Guild Wars 2

Is there going to be a new reason for Silk/Linen/ore price to fall?

ColinJohanson.2394:

To more directly answer some of your point….We are adding a system that lets you change the stats for your ascended gear (weapons and armor) next Tuesday – which will cost a combination of 10 spirit shards, piece you don’t want anymore, 5 ectos, and an exotic insignia of the stats you want to convert to. Legendary Gear will remain the gear that can freely change stats any time.

-CJ
(Edited to clarify weapons and armor)

o bby…
seriously, thank you for this!

Terrorsquad.2349:

Sad, my 8 Legendaries are worth less then. I always saw Legendaries not only as a cool skin, but also as a great utility to invest in, changing stats.

Now Legendaries arent even unique anymore, except for the skin and +1 Infusion slot…

Legendaries get a free stat switch any time you want outside of combat. This new ascended stat switching requires you to Mystic Forge the item with the insignia for the stats you want (ascended insignia, not cheap) 5 ectos and 10 of the new shards… and you don’t keep the runes or sigils or infusions that are in the original item. I think legendaries still have a LOT going for them… so… make like a Reaper and Chill?

Terrorsquad.2349:

Sad, my 8 Legendaries are worth less then. I always saw Legendaries not only as a cool skin, but also as a great utility to invest in, changing stats.

Now Legendaries arent even unique anymore, except for the skin and +1 Infusion slot…

Well aside from unlocking the skin (which is the primary value of unlocking a legendary in the first place), you can still swap stats at the click of a button, without sacrificing the sigil(s) that are in the item.

Anyone swapping ascended stats has to invest additional resources (potentially several gold each time), and they have to buy new sigils and runes (easily 20 gold worth).

Now if you would like to pay 20-30 gold each time you swap your legendary stats, I’m sure they could implement that, although I don’t think anyone would really want that.

In any case, I don’t see myself taking advantage of the ascended stat swapping that much. I might use it at first because I’ll have to adjust stat distributions for builds once the changes hit (no stats on trait lines anymore), but after that I won’t really use it so much.

One of the things it’ll be most useful for is obtaining extraordinarily expensive ascended stat combinations, like the zealot’s stats. The prices for some of those recipes and such are astronomical due to the supply limit. However, being able to swap to those stats will put them in line with any other type of ascended gear. In general, all the tradeable recipes will have their prices normalized to each other, which is good for people who have not been able to get ascended stuff due to the price barrier.

ColinJohanson.2394:

This is for weapon and armor currently – weapons use the same recipe as armor to stat change except they use inscriptions to allow you to change instead of insignias.

Alas yes it does destroy the runes and sigils in the item, the mystic forge doesn’t currently have a way to allow us to do this kind of stat changing without it working that way.

Also: Shout out to Matt P and Linsey who did all the hard work to make this possible

Well I guess every good news has that infamous “but” somewhere at the end. This can have a profound impact on runes and sigils so I sincerely hope that you will consider making recipes for them more readily available.

I am personally in possession of certain runes and sigils that are not available in any other way than through TP (as far as I know) and that still doesn’t sit well with me. This goes double considering the fact that they’ll be destroyed during stat changing process.

This change is going to cause a plummet in Ascended crafting mats, but most importantly what does this mean for Zealot armor? Will this be a cheat-workaround method?

What about Celestial armor? Will Charged Quartz still be time-gated? It would take a full month to convert from XXX → Celestial.

ColinJohanson.2394:

This is for weapon and armor currently – weapons use the same recipe as armor to stat change except they use inscriptions to allow you to change instead of insignias.

Alas yes it does destroy the runes and sigils in the item, the mystic forge doesn’t currently have a way to allow us to do this kind of stat changing without it working that way.

Also: Shout out to Matt P and Linsey who did all the hard work to make this possible

Perhaps the solution would be to have ascended gear salveagable, where it would give you the sigil/rune (guaranteed with a BL kit), and another account bound item that would be specific to the armor/weapon, and replace the ascended gear requirement with that new item.

Well, with all the negativity running around right now, I just want to say that the change Colin presented earlier in this thread is a great QoL change. So thank you!

One step forward with the stat changing mechanic, five steps back with the refusal to make grindy gear actually worth it.
10/10 as usual, anet.
You may as well make it so we need to buy HoT Collector’s Edition to craft Ascended gear, purchase Ascended trinkets, and have any Ascended gear dropped at all.

Also, RIP Zojja’s Inscription prices.

Liquid.4671:

One step forward with the stat changing mechanic, five steps back with the refusal to make grindy gear actually worth it.
10/10 as usual, anet.
You may as well make it so we need to buy HoT Collector’s Edition to craft Ascended gear, purchase Ascended trinkets, and have any Ascended gear dropped at all.

Didn’t grind anything in this game.
12 chars – Each in ascended armor / some have 2 sets.
Each char has ascended 4~7 weapons.

Easy~

Terrorsquad.2349:

Sad, my 8 Legendaries are worth less then. I always saw Legendaries not only as a cool skin, but also as a great utility to invest in, changing stats.

Now Legendaries arent even unique anymore, except for the skin and +1 Infusion slot…

Yea, cuz it’s not like you can change stats for free without dumping 4-6g into the forge… oh wait…

Liquid.4671:

One step forward with the stat changing mechanic, five steps back with the refusal to make grindy gear actually worth it.

I’d say that he decision to not go through with ascended changes is a positive one. Though, of course, a step forward would mean either making this tier more easily available, or having even less advantage that it has now.

ColinJohanson.2394:

To more directly answer some of your point….We are adding a system that lets you change the stats for your ascended gear (weapons and armor) next Tuesday – which will cost a combination of 10 spirit shards, piece you don’t want anymore, 5 ectos, and an exotic insignia of the stats you want to convert to. Legendary Gear will remain the gear that can freely change stats any time.

-CJ
(Edited to clarify weapons and armor)

I literally just thought of this this morning, and typed out a thread during lunch. Thought I was such a smart guy but you guys are way ahead

FWIW, here’s what I had:

Title: Ascended weapons and armor should have mystic forge recipes that allow you to change stats

One of the biggest drawbacks of ascended weapons and armor is that, because of the large financial and time investment, you are effectively locked into stat combinations and particular builds. You can change your traits on the fly, but you are stuck with your stats. This causes issues when certain builds get buffed / nerfed, or new stats are introduced (i.e. Nomad and Sinister) and people want to switch builds.

For the over 500g required to obtain a full ascended weapon / armor set, I believe you should have some flexibility in your stat allocations. Legendary weapons allow you to switch stats on the fly, but I believe that should remain a legendary ‘perk’. Instead, I’m proposing that there be mystic forge recipes that swap out your old ascended piece with a new one. For example:

Recipe: Wupwup Masque + Zojja’s Essence (I made this up) + 2 whatevers = Zojja’s Masque,

where Essences, for each stat combination, are purchased using Spirit Shards or some other currency.

This would preserve the current system for obtaining ascended gear, but just give players a method to switch stats if they really want to. I feel like it would give players a greater incentive to work towards ascended gear and do so in a better way than simply increasing the stat differential between it and exotic.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just want to clarify since I saw this come up a couple of times in this thread and we haven’t actually released our full official patch notes for 6/23 yet….

Ascended Gear will be staying 5% better than Exotic Gear. Gear beyond the tiers we already have are not going to be added and our existing tiers won’t change, they won’t be our main end-game form of progression for your characters/account for all the reasons we’ve covered before – it isn’t what we think Gw2 is about.

Masteries is being added to PvE to help provide this system as our form of progression for PvE moving forward, and the WvW ability system exists for WvW and will be what we use to expand WvW in the future.

To more directly answer some of your point….We are adding a system that lets you change the stats for your ascended gear (weapons and armor) next Tuesday – which will cost a combination of 10 spirit shards, piece you don’t want anymore, 5 ectos, and an exotic insignia of the stats you want to convert to. Legendary Gear will remain the gear that can freely change stats any time.

-CJ
(Edited to clarify weapons and armor)

I need to go change my underwear. O.O Please excuse me.

x Charlie.4820:

[s]

Not only that but when you get fractals ascended boxes or craft backpieces with chooseable stats, These stat combos are left off of them, Making even less sense.

I just want to mention really quick that you CAN get Zealot’s out of fractal ascended boxes, they come in Raider’s boxes as their primary stat is Power. I happen to have 4/6 pieces of ascended Zealot armor and I sure as hell didn’t pay that much for them

But absolutely, we should have equality in the acquisition of ascended items, having them be a limited time thing was a mistake, IMO.

ColinJohanson.2394:

This is for weapon and armor currently – weapons use the same recipe as armor to stat change except they use inscriptions to allow you to change instead of insignias.

Alas yes it does destroy the runes and sigils in the item, the mystic forge doesn’t currently have a way to allow us to do this kind of stat changing without it working that way.

Also: Shout out to Matt P and Linsey who did all the hard work to make this possible

But does it remove the infusion?

And yes, cheers for Matt P and Linsey!

Tentonhammr.7849:

Terrorsquad.2349:

Sad, my 8 Legendaries are worth less then. I always saw Legendaries not only as a cool skin, but also as a great utility to invest in, changing stats.

Now Legendaries arent even unique anymore, except for the skin and +1 Infusion slot…

Yea, cuz it’s not like you can change stats for free without dumping 4-6g into the forge… oh wait…

Legendary Worth of Mats > Asc changing stats, even after 30-40-50 times.

Yamsandjams.3267:

……

One of the things it’ll be most useful for is obtaining extraordinarily expensive ascended stat combinations, like the zealot’s stats. The prices for some of those recipes and such are astronomical due to the supply limit. However, being able to swap to those stats will put them in line with any other type of ascended gear. In general, all the tradeable recipes will have their prices normalized to each other, which is good for people who have not been able to get ascended stuff due to the price barrier.

yep keeper’s gear. this was the 1st thing that came to my mind.

by unwanted ascended gear, will we be able to salvage all that for an item to put into the forge, so that the salvage items can stack? or will we have to keep all of those pieces around taking up tons of bank space to change stats later?

This is literally the best thing you could have done. Allowing us to not only switch stats on gear we may/may not want in the coming weeks, and keeping Ascended @5% so that it stays optional/optimal and not mandatory.

My necro might still not be wanted in high end, but kitten it, at least i’ll be blinged out in the latest fashions.

Jaxom.7310:

Yamsandjams.3267:

……

One of the things it’ll be most useful for is obtaining extraordinarily expensive ascended stat combinations, like the zealot’s stats. The prices for some of those recipes and such are astronomical due to the supply limit. However, being able to swap to those stats will put them in line with any other type of ascended gear. In general, all the tradeable recipes will have their prices normalized to each other, which is good for people who have not been able to get ascended stuff due to the price barrier.

yep keeper’s gear. this was the 1st thing that came to my mind.

Got my set through Fractal Raiders boxes. Is one of the stat options in the raiders boxes. But yes, this is fantastic! Fantastic news. I got a spreadsheet open where I am planing my moves

Laughing so hard right now. Someone find the picture that guy posted of his stacks of ascended zealot armor recipes. He just lost a fortune on that investment.

callidus.7085:

Terrorsquad.2349:

Sad, my 8 Legendaries are worth less then. I always saw Legendaries not only as a cool skin, but also as a great utility to invest in, changing stats.

Now Legendaries arent even unique anymore, except for the skin and +1 Infusion slot…

Legendaries get a free stat switch any time you want outside of combat. This new ascended stat switching requires you to Mystic Forge the item with the insignia for the stats you want (ascended insignia, not cheap) 5 ectos and 10 of the new shards… and you don’t keep the runes or sigils or infusions that are in the original item. I think legendaries still have a LOT going for them… so… make like a Reaper and Chill?

I know we can change legendaries stats. You’re not getting the point; this was what legendaries made so unique despite the skins.

Terrorsquad.4802:

callidus.7085:

Terrorsquad.2349:

Sad, my 8 Legendaries are worth less then. I always saw Legendaries not only as a cool skin, but also as a great utility to invest in, changing stats.

Now Legendaries arent even unique anymore, except for the skin and +1 Infusion slot…

Legendaries get a free stat switch any time you want outside of combat. This new ascended stat switching requires you to Mystic Forge the item with the insignia for the stats you want (ascended insignia, not cheap) 5 ectos and 10 of the new shards… and you don’t keep the runes or sigils or infusions that are in the original item. I think legendaries still have a LOT going for them… so… make like a Reaper and Chill?

I know we can change legendaries stats. You’re not getting the point; this was what legendaries made so unique despite the skins.

And only legendaries will continue to be able to freely change stats outside of combat.

paranoid mode on

You guys really fall for this smoke screen to cloud the whole controversy about the pre-purchase price policy?

This is a quality of life update to be able to change a current ascended armour into another stat via the MF. As it destroys all upgrades, a complete re-mod would cost e.g. ~120 gold (Zerker/Hoelbrak runes) + Laurels and soul shards.

I appreciate the update, but all the concerns and valid arguments about the HoT xpack have not been addressed.

paranoid mode off

callidus.7085:

Terrorsquad.2349:

Sad, my 8 Legendaries are worth less then. I always saw Legendaries not only as a cool skin, but also as a great utility to invest in, changing stats.

Now Legendaries arent even unique anymore, except for the skin and +1 Infusion slot…

Legendaries get a free stat switch any time you want outside of combat. This new ascended stat switching requires you to Mystic Forge the item with the insignia for the stats you want (ascended insignia, not cheap) 5 ectos and 10 of the new shards… and you don’t keep the runes or sigils or infusions that are in the original item. I think legendaries still have a LOT going for them… so… make like a Reaper and Chill?

Legendaries costs +3k gold average across all legendaries. Because we wanted something unique. Not only has ascended same stats as Legendaries, now they can do the same aswel. Only “exclusivity” on my leggies are the skins and the +1 Infusion slot.

Gorani.7205:

paranoid mode on

You guys really fall for this smoke screen to cloud the whole controversy about the pre-purchase price policy?

This is a quality of life update to be able to change a current ascended armour into another stat via the MF. As it destroys all upgrades, a complete re-mod would cost e.g. ~120 gold (Zerker/Hoelbrak runes) + Laurels and soul shards.

I appreciate the update, but all the concerns and valid arguments about the HoT xpack has not been addressed.

paranoid mode off

This is about ascended gear and addressing complaints that have existed about ascended gear since its introduction.

The, perfectly reasonable to me (except no character slot), approach to the HoT expansion pack is not relevant.

Gorani.7205:

paranoid mode on

You guys really fall for this smoke screen to cloud the whole controversy about the pre-purchase price policy?

This is a quality of life update to be able to change a current ascended armour into another stat via the MF. As it destroys all upgrades, a complete re-mod would cost e.g. ~120 gold (Zerker/Hoelbrak runes) + Laurels and soul shards.

I appreciate the update, but all the concerns and valid arguments about the HoT xpack have not been addressed.

paranoid mode off

Get over yourself bro. This has NOTHING to do with it. This is fantastic news, and this is why I love they game. But kids like you will use ANY excuse to push your own agendas. Go back to your cancer thread and leave the rest of us to be excited and appreciate this update.

This is great news as it does alleviate a lot of the RNG aspect when it comes to getting ascended outside of crafting.

Gorani.7205:

paranoid mode on

You guys really fall for this smoke screen to cloud the whole controversy about the pre-purchase price policy?

This is a quality of life update to be able to change a current ascended armour into another stat via the MF. As it destroys all upgrades, a complete re-mod would cost e.g. ~120 gold (Zerker/Hoelbrak runes) + Laurels and soul shards.

I appreciate the update, but all the concerns and valid arguments about the HoT xpack have not been addressed.

paranoid mode off

Oh my goodness, what was I thinking? You’re right, let me re-light my torch and grab my pitchfork. I forgot for a moment that I wasn’t supposed to enjoy anything about this game anymore because some people have their panties in a twist.

Ayrilana.1396:

This is great news as it does alleviate a lot of the RNG aspect when it comes to getting ascended outside of crafting.

No it not, its fantastic news!

Hi Colin.
I’d like to ask you this from when I bought GW2…that’s the right moment, as i think i won’t continue to play this game after the launch of the expansion.

As you don’t think that ascended is the main progression system in endgame…why did anet lock high fractals behind a stat that can be acquired only through a BiS tier?

If the ascended matter was just a 5% on every stat..ok. maybe I could tolerate also that kitten 10% increase someone spoke of.
But…as I’m primarily a pve player and like to get coop-exploration achievements and i don’t do any pvp/crafting at all…WHY did you do it?

Make that ascended just a small bonus (even on AR: that should be stacked through different ways on gear, also on lower quality gear) against exotics , or a special appearance just like legendaries…or make people get ascended also only by playing fractals…
but WHY do you force us to craft ascended with gold, mats and crafting skills in order to do fractals?

It’s the biggest issue that prevents me from enjoying this game.
thank you for listening

Can we extend this to Ascended Rings too – and require the respective Exotic jewels? It would give a much stronger reason to actually do Fractals daily…

Yes this IS a way we can unlock the other colors of the weapons.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3afc2o/tequatl_hoard_and_ascended_stat_change_update/csc2wqc

This is a way for you to unlock the other colors that are associated with the each stat, yes.

I thought my wording was pretty spot on. The question was if the new item would retain the Tequatl skin’s name if they made the change to zerker

Do we need exotic or ascended insignias/ inscriptions? I’d like to get myself prepared for this. Also do backpieces count as armor or trinkets for this? they get damaged like armor.

PlasticHippo.8934:

by unwanted ascended gear, will we be able to salvage all that for an item to put into the forge, so that the salvage items can stack? or will we have to keep all of those pieces around taking up tons of bank space to change stats later?

I think this is a direct conversion of one item into another. So you take your Leftpaw weapon, add the other mats including the new insignia/inscription/statholdythingie, Forge them all into the new item of the same type but different stats. Huh … spirit shards are a currency … how do they get used in the Forge?

Ayrilana.1396:

This is great news as it does alleviate a lot of the RNG aspect when it comes to getting ascended outside of crafting.

It doesn’t change anything about that at all. You still need the Insignia, or the method to produce one, in the first place. All it does is lower the cost of generating a new set of armor of particular stat by recycling another set with a stat you no longer want.

Personally I’d rather they had gone route that enables on the fly stat swapping, as this current proposal doesn’t help a player who USES multiple stat sets at all. If I want soliders and zerkers for 2 different builds on the same character (like my mesmer), I still have to make 2 full sets of armor.

Absolutely love this change. Thank you.

Donari.5237:

PlasticHippo.8934:

by unwanted ascended gear, will we be able to salvage all that for an item to put into the forge, so that the salvage items can stack? or will we have to keep all of those pieces around taking up tons of bank space to change stats later?

I think this is a direct conversion of one item into another. So you take your Leftpaw weapon, add the other mats including the new insignia/inscription/statholdythingie, Forge them all into the new item of the same type but different stats. Huh … spirit shards are a currency … how do they get used in the Forge?

miyani says “hi i have this little misty rock here it costs 10 spirit shards” and doesnt tell you what its for, but it fits in the recipe

Sketch.3658:

Do we need exotic or ascended insignias/ inscriptions? I’d like to get myself prepared for this. Also do backpieces count as armor or trinkets for this? they get damaged like armor.

Exotic. Back pieces count as trinkets it seems.

starlinvf.1358:

Ayrilana.1396:

This is great news as it does alleviate a lot of the RNG aspect when it comes to getting ascended outside of crafting.

It doesn’t change anything about that at all. You still need the Insignia, or the method to produce one, in the first place. All it does is lower the cost of generating a new set of armor of particular stat by recycling another set with a stat you no longer want.

Personally I’d rather they had gone route that enables on the fly stat swapping, as this current proposal doesn’t help a player who USES multiple stat sets at all. If I want soliders and zerkers for 2 different builds on the same character (like my mesmer), I still have to make 2 full sets of armor.

It does. Currently you have RNG associated about whether you get an ascended drop and then more RNG regarding the stat combo you get assigned. The latter is removed with the cost of creating an exotic insignia/inscription. You also have some ascended chests that offer weapons with very few stat combo choices. This will allow you to change those to say berserker or sinister rather than having to craft the entire weapon/armor.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

But does it remove the infusion?

And yes, cheers for Matt P and Linsey!

I’m pretty sure it will since upgrading an uninfused ring to infused removed the infusion as well.

A great change however it will destroy your rune/sigil/infusion which in certain cases can cost really high amounts of gold/laurels making it useless for quite a few people. Letting us remove the rune/sigil before using the ascended piece would be a great addition as well (don’t even mention upgrade extractor please), but I won’t be greedy, one step a time.

But will this one time only kind of deal or from now on Ascended armor and weapons can change stats through that given recipe?

Although this is awesome news for any and all ascended boxes with undesirable stats that we may get, and awesome news for any potential meta gear changes, it still does not solves one of the biggest problems with ascended gear:

Experimenting with or changing to different builds anytime I wish to.

If I ever get an ascended box out of random loot? Awesome, it’ll be a lot more rewarding now.

If the stat meta ever changes for my main build? Awesome, I’ll be able to adapt to it.

If I want to play with a direct damage build today, a condition damage build tomorrow, and back again to a direct damage build the day after, and so on? I’ll still need 2+ sets of ascended gear, which is hell.

So, I hope this is the first step of something greater.

PS: I actually liked the 10% stat increase. You guys need to add something else to ascended to make it worthier, if you’re not going with the stat changes.

Does this mean we’ll be able to get gear loads for types that aren’t a part of the standard Ascended set? Sinister and Giver’s are two I was looking at but didn’t see options for.

Though, there’s still a few gear nomenclatures without a standard process to obtain (Rabid, etc). Find gear/Salvage gear for a chance as inscriptions is not an acceptable practice.

Rauderi.8706:

Does this mean we’ll be able to get gear loads for types that aren’t a part of the standard Ascended set? Sinister and Giver’s are two I was looking at but didn’t see options for.

Though, there’s still a few gear nomenclatures without a standard process to obtain (Rabid, etc). Find gear/Salvage gear for a chance as inscriptions is not an acceptable practice.

Sinisters can be gotten out in Silverwastes! Ascended and exotic both, the insignia i mean! The other recipes you can actually buy from the TP! crafted myself an entire Sinister set for my ranger not to long ago! No clue about givers though, sorry!

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just want to clarify since I saw this come up a couple of times in this thread and we haven’t actually released our full official patch notes for 6/23 yet….

Ascended Gear will be staying 5% better than Exotic Gear. Gear beyond the tiers we already have are not going to be added and our existing tiers won’t change, they won’t be our main end-game form of progression for your characters/account for all the reasons we’ve covered before – it isn’t what we think Gw2 is about.

Masteries is being added to PvE to help provide this system as our form of progression for PvE moving forward, and the WvW ability system exists for WvW and will be what we use to expand WvW in the future.

To more directly answer some of your point….We are adding a system that lets you change the stats for your ascended gear (weapons and armor) next Tuesday – which will cost a combination of 10 spirit shards, piece you don’t want anymore, 5 ectos, and an exotic insignia of the stats you want to convert to. Legendary Gear will remain the gear that can freely change stats any time.

-CJ
(Edited to clarify weapons and armor)

That’s really good news and reassuring.

I have to be honest i’ve been beginning to fear there was a change in philosophy at Anet about things along the line of P2W and giving value to the customer even when other things might be more profitable.

I really want to continue to be able to have GW2 on a pedestal of how to do a F2P and that it can be done in a way that is fair for it’s customers.

ColinJohanson.2394:

This is for weapon and armor currently – weapons use the same recipe as armor to stat change except they use inscriptions to allow you to change instead of insignias.

Alas yes it does destroy the runes and sigils in the item, the mystic forge doesn’t currently have a way to allow us to do this kind of stat changing without it working that way.

Also: Shout out to Matt P and Linsey who did all the hard work to make this possible

Thank you for all this. But how about an Ascended Aquabreather? I still cannot get a complete Ascended Armor because that piece of Ascended gear still does not exist in-game…
Or how about we remove Aquabreathers altogether and make us wear our Helmet while underwater?

Great news!

Thanks for the detailed reply, Colin