Guild Wars 2 Rankles Players With Cash Shop Skins, WvW Purchase Options

The new Guild Wars 2 patch went live today, but some players aren't happy with a notable policy change.

There's a new set of cosmetics, the Privateer Weapon set, which are raising a bit of a stir. Unlike previous sets, which could be bought and sold for gold on the trading post, these skins are account bound, meaning that the only way to acquire them is through lockboxes, and the RNG luck that comes with them. To rub it in, there's even a bit of text from the "owner" of the Black Lion Shop, saying that "for personal reasons I’ve decided to make it available through Black Lion Claim Tickets only" (emphasis theirs).

ArenaNet's out-of-game explanation for the change is that the set is "special" in that it will always remain at the same price (in lockbox loot tickets), unlike previous sets which have gone up over time. That still isn't mollifying a lot of customers, who think it's simply a way to force players to use real money to have a chance to acquire the skins, and that future items might follow the same convention.

Another "purchase option" was also removed with today's patch. Players who needed the Gift of Battle to craft their legendary weapons must now complete a reward track in World vs. World to obtain it. The Gift of Battle was previously purchasable for 500 Badges of Honor, a currency many players already had plenty of. The change was mentioned as coming in a future date in the last patch's notes, but no date was given for the change until it went live today.

All in all, it's not been the smoothest of patch days for Guild Wars 2 -- and that's not even counting players' impressions of the gameplay for the raid. (You can read read Mike's review of one of its encounters here.) To their credit, ArenaNet's been better lately about responding to these kind of player concerns, so there's a chance things might get adjusted to make players a little happier.