Guild Wars 2

When they released ascended weapons I was excited to have more things to make for myself, guild mates, friends, and to sell in the AH. I load up the patch only to find they are account bound. Why is that? One of the things that I really liked about this game was unlike WOW (and many other MMOs) you could craft and sell the highest tier items in the game. It made crafting a viable way to make gold and useful to more than just yourself. It also made items available to people that where not interested in crafting but would rather play other parts of the game and use the gold they got to equip themselves. Now there is only one set path to get the highest tier items… you have to craft them yourself. Choices are out the window and now everyone has only one set way to get these items through crafting them for themselves (or get very lucky on a drop and hope it is what they need). That flies in the face of what I liked about this game and that was there where many ways to get the best gear. You could play how you want do what you want and it is still accessible to you. I am very disappointed.
P.S. After waiting for other topics like this I finally just made my own (the only other ones I could find where about how “hard” it is to make ascended items)

Because they want to drag it out as long as possible.

If they weren’t account bound people could buy them from the trading post, and assuming enough money, be geared up in one day. Since their goal is to have people logging in every day, it’s all account bound.

Astral Projections.7320:

Because they want to drag it out as long as possible.

If they weren’t account bound people could buy them from the trading post, and assuming enough money, be geared up in one day. Since their goal is to have people logging in every day, it’s all account bound.

People with money can still buy the timegated parts off the TP. They would have to farm the vision crystal components themselves, of course, but people that would have enough money to buy full ascended off the market are most likely farmers anyway, and can do it in the matter of days. So, it didn’t slow the hardcores that much at all.

Astralporing.1957:

Astral Projections.7320:

Because they want to drag it out as long as possible.

If they weren’t account bound people could buy them from the trading post, and assuming enough money, be geared up in one day. Since their goal is to have people logging in every day, it’s all account bound.

People with money can still buy the timegated parts off the TP. They would have to farm the vision crystal components themselves, of course, but people that would have enough money to buy full ascended off the market are most likely farmers anyway, and can do it in the matter of days. So, it didn’t slow the hardcores that much at all.

Yup. The timegate only served to make it harder for the casual players, while the rich/hardcore went right around it and got ascended weapons in half the time. I think I had my first ascended weapon on day 3, and I didn’t even try that hard. I think if I had been willing to buy stuff off the TP I could have had my first ascended weapon within 24hrs of release.

Timegates are a bad idea all around, but this particular implementation was a huge fail. I hope the devs learned that the lesson here is, “no more timegates”. However, I fear that the lesson they will learn is “Bigger, stronger timegates”.

Maybe that’s how they wanted it in the first place. The farmers/hardcore players that have all the gold to buy the timegated items will login every day anyway. How else did they get all that gold? Whereas it gets the casuals to login every day.

One thing they forgot is that ascended costs so much, most casuals don’t even try and just ignore it all together.

Charming Rogue.8071:

Maybe that’s how they wanted it in the first place. The farmers/hardcore players that have all the gold to buy the timegated items will login every day anyway. How else did they get all that gold? Whereas it gets the casuals to login every day.

One thing they forgot is that ascended costs so much, most casuals don’t even try and just ignore it all together.

This^^

They tried to flood the market with gold and t6 mats in anticipation of the ascended weapon release, but it wasn’t enough or it didn’t work because the inflation on ori and ancient wood was crazy high and ended up forcing 98% of the player base to spend 150+ gold to level crafting in one craft alone if they wanted. That is something most casuals probably don’t have.

I made one ascended weapon- but really can’t be bothered spending the time and resources and standing at the crafting person again to make any more. It’s just not fun for me.

The other thing that put me off is the time gating, and then the realisation that I could spend the next six months purely farming mats to make just weapons for all my alts – and that’s before armor even comes out, at which point I’d be stuffed completely.

Then of course they effectively removed one dragon from the game for most of us, removing a good source of dragonite and drops.

They shouldn’t have bothered with character slots at all- just pick one character at the start of the game and that’s your lot, as the chances of you gearing up more than one are now remote.

Ascended weapons (and soon armor no doubt, to add to ascended trinkets etc) being non-tradeable is a huge turn off for making viable alts, especially for wvw (where they char bound ranks as well, the most alt-unfriendly idea ever).

It’s a very different game now than when they first brought it out with much promises.

Can’t wait for the new content when they decide that it can only be completed in ascended gears as they design it around that, and anyone who plays more than one tanky class can wave goodbye to keeping up or even getting into that content.

It’s all heading in the wrong direction, fast.

Victory.2879:

……
Can’t wait for the new content when they decide that it can only be completed in ascended gears as they design it around that, and anyone who plays more than one tanky class can wave goodbye to keeping up or even getting into that content.

It’s all heading in the wrong direction, fast.

Your opinion is noted, but what evidence do you have that ANY content will EVER require specific equipment type? What content can you not now do with even LVL 80 Masterwork equipment? Will it be slightly more difficult or require some tactics changes than with some better (or even different spec) equipment? Possibly, but it’s certainly doable. Not being able to get into a Dungeon PUG because of your equipment is NOT the same thing as being unable to complete the content.

BiS “gearing up” is a player invented “requirement” that has NEVER been a game or content requirement. No doubt it has kept both the game and economy churning right along, but no content requires “keeping up with the Jones”.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Victory.2879:

……
Can’t wait for the new content when they decide that it can only be completed in ascended gears as they design it around that, and anyone who plays more than one tanky class can wave goodbye to keeping up or even getting into that content.

It’s all heading in the wrong direction, fast.

Your opinion is noted, but what evidence do you have that ANY content will EVER require specific equipment type? What content can you not now do with even LVL 80 Masterwork equipment? Will it be slightly more difficult or require some tactics changes than with some better (or even different spec) equipment? Possibly, but it’s certainly doable. Not being able to get into a Dungeon PUG because of your equipment is NOT the same thing as being unable to complete the content.

BiS “gearing up” is a player invented “requirement” that has NEVER been a game or content requirement. No doubt it has kept both the game and economy churning right along, but no content requires “keeping up with the Jones”.

I would argue that ‘Agony’ makes high lvl Fractals of the Mists gear gated content. Off original topic.

“People with money can still buy the timegated parts off the TP. They would have to farm the vision crystal components themselves, of course, but people that would have enough money to buy full ascended off the market are most likely farmers anyway, and can do it in the matter of days. So, it didn’t slow the hardcores that much at all.”

I think there are a lot of players in the middle ground who been playing a long time, have the money for ascended crafting, but are unhappy about farming for empyreal/dragonite. They can do it but it does slow them down and they don’t enjoy farming both of them. The game isn’t just about farmers, elites, and casuals, no matter how much chatter there is about them on the forums.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Your opinion is noted, but what evidence do you have that ANY content will EVER require specific equipment type?

This (beyond the special case of agony – fortunately they abandoned the original idea of using similar mechanics throughout the whole game) is highly unlikely. What is likely, however (and is slowly happening already) is that new monsters and revamps will be made balanced around people with better and better gear. You might not be ever strictly locked out of any content, but unless you upgrade you will find everything being harder and harder.

For example, if content is being planned with a certain assumption about DPS involving people posessing ascended weapons, then you will have to somehow bridge that gap by other means (buffs, summon items, going from bunker to pure zerker) to catch up. This could already be seen during Teq, for example, where practically all succesful attempts involved mass using of potions, buffs and ember summons.

Stooperdale.3560:

I think there are a lot of players in the middle ground who been playing a long time, have the money for ascended crafting, but are unhappy about farming for empyreal/dragonite.

I was talking about the propable prices of ascended weapons at TP. I’m pretty sure they would require even more farming than empyreals/dragonite. People unwilling to farm for components would be equally unwilling to farm for gold to buy it.

Well that answers my question sort of – I can’t make one for my wife anyway.