As more and more Guild Wars 2 players are reaching higher levels, the playerbase is finding out one very interesting fact about being higher leveled in the game– Waypoint prices can get pretty high. Instead of Waypoint costs being dictated by an area’s level range, they’re dictated by the actual level of the player. And by actual level I mean real level, not adjusted level. This effectively means that doing a large amount of traveling– even on low-level maps– after a character gains a solid amount of levels under their belt can be pretty detrimental to a player’s gold funds.

This discovery has surprised quite a few players. Not only can it make low-level material farming difficult, but it also affects higher-level players who travel with lower-level friends. To make matters worse, the price jump between levels is actually pretty significant, rising to well over 1 silver. Gold in Guild Wars 2 isn’t ridiculously hard to come by, but it can take a bit of farming and careful saving. The ironic part? Sometimes the travel costs seem to discourage farming altogether.

In this forum thread created on the official GW2 forums, players discuss their reactions to this Waypoint cost system. Here are some players’ opinions:

“Obviously, increasing waypoint costs is intended functionality, but it seems like waypoint costs should be based on the level of the zone and the distance traveled, not the level of player. As it stands now, playing with a lower-level friend in a lower-level zone is frustrating because I’m hemorrhaging silver every time we bounce from point to point.”

One solution to this issue, of course, is to play on an alt with lower-level friends. This solution kind of downplays the game’s down-leveling feature as a whole, however, which is a shame, because it really is a nice feature. Players should be eager to use it, even at level 80, not the other way around.

“I strongly agree – waypoint costs are too high from about the 50’s on to the point that I can’t afford to play my high level character with low level friends.

Suggestions for the game mechanic:
* Have waypoints costs scale with zone level
* Discount waypoint costs for fully explored zones
* Have DE gold reward scale with level”

All of these suggestions sound like much better alternatives than switching to a low-level alt every time a friend or guildmate asks for assistance.

Should ArenaNet do anything about high-level Waypoint costs, or should we all just buckle down and do our best to save up a decent stash of traveling funds? What do you think?

The Trading Post system in Guild Wars 2 is one of my favorite features within the game and is truly next generation in its implementation and ease of use.  A great auction system encourages player interaction and provides players with another avenue of playing.  We all know the people who see generating wealth through trading as a game within a game, and we all know people who just never seem to care about buying or selling anything they get.  Arenanet has built their Trading Post system to be extremely powerful for advanced users, but extremely simple for those users who don’t really want to bother with the system.

Here are 5 reasons Why I love the Guild Wars 2 Trading Post. Keep reading to find out what they are!

1.  Access the market from anywhere you are.  Yes, that’s right, the Commerce window can be brought up from anywhere in the game world.  What does this mean for you?  Items can be bought or sold without having to hit a town.  Do keep in mind that while you can buy and sell items out in the field, you will have to go to the Trading Post NPC to pick up your items or gold.  This may not mean much for the person who enjoys the idea of mailing items to an auction house mule, but for those players who don’t really get into the world of commerce within MMO’s, it really creates an opportunity to sell those tradeskill materials, as opposed to just vendoring them.  To further simplify things, you can simply right click any item in your inventory and you have options to Sell at Trading Post or Buy More at Trading Post. 

2.  Browsing items for purchase has never been easier.  When pulling up the window to purchase items within the trading post, you can instantly see the Top Valued, Supplied, Demanded, and Traded Items.  I’m sure that the hardcore mercantile players will be most interested in identifying these trends in an effort to fulfill market niches.  If you’re looking for something that isn’t amongst the top items, all you have to do is a simple Item Name search.  Unlike some other recent MMO’s, there are no silly filter requirements to prevent you from searching.  However, if you’re not sure of the item name, there are filters to help you find the item that is right for you. 
 
 
3.  The Currency Exchange window makes it so smart traders can harness market power to work for them.  Here’s what I mean by this.  Using the Currency Exchange window you can either trade gold for gems or trade your gems for gold.  The window tells you the price of recent gem sales, shows you a price graph over the last few hours of trading, and also shows you various pieces of market data including Average Price and the Highest and Lowest prices over the last 5 days.  This information can help those of us with market savvy acquire extreme in-game wealth of not only gold, but gems as well. 

4.  Unlike most other in-MMO trading systems, the Trading Post within Guild Wars 2 allows buyers to put up listings as well.  These custom offers can appeal to sellers who don’t want to hassle with market competition, or for any one looking to make fast money.  This also appeals to buyers who are looking to get a bargain, but aren’t in a rush to acquire their items.  Because of this system, there’s always a chance that you will find that rare item that you want, even if it’s not necessarily listed at the time that you’re browsing the trading post.

 
5.  Selling your loot has never been more straight forward.  When pulling up the selling tab in the Commerce window, your inventory comes up pre-sorted by name.  You can see all buyer offers for items that are in your inventory, assuming you’re willing to wait for your money, but are looking to get more for your hard earned loot, you have the option to list your item on the trading post, rather than taking the offers.  Once you select your item to sell, you can with a single click match your item to the current lowest price on the Trading Post, or choose to set your own price.  Nothing’s more irritating than being undercut by a single copper piece on an auction, and this system encourages sellers to match their items at the lowest price by providing that as a single click option for listings.

Although it’s seemingly a contradiction, the Trading Post system has managed to take all of the things that I loved from previous trade systems within MMO’s, expanded upon those ideas and tossed some useful tools out there for us trade junkies, all while keeping the system easy to use for beginning players.  No easy feat for Arenanet I’m sure, but one that I’ll be thanking them for when I’m dominating my server’s Trading Post.