Guild Wars 2

I quit when they announced ascended items as the new gear ceiling. I was happy with exotics being fairly easy to get, and that being the end of the gear climb.

Do ascended items still have better stats? Do their improved stats still count outside of the fractal dungeon?

I’d like to play Guild Wars 2 again, but I really don’t like gear progression. Exotics are annoying but acceptable, so I put up with them. Quarantining ascended items to their one dungeon would be acceptable, maybe.

Chances are the people who stuck around on the forums are the people who like gear progression and endlessly increasing numbers, so I kind of expect a lot of “go home noob” and “do you want gear just handed to you!?!??” (yes).

There are still people who oppose treadmills playing the game. And, no, nothing has fundamentally changed around Ascended gear. It still represents the path of the power curve that defines a non-optional gear grind. They did move the grind out of FotM exclusively and have made an amulet available through daily/monthly achievements.

Yes, Ascended items have higher stats than exotics besides the agony resist. Ascended items can be used outside of Fractals so yes, their stat gains can be used outside of the dungeon. Only amulets and rings exist right now but they plan on adding more items.

Don’t be pushed away by ascended items though. Their stat gain isn’t much higher than exotics. You can also get them from turning the daily tokens in (Laurels) if you don’t like the Fractal dungeon.

aliksyian.7642:

Do ascended items still have better stats? Do their improved stats still count outside of the fractal dungeon?

Yes, yes, and they’ve announced not only more stat combinations but also more gear to be available in ascended tier.

But hey, now it’s only +15-20% on a couple of items. It’ll be harder to go without them when all gear has ascended variants.

There’s two sides to this. (Or possibly more).

I suggest you play the game though to get your own perspective on it. As far as things go for me, ascended is still the same, though they’re introducing more ways to get it. It’s hardly a gear climb though since it’s being done over a year or more, it’s not imbalanced in WvW or PvE at the moment. That’s just my view though.

And no, people who stuck on forums are the same group of people mostly. There’s a bigger vocal group against ascended than for ascended, and a rather large group of people who are “okay” with it and take a middle road.

Yes ascended items are still there and offer a (minor) stat increase. Rings are incredibly easy to get, amulets take a little more time. Both can be obtained outside of fractals.
I too liked the horizontal progression of gw1, but considering how easy it was to get my two characters fully geared in ascended items, any complaining about it is really unfounded.

aliksyian.7642:

I’d like to play Guild Wars 2 again, but I really don’t like gear progression.

If you like playing the game, that’s really all that should matter.

For the record, I’ve played pve/wvw almost every day since release…and I still don’t have any ascended gear nor have I felt any impact on game play from their existence in-game.

I hate the concept of a gear treadmill and will quit without hesitation if one is introduced.

However… please note that this has not happened yet to any extent whatsoever.

Ascended items are cool to work torward, they have cool names and icons and I very much like Agony as a mechanic (especially the “earn resistance by proving you don’t need it” aspect, reminds me of more hardcore RPGs like Demon’s Souls). The boost to stats they provide is a nice bonus, I suppose; I’d prefer it wasn’t there, because I liked the clearly-marked stat ceiling, but when I look at the game in total it barely has any impact.

The stat increase from a piece of ascended gear is pretty darn meager. It’s certainly nowhere near enough to make the difference in any PvE encounter, at all, nor will it compensate for bad play, nor does it gate you from any content. There’s an argument to be made that it skews the balance of WvW and can’t be earned in WvW, but WvW is also an inherently unbalanced game mode by design and the impact is almost surely negligible.

Essentially, I saw Ascended gear as a nice shorter-term goal for my characters to work toward when compared with a legendary, and I now have a back piece and two rings for my main, one from a drop and one from 10 pristine relics, and another dropped ring for one of my alts.

In conclusion, I don’t feel like the addition of Ascended gear to the game brings the game anywhere near the catastrophic road to endless gear progression that so many on these forums believe that it did. You are- at least for the moment- free to completely ignore it and go on doing whatever you elsewise planned to do with no disadvantage.

Fractals are the only places where you will get ppl to ask and truly they do not ask that often.
If you mean that is Ascended items are still in the game then yes but i am not sure what you where thinking if you believe that Ascended items where just going away. A full set is coming out and nothing will stop it.

If you are asking if everyone’s fears and conspiracies came true…they didn’t. Ascended items offer a small stat increase over exotics. They do not get normal upgrades and can only be infused, which is a +5 bonus to a single stat.

Players with ascended gear are not steam rolling players in exotics or even with the occasional rares. Players are not kicking people from groups because they don’t have two rings and a quiver (unless you get to Fractals level 30+).

Now you can get rings from using fractal tokens instead of relying on drops. So you can get any combination you want. They are account bound so a higher level character can feed the gear to a lower level character. The amulets, rings and infusions can be bought with dailies, so if you don’t want to do Fractals then you never have to set foot in one. But instead of two weeks to buy one with the respective currency, it will take four.

No treadmill happened. Ascended are exactly what they said they would be. Slightly higher end armor to work towards between exotics and a legendary. No mandatory grind was introduced. Get your daily within an hour of playing normally and you have made progress.

All in all it was a whole lot of community noise over something that ended up being nothing.

AcidicVision.5498:

Ascended items offer a small stat increase over exotics. They do not get normal upgrades and can only be infused, which is a +5 bonus to a single stat.

I agree with your whole post, and I just wanted to make this one note:

The special infusions you’re referring to (with the +stat boost) are literally the items with the worst value of anything in the entire game. The cost vs. benefit is abysmal. Seriously, do not spend anything on getting one of those unless you are so hilariously rich that you can obtain anything that you want without hesitation. A 75 relic simple infusion is an infinitely better option.

AcidicVision.5498:

If you are asking if everyone’s fears and conspiracies came true…they didn’t. Ascended items offer a small stat increase over exotics. They do not get normal upgrades and can only be infused, which is a +5 bonus to a single stat.

Players with ascended gear are not steam rolling players in exotics or even with the occasional rares. Players are not kicking people from groups because they don’t have two rings and a quiver (unless you get to Fractals level 30+).

Now you can get rings from using fractal tokens instead of relying on drops. So you can get any combination you want. They are account bound so a higher level character can feed the gear to a lower level character. The amulets, rings and infusions can be bought with dailies, so if you don’t want to do Fractals then you never have to set foot in one. But instead of two weeks to buy one with the respective currency, it will take four.

No treadmill happened. Ascended are exactly what they said they would be. Slightly higher end armor to work towards between exotics and a legendary. No mandatory grind was introduced. Get your daily within an hour of playing normally and you have made progress.

All in all it was a whole lot of community noise over something that ended up being nothing.

Somehow, “we told you so” just doesn’t cut it.

So far only 3 of the ascended items have been introduced and they require between 20-60 days to get all 3. So I imagine when the new ones are introduced, the amount of time to get them will be joyous.

The 10%+ difference in stats between exotics and ascended gear has been just as horrid as everyone expected it would. While the 3 items available so far don’t make much of a difference on their own, it has become apparent to almost everyone (minus 2 posters above me) that the full set will be quite a leap from the current stats of exotic gear.

And yes, despite what one would consider common sense, the stats still affect the world outside of fractals… including WvW.

However, one change has happened in Forums at least- Ascended gear grinders have begun whining right alongside the ascended gear haters at the realization that yes, a level cap increase is coming and yes, this means all their gear grinding is pointless and they’ll get to do it all over again. Looking at some of the “Do you want a level increase?” threads and seeing an overwhelming “No” from both sides at least shows some small semblance of mutual understanding can be reached.

So yes, it is painfully obvious the treadmill was introduced. Grind grind grind to get exotics. They introduce ascended gear. Grind grind grind to get ascended gear. They’ll raise the level cap. Start over grind grind grinding to go back up to the ranks to ascended gear. And the only guarantee we have in all this is that no new tiers will be added in 2013. They were quite specific on that.

So… I hope you like grinding!

AcidicVision.5498:

If you are asking if everyone’s fears and conspiracies came true…they didn’t. Ascended items offer a small stat increase over exotics. They do not get normal upgrades and can only be infused, which is a +5 bonus to a single stat.

Players with ascended gear are not steam rolling players in exotics or even with the occasional rares. Players are not kicking people from groups because they don’t have two rings and a quiver (unless you get to Fractals level 30+).

Now you can get rings from using fractal tokens instead of relying on drops. So you can get any combination you want. They are account bound so a higher level character can feed the gear to a lower level character. The amulets, rings and infusions can be bought with dailies, so if you don’t want to do Fractals then you never have to set foot in one. But instead of two weeks to buy one with the respective currency, it will take four.

No treadmill happened. Ascended are exactly what they said they would be. Slightly higher end armor to work towards between exotics and a legendary. No mandatory grind was introduced. Get your daily within an hour of playing normally and you have made progress.

All in all it was a whole lot of community noise over something that ended up being nothing.

Well, there are people who demand agony resistance, but that’s only prevalent in 20+ fractals, and that isn’t even that significant (magic find leeches are a bigger problem).

Tolmos.8395:

So far only 3 of the ascended items have been introduced and they require between 20-60 days to get all 3. So I imagine when the new ones are introduced, the amount of time to get them will be joyous.

The 10%+ difference in stats between exotics and ascended gear has been just as horrid as everyone expected it would. While the 3 items available so far don’t make much of a difference on their own, it has become apparent to almost everyone (minus 2 posters above me) that the full set will be quite a leap from the current stats of exotic gear.

And yes, despite what one would consider common sense, the stats still affect the world outside of fractals… including WvW.

However, one change has happened in Forums at least- Ascended gear grinders have begun whining right alongside the ascended gear haters at the realization that yes, a level cap increase is coming and yes, this means all their gear grinding is pointless and they’ll get to do it all over again. Looking at some of the “Do you want a level increase?” threads and seeing an overwhelming “No” from both sides at least shows some small semblance of mutual understanding can be reached.

So yes, it is painfully obvious the treadmill was introduced. Grind grind grind to get exotics. They introduce ascended gear. Grind grind grind to get ascended gear. They’ll raise the level cap. Start over grind grind grinding to go back up to the ranks to ascended gear. And the only guarantee we have in all this is that no new tiers will be added in 2013. They were quite specific on that.

So… I hope you like grinding!

Just to be clear- your interpretation of what has occurred is that you are correct, and almost everyone playing agrees with you except for two people who posted right above you?

Tolmos.8395:

So far only 3 of the ascended items have been introduced and they require between 20-60 days to get all 3. So I imagine when the new ones are introduced, the amount of time to get them will be joyous.

The 10%+ difference in stats between exotics and ascended gear has been just as horrid as everyone expected it would. While the 3 items available so far don’t make much of a difference on their own, it has become apparent to almost everyone (minus 2 posters above me) that the full set will be quite a leap from the current stats of exotic gear.

And yes, despite what one would consider common sense, the stats still affect the world outside of fractals… including WvW.

However, one change has happened in Forums at least- Ascended gear grinders have begun whining right alongside the ascended gear haters at the realization that yes, a level cap increase is coming and yes, this means all their gear grinding is pointless and they’ll get to do it all over again. Looking at some of the “Do you want a level increase?” threads and seeing an overwhelming “No” from both sides at least shows some small semblance of mutual understanding can be reached.

So yes, it is painfully obvious the treadmill was introduced. Grind grind grind to get exotics. They introduce ascended gear. Grind grind grind to get ascended gear. They’ll raise the level cap. Start over grind grind grinding to go back up to the ranks to ascended gear. And the only guarantee we have in all this is that no new tiers will be added in 2013. They were quite specific on that.

So… I hope you like grinding!

Level cap increase is likely not going to happen the way you think it would. If ANet is smart, they’d do it in an expansion independent from the main game. I don’t think they’d simply just “bump” the level right now from 80 to 90.

Likewise, full ascended has not come yet, so we don’t even know how they’ll be obtained. That said, it would be too inconclusive to say we have to grind for it the same way we have to “grind” for our current ascended.

Er… yeah, I don’t have any sense of recurrent identities on these board. LOTS of people post here, sorry! Although, it is basically empirical that negative posts will occur ~10x more frequently than positive ones in an arena of this nature.

Hawkian.6580:

Just to be clear- your interpretation of what has occurred is that you are correct, and almost everyone playing agrees with you except for two people who posted right above you?

That interpretation is irrelevant. His signature itself demonstrates he can not be objective on the issue. I mean, you wouldn’t ask the guy with the anti-Obama sticker on his bumper for an opinion on the government and inspect any sort of actuality right?

I guess there is one thing that happened to the detriment of the community…that some people were so vehemently and vocally opposed to ascended gear before they knew anything about it, that they feel obligated to hold steadfast to those beliefs…even in the face of being wrong months later.

This past month I worked on map completion for an alt and did some low level story missions. I blinked and next thing I knew I had enough laurels for an amulet on my main. Not once did I say “ugh I need to grind dailies for that amulet”. Instead I just played the game and ended up getting there without realizing it.

Anyways, the OP will take away from this what he wants to. Hopefully he puts more stock into the sensible information posted here and takes posts from some people with obvious agendas with a grain of salt. Honestly though, it’s probably best to just forget strangers opinions on the internet in general and log in to the game for yourself to see if you have a good time.

Oh, I know for sure it’s irrelevant. I have some fairly fleshed-out theories on the interaction between and disproportionate representation of the vocal minority versus the silent majority. I witnessed an almost eerily similar trajectory playing GW1 from the beta onward and seeing most of my quiet predictions come true while the loud and passionate doomsaying fell by the wayside (until the next thing to speculate wildly about came around the bend).

Also yeah, I’m 13 laurels away (will be 3 away once I salvage like 30 more things) from an amulet and I didn’t ever specifically focus on “grinding for it.” Actually, the laurel merchant (and depending on the day, crafting) are the only daily tracks that I didn’t regularly complete without realizing I was close to doing so. They’re pretty meager requests. The whole “choose your own adventure” aspect coming in 8 days strikes me as pretty generous. :P

Blackhair.6245:

Yes, Ascended items have higher stats than exotics besides the agony resist. Ascended items can be used outside of Fractals so yes, their stat gains can be used outside of the dungeon. Only amulets and rings exist right now but they plan on adding more items.

Don’t be pushed away by ascended items though. Their stat gain isn’t much higher than exotics. You can also get them from turning the daily tokens in (Laurels) if you don’t like the Fractal dungeon.

Last I checked we can only get rings from dungeons(better than wasting 35 dailies on one though), so if you want to gear alts…have fun spending a month per alt just for one piece of gear(gear that people are already requiring to run dungeons with lol).

Heijincks.9267:

Tolmos.8395:

So far only 3 of the ascended items have been introduced and they require between 20-60 days to get all 3. So I imagine when the new ones are introduced, the amount of time to get them will be joyous.

The 10%+ difference in stats between exotics and ascended gear has been just as horrid as everyone expected it would. While the 3 items available so far don’t make much of a difference on their own, it has become apparent to almost everyone (minus 2 posters above me) that the full set will be quite a leap from the current stats of exotic gear.

And yes, despite what one would consider common sense, the stats still affect the world outside of fractals… including WvW.

However, one change has happened in Forums at least- Ascended gear grinders have begun whining right alongside the ascended gear haters at the realization that yes, a level cap increase is coming and yes, this means all their gear grinding is pointless and they’ll get to do it all over again. Looking at some of the “Do you want a level increase?” threads and seeing an overwhelming “No” from both sides at least shows some small semblance of mutual understanding can be reached.

So yes, it is painfully obvious the treadmill was introduced. Grind grind grind to get exotics. They introduce ascended gear. Grind grind grind to get ascended gear. They’ll raise the level cap. Start over grind grind grinding to go back up to the ranks to ascended gear. And the only guarantee we have in all this is that no new tiers will be added in 2013. They were quite specific on that.

So… I hope you like grinding!

Level cap increase is likely not going to happen the way you think it would. If ANet is smart, they’d do it in an expansion independent from the main game. I don’t think they’d simply just “bump” the level right now from 80 to 90.

Likewise, full ascended has not come yet, so we don’t even know how they’ll be obtained. That said, it would be too inconclusive to say we have to grind for it the same way we have to “grind” for our current ascended.

If you think they’re going to make it “easier” to obtain the rest of the ascended gear…lol ok. It’s easy now, in the sense that you can really only gear one alt without a grind. Beyond that, yea not so easy spending a month per amulet, plus 10 days (fractal daily 20/30 for the pristines for rings).

Factor in earrings/“ascending” armor…lol ok. I’d rather have an option to just dump gold and get all ascended via the TP than this current method.

You can get rings from laurels, daily chest drops, and pristine fractal relics.

Your daily Tier 2 fractal chest (10-19) contains a pristine fractal relic.

You can obtain more than one daily chest per day (so if you have fractal level 30, 3 pristine relics per day).

Anyone who requires ascended gear for a dungeon run (in any respect other than desiring AR for high-level fractals) is not desirable to run a dungeon with in the first place.

Ascended gear has indeed only been made easier to get over time so far. I see only evidence that this trend will continue rather than reverse, despite what you may see a portion of the playerbase claim.

Mackdose.6504:

Hawkian.6580:

Tolmos.8395:

So far only 3 of the ascended items have been introduced and they require between 20-60 days to get all 3. So I imagine when the new ones are introduced, the amount of time to get them will be joyous.

The 10%+ difference in stats between exotics and ascended gear has been just as horrid as everyone expected it would. While the 3 items available so far don’t make much of a difference on their own, it has become apparent to almost everyone (minus 2 posters above me) that the full set will be quite a leap from the current stats of exotic gear.

And yes, despite what one would consider common sense, the stats still affect the world outside of fractals… including WvW.

However, one change has happened in Forums at least- Ascended gear grinders have begun whining right alongside the ascended gear haters at the realization that yes, a level cap increase is coming and yes, this means all their gear grinding is pointless and they’ll get to do it all over again. Looking at some of the “Do you want a level increase?” threads and seeing an overwhelming “No” from both sides at least shows some small semblance of mutual understanding can be reached.

So yes, it is painfully obvious the treadmill was introduced. Grind grind grind to get exotics. They introduce ascended gear. Grind grind grind to get ascended gear. They’ll raise the level cap. Start over grind grind grinding to go back up to the ranks to ascended gear. And the only guarantee we have in all this is that no new tiers will be added in 2013. They were quite specific on that.

So… I hope you like grinding!

Just to be clear- your interpretation of what has occurred is that you are correct, and almost everyone playing agrees with you except for two people who posted right above you?

It’s Trollmos, do you expect anything different?

Oh my goodness, the cleverness of it!

No, really, I kinda like the name. “Trollmos”. Catchy.

Hawkian.6580:

Tolmos.8395:

So far only 3 of the ascended items have been introduced and they require between 20-60 days to get all 3. So I imagine when the new ones are introduced, the amount of time to get them will be joyous.

The 10%+ difference in stats between exotics and ascended gear has been just as horrid as everyone expected it would. While the 3 items available so far don’t make much of a difference on their own, it has become apparent to almost everyone (minus 2 posters above me) that the full set will be quite a leap from the current stats of exotic gear.

And yes, despite what one would consider common sense, the stats still affect the world outside of fractals… including WvW.

However, one change has happened in Forums at least- Ascended gear grinders have begun whining right alongside the ascended gear haters at the realization that yes, a level cap increase is coming and yes, this means all their gear grinding is pointless and they’ll get to do it all over again. Looking at some of the “Do you want a level increase?” threads and seeing an overwhelming “No” from both sides at least shows some small semblance of mutual understanding can be reached.

So yes, it is painfully obvious the treadmill was introduced. Grind grind grind to get exotics. They introduce ascended gear. Grind grind grind to get ascended gear. They’ll raise the level cap. Start over grind grind grinding to go back up to the ranks to ascended gear. And the only guarantee we have in all this is that no new tiers will be added in 2013. They were quite specific on that.

So… I hope you like grinding!

Just to be clear- your interpretation of what has occurred is that you are correct, and almost everyone playing agrees with you except for two people who posted right above you?

No more or less than AcidicVision.5498’s post that everything is perfectly fine and the only people who disagree are conspiracy theorists.

It does sound like it will take an awful amount of time to get a complete set of ascended gear for multiple characters. Especially since I don’t really like dungeons. I could ignore it, but as time goes on more content will be “tuned” with the assumption people will have the more powerful gear. They’ll have to, or max-gear people will complain that it’s too easy. (They could ignore those people, but what they did with ascended gear so far shows they’re more likely to listen to them.)

Plus if you want to change your build or playstyle, that means another large time investment to get different stat ascended items.

I also find it strange that people say the bigger stats don’t make a difference. Why have them, then? I know I had a lot of encounters (in PvE and WvW) where I just barely won, so I’m certain increased stats will matter sometimes.

aliksyian.7642:

I could ignore it, but as time goes on more content will be “tuned” with the assumption people will have the more powerful gear.

THAT I wouldn’t worry about too much, at least for now. At the rate they are putting out ascended gear (1-2 new items every 2 months) it would take them well into this year, or even early next year to get it all released. Eventually they will want to release an expansion, so the chances of anyone sitting on a full set of ascended gear this time around long enough for Arenanet to need to “tune” much new content to it is slim, since all that gear will immediately get reset when the level cap increases at expansion time.

What WILL be affected is WvW, but that’s another matter entirely.

Just let the other players run on the treadmill for a bit, and wait until the next big grind starts after the expansion. If you ever played WoW, just do what a lot of players there do. It’s following the same basic model.

aliksyian.7642:

It does sound like it will take an awful amount of time to get a complete set of ascended gear for multiple characters.

No, it generally becomes easier the more characters you have since dailies are character specific. Meaning you can do the daily multiple times a day!
Also keep in mind only a few ascended items have been released (rings, amulets, and backpacks).
It took me just over two weeks of just doing the dailies with my two characters to gear them completely.

I actually haven’t seen any indications that any content will be tuned with the assumption that people have a full set of ascended gear, nor can I possibly imagine this occurring unless the acquisition of a full set of ascended gear became markedly easier- and I mean way easier, such that it would be easier to get than exotics are to get currently.

Many people seem to be operating under the assumption that current “endgame” content is tuned for a fully-geared level 80 exotic/ascended player. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Content in-game appears to be more-or-less tuned around the stat base provided by Rare gear, and while it may seem counter-intuitive, please believe me that this includes even Fractals.

By this I mean that, while yes, high-level fractals necessitate the use of Ascended gear, it’s because of the infusions/Agony Resistance and not because of the stat boost. Put another way, high level fractals aren’t tuned around needing higher gear stats but around need more AR. The stat increase is a bonus provided by the hard-earned gear in question.

To your point about having encounters where you “just barely won,” I want to stress both that playing with slightly more or less skill at that moment could have changed the encounter into “comfortably won” or “just barely lost,” and more importantly, that this will absolutely still be the case even if you have a character filled to the brim with best-in-slot gear.

For those that only wish to ever play WvW I can concede that it’s a legitimate complaint since they are being matched up against other human players competitively. I would contend that WvW is inherently designed to be wildly unbalanced, but that’s really neither here nor there.

Tolmos.8395:

Mackdose.6504:

Hawkian.6580:

Tolmos.8395:

So far only 3 of the ascended items have been introduced and they require between 20-60 days to get all 3. So I imagine when the new ones are introduced, the amount of time to get them will be joyous.

The 10%+ difference in stats between exotics and ascended gear has been just as horrid as everyone expected it would. While the 3 items available so far don’t make much of a difference on their own, it has become apparent to almost everyone (minus 2 posters above me) that the full set will be quite a leap from the current stats of exotic gear.

And yes, despite what one would consider common sense, the stats still affect the world outside of fractals… including WvW.

However, one change has happened in Forums at least- Ascended gear grinders have begun whining right alongside the ascended gear haters at the realization that yes, a level cap increase is coming and yes, this means all their gear grinding is pointless and they’ll get to do it all over again. Looking at some of the “Do you want a level increase?” threads and seeing an overwhelming “No” from both sides at least shows some small semblance of mutual understanding can be reached.

So yes, it is painfully obvious the treadmill was introduced. Grind grind grind to get exotics. They introduce ascended gear. Grind grind grind to get ascended gear. They’ll raise the level cap. Start over grind grind grinding to go back up to the ranks to ascended gear. And the only guarantee we have in all this is that no new tiers will be added in 2013. They were quite specific on that.

So… I hope you like grinding!

Just to be clear- your interpretation of what has occurred is that you are correct, and almost everyone playing agrees with you except for two people who posted right above you?

It’s Trollmos, do you expect anything different?

Oh my goodness, the cleverness of it!

No, really, I kinda like the name. “Trollmos”. Catchy.

I thought you might, I meant it with no disrespect intended.

somsom.5201:

… so if you want to gear alts…have fun spending a month per alt just for one piece of gear(gear that people are already requiring to run dungeons with lol).

This has always been the main sticking point against ascended in pve and what it will lead to….the dreaded gear gated content.

So what has it lead to? not a whole lot. Some players will be elitist jerks to each other whether ascended gear is involved or not, they’ll always find reasons to dismiss others as ‘noobs’. Other then that, I’ve never been turned away from a party because my equipment was lacking. No one’s ever even asked.. and if they did, I’d wish them luck and look for another kind of player to party with.

Not having any ascended gear will limit your ability to join parties and do content in the same way that not having tuxedo will limit your ability to eat at a restaurant.

Edit: It’s been pointed out that the post I quoted was probably referring to the daily fractal reward chest, not the daily achievements.

aliksyian.7642:

I also find it strange that people say the bigger stats don’t make a difference. Why have them, then? I know I had a lot of encounters (in PvE and WvW) where I just barely won, so I’m certain increased stats will matter sometimes.

It’s not that they don’t make a difference, it’s that they make a negligible difference. For example, if you are running around doing high level events or a dungeon with a groups of pick-ups, you would not be able to pick out the guy that is using all exotics and one rare ring from the rest of the people in the group that have all exotics.

Unless you are doing high level fractals where agony matters and you can visually see who has the least, its impossible to tell the person who has a few ascended pieces of gear from the person in exotics because the difference is so slight.

Even the impact on WvW is diminutive because everyone already isn’t on the same playing field. Your zerg and the enemy zerg are a ball of mixed classes, levels 2-80, with masterwork through ascended gear and weapons, some people are missing traits, some players don’t even have their elites yet. Everyone is scaled to 80, but not every character has reached their full potential or is fully geared. So the few guys with an ascended ring aren’t a deciding factor in the outcome of the fight. It was never balanced to begin with.

Even if one could construct some sideways argument about how they never got ganked in WvW until ascended came around and now everyone else kills them…its moot because ascended is going to be available to get through WvW in the Feb or March updates.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Quick Mouse.7635:

No, it generally becomes easier the more characters you have since dailies are character specific. Meaning you can do the daily multiple times a day!

This is 100% false.

achievement progress is account bound.

He was clearly referring to the fractal daily tier rewards- which are indeed character bound.

You have to level up each character individually into each tier, but if you’re trying to gear up your alts with ascended stuff in the first place, you’ll want to do this anyway.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Quick Mouse.7635:

No, it generally becomes easier the more characters you have since dailies are character specific. Meaning you can do the daily multiple times a day!

This is 100% false.

achievement progress is account bound.

The Fractal daily reward is once per character. I do lvl 26 on my Thief and lvl 10 on my Guardian every day and get the daily reward chest for each character.

aliksyian.7642:

I quit when they announced ascended items as the new gear ceiling. I was happy with exotics being fairly easy to get, and that being the end of the gear climb.

Do ascended items still have better stats? Do their improved stats still count outside of the fractal dungeon?

I’d like to play Guild Wars 2 again, but I really don’t like gear progression. Exotics are annoying but acceptable, so I put up with them. Quarantining ascended items to their one dungeon would be acceptable, maybe.

Chances are the people who stuck around on the forums are the people who like gear progression and endlessly increasing numbers, so I kind of expect a lot of “go home noob” and “do you want gear just handed to you!?!??” (yes).

I stuck around solely on the forums in the hopes that they’d come to their senses and take the stats away too, it is supposedly solely to help against agony in dungeons despite evidence to the contrary. Yeah you’ll definitely get those stockholm sufferers that will insist until the day they die that the scores on these things aren’t any different then exotics and poo poo the truth that it will affect WvW once the rest of the sets are included. If you thought that 1 shot warrior and that 1 shot thief are bad now just wait.

If they don’t add Retro laurels btw get ready for about 16 months of laurel farming to get 100% geared. Yeah it’s that bad.

Tolmos.8395:

So far only 3 of the ascended items have been introduced and they require between 20-60 days to get all 3. So I imagine when the new ones are introduced, the amount of time to get them will be joyous.

The 10%+ difference in stats between exotics and ascended gear has been just as horrid as everyone expected it would. While the 3 items available so far don’t make much of a difference on their own, it has become apparent to almost everyone (minus 2 posters above me) that the full set will be quite a leap from the current stats of exotic gear.

And yes, despite what one would consider common sense, the stats still affect the world outside of fractals… including WvW.

However, one change has happened in Forums at least- Ascended gear grinders have begun whining right alongside the ascended gear haters at the realization that yes, a level cap increase is coming and yes, this means all their gear grinding is pointless and they’ll get to do it all over again. Looking at some of the “Do you want a level increase?” threads and seeing an overwhelming “No” from both sides at least shows some small semblance of mutual understanding can be reached.

So yes, it is painfully obvious the treadmill was introduced. Grind grind grind to get exotics. They introduce ascended gear. Grind grind grind to get ascended gear. They’ll raise the level cap. Start over grind grind grinding to go back up to the ranks to ascended gear. And the only guarantee we have in all this is that no new tiers will be added in 2013. They were quite specific on that.

So… I hope you like grinding!

Ya your a very small group of ppl who will not let it go.
Its like they all jumped on a bandwagon and put too much of them self into it and in doing so are unable to get off.
Ascended items do not do much for you in this type of game. If it was more like the stander mmorpg then it would but the fact that you must roll and some what aim your shots and attks (no miss hit system beyond the hit box system that in GW2) make it imposable for higher buffs to make or break someone.
Now its not a stretch of the imagination that thoughts with out these items who cant do things are blaming the fact that they do not have the items before they blame there own skill. It realty all an ego thing (blame every thing else on a fail before you blame your self).

tigirius.9014:

… it will affect WvW once the rest of the sets are included. If you thought that 1 shot warrior and that 1 shot thief are bad now just wait.

Will they now kill you in only 0.97 shot? 0.96?

The other side of the “ascended gear will ruin pve with gated content” medal is “ascended gear will ruin WvW because of stats”.

I don’t see how anyone that’s spent more than 2-3 sessions in WvW can think this will cause a non-negligible balance issue. Stats already matter very little, and bigger gaps than exotics->ascended already exist within those stats.

Jski.6180:

Now its not a stretch of the imagination that thoughts with out these items who cant do things are blaming the fact that they do not have the items before they blame there own skill. It realty all an ego thing (blame every thing else on a fail before you blame your self).

Well if you look at Tigirius’s post history its ascended items, Legendary grind, engineer balance, profession bugs, DE design, and DR that are holding him back. And that was only page 1.

And he has a habit of confirmation bias. Like posting two vanilla rings with no upgrades against two of the ascended items that are lower capped for multiple stats. What he should have done is compared those particular ascended items to something like the Triforce pendant or Karka shell. But that wouldn’t have aided his point.

Reality looks more like this:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ruby_Orichalcum_Ring_of_the_Berserker with
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Exquisite_Ruby_Jewel
92 pwr
63 pre
+6% crit

compared to its equivalent ascended… http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Red_Ring_of_Death

103 pwr
68 pre
+8% crit

Yes ascended are supposed to be better. Like has been said multiple times, its gear between exotic and legendary that is supposed to take time to get, and is acquired while you make legendary progress (ie Dailies for Karma, Fractals for Cores and T6 mats all result in progress towards ascended). But as you can see from the practical example, the stat bump isn’t so insane that it makes exotics redundant.

tigirius.9014:

snip

Ack, that picture you linked annoys me ‘cos it’s not like-for-like and hence harder for people to see the clear advantage Ascended gear offers.

Here’s a better one.

Quick Mouse.7635:

aliksyian.7642:

It does sound like it will take an awful amount of time to get a complete set of ascended gear for multiple characters.

No, it generally becomes easier the more characters you have since dailies are character specific. Meaning you can do the daily multiple times a day!

That’s not true, I’m afraid. Dailies and monthlies are account specific. Fractal dailies aren’t, but they don’t give you laurels for amulets.

Yes ascended are supposed to be better. Like has been said multiple times, its gear between exotic and legendary that is supposed to take time to get, and is acquired while you make legendary progress (ie Dailies for Karma, Fractals for Cores and T6 mats all result in progress towards ascended). But as you can see from the practical example, the stat bump isn’t so insane that it makes exotics redundant.

Hold on a second. Why is “better gear that takes a longer time to get” acceptable at all in Guild Wars? I thought one of the selling points was that you wouldn’t be chasing gear.

Guess it’s moot since they’re clearly going in that direction, but I just wanted to point out that that doesn’t need to be how the game works.

aliksyian.7642:

Yes ascended are supposed to be better. Like has been said multiple times, its gear between exotic and legendary that is supposed to take time to get, and is acquired while you make legendary progress (ie Dailies for Karma, Fractals for Cores and T6 mats all result in progress towards ascended). But as you can see from the practical example, the stat bump isn’t so insane that it makes exotics redundant.

Hold on a second. Why is “better gear that takes a longer time to get” acceptable at all in Guild Wars? I thought one of the selling points was that you wouldn’t be chasing gear.

Guess it’s moot since they’re clearly going in that direction, but I just wanted to point out that that doesn’t need to be how the game works.

Actually, it is- because that’s how WoW did it. If a game dares to do something differently than how WoW did, they are immediately called “Niche” or even have people argue that they aren’t MMOs at all.

So at the end of the day, the question of “Why should it be this way” is always answerable with “Because WoW did it”.

Tolmos.8395:

aliksyian.7642:

Yes ascended are supposed to be better. Like has been said multiple times, its gear between exotic and legendary that is supposed to take time to get, and is acquired while you make legendary progress (ie Dailies for Karma, Fractals for Cores and T6 mats all result in progress towards ascended). But as you can see from the practical example, the stat bump isn’t so insane that it makes exotics redundant.

Hold on a second. Why is “better gear that takes a longer time to get” acceptable at all in Guild Wars? I thought one of the selling points was that you wouldn’t be chasing gear.

Guess it’s moot since they’re clearly going in that direction, but I just wanted to point out that that doesn’t need to be how the game works.

Actually, it is- because that’s how WoW did it. If a game dares to do something differently than how WoW did, they are immediately called “Niche” or even have people argue that they aren’t MMOs at all.

So at the end of the day, the question of “Why should it be this way” is always answerable with “Because WoW did it”.

More like “Every fantasy game since 1974 did it.”

aliksyian.7642:

Yes ascended are supposed to be better. Like has been said multiple times, its gear between exotic and legendary that is supposed to take time to get, and is acquired while you make legendary progress (ie Dailies for Karma, Fractals for Cores and T6 mats all result in progress towards ascended). But as you can see from the practical example, the stat bump isn’t so insane that it makes exotics redundant.

Hold on a second. Why is “better gear that takes a longer time to get” acceptable at all in Guild Wars? I thought one of the selling points was that you wouldn’t be chasing gear.

Guess it’s moot since they’re clearly going in that direction, but I just wanted to point out that that doesn’t need to be how the game works.

One of the better points against this gear having higher stats imo. It’s not moot to me. I wanted to play the game they advertised prelaunch. People will continue to post nonsense in it’s favor tho and those people are generally people who love the gear treadmill and have a five second memory when it comes to what this game was promised to be prelaunch, they also seem to have issues with the understanding that 5 points per item in 11 slots equals a 55 point advantage in any one score which adds up quickly when an entire set of gear is available with higher stats. 55 points in prec vitality toughness is very important especially in a game where only two classes can 1 shot.

tigirius.9014:

aliksyian.7642:

Yes ascended are supposed to be better. Like has been said multiple times, its gear between exotic and legendary that is supposed to take time to get, and is acquired while you make legendary progress (ie Dailies for Karma, Fractals for Cores and T6 mats all result in progress towards ascended). But as you can see from the practical example, the stat bump isn’t so insane that it makes exotics redundant.

Hold on a second. Why is “better gear that takes a longer time to get” acceptable at all in Guild Wars? I thought one of the selling points was that you wouldn’t be chasing gear.

Guess it’s moot since they’re clearly going in that direction, but I just wanted to point out that that doesn’t need to be how the game works.

One of the better points against this gear having higher stats imo. It’s not moot to me. I wanted to play the game they advertised prelaunch. People will continue to post nonsense in it’s favor tho and those people are generally people who love the gear treadmill and have a five second memory when it comes to what this game was promised to be prelaunch, they also seem to have issues with the understanding that 5 points per item in 11 slots equals a 55 point advantage in any one score which adds up quickly when an entire set of gear is available with higher stats. 55 points in prec vitality toughness is very important especially in a game where only two classes can 1 shot.

55 points is make or break? Really? I guess 5 signet warriors are gods now.

Mackdose.6504:

55 points is make or break? Really? I guess 5 signet warriors are gods now.

I think you’re missing the point.

Can you answer “if 55 points isn’t important, why have it at all?”

Ascended items… it’s been discussed to death >.<.

aliksyian, you asked if you should play the game or not again. But you’re trying really hard to tell yourself to not play lol. If you don’t want to play, don’t play. That doesn’t mean you should go forcing your view on others. A lot of us here already debated back and forth on ascended, and it really just amounts to a big waste of time.

In the end, ascended is here to stay. It clearly makes certain types of players angry, but regardless, the majority of the players are fine with it for various reasons.

By the way, I really feel that the gear treadmill is hugely misunderstood here. The gear progression in GW2 is pretty low and smooth, and you’re not locked out of content because of your gear except for maybe doing fractals 20+ (but you can already play those maps in lower fractal levels, essentially experience the content without needing fractal gear). WvW is still the same with a mix of uplevels and organized groups and zergs that ascended’s impact on WvW is minimal at best (blame the mindless zergs :P).

We’re just trying give you our perspective to show that we’re enjoying the game currently and having fun. If you don’t agree with that, why ask us if it’s worth playing when it is clearly worth playing for us already?

Mackdose.6504:

Tolmos.8395:

aliksyian.7642:

Yes ascended are supposed to be better. Like has been said multiple times, its gear between exotic and legendary that is supposed to take time to get, and is acquired while you make legendary progress (ie Dailies for Karma, Fractals for Cores and T6 mats all result in progress towards ascended). But as you can see from the practical example, the stat bump isn’t so insane that it makes exotics redundant.

Hold on a second. Why is “better gear that takes a longer time to get” acceptable at all in Guild Wars? I thought one of the selling points was that you wouldn’t be chasing gear.

Guess it’s moot since they’re clearly going in that direction, but I just wanted to point out that that doesn’t need to be how the game works.

Actually, it is- because that’s how WoW did it. If a game dares to do something differently than how WoW did, they are immediately called “Niche” or even have people argue that they aren’t MMOs at all.

So at the end of the day, the question of “Why should it be this way” is always answerable with “Because WoW did it”.

More like “Every fantasy game since 1974 did it.”

Except Ultima Online? Shadowbane? Darkfall? Every non-Everquest based, WoW modeled fantasy MMO since 1974?

Again- just because WoW did it doesn’t have to make it an industry standard.

aliksyian.7642:

Mackdose.6504:

55 points is make or break? Really? I guess 5 signet warriors are gods now.

I think you’re missing the point.

Can you answer “if 55 points isn’t important, why have it at all?”

For fractal and its a non gold cost item its a time cost item. If any thing Ascended items should be hosted up to show this game is not a p2w as some ppl love to call it.
Now i am not saying ppl who do not like Ascended items want to get to be p2w but i am not comply sure after reading ppl post.

Jski.6180:

For fractal and its a non gold cost item its a time cost item. If any thing Ascended items should be hosted up to show this game is not a p2w as some ppl love to call it.
Now i am not saying ppl who do not like Ascended items want to get to be p2w but i am not comply sure after reading ppl post.

I’m sorry but I honestly cannot parse what you are trying to say.

Lemme lay out why Ascended gear bothers me:

1) Each individual piece of Ascended gear is 5-10% stronger than its Exotic variant. While this seems relatively small, even a mere 5% boost to every single piece of equipment can yield significantly higher damage (nearly 13%), not to mention you’ll be taking at least 5% less damage (more if you’re built to tank instead of berserk, as the linked calculations are). That is not the insignificantly small margin that people claim it is.

2) Ascended gear was released with the intention of “filling the gap” between Exotic and Legendary. In other words, it was an attempt to provide something mildly grindy to the hardcore crowd while still being “accessible” for casual audiences. Unfortunately, in its present state, it doesn’t achieve that goal: it’s still too much of a grind for casuals and it’s much too small of a grind for hardcore players. As such, it alienates casuals while trying to appeal to a crowd that has long since left the game.

3) Ascended gear represents a concerning trend in the future of the game. While Colin has stated that “no new tier of gear will be released this year”, that’s not the same as “no new tier will be released ever”. And we know they intend to raise the level cap in future expansions to the game. They have expressed a strong belief in vertical progression for this game, meaning that we can expect to be going after new tiers and levels of gear for the remainder of the game. This is a far cry from GW1’s horizontal progression model. And when we were told that GW2 “takes everything we love about GW1”, it’s natural that some people will feel as if they’ve been lied to, because horizontal progression was one of GW1’s most treasured features.

Something that people need to remember: I’m not complaining about this because I hate the game, I’m complaining because I love this game but I see it taking a very worrying path towards WoW and other MMOs, instead of being the shining example of next-gen MMO gaming that it claims to be. GW2 can’t call itself a “revolution” if it’s just going to do a lot of the same things that other MMOs do (even if it does them better), people will call them on that and it’ll hurt their image.