Are we going to get a third baseline equipment template across all characters?

[Veprovina.4876]

With EoD right around the corner, i feel like i should ask, and didn't see anyone else asking...

 

There will be 3 elites. 

There's 3 build templates.

Yet only 2 equipment templates.

 

I mean, with so many build options, the 1 per character EQ and build template gemstore items seem a bit aggressive now. Almost mandatory purchases. 

 

What is Anet going to do about it? Just leave it like it is? Cause i feel like, with so many builds and stuff, we should at least get another baseline account wide Equipment template. Or, if they HAVE to monetize it, make it a like, one time per account 800 gem purchase or something to unlock 1 equipment slot on all your characters (existing and future).

 

So... Just a thought, don't kill me, but yeah, 3 equipment templtes, 3 build templates, 3 elites. Seems fair. 

[Linken.6345]

Buy additional character slots 3 loadouts and 2 equipment each.

With the legendaries you got or will craft it will be easy to equip them with gear.

[Beorn Raukar.4328]

I am 100% convinced that we wont. This is partly one of the ways they monetize the game.

They havent offically said anything about it tho.

[Veprovina.4876]

10 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Buy additional character slots 3 loadouts and 2 equipment each.

With the legendaries you got or will craft it will be easy to equip them with gear.

Yeah, no, i don't want to keep adding characters of the professions i already have just to play 1 or 2 builds.

 

I mean, i know what you're saying, but i'm one of the people that like having a few characters i'm more familiar with than a roster of 200 that become a nightmare to sort which one i use for what.

 

Also, it's a valid question, i mean, they added "builds" to the game (how many, we'll see), but added no way of storing them.

 

So, the equipment and build template expansions are either going to turn into an aggressive form of monetisation really soon, or Anet's going to address this somehow.

 

I'm not saying they will or won't, i'm just curious. 

Cause, build storage is soon going to become a problem if say, your new elite has 2 meta builds, but you use 1st elite for X, and 2nd elite for Y as well and not all use the same stats...

 

And on topic of stats... I'm sure new combinations are going to be also in a few "meta" situations making the whole thing even worse.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

Sadly they have a pay to use system that I am sure they are hoping users will buy into with new eSpecs and builds coming next week. 
 

We have seen posts asking for more total templates for builds or equipment to no response, so I don’t imagine they will be adding free ones either. 
 

This is one of the bigger downsides of this game if you use multiple builds or load outs.   You have to manually add the equipment and restat it if legendary. 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Mungo Zen.9364

[mythical.6315]

1 hour ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

Sadly they have a pay to use system

It’s as much pay to use as the inventory system. 

[Mungo Zen.9364]

49 minutes ago, mythical.6315 said:

It’s as much pay to use as the inventory system. 

You are correct.  At least it isn’t pay to play. 

[Veprovina.4876]

2 hours ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

We have seen posts asking for more total templates for builds or equipment to no response, so I don’t imagine they will be adding free ones either. 

Well, as i mentioned, i'd be ok with a paid one as well, just as long as it allows account wide eq template unlock. 

Idk, i guess we'll see soon enough.

Or won't. 

[Infusion.7149]

Wishful thinking on your part. I was actually hoping legendary armory allowed for a full load of a stat set if you had full legendary but it doesn't seem that happened as armor , weapons, and trinkets are split.
I'd imagine build storage  or build templates would be demonetized far quicker than equipment templates as unused equipment is placed in bank , shared inventory, and/or bag slots. 500 gems for equipment templates is roughly on par with a bag slot.

"Three elite specs" is less meaningful than 3 roles (power/condi/support especially heals). Generally unless someone is playing instanced content it is power/condi.

[mindcircus.1506]

6 hours ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

So, the equipment and build template expansions are either going to turn into an aggressive form of monetisation really soon, or Anet's going to address this somehow.

Fixed that for you.

[KeoLegend.5132]

Nah, i want Anet to make money so they can deliver a bad game.

If we had ZERO slots i would argue, but 2 is borderline enough. Enough to be playable but still make you wanna buy a new one

[Astralporing.1957]

On 2/25/2022 at 12:42 AM, Veprovina.4876 said:

So, the equipment and build template expansions are either going to turn into an aggressive form of monetisation really soon, or Anet's going to address this somehow.

I have some bad news for you - the loadout system is already suffering from an overly aggressive form of monetization.

[Veprovina.4876]

10 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

I have some bad news for you - the loadout system is already suffering from an overly aggressive form of monetization.

Well, yes, but since they're going to now release a 3rd elite spec, it's going to get much, much worse.

So I'm asking if they plan to mitigate this in any way.

 

[mindcircus.1506]

2 hours ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

Well, yes, but since they're going to now release a 3rd elite spec, it's going to get much, much worse.

So I'm asking if they plan to mitigate this in any way.

 

Why would they?

They purposefully delivered a system that milks the most dedicated players of the game and maintains the value of a new Character Slot.

The system is absolutely working as intended.

[Cobra.6509]

It will be nice, after all Anet milk us enough with these expensive soulbound templates. But I guess we are not that lucky..

[Astralporing.1957]

7 hours ago, mindcircus.1506 said:

Why would they?

They purposefully delivered a system that milks the most dedicated players of the game and maintains the value of a new Character Slot.

The system is absolutely working as intended.

This. They already know how broken the system is, but it's inconsequential for them, as its primary purpose is not QoL, but monetization. If anything, after EoD launch the monetization factor would be even more strengthened. So, we can't really count on them on compromising on the only feature of this system they care about.

[Quench.7091]

The reasoning for their current setup is based around the old setup, so that the average player didn't lose anything. There was a WvW trait set, a PvP trait set, and a PvE trait set. The equipment didn't change if you swapped between WvW and PvE, if I recall correctly. PvP used the amulet system and still does. When they transitioned to the current system, the average player had no reason to complain, as they got these freebies with every character and could now dedicate more builds to a single gamemode.

Not to say that they shouldn't change that 2 to a 3. In fact, they should merge equipment templates with the trait templates. Equipment is too heavily tied to traits to separate the two, yet they did. And it feels terrible.

[Sobx.1758]

On 2/25/2022 at 12:11 AM, Veprovina.4876 said:

There will be 3 elites. 

There's 3 build templates.

Yet only 2 equipment templates.

That's because -as far as we can reasonably understand- the initial availability of the build tabs isn't somehow made "around the number of especs available", but instead around the modes in the game, which previously swapped builds automatically on change between pve/wvw/pvp. 3 build templates = 1 for each mode; and 2 equipment templates for pve+wvw, with pvp having its separate "amulet-based" system. We might not like it, but that's what it is and -at least up until now- the number of especs doesn't seem to be the reason behind those specifically chosen numbers.

Edited February 27, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Veprovina.4876]

5 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

This. They already know how broken the system is, but it's inconsequential for them, as its primary purpose is not QoL, but monetization. If anything, after EoD launch the monetization factor would be even more strengthened. So, we can't really count on them on compromising on the only feature of this system they care about.

Yes, it's obviously about monetization, but there's kind of a limit to Anet's monetization aggresivenes. A line that they historically crossed a few times and went back on (which was the right decision). Stuff like mounts. They were lootboxes at first, now you have select licences thing to get the one you want. Still expensive but not as aggressive.

 

Well... They're dangerously close to that line with the current system, and are about to cross it by introducing more options than that system allows to hold... And since they're the ones controlling the problem and the solution, i hope they don't suddenly start looking like "bad guys" after all the EoD hype and stuff.

 

So, yes, i know all that, how it is, why it is (supposedly), and stuff, i'm not here to debate that, i'm just asking a question if Anet will do the right thing this time again.

 

I'm not expecting an answer before all the EoD stuff dies down though so i'll wait.

Eventually though, i bet the forums will start swelling with "why can't i use a different EQ template for each elite by default?" and similar shortly after EoD releases... Such threads are already popping up on reddit as well. So people obviously have the exact same problem with this as i am, but idk, Anet isn't the most communicative company so we'll see.

 

 

[Astralporing.1957]

3 minutes ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

Yes, it's obviously about monetization, but there's kind of a limit to Anet's monetization aggresivenes. A line that they historically crossed a few times and went back on (which was the right decision). Stuff like mounts. They were lootboxes at first, now you have select licences thing to get the one you want. Still expensive but not as aggressive.

 

Well... They're dangerously close to that line with the current system

And that's where you're wrong. They are already well past that line, and have been since loadout system was released. Adding one more espec doesn't change much in that regard. Sure, it makes the thing a little more visible, but i sincerely doubt that they'd be persuaded by this if the mess they've already introduced (and mostly negative reaction of players to it) didn't manage to do it so far. They are obviously already prepared to "look like bad guys" in this regard.

 

 

[Teratus.2859]

Doubt it, while I agree that a free 3rd one would be nice it is kind of a reason to actually buy one and I don't think Anet want to loose that.

Can't blame them either.

[Veprovina.4876]

4 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

And that's where you're wrong. They are already well past that line, and have been since loadout system was released. Adding one more espec doesn't change much in that regard. Sure, it makes the thing a little more visible, but i sincerely doubt that they'd be persuaded by this if the mess they've already introduced (and mostly negative reaction of players to it) didn't manage to do it so far. They are obviously already prepared to "look like bad guys" in this regard.

 

 

Well that's true, but we can debate the seriousness and aggressiveness of the monetisation forever, that's not the point.

Yes, if they needed to monetize it, it should have been account wide unlocks.

Yes, build templates should have been free and downloadable to a txt file.

 

What's done is done.

 

The question is, now what? Cause wrong or no wrong, this is only going to get worse. It's pissing off a lot of people right now, but with the third elite, i think the people who didn't yet get to feel the system will be affected too. That's what's coming and what's been missing before. That will be the difference.

 

4 hours ago, Teratus.2859 said:

Can't blame them either.

I can!

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

Well that's true, but we can debate the seriousness and aggressiveness of the monetisation forever, that's not the point.

Yes, if they needed to monetize it, it should have been account wide unlocks.

Yes, build templates should have been free and downloadable to a txt file.

 

What's done is done.

 

The question is, now what? Cause wrong or no wrong, this is only going to get worse. It's pissing off a lot of people right now, but with the third elite, i think the people who didn't yet get to feel the system will be affected too. That's what's coming and what's been missing before. That will be the difference.

 

I can!

You can just save the build text string in a text document and copy past it in when ever you like to your build loadout.

[Teratus.2859]

33 minutes ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

Yes, if they needed to monetize it, it should have been account wide unlocks.

Maybe, but that's debatable.

Personally I am ok with them being character locked, however I do think they should be cheaper.
Imo the perfect pricing for character locked Build Templates would be 200 gems.

This would allow you to buy 4 for every 800 Gems you purchase which would be great value for money and would work well with other well priced items on the store such as mount licences etc.

As someone who is happy to fund the game when I want things on the gemstore the only big complaint I really have with the system is the amount of annoyingly awkward priced items compared to the restricted gem purchase options.
If I wanted to buy 3 build templates I'd have to buy 1600 gems to do it.. this kind of bullkitten doesn't sit well with me and because of that there are a good few items on the store that I flat out avoid.

I'd gladly pay 10 Euroes to buy 4 build template slots, or 2 slots and a mount skin.
But I'm not paying it for just 2 build template slots, it's not worth it, especially when I can just buy a new character slot for the same price and get 3 template slots and 2 equipment slots with said character.

Equipment Template slots should also have 100 gems knocked off their price point to make them a nice even 400 gem price.
10 Euroes for 2 build template slots and 1 equipment slot would be a perfect price point in my opinion.
And if I could get them for that price I would likely have bought at least 2 build templates and 1 equipment templates for almost every single one of my 23 characters by now.

That is an easy 230 Euroes Anet has potentially missed out on from me because of 2 imo overpriced gemstore items.

33 minutes ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

Yes, build templates should have been free and downloadable to a txt file.

There are certainly merits to the old GW1 method but also cons as well.

Every time I got a new computer, or a windows update came with a big case of the stupids, or one of those old viruses that antivirus companies made to get around their AV software to try and make people pay for their "better" and more expensive  service packages got onto my Pc and forced me to have to wipe it, it resulted in the same thing happening.
All my Guildwars builds go bye bye.

Sure you can say it's my own fault for not making a copy on a USB or something but like a lot of PC gamers that kind of thing doesn't naturally come to mind to some people.

The way Gw2 handles builds may not be as liberating as Gw1's way, but it certainly is significantly more convenient to the average casual player.
And they are the majority core playerbase of Gw2.

[Veprovina.4876]

11 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

You can just save the build text string in a text document and copy past it in when ever you like to your build loadout.

I know. That's not what this thread is about.

I asked about the equipment templated. People just naturally expanded to everything else during the discussions. 

 

But if i want to play all 3 elites in some way, i won't be able to without switching gear.

 

Example:

Mesmer - Minstrel Chrono (WvW), Viper's Mirage (PvE), Power Virtuoso (idk, roaming let's say). If i want to add Celestial Mirage for alac support, into the mix, then what?

And that's just 3 builds.

 

Then say, Necro for example- Power Reaper (PvE), Viper's Scourge (Raids), I'm assuming some sort of Concentration Harbringer? (support, maybe WvW). 

That's also just 3 builds. But each again uses different equipment which will now be needing constant swaps.

 

What more... RIght, Revenant - Viper's Renegade (DPS for Raids, strikes, etc), Alacren (uses harrier? i forgot, point is, another stat combo), and whatever the new elite will end up using, i'm assuming power? And that's just Renegade and Vindicator. Where's herald builds?

 

I did my legendary armor so i don't have to deal with that kitten, but you can't just copy stats on everything, there's runes and sigils and if you're not 100% legendary, it's not as easy to switch builds. 

 

There needs to be a 3rd baseline equipment template at the very least because of the added "build bloat" that's coming with EoD.

And i suspect, this "puprusefuly bad" system is going to bite Anet's kitten soon enough. 

 

  

7 minutes ago, Teratus.2859 said:

Personally I am ok with them being character locked, however I do think they should be cheaper.
Imo the perfect pricing for character locked Build Templates would be 200 gems.

Honestly, if they were 200 gems, i probably wouldn't complain. 

But the price, as it is, is too much. For the current price, they'd need to be account wide unlocks for the purpusefully broken system to make sense.

They made it bad on purpose. They made the problem so they can sell us the solution. 

Which, ok, wouldn't be as bad, but their greedy selves decided on a totally unfair price. 

Edited February 28, 2022 by Veprovina.4876