Legendary variants cost is unacceptable

[Silverglance.5812]

Right now, a single variant skin costs around 400g to make (plus karma and spirit shards). That's nearly half of what a generation 1 legendary costs (around 900g). Even worse, trading history of the required materials like Jade Runestones suggests the price for variants will only ever increase in the future and that's all despite gen 3 having the most expensive legendaries already. Before and after the release of EoD the variants were presented as a major feature and selling point of both the expansion and the legendaries themselves, emphasizing that we wouldn't have "to worry about spending tons of resources making and remaking these weapons". Now, I can only speak for myself, but for me - and I suspect many others as well - this was a big factor in making the decisions of whether or not to buy EoD and whether or not to make an Aurene legendary (instead of a gen 1 or gen 2 legendary). Now I feel mislead. Anet, please reduce the needed amount of materials or add new sources for them.

[Rasimir.6239]

New shinies are always more in demand than old shinies, and as such more expensive. As such, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the material prices for materials used in both the crafting of the gen3 legendaries as well as the skin variants are high right now.

 

It's a simple question of supply versus demand. Wait a while, and prices will fall, as more and more of the early adopters finish their crafting, or craft a gen1 if you don't care about the skin.

 

Making an expansion purchase solely on the base of a preceived discount legendary crafting process when said process is obviously dependant on supply and demand of materials at the trading post seems like a pretty big risk to me, and apparently one that hasn't paid off unless you're willing to wait a good while longer.

[kharmin.7683]

You feel mislead?  This one legendary is your deciding factor on purchasing EoD or not?

[Silverglance.5812]

While it is true that new stuff is always the most expensive on release, the price for variants isn't just high - it is increasing. As you said, it's about supply and demand. Let's look at Aurene's Memory for example. The daily limit on that is 27 if you do all three meta events. A single skin takes 250, all variants for one weapon 1500. That's two months of farming ~2h daily just for that. And Runestones are even worse with only two guaranteed drops per day, the rest being left to RNG (and the droprate is pretty low), yet you need 200 of them. There's a huge discrepancy between supply and demand. And yes, in time demand will go down, but so will the supply. Population is the highest after a new release and right now, metas like Dragon's End are actively farmed, but that won't last forever.

 

And of course I didn't buy EoD just because of the legys, but it was a factor. It's also not about a "perceived" discount - they outright said the variants would be cheaper.

[kharmin.7683]

14 minutes ago, Silverglance.5812 said:

 

 

And of course I didn't buy EoD just because of the legys, but it was a factor. It's also not about a "perceived" discount - they outright said the variants would be cheaper.

Not trying to be snarky, but where did they say this?  I honestly never saw it.

[Silverglance.5812]

15 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Not trying to be snarky, but where did they say this?  I honestly never saw it.

The quote I used at the top. https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-closer-look-at-the-guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-legendary-weapons/ ("So all those amazing greatswords Chelsea showed us are really just the same greatsword attuned to different magics, and you won’t have to worry about spending tons of resources making and remaking these weapons.)

[yoni.7015]

3 minutes ago, Silverglance.5812 said:

The quote I used at the top. https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-closer-look-at-the-guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-legendary-weapons/ ("So all those amazing greatswords Chelsea showed us are really just the same greatsword attuned to different magics, and you won’t have to worry about spending tons of resources making and remaking these weapons.)

Well, you don’t have to spend “tons of resources” to make the variants. 
If they are too expensive for you, just don’t make them. I crafted 4 Aurene legendaries and so far just two variants. 

Edited August 1, 2022 by yoni.7015

[kharmin.7683]

That's not outright saying that variants would be cheaper. 

[Silverglance.5812]

27 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

That's not outright saying that variants would be cheaper. 

Would be cheaper than crafting new legendaries? Yes, it is. If it wasn't, the statement as a whole wouldn't be necessary. If they hadn't said anything, it would be expected that a variant would be just another legendary which is why they clarified that a) it's a skin, not a functional weapon, and b) it won't cost "tons of resources" meaning the usual cost of a fully fledged legendary. Now whether that means 1.200g, 400g or 100g is open to subjective interpretation. In my opinion 1.600g baseline + 400g per variant is still "tons of resources", but perhaps not in yours or Anet's.

[Will.9785]

The variants cost as much or more than a piece of legendary armor.  That's not acceptable.  They are skins, not functional items.

[Dark Red Killian.3946]

The most you have to spend on a variant is around 75g. That’s if you factor in you made the research pages say from ascended weapons/armor/food, you parked a bunch of toons at JP chests to get your Jade runestones, and you did enough dragonstorms/dragons end metas to save up your 250 memories of Aurene. Personally I just park a ton of toons at the Kaineng jp, save up a bunch, sell Jade runestones when the price gets higher, and use the gold to start the collection/buy memories of aurene. Then save up the jade runestones I need and voila. Another tip, if you don’t feel like doing all the collections and make every single one. Then no sweat, just do the ones you want only! Again, once all of the variants are out, costs may slowly dwindle. 

[Randin.5701]

2 hours ago, Silverglance.5812 said:

And Runestones are even worse with only two guaranteed drops per day, the rest being left to RNG (and the droprate is pretty low), yet you need 200 of them.

For what it's worth, there are technically five guaranteed drops: the metas for Kaineng and Echovald, the jumping puzzles in Seitung and Kaineng (both of which are dead easy, even if you don't want park an alt or teleport to friend), and the chest in Echovald.

 

But yeah, for something that should honestly be a bit of a victory lap after getting the actual legendary, variants are pricy. If I was given my way, I would probably drop the 75 gold from the research note scale fragment, cut the jade runestones from 200 to 100, and possibly reduce memories of Aurene by a bit.

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, Silverglance.5812 said:

The quote I used at the top. https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-closer-look-at-the-guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-legendary-weapons/ ("So all those amazing greatswords Chelsea showed us are really just the same greatsword attuned to different magics, and you won’t have to worry about spending tons of resources making and remaking these weapons.)

Lawyers gonna lawyer, but yeah, it was misleading.

Kinda like the turtle/beetle comment.

All the lawyers respond with "Technically...", but the spirit of the statements was pretty clear. Personally, I think some of these devs actually want the things they are saying to be more than "technically" true, but the decisions are above their pay grades.

I was kinda excited about getting my first leggie weapon until I saw the variant cost. Afterward, I decided it just made more sense to pursue leggie trinkets and armor. Don't know if I'll ever choose my free precursor from the return event.

Edited August 1, 2022 by Gibson.4036

[Ashen.2907]

3 hours ago, Silverglance.5812 said:

Even worse, trading history of the required materials like Jade Runestones suggests the price for variants will only ever increase in the future

No it does not.

 

What is described in the OP seems to match the dev quote given in my opinion. Not requiring, "a ton of resources," probably does not assume going after everything. 

[yoni.7015]

17 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Lawyers gonna lawyer, but yeah, it was misleading.

Kinda like the turtle/beetle comment.

All the lawyers respond with "Technically...", but the spirit of the statements was pretty clear. Personally, I think some of these devs actually want the things they are saying to be more than "technically" true, but the decisions are above their pay grades.

I was kinda excited about getting my first leggie weapon until I saw the variant cost. Afterward, I decided it just made more sense to pursue leggie trinkets and armor. Don't know if I'll ever choose my free precursor from the return event.

It was not misleading. The things you need for the variants are not “tons of resources”.

[Gibson.4036]

3 minutes ago, yoni.7015 said:

It was not misleading. The things you need for the variants are not “tons of resources”.

Thank you.

[Silverglance.5812]

45 minutes ago, Randin.5701 said:

For what it's worth, there are technically five guaranteed drops: the metas for Kaineng and Echovald, the jumping puzzles in Seitung and Kaineng (both of which are dead easy, even if you don't want park an alt or teleport to friend), and the chest in Echovald.

 

But yeah, for something that should honestly be a bit of a victory lap after getting the actual legendary, variants are pricy. If I was given my way, I would probably drop the 75 gold from the research note scale fragment, cut the jade runestones from 200 to 100, and possibly reduce memories of Aurene by a bit.

Sorry, I forgot about the guaranteed chest drops, my bad. Thanks for clarifying!

[Astralporing.1957]

2 hours ago, Dark Red Killian.3946 said:

The most you have to spend on a variant is around 75g. That’s if you factor in you made the research pages say from ascended weapons/armor/food, you parked a bunch of toons at JP chests to get your Jade runestones, and you did enough dragonstorms/dragons end metas to save up your 250 memories of Aurene. Personally I just park a ton of toons at the Kaineng jp, save up a bunch, sell Jade runestones when the price gets higher, and use the gold to start the collection/buy memories of aurene. Then save up the jade runestones I need and voila. Another tip, if you don’t feel like doing all the collections and make every single one. Then no sweat, just do the ones you want only! Again, once all of the variants are out, costs may slowly dwindle. 

Oh, so apparently the mats you use for it cost you nothing. I was unaware that you can get them for free, with not even any opportunity cost. If you can, please share your methods, because i am really curious about those.

[Astralporing.1957]

1 hour ago, yoni.7015 said:

It was not misleading. The things you need for the variants are not “tons of resources”.

That's highly subjectible actually. It may not be a ton of resources for you, but for me it sure seems to cost a lot. I mean, it's as much as about a third of the cost of a full gen1 legendary. Maybe those are pocket money to you, but to most it is not so.

Edited August 1, 2022 by Astralporing.1957

[yoni.7015]

11 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

That's highly subjectible actually. It may not be a ton of resources for you, but for me it sure seems to cost a lot. I mean, it's as much as about a third of the cost of a full gen1 legendary. Maybe those are pocket money to you, but to most it is not so.

You need eight different things to craft a variant. That’s hardly the definition of “tons of resources”.

It’s not like a gen2 legendary where you need thousands of wood and mithril and T5 materials 

Edited August 1, 2022 by yoni.7015

[Astralporing.1957]

3 hours ago, yoni.7015 said:

You need eight different things to craft a variant. That’s hardly the definition of “tons of resources”.

It’s not like a gen2 legendary where you need thousands of wood and mithril and T5 materials 

Just one of those things requires 2500 research notes. Which do require a ton of materials.

[Ashen.2907]

4 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

That's highly subjectible actually. It may not be a ton of resources for you, but for me it sure seems to cost a lot. I mean, it's as much as about a third of the cost of a full gen1 legendary. Maybe those are pocket money to you, but to most it is not so.

If it is subjective, and is recognized as subjective, then the statement about a ton of resources cant be misleading.

[Sobx.1758]

Far from unacceptable, seems fairly reasonable to me for another legendary skin/particles. 🤷‍♂️ 

Edited August 1, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[yoni.7015]

26 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Just one of those things requires 2500 research notes. Which do require a ton of materials.

Not really, you can just buy stuff on the TP and salvage them. You don’t need a ton of materials, just a little bit of gold.

 If the variants are  too expensive for you than just don’t make them, no one is forcing you to. But the costs are not unacceptable. 

Edited August 1, 2022 by yoni.7015

[Sobx.1758]

22 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Lawyers gonna lawyer, but yeah, it was misleading.

Kinda like the turtle/beetle comment.

What was misleading about them saying that the turtle will be faster to get than skyscale? It is true. You just dislike they included x content, so now you pretend it was somehow misleading, but it wasn't. Preeeetty sure we've already talked about it and you've ended with repeating they were honest about it -and if you understand they were honest about it, then it means you misinterpreted what they said in the way you wanted to see it.

22 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I was kinda excited about getting my first leggie weapon until I saw the variant cost. Afterward, I decided it just made more sense to pursue leggie trinkets and armor. Don't know if I'll ever choose my free precursor from the return event.

So you've waited with crafting it to see what the requirements will be (same!) and then made a fully informed decisions based on what the facts are. I'm not sure what the issue is.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Sobx.1758