Insignia Prices Must Be Frozen

that and they increased the drop rate of superior absorption.. price went down from 60k to 5k in one week..

When i read about swapable insignias i thought u could actually swap them, that would be much better.. now if i want to switch from +energy to +armor, either i override the energy ones, or i risk destroying the armor.. don't like either option..

Yeah, that is exactly why Ascalon is completely empty.

Talks about the game economy on Guild Wars Guru is always ad hominemalicious and people randomly screaming supply and demand.

Uhm yeah... so many people are making Prophecies character so they can buy Ascalon armor so they can put insignia on it.

Next time when you are trying to be witty, press the 'Think before you post' button.

1) Ascalon has always been populous
2) Only Nightfall armors can have insignias.

Did you miss the "Get informed before making a retort" button?

Sarcasm radar must be off.

Why don't you read my op before you post.

You are trying to counter my main point by implying character creation is not the problem.

Personally it just sounds like people are whining again. "I WANT this, but I can't afford it so I'm going to complain" I'm not personally attacking anyone, its just my opinion. I want a million gold so I can shop to my hearts content, I'm not whining about it.

I can understand people being upset about the high prices of certain insignias, but like runes the prices will fluctuate. (did I spell that right?) You don't NEED an insignia on your armor. Its an added bonus and I'll point out that you can buy armor without any bonuses in the factions styles as well. So, its obvious you can get along just fine with just basic max lvl armor.

How can you justify freezing the price of insignias when you don't demand the same of runes? Essentially they are the same thing...they are an extra buff. You dont HAVE to have an insignia to function. You dont HAVE to have a rune to function. They are added bonuses that make you slightly more effective, but only slightly. Full radiant only give you +7 energy, if can't function without that then you have management issues. I can see how it would be a huge deal if it gave you +17 energy like monks' ascetic armor. Even adding 2 attunement runes (say on hands and feet) that only takes you up 11 energy. Ok that one 10e spell or 2 5e spells....that's really that big a deal? I guess if you're a monk, maybe, but you still have energy management options that can make up for this. an example: for mesmers, 4 points in inspiration magic and they can steal 5 energy from an opponent netting themself a 10 energy gain with energy tap.

Some people have pointed out that with the changing prices of insignias that factions armor is cheaper and already has the armor bonuses. well, go buy it then, thats always an option for the older classes. however, if you want elonian armor, or you have a devish or paragon you're just going to have to be patient while either waiting for the right insig to drop for you or for the prices to fall OR you can come up with the extra money to get what you want right away.

Brand new players that only have Nightfall probably are only using what they find as they get used to playing the game, so don't use them as your excuse. Several of them probably don't even know what insignias do exactly yet.

I myself have a couple dervish and a couple paragons and I have no problems with them being effective and I have no runes or insignias on them at this point. So tell me again you can't be effective without these...

As someone has already pointed out, the insignias where anothe idea for mixing and matching buffs. Only this time the idea was that you could change the buff on a certain piece without have to buy a whole new piece of armor. Yes, you still run the risk of losing a piece when you salvage, but that is a risk you have to decide whether or not to take. They have improved the odds of salvaging, and then improvd the odds again for those that work to get certain titles. I have the first couple of ranks in the title you get for IDing stuff (can't remember the name, sorry) and its not hard to do. Just id every colored item you pick up, its not that hard honestly. My point though, is that I hardly ever destroy the item I'm salvaging out of now, which I think is a nice change.

Just my two cents. lol.

That was more like a buck fifty.

lol, i'm long winded. i can't help it.

You are obviously missing my point which is that character creation will not slack off. And for my example used Ascalon, Prophecies is the oldest and least supported of the 3 games yet Ascalon, the starting area, is the most populous.

But does anyone buy those armors without modifiers? *shakes magic 8 ball* "Signs point to 'No'."

And that is their personal choice. Essentially this comes to down to personal choice, yet again. Only now its 'do i pay the extra money, buy factions armor, or wait it out'...personal choice. make one and be happy.

Why would it not slack off? Character slot configuration is limited. Gold resource is limited to most players. Character deletion is done but many if not most hold on to at least 1 or more of their PvE chars. Many PvPers never delete their PvE chars.

Ascalon and LA might be populated but 90% rest of Proph is nearly empty. And Ascalon being population has minimal impact to the discussion.

Like I said, new chars and the Heroes is what is driving the price up.

So again, I don't see what is your point in regards to the current discussion.

why are you bothering with getting a pve character ready for pvp, the only real advantage of that was the ability to swap armor, and they did away with that when nightfall came out. that is unless you dont have a pvp slot, in which case i pity you, because pvp is so much easier with one.

i can personally attest to swaping atleast some armor often enough to where i would lose money by not having a second set of armor, and instead just buying new insignias. the only thing i think would be saving money is having FoW and swapping insignias

but the point is you never had to before, in factions or tyria you didnt have to buy an insignia, some of which cost more than the armor they are for, to get the same attributes. this is why i, and the op among others, think that they should be frozen, because you could get it before at a fixed price, but now its not fixed. the same agrument doesnt apply to runes, you never got those included with armor.

so you mean you can cast avatar of melandru on a dervish with 60% dp without having a +energy weapon, no radiant insignias, and no attunement runes?

i guess the point ill try to make is that if we have to buy insignias to upgrade our armor if we want to change it, why couldnt they give a free insignia already in the armor (to prevent people from not using them and just selling the insignias back to the trader) on armor creation, so you dont have to buy the first one, and make the prices the same as factions and tryia.

personaly i like the new system, i will be able to craft a suit of all purpose armor, with plenty of energy and all the mods i need, I dont care about the price, of insignias they will be apllyed as i find them in play or buy them as i need them...what matters to me is the bonus energy, then the looks

Yeah, it's true that making it cost MORE for the same set of armor you can get in Factions for way less makes no sense.
Plus, most want runes for thier heros, the demand will be insane.

Now on a seperate note I get to talk about a conversation I had in Kodash Bazaar with a fellow about insignias. He swore out of nowhere that +hp and +energy insignias were useless anyway since, in so many words, "Just using the +armor insignias means you wont need that much health, and since you are taking less dmg the monks wont need to heal as much meaning they wont need more energy". Which looks good on paper I told him, until you actually look at PvP play...

It reminds me of the old "Fortitude vs Defense Mod" debate.

Before Nightfall, insignia = inherent bonuses were craftable, so available in unlimited number from crafters, and not subject do demand or speculation.

With NF, they are market items, so old players can camp the trader, hoard and speculate on new ones.

If the trend goes on this way, in GW4 we'll not have armor crafters, but armor traders.
Old players will camp the traders, hoard all the armor they can buy, and spam

"WTS monk armor, no longer available at trader! 100k per piece whisp"

New players will have no way to get it (unless they so lucky to drop from monster, but who would like to wear an armor used by a scarab! ) and will go through the game with their noob armor until (and maybe after) level 20 ...

Armor Insigna should be a fixed price, and make all of them available from the trader.

I do like the new armor system.. but at the same time this seems to make it harder for pve to jump in to pvp with your characters (which anet seems to be pushing an easier transition in other things).

I have bought a set up elona armor for my ele.. but still wearing my factions 1.5k until I can salvage the parts for the armor I want.

Untill I get enough monster drops to make the armor I want... it's Factions armor for me.

This is currently possible for all classes but a monk. The AI ignores every one else most of the time, so getting to 20 with starter armor is very possible... so save your cash and mats from earlier armor and spent it on the insignias instead.

While I agree the initial idea is flawed, and it's delivery is odd, it's not hard nor expensive to get even the radiant insignias. Grab a full group of hero/hench, or some friends, walk outside. Clear the zone, have some laughs at the horrid AI as they play "can't touch me" and "tag"... once your done, you'll have enough to get that insignia your wanting.

Word.

What they should do is just make the cheapest max armor in NF (the 1k armor), and anything below that, into 1.5k armor with inherent bonus like the factions/prophecies armor so that people ain't forced to go to factions/prophecies to buy them.

Leave everything else the way they are, insignia is perfect since they actually make getting an armor drop exciting now (omg, armor! I might get a radiant insignia, and not pfft another useless minor rune for merchant). They also make the 5-15k armor in NF more like the FoW armor of prophecies, and this game does need more long term goals....

Yea, insignias drop on blue, purple, and gold armors = delicious
You shouldn't even compare insignia swapping to pvp, because that's what pvp character creation is for, unless you're so vain that you want to show off your FOW armor in RA.
A full set of max armor at the sun docks now doesn't cost over 7k including materials, a price that is easily attainable if you flesh out the quests and mission on Istan. Simply playing the game by questing has netted me well over 30 insignias, mostly from blue and purple drops. Just play the game, and you'll be able to outfit all your heroes easily. There are so many mobs that drop armors that its nearly impossible not to get at least a dozen insignias for just playing the game.

On the side, I agree that prices will go down, but not for another few months. And radiant armor is a luxury => just picking one half of a circular argument.

All these complaints will die down once the price goes down. I think most are blaming the insignia mechanism instead of the real culprit - high prices due to large amount of new characters and the introduction of heroes.

I mean the first 3 days, Paragon, Dervish and Monk runes where almost none-existent.
Paragon and Dervish - that is easy. But why monk runes? Because people are spec'ing out their monk Heroe.

Wait it out a week or so. It will go down. And mass hardcore NF farming has not even started. Once people start farming and the spec'ing of new chars and heroes subside, supply will catch up with demand.

When that happens, many will see the light of day. The ability to separate stats from aesthetics is just awesome.

I still dont get why you people are complaining about the new system. It's really flexible. And if you're using the argument that it will cost more because you switch stats often....well duh....just go buy a different set for switching constantly. Just because something has an exception to the rule doesnt mean it's a bad system.

Also, as AK347 mentioned, these insignias are dropping fairly often since they drop even on blue armors. I've already gotten a dozen +health insignias and enough radiant ones for a full set.

Give it time before you start complaining, soon insignias will be as cheap as candy. You're all complaining before stopping to think and analyzing the situation and thinking why this is occuring.

This is nuts. are you guys even going out and playing the game. I keep getting drops of all sorts, even the so called rare insignias. Over this last weekend (dye drop weekend) i got nothing but gold and purple items, not one dye dropped for me (but I rarely get dye anyways). Its pretty much supply and demand as far as prices goes.

/NOT SIGNED

Mega Mouse

I don't know about anyone else, but I can count the number of rune drops I've gotten in Elona on one hand...

I like insignias and the flexibility it affords people even if I don't like that the initial cost and hassle is likewise increased.

However, I cringe to think it'll be the new not optional standard for armor for non-core/faction professions.

Look, can we stop with all the "wait a month for them to come down" and all the comparisons to real economies and all that totally irrelevant stuff? Especially that "instant gratification" crap which is nothing but a totally spurious straw man. I don't care if the Insignia eventually drop to 10 gold apiece. None of that has anything to do with the point of my OP, so the next time you want to say something like that, just don't.

The point is that Insignia as implemented punish certain types of players and certain professions unfairly when compared to previous chapters. The point is that there is not parity between all chapters' armors, the most basic and most important item of equipment a character uses. If the price were to drop below 500 gold each, then we'd have unfairness in the other direction, giving an advantage to Nightfall players that is unavailable with other chapters' armors. I don't want either scenario. The costs for armors, excluding materials of course, should be exactly the same regardless of attribute and regardless of where they are crafted.

Just make the Prophecies / Factions armor use the same insignia system...

/not signed
I like the insignia system. Though I wish it was backward compatible so you could stick it on my kurzick armour.

For old players, you don't have to buy the insigia's. You want +energy armour cheap? Go to Kaineng, easy. Takes like 2 minutes once you're at LA. Or just buy it. You only need to buy it once after all. If you've actually been playing you should have the cash to spare. Unless you're pvp only, in which case you get them free anyway. If you find yourself swapping +energy for armour, then just buy a second set of armour. They're cheap as, now 1k. It's what we've always had to do afterall. I got like 3 sets of armour on each character. Hmm, can I request Anet to bring in armour storage please.

As for new players, I don't think they care. I mean when I started, I had to scrimp and save to get a full set of armour once I left pre sear. I was wearing the ugliest mis-mash of stuff and some of the low hit rate pieces like hands and feet were from pre sear collectors. And I was fine with it. When I had enough cash, I mapped back to the crafter and bought it piece by piece. And I was happy to get it. The problem is you. You look at it and say, woe is me. To craft a set of max armour is 5k plus materials and then to get that full set of radient insignia's will be another 15k. Well, you don't need to. You can craft the armour piece by piece and get the insignia's and runes one at a time when you get the cash. You could even find one and then salvage and stick it on your armour and it's made your day. I know it did when I first found a minor vigor and stuck it on my LA crafted armour. Makes your armour worth something personal. I mean, when I got my first suit of plate, I loved it. Still got it as a matter of fact. Probably keep it forever. My later characters, I just bought the full set and stuck runes in it and forgot about it. No connection at all. No growth or personal attachment or joy that I got it. It was just meh. But now, once you got a max set, you can see it grow as you get runes and insignia's to stick on it. I know that if I was a new player I'd enjoy that.

And as for demand, I'm not sure how the prices may or may not drop, but I do know that demand will drop. At least it has for me. I already had full armour and now that I've bought up full insignia's and runes (yes, including the radient and survivor? The +HP one for Koss) for my heroes, I won't be buying any more till Razah comes in. So my demand has dropped from full to nil. There are probably plenty who are the same.

And really, except for the radient, are any of the others really expensive? Plenty go for like less than 400g each, so with 1k armours it's even cheaper than before.

I agree with the OP. This insignia nonsence is madness. Do something about it ANET! >_<

They will go down eventually, no need for fixed pricing.

Good lord.

Please, tell me... how did you not see this?

On one hand, look how great of an indication it is on how popular the energy insignia is compared to the rest.

Simple solution (kinda): make all armors in the game, Tyria and Cantha included, have the ability to be outfitted with insignias. Then have Elona adopt the Cantha way of selling armors, where you can buy "plain vanilla"/no insignia armor for cheap, or armor with built-in insignias/mods for a higher price.

This will accomplish two important things with regards to prices. 1) armors will be dropping anywhere in GW with potential insignias, instead of just Elona, thus increasing the amount of insignias into the market; and 2) people can choose to buy their armors with insignias already 'installed', and not have to shell out money for a set of their favorite mods, but pay a set amount along with the armor.

This way, the basic way insignias work is still very much present and active. I realize these are not new ideas, but I think the combination of them is new. I also think this should be fairly easy to implement, then again, I'm not a dev.

/signed

Canthan armor scheme works best imo

Why are radiant insignias going up in price despite more and more of them dropping? The answer is simple: The supply simply cannot meet the demand. Radiant, being a cross class insignia, is the most popular insignia for every class, ergo, the number dropping would have to be 10x that of every other type for the price to stabilize. The same goes for all the other cross-class insignias - they are all in much higher demand than single class insignias, (with a few exceptions,) which leads to inflated prices.

/not signed

Keep the three campaigns armor systems separate and unique to that continent.

And let the market dictate the prices. It's some way for newer players to get some extra gold in their coffers.

for god's sake, what is WRONG with you people? It's less than 5k! Who cares!

the fact that radiant insinga costs more then making 1.5 or 1k armor?

and thats its unbalanced compared to the previous chapters?

Sure, core and factions proffs can go to kaineng for armor, but paragons and dervishes get stuck with worrying about insinga


although, my paragon could care less about radiant since leadership is the best E-management in GW, but I cant tell you how much my dervish could use a bit of a boost from radiants in order to play better, and kaineng does not give us that


another fun fact, Modless armor from the first two chapters is cheaper then 1k, the only bonus the elona armors give is that we can mod it.