Alternate use for tournament tokens

Our guild has been playing gvg ladder matches enough that I have a stack of over 150 tournament tokens that really serve no purpose for me. I just spend faction on them because I have nothing else to spend faction on (I've already unlocked everything on my account).

Our guild has been struggling in gvg at the bottom of a ladder, and competing in gvg automated tournaments is a pointless effort against guilds that hopelessly outclass ours in the current gvg metagame. I haven't gotten into hero battles or those tournaments either.

In the end, the tourny tokens are just something to spend faction on to avoid wasting it and just something else that takes up inventory space. If I manage to comlete a stack of 250, I will probably just end up trying to sell them (if there is even a market) or give them away, or just throw them away and start a new stack.

It would be nice to have something to do with them to have something to show for the 250k faction spent on a complete stack. Why not let the tournament NPC allow you to exchange 50 or 100 of them for a tournament reward point? Such a high exchange rate wouldn't cut into the tournament scene much which would still be the more lucrative for the high end gvg teams. This would give the lower end of the ladder something to do with the tokens to show for their time spent in gvg ladder battles (unlock a few pvp skins).

Edit: changed to use the correct term (tournament reward point)

Well i have just started a pile a few days ago, and im up to 50 already, cant GvG, and havent tried the HvH tournie yet, so i would like a better usage of them. or a better usage of faction points instead, at least Kurzick/Luxon gets you something

/signed for the use of tokens for something else or the Balth points alternatively

Why not?
/signed
I would personally like to see 1,000 faction exchangeable for a Flame of Balthazar so we can store more than 10k ready of GW:EN skills

/signed

I got 3 stacks in storage and am in no hurry to get more.

And too be honest, i'd rather trade 10k balth (not just 1k) for a flame of balthazar since at least they have monetary value (sell them for like 3k ea?)

/signed

i also have a stack going (and UAX) it would be nice if they could be used for somthing...

How about giving them a Merchant Value of 100g? Basically letting you convert Balthazar Faction into Gold.

That is a nice idea.

However, unsigned on anything else.

People have been complaining for so long, since Balthazar Faction was introduced, that they wanted SOMETHING to spend it on, no matter how useless, just so that they could continue accumulating it even with UAX. Well, you got it. Congrats

Really? There's nothing to spend them on, and they can't be sold? How sad.

/signed

Nothing except... you know, ENTERING tournaments, which is their function *rolleyes*

Tournaments are great for the top ranked guilds. What about the rest of the guilds that like gvg and ladder battles that don't want to be farmed in tournaments by the top ranked guilds?

1. Play to get better and improve yourself with experience in the tournament so you can compete. I am sure if you keep playing ladder battles even, you will improve eventually... I hope at least...

2. This is as if someone made a topic complaining that their orange dye can't dye armor black... orange dye has a purpose, dying stuff orange, and tournament tokens have a purpose, entering tournaments. Now, you might say "well this isn't true, because there are other uses for gold than buying orange dye but the only use for balthazar faction is unlocking stuff and buying tournament tokens" which would be legitimate if it weren't for the fact that this turns this topic into yet another "More uses for balthazar faction" topic (heck, maybe this was one of them all along...) and as it brings nothing new to the table, might as well be /closed. Now I know that analogy wasn't perfect, but perhaps a more precise one would be some whiny PvE'r elitist complaining that he has all the green weapons and 15k armors and he has nothing else worth spending gold on. You spent who knows how much on unlocking everything, now all that is left is tourney tokens, just as he spent who knows how much gold on a bunch of vanity items and now there is nothing left for him to spend gold on. A game isn't meant to last forever... you've reaped all the rewards, now you can either play for fun or find a game that has plenty of things to unlock (like WoW... you can grind forever in WoW and still not have the best stuff).

I think the real purpose of this thread is noting that there is nothing significant to spend Balthazar Faction on. We can only buy tournament tokens, but by participating in a tournament, you'll more than likely earn back the faction that you spent on the token.

If there is another use for the tokens, then that would make the UAX players happy. If you could trade in 3 or more for a Flame of Balthazar, that would be really great because there is always going to be a demand to buy faction, just like there is always going to be a demand for Elite Tomes.

PvE players would be interested in buying Faction so that they can buy PvE skills without having to reach a certain trainer, unlock skills for heroes, as well as use PvE tomes. Having a handful of Flames around is exceptionally useful for a group trying to assemble a specific build for PvP.

Skye, as I said, allowing the exchange of them for gold, or in your case, faction, would be fine with me. However, as this topic is yet another "More uses for balthazar faction" topic and as it brings nothing new to the table that couldn't be said in the several others, might as well be /closed.

And also, that wasn't the real purpose of the thread. You have a very legitimate point, participating in tournaments allows you to re-earn the faction, HOWEVER, the original poster basically said his guild was no good and can't play tournaments, so they don't have to worry about it and that was not what the purpose of the thread was.

And as I said in my last post, after a while there is nothing legitimate to spend gold on either. It's a game, blah blah blah, I don't feel like typing all that out again. However, one thing I forgot:

Balthazar faction exists for the SOLE PURPOSE of allowing you to earn PvP skills without playing any PvE. Originally, balthazar faction did NOT exist and was brought into existence because PvP players didn't want to have to play PvE to unlock stuff. If you have UAX, the faction has served it's purpose. It wasn't meant to be some sort of reward agent, just a way to unlock everything. When you have UAX, play for fun- or titles if you can't live without grind- or just stop playing... the faction has served it's purpose, so reap the reward (UAX)

The fact is that even if a person does play a full tournament, they end up earning MORE then the 1000 faction that they spent to play in the tourney in the first place! So what are we supposed to do with all of this extra faction and tokens?

Nothing. You unlocked everything in the game, the faction served its purpose.

well u can enjoy the fact that u are uax but why not have an extension to it? why does the pvp rewards have to end when u go uax...theres no reason why it shouldnt

im not saying that it should be exchangeable for things which are worth gold, but tourny tokens for reward points is an excellent idea.
u dont have to be winning tournys to unlock the cool skins on pvp chars u just have to win in pvp in general... the more u do the better u look (like pve) pvp rewards can go alot further than just the enlightenment of becoming uax..........

/signed

/signed

Obviously something must be done about them. Or just about the useless faction.

Give me a use for my 4 stacks of tokens, they just keep coming and are so useless they're not worth the storage slot they take.

I'll add my old idea here - Make it possible to exchange a stack of 250 tokens for 1 Celestial Sigil - a way for PvP guilds that do not HoH or farm to change guild halls from time to time.

I like changing it for reward points for pvp skins. Can't do many of the tourney times unfortunately...

/signed

4 stacks is ftl, we need something worthy to spend our faction on.... maybe trade 2 tournament tokens for 1 reward point, that would be nice.

So I guess Anet just wants me to pack up the game and never play again. Whats the use anyway if there is nothing left to unlock, buy, or gain?

You'll know how we feel when you actually do enough PvP to realize how useless faction is to us at the moment.

Yep, 50, 100, 250... people that it's not PvP all day have some rights too.

The next question, is: "Would it be a terrible thing if there was something we could spend faction / tokens on that were more tangible and/or rewarding?"

For example, a serious look at buying a 1k Flame of Balthazar for 3k faction.

Pros
-gives UAX and non UAX PvP players a consistent reward for playing any variety of gametypes
-does not add new gold into the economy, no inflation
-faction always in demand by other players, easy to sell commodity
-faction trader may be introduced, sinks some gold back into the game and keeps prices fair

Cons
-faster rate of unlocking, game-wide, may effect PvP Skill-Pack sales
-may promote AFK leeching to earn gold on Flame sales
-makes a higher personal faction cap less valuable

A faster rate of unlocking shouldn't be a threat to Anet, proven by them doubling all Faction gain in all forms of PvP on the release of Nightfall. Reducing the value of the faction cap is offset by the 3:1 trade value. I'd rather have 41k in my account for personal use than 13 Flames and 2k change. AFK leeching is already a problem in many forms of PvP, and would best be addressed directly.

The most important thing to note is that, tons of people who are UAX have been buying tokens because there's nothing else to buy with faction. They already have tons stockpiled, so if a new reward was introduced, it would be best for them to have that reward be obtainable using their stockpiled tokens. They earned them, after all.

I'd happily pay 10k++ faction for 1k flames instantly, thay would be far better than having the faction get wasted or turned into stacks of useless tokens. Turning nothing into something is always good. Because of that, I can offer lots of 'nothing' to get at least a little use out of it.

And faction + that title-based max faction cap could have been such a great tool for rewarding PvP players... such a waste.

I agree that It would be most fair to introduce a new faction use to be done through exchanging those tokens, even though I deleted most of mine for storage space reasons.

No. Would it be completely unnecessary? Yes. Stop playing to get a bigger e-peen and start playing for fun. As I said, trading faction for a flame of balthazar is acceptable, your reward IS faction. Trading faction for faction=Fine. Trading faction for anything else not currently available=Not fine.

Anet has bigger things to worry about then to cater to a bunch of people who only play for rewards, however. Rewards will never go on forever, except maybe in a game like WoW... which has monthly subscriptions.

I agree it would be cool if we could trade either balth faction or tournament tokens for something.. Even if its like 5 tokens or 5k balth for an alcohol or sweet, or something equally as pointless.

Well for some people, playing for a bigger e-peen is their fun (not me, mines too big as is). What's it to you how people have fun?

Trading faction in for stuff would give a boost to pvp as a whole. Killing noobs for the fun of it gets boring after a while. If I have more incentives other than that, I might play more.

Stop trying to make people play your way.

I think I should be able to go around shooting missiles and lasers from my monk. Why should I have to play YOUR way?

World of Warcraft is a good e-peen game. Guild Wars is a game for competition and fun, not giving yourself a big "e-peen". Most games out there have you play for fun... that is why they are GAMES. Something tells me your idea of "killing noobs" is hitting the Random Arena button, in which case, yes, I can see how that gets boring.

I will /sign this seems like a very good idea to allow the trade of them for other items or even just add a merchant price of 250-1000g i think that would effectively solve everything.

Games is also about rewards if u think it a bit... I think spending faction to get something useful stuff is a good way to have MORE fun in the game, not just growing "e-peen" if u want to call it that way. I dont understand why some people are so defensive in this discussion...
Why shouldn't PVP (especially GVG) players get any rewards besides tournaments or farming in pve? I also have couple of stacks of tournament tokens and i play gvg in a top guild, have unlocked all stuff way back, and got also very much PvE experience...
So far the best idea that i saw is Yawgmoths - trade stack of tournament tokens to a sigil. 250k faction cannot be farmed too fast even if u are a hardcore gvg:er, it won't hurt the economy. And ~20k cash for it wouldn't be bad, or a straight Guild Hall change. People need to change Guild Hall anyways if they change build or get bored to old one. So IMO it would be refreshing and u get more goals in the game...