Shrine Blessings Unfair.

(I've said this before, but with the recent change to favour, I figured I'd bring it up again)

As most of you know, when we have Favour of the Gods, a player can kneel at one of the res shrines where there is a statue of a God and an Avatar of that God will appear. From that Avatar you can receive blessings for a certain donation. Some of these blessings will increase a character’s attributes by 1 point. This is where the unfair part starts to creep in. Some professions can get all of their attributes boosted with a donation of 150gold. Other professions have to pay 150gold for each attribute. Here’s a quick run down:

150g for all attributes
Warriors (Balth)
Monks (Dwayna)
Rangers (Melandru)
Mesmers (Lyssa)
Necromancer (Grenth)
Assassins (Lyssa)
Ritualists (Grenth)

150g for each attribute
Elementalists (Dwayna, Grenth, Balth, Lyssa, Melandru)
Paragons (Dwayna, Dwayna, Balth, Balth)
Dervishes (Dwayna, Balth, Grenth, Lyssa)


So to get the same benefit as the first group, the second group has to spend between 600g and 750g. It’s not much bother to drop 150g for a boost across four attributes, but it’s significantly more of a bother to drop four and five times that much.

Some will argue, well it has to do with the lore and the patron gods of the professions. If that’s the case, I don’t see why the cost shouldn’t be proportionately reduced for those who have to spread their faith (and gold) across the pantheon. Further, as an example, the Paragon has two patron Gods, Dwayna and Balthazaar. Now, a monk can donate 150g to boost four attributes from Dwayna (though lore suggests Smite should be from Balth), while a paragon has to pay 150g for each of two attributes… to the same Avatar? Monks aren’t paying four times for each of their attributes, why are Paragons?

I would say that this unfair blessing pricing would be akin to charging anyone with the warrior profession double the price for keys at merchants (because of their spiffy ability to do chest runs with greater ease). I don't condone or support this idea, I'm just saying that it's a lot like it.

For those who say, “if you need those blessings, you’re playing the game wrong,” I say that these blessings are an aspect of the game intended to add depth and flavour. And if I, or anyone else wishes to explore that depth, we shouldn’t be unfairly penalized due to our character’s profession. Unless a side affect of these professions is that they get a larger portion of gold drops than the others – I didn’t think so.

Please, A-Net, reconsider these shrine blessings and how they balance in the game. Either cut the cost of the blessings for those with multi-deities, or make it so these blessings all grant full benefits.

I've never EVER used shrine blessings.

Seems like a waste to me. o_0

When i use them, i only use them in tougher areas, no where like in shing jea or anything, THAT would be a waste

I like the blessings though.

Since Guild Wars has been released, the only shrines I used were the ones to get to FoW/UW...

I really don't see how some +1 attribute shrine breaks the game...

Ok part of what balances it is availability. Warriors for example can only get stat boost by Balth, while eles can get it at Dwayna, Grenth, Balth, Lyssa & Melandru. Yes, eles can only get 1 stat boosted while wars get all, but eles have 5 opportunities while wars have only 1. Not all Gods shrines are in every area, so eles have a better chance of having one they can use than warriors. Just a thought to the balance logic there.

Well, if that's the case, and these are pretty much half fnished aspects of the game, I can only quote a group of wise old men who once said:

Just get the non-specific blessings. Dark Aura is my personal favorite. The blessings are generally a rip-off b/c they only last 20 minutes. Many quests take you through more than one explorable area so getting the blessings is usually pointless. They're great for low level players who may be in an area for a long time, like all those Bydek Byway quests in Factions.

I see what you're saying, but in all honesty, is an avatar of grenth really all that useful to a Fire Ele? I can have a blessing of some sort wherever I go... but I have to completely retool my build to do so... ok? Not really. Still think that either the cost for the single attribute boosts should be lowered, or the single boosts should be replaced with all encompassing ones (like for the fortunate 7).


And if one attribute is so completely useless, why even place them there at all? Personally, I would sooner see the attribute blessings completely removed than have them remain unbalanced... though I would prefer they simply get balanced.