Alt friendliness, Jade Bots, and Fishing

[Killerassel.2197]

I actually think that fishing is ok as it is now. (Minor bugs and possible improvements mentioned elsewhere aside.) The fishing pole is unlocked account wide and requiring any lure to be able to fish is comparable to requiring a mining pick or a harvesting sickle. It would be very helpful if the bait was accountwide and infinite, but it is in line with the other gathering disciplines. I assume this will come in the gem store later, again: in line with the other infinite tools. One change I would like to see, though, is that vendors outside of Cantha start selling lures. At least in hubs and guild halls.

The jade bot however is a different beast. I'm pretty disappointed that I cannot use it at all on alts until I put in an energy core. Which was above 2 gold last time I checked. Or playing a good chunk of the story. With every. single. character. I don't even mind the stat boost or the modules at this point. But I cannot use zip lines, the build-in updraft or open jade bot chests. I haven't unlocked the waypoint, because I could hardly use it anyway. The way this is implemented it feels punishing to play an alt in Cantha.

The price will fall, sure, but unless the piece of dragon jade drops somewhere the two ectos make sure that the price will not drop below 40-50 silver in the foreseeable future.

I think basic energy cores for alts shouldn't be required or available for free. Or almost free, like a few silver or a few hundred karma. If giving out cheap level 1 cores would upset the marked I'd also take (new) level 0 cores without the vitality bonus. Just so that I don't have a whole mastery line completely unusable by almost all of my characters.

Edited March 7, 2022 by Killerassel.2197
wording

[Mrs Lana.2506]

On 3/6/2022 at 9:22 PM, Gehenna.3625 said:

for example, when you complete a heart you can buy a temporary buff for karma.

This already exists at the Seitung fishing heart vendor. It gives 50 fishing power for an hour.

But overall with jade cores and fishing items, I agree that they should be account wide.

[Boogiepop Void.6473]

Added point: the Lvl 10 core provides a significant health boost. If it's not account wide, then it becomes yet ANOTHER gear check where people won't let you use a character without a lvl 10 core for events. Which then means either you are forced to trade the core between alts or make multiple lvl 10 cores, which is not cheap. The higher level cores need huge numbers of research notes, not to mention the Xunlai ingot (time gated by mithrillium) for lvl 10. Lvl 1 might not be too bad to have to make 20+ of compared to the lvl 10 (I still think it's dumb though), but 20+ lvl 10s to be able to optimally equip those alts it ludicrous.

For those saying it will make new alts OP due to having the extra health, just level lock that part behind a level check per alt. The majority of the game is spent at lvl 80, so just don't apply the bonus until then. It's not a good reason to not make them account wide, compared to all the drawbacks.

Edited March 7, 2022 by Boogiepop Void.6473

[Sarajiel.5830]

Fishing would be much better, if Anet had implemented it as a low-level activity that unlocks around level 5-10, including a progressive need for higher fishing power and vendors placed around the core and previous expansions' maps. This would fit such a system much better. Once you unlock the masteries and the skiff at level 80, it would feel more organic overall. There is absolutely no reason why fishing in Queensdale inside a level 4 area is much harder than inside level 80 areas in Cantha, except for the tutorial area for this expansion.

Probably the best improvement right now would be the addition of fishing vendors in the major hub areas outside of Cantha to allow equipping your alts more easily.

[Jwake.7013]

I'm still in massive favor of making Jade Bots be account bound and not character. But even say you keep that change, why make people use the Work Bench to trade things in and out? Storing a Chip in my shard slot isn't useful when I can't swap on the go, I have to find a bench, oh I'm not on an EoD map, I have to leave the instance I'm in just to swap stuff out.

[Rauderi.8706]

100% of everything OP said. 

It's completely baffling to follow the mastery system itself and legendary armory with this 2012 design. 

[Tukaram.8256]

On 3/8/2022 at 12:21 AM, Killerassel.2197 said:

The jade bot however is a different beast. I'm pretty disappointed that I cannot use it at all on alts until I put in an energy core. Which was above 2 gold last time I checked.

Yeah, I just bought one for my main (was playing on my alt to get pets).  The current buy now price is 1 and 90.  It will probably keep going down as everyone buys theirs and sales drop... but that may be a while. 

Odd.  This game is generally extremely alt-friendly. Not this time. 😎

[Solstice.5790]

The cores aren't much of an issue imo. 235 additional vitality is almost exactly like crafting a chestpiece and pants for an alt, I can just do that.

 

What's really infuriating to me is locking the T3 mods, i.e. factual character ability upgrades, behind account bound Meta chest rare drops.

Unless you get the right lottery ticket, you're stuck at max 20% additional energy regen, you're stuck at 2k units of chest radar, there is nothing you can do to get to optimal "stats" / performance (and please don't say "Jade Vault", same lottery, different ticket vendor...) for even one character.

Good luck getting energy regen 3, rescue protocol 3 or gliding boost 3 for alts...

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

My problem with the system is that needing a jade tech bench really clutters up the process of swapping characters.