How have insignias made anything easier?

They are sold by the rune trader. However, since they are very new, the trader has as many insignias as it does Dervish/Paragon runes.

The only thing I can is with the insignias is if you want a piece of armour vs Elemental Damage you have to get the Dreadought insignia for it.This is for those useing say Asaclon or Knights armour and want it vs Elemental Dmge.I guess that is why it took them so long to fix these armours and change the Absorbtion rune.We may have reacted to much on this not knowing about insignias coming out.

I haven't gotten to buy Nightfall yet to try out the Insignia system, but this bothers me:

• Updated the Warrior’s Dreadnought and Dragon armor suits to +10 vs. elemental to match how the armor bonus works under the new insignia system. These armors used to be +10 vs physical.
• Updated the Warrior’s Sentinel armor suit to +20 vs. elemental (req. 13 Strength) to match how the armor bonus works under the new insignia system. This armor used to be +20 vs physical (req 13 strength).
• Updated the Assassin’s Saboteur, Infiltrator, and Vanguard armor suits to have +10 armor vs. all physical damage and an additional +10 armor vs. a specific type of physical damage. The Condition reduction bonuses were removed to match how the bonuses work under the new insignia system. These armors used to give reduction to blind, cripple, dazed, or poison, depending on the set.

Basically it sounds like they made a bunch of changes to the armor system but it only really benefits Elonian armors and screwed a bunch of others? It sounds like they nerfed certain armors from Tyria and Cantha (warriors get +vs elemental instead of +vs physical) (assassins don't get condition reduction anymore) and gave players no chance to put their armor back to the way it was stat-wise, since Tyrian and Canthan armor can't use Insignias. Is that right? Or did I misunderstand?

If I did understand that correctly, that does suck, and they need to just make it so that insignia slots can be added to Tyrian and Canthan armor for a fee. Otherwise it's screwing over all the old armor...quite sucky if you don't like how the Nightfall armor looks or you didn't buy Nightfall. If they at least made it so that every armor could use Insignias, it would make more sense.

You think having to spend time buying what used to come with armor "work"? No, that's just plain stupid. Yea things change, for the better. Who the hell would want to play a game where they randomly change things for no purpose? Insignias are supposed to make things easier, yet all they do is complicate things, and they have no REAL benefiet because you can't even use them on old armor... Plus, isn't there a chance to destroy the armor when you salvage the insigna? I mean what the RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO? So far, they are just dumb as hell.

go buy nf and see for yourself, nothing has changed, just that you need to put those mods into armor manuelly, costs very little for pve (a bit later), free for pvp

You misunderstood the insignias give the same benifits as the changes

Earlier they had 90 base and +10 physical. Now they have the base armor (80 +20 phys) with +10 elemental. It's the same, just reworded to work with a "base".


Again, it was earlier 100 armor. Now it's 80 +20 phys + 20 elemental, exactly the same.
Probably because of the runes that give the same bonuses much easier.

Also, ANet is thinking a bit longer than some of the complainers. This is the new system which will make it easier to use new mods from new chapters with old armors and generally make things more flexible in the long run. I sure wish the system was retroactive though, but I guess the traders who cried bloody murder before release have prevented that.

I agree, this is sucking badly. We really need an insignia trader that has a constant stock, because this really isn't working. Like you said, it should make it easier, and this only takes more time then it used to.

God you again your such a turd

p.s ditto about my free time

Am I the only one who has played GW from the begining? I doubt it very much.

Every time we have played this game called GW, and the economy was taken back to the begining because of armor or runes, or something, the masses always complain about the same exact thing.

"Why isn't their a fully stocked trader with the stuff we all need?"

Maybe because to put a trader with insignias for 2 million players is not what ANet has ever done?

Maybe because this is the exact same thing that happened when the economies got joined together,or when Factions came out? This is not anything we haven't seen before,people!

The economy goes topsy turvy, things go out of stock,dye can't be smelled,let alone found at a trader. Armor materials disappear from the face of the gameworld for a couple weeks,and then...the calm returns.

Steel is back in stock,new weapons sell for 100k,and the world continues turning. The monks farm for more ecto, and we all still want FoW armor that costs a cool mil. But we need these things to look cool.

Elonian armor seems to get the bad end of the stick, for now, but once the economy provides for itself,which it will,then all will be right in the collective GW World.

My problem is when ever I try and put an insignia on a piece of armor that already has a rune on it, it over writes it and I lose the rune. What am I doing wrong? I don't want to end up lsoing my Sup. vigor! Anyone else having this same problem?

Edit:
Let me just say that this armor is Elonian Armor that I am having this problem with. I have not even thought about trying it with my old armors.

The major problem with the insignia system is not applying it to old armor, ESPECIALLY Tyrian armor...

Oh, cool, the update notes sounded like they changed the attributes so that you'd have to buy an insignia to get back the +vs physical or condition reduction. I was like WTF? But if they kept the original warrior armor stats and added the +vs elemental, that's a nice bonus... it's kind of a gyp for the assassins though to have to buy insignias to regain something they already had with condition reduction.

I guess it's not that bad then, but am I right that you can't add Insignias to armor that didn't come from Elona? If that's how it works, I also agree that it would be nice to have the change retroactive where all armor can use Insignias.

Sorry to be a pest, I can't get Nightfall till next week ; _ ;

I'm still lost on the insignia thing... apart from the fact that you just can't get some, I figure that will come with time.

Can I use them on armors other than nightfall armors?

Does it over-ride the original stats of the armor?

Do the vitae/+energy runes stack?

Things will settle down eventually. Until that happens you can just play pvp with pvp chars. And don't tell me that it's not possible to beat the game with no mod on your armor. You can always use your old armor, and in case you are a paragon/dervish it won't hurt you to wait a lil bit. I personally spent 2 hours @ rune trader and got my 15k elonian set to a pvp level with ~2k. Only the sup vigor costed me 30k. So don't whine about it YET.


"Do the vitae/+energy runes stack?"

Yes, they do.

Which is none and proves my point, thanks!

I agree with the OP, the Armour insignias are good in theory but poorly implemented in practice. The likely outcome would be that we will have to wait from a few weeks to a month or two before they before flooded in the markets down to the price of being worthless/affortable. That is the idea at least how it will work out awaits to be seen, which is why i wont be getting any NF armours any time soon.

And to all those trolling the OP, go hump a tree.

exactly.
if anything, you guys should look at this type of thing as an opportunity. by plannign ahead of time, and investing prior to the new chapters release, not only will you be prepared for whatever awaits you, but it can be a profitable investment.
stocking up in low level materials and runes before a new chapter comes out, means you can play the part of a ticket scalper at a sold out sports game...you can charge whatever the hell you want (more or less) because theres bound to be someone who lacked the foresight to stock up, but doesnt lack the funds to make you a profit.
instead of whining about economic cycles, use them to your advantage.

Well, the original premise was that the prices for insignia will settle at less than 500g, making 1.5k armour cheaper...

With regards to elite armour... when you're already comitted to spending 15k for a particular piece, is <500g extra really so much of a problem? Once you're spending that much on armour in the first place, I think you can afford an extra 3% or so. I'd say that, once the system settles down, it's actually going to be the people going for the 15K and, even more so if it gets updated to the new standard, Obsidian armour that benefit the most, as they're the ones who really would be looking to change the stats of existing armour, while people who are happy with 1.5K armour don't face quite such a daunting expense in replacing all their armour ;-)

My major concern is why the Nightfall/Prophecies team decided to do this; the Factions armor set up was great and there were very few complaints about it.

The Idea is that if theres a armour skin that you really like from NF or future Chapters for example, but would like to change armour stats around but dont want to buy a new set of armour, you now have the option of swtiching around the stats of the armour using insignias instead of buying a completely new set of armour which technically will cost much less.

But the above idea is taking into account of the following:

-Plentiful/readily supply of insignias of all types for all classes ( in a month or two)

-Insignias remains affortable (its a free market so just beware since popular ones will be gone fast)

One thing that perhaps would work against players with insignias is that some players like to own multiple armours skins anyways which directly translates into more insignias to buy and mod-more headache in the short term. As i mentioned in an earilier post, the idea is good in theory but poor in implementation and practice.

A quick fix to this would be to significantly increase armour drops with insignias for players to salvage off and flood the market. BUT this will also mean that Runes will become affected and become even more worthless and Sup Vigor may Drop even further as well (not neccessary a bad thing) - in short more things becoming worthless in the game. Would be interesting to see how Anet whos good at balancing skills for PvP will balance the economy for PvE or let it fall into ruins.

Not at the moment. I'm not sure if FoW has been changed yet or not, but I'm certain that it WILL be eventually if it hasn't.

The insignias can only be used on armor that has a space for insignias, which means, no inherent mod. So far, all armors that accept insignias are sold "blank," with neither inherent mods nor inscriptions. Inscriptions will overwrite older ones, though.

Yes, and there is also a "radiant" inscription that gives inherent energy, like the old Gladiators armor for warriors. You can do anything with inscriptions and elonian armor that you could do with older armors.

Honestly, I don't see why they didn't make the Insignias retroactive.

Unlike the inscriptions, there are no hoarders of 'rare-skinned armours' that will cry if their collection's value is cut by half. In fact, which armour owner would complain about ANet ENHANCING their armour such that they have the option to change the stats if they wanted to?

If ANet wants to promote people buying NF, then make it such that only people who have access to NF can use Insignias retroactively, perhaps by applying an Armour Converter NPC, as someone has already mentioned in this thread.

Otherwise, it just feels like we're being penalized for being early adopters, like if we buy new shiny Elonian armour now, and some other upgrade for Chap 4 appears to make armour even MORE versatile, we'll just get left behind as always.

Can anyone confirm if new FoW armors are now blank with an insignia slot?

while i agree here...making insignias retroactive would do zero harm to the GW economy, i also understand from anets point of view the pain in the ass involved in making stuff retroactive.

I agree. That was one thing I was actually looking forward to when Factions first came out.

I really don't buy the idea that ANet put the insignia thing in to help players out with buying multiple sets of armor. There's two reasons why.

1. They say gold inflation is on the rise, what better way to get people spending money then having to purchase multiple sets of armor? Next to "rare" items armor is the most expensive thing in the game to get, its perhaps the best gold sink available.

2. No matter how easy it is to "swap" insignias in the long run if you have a set of armor for PvP and a Set for PvE, or different sets of armors for different builds its going to be cheaper to have the sets of armor then attempting to constantly replace insignias. I know my Necro switchs so often from MM, to blood spike, to Curses that I would be a very poor man without my extra sets of armor.

Insignias are a neat idea, I'll give ANet its props for thinking creatively. But constructively I really think it was one of those did we toss in something that was counterintuitive to what we are trying to accomplish? I say that because everything ANet seems to be doing is attempting to cut down the amount of grind (Yes when I say grind I mean farming) and then they toss this whole armor thing in, where you have to farm to get the insignias you want. Sure you can get it from the rune trader but what fun is that? I'm an adventurer i like to find my junk, and the less I have to go to that trader the better off I am. It would have been neat if the insignias were craftable because then it'd be on your own merits to get the materials to pump out those insignias. And if Anet didn't want people having high level insignias (if there is such a thing) put those crafters later in the game (hey it works for armor).

Anyway, like I said nifty idea, I like it. I hate the way it was implemented simple as that. Give me the old faction armor or even the FoW armor, it might cost me more but at least I don't have to worry about my crappy luck of IDing the one I need off salvagable armor.

Nice quote and so true,

can the impatient whiners pls leave the room? Already many insignias are at rune traders and in the end, all insignias will be there.

Yes, they will all be there when the useful ones get so expensive they are priced out of the range of most players. Just like ectos and black dye; and so far, i've seen more black dyes than radiant insignias.

then sucks to be those players.

I think the point is that you can change from a certain build to another without having to make loads of amror sets. But as you overwrite them b/c you don't want to risk destroying your armor (who would?) you lose the old one. thus in the end this is a money sink imo.

Insignias are very useful to pimp my heroes, i love em already. I also used 2 vitae runes to pimp my monk for more HP, since she uses 2 sup. runes and it comes in very handy. As for the stock, just refresh the screen a couple of times when u are at the rune trader, with a little patience you get what you want cos ppl are selling them already. After a month stocks will be back to normal anyway so who cares...

I doubt that, even the good insignia's are cheaper than crap at the rune trader.

Honestly, there are two ways to resolve this as I see it:

- Increase rune and insignia drops dramatically

- Only allow player characters to use runes and insignias

Personally, as unpopular as it may be, I much prefer the latter option. One of the main problems abounding now is the the fact that each character created will not simply need one or two sets of runes/insignias. They will need a good dozen to equip not only themselves but their heroes as well ... per character since heroes aren't account based. So that's 4X a dozen insignias and up to 5X a dozen runes EVERY TIME YOU CREATE A NEW CHARACTER. As you can see, this places the gross majority of runes and insignia usage on NPCs, which is just plain wrong in an MMO game.

Removing that from heroes will indeed weaken them slightly, but will have the joint result of increasing supply for player character usage and encouraging players to play with other players because of the slight edge they have over heroes.

Give it a month....

If Insignias rise in price = sigh Anet >_>
If Insignias remain cheap and are plentiful = phew

I think the problem here is that currently, we've not had a chance to fully use the Insignia system, so very few of us can actually realize the potential in such a system. But mark my words...the Insignia system will benefit players in the longer-term. In time, we'll find that being able to pluck out one insignia and pop a different one in its place is going to be far more versatile than the armor systems of Proph or Factions. The cost will be dramatically lower to redo a character's armor, the ease of swapping armor bonuses will be easier, and most importantly, it will allow for a much deeper level of customization that players will eventually embrace once they understand it.

The biggest problem with the insignia system currently is the risk of destroying the item. This was THE BIGGEST issue in Prophecies and Factions when you wanted to get new armor. There were times in the past when I lost every single rune out of four pieces of armor except a minor Expertise. I got nothing but wood and cloth. Superior Marksmanship rune? Scoff! We've all gone through that crap. I've had guildies in the past who screamed for joy in guild chat when they were lucky enough to salvage their Sup. Vigor.

The solution? Introduce a feature that players have been asking for since the very first players got their very first runes and finally made it to Lion's Arch:

Guarantee that player armor will never be destroyed when swapping out runes and insignias.

That way, all you'd need for armor modification is the new insignia and an Expert Salvage Kit. When you want to switch up your armor bonuses for whatever reason, expert salvage the existing insignia/rune out of there and pop on the new one.

The market pressure for certain insignias and runes will decrease because people will be able to keep their current runes and insignias. The only cost is the initial insignia/rune cost, and then in the longer-term, you'll be paying 400 gold after 25 armor piece changes--that's around 6 times per character if you have four characters total...I think. My math kind of sucks sometimes.

And really, you shouldn't have to change your hero armor all that much. If you feel compelled to re-equip them that much, to the extent of possibly blowing 15k+ at any given time, you really should re-evaluate what the hell it is you're doing. So that 6 times per character really becomes primarily for you, and maybe once or twice for your heroes. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Plus, whatever happened to people sticking with their armor for a while?

In Factions, I just upgraded my Prophecies Necro to the Canthan +energy set. She'd been using Crystal Desert collector's armor for around a year, maybe more.

My Prophecies Ranger has been using the Druid armor from Drok's up until a few weeks ago when I decided that she was getting a new look and outfitted her with the Canthan +energy fur set.

My Prophecies Warrior has been using Glads armor from Drok's since he got the Drok run ages ago.

My Assassin is using Kaineng armor.

My Ritualist has +energy chest and leggings, and 30 AL Seitung Harbor wrist and foot gear.

They all do just fine, and re-equipping my necro and ranger was a pain in the ass only because of needing all of those different materials for the new armor. It would have saved me a hell of a lot of time if I had been able to just use an expert salvage kit to replace one bonus with another. For all of those who say that the Factions armor system is better, try dealing with having to run back and forth between the crafter, the materials vendor, Xunlai storage, etc. In Kaineng. I wanted to shoot something. Or kick a kitten into an electric fan.

BINGO! /Signed!!!!

That's indeed would be an improvement. Regardless, I like this system better than the previous two.

Lets see here, considering my Warrior has 3 sets of armor, my necro has three sets of armor and my monk 2 along with various spare parts for other characters crafting armor isn't that much more difficult then attempting to find the insignias.

Oh and heres a tip to ease your "burden" on crafting new armor. Go to the storage open it and leave it open before visiting all the other places that way you don't have to make multiple trips back to the storage facility. But isn't it lovely that the insignia system now makes us travel all the way over to the rune trader to buy the insignias. Talk about adding another step in a long process.

Uhm ... did I hear that right? You can actually open up your storage window by the Xunial agent and then roam around town with it open and pull items from it without running back to the storage folks? I'm actually being serious, I've never tried it before.

Also for swapping insignias you'll have to overwrite them in your armor because if you try to salvage them out you have a crapshoot/coin flip chance of destroying your armor, which is really stupid.