I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty!

I crafted that top! So pretty.

A heroine needs to look fabulous while saving the world, so this post is about the dye system. If any of you have read my other blogs, you'll know I enjoy dressing up my toons. If any of you know me in real life, you'll know that's a bit at odds with my true self! I have zero fashion sense in the really-real world, and I actually dislike shopping for clothes, unlike most women I know. But somehow I get in a game and I've just GOT to have the nicest outfits in the prettiest colours. My inner girl coming through, I guess.  :)

Anyway, the GW2 Beta team gave everyone 2000 Gems to buy stuff in the cash shop. Of course, I went straight to the costume section! They had some neat things to buy, like a chef's outfit, a top hat, a pirate costume etc., but I opted for the 3-packs of random dyes. Yes, I said random. I was a bit thrown off by that at first, but I always try to be open-minded.

I bought 11 packs of 3 = 33 dyes. The item description says you will get 2 common dyes and one uncommon. I clicked to open them one-by-one and a massive variety of colours started unlocking my dye screen. Out of the 33, I did get one duplicate, which is what I was concerned about when I saw it was random.

Almost immediately, I trotted over to the Trading House (the name for the auction system) to see if they could be sold to other players. Yup! Good to go! So no worries about duplicates, there is a way to make some money off of them.

Some folks would insist that it's better to be able to choose exactly which colours you want to buy with real money, but my theory is this: certain colours are going to be more in demand than others, so by making it random, when you get that special colour it's not only a thrill, but also a lucrative money-making opportunity for you! But yeah, part of me also agrees with the cynical folks who say randomizing the dyes is being greedy by forcing players to buy more dye packs to hopefully get lucky. A full cash shop/commerce discussion is for another post, I think!

However, just to let you know, if  you don't want to buy dyes, you can cultivate them. I didn't get around to doing that, but apparently Colorful Dye Seeds drop from mobs, you take them to a dude in your home town, and he grows them for you. After 24 hours, you pick up your dye. Check out GW2 Guru for a discussion.

Okay, so on to the clothes! You can see at the top of this post how this outfit turned out in the end. (I neglected to take a picture of the pieces before I dyed them, whoops.)

I crafted the top using my Tailoring skill (more later), and the rest were drops, including my fancy la-dee-dah mask.
This picture to the right is the outfit using only one dye colour. I think it's great how you can still see the textures and patterns of the clothes when using only one colour. The dye doesn't just wash everything out and make you monochromatic: it adjusts to the fabric and texture of the clothing. Awesome!



GW2 Dye Screen



The dye screen is shown here. See the little dropper about middle of the screen, above the gear? That's on your Hero page all the time. At any moment, no matter where you are, you can open your Hero page and click the dropper and transform your clothes into a glorious array of new colours. Feeling blue cuz you lost a fight. Presto! Your outfit now matches your mood! Heading to a party at Ye Olde Grubby Taverne? Clickety-click, you are ravishing in red!

Gosh, just looking at the screenshots, I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to condense it all into words. I guess, if you're playing the game, you've hopefully figured this out. Let's just say it's this simple: pick a colour, pick a piece of clothing, pick a sub-portion of that clothing in the little box and click to see what happens. Repeat!

There are some neat features to the dye system. You can right click any colour and it will go to the top as a Favorite. You can sort by Set, Material or Hue, although you can see in beta, someone's a little confused as to what a purple hue is! (Don't worry, I put in some feedback.) There's an Undo button, as well as a Remove Dye button, which will revert the piece back to its original GW2-given colour.







Spiral's Townclothes



I have so much more to write about but I'm going to stop this post for now cuz it's getting a bit long. But I can say I'm totally impressed by the dye system and spent many happy minutes clicking away on colours.

Oh one more thing...maybe you're the kinda person who is all business and wants their fighting gear to be fierce and imposing. Don't worry. You can still dress up. There is also a whole set of Town Clothes to play with as well. My oh my, a vain toon's delight! These clothes can't be worn in combat, but they're perfect for prancing about in Divinity's Reach or meeting that special feline-someone in Black Citadel. (Geez, I haven't even started with Charr costumes on Mousekin.)

So much to look forward to in the next beta weekend. Plus questing, exploring, crafting, leveling, skill points...happy days ahead!

Note: GW2 has said that dye unlocks will be account-wide but they weren't that way in beta. I'm hoping that's just an oversight and will be corrected when the game is released.