New player-Istan nerf?

[Voltekka.2375]

@Recon.8754 said:Well im super interested in fractals and WvW, but for me to be effective it seems like it would be good to have ascended gear. For me to have ascended gear I need gold. And istan was an efficient way for me to get gold in the 90min a day I can play. Now its gonna take me 3-6-9? months for me to craft ascended before I can play fractals and WvW effectively? Am I playing wrong or something?

You dont need ascended for wvw.

[Naro.5496]

Im pretty disappointed that they have now killed Istan... personally I think it was a great feature of the game. This facility encouraged people (like me) to be more adventurous about taking on long term projects. For instance... Ive been playing since start.... and for years I never crafted a legendary item. I cba with the vast amount of time needed to grind gold and mats to do it. After istan I have crafted 4 lege items and am working on my 5th... it still took me a month or 2 for each item but I was happy with that. If it goes back to the bad old days where it takes 1/2 a year to craft a lege... I really dont want to know. The gold earning potential and overall effect on the economy (eg. making mats cheaper) made the game much more fun and fluid. Having projects move along at a decent pace was far more engaging and as i said... encouraged me to participate more in the game.

Yes Istan was way more profitable than any other source (except maybe lege crafting) but just to take it away without any other balancing is just gonna make the game sluggish and dull. Increase the amount of grinding you have to do... the amount of time you need to spend to achieve the same result. There were times when I would farm istan hardcore.... but for the most part I would go for one meta cycle per day. When Im working I dont have much time to game so It was great to come and do a run and feel like i was still making progress on my goals. I was happy to know it was going on and that i could join whenever i wanted/needed to.

Basically... GW2 needs a serious reward overhaul. Its sad that in a game this vast... all the profitable activities can be counted on one hand. There are so many great game modes that are barely worth the time to play. For instance: I love joining the world boss train... but almost never do.... the rewards are a joke. I might do it for a laugh every once and a while or if a collection calls for it... but if im working on something serious I would never spend my time doing that. The same can be said for dungeons.... map metas.... events etc. I hope Anet has a plan here and will eventually make the rewards in the game more dynamic. and well..... more rewarding. The system in this game is Gear > Skin > Transmute. In this model there is little to do but grind for gold to buy/make what you want. With Istan out of the picture... this will just become a longer more drawn out process.

I suppose this all has to do with making money as usual. Istan made it too easy to convert gold to gems.... maybe they think killing it will increase revenue or something. TBH I think they got it all wrong.... Istan was a great selling point for POF and LS4.... I know many people who bought POF just to get access to Istan. Even with the recent nerfs Istan was still a worthy daily farm... but now... its basically useless - dead. I think this will ultimately have an overall negative effect on the economy and make the game much less enjoyable for many. As I said... I hope this is part of a bigger plan and not just Anet trying to force us into austerity. We'll see i guess.

[ugrakarma.9416]

as alternative to RIBA u can rotate HOT metas.... but POF metas need more boost.

[ugrakarma.9416]

crystal desert maps are a luxury in terms of aesthetics, it would be nice to have more reasons to return there, especially for those who have farmed HoT since launch and are tired.

[Algreg.3629]

wrong approach, OP. You were freed to play how you want. Tsk, tsk, how many fingers do you see? :)

[Skotlex.7580]

@Eloc Freidon.5692 said:Consider that the devs find this farm to be too good, enough to have players gain bank for their time. Everyone who used it while it was around got a nice boost. Anyone new coming needing to find a good farm won't.

On the other hand, this meta was a nice boost that people who don't farm will miss out, it's true that farms like these are the reasons some players have a ton of gold (endless farming) and others do not. ANet seems to consider that an unjust gaming experience, they don't want people to feel forced to any particular content in order to amass wealth.

Or, in other words, they'd rather have the different activities players partake in to grant not too variable income.

My only real complain is that they took this long to adjust Istan.

[Recon.8754]

Jeez, didn't respect this much of a response. Lots of interesting things in this thread, but as a new player, its my point of view that nerfing istan was unnecessary. Unless the goal was to make it so no meta gives consistent gold per hour. In which case RIBA better watch out.

Honestly I hope they nerf Riba, its boring af. Maybe they can buff multiple metas to be competitive gold per hour.....

[Kanok.3027]

@Astralporing.1957 said:Like i wouldn't want us to go back to old times when people lived in caves, hunted for food and died young.

Still happens. Caves = basements/attics, food = scrounging in parents fridge, die young = same thing. Still happens.

[Tails.9372]

@ugrakarma.9416 said:as alternative to RIBA u can rotate HOT metas.... but POF metas need more boost.

Even before the last nerf most people only came to Istan to do GH once every 2 hours, it was already pretty similar to the HoT metas in that regard which is what people wanted from the PoF metas to begin with. But now none of them are worth doing anymore (the Amnoon and the Death-Branded Shatterer one could have been if their cosmetic infusions didn't have such an abysmal drop rate) aside from the initial experience.

[MDove.2391]

Never made the gold spoken of but, was happy.Have been back couple times to GH...both times less people-no time to even loot Chests-if successful.

[Skotlex.7580]

@MDove.2391 said:Never made the gold spoken of but, was happy.Have been back couple times to GH...both times less people-no time to even loot Chests-if successful.

On the upside, the events may no longer be steamrolling easy, at least the last time I partook in them, it was more fun to go after Amala so much earlier than just running around tagging champions.

On the other hand, if ANet overdid the nerf to the point that now people interested can't get enough company to succeed at the event, then hopefully they'll scale back up the champions spawned some more. :)

[Jura.2170]

@Skotlex.7580 said:they don't want people to feel forced to any particular content in order to amass wealth

it won't make expensive stuff less expensive

it only stops casuals and wvwers from having enough to buy them one day

[Skotlex.7580]

@Jura.2170 said:

@Skotlex.7580 said:they don't want people to feel forced to any particular content in order to amass wealth

it won't make expensive stuff less expensive

it only stops casuals and wvwers from having enough to buy them one day

Supply and demand, market prices adjust based on how much money there is in the economy.

Expensive stuff will drop in price if nobody buys them at their high prices, eventually sellers will have to relist at lower prices.

Sure, it will probably take a long time for the market to adjust, but it will.

[Jura.2170]

@Skotlex.7580 said:Expensive stuff will drop in price if nobody buys them at their high prices, eventually sellers will have to relist at lower prices.

I honestly don't think it will happen

The sellers won't want to pay another 5% fee from the trading post to list. They'll leave it at a high price and wait and hope

Sure, it will probably take a long time for the market to adjust, but it will.

It could take years, if ever

[Lambent.6375]

Istan nerf is for the good of the game, there are other ways to make gold, people just haven't been paying attention to them because of istan.

[Tails.9372]

@"Lambent.6375" said:Istan nerf is for the good of the game, there are other ways to make gold, people just haven't been paying attention to them because of istan.

This is complete nonsense, most people only visited Istan for ~10 minutes once every 2 hours. The actual "24/7 farm" already died after they "killed" Akili and Palawadan. The only content that is going to get more attention now is the chak gerent meta but at this point you're just replacing X with Y and it's not like as if the TD meta lacked participation. At the end of the day this nerf only reduced gameplay variety without having any actual upside to it.

[Cuks.8241]

There are only a few activities in the game that require ascended gear and you should get it naturally by the time you get there (e.g., higher lvl fractals).WvW doesn't require ascended gear. Skill is way way way more important in WvW, especially if you are roaming. And like someone already mentioned you shouldn't aim to start WvW with ascended. First you actually want to get to know your character and what you would like to achieve with it and only then you will actually know which stats you want.Istan was over the top. And there are plenty of ways to farm gold if that is your thing. Just be aware that for the gear with "end game" stats you don't really need much gold. It is fashion wars that are expensive.

[Lambent.6375]

@Tails.9372 said:

@"Lambent.6375" said:Istan nerf is for the good of the game, there are other ways to make gold,

people just haven't been paying attention to them because of istan

.

This is complete nonsense, most people only visited Istan for ~10 minutes once every 2 hours. The actual "24/7 farm" already died after they "killed" Akili and Palawadan. The only content that is going to get more attention now is the chak gerent meta but at this point you're just replacing X with Y and it's not like as if the TD meta lacked participation. At the end of the day this nerf only reduced gameplay variety without having any actual upside to it.

If it's nonsense why are there people asking how they are going to make gold now?

It may not be you, but people are asking.

[Recon.8754]

Making money is a pretty common goal in every single mmo. Sure, im a new player but I still want to make money to buy shiny things to make the game more exciting as I explore it. We need more ways to make money. Not just riba...

[Rasimir.6239]

@"Recon.8754" said:Making money is a pretty common goal in every single mmo. Sure, im a new player but I still want to make money to buy shiny things to make the game more exciting as I explore it. We need more ways to make money. Not just riba...Play the game.

Seriously, pretty much everything you do in this game outside of standing afk in Lion's Arch will give you loot that you can sell at the trading post. Just play, join in on events you pass, gather nodes along the way, and sell what you don't need at the tp. You'll gather gold in no time, while enjoying yourself on the journey on top of it.

Just adding "ways to make money" won't change anything, since prices for pretty much everything are market driven, and more people making more coin will mean prices going up, so your "more money" won't give you more buying power. Unless you mean ways to make unbalanced more coin than other activities, which will increase the buying power of those who parttake in that activity while everybody else's buying power decreases.

That's ultimately why ANet adjusts farms like Istan: they want people to play the content they enjoy, while gaining wealth comparable to everybody else playing different content. And once you wrap your head around it it really works, and has been working for over six years. Play the game, and sooner rather than later you'll find you have more than enough gold for everything you want.

[Cuks.8241]

Everything in this game gets you gold. More than you probably need unless you intend to buy lot's of gems with gold or are going for a legendary. All the LS, Hot, Pof metas give gold that is not far from Istan (isn't Auric Basin meta is the most profitable for the time investment?). Gathering of materials can give you lots of gold. Bounties, fractals ...Istan was only really good because you could farm it forever with cycling very profitable events on 1 map. Similar to riba. But for me that is extremely boring. I think this is more for people that enjoy farming gold for the farming itself. Some people just like to accumulate gold for the gold itself not because they really need it. If your aim for end game is something else than having a heavy wallet, forget about farming gold, you don't need it.

[crepuscular.9047]

old saying "EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM" :smirk:

to me who only bother to do Palawadan once a day, nothing changed

[kharmin.7683]

@Rasimir.6239 said:

@"Recon.8754" said:Making money is a pretty common goal in every single mmo. Sure, im a new player but I still want to make money to buy shiny things to make the game more exciting as I explore it. We need more ways to make money. Not just riba...Play the game.

Seriously, pretty much everything you do in this game outside of standing afk in Lion's Arch will give you loot that you can sell at the trading post. Just play, join in on events you pass, gather nodes along the way, and sell what you don't need at the tp. You'll gather gold in no time, while enjoying yourself on the journey on top of it.

Just adding "ways to make money" won't change anything, since prices for pretty much everything are market driven, and more people making more coin will mean prices going up, so your "more money" won't give you more buying power. Unless you mean ways to make unbalanced more coin than other activities, which will increase the buying power of those who parttake in that activity while everybody else's buying power decreases.

That's ultimately why ANet adjusts farms like Istan: they want people to play the content they enjoy, while gaining wealth comparable to everybody else playing different content. And once you wrap your head around it it really works, and has been working for over six years. Play the game, and sooner rather than later you'll find you have more than enough gold for everything you want.

Or, purchase gems and convert to gold if gold is what you want/need. Or, just purchase gems if getting things from the TP is your goal.

[Etria.3642]

@"crepuscular.9047" said:old saying "EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM" :smirk:

to me who only bother to do Palawadan once a day, nothing changed

Last three days I went to do that and only a couple people on map, no tags, no palawadan. Today a smaller group tried, failed. RIP Istan

[crepuscular.9047]

@Etria.3642 said:

@"crepuscular.9047" said:old saying "

EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM

" :smirk:

to me who only bother to do Palawadan once a day, nothing changed

Last three days I went to do that and only a couple people on map, no tags, no palawadan. Today a smaller group tried, failed. RIP Istan

Blame on Warclaw and WvW bonus event :smirk:

Farm maps are pretty dead whenever new contents or limited time events are up

The recent change only affected Great Hall, still plenty of ppl farming Palawadan after the January 22, 2019 game update