The Cost Of Living/Killing

Let's take a little time to think this insignia thing through,shall we?

Weapons, armor, and shields can now be totally modded as long as they have an inscription slot,correct?

This would mean that Elonian created weapons are worth more than Tyrian or Canthan weapons, if I'm correct.

The ability to totally revamp a horribly modded weapon is now in our hands,right?

No more merching 20% under 50% weapons?

Just get a 15%^50% inscription and you're good,right?

Armor can be modded to your specific needs and satisfaction, and te same for your shields, offhands,and even wands?

Isn't this what everyone wanted? It's certainly what works for me! However, others don't agree that this is a good thing.

Let's get some opinions on the concept, then move to other aspects and ramifications

I think the main complaints going around right now have to do with the price of the insignias and such.

Not exactly.

The REALLY high-end items are pretty much unchanged. Things like Storm Bow, Chaos Axe, and Crystalline Sword don't have an inscription slot. So their price are not changed.

Actually, I think weapons that have inscription slot actually worth less than those without an inscription slot. Just look at it this way...before Nightfall introduced inscription, does the prefix/suffix on a weapon influence their price a lot? No! The only part that influence the weapon's worth is their requirement and inhereted mod. Now that Nightfall introduced inscription, the only thing that will still influence the price on weapon is the requirement.

The only problem I see is when you have that "perfect weapon" with a bad inscription....and you salvage out that bad inscription to replace it with your 15^50 inscription....and your perfect weapon gets destroyed for that crap inscription that you didn't want in the first place!
Don't get me wrong, I love this new inscription system, but it's not guaranteed that you will pull off the inscriptions cleanly. As of right now, I'm at Treasure Hunter level 3, and Wisdom level 3 with a 32% chance the item may be destroyed.

If anything, I probably would pay a little more for a weapon with inscriptions "none", than i would for one with a crap inscription on it.

Reason's why people are against it:

People who own the older "prized" high value items don't like the fact that it may lose a lot of value.

People who farmed there butt off to get cool skins / spent money (before NF launch) and then finding out the inscription system doesn't work them on older stuff.

The availability / cost of said inscriptions/mods. More true with armor since the rune pc compared to grabbing armor from GWP/GWF being better (at least ATM - time will tell if this works itself out)

That being said

I love the new system, somethings were implements not exactly as I personally like but I can live with it and do think it's better in the long run as new chapter keep getting added to the mix.

just replace the inscription
- no need to remove the old inscription

(same thing as replacing Runes on Armor - instead of removing the rune and risking the armor)

one thing to note, is that if you give runes / inscriptions to your heroes for their armor, you can salvage them out to your hearts content as you can't destroy their armor.

sweet!! I learned something new today!

So,the armor system is not better since you can get the amor with stats you need in Factions/Prophecies already prepared for you?

Since when have stats been the only thing to consider? We have had max armor since Droknar's Forge was discovered,and runners got lvl 2s to it too. When Factions came out, and the materials traders went stone cold dry. Why,if it's just about stats?

Because its stats and looks that matter in the GW world. The guy with the mix and matched armor was looked at as a misfit,except by people who knew why he did it.That was a stat reason.

Factions solved that problem, by giving multiple armor traders, but that of course, took more memory.

Now, the armor takes insignias. Get the type of look you want,and add the stats you want. That sounds good to me,and on paper it looks great.

Then the people revolted and through iron and tanned hides into the streets,claiming that this was a bad idea.

Why? Because they had to find stuff to get perfect armor. Then,as usual, the people who find it first start the jacking up of prices, calling everything rare.

Why the hell is everything rare when the game has been out for 2 weeks,people?

Is price gouging part of the problem?

I absolutely love the new system as well based on how they implemented it.

Nightfall has the new "flashy" skins that everyone is interested in. Inscriptions keep the value of those items down.

Prophecies/Factions still have the relatively rare "classic" skins, which continue to drive a high value. Given the fact that fewer people are playing Prophecies/Factions makes these items even rarer.

It was a very nice way A-Net implemented this, IMO. Thanks for alleviating our fears!

And in case anyone hasn't realised, this means 5 rune storage slots per hero.

My Zodiac sword is still worth as much as it was the day i got it. It can't be modded, and there are no skins in nightfall that i would want, over this zodiac sword.

Infact, rare items, such as good Zidiacs, Storm Bows, Eternals, Crystaline's and such will, if anything, i believe, INCREASE in price, due to the fact that now with more chapters, less and less people will be in those areas, because they will be spread out over guildwars.

I believe this will eventually aid in the end of guildwars, the spreading out of players over chapters. It is a shame really. I hope anet takes a break and adds more things like SF at the half year mark, and a new chapter after a year. They won't, but oh well.

I like the way Nightfall has it setup.

Now when I find a good weapon/mod I got a choice to either get mod or keep the weapon and modify later without running the risk of losing either.

I'm one of thsoe guys who always ended up with planks of wood.

My Dervish was able to get a nice Gold Scyth with a Fortitude +29 on it out of a chest. I added a 12%, then a 13%, and now have a 14%^50 on it.

I have other mods I'm keeping for another special Scyth, but these inscriptions give you a chance to build a good weapon form the ground up and save other mods for other weapons you find.

I already got a ton of inscriptions in my storage waiting to use. A 19% longer on enchantments, +5 energy, and various damage types.

I'm just waiting for more max damage scyths to come my way. And I always keep an eye on the collectors stock as well.

I disagree. Anet knew we would get spread out, which is the whole reason for heroes. Now you can basically play the whole game solo, and only come to town to buy or sell.

in a utilitarian sense, yes, ch3 weapons are worth more.
the ability to be remodded is as useful as can be.
however, its this same ability that nukes their dollar (gold) value. why? because previously, only certain shield combos; with the right skin, right mods, right req, etc, would determine a shields value (same as swords).
now, with inscriptions, ch3 items can be modded however you wish, and because of this you can take the perfect mods from an unpopular skin, and move them onto a popular one, essentially killing the value of a naturally occuring shield of the same mods/req/skin.
so yes, in the sense of being able to achieve versatility, ch3 items>ch1/2. in the sense of market value, their own modibility is what kills their economic value.

economics are an odd creature.

On a related note... since they completely gimped all possible casual farming, how are we supposed to afford even to buy skills now? They're still 1K a piece, which takes a couple hours to get now. So basically if I am playing, I have to be farming.

Guild Wars is starting to feel like it'd have to be a job, because they keep making it cater to those who play it that way. Sigh.

imo the insigs where a good idea, BUT last night, when i came to buy my max armour, i looked at inscription prices. the plus energy one? 3.3k EACH. now i spent about 6-7k on the armour (5x 1k, plus some turning tanned hides into leather at kcentre ) but i couldnt afford to buy any insigs that i actully wanted, price was much too high .

can the +energy one be applied to ele armour tho?...

Its quite ironic that what makes them so good is what kills their value ;p.

whats the point of salvaging the insignia? you can replace it by using a new one on it.

You can just get a rare skin weapon req 7 but no mods and make it perfec, then sell it if you want, this helps alot of people