Halloween Aftermath

The Mad King Thorn has come and gone back to the Underworld. What we had this Halloween was a great time doing events, completing achievements, discovering recipes and obtaining new items. There's a few Halloween related things you can still do while waiting for the next year to pass, which revolve around the items and other benefits obtained during the event.

In the previous post it was mentioned that during the event people should keep an eye on items that are not soulbound and not likely to disappear after the event, and stockpile those items instead of selling them during the event. Now that the event has ended, those items can no longer be obtained, leaving only a limited quantity available in the market, which will cause the price to rise in time as the items exit the market.

Halloween weapon skins were available by a chance from the Black Lion Chests and Mad King's Chests. These will exit the market as people transmute them on their weapons, making the skins soulbound. The skins are rare and have a high price already, which will tempt a lot of people to sell theirs in the very near future. Only the most patient ones will collect the real reward later.

In addition to the Halloween weapon skins, there were also pieces exotic armor available that become soulbound on use. These Mad King armor pieces had a chance to be obtained from the Glorious Chests in the Mad King's Labyrinth after completing group events, once per day per character. The armor pieces have +3% Magic Find (in addition to Power and Condition Damage) which make them desirable among a lot of people.

There were several Halloween specific crafting materials available, that can be used for crafting recipes introduced during the event, even after Halloween. The materials are Pieces of Candy Corn, Trick-or-Treat Bag, Nougat Center, Chattering Skull and Plastic Fang. These will exit the market as people use them for crafting, eat Pieces of Candy Corn or open the Trick-or-Treat Bags.

There were also many new recipes introduced for every crafting discipline. Some of the recipes were discoveries, while some were available from recipe sheets.

Discoveries can't be stockpiled or sold (directly at least), but were a good thing to obtain never the less: being able to craft items not everyone can gives one an edge and a good chance for profit. If people did not learn the discoveries now, they need to wait for a year to pass before they get another chance to learn them. There were also some account bound recipe sheets available from karma vendors for the Chef and Artificer disciplines. Crafting Halloween items requires the Halloween materials and - as always - it should be calculated whether it is more profitable to sell the materials or sell the crafted product.

The recipe sheets which were not account bound (nor soulbound) came from the Mystic Forge and also had a small chance to be found within Trick-or-Treat Bags. These recipes exit the market as people learn them on their characters. There were three new "Gift" recipes for each of the weapon crafting disciplines, which are used for making components for Mad King weapons. In addition to the Gift recipes there were recipe sheets for Major and Superior Runes as well as Sigils for every armor and weapon crafting discipline. Some people most likely wish to obtain the Mad King weapons during the following year, and these Gifts and their recipes will be very sought after. And if people wish to obtain those Major or Superior Runes/Sigils, they need to either buy the recipe or the rune from someone. Here one should consider if it is more profitable to sell the recipe or learn it and sell the crafted products.

There were two more things that yielded profit during the event in the form of opportunity cost. If one completed the Mad King's Clock Tower jump puzzle, they were rewarded exotic level 80 footwear, a soulbound piece of the Mad King armor set. The reward was given once per character, so if one was an expert doing the puzzle, they could get the boots for all of their characters and save the money and time they'd normally use for crafting or buying exotic footwear on their level 80 characters. These boots were soulbound and could not be salvaged.

In addition to the boots there were also 10 slot bags available, if one completed the Ascend to Madness dungeon. Once again, obtaining these bags instead of buying or crafting bags saves one money and yields profit in the form of opportunity cost.

Even if one did not stockpile these items extensively, everyone likely still have some of the Halloween items in their inventory. And if not, stay positive: the Christmas event will arrive soon and you will be prepared with more inventory space! Instead of getting rid of the stockpiled items in the near future, one should put them into a safe storage; the darkest corner of their bank or the deepest pocket of their alternative character - a place rarely seen in order to avoid the temptation to sell them. After six months or so, wipe away the spider webs and have a look at how much the items are going for in the Trading Post - you will likely see a pleasant surprise!

Price Fluctuation in the Spirit of Halloween

The long-awaited Halloween event will start tomorrow! The patch is going to bring a large amount of new content for players to enjoy, some of which will remain even after the holiday event ends. The new content includes at least new story acts, dynamic events, bosses, mini-dungeons, a mini-game called Costume Brawl, and of course lots of new items, including costumes, item skins, tonics and minipets. There's also been rumours about new jump puzzles and it wouldn't be a surprise if there were some new recipes for the Mystic Forge! And of course, as per the tradition of the original Guild Wars, the cities will get a new look to match the holiday season, and will get visited by the Mad King Thorn. Let the trick or treat season begin!

But what does this mean from the crafting and trading perspective? Content patches like the Halloween event can have a great impact on the in-game economy in the form of price fluctuation, which basically means the average price of an item changing significantly. The demand for an item can rise greatly, if the item is suddenly needed or wanted more than usual. This pushes the price higher. At the same time some other item might be obtained more frequently, if a lot of players for example focus on exploring the same area. This drops the price lower than before. It is important to be able to see where these kind of changes in price can occur in the light of future patches, and be prepared. One should keep an eye out for patch notes, buy items which price they think will rise during the patch, and sell items now which price they think will drop.

During the Halloween event there will be six new weapon skins available that can be gotten from the Black Lion Chests. The demand for the chests will rise when people get to see the new skins and decide they want one for themselves. In addition to the chests, people will also need Black Lion Keys to open them. This will get some people to buy the keys for real money, but a lot of people will buy the gems for gold, which leads to the gem prices to also rise. There's also the new constumes, tonics and minipets that can be bought from the Gem Store, which will make the gem prices rise even more.

Because there's just one more day left until the event begins, some people might think that it is already too late to start getting prepared. Even though the prices have already started to rise, it's not quite yet too late. A lot of players don't think about these kind of things before they actually occur. They might not have even heard of the event or thought about getting any of the items that will become available. The only people that are on the move now are the people who are attempting to make a profit out of the situation, and the real demand will show itself after the event has begun.

This kind of flipping (buying low, selling high) of course has its own risks as we can't predict the future. The prices might rise, but will they rise high enough to cover the 15% Trading Post tax? Or will the gem prices actually rise so much that converting gems back to gold yields profit? With great risk can come a great reward, but one should always have a look at their own wallet and think if they can also take the possible losses. And not everyone like taking big risks; instead some people prefer to play safe and accumulate profit slowly via safe and proven methods. If one does not want to stockpile Black Lion Chests or gems, they can still at least hold on to the chests and keys they already have, and wait for the event to launch.

This ideology can be applied to all kinds of future events and content patches, not just Halloween, and people should always study the patch notes in advance. It is not all, however. In addition to buying and selling items at the right time before and during the season, one should also keep and eye out for items which are obtainable for only a limited time – like this Halloween event. When the event ends and the items become unobtainable, the prices for these items will start rising slowly. This is because after the event there will be less and less of the items available in the market, while the people who did not get them during the event still wish to obtain them. Some people are willing to pay a lot of money for items that can no longer be obtained in the game. The longer one waits, the less items there are. The more patience the seller has, the higher the price will rise. Of course if the items will be available during the next Halloween event as well, it'd be a good idea to sell them well before October 2013.

It can't be said for sure yet, if this kind of items that can be stockpiled and sold later for great profit, will even exist the content patch. There's a good chance that all the Halloween weapon skins and other items are soulbound or disappear after the event in order to prevent people from obtaining great profits with this kind of a method (investing). Due to the Gem Store business concept, ArenaNet is always going to be very concerned about inflation. It's still a good idea to keep an eye out for these kinds of items though. Who knows what will end up in your treat bag by the end of the season?

Uncovering Disciplines: Artificer, Huntsman & Weaponsmith

After a couple of posts related to other subjects, it is time to once again get back to uncovering the remaining crafting disciplines. The same way as armor crafting disciplines resemble each other, so do the weapon crafting disciplines, and hence this blog post covers all them: the artificer, the huntsman and the weaponsmith.

Artificer crafts magical weapons, namely scepters, staves, foci and tridents. The primary material for crafting these magical weapons is wood, but some metal is also required. Wood can be obtained by logging trees scattered throughout Tyria, and metal and can be obtained by mining mineral veins.

Huntsman crafts ranged weapons and items commonly used when hunting, namely shortbows, longbows, rifles, pistols, harpoon guns, warhorns and torches. The primary material for crafting these weapons is wood, but some metal is also required.

Weaponsmith crafts weapons for melee combat, namely swords, greatswords, daggers, maces, hammers, axes, shields and also spears. The primary crafting material for a weaponsmith is metal, but some wood is also needed.

In addition to these basic materials, all of the weapons crafting disciplines need fine, rare and exotic materials. Fine materials are mostly used for crafting inscriptions and consumables, rare materials are used for crafting sigils, and exotic materials are used for crafting exotic weapons. These materials are mostly obtained from enemies.

The pattern for crafting weapons is very simple: a weapon consists of two basic parts and an inscription. The basic parts are called heads, casings, cores, shafts, rods, blades, hilts, backings, bosses, hafts, horns, barrels, mouthpieces, harpoons, staves, frames, stocks and handles. These basic parts need to be combined with an inscription in order for the weapon to have attributes.

A weapon consists of two basic components and an inscription.

The inscription is the part of the weapon which defines what attributes the weapon will have. If the inscription for example has precision and power, the weapon will also have precision and power. The available attributes for weapons are Condition Damage, Critical Damage, Healing Power, Power, Precision, Toughness, Vitality, and also the so called secondary attributes such as Magic Find. Inscriptions are made of dowels, which again are constructed of wood and sometimes also metal. When the dowel is combined with some fine materials, the dowel gains its attributes and becomes an inscription.

In addition to crafting weapons, artificer, huntsman and weaponsmith can also craft sigils and consumables. Sigils are upgrade components for weapons and crafting them requires rare materials. The three disciplines don't craft the same sigils; instead each discipline has access to four different kinds of sigils of varying levels: minor, major and superior. Artificer crafts Sigils of Frailty, Impact, Elemental Slaying and Luck; huntsman crafts Sigils of Paralyzation, Icebrood Slaying, Conjuration and Speed; and weaponsmith crafts Sigils of Destroyer Slayer, Doom, Sanctuary and Strength.

There are three different levels and 12 different kinds of sigils that can be crafted by the weapon crafting disciplines.

As mentioned before, the disciplines can also craft consumables. An artificer crafts tuning crystals, a huntsman crafts oils and a weaponsmith crafts sharpening stones. In addition there's one more consumable that only the artificer discipline can craft: potions. All of these consumables work in the same way: one double clicks the item in their inventory in order to gain a combat buff that lasts for 30 minutes.

There are many levels of consumables, and the higher their level the greater benefit they offer to their user. Tuning crystals give condition damage, oils give precision and sharpening stones give power equal to a certain percentage of one's toughness and vitality. Potions are different and instead of increasing one's attributes, they provide an increase to damage and protection versus a certain enemy type. In addition to their normal bonuses, all of the consumables also increase experience gain from kills by 10. There can be only one consumable active at any one time.

Potion of Undead slaying increases damage done to undead
enemies by 7% and at the same time reduces the
damage received from the undead by 4%.

The weapon crafting disciplines are great choices for any profession. The consumables they craft are useful and the weapons can be used by almost any profession, the only exception being the elementalist who is incapable of using huntsman crafted weapons. Instead of thinking about the profession, making the choice rather comes down to what weapons and attributes one likes to use on their character. One might at first think that an artificer would be the best choice for a mesmer, because a scholar is likely to use magical weapons, but if one rather uses a great sword, why not be a weaponsmith? Or if one wishes to craft consumables that boost precision based on a certain percentage of toughness and vitality, there's nothing stopping them from being a huntsman.

The Mysterious Mystic Forge

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by Khalija from Guild Wars 2 Guru to write a guest article about the Mystic Forge. Considering the very nature of the forge and the fact that new information is discovered everyday, writing an article which information wouldn't be considered old the next day has been challenging. Instead of discussing every little thing in great detail, this article aims to explain what the Mystic Forge is, how one can use the forge for different purposes, and what patterns have so far been identified in its behavior. Hopefully after reading this article the people who were not yet very familiar with the forge will have a good idea what it is about, and will perhaps also be excited to experiment with it a little. At the moment you can also read the article on the front page of Guild Wars 2 Guru.

The Mystic Forge is located in the center of Trader's Forum in Lion's Arch as well as in the Heart of the Mists. The two forges are inhabited by genies that are willing to exchange gifts with players. The genie in Lion's Arch is called Zommoros, while the name of the genie in the Heart of the Mists is unknown.

Zommoros arrived in Tyria with an Elonian woman called Miyani. According to Miyani, Zommoros is very powerful, arrogant, mysterious, unpredictable and inconsistent. She also tells that Zommoros offers players a chance to improve their items, but due to his unpredictable nature, one may also receive items that are useless to them.

The two Mystic Forges: Zommoros in Lion's Arch on the left and the Mystic Forge in the Heart of the Mists on the right.

The Mystic Forge works in a very similar manner to the crafting stations' discovery panel. In order to transform items, one needs to place four compatible items into the forge, and in return will receive one item. The result is often unpredictable, but there also exists exact recipes for the forge that will always result in the same item.

Most of the players are already aware of the random factor of the Mystic Forge. The genie's inconsistent nature is involved when one places pieces of equipment (armor, weapons and jewelry), minipets, dyes or upgrade components into the forge.

The items placed into the forge need to be the same type. For example if one places a piece of equipment into the forge, they can only place pieces of equipment into the other three slots. Or if one places a minipet into the forge, they can only put minipets into the other three slots.

In addition to the requirement of items being the same type, they also need to be the same quality. This means that a fine quality item can only be combined with other fine quality items, a masterwork item with other masterwork items, a rare item with other rare items, and so on.

The result is a random item that is of the same type as the items that were placed in the forge and usually also of the same quality. However, there's a small chance for items to increase in quality, just like Miyani says: Zommoros offers the chance to improve your items. One might for example receive a masterwork quality item after placing four fine quality items into the forge. In addition to having a chance to improve in quality, the resulting item can also be higher level, which is most noticeable in the case of equipment.

The Mystic Forge seems to at first calculate the average level of the four items inserted and then apply a small increase to the level. This phenomenon cannot be noticed in the case of minipets or dyes because those types of items do not have a level. However, it can be clearly seen in the case of equipment as a level requirement and attribute value increase, and sometimes also in the case of upgrade components if different tier upgrades were inserted.

After telling how Zommoros offers players a chance to improve their items, Miyani also adds: You may get a wondrous item. Or, you may get garbage. The resulting item can be one of the same items the player initially inserted into the forge, or in the case of equipment it could be a type of equipment one cannot use and on top of it be soulbound.

The resulting item seems to be something that can be also obtained elsewhere in the game. The item could be dropped by a monster somewhere, or it could be sold by a vendor. Whether the resulting item is soulbound does not depend on the items that were inserted in the forge, but rather seems to be a property of the resulting item itself. One can for example place four karma items into the forge and the resulting item isn't necessarily soulbound.

Gemstones can be combined with each other as well as other upgrade components
in the Mystic Forge in the hopes for a better upgrade component. Remember
though that the jeweler discipline can also transmogrify 2 lower tier
gemstones and a pile of dust into a one tier higher gemstone.

Regardless of the unpredictable nature of Zommoros, there are some recipes related to the Mystic Forge that are constant. Those recipes often require items sold by Miyani.

Miyani, the woman who brought Zommoros to Lion's Arch, is standing right by the forge. She coordinates the business between the Mystic Forge and the players, and also sells some items related to the forge. She is a traveling companion and something close to a friend to Zommoros, and wishes to be with him because the genie sometimes tells her stories about Elona. Those stories help her remember her homeland, which has now fallen under the rule of undead lord Palawa Joko, and keep the memory of her people alive, for which she is grateful.

Regardless of selling items, Miyani is not actually tagged as a merchant, which might make her slightly harder to spot. She sells items related to the Mystic Forge for gold and skill points. One might at first be alarmed about the skill points being used as a currency, and think that skill points are a limited resource that should primarily be used for buying skills. However, skill points are in fact unlimited: one keeps on receiving them for every 254,000 experience gained after reaching level 80. Because of this using food, potions and boosters to increase experience gain even after reaching level 80 is useful: it makes acquiring skill points faster and allows players to buy a larger quantity or more expensive items from Miyani. Miyani sells the following items that can be placed in the Mystic Forge: Siege Masters Guide, Philosopher's Stone, Crystal, Eldritch Scroll, Bottle of Elonian Wine and Bloodstone Shard.

The Siege Masters Guide bought from Miyani is used at least for upgrading siege weapons for World vs. World battles and for crafting some exotic weapons. Philosopher's Stones are used at least for transmuting one material to another, and also for crafting Improved Experience Boosters. Crystals and Bottles of Elonian Wine are used at least for obtaining recipes and exotic pieces of equipment from the forge. Eldritch Scrolls are used at least for obtaining exotic weapons. Bloodstone Shards are used for crafting legendary weapons. Miyani also sells recipes for components that are used in the process of crafting legendary weapons. Transmutation of materials, upgrading siege weapons, obtaining recipes, acquiring exotic pieces of equipment, and crafting of legendary weapons are covered briefly a bit later in this article. These subjects will be covered in greater detail later on in separate articles.

In addition to the items sold by Miyani, there are two more things that should be mentioned here: the Mystic Coin and the Mystic Forge Stone. One can obtain Mystic Coins by completing daily and monthly achievements, and Mystic Forge Stones can be bought from the Gem Store and received as rewards for progressing in the personal storyline. Mystic Coins are used at least for obtaining recipes, transmuting high level materials and obtaining mystic clovers, as well as for crafting exotic armor. Mystic Forge Stones are used for crafting exotic pieces of equipment and a special Mystic salvage kit.

Miyani, the Elonian woman accompanying Zommoros, and the items she has for sale.

There are many different kinds of recipes for the Mystic Forge. Some of them seem to follow a clear pattern that is shared between all the recipes of the certain type, while some have plenty of room for exceptions.

One of the recipe types which follow a clear pattern is material transmutation with the help of Philosopher's Stones. One can transmute lower tier material into one tier higher material of the same type. The recipe always requires a certain amount of the lower tier material, a certain amount of one tier higher dust, and some Philosopher's Stones that are bought from Miyani. In addition, one needs to place one unit of the one tier higher material into the fourth slot to indicate the wanted result.

It has been confirmed that this pattern is applicable for transmuting basic and fine materials. The amount of received material seems to vary greatly, but is always much less than the amount of lower tier material inserted: it'd seem that the higher the tier of the resulting material, the less units of material one will receive. At this moment in time it does not seem to be possible to transmute higher tier materials into lower tier materials.

It has also been reported that by combining Globs of Ectoplasm, Obsidian Shards, Mystic Coins and Crystals, one is able to obtain tier 6 crafting materials. Crafting this combination can also sometimes yield Mystic Clovers, which are used in the process of crafting legendary weapons, and seems to be the main reason for combining these materials in the Mystic Forge.

Examples of basic and fine material transmutation at the Mystic Forge.

It is possible to obtain exclusive recipes for different disciplines from the Mystic Forge by offering the genie exact reagents. If one offers the genie some Elonian wine, Crystals, Mystic Coins and a product crafted by the discipline, they can get a recipe sheet containing a new recipe in return.

Armor crafting professions (armorsmith, leatherworker and tailor) can obtain recipes for armor boxes, which contain full armor sets. They work as an alternative way for crafting armor sets without the need to craft each piece individually. Chefs can obtain recipes for food trays, which can be shared with many people. So far only these two disciplines have been confirmed to have recipes that are obtainable only from the Mystic Forge, but hopefully recipes for others disciplines also exist.

The Mystic Forge can also be used for crafting specific pieces of exotic quality equipment. Crafting of exotic equipment with the forge seems to always require Mystic Coins and an Eldritch Scroll which can be bought from Miyani for 50 skill points. The remaining two materials vary greatly; the materials can be common, fine or rare, basic weapon components or something completely different, such as a Siege Masters Guide.

One of the most mysterious things related to the Mystic Forge is crafting of legendary weapons. Crafting of legendary weapons is such a complex task that it deserves an article of its own and hence won't be covered here in much detail. The process is very challenging and has many phases, all of which have something to do with the Mystic Forge or Miyani. Miyani sells recipes and ingredients for the components required by the legendary weapons, and the Mystic Forge is used for combining the components, which eventually form the actual weapon. The forge can also be used for obtaining some of the materials required by the weapons, but those materials are not necessarily exclusively obtainable from the forge.

As stated earlier in this post, it is also possible to upgrade the siege weapons used in World vs. World by combining blueprints, two different types of basic materials, such mithril ore and elder wood logs, and the Siege Masters Guide in the Mystic forge. This is one of the ways the Mystic Forge is useful to PvP players, but there are also other ways for PvP players to benefit from the forge.

As stated in the beginning of this article, there also exists a Mystic Forge in the Heart of the Mists. The Mystic Forge can be used for obtaining new skins for PvP equipment. The results are purely cosmetic. One needs to place an item token, a rank token, some arcane material (Arcane Crystal, Arcane Sliver, Arcane Orb) and also some Arcane Powder into the forge. One can also craft consumables such as dyes by combining a consumable token with two different types of arcane materials and some Arcane Powder. The arcane materials and rank tokens are obtained by salvaging PvP equipment, while the item and consumable tokens can be bought from glory vendors.

There also exist some recipes that don't really belong to any of the categories 
discussed above, such as Mystic Salvage Kit which has 250 uses, 
and Improved Experience Booster, which increases 
experience gain by 100% for two hours.

Many people wonder when the Mystic Forge should be used and when it should be avoided. The answer to this question is simple, but requires some thought: whenever it is profitable or one cannot achieve their goal any other way.

Whenever one wishes to obtain or dispose of something, they should always compare the different methods, calculate the values and then choose the way that is the most profitable. Instead of placing items into the Mystic Forge they could salvage them, sell them to a vendor, sell them to other players via the Trading Post, or in the case of materials use them to craft something that sells well, whichever of these methods is the most profitable. The same way one should check if they could get the wanted item for cheaper from somewhere else than the forge. This also works the other way around, and sometimes using the Mystic Forge is the best option. There are ways of making profit with the Mystic Forge, but one can also end up with a great loss if they are not careful.

Calculating the value of the exact recipes related to the Mystic Forge is much simpler than calculating the risks one takes when playing with the random factor of the forge. A lot of people use the forge in the hopes of receiving an equipment upgrade, but in the end it could be for the best to sell the four items to the vendor and buying the desired piece from the Trading Post.

An unfortunately large amount of people don't seem to realize that in addition to Trading Post taking the 5% listing fee, it also takes 10% off the price when an item sells. People are listing items, especially fine and masterwork quality pieces of equipment, for only slightly above the merchant price, without realizing that in the end they'd actually gain more money if they sold the items to the vendor. Because of this, inserting fine and masterwork equipment into the Mystic Forge seems to be a waste at this moment in time. There does not seem to be many fine or masterwork level items that would be worth more in the Trading Post than the total vendor value of those four items placed in the forge. Exceptions to this rule are the pieces of equipment that are bought from karma vendors: they are soulbound and cannot be salvaged or sold to a vendor. They can only be destroyed or placed in the Mystic Forge.

There are still some reasonable ways for one to gamble and try their luck when it comes to putting pieces of equipment into the Mystic Forge: there exists the small chance that four masterwork items will result in a rare item, or four cheap rare items result in one expensive rare item, or even an exotic item.

Considering the nature of the Mystic Forge, there’s most likely still a lot of information we are not yet aware of. It has been said that Tyria is full of little hints regarding the Mystic Forge, so we should keep our eyes and ears open. There is for example a vendor called Rojan the Penitent in Frostwalk Tundra, Frostgorge Sound, who lives far away from the Mystic Forge, but still sells an item called Icy Runestone which tooltip indicates that is used some way in the process of crafting legendary weapons. In addition to exploring, learning the ways of the Mystic Forge also requires a lot of expensive experimenting, which will slow down the speed of resolving its mysteries. It has also been said that new recipes will be added for the forge in the future, so even if the current mysteries were revealed, some new ones will arise to take their place. Perhaps Zommoros will reveal his secrets one day, or perhaps he will always be an enigma.