Guild Wars 2

The purpose of this post is to hopefully open the eyes of the developers of this game to see the flaw which ascended gear has become. I am not asking for complete removal but for some changes to be made.

Fractals of the Mist and Ascended Gear:

One would think that the two would go hand and hand. Everything started great and I believe the community as a whole would agree that FoTM was sweet. RNG is RNG and that was our way of getting rings from the maw chest. They subsequently are account bound so you can use the ring you find on any hero. Great!

Then came the weapon skins which was an awesome add on. All obtainable from FoTM.

Then out of nowhere obtaining new ascended gear lost the focus of what it really was about. FoTM the dungeon and AR. Now instead of dealing with the RNG of a chest to obtain my amulet, I have to grind for a month straight doing something that has nothing to do with FoTM. And on top of that gain no additional AR to complete higher level FoTM.

RNG in a higher tier FoTM would been a beter option for amulets but we will let it slide.

Now WHAM Guild Wars players. HOW ABOUT YOU GRIND 60 DAYS WORTH OF DAILIES FOR THE EARRINGS YOU WANT! Or do some guild activities which have NOTHING WHAT SO EVER to do with FoTM. Again RNG in a higher level FoTM would have been ideal for the accessory.

TL DR Version:

Ascended gear has completely lost all focus and its original meaning.

We cannot even grind RNG to get full Ascended gear for our alts, let alone our main. We have to watch day by day as we gain one extra laurel.

Ascended gear implemented thus far and in the future should have one main focus only and that is for additional AR. Extras stats simply a bonus.

Ascended gear should also be obtainable in tje dungeon it was made for. Who even came up with the idea to not have it this way? Fire him.

Ascended accessories should cost 10 laurels max. ANET you realize thats 60 days worth of dailies and 100 ecto for 2 freakin earrings?

Looking at this from the outside in I cannot figure out how or why its even gotten to this point? Devs read this because you need to. Feel free to email me in game with an extended offer to join your team and help make this game better.

Any additional comments on how to save this system are appreciated. Thanks!

The 40 Laurels and 40 glob’s are just pointless to even try for. To get 40 Laurels will take months. Or just do the easy mode with 5G and 12 Guild Commendation. Good one Anet.

I have 41 laurels

Seveer.6421:

I have 41 laurels

And no Ascended amulet. You’re still a step behind.

Joke thread?

1/ Pretty much everyone agreed that FotM was a bad thing for the game
2/ Pretty much everyone agreed that other means for gaining ascended was necessary
3/ Pretty much everyone agreed that RNG is a broken mechanic
4/ Pretty much everyone agreed that gating gear in higher fractals is a broken mechanic
5/ Pretty much everyone agrees you are not fit to work for arena.net and your ideas wouldn’t make the game better.

Vinny

Feel free to email me in game with an extended offer to join your team and help make this game better.

You can’t be serious. Job offers aren’t done in game. They aren’t done to entitled elitists on forums and “extended” offers aren’t given to people who demand them. Furthermore, your OP shows you do not have the game design knowledge to work for an AAA development company.

Good troll though.

I think the core issue with ascended gear is that it’s not available through crafting professions, dungeons or WvW. I doubt there would be half the complaints if all of the ascended pieces weren’t only available from very specific PvE content and the only other option to get them was just stupid.

And since some random Joe is gonna come here and complain about non constructive whining, here’s some suggestions:

- Add Ascended to craftables NOW. Not after 5 months.

- Add Ascended accessories to dungeons. Amulet 500 tokens, Backpiece 500 tokens, rings 250 tokens/one and earrings 200 tokens/one seems like pretty fair conversion rate.

- Add Ascended accessories to WvW NOW. Not soon™. (Okay, this might be covered by March patch). Also don’t make the badge prices stupid.

- Add Ascended items to world drops.

- Make Ascended items always be account bound so I can at least use the same piece on all my characters instead of having to grind a year (yes, I acctually counted) to get all my characters ONE stat set.

- Give me the ability to do daily and earn laurel with all my lvl x+ toons. Make it so that anyone can do one daily/account. But if you have 5 lvl 80s you can earn a laurel with each of them. There’s no reason why gearing up multiple toons should take more time than gearing up one. (Do note that I’m still willing to work 5x more than a person with only one character.)

- Decide and make a very public announcement of what you want from your game. Before release you gave the impression that maxing stats was easy and progression would mainly be about pretty skins. Now you have added ascended that has higher stats than other types of gear, yet you haven’t added any MF recipe pretty skins.

Aren’t ascended gear supposed to be a filler between exotic and legendary? If it takes this long to get ascended equipment, then they must be doing it right with the drop rate of precursors. We ARE intended to get them in a year!

I have to disagree largely with the OP. The only problem with Ascended gear is that it represents the initial tier of an ever ascending vertical progression. It’s a power curve that you must climb and the reason the dailies are no longer optional. They are the gear treadmill outside FotM. Of course, we have another treadmill now placed in the guild system, but multiplying the problem is really not a solution. Vertical progression is the problem, not Ascended gear.

Raege.1069:

I think the core issue with ascended gear is that it’s not available through crafting professions, dungeons or WvW. I doubt there would be half the complaints if all of the ascended pieces weren’t only available from very specific PvE content and the only other option to get them was just stupid.

And since some random Joe is gonna come here and complain about non constructive whining, here’s some suggestions:

- Add Ascended to craftables NOW. Not after 5 months.

- Add Ascended accessories to dungeons. Amulet 500 tokens, Backpiece 500 tokens, rings 250 tokens/one and earrings 200 tokens/one seems like pretty fair conversion rate.

- Add Ascended accessories to WvW NOW. Not soon™. (Okay, this might be covered by March patch). Also don’t make the badge prices stupid.

- Add Ascended items to world drops.

- Make Ascended items always be account bound so I can at least use the same piece on all my characters instead of having to grind a year (yes, I acctually counted) to get all my characters ONE stat set.

- Give me the ability to do daily and earn laurel with all my lvl x+ toons. Make it so that anyone can do one daily/account. But if you have 5 lvl 80s you can earn a laurel with each of them. There’s no reason why gearing up multiple toons should take more time than gearing up one. (Do note that I’m still willing to work 5x more than a person with only one character.)

- Decide and make a very public announcement of what you want from your game. Before release you gave the impression that maxing stats was easy and progression would mainly be about pretty skins. Now you have added ascended that has higher stats than other types of gear, yet you haven’t added any MF recipe pretty skins.

Adding:
- Make it reasonable to get the ascended pieces for multiple specs/characters, not months to gear one spec.

So much for them “learning” from the FotM fiasco.

Leo Paul.1659:

Aren’t ascended gear supposed to be a filler between exotic and legendary? If it takes this long to get ascended equipment, then they must be doing it right with the drop rate of precursors. We ARE intended to get them in a year!

Doesn’t take a year to get a Legendary. Let’s say a Legendary costs 2500g. Now by farming CoF p1 6g/h it would take 416 hours, that’s 17 days. But since no one plays 24/7 for 17 days let’s say it’d take 1,5 months for a somewhat HC player.

Not to mention Legendaries are cosmetic upgrades. Ascended are stat upgardes. If, for example, instead of stat upgrades ascended amulet would add some sort of aura to your character and rings add particles to your hands I’d say most people would be quite happy.

Edit: lolol major typo there xD

Raege.1069:

Leo Paul.1659:

Aren’t ascended gear supposed to be a filler between exotic and legendary? If it takes this long to get ascended equipment, then they must be doing it right with the drop rate of precursors. We ARE intended to get them in a year!

Doesn’t take a year to get an exotic. Let’s say and exotic costs 2500g. Now by farming CoF p1 6g/h it would take 416 hours, that’s 17 days. But since no one plays 24/7 for 17 days let’s say it’d take 1,5 months for a somewhat HC player.

Not to mention Legendaries are cosmetic upgrades. Ascended are stat upgardes. If, for example, instead of stat upgrades ascended amulet would add some sort of aura to your character and rings add particles to your hands I’d say most people would be quite happy.

Wait til they add them Ascended Weapons. I feel pity for them new players. They’ve missed out on a lot of dailies/monthlies.

Not to mention why is accessories the most expensive when it the the type of jewellery that have the LEAST stats? where amulet are the cheapest yet have the most stats…

Leo Paul.1659:

Raege.1069:

Leo Paul.1659:

Aren’t ascended gear supposed to be a filler between exotic and legendary? If it takes this long to get ascended equipment, then they must be doing it right with the drop rate of precursors. We ARE intended to get them in a year!

Doesn’t take a year to get an exotic. Let’s say and exotic costs 2500g. Now by farming CoF p1 6g/h it would take 416 hours, that’s 17 days. But since no one plays 24/7 for 17 days let’s say it’d take 1,5 months for a somewhat HC player.

Not to mention Legendaries are cosmetic upgrades. Ascended are stat upgardes. If, for example, instead of stat upgrades ascended amulet would add some sort of aura to your character and rings add particles to your hands I’d say most people would be quite happy.

Wait til they add them Ascended Weapons. I feel pity for them new players. They’ve missed out on a lot of dailies/monthlies.

Well, to be fair. I think/hope that the current state of ascended stuff is there only because they didn’t want to make Jewelcrafting so much better than other crafts (hence no craftable ascended) or HC WvW guilds (who more than likely have thousands of badges stacking in their bank) able to acquire superb stats a lot faster than the casual PvE guy who’d likely never step in WvW again after getting steamrolled a couple of times (hence no ascended for badges).

I think by making gaining ascended stuff take as much time for anyone they are trying to give the casual PvE people a chance but failing quite miserably. But when the time comes, I believe ascended will become acquirable just like exotics are now. I just think they didn’t think this time limit through for the players who play multiple toons and multiple specs. And concidering this game IS a sequel to another game where having multiple toons and specs was the common thing to do. I find it a little silly that they didn’t think people would do that in this game too.

and well for me it not a “filler” between exotic and legendary, since i have no intention to get a legendary at any time soon, likely never ever even. So for me it is just an added grind to get the BiS items… wasn’t it supposed to be easy and relatively quick to get BiS items in gw2? and then you could if you wanted grind for cosmetics

My issue is that the current way of acquiring ascended items is SO disjointed. Another different currency in a span of a month to get BiS items. I also find it hilarious that the place (FotM) where you need ascended items the most due to agony res is NOT the place where you can get the needed items (amulets and earrings).

Raege.1069:

I think the core issue with ascended gear is that it’s not available through crafting professions, dungeons or WvW. I doubt there would be half the complaints if all of the ascended pieces weren’t only available from very specific PvE content and the only other option to get them was just stupid.

And since some random Joe is gonna come here and complain about non constructive whining, here’s some suggestions:

- Add Ascended to craftables NOW. Not after 5 months.

- Add Ascended accessories to dungeons. Amulet 500 tokens, Backpiece 500 tokens, rings 250 tokens/one and earrings 200 tokens/one seems like pretty fair conversion rate.

- Add Ascended accessories to WvW NOW. Not soon™. (Okay, this might be covered by March patch). Also don’t make the badge prices stupid.

- Add Ascended items to world drops.

- Make Ascended items always be account bound so I can at least use the same piece on all my characters instead of having to grind a year (yes, I acctually counted) to get all my characters ONE stat set.

- Give me the ability to do daily and earn laurel with all my lvl x+ toons. Make it so that anyone can do one daily/account. But if you have 5 lvl 80s you can earn a laurel with each of them. There’s no reason why gearing up multiple toons should take more time than gearing up one. (Do note that I’m still willing to work 5x more than a person with only one character.)

- Decide and make a very public announcement of what you want from your game. Before release you gave the impression that maxing stats was easy and progression would mainly be about pretty skins. Now you have added ascended that has higher stats than other types of gear, yet you haven’t added any MF recipe pretty skins.

Great points and ideas! I will add these to the original post with credit for you when im at home. Phone is weird about c/p. Thank you for these.

Side note: constructive criticism is always accepted. In the other hand idiotic banter will likely be ignored (not mentioning any names). Keep the ideas and thoughts coming guys!

the only thing i can see wrong is that once you get to fractal 40-50 and have the rings/backpiece/weapons you want. you haven’t got a reason to go further. if chest 50 dropped amulets that allowed me to get to 60 which dropped earing that allowed me to get to wherever, it would be epic.

Arc DLad.2194:

the only thing i can see wrong is that once you get to fractal 40-50 and have the rings/backpiece/weapons you want. you haven’t got a reason to go further. if chest 50 dropped amulets that allowed me to get to 60 which dropped earing that allowed me to get to wherever, it would be epic.

It is also what we thought would be the case, but nope.

They wouldn’t even let us combine 2 rings of the same set into 1 amulet with the same stat combo with some mystic forge recipe that could eat up all those pristine/fractal relics and mist essences, and some other conversion for the earrings.

Heck, they didn’t even allow the new rings to be infused in the forge. At this point I really am not sure if fractals are being given up or what.

Anyone that thinks “BIS” items really make a difference when compared to exotics needs to let go of the WoW spreadsheet mentality you’ve carried over to here. Seriously, it’s embarrassing to see you people freaking out about an amulet, for example, that gives you an extra 0.55% damage (actual math).

Ascended gear fills the time gap between legendary and exotics. A lot of you weren’t even bothering with legendary. Why? Takes too freaking long, too much stuff to grind, etc. But look at you now… chasing the alleged carrot of ascended because it’s within grasp and appears to be so much better! Relax. This isn’t WoW where one Tier of gear is practically an order of magnitude better than the prior. The benefits are marginal at best, and by the time someone grinds out a full set of ascended most people will have earned a few pieces by accident just from normal play.

VOLKON.1290:

Anyone that thinks “BIS” items really make a difference when compared to exotics needs to let go of the WoW spreadsheet mentality you’ve carried over to here. Seriously, it’s embarrassing to see you people freaking out about an amulet, for example, that gives you an extra 0.55% damage (actual math).

Ascended gear fills the time gap between legendary and exotics. A lot of you weren’t even bothering with legendary. Why? Takes too freaking long, too much stuff to grind, etc. But look at you now… chasing the alleged carrot of ascended because it’s within grasp and appears to be so much better! Relax. This isn’t WoW where one Tier of gear is practically an order of magnitude better than the prior. The benefits are marginal at best, and by the time someone grinds out a full set of ascended most people will have earned a few pieces by accident just from normal play.

No matter how hard you try to dismiss and minimize the stats given by ascended equips, it doesn’t make it any less of a gear treadmill. This isn’t what I was promised when I bought the game.

Leo Paul.1659:

VOLKON.1290:

Anyone that thinks “BIS” items really make a difference when compared to exotics needs to let go of the WoW spreadsheet mentality you’ve carried over to here. Seriously, it’s embarrassing to see you people freaking out about an amulet, for example, that gives you an extra 0.55% damage (actual math).

Ascended gear fills the time gap between legendary and exotics. A lot of you weren’t even bothering with legendary. Why? Takes too freaking long, too much stuff to grind, etc. But look at you now… chasing the alleged carrot of ascended because it’s within grasp and appears to be so much better! Relax. This isn’t WoW where one Tier of gear is practically an order of magnitude better than the prior. The benefits are marginal at best, and by the time someone grinds out a full set of ascended most people will have earned a few pieces by accident just from normal play.

No matter how hard you try to dismiss and minimize the stats given by ascended equips, it doesn’t make it any less of a gear treadmill. This isn’t what I was promised when I bought the game.

Really? Where exactly is this treadmill of which you speak? Where’s the gated content that is inaccessible unless you get the latest tier of gear? Where are the gear score calculators?

Oh, right… they left those in other MMOs, where treadmills actually exists. Ascended gear only acts as a treadmill if you’re required to obtain it to access further content. That doesn’t exist, nor is there any remote hint of an indication that GW2 will ever go down that dark road. Minor progression != treadmill. Required gear for gated content = treadmill.

VOLKON.1290:

Anyone that thinks “BIS” items really make a difference when compared to exotics needs to let go of the WoW spreadsheet mentality you’ve carried over to here. Seriously, it’s embarrassing to see you people freaking out about an amulet, for example, that gives you an extra 0.55% damage (actual math).

Ascended gear fills the time gap between legendary and exotics. A lot of you weren’t even bothering with legendary. Why? Takes too freaking long, too much stuff to grind, etc. But look at you now… chasing the alleged carrot of ascended because it’s within grasp and appears to be so much better! Relax. This isn’t WoW where one Tier of gear is practically an order of magnitude better than the prior. The benefits are marginal at best, and by the time someone grinds out a full set of ascended most people will have earned a few pieces by accident just from normal play.

Full ascended will be ~20-30% more damage then full exotic. Don’t talk about something like you know about it when you don’t actually have any idea.

VOLKON.1290:

Anyone that thinks “BIS” items really make a difference when compared to exotics needs to let go of the WoW spreadsheet mentality you’ve carried over to here. Seriously, it’s embarrassing to see you people freaking out about an amulet, for example, that gives you an extra 0.55% damage (actual math).

Funny how you keep ignoring the example I’ve given that clearly shows the damage increase of exotics easily exceeds 5%. Even after I’ve provided you with a direct link to my calculations.

wintermute.4096:

VOLKON.1290:

Anyone that thinks “BIS” items really make a difference when compared to exotics needs to let go of the WoW spreadsheet mentality you’ve carried over to here. Seriously, it’s embarrassing to see you people freaking out about an amulet, for example, that gives you an extra 0.55% damage (actual math).

Ascended gear fills the time gap between legendary and exotics. A lot of you weren’t even bothering with legendary. Why? Takes too freaking long, too much stuff to grind, etc. But look at you now… chasing the alleged carrot of ascended because it’s within grasp and appears to be so much better! Relax. This isn’t WoW where one Tier of gear is practically an order of magnitude better than the prior. The benefits are marginal at best, and by the time someone grinds out a full set of ascended most people will have earned a few pieces by accident just from normal play.

Full ascended will be ~20-30% more damage then full exotic. Don’t talk about something like you know about it when you don’t actually have any idea.

Show me your math and I’ll show you mine. The berserker amulet versions for the ascended add 0.55% damage over the exotic equivalent. The rings are closer to 0.6% based on the stats someone else showed, but I haven’t verified those personally yet. (No reason to think they’re bad numbers however.)

ThiBash.5634:

VOLKON.1290:

Anyone that thinks “BIS” items really make a difference when compared to exotics needs to let go of the WoW spreadsheet mentality you’ve carried over to here. Seriously, it’s embarrassing to see you people freaking out about an amulet, for example, that gives you an extra 0.55% damage (actual math).

Funny how you keep ignoring the example I’ve given that clearly shows the damage increase of exotics easily exceeds 5%. Even after I’ve provided you with a direct link to my calculations.

I honestly haven’t seen that link… if you’d be so kind at to re-post it I’ll be happy to take a look. You are comparing comparable gear, right? Berserkers vs. Berserkers for example…

VOLKON.1290:

Show me your math and I’ll show you mine.

Done. Check out this post:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Holy-kitten-Cleric-Ascended-Accessory/page/2#post1514781

VOLKON.1290:

Leo Paul.1659:

VOLKON.1290:

Anyone that thinks “BIS” items really make a difference when compared to exotics needs to let go of the WoW spreadsheet mentality you’ve carried over to here. Seriously, it’s embarrassing to see you people freaking out about an amulet, for example, that gives you an extra 0.55% damage (actual math).

Ascended gear fills the time gap between legendary and exotics. A lot of you weren’t even bothering with legendary. Why? Takes too freaking long, too much stuff to grind, etc. But look at you now… chasing the alleged carrot of ascended because it’s within grasp and appears to be so much better! Relax. This isn’t WoW where one Tier of gear is practically an order of magnitude better than the prior. The benefits are marginal at best, and by the time someone grinds out a full set of ascended most people will have earned a few pieces by accident just from normal play.

No matter how hard you try to dismiss and minimize the stats given by ascended equips, it doesn’t make it any less of a gear treadmill. This isn’t what I was promised when I bought the game.

Really? Where exactly is this treadmill of which you speak? Where’s the gated content that is inaccessible unless you get the latest tier of gear? Where are the gear score calculators?

Oh, right… they left those in other MMOs, where treadmills actually exists. Ascended gear only acts as a treadmill if you’re required to obtain it to access further content. That doesn’t exist, nor is there any remote hint of an indication that GW2 will ever go down that dark road. Minor progression != treadmill. Required gear for gated content = treadmill.

Ah yes, because 80 days of doing your dailies guarantees you 2 earrings of ascended equipment =/= gear treadmill. Gear treadmill doesn’t have to restrict you from accessing further content. With GW2’s current system, it would take more days to get all ascended equips than to get a legendary weapon. Gear treadmill began when they introduced Ascended equips. Everyone was fine with exotics.

ThiBash.5634:

VOLKON.1290:

Show me your math and I’ll show you mine.

Done. Check out this post:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Holy-kitten-Cleric-Ascended-Accessory/page/2#post1514781

Thanks… um… which one? I’m not seeing any calculations, nothing plugged into the damage calculations formula or any of that. I could be missing it…

Leo Paul.1659:

VOLKON.1290:

Leo Paul.1659:

VOLKON.1290:

Anyone that thinks “BIS” items really make a difference when compared to exotics needs to let go of the WoW spreadsheet mentality you’ve carried over to here. Seriously, it’s embarrassing to see you people freaking out about an amulet, for example, that gives you an extra 0.55% damage (actual math).

Ascended gear fills the time gap between legendary and exotics. A lot of you weren’t even bothering with legendary. Why? Takes too freaking long, too much stuff to grind, etc. But look at you now… chasing the alleged carrot of ascended because it’s within grasp and appears to be so much better! Relax. This isn’t WoW where one Tier of gear is practically an order of magnitude better than the prior. The benefits are marginal at best, and by the time someone grinds out a full set of ascended most people will have earned a few pieces by accident just from normal play.

No matter how hard you try to dismiss and minimize the stats given by ascended equips, it doesn’t make it any less of a gear treadmill. This isn’t what I was promised when I bought the game.

Really? Where exactly is this treadmill of which you speak? Where’s the gated content that is inaccessible unless you get the latest tier of gear? Where are the gear score calculators?

Oh, right… they left those in other MMOs, where treadmills actually exists. Ascended gear only acts as a treadmill if you’re required to obtain it to access further content. That doesn’t exist, nor is there any remote hint of an indication that GW2 will ever go down that dark road. Minor progression != treadmill. Required gear for gated content = treadmill.

Ah yes, because 80 days of doing your dailies guarantees you 2 earrings of ascended equipment =/= gear treadmill. Gear treadmill doesn’t have to restrict you from accessing further content. With GW2’s current system, it would take more days to get all ascended equips than to get a legendary weapon. Gear treadmill began when they introduced Ascended equips. Everyone was fine with exotics.

Believe it or not, but your attempt at sarcasm actually speaks the truth… 80 days of doing your dailies for 2 earrings does not equal a gear treadmill. The gear treadmill, by definition, is the endless cycle of being required to replace gear to further access and progress through content in a game, such as with WoW raids. Every new raid has a new tier of gear, and without the gear from that raid the next one remain inaccessible. This isn’t the case in GW2 clearly. Yes, you can spend time to get marginally better gear if you wish. However there is NO content denied to any player that doesn’t have ascended gear. No, not even Fractals.

Raege.1069:

I think the core issue with ascended gear is that it’s not available through crafting professions, dungeons or WvW. I doubt there would be half the complaints if all of the ascended pieces weren’t only available from very specific PvE content and the only other option to get them was just stupid.

And since some random Joe is gonna come here and complain about non constructive whining, here’s some suggestions:

- Add Ascended to craftables NOW. Not after 5 months.

- Add Ascended accessories to dungeons. Amulet 500 tokens, Backpiece 500 tokens, rings 250 tokens/one and earrings 200 tokens/one seems like pretty fair conversion rate.

- Add Ascended accessories to WvW NOW. Not soon™. (Okay, this might be covered by March patch). Also don’t make the badge prices stupid.

- Add Ascended items to world drops.

- Make Ascended items always be account bound so I can at least use the same piece on all my characters instead of having to grind a year (yes, I acctually counted) to get all my characters ONE stat set.

- Give me the ability to do daily and earn laurel with all my lvl x+ toons. Make it so that anyone can do one daily/account. But if you have 5 lvl 80s you can earn a laurel with each of them. There’s no reason why gearing up multiple toons should take more time than gearing up one. (Do note that I’m still willing to work 5x more than a person with only one character.)

- Decide and make a very public announcement of what you want from your game. Before release you gave the impression that maxing stats was easy and progression would mainly be about pretty skins. Now you have added ascended that has higher stats than other types of gear, yet you haven’t added any MF recipe pretty skins.

/signed

also ill add something i wrote in another thread:

And on ascended items i encourage ANet to limit them to trinkets. It really doesnt add anything to the game except unnecessary grinds, and instead go the route putting awesome skins that take very long time to acquire instead ascended items. It will come down to either make ascended items a bit longer to acquire than exotics (which defeats their purpose) or be “left behind” (whether justified or not).

Its still not much of a problem with only trinkets, but with whole set…it will be. So to save you and us of all the problems of gear progression….just stop it while it hasnt escalated too far to be repairable. Agony is quite enough as “progression” and infusions should use regular upgrade slots – have stats as best upgrade+agony)

MikaHR.1978:

/signed

also ill add something i wrote in another thrread:

And on ascended items i encourage ANet to limit them to trinkets. It really doesnt add anything to the game except unnecessary grinds, and instead go the route putting awesome skins that take very long time to acquire instead ascended items. It will come down to either make ascended items a bit longer to acquire than exotics (which defeats their purpose) or be “left behind” (whether justified or not).

Its still not much of a problem with only trinkets, but with whole set…it will be. So to save you and us of all the problems of gear progression….just stop it while it hasnt escalated too far to be irrepairable.

Mika here has a very solid point that most people are missing. To quote: “It really doesn’t add anything to the game except unnecessary grinds”. I’d replace “unnecessary” with “optional” personally, but Mika is exactly right… ascended gear isn’t necessary to get. Yes, it’s a grind, a time sink, but it’s one that is, ultimately, optional.

I actually don’t think the idea of limiting ascended gear to jewelry and maybe weapons is a bad one actually. Just make sure the weapons have great looking skins.

VOLKON.1290:

I actually don’t think the idea of limiting ascended gear to jewelry and maybe weapons is a bad one actually. Just make sure the weapons have great looking skins.

not weapons no ONLY jewelry, since once you begin to dip into weapons and armor who you gonna handle runes and sigils? ANet have to create one hell of a lot of items if they are to make all possible stat and sigil types for all weapon types…, the amount of unique options we had on jewellery compared to weps and armour before ascended was abysmal

GummiBear.2756:

VOLKON.1290:

I actually don’t think the idea of limiting ascended gear to jewelry and maybe weapons is a bad one actually. Just make sure the weapons have great looking skins.

not weapons no ONLY jewelry, since once you begin to dip into weapons and armor who you gonna handle runes and sigils? ANet have to create one hell of a lot of items if they are to make all possible stat and sigil types for all weapon types…, the amount of unique options we had on jewellery compared to weps and armour before ascended was abysmal

Hmm… good point. Perhaps ascended skins then that don’t provide a stat boost? That’s a grey area… the marginal stat boost is what compels so many people to chase them in the first place. I don’t know… as long as they keep the stat boost as marginal as the current items are I don’t think it would be a real issue (I won’t rule out an imagined issue). One thought may be to have ascended weapons be identical in stats to exotics but have the extra utility infusion slot. People would go for those for that utility slot alone. It would also take away the need to upgrade legendary weapons (which they could add an infusion slot… or two… to).

Players will always chase the best-in-slot gear. Saying you can do everything with just exotics now is like saying you can do everything with masterwork compared to exos before: sure you have the option of not going after them but why wouldn’t you? All you have to do is farm a bit right? Then they introduced ascended, and limited it to dailies.

It’s just a matter of definition at this point. It doesn’t seem like a gear treadmill per se because they’re only introducing 1 type of item per major patch, but if this continues, how long will it take to get all best-in-slot equips for 1 character from just doing dailies? They’re only making it worse for hardcore players by making them suffer long waits until they get what they want so that casuals can keep up – in hopes that the line splitting the two wouldn’t be as defined as other mmo’s.

Compared to GW1, chasing after stats in GW2 = grindy. If they only made graphically improved items like the fractal backpiece instead of a whole tier of equips and stats it would’ve been ok.

Regardless of how we view ascended equipments though, making exotic tier obsolete isn’t good by design.

It was fine just having exotics and legendaries.

VOLKON.1290:

GummiBear.2756:

VOLKON.1290:

I actually don’t think the idea of limiting ascended gear to jewelry and maybe weapons is a bad one actually. Just make sure the weapons have great looking skins.

not weapons no ONLY jewelry, since once you begin to dip into weapons and armor who you gonna handle runes and sigils? ANet have to create one hell of a lot of items if they are to make all possible stat and sigil types for all weapon types…, the amount of unique options we had on jewellery compared to weps and armour before ascended was abysmal

Hmm… good point. Perhaps ascended skins then that don’t provide a stat boost? That’s a grey area… the marginal stat boost is what compels so many people to chase them in the first place. I don’t know… as long as they keep the stat boost as marginal as the current items are I don’t think it would be a real issue (I won’t rule out an imagined issue). One thought may be to have ascended weapons be identical in stats to exotics but have the extra utility infusion slot. People would go for those for that utility slot alone. It would also take away the need to upgrade legendary weapons (which they could add an infusion slot… or two… to).

This is what I wanted in the first place. /sigh

I dislike that I have to join a (preferably big) guild just to get ascended best in slot trinkets in time. I’d rather like to play with friends outside of guilds and random guys out there. Now I HAVE to participate in those guild missions just to get the BiS-items in an acceptable amount of time to be at par in WvW vs. the people from large guilds who got theirs with the new currency… I don’t want to join a guild just because of almost exclusive gearing conditions.

(Right now – without the advanced achievement system – it takes to much time to get those trinkets with laurels & ectos compared to the players who like to play in guilds)

Ascended gear is the worst thing that could have ever happened to this game.

VOLKON.1290:

Hmm… good point. Perhaps ascended skins then that don’t provide a stat boost? That’s a grey area… the marginal stat boost is what compels so many people to chase them in the first place. I don’t know… as long as they keep the stat boost as marginal as the current items are I don’t think it would be a real issue (I won’t rule out an imagined issue). One thought may be to have ascended weapons be identical in stats to exotics but have the extra utility infusion slot. People would go for those for that utility slot alone. It would also take away the need to upgrade legendary weapons (which they could add an infusion slot… or two… to).

Actually thats also not bad idea, have ascended gear have utility slots that dont add stats but some other benefits.

The issue with gear is largely imagined by community. Its also somewhat understandable – if you have a choice to take someone in exotics or someone in ascended who will you take in your group?

Same thing happened in relatively new MMO i played (just as example as its issue with any gear based game), not month after release community started to cite “you need x gear for that content” and, since we did it in much less powerful gear it was fact you dont need x gear, but nevertheless it was “required”. And required where it posed a biggest problem – PUGs. You could crusade against that “requirement” but it still persisted.

Ascended was totally unneeded thing, now nobody is satisfied, some that they cant get it just by grinding fractals and some that had no desire for new tier of gear (that is unnecessary as theres absolutely no need for raised stats). Its lose-lose proposition.

VOLKON.1290:

ThiBash.5634:

VOLKON.1290:

Show me your math and I’ll show you mine.

Done. Check out this post:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Holy-kitten-Cleric-Ascended-Accessory/page/2#post1514781

Thanks… um… which one? I’m not seeing any calculations, nothing plugged into the damage calculations formula or any of that. I could be missing it…

here. Those calculations were done back when only amulets and rings were available, and they were actually too conservative in their estimates (so the increase on earrings is even bigger then expected), and that calculation is not even factoring in procs or boons, which would increase the difference even more. Oh, and it does not have infusion slots added of course.

Now show yours.

there has to be another way to get these new items…. only by daily grind is a joke…..

wintermute.4096:

VOLKON.1290:

ThiBash.5634:

VOLKON.1290:

Show me your math and I’ll show you mine.

Done. Check out this post:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Holy-kitten-Cleric-Ascended-Accessory/page/2#post1514781

Thanks… um… which one? I’m not seeing any calculations, nothing plugged into the damage calculations formula or any of that. I could be missing it…

here. Those calculations were done back when only amulets and rings were available, but they were rather conservative in their estimates, and that calculation is not even factoring in procs or boons, which would increase the difference even more.

Now show yours.

Only amulets and rings? Will do. First, the calculation for damage:

Damage done = (weapon damage) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

Now, when comparing two different damages and calculate the percent change we know that the coefficient, armor and weapon damage, being constant, negate each other since they’ll be equally represented above and below the line when dividing. Hence they can be left out or substituted with numbers that make the math easy. As such, I did my calculations based on my mesmer. First, the amulet. The exotic I had was the Ruby Orichalcum of the berserker flavor, the ascended is the berserker equivalent. Power with the exotic = 1982, with the ascended = 1993.

Before: 1100*1982*.5/1000 = 1090.1 (Assuming a coefficient of .5 and an armor of 1000 to simplify the math)
After: 1100*1993*.5/1000= 1096.15

(1096.15 – 1090.1)/ 1096.15 = .00552 or a single attack damage increase (not DPS) of approx. 0.55%.

The same rings now. The exotic ring adds a total of 92 power, the ascended equivalent adds 103 power, or +11 each, identical to the amulet, which means the math is the same at 0.55% increase in damage. Or, adding the three together we get:

Before: 1100*1982*.5/1000 = 1090.1
After: 1100*2015*.5/1000 = 1108.25

(1108.25 – 1090.1) / 1108.25 = 0.164, or a 1.64% increase in damage for the amulet and both rings, berserker to berserker equivalent upgrade.

EDIT: Adding backpieces… again berserker to berserker adds 13 power (43 to 56). That makes after = 1100 * 2028 * .5 / 1000 = 1115.4.

(1115.4 – 1090.1) / 1115.4 = 0.0227, or a damage increase of 2.27% for the equivalent upgrades of 2 rings, amulet and back pack, berserker to berserker equivalent. The math I saw on that link did something wrong, coming up with twice that amount.

You clearly didn’t put into consideration crit damage, which was the entire point of the post you just quoted. Try adding that power computation up to crit damage and precision difference between an exotic and ascended so that we can have a better understanding.

Jordy.1570:

there has to be another way to get these new items…. only by daily grind is a joke…..

There is.

Having ascended gear only available from FotM was a problem. It required anyone wanting BIS gear to play FotM, and many players want that gear in a video game. The previous BIS gear, level 80 exotics, was available from crafting, dungeon tokens, karma vendors in Orr, WvWvW tokens, and if all else failed you could farm and buy it from the BLTP. None of the methods of obtaining level 80 exotics were trivial, but you could at least choose the one that you preferred. Ascended gear only from FotM breaks that pattern. One of the main reasons I enjoy GW2 is that I don’t need to repeatedly kill the same boss and wait to be favored by the great god RNG.

VOLKON.1290:

ThiBash.5634:

Done. Check out this post:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Holy-kitten-Cleric-Ascended-Accessory/page/2#post1514781

Thanks… um… which one? I’m not seeing any calculations, nothing plugged into the damage calculations formula or any of that. I could be missing it…

You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? The post clearly shows how a balanced build that only uses exotics vs one that has acces to the ascended ‘all stats’ items gains roughly 70 stat points, as well as 20% critical damage and 16% magic find.

Seeing as how there are traits that give less of a bonus, I’d say it qualifies as significant.

ThiBash.5634:

VOLKON.1290:

ThiBash.5634:

Done. Check out this post:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Holy-kitten-Cleric-Ascended-Accessory/page/2#post1514781

Thanks… um… which one? I’m not seeing any calculations, nothing plugged into the damage calculations formula or any of that. I could be missing it…

You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? The post clearly shows how a balanced build that only uses exotics vs one that has acces to the ascended ‘all stats’ items gains roughly 70 stat points, as well as 20% critical damage and 16% magic find.

Seeing as how there are traits that give less of a bonus, I’d say it qualifies as significant.

Oh… that one, which pretty much doesn’t compare anything comparable at all. Yeah, you go with that one.

VOLKON.1290:

wintermute.4096:

VOLKON.1290:

ThiBash.5634:

VOLKON.1290:

Show me your math and I’ll show you mine.

Done. Check out this post:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Holy-kitten-Cleric-Ascended-Accessory/page/2#post1514781

Thanks… um… which one? I’m not seeing any calculations, nothing plugged into the damage calculations formula or any of that. I could be missing it…

here. Those calculations were done back when only amulets and rings were available, but they were rather conservative in their estimates, and that calculation is not even factoring in procs or boons, which would increase the difference even more.

Now show yours.

Only amulets and rings? Will do. First, the calculation for damage:

Damage done = (weapon damage) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

Now, when comparing two different damages and calculate the percent change we know that the coefficient, armor and weapon damage, being constant, negate each other since they’ll be equally represented above and below the line when dividing. Hence they can be left out or substituted with numbers that make the math easy. As such, I did my calculations based on my mesmer. First, the amulet. The exotic I had was the Ruby Orichalcum of the berserker flavor, the ascended is the berserker equivalent. Power with the exotic = 1982, with the ascended = 1993.

Before: 1100*1982*.5/1000 = 1090.1 (Assuming a coefficient of .5 and an armor of 1000 to simplify the math)
After: 1100*1993*.5/1000= 1096.15

(1096.15 – 1090.1)/ 1096.15 = .00552 or a single attack damage increase (not DPS) of approx. 0.55%.

The same rings now. The exotic ring adds a total of 92 power, the ascended equivalent adds 103 power, or +11 each, identical to the amulet, which means the math is the same at 0.55% increase in damage. Or, adding the three together we get:

Before: 1100*1982*.5/1000 = 1090.1
After: 1100*2015*.5/1000 = 1108.25

(1108.25 – 1090.1) / 1108.25 = 0.164, or a 1.64% increase in damage for the amulet and both rings, berserker to berserker equivalent upgrade.

EDIT: Adding backpieces… again berserker to berserker adds 13 power (43 to 56). That makes after = 1100 * 2028 * .5 / 1000 = 1115.4.

(1115.4 – 1090.1) / 1115.4 = 0.0227, or a damage increase of 2.27% for the equivalent upgrades of 2 rings, amulet and back pack, berserker to berserker equivalent. The math I saw on that link did something wrong, coming up with twice that amount.

Did you seriously not include the increase in crit damage or the increase in crit chance from greater precision? You need to add in those things in order to give a better estimate of your average expected damage.

VOLKON.1290:

Oh… that one, which pretty much doesn’t compare anything comparable at all. Yeah, you go with that one.

So just because it doesn’t suit your view, you decide to dismiss it.

Well, wheter you like it or not, balanced builds get a HUGE upgrade because they get to replace their 3 offensive/3 defensive items for 6 pieces of ‘all stats’ gear.

But of course, it’s easier to dismiss me as being crazy than admit that balanced builds get a much larger stat upgrade than tank or glass cannon builds.

ThiBash.5634:

VOLKON.1290:

Oh… that one, which pretty much doesn’t compare anything comparable at all. Yeah, you go with that one.

So just because it doesn’t suit your view, you decide to dismiss it.

Well, wheter you like it or not, balanced builds get a HUGE upgrade because they get to replace their 3 offensive/3 defensive items for 6 pieces of ‘all stats’ gear.

But of course, it’s easier to dismiss me as being crazy than admit that balanced builds get a much larger stat upgrade than tank or glass cannon builds.

You’re right… I shouldn’t dismiss it. I’ll play with some numbers… what six pieces of gear are you replacing in your example, and with what, specifically?

One mistake I’ll have to admit beforehand: it’s not 6 pieces because there’s no ‘all stats’ backpack. Also, seeing as that there are in fact exotic versions of the ‘all stat’ amulet and earring. Therefore, lets compare only the rings in this example. Bear in mind however, that if ascended ‘all stats’ armor pieces are released, the gap will get progessively bigger. Also, please note that the stats of the rings were increased in the recent patch.

Exotics
Emerald Orichalcum Ring of the Knight
48 Power
48 Precision
67 Toughness
15 Power
15 Precision
25 Toughness

Passiflora Orichalcum Ring of the Apothecary
48 Condition Damage
67 Healing Power
48 Toughness
15 Condition Damage
25 Healing Power
15 Toughness

Ascended
Solaria, Circle of the Sun
+31 Power
+31 Precision
+31 Toughness
+31 Vitality
+4% Critical Damage
+31 Healing Power
+31 Condition Damage
+12 Condition Damage
+12 Precision
+12 Toughness
+12 Power
+12 Vitality
+12 Healing Power
+2% Critical Damage
+4% Magic find

Lunaria, Circle of the Moon
+31 Power
+31 Precision
+31 Toughness
+31 Vitality
+4% Critical Damage
+31 Healing Power
+31 Condition Damage
+12 Condition Damage
+12 Precision
+12 Toughness
+12 Power
+12 Vitality
+12 Healing Power
+2% Critical Damage
+4% Magic find

Comparison
The sum of the stats of the exotic rings is 436 points. The sum of the stats of the ascended ‘all stats’ rings is 516. This is a difference of 80 stat points. Furthermore, the rings also grant 12% critical damage, 8% magic find and an infusion slot. That’s a difference comparable to food, or some traits, and as such can be classified as ‘substantial’.

Now, I realize that the amulet and one of the earring slots already have an ‘all stats’ item, so the upgrade will be relatively smaller. However, I think you can agree that if Anet also releases ‘all stats’ ascended weapons and armor, the resulting difference between exotic balanced builds and ascended balanced builds will be quite large.