Astral Amor Same Price or Maybe even more Expensive than Actual Legendary Armor [Merged]

[idpersona.3810]

20 hours ago, Undeadrage.5106 said:

Open world legendary armor should be more expensive and take longer to get from the rest due to being open world. You don't need any skill or even a build, can be done solo at any time you want to play. Compared to raids/pvp/wvw its the easiest to do. 

This can describe WvW and PvP as well.

[Shiyo.3578]

I'd rather afk for pips than do rifts.

[Demon Pie.2634]

And yet I will gladly do 10 times more the work and spend 10 times more the resources for this than play a minute of WvW

[Barraind.7324]

On 8/25/2023 at 2:29 PM, ArchonWing.9480 said:

(and honestly, what else would you even use extra gold for, if you can gear 30 characters.)

2k gold of character slots will buy you 35% of one mystic infusion. 

[Jaetara.4075]

It makes total sense as the current Legendary armour is both very exclusive, you need to practice and succeed in raids to gain access materials you need and time gated, you need to farm for months to gather these materials. An open, no restrictions legendary armour would need to have its own challenges to make them equal in terms of pain to gain.

[Cyninja.2954]

and so it begins: the begging for making the open world legi armor cheaper is here, when the armor is not even implemented.

Gone and forgotten are the years of demanding open world legi armor at any cost. What remains is just once again the asking for stuff to be made cheaper, faster, easier. Like clockwork and absolutely expected.

While the material list for getting the exotic prerequisite set looks daunting, most of those items are a few gold at most. Sure it adds up to a few hundred gold, meanwhile from what we can tell achievement wise, the final legendary armor will be a tad less material intensive for old materials (think gen3 legendary weapons versus gen1). Not to mention the recent reward buffs with the Astral system put some of these cost in different perspectives than in the past.

Even so, the main limiting factor will be the new materials and those you will have to farm, extensively. The good news: you get to do it solo or in open world maps. You don't have to get good at the game. You don't have to pvp or social interact with players. Run whatever custom pleb build you want, afk events, watch Netflix while doing metas, w/e you'll get there eventually.

The bad news: the cost, or rather the effort required, is balanced around this armor being available via open world.

Players were asking for an alternative legendary armor for open world content and prepped the argument with not caring about it being more expensive or tedious. Arenanet delivered on that ask after years.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Cyninja.2954

[vares.8457]

3 minutes ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

and so it begins: the begging for making the open world legi armor cheaper is here, when the armor is not even implemented.

as it was predicted 😊

[Okhu.7948]

The World PvE players who kept begging for legendary armor no matter how expensive it is are going to try to gaslight that they didn't ask for this. Even though they did.

[AliamRationem.5172]

I'm curious why the Astral Ward collections require the heavy armor specifically.

[Gibson.4036]

2 hours ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

and so it begins: the begging for making the open world legi armor cheaper is here, when the armor is not even implemented.

Gone and forgotten are the years of demanding open world legi armor at any cost. What remains is just once again the asking for stuff to be made cheaper, faster, easier. Like clockwork and absolutely expected.

While the material list for getting the exotic prerequisite set looks daunting, most of those items are a few gold at most. Sure it adds up to a few hundred gold, meanwhile from what we can tell achievement wise, the final legendary armor will be a tad less material intensive for old materials (think gen3 legendary weapons versus gen1). Not to mention the recent reward buffs with the Astral system put some of these cost in different perspectives than in the past.

Even so, the main limiting factor will be the new materials and those you will have to farm, extensively. The good news: you get to do it solo or in open world maps. You don't have to get good at the game. You don't have to pvp or social interact with players. Run whatever custom pleb build you want, afk events, watch Netflix while doing metas, w/e you'll get there eventually.

The bad news: the cost, or rather the effort required, is balanced around this armor being available via open world.

Players were asking for an alternative legendary armor for open world content and prepped the argument with not caring about it being more expensive or tedious. Arenanet delivered on that ask after years.

I appreciate that your post actually weighs the costs against other armor.

Yes, some advocates for OW L Armor hyperbolically argued “doesn’t matter the cost”, and I see some people are still saying that.
 

But any rational argument recognizes that there is an appropriate cost between “free day 1” and “playing the game like a full time job for the next ten years might earn one piece”. 

No one is advocating for either of those extremes, so the meaningful conversation is left to how much it requires, and whether that feels proportional to the time, effort, skill, and social coordination needed for the other three sets.

I haven’t dug into the requirements enough to have a meaningful opinion, myself.

Apart from the overall cost of Obsidian Armor, seeing that the astral armor only requires one weight, the numbers look to me like a reasonable goal to work toward. I do feel sorry for those that only want the skins, though.

I do think this whole conversation may be premature. We’re going to need to see how players settle into rift hunting to know difficult the essence grind is going to be.

Emergent gameplay may be a big factor. For example, HoT HPs look daunting to a new player, but if you can jump on one of the regular trains, it’s no big deal. Triple trouble is another part of the game that is carried by how players are willing to engage with it. 
 

If a chunk of the population adopts Rift trains the cost of Obsidian Armor is going to feel very different than if rifts get tasted then largely abandoned.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[Elricht Kaltwind.8796]

2 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I'm curious why the Astral Ward collections require the heavy armor specifically.

Haven't been able to test it for sure yet but someone said that all 3 weight classes unlock for each respective item purchased. If this is the case then it would be redundant to require other weight classes so they probably just went with heavy.

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, Elricht Kaltwind.8796 said:

Haven't been able to test it for sure yet but someone said that all 3 weight classes unlock for each respective item purchased. If this is the case then it would be redundant to require other weight classes so they probably just went with heavy.

Yeah. Previous things have worked this way. The zone mastery items for Vision, for example. You can choose each item from among all three weights, no matter what you choose it unlocks all three skins, and the achievement says it requires the heavy version.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[ugrakarma.9416]

6 hours ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

and so it begins: the begging for making the open world legi armor cheaper is here, when the armor is not even implemented.

Gone and forgotten are the years of demanding open world legi armor at any cost. What remains is just once again the asking for stuff to be made cheaper, faster, easier. Like clockwork and absolutely expected.

While the material list for getting the exotic prerequisite set looks daunting, most of those items are a few gold at most. Sure it adds up to a few hundred gold, meanwhile from what we can tell achievement wise, the final legendary armor will be a tad less material intensive for old materials (think gen3 legendary weapons versus gen1). Not to mention the recent reward buffs with the Astral system put some of these cost in different perspectives than in the past.

Even so, the main limiting factor will be the new materials and those you will have to farm, extensively. The good news: you get to do it solo or in open world maps. You don't have to get good at the game. You don't have to pvp or social interact with players. Run whatever custom pleb build you want, afk events, watch Netflix while doing metas, w/e you'll get there eventually.

The bad news: the cost, or rather the effort required, is balanced around this armor being available via open world.

Players were asking for an alternative legendary armor for open world content and prepped the argument with not caring about it being more expensive or tedious. Arenanet delivered on that ask after years.

perfect Sir,

ironically also, the high demand of more materials its increasnig price, what benefits the open world "meta train" runners.

my materials stockpile goes to 1k for 1.6k after expansion.

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

Weren't people asking for entirely open world Legendary armor where the cost is no issue, since it doesn't involve Raids, WvW or PvP? 

[vares.8457]

4 minutes ago, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

Weren't people asking for entirely open world Legendary armor where the cost is no issue, since it doesn't involve Raids, WvW or PvP? 

Yes but it was obvious that they would complain nevertheless. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by vares.8457

[Hindenburg.3415]

Maybe this cost will actually motivates players to check raid legendary armour for example. It's relatively easy to start doing some raids  with training guilds like RTI or others.  I played this game for 5 years without doing a single raid and now I am working on my second legendary armour set. 

[idpersona.3810]

16 minutes ago, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

Weren't people asking for entirely open world Legendary armor where the cost is no issue, since it doesn't involve Raids, WvW or PvP? 

Yes.

Though, this isn't directly contributing to the legendary armor, which I think is the issue. This is just an exotic set that isn't even the precursor. I think there would be less complaints if the Astral armor was ascended and used as the precursor component. Not just some fairly expensive pre-step.

[vares.8457]

6 minutes ago, idpersona.3810 said:

Yes.

Though, this isn't directly contributing to the legendary armor, which I think is the issue. This is just an exotic set that isn't even the precursor. I think there would be less complaints if the Astral armor was ascended and used as the precursor component. Not just some fairly expensive pre-step.

You need the astral armor for the legendary armor. It isn’t even that expensive but I am not surprised that the open world casuals are already complaining. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by vares.8457

[idpersona.3810]

14 minutes ago, vares.8457 said:

You need the astral armor for the legendary armor. It isn’t even that expensive but I am not surprised that the open world casuals are already complaining. 

Truth be told, I haven't seen how expensive it is (the Astral Armor). I was just taking that is is at face value since I've seen several posts about it.

Does the Astral armor get used at all? or it is just a collection achievement that's needed?

Edited August 28, 2023 by idpersona.3810

[Tails.9372]

28 minutes ago, idpersona.3810 said:

Does the Astral armor get used at all? or it is just a collection achievement that's needed?

We don't know for sure yet but as of right now it seems to be the later.

[genjonah.1253]

29 minutes ago, idpersona.3810 said:

Truth be told, I haven't seen how expensive it is (the Astral Armor). I was just taking that is is at face value since I've seen several posts about it.

Does the Astral armor get used at all? or it is just a collection achievement that's needed?

Admittedly, the astral armor if looked at by itself is absurdly expensive. The acquisition is an exotic set of armor that shares aesthetics with all armor weights, and costs a lesser gift (of dust, claws, etc) and more per piece. You’d think at that price it would be at least ascended quality 

overall we still don’t know the final price for the legendary armor, but even though I am cautious over saying the whole thing is overpriced, I will admit that this particular step, especially if you’re just trying to get this armor (ie, in isolation not even looking at the legendary), it’s pretty steep

[Gibson.4036]

5 minutes ago, genjonah.1253 said:

Admittedly, the astral armor if looked at by itself is absurdly expensive. The acquisition is an exotic set of armor that shares aesthetics with all armor weights, and costs a lesser gift (of dust, claws, etc) and more per piece. You’d think at that price it would be at least ascended quality 

overall we still don’t know the final price for the legendary armor, but even though I am cautious over saying the whole thing is overpriced, I will admit that this particular step, especially if you’re just trying to get this armor (ie, in isolation not even looking at the legendary), it’s pretty steep

That's where the real pain is... anyone who already has their legendary armor and just likes the look of the skins. 😬

[WeightTrainer.3219]

On 8/25/2023 at 12:17 PM, Master Lee.2016 said:

All of us are probably hyped for the new PVE legendary armor coming out next update around 2024, however Arenanet has said that we can work towards it now by completing the rift hunter armor and astral armor collections, which are said to be needed in order to craft the new legendary armor. The astral armor however is more expensive than some legendary armor. In order to complete the achievement, you must collect all eighteen pieces of the astral armor set, this however will require an insane number of materials and currency. This is more materials and currency than it takes to acquire the other legendary armor. And this Astral Armor is only exotic, not even an ascended precursor. Just to complete the collection it will cost you:

4,500 essences of despair
1,800 essences of greed
900 essences of triumph
18 Mystic Clovers
300 vials of powerful blood
750 vials of potent blood
150 vials of thick blood
150 vials of blood
300 ancient bones
750 large bones
150 heavy bones
150 bones
300 vicious claws
750 large claws
150 sharp claws
150 claws
300 piles of crystalline dust
750 piles of incandescent dust
150 piles of luminous dust
150 piles of radiant dust
300 vicious fangs
750 large fangs
150 sharp fangs
150 fangs
300 armored scales
750 large scales
150 smooth scales
150 scales
300 elaborate totems
750 intricate totems
150 engraved totems
150 totems
300 powerful venom sacks 
750 potent venom sacks
150 full venom sacks
150 venom sacks
9,000 research notes
18 pouches of stardust (18 days of doing the Amnytas meta event daily)
18 cases of captured lighting (4,500 static charges)
1,080 globs of ectoplasm

And this is just to complete this collection stated to be needed to acquire the new legendary armor upon release. All of these materials and the amount of gameplay you must have to get all the currencies and is even more that it takes for most of the other legendary armors. And this Astral Armor is still not the legendary armor nor an ascended precursor. It will cost even more items and currencies to make the actual legendary armor upon its release. This new set of legendary armor was supposed to give PvE players a chance to acquire legendary armor through their form of gameplay. ArenaNet did accomplish this, however they made PvE players have to play many more hours of gameplay to acquire this armor than WvW, PvP, or raid armor require. At the moment this PvE legendary armor is nowhere near worth the value of time and money you have to spend to acquire it. The PvE legendary armor should not be more than twice the work it takes to acquire other legendary armors. A simple fix would be to not have the astral armor collection completed in order to craft the new legendary armor or to make the astral armor the ascended precursor to the new PvE legendary obsidian armor, so players could just craft only one set of armor if they choose to and not have to make every single weight which triples the price and work.

Now imagine doing this kind of work for your full set of legendary runes and then receiving a giant middle finger from Arenanet.

Edited August 28, 2023 by WeightTrainer.3219

[enigmatic.3576]

Assuming that you can get an average of 10 T1 materials from rifts, you can probably expect to obtain no more than 600 per hour.  An you'd need 21,000 T1 materials based on the Reddit post which includes 1500 for the astral armor set for the weight.  That comes out to needing to spend at least 35 hours farming just T1 rifts and that's being generous and suggesting you can complete 1 per min. It's probably be closer to every 2-3 minutes to account for travel and such so that pushes it to 70-105 hours.  Imagine how many total hours it will require once you factor in all of the other mats from the rift tiers as well as all of that map currency.  The second map currently has no easy way to earn it outside of events as the orbs don't give currency.

I'm not complaining but I wonder if anyone has considered just how much time the new legendary armor would require.

Edited August 29, 2023 by enigmatic.3576

[Linken.6345]

37 minutes ago, enigmatic.3576 said:

Assuming that you can get an average of 10 T1 materials from rifts, you can probably expect to obtain no more than 600 per hour.  An you'd need 21,000 T1 materials based on the Reddit post which includes 1500 for the astral armor set for the weight.  That comes out to needing to spend at least 35 hours farming just T1 rifts and that's being generous and suggesting you can complete 1 per min. It's probably be closer to every 2-3 minutes to account for travel and such so that pushes it to 70-105 hours.  Imagine how many total hours it will require once you factor in all of the other mats from the rift tiers as well as all of that map currency.  The second map currently has no easy way to earn it outside of events as the orbs don't give currency.

I'm not complaining but I wonder if anyone has considered just how much time the new legendary armor would require.

But the again its not gated by anything weekly (li and skirmish tickets) compared to the raid and wvw armors

Unsure about spvp if there are any gates there.