Guild Wars 2

Can someone link me it? I’ve never used reddit would love you lol

For anyone that contributed to the massive question thread I’ve been compiling these past 5 days. Please visit this link and show support for your questions by upvoting my submissions (samuraikitten86).

Thanks!

Reddit is a mess. The layout is horrific, identifying the dev posts in the sea of questions is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I hope there is an easy to read Q&A afterwards.

I have no idea what is going on there, the layout really is horrible…I +1 TransparentlyOpaque’s request.

here this will show you just the anet answers if you dont want to look at the rest of it..

http://www.reddit.com/user/ArenaNetTeam

@TransparentlyOpaque

Questions should be asked by the AreanetTeam account. If you scroll through, you can see the posts they made as their account name can be identified by a blue box around the account name with the little red Areanet symbol next to it. You can also hover over the account name and click on comments to see everything that was posted by that account.

http://www.redditenhancementsuite.com/

use that, one of it’s many options is Highlighting the OP.

So far he’s only answered 2 questions and both to do with the new content

SPVPer’s please upvote my question! Just do a browser find “The SPVP players have felt” to find it faster.

The SPVP players have felt let down since the beginning of the game’s launch. The have little features for SPVP and lack many essential elements that are needed to foster a great SPVP community, let alone to grow into esports.There is also the horrendous endless loading bug.

Jon P. and Chap read the forums and intend to implement more features, but work is progressing so slowly. It seems there is much more programmers dedicated to PVE rather than SPVP. Things feel like they are moving at a snails pace and many dedicated, loyal PVPer’s grow impatient. There are so many great suggestions in the SPVP forums.

Does Anet plan to move more workers to the SPVP side? Many SPVPer’s are leaving because they are seeing that GW2 is primarily concerned with PVE and WvW, not SPVP. Are you guys aware of the great opportunity you have because the PVP in this game is unique and there is a big demand for it, as long as we actually see more SPVP dedication from Anet.

Chris is doing politics.

omg, tough job, with the mob of angry fans and him having to juggle to save his false manifesto.
in the end, what is the definition if “grinding” and “powercreep” ?

whatever, that is going to end stale, people will continue raging, its like a drama tv show! love it

wildcode.5403:

So far he’s only answered 2 questions and both to do with the new content

It’s only been 25mins

wildcode.5403:

So far he’s only answered 2 questions and both to do with the new content

Yup, and twice now they’ve said, ask one question at a time.
I freaking hate reddit. There has got to be a better, more efficient way to do this.

[–]SocImag

I’ll put my hat in the ring for an ascended gear question: Ascended gear clearly goes against a lot of the expectations of the game’s oldest following; long-time fans of the original Guild Wars series who truly bought into the belief that you could make an MMO last without forcing players to log on every day to grind. Whatever people’s beliefs are about whether ascended gear is a good thing or a bad thing, it’s a different thing. On behalf of those of us who are quite put off by the introduction of ascended quality gear to the game, I have a few quick questions.

Will ascended by the last new gear level we see? Your statement on the forum said you aren’t interested in adding a new gear tier every three months, but a lot of people were unsatisfied with that answer.

Will it become easier to obtain ascended gear in the future? Many people are unwilling to grind FoTM to obtain gear that they consider necessary to keep up with other aspects of PvE, especially considering what many now are considering the advent of gear grouping in GW2 (ie, people are only accepting players into parties if they meet a required level/gear level/etc, something that didn’t really exist before).

[–]ArenaNetTeam[S] 20 points 6 minutes ago

Hi Soc,

Thanks for taking the time to send in some questions. We do not believe we have gone against any of our principals, but we do understand the concern regarding potential grind. We absolutely design everything we do with minimal grind and will continue with this principal moving forward.

1: I would prefer that we never say never but our intention is that in terms of ‘Named Tier (Rarity) of Loot’ Ascended will be with us for a long time and we will not introduce a higher tier of loot for the foreseeable future. There will be loot with different stats and new infusions within the current tier that will be spread over long periods of time (for example Ascended gear will be deployed over the whole of next year). 2: Ascended gear will be obtainable throughout the whole of the game aside from sPvP and in retrospect it would have been better to have rolled different acquisition methods out at the smae time os the FotM.

Chris
—————————————————
Only thing worth noting at this point, and what a lot of us have been waiting for… I guess…

Hi Landeyda,

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions. Mike O will respond to the top question and I will respond to the bottom section.

Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression and in retrospect would have been better to have been rolled out pre launch.

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Please understand that we see the community as a ‘whole’ and therefore are not intending to design again for one specific type of player over another. This is a misconception and one that is not promoted by the team. We will continue to develop the game for the community as a whole offering game play that caters to lots of different types of players in a unified approach that will evolve over time based on feedback and the direction the team as a whole wants to take.

chris

Well I feel a bit better about the whole Ascended thing….

Lothair.8942:

Hi Landeyda,

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions. Mike O will respond to the top question and I will respond to the bottom section.

Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression and in retrospect would have been better to have been rolled out pre launch.

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Please understand that we see the community as a ‘whole’ and therefore are not intending to design again for one specific type of player over another. This is a misconception and one that is not promoted by the team. We will continue to develop the game for the community as a whole offering game play that caters to lots of different types of players in a unified approach that will evolve over time based on feedback and the direction the team as a whole wants to take.

chris

Well, there it is. Vertical progression is here to stay.

Welcome to power creep, folks.

All questions that have been answered – i’ll update this as and when more are added.

All answers are in bold.
—-
1: I was one of the people who participated in the one time Karka event and ended up missing the end chest. Needless to say I was pretty disappointed. I know your team has mentioned plans to reward users who ran into these issues but I haven’t heard anything for a while on this. Do you have any update you could share?

1: We are still working on getting the Karka event reward out to those players who participated but missed out.
-
2: Will ascended by the last new gear level we see? Your statement on the forum said you aren’t interested in adding a new gear tier every three months, but a lot of people were unsatisfied with that answer.

2: I would prefer that we never say never but our intention is that in terms of ‘Named Tier (Rarity) of Loot’ Ascended will be with us for a long time and we will not introduce a higher tier of loot for the foreseeable future. There will be loot with different stats and new infusions within the current tier that will be spread over long periods of time (for example Ascended gear will be deployed over the whole of next year).
-
3: Will it become easier to obtain ascended gear in the future? Many people are unwilling to grind FoTM to obtain gear that they consider necessary to keep up with other aspects of PvE, especially considering what many now are considering the advent of gear grouping in GW2 (ie, people are only accepting players into parties if they meet a required level/gear level/etc, something that didn’t really exist before).

3: Ascended gear will be obtainable throughout the whole of the game aside from sPvP and in retrospect it would have been better to have rolled different acquisition methods out at the smae time os the FotM.
-
4: You stated there was a gap between Legendary and Exotic progression. There was no stat gap, so I can only assume you meant a time gap. But there was a filler — unique Exotics that were harder to get than the normal, base ones. Please clarify what you meant by that gap.

4: Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression and in retrospect would have been better to have been rolled out pre launch.

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Please understand that we see the community as a ‘whole’ and therefore are not intending to design again for one specific type of player over another. This is a misconception and one that is not promoted by the team. We will continue to develop the game for the community as a whole offering game play that caters to lots of different types of players in a unified approach that will evolve over time based on feedback and the direction the team as a whole wants to take.
-
5: What is your intention with Southsun Cove moving forward in terms of content and it counting towards map completion. also when is that fix for fractals coming?

5: Thanks for taking the time to get in touch. We will be evolving and building on all or our content in the game and do plan to build on Southsun Cove in the near future. In regard to the fractal fix, we are working on a fix right now and i would like to take this opportunity to apologies for the issue.
-
6: The recent patch highlighted a split in two significant communities within GW2 – I won’t claim which side represents what % of the total player base – just that each seems significant. One wants more vertical progression and ways the hardestcore can show off their accomplishments, and the other wants more horizontal progression and less hierarchy.

Does Anet really think they can satisfy both? I know the main philosophy of the Devs is to find a balance that makes the most happy, but I don’t see this is possible when you have groups whose expectations are in such opposition.

6:Really interesting question. Our intention is to deploy ascended components and gear across the whole of the game rather than focus it in one particular location. This was a a mistake and one that we will not be making moving forward. We do hope to find a balance and ensure that the world of Guild Wars 2 is as accessible and populated as possible and moving forward you will be able to see how we intend to execute on this goal.

I think with the support of the community we can continue building a world that does satisfy lots of different types of players in a fashion where everyone feels part of the same community and whose activities impact and interplay with those of differing player types.

Lothair.8942:

we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Glad he finally pinpointed this – the masses need to hear it.

7: Is there a patch in the works addressing the numerous bugs and broken events riddled throughout the game (in addition to much-needed class buffs/balances)? I am thoroughly enjoying myself with Guild Wars 2, I just hate to see so much hard work and potential wasted due to neglected bugs.

7: I totally get what you are saying and we are working very hard on not only addressing the bugs in the game, but building on new areas and trying to ensure that new content is as bug free as possible. This is very big ticket item for all of us, so in the same way as the work we did on bots you can expect to see big improvements soon.
-
8: Where’s the love for WvW? Since the game has launched there’s been tons of PvE changes/upgrades and same for sPvP. The only known changes/upgrades to WvW is the recent patch’s change to loot drop rate (for the better, thankfully). Why is this? What can we expect as WvWvW dedicated players.

8: We have a lot planned for WvW both in terms of current systems and new content and you can expect to hear a lot of new exciting details very soon. In short we have a lot of love for WvW and will continue to evolve it as we move forward.
-
9: With regard to minimal Grind, how is going from 5 Ectos to 50 Ectos for a piece of gear minimal? 5 T6 items to 250 T6 items, minimal?

9: Good point Nacho. We are currently discussing these particular items and it is fair to say that we don’t want have such big hikes in requirements moving forward.

10: Thanks Chris, although I don’t agree with your answer it’s nice of you to have addressed it. Saying that you design everything you do with minimal grind is obviously very subjective. 1800+ FoTM tokens or 250 T6 materials/50 Globs of Ectoplasm for 1 piece of equipment is a huge grind (in my humble opinion, of course).

10: Progression through tokens and mats is something we are having a good look at currently. Please keep the feedback coming as we move forward.
-
11: I really enjoy the idea of one-time events to reveal new content… but when it’s major stuff like a new map, I would prefer to see those events drawn out over quite a few days, so I have some hope of participating. This presents its own kinds of challenges, of course. What’s the team’s thoughts on how to go forward with introducing new map areas?

One thing I find missing in GW2 these days is the non-combat items. Clothing & other ornaments are a perfect example. New areas could bring along with them the opportunity for not just new types of loot, food & resources to gather, but also vendors that cater to the local style. Do you see much chance for this, going forward?

I could go on and on about bosses and AI/difficulty/etc, but that’s probably for a different post.

11: Thanks for your question. We are very aware over the concerns raised over the timing and one time nature of the Karka event. Moving forward we will be paying special attention to how we design these events to be as inclusive as possible.
-
12: What games do you like to play besides Guild Wars 2?

12: I like to play all kinds of games. My favorites are Online Worlds and RTS games and I am currently playing (sparingly as i don’t get much time) Forza Horizon, X- Com, Halo 4 and a lot of Guild Wars 2.

My favorite game of all time is Mario 64.

I feel kinda sorry for Chris, it look’s like he drew the short straw to be the sacrifical lamb to the angry mob that percive’s that anet chucked the manifesto out the window.

Not happy with the answer he gave me, but at least it was an answer.

13: As an MMO, you are trying to please a huge player base. Some play a few hours a month while others stop playing to sleep for a few hours every day. Reward rates seem to be balanced for those who play constantly. This disparagy causes casual players to play a very different game from the hardcore. What are some ideas to keep the player base from fracturing?

13: This is an extremely interesting question and as you know the path down the road for a solution is highly complex. In fact myself and Mo were discussing this this morning. So please forgive me if my answer is somewhat lite or comes across as deflective but i would prefer the surroundings of a pub or meeting room to really get into this one.

However:

I think online worlds are amazing in that they house different societies or player types if you like. I think it is only natural for players to gravitate to those who they feel are like minded, and i think it is also only natural and in some ways quite healthy to have a macro society or community that doesn’t always agree with one another. I think that diversity is exciting but it can also fragment so a method in which different groups of players work with others in synergy each enjoying their own diverse game play that is rewarding because of the game play is certainly a step in the right direction. Reading this statement you will no doubt be thinking that the FotM doesn’t utilize this philosophy and you would be correct. Moving forward progression and rewards will be inter woven appropriately into the core systems and social aspects of the game, allowing the diverse societies or player types to work together by playing the content that they love.

So in short something that is universally enjoyable as a progression system or a reward should be as accessible as possible and cater to the different ways our players consume the game but in a manner in which the Community of the world as a whole is contributing to each others overall experience.

If you would like to talk further then pm me and we can discuss in game.
-
14: Hey Chris, thanks for coming. My question is about home instances and personal story. From your promo material prior to release I was led to believe these would be key features in pve. As of release, it seems like these, specifically home instances, have been largely ignored.

The pitch on how awesome home instaces would be: pve progression via characters and things added to your personal world, was the reason I bought this game. Are there plans to bring these features in line with the marketing material or is your game focus going to be primarily dungeons and pvp (both things I don’t care for).

14: Thanks for taking the time to post your question. Both personal story and home instances are ares that i wish we had spent more time on already in terms of content since release. However we will be building on them as we move forward and would love to hear more of your thoughts in regard to the direction you would like to see them move in. In short you can expect to see big things.

it will be a vertical grind.
unless you consider that the “randomness” of fractals eliminate the grind, in that case… i guess its allright.

thats it, thats all.

zippo burntfur.9307:

I feel kinda sorry for Chris, it look’s like he drew the short straw to be the sacrifical lamb to the angry mob that percive’s that anet chucked the manifesto out the window.

But they did.

veritech.1048:

Lothair.8942:

Hi Landeyda,

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions. Mike O will respond to the top question and I will respond to the bottom section.

Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression and in retrospect would have been better to have been rolled out pre launch.

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Please understand that we see the community as a ‘whole’ and therefore are not intending to design again for one specific type of player over another. This is a misconception and one that is not promoted by the team. We will continue to develop the game for the community as a whole offering game play that caters to lots of different types of players in a unified approach that will evolve over time based on feedback and the direction the team as a whole wants to take.

chris

Well, there it is. Vertical progression is here to stay.

Welcome to power creep, folks.

yeah…he also said they would add other progression and make it easier to obtain said items outside of spvp..and would focus on adding items of the same tier over all of next year. I just dont see this as an issue. You guys wanted transparency, he’s giving it to you and you are still complaining.

Hi Joiry,

Really interesting question. Our intention is to deploy ascended components and gear across the whole of the game rather than focus it in one particular location. This was a a mistake and one that we will not be making moving forward. We do hope to find a balance and ensure that the world of Guild Wars 2 is as accessible and populated as possible and moving forward you will be able to see how we intend to execute on this goal.

I think with the support of the community we can continue building a world that does satisfy lots of different types of players in a fashion where everyone feels part of the same community and whose activities impact and interplay with those of differing player types.

Glad they pointedly brushed off the list of questions the playerbase has been working on for 2 weeks. Thanks for your efforts, samuraikitten86. Sorry they were in vain.

“Yes. I’ll be taking the Google Docs, and appending all provided answers to them at the end of the day. I’ll post it here and on the official forums for people to reference.” – LoreChief.8391/samuraikitten86

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c774jrh

gotta give that to Anet; their utopia is awesome.

its just gonna take some time to fix!

vince.5937:

Glad they pointedly brushed off the list of questions the playerbase has been working on for 2 weeks. Thanks for your effort, samuraikitten88. Sorry they were in vain.

that list would take weeks…its like 100 questions long..its naive to expect him to stop, ignore any questions live people are asking just to answer those.

gah, some people are trying to “vote” their own questions up while the rest of us sit and hope they read our question despite posting early.

Ditton.3149:

vince.5937:

Glad they pointedly brushed off the list of questions the playerbase has been working on for 2 weeks. Thanks for your effort, samuraikitten88. Sorry they were in vain.

that list would take weeks…its like 100 questions long..its naive to expect him to stop, ignore any questions live people are asking just to answer those.

And it has questions the majority of the forum-visiting playerbase has been asking. If they answer those, far fewer people will be posting their questions. And there’s about 50 questions.

It would have been a smart move to take an hour before start to take 15-25 question’s and have answer’s already made to copy and paste. As they have a huge load of question’s already asked in a clear precise manner.

What I sort of dislike about these sort of Q&As is that a lot of the answers are along the lines of:
“We feel very strong about <insert topic> and have a lot of content changes and additions planned. You can expect to hear a lot on this soon.”
It sort of feels like a polite way to say: “We don’t want to talk about this.”

Q: Was the decision to abandon the original principles of the game and your own “manifesto” an internal one, or was that decision forced on you by Ncsoft?

Mike O’Brien:

Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games – we leave the grind to other MMOs.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/21/guild-wars-2-interview-monetization/#s:guildwars2-16

Colin Johanson:

The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

http://www.arena.net/blog/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success

Mike O’Brien:

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

.. ja, just LOW,
but threadmill we never ever would install to the game…

I like how at least 4 of the 8 responses are “Please only ask one question at a time.”

vince.5937:

Ditton.3149:

vince.5937:

Glad they pointedly brushed off the list of questions the playerbase has been working on for 2 weeks. Thanks for your effort, samuraikitten88. Sorry they were in vain.

that list would take weeks…its like 100 questions long..its naive to expect him to stop, ignore any questions live people are asking just to answer those.

And it has questions the majority of the forum-visiting playerbase has been asking. If they answer those, far fewer people will be posting their questions. And there’s about 50 questions.

I agree. Given the choice I would rather have then just answer these questions and post it on the forums rather then this whole Reddit thing.

You see, Reddit gives them a chance to pick and choose what they answer. Its all politics.

I do appreciate the transparency. Whether or not is the answer we were hoping for (or wanted to hear) is another thing altogether. But it’s nice to know where they stand on the whole thing, so we as GW2 gamers can decided for ourselves where to go from here.

darkwombat.3695:

vince.5937:

Ditton.3149:

vince.5937:

Glad they pointedly brushed off the list of questions the playerbase has been working on for 2 weeks. Thanks for your effort, samuraikitten88. Sorry they were in vain.

that list would take weeks…its like 100 questions long..its naive to expect him to stop, ignore any questions live people are asking just to answer those.

And it has questions the majority of the forum-visiting playerbase has been asking. If they answer those, far fewer people will be posting their questions. And there’s about 50 questions.

I agree. Given the choice I would rather have then just answer these questions and post it on the forums rather then this whole Reddit thing.

You see, Reddit gives them a chance to pick and choose what they answer. Its all politics.

This is a PR thing..putting answers on a forum for people who are already fans or customers isnt as good of a PR move. He is answering the questions and not dodging even the more difficult ones though.

Ditton.3149:

veritech.1048:

Lothair.8942:

Hi Landeyda,

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions. Mike O will respond to the top question and I will respond to the bottom section.

Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression and in retrospect would have been better to have been rolled out pre launch.

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Please understand that we see the community as a ‘whole’ and therefore are not intending to design again for one specific type of player over another. This is a misconception and one that is not promoted by the team. We will continue to develop the game for the community as a whole offering game play that caters to lots of different types of players in a unified approach that will evolve over time based on feedback and the direction the team as a whole wants to take.

chris

Well, there it is. Vertical progression is here to stay.

Welcome to power creep, folks.

yeah…he also said they would add other progression and make it easier to obtain said items outside of spvp..and would focus on adding items of the same tier over all of next year. I just dont see this as an issue. You guys wanted transparency, he’s giving it to you and you are still complaining.

He also said “zero grind”. Current acquisition metod cannot be called zero grind even by someone completely deluded.

Edit: though he did later add in another post (when asked about current prices for backpieces):

Good point Nacho. We are currently discussing these particular items and it is fair to say that we don’t want have such big hikes in requirements moving forward.

which does give some (slight) hope for the future

They are answering roughly 1 question every 5 mins so I wouldn’t expect to get “much” out of todays “Ask Me Anything”. So far they have only answered questions reguarding the new content.

I read the minimal/zero grind thing too and started shaking my head.

But if anything, wait until how they decide to add other Ascended Gear in the future.

They have already said multiple times that they still want to avoid grind, have minimal grind, etc. Chris even said he wants to maintain a short power curve… okay…

Can someone please ask them how a player can get current ascended items without grinding? Or at least ask them to explain how the current acquisition is NOT a grind in their minds?

Ditton.3149:

This is a PR thing..putting answers on a forum for people who are already fans or customers isnt as good of a PR move. He is answering the questions and not dodging even the more difficult ones though.

And publicly ignoring the huge list of legitimate issues is good PR?

Astralporing.1957:

Ditton.3149:

veritech.1048:

Lothair.8942:

Hi Landeyda,

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions. Mike O will respond to the top question and I will respond to the bottom section.

Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression and in retrospect would have been better to have been rolled out pre launch.

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Please understand that we see the community as a ‘whole’ and therefore are not intending to design again for one specific type of player over another. This is a misconception and one that is not promoted by the team. We will continue to develop the game for the community as a whole offering game play that caters to lots of different types of players in a unified approach that will evolve over time based on feedback and the direction the team as a whole wants to take.

chris

Well, there it is. Vertical progression is here to stay.

Welcome to power creep, folks.

yeah…he also said they would add other progression and make it easier to obtain said items outside of spvp..and would focus on adding items of the same tier over all of next year. I just dont see this as an issue. You guys wanted transparency, he’s giving it to you and you are still complaining.

He also said “zero grind”. Current acquisition metod cannot be called zero grind even by someone completely deluded.

He did say this about the grind:

Good point Nacho. We are currently discussing these particular items and it is fair to say that we don’t want have such big hikes in requirements moving forward.

Chris

well, this AMA is basically a political ploy for Anet to go back on their manifesto, rewritting it.

zero grind, zero grind… to me “grinding” is repeating the same thing over and over, and i dont see how there is zero grinding in this game.

Astralporing.1957:

Ditton.3149:

veritech.1048:

Lothair.8942:

Hi Landeyda,

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions. Mike O will respond to the top question and I will respond to the bottom section.

Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression and in retrospect would have been better to have been rolled out pre launch.

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Please understand that we see the community as a ‘whole’ and therefore are not intending to design again for one specific type of player over another. This is a misconception and one that is not promoted by the team. We will continue to develop the game for the community as a whole offering game play that caters to lots of different types of players in a unified approach that will evolve over time based on feedback and the direction the team as a whole wants to take.

chris

Well, there it is. Vertical progression is here to stay.

Welcome to power creep, folks.

yeah…he also said they would add other progression and make it easier to obtain said items outside of spvp..and would focus on adding items of the same tier over all of next year. I just dont see this as an issue. You guys wanted transparency, he’s giving it to you and you are still complaining.

He also said “zero grind”. Current acquisition metod cannot be called zero grind even by someone completely deluded.

focus on zero in the future, this is in context to making the ascended more available. He also says that they should have had it prelaunch and more ways to get it..that it was a mistake. Read ALL of it..cherry picking does nobody any good.

Ugh, why are there around 5 minutes between some of these questions? Is he trying to be super picky, or just desperate to waste time so the whole thing can be over as quick as possible…?