Guild Wars 2

Sirendor.1394:

Mungrul.9358:

I just want to say that while I agree changeable stats on gear should be implemented (a la Legendaries), it should NOT be limited to Ascended gear. I think we’re in danger of letting it become another carrot when it should be a feature throughout the gear system.

Different materials should yield different cosmetic appearances.

What does this last addition mean? Different stat combinations > different cosmetic looks?

The idea is that the material you craft the gear with doesn’t affect stats at all; rather it determines what the gear looks like. It means more work for the art team, yes, but when it comes down to it, one of the biggest complaints about crafted gear is the restricted set of appearances.

Maybe we should also introduce the balance of skill-reward into this discussion, since it is something which seems incredibly off balance in the case of ascended armour.

My biggest concern is that the vertical progression we have seen now requires no skill, but a lot of time:
- Gold is the main thing you need (200g per craft + 60g per piece)
- Gold is gained mostly through rather easy activities: dungeons, champion farms, world bosses
- Gold is very very low in challenging content: PvP is debatably one of the least rewarding areas of the game, Jumping Puzzles aswell.

Why do the most easy things in the game give more gold than the kittenes?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi Nike,

There is no morass and no concept of ‘us’ trying to dig ourselves out of it.

((shrug)) I won’t quibble over the use of evocative terminology, but I suspect if we could somehow call for a show of hands and asked “Hey, how many people think BiS gear for 10 slots should be gated behind RNG and Crafting with ZERO alternatives” you’d end up counting more chirping crickets than paws going up .

((chirp—chirp—chirp))

Like I keep saying I am very much looking forward to concentrating on Horizontal Progression. In the meantime however I want to make sure that we give Ascended the attention it is due.

Other than wrangling some numbers/price points which would be better handled by people who can actually poll the game’s progress metrics (i.e. not us players), I think I’ve said my piece .

I look forward to the Horizontal Phase also…

…You sure you wouldn’t rather start it as a fresh and focused thread?

Might work out better than ‘gating’ it behind 30+ pages of tangential-at-best reading .

Lheimroo.2947:

Moshari.8570:

Give the ascended gear either “limited” stat swapping or full stat swapping like legendaries…or a way (a quest for instance) that would allow you to Add a stat for stat swapping.

If there were epic quests in place where you could unlock stat combinations for your gear that’d be.. awesome. That would be unbelievably awesome.

No more grind; make it about challenges.

I agree, would love to hear from Chris on this idea specifically, epic quest chains to unlock swappable item stats and new item stat combos.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Is it fair to say that regarding Ascended Gear we would like to see more ways to earn it and in terms of drop rates, a higher percentage chance of acquiring them through this method?

More ways to get them? Yes! Yes! Yes!

Does higher drop rates solve this? Not really. There’s 17 (stats) x 6 (slots) x 3 (weights) == 306 different possible pieces of ascended armor. Most people are going to want a perfect set of one of each slot, with a consistent stat and weight. Odds of having your first six drops match what you want? 1 in 1.14 trillion.
Exotic drops work, because people just toss them all into the TP or Mystic Forge if it’s one they don’t want. But, if you do that to Ascended, you lose most of the distinction.

What would work, however, would be to introduce something akin to Black Lion Claim Tickets and Scraps, only for Ascended gear instead. The Tickets and Scraps could then be acquired in several ways:
- dungeon tokens/relics
- badges of honor
- karma
- laurels
- world event chests
- champ bags
- something for PvP. (don’t play it, so can’t say what would be good)
Make the Tickets and Scraps account bound on acquire, and it’s something to earn, dispelling any of the “Gold Farmer”/“Gem Shop Hero” issues.

Note: there’s still the problem of stat lock in. Increasing accesibility does NOT solve this, as it precludes the ability to experiment. This is already cost prohibiting with Exotics, much less higher cost Ascended.
With limited ability to cheaply experiment, most players will read a few guides, and buy whatever the guide tells them to, and that’s it.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

’Is it fair to say that regarding Ascended Gear we would like to see more ways to earn it and in terms of drop rates, a higher percentage chance of acquiring them through this method?

The ability to change gear stats.

The ability to potentially use tokens from encounters (allowing users to work toward acquisition of Ascended Gear) that would otherwise only offer RNG chances on Ascended Gear, allowing users to work toward the items (courtesy of Nike and others)’

More ways to earn it => yes. Just yes.

Higher drop rate => drop rate at the moment is abysmal. Even if it was augmented, it would still be a “bonus” way to obtain the stuff, as you can’t be certain of getting it, nor can you be certain of getting the stats you need.

Change gear stats => This would be really usefull. But if you put it, you need the price to be correct for it. For the current prices, I’d say it would be ok to have stat changing gear. So, either reduce the price to get it (less ressource, other ways to get it, etc.), or give it stat changing.

Using tokens => to me, this is the same as the first point: other ways to obtain it. This would be for me one of the best way to make the gear purchasable.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Is it fair to say that regarding Ascended Gear we would like to see more ways to earn it and in terms of drop rates, a higher percentage chance of acquiring them through this method?

Chris

Most definitely. Id like to know that even while leveling an alt at lvl 50 or 20, doesnt matter the level, that I could essentially be working toward it. I feel that these items should be obtained via karma since it is a universal currency and can be obtained through a myriad of activities in GW2. Also, increasing the drop chance would be a great idea as well. And not just a increasing the chance at ascended drops, but would this mean that if we did get an ascended piece via drop that we can choose the stats? Or are the stats pre chosen for us? The ascended piece would be worthless if it was Carrion and my build revolves around zerker.

One thing I want to…point out. You had to have been aware that we want multiple ways of obtaining this gear. This should not be/is not a surprise to you. In fact, early on in the ascended gear debate, going back almost a year, it was mentioned by Arenanet that these items would be obtained through various means. Now, the only way to get an ascended weapon or armor is via crafting. Id like to give arenanet the benefit of the doubt here, but I have a hard time swallowing the idea that arenanet was not aware or did not perceive that we would want multiple ways of acquiring these items.

Harbard.5738:

On this line, gear tiers could be upgradable at considerably lower mat costs than what it costs to make a brand new piece. And all ascended gear should be precursors to legendary gear, that’s the only way it’s gonna fill any gap between exotics and legendaries, otherwise it’s just competing for resources.

This. There should be a way to upgrade gear. Especially ascended to legendary (stat/tier only not skin imo to keep the original legendaries more special).

Then ascended would truly be a stepping stone, not an obstruction.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

VOLKON.1290:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Is it fair to say that regarding Ascended Gear we would like to see more ways to earn it and in terms of drop rates, a higher percentage chance of acquiring them through this method?

Chris

Possibly, or in lieu of that a means to add flexibility to the gear to allow for stat changes without needing to create a whole new set (see my inscription idea as an example).

Someone creates a whole set of berserker ascended and finds themselves getting rolled still (as glass cannons do) in WvW may have buyers remorse when that PVT set starts looking mighty tempting…

Yep thanks Volk for adding Stat changes to the proposal.

’Is it fair to say that regarding Ascended Gear we would like to see more ways to earn it and in terms of drop rates, a higher percentage chance of acquiring them through this method?

The ability to change gear stats.

The ability to potentially use tokens from encounters (allowing users to work toward acquisition of Ascended Gear) that would otherwise only offer RNG chances on Ascended Gear, allowing users to work toward the items (courtesy of Nike and others)’

Note this is the formulation of a proposal for discussion.

Chris

Sounds good but please do make the price reasonable. Having to play 2/3/4 weeks for 1 piece of equipment is terrible.

Mungrul.9358:

Sirendor.1394:

Mungrul.9358:

I just want to say that while I agree changeable stats on gear should be implemented (a la Legendaries), it should NOT be limited to Ascended gear. I think we’re in danger of letting it become another carrot when it should be a feature throughout the gear system.

Different materials should yield different cosmetic appearances.

What does this last addition mean? Different stat combinations > different cosmetic looks?

The idea is that the material you craft the gear with doesn’t affect stats at all; rather it determines what the gear looks like. It means more work for the art team, yes, but when it comes down to it, one of the biggest complaints about crafted gear is the restricted set of appearances.

Aha. I think I see where you are going. For example heavy armour can have ‘berserker’ inscription: reflects itself in heavy armour with a typical look for a berserker? A heavy helm with horn for example. Carrion could look a little gloomy. Cleric could have some glow or other, or a particularly ‘elegant’ look.

Edit: added an image to make clear what I mean and to see if it’s the way you mean it?
For example left armour could be for ‘cleric’. Right armour could be something like berserker.

VOLKON.1290:

…(edited for character length)

I have a piece of Knights armor. I craft a Berserker inscription. I use a transmutation stone to replace the Knights inscription with the Berserker inscription on the armor, changing it to Berserker armor. Knights inscription goes >poof<.

What do we get…

1. Flexibility with our ascended gear stats, saving time over multiple sets for a single character.
2. ANet doesn’t lose out on T-stones, possibly sees an increase in their use.
3. We still have a sink for ascended and T6 items in the crafting of the insignias, and the crafting professions already make these.
4. I become famous.

Simple, elegant and solves and/or prevents many problems.

If stat swapping were to be considered, this would be the way I expect to see it occur.

Much like Nike, I shudder at the fact of getting just 1 ascended weapon and then being able to have all 17+whatever future stat combos available on that character by hot-swapping the stats. I’m sure Anet has metrics on how many people already have a full set of ascended gear, or even just one piece of Ascended armor after just this first week of release.

The idea of using the existing tech of hot-swapping stat combos in the manner that Legendaries do so now seems like it would greatly trivialize the effort required to obtain an ascended piece of gear. Trivializing effort=trivializing time, which although the implementation was poor and slightly rushed, even Chris has stated the original design purpose of Ascended Gear was to serve as a bridge to Legendaries.

I like the concept of VOLKON’s proposal, but I honestly don’t think the playerbase will grasp onto the necessity to keep it limited as such, and not be hot-swap like Legendaries. Also, for the min/maxers who like to have everything available at a moment’s notice, it would seem clunky to have 3, 5, or 10 different Ascended Insignias in your inventory, just to swap stats as deemed beneficial for the encounter (Fractal Instabilities anyone?).

With those two approaches detailed, I honestly can’t say I can think of a clean way to add stat-swapping to Ascended armor that wouldn’t either…

• 1. Greatly trivialize the time and effort taken to obtain multiple Ascended combos for different builds. Also, if you have an Ascended coat with Legendary-like hot-swap functionality, what do you do with the 2nd coat the drops for you?

• 2. Cause a new level of dependency on a player to be flexible not by the ability to play certain builds or react accordingly, but have the items required to execute said builds or playstyles at the maximum efficiency.

Example – “Ok guys, it’s Fractal Scale 50 and we’re about to fight the Grawl Shaman in Volcano. Everyone got Cleric’s or Soldier’s insignias to swap out of Berserker’s?” "Players 1-4 respond yes. Player 5 responds, “Uh…I’ve been doing Apothecary gear the whole time.” “Leader – WTF? You told us you were Soldier’s! We ALL used our Cleric’s/Soldier’s insignias to swap! You mean you don’t have any insignias to swap?! Player 5 gets kicked from group”

Where some players may have been denied a group before starting (which is bad in and of itself, but at least no false expectations were set), NOW a new dependency is set where players are expected to have each insignia available to perform any build possible at the highest effectiveness, even if the content doesn’t dictate it necessary or the requested build/statset is unfamiliar to the player.

(Sorry VOLKON. I really enjoyed the proposal at first, with all of your details, but there are few things I hate more in MMOs than gates or requirements that aren’t established by the game design, but are initially perceived and ultimately accepted by the players themselves! Such one-dimensional thinking from players is what usually inhibits change, experimentation, and flexibility, and further leads these players to cookie-cutter meta builds that require minimal skill to execute.)

I don’t know if this was already posted here (yes, i didn’t read all the 24 pages and tons of wall texts), but my idea of sense of progression, on character skills, would be based on idea that Colin gave about 1st, 2nd, 3rd… jobs.

If…

- Each job you earn, give you a set of new skills for weapons.

Q: But this will ruin builds and people which has favorite weapon skills will disappoint when changing their jobs.
A: You could CHOOSE IF YOU WANT to change your job or not. This would be just like Legendaries, where you are not obliged to make one, it’s just a choice to make.

Q: But this would take a lot of time for balancing skills for each profession.
A: New weapon skills would be just new animation/name comparing to the ordinary ones? Just like Legendaries are for weapons.

I like the idea of job progression and have few ideas for it.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

There is no morass and no concept of ‘us’ trying to dig ourselves out of it.

No, the forums being on fire about this topic and half my guild quitting the game over ascended stuff being pushed into the game against the very explicit wishes of the general playerbase, and all of our previously acquired gear (as well as huge parts of the game where such gear is being earned, and 99% of the skins in the game) being made obsolete by a new tier with better stats really is no big deal?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I still stand by its inclusion and want to ensure that it is equidistantly positioned between Exotic and Legendary.

Well that idea was admirable. However, Legendary items used to have the same stats as Exotic items for a long time.

All these problems could have been avoided (and undone!) very easily if:

• The stats of ascended items are returned to Exotic values
  And the benefits of Ascended items being…
• The ability to build Agony resistance on them
• Them having the ability to change stats and/or some other convenience not available to exotic items

Tada!

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Nike.2631:

VOLKON.1290:

I can’t possibly disagree more with this opinion. If accessibility becomes to easy you will soon enough find a new problem where some players have all the ascended gear they want.

I think the direction gaining momentum is less that acquisition needs to be faster and more there need to be multiple paths of comparable difficulty/time investment.

Making each piece count as all 17 possible pieces (and hey, what happened to Giver stats anyway…?) at the same time as allowing players to acquire them by multiple tracks simultaneously is gonna turn the tier into a rubber stamp, not an intermediate activity while inching up on your Legendary.

I understand the appeal for the players, but I don’t think it’s a good call for the game.

As a result they’ll begin to demand more progression past ascended.

I don’t think I’m alone in my willingness to tell those players “bite me.”

‘Vertical progressionists’ had their say once already and the result is this morass we’re digging out of now.

Lets not indulge in the insanity of repeating it.

Hi Nike,

There is no morass and no concept of ‘us’ trying to dig ourselves out of it.We are having a discussion about accessibility around ascended gear in relation to how the community wants to acquire it. I still stand by its inclusion and want to ensure that it is equidistantly positioned between Exotic and Legendary. I also want to ensure it is accessible to all players specifically in regard to how they play within the world.

These are all areas we have thought about at Anet. Personally I don’t think there is anything wrong with having an open discussion with everyone about how the play, and their feelings toward the opinions of other members of the community and the Developers.

Like i keep saying i am very much looking forward to concentrating on Horizontal Progression. In the meantime however I want to make sure that we give Ascended the attention it is due.

Chris

Hi Chris,
First, fantastic use of the word ‘equidistantly’. Kudos

I don’t want to stray off topic, but if you stand by ascended gears inclusion into the game, then how come we have not received an explanation as to why we weren’t informed about ascended gear in the first place at launch? As you said in the AMA a year ago, ascended gear was always intended? If that is true, how come we went three months into launch believing that we were acquiring our BiS sets in exotic gear, only to be sideswiped by the addition of ascended gear and the claims that it was intended all along. Arenanet could have avoided a major headache if they would have mentioned this before launch, rather than three months after. The gear treadmill discussion would not exist as ascended gear would have been understood as always intended, right at launch.

Regarding ascended gear’s accessibility: Purchasable via Karma, OR via honor badges, OR a combination of dungeon tokens. I say ‘OR’ because one should not have to farm honor badges if he/she doesn’t play WvW and one should not have to farm dungeon tokens if he/she doesn’t want to run dungeons.

Example: One piece could cost 125,000 karma. I think it takes at least a few days of playing 2-3 hours a day to accumulate this, possibly a few weeks. How does this sound?

Also Chris

Is it fair to say that regarding Ascended Gear we would like to see more ways to earn it and in terms of drop rates, a higher percentage chance of acquiring them through this method?

Chris

Yes. That’s a good start. I’d be much more accepting of the design someone proposed above where a player would need X number of dungeon tokens (maybe individual dungeons, maybe combined dungeons) + Y number of Guild Commendations, + Z number of Fractal Relics as a reasonable means of Ascended Gear acquisition for PvE players.

It touches every single aspect of “end-game” (just to assign a term…not that I approve of said term) PvE content currently available in Guild Wars 2 that virtually ANY player can complete regardless of skill level. It’s just a time investment, but it’s one that works towards a goal, which is always better than RNG.

Malchior.5042:

Sorry VOLKON. I really enjoyed the proposal at first, with all of your details, but there are few things I hate more in MMOs than gates or requirements that aren’t established by the game design, but are initially perceived and ultimately accepted by the players themselves! Such one-dimensional thinking from players is what usually inhibits change, experimentation, and flexibility, and further leads these players to cookie-cutter meta builds that require minimal skill to execute.

Hey. You took an idea, muddled it around and came up with your opinions on the idea.

Never apologize for that. That’s how things get done.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aeonblade.8709:

Lheimroo.2947:

Moshari.8570:

Give the ascended gear either “limited” stat swapping or full stat swapping like legendaries…or a way (a quest for instance) that would allow you to Add a stat for stat swapping.

If there were epic quests in place where you could unlock stat combinations for your gear that’d be.. awesome. That would be unbelievably awesome.

No more grind; make it about challenges.

I agree, would love to hear from Chris on this idea specifically, epic quest chains to unlock swappable item stats and new item stat combos.

This is a cool idea. Lots of logic problems to think about in regard to it. Need more time to think (-:

Chris

Very cool, thanks for the reply

Chris, could you or anyone else comment on something that is a splinter in many of our minds:

Are there plans for ascended runes and sigils? Taking that a step further, are there plans for ascended runes and sigils that can only be placed on ascended gear?

I think this question deserves an answer before a large amount of people pass on creating ascended weapons and armor believing it is the last bit of ascended only to, again, be sideswiped by more power creep and widening the gap more between ascended and exotic.

Im dying to know the answer to this :/

cesmode.4257:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Is it fair to say that regarding Ascended Gear we would like to see more ways to earn it and in terms of drop rates, a higher percentage chance of acquiring them through this method?

Chris

One thing I want to…point out. You had to have been aware that we want multiple ways of obtaining this gear. This should not be/is not a surprise to you. In fact, early on in the ascended gear debate, going back almost a year, it was mentioned by Arenanet that these items would be obtained through various means. Now, the only way to get an ascended weapon or armor is via crafting. Id like to give arenanet the benefit of the doubt here, but I have a hard time swallowing the idea that arenanet was not aware or did not perceive that we would want multiple ways of acquiring these items.

Precisely. This is last year all over again, I find it hard to believe they didn’t know we would want different avenues to get the gear. My bet is they’re just testing how many people are willing to take on this stupid grind and drawn an average or whatever with their metrics and tone it down later based on the data.

DiogoSilva.7089:

BACK TO HORIZONTAL PROGRESSION

Playing with alts
Anet had some sort of strategy about using player’s alts as new sources of money sink, but that has clearly failed, and we’ve been getting changes towards the opposite direction lately. This is great, because the more incentives there are to play with alts, the more incentives there are for a portion of the playerbase to log more often into the game.

• Ascended gear discriminates the players who like to invest on multiple characters, as it demands from them a much higher money sink than from players that stick to a single character.
• Likewise for dyes.
• Likewise for several soul-bound items.
• Exploring the world is very repetitive the second time.

Solutions

• Make ascended gear significantly easier to get after the first copy is crafted/ obtained, similar to the acchievement’s skins. After getting the first copy, the player could get the ability to create as many duplicates as they would wish for their other characters.
• Make dyes account bound.
• Make most non-story soul-bound gear account-bound. If I just replaced my ascended trinkets for new ones, why can’t I equip the old ones to another character I have? The money sink is already done. I have already contributed positively to the game’s economy. :P Let me at the very least use it somewhere else.
• World exploration is very complex, and I won’t dwelve into it for being off-topic. But it would be nice if, at the very least, the WPs were account bound, so we could quickly go to our favourite area or help our friends in a specific dungeon without being restricted only to our main.

The main thing that I agree with so heartily here is the World Exploration. In my personal opinion one of the most daunting tasks on a new alt is the world exploration to get waypoints. I have 4 level 80s right now, and have a character of every profession that I’m working on leveling. It is so painful and obnoxious that I have to spend so many play hours just running around the map on an alt to grab every waypoint so that I can use my new alt in old situations. If you guys made waypoints account bound it would make alt lovers like myself incredibly happy. World Exploration is the most grindy, least enjoyable, thing that you have to do in this game, and after doing world completion once for my legendary I never want to do it again.

By the way, on the alt note: I’m so proud that you guys decided to make WXP account bound. I finally can have the ~r300 skills which currently I can’t have because I alternate so frequently that I just have 8 r40s instead….

cesmode.4257:

Chris, could you or anyone else comment on something that is a splinter in many of our minds:

Are there plans for ascended runes and sigils? Taking that a step further, are there plans for ascended runes and sigils that can only be placed on ascended gear?

I think this question deserves an answer before a large amount of people pass on creating ascended weapons and armor believing it is the last bit of ascended only to, again, be sideswiped by more power creep and widening the gap more between ascended and exotic.

Im dying to know the answer to this :/

Me too, I bet most people would really like an answer to this.

Sirendor.1394:

Aha. I think I see where you are going. For example heavy armour can have ‘berserker’ inscription: reflects itself in heavy armour with a typical look for a berserker? A heavy helm with horn for example. Carrion could look a little gloomy. Cleric could have some glow or other, or a particularly ‘elegant’ look.

Exactly.
Also, I need to re-iterate why stat flexibility shouldn’t be limited to one tier of gear.
With gear being expensive to acquire and store, people focus on building around a few tried and tested stat combinations; namely Berserker for PvE and Soldier’s for WvW.

Because of this, the predominant balance feedback, both statistical and verbal, that the ArenaNet receives will be centred around these stat combinations.

Balancing decisions will be based around this feedback.

This will further result in strengthening these stat combinations and weakening others, making the game become predictable and stale.

With freedom to experiment with all stat combinations whenever players please, feedback that the development team receives will highlight strengths, weaknesses and bugs in other stat combinations. This will hopefully lead to a more balanced game that’s less predictable and more open to rewarding canny planning.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aeonblade.8709:

Lheimroo.2947:

Moshari.8570:

Give the ascended gear either “limited” stat swapping or full stat swapping like legendaries…or a way (a quest for instance) that would allow you to Add a stat for stat swapping.

If there were epic quests in place where you could unlock stat combinations for your gear that’d be.. awesome. That would be unbelievably awesome.

No more grind; make it about challenges.

I agree, would love to hear from Chris on this idea specifically, epic quest chains to unlock swappable item stats and new item stat combos.

This is a cool idea. Lots of logic problems to think about in regard to it. Need more time to think (-:

Chris

If I’m understanding this right then the suggestion involves the idea of one piece of gear having many possible stat combos unlocked for it which can be swapped out on the fly so you don’t need a set of gear for each build. I wonder if it would be possible to also extend this idea to include swappable sigils and runes on weapons and armour so that one set of ascended really can work for all builds with the right unlocks.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aeonblade.8709:

Lheimroo.2947:

Moshari.8570:

Give the ascended gear either “limited” stat swapping or full stat swapping like legendaries…or a way (a quest for instance) that would allow you to Add a stat for stat swapping.

If there were epic quests in place where you could unlock stat combinations for your gear that’d be.. awesome. That would be unbelievably awesome.

No more grind; make it about challenges.

I agree, would love to hear from Chris on this idea specifically, epic quest chains to unlock swappable item stats and new item stat combos.

This is a cool idea. Lots of logic problems to think about in regard to it. Need more time to think (-:

Chris

Hi Chris,

I think I see where the current logic problems are coming from.

Currently, ascended gear bundles together vertical and horizontal progression—even though most people think of ascended gear as only a vertical progression mode.

There are two reasons to acquire a piece of ascended gear:
1. You’re upgrading an exotic piece, and so increasing your stats. This is clearly vertical progression
2. You’re side-grading another ascended piece to change stats. This is horizontal progression, since it’s opening up options.

So far in this CDI, there’s a pretty strong consensus that #2 is too hard/slow. It seems there much less objection to #1 being too hard/slow (although still some). That’s because people have very different tastes for their vertical and horizontal progression.

If you just gave all ascended gear legendary-style stat switching for free, I think you’d be making a mistake because you’re trivializing the horizontal progression in #2. On the other hand, it’s a mistake to keep the current method, where #2 is as hard as #1.

Ascended crafting is actually a pretty good start at differentiating the horizontal and vertical progression (#1 vs #2). It’s expensive to level crafting to 500, but not as much to get another ascended stat set once you’ve gotten the first. That’s not to take away from the other criticisms of ascended crafting, but that one feature, splitting the horizontal and vertical parts of ascended gear, is nice.

Weapons and armors need to evolve from exotic to ascended and legendary.
The more you use a specific weapon the faster that weapon will transform into an ascended one.
There won’t be a bar to fill up, it will just come as a surprise to you. Lets say you need to score 10 billion damage with your exotic then it will transform into an ascended.
Of course there will be people killing the white foes in Orr to get it faster but for a normal player, this will take a reasonable amount of time to get while not affecting his gameplay. he cam play whatever he wants and not farm or grind specific things and then craft.
So no bar to watch filling up, no grinding. And the requirements can vary: 10 bil damages, or 1000000 champions, or anything else thet can fit up in a grid behind the program with various ways to interact.

Tyrannus Blade.3408:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aeonblade.8709:

Lheimroo.2947:

Moshari.8570:

Give the ascended gear either “limited” stat swapping or full stat swapping like legendaries…or a way (a quest for instance) that would allow you to Add a stat for stat swapping.

If there were epic quests in place where you could unlock stat combinations for your gear that’d be.. awesome. That would be unbelievably awesome.

No more grind; make it about challenges.

I agree, would love to hear from Chris on this idea specifically, epic quest chains to unlock swappable item stats and new item stat combos.

This is a cool idea. Lots of logic problems to think about in regard to it. Need more time to think (-:

Chris

If I’m understanding this right then the suggestion involves the idea of one piece of gear having many possible stat combos unlocked for it which can be swapped out on the fly so you don’t need a set of gear for each build. I wonder if it would be possible to also extend this idea to include swappable sigils and runes on weapons and armour so that one set of ascended really can work for all builds with the right unlocks.

While extending it to sigils, and we are talking about EXOTIC sigils here not ascended..right???, is a good idea… but one step at a time I think. Swapping some sigils out, few silver here and there, isn’t going to be game breaking for players IMO.

In terms of prioritization, Id rather see them get the stat swapping in first, and concentrate on multiple acquisition methods at the same time, rather than making sure we can swap sigils out with ease.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The ability to potentially use tokens from encounters (allowing users to work toward acquisition of Ascended Gear) that would otherwise only offer RNG chances on Ascended Gear, allowing users to work toward the items (courtesy of Nike and others)’

Note this is the formulation of a proposal for discussion.

Chris

You could even do a variety of tokens from various areas of the game and use the mystic toilet. Say something like X world boss tokens + X dungeon tokens + X Badges of Honor + something to indicate the gear type. That would make it more scavenger hunt type of content.

Hello, I was actually going to post something about progression and I saw this thread. I love the game and enjoy it and I want to thank Areanet for making such an awesome game!

Progression in the game is definitely there with the armor sets but I don’t think it’s implemented properly.

Greens/Blues 1-79 easy to acquire while leveling and works well.

Rare/Exotics are currently acquired through gold you’ve made while leveling or utilizing your crafting.

Ascended is currently acquired solely through crafting.

Legendary is currently impossible.

I personally feel that at level 80 players should have easy access to Rares through means of gold or crafting early on. After that the acquisition of exotics should come primarily through your progression in dungeon’s, WvW or even dailies (which you can have the choice of currency between wvw or dungeon). Champions throughout the world have the ability to drop these too.

I personally feel there should be one dungeon currency then have a meta currency for Ascended.

Have to run, ill edit this later and add more ;()))

Chris Whiteside.6102:

’Is it fair to say that regarding Ascended Gear we would like to see more ways to earn it and in terms of drop rates, a higher percentage chance of acquiring them through this method?

The ability to change gear stats.

The ability to potentially use tokens from encounters (allowing users to work toward acquisition of Ascended Gear) that would otherwise only offer RNG chances on Ascended Gear, allowing users to work toward the items (courtesy of Nike and others)’

Note this is the formulation of a proposal for discussion.

Chris

I would be largely in favor of adding the ability for gear to change stats. One of the main issues that I have with ascended gear is that the stats inherent in the armor actively impede my horizontal progression – I feel that I have to 100% plan out a build before I can choose my armor/weapons/trinkets, as it is currently such a large investment that a change of plans requires a lot of time/effort/$$$. (I had this issue with exotics to a lesser degree, but there overall the main issue was acquiring skins for the gear I wanted)

As for improving the RNG on ascended gear, I wouldn’t mind it, but I don’t believe RNG is the correct way to go about vertical progression. One of the strength of vertical progression is seeing yourself grow, and tying this progress to RNG means that I cannot see any growth until I get a random drop. In fact, I make absolutely no progress towards growth until I make all of it at once, which makes the progression completely and utterly frustrating.

Using tokens would be a good step up, but I worry about the timeframes involved. Using crafting as a base, it takes a month to acquire full armor. If it would take about a month to get the tokens involved for a set of armor, then we run into a similar issue with RNG progression, where the progression is so slow as to be more or less zero on a day-to-day basis. For me, this feels even worse.

One nice thing about ascended trinkets is that you can obtain them in parallel (you can get laurels, relics, and guild thingies on separate tracks). If the amount of time it takes to craft an individual piece of armor absolutely cannot change, how about this: each piece of ascended armor requires different rare materials. I could get the pieces in parallel, instead of being time-locked to getting them one at a time.

This doesn’t do a ton to alleviate the cost of crafting, which is also a huge problem in my opinion, but that can just be numbers tuning.

Tyrannus Blade.3408:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aeonblade.8709:

Lheimroo.2947:

Moshari.8570:

Give the ascended gear either “limited” stat swapping or full stat swapping like legendaries…or a way (a quest for instance) that would allow you to Add a stat for stat swapping.

If there were epic quests in place where you could unlock stat combinations for your gear that’d be.. awesome. That would be unbelievably awesome.

No more grind; make it about challenges.

I agree, would love to hear from Chris on this idea specifically, epic quest chains to unlock swappable item stats and new item stat combos.

This is a cool idea. Lots of logic problems to think about in regard to it. Need more time to think (-:

Chris

If I’m understanding this right then the suggestion involves the idea of one piece of gear having many possible stat combos unlocked for it which can be swapped out on the fly so you don’t need a set of gear for each build. I wonder if it would be possible to also extend this idea to include swappable sigils and runes on weapons and armour so that one set of ascended really can work for all builds with the right unlocks.

That would be awesome. I’d always rather spend gold and time in stat/sigili/rune flexibility than higher stats.

cesmode.4257:

Tyrannus Blade.3408:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aeonblade.8709:

Lheimroo.2947:

Moshari.8570:

Give the ascended gear either “limited” stat swapping or full stat swapping like legendaries…or a way (a quest for instance) that would allow you to Add a stat for stat swapping.

If there were epic quests in place where you could unlock stat combinations for your gear that’d be.. awesome. That would be unbelievably awesome.

No more grind; make it about challenges.

I agree, would love to hear from Chris on this idea specifically, epic quest chains to unlock swappable item stats and new item stat combos.

This is a cool idea. Lots of logic problems to think about in regard to it. Need more time to think (-:

Chris

If I’m understanding this right then the suggestion involves the idea of one piece of gear having many possible stat combos unlocked for it which can be swapped out on the fly so you don’t need a set of gear for each build. I wonder if it would be possible to also extend this idea to include swappable sigils and runes on weapons and armour so that one set of ascended really can work for all builds with the right unlocks.

While extending it to sigils, and we are talking about EXOTIC sigils here not ascended..right???, is a good idea… but one step at a time I think. Swapping some sigils out, few silver here and there, isn’t going to be game breaking for players IMO.

In terms of prioritization, Id rather see them get the stat swapping in first, and concentrate on multiple acquisition methods at the same time, rather than making sure we can swap sigils out with ease.

Sigils and Runes are Minor, Major and Superior, yes? I don’t think “exotic” or “ascended” make sense when talking about sigils and runes.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Nike.2631:

VOLKON.1290:

I can’t possibly disagree more with this opinion. If accessibility becomes to easy you will soon enough find a new problem where some players have all the ascended gear they want.

I think the direction gaining momentum is less that acquisition needs to be faster and more there need to be multiple paths of comparable difficulty/time investment.

Making each piece count as all 17 possible pieces (and hey, what happened to Giver stats anyway…?) at the same time as allowing players to acquire them by multiple tracks simultaneously is gonna turn the tier into a rubber stamp, not an intermediate activity while inching up on your Legendary.

I understand the appeal for the players, but I don’t think it’s a good call for the game.

As a result they’ll begin to demand more progression past ascended.

I don’t think I’m alone in my willingness to tell those players “bite me.”

‘Vertical progressionists’ had their say once already and the result is this morass we’re digging out of now.

Lets not indulge in the insanity of repeating it.

Hi Nike,

There is no morass and no concept of ‘us’ trying to dig ourselves out of it.We are having a discussion about accessibility around ascended gear in relation to how the community wants to acquire it. I still stand by its inclusion and want to ensure that it is equidistantly positioned between Exotic and Legendary. I also want to ensure it is accessible to all players specifically in regard to how they play within the world.

Can I also reply to this? I don’t want to sound as dismissive as some other posters, really..

But the problem of trying to make something halfway between exotic and legendaries is that exotics and legendaries are apples and oranges.. or at least they were, back when they had the same stats.

Legendaries were pure horizontal progression. Sure they’re a grind and a half, and some people never were going to go for them, but that’s completely and totally OK. If you guys are of the opinion that you want everybody to be working on a legendary ‘eventually’, I have to question your perception of your playerbase. Just as the sheer mat requirements for the ascended gear as it is currently makes me question who you’re aiming for.

So you took what was an option for the more hardcore playerbase.. and said ‘Everybody ought to have a goal about half as hard as that to work for’.. and okay, sure. The entire, complete problem is that you assumed people who wouldn’t enjoy an optional legendary grind would be okay with being required to do a grind half as bad.

adagiophoto.4512:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The ability to potentially use tokens from encounters (allowing users to work toward acquisition of Ascended Gear) that would otherwise only offer RNG chances on Ascended Gear, allowing users to work toward the items (courtesy of Nike and others)’

Note this is the formulation of a proposal for discussion.

Chris

You could even do a variety of tokens from various areas of the game and use the mystic toilet. Say something like X world boss tokens + X dungeon tokens + X Badges of Honor + something to indicate the gear type. That would make it more scavenger hunt type of content.

Yes, but make it so you don’t HAVE to do A & B & C & D. Leave us some options:
If A & B & C & D & E & F are our options (karma, badges, gold, laurels, dungeon a, dungeon token b) allow us to combine all those:

For example:

• 5 gold & 10 laurels for a weapon
  or
• 5 gold & 100 ascalonian catacomb token & 100 citadel of flame token & 50 arah token
  or
• 250 badges & 200 ascalonian catacomb token
  or
• …

Jumping in to add my own opinions.

eleshazar.6902:

The main thing that I agree with so heartily here is the World Exploration. In my personal opinion one of the most daunting tasks on a new alt is the world exploration to get waypoints. I have 4 level 80s right now, and have a character of every profession that I’m working on leveling. It is so painful and obnoxious that I have to spend so many play hours just running around the map on an alt to grab every waypoint so that I can use my new alt in old situations. If you guys made waypoints account bound it would make alt lovers like myself incredibly happy. World Exploration is the most grindy, least enjoyable, thing that you have to do in this game, and after doing world completion once for my legendary I never want to do it again.

I agree in that it’s daunting but I LOVE world exploration and try to get different waypoints and such on my alts. I have 10 80’s and am working on the 11th and after the first 2 or 3 times to get a waypoint in Fireheart, as example, it isn’t a big deal; at least, to me.

Malchior.5042:

I’d be much more accepting of the design someone proposed above where a player would need X number of dungeon tokens (maybe individual dungeons, maybe combined dungeons) + Y number of Guild Commendations, + Z number of Fractal Relics as a reasonable means of Ascended Gear acquisition for PvE players.

It touches every single aspect of “end-game” (just to assign a term…not that I approve of said term) PvE content currently available in Guild Wars 2 that virtually ANY player can complete regardless of skill level. It’s just a time investment, but it’s one that works towards a goal, which is always better than RNG.

And for those of us who have tiny guilds that aren’t large enough to get guild commendations? We’d be screwed. I do not want to have to join a large guild just for guild commendations. And people who don’t like fracs? Screwed. Dungeons I wouldn’t mind so much but I know a few people who wouldn’t want to run dungeons just for gear.

VOLKON.1290:

Malchior.5042:

Sorry VOLKON. I really enjoyed the proposal at first, with all of your details, but there are few things I hate more in MMOs than gates or requirements that aren’t established by the game design, but are initially perceived and ultimately accepted by the players themselves! Such one-dimensional thinking from players is what usually inhibits change, experimentation, and flexibility, and further leads these players to cookie-cutter meta builds that require minimal skill to execute.

Hey. You took an idea, muddled it around and came up with your opinions on the idea.

Never apologize for that. That’s how things get done.

Thanks for being so understanding, sir. Your proposal immediately re-ignited an idea a friend of mine detailed, most elements of which were the same. I tried to put that into the current game in the way you described and was pleased with most of the outcomes, until I decided to play devil’s advocate as the min/maxer who hates carrying 10+ insignias in his bags or kicks n00bs out of group for not having the same.

It’s attacking each other ideas in a constructive manner that can truly get us somewhere with this initiative!

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Sorry you don’t see it this way Nike.

Ironically, I personally don’t have a major issue with Ascended gear as it was introduced. To me it mostly does what it set out to: The tier gives me a series of goals to work towards. I’ve faithfully put Ascended rings & amulets on every one of my nine 80th level characters. Half of them also have ascended back items and accessories. I’ve crafted 2 Ascended weapons, had a third drop as a chest, and made my first piece of Ascended armor (for cosmetic reasons more than the stats) just this morning. If I were solely focused on a single Main and a BiS perfectionist I would be very nearly done devouring the system that’s been put in place.

For that reason its hard for me to feel the system is too fast. But I do think it’s too limited in the play styles it caters to. I happen to be a crafter and harvester. I don’t expect everyone else to be those things too .

But none of that makes me unaware of the unrest my fellow players are experiencing.

But this thread has been super useful for us already and no doubt super useful to those who have spent the time to contribute to it.

I agree completely. Its been an entertaining ride as always. And I look forward to seeing the impact on the game when it works its way through the system.

In suggesting a separate thread, I was just pointing out this thread has two orthogonal narratives jumbled together and reading 800 posts about vertical progression may have kind of buried the 50-odd posts addressing new horizontal concepts.

IF this board has the moderation tools to surgically lift those out and start a new thread with them that would be great. If not, obviously you can’t… And I wouldn’t want people to have to re-post their thoughts in a new thread by hand. Just expect than when the thread does formally shift gears to “Lets talk Horizontal” you’re still gonna get Ascended chatter and people who’ve only read page one shotgunned all through the new topic .

Oghier.7419:

Vertical progression should be more about the character than the gear — my characters should not be mere vehicles to transport pink goodies to battle.

I think you put this much more clearly in a sentence than I did in a few paragraphs

Ultimately I’d love to see GW2 be a MMO that is more based around player and character skill (ie player ability & developed character traits/features/etc) than random gear. I think that the MMO obsession with “spear & magic helmet” type play is one of those DnD throwbacks that even DnD is slowly growing to realize just kind of sucks.

From a storytelling point of view it ends up just as poor as it does in gameplay, as nowhere in fantasy literature do we see ye olde hero junking his “Excalibur” in favor of “Excalibur +2” throughout their career. It’d be great if vertical progression could be more angled toward things attached to your character or the improvement of what you currently have, rather than the random loot piñata approach that is MMO standard.

As I sort of gather that ascended gear is here to stay, it’d be nice if perhaps upgradablility were the justification for ascended gear’s absurd initial buy in cost. Thus in the future when ANet decides we need more gear grind you can keep your current gear and just jump through whatever hoops are necessary to improve your stats (I’d prefer not) rather than getting a new item and throwing out the old stuff. Perhaps ascended gear might even be an option for a component for future legendary item crafting (ie ascended sword + 3 of the standard ridiculous legendary components = legendary sword). This might also make ascended seem like less of a huge sunk cost for anyone considering the creation of a legendary.

Kyven.7514:

And for those of us who have tiny guilds that aren’t large enough to get guild commendations? We’d be screwed. I do not want to have to join a large guild just for guild commendations. And people who don’t like fracs? Screwed. Dungeons I wouldn’t mind so much but I know a few people who wouldn’t want to run dungeons just for gear.

Hence why Chris initially said drop-rates would be improved and hopefully more resources to get the drop would be added. Personally, IMO, I don’t know why anyone who is an avid PvEr would need Ascended Gear (or even feel compelled to go for it) if they don’t participate in the current elements of PvE “endgame” (man I hate that term)

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Nike.2631:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi Nike,

There is no morass and no concept of ‘us’ trying to dig ourselves out of it.

((shrug)) I won’t quibble over the use of evocative terminology, but I suspect if we could somehow call for a show of hands and asked “Hey, how many people think BiS gear for 10 slots should be gated behind RNG and Crafting with ZERO alternatives” you’d end up counting more chirping crickets than paws going up .

((chirp—chirp—chirp))

Like I keep saying I am very much looking forward to concentrating on Horizontal Progression. In the meantime however I want to make sure that we give Ascended the attention it is due.

Other than wrangling some numbers/price points which would be better handled by people who can actually poll the game’s progress metrics (i.e. not us players), I think I’ve said my piece .

I look forward to the Horizontal Phase also…

…You sure you wouldn’t rather start it as a fresh and focused thread?

Might work out better than ‘gating’ it behind 30+ pages of tangential-at-best reading .

Sorry you don’t see it this way Nike. But this thread has been super useful for us already and no doubt super useful to those who have spent the time to contribute to it.

Chris

If I had known that you weren’t going to address my points on horizontal progression, I wouldn’t have spent my time contributing to a part of the discussion you don’t find relevant.

Then again, my vertical progression thoughts are faring about as well, so that may not be a fair evaluation.

I’m wondering why you think these threads are “useful” to players, honestly? They are a great many things, don’t get me wrong, but useful? We can’t use these ideas to do anything. It is interesting to get a developer perspective on things, and I certainly appreciate the clarity in some instances, and it’s nice to feel heard (probably), but there’s nothing that I can take and use in the game from these things. This brainstorming thing isn’t going on a resume someday. Is there another meaning that I’m overlooking?

On horizontal progress and it’s flaws/fixes…

1) There needs to be a locker that holds all the skins you’ve discovered, similar to the PvP locker system. As this already exists in the game, so it might be an easier transition.

2) The insignia system needs a revamp, basically being able to store insignias in the locker as well, then applying them at the time of a skin removal. Or inversely taking them off when you store a skin and adding back to the pool of stored ones. This will make everyones life easier, period. You guys won’t have to code all the different looks to the stats they carry and we won’t have to memorize what stats is what name in the crafting tab.

3) As far as gear level, make each skin you grab match your level. If i’m a 67 light armor class when i trade around my armor in the locker it’ll be level appropriate (50-60). Ditch all the in-between stuff. 40-50 same stats, 50-60 same stats, 70-80 same stats… They are so minor already, no reason to complicate it more. I’m not exactly sure the breakdown, but it would tie into the already craft-able insignias.

4)Insignias are only craft-able, they don’t drop. It makes crafting a bit more valuable, IMO.

5) Completely remove transmutation stones, they are already easy to acquire and it’s an extra step in the process that wouldn’t be needed anymore.

6) Rarity can stay, but realistically it would drop as a blank slate following the skin, not the stats. No more below 60 rares! A rare skin is rare because it’s harder to find, not because the stat says so.

The system needs to be simplified and also a hunt and gather ordeal, giving people something to hoard. If i want to make a level 2 piece of gear ascended, just apply the insignia. Same goes for all the other stat related items, it’ll make this game more alt friendly too!

First, sorry,but I don’t have time to read through 24 pages of comment, I’ll leave it to Chris and the team(still nice to see, you’re reading it).

But, as a GW1 veteran I see ascended gear as an “assault” against the GW1 lore. Though it would’ve needed the release of the crystal desert(or some other releases in connection with ascension), I think ppl would complain less about LS and would give new areas to explore.

Back more on topic. I support the idea of other methods to acquire ascended though as a casual player now, I’m not finding it stressful to acquire it. Though time gating is meaningless if you can buy the time gated mats on TP. Hardcore players probably have enough gold to buy them off of TP and craft it(if they care enough), casuals would still take their time and acquire it on their own pace, so it’s only an “obstacle” to casuals. So the progression is there just HC player will be ahead a few weeks.

I’ve read the ideas of other methods and I like the combined token version or I’ve read in connection with stat changing the epic storyline/quest solution. Either of that. Though I prefer the storyline more, it hides the grind(couldn’t find a better word) behind more fun.

One thing I’ve noticed in this thread is that it’s populated by specialists, people who spend all their time running dungeons, in fractals, or in WvW. They obviously push for their own agende, here’s mine.

I would like a reasonable solution for those of us who do a little bit of everything. So maybe instead of 800 badges or honor, or 1000 dungeon tokens have an option that includes 400 badges + 500 dungeon tokens. I won’t make that much difference in the long run (I’d still get two ascended items at 800 badges, and 1000 tokens) but the road would not seems so long.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aeonblade.8709:

Lheimroo.2947:

Moshari.8570:

Give the ascended gear either “limited” stat swapping or full stat swapping like legendaries…or a way (a quest for instance) that would allow you to Add a stat for stat swapping.

If there were epic quests in place where you could unlock stat combinations for your gear that’d be.. awesome. That would be unbelievably awesome.

No more grind; make it about challenges.

I agree, would love to hear from Chris on this idea specifically, epic quest chains to unlock swappable item stats and new item stat combos.

This is a cool idea. Lots of logic problems to think about in regard to it. Need more time to think (-:

Chris

I like this idea. This would work best if each combo was account-bound. Each eligible item (possibly an upgraded ascended, similar to infused) would be able to switch to its original stat combo or any of the unlocked combos.

You could group stats combinations by primary attribute and allow players to unlock one in a specific group upon completing certain achievements. This way players could unlock the combo they want without having to play outside their norm, but to unlock all of them players would have to play all PvE/WvW aspects of the game. For example:

Power:

• Reach WvW rank 100
• Achieve “Dungeon Master”
• Complete 4 “Slayer” achievements

Precision:

• Complete 40 unique jumping puzzles
• Complete 3 “Weapon Master” achievements

Condition Damage:

• Achieve “The Sunbringer”
• Kill 2500 enemy players in WvW
• Complete one tier of the “Regular” achievement for four unique activities

Toughness:

• Reach fractal reward level 50
• Reach 5000 total achievement points
• Achieve “Been There, Done That”

Vitality:

• Complete “Victory or Death”
• Achieve “Master Crafter”

Healing Power:

• Earn 1000 achievement points from living story achievements
• Defend 500 objectives in WvW
• Complete the “Dive Master” achievement

Celestial:

• Unlock one stat combo from each of the other six groups.

Ascended gear needs an USP, and being able to change stats and appearance easily is much preferable than those small stat increases.

How about adding solo bosses around the world (or in small instances) that can be challenged and if you defeat them you get to unlock a new stat set for your ascended gear. It would be something similar to how elites were captured in GW1. Every time a new stat set is added, a new boss is added too. Maybe theme each challenge to the stat set that will be unlocked.

EnemyCrusher.7324:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aeonblade.8709:

Lheimroo.2947:

Moshari.8570:

Give the ascended gear either “limited” stat swapping or full stat swapping like legendaries…or a way (a quest for instance) that would allow you to Add a stat for stat swapping.

If there were epic quests in place where you could unlock stat combinations for your gear that’d be.. awesome. That would be unbelievably awesome.

No more grind; make it about challenges.

I agree, would love to hear from Chris on this idea specifically, epic quest chains to unlock swappable item stats and new item stat combos.

This is a cool idea. Lots of logic problems to think about in regard to it. Need more time to think (-:

Chris

I like this idea. This would work best if each combo was account-bound. Each eligible item (possibly an upgraded ascended, similar to infused) would be able to switch to its original stat combo or any of the unlocked combos.

You could group stats combinations by primary attribute and allow players to unlock one in a specific group upon completing certain achievements. This way players could unlock the combo they want without having to play outside their norm, but to unlock all of them players would have to play all PvE/WvW aspects of the game. For example:

Power:

• Reach WvW rank 100
• Achieve “Dungeon Master”
• Complete 4 “Slayer” achivements

Precision:

• Complete 40 unique jumping puzzles
• Complete 3 “Weapon Master” achievements

Condition Damage:

• Achieve “The Sunbringer”
• Kill 2500 enemy players in WvW
• Complete one tier of the “Regular” achievement for four unique activities

Toughness:

• Reach fractal reward level 50
• Reach 5000 total achievement points
• Achieve “Been There, Done That”

Vitality:

• Complete “Victory or Death”
• Achieve “Master Crafter”

Healing Power:

• Earn 1000 achievement points from living story achievements
• Defend 500 objectives in WvW
• Complete the “Dive Master” achievement

Celestial:

• Unlock one stat combo from each of the other six groups.

This would, however, really have a negative effect on the “play your way” concept. For example, the dedicated WvW players tend to use PVT gear. However this model required Fractals level 50 to unlock toughness… and many WvW players rarely if ever step foot in Fractals. Forcing unrelated content to get stats desirable for completely unrelated areas will go over like the proverbial lead balloon.

Progression in this game.

what is wrong with it but easy to fix.

right now the rate at witch you can acquire anything in the game is much faster via champ farming then in WvW. Not to say I want wvw to become the go to place for gear but it would be nice to have a legitimate chance at things. If this is done I would like to see it either based off badges or drops off players and not off of farming camps and keeps.

things I would like to see.

skills, utilities and elites for all classes, that are focused more towards certain aspects of the game (ie wvw focused or pve focused) that can either be unlocked via skill points OR unlocked via accomplishments in the area the skill is focused on, like a utility that can be unlocked for 30 skill points or you can capture 15 supply camps and also unlock the skill.

also weapon and armor skins for wvw would be nice, just sayin.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Is it fair to say that regarding Ascended Gear we would like to see more ways to earn it and in terms of drop rates, a higher percentage chance of acquiring them through this method?

Chris

I would say that is true pretty much about all items. However I see this strategy being problematic unless you increase the overall amount of items in the game. Supply vs demand basically. Scale it so that ascended weapons/armor only drop from the hardest of pve related events in the game, and exotics drop from lower difficulty events, and just leave the drop rate of precursors the same so that you dont diminish the rarity of legendary’s. PvE in this game has so much potential however has been largely undeveloped.