Guild Wars 2

- ArenaNet wants a new item tier that is harder to get than Exotic and better. Some people want that too.
- Some people are annoying about having to refarm more gear and the waste that was the now useless exotic sets they got

It IS possible for them to create the Ascended tier set without annoying half their player base in the process. They need to make Ascended items better than Exotics, but without giving them better stats. And they need to make it so that players don’t feel like they got scammed buying their current Exotics.

Step 1 : ascended items do not cause all exotics to lose their value
- provide a fluid upgrade path for any current level 80 exotic to Ascended category.
- make it so that every single Ascended item in the game comes from such upgrade path. The Ascended item created will be mostly identical to the base Exotic used except that part where the jewelry loses the gem slot.

With that part, you can contend everyone that felt like they are losing their hard work getting Exotics by making it a required step to reach that new item tier. Now, all the old content isn’t obsolete at all.

Step 2 : ascended items do not obsolete the exotics stat wise
- Ascended items have the same stats as exotics so that nobody feels like some required gear treadmill was added. But then, why bother getting Ascended items?

Step 3 : they have the same stats, but they are better anyway
- The new dungeon requires infusions only if you want to go into repeat mode on them no? You can still farm them all just by repeating difficulty level 0 instead of increasing it at each pass? Infusion would be only required for players that want to go as far as they can. Only Ascended items can get infusion.
- Problem : will that be enough to content the treadmill addicts? Good question. Need to add some kind of reward for going deeper and deeper I guess, but not something people feel like they’ll be missing on it by not doing them. Maybe increasing the money and karma reward the deeper you are?
- Even that might not be enough? There are ways to make Ascended items far better than Exotics without power creep.
- Maybe make it so that Ascended items can have their rune/sigil removed without breaking anything?
- Even better, make it so that you can insert a new stat set into any Ascended item without having to farm a new one. Example, buy from the TP from a crafter a stack of “Berzerker Insigna” for a moderate price, apply them to your Ascended gear and now, it’s got Power/Precition/Crit Damage stats. Want some defensive values now? Use the “Invader Insigna” you bought for a couple WvWvW tokens and bam, Power/Toughness/Vitality gear.

And if you got other ideas, feel free to mention them. Something about the ability to move armor skins around without losing items maybe?

I second all of this. Seems like great way to go about it. And a heck of a lot better than adding item creep treadmill stat boost mechanic. Good post.

Most of this sounds really solid, and incredibly better than what they’ve shown so far.
One of my bigger concerns is that crafted gear always falls very far to the wayside when higher tiers come along, and it is just as true here as everywhere else so far. Requiring exotic gear to turn into ascended gear wouldn’t be a perfect solution to crafters, but it would be better than the shaft currently being delt. Doing that would be a much better solution than allowing crafting of even more expensive gear – materials for exotics are already quite a bit. You can’t have the required materials for a new tier be small, but requiring “enough” typically means some absurd amount that is unobtainable for all but the most dedicated.

These are not bad ideas. I think, however, that most everyone’s suggestions can be summarised thus:

1) Make Ascended gear provide a stat/combat benefit over Exotic gear ONLY in the Fractal Dungeon

2) Cosmetic / convenience advantages of Ascended gear are OK, and can be made permanent in and out of the new dungeon.

cant wait till the whole game is deserted except the current teirs content like wow. may as well call gw2 wow2 now.

they lied to us about no gear treadmill, and all to placate ppl too lazy to read up on the game before buying it.

GG sellout moar Anet, so dissapointed

i cant imagine many people are looking for more of a challenge they just want to elevate themselves somehow. the TA dungeon is the hardest peice of crap dungeon going that ive played. even sorrows furnace annoys me less. but it doesnt get played nearly as often as other easier dungeons. and before you go claiming that they arent hardcore gear grinders doing it or that the items they want are rewarded from the easier dungeons…. they are gear grinders playing it because they do it repeatedly and you only need so much of the items.

The suggestions here aren’t bad. I’d take it over what is currently shown. Good post.

Two simple things they can do to prevent this from being a problem and to keep the game a horizontal progression as promised by their manifesto.

1: remove all higher stats from the armors in this zone/dungeon to bring their stats on par with exotics. (they can still add infusion to legendaries) Infusion is fine because it only affects the dungeon in this one zone.
2: if they don’t want that then add recipes to be bought with karma from the crafters that give crafters of armor sets the ability to make these items without ever stepping foot in a dungeon for any of the mats (mats either bought with karma or salvaged from items or both). That would bring back the balance.

If ascended provides a minor stat increase and infusion only affects fractals performance I don’t see a real issue, which is how I hope this is done.
Besides the contents not out and commentary and speculation can never fully paint the true picture.

dev posts paint a clear pic. and its a gear treadmill, so dont take a week off of the game or when u come back u wont make the gearcheck to do current content, and no1 will be doing the old content. just math really.

and if Anet thinks just one tier of ascended gear/infusions will be enough for treadmillers they will find themselves in the same situation that they are in now w/ ppl who need better gear cause they are bad complaining that theres no endgame cause they cant keep upgrading their gear

Sigh, now my post will be buried. See-

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/How-to-make-everyone-happy-1/first#post739055

Made the same suggestion earlier.