You are getting what you want. In next patch, you will get a free 50 shards just for joining OPR for a couple of mins and then go afk.
Obviously, because it actually takes something to finish high level mutations, compared to OPR where you just queue for it.
I have made my life difficult for myself as I use 5 weapons and want 2 different weights (medium & heavy) and going for PVE & PVP builds, so the only reason I used myself as an example was to show that it’s not easy to find gear on the TP.
I have over 1600hrs playing so please don’t say I haven’t invested time in my character. I just want what is good for those people that want to be competitive but don’t have the time that I (and obviously you) have. Just because you are fortunate to be in a company which generates a lot of income (because the taxation system is FUBAR) doesn’t mean you should use yourself as a yardstick.
I’d like to add that you used the word ‘mainly’. GS DOES make a difference, obviously not as much as a decent 3rd perk but it does, so please stop trying to diminish the importance of GS. If it’s not important, why are you complaining?
First of all, I don´t use any money from our company. Second of all, I just wanted to say there is no need of having 625 legendary gear with bis perks to be competitive in PvP because of how small amount of players have these items. I used our company as a proof because even if we got a lot of money as a company we have only about 2-3 people who have this 625 GS bis legendary gear (and these people never switched their builds since the beginning of NW). Im pretty sure there are like 5 people across whole server with this. Why? Because BIS items are extremely rare. Its not like if you have enough money you can buy BIS items for your whole company.
So, my point is, absolute majority of people in PvP is in that 580-600 range and these are people you compete with, not those extra rare cases of full BIS 625 geared players.
BIS 625 is something which simply isn´t achievable for normal players. Its there, you can get that in theory (and there are rare cases of people who have it) but the truth is 99,9% players will never have it. Its like +25 gear in Lost Ark, you can get that in theory but you will never achieve it unless you pay 200.000 dollars.
I am 620 GS, 4 of my armor is epic quality with 2 good PvP perks, 1 item is legendary, also with 2 perks, third is angry ward or smt like that. Absolutely fine in PvP. And it was fine even without 620 GS, I barely see the difference in numbers.
That’s why an afk vote kick system like WoW has for BGs needs to be implemented, and/or PvE to no longer reward points.
I’d be totally cool with both those changes.
Actually you get nothing in OPR when you are below 500 points.
So just going afk wont help.
I agree 500 points is a bit strange, especially considering what gives points currently and what not.
But the point system is reworked and the 500 is not set in stone either.
That can all be tuned so that afking wont give u anything.
A vote kick system that requires the player move + removing points for PvE so people are actually forced to fight each other would be make the game mode better. People that AFK and cause 19v20s need to get banned for 1.5 hours. And since the points in OPR are now based on the damage you deal, people have more incentive to go out and at least deal damage to get the points required for at least 50 umbrals.
Afking should definitely not give you anything and something as brutal as a 1 min afk timeout would do that. I mean if you join a PvP scenario, you should not be going afk for more than a minute. Problem with afk timers is that people can get around that by having a bot just move them around.
So doing OPR for a couple of minutes, to get 500 points, will always be around. However, how to remedy that, is to scale the rewards based on your points. So if you get 500 points you should get something like 10 umbral shards, scaling all the way to several hundreds, if you are the top ranked, modified by a factor if your side wins or not.
That would be much better than just a flat 50 for loss and 100 for win. That gives you little incentive to engage.
For once I actually agree with you.
If the point system is fair. Not like now.
625, 624, 620 - whatever, there is a considerable benefit to having high GS in PvP. What AGS have done with the increase in Umbral is made is so a PvP player doesn’t need to invest in increasing the GS of PvE gear to get umbral shards.
You seem to have turned this debate into Legendary gear, which it was never about.
Can you somehow quantify that considerable benefit or is it just your feeling?
From what I’ve been told, around 5% difference in the dmg a 600 does to a 625 and a 625 does to a 600.
Thats considerable difference? Someone hits for 1000 instead of 1050? On 12k healthpools its not even 1 hit difference.
600 GS needs 12 hits to kill 625, 625 also needs 12 hits to kill 600 gs 
They have to have something in the mix… Maybe they’re making m20s and increasing GS to 650 and getting rid of orb only entry. Idk man. But shhhhh just let it happen. 
The dramatic increase in shards dropped from casts is a fantastic change. We’ve been bitching about the grind, and this change is a major nerf to the grind… very much needed and appreciated.
However, they need to get this change out to live ASAP. I’ve been stuck at 600GS, since I don’t dare waste any gypsum casts to get a small handful of umbral when I know I will get 30x that amount whenever the change hits.
In other words, the fact that this change is coming down has effectively stopped all progression for me. I can’t get into mutations unless I spend all of the casts to get to 602, when in one week those same casts will get me into the 61X range.
Of course, that’s why people don’t upgrade from 580 to 600!! Damn, if I knew that now I wouldn’t have upgraded my 580 items…
Also, what may not have plopped into your head is the fact that attribute points go up so that 300/200 can be easily reached whereas it couldn’t if you had sub 600 gear. Now with the change to umbral casts for shards people can reach the 300/200.
EDIT: Just read that it’s 6-8% offensive difference.
You were asking me about the difference between 600 and 625, both have 500 stats
You are overreacting, thats all. The difference between 600 and 625 isn’t holding you back.
Edit: People push to 600 exactly because of 1) 500 stats and 2) third perk. So tbh difference between 580 and 600 is much bigger than between 600 and 625.
You can’t say the difference isn’t what causes a loss, that is blatantly rubbish. In a 1 vs 1 with equal skill you will likely lose from having a lower GS, period.
Nice edit btw lol
EDIT - OK, I rephrase 580-599. Would you upgrade even though YOU think the benefit won’t make a difference?
Whats wrong about editing? No need to spam with another posts.
Edit: And no, on certain HP pools you will need exactly the same amount of hits to kill higher geared player as he needa to kill you. Ita maths.
He changed “The difference between 600 and 625 isn’t what causes a loss” to “The difference between 600 and 625 isn’t holding you back”
Yes, so is the fact that you will outheal the other player and he/she will die 1st if he/she does lower dmg than you.