Guild Wars 2

Master of Timespace.2548:

Time gate or not, my 4k+ attack, 135% crit damage troll shot Warrior approves the change.

PM me that build home skillet…

Grump.7069

Queen’s gauntlet would like to say hi to you (ASCENDED REQUIRED if you wanna do the harder achivs like the gambit achivs)

Not exactly true. I defeated Liadri and completed all of the Gauntlet achievements except for Light Up the Darkness with a Warrior who was still using level 78/79 Masterwork gear. It was much harder than it needed to be and I don’t recommend it to anyone in the slightest, but it is possible.

That said, I can understand where your concerns are coming from. Someone with a full set of Ascended gear WILL have a noticeable increase in power over someone in full Exotics. At the moment though, outside of very specific challenges like high-level Fractals, there’s not much content in the game where Ascended gear is a necessity for victory. (WvW is a different kettle of fish, and hopefully ANet will also include ways for WvW-only players to get Ascended gear.) Therefore, you can get by fine in all Exotics, which judging by sPvP, is what end-game balance is designed around.

Blacktorn.3197:

And all of the exotics turn into pumpkins @ September 3rd.
Surely Ascended weps will cost a nice chunk of gold. And it would be kinda okay if we needed just One weapon, but we have multiple weapons for different purposes/specs, and upgrading them will be very long and grindy.
I can already see many ppl saying “Well, you don’t HAVE to get them, exotics are still exotics”. And there was a similar talk when Ascended tier itself arrived, but these are Weapons, they don’t only have stats, but also weapon damage, so if you want to be good, you Have to upgrade, many times. (And probably forget about specs that need different stat combos)
How is this not a GRIND of all grinds? And as I remember GW2 ‘’manifesto" saying "There won’t be any grind in our game, grinding is not fun and noone likes it", I gotta say that someone has no respect for their promises.

P.s. I Really hope I am mistaken in all of this and this implementation won’t cause more problems than the ‘advantages’ it gives. And I see it only as anoher-carrot-on-a-stick to keep people playing and grinding for something. Uh.

The “grind” comment that you so willingly misquote OUT OF CONTEXT was intended about the “swing a sword, wing a sword again” being an old fashioned combat system from old MMOPRG’s being a grindy state of things; instead, GW2 was bring a non-grindy action based combat system that requires the player to be on their toes, keep moving, and not AFK+Auto-attack. That comment from the manifesto had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH GEAR OR WAYS TO OBTAIN IT!

~Sorry for the bit of rage in the above paragraph, but that purposeful ignorance towards what was truly said just irritates me.

Honestly I wouldn’t mind it taking a bit of time to obtain, as it’s not “absolutely needed”, as you [OP] imply. It’s a 5% difference from Exotic gear, which is no biggie in terms of anything. In an evenly skilled fight of 1vs1, that it’ll matter sure (but when do those ever happen?). The gear isn’t in sPvP, all PvE can be completed without them right now (including 40+ Fractals), and in WvW is where they ‘might’ matter. But that is negated by the amount of players on the other side, considering that WvW is a consistent zerging fight between sides.

Am I done in ruining the worries and misinformation passed on by the OP? Is everyone in this thread now “chill” about the situation? Okay, good. Back to tea, classical music, and smashing skulls.

You have to understand that people want the best. They aren’t gonna be satisfied with exotics because that means having to settle for less. It doesn’t matter if it’s needed or not in PVE or whatever. It’s just human nature.

At the same time, most people don’t really want some ridiculous grind just to be where they were before. Ascended would probably be fine for most people, as long as it was available at a reasonable cost and within a reasonable amount of time, as well as other avenues to get them.

You aren’t gonna convince people that exotics are “almost” as good as ascended, just as you aren’t gonna convince people that they could just wear rares.

Lol look at all these cry babies. They’ve said maybe 3 paragraphs about ascended weapons. This sounds exactly like people trying to do math about the que times in Queen’s pavilion being 30+ minutes and crying about it. Wait and see what actually happens

It’s a simple solution, when a person enters WvW just downgrade ascended weapon stats to exotic levels. That way if players want to have ascended weapons for PvE awesome, they are welcome to. In WvW though it’s different.

Consider this, if you have a group of 10 people all with ascended gear weapons/trinkets/armor vs a group with just exotics, now say that the difference is only 5% damage. What’s going to happen in group engagements, how quickly will they be able to take down towers etc.

That’s only over 10 people, what will happen in larger scale battles. It’s going to come down to which server has the better farm. Slowly removing skill as a factor and making it so that PvE farming is more important. Sure personal/group skill is important, but numbers will take over. They will be forced to buff certain npcs in WvW. Then if your group is only using say rares you will find it to be a much greater challenge.

Why should I not be able to use the ascended weapons I am going to craft in WvW?

Really, they are FINALLY making crafting useful. Everybody will have access to ascended weapons through crafting, so why should everybody gets downgraded to exotic? If I will spend my time and gold leveling up my crafting skills and crafting my ascended stuff, why can’t my opponents in WvW do the same?

What if you have a group with 10 people all with exotic gear vs a group all in rares?
Or a group with 10 people all with rare gear vs. a group all in greens?
Green vs. Blue?
Blue vs. White?
Let’s downgrade every equipment to basic levels, then?

Lord Kuru.3685:

Lucky.9421:

No Walking.6349:

Ascended rings didn’t make exotic rings useless….and ascended weapons won’t make exotic weapons useless. The stat difference is pretty negligible.

An exotic knight’s amulet gives 273 stats total

An ascended knight’s amulet gives 296 stats.

That is almost 8% higher. Do that across all of you gear and it will add up. That doesn’t consider what new infusions will do to weapons, which we don’t know yet.

Currently, the +23 stats is insignificant when compared with the sum of all the stats on your full set of gear. That’s why Ascended hasn’t made too much impact at the moment. However, fully Ascended set (armor, trinkets, weapons) will likely be around 8% better than a fully Exotic set. That’s pretty significant, particularly in WvW.

And don’t forget PvE mobs will be made harder to compensate, so: treadmill.

It’s not 8% overall. You start with 916 in the basic stats. You get 1600 stats from traits. You have runes. You have boons/stacking sigils/signet passives.

Yay, all my effort is going to be worthless now. Thank you for ascended gear. When will ascended gear T2 be released?

Jaga.2084:

Yay, all my effort is going to be worthless now. Thank you for ascended gear. When will ascended gear T2 be released?

Yeah getting sets of exotic weapons/armor sure needs a lot of effort!

Uther Deathhand.1570:

Nar.8327:

Grump.7069:

Sorry but ascended weaponry will be a requirement if you don’t wanna lag behind others in WvW… It’s already bad enough you can feel slightly hampered being in exotic trinkets if your enemy has ascendeds… Imagine if the gap is enlarged by weapons as well which are the biggest chunk of effectiveness when it comes to gear.

I have eight characters with multiple weapon sets. Even if I were to fork over 50 bucks for enough transmutation crystals to keep their looks (which I’m not happy about), the time-gating component means that it’s going to take an eternity just to get my characters up to par again.

What about this was supposed to be fun, exactly?

I know alt-aholism is a terrible disease to have in this game. Just another update that shafts us…….. if you want we have meetings in LA. The Tyrian AA, that being alt-aholics anonymous.

Now I know what ArenaNet means when they say GW2 is a AAA MMO. It’s Alt Aholics Anonymous. An MMO where the developers design so aggressively to punish you from playing alts, playing it for any period of time will cure you of your desire to have multiple characters.

OP: theres no grind here. It’s been 1 year since launch and exotics have always been the higher tier gear. Then they slowly implemented ways to buy ascended rings, earrings, amulet. Now we slowly get weapons. And for those who already have legendary, they can simply change the stats on the fly, without having to worry about getting several weapons.
Careful about calling out when something is a “grind”, which is far from the truth in GW2.

Gabby.3205:

Why should I not be able to use the ascended weapons I am going to craft in WvW?

Really, they are FINALLY making crafting useful. Everybody will have access to ascended weapons through crafting, so why should everybody gets downgraded to exotic? If I will spend my time and gold leveling up my crafting skills and crafting my ascended stuff, why can’t my opponents in WvW do the same?

What if you have a group with 10 people all with exotic gear vs a group all in rares?
Or a group with 10 people all with rare gear vs. a group all in greens?
Green vs. Blue?
Blue vs. White?
Let’s downgrade every equipment to basic levels, then?

Because rise the stats of every player by force (because you must upgrade it for wvw, like it or not) and not by will for keep them playing this game is a terrible bad idea. Look at WoW. A non-stop rising levels and items tiers hitting and healing a CRAZY amount… You just upgrade numbers, and everyone upgrade it too, defense and offense, is all a lie. Just for keep players farming items (or crafting it)

They must use profession in a better way to keep players playing. You must can craft skins, to apply to weapons, or sell it. Same stats, keep in exotic, crafted skins (better than commons, but not better than legendary) you add visual variety to this game, players do it by will (because they want look better, not because they must be in the same level of other players).

In the last month i was very disappointed, by the insane farming events and this addition to powerlevel. I belived this game will be diferent when them promote as “no farming game”

urieldhynne.2743:

Because rise the stats of every player by force (because you must upgrade it for wvw, like it or not) and not by will for keep them playing this game is a terrible bad idea. Look at WoW. A non-stop rising levels and items tiers hitting and healing a CRAZY amount… You just upgrade numbers, and everyone upgrade it too, defense and offense, is all a lie. Just for keep players farming items (or crafting it)

Dude… It is just the way the game works. For example pretty standard FPS game works like this: you play the first level and then the next and the next… It’s the same game through the entire thing. But you keep playing because your progressing through the game.
When your playing WvW you are also in a loop. You win a castle and you loose a castle. It’s also a lie! Your not winning! It never ends.
Stop looking for a sense (or meaning of life – there is none and your going to die after a few more years and all that time spend in the game was pointless anyway) of all of this and just do things you have fun with and stop doing things you don’t!

Upgrading your stuff is a part of competition. Deal with it!

urieldhynne.2743:

They must use profession in a better way to keep players playing. You must can craft skins, to apply to weapons, or sell it. Same stats, keep in exotic, crafted skins (better than commons, but not better than legendary) you add visual variety to this game, players do it by will (because they want look better, not because they must be in the same level of other players).

Everyone are looking more like a light bulb now. So I don’t think that people would spend their money on more of that stuff. Mainly because there would be no challenge or work tied to it. Like a Olympic medal… It’s valued so high not because its made of gold but rather because its so hard to get one.

Grump.7069:

Sorry but ascended weaponry will be a requirement if you don’t wanna lag behind others in WvW… It’s already bad enough you can feel slightly hampered being in exotic trinkets if your enemy has ascendeds… Imagine if the gap is enlarged by weapons as well which are the biggest chunk of effectiveness when it comes to gear.

You’re kidding us, right? Half the people in WvW have greens with a smattering of blues and rares, and are levelled up to boot. Add to that the fact that they are safely enclosed within the zerg. Being at a disadvantage with exotics? Right….

Many players will always want the best items. Others are content with any gear or stat combo.

The casuals will point out that the increase in stats is minimal, min/maxers believes the casuals enjoy being subpar and are content to be carried in dungeons. Everyone has their own idea of fun. Min/maxers loves to see big numbers/efficiency, casuals want “fun”.

In the end all this arguing over slight increased stats, solves nothing. The fact remains Anet made a bad choice by adding the Ascended Tier, which should have been exotics with an extra infusion slot and dropped only in fractals.

Bunmaster.9734:

The fact remains Anet made a bad choice by adding the Ascended Tier

And why it’s a fact? Because you think so?! lol

The most fun part of gw2 is progressing from lvl1 to lvl80. Why don’t you wan’t to extend that? Currently people are creating alts instead of playing their main… And that’s ok with you? Is it ok that the game is extended by adding huge grind quests? Instead of progression and challenge? That’s more fun for you?

No to vertical progression
No to stat inflation
No to grind
No to lack of diversity
No to change of philosophy

Thanks Anet

HiddenNick.7206:

Bunmaster.9734:

The fact remains Anet made a bad choice by adding the Ascended Tier

And why it’s a fact? Because you think so?! lol

The most fun part of gw2 is progressing from lvl1 to lvl80. Why don’t you wan’t to extend that? Currently people are creating alts instead of playing their main… And that’s ok with you? Is it ok that the game is extended by adding huge grind quests? Instead of progression and challenge? That’s more fun for you?

Progression to you means vertical progression then? Gear inflation? the philosophy of no grind and diversity of play goes out of the window when you introduce a gear inflation policy – look at WoW, look at other mmos – GW stood in the idea that was different, that you change your appearance to show of your accomplishments, not by inflating numbers – I fully agree, ascended was a very bad decision from the start.

Xenn.3809:

HiddenNick.7206:

Bunmaster.9734:

The fact remains Anet made a bad choice by adding the Ascended Tier

And why it’s a fact? Because you think so?! lol

The most fun part of gw2 is progressing from lvl1 to lvl80. Why don’t you wan’t to extend that? Currently people are creating alts instead of playing their main… And that’s ok with you? Is it ok that the game is extended by adding huge grind quests? Instead of progression and challenge? That’s more fun for you?

Progression to you means vertical progression then? Gear inflation? the philosophy of no grind and diversity of play goes out of the window when you introduce a gear inflation policy – look at WoW, look at other mmos – GW stood in the idea that was different, that you change your appearance to show of your accomplishments, not by inflating numbers – I fully agree, ascended was a very bad decision from the start.

I was asking for an explanation why your point of view is so much better then mine. And instead you attacked me. I already told you why horizontal progression suck – and the bottom line was: there is no such thing as “horizontal progression”, all it translates to is a lack of progression. From your point of view WoW failed… When it didn’t! And the gw2 stopped to be really fun at level 80. That’s a failure.

HiddenNick.7206:

I was asking for an explanation why your point of view is so much better then mine. And instead you attacked me. I already told you why horizontal progression suck – and the bottom line was: there is no such thing as “horizontal progression”, all it translates to is a lack of progression. From your point of view WoW failed… When it didn’t! And the gw2 stopped to be really fun at level 80. That’s a failure.

I didn’t attacked you – or wasn’t intended that way.

You attacked the statement that ascended is a bad idea – and I fully agree with it, its a bad idea.

I never said WoW was a failure (doh) – I played years of GW1 and WoW and each had its good/bad.

GW2 offered me the ‘almost’ perfect game to last for years, and there is a ‘horizontal progression’ to be had – different builds, different content (haven’t they pumped content non-stop?), vanity looks to show of accomplishments – GW1 managed for years very well without having a vertical progression. WoW lured you in with better, shinier stuff (though if they stuck with new content / different mechanics / difficulty I would been happier)

Nowdays, I only WvW, and in a PvP game, stat inflation is a bad idea, I got 4 80s, multiple gear sets for different builds and enjoy the game. Ascended trinkets already ‘affected’ that tiny bit (only got amulet for each build/toon) but I’m ok with it, a full trinket / weapon / future armour in ascended form will ruin the balance, the diversity, the new player, WvW to some extend, and will bring elitism to PvE like seen on other mmos (bring this and that or your out).

They will have to buff mobs (or new content is harder) meaning you need the gear, or they if they don’t it will be a rolfstomp and become boring even faster.

I fully stand by the statement ascended is a bad move (thought it from the 1st time they decided to bring it to trinkets)

Xenn.3809:

Nowdays, I only WvW, and in a PvP game

So you are against it just because you only play WvW and PvP?! That makes no sense and it’s pretty selfish to! AC gear does not affect PvP in ANY way. And about WvW… Let me quote myself:

HiddenNick.7206:

And I don’t care about being slightly less powerful in WvW. Why? Because I’m dying not because that other guy have 5% higher stats (I’m killing 80’s all the time with my lvl 35 ranger). It’s because they have four times more people.

In WvW your just a tiny thing that alone does very little to succeed.

And I don’t play WvW or PvP. I only play PvE and it sucks because there is no clear path or progression. You can grind for a balloon or for a doll. But this is pretty unfortunate for people who does not care about balloons or dolls.

HiddenNick.7206:

Xenn.3809:

Nowdays, I only WvW, and in a PvP game

So you are against it just because you only play WvW and PvP?! That makes no sense and it’s pretty selfish to! AC gear does not affect PvP in ANY way. And about WvW… Let me quote myself:

HiddenNick.7206:

And I don’t care about being slightly less powerful in WvW. Why? Because I’m dying not because that other guy have 5% higher stats (I’m killing 80’s all the time with my lvl 35 ranger). It’s because they have four times more people.

In WvW your just a tiny thing that alone does very little to succeed.

And I don’t play WvW or PvP. I only play PvE and it sucks because there is no clear path or progression. You can grind for a balloon or for a doll. But this is pretty unfortunate for people who does not care about balloons or dolls.

One has to be against something for some reason – some affect me directly, some don’t – Is not only ME and PvP on my reasons (and other ppl objections) on why gear inflation is bad. Just because I only WvW while you only PvE doesn’t mean I’m forgetting about you. (is your statement selfish then too, given your arguments?)

As for your reasons for dying in WvW, of course numbers (amount of ppl) is a factor, but what about 1vs1 or equal number fights (they do happen you know) – is it gear the ultimate factor? How that’s good? On equal gear terms, skill wins, on equal skill (supposedly) gear wins then? – is that what we want? (yes, yes, is the already disparity of uplevel and exotic wearers, so lets make it worse – though I accept the uplevel disparity, its your learning the game, progressing to lvl80 – but needs to have a conclusion, not a endless vertical progression)

I do understand if you feel there is a lack of progression in PvE (there isn’t any in WvW and I’m enjoying the fight 1 year on) – but do you really think gear inflation is the ultimate answer? Wouldn’t you prefer hard modes for existing dungeons / zones, new challenging zones, new bosses with challenging mechanics, new dungeons, cool and unique skins to show off – there is other paths to follow without vertical gear progression – make it your personal skill progression.

If still the answer is yes, ascended all the way pls, and why not, ascended v2 next year (because once you got ascended progressions ends, right?) – then maybe we should start asking separating PvE content from any PvP form, as in WvW (note I’m not including sPvP). Beware of what you wish for, you’ll start a treadmill, make old lvl80 content even less appealing and ultimately become bored only briefly solved by a new injection of stats.

When do we get the new level cap? Is it going to be 90 or 100? We need better stats.

It mentioned in one of the posts that ascended weapons would be getting infusion slots. Doesn’t that generally mean that you’ll lose the upgrade slot? Because if it does then Ascended Weapons won’t necessarily be better than Exotic.

Would you prefer having a bit more weapon damage and slightly higher stats, or being able to use a sigil?

Somehow people seem to be incapable of imagining sigils being incorporated in new infusions.

But no matter, we simply don’t know yet.

@HiddenNicks
It was wrong because Anet said there would be no vertical progression in the game, only horizontal progression. Exotics were supposed to be the top tier items. Later they even admitted adding the Ascended Tier was a bad choice (it’s somewhere on google). But now they have to stick with it, because they already added the tier. And that is a fact, not an opinion.

Your sense of challenge is rather skewed, so you call grinding a craft to 500 is a challenge? Look around you, LS is already a huge grindfest for AP and mindless zergfests. Whether you sit in LA grinding a craft or zerging events, it is a farcry from any challenge at all.

Progression is GW is different. In GW1, character is capped at 20, but yet progresses through 3 campaigns and 1 expansion. Added skills, skins and heroes with Nightfall tying in the 3 campaigns. It is true that LS hasn’t been that impressive progress-wise. I do hope Anet does something about it in the sense of moving the story forward.

Some people make alts because they enjoy making them, not because they don’t like their main. On that note, updates so far had been very anti-alts. If you are looking for hardcore stuff, you are playing the wrong game. Anet caters the casual, the last time they visited the Dungeon section was a few days ago, before that, 2 months and before that, 6 months.

Bunmaster.9734:

@HiddenNicks
It was wrong because Anet said there would be no vertical progression in the game, only horizontal progression. Exotics were supposed to be the top tier items. Later they even admitted adding the Ascended Tier was a bad choice (it’s somewhere on google). But now they have to stick with it, because they already added the tier. And that is a fact, not an opinion.

Wait a minute. This is important. If they admitted that adding the Ascended Tier was a bad choice, does that mean that they won’t be adding more tiers? I mean, it is ok to make a mistake once, but it makes no sense to make the same mistake twice. That’s pretty good news, it means that we are not actually getting on a treadmill like many people fear we are. I don’t mind upgrading my equipment only once.

Bunmaster.9734:

Your sense of challenge is rather skewed, so you call grinding a craft to 500 is a challenge? Look around you, LS is already a huge grindfest for AP and mindless zergfests. Whether you sit in LA grinding a craft or zerging events, it is a farcry from any challenge at all.

It is somehow true. Just because something takes time or coasts gold, it doesn’t mean it is challenging. However, that kind of stuff is for the casual crowd, and that’s alright too. I mean, if you log in every day, you will eventually get your LS meta achievement. It is not challenging, but if you want challenge, that’s what Liadri is for.

Bunmaster.9734:

It is true that LS hasn’t been that impressive progress-wise. I do hope Anet does something about it in the sense of moving the story forward.

It was said on a recent interview that, at first, they were working very carefully with the progression of the Living Story to avoid messing up with the Personal Story, but that they are not going to do that anymore. This year, they tested the system of the Living Story by releasing the recurring festivals. Now that they are done with them, we are going to see the world actually changing (I’m hoping for Orr getting cleansed ^^).

Bunmaster.9734:

Some people make alts because they enjoy making them, not because they don’t like their main. On that note, updates so far had been very anti-alts.

I couldn’t agree more. I love my alts and I play each one of them almost as often as I play my main. It is sad that some rewards could only be gotten once, like the Southsun backpacks and the fused gauntlet.

Gabby.3205:

Bunmaster.9734:

@HiddenNicks
It was wrong because Anet said there would be no vertical progression in the game, only horizontal progression. Exotics were supposed to be the top tier items. Later they even admitted adding the Ascended Tier was a bad choice (it’s somewhere on google). But now they have to stick with it, because they already added the tier. And that is a fact, not an opinion.

Wait a minute. This is important. If they admitted that adding the Ascended Tier was a bad choice, does that mean that they won’t be adding more tiers? I mean, it is ok to make a mistake once, but it makes no sense to make the same mistake twice. That’s pretty good news, it means that we are not actually getting on a treadmill like many people fear we are. I don’t mind upgrading my equipment only once.

Unfortunately, the statement that Bunmaster refers to is incomplete. They said that adding Ascended the way they handled it in November was a bad choice. Of course, they also said that the better option would have been introducing the ascended gear through all the same avenues that exotics had – and since then they seem to have backpedaled on that statement rather hard.
By the way, in that same AMA they specifically said that they intend to continue the item progression from now on. And nothing they said and did since suggested they changed their mind.

Astralporing.1957:

By the way, in that same AMA they specifically said that they intend to continue the item progression from now on. And nothing they said and did since suggested they changed their mind.

Great news! Thanks.

Bunmaster.9734:

Look around you, LS is already a huge grindfest for AP and mindless zergfests. Whether you sit in LA grinding a craft or zerging events, it is a farcry from any challenge at all.

And what in the world that have anything to do with vertical progression? Every single reward from LS was purely aesthetic besides AC gear in fractals (or I’m forgetting about something). But all that grind has NOTHING to do with progression!

Out of my 7 characters at level 80, only 3 of them are fully geared out in Ascended jewelry and backpieces. The rest have mostly exotics with an Ascended ring here and there. I have barely felt any difference in WvW at all.

The stuff people come up with…I don’t think hyperbole is a strong enough word.

Xenn.3809:

As for your reasons for dying in WvW, of course numbers (amount of ppl) is a factor, but what about 1vs1 or equal number fights (they do happen you know) – is it gear the ultimate factor? How that’s good? On equal gear terms, skill wins, on equal skill (supposedly) gear wins then? – is that what we want? (yes, yes, is the already disparity of uplevel and exotic wearers, so lets make it worse – though I accept the uplevel disparity, its your learning the game, progressing to lvl80 – but needs to have a conclusion, not a endless vertical progression)

WvW was never intended to be about 1v1, skirmishes or even odds. You’ve got SPvP for that. I don’t know why you feel like small differences in stats are more relevant than the fact that your team can be outnumbered one to ten. This mode does nothing about balancing team sizes. So the bottom line is: if any kind of strength inequality is unacceptable for you then you shouldn’t play WvW.

Xenn.3809:

I do understand if you feel there is a lack of progression in PvE (there isn’t any in WvW and I’m enjoying the fight 1 year on) – but do you really think gear inflation is the ultimate answer? Wouldn’t you prefer hard modes for existing dungeons / zones, new challenging zones, new bosses with challenging mechanics, new dungeons, cool and unique skins to show off – there is other paths to follow without vertical gear progression – make it your personal skill progression.

If still the answer is yes, ascended all the way pls, and why not, ascended v2 next year (because once you got ascended progressions ends, right?) – then maybe we should start asking separating PvE content from any PvP form, as in WvW (note I’m not including sPvP). Beware of what you wish for, you’ll start a treadmill, make old lvl80 content even less appealing and ultimately become bored only briefly solved by a new injection of stats.

You seam that you still don’t understand why vp exists. More from the macro game mechanics side. Start with that maybe… Hint: it’s not only about that it makes people feel more rewarded.

Gabby.3205:

I don’t mind upgrading my equipment only once.

Your forgetting about something… What if after balance changes your current gear stops to be optimal for your game style? You would need to replace(upgrade) that equipment… And whole your master plan falls apart.

Well, it’s either this or a bunch of threads complaining about how there is nothing worth shooting for in this game. I personally welcome a new challenge. I hope these weapons require mats that are only found in more difficult areas and some time gated items to help draw the process out a bit. What I don’t understand is the people who are complaining about all their stuff being worthless now. Are they angry that they played the game and found rewards? Do they truly believe that their character will be worthless now that there is another tier of items which we’ve known about for 9 months?

@ HiddenNick
I put that zergfest and grindfest part under Challenge not Progression.

@ Astralporing
My bad, it was way back in November, so i had forgotten parts of it.

@ Alex the Precise
So far the preview notes doesn’t state anything about weapons/mats dropping from challenging content.
It’s just that in order to make ascended weapons, one needs to be at 500 on the appropriate craft and it is time gated to only once a day.

For challenging content dropping rare mats for ascended items, it will probably not happen. Anet wants content accessible to everyone, so they won’t create content that is too hard for the majority of the population.

For me, challenge is better boss mechanics, not grinding to increase my stats with X% while increasing the boss’ stats with (X+10)%.

HiddenNick.7206:

Gabby.3205:

I don’t mind upgrading my equipment only once.

Your forgetting about something… What if after balance changes your current gear stops to be optimal for your game style? You would need to replace(upgrade) that equipment… And whole your master plan falls apart.

Then I wouldn’t mind upgrading it again, if my game style demanded it.

For people talking about WvW let’s take a look at the damage on the great sword.

Ascended GS damage is 1045 -1155. Now exotic is 995-1100. The base damage difference is 50to 55 more damage. Roughly a 5% increase in base damage. This applies to the damage calculation because of the “weapon power” part. So you are looking at a base 5% increase on skill coefficients.

They are also getting a 5% increase to other stats.

So you are looking at a minimum of a 5% increase in damage. With skills that will increase closer to 10% because of the increase in coefficients.

Damage done = (weapon damage) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Strike

Will use strike. Assume 2000 power, and target has 3k armor.

1100-995 1047.5, 1045-1155 1100

1047.5*2000*.8/3000=558.67
1100*2000*.8/3000=586.67

5% of 558.67 = 27.9335
27.9335+558.67=586.6035

So basically they are giving a free sigil (5% damage) on ascended weapons, while allowing you to have 2 offensive infusions and a sigil slot. For people that only do WvW this is a pretty big loss. Now they might make these available for BoH, in which case it’s fine and I will be fine with it.

5% is the reward that pve players will have over wvw players. Now the PvE players are saying “well it isn’t huge, so why should I get my damage reduced to exotic levels”. O.k., well if it isn’t important why would it bother you to have it reduced? The reality is WvW players already make huge sacrifices, and yet the pve players get rewards for it. They get passive increases to so much, without doing anything. That is irrelevant to the current discussion though, so I will drop it.

They should simply cap stats in WvW. If you have 5 people all doing 5% more damage that is huge. It’s going to take down camps much faster, not to mention gates/towers/guards etc. Those will end up having to be buffed, which will mean that groups who aren’t running ascended weapons will be punished.

The best thing to do is to avoid all of that, and cap the stats as they currently are.

edit
added screen cap of ascended gs stats

^ How would pve-players have 5% over WvW-players when it is done by crafting, which is fully possible to do in WvW as well?

If you could only get said weapons by doing Fractals or Dungeons I would agree, but as of now you can get them from crafting (both doable from PvE and WvW), Guild Missions (PvE), Fractals (PvE) and Rank-up Chests (WvW), now I am not that good with math, but I am rather sure that there are quite fair, due to the fact that you can get it from WvW in 2 ways and PvE in 3 (where one of them requires a guild, so it might leave out a big part of the players anyway).

MatthausW.8473:

Lol look at all these cry babies. They’ve said maybe 3 paragraphs about ascended weapons. This sounds exactly like people trying to do math about the que times in Queen’s pavilion being 30+ minutes and crying about it. Wait and see what actually happens

Way to contribute to the thread with meaningful, constructive discussion. Do rude pro-ArenaNet posts ever get moderator notice?

So when do we get raiding? I mean, Anet’s lied about everything else they promised, would make sense that making this a raid game is the next step.

lordkrall.7241:

^ How would pve-players have 5% over WvW-players when it is done by crafting, which is fully possible to do in WvW as well?

If you could only get said weapons by doing Fractals or Dungeons I would agree, but as of now you can get them from crafting (both doable from PvE and WvW), Guild Missions (PvE), Fractals (PvE) and Rank-up Chests (WvW), now I am not that good with math, but I am rather sure that there are quite fair, due to the fact that you can get it from WvW in 2 ways and PvE in 3 (where one of them requires a guild, so it might leave out a big part of the players anyway).

I will assume you aren’t trolling me, you were very civil in your post so I will do the same.

Pile of Bloodstone Dust, Account Bound (Refines into Bloodstone Bricks, requires Artifice/Huntsman/Weaponsmith 450) – Champion loot bags
Dragonite Ore, Account Bound (Refines into dragonite ingots, Artifice/Huntsman/Weaponsmith 450) – Comes from Temple chests in Orr, Megabosses, and Keeps and Castles in WvW.
Empyreal Fragments, Account Bound (Refines into Empyreal Stars, Artifice/Huntsman/Weaponsmith 450) – Comes from dungeons, mini-dungeons, jumping puzzles and camps/towers in WvW.
Glob of Dark Matter, Account Bound – Obtained only from salvaging exotics.
Augur’s Stone, Account Bound – Purchased for skill points from Miyani near the mystic forge. Costs 20 skill points.
Thermocatalytic Regeants – Brought from vendors (10 for 14 silver 96 copper)

Those are the things you need as base materials. Then you will refine them

Glob of Elder Spirit Residue (50 Elder Wood Planks, 1 Glob of Ectoplasm, 10 Thermocatalytic Reagents)
Lump of Mithrillium (50 Mithril Ingot, 1 Glob of Ectoplasm, 10 Thermocatalytic Reagent)

Refinements(Obsidian Shards): You can also refine Obsidian shards at 450. These items are account bound.
Bloodstone Brick (100 Piles of Bloodstone Dust, 2 Obsidian Dust, 10 Thermocatalytic Reagents)
Dragonite Ingot (100 Dragonite Ore, 2 Obsidian Shards, 10 Thermocatalytic Regents)
Empyreal Star (100 Empyreal Fragment, 2 Obsidian Shard, 10 Thermocatalytic Reagents)

So unless the drop rate is really high for doing the few WvW activities that even award these, you must see the difference in the ability to obtain them. Then consider that the real parts of WvW that players end up doing to win don’t involve most of the things that even award these.

To give you an example I spend hours upgrading keeps, walking with yaks (giving them speed buffs), and setting up siege. There is more, but I wanted to give a few examples. None of those things award any of the items I would need. Yet I’m still expected to defend myself.

Now this sort of punishes people that are doing the boring work. They aren’t out zerging, they are doing their best to ensure victory in ways that the majority of people don’t. I understand that what I’m talking about now isn’t directly related to ascended weapons. It’s a failure of the reward system for WvW. It’s off topic, but I wanted to give you an example.

I will edit some more in a bit, I really do want to have a good discussion. Unfortunately a house fire has me living in strange conditions. I’m only explaining why I’m cutting off the topic in such a fashion.

All the best in dealing with recovering from a house fire. I had to do that once myself, and the insurance always finds a way to give you much less than the value of what you’ve lost.

Ben.9123:

It mentioned in one of the posts that ascended weapons would be getting infusion slots. Doesn’t that generally mean that you’ll lose the upgrade slot? Because if it does then Ascended Weapons won’t necessarily be better than Exotic.

Would you prefer having a bit more weapon damage and slightly higher stats, or being able to use a sigil?

I sure we will see stronger infused sigil no way 1gold weapon gonna be doing same damage as 500g one.

Um, I did the math on ascended gear in another post but here is a short cut and paste version without the calculations

Current available ascended gear is ~312 more stats in total than exotic armor

Full set of ascended gear by the end of all releases is probably going to be about ~510 more stats than exotics.

If you look at it in a PPT gear type you’re looking at about

170 power = 170 more damage
170 pre = ~8% crit chance
170 toughness = 170 armor

This is excluding the extra weapon damage ascended will have. Probably about ~100 more damage.

So yeah.

The 10-12 % increase per trinket/weap adds up more than you think really.

Gabby.3205:

HiddenNick.7206:

Gabby.3205:

I don’t mind upgrading my equipment only once.

Your forgetting about something… What if after balance changes your current gear stops to be optimal for your game style? You would need to replace(upgrade) that equipment… And whole your master plan falls apart.

Then I wouldn’t mind upgrading it again, if my game style demanded it.

And how is that any different then upgrading your gear to ascended gear?

^It is not, and that’s why I don’t mind. That’s my entire point. There is no “master plan”. I don’t mind upgrading to ascended and I don’t mind upgrading to fit my play style.
Actually, I am happy I am soon getting more AR. It is something worth upgrading for, just like it would be if I had to upgrade my gear to fit my play style.
If I had to upgrade my gear every three months or so, I wouldn’t be happy about it. It is not the case, so I don’t mind. I hope I made myself clear through so much repetition.

Edit: I do everything wrong on mobile, sorry -.-