Guild Wars 2

Legendaries arn’t meant to be better, rather they are a statement about your character.

“I have dedicated a considerable ammount of resources into this game.”

I really think ascended gear is fine and levels the playing field, if you go for legendaries due to stats then you kind of wasted your time for a slight dps increase.

No.

Simple. As. That.

The Legendaries are your Option2 for Ascended gear, they have Ascended stats but can change when out of combat.

I dislike both options.

Option 1 is obviously inadequate and inappropriate, which OP uses only to serve as a segue into option 2.

Option 2 is a blatant and obvious attempt to try and petition for granting Legendary morphing qualities to all crafted ascended. It’s insulting to anyone who reads it that you think they would see it as anything else.

Next time, perhaps just come out and say what you mean instead of trying to be cute and taking the community for fools.

I’ll go for the hidden option #3.

Leave everything the way it is.

Ascended stuff is fine.

There’s a controversy? Is that what they’re calling whining these days?

Like nearly everything else in the game it’s optional and not required for 99.9% of the content or activities you can engage in. It’s just overreactions by people who were trained by other MMOs that there are two tiers of gear, BiS and trash.

and people would still complain since ascended gear would be considered end-game gear.

Doesn’t matter that the stats are the same – the fact that stats would be interchangeable automatically makes it superior to exotic

I completely agree.

Ascended trash should never be in the game at all. This is a great viable solution to cater to all players.

I like the addition of Ascended items, it adds a new tier of gear to strive towards.

I think it’s cute seeing so many ascended weapons already. I wonder if on the larger scale Anet achieved what they wanted to achieve, or if it only works with people newer to the game.

I am not fond of either idea really I think ascended weapons and armor are a step in the right direction. Sadly this step was just a drop in the pool when it comes to over all end game content. Game’s are made and broken on there end game content. The super casual’s and casuals will play a very small factor in decisions Anet makes. They dont rank up enough play time over all to influence things enough. Where your normal, semi hardcore, hardcore player’s are going to be the ones making sure everything run’s smoothly.

Think about how many successful guilds are run by causal or semi causal players?
How about Good World vs World Commanders?
How about Good Temple Commanders in Orr?

All these things make the game far more enjoyable for everyone. There not something a causal or semi casual could do successfully.

I don’t think there’s anything that needs to be done. Anet gave us the gear progression from the start with Legendary being top tier. Now we get Ascended gear that is supposed to be easier to get and have same stats as Legendary. No problem there to me.

It’s no different than when they added the Greens in the first big update for GW. They were just easier to get max stat skins that looked cool. There was still the Obsidian Armor for the “elitists” to get from UW and FoW which is what I see the Legendary Weapons being in GW2.

Galphar.3901:

I don’t think there’s anything that needs to be done. Anet gave us the gear progression from the start with Legendary being top tier. Now we get Ascended gear that is supposed to be easier to get and have same stats as Legendary. No problem there to me.

It’s no different than when they added the Greens in the first big update for GW. They were just easier to get max stat skins that looked cool. There was still the Obsidian Armor for the “elitists” to get from UW and FoW which is what I see the Legendary Weapons being in GW2.

You seem to be forgetting the important difference with greens and Obsidian armor in GW and Legendaries at launch for GW2: they were no better than other options. They had the same stats as the top-tier regular equipment, just they looked different.
This is not the case with ascended.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Galphar.3901:

I don’t think there’s anything that needs to be done. Anet gave us the gear progression from the start with Legendary being top tier. Now we get Ascended gear that is supposed to be easier to get and have same stats as Legendary. No problem there to me.

It’s no different than when they added the Greens in the first big update for GW. They were just easier to get max stat skins that looked cool. There was still the Obsidian Armor for the “elitists” to get from UW and FoW which is what I see the Legendary Weapons being in GW2.

You seem to be forgetting the important difference with greens and Obsidian armor in GW and Legendaries at launch for GW2: they were no better than other options. They had the same stats as the top-tier regular equipment, just they looked different.
This is not the case with ascended.

Correct, but as I said, Anet told us the gear progression from the start with Legendary being the top tier. All Ascended gear is is Legendary Light, same stats, different look and easier to get.

You can’t undo ascended.
A great deal of the player base has invested time and resources into this gear.
A lot of players have left because of its introduction. Those players aren’t coming back.
The way i see it – whoever was going to leave because of it has done it already – when they announced it or immediately after when we were all grinding for ascended rings in FOTM.
Whoever is left is staying – regardless of ascended. Those who leave now just as the last bits ( armor ) are being added in are a very small fraction who I don’t honestly think the devs care about.

They’ve gone all-in with this one and honestly I think they’ve won.
They’ve kept players engaged and playing when otherwise the end-game content would have been burned out long ago.
I don’t think I would still be touching dungeons if I didn’t need gold for my ascended.

Galphar.3901:

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Galphar.3901:

I don’t think there’s anything that needs to be done. Anet gave us the gear progression from the start with Legendary being top tier. Now we get Ascended gear that is supposed to be easier to get and have same stats as Legendary. No problem there to me.

It’s no different than when they added the Greens in the first big update for GW. They were just easier to get max stat skins that looked cool. There was still the Obsidian Armor for the “elitists” to get from UW and FoW which is what I see the Legendary Weapons being in GW2.

You seem to be forgetting the important difference with greens and Obsidian armor in GW and Legendaries at launch for GW2: they were no better than other options. They had the same stats as the top-tier regular equipment, just they looked different.
This is not the case with ascended.

Correct, but as I said, Anet told us the gear progression from the start with Legendary being the top tier. All Ascended gear is is Legendary Light, same stats, different look and easier to get.

You claimed it was “no different” from greens. Except that greens were no better than what was already available at the time. Ascended is.

He IS right that there was no small amount of pushback to the introduction of “greens” in GW1, though. There was a LOT of grousing that they were specific drops from enemies in the Middle Shiverpeaks (an area quite a few players weren’t entirely fond of). That they were the same stats as max yellows really didn’t change the gripe.

Harper.4173:

You can’t undo ascended.
A great deal of the player base has invested time and resources into this gear.
A lot of players have left because of its introduction. Those players aren’t coming back.
The way i see it – whoever was going to leave because of it has done it already – when they announced it or immediately after when we were all grinding for ascended rings in FOTM.
Whoever is left is staying – regardless of ascended. Those who leave now just as the last bits ( armor ) are being added in are a very small fraction who I don’t honestly think the devs care about.

They’ve gone all-in with this one and honestly I think they’ve won.
They’ve kept players engaged and playing when otherwise the end-game content would have been burned out long ago.
I don’t think I would still be touching dungeons if I didn’t need gold for my ascended.

I’d have to agree with this unfortunate turn of events.

I think the most they can do at this point – which I hope they do at a later point – is make ascended easier to get much further down the road: People who aimed for it initially would have it by that point, and it could incite interest for people that considered them a bother.

I also have a gut feeling that all ascended gear would be easier to get once all the legendary gear is in. Of course, I have another gut feeling that that wouldn’t be the end to our vertical progression.

I would get ascended armor just for the second option. Even more convincing than better stats to me. I’ve wasted over 500g on runes and armour, always converting stuff to my t3 cultural looks is just painful.

If you’re of the camp that Ascended weapons and armor as they stand is just busy work to keep people occupied as Arena.net preps more permanent content, I don’t think it’s going to wind up crippling too much.

If you’re of the camp that it’s just the start down a long gear treadmill… then I question why you’re still playing. Because whatever vision Arena.net does have, they are committed to it at this point.

With the amount of backlash ascended gear got – I doubt we’ll be seeing any more vertical gear grind any time soon.
It might be a year or more – possibly never. I doubt that new tiers will be added. My bet is that new infusions will be what we’ll be going for next – but that’s extremely long term.

Anet already pushed the player base with ascended – and although many weren’t happy most stuck around and got it. The situation is fragile right now – push more vertical progression onto the players and most people myself included will say " This far, no further" and quit.
They know that and won’t do it.

Quillionaire.1063:

Option 2: Bring down the stats to exotic levels AND add in instant stat switching in the style of legendaries. This simultaneously makes Ascended weapons desirable for their convenience and makes it immensely more convenient when acquiring Ascended gear on your alts, as you only need to create one weapon of that type on that character. This solves the issue of having to acquire multiple weapons across alts, or even multiple stat spreads on a single character. In addition, Ascended weapons are expensive to the point that it would actually be cheaper to purchase multiple variations of the same exotic weapon, so I don’t see this as being too severe of a reward.

This is exactly what Ascended gear should have been. Not only would I have not had any problems with the implementation of it, but I would have grinded my life away for every last piece of it. It would be something I would actually desire to have, rather than just some new piece of armor with arbitrarily bigger numbers on it for the sake of having arbitrarily bigger numbers.

I cannot express how much I wish someone on the Anet team had had this idea when they were implementing Ascended gear, thinking outside the box as opposed to following the same tired MMO trend of adding more stats, simply because they couldn’t think of anything better to do.

Imo, the best way for them to stop the bleeding is to not introduce anymore ascended items. That would leave us with jewelry and weapons. Armor will be an incredible grind.

Ascended is here and its stats set, it’s too late.

Right now, I’m not working towards any and don’t care about them. Nor do I care about upcoming Ascended armor.
Why?
I was against the implementation of vertical progression, but its here. Its also a gear-grind for the sole purpose of being a gear grind. There was no new content, areas or any purpose for the addition of the gear.
I don’t care to grind out gear I don’t need. Or spend a crapload of coin or grind to level a crafting profession for this pointless gear.
If they made other ways to get it, I would probably focus on it more. No, I don’t mean easier ways or have it handed to me. Just options other than buy/grind mats and crafting, which in itself isn’t hard. It’s tedious.
Or even if it had some point besides being new gear for the sake of new gear. As it is, I may get one made someday due to accumulation of the mats through normal gameplay, cause if they can’t be bothered to add something worth while or some better way to get the gear, I can’t be bothered with their carrot-grind.

Harper.4173:

With the amount of backlash ascended gear got – I doubt we’ll be seeing any more vertical gear grind any time soon.
It might be a year or more – possibly never. I doubt that new tiers will be added. My bet is that new infusions will be what we’ll be going for next – but that’s extremely long term.

Anet already pushed the player base with ascended – and although many weren’t happy most stuck around and got it. The situation is fragile right now – push more vertical progression onto the players and most people myself included will say " This far, no further" and quit.
They know that and won’t do it.

I disagree. With the addition of ascended weapons, players who are disappointed at ANet’s about face are leaving. This is actually good for ANet, because: 1) players who have left have still bought the game, and 2) this clears room for more players who like gear grind, stat inflation, and vertical progression; and who will also buy the game. Once all the “old guard” players are gone, ANet can create more grind, more vertical progression, and such, and still don’t have to create any meaningful content. It’s a win for ANet, any way you slice it. And the players who are left will lap it up like a kitten with a bowl of cream.

tolunart.2095:

There’s a controversy? Is that what they’re calling whining these days?

Like nearly everything else in the game it’s optional and not required for 99.9% of the content or activities you can engage in. It’s just overreactions by people who were trained by other MMOs that there are two tiers of gear, BiS and trash.

I agree with the overreaction bit but which controversies cannot be regarded as whining?

chemiclord.3978:

If you’re of the camp that Ascended weapons and armor as they stand is just busy work to keep people occupied as Arena.net preps more permanent content, I don’t think it’s going to wind up crippling too much.

If you’re of the camp that it’s just the start down a long gear treadmill… then I question why you’re still playing. Because whatever vision Arena.net does have, they are committed to it at this point.

I’d mostly agree.
However, there is a tiny shred of hope, considering they removed gear-based MF.

Anet will probably just add them to the gem store in an RNG box or something :p

gimmethegepgun.1284:

chemiclord.3978:

If you’re of the camp that Ascended weapons and armor as they stand is just busy work to keep people occupied as Arena.net preps more permanent content, I don’t think it’s going to wind up crippling too much.

If you’re of the camp that it’s just the start down a long gear treadmill… then I question why you’re still playing. Because whatever vision Arena.net does have, they are committed to it at this point.

I’d mostly agree.
However, there is a tiny shred of hope, considering they removed gear-based MF.

Im not egotistical enough to think that my opinion of a video game somehow matters to arena net but I’m definitely of the camp that this is obviously the start of a gear/stats based game which goes against everything they said when and even before this game was released, there is no other way to interpret that considering they outright SAID this. theres a REASON casual and extreme players alike made the loud fuss that they did.

I’m a hardcore player and play alot more than i probably should but the sheer cost and materials needed for a player to get their hands on these new weapons is absolutely absurd. I still log in to play because for the most part its still enjoyable to me but that urge and itch to log in every day is becoming less extreme. I stood at the trading post earlier today feeling completely dejected considering my weaponsmith is only 445/500 and I have 9 gold to my name….I had 50 yesterday.

I dont have massive stacks of gold, I dont seem to have this magical luck of getting exhuberant amout of tier 6 crafting materials and I salvage and farm everything I come across and as I point out above, I’m nowhere near achieving my ascended weapon. I dont mind working for things nor do I expect my hand to be held and just given things, but the least they could have done was to make these materials more abundant in the necessary areas, Im not even talking about tier 6, Im talking about all materials in general. gathering and crafting was obviously nothing more than an after thought when it was (very poorly) implemented.

I spent 2 hours running around cursed shore and malchors leap earlier and came across.. 2 orichalcum ores and 2 ancient wood trees. So yea, forgive me and the other countless players for being angry about it, but I guess those truly elite players will continue to interpret it as “whining”. Sound about right?

Ascended is fine, it’s the time-gating and account-binding that sucks.

Add 4 story told mini-dungeon (scalable 1-5), each with a mini boss (doesn’t need to be as hard as Liadri(?) that also had some fake difficulty, but something with a little challenge).
The story gives background on what ascended means (ie. harken back to Guild Wars 1’s story).
Obtain items after beating the dungeon, chuck in the mystic forge, done.

Oh, you wanted a lazy solution that ANet can implement?
Um…um….more grind?

I like the new ascended shinies. Chopping a tree brings me one step closer towards my ascension.

BlueZone.4236:

Oh, you wanted a lazy solution that ANet can implement?
Um…um….more grind?

What’s lazy about rehashing old content by giving it different lewt? It’s so innovative no one thought about that before anet.

Vol.5241:

and people would still complain since ascended gear would be considered end-game gear.

Doesn’t matter that the stats are the same – the fact that stats would be interchangeable automatically makes it superior to exotic

Was going to ignore this thread but I need to comment as someone who IS against Ascended having a stat increase.

BIS means best in slot. Legendary is BiS. Same stats as ascended with with a horizontal option of changing stats, this gives them an edge against Ascended. I have NO problem with The legendaries being BiS compared to Ascended and if they had the same stats as Exotic I would have NO problem with them keeping the stat changing ability.

What we want is to not be part of a gear grind. To be with what they first said “Legendaryshould have unique looks but not be more powerful then exotics” The Ascended were added LATER to appease those PvErs and keep them grinding away.

The way it should be
Legendary = Unique looks and able to change stats out of combat, possible agony res..
Ascended = Unique looks and resistance to Agony, possible change of stats ever x days/etc
Exotics = Not able to change the stats and no bonus vs agony.

This gives the tiers that people would grind for… without the power creep that goes along with it. It makes the Legendary BiS, Ascended the mid step between and does not kitten the exotic user.

I go for option 3:
never, ever introduce another tier.

Huh, that IS a good solution, especially given what Ascended costs. People who want multiple looks will still need multiple suits – but can use Exotics – but people who want convenience can go with Ascended. Nice.

Won’t happen, but nice.

Ok…how about this for a solution.

Currently only ascended ingot/leather squares/planks and ascended inscriptions are tradable. Anet needs to make the weapon components tradable.
The last item would be the vision crystal which requires 500 dragonite/empryeal/bloodstone and 1 augur’s stone. Have Miyani, the mystic forge mystic forge merchant sell a “mystic” augur’s stone (at an increased price) that can be combined in the mystic forge to make a “mystic” vision crystal. Then mystic forge the "mystic"vision crystal, the weapon components and inscription to make your ascended weapon.
This would finally give crafters a way to make money, maintain a small time gate and ease the burden non-crafters.

Probably the best option for Anet in terms of Ascended gear would be a clear statement that the experiment with vertical progression was stopping with it when fully implemented. Many people are operating from the understanding that Ascended is the end of the road in terms of power creep. It isn’t. They made it clear with the introduction of Ascended gear that what they were adding to the game was not a final tier, but rather vertical progression.

So, stopping VP with Ascended would allow them to correct course (towards skill/ability progression) and save face around the whole Ascended debacle. It could be the final tier of gear and end of power creep. However, they have never said that it would be, to date, and there is no reason to assume that vertical progression will stop. Stopping is not within the definition of vertical progression.

Both options are horrible.

“muh exotics no longer wurk omfg mah gear sux!”

There still is NO grind required to play the game effectively, exotics are more than sufficient to do every single piece of content this game has or likely will ever have.

“b-but Zanryu muh fractals”

Dailies will allow you to earn laurels, which will allow you to purchase various Ascended trinkets of your choice. I currently have full Ascended trinkets without having to actively grind them out because gasp I did dailies by playing the game!

“But I have to grind for exotics omfg!!! Anet sed no grindz!”

Exotic was meant to be something that would take a fair amount of time to acquire, however as has been a usual trend the playerbase was underestimated. In order to give people a thing to actually strive for they introduced Ascended. It’s not gamebreakingly stronger and can still be acquired by everyone, albeit a longer period of time and more effort to acquire.

tl;dr

Casuals stop crying about Ascended weapons and stop worrying about what other people have. The weapons are fine as is, just put in some work.

Raine.1394:

Probably the best option for Anet in terms of Ascended gear would be a clear statement that the experiment with vertical progression was stopping with it when fully implemented. Many people are operating from the understanding that Ascended is the end of the road in terms of power creep. It isn’t. They made it clear with the introduction of Ascended gear that what they were adding to the game was not a final tier, but rather vertical progression.

So, stopping VP with Ascended would allow them to correct course (towards skill/ability progression) and save face around the whole Ascended debacle. It could be the final tier of gear and end of power creep. However, they have never said that it would be, to date, and there is no reason to assume that vertical progression will stop. Stopping is not within the definition of vertical progression.

It would be foolish to make such a statement, especially because the execs with the authority to make such a decision do not post and probably do not read these forums.

Ascended gear was implemented at the demand of the players, and no one can say whether a year, five years, or longer from now the players will not want another tier of gear. The most vocal members of the forums may be against it, but they are not the majority of Anet’s customers. So you’re not going to get any such statements beyond an open-ended denial such as “there are no plans to add another tier of gear at this time.”

They simply can’t close off the possibility of expanding the game in this manner.

I am a casual player, and I do not care about ascended gear. As long as it is not required to have to actually complete content, then I do not care that it is in the game. Fractals do not count though, you get the ascended stuff in there for the agony naturally with zero grinding to be able to move on with in the fractals.

MMO tiering 101.

Build gameworld around exotic stat level. = GW2 release
Majority of people get to the exotic stat level = gw2 1 month
Raise the stat level to cater to the traditional (WoW/EQ) model = GW2 Ascended
Majority of people get Ascended = gw2 in 3 months
Cater to the players that say the world is WAY to easy now = Increase World bosses and mob HP/Damage in all upper areas = GW2 in 5 months.
Ascended stat level now required for any high end areas
Players are getting tired of Ascended and want more challenge = Transcended trinkets

THAT is the future of GW2. By adding ascended stats when the world was designed for EXOTIC level stats… the only outcome for the future is to then raise the danger and challenge of the high end zones thus flushing out the last exotic users and pushing them to require Ascended.

Then the cycle just continues.

Quillionaire.1063:

At no point did I ever say that Ascended should be removed, or that it’s the scourge of the earth. All I suggest is keeping its desirability and its status as a stepping-stone between exotic and legendary items without upsetting the stat balance.

Speaking of stats, if the stats are so marginal that it truly doesn’t matter in terms of balance, then why are people so adamant keeping the improved stats? It’s still a better tier than exotic no matter what because of infusion slots, and stat-swapping would more than make up for any loss of power. It’s still prestigious and desirable, which was the entire point to begin with.

We can have item progression without stats, it’s not black-and-white.

Again the developers have said countless times, that a legendary weapon is a statement. Your missing the point entirely, you should at no point be aimming for a legendary weapon because it has slightly better stats. You should aim for it to show off.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Raine.1394:

Probably the best option for Anet in terms of Ascended gear would be a clear statement that the experiment with vertical progression was stopping with it when fully implemented. Many people are operating from the understanding that Ascended is the end of the road in terms of power creep. It isn’t. They made it clear with the introduction of Ascended gear that what they were adding to the game was not a final tier, but rather vertical progression.

So, stopping VP with Ascended would allow them to correct course (towards skill/ability progression) and save face around the whole Ascended debacle. It could be the final tier of gear and end of power creep. However, they have never said that it would be, to date, and there is no reason to assume that vertical progression will stop. Stopping is not within the definition of vertical progression.

It’s only a debacle to people on the forum. And it’s not vertical progression, not yet anyways.

Now it’s your turn to post some non sense about how vertical means going up.

Ostra.3927:

MMO tiering 101.

Build gameworld around exotic stat level. = GW2 release
Majority of people get to the exotic stat level = gw2 1 month
Raise the stat level to cater to the traditional (WoW/EQ) model = GW2 Ascended
Majority of people get Ascended = gw2 in 3 months
Cater to the players that say the world is WAY to easy now = Increase World bossesand mob HP/Damage in all upper areas = GW2 in 5 months.
Ascended stat level now required for any high end areas
Players are getting tired of Ascended and want more challenge = Transcended trinkets

THAT is the future of GW2. By adding ascended stats when the world was designed for EXOTIC level stats… the only outcome for the future is to then raise the danger and challenge of the high end zones thus flushing out the last exotic users and pushing them to require Ascended.

Then the cycle just continues.

Nothing new here..people have been saying the game is to easy since launch.

Rouven.7409:

I think it’s cute seeing so many ascended weapons already. I wonder if on the larger scale Anet achieved what they wanted to achieve, or if it only works with people newer to the game.

Anet has achieved what they wanted…… GW2 was never meant to be a clone of Gw1 where gear didnt matter at all. It was meant to have some sort of gear grind although a very very slight one. Exotics were ridiculously easy to get, and they definitely needed another tier of gear to grind for.

Getting ascended equipment is extremely easy compared to getting BIS gear in other mmo’s. I have no problem with ascended gear and cannot wait for ascended armor.