure you buy these ONLY from inside the Bank, not from the Gem Store.)

[Chichimec.9364]

For me, both the bank tab expansion and the storage expander are very useful and I gradually added both over time till I maxed them out. The most convenient items for me though are definitely the copper and silver fed salvage-o-matics along with infinite gathering tools. While I have both the World Boss and the Maguuma Pact portal devices, the only time I use the World Boss one is when we have a world boss event going on. I almost never use the Maguuma one as I don't like the HoT maps. @Danikat.8537is right that the Event timer wiki page makes it easy to get along without the World Boss device as long as you have an alt who has the waypoints for the various bosses.

 

Edited November 23, 2021 by Chichimec.9364

[kharmin.7683]

13 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

It really depends on what you like doing and what you're interested in.

Exactly what Danikat said.  🙂

5 minutes ago, mtpelion.4562 said:

In order of usefulness:

1. Shared Inventory Slots

2. Infinite Gathering Tools

3. Copper Fed Salvage-O-Matic + Silver/Rune Salvage-O-Matic

4. Storage Expanders & Bank Tabs (make sure you buy these ONLY from inside the Bank, not from the Gem Store.)

I agree with #1 and #2.  Never had a real need/desire for #3 (and saw a post way back somewhere about RoI and whether or not these items are truly worth the cost in the long run).  I did expand storage for materials once, but that was it.  No extra bank tabs for me either.  I don't keep enough stuff in the bank to really warrant expanding it.

With pretty much any QoL thing in GW2, YMMV

[costepj.5120]

Another vote for "it depends". Do you have many alts? If so, shared inventory slots are worth including in your list, but less so if you generally only play one or two characters. Do you do a lot of resource gathering while you are out and about? If so, unbreakable tools are a boon. Are you a bit of a hoarder? If so, bank tabs are essential.

I have most QoL upgrades and they all do what they say on the tin - improving your in-game QoL. However, I think the one I would miss most of all is the Mistlock Sanctuary pass; I use that so many times during each play session. Other lounge passes are available but that's the only one that lets you return to your previous map.

[Malice.5867]

It kind of depends on what you do and how much are you willing to spend.

 

For me, the best gemstore purchase has been the Copper Fed Salvage-O-Matic. I just salvage all the crap I get, deposit it and once the storage is full of something I just sell the stack. However, if you are planning on hoarding materials the Storage Expander is a must and it is a great combo with the salvage tool. 

 

I don't see the point of the World Boss Portal Device. Once you get there you will have the WP forever. It makes more sense to get the Teleport to friend thingy. You can then join any boss group and port to the commander.

 

Additional tabs are great, but I can't give any recommendations since that depends on the individual player. I never bought any bank tabs and the space I have is enough, others have 15 bonus tabs packed.

 

I can see people are recommending shared slots and infinite tools. That is probably the biggest convenience you can get, but it is also the most expensive. Especially if you are not into some serious gathering it can take ages before you get any value out of these tools. If you are really looking for maximum value, I've seen people buy the Permanent Black Lion Merchant Contract for 500 gold and use it in a shared slot. This way you can always summon the merchant to buy tools when you run out on all of your characters (like a scuffed infinite tool that you don't have to constantly swap) and it requires just 1 shared slot instead of 3. 

[mikansei.5742]

Absolutely the copper-fed salvage. If you bought an expac you should have at least one shared inventory slot to put it in, so if that's the only QOL thing you buy, you don't need to buy extra slots just for it.

2nd would be infinite gathering tools, whether you shuffle them around to your alts in dedicated shared slots or not. I personally don't, and even then, it's so nice to not worry about buying vendor tools on my main ever again.

3rd would definitely be either the Mistlock or Armistice lounges to put in a shared slot. Instant access to vendors, bank, TP, etc. that will also port you back exactly where you were when you used it. Handy for alts you don't have many WPs on, and very handy for alts you have parked in a specific spot.

Edited November 23, 2021 by mikansei.5742

[Gibson.4036]

For me, in order:

1. Character slots to get the total up to 10. One of each profession, plus one for creating and deleting for whatever reason.

2. Lounge pass of some sort - I use mine constantly, and my kids are jealous. Requires one shared inventory slot to be useful.

3. Copper Fed Salvage-O-Matic - Requires a shared inventory slot to be useful, so rather than list that, include it here. I don't intentionally farm, but I'm inundated with blues and greens anyway, and I used to carry a half dozen salvaging kits at all times. 😛

4. Material storage expander - So many mats! I'm at 500 now, seriously considering going up to 1k.

5. Infinite Gathering Tools - Like salvaging kits, I've usually got two of each salvaging tool in my inventory. I gather a lot. Such a hassle to constantly make sure you have spares, and annoying if your last one breaks. Requires three shared inventory slots to be useful, so include that in the price.

6. Shared inventory slots for portal tomes and the position rewinder.

As Kharmin said, neither 2 nor 4 are likely to be "worth the cost" in terms of savings. The reason I value them is pure convenience of no longer having to stock up whenever I'm around vendors. I remember back before launch one of the things the devs said is they didn't want people spending time preparing to have fun, instead of having fun. That meant not having necessary consumables like health or energy potions you have to constantly stock. Well, we ended up with gathering tools and salvaging kits, unfortunately. It doesn't take a ton of time to make sure to get them, but for me it's a constant nagging hassle I want to be rid of.

As to the Silver Fed Salvage-O-Matic, it's easy enough to make Mystic Salvage kits, and at 250 charges, I'm okay making these periodically and using one inventory slot on them.

[AgentMoore.9453]

48 minutes ago, Malice.5867 said:

I don't see the point of the World Boss Portal Device

For me, the benefits are twofold:
- If I see Tequatl, active threat, I have had a 100% success rate of getting to a populated map with the device (versus normally being out of luck if I'm trying in LFG any closer than 10 minutes til the boss spawn)
- I no longer have to fiddle with the wiki and can lazily check when the urge strikes to see if a boss I need is available from in-game and immediately be taken to it if it is without any further steps

So it effortlessly informs me about bosses and reliably gets me to them compared to the 'by hand' approach of LFG or waiting around for a spawn. Up to you whether that makes it useful compared to its cost.

My list, in order of usefulness:
- Infinite Gathering Tools
- Infinite Salvage Tools
- Bank Storage Slots (Why do I need all of those marsh frogs? None of your business, that's why)
- Gem Store Lounge Passes (it's nice having swift access to a hub city both for the socializing and for the services available there, though I should note if you could craft everything in a guild hall, I'd just be doing that instead)
- World Boss Portal Device
- Character slots, when on sale (I can stop making joke characters whenever I want, I just haven't wanted to)
- Bag slots (I'd like these more if they were accountwide, but I can live with just one character having full capacity)

And least useful, in my view:
- Transmutation Charges (I use so many of these yet haven't bought a single one)
- Boosters, including the primers as well as any item that gives you random boosts for trivial amounts of time (These are much better attained through gameplay or as incidentals when buying packages of other stuff)

Edited November 23, 2021 by AgentMoore.9453
Forgot the World Boss Portal Device, like an IDIOT

[Danikat.8537]

45 minutes ago, costepj.5120 said:

I would miss most of all is the Mistlock Sanctuary pass; I use that so many times during each play session. Other lounge passes are available but that's the only one that lets you return to your previous map.

Armistice Bastion will also let you go back to where you were. Apparently it's possible with those two because they're in a separate map rather than part of the main game world. (If you only need the bank, Trading Post and merchants you can get the same functionality by going to the Heart of the Mists, which is free.)

 

44 minutes ago, Malice.5867 said:

I can see people are recommending shared slots and infinite tools. That is probably the biggest convenience you can get, but it is also the most expensive. Especially if you are not into some serious gathering it can take ages before you get any value out of these tools. If you are really looking for maximum value, I've seen people buy the Permanent Black Lion Merchant Contract for 500 gold and use it in a shared slot. This way you can always summon the merchant to buy tools when you run out on all of your characters (like a scuffed infinite tool that you don't have to constantly swap) and it requires just 1 shared slot instead of 3. 

I originally bought infinite gathering tools because I found my main character was skipping between maps a lot and it bothered me to 'waste' ori tools on lower level nodes but it was impractical to carry a full range of gathering tools and keep swapping them so I was avoiding harvesting nodes below T6. Which is all irrational I know, but it's not something I really thought about when I started doing it, and when I did I decided between that and the convenience of never running out it was worth getting infinite tool.

[robertthebard.8150]

For me, it's character slots to satisfy my altaholism, shared inventory to keep some things out of the bank and where everyone can use them, and bank/inventory/crafting inventory slots too.

[Malice.5867]

9 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

between that and the convenience of never running out it was worth getting infinite tool.

 

I don't think that anyone would ever argue against it, as I mentioned it is probably the biggest convenience you can get. Realistically the biggest downside is the price and that is the main reason I'm don't feel comfortable recommending them. At the moment the Volatile Magic set is on sale for 2000 gems and the 3 shared slots required (assuming OP doesn't have any or is currently using all of them) is another 1900 gems. That is a total of 3900 gems (50 euros) to have this convenience. 

[Buran.3796]

   My preference list:

1) New character slots. Not only brings news ways to play (if you want) and convenience at swapping builds of the same class but also even if used just as mules they are the best inventory slots x gems item in the game.

2) Shared inventory slots. You don't need to have all of them, but at least you'll get huge quality of life improvements from the first 6+ slots. That will grant you full access to share between your toons to one infinite gathering tool of each kind, a permanent pass and a couple of quality of life items or teleports based on your own preferences.

3) The permanent Mystlock Sanctuary pass or the permanent Bastion of the Penitent pass. I personally prefer the Bastion since allows you to try and test PvE/WvW stats and duel against other players, but players focused in fractals will find the Sanctuary more useful. Having any of them in a shared invetory slot is a gamechanger.

4) Infinite gathering tools (at least one of each kind); some players focuse on value so they chose volatile magic ones, I like more the fastest ones so I use the ones with fastest animations or with diligent or reaper gliphs, since the value of volatile rewards could be affected by the EoD maps in the future (rich players have different tools for each specific sutuation).

 

    And that's all. I don't use salvage-o-matic items since the game provides me with salvaging items enough (I craft stacks of 250, almost the only useful item I need the mystic stones for), and direct access as to World Bosses or the Mystic Forge have limited utility and not as usefull as the previous items.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Buran.3796

[Sobx.1758]

Shared inventory slots getting discounted (20%) in 3 days btw

Edited November 23, 2021 by Sobx.1758

[Buran.3796]

3 hours ago, costepj.5120 said:

 

I have most QoL upgrades and they all do what they say on the tin - improving your in-game QoL. However, I think the one I would miss most of all is the Mistlock Sanctuary pass; I use that so many times during each play session. Other lounge passes are available but that's the only one that lets you return to your previous map.

  Bastion also lets you to return.

[Donari.5237]

4 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Shared inventory slots getting discounted (20%) in 3 days btw

This.  Check the sales listed in https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/relax-and-unwind-with-the-tea-time-package/

[JustTrogdor.7892]

IMO first bank tabs because the game spams you with stuff you want to keep in your bank.  Then Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic. to quickly clean out that bag inventory and deposit the results.  After that unlimited harvesting tools.   Next you will probably want a few shared inventory slots to hold the salvage tool and also quickly swap harvesting tools.  Following that probably material storage expansion because when you use those salvage tools you'll want a place for all those materials to go.   After that unlimited pass with priority Mistlock Sanctuary  because it offers access to so many things plus the ability to return to where you were on a map.  The Royal Terrace Pass also isn't bad because everything is close together but lacks features Mistlock  and other passes have.  I have both and use them depending on what I am doing.  But if the Mistlock  pass had been a thing before I bought the Royal Terrace  I would have only bought Mistlock .   IMO anything after that is nice to have but not something super important.

Note several of the things mentioned above like salvage tools and harvesting tools are more convenience items.  Their cost takes a very long time before they actually pay for themselves.   But if you don't want to fool around making sure you always have the limited tools available then IMO they are worth it. 

Edit:  And don't buy black lion keys unless you enjoy the gambling aspect of it and are ready for a steaming hot cup of disappointment.

Edited November 24, 2021 by JustTrogdor.7892

[Erich.1783]

Shared Slots and a Portal Scroll (Mistlock or Armistice are the ones I like best) since that combination gives you immediate access to pretty much anything else you need.

[BlueJin.4127]

Infinite gathering tools, Copper-Fed Salvager, extra character slots, shared inventory slots, extra bank tabs, and Mistlock Sanctuary Passkey.

Edited November 24, 2021 by BlueJin.4127

[Ryou.2398]

The recharge teleport to friend is amazing, cooldown could be a little less but very useful.

[Donari.5237]

If no one else mentioned this yet, you should be aware that whenever you buy bank or bag slots, do it from the bank or the character's inventory.  Click the + at the bottom to do so.  If there is no + you are already maxed out and will waste your gems buying a consumable slot item.

[Kondor.2904]

Surprisingly no one mentions equipment/builds templates, which I personally find more must-have than lounge passes, world boss portal device or gathering tools. 

[Mungrul.9358]

10 hours ago, Erich.1783 said:

Shared Slots and a Portal Scroll (Mistlock or Armistice are the ones I like best) since that combination gives you immediate access to pretty much anything else you need.

Yeah, shoving the Living World portal tomes in shared slots is also really useful.

I mean, I think overall, the shared slots open up so much utility, they're probably the most useful items to buy, full stop.

I maxed out my slots and have all sorts of really useful stuff in mine including stuff like permanent salvage tools and portal tomes / scrolls, among other things.

 

However, I also resent that these are sold at all, and believe that such utility should be included for every player.

I'm a firm believer that the only things sold through the gem store should be cosmetics. But I'm also fully aware of how unlikely it is that ANet will ever move away from selling QoL.