Guild Wars 2

Aside from laurel rewards (where they cost 30 laurels), the only other Ascended amulet is the Triforge Pendant… Which is cost-prohibitive for most players.

Where are the “multiple ways” to obtain Ascended gear that we were promised?

You can argue that amulets will “only” take a month of dailies to get…
But what if you want to play on multiple characters?

I thought ArenaNet had admitted (via Chris Whiteside’s Reddit AMA) that it was a poor decision to only put Ascended gear in one place (i.e., the Fractals).

ArenaNet: Can we get official word on if there’s any Mystic Forge recipes that we’re currently oblivious to? Or if they’re hidden in the Fractals some where (and just haven’t been found yet)?

I’m curious about this as well.

They said it was a mistake to make gated content, by making Ascended gear Fractals only. The Rings are only Fractals and the Backs are only Mystic Forge.

So what do they do? Make another gated content. Ascended Amulets are only Laurels.

Didn’t they just say it was a mistake to do that, yet they are doing it again? I’m confused.

I’m hoping Flame & Frost might introduce new Karma vendors or something…

No. Currently there’s a single Ascended Amulet available for gold. The name is “Triforge Amulet”.

I agree with this post, 100%. Not too thrilled that I need to wait 2.5 months for my 3 main characters to have amulets.

I have sooo many fractal relics. Not pristine, but fractal relics. What on earth am I to do with them?

No, I am not interested in grinding out a legendary.

well this patch was advertised as a “base” to build upon with the next 2 monthes of patches so might jsudt not be out there in other ways yet, but come in the next patches

cesmode.4257:

I agree with this post, 100%. Not too thrilled that I need to wait 2.5 months for my 3 main characters to have amulets.

I have sooo many fractal relics. Not pristine, but fractal relics. What on earth am I to do with them?

No, I am not interested in grinding out a legendary.

Gotten 20 slot bags for all your characters? That’s what I’m currently collecting the Fractal Relics for.

It’d be nice to see Utility infusions (with Agony resist) and Amulets make their way to one of the Fractal vendors. I’ve got plenty of Pristine Fractal Relics.

yeah i’m pretty disappointed they didn’t take this opportunity to widen the availability of ascended gear. if they knew it was a mistake to make rings/backs available only from fractals, why are amulets available ONLY from laurels?? At the very least they should have been added to the existing fractal vendor.

how long do we have to wait for this stuff to be craftable and purchasable for karma/gold/WvW & dungeon tokens like exotic gear?

marnick.4305:

No. Currently there’s a single Ascended Amulet available for gold. The name is “Triforge Amulet”.

So far there doesn’t appear to be a recipe to upgrade it to the infused (inherent +5AR version) though.

They will be adding methods more in the updates coming up.

They do seem to release these things in patches rather then packages. The crafting recipes for ascended gear should have been released simultaneously.

This was really the only way to do this. Every other form of currency has been farmed for the last 5 months, any introduction of Ascended gear into an already existing currency system would defeat the purpose of Ascended gear (i.e harder to get then exotics). If they added amulets to any other place no one would ever touch the laurel amulets as they would have no need to.

Anet’s only current solution is to add a new currency every time they add a new piece of ascended gear. I suspect at some point we will have too many reward currencies and they will need to be streamlined which will be when they add a bunch of methods to obtain already existing ascended gear.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This was really the only way to do this. Every other form of currency has been farmed for the last 5 months, any introduction of Ascended gear into an already existing currency system would defeat the purpose of Ascended gear (i.e harder to get then exotics). If they added amulets to any other place no one would ever touch the laurel amulets as they would have no need to.

Anet’s only current solution is to add a new currency every time they add a new piece of ascended gear. I suspect at some point we will have too many reward currencies and they will need to be streamlined which will be when they add a bunch of methods to obtain already existing ascended gear.

This is only true if the cost is reasonable. Make an ascended amulet cost 2000 badges, and while some people may have that many sitting around, its a minority, and thats is pretty kitten cost prohibitive. Exotic WvW amulet still way cheaper than Ascended one.

The main problem is there is no currency translation method, as you mentioned. That is all they really need, is to create an equivalency. And quite frankly who cares if people who have 2000 badges can get an amulet day 1 after the changes? At least someone CAN get it without spending 100s of gold or waiting a month of dailies.

Its a system that gives anyone with multiple geared alts the shaft. And to make matters worse, they add lots of other interesting and fun things to the laurels vendor that I have to avoid if I want to get an ascended amulet.

Its just poor planning; like the entire bank tab of fractals I have doing nothing, because they are useless.

yeah, adding yet another currency is definitely poor planning. we don’t need another currency! we need more ways to use the currencies already in the game.

Ascended gear paid for with Laurels is insanely priced? Whats up with that. An infused item cost around 2 MONTHS worth of laurels!!!!!!! Either reward Laurels with area completion or events or something. Why should people who like to do fractels get them easy and people who just like to PvE and explore get ripped off!

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This was really the only way to do this. Every other form of currency has been farmed for the last 5 months, any introduction of Ascended gear into an already existing currency system would defeat the purpose of Ascended gear (i.e harder to get then exotics).

Ascended gear is not harder to get than exotics. It just takes longer.

As for that being the purpose of Ascended gear, what exactly is the problem in people being able to acquire new stats the instant they become available ?
The alternative is nerfing people who don’t play GW2 every single day.

marnick.4305:

No. Currently there’s a single Ascended Amulet available for gold. The name is “Triforge Amulet”.

How many useful builds exist where it is the best choice of amulet ?

+Vitality makes it a bad choice for higher fractals, as it means you’ll take more damage from agony.
+MF means that some combat stats were reduced to compensate.

shock, horror.. I demand 8 times the reward as everyone else because I chose to level 8 characters… Oh and I want it now with out having to make an effort.

Vague.1602:

shock, horror.. I demand 8 times the reward as everyone else because I chose to level 8 characters… Oh and I want it now with out having to make an effort.

Go on with your cogent and meaningful comments. No one is asking for 8 times the rewards, they are asking for an alternative to the ONLY method of waiting and religiously logging in every day. The current system punishes me if I dont have time to play GW2 tonight, but instead have a few hours to play tomorrow.

I agree with the comparison to a Facebook game. That is exactly the model they are going for, and they plan to use it to their advantage. Clearly if the ascended stuff was able to be aquired faster/easier people would get bored faster and then be more likely to move on. The whole purpose of that next tier is the carrot for people who don’t care about cosmetics. Don’t expect any changes to that.

Yeah they need to add other ways to obtain the necks aswell as lowering the laurel cost to match the current pristine fractal relic cost of rings. Laurels are slower to get, still the items cost 3 times the fractal cost. Doesnt make one bit of sense.

I’m starting to get to the point in this game where I got in WoW, the point which led me to stop playing. I’ve started to run out of fun things to do and all I see is this daily I must do to not fall behind. Which to start with isnt very interesting or newthinking compared to the old dailies. It’s the same, but with other things to do, mostly with one task more mindnumbingly boring than the other.

I want to be able to chose from a multitude of things to reach my goal, dungeons one day, fractals the other and then some WvW or just open world PvE events and still be able to reach the goal and get that item I would like.

What I dont want is being stuck in fractals or a daily grind to get what I want, certainly not at the pace you progress with the laurel system. They should have added the achievment laurels system at the same time they release the items, a sytem with a multitude of new achievments you had to do to get laurels and not the retroactive laurel rewards they are planning. That way people could start now with setting out to get the gear they want through the achievments and activities within the GW2 world that they like.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This was really the only way to do this. Every other form of currency has been farmed for the last 5 months, any introduction of Ascended gear into an already existing currency system would defeat the purpose of Ascended gear (i.e harder to get then exotics).

Ascended gear is not harder to get than exotics. It just takes longer.

As for that being the purpose of Ascended gear, what exactly is the problem in people being able to acquire new stats the instant they become available ?
The alternative is nerfing people who don’t play GW2 every single day.

Agreed. Although, this seems to be EXACTLY the reason that ArenaNet introduced Ascended gear. They said they wanted something in-between Exotics and Legendaries in terms of grind.

The issue, in my opinion, is that this is very poor game design.

They’ll have a paid-for expansion out later this year. (They’ve made it clear that new races/continents/dragons/professions won’t be introduced in their "Expansion’s worth of content" they release every few months.)

This means they’ll likely raise the level cap, as Mike O’brien has already stated (in the Reddit AMA) that they intend to do so at some point.

We’ll get new level 90 gear... and likely new Legendaries. Just like how every other MMO does.

So we spend a month to grind a SINGLE Ascended amulet for a SINGLE character, when it’ll just become irrelevant in just a few months?

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

marnick.4305:

No. Currently there’s a single Ascended Amulet available for gold. The name is "Triforge Amulet".

How many useful builds exist where it is the best choice of amulet ?

+Vitality makes it a bad choice for higher fractals, as it means you’ll take more damage from agony.
+MF means that some combat stats were reduced to compensate.

Not necessarily... Looking at it from a stat-based perspective (no MF):
50*6 + 6*10 = 360
(as +1% crit damage is equivalent to +10 of any other stat)
The next highest, stat wise would be ones with 9% crit:
126+85+9*10 = 301

The first number isn’t even including the +MF.
You get the equivalent of 6 attribute points more stats. This is true of all mixed-stat gear.

Additionally, having more Vitality doesn’t, at all, reduce your viability in the Fractals. You lose more health per tick because Agony is percentage based... Otherwise people would be stacking up Vitality to get around it. (If it was like any other condition.)

Vitality helps protect against conditions that do a standard amount of health per tick. (Condition damage ignores Durability/Armor)

Calling Vitality worthless because of Agony is like saying that Durability is worthless because it won’t protect you against far more common conditions like bleed, poison, burning, etc.

At the end of the day, all stats are useful to some extent.
Power, Precision, Critical Damage, and Condition Damage increase overall damage output.
Vitality, Durability, and Healing Bower help in keeping you alive. (You can’t dodge constantly...)

They need to just add them to the daily chance like the rings and weapons

Kromica.2831:

They need to just add them to the daily chance like the rings and weapons

Agreed.

Or stop pressuring us into playing a mode that many of us find to be boring, repetitive, and generally not fun. You can’t even deny that this is the intent – were it not, a single ring wouldn’t be priced higher than a single amulet, despite having a lower stat total. I’m so tired of Fractals. It’s become half of the focus of this game now.

All they have to do is add the Agony Resistance-compatible versions to the daily chest (perhaps 30+ for the amulet?) and add them in a new tab on the vendor for Pristine Relics (30 instead of 10?) along with Agony Resistance-compatible infusions. Then follow the same pattern to infuse them for an inherent +5. Those who aren’t interested in Fractals can get their non-AR from laurels and eventually other methods, and those who are interested in and have been doing Fractals to the point where they’ve reached a plateau (useless stacks of relics) get exactly what they were hoping for.