Customizing Collector's Armour

Yes, yes, I know-armour is customized the moment you buy it. Here is my problem: I REALLY like the look of the Ranger's and the Warrior's Collectors' Armours. But I won't use them post-ascension because of the "no-bonus" thing. I would really like to be able to customize my collectors' armour: Say Crafter A in Amnoon Oasis takes 50 tanned hide, 50 wood, and 700 gp to make a vest (keep in mind: I pulled these numbers out of nowhere). I'd like to be able to give him the 50 tanned hide, the 50 planks of wood, and the 700 gold and then have 2 options: "Craft new armour" or "Upgrade my current armour."

The "upgraded armour" will keep the same look, but it will have the new bonuses that I paid for. It's not in any way over-powering the person who does this: they still have to go around and get the armour from the collector's first, they still need the money and the materials, but they can then mix and match bonuses without looking ridiculous. Personally, I'd like to have fire protection, ice protection, AND extra energy: my options are mix-and-match set pieces and look like a clown or buy Fissure armour. The ONLY thing I like about Fissure is that you can mix and match set pieces without looking stupid-but I much prefer the look of the collector's set.

So...that's my suggestion. I hope I explained it adequately....some of you may be thinking, "wth!?" but it sounded good in my head when I typed this...lol.

From what I understood... excellent idea!

Please, I loved my red maguuma male ele armour but it just doesn't cut it later

Yes, but that is the beauty of my idea-when you go to the crafter, you can craft new armour or update what you have. For those of you who like the crafter's armour, nothing will change.

Agreed. I think customizing your armor is a much better idea. That way you can mix and match bonuses without mixing armor types, which doesn't always look so good.

/signed

I, too, prefer the original Ele armor over Collectors, or other armor.

This way, I could keep that armor with the bonuses I want!

Good idea... let people pick the look AND the mods they want! Maybe we would see Warriors running around with Armor besides Glad's and Knight's boots then!

/signed!

/signed

I was about to make a thread exactly like this myself.

I need Glad's armor stats, but I absolutely hate how Glads armor looks. So instead I'm forced to use a better-looking armor with stats I don't like.

Players should have the choice to buy any armor skin they want, with any mods they want.

/signed

Fantastic idea! I often dread upgrading armor because I just don't like the style of the new sets as much as the armor I am wearing. It would be really cool to be able to upgrade the stats on existing armor for the same cost and materials as buying a whole new set. And choosing bonuses? If I pay for tattoo bonuses without having to run around in underwear, or buy earth resistance and wear hydromancer armor, I think I'd be so happy I would die.

You know what, make that

/signed x100

/not signed.

Why? It's because the TYPE of armor is giving you the bonus. I think it's one of the few decent ideas. I mean, colectors armor is already the cheapes out there, jsut collectors pieces. But, upgradeable colelctors armor? Sounds a bit wierd to me, because then all the other armors wouldn't really have much of a point in having their bonuses. And, I'm sure if collector's armor could "upgrade" then there certainly would be compentent people for "upgrading" the other armors.

Example from ducktape: "If I pay for tattoo bonuses without having to run around in underwear, or buy earth resistance and wear hydromancer armor, I think I'd be so happy I would die."

Simply put: People need different tools for different jobs. Sometimes they don't like the tool they have to use, but if they don't use it their life will be harder.

What I'm saying is: If you're not willing to use the other armor out there due to looks, you should be forced to take that penalty.

An added benefit of OBSIDIAN armor is that no one on the other team knows what defenses you have.

/not

If you pay the cost of materials and crafting fees of the armor for sale at the armorer, and get your existing armor imbued with the new AL and +Energy and +Resistance and so on, what does it matter? You still have to do the same stuff as though you were crafting a totally new piece of armor, but instead they modify your existing armor if you choose that instead.

How is that a problem if the only difference is that you don't have to change the way your armor looks? It is not, in practice, any different than buying geomancer armor at Lion's Arch and then buying the stronger geomancer armor at Henge of Denravi. The only difference in the OP's idea would be that you could choose to keep the appearance of your pyromancer or hydromancer or presearing collector's armor or whatever it is that you already own. More options for individuality in your appearance are great.

As long as through customizing they never outdo a regular set, I don't see why not.

Good idea as I am probably going to get the Monk collectors armor as looks the closest to Saintly anywhere and it would be nice to have the same stats unless you can buy collectors armor from the crafter in Droknor's Forge but yeah.

/signed.

OMG, I'm with you on that one. Just replace your existing stats when you craft new armor or get new collector armor if you don't want to change the appearance of your armor. Otherwise that would get really out of hand.

Hopefully it wouldn't be too hard for the guys at ANet to implement this idea. The less often we see 10 identical twins in the same district, the better!

/signed
great idea, if only we had max al versions of pre-searing armor, oh...

Could you be more wrong? If I buy Droks Gladiators armor, but want the look of Collectors Armor, Why can't I have it? I am PAYING for more expensive armor.. Its not like I want the benefits of Gladiators for the price of Collectors. I would like Gladiators armor with 15k platemail look because I hate my 15k plates stats, and I hate my 15k Glads look.

Wow, I've never gotten such a positive review before, lol. This went 10 times better than my Suggestions for GW thread (I think that's what I called it).

The only problem I could see for this would be in PvP: not seeing what type of armor someone has makes it a little less obvious what they are. But then I thought about the validity of that statement and figured that 1) in PvP, people don't look at armor-they look at Class/Secondary and 2) not all Pyromancers wear Pyromancers armor, etc. so it really wouldn't change much and 3) if you see a specific class, odds are, he'll be running the "Flavor of the Week" and if he's really good, nothing short of a billboard could have told you what to expect.

Before some cynic logs on and tells me my plan wouldn't work for whatever reason, here's a way they could work around people trying to cheat the system: As much as I'd like to continuously upgrade the same set, I know that some people would like to be "tricksy." The Fur set in Ascalon city has the same fire resistance as the Fur in Droknar's Forge: the difference is the actual armor level. So, someone could save a lot of money by getting Collector's Armor in the Desert (which has max AL) and "upgrading it" to Fur in Ascalon City. If someone attempted to do that, their armor would revert to max Ascalon City stats: The physical defense would go DOWN to whatever that city offers. Likewise, Armor from an Ascalon Collector wouldn't go UP just because they upgraded in Henge of Denravi. In short: The Crafter would see the 2 numbers-Collector's Armor AL and His Crafted Armor AL-and pick the LOWER of the two numbers for the upgrade.

I finally broke yesterday: I bought 2 pieces of Gladiator's. I've still got my collector's boot and gloves to help redeem myself.

I wonder how many people would buy FoW if they could personalize their Collector's? I'd sell all the ecto in my storage tomorrow if they implemented this, lol.

edit: My avatar is my Mesmer in her Enchanter's set in the UW which I think is arguably the ugliest set in the game. Why do I wear it? Energy. Too bad I can't stand the Mesmers' Collectors' Set either.

/signed

/signed

I would love to see this option for any armor, not just collector's. I really like the plain ringmail (starter warrior, pre-sear) look, but I have to use glad's for my energy bonus.