Guild Wars 2

DarkSpirit.7046:

Erick Alastor.3917:

@DarkSpirit:
Honestly I believe that implementing what I suggested would go in a completely different direction than the “gear grind”. Indeed it will reduce the cost of new sets and help people to experiment with more builds. It wouldn’t be like adding more power to your current set, but just more flexibility, which is (imo) a form of horizontal progression.

And that in itself would be an improvement over the current situation. It doesn’t make sense that precursors for legendaries would have to be 2 tiers down and that players would have to choose between its cheaper ascended and its better-looking but more-expensive legendary.

THIS already goes against what GW2 is about if you look at the numerous examples where you upgrade an item using its original, as part of the recipe, into a more advanced version.

As far as the 5/10% is concerned, I have absolutely no qualms removing the ascended if exotics stats would be the top tier. Why didn’t they stop at exotics if they really believe in what GW2 is about? Otherwise, if ascended is really supposed to be the top tier and a lot more expensive to craft than exotics, then make ascended items really worth crafting for crying out loud! I don’t see how making a top tier that is BOTH expensive craft but not actually worth crafting to be upholding what GW2 is about.

This is also why players have been asking for bloodstone eater, empyreal eater, and now dragonite eater. Many of them are avoiding to craft ascended items because they don’t feel that ascended items are worth their while to craft! Is going the “eaters” route then the solution to the broken ascended tier and is that really what GW2 is about?

You’ll see, with time, ascended will became a lot more easier to obtain, they are not the GW2 end-game, its (pve) end-game will be legendaries and masteries.

And you can bet both will be extremely grindy, the first ones providing just fluffy effects and build flexibility, where the second ones will really make the difference on your gameplay/power.

Imo GW2 will never be what they say GW2 is about.
Proof is that any change is slowly moving from horizontal progression to disguised vertical progression (i.e. masteries locking you out of portions of the game behind and artificial wall made of numbers similarly of what AR does with fractals).
But they are also moving from “soulbound progression” to account bound to mitigate the players reaction.

They are revolutionizing the whole traits system and are making us pay to respec because of what they will broke.
Remember the one time free change on the exotic with MF? Forget it.

And people are even happy to be able to pay to change their ascended stats (that were just fine few instants before) because anet wanted to redesign all.
I’m for changing things, but not for reverting progression and even charging players for it.
This remind me of the fractals rollback, but back then people were not that happy about it.

Still, not considering this reset, maybe, the ability to change stats like this is a decent option (even if not optimal), but it all depends from the market, because you always have to take into account the loss of all your upgrades.

Bah, time will tell.

+1 to Alastor.

Gw2 is about BiS gear grinding/ masteries grinding.
Exactly what is supposed to be a vertical progression.
Don’t like to, but I’ll talk again about manifesto, grind, BiS, etcetera…
oh wait no…it’s too boring.
Still, gw2 has become a different game from what many of us bought the game for.
Just give it the right name: a typical mmo.
It can be alright for someone or a huge mess for someone else.
The good-stats-but-not-enough-to-be-worth-the-grind ascended is just a trick
to keep logging in both fans and haters.

DarkSpirit.7046:

Erick Alastor.3917:

They could even evolve in the legendary tier when you “unlock” them all.
Let’s say ~20 sets: ~500g for the first set + ~50g per set “upgrade” * 19 = 1450g for a full unlocked ascended set that would became “LEGENDARY” (at least in its functionality, not asking for the cool skins).

Overwriting != Progression.

I hear this many times where people ask, “Should I make ascended weapons or should I save up for making legendaries”? If the ascended tier was done right, that kind of question wouldn’t even be asked at all! Ascended should have been a natural progression towards legendary but yet they are designed as a separate alternative to screw with us.

And I don’t buy this BS about “it goes against what GW2 is about” which is a statement designed just to make the anti-gear grind crowd feel good. If they truly care so much what GW2 is about, then they shouldn’t have introduced ascended gear in the first place!

The ascended tier right now is a broken tier, neither here nor there. Too expensive and not useful enough to compel most players to craft them. They might as well just scrap it!

uhm…tbh I played with an exo gs for a looooong time and recently got an ascended gs, the difference is quite noticable. don’t understand you saying they might as well scrap it…ever compared the difference….it is realy noticable….quite good noticable in fact…I think you’re jellybob