First and foremost, this is entirely my own personal view, which may or may not conform to yours. Also, English is not my first language, so be nice to me
When the first batch of ascended equipment was released, it was the backpiece and rings. There are two ways to get the backpiece on the get go, which is either through the mystic forge or collecting fractal relics. Rings, however, were only available as RNG drop from the jade maw chest at the beginning. Players obviously didn’t like it, thus Anet introduced pristine fractal relics as a currency for it. Later one you could by rings with laurels. Next, when amulets were introduced, they can be obtained by laurels, or by mystic forging the triforge pendant. Soon earrings were introduced, and you the option of buying it with laurels or guild commendations. Finally, Anet enabled wvw laurel vendor that accepts badges. At the present time, there are at least 2 reliable methods of acquisition for each type of ascended trinkets.
In terms of time gating, backpiece does not have any, rings are time gated by pristine relics or laurels, amulets are time gated by laurels, and earrings are time gated by laurels or guild commendations. Now, I am aware of the fact that you are able to receive some of them from bonus chest, but this method is unreliable and no one likes RNG.
Finally, we have ascended weapons, and there is only 1 method of acquisition – crafting. You are time gated by lump of mithrillium and glob of elder wood residue, BUT you are able to buy deldrimor steel and spiritwood planks. Huh? Why would Anet allow that? Assuming that you buy deldrimor steel and spiritwood planks to craft ascended weapons, the limiting material will then be bloodstone dust, dragonite ore and empyreal fragments. Which makes me wonder why time gating mithrillium and elder spirit is even needed. If time gating is used to slow down the progress of hardcore players, wouldn’t it make more sense to timegate the final product, ie the weapon itself? Or make all ascended materials untradeable?
Now for a suggestion, would it be possible to allow the ability to ascend certain named weapons? If triforge pendant can be ascended, I’m sure weapons like Mjolnir and Infinite Light are also good candidates. Allow laurels and/or guild commendations to be traded, albeit at a higher cost, for ascended weapons maybe? This should be in line with the other ascended trinkets – multiple reliable acquisition methods.
I’m fine with time gated content, but time gated + only one method of acquisition makes me sad.
PS: I just realized I misspelled my title. So much for proofreading.
(edited by Mileinnor.7125)