AR is a bad mechanic.
Anything artificially gating content is extraneous. I’d wager the AR mechanic is here to stay as a method of progression but I’ve said time and time again that the best way to re-invigorate fractals and dungeons would be ‘gambits’.
This provides a challenge for everyone interested as well as a mechanic that may disrupt current tactics and require some new ideas.
If they took AR and agony out of the game I think it’s safe to say no one would miss it.
It only serves as a gear check as you said, additionally it also causes problems when people lie about their AR or insists that they don’t need a certain level of AR to complete higher level of fractals. So that strains a player base, it’s just there to leach your funds. At the very least players should be able to check AR of other players or have it displayed on the party info screen next to their health bar in fractals.
AR is a horrible idea. It should have never been implemented.
Unfortunately there would be a lot of QQ (some justified) upon removal.
Perhaps someone can bring this up in the CDI thread (in a nice way without getting infracted)?
btw, gambits were really a good idea:
- easy to implement (compared to creating new content),
- players choose their difficulty level,
- gives more longevity to content that would otherwise become stale.
It’s too bad it’s been almost a year since their introduction yet Anet has never bothered implement them for fractals/dungeons.
It’s hard, that’s why. Much easier to make a to do list and let players run in a circle zerg style.
Come to think of it Anet is pretty much doing the same thing we are, taking the path of least resistance that offers the most profit for time spent.
Perhaps someone can bring this up in the CDI thread (in a nice way without getting infracted)?
btw, gambits were really a good idea:
- easy to implement (compared to creating new content),
- players choose their difficulty level,
- gives more longevity to content that would otherwise become stale.
It’s too bad it’s been almost a year since their introduction yet Anet has never bothered implement them for fractals/dungeons.
There were some indications that they are being implemented for dungeons from data mining.
I am okay with AR … it’s just the way Agony works that I think is really stupid. The more you increase a defensive stat(vitality) the more damage you take. Getting more defenses should never result in lowering your defenses.
I agree. It was just added for people coming to gw2 and expecting it to be like wow.
~Sincerely, Scissors
Kuru my initial reaction upon learning what agony was months ago was this very same thing. I completely agree with you.
The thing is that we unfortunately are very unlikely to see agony reworked / swapped because their priority is to cater to the majority of gamers, which is unfortunately consisting of… well, casuals.
The more you increase a defensive stat(vitality) the more damage you take. Getting more defenses should never result in lowering your defenses.
But it doesn’t.
You still have more defense than the guy who invested nothing. That the investment is worthless doesn’t have anything to do with agony or how it works.
AR is a horrible idea. It should have never been implemented.
This. AR progression is so ridiculous – as soon as you have enough of it, it takes away the deserved punishment for playing badly. That’s absolutely brilliant game design.
There is no loyalty without betrayal. -Ann Smiley
Well the instabilities are kinda dumb too. Some are barely noticeable and people do those(38,47/49). Others like 39 or 43 are done only by the uninformed. But the worst is 40/50/x0 one with perma-agony.
I rather they just time gate, or difficulty gate the content.
Others like 39.
I enjoyed my dredge at 39. The hilarity canceled out the boredom.
It was fine before. Now it’s got an exponential grind nature to it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Well it forces people to pursue more equipment which I like, however, I am not a fan of these 250 T6 mat recipes… not cool