Originally posted by nilden
 Guess what you can't salvage vendor bought items at all anymore.

Good, never should have been able to in the first place.

The fact that you could really "buy" your way up to a high level of cooking after like a day of playing the game was a problem, but as always there are wider ranging effects, some of which probably weren't completely thought through.  For example, now they've now given the cooking powerlevelers another advantage by helping limit the supply of higher level food items and formerly stockpiled vendor/karma-bought crafting materials.  It doesn't take a degree in economics to know that this will drive up the market prices to the advantage of those who 'got in' early.

In the long term it's largely irrelevant, but in the short term, I'm thinking many will soon have preferred they announced that this was happening and gone with a more phased approach where cooking was nerfed slowly every couple of days, but whatever I guess.

Originally posted by Rockhide

For example, now they've now given the cooking powerlevelers another advantage by helping limit the supply of higher level food items and formerly stockpiled vendor/karma-bought crafting materials.  It doesn't take a degree in economics to know that this will drive up the market prices to the advantage of those who 'got in' early.

Chef ingredients that were sold in bulk at a renown vendor are account bound and unable to be sold on the TP.

Yep, we're really gonna make a killing off that! Such a huge advantage!

/facepalm

Originally posted by Kost

Originally posted by Rockhide

For example, now they've now given the cooking powerlevelers another advantage by helping limit the supply of higher level food items and formerly stockpiled vendor/karma-bought crafting materials.  It doesn't take a degree in economics to know that this will drive up the market prices to the advantage of those who 'got in' early.

Chef ingredients that were sold in bulk at a renown vendor are account bound and unable to be sold on the TP.

Yep, we're really gonna make a killing off that! Such a huge advantage!

/facepalm

I was not aware, thank you.

EDIT:

Removed personal insult directed at Kost.

Resia's post below explains that some previously account-bound karma-purchased cooking ingredients are now no longer account-bound, and a glimpse at Reddit shows that some players had a large supply of these items that they put up on the TP.

Originally posted by Rockhide

Originally posted by Kost

Originally posted by Rockhide

For example, now they've now given the cooking powerlevelers another advantage by helping limit the supply of higher level food items and formerly stockpiled vendor/karma-bought crafting materials.  It doesn't take a degree in economics to know that this will drive up the market prices to the advantage of those who 'got in' early.

Chef ingredients that were sold in bulk at a renown vendor are account bound and unable to be sold on the TP.

Yep, we're really gonna make a killing off that! Such a huge advantage!

/facepalm

 

I was not aware, thank you.  No need to be an ass about it.

I advice you to read the posts in following thread "http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/364345/So-now-what.html" then see if you still think that there was no need.

Originally posted by gaeanprayer
And now all those people bitching about "How do power levelers affect you?" know exactly how. GG, you got to 80 in 36 hours and made the game harder for everyone else in the process. Thanks for that.

Does this mean that if the game gets easier, it is positive? 

Rather lame change; I don't care for it mainly because of selfish reason.  Fortuantely I got my cooking to around 300 and then the new build was put forth around 12 AM this morning my time.  I was actually just about to buy some things from the karma vendor when the build dropped, I log back in and those things are now gone from vendor.  Gee thanks Anet!  The one thing I liked about cooking was that it wasn't so damn grindy like the other crafts.  I could actually get all the materials in good amounts just by leveling.  Now, like the others I will need to grind for materials.

I will say that yes, it was easier to level than the other crafts.  LIke I said maybe the change will benefit cooking, but I just didn't care for the way it was stealth changed last with no warning right in the middle of purchasing said items from the vendor hah.

Originally posted by Rockhide

Originally posted by Kost

Originally posted by Rockhide

For example, now they've now given the cooking powerlevelers another advantage by helping limit the supply of higher level food items and formerly stockpiled vendor/karma-bought crafting materials.  It doesn't take a degree in economics to know that this will drive up the market prices to the advantage of those who 'got in' early.

Chef ingredients that were sold in bulk at a renown vendor are account bound and unable to be sold on the TP.

Yep, we're really gonna make a killing off that! Such a huge advantage!

/facepalm

 

I was not aware, thank you.  No need to be an ass about it.

 Except they are not anymore ( now that they are drops). So last night (right after the "update" people have stock, jacked up the prices and started selling.

I get that they wanted to add more drops, fine, but lower the price of the other stuff to be in par with the other professions. Right now crafting has so many components it is way more expensive than the other crafts. Which i thought was the trade off, but they just made that justification void.

Originally posted by Kost

Originally posted by Loktofeit
Seems like an odd decision unless they were seeing that people buying gold was an issue of some kind. Cooking differed from the other skills in that the expense was karma and coin rather than farming. Now it's karma, coin and farming? Seems like they just shifted it from a different system to a much more tedious system.

It cost 35s, a small amount of Karma, and three stops at different renown vendors to get to 300+ before this change, five stops if you wanted to get to 400. A total time investment of roughly one hour.

That is beyond easy, they didn't shift it to a more "tedious" system, they just don't want it to be so simple and fast that it makes the other trades pale in comparison.

 If someone already has several thousand karma, a couple gold, extended bag space and had completed all the prerequisite quests in the level 35-55 areas to unlock the vendors, they could then possibly bang out a 300 inside of an hour or two.

While your post is a complete exaggeration in all regards, I understand your point that it required less mob stomping than the others crafts. Personally, I liked the previous system, but getting a stick of butter on a small white tray as a loot drop item has proven amusing in it's own special way since the change.

I'm actually glad they did this because I don't really suffer that much.  I was already at 290 when they made the change, I'm now at 317 and still going strong.

From the ArenaNet standpoint it was way too easy to level cooking.  Cooking levels could easily be leveled with just bought stuff at the vendors to 400, and that's doubly true for the window when the auction house started working.  I'm still curious how profits are going to work, I've spent over 5,000 karma and about two gold and have yet to come close to making money.  I imagine when people get 80 and do PvP they'll want food but it is completely impossible to make profits as a chef right now.