Guild Wars 2

Anet,

I WvW, i don’t PvE, i don’t Craft, don’t ever have the time or the materials for it. However, in doing all the WvW i do, i’m sitting on a TON of these t6 crafting materials. That are just taking up slots in my bags and my bank. I can’t use them as i’m not a crafter, and i can’t trade them, as they are account bound.

So may i offer a suggestion.. Allow those who craft, to be able to sell those ascended items they are making. remove the account bound restriction on crafted ascended weapons/armor/jewelry.

Then, allow us players that don’t craft that are just sitting on these t6 materials to place 3 different stacks of 500(or whatever number you feel fit) into the mystic forge + 1 Exotic item we wish to turn into an ascended item. And let the forge do it’s thing. Make this item account bound. And call it a day.

Thank you for your time
-Testpig

I don’t see this happening. Maybe in the future for laurels + badges like ascended jewelry though.

If you want it now, you could sell the t6 and use that gold to buy the mats you need to get to 500 crafting. Sounds like it might even be less expensive in the long run since you can produce multiple weapons/armors for less. Dragonite might be a pain if you only WvW (but they were talking about fixing that in a future release).

http://www.gw2crafts.net/ might be helpful for you as well.

People have been asking for them to be unbound pretty much since they were introduced. A lot of people simply aren’t interested in crafting to 500 and making ascended stuff and have stupid amounts of useless mats taking up space. There’s really no alternative but to destroy it, which sucks because there’s loads of people who could actually use it. Even if they were unsellable, but tradeable it would be nice. I’d MUCH rather just give them to somebody who will put them to good use rather than just outright destroy them. Don’t have much choice though, because they are starting to become unwelcome and are wasting my storage. I’m going to be forced to destroy them all before too much longer.

testpig.5018:

Then, allow us players that don’t craft that are just sitting on these t6 materials to place 3 different stacks of 500(or whatever number you feel fit) into the mystic forge + 1 Exotic item we wish to turn into an ascended item. And let the forge do it’s thing. Make this item account bound. And call it a day.

Way too easy compared to the farm needed to make an ascended piece – the effort and costs for getting the crafter to level 500 excluded.
I understand what did they want to do. You are wise not to craft for crafting is good for absolutely nothing except for ascended stuff.

However, consider the little improvement and extremely huge effort needed to create an ascended set (i presume you dont know the process since you dont craft) and you will see that the best you can do is to keep your trusty exotic set and buy ascended trinkets for laurels and badges.

One ascended ring gives you way more bonus difference than the whole ascended set. So the ascended armor is not that important, the trinkets are the real deal.

There is a table with total improvement ascended set gives you, compared to exotic set – for example 14/11/1% for zerker, which is really not very significant.
http://dulfy.net/2013/12/12/gw2-ascended-armor-stats/

In fact the important difference are the infusion slots needed by PVErs for fractals. So buy your trinkets, throw away the ascended mats and live happily ever after…

Woljnir.7810:

There’s really no alternative but to destroy it

Well I craft and I mostly destroy the bloodstone dust… since you get more of it than you ever need.

Sounds faintly familiar to the pve players that don’t want to go to WvW for map completion to craft a legendary.

it’s all part of the game

You chose to do only WvW. You chose to not be able to get ascended gear.
Want it? Get out of WvW and go craft like everybody else.
We spend hundreds of gold to craft our stuff, why shouldn’t you?

Zanshin.5379:

You chose to do only WvW. You chose to not be able to get ascended gear.
Want it? Get out of WvW and go craft like everybody else.
We spend hundreds of gold to craft our stuff, why shouldn’t you?

Such a bad attitude. " If i died grinding i hope others will have to do that too"

Let me state. I keep myself a WvW player but sometimes i enjoy other parts of the game like World Bosses and Fractals. I was able to craft my ascended armor set because i dont have anything against watching some tooltips and grinding some gold.

BUT there are peoples who have bought this game for WvW and they got PROMISED that this is not a grinding game. ANET said you don’t have to grind to get acces to the best armor, weapon set in game. I am not talking about the cosmetics, i am talking about the armor/weapon stats. Currently if you dont have like 500 G and willing to craft hours/days/weeks depends on the the money you have and the armor sets your want, You DON’T have acces to the best armors/weapons even few accesories just from WvW.

In WvW if you are not karma training or not getting lucky with drops you earn a minimal gold but getting badges. What can you use them to? Buying exotic set for like 1200 badges that drops after average 1 badge after every 4-6 kill. getting 5-8k kills takes a week even for a pro roamer guild. A PVE grinder can make money for an exo set in 2 hours max.

The OP is not asking for free precursors or hunderds of golds free gold etc… He is just refuse to run circles in Frost or Queens for 6 hours. But plays the other part of the game for the same amount of time.

Why is he rewarded less? Why doesn’t he have acces to something that others can get with a champ train what a half kittened can do as well?

The whole point of Ascended gear is to make you grind and grind and grind. That way you log in every day for fear of falling behind and you logging in each day is roughly equivalent of money for Anet. Thus, they will not do anything to make it easier — especially for WvW players since they actively dislike the game mode.

I’d say there’s zero chance of you getting any ascended weapon/armor without crafting for at least 6 months. You’ll have to suck it up and do the mind numbingly tedious process of crafting yourself from 0 to 500.

Alternatively, just play without Ascended gear until you feel you’re being left behind stats-wise (the grind isn’t just going to stop here — I’m pretty sure infusion slot stat grind is coming next, and only Ascended gear has infusion slots), then quit the game at that point. (To be honest, if you don’t have an Ascended weapon, you’ve already been left behind because they already give a significant stat boost.)

i think the whole point of ascended is to limit the easiness of getting the best gear in the game (in terms of tier) since ANET miscalculated how fast players can get the exotics.

in doing so there should be various methods of getting the ascended, let if be through drops, crafting, or bartering. it does not necessarily be grindfest. they are doing it right with the ascended rings. the other gears should follow the same model.

without going into the WvW vs PvE argument. Your proposed method of getting an Ascended Weapon or Armor is laughable, if that went through there would be no need to make crafted Ascended Weapons/Armor BoE because no one would even bother to buy it. All of the ascended mats you have tons of in your bank are the same mats everyone have tons of in their bank and if they can afford to get crafting to 500 let alone able to craft the ascended piece then they would be able to craft it the Mystic Forge way 100x faster and cheaper.

Anet just needs to condense the requirement and lower the drop quantity. Those Mats are basically the old Karma currency. which btw if htey just made it into a currency would solve everything.

It’s a money sink, a completely nasty one. I’m only doing it because the stars aligned properly and said I had to (and by that I mean I finally got a build for my necromancer that I like that isn’t conditions and I want to seal the deal by pimping it out). I’m also doing it because ascended crafting is 0 joke and who knows what anet has planned for infusions. I don’t want them to do something extremely cool and then I’m faced with a month+ wait time to join in on it.

I don’t agree that anet should unbind ascended gear. It should be bound as it is.
I was playing the game when it was released, for around a month, until I maxed my character and left the game. I didn’t feel like doing anything, since I can’t get better rewards than I have actually.
Imo it is good that ascended set is not easy to get, that requires some effort and it is a good reason to play the game (that worked in my case).
Also it should’t be available on trading post as long as we can exchange gems for gold. People would just buy gold for gems and get ascended gear instantly without even playing the game and that would be unfair. Gem Store should stay like it is, not as a source of top tier gear.

Should there be another way to get ascended items? Yes, but that alternative method should require collecting something else that is also accound bound. I see ascended items as a reward for playing, not just for amount of gold that you have. As long as it require players to do something in the game to get it, then it’s OK.

I don’t see making the ascended gear unbound as being a bad thing. In fact, I think it would be a good way of giving those of us (maybe I’m the only one) that enjoy crafting something to do and make money doing it. I understand there are a couple of crafts that can be profitable, but why should it be limited to just the two?

I can also see that there are those that don’t enjoy crafting. This would help alleviate the feelings of “grind.”

If it’s just a money sink they want, I can see ways of making it a money sink and still allowing crafters to do what they enjoy doing. It wouldn’t be that difficult really.

All crafts are profitable

http://www.gw2spidy.com/ click on your craft under Crafting.

testpig.5018:

Anet,

I WvW, i don’t PvE, i don’t Craft, don’t ever have the time or the materials for it. However, in doing all the WvW i do, i’m sitting on a TON of these t6 crafting materials. That are just taking up slots in my bags and my bank. I can’t use them as i’m not a crafter, and i can’t trade them, as they are account bound.

So may i offer a suggestion.. Allow those who craft, to be able to sell those ascended items they are making. remove the account bound restriction on crafted ascended weapons/armor/jewelry.

Then, allow us players that don’t craft that are just sitting on these t6 materials to place 3 different stacks of 500(or whatever number you feel fit) into the mystic forge + 1 Exotic item we wish to turn into an ascended item. And let the forge do it’s thing. Make this item account bound. And call it a day.

Thank you for your time
-Testpig

This issue was discussed heavily in the recent CDI on Character Progression. I do think you can expect to see some movement on this issue in the future as lots of fixes and alternatives were discussed.

I wouldn’t do that, if you get crafting, you can make ascended mats using your spares and sell them, no need for more ascended weapons that you most likely wont use.

testpig.5018:

I WvW, i don’t PvE, i don’t Craft, don’t ever have the time or the materials for it. However, in doing all the WvW i do, i’m sitting on a TON of these t6 crafting materials. That are just taking up slots in my bags and my bank. I can’t use them as i’m not a crafter, and i can’t trade them, as they are account bound.

All I am seeing here is that you play WvW and refuse to craft. I play almost exclusively WvW and I have a full set of ascended trinkets, back piece, and armor. Soon to have ascended weapons as well. Because I pulled up a simple guide on crafting and learned. It took me all of about an hour and a half to use resources I earned purely in WvW and level my leather working to 500, and huntsman as well as weaponsmithing both to 400, soon to be 500. It took about another day to take time to purchase anything I didn’t have, and craft my ascended armor, using gold I earned in WvW. I know have a full set of ascended dire trinkets+armor, a full set of celestial armor+trinkets (this one is more time gated), a full set of ascended trinkets+armor of zerkers gear, and have a full set of rabid trinkets and 3 of the armor pieces, just earning enough dragonite to finish my last 3 pieces of armor for rabid.

If you refuse to craft and earn your gear, that is your fault, and the option is there. I have never played an MMO in which I did not have to do something that was not my preferred choice to earn the gear I wanted. You need to just buckle down and do it, and stop complaining.

All they need to do to fix this is allow ascended gear AND mats to be sold. I think this will happen but it’s going to be a while, I for one am just sitting on my mats (I made a bank toon just for ascends mats) when they allow me to sell them I’m going to move fast and make some cash lol.

The difference between ascended and exotic is laughable anyhow, it will have almost no herring on the outcome of a battle. The more skilled player will still win. And IMO the armor skins are lame, I like mine better.

The problem here is that everyone is forced to level crafting. This is not about WvW vs PvE vs Dungeons vs Fractals.

This is how I think it should have been done:

1. Crafters level to 500 in order to be able to create a very expensive ascended precursor item without any stats that cannot be equipped which is created using tradeable t2, t3, t4 and t5 materials.
2. This precursor is not bound and it is tradeable.
3. You can create dragonite ingots, empyreal stars and bloodstone bricks in the mystic forge (using the same materials you use now).
4. You place this precursor in the mystic forge along a certain amount of dragonite ingots, empyreal stars and bloodstone bricks and you get your ascended piece.

This way:

1. People who only do WvW get ascended by buying the precursor created by crafters.
2. People who like crafting are rewarded for leveling to 500.
3. People who dislike crafting don’t have to do it.
4. You still need to play the game in order to get ascended pieces.
5. Ascended pieces can still be account bound.

What do you guys think about this proposal? Pros and Cons?

I would like to hear your opinion.

I have an opinion but what is more valuable is facts: no one is forced to level crafting. I really dislike hearing this fallacy because you don’t need to craft to have almost full ascended gear effectiveness. If people have complaints, they should at least be honest.

Frankly, I see no issue with how it’s implemented. Ascended armor is designed as is so you DON’T need to craft it if you don’t want to and still be within a very high stats count with exotics and purchased or free ascended trinkets. The only piece anyone can claim that has a significant increase in performance that you HAVE to craft is the weapons and even then a Legendary can be bought.

OP is right on the money. ANet has a diverse population of players. Forcing any single method in game is not going to keep population or gem purchases high. Simple as that.

Let me put it to crafters this way. It would have been even more logical to demand that to get ascended, one MUST sPvP and that is the only way to get the gear. It would have matched the core mechanic and differentiator of the game. I can imagine screaming hordes of PvE oriented players saying “dear God no”.

Similarly, there is currently a screaming horde of players who hate crafting. You seriously want them to eventually find the power gap high enough that other games look more interesting?

This game has a bright future based on diversity. That diversity of playstyles almost demands a diversity in how you get rewarded for best gear.

Of all the crazy ideas, making the best gear craft only is the farthest thing from what I expected in this game. Frankly, I would have been far more “well what did you think with a Guild Wars game” if the best gear required active SPVP action.

So the question is what to do now? Easiest answer is to create equivalent payments in other currencies (laurels and badges or karma or glory).

The power differential has been slight enough so far that people haven’t revolted or quit, but it is getting close to the point where if you truly hate crafting you either do what you hate or quit. In both cases, loyalty is lost and that customer either is looking for a new game now or will find the next new game soon enough.

It is an odd move.

Bombsaway.7198:

OP is right on the money. ANet has a diverse population of players. Forcing any single method in game is not going to keep population or gem purchases high. Simple as that.

WHEW! It’s a good thing that crafting isn’t forced onto anyone.

Obtena.7952:

Bombsaway.7198:

OP is right on the money. ANet has a diverse population of players. Forcing any single method in game is not going to keep population or gem purchases high. Simple as that.

WHEW! It’s a good thing that crafting isn’t forced onto anyone.

You mean it isn’t forced onto anyone as long as they are willing to play the game without having the best available stats, right?

So, basically what ArenaNet is telling everyone is:

“Do you want the best stats in the game? Well, then you have to be a grandmaster crafter!”

This is problem for many reasons, but it is especially bad for the people who like crafting, because after this the population will be full of “grandmaster crafters” who hate crafting.

murven.7581:

Obtena.7952:

Bombsaway.7198:

OP is right on the money. ANet has a diverse population of players. Forcing any single method in game is not going to keep population or gem purchases high. Simple as that.

WHEW! It’s a good thing that crafting isn’t forced onto anyone.

You mean it isn’t forced onto anyone as long as they are willing to play the game without having the best available stats, right?

Well, no. A more objective examination of the ‘problem’ would reveal the following truths.

1. All ascended trinkets are bought or drop from doing fractals and in fact, NONE can be crafted.
2. The ‘best’ available stats on ascended armor are only about a 2% increase in performance over exotic armor. Overall the gear, that’s an even smaller percent than that. You’re going to argue that’s the best, but the reality is that that increase is just noise in gameplay. In otherwords, damage output varies more than this if you miss a special.
3. The ‘best’ available stats weapons can be purchased instead of crafted.

So really, what people are exaggerating into a issue that seems to affect everyone only affects a portion of the population that:

a) doesn’t want to craft and …
b) doesn’t understand how a insignificant increase in stats impact gameplay and …
c) forgot that most BiS gear is not crafted

You forgot to mention that it also affects the people who love to craft, but don’t have any reason to do so as we cannot sell the result of our effort to anyone else or offer our crafting services to friends, etc.

So, in total it affects:
a) the people who don’t want to craft
b) the people who want to craft

That seems like a bigger portion of the population to me…

People that like to craft don’t have a beef with crafting their gear though … so this thread doesn’t represent them correctly.

Frankly, it doesn’t matter how many people it affects … no one is forced to craft. See points a, b, and c from my post.

Nobody is forced to craft. Unless they want the best stats in the game.

Your point does not contradict this argument at all, it is still valid. You acknowledge that yourself in your own post.

Is having the best stats in the game pointless? maybe… but that is another thing.

testpig.5018:

So may i offer a suggestion.. Allow those who craft, to be able to sell those ascended items they are making. remove the account bound restriction on crafted ascended weapons/armor/jewelry.
-Testpig

OP wrote this.

Obtena.7952:

People that like to craft don’t have a beef with crafting their gear though … so this thread doesn’t represent them correctly.

You wrote this.

I think OP represented people who like to craft perfectly. What he is suggesting is exactly what people who like to craft want.

We want to be able to craft and sell the result to those wo do not like crafting.

I think that is how the system is supposed to work.

When did everyone including ArenaNet start thinking that everyone should craft?

Ascended weapons are certainly more impactful than non ascended. It is about an 8% dps shift.

Ascended armor similarly is like having an extra trait (% power based on toughness etc.). Saying it doesn’t matter is somewhat silly. After all, look at how many people go after the expensive wvw abilities that give you ONLY 100 of one stat. Likewise, if 2% was just “game noise” there would have been no need for traits to increase their multipliers from 5% to 7% conversion.

For those who WvW, the difference is noticeable.

The issue should be framed as:
1) There is a perfectly acceptable and fair way to get ascended gear without crafting. This should have been the baseline.
A) In WvW with so many badges and/or
PvE each time you get the mega achievement from LS
2) Crafting should greatly accelerate speed to getting the gear versus being the ability to get the best gear.
A) A crafter should be able to make gear in weeks where it might take a couple months otherwise from the system proposed above.
A crafter should be able to sell gear to those who are too impatient to do multiple dungeon, LS or wait to accumulate badges in WvW.

The key difference is that all new gear should be created to be accessed as a baseline outside crafting. This is really the only major title that forces you to craft personally if you want access to the best gear.

In others, either
a) Crafting is the best gear but you can buy it or
b) Crafting speeds up the acquisition of what is otherwise doable but time consumptive
I. And doable never means, there is a theoretical chance of a random drop with just the right stats you want versus a reliable source which just is time consuming.

You know what other MMOs do with gear. This isn’t a new concept.
ANET went too far with crafting. Way too far. Crafting needs a nerf.

murven.7581:

When did everyone including ArenaNet start thinking that everyone should craft?

They don’t. That’s why the ratio of stats increase between ascended and exotic armor is so low and the ratio of ascended to exotic armor cost is so high. That’s why you can outfit you’re other slots with BiS through NOT crafting them.

Obtena.7952:

murven.7581:

When did everyone including ArenaNet start thinking that everyone should craft?

They don’t. That’s why the ratio of stats increase between ascended and exotic armor is so low and the ratio of ascended to exotic armor cost is so high. That’s why you can outfit you’re other slots with BiS through NOT crafting them.

First of all you insist in claiming that 2% == 0% which is certainly false. If you earn $1000 each month and your employer offers you a 2% increase, would your answer be: “no, thanks, $20 is nothing, you can keep it”?

Second, you fail to acknowledge the fact that people who like to craft should be able to sell the result of their effort to others.

Third, you are not willing to acknowledge the fact that when someone is willing to spend gold on a premium, no matter how small or useless it is, they should be entitled to do so, basically because it is their gold and they can use it however they want. Now, I agree that there should be something on top of that gold, which is addressed by ascended materials, but what I do not agree with is the fact that the only way to use ascended materials is crafting, when it makes much more sense to just use the mystic forge mechanism for that.

No matter how many times you repeat that 2 is equal to 0, that won’t make it true.

It is very simple actually. People want the best not second best.
Right or wrong numerically in terms of actual impact, there is a perception that you have to craft to “be your best”.

That perception (more right than wrong) leads to a lot of folks grumbling because (like me) the idea of crafting is just a giant waste of a good night I could be bashing a live person’s avatar in. That is why I game. I like PvE stories sometimes (but not if I have to repeat them again and again). But I NEVER enjoy crafting. It is akin to having to do the dishes. I don’t spend fun time on chores if I can avoid it.

So you are naturally going to have a lot of people beg for ways to not have to craft personally the best gear in the game. Ignore them and you face a very serious risk of “gear gap”. People who hate crafting tend to be extremely committed to the “heck no I won’t do it” mentality. So, if in time they feel they can’t compete, they quit.

Given how large the anti-craft cluster/segment seems to be, it seems silly to not quickly find other ways of dealing with this.

I am ALL for the ascended you buy looking tame compared to the ascended someone crafts. aesthetics should always match effort and weigh in for crafters.

murven.7581:

First of all you insist in claiming that 2% == 0% which is certainly false.

I never insisted anything of the sort.

murven.7581:

Second, you fail to acknowledge the fact that people who like to craft should be able to sell the result of their effort to others.

I haven’t failed to do that because people can do exactly that. It’s simply restricted to exclude the majority of BiS gear. Though, if you had a more objective look at this, you would recognize that certain crafted materials for ascended gear can be sold, so your argument is not completely accurate. Perhaps if you had a more objective look at this whole issue, you could think of a plausible reason why Anet doesn’t want someone to simply buy a full set of BiS gear.

murven.7581:

Third, you are not willing to acknowledge the fact that when someone is willing to spend gold on a premium, no matter how small or useless it is, they should be entitled to do so

I’m not going to acknowledge something that isn’t true. People aren’t entitled to anything, just because they are willing to do something for it. That argument is ridiculous.

The only reason ascended was implemented this way was because leveling a craft is a huge gold sink, and by making more people max it, they draw a ton of gold out of the market. Perhaps even more so was so that materials would actually be worth something (or because it would require more TP purchases to get the mats which = gold sink… who really knows).

They’ll probably implement other ways of getting ascended once a decent amount of gold has been drained. Or not. I don’t know….

Also, isn’t the actual difference in power between full ascended and exotic close to 10%? I know stats are 5% higher, but when you factor weapon damage and actual armor increase as well, it’s a decent bit higher. Oh, you also get infusions, so…. yeah, fully outfitted is a significant difference.

tattoohead.3217:

The difference between ascended and exotic is laughable anyhow, it will have almost no herring on the outcome of a battle. The more skilled player will still win. And IMO the armor skins are lame, I like mine better.

this useless grinder for next to no stats… i craft ascended weapons because i so happen to like a few of the skins.. How about a little math here, huh?

16 orrian temples (each one gives 30 dragonite..the highest drop rate in the game, bar none) to make just over 500 dragonite ore for your 5 bricks to make a weapon/chest piece. Doesn’t sound too bad, right?
25 dungeon paths @ 20 empyreal fragmers per run (best/fastest way that i know of) to make 500 empyreal stars for your vision crystal
IF you do these other two to exclusion of all else, you actually should wind up with enough bloodstone dust to make up your 500 needed…BUT champ trains, each champ box dropping on the order of 5-10 dust, you need to kill probably 80-90 champs to make 500

Not too bad right? we just made 1 weapon. or 1 chest piece.. Oh, i forgot…you have 2 weapon slots on land, 2 underwater…ok…do the above 4 times.

wait, we still need the rest of our armor? SO: 1000 dragonite/empy/dust for the 5 lesser vision crystals (2 bricks each) means 32 more orrian temples, 50 more dungeons, and…all day long in frostgorge sound.

So now we’ve farmed 2500 dragonite/empy/dust…. so that should be 84 orrian temples, 125 dungeon runs, and…thats more champs than players in the game. BUT WAIT…. THERES MOAR!!!

So now we have made 1 single full set for 1 character… I personally use 4 or 5 characters frequently enough to want to trick them out/make them fractal ready/kitten and so forth… and i will need more than just 1 set of armor (sorry, i dont 100% zerk, take your zerk outta my teq and quit feeding points and loot to my enemies in wvw)

so that many more (2 sets minimum on 4-5 characters) 1500 asc mat grinders…

Am I the only one who sees why ascended crafting lights a fire under so many people’s rear?

I agree; we should be able to sell any excess material. I have 2000 bloodstone, 2000 empy & close to 1500 dragonite. Any dropped from world vs world now gets destroyed. What a waste.

They had a good system to build on to make Ascended stuff, via Fractals – Gift of Ascension. But then they took the crafting/gold sink way instead.

I understand that every game needs gold sinks to get prices up a bit on items. But it’s sad that Ascended armor as of yet is unobtainable if you dont do any crafting.

I don’t count getting lucky and get an Ascended Armor box drop as a possibility.

If anyone thinks Ascended crafting is a grind or unfair just wait for precursor crafting!

Well hell, just make it like spvp then if you want all equipment accessible.

standardized stats options across the board with no variance based on item rarity.

I mean, you can’t have it both ways. You want pve items in wvw that are bis? do the work.

johnnymiller.5968:

I agree; we should be able to sell any excess material. I have 2000 bloodstone, 2000 empy & close to 1500 dragonite. Any dropped from world vs world now gets destroyed. What a waste.

You can turn extra bloodstone→ gold.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/recipe/7839
http://www.gw2spidy.com/recipe/7840
http://www.gw2spidy.com/recipe/7841

I hope they add in stuff for dragonite/emp/luck as well (ascended cooking?)