RIP Istan

[Bloodstealer.5978]

> @"Emberstone.2904" said:

> > @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > The original farm was far more valuable than anything else in the game. I am surprised that people think that nothing was going to happen to it. It's still very lucrative, even if it's not necessarily best in the game.

>

> I made less than 5g from a full GH run (from breaking the bar to Amala) after tagging all champs. I don't know what you're smoking, but for the time invested, that is anything but lucrative.

 

Yep, that seems much more balanced and in line with other events, if not still a little better than others, so .. where is the issue?

[Emberstone.2904]

> @"Bloodstealer.5978" said:

> > @"Emberstone.2904" said:

> > > @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > > The original farm was far more valuable than anything else in the game. I am surprised that people think that nothing was going to happen to it. It's still very lucrative, even if it's not necessarily best in the game.

> >

> > I made less than 5g from a full GH run (from breaking the bar to Amala) after tagging all champs. I don't know what you're smoking, but for the time invested, that is anything but lucrative.

>

> Yep, that seems much more balanced and in line with other events, if not still a little better than others, so .. where is the issue?

 

The issue is that Istan, like other now-similar events, is something I will never run anymore because it's a waste of time to do so. I could make more gold doing other things, so it is now a net loss in gold for me to run it vs. doing something else (which honestly doesn't make that much more gold, either).

 

That's the issue. ArenaNet just made Istan a completely useless map, unless you think 5g for 20 minutes of work is valuable, for some reason. Here's a hint: it isn't.

 

I don't really think it's a conspiracy theory anymore to say that Anet is nerfing Istan so people buy more gems instead of farming them now that they just laid off 140+ people. Pretty sure that's what they're doing here: eliminating easier means of getting gems, so people instead pull out their credit cards instead of playing the damn game.

 

I just took a two month or so break from the game because I wasn't liking the rune salvage change pushing people toward the gem store to get the extractors instead of just letting us use salvage kits, like we have been able to for 6 years. I come back today to this, to find out that they're pushing people toward their credit cards even more with these nerfs. I just uninstalled the game, and probably won't be back unless something changes. Anet was just put on the same tier as Activision and EA to me.

 

I miss the days when game companies made money by selling compelling content instead of trying to nickel and dime us.

[LadyHawk.5319]

To those who feel that 'farming' isn't needed or should not be done in this game, please consider the following. While I am not saying you are wrong or dictating how you should feel, I just ask that you consider this: The price of leather is still too high, compared to other T6 mats. Yes, it is far better than what it was after Anet upscrewed :s leather with HoT and the changes that took cured hardened leather to over 1g 75s. Lake Doric brought it down to around 1g. Istan brought it to where it is now. The fact is, it is expensive to craft gear because of the ridiculous patches that were introduced with HoT. You remember that, don't you? :/ Anet introduced patches, increased the amount needed to refine leather, drastically decreased the drop rate and (iirc) decreased the rate when salvaging. Close to 2 years later they finally slightly increased the drop rate. So for people who do not have a decent source of income in the game (or real life), for new players to the game, this alone makes it very difficult for them financially.

 

The financial aspect is always part of games. Like it or not. We have been very fortunate with our beloved Guild Wars 2 <3 in that it is not the major focus. Anet does what it can do to put the emphasis on playing the game and not making it a our job. However, it is still part of the game, like it or not. How sad it is when a crafted Draconic's Berserker's coat (crafted lvl 80 exotic) costs 8g 11s and Devona's chestguard (same level gear, mob dropped) costs 1g 11s :'( . Why is this, you may ask? Well, 4g 60s of that Draconic coat is the cost of the 10 cured hardened leather squares needed for the 5 Gossamer patches required to craft the insignia :o . More than half of the price is for one material ingredient. I remember when the price of that chest piece was around 3g and over 15g! :o People need a better source of money than the 2g per day for dailies (for which I am thankful ;) ).

[Bloodstealer.5978]

> @"Emberstone.2904" said:

> > @"Bloodstealer.5978" said:

> > > @"Emberstone.2904" said:

> > > > @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > > > The original farm was far more valuable than anything else in the game. I am surprised that people think that nothing was going to happen to it. It's still very lucrative, even if it's not necessarily best in the game.

> > >

> > > I made less than 5g from a full GH run (from breaking the bar to Amala) after tagging all champs. I don't know what you're smoking, but for the time invested, that is anything but lucrative.

> >

> > Yep, that seems much more balanced and in line with other events, if not still a little better than others, so .. where is the issue?

>

> The issue is that Istan, like other now-similar events, is something I will never run anymore because it's a waste of time to do so. I could make more gold doing other things, so it is now a net loss in gold for me to run it vs. doing something else (which honestly doesn't make that much more gold, either).

>

> That's the issue. ArenaNet just made Istan a completely useless map, unless you think 5g for 20 minutes of work is valuable, for some reason. Here's a hint: it isn't.

>

> I don't really think it's a conspiracy theory anymore to say that Anet is nerfing Istan so people buy more gems instead of farming them now that they just laid off 140+ people. Pretty sure that's what they're doing here: eliminating easier means of getting gems, so people instead pull out their credit cards instead of playing the kitten game.

>

> I just took a two month or so break from the game because I wasn't liking the rune salvage change pushing people toward the gem store to get the extractors instead of just letting us use salvage kits, like we have been able to for 6 years. I come back today to this, to find out that they're pushing people toward their credit cards even more with these nerfs. I just uninstalled the game, and probably won't be back unless something changes. Anet was just put on the same tier as Activision and EA to me.

>

> I miss the days when game companies made money by selling compelling content instead of trying to nickel and dime us.

 

5G for 20mins is pretty decent imo.

Interesting.. you want compelling content but you choose to farm a single piece of content 24/7 .. for what purpose, to make gold to buy gems to spend on stuff... where does the compelling content thing come into your ideology?

Istan was way over the top to lucrative and yeah its likely a change to push players to buy gems rather than use in game wealth, especially as it only now they are implementing it a year or so after it landed into game.. I too disliked the Sigil/Rune changes and the requiem armour malarkey, I called it right there that it was a forced pull to take gold out of the game and push gem sales whilst also turning items from luxury to must have in order to do things.. I would hazard a guess NC Soft were putting the pressure on some time ago to push for more revenue.. declining revenue doesn't happen over night. As much as we (and I include myself in this) don't like this potential shift in direction, we have to remember ANET is a business not a charity and if it is to remain viable it has hit profit goals that NC Soft require... and that will undoubtedly pull on players willingness to spend.

But we players have the ability to uninstall and go elsewhere if we choose.. those employed within ANET don't have that kind of luxury when it comes to finding new jobs.

[AlexVv.3965]

> @"Dreamy Lu.3865" said:

>

> Now we just had phase 3 on the meta event in Istan. Let's wait for the phase 1 to restart somewhere else. The game is alive. That's all. Personally, I find that good. :)

 

You are an optimist) I think we will not see the first phase. Unfortunately. The recent wave of layoffs in the company hardly makes it possible to count on the emergence of some kind of "golden farm". By the way, the first nerfs of Istan was shortly before these unpleasant events, it means there were already some “calls” from the top management due to the need to increase the profit from the game.

It was a good farm for those who want to quickly buy the necessary runes, skins, etc.

For fans of the "legendary weapons" it was also a good option, since the cost of these weapons is unreasonably high. IMHO, dozens, if not hundreds of times. I just take off my hat to people who have enough time, energy, and gold to get these things) But for myself, I don’t even consider any option to get this weapon. Despite the fact that I play almost from the very beginning (with interruptions).

Now developers are pushing players to spend real money. Given the situation, from a business point of view - a logical decision. Although, if Anet worked on the third expansion, it would bring them more money. Quarterly sales charts clearly demonstrate this.

[Recon.8754]

How does it even make sense that RIBA should be more gold/hour than istan. I get that they wanted to nerf istan, but istan should be more gold per hour. Istan is newer content, requires a LW episode, and requires a HELL OF A LOT of commander coordination to run multiple maps for it to be as profitable as it was. Instead, now people who want to make some quick gold for a shiny new skin, will have to head over to RIBA where once you do the first rotation the map farms itself. You just run around whimsically tagging whatever. And then you open your little goodies on a lvl 50 alt. Cause yeah, that makes sense, the best gold/hour should come from opening loot on a lvl 50.

 

They over did it on istan. For the effort required, it should give 20% more gold/hour than RIBA. Not 40% less.

 

And running other metas is a joke with the current map system. Sure, the meta might take 20-30min for 10-15g, but I have to get to the map 30min early or Ill never make it in. So now its an hour for 10g. And half of the time I was just standing waiting for it to start.

 

World bosses see the same issue. Oh, you wanna kill tequatl? Either wake up at 4am for a pleasant quick 15min run where you dont need to show up early, or play at prime time and get a taxi into the map 45min early.

[Emberstone.2904]

> @"Bloodstealer.5978" said:

> > @"Emberstone.2904" said:

> > > @"Bloodstealer.5978" said:

> > > > @"Emberstone.2904" said:

> > > > > @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > > > > The original farm was far more valuable than anything else in the game. I am surprised that people think that nothing was going to happen to it. It's still very lucrative, even if it's not necessarily best in the game.

> > > >

> > > > I made less than 5g from a full GH run (from breaking the bar to Amala) after tagging all champs. I don't know what you're smoking, but for the time invested, that is anything but lucrative.

> > >

> > > Yep, that seems much more balanced and in line with other events, if not still a little better than others, so .. where is the issue?

> >

> > The issue is that Istan, like other now-similar events, is something I will never run anymore because it's a waste of time to do so. I could make more gold doing other things, so it is now a net loss in gold for me to run it vs. doing something else (which honestly doesn't make that much more gold, either).

> >

> > That's the issue. ArenaNet just made Istan a completely useless map, unless you think 5g for 20 minutes of work is valuable, for some reason. Here's a hint: it isn't.

> >

> > I don't really think it's a conspiracy theory anymore to say that Anet is nerfing Istan so people buy more gems instead of farming them now that they just laid off 140+ people. Pretty sure that's what they're doing here: eliminating easier means of getting gems, so people instead pull out their credit cards instead of playing the kitten game.

> >

> > I just took a two month or so break from the game because I wasn't liking the rune salvage change pushing people toward the gem store to get the extractors instead of just letting us use salvage kits, like we have been able to for 6 years. I come back today to this, to find out that they're pushing people toward their credit cards even more with these nerfs. I just uninstalled the game, and probably won't be back unless something changes. Anet was just put on the same tier as Activision and EA to me.

> >

> > I miss the days when game companies made money by selling compelling content instead of trying to nickel and dime us.

>

> Interesting.. you want compelling content but you choose to farm a single piece of content 24/7 .. for what purpose, to make gold to buy gems to spend on stuff... where does the compelling content thing come into your ideology?

 

I never said I farmed it 24/7. I would be glad to play other maps or game modes if they were just as lucrative, but they aren't. When I wanted gold, I'd do Istan for an hour or two and call it quits.

 

Wanting compelling content over microtransactions, and farming a map occasionally have nothing to do with each other. I was talking about a paradigm shift in the gaming industry as a whole, not how I play GW2 every second I'm logged in.

 

It is rather interesting how Anet treats farming in GW2 versus how they did in Guild Wars 1, though. I can solo farm UW (one of the game's hardest pieces of content; an 8-man "raid") for ectos all day and make 300k and it's absolutely no big deal; it's even encouraged, but making 50-60g after playing for an hour in GW2 is the most disgusting of sins.

 

And it's all because dollars are involved. They poison games after the initial sale (I will make exceptions for good DLC, though. Like Witcher 3's Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, Shivering Isles for Oblivion, etc.).

[AlexVv.3965]

> @"MoriMoriMori.5349" said:

> > @"Biff.5312" said:

> > Unfortunately I think experience in other MMOs has somewhat tainted the player base, setting expectations that gold-farming is essential to the gaming experience. So many players feel like they're grinding out a second job in the MMOs they play. I really think that large group that wants their gold farm are mostly impossible to satisfy either way.

>

> The fact people actually do it just blows my mind. I heard it's something like 20-30g/hour, right? So it's something about ~1$/hr. Unless you are resident of **South** America's state or some poorer **Eastern** Europe's state, that's just laughably low per hour wage. What gives? Wouldn't it be more reasonable to just take a few extra hours at your work, or a side project, for a few hundreds $, swipe it away - and just play your game, having some fun? I saw people who do farming discussing how they kill their boredom while doing so (because apparently it's as little fun for them as it looks like for me, as a bystander) - i.e. somebody watches TV, or sitcoms on the another monitor, or listen to some audiobooks. Those people don't even find much pleasure in what they are doing, yet they keep doing what effectively is a work, a chore, not a game - for months. What's going on in their heads, I wonder? How do they justify it?

>

> Even if you are no living in the 1st-world country of sort, if you have enough money income to buy DLCs, gaming rig and internet services, you still should have much better sources of income than grinding gold in game at 1$/hr, instead of actually playing it.

 

Where did you get such disregard for players from Eastern Europe or South America? For your information, Eastern Europeans (including your humble servant) bought the game itself, and all the extensions. And I also bought a lot of gems in the store in due time. Even though Anet did not bother to localize the game in my native language (and very much in vain, they lost a large number of potential customers).

But everything has some reasonable boundaries, I do not consider it necessary to spend a lot of money in the game, which I ALREADY bought. Therefore, I sometimes (sometimes, I never farm 24/7) used Istan.

And there were plenty of people from Western Europe too.

A little less arrogance, man.

If you are lucky to be born in a high-income country, this does not give you the right to be arrogant towards people from countries with less (as yet) developed economies. And ... history, you know, is changeable stuff. You are rich now, but who knows what will happen tomorrow.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

I would say I'm surprised it took them this long to find out this was farmed because of the phylacteries, but then I remember Anet staff doesn't play the game extensively enough to figure this stuff out as fast as the community does.

[XenoSpyro.1780]

> @"Blocki.4931" said:

> And where do you get them from?

Start doing Sunspear chest runs while waiting on metas bruh. Between that, Hall chests, Pala chests, and the involved Leg bosses, you can still pull near or even over 200 blue unids per day, on top of whatever assortment of green/yellows you get.

To possibly inaccurately quote random Oblivion merchants : "You've made quite a bit of gold"

 

> @"Emberstone.2904" said:

> I made less than 5g from a full GH run (from breaking the bar to Amala) after tagging all champs. I don't know what you're smoking, but for the time invested, that is anything but lucrative.

 

 >one event chain tied to less than 10% of the map space

 >same length as 15 minute Teq runs

WOW MUCH TIME MANY TICKS WOW

 

 

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

design philosophie from every MMO company

[Emberstone.2904]

> @"XenoSpyro.1780" said:

> > @"Emberstone.2904" said:

> > I made less than 5g from a full GH run (from breaking the bar to Amala) after tagging all champs. I don't know what you're smoking, but for the time invested, that is anything but lucrative.

>

>  >one event chain tied to less than 10% of the map space

>  >same length as 15 minute Teq runs

> WOW MUCH TIME MANY TICKS WOW

>

 

Yes. All events are bad, and now Istan is just another bad event. Your point?

[Rasimir.6239]

> @"Emberstone.2904" said:

> The issue is that Istan, like other now-similar events, is something I will never run anymore because it's **a waste of time** to do so. I could make more gold doing other things, so it is now a net loss in gold for me to run it vs. doing something else (which honestly doesn't make that much more gold, either).

>

> That's the issue. ArenaNet just made Istan a completely useless map, unless you think 5g for 20 minutes of **work** is valuable, for some reason. Here's a hint: it isn't.

Sorry, but I was under the impression that this is a game that people play for entertainment (aka waste their time). Where I work things look a lot different than Istan.

[McMuffin.1609]

It was too bad that I was not able to bath in riches back in the days this was not nerfed yet.. but i do have to agree with Anet nerfing Istan.. this would have caused alot on inflation.. gold to gem would get worst(I remember the days where 400gems was just 80gold) tbh is istan would have stayed the same it would have been gamebreaking.. as for me who has been in this game for 6 years(5 more months to be 7). You can still get a decent amount of gold; still got about 20gold just doing both meta events in 2 days. thats 2 stacks of blue and 1 stacks of greens the yellows I havent sold yet.. the meta even still has alot of participants and is a great way to get exp IMO

[Hyper Cutter.9376]

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> Regardless, the reason ANet nerfs some farms (notably Lake Doric, Istan, and AB Multi) is that the _relative_ amount of income was destabilizing. Those choosing to farm earned much, much more than those doing other things, even other farms. That discrepancy is ultimately bad for the game. Istan affected the price of ecto, rares, exotics, etc in ways that primarily benefited the farmers, at the expense of those doing other content.

> The only surprising thing to me is that ANet took so long to do anything about it. (I am not, however, surprised that they have done a poor job of explaining their reasons.)

In this particular case, the reason is crystal clear: people were drawing out the Amala fight by farming the spawning enemies. I'm honestly surprised they didn't just remove loot from the enemies in the event altogether, that's usually their response to this sort of thing.

[FrigginPaco.4178]

> @"Sammy.5601" said:

> > @"FrigginPaco.4178" said:

> > I'll be honest, the farm was disproportionately lucrative. If you could do a full dragon's stand worth of loot in a fraction of the time, I'm afraid that's 100% the definition of unbalanced. Inb4 "DS isn't even that lucrative", perhaps not compared to pre-nerf Istan, but that's the entire point.

>

> Isn't the solution to buff other metas then? Give people a reason to actually do PoF metas too and buff them so they are valuable rather than nerfing this one into the ground? You might say people will just find the most lucrative and in that case, come up with creative solutions! Remove champion loot from Istan and shove all the would be loot from them into the chests which are daily and use the same method for other metas that are buffed to be equally lucrative once a day, let's say at a rate of 20-25 gph which was about what you'd get from Istan prior to this nerf. Maybe even increase it slightly to 25-30gph as it's more effort to do a variety of events, alongside teleport fees and all that.

 

I want that to be the way things go. It's not like I want to see rewards diminish across the maps we frequent the most. The thing that would help the most in this situation imo is actually a more detailed layout of what Anet considers to be their benchmark for a good farm. At least letting the players know in more specific terms what they found wrong with a metas rewards could be useful to us.

[Etria.3642]

> @"Hyper Cutter.9376" said:

> > @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > Regardless, the reason ANet nerfs some farms (notably Lake Doric, Istan, and AB Multi) is that the _relative_ amount of income was destabilizing. Those choosing to farm earned much, much more than those doing other things, even other farms. That discrepancy is ultimately bad for the game. Istan affected the price of ecto, rares, exotics, etc in ways that primarily benefited the farmers, at the expense of those doing other content.

> > The only surprising thing to me is that ANet took so long to do anything about it. (I am not, however, surprised that they have done a poor job of explaining their reasons.)

> In this particular case, the reason is crystal clear: people were drawing out the Amala fight by farming the spawning enemies. I'm honestly surprised they didn't just remove loot from the enemies in the event altogether, that's usually their response to this sort of thing.

 

That was the case briefly but for over a year it spawned exactly precisely 24 champs, 6 at each 25 percent. No drawing out of event. And if I could tag 18-20 I was happy. With a couple groups I was happy to get 12. Now people are reporting the 24 is now 8? I probably wouldn't get to tag any. They already melt.

[MoriMoriMori.5349]

> @"AlexVv.3965" said:

> did you get such disregard for players from Eastern Europe or South America?

 

Where exactly did you see disregard in my words? I clearly meant that most of the states in regions I had in mind are simply poor ones. It's a matter of fact, not insult. So I can understand somebody wasting an hour of their time for amount of gold equivalent to 1$ if they live in country where that's an hourly rate for many people working RL jobs.

 

>For your information, Eastern Europeans (including your humble servant) bought the game itself, and all the extensions.

 

I'm Eastern European myself, you know. And I can say straight away my country is poor kitthole, same as most of countries in post-USSR region, including Russia. I don't need for any kind of "beggar's pride" to live it through the day. I prefer to deal with facts, not feelsies. I've bought those DLCs and gaming rig too, without thinking much of it, but that's because I'm one of the few lucky ones doing IT jobs and being paid in foreign currency, and by foreign standards. But at least I know I'm an exception.

 

 

 

[Etterwyn.5263]

 

Who knows, SW might get nerfed again soon too!

[Laila Lightness.8742]

> @"MoriMoriMori.5349" said:

> The map is still here, and all game-related content is here as well, as much as I care. Seems like only farming is affected, but who cares? I don't. Play game for game, not for some twisted analogue of job, I say, problem solved.

 

Yeah but its not worth it since meta events at best will be attempted but most wont bother just finish map fast then move on

[Zalani.9827]

It’s not in line with the other PoF metas, it needed to be dead too.

[Tails.9372]

> @"McMuffin.1609" said:

> this would have caused alot on inflation

 

You do realise that Istan was a gold sink, right?

 

 

 

> @"Astralporing.1957" said:

> Anyone that thinks Anet can push people to play new maps by nerfing Istan (as opposed to making new maps worthwhile) is delusional.

 

^ this, I'm currently playing multiple games but I used to log in every 2 hours to do GH -> some wood farming in Orr -> Tarir, now it's just Tarir -> wood -> offline.

 

I'm not going to farm something else just because A-Net thinks that I don't farm "the right places", if they want me to farm something else then how about creating some content that's actually worth farming? It doesn't even have to be about gold either, I would totally farm 18 cosmetic infusions for the full aura effect if s*** would actually drop for once. I'm farming AB for years now and still nothing (if you could at least use some of the useless map currency to buy them from the vendor but nah, we can't have that).

[Rasimir.6239]

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> I'm not going to farm something else just because A-Net thinks that I don't farm "the right places", if they want me to farm something else then how about creating some content that's actually worth farming?

Your mistake is that you think ANet wants you to farm at all. They have stated several times that their desire is to offer players to play a variety of activities and come up with a comparable amount of "wealth" from it. Farming a very narrow, specific activity to come out ahead of those who play different stuff was never on the agenda in this game. They do recognise that some players (whether conditioned from other MMOs or just out of their own motivation) would like to do so, they've provided a lot of repeatable content (including daily bonus rewards for more stuff than most people can do in a day), but most of it is structured so that the bonus is just that: a small bonus, not something that gives you a considerable economic advantage over those that actually play all over the place. As such, nerfing the great hall is in line with their design choices of the last seven years, equalizing loot with most other areas of the game.

 

[Tails.9372]

> @"Rasimir.6239" said:

> Your mistake is that you think ANet wants you to farm at all.

 

I don't care what A-Net thinks I should do, if they failed to offer me any interesting alternative then that's on them. Also, doing GH once every 2 hours with 110 minutes in between is still more in line with the whole "increasing gameplay variety" they're babbling about than running endless circles in SW.

 

> @"Rasimir.6239" said:

> As such, nerfing the great hall is in line with their design choices of the last seven years, equalizing loot with most other areas of the game.

 

No it's not, Istan was originally A-Nets answer to the complaints that players wanted more HoT style meta events which can be farmed once every 2 hours and are just as rewarding as pre nerf GH.

 

[thehipone.6812]

> @"FrigginPaco.4178" said:

> > @"Sammy.5601" said:

> > > @"FrigginPaco.4178" said:

> > > I'll be honest, the farm was disproportionately lucrative. If you could do a full dragon's stand worth of loot in a fraction of the time, I'm afraid that's 100% the definition of unbalanced. Inb4 "DS isn't even that lucrative", perhaps not compared to pre-nerf Istan, but that's the entire point.

> >

> > Isn't the solution to buff other metas then? Give people a reason to actually do PoF metas too and buff them so they are valuable rather than nerfing this one into the ground? You might say people will just find the most lucrative and in that case, come up with creative solutions! Remove champion loot from Istan and shove all the would be loot from them into the chests which are daily and use the same method for other metas that are buffed to be equally lucrative once a day, let's say at a rate of 20-25 gph which was about what you'd get from Istan prior to this nerf. Maybe even increase it slightly to 25-30gph as it's more effort to do a variety of events, alongside teleport fees and all that.

>

> I want that to be the way things go. It's not like I want to see rewards diminish across the maps we frequent the most. The thing that would help the most in this situation imo is actually a more detailed layout of what Anet considers to be their benchmark for a good farm. At least letting the players know in more specific terms what they found wrong with a metas rewards could be useful to us.

 

I doubt that you'll ever get a "farming manifesto" and really the gold per hour measure is a bit of a red herring. Istan destroyed TONS of gold in the format of the merchant cost of shipments and TP fees. More important is the amount of materials generated and in that way the Istan nerf (mainly the previous nerf to spamadan) is *indirectly a buff to all other content in the game*. Why? Because Istan was generating materials from shipments and other loot at a rate that was unsustainable. It cut prices in half for a lot of max level loot and made playing in other maps just feel bad and unrewarding. Price and supply charts are there for all to see. Loot from killing random mobs is now more valuable. Core map bonus rewards are more valuable (remember when Frostgorge Sound week 2 was a thing?). Loot from other metas is now more valuable. Why nerf the GH champs? Put simply, they were unintended. There was an earlier fix to try to tamp down the toxicity, but it really doesn't change the fact that people focused on farming the side mobs rather than maximally contributing to the fight.

 

So why are the leather farm and to a certain degree Silverwastes RIBA ok? Because their impact is limited to only a handful of markets. Leather farm is certainly intended. Silverwastes is almost certainly unintended in the current format, but because the optimal opening generates t4 basic mats it really can only affect a handful of mid-tier maps (the other loot is in-line with max level loot generally across the game and does not have a focused economic impact). Funny enough, the downward pressure on rugged leather that you might expect from Silverwastes doesn't stand out in price charts. However, as soon as Istan came about you saw rugged leather start creeping down from the 5-6 silver range that it had held since 2016 to 4 silver along with associated supply starting to build up.