Know why I hate playing Proph & Factions?

Inscriptions /puke

Great for hero weapons but my preference is uninscribable gear

Anyone who has gotten a perfect tyrian or canthan drop will agree on this point and the only things I ever buy in game are canthan q9 20/20 or 20/10 staves

For me you can keep your BDS, Eternal Blade and pretty much all NF drops (mostly because the NF skins are ugly too) anything that drops inscribable I will mod for a hero if I like the skin if not then it's for the merch

Bo Staff > all

I agree this ^ says it all about the way GW went. Treasure is meaningless anymore. It's almost like the total drive of the Anet developers is nothing more than senseless grind for titles and getting as many people as possible to move into their silly PVP system. Treasure hunting is totally dead. Why go out and hunt for anything when for 5 plat I can buy the template from a weaponsmith and just add mods and inscriptions to it? Talk about destroying the adventure.

I loved it when I could make fortunes selling +29/+30hp mods and perfect rare skinned items from Prophecies and Factions. I remember selling 20/20 penetration mods for 80k or more. Anet took all the fun out of going out working for these items and then coming back and turning a nice profit from our work.

As I said it's now just Candyland for the Carebears and nothing much left for the hardcore. Never would have believed there were so many carebears in the world that don't want to have to wait for anything, want it all now, cheap and easy. Just amazes me at the population of them.

So you litterally hate them because the weapons don't have inscription slots? I honestly think that is idiotic >.<

Inscriptions were one of the worst thing that happened to Guild Wars. It absolutely destroyed the economy. Guild Wars was fun when it was just Proph, the limited amount of skills, perfect balance between PvP and PvE, and there were actual "Rares." A Req 8 15^50 fellblade or chaos axe were worth 100k+XXXectos, and ectos use to be 10k+ each. You actually had to be good at Guild Wars to get a good drop. There were no heros, and no guildwiki to step you through ANYTHING, you really needed a good guild and a solid balanced team do the any of the high end zones. Now you run the the game you can get multiple purp/gold drops that you can make godly. The Hall of Heros Chest, and Fissure/Underworld were the only places you could get high end drops and the chance of getting those to be perfect, really gave you something to look forward to when you identify it, look at the game now, the whole economy revolves around mini pets and everlasting tonics, its pitiful. Inscriptions was one of the beginning of the end of Guild Wars. Thats just my two cents...

Look at this.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Sword

See the number of skins in each campaign?
That was the only reason Prophecies had fixed variable propreties.
There were so few skins that a way to artificially create rarity. When there are only 10 skins and only 1 or two of them are really rare, you must add an extra to the req to make some things rare between the rare.
With so many different skins now, such artificial rarity is no longer necessary, there are skins that are rare just with their drop rate, their price or their req so it's time to remove it.
- It's annoying for the mayority of players.
- It is disappointing for those that get factions and prophecies after Nightfall and Eye of the North.
- It's unfair for PvP-only characters.
Those reason against it are enough for it to be removed.
Reasons 'for' it?
- Wanting to sell a single weapon drop for high amounts of gold.
Not good reason enough.


I got quite some of those... all down to the merchant. Specially shields and wands, that can't be modded at all.


This is GW, not Diablo, you get a skin, then mod it, not get a weapon, then a 'better one' and sell the other, once things are max, all that matter is the skin.
That's the GW way, and that's what all that should be fied to the weapon are the fixed properties all similar weapons have, and all variable properties should be really variable, with mods.

A martial weapon or a wand? Its fixed property is damage, the variables are the rest.
A staff? All staves have damage, energy and half spell recharge. The rest are variable and should be moddable.
A shield? The fixed property is the armor, the rest should be moddable.
A focus? The fixed property is energy. The rest should be moddable.
An armor? The fixed properties are fixed, the rest are moddable.


That 'high end' market is fo too few people, and it is hijacking two entire campaigns.
It has been around here for too long, it's time to keep it in pre-Searing only or not even that.

Sooo... basically what you want is to keep the potential to do one's best in the hands of the few, because good mods should be very rare and too expensive for the average person? Hon, that's not what Guild Wars is about. You want top-notch gear to be restricted to the most hardcore players, you go play World of Warcraft.

They haven't destroyed the adventure. Sure, maybe I might have a Fiery Dual Winged Axe of Fortitude, "Have Faith", and it works great for my ele MoR/Cyclone Axe build, but I think it's a little blah. So I'll go and hunt for a Fiery Blade Axe that I can transfer those mods to. It'll take a while, but I'll be able to get it... and I won't have to put up with some useless mod when I get it, because I'll be able to transfer the inscription from my old axe. This is GW; we (supposedly) don't believe in grinding to be the best. Form =/= Function. You want an elite weapon? Go get a really great-skinned one. Just don't force the rest of us to use cruddy mods if we don't have the time to farm up a perfect one.

Although it was a lot easier for me to get the perfect weapon it also took away a bit of the fun of finding a new weapon.
I completed Prophecies with the "dump your weapon if you find something better" tactic and it was really fun finding a new one and actually see the improvement.
Now it's find a weapon and max it asap. which is good but no fun at all.
Hope they implement something in GW2 that makes assembling the perfect weapon something that takes time and dedication, maybe "infuse weapon X at place Y to do more damage to foe Z" so if you want that added bonus you have to go through certain steps instead of just applying then to your weapon.

I like how you just declare everything you personally don't like to be bad for the game.

Just because you are too lazy/bad at the game to afford high-end weapons doesn't mean they should be removed. There should be something in the game for everyone. You already have the inscribable weapons, leave the rare skins alone.

Adding inscriptions to Prophecies and Factions would effectively remove content. The inscription system does not allow all the possible weapon upgrades or combinations that are possible in Tyria and Cantha.

I like the "50/50" split between inscribed and uninscribed drops personally. There's always the chance of finding a favorable combination of mods in Tyria and Cantha that simply can not be created in NF or EotN.

Sorry HON but for two whole years plus that IS WHAT GUILD WARS WAS ABOUT!. Not until Nightfall was released was it different. So, don't go giving me what guild wars is about crapola. They changed it for the carebear QQing candyland players like YOU. I enjoyed it the way it was INTENDED. They RUINED WHAT GUILD WARS WAS ABOUT! Now move along and go play your candyland game and here's a sucker for you as well. (hands him a suker)

The solution is NOT leaving things as is.
Items already exists that PvP characters cannot replicate.
Like they did with pet evolutions, PvP characters MUST have access to those combinations.

So just adding inscriptions worldwide won't be enough. More upgrades are required until all combinations are possible, and a trader is needed too, so they can be added in all PvP outposts like rune traders, and PvP characters can upgrade chest rewads.

So far, every time I don't like something, it gets changed. Last ones were no credits area for Prophecies, no headgear collecor in pre-Searing and PvP characters not having access to all evolutions. Now tell me why is bad that PvP characters can have a dire pet. No it is not. Like it won't be bad that PvP player had access to all item combinations without having to waste time trading with some guy that asks more than 100k for an item just because it has two fixed unmmodable properties not replicable with upgrades.
Update after update GW gets more like it should be, and corrects more mistakes, it is just a coincidence that what GW should be is what I like.
GW has changed a lot since Prophecies. And most changes were all for better.

I don't just talk for myself, I also talk for almost every single player I know ingame. I only find people against inscriptions worldwide in pages related to auction sites. When I ask people I party with, guildies, allies or friends, they say things like they keep inscribed and sell uniscribed or just merch all that stuff. No single player I asked met ingame liked Tyrian and Canthan drops, and those that played Nightfall first hated getting those after being using the new system.

They ruined the game FOR YOU! Don't put us, or the rest of the people actually playing the game, in your category. They made a game that, on the one side, still has PvP in which everyone is on the same playing field, as far as skills and gear are concerned. That is still skill>time played. If you were so bad and elite, you wouldn't care what was going on, as you would know you could still go into PvP and prove how good you were.

As for "what was intended"...they intended to make money. Just because they piddled in some people's little concepts, does not mean they ruined what the game was about. They added stuff to make the game popular with more people. The casual player, not you or me, is what earns money for the game. These 99.9 percent are going to buy GW2 based on their fun in this game. These people are going to buy the makeover kits and extra storage, and enjoy the fact that they can go into the PvE world with friends or without, without the need to worry if their ass will be handed to them because they aren't as 1337 as you are, or haven't played since beta like you have. They can enjoy the game the way they want to play it.

edit: Mithrane beat my post, and said it better. bastard

Logic has nothing to do with cryes or complains.

* PvP-only accounts can be created for PvP-only characters.
* PvP characters of any profession should have access to any skill and combination of properties in equipment by himself, without having to trade with other players, in very little time, since that's the reason to use a PvP-only character instead a PvE one.

Once they unlock everything...
* Can they use any skill?
- Yes, all but PvE ones, that PvE characters can't use in PvP.
* Can they create any combination of properties in armor?
- Yes, all but the infused property, which is PvE-related and has no efect in PvP. Skins has no effect in PvP either.
* Can thay bring any pet evolution?
- Yes, they can even bring any pet, not just evolutions and damage types.
* Can they create any weapon of offhand combination of properties?
- No, the vestigial drop system still used in Tyria and Cantha can generate drops that can't be repicated with the item creation panel.

Logic dictates that should change.

Also, PvE characters should be able to get cash, go to a trader, and change their equipment almost fast as a PvP character can.
They can with rune traders, they can for free with the menagerie, but they can't with weapons and offhands. Wands and offhands are the worse case. They don't even accept simple mods (wand wrapping, foci cores and shield handles) you can partialy upgrade tyrian and Canthan martial weapons and staves, but those come like that can't be changed at all.

So that's why one pf the things the next content update should do is this:
- Add more upgrades so all combinations are possible via PvP item creation.
- Upgrade all drops to the new sysytem.
- Add weapon upgrade traders, and put them in all towns, some PvE outposts and explorables and all PvP outposts.
- Add a feature to weaponsmiths to update any old item (like old drops, collector items or prophecies quest rewards) that has a equivalent property in inscriptions (i.e. a sword with a 12^50%) to the inscription system, customizing it in the process. Items with no equivalent property won't be upgradable (i.e.: a sword with just a +20 health).

inscribable = fail

non insc, perfect = u will always make good money on it, so its ftw.

if like suggested above they do change all weapons to inscribable then there would be nothing left in the game for me tbh.

On the other hand, inscribably caster weapons made caster weapon drops finally stop sucking...

Sure, if by "ruined" you mean "made weapons affordable". all the original system did was create a false rarity (if 9/10 of a certain weapon have a useless inherent mod, only the remaining 1/10 makes it into the market, making that weapon seem much rarer than it really is)

That 'false rarity' was required because there were very little different skins in GW. With so few skins, if you make one of the variable properties fixed to the weapon, you decrease the occurrences of a perfect one, making the perfects more rare.

But that is a system that comes from 'ancient times' when PvP when there was no Great Temple of Balthazar, Tombs were the entrance to HoH and the number of different skins for each item was a joke, and even there were no items linked to some caster attributes.
All of that were mistakes that were corrected.

PvP was separated and moved to the battle isles, many different skins were added and rarity was separated from properties and linked to skins and req only.
With so many skins now rarity is no longer a problem.

By the way, items for the new professions should drop in the old campaigns. You can get daggers in crystal overlook, but can't get spears in the arid sea. Around 10 skins (even already existing skins) for Prophecies and 15 for Factions would do the trick.

They should allow Factions and Prophecies to drop req 8 and 7 weapons to make up for no inscriptions. No point in opening chests in those 2 campaigns.

Sadly there's no chance for the inscription system to go away and no way to fix the damage that it has done, so the best thing we can have is those 2 systems existing together.

People like me who enjoy getting actually rare drops from time to time instead of everything being equal and equally worthless can still play Prophecies and Factions. People who want easy, instant and dirt cheap perfection can get them in Nightfall.

But it doesn't mean it should just stay as it is forever - I'd absolutely love to have MORE new stuff dropping under the old system!
Yes, more!
Prophecies could really get some love, real love, not another nerf.

Spears, Scythes and Paragon shields with inherent mods including those mods/combinations not possible under the insc system would be Awesome. A couple existing shield skins (for example Shield of the Wing) could start dropping for Paragon attributes as Prophecies only drops with NO insc. clones possible. Same with a few Factions ones (Ornate would fit a Para very well imho).

Bringing the missing attributes reqs like Healing, Protection or Restoration to caster items in Proph/Factions would also rock my world.

Some minor tweaks could also be nice, for example removing or greatly reducing the chance for off-profession mods on Factions staffs/wands/offhands (they may be unique but they all plain suck), and with introduction of the missing reqs the chances for off-attribute mods could also be reduced. Tyrian/Canthan STAFFS could also get the +5energy(above50%) mod as a possible inherent, provided it's quite rare.

I have more ideas to make drops in Prophecies and Factions even more attractive for everyone while keeping them oldschool style, some may be a little controversial so not posting them here now.

Hello again, everyone. I couldn't help but reply to this thread because I have a deep fondness for inscribable items. If the biggest problem with their introduction is the rarity of items (finding perfect r7-9 with built-in 15^50, for instance), then the solution is simple - make some extremely rare drops. Here are my solutions:

• All drops in all campaigns inscribable
• Certain rare skins have a 5x times lower drop rate than they currently have, with lower reqs having even lower rates
• All missing mods are added (15/-1, +1 attribute and inscription shield handles that create 'dual-modded' stats, etc)
• A new rarity [color] of item, grey-ish or 'Platinum'
• Platinum items will always come as req. 8, max, inscribable, clean, and can be ANY skin
• Platinum items will have an extremely low drop rate (at least 2-3x lower than the above mentioned drop rate for the rarest gold items)
• Platinum items will ONLY drop from bosses in high-end areas in HM (Shiverpeaks and beyond in Prophecies, Echovald/Jade Sea and beyond in Factions, Poisoned Outcrops and beyond in Nightfall, and all areas of GW:EN)
• For the icing on the cake, Platinum items can be added to the HoM

This way, rare-hogs get their goodies, and the rest of the population have inscribables galore, with a chance at getting a drop worth bundles. An introduction of a super-rare new category of items would give collectors a whole new goal to shoot for. Also, people that currently have non-inscribable items will now be holding onto extremely valuable collector items as they could never be acquired again. Is this a win-win we could all agree on? (not that it would ever happen, but hey!)

If you derive fun from running around looking for phat lewts, why not get a metal detector and head down to the beach? Maybe get some IRL phat lewts you can powertrade on ebay?

Customization is incomplete. For example: You cannot set up a staff that is Req 9 Curse, +10 En, +5 w/Ench, HSR Water Magic Spells. Such a staff would have specific uses for very specialized builds. One cannot set this up because the mod system is incomplete, but one might find one in Prophecies or Factions.

The odds of purchasing one are tremendously poor. Such a weapon might be worth 15 to 50k to the person who wants it for a certain build. But the person who finds it will never keep such a weapon because it is not worth wasting limited storage while wandering through 3 million players to see if anyone has a current need for it.


I agree with Mithran about the reasons it was started and reasons it should be abolished. I have never cared for or supported the politics of greed which promotes the overpriced economy in GW. That is a major reason I virtually never trade for anything, simply because those trades of 100+Ecto exist. Frankly, I will find my own and do without. I would rather do without than cater to the jerk-wads that feel they are that important.

However, to complete the crafting system, there would have to be a lot more mod.s. There would have to be specific mod.s for specific skill areas, instead of modding items attribute. I can only guess that the programming somehow complicates making this happen and is why the inscription system remains incomplete.

Inscriptions were a partial answer to the lack of a decent trade/crafting system in the game. They never completely answered the potential needs of the player base, and stifled build creativity to what the weapons would support.

Its still a damn sight better than what is available to you in other games...

The inscription system is a failure of epic proportions and they should better not touch it again - it's done too much unrecoverable damage already. List of reasons is long and I've posted them in many threads before, starting in the huge thread before NF release - I knew it was about to be something absolutely horrible for the game back then without even seeing it in action. And I was 100% right.

Ideas like arcanemacabre's are totally horrible, it would be a meganerf, an extreme overkill. Completely removing great rare drops from the game, replacing everything with insc shit, only keeping the last existing oldschool stuff to gain a lot of value with no more chance of getting. And adding new fake rarities not appealing to the crowd loving to hunt for and collect virtual treasures for the simple reason - they would be insc shit aswell.
Uber nonsense.

Instead I'd love to see the old system expanded to more areas, more weapons and ideally even more kinds of inherent (unchangable) mods possible. Way to revive Prophecies while keeping it's old system, which is far from perfect but *FAR* better and more fun than the post NF failure.

Oh, and quote for TEH LULZ:
'politics of greed'
'never trade for anything simply because trades of 100+Ecto exist.'
Bwhahahhahaa

Arcanemacabre has a good idea. I doubt that they will do this in GW1, but maybe something similar in GW2.

What really puzzles me is that so many loot hogs play this game. Guild Wars is one of the worst games for rare item hunters out there.

What really makes me laugh is that that is partly against the whole idea of GW anyway...

So, the beef isn't with the rarity of the items, but rather you (and others like you) dislike change? I can't imagine that if there were always inscriptions from the very beginning (beta release and on), there would be this much ire.

"adding new fake rarities not appealing to the crowd loving to hunt for and collect virtual treasures for the simple reason - they would be insc shit aswell" - Please explain this further if I am incorrect in my assessment.

Pretty much agree. People, in general, don't like their 'livelihood' messed with, virtual or not. I honestly think this is the biggest issue a lot of these people have with inscriptions. Make it a staple from the beginning, and there's nothing to miss; nothing to be mad about changing.

I'd rather buy an inscribable item than an item with a fixed base mod. In the long run it's more convenient.

Wouldn't it be a blast if you traded your armbrace for a tormented sword with random mods? (req 13, 1.1 vamp, +18 to life)

NOT!

However, this would make a torment item with perfect mods worth more then a panda. I'm afraid people exist out there who would actually love it.

Id quit. .. ... .. after 48months there aint rly much to do except collecting items. and if items were inscriable i wouldnt bother collect em. i could say if all items would become inscriable 50% of gws ectos etc would go to ebay from rich ppl are most ppl would quit, there just wouldnt be anything to do.

Id rather want em make eotn and nf items non inscriable, and just collector/craft items would stay inscriable.

And for ppl who said that if there was no inscriable there would be perf Bone dragon staffs etc. thats not true, some staffs from cantha example are even rarer and yet still theres perf ones around.

Non-inscribables are pretty and fun to look at, but inscribables make it easier for someone to equip out a new character. I do like it when I find a non-inscribable that I can use, but if I want something quick, cheap and functional, I'll slap an inscription onto something that was relatively easy and cheap to obtain.

Actually by ruined i mean that. now ppl only want perfect items. in 2005-2006 when it was so rare find perf item. ppl were happy with 13-14% weapon. its as good as 15%. so not techically any difference.
for Swords example. between 15% and 14% theres 0.2dmg. and between 14% and 13% 0.3dmg. so in Guildwars its nothing. if you use 13^50 wep. or 15^50wep. wont change anything for your damage.

I think so, too.
This just inspired me to talk about the by now totally blurred "vision" of GW, what it is, what it should be.

Mike O'Brien and other ANet designers already pointed out that Guild Wars attracts a very diverse audience.

I am not sure if this is a curse or a blessing. We have not only a PvE/PvP preference split, but also different interpretations how "their" PvE or PvP should be.

It starts with discussions about inscriptions or not, unlimited levels, mounts (heck, sometimes I think people want a F2P WoW and just refuse to realize this is no DIKU MUD), farming as a passion, people who basically ask for more grind, those who totally refuse it, the idea to "work" for skills or not and all that. There are people who rarely play HA/GvG but tons of RA/CM/AB.

There is something for everyone in Guild Wars, maybe this is part of the reason for GW's success. But you cannot please everyone, and the lack of focus with such a widespread audience is always going to leave someone unhappy. I wonder if Anet will make more (foul?) compromises or if they will more clearly communicate their vision of the game in GW2.

Right now I cannot say what their vision is, it changed too much over time. The initially assumed PvP focus waned over time, and the "skill over time" and "no grind" ideas also got thrown overboard. Even if we can argue about how much of the more grindier stuff is just optional or mandatory.

How lucky for us that you and people like you constitute < 1% of the playerbase.

We could give a shit.

There are times when you chose to no longer show your titles, use collector weapons and wear the armor you can buy in Boreal station.

And then you get into TA and lay waste on all the Fow/Blindfold/chaos gloves/GWAMM types.

In about 5000 hours of playing around GW I have found maybe 10 non-insc weapons that are useable. All martial weapons(axes, swords, a hammer and some bows). I have never had a good shield drop, never had a good caster weapon drop, and indeed have had many mutant bizzare abortions drop that have no practical aplications at all, things that should not be, like a R13 strength +1 earth 19% -3 while hexed eternal shield. The Staves with 3 reqs, a R13 inspiration, 19% HCT water, +1 smiting 19% staff... what the goredengine is that.... Then there's all the crap ass staves that reduce poison duration, caster weapons and offhands with 1 mod and other junk. This crap shouldn't exist. They were wrong to make the system drop weapons with random mods in the first place. It was broken, inscriptions fixed it for the most part, the only thing they did wrong when inscription slots were implemented is they should have ret-conned all the non-insc stuff in faction and proph, and in the case of those stupid dual modded bugged shields and useless offhands and staves they should have picked one inscription( the one listed at the top or in the case of a +1 death shield the att that doesn't fit the shield) and allowed a handle or core to be added to them, then added in the appropriate +1 att and +10 vs creature handles and mods. The weapon smiths should sell mods and inscriptions like a rune trader too.

If the economy crashed, tough tits, it shouldn't have been that inflated to begin with. if you can only have 100k on hand and 1 mill in the bank why is stuff being sold at 500k-10 mill prices? It was BS and it's good they balanced it out. There's still rare skins that aren't easy to obtain and they're being taken out of circulation by customization all the time. If you still want to mess with rare commodities screw around with the minis. It wasn't skill that made you rich(outside of halls, even then you had to get lucky at the chest) it was luck(i pop "the good chest" in hells precipice, the one near the portals, and get a grape fire wand, the next guy gets a non insc 20/20, +30 15^50 r9 sephis axe, back when that meant something...) grinding(griffins, ettins, smites, traps, ect) or ebay.

While true that the damage difference between 13 and 15 is mathematically insignifigant in GW, it is very much not true that people wanted those weapons. Only in ascalon where people were fresh from pre, maybe in lions arch after 20 minutes to a half hour of spamming would you be able to dump that stuff on a guy for 5k or less. Everyone else got by with quest reward junk or collectors items from the desert/shiverpeaks till they learned to farm(if they were the type to grind for the good stuff at all).

Yeh, I am of the same opinion. There was no need to do this with the addition of green weapons.

I'm cheap, I use inscribables alot simply because i have huge mounds of them, all equally perfect and boring....

But I enjoyed the game FAR more when they didn't exist. It was the best back in the first few months, when ANY gold drop was a woah! moment. When nobody had anything anywhere close to being a perfect and nobody complaied about them being hard to get. Everyone was having fun playing with whatever they had and finding better things over time. 'Perfection' was out of reach and people didn't care - using nonmax purple 12^50s didn't make anyone unable to complete a mission or anything like that. There was no *need* to grind or buy expensive rares to progress in the game and having the first high quality golds fetch 100k++ectos prices had NO impact on the game of those who couldn't afford them - they simply didn't have to buy them.

GW's item system was always very simple and primitive, but it was more appealing to me and showing great *potential* than those used in other MMO's (based on straight enforced progression into much better and better tiers of gear, instant soulbinding of the best gear or having a system of upgrading to uber power levels with increasing risk of breaking the item, resulting in the need for unlimited grind). All the potential unfortunately got wasted as subsequent updates only made it easier and easier to reach absolute perfection and reproducing more and more of the same, instead of expanding the system into more possibilities.

Right now the closest to my ideal dropsystem exists only in Pre-Searing. For many kinds of items theres simply no perfection at all, instead among the sea of mediocre and bad there are some good, great, or amazing drops! Number of possibilities is so high many high-end items are one-of-a-kind and getting a good drop *really* feels great when you know it can't be just copied by anyone from a few cheap components.

And the best of all are PreSearing STAFFS - they have as many as 5 variable unchangable values (HSR, +Energy, Dmg range, requirement, inherent hct mod) depending on each other in a certain way and giving a huge variety of possibilities... yet the mediocre ones are perfectly usable and enough to pwn the charr.

*** Way to go for GW2:

-Items MUST have some unchangable values differentiating their quality. They should be generated randomly but the system should be designed in such a way that those random values don't make the vast majority of rare items near useless because of coming in very odd mixes -minimize the amount of bad combos, make some mods define what the item is supposted to do, just make them vary by numeric values (see Staffs in PreSearing)
-Moddability should only be used to adjust an item to better fit playstyles or builds, but shouldn't make a common item into a perfect.
-There should be NO such thing as a strictly defined and obtainable 'perfect' at all. Instead there should ALWAYS be a possibility for finding a better one, even if only a tiny bit better. The high level plateau of power shouldn't be totally flat, following the hopefully no max char level system.
-Players don't like imperfections - don't make them clearly visible! Use the "Above the max" philosophy instead! If the expected 'max' is say +50 make the mod occassionally drop as a +51, or in very rare cases +52, and who knows if +53 is possible or not? Also, having multiple variable unchangable values connected to each other in a certain way so whole items won't appear Strictly Better than other ones, which can add a lot of depth.
-Watch carefully the fixed stat 'unique' (green) items, they're prone to overfarm and heavily impact the value of every other similar item. They should be either inferior to some of the better 'golds' of the same area or customized on pickup (as much as I hate this mechanic, it may be a must for the greens)
-Players do want Uber weapons even if they don't admit that. Make the bestest weapons feel really Uber without being significantly more powerful than typical high-level stuff. Combine the best aspects of the gear-based MMO's with the casual-friendly GW philosophy, make a system where no progression into hard to get rares is *required* but where such progression is possible in a balanced way, say uber = ~3-5% above the 'max' accessible for the masses.
-Looks is not everything, there should be room for a little statwise progression and truly unique stats and effects.
-But looks are very important to many, so instead of reducing an item to 'a skin' and 'a pile of separate mods' add a way to transfer *full stats* of one item into a skin of another one of similar or lesser rarity level, resulting in destruction of whole 2 old items and creation of 1 new item, which should be customized to character that did the transformation. Note that this doesn't create new value, but it's a great sink removing top stat weapons AND top looking weapons from the economy, this process could also be a major goldsink.
-But that thing should be only the last resort - the most rare epic skins should be automatically of better quality than typical rare of the same level, so there's no "I found a Crystalline but it's crap" without resorting to something as lame as full moddability.
-Weapons and Mods should leave the economy almost as fast as they enter it - add severe penalties for using not customized weapons, and mods put on an item by a player should not be recoverable without complete destruction of the item it's salvaged from.
-Player based crafting can be a great thing, but don't make it a game of building blocks, significant randomization is important when it comes to magic modifiers on items.

insc = insta fail merch junk

It has EXACTLY the same impact on them as having inscriptions exist does on you.

Why? Why are you more interested in being obsessed about gear stats in a game that is focused on everything but?

Honestly, I think every item and mod should have 'max' stats, but with a lot more options on what 'type' of stats you want. People would still be able to trade and switch out mods, with the only difference being what they think works with their build better. Forget different numerical attribute requirements, too. I do like character level requirements, especially if the level cap is high as has been alluded to in GW2.

Why? What is so great about having items with unchangeable values? In my world, that makes NO sense. What is so evil about customization and more options?

I totally agree with the first part. The second part shouldn't have any meaning - 'perfect' items shouldn't exist. This is a construct created by the players in GW. In other MMOS (the ones you don't like playing), this makes perfect sense since that is the ultimate goal, pimping out your character in 'perfect' gear.

IMO, no item should be more 'perfect' than another, period. Unless you're talking about how good an item is for a particular build.

Wait a minute...
Hmm....

Aaaand again?

I like unique stats and effects; that sounds cool. Make 'em purely cosmetic and we have a deal!


The rest of your ideas sound more like the other MMOs you claim to dislike. I really prefer GW to them others, as well, but it seems like for a completely different reason than you.

It comes down to this...rarer items = moar e peen for the obsessed types who have more ecto than they know what to do with. The average Joe Gamer likes inscribable weapons because they are cheaper & easier to get his hands on. Anyone trying to argue, with a straight face, that non insc weapons are statistically better in terms of value than inscribable weapons because they like to be different needs to stop talking.