Game is 4 times less accessible today than it was 4 years ago.

[Rainiris.1975]

Choosing a title was a little hard. So please, bear with me here.

I've been thinking several days now on writting this topic. It should come to no surprise to anyone if I were to say "the game's economy is in a terrible state", or "the game is different now". The first point should be obvious, and of course, there's been a hug difference in how content is delivered and handled. Anet even announced they were done reworking systems with HoT (and then reworked the gathering tools to have an avenue for selling more skins, but that's besides the point).

A few months ago I paid a transfer to the US servers to help some people. Then, when I was preparing myself to transfer back to the EU servers for Super Adventure Box, I was clean of money. I used to go around this by selling out my banked materials, but it dawned on me that, even with mystic coins in, it wasn't anywhere near enough to pay back. Mithril is worthless like 4 years ago, yes, but so are 2nd and 3rd tier materials, which used to be the most valuable ones (to the point where Anet miss-judgedly banned everyone on the Iron Maches map for botting - ask your closest historian about the full history). This got me thinking: How is a new player supossed to make this kind of money? At first I thought of dungeons. I personally dislike instanced party content, but I'm not against playing it from time to time. But it's still nowhere near enough, and it's not nowhere near enough to what it used to give (something in the 100 a day for a full run of everything, then selling the loot).

See, material farming and dungeons, both when done casually, used to be enough for any player to afford being inside the game. Enough to, from time to time, purchase a new character slot, or make a huge investment into leveling crafting, or save for a legendary. Everyone has had these in this game - emergency costs. 800 gems when I started playing were 50 gold, and as of writting this, it's 247 gold for 800 gems. It doesn't just cost almost 5 times more, that would be fine, but coin is also much harder to come by, meaning that a new player has to put much more effort to access the same content I did. While core tyria is Free to play now, free accounts have extra (lenient, almost non-existant) limitations, meaning that they would still need to purchase an expansion to get anywhere near the experiences I had 4 years ago, and with two of them out (and more to come into the future), the base cost of the game is also greater as a result. How many people here to play core tyria, and not pick up the expansions ever? As a result, the game is less affordable, and by proxy, less recommendable than 4 years ago.

Now, the reason I want to write this post, is because I feel I can give some constructive criticism. But before writting some suggestions, let me expose what I think are the reasons the economy finds itself in its current status.

1 - The price of materials

T5 materials (Mithril, gossamer) used to be in the same state they are today, the reason is that, while there werent many high-level maps, people played exclusively on their maximum level characters. This, coupled with loot rewards being partially based on the character level, and leveling being a more or less painless, quick process, made mid-tier materials more valuable due to an absolute lack of stock. This even accentuated itself as ascended crafting was added to the game, requiring a variety of materials of several tiers. T6 materials saw themselves in a similar state, as there were not enough level 80 areas in the game. Using 1 laurel for T6 material bags at the laurel vendor was an acceptable cop-out when in a sudden need of money, and considering Laurels are a log-in reward currency, that means everyone had access to this option (like taking a loan but without having to pay it back).

However, with the introduction of Heart of Thorns, the prices of Tier-6 materials (more specifically, venom) went down. This is because the mass of max-level players that used to run around core tyria's non-level 80 maps were now playing in level-80 appropiate maps, recieveing level-80 appropiate drops. Venoms went down in particular because they're specially dropped by HoT enemies. However, it wasn't until Path of Fire that this status quo was fully shattered, as they added new ways to obtain lower-level materials in the expansion's maps.

Now, before Path of Fire, the normal method of obtaining these materials were through the normal course of gameplay, during one of these lower-level areas (via exploration or via leveling a new character), or tier-appropiate dungeons. With these "on the wild" methods to obtain lower tier items in Path of Fire, I can see how Dungeons are less intresting today, but that's not the main problem; the main problem is that new players no longer gain access to that kind of money as they do not really have a choice other than to level their characters.

On the other hand, while I hate to say this, mystic coins are on a perfect spot at around a gold piece, as (like laurels) they are log-in rewards. Still wish they were given out a little more often.

2 - The legendary dilemma

So, ectoplasms are worthless today. Ectoplasms have been a cornerstone of the economy since Guild Wars 1. They were used as a trading coins since items outreache da value way above the maximum ammount of coins possible. Ectoplasms in Guild Wars 2 used to be stable since release, all the way up to recent days. Now, multi-map jumping was perfected with the Auric Bassin chest farming, but it was invented already. It was used to fight as many World Bosses as possible (like, Karka Queen), it was used to fight Vinewrath severaa times in a row. I'll be damned if I don't say being alone in Red Bastion for hours, only for a massive zerg of people joining in the last 5 seconds didn't make me feel used like toilet paper, but eveyrone was fine with that. They weren't that fine when jumping maps to loot the Auric Basin underground chests several times per cycle started affecting the prices of ectoplasms. Mind you, damage was done to the economy before that was fixed, and even then, ectoplasms were not as bad in a state with the Auric Basin farm as they are today. , which makes me wonder what has changed since.

Newer and bigger sinks were added in the form of seasonal skins, there's always ecto-gambling, newer legendaries to craft, a mystic-forge recipe that lets you swap, ascended crafting, crafting for specialization weapons, or just crafting higher-tier stuff. I'm brought to think ectoplassms have become less necessary, but I can only think on one reason for that: legendary armor. The main consumers of of ectoplasms would be either people crafting ascended equipment, people crafting legendary equipment, or people stat-swapping their equipment. If everyone that has been doing raids since their release in HoT has built their legendary armor set, they are exempt of using ectosplasms for any of these three purposes (unless they wish very, very hard a specific skin), as they would neither need to swap their stats, or need to make new quipment. New players don't even need to craft their level-80 exotic sets. This means you have removed most of the consumer base's need for this item, which effectively removes the act of sinking (if this consumer base instead needed to use them). It also doesn't help that raiders can also obtain ascended equipment instead of crafting it.

3 - What Heart of thorns got right that Path of Fire didn't.

Specialization weapons were perfect in Heart of Thorns. They give players access to their first ascended piece equipment without having to endure a treading grind (either by grinding instances or grinding crafting), without actually invalidating these as it's only one piece of equipment. Heart of Thorns didn't give it for free either, as you had to do a series of tasks to complete a collection. Now, let's say that you've been listening to your friends that most likely didn't like Heart of Thorns and only purchased Path of Fire. For some reason, for the Path of Fire specialization weapons it's required a random equipment drop that wasn't required in their Heart of Thorns counterparts, meaning that a new player that strictly picks up path of fire will not have access to this "your first ascended" item.

If a new player did indeed pick up both expansions, if they wanted the scourge's torch, their alternative is leveling up a warrior and do the Berserkers specialization weapon collection over Heart of Thorns. It's not a good scenario if warrior is not one of the 5 chosen classes for the 5 core character slots given to each account.

---

With my observations on why the market is in a bad state done, let me move onto the actual suggestions. Be mindful that these suggestions are non-exclusive, meaning that they do not need eachother to make effect. In fact, some of these suggestions are better not paired at all.

1. Remix, remake, rebuild or remove the merchant chests from Path of Fire.
2. Stop adding new materials on each expansion/living world story, and instead, retool and repurpose these previously content-exclusive materials into materials for future crafting content. It's ok if an item requires a material not found in its expansion. It's even better if owning that item's expansion is not a requeriment for selling/buying it.
3. Add a sell price to market-sensitive items. Like, ectoplasms. The trading post's transaciton fees should do the rest to keep inflation low on the long run.
4. Reduce the black lion trading post transaction cost from 15% split, to 10% on sale offer. In my oppinion it's too high, and having part of the tax happen only after the transaction is done makes it harder to discern. It's much better to have it all paid on putting an offer up to punish speculation.
5. Instead of a percentual fee, make the fee a flat cost based on the category of the item being sold. Additionally, make the fee not increase with the size of the stack being sold.
6. Remove the RNG requirement from the Path of Fire specialization weapons.
7. Add a cost to stat-swapping legendary items. A glob of ectoplasm or a set ammount of crystalline dust would be my choice.
8. Sigils and runes will eventually follow suit to the cuttent state of ectoplasms. Adding seasonal stat buffs to instanced content to incentivize people to play different builds would in turn incentivize them to change their stats, while also allowing for a broader range of tactics becoming valid. Big data gathered from such a system could be used to implement a similar system for PvP, for these moments it becomes too stale, whithout the need of a balance patch.
9. A new crafting profession specifically aimed at sigil-making, using tens to hundreds of a rune&sigil-salvaged collectible material, which is the same for all tiers of sigil, combined with already-existing materials, with an extra focus on over-saturated materials from expansions. Make the collectibles tab for this item in the bank 5000 by default so players are more entiticed to salvage and use this profession more frequently, thus giving an use to runes and sigils. Make the crafting of an exotic sigil/rune require several steps like the backpacks for extra effect on the sinking of these items.
10. Reset the cost of gems. People that would spend money to get gems do that with independency on how much it costs in-game. Somewhere around the 50 to 100 gold mark for 800 gems would be my choice.
11. Alternatively, lower the gem costs of account-service items to half their current ammount. 400 for character slots, 200 for bag slots, and so on. This way the price of gems doesn't have to be reset, but at the same time makes these items more accessible. People will doubtlessly feel bad for this change, but if you came up with the free outfit when the core game became Free to play, you can come up with a compensation for this.

I can now nap in peace.

[Martimus.6027]

I agree totally with this post. It is very similar to mine, though much more precise and verbose. Too many currencies, too expensive a store. Coming back after a 2 year hiatus is overwhelming at best - morale destroying at worst.

[Ziooo.8932]

Tbh, some stuff are more expensive because gold is worth less nowadays (compared to 5 years ago), thats why gems are 5x the price. You can get 2G/day for free, i got my first gold 2 weeks after i started playing back then.Its not harder no make gold, but i totally agree that most high/mid level materials are waaaaay underpriced (apart from leather) and something should be done about it.

[Blocki.4931]

Ectos were never anything remotely close to a currency like in GW1. Feels silly to bring it up.

i'll just to through the points. after the first three.

1. Not sure which ones you mean. The ones that are just everywhere on the maps and you need keys for? Doubt they were ever intended as a main source of mats. They are mostly useless though, I agree.
2. PoF hardly added any new materials, Brandsparks are the only notable one.
3. It's called supply and demand
4. Why lower the only relevant gold sink in the game?
5. Same as above
6. What does this even mean
7. This is extremely irrelevant. Most people never stat swap their legendaries anyway. I wouldn't mind if it cost like 5 Ectos though, that is actually a decent idea, while making even less people ever stat swap.
8. They will never get to that point because they are faaaar harder to acquire.
9. Mystic Forge already does that essentially. They should get some changes though, like being able to store them in the bank instead of being worthless shit in your inventory until you find a vendor to sell them to.

The last two points are just plain bad, sorry. Changing the value doesn't do anything but inflate the entire market, not deflate or make anything more accessible. If you make it easier to get gems, gemstore prices would ALL increase, in the end changing absolutely nothing. You are NEVER required to visit the gemstore even once, it is entirely convenience based. Lowering the prices like you suggest would make people very very very angry. I've personally paid over a 100€ on slots, if you're telling me that people can now get the same amount of slots for 50€ you're effectively telling me to fuck off. This is entirely out of question.

[ScribeTheMad.7614]

First note, T6 Venom dropped so much more than others because of the super popular spider farm, not because it dropped excessively in general (popular enough to disrupt groups doing the meta in VB)

Second note, the exotics required for the PoF specializations can be purchased on the trading post, AND you get a free one for finishing the Tip of the Spear achievement by collecting the 16 rare elonion weapons. Making "your first ascended" even more accessible than it was in HoT, not less.

2. Stop adding new materials on each expansion/living world storyProblem is if they just keep using existing materials and currencies, people stockpile them and then buy everything when content launches instead of playing the new content. It's a big phenomenon in online games, not exclusive to gw2. (I say that hating having to grind and keep track of new currencies every time, but I understand why)

3. Add a sell price to market-sensitive items. Like, ectoplasms. The trading post's transaciton fees should do the rest to keep inflation low on the long run.

What? Add an arbitrary extra fee to sell ecto and other arbitrarily picked items?

4. Reduce the black lion trading post transaction cost from 15% split, to 10% on sale offer. In my oppinion it's too high, and having part of the tax happen only after the transaction is done makes it harder to discern. It's much better to have it all paid on putting an offer up to punish speculation.

Immediately after that you say the TP cost is too high, complain you're too lazy to do basic math or bother with a calculator, and suggest reducing the TP fee would punish speculation (I don't think you understand how speculation works)

6. Remove the RNG requirement from the Path of Fire specialization weapons.

They did this before the expansion even came out, Yay!

7. Add a cost to stat-swapping legendary items. A glob of ectoplasm or a set ammount of crystalline dust would be my choice.

Why? Not enough people have them to make any discernible difference economically, and many of those that do aren't swapping every five minutes.

8. Sigils and runes will eventually follow suit to the cuttent state of ectoplasms.Most sigils/runes sell for merchant value. Ecto has a merchant value of 2s 56c, but is sitting around 15s buy. Not sure how something that can't get cheaper is supposed to drop in price, unless you mean they'll end up &x merchant value? Plenty of people would say that's a good thing.

9. sigils runes professionWe do not need a whole crafting profession to deal with surplus runes and sigils no one wants. Maybe make an eater like we have for the ascended mats.

10. While I agree and feel a lot of things are a bit too high and would certainly spend more if they did (I spend quite a bit more during sales because those are prices I'm good with). But you're forgetting the simple fact that this is Whaling in action.

[Rainiris.1975]

@"ScribeTheMad.7614" said:

3. Add a sell price to market-sensitive items. Like, ectoplasms. The trading post's transaciton fees should do the rest to keep inflation low on the long run.

What? Add an arbitrary extra fee to sell ecto and other arbitrarily picked items?

No. I'm talking about merchant price. If an item has a vendor price, it cannot be put up for sale on the market for less than that. You're supossed to only do this on key items that the market needs at a specific price to work, and I just presume ectoplasms are such an item.

4. Reduce the black lion trading post transaction cost from 15% split, to 10% on sale offer. In my oppinion it's too high, and having part of the tax happen only after the transaction is done makes it harder to discern. It's much better to have it all paid on putting an offer up to punish speculation.

Immediately after that you say the TP cost is too high, complain you're too lazy to do basic math or bother with a calculator, and suggest reducing the TP fee would punish speculation (I don't think you understand how speculation works)

I'm aware the market tax is split between two moments, when you put the item up for sale, and when you actually sell the item. For a fully completed transaction, it would be less with my proposed number, but for speculative sales that rely on putting an item up for sale several times, it would be a greater cost than it is now.

7. Add a cost to stat-swapping legendary items. A glob of ectoplasm or a set ammount of crystalline dust would be my choice.

Why? Not enough people have them to make any discernible difference economically, and many of those that do aren't swapping every five minutes.

I already comment that Legendary equipment is the only reason I can think for the current state of ectoplasms in the market.

11. While I agree and feel a lot of things are a bit too high and would certainly spend more if they did (I spend quite a bit more during sales because those are prices I'm good with). But you're forgetting the simple fact that this is
    Whaling
    in action.

Yes, yes I'm aware. And prices would eventually be back to the spot they are now. However, they stand were they are after a period of several years. Considering this is, indeed, whaling in action, the number of people purchasing gems with real money should wind up to be the same or similar, while also giving the requested respite to the new entrees for a period of time.

[Menadena.7482]

@Blocki.4931 said:Ectos were never anything remotely close to a currency like in GW1.

The word 'currency' is a bit oddly used in games in a way that narrows the meaning. Even though we recognize gold and other things in the wallet as currencies in GW2 really anything that has value (and is not accountbound/soulbound) can be used for the same purpose (although vendors only take the things called currencies). Just as in RL there is nothing magical about dollars, if civilization collapsed food or something would become the de facto currency.

[TexZero.7910]

Nothing in the "wallet" outside of gold is a currency. They're all either commodities (materials) or Tokens (dungeon, fractal, raid, karma).

It's kinda funny how people who leave and come back magically expect a living economy to be frozen in time and their wealth to multiply.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

The economy has changed, as all economies do, and the OP isn't willing to change their strategies for gaining gold. That doesn't make the game "less accessible"; it just means that the OP needs to adapt.

[Voltekka.2375]

@Rainiris.1975 said:

@"ScribeTheMad.7614" said:

3. Add a sell price to market-sensitive items. Like, ectoplasms. The trading post's transaciton fees should do the rest to keep inflation low on the long run.

What? Add an arbitrary extra fee to sell ecto and other arbitrarily picked items?

No. I'm talking about merchant price. If an item has a vendor price, it cannot be put up for sale on the market for less than that. You're supossed to only do this on key items that the market needs at a specific price to work, and I just presume ectoplasms are such an item.

4. Reduce the black lion trading post transaction cost from 15% split, to 10% on sale offer. In my oppinion it's too high, and having part of the tax happen only after the transaction is done makes it harder to discern. It's much better to have it all paid on putting an offer up to punish speculation.

Immediately after that you say the TP cost is too high, complain you're too lazy to do basic math or bother with a calculator, and suggest reducing the TP fee would punish speculation (I don't think you understand how speculation works)

I'm aware the market tax is split between two moments, when you put the item up for sale, and when you actually sell the item. For a fully completed transaction, it would be less with my proposed number, but for speculative sales that rely on putting an item up for sale several times, it would be a greater cost than it is now.

7. Add a cost to stat-swapping legendary items. A glob of ectoplasm or a set ammount of crystalline dust would be my choice.

Why? Not enough people have them to make any discernible difference economically, and many of those that do aren't swapping every five minutes.

I already comment that Legendary equipment is the only reason I can think for the current state of ectoplasms in the market.

11. While I agree and feel a lot of things are a bit too high and would certainly spend more if they did (I spend quite a bit more during sales because those are prices I'm good with). But you're forgetting the simple fact that this is
    Whaling
    in action.

Yes, yes I'm aware. And prices would eventually be back to the spot they are now. However, they stand were they are after a period of several years. Considering this is, indeed, whaling in action, the number of people purchasing gems with real money should wind up to be the same or similar, while also giving the requested respite to the new entrees for a period of time.

Istan farming made ecto prices drop (if memory serves, in another thread). Also, if an item has a vendor price, it cannot be sold at a lower price + TP fees (eg ectos have 2.56 vendor price, minimum TP price is 3.06s)

[Rainiris.1975]

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The economy has changed, as all economies do, and the OP isn't willing to change their strategies for gaining gold. That doesn't make the game "less accessible"; it just means that the OP needs to adapt.

OP only logins for two reasons: SAB, and lending a hand.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@Rainiris.1975 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The economy has changed, as all economies do, and the OP isn't willing to change their strategies for gaining gold. That doesn't make the game "less accessible"; it just means that the OP needs to adapt.

OP only logins for two reasons: SAB, and lending a hand.

How then can your ideas have any value if you're basically not playing the game?

[Pifil.5193]

I don't really see why the OP thinks the market is in a bad place and particularly a bad place for newcomers. Materials tend to be cheaper and everyone can get 2 gold a day for dailies, that means that people can earn gold in game and buy the materials they need to craft the things they want more easily. That seems like it's far more accessible to me.

Ectos are cheaper, sure, because among other reasons people don't need to craft new equipment at all. Why would they? My main has been using the same ascended berserker set for years. I have no need to make more equipment. Even if I was still in exotics I'd have no need to make any more equipment as those stats are still optimal for my profession and build.

Also crafting a legendary weapon uses up about 500 ectos in gifts and mystic clovers. The mystic clovers for a set of legendary armor will use up approximately 270 ectos so I don't see how legendary equipment has negatively affected ecto prices when it's probably the single biggest ecto sink in the game.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Core base game was $59.99 pre-expansions. Core base game with 2 expansions is $49.99 now. Seems to be more affordable than ever.

[Rainiris.1975]

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@Rainiris.1975 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The economy has changed, as all economies do, and the OP isn't willing to change their strategies for gaining gold. That doesn't make the game "less accessible"; it just means that the OP needs to adapt.

OP only logins for two reasons: SAB, and lending a hand.

How then can your ideas have any value if you're basically not playing the game?

Good question! Because even though the time I dedicate to the game these days is minimal, I am still interested in trying to help, which is the whole point of the post! Guess I didn't see enough constructive talk on the matter and I am starting to guess why!

[Maikimaik.1974]

@Rainiris.1975 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@Rainiris.1975 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The economy has changed, as all economies do, and the OP isn't willing to change their strategies for gaining gold. That doesn't make the game "less accessible"; it just means that the OP needs to adapt.

OP only logins for two reasons: SAB, and lending a hand.

How then can your ideas have any value if you're basically not playing the game?

Good question! Because even though the time I dedicate to the game these days is minimal, I am still interested in trying to help, which is the whole point of the post! Guess I didn't see enough constructive talk on the matter and I am starting to guess why!

How could you be able to help if you obviously have no idea how an economy works?

[ChartFish.1308]

@"Rainiris.1975" said:

7. Add a cost to stat-swapping legendary items. A glob of ectoplasm or a set ammount of crystalline dust would be my choice.

I just want to comment on this single point, being the owner of a full set of legendary armor and all weapons for my main class (ranger). The rational part of me understands that this probably is a good idea, and that having a small cost of swapping stats (like ectoplasm, an amount you could easily gather in a day just by playing a little) is not terrible and other games probably do this.

That said, the part of me that has spent thousands of gold to craft ex the armor in order to no longer need to spend gold in order to swap stats on my armor would feel my bristles ruffled the wrong way.

I wouldn't mind the weapons so much as in the end you usually stick to a single stat. But the armor... i swap it several times a day based on what im doing (power wvw, viper SB and harrier druid) and as such i'd be better off carrying there different sets of asc armor in my bags, which is the reason why i crafted legendary armor, in order not to get rid of my excess armors.

TL;DR i understand your point but i don't want it near me.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

It's commendable that the OP is willing to pay gems to move between [NA] to [EU] to help others. The fact that they, personally, have trouble figuring out how to pay for that isn't a sign of the economy being in bad shape or the game being less accessible; it's a sign that the OP has trouble figuring out how to fund their plan.

---

@Rainiris.1975 said:I am still interested in trying to help, which is the whole point of the post!Your post isn't about trying to help. It's making a specific critiques of the state of the game based on a series of misunderstandings.

For example:

See, material farming and dungeons, both when done casually, used to be enough for any player to afford being inside the game. Enough to, from time to time, purchase a new character slotAnd yet, that's still true, depending on what materials and doing which dungeon paths. Even better, we can do a larger variety of content and earn more, whereas mats & dungeons used to be the only option.

The point is: that's not a comment about helping; it's a criticism of a four-year old coin-earning system, without taking into account all the newer (casual) alternatives.

---

So let me rephrase this into a plan of action you can take: start a new thread and focus on your real interest, something like:

Fellow Tyrians:I'm trying to earn enough coin on a regular basis so I can logon 2-3x/month to help friends in NA and EU.What do you recommend?

The thing is I used to be able to do this by simply doing a little material farming, a few dungeons. But with gold:gem exchange rates being so high compared to what I'm used to, that doesn't seem viable any more. I want to maximize my time spent aiding my buddies, without having to spend a lot of time worrying about how to pay for it.

Thanks for your help.

[Pifil.5193]

That does seem to be the case Illconceived Was Na.

If the OP wants to play with friends in both NA and EU then it'd be best to have two accounts, IMO. Drop the switching costs completely.

If a free to play account wouldn't be enough (although SAB is available to free to play accounts) then its a one time investment of real world cash rather than a lot of in game grind to swap over and back.

[Linken.6345]

Why dont you just buy a second account and have 1 on both eu and na if you want to have one in each data center?Instead of having to pay gems to switch from time to time.

[OrbitalButt.5708]

@Maikimaik.1974 said:

@Rainiris.1975 said:

@"Kheldorn.5123" said:

@Rainiris.1975 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The economy has changed, as all economies do, and the OP isn't willing to change their strategies for gaining gold. That doesn't make the game "less accessible"; it just means that the OP needs to adapt.

OP only logins for two reasons: SAB, and lending a hand.

How then can your ideas have any value if you're basically not playing the game?

Good question! Because even though the time I dedicate to the game these days is minimal, I am still interested in trying to help, which is the whole point of the post! Guess I didn't see enough constructive talk on the matter and I am starting to guess why!

How could you be able to help if you obviously have no idea how an economy works?

I'd like to see this question answered, OP

[Obtena.7952]

I don't get the complaint ... you left the game for a while and you come back and you were behind in wealth compared to everyone else (because that's REALLY what is happening to you). That doesn't seem like the fault of the game. It evolved while you left. The people that continued to play gained wealth. That's the only thing happening here.

[Hyper Cutter.9376]

The HoT elite spec weapons require an expensive (or heavily timegated) weapon as well. The skyrocketing costs of mystic coins dragged the price of mystic forge weapons like the Mystic set along with them, so they're pretty comparable in price to the relevant named Sunspear weapons now.

It's just that most veteran players probably got them back when they were cheap to buy and cheaper to craft, so it wasn't that obvious in comparison.

[Vieteriukko.6075]

OP assumes that gold to gem conversion should favour buying gems with gold. I only do the opposite. Now that I get more gold with gems I do spend more than earlier both for gold and direct purchases from gemstore. My question is should Anet take actions to change this? I don’t think so considering longetivity of GW franchise.

[Vayne.8563]

I think you've got it backwards. People aren't "supposed to" buy transfers with gold. It's an option. New players can pay cash if they really want to transfer. You make it sound like it was meant for everyone to just pay gold for gems, but the reality is, that's not how the system was designed and casual players always had problem doing that.

But the reason I say you have it backwards, is because new players now need a lot less money to do specific low end things. If you need ectos now they are much cheaper. If you need T6 mats now, they're much cheaper.

I have a ton of new players in the guild, people join fairly frequently and none of them seem to have problems getting what they need. One guy came back to the game after years and it took him only a short time to get his griffon in PoF.

Not being able to transfer for gold is indicative of nothing except that you think you should be able to do that easily. I don't think you should.