Guild Wars 2

I noticed that one of my dailies in the new Fractal Dailies section was to do a scale 31 fractal. But the game kindly informs me that I’ll need to unlock the first tier of Fractal Mastery to actually get that reward. Looking at that mastery line on the wiki, I see a couple tiers of it that increase fractal rewards. This presumably effects all fractal levels, and not just the new 50+ scales added with HoT.

I knew new scales and the mastery line were coming, but I had kind of expected the mastery to be centered around the new fractal scales HoT added, not walling off rewards for those that only own the core game. Anyone that does Fractals will be getting less rewards if they don’t own HoT and have the mastery unlocked, even if they’re doing scales under 50 that have been in the game for years. This really doesn’t effect me personally, as I only rarely enter fractals with friends, but the idea of locking rewards for existing content behind the expansion paywall does bother me quite a bit.

But but….we updated fractals just like you wanted : )

Even though this hurts me as someone that didn’t buy the expansion I’m even more glad I didn’t.

Anet can kitten off if this is the kitten they pull to gouge money and sell HoT

There are some good updates in there. I do really like some of the changes made to the core game. But I had an expectation (a reasonable one, IMO) that HoT was an expansion intended to add content to the game. Not a way to sell higher rewards for existing content, and treat those not buying it as second-class players.

Having new rewards in new content is expected, and important to players. But players being rewarded differently for doing the same content, based on whether or not they buy an expansion, just feels dirty. I’d be perfectly ok with this if the mastery was for scale 50+, and those scales required the mastery (and HoT) to access. They are part of the new content, after all. But if I’m doing a fractal scale that has been part of the core game for nearly 3 years, I should have access to the same rewards as the other players in my party.

Does this also means people without HoT can’t get fractal weapons too since the vendor is walled off behind mastery?

vespers.1759:

Does this also means people without HoT can’t get fractal weapons too since the vendor is walled off behind mastery?

I think they still drop as random loot. But if the vendor requires mastery, you wouldn’t be able to trade in relics for a weapon crate to pick a specific weapon.

vespers.1759:

Does this also means people without HoT can’t get fractal weapons too since the vendor is walled off behind mastery?

It’s not, it’s restricted to completing lvl 50.

basically core is f2p now. They are deliberately saying kitten off if you dont buy the game and grind masteries.

they literally take the rewards and content from basic, and put it into expansion.

I thought mike obrien said he didnt need to force people to pay. Oh well

phys.7689:

basically core is f2p now. They are deliberately saying kitten off if you dont buy the game and grind masteries.

they literally take the rewards and content from basic, and put it into expansion.

I thought mike obrien said he didnt need to force people to pay. Oh well

I wouldn’t be too bothered if free accounts had some of these sort of restrictions. I don’t really like it when games go that route with their free vs paid players, but it’s kinda hard to complain when you’re playing the game without having to spend a cent.

But we’re not free players. I bought my core game 3 years ago, and everyone else able to post here has paid for their copy of it as well. We should not have to pay again to get rewards for content that is part of the core game.

I’d rather just be prevented from doing fractal 50+ than have rewards for lower scales cut off. Without the rewards, there isn’t really a reason to be doing them anyway.

An expansion should NEVER hurt the vanilla game. It should offer incentives to upgrade by offering more for buying, not removing things from the base game to kitten with people.

Absolutely disgusting.

mrstealth.6701:

phys.7689:

basically core is f2p now. They are deliberately saying kitten off if you dont buy the game and grind masteries.

they literally take the rewards and content from basic, and put it into expansion.

I thought mike obrien said he didnt need to force people to pay. Oh well

I wouldn’t be too bothered if free accounts had some of these sort of restrictions. I don’t really like it when games go that route with their free vs paid players, but it’s kinda hard to complain when you’re playing the game without having to spend a cent.

But we’re not free players. I bought my core game 3 years ago, and everyone else able to post here has paid for their copy of it as well. We should not have to pay again to get rewards for content that is part of the core game.

I’d rather just be prevented from doing fractal 50+ than have rewards for lower scales cut off. Without the rewards, there isn’t really a reason to be doing them anyway.

yeah its the same model.
usually when they go hybrid, they have some sort of legacy for people who bought the game, its like one step above f2p, but you will constantly be reminded to subscribe, and get gimpi exp/loot/etkittenil you subscribe.

thats essentially the plan now, if you dont buy the expansion you will suffer. basically if you arent buying hot, they dont mind if you quit

phys.7689:

yeah its the same model.
usually when they go hybrid, they have some sort of legacy for people who bought the game, its like one step above f2p, but you will constantly be reminded to subscribe, and get gimpi exp/loot/etkittenil you subscribe.

thats essentially the plan now, if you dont buy the expansion you will suffer. basically if you arent buying hot, they dont mind if you quit

This stunt doesn’t make me want to buy it, so it’s certainly backfired as far as I’m concerned. It’s a good reason to not buy it.

so heres my next question, what exactly does personal reward do now?
looks like there is only one chest?

phys.7689:

so heres my next question, what exactly does personal reward do now?
looks like there is only one chest?

…the exact same it did before?

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

phys.7689:

so heres my next question, what exactly does personal reward do now?
looks like there is only one chest?

…the exact same it did before?

do you still get daily shaky chests? or is it just from the achievements?

if you get the daily shaky chests, whats in the drop now?

Wow…… they really don’t care about the core game anymore it seems. and I have been supportive of them and HOT from the beginning, but to do this is simply unacceptable.

The one to Rule.2593:

Wow…… they really don’t care about the core game anymore it seems. and I have been supportive of them and HOT from the beginning, but to do this is simply unacceptable.

Why would they care about the core game? they just made it F2P lol.

They want more players, and to slowly lure them into buying hot….

You think they should care about the core game when it doesn’t generate any revenue? HoT purchases are the income anet is counting on to keep this train going. So of course they will simply entice users to buy HoT instead of staying behind in the core game.

Its a weak move, no doubt. Very disheartening to see them be so money hungry but its the nature of the beast… businesses need money to run.

Unfortuntely, now, the core game players won’t even make good money (and therefore, progress) in this game since HoT has all the good money making strategies now

I would argue that this will have an inverse effect instead of what they want, I think they are going to have to give a little bit in the end, but time will tell I suppose.

I was planning to buy the expansion but had to wait abit to get the money, thought I could do abit of fotm while I waited boy was I wrong. Seriously what is wrong with you Anet, you can’t just refurbish fotm and than lock it behind the expansion, it just feels wrong just on a feel level lol.

I was holding off on buying HoT until I knew the extend of new PVE content, as well as having some concerns about how features like this were being handled. I knew fractal mastery had the potential to drive a wall between core and HoT players, but I was hoping Anet would not go that route.

But after seeing this, how core-only guilds are being treated, and who knows what else that we’ll discover over the next few days, I’m even less likely to buy HoT. Greedy decisions like this give me doubts as to whether I’ll continue playing the game at all.

I think what Anet needs to do is just let everyone have access to Fractal Mastery, and perhaps the other non-HoT-related masteries. There isn’t really much reason to keep the central Tyrian masteries restricted to HoT owners. The name even suggests that they are core game features. On top of that, there is the fact that the precursor crafting/collection/mastery (for the original core set) was supposed to have been a free feature update back in 2013, not a selling point for a 2015 expansion.

Though right now, I think Fractal Mastery is the biggest issue with the mastery system that needs to be addressed. It’s directly impacting game rewards and players’ game experience.

Fractals are pretty much dead to me now. At least until Fractal Mastery is 100% completed. Even then probably still dead because I’m not at all ok with needing to spend coin to get my final rewards from Fractals.

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Fractals are pretty much dead to me now. At least until Fractal Mastery is 100% completed. Even then probably still dead because I’m not at all ok with needing to spend coin to get my final rewards from Fractals.

What do you need to spend coin on to get your rewards? Do you mean tons of experience for the fractal mastery?

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Fractals are pretty much dead to me now. At least until Fractal Mastery is 100% completed. Even then probably still dead because I’m not at all ok with needing to spend coin to get my final rewards from Fractals.

What do you need to spend coin on to get your rewards? Do you mean tons of experience for the fractal mastery?

Those decyphers for the boxes you get as reward.

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Fractals are pretty much dead to me now. At least until Fractal Mastery is 100% completed. Even then probably still dead because I’m not at all ok with needing to spend coin to get my final rewards from Fractals.

What do you need to spend coin on to get your rewards? Do you mean tons of experience for the fractal mastery?

they give you treasure chests when you beat a fractal, but in order to open them you have to buy a key that costs 20 silver from the npc usually you get back 10.
the daily.
you can get 6 keys from dailies, but you get like 12 chests

basically, you spend gold to open chests hoping to make it back by random luck

Wow, so I just saw that other topic about the encryptions (loot box) and keys. Doing 3 (different) scale 1-20 fractals gets you 1 key, but you get an encryption for every fractal.

The 2nd daily, doing 3 scale 21-50, gets you 2 more keys. And the final one, 3 of scale 51-100, gives you 3 keys.

Overall, to get 6 keys you need to do 9 fractals across the tiers of scales. And that’s assuming you’re doing doing all of the tier scales. You’re then stuck with 3 boxes you can’t open unless you pay 20 silver for a key.

If you’re only doing scales 1-20, you’re getting 1 key for every 3 boxes. And just piling up boxes with zero keys if you do more than 3 scale 1-20 fractals in a day.

Basically, it’s only “worth it” (and seems that it’s still not even that) to do 3 scale 51-100s per day. That way you get 3 boxes and 3 keys. Doing anything under scale 51 will get you more boxes than keys.

edit
Oh, and of course, you’ll get access to more dailies (and more keys) if you buy HoT and level up Fractal Mastery. Which also says it gives you better rewards, on top of that.

phys.7689:

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Fractals are pretty much dead to me now. At least until Fractal Mastery is 100% completed. Even then probably still dead because I’m not at all ok with needing to spend coin to get my final rewards from Fractals.

What do you need to spend coin on to get your rewards? Do you mean tons of experience for the fractal mastery?

they give you treasure chests when you beat a fractal, but in order to open them you have to buy a key that costs 20 silver from the npc usually you get back 10.
the daily.
you can get 6 keys from dailies, but you get like 12 chests

basically, you spend gold to open chests hoping to make it back by random luck

You don’t have to open them up. You can just sell the boxes on the TP and vendor the keys.

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

phys.7689:

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Fractals are pretty much dead to me now. At least until Fractal Mastery is 100% completed. Even then probably still dead because I’m not at all ok with needing to spend coin to get my final rewards from Fractals.

What do you need to spend coin on to get your rewards? Do you mean tons of experience for the fractal mastery?

they give you treasure chests when you beat a fractal, but in order to open them you have to buy a key that costs 20 silver from the npc usually you get back 10.
the daily.
you can get 6 keys from dailies, but you get like 12 chests

basically, you spend gold to open chests hoping to make it back by random luck

You don’t have to open them up. You can just sell the boxes on the TP and vendor the keys.

Sadly, that seems like it might be the best option. But that also means throwing out your chance to get fractal skins or ascended ring drops.

mrstealth.6701:

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

phys.7689:

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Fractals are pretty much dead to me now. At least until Fractal Mastery is 100% completed. Even then probably still dead because I’m not at all ok with needing to spend coin to get my final rewards from Fractals.

What do you need to spend coin on to get your rewards? Do you mean tons of experience for the fractal mastery?

they give you treasure chests when you beat a fractal, but in order to open them you have to buy a key that costs 20 silver from the npc usually you get back 10.
the daily.
you can get 6 keys from dailies, but you get like 12 chests

basically, you spend gold to open chests hoping to make it back by random luck

You don’t have to open them up. You can just sell the boxes on the TP and vendor the keys.

Sadly, that seems like it might be the best option. But that also means throwing out your chance to get fractal skins or ascended ring drops.

Wait, that’s how you get the fractal skins and ascended rings? How about the ascended armor/weapons?

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

mrstealth.6701:

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

phys.7689:

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Fractals are pretty much dead to me now. At least until Fractal Mastery is 100% completed. Even then probably still dead because I’m not at all ok with needing to spend coin to get my final rewards from Fractals.

What do you need to spend coin on to get your rewards? Do you mean tons of experience for the fractal mastery?

they give you treasure chests when you beat a fractal, but in order to open them you have to buy a key that costs 20 silver from the npc usually you get back 10.
the daily.
you can get 6 keys from dailies, but you get like 12 chests

basically, you spend gold to open chests hoping to make it back by random luck

You don’t have to open them up. You can just sell the boxes on the TP and vendor the keys.

Sadly, that seems like it might be the best option. But that also means throwing out your chance to get fractal skins or ascended ring drops.

Wait, that’s how you get the fractal skins and ascended rings? How about the ascended armor/weapons?

If the info here is correct, then yes.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Dungeons-and-Fractals-Nerfed-to-Death/first

I assume that ascended weapon/armor chests can still drop from any other source that drops ascended mats.