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We have got to address Spirit Shards and Tomes of Knowledge


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Wait there's people struggling with Tomes and Shards? I was sure this thread would be about the fact they're just a dead currency that endlessly stacks up. Same with Tomes, once you have like 15 level 80s... what's the point of them?

 

I'm not a day 1 player or anything either. I started a few months before PoF's release.

Edited by Ashgar.3024
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I have several hundred shards, but they are being used up fairly quickly in crafting legendary armor. I can certainly see how those who are crafting a lot of legendary items can run out if they don’t have a huge stack already. 

Edited by Majirah.5089
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Ever since they nerfed spirit shards they are my constant bottle neck for everything - quite hard to get in large amounts unless you take a couple of days to spam certain metas.

Lots of folks that had thousands from when they are easy or from playing 10 year dont see the issue, but its the hardest thing to get now in crafting new gear sets etc.

you can easily make a thousand of them go poof

Edited by Crackmonster.2790
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There is exactly 2 reasons why players run or are low on spirit shards:

1. they are new to the game and haven't stacked up on them

2. they convert massive amounts of spirits shards into gold/wealth (upgrading materials, crafting T1 legendaries, etc.)

If you've been stats swapping to the extent that spirit shards are becoming an issue, if we assume some regular game play, then you'd be better off crafting legendary armor given the insane amounts of gold spent for this amount of swapping.

New players are tighter on spirit shards that is true. Eventually though they will accumulate. If you are generating wealth with spirit shards, having far more access to them means everyone else who uses them to generate wealth also has more access to them (and I am not talking about players who do not spend their spirit shards but strictly the players who consume all of them for wealth generation).

Me personally, I spent 2019 and 2020, ever since the announcement for EoD, crafting nearly 20-25 legendary weapons and other legendary items. Upgraded a majority of the materials needed myself AND spent quite a bit on stat changing gear for many characters, yet I never managed to even make a dent in my spirit shard count. If you are outspending that, you are either wasting a lot of gold on stat changing or are making a ton of more gold in conversion. The former needs better foresight and management, the later had a huge pay-off in exchange for the now scarcity.

Edited by Cyninja.2954
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34 minutes ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

2. they convert massive amounts of spirits shards into gold/wealth (upgrading materials, crafting T1 legendaries, etc.)

I do this every now and then and the day, where i run out of Spirit shards for stuff like stat-change, legendarys, or stuff has yet to come.
And i don't Raid or do Fractals at the moment. This is just from a few h Open World at the Weekend or so.

 

Also the post with the masteries is wrong, or i did understand it wrong.
I'm not near maxed out Masterys in neither expansion and get my Shards. They changed that pretty soon after masteries with the shard-stop where introduced.

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1 hour ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

There is exactly 2 reasons why players run or are low on spirit shards:

1. they are new to the game and haven't stacked up on them

2. they convert massive amounts of spirits shards into gold/wealth (upgrading materials, crafting T1 legendaries, etc.)

If you've been stats swapping to the extent that spirit shards are becoming an issue, if we assume some regular game play, then you'd be better off crafting legendary armor given the insane amounts of gold spent for this amount of swapping.

New players are tighter on spirit shards that is true. Eventually though they will accumulate. If you are generating wealth with spirit shards, having far more access to them means everyone else who uses them to generate wealth also has more access to them (and I am not talking about players who do not spend their spirit shards but strictly the players who consume all of them for wealth generation).

Me personally, I spent 2019 and 2020, ever since the announcement for EoD, crafting nearly 20-25 legendary weapons and other legendary items. Upgraded a majority of the materials needed myself AND spent quite a bit on stat changing gear for many characters, yet I never managed to even make a dent in my spirit shard count. If you are outspending that, you are either wasting a lot of gold on stat changing or are making a ton of more gold in conversion. The former needs better foresight and management, the later had a huge pay-off in exchange for the now scarcity.

I consistently have over 11K spirit shards. I can't get rid of the kitten things. At least they don't take up inventory space.

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2 hours ago, Majirah.5089 said:

I have several hundred shards, but they are being used up fairly quickly in crafting legendary armor. I can certainly see how those who are crafting a lot of legendary items can run out if they don’t have a huge stack already. 

the same as all the other materials required for crafting any legendary?

unlike everything else spirit shards are obtained from doing pretty much anything in game

The only thing I can think of that won't give any is if you do nothing but RP

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8 hours ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

I get most of my shards from leveling at 80.

This. I'm not even sure what in this game doesn't award exp.

There was that while when spirit shards were blocked if you missed masteries, but I don't think that's the case anymore.

 

7 hours ago, Debesyla.7102 said:

What do you even do with all those shards? 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spirit_Banner

It's not that good, but maybe it'll help other people.

https://i.imgur.com/dounUvx.jpg

Oops, I misclicked. Oh well.

Edited by ArchonWing.9480
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9 hours ago, Legend of Rogue.5394 said:

The process of gaining spirit shards and the lack of abundance is terrible for for the game. Let's analyze the ability to get them:

Tome Excess

Dailies

Killing Players in WVW on random Drops

SOS (Max 5)

 

Thats it:

 

Now let's look at access to Tomes: Once a week on Daily Log in

PVP, WVW Track (max is a few)

Chests 

 

Anyone going for Stat swaps on ascended, Crafting Legendaries, Crafting Ascended, using Augur Stones for Vision Crystals, Anthologys, Bloodstones, Eldritch, all require MASSIVE amounts of Shards when the application of getting them is extremely low. Stat swapping ascended armor or crafting ascended armor just needs to flat out be removed with Spirit Shards or changed in currency. The cost of making ascended armor per piece will average about 60 gold (more or less) and the cost of stat swapping other than hours of grinding WVW or wasting money on Gems for chests is insane... You might get lucky if you can get with a ZERG group and get some on chests. (Dont even bother for lower end servers with low pop getting ROFL Stomped by Black Rock) Its not even a process that matches the identity of the item its just a random lets have players do this because we have nothing else to think of. At least half the requirements or up the drop rate, change the daily log in and include more shards. The only way to actually gain a lot is spend 2 3 hours and maybe you will get a max of 15 or 20? Maybe? Not everyone is going to dedicate 8 to 22 hours a day like Teapot can. This is such an outdated process that has been going on since HOT and even before that. You have changed clovers, you have changed mystic coins, Ectos were addressed WAY back in the day, you have addressed obsidian shards but this is the most broken annoying part of the game. Luckily there are some who enjoy ALL aspects of GW2 and don't mind playing WVW but what of those who refuse or are only PVE? Going for anything that require shards you make it pretty much impossible. and dull., not to mention you can play and do everything and get 1-3? Thats insane Anet

 

 

Have you started playing 2 days ago? Since when those are a problem?

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I fail to see a problem here tbh... I have about 5 or 6 stacks of tomes in bank collecting dust and being useless alltogether and thousands of shards while constantly crafting legendary gear. Honestly there has to be more ways we could use them... 

Edited by KrivukasLT.3507
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A bit offtopic but I see this mentioned often. The last time I checked converting t5 mats to t6 was about even or a loss with the price of t6 dust so high. Naturally these things fluctuate but you have to be carefull here.

For example only leather is profitable from common materials. As for trophies currently t6 claws and dust are a loss.

Edited by Cuks.8241
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If you need tomes, just do some PvP.  I've got over 500 stockpiled and I only play about every 4th or 5th season.

As for shards...  I get about 99% from levelling and I usually forget to use boosters and food.  Last time I checked, I had over 13000.

If you're running out of shards constantly, I'm guessing you either aren't playing enough PvE (I find it fastest for XP) or you're doing way too much stat swapping.

If you need shards... Pick a toon and a build, stick with it and do map completion in some zones with Food, Utility and any boosters/banners you can find.  If you have Black Lion statuettes, there's a booster you can get with them that stacks with other boosters.

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14 hours ago, ArchonWing.9480 said:

There was that while when spirit shards were blocked if you missed masteries, but I don't think that's the case anymore.

There was also a time before HoT's release when everyone was blocked but that only affects masochist time travelers. 😄

4 hours ago, Cuks.8241 said:

A bit offtopic but I see this mentioned often. The last time I checked converting t5 mats to t6 was about even or a loss with the price of t6 dust so high. Naturally these things fluctuate but you have to be carefull here.

For example only leather is profitable from common materials. As for trophies currently t6 claws and dust are a loss.

Different materials are profitable at different times but I've never seen a time when there wasn't several things in the 10's of silver per shard or higher profit range on https://gw2efficiency.com/currencies/spirit-shards

Several other materials are profitable including wood, metal, and cloth.

 

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Tomes of Knowledge are kind of a meme for us WvW players. We get WEXP instead of EXP, so they reward us with Tomes of Knowledge as compensation. However, now many of us can level up over 12 whole fresh tengus to level 80 with just 12 visits to the bank Shared Inventory Slots. You can be level 80 in the level 1 starter instance. It's almost a curse upon the game! There's no motivation for us to utilize the low level zones anymore outside of key farming, fishing, world exploration for T1 legendary weapons, and beetle racing.

Are these Tomes of Knowledge truly lacking for PvE players?

Edited by Quench.7091
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On 4/1/2022 at 11:45 AM, Legend of Rogue.5394 said:

The process of gaining spirit shards and the lack of abundance is terrible for for the game. Let's analyze the ability to get them:

Tome Excess

Dailies

Killing Players in WVW on random Drops

SOS (Max 5)

 

Thats it:

 

Now let's look at access to Tomes: Once a week on Daily Log in

PVP, WVW Track (max is a few)

Chests 

Sure, just completely ignore the fact that you also get them as random drops from literally anything and also every time you level up past 80 in a zone that you have finished masteries. They are nowhere near as difficult to come by as you claim they are, and that may be stemming from you being a new player or could just be ignorance if you aren't. Personally I have always had an overabundance of shards just from playing any random content, my current bank of it is around 1800 shards but I know plenty of people have vastly more than that.

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20 hours ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

the same as all the other materials required for crafting any legendary?

unlike everything else spirit shards are obtained from doing pretty much anything in game

The only thing I can think of that won't give any is if you do nothing but RP

Just relayed my experience. I split my time between doing meta events and spvp. I earn some each session, but I also don’t have a lot of time to play each week. Just relaying my experience. I don’t do any stat swapping or use spirit shards to get wealth. And I am still using them faster than I earn them. 
 

It may be that some of the people that use them up faster than they earn them just don’t have enough time to play. And that’s fine. But there are legitimately some instances where people don’t earn them as fast as they use them and they end up being a bottleneck.  Not saying they need to change it, just saying that it does happen. 

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Honestly, I understand the frustration of running out of Spirit shards.

 

But I find it really hard to be sympathetic because you stated you don't want to do "Boring WvW"
As a WvW player I have to do "Boring pve" to make my legendary weapons.

 

See the problem here? 

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13 hours ago, Cuks.8241 said:

A bit offtopic but I see this mentioned often. The last time I checked converting t5 mats to t6 was about even or a loss with the price of t6 dust so high. Naturally these things fluctuate but you have to be carefull here.

For example only leather is profitable from common materials. As for trophies currently t6 claws and dust are a loss.

It's a  poor idea:

https://gw2efficiency.com/currencies/spirit-shards

While some t6 materials turn a ok profit, mid tier mats are better.

But however, regardless of method, these things are not very time efficient. I suppose boredom is subjective, but without a mystic forge or VIP pass, it's very time consuming if you want to make any kind of meaningful profit. I usually just do this for the Mystic Forge daily.

Maybe if you're making a Legendary and you need lots of those materials. But usually they require mid-tier materials as well.

In any case, that is probably why you may have heard some people value spirit shards very highly, because their time is more valuable than gold and use other people as cheap labor.

Edited by ArchonWing.9480
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For the record, I have only been playing a bit over 3 years, I craft legendaries, upgrade materials, attune and infuse my rings, and stat swap ascended gear and I'm still sitting on 4k spirit shards. I have NEVER farmed them (this is mostly just from gaining extra levels) and I have NEVER been short on them.

 

I highly disagree that they need more sources or tuning. This game rewards you for investing your time, and one of the ways is does that is through spirit shard distribution. 

 

Just keep playing the game, don't try to rush through gear, and you will also build up a healthy reserve of spirit shards.

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I do not get this. I play regularly and do some raids, events and such stuff and always have enough shards through leveling that way and tomes as a passive side effect. I mean you have to commit to one gamemode and play it or cycle through them and you never have a lack of those.

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You could also get them from fractals, you can trade 35 fractal relics and some silver for 1 spirit shard. (Dessas fractal journal) I think. That means in one day you can get 10 shards by doing daily fractals. You also got them for doing the fractals themselves. 

 

Untill I learned about this I would have agreed 

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