The Haves and the Have Nots...

THANK YOU Capitalist. You've said everything that newer players need to read =D. It is true and does totally make sense that the older players are the rich ones because time is what makes that happen. For example, a new employee can't really complain that he or she doesn't make as much as his or her manager. If you are experienced with this game, then you'd probably know many farming spots and ways to make money and you wouldn't call others Ebayers. I have never been the "lucky type of person", but after 15 months of playing and a bit of farming I managed to afford things.

Not your guild's cape, that is on perma-hide.

I have some green items....I traded some of them for better ones (what does and ele really need with a hammer???) so I have bought a few greens (under 5k) as well (still cant farm a good curses +1 wrapping).....I really dont care what they look like, but what they do----
As for armors, I do the quests, get the rewards, kill the beasties.....and when I have enough for the armor I like, then I buy it.....with all of my characters I can get the armors I want in time.....I dont have 100 plat (only about 40 right now---saving up for my rits 15k armor pieces)....no ecto or shards to speak of.......
I also get those crap drops....NEVER have gotten any item worth more than 50k......and I think I sold that one for 10k later, oh well. Others I still have and use (or traded to my hubby for one he had).
I play the game cause I enjoy it....I buy what I want cause I like what it does or looks like.....really dont give a rats arse about what other people spout while playing.....I just dont read those dialogs....."Im welding..." stop reading....

guild cape? there are only 2 people in my guild right now, and we dont really care what others think.

I don't like farming so I'm always poor, but I don't mind, walking around in 1.5K Canthan armor instead of a FoW set doesn't make the game less interesting. I had 2 FoW sets once (because I found an exploit, not because I farmed), and only heard "nice armor" several times, so apperiantly, it doesn't impress anyway (including me), and I'm pretty sure 99% of the people buying FoW armor buy it to impress others, and not because they like the looks (most are ugly in the first place).

Also, as I don't play a Warrior, Assassin or Ranger, most collector's items that are available for my (caster) chararacters are only available from collectors, crafters or even quests. Playing casters rocks!

Personally, even though I have "perfect" items, I still prefer to use collector/green items on my chars. Two of my chars are actually wearing desert collector armor

such a nice post!!!

new players begging for gold in pm *cos u have evrthing, llok, u're wearing fow armor* r disgusting; also there r ppl who yell at u in pugs - they got no idea how to play and run and aggro 3-5 patrols and get the group wiped out in fow, and they'll yell at u back in toa - *hey u bought ur armor on e-bay stop sh** up and stop telling me how to aggro, leroy ftw and u're a noob*

such ppl r discovering guru forums and - surprize! - they continue to beg and yell here, flooding the forums with endless posts like *all chars with chinese names r sweatshop farmers and steal my money (dunno how they do it but w/e), they have to be banned NOW* or *ppl who sell stuff for more than i can pay for it have to be banned* or *ppl who get fow armor pay RL money on ebay and have to be banned* or.... but u got the idea

look, every time u see a girl parking new shiney porche near ur car - <insert not-so-expencive-as-a-porche car name here> - at ur fitness club u dont go home in tears and call ur dad a noob and loser cos he cant get u the same porche by friday, or seriously think about starting a world revolution, right?

You forget, MSecorsky, that the only reason items have any value at all is because of their rarity. If you make all of the rarest skins available to all, the ones that have them now (and had to pay top dollar to get them) lose, period. Cue mass exodus for all of the top players, and the subsequent annihilation of the game economy. If there are no rare items to strive for, what's the point of trying to acquire more wealth? The PvE in this game is not exciting enough to hold anyone on for very long without the promise of new and shinier items to reward you for your time spent.

The game is the epitome of balanced right now. You have your collectors items if you don't want to pay anything but NEED a perfect weapon right now. You have your cheap purples and golds, with reqs 10+, which are perfect in every way but are only worth a few plat because they have undesireable skins. Greens also fit in that category; they're cheap and perfect. Lastly, you have the rare weapons that rich people who have been playing for a long time can strive for. Changing the system in any way wouild be unbalancing, as it eliminates the last category of weapons.

A reflection on FOW armor from somone how been playing pve (causally) since the early beta of the orginal GW.

With non-locked chests and having monsters drop the same loot in the same spot (aka targeted farming), those that knew where and how made a killing and it was easy for them to buy FOW.

Latter Anet did lots and lots of changes to make FOW a challenge to get (unless you ebay it).

For me Fow does NOT equal skill.

Due to the fact the ability to get FOW was hard.. easy .. hard tells me that I have no idea when you get FOW. This can drive the people who earned fow the hard way nuts.. but it's the way I see things. It's how you play in your FOW armor that makes a good impression on me.

To be honest I could care less about perfect golds or hand made modded collector / greens. Same as 15k/Fow vs 1.5k armor.

My reaction to you is on the following:
-How you communicate/chat
-How you play your character and build
-If you have cool armor / equipment I'll say how good it looks (but I don't equate that to how well you play)

Oy...when is the last time anyone ever suggested on these boards that any special armor or weapons = skill?

Anyone? Anyone at all ever seen such a comment? I know I haven't.

So why then, is every other bloody post here repeating the "FoW armor != skill" mantra? Who are you trying to convince, we all know that already. It's prestigious, it at the least suggests that you know how to make money or have been playing for a long time, and to many people it looks cool. The same goes for the rare weapon skins. Isn't that enough to strive for? I say yes, therefore leave those items as difficult to acquire.

I have the skin I want, total 25k. Ok, it's a req. 12, but it is a Celestial Axe, my favourite skin. And it's true, you don't see it a lot, but sometimes I do see it and I'm very happy with my new axe skin.

kudos to the OP for clearing the air of the Myths of the haves and havenot.

/claps

Well I agree that good looking armor doesnt mean skill but let say it like this.
Char. A is playing the game for a good 2 months now, he has accumulated his 15^50 or 20/20 non rare skinn weapons and he is happy whit it, he also likes how his Droks armor looks like.

But after so many times farming in FoW/UW he has accumulated a small ammount of Ecto/Shards, after this he decided he would like to have FoW armor because of its looks coz old armor is boring for him, So he has to make MANY trips to FoW and UW to get Ecto and Shards, after many trips to FoW/UW he get a lot of experience on game mechanics and how to solo/team farm this places. After a long time of extra work he also got some good drops he didnt need and maybe bought him some rare good looking weapon skinns and perfect mods.

After his accomplishemts over the game a noob who envyes his armor and weapons tell him he is a noob, an idot and he has no skill coz this armor can be bought over eBay. Possibly he tells him this in very crappy english.

I know i bought my high end weapons and 15k armors with expensive dyes because the look nice. I started as an ele farming hydars wanting to put the money for something nice in this case Geomancer 15k. I also started as a Necro SS with my 1.5k Shing Jea armor in UW, I was crappy at first but then after a while i got the hang of it and I can SS nuke rally well, after a lot of trips to UW/FoW I bought myself 15k Kurzick, people before complimented my skills, now they complimente my looks and skills, so in some way for the players that dont buy money off eBay 15k/FoW armor means they have invested a considirable ammount of time into the game and they have to have some skill in playing it.

Expensive armors are like rank in pvp - they don't mean that those that got it are better, more skilled than those that don't. But still, there's a much much higher c-h-a-n-c-e that ones that have them got some expierience.

I'm yet to see a noob in a FoW armor, maybe thats because in Europe eBaying gold is much less popular than in the US. From my long time observations, difficult area runners in fow armors have near 100% chance of success, those in 15k armors 80-90% and its only 50% for the 1,5k users. During FoW chest runs warriors in expensive armors die much less - we know that stats are the same, so it has to be skill.

If i didn't say that yet, I fully agree with Capitalist's original post.
And i still think the game needs more rewards for hardcore players

While this statement is true for shields, staves, wands and focus items, it's very much not true for swords, axes, hammers and daggers.

A req 8 axe used at 16 Axe Mastery does 62.5% more damage than the very same axe used with only 8 in Axe Mastery.

For more info, see guildwiki's description of damage mechanics, or the weapon damage calculator on this very site.

I think he meant it the other way around Bunny;

With 16 axe mastery, there is no difference between a req 8 axe or a req 13 axe.
That's the way I read it anyway.

I have been following this thread with some amusement. Then today had a strange thing happen. I was bored and so was giving free runs from the Marketplace to Kaneing. Along with boredom it was to counter the scammers advertising they would run it for 500g.

I was on my ele and yes I have 15k end game armor when someone commented on my armor. I said thank you and then got asked if it was 1.5 or 15k. When I replied yes it was 15k all I heard was your rich blah blah blah. Why is it so hard to convince people I didn't buy it because I am rich I bought it because it is the look I *LIKED* and not because I wanted to show I was *elite*

Sheesh never encountered being harrassed over my armor while doing something just to be nice and help others out!

:-)

A little off-topic but why to people yearn for req. 7/8 15>50? Other than the fact that they allow a little more flexibility in your builds, i can't see any other benefits. Who in GW goes in to battle with less than 12 Swordmanship/Axe Mastery at lvl 20? We all know that the 'low req = greater chance of a critical hit' was a rumour.

Back on topic: I agree with everything the OP said. I consider myself a 'have' in GW and earned every gold coin in accordance to the EULA. If i want to buy a Zomg Godly Sundering Zodiac Axe of 'Pwnage' then I will but my req. 9 15>50 Dadao sword looks cool and does the same thing. My personal prefernce is to burn gold in armour.

Um, last time a checked, most REAL tankers usually focus on Strength and Tactics, and just throw the rest in their weapon (sometimes I have only 3-4). A sword doesn't help you not get killed, not anywhere near as much as a stance will.

But if you're doing an attack build (not tanking), then 12-15 is probably the most common (superior runes are NOT worth it).

Also, a person with 14 swordsmanship and a req 8 sword does the same damage as someone with 14 swordsmanship and a req 13 sword.

People like rare shit as well its rare and not everyone has it. Take crystalline swords for example look like crap yet they are still popular. People buy as they are the rarest sword and so can show off. I know people with perfect ones who say they are ugly but own them due to rarity.

Req 7 with a 15>50 / 15%-10-Al / 15% -5 Energy are considered the most perfect item you could buy aside from no negative/unconditional weapons. I have however, needed to use 7 sword in a build but that was in a freak circumstance.

Whaaaaat? My Cape ADD has come under control...honest. The Squeaver will only come out on special occasions and the new cape is much better.