Gear and exchange: a third path to resources

Resources for level 85 and 95 gear used to come by two calendar paths only: Crucible points and Soldier Emblems. Now they drop from the bosses of the Western Lands, and that third path depends entirely on your own activity. The old exchanges keep working.

Resources from bosses

• The logic is simple: a boss gives materials for gear of its own level (9 August).
• Bosses of levels 80 to 85 (Avenger Slayer, Fu Hao, Gatekeeper of Boza, Thanatos) give the Seal of Frost and the Heart of Ice: materials for level 85 weapons, armour and jewellery (9 August).
• Bosses of levels 90 to 105 (Vargas, the Red and Black Generals, Jotun Slayer, Servant of the Wood Element, Nyktos, Creator of Signs) give the Moon Crystal, the Frozen Essence and three kinds of flint for level 95 gear (9 August).
• How much drops. Bosses on a ten minute respawn drop 1 or 2 resources, hourly ones about 10 at a time. The older the boss, the larger the share of rare flints in its drop. The Frozen Drop comes only from Nyktos and the Creator of Signs, on average once in 10 kills (9 August).

Exchanges

• The Dynasty Voivode received a crafting resource exchange tab: the Seal of Frost and the Heart of Ice trade for the Moon Crystal or the Frozen Essence at 2 to 1 and back, the Crystal and the Essence trade between themselves at 1 to 1, the Frozen Drop gives 20 at once, and Underground and Heavenly stones trade at 2 to 1 both ways (15 August).
• The Mystic Merchant appeared by the stairs near the Great Forge. First he traded green Twilight Temple resources for chips, then accepted dungeon resources for Immortal Stones, and later Moon resources became far cheaper: the Moon Crystal and the Frozen Essence cost 10 signs each, ordinary flint 5, bright and ancient 7 (21 July, 1 August, 15 August).
• The Lord of Trials trades 10 Mysterious Signs for one trial of any of the 7 kinds (20 August).
• The guild exchange at Commander Yunban accepts Conqueror Tokens for Perfect and Excellent prizes, Frost City Emblems and the Moon Sign jewellery and weapon (9 August).
• The Talented Boy gathered Immortal Stones, Polymaterials, Heavenly and Underground stones into the «Exchange» tab with extra options (6 August).

Crafting became cheaper

• Sacred cloaks. The Radiant cloak and the Cloak of Glory need 750 Ancient Flints instead of 900, are created with at least 3 sockets at an 85 percent chance, and the chance of four sockets was raised to 15 percent (24 August).
• Moon gear. Swapped prices were fixed: making a weapon now costs more than jewellery, as it should (5 August).
• Crafting. Making several items at once raises mastery for every item, not for the batch as a whole (11 August).
• Cauldrons. Chrono cauldrons were added with current prices, and the prices of guaranteed golden items in level 95 and higher cauldrons were adjusted (1 September).

Economy

• Orders of Glory were voluntarily traded by guilds for Polymaterials, and none are left on the server. Guild Wars now award 300 Polymaterials instead of the Order (9 August, 15 August).
• The auction runs at 20:00, with lots split by value: the first and second are basic, the third and fourth medium and high, and the fifth holds the rarest items (11 July).
• The pocket shop. The trade instinct discount of up to 30 percent is now applied at purchase instead of demanding the full sum up front (11 August).

The top gear right now is Twilight Temple and Moon, plus ranks 6 and 8: the balance sits closer to version 1.3.6, so there is time to prepare for the next grades.

The dates in brackets are the updates the change shipped in. These news posts come out later than the changes themselves: there was simply no time to write them.