evilbob

100 gems shot up to 2g24s within the last few hours.

First:  what is going on?  I knew the makeover kits were popular, but this is crazy.

Second:  so now that 1g only costs about 77-78 cents:  would you buy gold with real money?  My theory is that it will still need to go a lot lower before enough people will buy gold in-game to cause the ratio to go down.  I mean, if a precursor cost 500 real-money before and now it costs 250, does that really make a difference to anyone?

Third:  someone who bought gems with gold even as lat as 36 hours ago could still make a tidy profit converting back right now.  Anyone get in on that?

The Crossing and Arachnophobia are currently on the TP for about 22g - which, for anyone who plays more casually, 22g is the same as 22 billion gold - i.e. unattainable after only 2 months of play.  (The shield is only 14!)  However, the cost to craft these things is 100s of gold.  While it might be possible over the course of the next year to slowly build up the mats, it's still a massive money sink.  And it is completely not worth it when you could have bought one for 22g right now.

While the price may still drop as these items continue to be found with more abundance, as soon as the event is over it's a reasonable guess that the price will jump back up (especially since people are probably cornering the market on these, same as the precursors).  To me, the fact that the price is 22g and dropping just says that the number of people who actually have 22g really is a tiny fraction of the playerbase:  the early, hardcore players and flippers.  These people are basically playing a different game.

My suggestion to anyone stockpiling the mats:  don't bother.  It might be cheaper eventually to craft it but some things like the 10g for the recipe and the 50 skill points are set.  It will likely never be as cheap to craft as it is to buy now, and odds are it will be next Halloween before you have the mats anyway.  Just wait:  maybe next year you'll get a lucky drop or be able to afford it.

What does it do for your guild, exactly?  Does it gain you any influence?  Is there a cost associated with doing it?  Is there a limit to how much you can claim?

I understand that it allows your guild to use WvW buffs (if you have any) to affect any locations you have claimed.  I also understand that a guild without any buffs probably should let others claim something so that buffs can be applied.  But other than those 12 hr buffs that cost influence to use, is there any other way to help a location by claiming it?

Also, if your guild rank allows you to claim something and you get the message that you are not allowed by your guild to claim something, is that a bug or just a really bad in-game error message that really means something else is limiting you from claiming something (like a time limit or something)?

Thanks!

NVIDIA released their latest driver last week but I've been holding off on installing it, given the problems the last official driver caused.  Any word on whether or not this is actually an improvement over the previous (August) beta driver?

I noticed that once I completed a chunk of my personal story (one "arc" I would say) I got a Black Lion Key.  These sell for 125 gems in the shop.

Completely discovering all the POI, views, waypoints, etc. in an area gave me some transmutation stones, which sell for 5/125 gems.

Is there a list somewhere of all the places you receive in-game rewards for cash shop items?  It'd be nice to know about how many keys, stones, and other items that you can purchase you will get anyway just for completing certain objectives in the game.