I know this has been probably talked/suggested to death, but I’d like to offer a new approach to this gear tier anyway, in hopes of getting some of this frustration off my chest in a constructive way. Please note that this is not intended to be a troll post but rather a legitimate suggestion, so please offer legitimate feedback.
My version of Ascended gear revolves around a single type of item called Gift of Ascension (I know this item exists with another purpose, but just bear with me here). There is a version of this gift for every stat combination (Knight’s, Berserker’s, Rampager’s, etc.), and there is a specific gift used for Weapons, Armor, and Jewelry. The player would use this item to upgrade a single piece of level 80 exotic gear, making it ascended with the additional stat boost attached. The new Ascended piece would be equal in strength to the existing implementation, but with the stats based on the item used, rather than a reliance on RNG to hopefully get the stat combination you want. They would keep their existing slot for runes, sigils, and gems, and add an additional slot for the infusion (if we wanted to keep that concept).
These new Gifts of Ascension would be made available in every avenue of play. Crafting professions would be able to craft their associated gifts (Weapon smiths make weapon ascensions) with similar mat combinations to runes and top-tier gems. They would also be available from Karma Vendors, likely after big events like the temples in Orr, or Claw of Jormag. You should also distribute them in ALL dungeons, using tokens to buy them. And finally, they would need to be available from WvW vendors for PvP tokens.
The reason for this new system is to negate the idea that players’ existing exotic gear suddenly becomes ‘useless’ with this new Ascended tier. Instead, you’ll be upgrading your existing gear with stat combinations of your choosing. You’ll be able to pick and choose which stat combination you want on your gift, rather than relying on the currently extremely frustrating RNG system in hopes you’ll get what you want. And crafting professions no longer feel useless, as not only is the exotic gear they make still needed, they’re also now required for crafting the Gifts of Ascension (essentially making them the only way to acquire Gifts through gold). Making them available through dungeon tokens should be obvious; we want the players to once again be spread out among all the dungeons rather than be clustered at FotM. WvW vendors are also obvious, as you need to maintain that separation between WvW players that don’t want to play the PVE content.
The great thing about this system is that you can STILL have ascended gear drops. These could be named items with the same stat distribution as normal ascended items, but with unique skins (essentially legendary armors). This gives the player additional reasons to run dungeons or special events and PvP objectives for the chance to get these incredibly rare skins, but not give them any specific advantage over others since the stats will be the same as crafted or bought ascended items.
That’s my implementation in a nutshell. If you have any constructive feedback I’d love to hear it, but PLEASE don’t turn this into another thread bashing the existing implementation as there’s plenty enough already and I don’t want this idea to drown out due to complaints.