Posts by MaxBorken

  • Returning Player: Req 7 items Req 8 Crystalline Sword

    The market for customised weapons is unconventional. Sometimes value is more for the name stamped on it than the weapon itself, other times the weapon takes centre stage.

    To the collector market, a r12 14^50 shadow blade customised to a historically legendary Titan of the collecting community may well be worth more than the r8 version of the same sword customised to someone who loved it just as much but wasn’t so well known.

  • Max Borken

    Quote from Rahl The Outlaw

    Incredible stuff, Max! Pretty sure I contributed one or two of those dual reduction shields over the years ;). There's just something about pre-nerf stuff that could make a guy go crazy.

    Thanks Rahl! Really great to see you back.

    And yes, you certainly did contribute. But for the love of god don’t ask me what. I’d need to contact RainMan to work that out. I want to say a shadow and an aegis, but I could be entirely wrong.

  • Museum posting and customization

    Why do we do what we do?

    Why do we collect things?

    To be the greatest individual?

    For fame and (artificially manipulated) likes from guild mates?

    Or is it to preserve the items’ histories and the names that have passed through our community?

    Which items did people donate to Pleikki’s collection? I ask because I genuinely can’t tell, and not simply to make a point. Without your names on them, your contributions to that part of history has been deleted and assimilated into Pleikki. Are you content knowing that your part in the history of those items has been erased and replaced by another who is now passively assuming the credit? Because he’s not acknowledged the part you played in those items’ histories in any way. Any new viewers of these pictures will not know the history. And I wonder if that’s the plan.

    Why do we do what we do? What’s it for? Quite simply, it is:

    To preserve the items and not let ego replace their history.

    Removing names from historically important items is exactly as Kabong said in his picture frame analogy. You can’t tell me that someone looks at a Rembrandt painting the same way if they don’t know it’s by Rembrandt. The name adds a layer of history and wonder. It’s a Rembrandt, but if the viewer doesn’t know that, it’s a painting. Now imagine it displayed next to some other competently done paintings, none of which have signatures. They all blur into one and the names of the contributors are lost forever. Rembrandt who? This is what’s happening here.

    All the work put in by the person whose name is written on the items to locate, chase down, fund and then acquire them is expunged from the record. Their role and influence in the community of the time and their influence deleted. Their history redacted. And in its place is one man who sees no issue with redacting history so, but worse than that, passes them off as his now. Taking the glory that isn’t his, and casually disrespecting the original owners to advance his own need to be recognised. You may have those items now, Pleikki, but you’re merely a cameo part in their history, yet by removing those names you’re claiming to be the starring role. And it is this which is so distasteful and disrespectful, and this which has caused the issues discussed in this thread.

    Now, Pleikki, add to this equation your claims of “greatest r7 15^50 collector the game has seen” and your “writing my name into the books of history” you have said while presenting your own items and explaining why you yourself customise weapons during other discussions on customisation. Adding your own name to the books of history but thinking nothing of removing everyone else’s? That’s not the third reason I gave of preserving the history. It’s not even preserving the items. It’s the first two reasons I laid out at the top of this reply.

    Speaking as someone who owns important and customised weapons myself, it’s actually offensive that you remove the names that matter from their history and pass these items’ histories off as yours.

  • q7 sword +5e

    R7 +5e swords in 15-22 damage do exist.

    In terms of ones you might be able to see ingame, think there are five. Maybe four. All Canthan.

    In total. Not four or five skins - four or five individual swords exist with those stats. There will be others lost to the mists of time, but as they’re lost you won’t be able to locate them.

    But there isn’t a number high enough to be able to prise one from their current owners. This price check can’t be answered in numerical terms - its just too rare. Of those four, two are on active accounts - a platinum blade and a celestial sword. A third, a jitte is on a virtually inactive account, and I can’t recall the fourth. Maybe it’s only the three.

    And I do also know that the current owners of those are well known for not even considering any offers, rejecting the highest offers outright.

    In other words, not for sale at any price.

  • Max Borken

    Quote from TiniWeni

    With the superior screen shots & artistic yet simple display design showing them off in all there glory is such a pleasure to see.

    Thank you. I just wish the artist responsible for creating these posters would accept public praise for such amazing work ❤️

  • Max Borken

    Quote from zxc

    I like how a lot of collectors are intertwined, we sell something to acquire the next thing on our minds, in this case it started with a dual reduction magmas(the req10 -2e/-2s pictured) i had roughly in early 2006 that i sold off for a measly 25ectos(it was huge back then ok), this funded my next project in which i acquired a magmas req8 +30 +1insp/19%, then i had my eyes set on dual reductions, i was on a quest to collect these to preserve them since the advent of inscription items were upon us.

    Dual reductions for me were like the the alien of items from space, they made no sense and it's uses were limited but it was still special to look at.

    But i failed and i ended up offloading half a dozen or so dual reductions off to EK and eventually found their way to you, so it's always nice seeing them in the right and safe hands.

    You are so right. It’s not so much about the items we hold, it’s about the journey they take and how their journey is intertwined with our own.

    This guy gets it 👍🏻

  • Max Borken

    This is the second draft of my collection, because for the past ten years you have all had to put up with amateur level images of my items. An uninspiring and boring black background was no way to present such quality, and my own skills left my collection badly cropped, poorly screenshotted, low resolution, and without artistic merit. Thankfully, my prayers to the God of Collection Presentation were answered, and now I can give my collections a 4K presentation to match the quality of the items.

    But first a little about me:


    I caught the collecting bug in around 2009 when I was a speedclearer and had been meeting people who were already collecting items so rare I could only dream of owning. I farmed 92e and took a step into trading items to generate funds. I didn’t know what I wanted to collect, but I knew I wanted to collect the rarest of the rare, and to do that I would need a very large bank balance. As I was trading I was watching. Learning who was who, who could teach and help me, and who would accompany me as I began my journey into collecting. One friend in particular helped me more than anyone at that time, an existing collector, Enchanted Krystal. He took me under his wing and showed me the ropes, and he is the reason I collect the items I do, because he gave me my first collection piece, a r8 dual reduction skeleton shield. And that was it. I knew what I would collect. I set out to gather as many dual reduction shields as I could. Gotta catch ‘em all, right? For years I relentlessly chased them down and bought as many as I could find and afford, all the time trading other items to generate the funds to pay for my next acquisition. I joined pPp soon after meeting EK, one of the collectors’ and traders’ guilds, at that time under the leadership of Sir Popel A Lot, and grew my network of contacts, friends and reputation. I saw the work being done in PhD and resolved to track down its elusive leaders, the brothers Kromp and Kabong, with a view to one day joining those hallowed halls. I knew what I wanted and where I wanted to be. It didn’t take long once I’d made contact, and shortly afterwards I was invited to join PhD on the 14th of November 2011, where I now reside as an Officer. I steadily built a collection of just about 80 dual reduction shields, but about four years ago I decided to sell off my duplicates, and honed my collection into something finer by aspiring to own one of each requirement per skin in dual reduction mods. I still have a long way to go as you can see with my current inventory standing at 61, but this poster has been ten years in the making. My magnum opus:

    As a side effect of my desire for collecting the rarest of the rare, I noticed that while I had some very serious shields, I lacked the appropriate weaponry to accompany them so I began to collect Pre-Nerf swords too. Longswords at first, then Crystalline swords. Consequently, these are my accidental collections that I didn't intend to turn into something quite so serious:


  • Does it exist?

    Quote from Seven

    Is there req 7 15-22 crysta?

    Nope. R8 is the lowest ever in max damage.

    There are r7 crystallines, but they’re not max damage.

    These days though these are an impossible drop as ANET physically removed the possibility of dropping one from the drop tables in 2006.

  • Duskblade

    Agreed. That’s one of the rarest r8 swords. Do NOT sell it to private offers or ingame. List it for sale here or you’ll rip yourself off spectacularly.

    I don’t think high triple digit armbraces though. That’ll be for the r7 version (there is a r7 15/enchanted around).

  • Museum feedback & suggestions

    Some of my most favourite collections are made up of things most would consider not valuable. Collecting in Guildwars is about the journey and the friends one meets along the way, not the items one has.

    All collections are celebrated, and to a large extent, the quirkier the better. Let’s see them!

  • "Right" and "Wrong" Order - Now with strawpoll -you can vote now

    I’ll let you into a secret.

    This is the reason I stuck with collecting dual reduction shields. None of this “ooh which mod goes first” malarkey for me. Oh no. Both mods the same length and very similarly worded. So much neater.

    And then I learned of the -3(10%) mods a week or so later which was nearly a deal breaker, because, you know, so untidy.

    But somehow I found the strength to carry on and accepted the ugly modded shields into the home, and now I love them almost like they’re family and not horribly disfigured at all.

    But back in the real world, if one must use shields that do not dually reduce received physical damage, then inscription mod goes first, health mod goes below or you’re a freak. Option 2 for me.

  • Does it exist?

    Quote from Seven

    Does gold crysta req 7 15-22 exist ?

    Nope. R8 is as low as they ever got with max damage. They did drop with non-max damage however. I have owned one a long time ago, r7, 14-20 damage and 15 below 50 I think.

    They stopped all gold OS crystallines from dropping altogether in the Great Nerf of 2006, and r8 was stopped as a possibility before that -in early 2006 if I recall. The dates have always eluded me.

  • Welcome to Legacy's Collections section

    Collections were so beloved that we moved the thread here and expanded the idea to let more Guildwars items get seen and old ones renewed.


    Pinned threads are still to be used as normal.

    This is a new space to create a thread to display your collections / items separately. You can personalise however you wish :)

    One thread per person like in Xunlai, just edit to update. Threads can be closed if requested.

    There are no hard and fast rules on content (as long as they are in line with overall Legacy rules), and you can still post collection related stuff as often as you like in the pinned posts.