Guild Wars 2

I’m fine with vertical progression, but I don’t want it the wrong way. Don’t make it a gear threadmill by rewarding more stats. Instead, make it that it fits for PvE only. Just like Guild Wars 1’s kind of infusion which is protection against spectral agony.

How can we achieve this?

Here are some example what infusion should do:
-Risen does -10 damage to you.
-You do more damage to Risens
-Purifier’s pull can only pull you in less range than before.
-The Dredge’s gong daze for less duration.
-Icebrood’s chill does a shorter duration on you.
-Flame Legion’s burn will do less damage.
-Spiders do less poison damage.
-You do +10 damage to Branded Minions.
-You do +11 damage to Branded Minions.
-You do +15 damage to Branded minions.
-and more!

Make it that all of infusion stack so it feels like a vertical progression that has zero effect on WvW.

One person could have hundred of infusions stacked or have only 2. After that, Make ascended status be achievable in a mission or solo dungeon like in Guild Wars 1. When you do that, your armor gets ascended and you can put infusion on them.

Some infusion can be gained from Dungeons. Some infusion can be bought with skillpoints, karma, or gold.

tl;dr: Ascended/infusion works the same exact way as Guild Wars 1. You do a mission so that spectral agony does less damage. In Guild Wars 2, it will be similar but it will be expanded.

I love how your answer is “Please don’t screw up WvW @#$% UP PVE INSTEAD!”

The correct answer is to simply nip the gear threadmill in the bud. I already have enough with leveling my alts, unless this was a one time account unlock that applies to your armour – which actually would be somewhat ok but isn’t how it’s being presented – it’s going to be bad.