Guild Wars 2

After having read Taugrim’s post regarding his take on Ascended items, I found myself asking a question:

Should ArenaNet even introduce other pieces of Ascended gear besides what we have now and Ascended Weapons?

I agree with Taugrim’s point that gunning for exotics, or at least exotic armor, was the practical goal. Getting exotic gear was challenging but achievable. You could master your crafting disciplines, do fun content like DE Chains in Orr or Dungeon Explorables to earn your exotic gear, which has your desired cosmetics and/or stats. Slot your desired rune set apt for your build, and off you go.

Ascended items seem more grindy than fun. I say if they want to add more Ascended gear, just add Ascended weapons and maybe accessories.

The idea of Ascended armor seems iffy to me because of they way builds depend on the type of armor (Knight’s, Berzerker’s, Carrion, etc.) and the runes slotted into them. Ascended items do not seem to have the normal upgrade slot for runes. What will it have? Infusions that work like runes as well? Seems odd. The rune system we have now is so intuitive and easy for adapting and using in player builds.

My suggestion? Leave armor off the Ascended gear treadmill, OR find a way to “Ascend” what exotic armor you have so you can add the extra set of stats that Ascended gear has. A lot of players probably chose their exotic armor based on aesthetics in addition to, or over the armor stats. It would be nice if you can retain the look you want. Transmutation would not cut it, in my opinion, because you will lose the standard upgrade slot for runes for an infusion slot.

As for runes and rune sets? I don’t know about that one. Have Ascended armor have both the standard upgrade slot and infusion slot?

Anyway, I hope devs at least consider the above suggestions.

P.S. Thanks for making a great game. This is the only MMO I’ve ever heavily gotten into, which is why I feel I need to share my suggestion.

This is a great suggestion. It also makes more sense from a lore standpoint to be able to ascend/infuse your existing armor, since that’s more in line with how it worked in Guild Wars 1.