ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/Max weapons change

Change the weapon drops in loot
In the current format, most of the time you get weapon drops that are completely useless except for selling to the merchant or salvaging. Until you're maxed you can usually get better weapons from quests or collectors than 99% of the drops. Now as much as it is more interesting than the monsters outright dropping money, there's little purpose or logic in it. Also, it's just cause of frustration I think if you're trying to get a nice weapon skin, and the ones that drop all the time are not maxed, not inscribed or anything like that since you'll never actually use those drops except for show. Same for the mods, once you've had a few unmaxed mods dropping, you have no use at all for it dropping again.

Solution: make dropped weapons upgradable. So if your favorite weapon skin drops but it's not maxed, you can upgrade its stats, for instance through a minigame that requires materials, thus in effect you can forge 10 bad weapons into a good one. That way you can also, if you wish, keep your starter weapon all game long and just upgrade it regularly, in case you're sentimental about it. With mods you could do something similar, stacking them until you've maxed them out, the better the mod you add, the more the increase. Unmaxed rare weapons skins would of course drop a bit less often in order to keep them as rare.

Alternative solution: Just let monsters drop monster items (collector items, furs, half eaten BigMacs etc) instead of useless weapons. If a weapon is dropped, it is always maxed for the area it's dropped in (starter areas drop starter weapons, harder areas drop actual maxed weapons). Same for mods.

Of course either way, the regularity of weapon drops would be adjusted to ensure 'perfect' weapons with rare skins are still just as rare.


 * Why this is a good idea
 * Makes weapon drops a lot more useful and interesting, instead of just being indirect money
 * Prevents frustration for players with little luck
 * Forging your own weapons in a minigame (even if it's just upgrading) might be a nice addition, at least for some.
 * Forging your weapon together makes it more of an achievement, more personal.
 * Forging could possibly also be used for further personalization with trophies or gems or whatever, if such a feature would be added.
 * Prolongs the lifespan of weapons, thus making it easier to use upgrades on your starting weapons instead of saving them.


 * Why it may not work out
 * If the forging system is too simple, it's lame; if it's too time consuming and has to be done often, it's boring, so that would need to be balanced
 * Bit unrealistic if everyone can forge a weapon together without any education.