Guild Wars 2

With the coming patch, we get free and easy trait swapping, which ANet says will encourage experimentation. That’s great, but the problem is that gear still holds a lion’s share of a build’s stats, and thus inhibits some of that potential experimentation.

What I propose is a path to stat swapping gear, the way Legendaries now work. I’m not proposing changing the current Ascended crafting setup. Simply adding a path to stat swappable Ascended gear.

While there are a multitude of ways it could be done, I have a working idea of one means of doing it.

Each crafting profession would have new recipes added. For example, take Armorsmithing/Leatherworking/Tailoring:

Insignia of the Balthazar:
1 x Gobrech’s Valkyrie Insignia
1 x Zojja’s Berserker Insignia
1 x Saphir’s Assassin Insignia
25 x Spool of Gossamer Thread

Insignia of the Melandru:
1 x Ahamid’s Soldier Insignia
1 x Beigarth’s Knight Insignia
1 x Wei Qi’s Sentinel Insignia
25 x Spool of Gossamer Thread

Insignia of Dwayna:
1 x Hronk’s Magi Insignia
1 x Tateos’s Cleric Insignia
1 x Veldrunner Apothecary Insignia
25 x Spool of Gossamer Thread

Insignia of Grenth:
1 x Ferratus’s Rabid Insignia
1 x Occam’s Carrion Insignia
1 x Morbach’s Dire Insignia
25 x Spool of Gossamer Thread

Insignia of Kormir:
1 x Angchu Cavalier Insignia
1 x Forgemaster’s Rampager Insignia
1 x Leftpaw’s Settler Insignia
25 x Spool of Gossamer Thread

Insignia of Lyssa:
1 x Keeper’s Zealot Insignia
1 x Wupwup Celestial Insignia
1 x Zintl Shaman Insignia
25 x Spool of Gossamer Thread

There would be corresponding recipes for inscriptions as well. Then these 6 need to be combined:

Insignia of Might:
1 x Insignia of Balthazar
1 x Insignia of Melandru
1 x Insignia of Kormir
25 x Spool of Gossamer Thread

Insignia of Magic:
1 x Insignia of Dwayna
1 x Insignia of Grenth
1 x Insignia of Lyssa
25 x Spool of Gossamer Thread

Finally, there would be new Mystic Forge recipes added with the following formula:

Omni Ascended Armor piece:
1 x Ascended Armor piece
1 x Insignia of Might
1 x Insignia of Magic
1 Vision Crystal

It would not be easy. It would not be quick. It would not be cheap. But it would solve the gear issue. Provide horizontal-ish progression. And give people something to work toward without destroying their previous work (unless you’ve already crafted multiple stat sets of Ascended gear). Of course the exact numbers could be debated, but the intention is to make one of every Ascended Insignia/Inscription and then combined them with an Ascended Armor piece/Weapon to make the stat swappable variant.

I think it would make a lot of people happier, while not totally trivializing the Ascended crafting system in place. Thoughts?

Yep, I’m all for unlocking stat swapping on ascended items in one way or the other.

I think it should be exotic Insignia’s instead. While stat swapping gear is nice, it may just be cheaper to go for a legendary then do this lol.

Morsus.5106:

I think it should be exotic Insignia’s instead. While stat swapping gear is nice, it may just be cheaper to go for a legendary then do this lol.

Except there’s no Legendary Armor

I love the effort you put into this OP! I’m too tired to calculate the actual costs, it seems like a lot, but would be worth-while in the long-run.

I think using exotic level makes it too cheap an easy to do. I had intended it to have a bit of a Legendary feel (and Legendaries are still way more involved and expensive), because it is a powerful outcome. If you can get an Ascended piece, and then upgrade it to Omni a few days later (if that), it completely trivializes Ascended crafting. It should take some time to craft so your decision of what Ascended to craft initially (what stats) has meaning. And if someone doesn’t want to go through this, they don’t have to and can still have a valuable, albeit static, Ascended gear piece.

If the cost really needs to go down, I would start at the thread and vision crystal requirements.

Esmee.1067:

I love the effort you put into this OP! I’m too tired to calculate the actual costs, it seems like a lot, but would be worth-while in the long-run.

Thanks! It evolved quite a bit as I was putting this post together and was going over the different insignias available. It did turn out a bit more expensive that I had originally envisioned, but I think there is room to scale it back. Preferably—as I stated above—starting with the thread and vision crystal.

I find it a bit interesting that the insignias fit so well under the 6 gods. I had not intended to use them for names until I realized I had 6 groups of 3 insignias each.

I also think the time it would take to do offers more end game tasks for those that want to undertake the process. Even more tantalizing with the coming account bound Ascended gear. But if you have that zerker set or knight’s and that’s good enough for you, then you don’t have to put any more time in.

I really like this, mainly because while it has a lot of parts it all fits together quite elegantly. I don’t think it will achieve its stated intention of encouraging build experimentation though as it is very much an endgame proposition.

I have to admit I would also be curious as to how much insignias of would trade for if they were not account bound.

Thinking about it again, I would prefer a system where you unlock stat combos one after the other instead of all in one. This can still use ascended insignias, but you get more functionality in a shorter timeframe. You also have the option to stop at any point and just unlock, say, Berserker, Knights and Soldiers.

Maybe just introduce Legendary Armor sets unique to each profession. Same stats as ascended, costs a hell lot more and has unique particles and maybe changes some class specific animations.

Cormac.3871:

I really like this, mainly because while it has a lot of parts it all fits together quite elegantly. I don’t think it will achieve its stated intention of encouraging build experimentation though as it is very much an endgame proposition.

I have to admit I would also be curious as to how much insignias of would trade for if they were not account bound.

That all depends on your end game. If you do a lot of WvW, for example, you might want to try zerg builds, roaming builds, etc…

And even if Ascended Insignias are account bound, they require their exotic variant to craft. And some of those exotic insignias are only obtainable through salvaged gear, and so will likely be bought off the TP by most people.

Ignavia.7420:

Thinking about it again, I would prefer a system where you unlock stat combos one after the other instead of all in one. This can still use ascended insignias, but get more functionality in a shorter timeframe. You also have the option to stop at any point and just unlock, say, Berserker, Knights and Soldiers.

It would certainly require more of a programming effort to store what stats combos have been unlocked on EACH piece of gear; but if workable, not a bad idea either.

Ramiel.4931:

Maybe just introduce Legendary Armor sets unique to each profession. Same stats as ascended, costs a hell lot more and has unique particles and maybe changes some class specific animations.

I think Legendary armor is in their eventual plans, but I expect those would require much more effort and cost than what I have laid out here. Even though I’ve only mentioned armor, my idea would extend to weapons as well. And I doubt making a bunch of Legendary weapons is viable for swappable stat functionality at present.