My ascension thread on reddit got a strong positive response, and so I’m copy/pasting the highlights of the conversation here for ArenaNet developers and for official forums players to continue discussing.
Original reddist post: Ascension: story-driven ascended items and upgrading exotic to ascended
I’ve been searching the forums (Reddit and Official) for posts discussing how Ascended items should be obtained when ArenaNet rolls out ascended weapons and armor, but I’ve had trouble finding anybody discussing my biggest concern. Will our characters get to ascend, and will we be able to ascend our existing exotic equipment with them?
As a Guild Wars 1 player, “ascended” means more to me than just hot pink stats. Ascension is (GW1 plot spoilers abound) going to the Crystal Desert, seeing clarity in your path at Elona Reach, gaining the blessing of the Gods in the Dunes of Despair, cleansing yourself of imperfections at the Thirsty River, and defeating your doppelganger in the Temple of Ascension. Ascension was gaining the gift of True Sight, allowing you to see the Unseen Ones, the mursaat, and fulfill the Flameseeker Prophecies. Ascended characters thereafter had to infuse their armor to protect themselves against mursaats’ Spectral Agony ability.
So if obtaining ascended/infused gear ends up amounting to randomly generated pink items from daily reward chests, or even if we can upgrade exotic items to ascended by plopping them into the mystic forge and stirring in globs of ectoplasm, mystic coins, and fractal relics, it’d be fairly anticlimactic by comparison. Now, the system of upgrading from ascended to infused-ascended, and the fact that the Crystal Desert is a yet to be explored area on the map, implies to me that ArenaNet might be planning ahead, to a point at which “ascended” will be more than a stat—it’ll be the result of Ascension. I hope this is the case, or something equally story driven, but I figure it’s better to put these concerns out on the forums before I end up being disappointed. Anyone else want this?
And while we’re on the topic of being able to upgrade exotic to ascended, I’d like to point out why I think it’s a good idea, whether story driven or not. Players would be able to keep the stat combinations they’ve already chosen. For runes, the rune can just become a built-in bonus or something. That way, ascended items wouldn’t devalue crafted exotics, since you could always ascend the exotics. Keep in mind that I mean for all exotic items to be ascendable, including trinkets and accessories. Finally, players could keep their item appearances without having to purchase transmutation stones. While new ascended items with cool appearances would be fun, I’ll most likely want to keep my hard-earned warden weapons. Maybe they can just make existing armor sets slightly shinier after ascension or something, to indicate progression.
Response to OP: Ascended items can’t be story driven because ascension is exclusive to humans
Monochrometrauma
Ascension won’t be a story element for one simple reason: Ascension is a gift of the human gods, and seeing as some other races outright dismiss their existence (Norn believe in SOTW, Charr hate religion off all kinds) only humans can ascend. Unless ArenaNet is planning to bring back the human gods (and screw over anyone who prefers other races) then there will be no ascension. It’s a tier name.
(Not part of quote—there’s some kind of bug where I can’t label quotes correctly. The following is my response to Monochrometrauma) Surely there’s some creative workaround. Ascension in the Crystal Desert at the Hall of Ascension seemed like a human rite in GW1, but humans also believed that their gods created Tyria and magic just for them. Humans in GW1 were ethnocentric. The elder dragons, Glint, jotun, seers, mursaat, dwarves, and even the forgotten all came before humankind, and maybe ascension and True Sight did too. The Temple of Ascension seemed human-built, but remember how the forgotten were really the ones running the show? They were the testers, and maybe they were just putting the test in terms humans could understand.
We know that Palawa Joko is in the Crystal Desert, that Kralkatorrik awoke there, and that the human gods have been sort of MIA for a while now. Also, look at where Kralkatorrik awoke on the GW2 map—it’s not far from where the Temple of Ascension was in GW1. The Temple is likely in ruins, corrupted by Kralkatorrik, overtaken by Palawa Joko’s army, or in the hands of the forgotten. For charr, going to the temple could be a matter of conquest, or even a slap in the face to humans who thought only they could ascend through their gods. For norn, what could be more legendary than ascension?
(Celriot1) I dont think your idea can happen if the gear is to be accessible in both PvE and PvP, and they already expressed their intentions to make it available in WvW.
(My response) I think my idea could still happen, as long as they implemented a way for ascended items to be equally accessible in WvW. WvW is in the mists, where anything is possible. And surely conquering the mists merits ascension.
_
(Celriot1) Long epic quest chain to get item in PvE, simply bought in WvW? Will not end well, and it’s not too difficult to guess where most people would go to get them.
And if you suggest an equally long quest chain in a PvP environment, that would be worse.
_
(My response) It may sound a bit outlandish, but barring concerns for feasibility I’d really love to see the return of the Hall of Heroes, maybe as a new area to conquer in WvW. The feeling of going into those golden halls in GW1, winning, and knowing that at that you’re the best team in the game at that given point in time—one of my fondest gaming memories. I don’t think the 9-round elimination format is appropriate for WvW, but just some kind of epic battle between worlds to earn a place in the Hall of Heroes…it seems right. The place just looks epic. Actually, it even makes sense in terms of lore:
“In the center of the Rift, deep inside the Mists, stands the imposing walled fortress known across the multiverse as the Hall of Heroes. This structure is the pinnacle of the afterlife. When a hero dies, his spirit goes to one of two places: either it is buried with the deceased body, forever trapped inside the rotting flesh and rancid bones of the corpse, or it is released into the Rift. This latter honor goes to only those few whose deeds in life were legendary enough to be known across multiple worlds, and fewer still earn a place among the souls ensconced inside the Hall itself.”
Response to OP: Hate not being able to switch upgrades for ascended
zp3dd4
Sounds good, but I hate the rune thing. I keep switching runes and if hate to having to redraft every armor piece on rune change.
(Serbaayuu) In my mind, it’s to set a precedent for keeping exotics valid – there’s no word one way or the other, but I think they might make it so that weapons and armor can’t use sigils and runes if they’re ascended, just like trinkets can’t use jewels. They’d get built-in stats.
So, if you wanted to take full advantage of a rune set, you’d stick to exotics. If you wanted a minor stat boost instead, you would go for ascended.
I hope this is the case at least. Even if getting ascended gear is easier by then, I don’t want to have to upgrade my currently-best stuff. That’s the whole reason adding new tiers sucks.
Other responses: mostly support for OP and nostalgia for ascension in GW1 (a few samples are included below)
TaCktiX
Ascending for the very first time by outplaying my doppelganger (I wasn’t running a safe build) has got to be one of my absolute fondest memories from gaming period. Hearing Glint tell me that my ascension was complete and arriving at Dragon’s Lair was a massive “whoa” moment.
That said, I totally agree with you. If it won’t be the primary way to get things, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be possible to have it as a “second option” for those who want that real connection between ascended gear and ascending. The concept is too close to original GW1 memories for a lot of folks for it not to be considered.
Mortons_Spork
The rest of the ascended/legendary items should be a part of a challenging player-driven monomyth, just like it was in GW1 and not cheapened by making us grind a time sink like it is in GW2.
timetowastetime
Really want to be able to upgrade exotic gear to ascended gear without having to purchase another piece of gear. And yes, having infused actually mean something would be great.
Also, a responder with absolute faith in ArenaNet (I never see enough of this kind of support:
bleedscarlet
I’ll be honest. I’ve been 100% this game, every step of the way. I have no doubt that whatever is coming with Ascension will be awesome, and what you’re describing sounds kittening epic so I hope you’re right, but even if you’re not I don’t expect we’ll be let down.