Essences are another Economy failure.

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

25 minutes ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

I know! 

But do we even have a date for this year's luna new year? 

Probably the same day the balance patch hits. 

Indeed, should start on the 30th Jan.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lunar_New_Year

[Astralporing.1957]

On 11/19/2023 at 3:34 AM, Rauderi.8706 said:

Essences and Motivations are a bad loop that is very obviously about bolstering (some) material prices and giving little in return.

It's completely intentional, i am afraid. Anet wanted players to get pushed into lengthy grind, but didn't want that grind to be profitable. They wanted it to be both a time and material sink.

There's a reason why not only the non-essence rewards are extremely poor, and higher tiers need costly Motivations to open, but also why the conversion to a form that can be actually stored (unlike the base version which overflows from storage very fast) requires costly components as well.

The Rifts are meant to be an annoyance, nothing more.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

I've started tossing out all the overflowing essences and just keeping all the rift and convergence reward containers. I'm not refining the stuff until I've seen the armors in-game. I don't want to spend thousands of ectoplasm when there's every chance I'll dislike the skins. 

[GalenWolffit.3842]

17 hours ago, Gop.8713 said:

I'm hoping I'll need a lot of them for leggy relic, just so they'll have a use . . .

I think the current situation is the result of an overcorrection. Remember before convergences everyone was complaining about how few essences you get from rifts and how many were going to be needed for the armor, then anet just started flinging essences at us en masse from convergences . . .

It seems unlikely to me that the legendary relic will need essences.  Based on the crafting recipes for current relics vs. their rune counterparts, I expect the legendary relic will require the same materials & quantities as crafting two legendary runes.

[Cuks.8241]

6 minutes ago, GalenWolffit.3842 said:

It seems unlikely to me that the legendary relic will need essences.  Based on the crafting recipes for current relics vs. their rune counterparts, I expect the legendary relic will require the same materials & quantities as crafting two legendary runes.

I wouldn't be so sure. Relics are a new item and you can just as easily draw parallels with legendary trinkets. And for both Aurora and Vision you need respective LS currencies. Also there are few sinks for essences (massive sinks but few) so the might want to have some variety there. 

I really hope that won't be the case but I wouldn't be so sure.

[Astralporing.1957]

23 minutes ago, GalenWolffit.3842 said:

It seems unlikely to me that the legendary relic will need essences.  Based on the crafting recipes for current relics vs. their rune counterparts, I expect the legendary relic will require the same materials & quantities as crafting two legendary runes.

I'm sure that would make all the players that overpaid on 6 (or 7) legendary runes just to get partial compensation on Relic veeery happy.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

i feel like the amount of currencies in the game has been complained about for years, and we did get a message from a developer that they were looking into reducing it, but thus far we continue to receive more and more currencies and tokens with no way to do anything with them in excess.

 

meanwhile, basic materials from the core game can't even turn a profit because they have literally no use and just get npc'd.

Edited January 23 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Shiyo.3578]

Everything involved in OW legendary armor is somehow worse and less fun than AFKing pips in WvW.

OW PvE is fun, yet they made grinding it for legendary armor EXTREMELY boring. Shows the grasp these current devs have on the game.

Edited January 23 by Shiyo.3578

[Yaki.9563]

14 hours ago, Shiyo.3578 said:

Everything involved in OW legendary armor is somehow worse and less fun than AFKing pips in WvW.

OW PvE is fun, yet they made grinding it for legendary armor EXTREMELY boring. Shows the grasp these current devs have on the game.

You don't need to grind it for legendary armor. Just do 3 convergences/week for about 18 weeks and you'll have all the essences you need for a full set.

My problem with SoTO is that everything revolves around legendary armor and otherwise is not worth doing. If I had legendary armor already I wouldn't be doing any of it other than boredom as it's less fun and less profitable than at least 10 other metas already in the game. I'm not expecting it to powercreep the g/h but it should at least be in the ballpark or provide some other repeatable reason to run the content. Maybe that is coming, who knows, but the lack of that makes it feel very LWish rather than expansionish.

[kharmin.7683]

52 minutes ago, Yaki.9563 said:

 

My problem with SoTO is that everything revolves around legendary armor and otherwise is not worth doing. If I had legendary armor already I wouldn't be doing any of it other than boredom as it's less fun and less profitable than at least 10 other metas already in the game.

Or those of us who aren't interested in legendary gear. 

[Ashen.2907]

7 hours ago, Yaki.9563 said:

You don't need to grind it for legendary armor. Just do 3 convergences/week for about 18 weeks and you'll have all the essences you need for a full set.

My problem with SoTO is that everything revolves around legendary armor and otherwise is not worth doing. If I had legendary armor already I wouldn't be doing any of it other than boredom as it's less fun and less profitable than at least 10 other metas already in the game. I'm not expecting it to powercreep the g/h but it should at least be in the ballpark or provide some other repeatable reason to run the content. Maybe that is coming, who knows, but the lack of that makes it feel very LWish rather than expansionish.

This.

I have all three legendary armor weights and am disinclined to pursue the new sets solely for the skins. It seems as if there is little else in the way of rewards for playing SotO.

[Teknomancer.4895]

37 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

It seems as if there is little else in the way of rewards for playing SotO.

Well when one of its mastery lines (and a couple of others) is literally about how to unlock more efficient grinding, there's no "seems" about it. The whole thing is aimed squarely at that.

[Mell.4873]

On 11/20/2023 at 4:14 AM, Ashantara.8731 said:

You need to invest additonal resources such as Research Notes to craft them. Not particularly convenient.

I turn my extra materials into research notes. I make rare weapons or armor and just select the convert to research note tick. 

[Teknomancer.4895]

35 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

I turn my extra materials into research notes. I make rare weapons or armor and just select the convert to research note tick. 

Gold and Mithril jewelry crafting is good for that, too. Gets some value out of the almost-worthless ores and mid-range gemstones that aren't much use otherwise.

[Astralporing.1957]

9 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

I turn my extra materials into research notes. I make rare weapons or armor and just select the convert to research note tick. 

So, you turn your extra materials into research notes, and research notes (and ectos) into converted essences, just to be able to keep those essences in bank without them exploding your storage space? Yep, I'd definitely call that highly inconvenient.

[BrotherBelial.3094]

This game has more junk in it used as currency than anything I've ever played.  collections within collections all dressed up as "content".

[Mell.4873]

7 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

So, you turn your extra materials into research notes, and research notes (and ectos) into converted essences, just to be able to keep those essences in bank without them exploding your storage space? Yep, I'd definitely call that highly inconvenient.

Oh, I don't convert essences just yet. Research notes get turned into Motivation, I'm hording them until the t4 rift comes out.

[Bladestrom.6425]

3 hours ago, BrotherBelial.3094 said:

This game has more junk in it used as currency than anything I've ever played.  collections within collections all dressed up as "content".

GW1 and GW2 has been centred on collections for 18 years and has been content for millions of players over this time. its not dressed as content it is content (that you may not like ofc)

[Shiyo.3578]

On 1/23/2024 at 11:09 AM, Yaki.9563 said:

My problem with SoTO is that everything revolves around legendary armor and otherwise is not worth doing. If I had legendary armor already I wouldn't be doing any of it other than boredom as it's less fun and less profitable than at least 10 other metas already in the game. I'm not expecting it to powercreep the g/h but it should at least be in the ballpark or provide some other repeatable reason to run the content. Maybe that is coming, who knows, but the lack of that makes it feel very LWish rather than expansionish.

The expansion just has nothing.

They made us wait through EoD and then rushed out a living story to release this expansion of nothing to do.

Gyala Delve is better than this entire expac, and it was free with EoD.

[frazazel.7501]

I'm hoping the new weapons have interesting collection achievements for ascended weapons, at least.

[Mell.4873]

I will say they do need to streamline alot of systems. 

The LFG, Content required for Collections, they have started but it is not good enough. 

[draxynnic.3719]

On 1/23/2024 at 10:12 AM, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

i feel like the amount of currencies in the game has been complained about for years, and we did get a message from a developer that they were looking into reducing it, but thus far we continue to receive more and more currencies and tokens with no way to do anything with them in excess.

 

meanwhile, basic materials from the core game can't even turn a profit because they have literally no use and just get npc'd.

They have been taking some steps - consolidating dungeon currencies, for instance, and what they've done with the EoD currencies suggests that when the next expansion comes out, the SotO currencies will be merged into the EoD currencies. So in the long term, things like the strike crystals and the coins will likely only have two versions: the version for the current content, and the version for all past content.

Mind you, the actual currencies are pretty inoffensive. It's the inventory-stuffing currencies-dressed-as-materials that are the real issue, and they show no sign of abating.

[LSD.4673]

18 hours ago, Shiyo.3578 said:

Gyala Delve is better than this entire expac, and it was free with EoD.

Woah now, let's not get carried away. A rushed, creatively bankrupt excuse for an expansion is one thing, but saying it's *worse* than a rushed, creatively bankrupt, shoddily slapped together map, with many-month-long droughts where you listen to a tape recorder, and where the meta-event revolves around using the worst mount in the game for the worst fetch mechanics in any game -- that's a step too far!

[Astralporing.1957]

1 hour ago, LSD.4673 said:

Woah now, let's not get carried away. A rushed, creatively bankrupt excuse for an expansion is one thing, but saying it's *worse* than a rushed, creatively bankrupt, shoddily slapped together map, with many-month-long droughts where you listen to a tape recorder, and where the meta-event revolves around using the worst mount in the game for the worst fetch mechanics in any game -- that's a step too far!

Agreed. There's no point in undermining the message by using such exagerrations. No matter how bad SotO is, Gyala was still worse. Now, if we were comparing Gyala to the 3 post-SotO  patches, the comparison might be fairer (although there's still a possibility of Anet surprising us with something at the last moment - even if i personally do not expect that).

Now, if we were comparing SotO with IBS, then yes, LS5 does come well ahead. Even if we consider that it was rushed, with lot of content cut and never made, and think of Champions to be of net negative worth. Which is sad, because, while i do not consider IBS to be bad, i'd never even try to claim it is expansion tier content.

[Cuks.8241]

2 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Agreed. There's no point in undermining the message by using such exagerrations. No matter how bad SotO is, Gyala was still worse. Now, if we were comparing Gyala to the 3 post-SotO  patches, the comparison might be fairer (although there's still a possibility of Anet surprising us with something at the last moment - even if i personally do not expect that).

Maybe for the last part of Nyos meta we get a tunnel. But it will be a vertical tunnel. And you will need to carry an orb from the bottom to the top 5 times. And you will need to do 3 tunnels. Then you reach the boss. When you will again need to carry smaller orbs on Skyscale through a slightly sloped vertical tunnel to charge a gun which you shoot at the boss. It will have 3 phases like that. And in the end you slap a big demon 3 times and it dies.