Still waiting for your pre-order items to be fixed?

Me too:

This has been brought up several times already, but with no result. So I sent in a support email regarding the fact that some of the pre-order items are incomplete and can no longer be made to be complete by adding a second mod to them. My specific issue, though it is by no means the only one, is with the Insightful Spiritbinder. This Factions pre-order staff is missing a wrap and will not accept one. This makes the staff functionally useless. Some people may say that just because it is missing a single mod that it is not useless, well these days perfect mods are practically free even if you can't find and salvage one on your own. So any staff that does not, and cannot, accept a wrap IS functionally useless. The responses I received (posted below in chronological order) indicate that nothing will be done unless enough noise is made at the fan sites. So here's me starting a little noise. Maybe enough voices can make a loud enough noise that someone will hear it. Maybe there are not a million people who bought the Factions pre-order, or who care about the Spiritbinder, but I don't think that those of us who specifically bought the pre-order for the bonus items should be penalized because we are in the minority. Please support this issue by making your voice heard and hopefully we can rectify this situation.

Thanks
Mr Oofus



Customer (*********)
I would like to know why, after purchasing the Nightfall pre-order specifically for the purpose of obtaining USEFULL pre-order items, I am now stuck with an Insightful Spiritbinder, which has no second mod and cannot accept a second mod. The item is functionally useless and I strongly feel that I have been wronged in this regard. Pre-order items used to be upgradeable, if they were incomplete to begin with, but for some inexplicable reason that changed one day and has yet to be changed back. I, and everyone else I know who purchased the Factions pre-order, would greatly appreciate this issue finally be addressed and rectified. In short, we strongly request that the incomplete pre-order items, such as the Spiritbinder be made to accept modifications where there currently are none.

Thank you,
*********

------------------------------

Response (Erick)
Hello,Thank you for contacting Guild Wars Support about this.We encourage you to consider posting your suggestions on one of the many Guild Wars Fansite message boards. A compiled list can be found on the official Guild Wars web site at http://www.guildwars.com/community/fansites/. By posting on one of these message boards, other players can comment on your ideas, concerns, and suggestions, and Development Team members are able to catch up on what the community wants to see in Guild Wars. Fansite forums make it easy and efficient for us to learn from those playing the game.Thank you for your efforts in assisting us to make Guild Wars the best gaming experience possible.

Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team

------------------------------

Customer (*********)
Thank you for the extremely prompt response. However, This has already been addressed several times at Guild Wars Guru, and to date nothing has been done about this. I do not believe that continuing to post about this issue on any of the fan sites will help to resolve it. This is why I have decided to make a formal request that this issue be addressed. Again I ask, that the pre-order items that are incomplete, specifically the Insightful Spiritbinder, be fixed so that they can have a second modification added to them. Most of the pre-order items are in fact complete, so the reason why the Spiritbinder is not eludes me.

Thank you,
*********

------------------------------

Response (Erick)
Hello,Thank you for contacting Guild Wars Support again.Your feedback and suggestions are important to us. Posting suggestions and feedback on fansite forums is the best way to make sure that the developers see them.In fact, discussing your suggestions on public message boards can often be more beneficial than directly contacting the Guild Wars team. We ask for players to share feedback or ideas on the message boards because the resulting discussions can quickly give us a broader perspective than one-on-one conversations.Even though you may not receive a direct response to a post, the developers check the forums regularly, and this allows them to get a feel for the issues and features that are most important to the players.

Kind Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team

talk about a loop hole.

I know this is for preorders but, the goty items have this problem too, I've been wanting to use rhino's charge but its useless without the +30hp md.

Is it that hard to implement?

Apparently so... They are busy thinking up a new name for chitin fragments, after all

Aye, any useless GoTY items should also be fixed. Thanks for pointing that out pigdestroyer. Any and all incomplete bonus items should be fixed.

i support you, no point having useless items, this is why i am ptting off purchasing the goty items. because they are incomplete, maybe thats an incentive for anet.

i support you, no point having useless items

I like to throw the Spiritbinder on my caster heroes when I'm too lazy to get them a better weapon. It suits them well, but other than that, yes they are useless.

The Spiritbinder actually works pretty well for Hero casters simply because of the bonuses that it does possess.

EDIT: Echuu soooo beat me..

The GotY weapons work GREAT on heroes even without the other mods.

What's sad is that you once could actually do this. I have an Insightful Spiritbinder of Fortitude on one character. But when Anet changed the salvage rules tying them to titles and making salvage 100% successful with only the chance of destroying the item, people were salvaging mods off of preorder items.

They just nerfed it and never BOTHERED to let us re-add items. Perhaps they don't have an in-game mechanic for permanent upgrades. Perhaps they just don't care because not enough people complained. Perhaps they were too busy working on their next nerf.

Sorry, I'm just tired of changes like this that aren't well thought out and end up making the game less fun and rewarding.

(Puts on flame retardant suit.)

-Forjo

But wouldn't they work even better WITH the missing mods? Heroes might work well with the gear the come with (Rusty Machete 2-5 dmg FTW), but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to use equipment as good as the stuff we use ourselves.

As added incentive...

I was looking at the GotY upgrade in the online store just 2 days ago. At 4.49 Euros, it looked like a pretty good buy. Before making the purchase, I checked out the weapon stats. I then learned that the weapons all came with a single mod, and that a second could not be added. So i decided that unless something like that gets fixed, i wont be dropping any money on that.

I understand why these were made so you can't add mods (people were salvaging the present mods and selling them), but making them unable to receive additional mods only half fixed the problem. It stops people from abusing the modible nature, but punishes the honest folks who weren't. The problem is easily fixed by adding a standard second mod to items that would normally carry one. This mod would complete the items, and also be a permanent (unsalvageable) mod. If the ones that have already spawned can't be upgraded in this fashion (i know they can - all the green staves went through a change not long ago), all people would have to do is type "/bonus" to receive the more complete ones.

A-Net, you've done a great job of listening lately with things like the leeching issues, faction title conerns, Jade Quarry Fix, and targeting toggle. Let's keep the trend going and see about fixing these bonus items so they are at least on par with the double modded spear and scythe of NF.

Thanks Much

The current list of items that are incomplete without the ability to add mods to them include:
Nevermore Flatbow
Rhino's Charge
Soul Shrieker
Spiritbinder
Ithas Bow
War Pick


Whereas the list of perfects include:
Tiger's Roar
Serrated Shield
Wolf's Favor
Luminescent Scepter
Dragon Fangs
Sunspear
Soulbreaker
Canthan Targe - Strange but still perfect
Bone Idol - Strange but still perfect
Chimeric Prism - Strange but still perfect
Censor's Icon - Strange but still perfect


Please tell me if I missed anything, thanks.



If you consider things like a hammer with no health or armor to be perfect...then ok. I for one did not get the Factions pre-order to equip my heroes, there were no heroes then. I got it so I could have unique looking weapons, but if they are not worth using then I may as well not have them

Anet, fix this.

It's a slap in the face to your GOTY and pre-order customers that their rewards are a joke, worse than collector items. It's also a waste of artwork and effort on your part, when none of the designs are actually being used by actual players. Just make them upgrade-able but not salvageable. End of problem.

Well i dont see why they took it away in the first place. I mean my sin has sundering dragonfangs(still) and my rit has a 2nd mod on his spiritbinder(still)., They were spawned before nightfall. But they were also able to salvage those mods off. I'm guessing thats why they took the ability to spawn moddable ones away. although i dont see why they cant try to make it so you cant salvage the mods off. But maybe they are.....thats just what i think.

Well, i would definitelly support reenabling ability to mod bonus items.

btw: iirc, collectors stuff cannot be salvaged, but can be upgraded, so apropriate imtem flag is out there.

besides that, what about fixing those caster bonus items that look like bad luck drop more than "bonus" items. They sometimes have stats alike "el-mo-rt" fabled drops. Spiritbinder is good example of what can be doe to make it right - tied to primary att, generic HCT/HSR mods ...

I want to mod my preorder and GOTY items as well.

I think they have the ability to make them unsalvageable because once I put runes on pre-sear armor when I got to Post sear and when I upgraded my armor I couldnt salvage the rune off. So that is a case of existing functionality, you can mod it but cant salvage. If they could make it like this I would be happy.

Yeah I say no fix of these items should = boycott of GW:en prerelease bonus packs.

Lets not talk crazy now I still love the game, I would just love it more if they could find it in their hearts to fix it.

while i see the stink about the weapons i usually use a vast amount of greenies anyways....but my main concern and ive seen it in many threads before about being some error in the system....person goes to contact support....support gives you a crap automated response....send again.....wooo another automated response...the first two of which say the same...exact...thing. while i see the importance of the automated response filtering out some of the more useless of questions....the serious ones never go through. and whats more whenever gaile is in kamadan or LA or whatever and someone will tell her directly theres a bug with god knows what. she will say well if you open up a ticket with support they will be able to fix it. problem is you do just that and you get forwarded to fansite forums? call my cynical but wtf. i work in customer support and have...come to think of it...always worked in customer support. and in my experience unless your dealing with people hands on... nothing gets done. i know dev team and whatnot are busy doing their dev team stuff which is fine but is there really no other way of getting through the automated system to actually talk with someone other than sending emails to support 5 or 6 times? just my opinion anyways....

Exactly .

Meh. I'll still buy the pre-order if it offers a "headstart" or "sneak peak".

Besides, the Faction pre-order didn't actually cost you anything, now did it?

Of course, the Nightfall was another story... but you got a slot with that, too.

I had a thread like this a few months ago, Gaile even posted in it, but nothing happened.
Anet has known about this for nearly a year, they dont care, theyre like: LOOOL them nubs paid for stuff they cant use, we sure fooled them!

/signed

If they don't want them modable, at least add a second permanant mod.

I guess it would be nice. I have all the pre-orders, and bought GOTY upgrades for my accounts.

Now, I don't think it's a big deal if they don't change them back. I always thought it was just a nice bonus to have, when you first start out a character. I use them until I find the "cool" gear. I don't think it should be a priority change though.

If they do, great. If they don't, no problem.

/not really signed. :P

We'll add this to the Community Summary for next week. I can't make any guarantees, but will try to find out any information that is available.

well that closed the thread i think lol

There are 2 possibilities I’d like to see for these items. What would you all prefer?

Either return them to the mod-able state they used to be. With the new salvage system in place there is no reason not to. The way it is now, if I salvage an item, I am guaranteed to get what I want anyway. And so what if my bonus item wont get destroyed? It’s not like I can turn around and sell what’s left to a player or even the merchant. No harm no foul.

Or, add a non-salvageable, non-replaceable mod that is actually usable, in most cases I think a fortitude mod would be the way to go. Please don’t add something like mastery, it’s just a waste, nobody wants a +1(20%) Hammer Mastery. Or perhaps add something unique yet usable, something that maybe isn’t the greatest mod in the world but that cannot be duplicated on any other weapon.



They do make decent starter items, but frankly these days even the newest of newbies can get a perfect item by the time they are able to meet the reqs of these bonus items, so it’s kind of a moot point. And quite frankly I’d be hard pressed to believe that the SERRATED SHIELD is a starter item, yet that remains perfect, useful AND unique, arguably one of the coolest items in the game



Why would that close the thread? I think people should still have the opportunity to make their opinions known on this.



Thank you Gail, I appreciate any effort you can make.

i ended up buying the goty upgrade from the stupid online store.

when i found out the items weren't modable or max stats i went to support to post a complaint.

when they pointed me to the forums i demanded a refund of my 5$.
they said they couldn't.

im currently talking to my cc company to get it canceled.

And the funny part is, the "perfect" pre-order items are also just about as useless as the imperfect ones due to their random mods.

ALL the preorder items that have complete mods have reqs that do not match either mod, which of also do not match eachother. Tiger's Roar: Energy Req storage, Faster casting Fire, Faster casting Air. Wolf's Favor: Divine Favor, Faster casting Healing, Faster casting Protection. And the list goes on.

The caster items effectively becoming nearly useless to the average user, as they won't often be meeting all reqs or use applicable attributes for such items...

Sadly, i never use the preorder items anymore, my heros get them. Despite purchasing all preorders AND GoTY pack, i do not get to experience what was promised. If Anet had planned to do this, then they should INCLUDE a disclaimer with all the preorders and online packets about items NOT being mod-able... That is the only way the could have reasonably done such a thing. As it stands, they gave players something with much potential for fun, w/o out so much as a warning that they would NOT be able to use the items as the customer saw fit... Not a very good image for Anet to give their customers...

Just my 2 cents.
cheers.

+armour would be good

The fact that these items are broken is currently the only reason i use them, i modded both the bow and hammer for my ranger and warrior before anet got around to changing the items so they are pretty unique, if they ever change them back then they will just get deleted like all the other pre-order crap.

They should at least let me rename my Ithas Bow to something more appropriate, like "Hair Shirt" or "LOL, Sucker". Worthless. Not even max damage (13-25).

Some of the items are ok as is, but others need some help.

Tiger's Roar - Focus Item
Req 9 Energy Storage (12 energy)
HCT Air 20
HCT Fire 20

Not perfect by any means, but not bad. An Ele will easily meet the req for the energy gain. It is a primary attribute, and professions not making use of their prime attribute should re-evaluate their chosen profession. Benefit for the other two mods doesn't have any req save for the placing of a skill on the bar. Gale would could be very useful to a fire ele (causes KD, but casts faster than meteor spells). So item has some uses.


Nevermore Flatbow
15-28 dmg (req 9 Marks)
Extend Poison 33%
15^50
20% customized

This one is hurting for a bow grip. Fortitude, Shelter, Warding, Defense, any of which would be fine. Enchanting is a poor choice, because points are already spent in WS to apply poison. Pick one, make it permanent, and no need to worry about salvage abuse.


Rhino's Charge (Hammer)
19-35 dmg (Req 9 Hammer Mastery)
Armor Penetration 20/20
15^50
20% customized

Also hurting for a grip. Fortitude, shelter, warding, defense again would be fine. You could also go with Enchanting for Whammos or other second prof enchants. Pick one, make it permanent, and no need to worry about salvage abuse.


Serrated Shield
Armor 16 (req 9 tactics)
Dmg -2 in stance
HP + 30

Perfect as is.


Wolf's Favor (monk focus)
12 Energy (req 9 Divine Favor)
HCT Healing 20
HCT Protection 20

This one is actually more practical than Tiger's Roar. I know a slew of monks who run (11/10/10 - H/P/D). They'll have mostly heal spells, and add in an Aegis or Prot Spirit. Having HCT for all your spells could save the bother of switching weapons... even better for Heroes. Prot monks might similarly bring numerous prot spells, and a Heal Party for emergancies. Having a chance to cut the two second cast on Aegis and Heal Party from one item is cool beans. The wand of choice can add to either. All in all, not a bad item with it's current mods.


Luminescent Scepter (Mesmer Wand)
Chaos Dmg 11-22 (Req 9 Domination)
HCT Illusion 20%
+5 Energy ^ 50
20% Customized.

This one just strikes me as being stupid. It's like people couldn't decide if they wanted to please Illusionists or Dominators so they pleased neither. First, Mesmers already have fast casting, so wand mods that do so aren't as useful as they might appear (recharge on the other hand...). Secondly, Most mesmers spec FC and Inspiration - for use of primary and e-management, and then choose between Domination or Illusion. It is exceedingly rare to see someone spec both Domination and Illusion as they have little left for anything else, which would quickly render them useless in the battlefield. Please! Think about mesmers. And think some more. And after that, a little bit more. You keep asking why mesmers aren't getting play.... things like this don't help the cause. (Req in dom and bonus to illusion.... sheesh!) Better to make a req in Fast Cast or Inspiration.... at least those are more likely to be met while still providing some kind of benefit.


Soul Shrieker (Necro Staff - also only staff in collection)
10 Energy
5 Energy
Dark Dmg (Req 9 Curses)
HCT Blood 20
HCT Death 20
Dmg 20% Customized

If there was a hint of indicision with the mesmer weapon, this one stands out as the High Puba of indicision. First, why not make the req the primary attribute? Why wasn't the Primary attribute the req for all these items (Bow and hammer as exceptions)? Who the hell specs Curses and Blood and Death Magic??? and has any room left over for Soul Reaping? It's called the SOUL Shrieker for cryinoutloud! Affraid that if you choose one type of magic (death/curses/blood) that you'll alienate the rest? Here's a solution for a simple staff that is useable by any necro:

The New and Improved Soul Shrieker (with common sense added)

Energy 10
Half Skill Recharge of Spells (20% chance)
11-22 Dark Dmg (Req 9 Soul Reaping)
+ 5 Armor [Staff Wrapping of Defense (Fort/shelter/warding work as nicely)]
+ 5 Energy [Insightful staff head]
+ 5 Energy ^50 [inscription slot]
20% Dmg Customized

There you go. A perfectly useful necro staff that alienates no necro with common sense.

Type "/bonus" to spawn items
Salvage mods from items
Sell perfect mods for 3-10k each
Toss unmoded items in garbage can
Type "/bonus" to spawn items
Salvage mods from items
Sell perfect mods for 3-10k each
Toss unmoded items in garbage can
Type "/bonus" to spawn items
Salvage mods from items
Sell perfect mods for 3-10k each
Toss unmoded items in garbage can
Type "/bonus" to spawn items
Salvage mods from items
Sell perfect mods for 3-10k each
Toss unmoded items in garbage can
Type "/bonus" to spawn items
Salvage mods from items
Sell perfect mods for 3-10k each
Toss unmoded items in garbage can
...


[sarcasm]Yeah, no harm no foul there.[/sarcasm]

Likely only use the sundering, insightful, and the fortitude from the shield if you can salvage the core. Still, that's 8-25K just for typing /bonus and using an expert salvage kit. People can SELL mods. That's why these were made unmodable in the first place. The best, and likely only solution is to add the mods that are missing and make them permanent.

what ever happened to the '' this item cannot be salvaged '' error...

I wonder why this has been changed.

I upgraded some items BEFORE the change, some things were fixed, e.g. you could not remove the poisonous mod of the Nevermore Bow. But at least add a +30 HP grip. Same for the Rhino Hammer.

The Serrated Shield is probably one of the few really useful items besides Sunspear/Scythe.

Easiest way to make the mods permanent is to simply turn the /bonus items into greens instead of their normal weapon type. Add the mods, make them greens, and be done with it.

Your entire premise is flawed. The way it used to be, the mods that came with them when you typed /bonus were UN-SALVAGABLE. If you spawned a Spiritbinder, it came with an insightful head but no wrap, the head was UN-salvagable, but you could still add your own wrap. Please do your homework before going into a whole "sarcastic" tirade. What you have suggested was never possible. Thanks for following along.

There was a post by Gaile several months ago saying something along the lines of that to the best of her knowledge, the preorders being changed to be unmoddable was an unintended side effect of an update.

In any case the preorders weapons should be changed again to be made fully moddable. There is no reason for them not to be. Some of the suggestions in this thread to give them better mods that still can't be changed is not a solution. The player should have the choice what mods he wants to use with them.