A discounted "Skin Only" version of vendor purchasable equipment?

[Esquilax.3491]

I was perusing the WvW weapon skins a few weeks ago, specifically the "Mist Lord" weapon set and was impressed with how aesthetically clean and elegant they are, but as usual I notice the price. At 350 tickets + ~75g per skin, it seems a little out of hand to be honest.

 

Now that price might be fair if you want to use the ascended weapon, as they are typically priced somewhere around that mark to craft or are dropped in boxes as rare rewards from end game content, ignoring the time cost.

 

But if you already have an ascended or legendary weapon and you just want the skin that seems a little harsh as the 350 tickets in particular is basically Diamond rank in WvW and that is roughly 12-20 hours (depending on rank and score) in the game mode, for a single skin.

 

I propose that you should be able to buy a skin-only version for half the price, because you already have a legendary that's all you're getting, you're not getting any of the functionality that would normally come with an ascended weapon, only the appearance.

 

Two months of grinding diamond and 800g seems more reasonable than four months and 1600g for a single weapon set.

 

Ideally this would apply to skins from other sources such as the living water ascended weapon skins from strikes too.

Edited July 13, 2022 by Esquilax.3491

[Lottie.5370]

I mean you already are just buying a skin, really.

 

They're also only 75g each if you're not playing the content (i.e. you get the grandmaster marks weekly/seasonally from WvW and PvP). It's also much cheaper from PvP as shards of glory are much cheaper than memories of battle. And since you need to do the content to get the skirmishing tickets/ascended shards of glory, you should be getting the other materials as you go.

 

It's like exotic weapons that are a few hundred gold - you're not buying the weapon, you're buying the skin. The skin just happens to come on a weapon.

[Randulf.7614]

Yep, as above - it’s the skin that’s the selling point. Being ascended is a bonus. I don’t think they need to overcomplicate things by adding an additional/reduced rate currency option for each skin.

And to be honest, by the time they’d get round to adding this with the million other things on the table, you’d probably have enough tokens for most of the set.

[Gehenna.3625]

You just don't want to do the content that's required to get such skins. I mean, I've got the same issue with the Abyssal Fractal Weapons because I have to do Fractals but also the Challenge Mode one to even be able to buy them at all...and they are just skins. 

Now, I haven't done the CM Sunqua Peak and I'm not sure I ever will. So that means I can't get these skins. Too bad, but also ok. I have much more problems with skins that drop from world bosses at an extremely low % chance. That's doing the content but being subject to extremely punishing RNG so you may never get them.

[Danikat.8537]

As other people have said the skin is likely the main appeal for the majority of people, because there's a good chance they'll already have ascended weapons and if not there are many other sources, including quicker and cheaper ones.

So it's more likely Anet would do something like they did with the older Mistforged Hero's weapons. An ascended one costs 250 Memories of Battle, 350 Skirmish Claim Tickets, 5g and 3 Grandmaster Marks and the exact same skin on an exotic weapon costs 250 Memories of Battle and 350 Skirmish Claim Tickets. So they've removed the additional cost which is specific to making an ascended weapon, but the WvW currencies are the cost of the skin itself.