it feels good to help the poor

yeah, same for un-ided armors...

LOL That was good.

you KNOW you've been playing GW too much when you need more room to store 300-500 runes!!! Good Gawd...... I vaguely remember what it was like to be so hard-core/addicted/etc........ I am SO glad I got out of that routine years ago....

I know... different strokes for different folks..... but good gawd......

I love to help noobs get more out of the game by not giving them anything. Seriously, getting too many or too large of a handout is kinda like putting an FPS in /godmode. But if I'm in a group and get some junk that I have no use for and someone else mentions that they could use it, I just give it to them.

I frequently give away various weapons. Usually bows in the 13-22 damage range and hammers in the 14-25 range. Not super powerful, but doing a decent chunk of damage at lower levels. I did once give away a max damage short sword of fortitude and with like +10% damage to charrs or something.

I never respond to questions for more equipment though. And I try to hang out in an area long enough to pick out who the seller is via the trade channel so I can avoid giving things away to them.

I give away any runes or gold items i get that i wont use. Why? Well its impossible to sell anything what with the constant spam that prevents any ones messages being seen plus I want to play the game. I don't want to sit around for hours trying to flog that minor rune of vigor. I wanna get back out to the hunt, and I can do that by either selling it to an NPC, effectively wasting it, or I can give it to someone who at least has the chance to use it. Oh and I never give them to people who ask. If I'm in a good party and have something that might be useful to someone, when we get to an outpost I'll say "come here a sec", or if I happen to want rid of weapon upgrades I'll just send out a public message saying "Who uses bows" and first person to pm me gets all my upgrades :P

Now if there was an auction house, I'd leave the things up for auction. But I'd still keep some back, there's one guy I talk to who has given me a few ranger runes and weaps, and whenever I find warrior things, I give them to him. Trading in a different way.

You realize what the spike on a 20 air magic combo for Surge Orb and Chain would do ? I vote for no

I think he means stack in the inventory, so that you can save space.

That's so patronising... "junk"...

Friends who I help are like me, they have pride. So rather than give them handouts I actually like to spend my time with them, farming for materials or gold so they can achieve what they want and feel they had some part in it.
Also I think the time and effort show more than just offloading stuff on people.

Of course a lot of people out there are willing to take free stuff, but I couldn't enjoy a decent sword in the game if I knew i'd done f*** all to get it.

Indeed. Sometimes the price being high on something valuable is more helpful, as it encourages the player to make an effort toward getting it. Giving a lvl 8 new arrival a max damage weapon or major rune before they've finished at least a few missions can seriously unbalance the game for them at the outset. They rely too much on their gear, and not enough on their skill choice and usage in a team.

It's not always about greed or making a buck. I'll sell high lvl weapons and upgrades at fair prices, but giving them away doesn't help. What we're doing by giving all of these items to new players is making them too dependent on their gear instead of working with their skill choice and creating effective strategies. Many of these players, once they get to the higher levels where gear doesn't matter, could be at a disadvantage or simply not have learned how to utilize skill selection and timing that well. This hurts high level team based play, and those of us who aren't in guilds looking for good groups.

If a warrior has 2k to spend on a max damage axe, or a major vigor rune, then that's a sign that they've done at least some work ingame to warrant their having it. There's a fine line between being compassionate and helpful, and being enabling and harmful.

Man I bought 50k of damn fire runes until I realised they didnt stack. 1 minor 2 major and one superior. I guess I wont do that again... Now Im stuck with 0 gold and 2 armor parts that are only there to reduce my health by 50 each... Hurg.

If the armor was crafted, rather than traded for at a Collector, you could use an Expert Salvage Kit on the items to try and get the major runes out, then resell them and buy new armor pieces.

I did a similar thing once, discovering they didn't stack. It was worth crafting a new armor piece and getting some more dye for it, just to get the -50 health removed.

Understand that there is a risk though, since there's no guarantee that the rune will be what is salvaged... it may be a bunch of cloth or hides instead, which is what happened in my situation.

Hey Akshara, Thx for the tip, I didnt knew what to do with the old armor... Ill take a chance. (I know there is more chance that all I get is Cloth, but whatever...)

Edit : I got the Major Rune back.... YAY

I don't often give stuff away... in fact I'm even a bit iffy about grabby guildmates (though when in need I give no questions). However I always enjoy helping lower level players through missions and quests... It's fun for me, they appreciate an elementalist who can tank (and kill in less than 4 shots) and I get loads of crafting materials which I also find fun.

it's actually hard work giving some things away, like weapon modifiers, and even often runes...

i often end up selling items back to the game.

Cool. Glad to hear that worked out after all.

by the way... how do you guys who give stuff away go about doing it?

do you go to the trade channel, or use the global channel?
and do you explictly announce that you're giving something out for free?


i usually say, in the global channel, "anyone want a <item name>?", or "anyone interested in a <item name>?" ... i don't announce that it's free until someone
whispers that they are interested (to avoid resellers).

i feel a bit bad about using the global channel for this, but since i'm giving stuff away
for free, i don't feel too bad.

When I give stuff away I know that although now they may feel WoW and all... but that later they'll realize theres just too much of it around that I couldn't keep it and selling is a pain so I gave it away...

Now I avoid doing it unless it an item I really feel has some worth.

Who do I give it to?... the closest person I feel could use it... after all that's what we'd all like to see happen to the gear -- that it be put to use!

Someone mentioned the game becoming unalanced for new players spoilt with max dmg... I couldnt agree more... so players do develop their game while others are hack'n'slash dumbos (or flare spammers)

My ranger got a gold, max +14% half-moon for 700 or 800ish but I understood that the guy was basically giving it away at knockoff... he saw I was broke and could really use it so it made him feel good.

Now when I haggle my goods away and I see someone literally pleading for me to give it at a cheaper price (in a polite way) I usually do.

Last note: someone noted that spending time with the person to earn their gear is more worthwhile... agreed... when guild-chat spawns a "i need 300 gold plzz for my new armor"... I PM him saying I'll take him for a Kryta Drake spin until he gets the dough.

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifeime.

Something like that.

Well i was in Lion Arch District 1, Screaming : "WTS Major Fire Rune - 1 Gold Piece, awesome Price, WTF are you waiting for!!!???" for 5 minutes and no one even messaged me... lol damn