Guild Wars 2

Let me open with this: This will not be a debate on whether the 5% stat increase on ascended is worthwhile or how “required” it is. This is a suggestion to improve ascended gear and the game, all on its own. If you are going to reply simply by saying “If you don’t like it, don’t get it”, no progress can be made and you should refrain from doing so.

So, to properly begin this post: I hate ascended gear in its current implementation. It is a grind through and through, and the reward for that grind is stats.

In my time playing Guild Wars, I learned philosophies and ideals of game design that have stuck with me. Notably in this case is the philosophy that every player, no matter how hardcore or how casual, is entitled to the best possible stats in the game as well as every skill and ability with minor effort. Through this philosophy it is possible to create a community that values fun, skill, and quality content over grind and rewards for those grinds.

But, as it stands in Guild Wars 2, that philosophy is shaky. Upon reaching level 80, a player has quite an ordeal ahead of them to get their best-in-slot stats, something they truly should be entitled to with minimal effort. To reach best-in-slot, they must:

1. Obtain laurels over 20-30 days for an amulet.
2. Run Fractals of the Mists at least 20 times OR obtain 70 more laurels, for rings.
3. Spend 1 month minimum doing guild missions once per week OR spend a hefty sum of ectoplasm and laurels for the accessories.
4. Grind materials, gold, or fractal relics for a back piece (and then ascend it).
5. Grind at least one, but more likely two or even three, crafting disciplines to level 500, either through daily gathering runs or grinding the gold for it.
6. Run 25 dungeons (enough for an entire set of dungeon armor, which was originally one of the game’s biggest grinds!) OR ~100 supply camps OR ~40 towers in WvW. Do that repeatedly for as many weapons as you need – for a single build, that can be as many as six weapons.
7. Grind world bosses daily for several days/weeks, depending on how many weapons you need.
8. Grind champions (this is admittedly the easiest by far, and out of all of them is almost guaranteed to be obtained as a side-effect of normal play).
9. Grind more high-level materials for crafting (over 2 stacks of elder wood and/or mithril and/or thick leather per item), or grind the coin to buy them.
10. Oh, and if you REALLY want to min-max, grind 1000g or so for those +5stat infusions for all of your gear.

And let’s not forget that very soon when ascended armor arrives, this list will include:

1. Grind one more discipline up to level 500 and get the stacks and stacks of silk, leather, and mithril needed to craft each piece, plus whatever ascended mats are necessary.

What is the reward for all of this? Stats. A 5% increase over exotic gear.

(Continued in next post…)

This reward is a slap in the face on two counts, to both sects of players.

Players who desire horizontal progression find themselves with their best-in-slot gear locked behind a grind. They cannot be best-in-slot without grinding (unless they get it as a “side effect” of playing over months or years, depending on how many builds and characters they use). This goes against the philosophy developed in Guild Wars, a philosophy many players had come to expect from Guild Wars 2.

But also, players who desire vertical progression are hardly getting any reward at all! All this grinding, and all they get is a measly 5%? It’s not even the same jump from exotic to ascended as it is from rare to exotic.

My suggestion aims to improve ascended gear for both parties. Give purer horizontal progression back to those who desire it, without any “optional” stats locked behind a grind. And give those who want vertical progression some vertical utility to work toward.

Revert ascended gear back to exotic stats, and give it stat swapping – just like legendaries.

There are many benefits to this:

• This will revert power creep. The game is designed around exotic gear, but ascended gear is tipping the balance in the wrong way.
• Following on the previous point: new content might be designed & tested with ascended gear in mind, making it more and more “required” for the average player to have ascendeds over exotics. This change would prevent that.
• Horizontal progression returns to the exotic level, satisfying players who hate grind-for-stats.
• Vertical progression is relegated to utility and Fractals of the Mists. Players can grind for the utility of having more bag space, not needing to swap around their gear, and not having to obtain an entirely new set of extremely expensive gear whenever they make a new build.
• Following on the previous point: at the same time, different infusions being useful in different areas of the game (WvW vs. Agony Resist) means that having more than one set of ascended gear would still be desirable in some cases.

As I said earlier, I despise ascended gear’s current implementation. I have grinded for 1 weapon over the course of a month, and intend to continue as long as it takes for me to become best-in-slot once more, because I believe a player is entitled to their best (statwise) gear. But I hate doing it.

However, if this change was implemented, I would LOVE ascended gear. Grinding for cosmetics and utility as a goal is an ideal I support. Just as long as it doesn’t include stats.

Allow me to end this post with an excerpt from an interview with the hype machine himself describing the design philosophy of Guild Wars 2’s best-in-slot gear:

Guild Wars 2 Preview; September 2011

Eurogamer: How are you handling endgame loot – will we be farming bosses?

Colin Johanson: Everyone, including casual gamers, by level 80 should have the best statistical loot in the game. We want everyone on an equal power base. The rare stuff becomes the really awesome looking armours. It’s all about collecting the unique looking stuff and collecting all the other rare collectable items in the game

Thank you for reading. To the devs – thank you for your consideration. And to the forum denizens – thank you for keeping this discussion productive.

I’d be all for this. I’ve always thought that Ascended just didn’t make all that much sense(why spend all that time/money on a small improvement to stats with NO way of changing builds?).

With your approach it would actually make sense for people to put effort into it, because as it currently stands…it’s just a small stat increase and I’m not going to do that for ALL my alts(not to mention ALL my builds). Allowing for stat choice(ala Legendaries) would make the grind worthwhile(for me at least).

With the exception of a small percentage of people who come here to complain about ascended weapons most of the population is over whatever issue they had with them. We do not need crazy pointless changes to tje system yet again. If you do not want to work for the stat bonus that is fine. But we do not need this change. If you want to swap stats get a legendary like the rest of us. But I already jnow what the response to that will be.

Please, this sounds perfect. Every single goal that Anet wanted to reach with the implementation of ascended gear would still work with this.

I’ve literally stopped doing the things that I enjoy because I wouldn’t get my ascended gear in a timely manner by doing them.

Talyn.3295:

With the exception of a small percentage of people who come here to complain about ascended weapons most of the population is over whatever issue they had with them. We do not need crazy pointless changes to the system yet again. And I will say it anyway because the point stands. If you do not want to work for the stat bonus that is fine, don’t. But many of us have made our gear and we like it. We do not need this change you suggest and we don’t want it. If you want to swap stats get a legendary like the rest of us. But I already know what the response to that will be.

Talyn.3295:

With the exception of a small percentage of people who come here to complain about ascended weapons most of the population is over whatever issue they had with them. We do not need crazy pointless changes to tje system yet again. If you do not want to work for the stat bonus that is fine. But we do not need this change. If you want to swap stats get a legendary like the rest of us. But I already jnow what the response to that will be.

Who is this “we”? Are they the same people who forced ArenaNet to cave and add ascended gear in the first place because they couldn’t stand not having a grind-for-stats in their MMO?

Or does “we” mean “me”, in this case? (Answer: yes.)

Talyn.3295:

With the exception of a small percentage of people who come here to complain about ascended weapons most of the population is over whatever issue they had with them. We do not need crazy pointless changes to tje system yet again. If you do not want to work for the stat bonus that is fine. But we do not need this change. If you want to swap stats get a legendary like the rest of us. But I already jnow what the response to that will be.

Catering to the top % is always the best thing to do right? “Work for it like I did.” When it comes to power, even in small increments, I totally disagree.

With this change, ascended gear would give you infusion slots, swappable stats and unique skins. That should be more than enough to strut your prestige around. But no power is the only acceptable format for doing so?

This change would probably be a better boon than the original lost shores addition, it would change very little and the people that own ascended would benefit from it greatly.

I’m all for this.
top stat gear should be MUCH easier to get, maybe a week to fully equip a character. I wouldnt mind to get super rare craftable skins like obsidian armor used to be where you have to do work for but top stat gear with default appearace should be available almost as soon as you hit 80.

I always though that ascended items should be able to ‘consume’ other ascended or exotic to unlock the respective stats.

You make a legendary, you get all the stats from the start. You make an ascended, you’ll have to ‘feed’ it to unlock the other combinations.

That way legendaries keep their specialty of starting with all stats, while those who do not have the time for a legendary can at least go for a few stats combinations in legendaries.

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I got my ascended stuff just because it is the best in slot gear(I hate the skins) and because the grind on weapons is way less compared to legendaries, but I would love it if they make this change since not everyone who plays has enough time to do the boring grind, even more so if you use different builds with different stat combinations or if you have many alts. I wish that you only had to grind for cosmetic purposes like in GW1.

MithranArkanere.8957:

I always though that ascended items should be able to ‘consume’ other ascended or exotic to unlock the respective stats.

You make a legendary, you get all the stats from the start. You make an ascended, you’ll have to ‘feed’ it to unlock the other combinations.

That way legendaries keep their specialty of starting with all stats, while those who do not have the time for a legendary can at least go for a few stats combinations in legendaries.

That is a GREAT addition to this idea! Thank you.

You make your ascended the normal way, and then if you want more stats you make some exotics for it. Sounds awesome. Keeps some goldsinks & crafting active, too.

Like I said, a small percentage of players who are always here complaining rather then actually playing the game. And sure say I am in the top 5% it doesn’t bother me. The long and short of it is, that Anet already stated they won’t be changing this, so the point is moot. I won’t be coming back here. Even for the laughs.

I’m not too sure about reverting ascended stats back to exotic, considering how much effort, grind and money is required into getting ascended gear, but I certainly agree with the suggestion that ascended gear should have stat-swapping abilities just like legendaries.