LOOT SCALING NERF – Ruining the Fun

LOOT SCALING NERF – Ruining the Fun

I have been with Guildwars since the beginning and still love it, but what I do NOT love is the latest Loot Scaling Nerf. Not only does it attempt to hamper the bots, but it really diminishes gameplay for honest GW players. The bots are STILL rampant across the network alas the honest players pay the price for it.

Now I understand that **some** drops were too much especially for farming but seriously… even then it wasn’t grand drop rates. Now it is SO rare to get a green or gold that the economy is just fragmented. How are we supposed to make any money now with LESS drops, forcing players to go to hard mode just to get any valued drops that might help them make some money?

Me and 2 other guildmates are about 50% into Nightfall, ran 2 missions, killed over 20 bosses in that time and not a single… yes I repeat… not a SINGLE gold or purple drop? Hell we even barely scraped by with about 800g income for each of us.

Getting sapphires and gems are so damn rare now that getting geodes or djinni essences just to even GET a chance to rare salvage into a gem is non existent now! We have salvaged over 50 essences or geodes between the 3 of us and not a single gem. How are we supposed to get Vabbi armor? We can’t make enough plat to buy the gems at 3p apiece let alone even get rare gems??!?

I am sorry that the reply to this is “Play in Hard mode to get better drops!” This is not a valid solution. This is our first time in NF and the drops really are not getting us anything now. Before we could at least get a rare green here or there (usually at a low value of 3 to 5p max) and break even just to stay afloat when outfitting all of these heroes let alone yourself, skills, armor etc.

It does not make valid sense to “Gestapo” the game this late into it just to try and stop online gold traders and bots. The solution is to stop bot selling on Ebay (there are tons for sale and people are buying). The solution is to network sniff these people using bots on the game servers and ban the accounts. The economy is in shambles and on top of that still no hope of an auction house to help the declining players get the world back to a stable ground.

Priority #1 Stop the bots. Permanently ban the accounts using them.

Priority #2 Re-Evaluate the Loot Scaling Nerf. If we don’t get decent drops the fun factor of playing is greatly dropping off the deep end and fast (across the board of players).

Priority #3 Add a SIMPLE Auction House Solution. There have been one hundred variations of solutions, some complex, some simple. I even offered a sample idea. Do something at least. It isn’t that hard to implement with your SQL database design and the current level of the engine. It has been said time and time again there will be no Auction House…. well at least offer something to help resolve these 3 year old complaints.

I for one love Guildwars but right now… trying to finish NF and Factions for the first time, I am not loving it. I can’t afford to keep running mission after mission again and again just to get ***SOMETHING*** to keep the upkeep going and maybe a few new additions for my Heroes. Our guild is small … we don’t have enough time to play once through and then play again in hard mode… We are not asking for a free ticket here… but seriously… I have not seen a single green drop between the 3 of us and we have logged about 50 hours between the 3 of us since the nerf…. seriously…. I am not playing for the skills or the titles alone… we need new armor, new weapons, money to afford to buy something. We don’t have enough time to GRIND now just to get about -75% the loot drops at +75% required time to get anything since the nerf.

We don’t PvP.
We don’t use bots.
We just play the game when we can.
We eagerly await GWEN but with the nerf it will be the same lackluster drops?

The loot scaling has ruined the fun of GW now… Anet, if you are listening, please do something.

The only thing affected by loot scaling is solo farming. If your in your usual eight people party, then you aren't affected. Many people are complaining but some really good points have been made that support Loot scaling which I suggest you read some of the other topics.

1- They banned... slightly over 5500 bots i believe in May. Gaile said thats semi usual
3- Their are some awesome ideas lurking around sardelac. How about contributing to them?
On the front page you will find ideas on a Xunlai Trade Center (http://guildwarsguru.com/forum/showt...0151471&page=5) , And the Central Island topic which works with that, and a few more.

I personally hope the value of gold goes up again.

in response to your points:

Point #1: They already ban bot using accounts, there are just so many of them around its f-ing redonkulous. And you have to remember most the bot using accounts are stolen so they just go on to the next account they ripped off.

Point #2: if the bots subside I'm sure they will review it in the mean time your going to have suck it up like everyone else. Me honestly, I have more cash now than before the loot scale.

Point #3: i fail to see how this will help stop bots and loot scaling.

Scrinner... Hmmm seems the bots on Ebay and in game are still active and alive... go to ebay right now and you can find over 20 bot auctions and most with bids...

Also... I have contributed to Sardelac including time consuming images to go along with them...

I do hope the value of gold goes up but we can attest that since the loot scale, drops between 3 humans are much worse. Even the old solo farming spots are really bad now... 99% junk. Before you could at least get a rare rune or enough stuff to sell to make a little money for the time spent.

#2 - As far as I can tell the loot scale has been either removed or dramatically changed in normal mode in the last few days. I aml getting virtually 100% drop rate when soloing normal mode.

[QUOTE]you havent even played Nightfall once for the game and allready you are bitching about loot and not being able to afford vanity armor yet.

how about playing the game at least ONCE before the farming loot bitchfest.


if you measure fun by the amount of your loot find a game that gives unending higher power higher cost higher prestige loot to show you are better because you can farm 10 hours a day and have the loot to prove it.

buy a game you play for loot where players will actually bow to your awesome armor instead of playing for fun

[puts on flame retardant suit]

There is a very vocal segment in GW that has the attitude that "we worked hard in GW and should have something to show for it that others cannot get without an equally incredible time commitment". Making it harder for you to get anywhere in the game merely reinforces that idea, and gives those who believe in it an illusionary justification for pushing the concept further.

Right. Wrong. Who knows. It is just a game.

I have to quote a recent poster who won my admiration by saying something very much like:

GW is being transformed into an achievement engine for anti-social misfits who have no other means to demonstrate success in their lives.

I wish I could disprove his message.

Your request is touching, and well written, and will receive the same care and attention that other such requests to level the playing field receive here. The moral of this story is - read the wikis, get the builds, play through the campaigns, and move on. Anything beyond that involves grind, grind, grind, grind, and more grind.

Thanks!
TabascoSauce

[QUOTE][QUOTE=TabascoSauce]

GW is being transformed into an achievement engine for anti-social misfits who have no other means to demonstrate success in their lives.[/QUOTE]

OMG we seem to agree on something.

i have several accounts and can afford anything i want.

i got this by playing

IF i feel like it
WHEN i feel like it
ONLY if i feel like it

i hero/hench and play only if i am having fun and only if something in RL isnt more important.

if the cat wants petting or playing that is more important......... park the party......turn off the sound and they are dead/alive when i get back.

THE ONLY TITLE(S) that count for me are the drunkard titles i got sync dancing with friends. one on the monestary steps in factions

useless title and grind free as i was talking anyway and just for fun.

i never show other titles whichi got along the way

Oh noes we need alot of cash and rare skins to be able to play gw!!

Pre-Loot Scaling = More gold = Your gold buys less

Post-Loot Scaling = Less gold = Your gold buys more

The value of gold is the highest it's every been...but I think we knew what you meant.

Wait... are you trying to say you can do things in this game other than farming?

Sorry, but I have to disagree, though I know that was the intent. I do a little casual solo farming from time to time. My usual haunts have been the same, if not better, than before loot scaling started. By contrast, when I go out with a full party, the drops have been nothing less than pathetic...for everyone. I know this is unscientific, but it has been my first hand experience. While I can't agree with all the OP has said, I do believe that loot scaling has hurt the casual player more so than the farmer. I haven't really seen a significant drop it bots either. Seems they always find a way.

Regarding ur point #3:

they do have a very very small and very very very simple "Auction House" in the game... its called party Search Menu! (it has option for trade) but barely anyone ever uses it

I did not say that they are extinct but Arena net is Banning bots. Its not that they aren't fighting back. Much the contrary. Though there are Many bots the gold per dollar ratio is at its lowest ever. It costs ALOT of money to get gold now i believe though i personally do not go to gold buying sites since most have keyloggers.

@zknifeh, if the party search function is not successful at its intended function, that being specifically a method for people who have similar goals in-game to find eachother, then I'll go out on a limb here and say it will not be successful as a method for people - who have a desire to buy or sell in-game - to find eachother.

-----

Ahhh Loviatar. (Un)Fortunately for you, we all play WHEN we want, IF we want, and ONLY if we want.

You can add to your meaningful but incomplete list one more. HOW we want. Very important distinction. One you always seem to conveniently forget.

Thanks!
TabascoSauce

Normal drop rates when grouping are lower than before, despite what is said about loot scaling not affecting 8 man parties. I admit I tend to go hero and hench, but even with that, I'm still getting less drops, even low values drops than before, making it harder to get anything

I think i recall A-Net reps encouraging us to use fansite auction houses (like the guru auction). A-Net says they can't integrate an AH into the current build, so that would be the next best thing.

Well, I don't think it's "the next best thing." I think it's the next to next best thing. The actual next best thing would be if A-Net were to host an auction site via guildwars.com. Guru has a pretty auction site, that's for sure. It just takes 2.5 minutes to load the opening page - on average. When you've finally gone through all the links to post an item for sale, it's probably taken anywhere from 10-15 minutes... to post a single item. I'm not super web savy, so I can't say why the guru site is so slow, but I'm observant enough to recognize that it IS slow. Painfully so some times.

A-Net was able to start their own wiki, and integrate that into the game. I don't think it would be that much harder for them to make an auction website and link that into the game as well. You wouldn't have to upload an image of your item, because they already have a full library of images you could select from. It could work the same way the kiki does, in that a link in the game minimizes GW and open up a browser with the GW Auction house. It could include all neccessary disclaimers like "prices are set by players, and A-Net assumes no responsibility for sales passing through this site, blah blah blah..." So, failing to be able to have an auction house in the game itself, i think that THIS would be the next best thing.

I’ve done every quest and mission in the game and for the longest time I have not had any money problem but since the loot scaling my money has don’t nothing but gone down.

I used to farm or do the odd run or two for money to pay the extras I wanted.

But since loot scaling the only thing I’ve been able to just stay afloat on paying for guild related upkeep. I have no money for skills, no money for Guild Hall NPC’s, no money for new armor.

Now I’m sure if started a new character I’d be fine but I don’t really feel like started more I already have 10 PvE chars most have done everything and I find since the loot scaling I don’t have the money to do new things this game has started to bore me. Right now the only things that keep me playing are.

1. Friends love chatting and having fun with them.
2. Guild I run a guild and I’ve put a lot of work in it.
3. PvP has given me a lot of new fun things to do.
4. GWEN this better be worth the wait.

A lot of my friend are also getting bore some are moving to other games some just play to chat with me and there other friends. We used to talk about doing things together missions quests capping skills. We still talk about some of it but now most of it been anti loot scaling.

I’ve helped many players do quest missions and stuff after the loot scaling but I almost get nothing other then whites and maybe the odd purple in a party of 8.

Before the loot scaling I used to get lots of gold and greens in a party of 8. Almost all my friends would always bug me because out of all of them I would almost always get the green and gold lol but now I get almost nothing a purple if but some random luck it drops. All my friends have the same problem hardly any good items drop any more.

I know there are many good reasons for the loot scaling but for a lot of the players I know it has done nothing but hurt them and even make lot of them think about going to other games. The boring level has been rising and for myself I think after I beat GWEN and lock my stuff in for GW2 I’m probably not going to play again until GW2 that’s if gw2 is even worth it. I’m even debating getting GWEN now before all this GW was never a debate of if I should do something or not now it almost why bother it just more boring same game play after the other.

I used to love this game and never think of playing something else now to me GW is dead and my friends are almost the only reason I still play.

Please do something this is killing the game.

Some other ideas would be to lower the cost on fixed things.

A guild is an endless hole on money so make guesting and membering free.

Lower the cost of GH NPC.

Lower the cost of skills

Lower the cost of set items like keys, id kits and so on.

I don’t know what to do I’m finding myself drawn to other games and slowly find it harder and harder to get any fun out of GW.

Please stop killing a game I used to love and do something to fix it.

It funny I feel lost in a world I knew by heart.

I myself HAVE played through Proph factions and NF over 10 times ea. campaign and I do not like the loot scaling. I wasnt a heavy farmer but on occasion I would go farm if I needed a little cash. Now its pointless to do so since youre lucky if you can get 500g in 30 minutes.

lol people do this in GW. everyday I see someone saying love your armor whered you get it.

Haven't we been through all of this before.

The point of the matter isn't a flame war here... It appears a growing consensus of people are realizing that loot scaling is greatly in effect, bar none.

I have the skills, I have the elite A+++ builds, I have the perfectly loaded out Heroes that I use all the time... etc etc... the point is progress... loot is far less. Gold may have a higher value now but getting less decent drops than before (even light blues, purples or golds)... it is very hard to continually press onward without a vast increase of forced grind.

Yes. Forced grind. Unless a one in a million charitable person is going to donate me some plat... I am having to go out and run missions, quests, ahem ... Grind just to hopefully get 1 plat now.

No use in yelling at me about finishing the game... I have beat Prophecies twice and have Factions and NF at about 50% progress. I have over 10 characters... Read the wikis, made the builds, joined guilds, etc etc.

All of you people that are already rich and bored and have it all... you don't really care about this issue. If you are still with young broke toons / in a small guild or just solo.... unless you have triple the time now just to accumulate loot... the "poor gw players" are at an all time loss with this nerf.

Im confused by this thread.....

You cant get green drops? Green drops are exempt from loot scaling.
You cant get rare items? Rare items are exempt from loot scaling.

The only thing being affected by loot scaling are common items and collector drops.

Just this weekend we did a Forgemaster run in normal mode (hexbreaker aria pwnz in there) with a full party of 8 human players, we had at least 1 rare item drops for everyone (granted i got a crappy Death/Domination shadow staff...but i digress) and several shards.

Regardless of what the OP needs or wants to continue playing, like so many others the FUN is gone, or going from the game.

Fanboys can say all they want how the Loot Scaling is not affecting them, or they like it better, or whatever their reasons, but like it or not, more players are against the Loot Scaling and less players in my Guild, Alliance, and Friends List are playing now as a result. I know this because quite a few are friends/acquaintances IRL.

Loot Scaling didn't alleviate the bot problem, and I would rather have bots than a game with no reward system in place beside the time you spend playing.

Not enough gold now for alcohol.
Not enough drops for common materials.
Not enough gold now skill purchases.
Not enough gold to warrant buying lockpicks or any other keys for that matter.
Just enough gold to break even when using ID and salvage kits.

Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun. Don't think I'll be recommending GW to any others until something gets fixed.

[QUOTE]and i have none of the above as i am a truly casual player who started in early beta and still have only about 1800+ hours over more charcters than you but i play for funnot status of toys

my heroes get hand me downs
i have the skills i decided would be useful/fun and thats all
i still have my original DROKS armor because i like it

i dont spend much but i can buy anything i want which i do at times

i can make a low level (lowlands low) vemin run and net 2/3 plat an hour NOT COUNTING

steel from salvage (got 3 this run)
dyes (only junk but for give away)
collectables i want (festival items)


why not play it instead of reading about it?

those are the worst complainers of all
who cares about hoarding loot...........i give it away and it still piles up.

i have never made one sale to another player.......not once

give stuff away to friends and noobs yes. sell never except merchant

The gold drops are still there. I'm getting a steady drop rate of golds. No they don't happen on each run, but they happen often enough for "rares".

I got an Elemental Sword a few weeks ago. Req 11, nice stats. Sold for over 100k. I didn't get it from a chest. It dropped from a dying monster's hand. I was playing in Normal Mode and was with a full party of 8 henchies. So, it's possible.

Now, if you are expecting stuff like Elemental Swords each day while in normal mode, you will be greatly disappointed.

Prowlinger, it really just sounds like you have bad luck with drops and are blaming it on the loot scaling, when loot scaling is most prominent on solo farmers, not people who play normally.

Before Nightfall I decided to farm Ghial. Someone i knew had to farm him over 30 times to get his staff. I killed him twice in a row and got 2 staves. Thats a 100% drop rate. What about the other guy who got it 1 out of 35 times? To him, the game must feel like a giant suckfest....all that grinding for only 1 staff. Meanwhile i got 2 staves in less than 30 minutes of playing.

Two players, two different experiences. Same game.

My in game farming now is about 1 hour a week. Im VERY slow, since...im lazy...and i take breaks in the middle of farming. I havent been making money farming, since im inefficient and it bores me easily.

However...i have been playing, alternating between my Rit, Assassin, Elementalist and Necromancer through Factions, and ive been making money at a steady rate more through missions and quests than farming. And its more fun really.

Are you making the case that ANet has changed the game system such that playing the game nets you more money per unit of time than a dedicated deliberate attempt to make money?

Based on my own recollection of playing recently, I am thinking you may have a point - and it is messed up. A dedicated attempt to make money should, um, well, make more money?

Thanks!
TabascoSauce

Well to me it just sounds like you are unlucky, like me. I don't know maybe loot scaling might have something to do with it. I have been able to get by though. I find farming very boring. However I recently started doing it trying to pick up Bazzr's Staff.



I've been at this run for the past 3 days.

I usualy average about 10 - 15 runs per day depending on how fast I get bored and I clear that area of those 4 bosses, and all the mobs in between. I don't know of a Rt/N build that can solo this area so i've been using heros and henchies.

So far I havn't received any greens or rare golds. But those are exempt from loot scaling so I can only blame that on my bad luck. I did manage to gain 1 black dye, and 1 monstrous fang but those two are exempt from loot scaling.

Now as far as items that are not exempt from loot scaling I can say that I barely ever come out with more then 2 whites. Part of it is because i'm in a party of 8, but still that seems kind of low. As far as gold, well I don't see much of that either. The lack of gold and drops in general might also be the outcome of the suggested "anti nuking code" or whatever it's called.

I'm not sure if such a code exists or not, but between my minion bombing, an SF hero, and a hench mage, i'm starting to think it does. Are you nuking or running with nukers?

Anyway all that aside, I wasn't doing to bad in Elona as far as merc trash goes. I managed to get my rit ancient armor after all, although I already had most of the materials.

i think the problem here is not the gold items and stuff, its the gold(money) i know what im talking about, last week i deleted all my lvl 20s and i made a fresh start,and finding gold is no easy task wen u have to buy skills,armor,weapons.
Gold items drop like rain in hard mode so i dont complain about that, only problem is trying to selling them wen they are worth nothing now, (look at colosals,dead swords, etc) i think the only way to make some money now is selling lockpicks or tomes, and they are pretty hard to find imo.

so far my char is lvl 11 :P and a total of 86 gold in my storage.

i think the problem here is not the gold items and stuff, its the gold(money) i know what im talking about, last week i deleted all my lvl 20s and i made a fresh start,and finding gold is no easy task wen u have to buy skills,armor,weapons.
Gold items drop like rain in hard mode so i dont complain about that, only problem is trying to selling them wen they are worth nothing now, (look at colosals,dead swords, etc) i think the only way to make some money now is selling lockpicks or tomes, and they are pretty hard to find imo.

so far my char is lvl 11 :P and a total of 86 gold in my storage.

There already is an extensive thread about this. Read it you might found it amusing.http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10169755

The loot scaling was meant two "hurt" two types of players - bots and the ones causing a great deal of inflation. Effectively removing large amounts of gold from the economy.

As far as I can tell it has worked. Not only by noticing in game prices but by reading the these rant threads.

The places that bot gold are fewer and the prices have risen quite a bit - exactly what happens when supply gets limited. Your never going to stop them, however it is MUCH more difficult for many to justify the expense of purchasing gold now and the smaller amount means that the bans are more effective.

There are two classes of those that can no longer acquire gold - those that refuse to adapt and those that were the problem to begin. For a casual farmer gold is easier than ever to acquire - those looking for 500 or less plat have a myriad of venues that give them 10-15k an hour along with golds, greens, mods, and lots of experience. Those that complaints follow along the lines of "only problem is trying to selling them wen they are worth nothing now, (look at colosals,dead swords, etc)". While many on the forums (and many of the complainers) did such it was a VERY small percentage of people doing so but that amount of gold flowing around caused casual players to not be able to afford much. According to their server logs a while back the average player has around 20k in the bank - the price of dead swords is irrelevant to them.

The majority of players spending ability has *greatly* increased - I can now easily afford to equip all my heroes in everything but sup vigor runes (I can, however, afford majors) from simple farming now. Heck, I can nearly equip all of them just from selling the rubies I get from trade contracts. Just from the fixed quest rewards in the other chapters I have *more* than enough to fully equip a character whereas before one had to farm. Again, what got "hurt" are those that are looking for max titles, tons of unlocks from skill purchases, and other higher end things.

Amusingly enough I rather suspect that the way these complaints are going only reinforces Anet's decision as the main ones complaining are the ones they were trying to slow down anyway. Some may find the above bad, some find it good. Loot scaling has made the game much more pleasurable to me, I have a much easier time affording things - but then again I was never one to farm the UW, Urgoz, or run the player market. Plus when something make a farming method not profitable I just change to one that is - it is not like farming Vermin was loads of fun and farming undead horrid.

Excuse me,

But would someone please tell me exactly where this loot scaling is happening?

I do see some anit- farming code in that the first few kills in an area yield very little and if I kill several things at once with some kind of AoE I get very few drops.

Over the last few days playing in normal mode and killing things one at a time I get drops from every single kill after the 1st 5 kills in Plains of Jarin, all over Shing Jea Island, Old Ascalon, North of Bergen and Pre-Searing (including the Northlands). And I get exactly what I would have expected before the loot scaling when playing with a 4 man H&H team in Pongmei Valley

Yes, there is loot scaling in Hard Mode. But, since I have made and spent over 500k in the last 2 months in Hard Mode, I don't think I am going to complain about that.

So please tell me - in normal mode, where is this loot scaling happening?

Read enough crap, and here's my quick word:

You haven't beat the game. You have no right to complain.

In normal mode, I was getting one gold drop a day or MORE and I was NOT farming, and had a full AI group. I really doubt the things you have said are completely true.

/signed

All in All, I have made a ton more money since loot scaling has come into affect, before I was getting by but since loot scaling, I have gotten one set of Fow armor, about 6 15k set of armors and a vast majority of nice weapons...I farm about 3 times a week for about an hour or two an djust play random things like Deep/DOA or just help a guildie out...I also made alot of cash just pushing characters throught the campaigns...this is not to brag or anything, just my experience, hope some people have gotten this as well....

1)Skill still cost the same. It starts out at 0g but once it reaches 1k each it stays 1k each.

2)You gotta equip all your characters with armor, weapons and many choose look over functionality such as myself.

3)Guild Halls and the NPC's within cost a fortune.

4)ID kits and Salvage Kits cost 100g, 400g, 500g, and 2000g

5)Chest running

On behalf of new players I really don't know how they can effectively earn enough money to afford such things. I mean if I paid $50 x 3 (all 3 campaigns) and I can't play the game the way "I" want to play it then why should I even bother? I know I don't need to have "uber" items and tons of gold but it's a part of the game and you can't expect new players to shell out real money for a game that basically limits all new players to only the "bare essentials" just to get through the game. GW is already very linear as it is and to make it that much more linear is not making things any better. Many people like to maximize their gaming experiences. Stuff like owning Guild Halls, armors that fit to taste, unlocking skills and even chest running. How does a new player afford to open chests? I know they don't have to but it's part of the game design. Quite frankly new players are gonna have a much longer/harder time doing the things we older players took for granted.

Again I am speaking in a new players point of view and not of myself.

I am confused too by this thread

I give you my clue for FREE ........its a gold mine.

We have 10 fingers & only 1 brain LOL .....+ a LIMITED amount of playing time

So you have to make logical/rational choices linked to the GOALS you want to achieve....you follow me?

I play GW since the 11th of may 2005 & I personaly have ONE & ONLY one lvl20 pve character. I completed the 3 stand alones with this character and I rock, believe me. As soon as the game is released I buy it, and I play + I have fun + you can PUG + the map is virgin LOL (i was among the first to do Urgoz & The Deep) + all the wise players STRANGELY aggro together = YOU get rich ....do you still follow me?

So you create an advantage that will help you to level up other characters, and much much much much quicker than creating one character for each profession you like.

My girl friend has 3 characters, friends 3 and there is one spot left for one PVP character.

This is my way of playing GW, cause I hate redoing what I have done ONCE. same for films, I hate to watch a film more than one time.

My safes/mules LOL are stuffed with gold, purple and few greens and rare items = I dont need to lose my time spamming main channel with dozens of WTS + all my heroes have max lvl + best equipment possible.

The only things I ever bought were cc alias candy canes

This is the trick and dont complain cause I HM with heroes + henchies + lockpits = I have gold and purple drops each time.

And every month I make my treasure tour which cost nothing and bring me good drops too + money...less than before but still good.

I solo smites in UW from time to time when I need cash for lockpits LOL and I have 805K in bank.

I never make what you call a REAL BARGAINING trade, I give items for free and sell them 50% off the market price to mates

So you are a bit late, think about it and TRY to make the good choices.

You can only blame yourself

Good game and have fun...........

1)Skill still cost the same. It starts out at 0g but once it reaches 1k each it stays 1k each.

2)You gotta equip all your characters with armor, weapons and many choose look over functionality such as myself.

3)Guild Halls and the NPC's within cost a fortune.

4)ID kits and Salvage Kits cost 100g, 400g, 500g, and 2000g

5)Chest running

On behalf of new players I really don't know how they can effectively earn enough money to afford such things. I mean if I paid $50 x 3 (all 3 campaigns) and I can't play the game the way "I" want to play it then why should I even bother? I know I don't need to have "uber" items and tons of gold but it's a part of the game and you can't expect new players to shell out real money for a game that basically limits all new players to only the "bare essentials" just to get through the game. GW is already very linear as it is and to make it that much more linear is not making things any better. Many people like to maximize their gaming experiences. Stuff like owning Guild Halls, armors that fit to taste, unlocking skills and even chest running. How does a new player afford to open chests? I know they don't have to but it's part of the game design. Always the same old arguments too. "You don't need money". "You don't need those rare/nice looking weapons/armor" WHAT IF NEW PLAYERS WANT IT? I think we all agree if they want something they are gonna have to go and earn it. But why is a new player now expected to work 3x as hard as a player who started 1-2 years ago? Awhile back a recommended GW to many of my friends and co-workers but lately not so much. Quite frankly new players are gonna have a much longer/harder time doing the things we older players took for granted.

Again I am speaking in a new players point of view and not of myself.

Anything player market driven is the same - you get less gold yet it costs less. Even the really rare stuff (say a req9 elemental sword) is coming down in price and the only ones that can afford it are the long term farmers. It is currently not much harder to get than before and as the more "rich" players spend their gold it will quickly stabilize back to where it was before in terms of difficulty to purchase.

The only thing that hurts are the fixed price items - skills, kits, and the base armor cost. But then, you should make enough just going through the campaign to purchase most wanted skills (at least enough for a few significantly different builds) and base armor (which you can now afford to purchase all your insignias and runes whereas before it would have been hard to get all radiant). This is all that a normal casual player will do - the whole point of titles and prestige armor is grind. Some of the titles and armors are now easier, some harder. Mostly that ended up being a wash as far as difficulty goes.

Then, once one character beats the game you are suddenly opened up to farming areas that beats the pants off anything other than the older high end farming areas (UW, FOW, and other elite areas). As easy - and in some cases easier - than mid level normal mode farming and more profitable than those areas before loot scaling. It is quite simple for a 130 dervish or a 55 necro to farm low level HM areas and those builds are *cheap* - it takes very little time with them to afford a 55 monk. Once you get it then you have quite a few really really simple areas that make 10+ plat an hour (Bergin Hot Springs, Dead Sword Farming, Fharanur the Lost City, etc) - I can actively watch TV and farm those areas.

So, again, the only people that feel this are the high end farmers and the people hunting max titles, mostly the high end farmers - while a significant portion of the forums not so of the game world. There are many more people that just noticed prices dropping and their income staying the same (as they group and do not keep up with forums/updates) and are happy - this will be especially true with ones that took time off and will be back for GWEN.