Ecto price is concerning you too?

Switch to Lockpicks. I've already seen people selling things for "100k+XXLP". It's probably better, too.

As for "1337" Armor... Pfft. I just saw a girl with 1.5k Tyrian Armor (from Factions) and I thought it was the fracking shit. I'mma buy me a Tyrian garb myself, just because it looks 1337 when dyed white or silver.

Everyone has different tastes in what "1337" is... Most peoples tastes are based on money.

I haven't seen these droves. It's humans there, getting easier ecto because there's no AOE scatter in normal mode after the update. And there's a lot of solo builds now, not just the old ones. Basically the supply part is almost easy now so ectos are in trouble.

just uncap the 1000k and 100k per character limit = fixed.

Everyone here has a valid point, but what I don’t understand is why you guys are getting so hostile about it, but that’s another story anyway here are my view on the matter.

Now, while most people seem to deny it and with good reason I’ll be the first to admit that my life out side of guild wars is EXTREAMLY lacking and I have logged more than 4,000 hours so I am what most people consider VERY rich both before and after the Ectoplasm crash. Across 15 characters I have 1,000k in storage and another 1,000k spread across mules and characters add 1632 Ectoplasm and 927 Obsidian Shards and a large number or rare perfect and near perfect gold items to that count and I would say that I do have WAY to much money, I say this not to try and impress anyone but to give you some background information on me.

Now let me address the topic of elitism in PvE and PvP, just because I have more money than most people that does NOT make me ANY better than your average player in the long run it just proves that I have more time to kill and have a bit of luck. This, at least in my opinion, holds true for everyone both the rich and poor. Now in the short run I may have a little bit more experience than your average player in both PvP and PvE I feel it is my job to teach and help them so all this elitism needs to stop now, but again I am going way off topic.

Back on topic; for those of us who are blessed with exceeding wealth Ectoplasm and Obsidian Shards have always been something to invest our money into without loosing or making an insane amount of money, they always seem to for the most part, stay in the same average price range. Arena Net has not given us an effective way to store our excess money, maybe they didn’t want prices to exceed 100k, making 1,000k enough money to buy anything in the game, but they did and have been that way for two years now, and now is not the time to try and fix it. By attempting to fix the prices now you are alienating those of us that do put a lot of hard work into earning our money. I don’t know how others feel about it but when I spend 100+110e (Ectoplasm at an average price of 8k) on a perfect Elemental Sword and turn around three weeks later they are hard to sell at 100+75e (Ectoplasm at an average price of 6k) I get depressed, yes I know it’s just a game but that’s how I feel.

As for the rich helping the less fortunate I believe that this is true. Take the following event which took place about a month ago between me and a fairly new player.

Player A: WTB [Req9 MAX damage ele sword] Please PM ME!
Player B: Hey do you mean an elemental sword?
Player A: Yep, why do you have one?
Player B: Yeah I got one while I was in the desert area with the wurms are they rare?
Player A: Yeah they are rare. How does 100k+125ecto sound?
Player B: Wow that’s sounds great where are you?
Player A: Storage
Player B: Thanks a lot, can I add you to my friends list incase I find anything else?
Player A: Sure. Have fun, cya!

Now that actually took place between me and a new player not all that long ago and that player is still message me asking me for advice. Through a little bid of luck on his part, he was able to make quite a bit of money, as Ectoplasm was at 8.5k from players and I instructed him to sell them to players and even helped him with his first attempt to sell them. Now Player B is 1162.5k richer and can play and fully experience the game without having to grind for money, he can always afford his skill points, keys, and armor for his characters, collector/crafter/green weapons and even the perfect dead sword he wanted so much. Now had prices been low and he had sold that sword for 100k he would have been well off for a new player, but had he started to play on a more frequent bases and needed to buy skills/armor/keys for several different characters from traders with set prices he would have to grind, thus taking away from his experience playing the game the way he likes to.

Please excuse my little rant, but this is a topic I am passionate about, and that first bit about my money/hours played was strictly to give you background on me as this is my first post.

~Lien

There is a reason that there is a cap. Just as there is a reason no trader will ever have an item go for more than 100k.

Players made things more expensive.

Its people like you that i dont understand, do you buy FoW because it looks cool or because its expensive?Anyone doing it for the latter is just trying to brag with his wealth and quite frankly youd have the whrong idea all along. Rare gear dous not make you "elite", it makes you "person 16523 that spend a shitload of money on sompthing useless but appearantly he thinks its pretty enough to buy it anyway". Now if you truly wanted to be elite you could try doing it by being skilled instead of trying to buy youre way into the so called "big boys" circles.

I hope the ecto price keeps dropping, finally an end to this madness!

And to those using it as currency: Forgive me if i dont shed a tear for you trying to bypass A-nets safeguards and suffer for it.

Boo hoo, so someone with 1 stack of ecto loses 400k. They still have over 1Million Gold, what the hell are they complaining about?

Yeah its turning into a communist game. Why bother to set any goals when six months later Anet gives away everything to everybody. When ecto drops for someone it should be a good thing if ecto goes down too far there will be no way to make money in the game. Nothing will have any value and the poor will have no way to accumilate weath to become middle class or rich. HM drops are worthless, the only way to gather wealth is just though slow grind and saving, trading may come to the point where nothing has any value unless it is super rare then only the super rich will be able to participate.

We don't all have 1 million gold -.-

I had 300K before the st00pid farm nerf, and now I have 100 GOLD.

Yes, I'm friggin broke. No use farming for ecto's now cause everyone and their grandma can get them at low prices. Players are selling like crazy, afraid that the price will drop even more.

And DO realize that the ones complaining were most likely the people who didn't have 1 million gold, and still wanted everything with 1 push on the button 'zOMG ect0 is so friggin expensive buth I watn it NOW I payd for tis game s0 I watn everythnit adn I dont watn to w0rk f0r !t !!1'

I think there is something basically wrong in the idea that low ecto prices mean less wealth to those who have used them to store extra cash.

If someone has let's say 1M gold + 4 stacks of ectos, they remain 1M gold + 4 stack both whether ectos are at 10k or ectos are at 5k.

The only difference is when ectos are sold to be converted in cash. But if that person has already 1M gold, what's the need to convert ectos to cash?

Trading? No, all high end trades are done in 100k + XX ectos.

Now, I don't see why a sword which costs 100k + 200 ectos with ectos at 10k, should cost 100k + 400 ectos with ectos at 5k.

Think about it: 100k + 200 ectos is roughly the price of 1 FoW armor, so if selling that sword could allow a player to afford 1 Fow armor, I don't see why in a period with ectos at 5k, the same sword should be worth 2 FoW armors.


As far as extra cash storage is concerned, ectos at 6k are still a bit expensive.
Before loot scaling, farming and selling white junk to the merchant yelded more or less 10k per hour. So 1 ecto per hour with ectos at 10k.
Now, probably you don't get more than 3-4k per hour. If you have more than 1M and need to convert it in ectos, with ectos at 6k you can't even afford 1 ecto per hour.
So, under this point of view, ectos are more expensive than before, if you want to use them to store extra cash.

Except that prices of weapons are rising instead of falling. I've seen people sell weapons for 100K + 50 ecto's now, which normally would cost less than 100K

FoW armor is not going to get any less "OMG LEET" because ecto prices are dropping. What you have failed to realize is that if someone has set their sights on getting FoW armor, then they will eventually get it. It honestly isn't that hard to acquire. But it doesn't matter that the prices are dropping, because there will always be a lot of people like me who think that every set of FoW armor is butt ugly and totally not worth the time and effort.

So boo freaking hoo.

P.S. if I had 1000k in my storage, I'd start handing out freebies in Ascalon and Shing Jea, which I have actually done on many occasions. Anyone who thinks they're e-wealth makes them better than other people is horribly, horribly deluded. So quit being a miser and spread the wealth.

Abnaxus, it has nothing to do with FoW armor. It has to do with exchange rates. However unlikely a person is to trade in their ecto for gold (if they are sitting at 1m + ecto), it still retains a value equal to what it will potentially sell for. There is no conversion, but there is a potential for conversion.

Do what any commodities trader would when he sees his warehouse full of stuff dropping in value: sell it all off and go get drunk.

After Tyrian and Cathan items become inscribable it'll be difficult to find anything worth more than 100K.

I see what you are trying to say, but lets take a look a this situation.
While you say 'a little bit of lucky on his part', I say a ridiculous insane amount of luck on his part. What number of players just stumble upon rare itens like that with their first character (which it seems to be in this case) before they even finish the campaign? Next to nothing. Now even more lucky was to have stumbled upon a rare item and have a demand for that item jump you in the face without you even know that item was worth anymore than what the merchant was willing to offer, and to find out it was 100k+125ecto worth (in which a lot of people would easily scam him, so in that he was lucky too). So ok, his ridiculous amount of luck made him rich from one moment to the next. But now to say that had it been only 100k he would run out of it and had to grind, ruining the experience of the game for him... that's the game experience for everyone starting out, he was an exception, and might I add, if he had found an item worth 50k he'd already be damn lucky as most don't ever see that kind of money out of one item until they're well acknowledged with the game. I think there's something wrong when you think that you need to be a millionaire (even if by accident) to fully experience the game. The way you said you helped this person 'enjoy' the game, to me is the same as when you get a brand new exciting game, and before anything you run off to cheats.dom and find out the cheat to unlock everything and infinite money before you even get started at the game, and then you say "ok, now I'm set and can fully enjoy my game experience because I have access to everything through no real effort on my part". This in an isolated case though. But anyways, the fact remains that if you want to acquire goods and money it shouldn't be easy, but it shouldn't be absurdly time-consuming either; and also I don't see how this case shows how the rich may help the poor masses, to me when he got the item he became a rich player (wether he realized it or not), the only part you played in it was offer the value of the item, it wouldn't be different had it been any other player and it would have been nothing had the person not possess the valued item.
We're still left with the question, how the wealth holders in the world (GW or RL) make it better for anyone other than themselves? Or even in which ways they want to manipulate circunstances in order to maintain the full/profit of their wealth? What is the purpose of such wealth?
Maybe we should not be thinking how people can accumulate over 1000k, but rather, what can we do so that 1000k is enough. And that's what I think Anet is willing to do.

1 word: Skills.

I've spent over 5000K on skills if I look back on how many chars I had and how many skilsl I bought. 1000K isn't nearly enough to play the game buying all required things.

Then there's the luxury, like titles, keys, UW/FoW which all cost cash as well.

Without cash, GW really sucks, as the only good thing about Guild Wars is (was) freedom, and to do stuff you like. But without cash, you can't do anything except doing missions/quests over and over and over and over and over and over again.

If A-Net wants to make 1000K enough to buy everything, something desperately needs to change. Cash should be worth more, and prices should go down, so you can buy almost everything with 100 gold, except for gold items and other luxury, which isn't really needed.

But as it is now, 1K for 1 skill is ridiculous, and keys for 1.5K as well. Lower your prices A-Net, and THEN make dumb updates that 'makes the regular player able to buy everything.'

But did you buy 5000k worth of skills all at once? My is that the singles most expensive item should only be 1000k or less.
In the case of skills, titles, etc, I assume that if you are able to acquire 1000k, even 100k, then you can mainting your expenses as they come. Even if you can only get 5k, you can still work on all those expensive titles and skills, only it consumes more time, and you'll be rewarded with your effort in making more money to lessen this time. That's how more casual players will be more drawn to experiment the game in more depth, because they are now becoming able to acquire stuff that they want without compromising all their game time.

The lower Ecto gets, the more I'll buy, because I know they'll bounce back up, like every other time they drop down low

They dropped when factions came out and stayed low for a while, so just wait.

Anyway no materials should be worth that much, they should get lower imo.

Except this time there are no new classes in eotn and supply is higher than ever.

All required items = 1000k, really?

I know I've spit out these facts at least 7 times before, but, here it goes again...

Max Armor = Collector = Free.
Weapons = Collector or Drops = Free
Runes = Drops (optional, they aren't required to beat the game, they just make it easier) = Free
Insignias = Drops (optional, as Runes) = Free
Mods = Drops (optional) = Free
ID / Salvage kit = Merchant = 100g / 400 g (for 25 uses)
Skills = Quests / Trader = Free / Scalable up to 1k
Elite Skills = Optional (they are...) = 1k each

So if you are a Prophecies character you can beat the game, with "required" items at the cost of .... wait for it... nothing. For everyone else, it costs less than 1k for the first 16 (?) and then 1k for each after.

Now let's also factor in that in full-party groups, a player can easily get 50k by the end of the game just by merchanting items (to NPCs).

Nightfall kicks out ~25k plus 12 Golds per character, per month through the Treasure system.

Money is not the issue, vanity is.

Well, you said it yourself there. Luxury. Also, keys are drops, and UW/FoW has Tomes. Since you can get Lucky/Unlucky with Lockpicks (which drop) the only title I can think of that costs cash is IDing Golds. And 1.6k For Level 1 of the Title (100 golds ID'd) isn't expensive or unattainable by anyone.

So basically, without cash the only thing you can do is beat the game? Damn, that sure sucks.

Besides, I already explained how you can do what you need without cash.

Well, first of all they already implemented a way to get it without the 1000k, as I already explained.

Second, cash being worth more. Well, you are in luck, with the Loot Scaling, inflation is expected to go down (less cash in market = Greater buying power of individual gold.)

And while I don't see everything being at 100g, I would be extremely happy seeing things capped at 100k.

But I'm glad you see that luxury items aren't necessary.

Of course the price of ecto is going to fall. Anet already said there will be know further professions so the demand of people getting FoW armor will decrease. I have FoW across 7 of my 13 characters and with no new professions up and coming I no longer need to farm, buy, or trade for ecto. I'm sure this is happening accross a grip of players in the game. Thus ecto prices are falling. Basic econ.

you forgot:
Smacking someone with the truth bat: Priceless

but the skills and elite skills *can* be gotten now without spending a dime with tome drops and faction unlocks.

On ecto price: Glad I tswapped all mine out for lockpicks when I did. I don't plan on using ectos anytime soon so I dont need em, but lockpicks I can use.

I'm not sure, something tells me that ectos might stay at 6.5k for a while?

I wasn't trying to say that it would ruin the game for him, but he has told be that he has tried farming an has found it to be incredibly boring, so if he had needed to grind it would have SUBTRACTED from HIS game experience. And I don't for one moment fall under the illusion that you NEED to be rich to enjoy the game, my first four months were spent at 40-100k, and I had a blast because I ENJOY farming. As for your comment about cheats.com, if thats what it takes for someone to enjoy it, is it so wrong? Thats how THEY have fun.

Keep the comments coming I enjoyed reading your post, it is one of the few (sorry but it's true) posts that seem to be well though out.

I hope ectos go to 1.5k ...that'd rock!

• No new jobs (aka no new "fresh" demand) in EOTN
• Easy access w/o favor using tomes
• The sheer amount of possible armor available to jobs now (and about to get even more with EOTN), a lot looking BETTER then FOW.

In fact ecto is cheaper then say, rubies at a 1 per 1 comparison depending what if it's weekday or weekend.

The game has evolved to the point that Fow armor is not "leet" anymore imho, and I noticed a lot of people have switched to lock picks for pure "hard currency".

In fact I can only spot 1-2 of the Fow types visually. I can't tell a lot of Fow vs the sheer number of other armor styles now.

1k and i'll buy a whole stack!!

I see no reason to deal in ectos anymore. Lockpicks are superior and have an inherent value that anyone with a couple ranks in Treasure Hunter will want to take advantage of.

i hope it drops more =p

then i can buy fow ranger and Rit xD

I see no reason to deal in ectos anymore. Lockpicks are superior and have an inherent value that anyone with a couple ranks in Treasure Hunter will want to take advantage of.

To be honest there will be little demand for FoW since it's been months since NF's release and GWEN won't add any new classes (or even new character slots if the rumors are correct). Most people who want FoW for their characters have it by now. Therefore ectos will no longer be a stable material to use for currency. In addition, the "glamour" associated with FoW has been tarnished by EBayers and the like, so people are looking into alternatives like 15K sunspear, vabian, and primeval. Smart investors would go for Diamonds, which will likely have a purpose in GWEN.

You're lil pet rodent is worth "0" gold as long as it's still in your hands. Only time it's worth anything is during the time of transaction between yourself and the buyer. Also it's worth only what the buyer is willing to pay.

The price of ectos will go back up when it is no longer a viable way to make money. People will stop farming them because you dont get a good enough return, the the supply will diminish compared to whatever the demand is and the price will go back up. Since there will be no new professions it wont ever go back up to the 10k area but 7-8k is a good guess.

I think it's already hit its "threshold level". Basically if the ecto price drops below 5K people aren't going to be willing to pay 1K every time just on the off chance of getting one. This will drive the price back to ~6-7K where the decline will start again.

Basically the price is starting to settle around 6K, which is a little lower than they were before NF's release. I don't think it'll go higher than 6-7K again unless something drastic happens.

I second that.

I also will add that opinion (yes, it's opinion) to dyes, runes, etc.

Actually, ecto prices have been very gradually falling over the past two weeks. They were between 7K and 7.5K, and now they are steadily between 6K and 6.5K (and haven't hit 7K in almost a week now).

It wouldn't surprise me to see them stabilize at around 5K or so in the next month.

ANET FIX ECTO PRICES

I hope GW2 won't introduce something new that would replace ectos for getting rare armor.