Guild Wars 2

By standardized i mean in how you go about obtaining it and how it function compared to other gear. Currently the method is very confusing and simply just a mess as some paths of progression allow obtaining Ascended gear, others only some pieces, and other none.

Lets first start from the top with the method that allows you to gain the most ascended pieces.

1) Laurels
So as you all may know laurels is the dominant way to gain ascended gear, it is a slow process however it offers the most ascended pieces in that it offers everything BUT a packpiece. This is all fine and dandy being slow as laurels should act as the light at the end of the tunnel, meaning if all else fails you can get them through laurels except back pieces which seems to be the exception to all the rules.

2) Guild Missions
Supposedly you can gain ascended gear out of the guild event chest, i have yet to see this but il just assume its possible. However what you can do is use guild commendations to purchase ascended accessories and thats it. Now the problem is two fold here, the first is that it bars people who are currently running into the small guild problem with guild missions (could of been avoided if they didnt make bounty so high in Art of War but regardless) , the other is that it is lacking the other pieces. Rings , amulets, and backpieces are all missing from the equation and are not available through guild missions.

3) Fractals
This is the oddest of the whole bunch in that fractals is where this started and where they have the most use(agony resist). Fractals offer two pieces of ascended gear, the first being rings which are fairly easy to obtain as you only need to be in lvl 10. However Fractals also offer the elusive back piece which can only be obtained otherwise through the mystic forge (at a hefty cost i might add you). But it seems odd that fractals stop there in terms of ascended gear as you need more ascended gear to advance into higher fractals which at the same point have no use. I propose having Fractals 30+ to drop a new currency and a chance out of the daily to get amulets , in addition to this fractals 40+ will also drop a new currency and a chance out of the daily to get accessories .

4) WvW
One of the biggest complaints WvW people have is that they need Ascended and while they dont exactly need it, it is however unfair to them that they cannot obtain Ascended gear through WvW. All that is needed to be done is simply an additional currency to be added Badges of Conquest. Badges of conquest are obtained through capturing Keeps and the Castle(castle gives extra….alot extra) and you then can use badges of conquest to purchase Ascended gear. However to prevent abuse there will be a cooldown on earning badges on conquest within the same keep to prevent trading.

5) Open World
Personally i feel open world need some way of obtaining Ascended gear, but personally i feel like the current design of open world would make it to easy. What is needed for open world is zones that actually has progression within the zone as the whole zone. And progressing towards the end (which has some super huge battle) would give your points towards Ascended gear.

6) Crafting
You cannot craft any of the ascended pieces which diminishes some of the usefulness of say jewlcrafting. I think the best way to go about this is to introduce an ascended only crafting mat, something above globs of ectoplasm that you can gain from exotics and ascended gear when you salvage them.

7) Salvage
This is straight forward,allowing salvaging Ascended gear.

8) MF
Along with crafting having MF recipes to gain ascended gear should also be added.

While this may seem like alot of new ways of gaining ascended gear, it still allows for it to be gated by either large amounts of resources or simply time. It also eases it up somewhat allowing people to not feel as locked into there role and being able to play around with different builds. But the main goal is that this would allow people to play how they want to gain ascended pieces so they dont have to feel like they have to play a part of the game they may not enjoy to gain gear.

No please no more new currencies. Just let us buy any ascended piece using the ones we have now.. Ascended amulets and earrings from pristine fractal relics for example…

Ascended gear should be purchased with Infused Gold. I think we need to add a new merchant and new drops to FotM.

Leo Paul.1659:

No please no more new currencies. Just let us buy any ascended piece using the ones we have now.. Ascended amulets and earrings from pristine fractal relics for example…

While i can understand not wanting new currencies . At least myself feel laurels are the fill in the gap currency, thus to get higher/difference ascended pieces in fractals and WvW they should require more difficulty. With using pristine fractals you could just grind 10 and using badges of honor you just keep doing what your doing already.

Main problem with currencies is they take up bank space, not the amount.

I don’t think a new currency is needed. They should add new fractals and make all ascended gear obtainable in there using current methods. Perhaps make ascended accessories 20 pristine relics so that you would still have to do higher fractals to get them quickly, and add them to the daily chest. Currently, it feels as if the fractal dungeon has been abandoned. How many rings does anyone need?

Keep the laurels they way they are. They are for casual players to eventually work toward something.

At last make the rings and stuff from fractals sellable on the marketplace. That would help. I got rings coming out of my ears. lol

Sounds to me that with the current way things are set up, if you can’t figure out how to get ascended gear you don’t deserve it. It’s honestly quite easy and if you can’t spend 2 minutes of Googling, you’re not trusted in /my/ parties to be useful.

Isn’t the point to make ascended gear available from every aspect of the game? Putting more ascended stuff into fractals is the opposite of that. The selling point of this game isn’t “Just do these fractals to get what you want”, it’s “play however you want”.

Something like a universal currency that is earned from doing anything – fractals, dungeons, farming, WvW, crafting (?), map completion, and jumping puzzles – that can be used to buy ascended things. It could even be gold, I guess, but that might screw with the TP. Better to have something that can’t be traded, but can be gained from doing anything.

Edit: I know how to get ascended gear, but don’t want to do fractals cause they are repetitive. What I want to know is why WvW and jumping puzzles don’t give ascended gear.

Can’t you do Dailies from within WvW? I mean, for the most part, at least 3 or 4 of the daily objectives are doable in WvW. That’s a way to get ascended gear, right?

Katai.6240:

Can’t you do Dailies from within WvW? I mean, for the most part, at least 3 or 4 of the daily objectives are doable in WvW.

its completely dependent on the dailies .There’s only 1 guaranteed WvW daily all others you kinda have to hope are doable in it if you are primarily are a WvWer . With that said I don’t exactly see ascended gear as hard to get if i really wanted to get it .

Vayne.8563:

At last make the rings and stuff from fractals sellable on the marketplace. That would help. I got rings coming out of my ears. lol

No. No. No. The entire point of Ascended gear is to have gear that you CAN’T just purchase from the TP. There needs to be a “carrot on a stick” for players, or players will just get done and leave (like many already have). Additionally, making Ascended gear purchasable makes craftable Exotic gear worthless. Why buy what isn’t the best?

If anything, Ascended items need to be salvagable. Give us ectos and a chance at globs/shards/whatever. Then we can salvage what we don’t need.

Zaft.8194:

Vayne.8563:

At last make the rings and stuff from fractals sellable on the marketplace. That would help. I got rings coming out of my ears. lol

No. No. No. The entire point of Ascended gear is to have gear that you CAN’T just purchase from the TP. There needs to be a “carrot on a stick” for players, or players will just get done and leave (like many already have). Additionally, making Ascended gear purchasable makes craftable Exotic gear worthless. Why buy what isn’t the best?

If anything, Ascended items need to be salvagable. Give us ectos and a chance at globs/shards/whatever. Then we can salvage what we don’t need.

Okay, I see your point. Salvagable then. Which doesn’t help the OP with his problem.

Ascended gear is intended primarily for fractal dungeons. It’s fine how it is with laurels – giving people who’ve never completed a single round one a taste of better things – something to strive for. And not to mention, somewhat of a fighting chance for newbies when they arrive at the scene. Everything else should remain prizes for fractal participation and mystic forge recipes, IMO. Of course the gear obtained in the fractal dungeons should be salvagable. Though being able to do it with the laurel merchant stuff makes me wonder why. Just give people one free exchange and be done with it.

Why is ascended gear intended primarily for fractals? If it gave the same stats as exotics, but with added agony resist, I could see the reason. But it doesn’t – ascended gives more stats, and makes a difference everywhere: normal dungeons, DEs in Orr, and (especially) WvW.

Would you be saying the same thing if ascended gear was only available from WvW? I can just imagine: “It’s fine if you can’t get ascended gear through fractals – they are meant for hardcore WvWers. Everyone else should have to grind laurels to get any ascended stuff.” Now replace WvW with jumping puzzles and you have an even more silly sounding argument.

Agony is currently only intended for Fractals, not Ascended. It was never primarily meant for fractals, but as a gear tier in between exotic and Legendary to give people something to stick around in game to work for. The metrics prolly showed Anet that people were not playing as often or as much and they brainstormed it. And you can tell at how haphazardly it was introduced it was never in their original plans. No way to craft it, no mats for it besides in a dungeon also introduced later, it doesn’t fit in with character progression, etc etc etc.

Sawnic.6795:

Sounds to me that with the current way things are set up, if you can’t figure out how to get ascended gear you don’t deserve it. It’s honestly quite easy and if you can’t spend 2 minutes of Googling, you’re not trusted in /my/ parties to be useful.

What is this i dont even?

KevinEvo.7061:

I don’t think a new currency is needed. They should add new fractals and make all ascended gear obtainable in there using current methods. Perhaps make ascended accessories 20 pristine relics so that you would still have to do higher fractals to get them quickly, and add them to the daily chest. Currently, it feels as if the fractal dungeon has been abandoned. How many rings does anyone need?

Keep the laurels they way they are. They are for casual players to eventually work toward something.

Cant really think of a way that says you need to be in say lvl 30 beyond a new currency (unless FOTM lvl requirements where added to them). You want to put them higher so people feel a need to progress because currently i would say 30 is where most people cap out for fractal skins with a few oddball groups going farther. On a side note i would love to see more fractals, especially something else then jademaw.

Sunflowers.1729:

Isn’t the point to make ascended gear available from every aspect of the game? Putting more ascended stuff into fractals is the opposite of that. The selling point of this game isn’t “Just do these fractals to get what you want”, it’s “play however you want”.

Something like a universal currency that is earned from doing anything – fractals, dungeons, farming, WvW, crafting (?), map completion, and jumping puzzles – that can be used to buy ascended things. It could even be gold, I guess, but that might screw with the TP. Better to have something that can’t be traded, but can be gained from doing anything.

Edit: I know how to get ascended gear, but don’t want to do fractals cause they are repetitive. What I want to know is why WvW and jumping puzzles don’t give ascended gear.

This is the real issue, the way its spread now is that the only way to get the majority of pieces is through laurels which is fine. However once your outside of laurels you now enter into where getting pieces are fractured in terms of where you obtain them. Some areas offer 1 piece, perhaps 2 slots but thats it. The place that they have the must use (Fractals) you cant obtain more then rings and back pieces within fractals, to go further you have to use laurels to purchase more pieces. WvW players only avenue of gaining fractals is through laurels and nothing else, WvW through some means should have a way to progress to gain ascended gear.

It is just full of problems in that its spread out unevenly and more can be obtained in some venues and less in others.

I say leave it how it is, if they change how ascended gear is acquired, then why not make precursors available in some other way to? And as far as WvW people go, I could care less, let them whine, if they want the gear, let them get it like everyone else.

It would be much simpler to admit the error and simply remove all Ascended gear from the game. I was reading an interview with Colin last month where the interviewer referred to Ascended gear as “the debacle of Ascended gear”. When you’re dealing with a ‘debacle’, and everyone in the industry seems to know it’s a debacle, just get rid of it.

Raine.1394:

It would be much simpler to admit the error and simply remove all Ascended gear from the game. I was reading an interview with Colin last month where the interviewer referred to Ascended gear as “the debacle of Ascended gear”. When you’re dealing with a ‘debacle’, and everyone in the industry seems to know it’s a debacle, just get rid of it.

I think it’s much much better to just leave ascended gear as trinkets..