Guild Wars 2

Let me first say, I really like this game. The characters, abilities, and questing is a blast. That said, I have quit playing. The one thing that I asked about a lot before buying the game, and was assured it was not a big deal, has driven me away.

I asked, why do we have armor types? I got some ambiguous answer everytime.

It is not the armor types that made me quit, it was the idea behind them. Stick with me on this.

If everyone is equal at 80 in every way as far as DPS, survivablity, and possibilities, why do we have gear at all?

Doesn’t it seem odd to have rares at low levels since no one is supposed to be ahead? Isn’t it odd that plate gives better armor when we are all supposed to be the same?

Why not just have different skins to pick up and give us our stats through talents?

There just seems to be such a push to keep people off any kind of treadmill that gear has 0 point in this game. Let me be clear, I am not saying there needs to be a treadmill, I am just simply asking what is the point of gear at all?

You do not need it to beat a huge boss or new content, you do not need it to pvp since it is given to you right away, you don’t need it at all since you can never be ahead or need to be at a benchmark for anything.

When I realized this, it hit me that it really seems like lazy design. Not trying to be mean or cause the hardcore fans to go nuts, but if you can just normalize all the gear then a lot of work goes out the window. I mean, how many people are working at Blizz right now trying to get all sorts of numbers right for gear progression in PVE and PVP.

If you have no progression and can just design a pretty boss that dies quickly, then you don’t have to do that much work compared to other games.

What Anet has created is great, they just need to give it a purpose to exist. Anyone that says I play this game because it is fun and I hate competition is a liar. No one plays an MMO without a sense of competition. If it is not beating other players, then it is beating yourself or the AI or the TP.

I want to play this game, but I have no motivation to log in. Sure you can say this is not a game for me, but I am your average MMO player, not a flybynighter at all, but I want this to be a game for me and others as well. I don’t want it to sink.

Achieving everything is something that everyone will do and I will get the same rewards. It is not that I desire to be better than everyone else, I just want something to shoot for that makes my adventure feel like an epic purpose. I have never seen any tv show, movie, or game that has a hero that is simply running around killing things because it is fun, HE HAS A PURPOSE. It is either to get the mighty sword or slay the dragon that is terrorizing the village and needs a special weapon to kill him.

I would like goals that I cannot reach. I would like to look forward to something. Until then, happy hunting

TL;DR: Gear has no point, all the same things done by all the same people gives us nothing to strive for. Without perfection somewhere, there is no reason to strive for it.

I see you’re Point but to be fair The legendary is for that very purpose no ? And guild wars has never been about stats really at end game its about looks n skills , you need skills to get looks ? , works fine for me

I’m sorry, I tried to read the whole thing but you gave me this

“TL;DR: Gear has no point, all the same things done by all the same people gives us nothing to strive for. Without perfection somewhere, there is no reason to strive for it.”

There is a large amount of people who want this exact thing, no gear progession.. I don’t want a gear grind. It doesn’t bother me that someone else’s gear look better than mine, I still want it, but it doesn’t hit harder than mine.

This is how Guild Wars 1 was built 7 years ago, still going strong. I can see Guild Wars 2 doing the same, I have no problems with that.

yeah, within the way too long post I do say that I do not want a gear treadmill, but I do want a reason to play. Doing the things that are “main” content in this game, though enjoyable, are secondary in most others.

Just seems there is no sense of being epic here. Nothing to strive for.

Legendary means nothing really atm. People can buy the pre-cursor with money from game sites. and all they really have to do is farm 200sp which takes a day maybe 2 to do if you grind them. As well as the million karma which does not take long with boosters. As well as the WvW tokens which is easy to get in zerg killings.. So literally you can get your epic in a week 2 tops if you got the money for it… So doesn’t really mean anything.

I agree, there isnt anything to strive for.

I agree, there is way too much to work towards in this game already and they keep distracting me with frickin holiday stuff. How dare them!

That and I haven’t even finished my MF set, V/T set, or exotic offset weapons…. let alone a legendary weapon! It’s amazing how magnificent that even sounds… legendary weapon. You will never obtain one even if you tried so please dismiss them as ugly and pointless.

If it ever turns into a must have (and therefore grind and be a part of a hard core guild) the bestest most uberest gear just to step foot in this or that zone or do this or that content a la WoW…I will that very day log off permanently. That was one of the main reasons I left WoW and never looked back.

I agree with Pandemos. There is far too much to do in this game and I like that I can slow down and not worry about keeping up with the Joneses. It’s less stressful. If I wanna log off to watch Last Resort or Revolution or spend a night with friends I don’t have to worry I’m wasting precious time I should be spending grinding.

But there is a ton to do and gear does matter. It’s just that getting a set of Exotic max stat armor is not hard to do so once you have it, you can either earn a separate set like Pandemos for other purposes or work towards sets with different visuals. Aside from the stats making an important difference in how powerful your character is, the stats you choose to have make a difference in your playstyle and how much survivability or dps you have. Not to mention there are clear differences between light/medium/heavy armor on top of the innate HP differences between the classes.

I’m almost done my Exotic set and after that I have a few goals. I want to finish 100% world completion, I will finally have time for more WvW, I haven’t even done a dungeon since the Sylvari one so I have a ton of dungeons I can do. And longterm I want to try to start gathering all the tons of stuff needed for a Legendary. I still need to finish leveling my Cooking as well. I haven’t even thought about the idea of doing a second armor set so that’s another option.

That’s all just on my Ele though. I have a few alts I wanna spend some time leveling as well. I haven’t even had the chance to do much Halloween stuff after the first act due to various things so I’d love to get a chance to do that if I can get back home soon.

I doubt you get ambiguous answers every time – not with these forum trolls.
Anyway, “Why do we have armor types?”

If you’re going to honestly ask this question, then you have to couple it with “why do we have different classes?” because the most obvious answer to your question is this: We have armor types because it makes sense. Would it make sense for a caster who floats up in the air every so often to be bogged down by heavy plate armor? No. All of the classes are designed around traditionally accepted roles for them and their armor types are assigned based on that design.

Also: Armor type determines armor only. It does not affect any other stat. Class determines base health. Guardians and Elementalists (a heavy and a light) have the lowest base health and Warriors and Necros (again, a heavy and a light) have the highest base health. So we have a high armor/low health, low armor/high health, high armor/high health, and low armor/low health just within those 4 classes. Personally, I love that each of my toons starts off with a different set of strengths and weaknesses before I even do anything to it. It provides an extra level of customizability, which is something this game does extremely well – it gives us choices.

I think you misunderstood whoever told you everyone is equal. If you’re going to take such statements literally, why don’t you have some follow through here? All toons should have the same armor type, same stats, same traits, same boons, same abilities, same everything that affects play?! Doesn’t that sound like an awesome game?! I’d totally play it… for an hour. Everyone has equal access, I think, is more what they were going for. Everyone can have a full exotic set of gear in the stat combination of their choice before even hitting 80. What stats you choose determine, to a large extent, your play style (oh no! more awesome customizability!).

You asked what is the point of gear at all. The point is to give us an ability to create a unique armor set to suit whatever our current needs are and for us to look fabulous. In case you’re wondering, my armor needs are this: A full condition damage set for instances because I love dot-based damage in instances. A full Magic Find set, the value of which is still being determined. A full Vitality/Toughness set so I can be more annoying in PvP. A full crit percent/damage set so I can see big numbers! I love that there are so many ways to obtain same-level gear, so it’s not all a grind fest. I love that it’s not a gear progression because, after 7 years of raiding in WoW, I think I’ve spent enough time grinding for stats.

Gear makes a difference in WvW – a big difference in my experience. Just get in there on your full exotic 80 toon and target any non-80 toon (the liklihood they’re in exotic level 45 gear is pretty low, thus their scaling makes them excellent punching bags). It matters when being scaled down too.

I actually have issues with everything you said in your OP, but I’ll comment on just one more, then leave you to your delusions. Quotes aren’t working, but you said “If you have no progression and can just design a pretty boss that dies quickly, then you don’t have to do that much work compared to other games.”

My response to this is simple: Have you even looked at this game?! It amazes me every third time I turn around. Crazy amounts of detail! This game has raised the bar for every other game in the future to an extent never even approached by any other game. They’ve put unimaginable amounts of work into this.

Sorry for the long post.

TLDR: Armor types make sense. Gear level matters, just not as much as we’re used to. The point is customization. Anet has worked harder than other game companies.

Reading through this thread, I came to realize that I actually do like the fact that there is no gear grind like in other games I played (Aion, Rift..etc..). I also enjoy that I now can slow down and not worrying about the Joneses as Leiloni.7951 stated.
That may not work for everyone but I think it is a nice change from the usual gearwars..

Put another way.

Op wants ANet to provide a carrot.

ANet wants us to find our own carrot

I’m having no problems locating my own carrots.

Raf.1078:

Put another way.

Op wants ANet to provide a carrot.

ANet wants us to find our own carrot

I’m having no problems locating my own carrots.

Very well said, I agree.

Im having problems trying to understand why my Necro cant wear plate armour because ‘’that armour type is unsuitable for your proffesion’’..

Uhm.. why is it unsuitable.?

Uhm.. why is it unsuitable.?I just like the way it looks on my character.

Uhm.. why is it unsuitable.?I just like the way it looks on my character.and since this game shipped with no ’’traditional’’ roles for example we can all heal, should we wish to, we can all Dps and tank.. should we wish to… apparently.

Uhm.. why is it unsuitable.?I just like the way it looks on my character.and since this game shipped with no ’’traditional’’ roles for example we can all heal, should we wish to, we can all Dps and tank.. should we wish to… apparently.So why am i still restricted to the ’’traditional’’ cloth armour for my classs.?

Uhm.. why is it unsuitable.?I just like the way it looks on my character.and since this game shipped with no ’’traditional’’ roles for example we can all heal, should we wish to, we can all Dps and tank.. should we wish to… apparently.So why am i still restricted to the ’’traditional’’ cloth armour for my classs.?Why cant we all wear whatever armour we like.

sorry i dont know why my post is like that i only posted everything once but it duplicated every paragraph and now wont let me edit. so sorry

Krimpton.4879:

Why cant we all wear whatever armour we like.

That would be a confusing hoot in PvP, ROFLOL, because so many people can peg your class right off the get by what you’re wearing and act accordingly. I can just see it now, a warrior get confused for an elementalist or some such because they are wearing a dress rather than metal armor. Bahahahahahahaha.

So why am i still restricted to the ’’traditional’’ cloth armour for my classs.?Why cant we all wear whatever armour we like.

The professions are ideally supposed to have equal potential – in that they can in theory each fill any of the trinity roles – but they’re not supposed to be the same. Each profession should have a distinctive play style (so a guardian tank, a necromancer tank and an engineer tank should all play pretty differently, not with the same “push button to aggro” mechanic). The armour types, in my opinion, are part of that – playing a heavy armoured tank vs. a light armoured tank are very different. Sure, heavy might be easier, but ideally, light should be just as viable if you’re very good.

We have different armour types for the same reason we have classes at all – different play styles, different priorities, different ways of tackling the same problems. And as for why can’t you put on a certain set, because mechanics say, D&D tradition says, and because a person can only learn so much in one lifetime, and wearing heavy armour (and actually doing anything in it) does, in fact, take some training.

I don’t understand all of you guys and your vehement dislike of any idea that’s contrary to your “norm” from GW1. Last time I checked GW2 was not GW1, and it was an MMO designed to appeal to a wider audience.

Gear progression is an rpg staple, and last time I checked, GW2 was an rpg. What you guys seem to want is no leveling, no difference in gear stats, and absolutely no difference between one player to the next beyond cosmetics. That’s not much of an rpg at all.

There is a fine line between gear progressions and the never ending gear grind treadmill.

Azthioth.9682:

Anyone that says I play this game because it is fun and I hate competition is a liar. No one plays an MMO without a sense of competition. If it is not beating other players, then it is beating yourself or the AI or the TP.

I really, really don’t play MMOs competitively much. I play them to relax and goof off pretending I’m adventuring in a fantasy world. “Competition” to me stretches no further than beating the AI in the fights I come across, or the individual players I’m playing against. I have no “meta” sense of competition (i.e. that I’m competing with other players in general, as in it being a reason for me playing). I like the gear progression while levelling, but I also like sPvP because of the level playing field.

I’m actually very relieved to find an MMO that doesn’t cater as much to the Achiever mentality as most games do. I think MMOs have been skewed far too much towards the Achiever mentality in recent years. I suspect this is because Achievers are more easily addicted to ladders of achievement, and therefore more willing to pay subscriptions.

GW2 being B2P frees ANET up to return the MMO concept somewhat more to its roots, with more of a balance between different playstyles, rather than a lop-sided emphasis on Achievement.

This frees GW2 up to find its own audience – and to have more of a balance of Explorers, Socializers and Player Killers, as well as Achievers. (Using the Bartle Types as a rough guide, of course it’s more complex than that, and most of us are a mix of the “types” – e.g. I’m mostly an Explorer, but I have some Socializer and Player Killer, but very little Achiever.)

I agree with gurugeorge, above. This is why I play as well.

For someone to call everyone a liar simply because you don’t like what they say their motivations are is absurd and report worthy, imo.