Guild Wars 2

Okay, so it’s great that we’re getting this update and that traits are merging away from stats, however I find it bothersome that our character stats are now going to be derived solely from our gear choices. This is really concerning for players who have made ascended armor, though, for now the desired stats on armor will not necessarily properly coincide with their desired build performance. Some of my characters will require entirely new sets of gear with this implementation due to the synergy (or lack thereof) of the stats gained from their trait lines. While this doesn’t totally break builds using exotic gear easily-obtained through dungeons, I would like to make a suggestion which attempts to resolve this issue by preventing the need for players to have to make entirely new sets of gear. With infusions alone running some people an upwards of 1800 gold, or time-gated behind laurels, I’d call it very unfair to change the stat distribution system so drastically and thus wasting many peoples’ efforts, time, and possibly real-life cash.

Consider the necessity of getting whole new sets of accessories as well, even for those without ascended weapons/armor

My suggestions for handling the issue:

OPTION 1:
- All soulbound exotic equipment and ascended equipment pieces get the blank template for stat choice, allowing for the player to select a stat similar to what was done upon the removal of the Magic Find stat. Accessories subsequently are updated into a blank ring which once activated allows for stat choice as well with the corresponding ring name, art, etc.

OPTION 2:
A character-based dialog menu which allows for the input of bonus character stats which would equate to those roughly obtained from the existing trait system, allowing for the selection of three primary stats and two secondary ones and to not adjust stats from gear.

Anyone else concerned with this new implementation without adjusting for existing armor and weapons?

I like a variation of option 2. Leave gear as it is and allow players to allocate the stat points formerly attached to traits via a stats interface. Leave the 300 cap per stat and either keep the 926 base and allow 1400 points to be allocated or use the 1000 base and reduce the number of points to be allocated accordingly.

I do agree with this point: some of my builds were made with both armor and trait lines in thought. May be for the zerkers it is not a problems – they will still have their huge amount of dmg since both their stats and their armor is tuned for that… but I personally don’t enjoy the idea to save loads of money for the new armor because the update will automatically change my build completely
I don’t mind both options – either is better than suddenly having random builds.

Make ascended armor base for some sort of legendary armor which can interchange their stats similar to how legendary weapons are. One, set.

IEximius.9204:

Make ascended armor base for some sort of legendary armor which can interchange their stats similar to how legendary weapons are. One, set.

While this is a possibility, and I did think about it, I decided not to add it to the options because I felt as though it would be making ascended armor do too much; recall that the inherent design is for it to yield almost unnoticeable/marginal gains for the sake of agony resistance. Doing this might make the armor for some players feel like a necessity or put extra stress on players to need to get a set of it, something which isn’t intended.

While I personally wouldn’t be opposed to it if it happened as an owner of ascended gear, I think it may be detrimental to the player base as a whole.

I’m just hoping this issue gets some attention and recognition; I blew huge account resources for ascended armor and omni infusions (Approx value ~4000 gold), and I know that others have as well. No kind of compensation is basically ANet coming out and stating they’re removing all Tyrian legendaries, even for players that already have them, and will not be replaced with any weapons.

I would love either options. I think it would be fair not to have some players invalidated simply because some players didn’t play builds that are included in the new system.

Given the facts.

This is the 3rd or 4th time Anet made changes to the trait systems.
First time ever Anet made significant changes to where we derive stats from.
This change is going to force alot of people to find totally new builds making some gear combinations obsolete.
Ascended Armor isn’t something that is easy and flexible to make a change for the average player.

If players knew what they knew now alot of us would have never chosen to take a large investment into Ascended Armor knowing full well that the game was about to drastically change. I think it would promote alot of good will and minimize grief players would face from making such a drastic change.

This could be solved by adding a one-use item that lets you swap an armor/weapon piece for another of the same type (light/medium/heavy or same weapon), and move the upgrade items in it between them.
- Usable on exotic, and a different token usable on ascended.

Then give everyone 1 soulbound token for this, or the right type for each piece of soulbound exotic and ascended gear in their inventory.

And then list an account bound version of them for sale on the gem store for something pricey (so its not a common thing. I’d say 600gems EACH)…

As to how it would work:

I take my piece of armor to the ‘swap vendor’ and buy a new piece for my the cost of my old one and 1 token. I get a new piece. The new piece is delivered soulbound.

Then, the new piece EITHER comes with the same upgrades as my old piece already had, OR, I get those upgrade items outside of it, so I could sell or trade them for a different upgrade.

Simple, fair, and would let people have a full ‘reset’ with the expansion so they could make new builds accordingly.

Definitely need a one time stats reset on ascended gear. Especially when Celestial balance is being changed, yet again, when the new system hits. I’ll take option 1. When MF got nerfed Celestial armor was never given a chance for a reset. It’s time Anet fixed that oversight.

DeceiverX.8361:

IEximius.9204:

Make ascended armor base for some sort of legendary armor which can interchange their stats similar to how legendary weapons are. One, set.

While this is a possibility, and I did think about it, I decided not to add it to the options because I felt as though it would be making ascended armor do too much; recall that the inherent design is for it to yield almost unnoticeable/marginal gains for the sake of agony resistance. Doing this might make the armor for some players feel like a necessity or put extra stress on players to need to get a set of it, something which isn’t intended.

While I personally wouldn’t be opposed to it if it happened as an owner of ascended gear, I think it may be detrimental to the player base as a whole.

I’m just hoping this issue gets some attention and recognition; I blew huge account resources for ascended armor and omni infusions (Approx value ~4000 gold), and I know that others have as well. No kind of compensation is basically ANet coming out and stating they’re removing all Tyrian legendaries, even for players that already have them, and will not be replaced with any weapons.

Well it’s not really a necessity similar to how legendaries are not quite a necessity, sure there is a stat gain but think of the money you put into the entire ascended set, vs buying every stat distribution of exotics. it’s just one way to make it more player friendly and cost effective with the new changes

We don’t know what changes they are making to gear yet, nor to baseline stats. We don’t know if ANet is going to offer us the opportunity to update or otherwise adapt our existing ascended gear.

It’s good to ask the question, but it’s imo too soon to panic.

Copied from a post I made in the Traits thread:

Disconnecting increasing dual primary and secondary attribute stats from the trait lines is good. Doing away with assignable primary stats is not good. The problem as I see it is that swapping armor for loss of stats in certain areas is relatively impractical and/or becomes a nightmare when you consider ascended armor and gear. I run a fair number of hybrid builds where I use the stat boost from a trait line(s) to balance my gear choice. I have four characters with fully ascended gear and simply swapping out weapons and armor to adjust for the loss of say 300 power, precision, vitality or toughness isn’t really a viable option. I would suggest you give every character some assignable points (say 600) that must be assigned to at least two of the primary attributes – in other words go back to a system similar to the pre-launch system you had for assigning traits and attribute stats separately. I recognize this might not be a practical option, and if it is impractical or you dislike the idea for other reasons, then I recommend a flat boost to stats be available at the choice of a grandmaster level for each of the 4 main attributes. You might scale the boost for vitality and toughness based on the base health and armor of the class. as well (so for example, a Guard would still have the +300 vitality trait but the +toughness trait would only add +100 toughness). Adjust the stat boosts you plan to give to equipment down to compensate.

DeceiverX.8361:

OPTION 2:
A character-based dialog menu which allows for the input of bonus character stats which would equate to those roughly obtained from the existing trait system, allowing for the selection of three primary stats and two secondary ones and to not adjust stats from gear.

Anyone else concerned with this new implementation without adjusting for existing armor and weapons?

I am also VERY concerned with this new implementation of adjustments especially considering how long it took to farm an entire ascended set and how my build was tweaked around armor and trait stats as well as my rune set and food buffs used. I quoted your option 2 because I think that is a really good idea and is right along the lines of something I was thinking of myself.

So I’d like to touch up on what I had in mind, if not add to what you suggested.

Imagine, if you will, having a stat allocation system similar to the trait tree, but it is purely for stand alone stats. Since we’re losing literally a total of 1400 stat points, instead of giving us a small portion of additional points baseline and then dumping all the extra stats into our gear (which could literally kill builds that were defined through hours of research, tweaking, then the farming and investing in the build …)

Why not give us the ability to choose freely what stats to add and how much we add to them? And before someone jumps the gun and goes “Well then people would just stack power and have one hit K.O builds” no, how about we follow the same guidelines the previous trait system used!

That being said, no more than +300 stats can be allocated to any particular attribute of choice and stats like condition duration and boon duration will be equivalent to 50 points per 5% added and will be done with increments of no less than 5% or 50 points at a time.

While this list may not be necessary, I’m going to bullet list the choices anyway so I’m sorry if it seems redundant, I am just going for clarity. And anyway, I’m pretty positive that most people would want to choose from simply one at a time rather than the current trait system where you’re stuck with two at a time, and often times they seem to clash a bit and make build viability problematic and less fun. So while they are already well known … here’s our list of choices.

• Power
• Precision
• Ferocity
• Condition Damage
• Condition Duration
• Vitality
• Toughness
• Healing Power
• Boon Duration

While there could obviously be balance issues (as with anything done in any game), this could also be potentially negated by adjusting the number of allocated stats themselves if say power creep is too high, so then perhaps follow up by lowering the total stats that can be allocated from 1400 to say 1200 while raising base stats a little bit to compensate and level the builds out a small amount, as an example anyway. I’m not sure exactly how it would all work in actual implementation, because this is just an idea anyway.

I personally feel it would be incredibly fun to have that kind of freedom in the way we could build up our personalized character though. And it might even potentially help more build viability, versatility, and most importantly diversity, in the future.

Even if this is flawed in some way or another … I find it infinitely more appealing than being forced to go through what honestly appears to be a dumbed down system in which I feel nerfed because I have even less customization choices in the end of things, which makes me feel sad and disappointed considering this is the release of an expansion and yet … it feels like regression rather than progression.

Feel free to discuss this if you want, I for one hope we at least get something like this … T_T;;

While the implementation details of the generic options are something that would need to be worked out for the sake of balancing, and I think it would be necessary to wait first on what the new traits/reworked traits are offering before we can conclude exactly which ways are reasonable for the allocation of these points, this thread is mostly here to raise awareness that the acquisition of ascended equipment, including trinkets, is a time-gated and very expensive (and thus time-consuming) process, and that these two options serve as very reasonable/existing media for resolving problems that may occur without consideration by the developers. Since we don’t know the final status on what’s really going to happen with the new traits (we only have initial concept ideas), there’s no telling what may or may not be balanced yet. All we can do is advise them on matters to make sure this rework doesn’t turn into a fiasco.

The professions are going to see absolutely monstrous increases in power when this next update rolls out, so I’m uncertain if total freedom in stat distribution is a good idea. Perhaps the second option can be expanded upon to allow the combinations as they are consisting of 14 points of investment (so 300/300/100); i.e., removing the traits from the current menu and just having users select stats that way. I say this because I fear for builds utilizing stat combinations not previously accessible which would make some builds wildly overpowered, causing ultimately future nerfs which will bottleneck sub-optimal builds out of viability/remove them altogether, which cuts diversity and counteracts this entire effort.

Either way, these are topics which need to be considered for the rework of traits into specializations.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

We don’t know what changes they are making to gear yet, nor to baseline stats. We don’t know if ANet is going to offer us the opportunity to update or otherwise adapt our existing ascended gear.

It’s good to ask the question, but it’s imo too soon to panic.

We do know, however, that what we’re going to get will be less than what we are going to lose. Especially on attributes that do not have base values (like healing power) and those that aren’t really represented on armor sets (+ boon duration).

Problems like this will continue to come back time and time again, anytime Anet decides to do any bigger changes to stat system (or even to rebalance the skills to some greater extent). Gear reset is, unfortunately, only a shortterm solution. The only way to deal it permanently is (and i have mentioned it already when this issue appeared before) to make the BiS gear (ascended) cheap enough that it can be easily replaced. Or, of course, to make stat changing part of the gear itself, in a manner similar to legendaries.

Why is everybody under the impression that stats gained from traits are integral to builds? Gear already far outweighs traits in stat contribution, so I fail to see how this change will require anybody to get new armor.

This wont require anyone with 3 stat armor to get new armor… they’re being melodramatic. They will simply need to replace a couple of accessories to re-balance their stats. The only people that should be concerned are those with ascended celestial stats since Anet has specifically stated they’d be toning that stat set down (code for NERF HAMMER!)

Andred.1087:

Why is everybody under the impression that stats gained from traits are integral to builds? Gear already far outweighs traits in stat contribution, so I fail to see how this change will require anybody to get new armor.

Currently, the total stat bonuses (assumptions: 3 stat Asc. gear; no infusions; 5 of 6 runes providing standard stat bonuses and food that provides 100 + 70) that can be allocated = 4343 points. (2498 Gear, 1400 traits, 275 Runes and 170 food). That also leaves out stacking bonuses from sigils and the base points which are the same for everyone. Of that, gear represents 63.8% if you include the runes. Traits provide 32.3 percent which is almost a third of the allocated points in one’s build. The percentage provided by traits increases somewhat if you’re wearing Exotic. If one is wearing Celestial or using Divinity runes, the percentages shift slightly in gear’s favor. Likewise if one’s traits provided boon duration, or the profession mechanic. If one’s gear (including runes) or food include +/- condition duration, or boon duration then the percentages shift slightly towards traits.

If gear and traits were providing the same stats, little will change. If gear and traits were providing different stats, then a player might end up replacing between a quarter to a third of their gear pieces to end up with similar allocated stats.

While 1/3 is statistically significant, I think the difference will not be noticeable for the vast majority of builds. And where it is, it will probably be an improvement, as assigning traits for the purpose of boosting different stats than your gear (i.e. spreading your stats thinner) almost always makes you less effective. I understand the compulsion to believe that re-assigning traits for different stats is a way to change your build for specific situations, but I think the effectiveness of this is exaggerated.

I wonder, is everyone going to need to throw away their ascended gear and start over with exotic combinations due to the stat changes coming?

The stat-tuning looks fairly quick with accessories being the most convenient stat-swapping items imho. Provided you have played for a bit, you should have stockpiles to instantly acquire all the ascended stuff: laurels for amulet, guild comms for trinkets, pristine relics for rings. It’s all account-bound, and works on all armour weights.

Celtic Lady.3729:

I wonder, is everyone going to need to throw away their ascended gear and start over with exotic combinations due to the stat changes coming?

This is why ascended stuff is generally a terrible idea. When a big balance adjustment like this happens, all your hard work can go up in smoke.

I would really appreciate some clarity around their expected implementation.

OP: I have a third option: Do away with ascended completely. Add the infusion slots to exotics and be done with it. Keep the skin in your wardrobe if it’s unlocked already then re-roll the stats (into an exotic choice) like in option 1.

There’s too much junk in this game. Yet despite this fact, the drop system sucks. I don’t care how they try to sugar coat this GW2 is a dropless game. I won’t be buying an expansion because this monumental flaw has never been addressed. The cash shop just makes the game feel like a cheap F2P. Frankly, we deserve better.

Andred.1087:

While 1/3 is statistically significant, I think the difference will not be noticeable for the vast majority of builds. And where it is, it will probably be an improvement, as assigning traits for the purpose of boosting different stats than your gear (i.e. spreading your stats thinner) almost always makes you less effective. I understand the compulsion to believe that re-assigning traits for different stats is a way to change your build for specific situations, but I think the effectiveness of this is exaggerated.

Maybe. I suppose we’ll see.

Leaving aside the condition —-> direct continuum in stats, let’s look at the glass —-> bulk continuum. Passive defense stats serve those whose active defense is insufficient. I wonder how many PvE glass wearers are getting by because their traits give them an extra 100-200 toughness or an extra 1-3K health. There might not be any — or there might be a lot. I know there’s some people wearing bulk gear in PvE despite the meta, just as the ones I know who do prefer to face-tank.

There’s also the issue that the skill threshold for going full glass is higher in WvW than in PvE. I suspect the change will be least felt in sPvP, where even a Berserker Amulet provides some defense, and where I expect the stats from traits to be distributed proportionally across the amulet.

However, the complaint is about resistance to modifications to the status quo. Even if your assumption would apply to all cases, there will still be resistance.

Celtic Lady.3729:

I wonder, is everyone going to need to throw away their ascended gear and start over with exotic combinations due to the stat changes coming?

no. i will not be starting over in exotics. i may change 1 or 2 pieces of gear (read trinkets) but that is it

Andred.1087:

Why is everybody under the impression that stats gained from traits are integral to builds? Gear already far outweighs traits in stat contribution, so I fail to see how this change will require anybody to get new armor.

Because for some people, it is an integral part of their build. Not everyone just runs berserker gear yet can maintain even better stats than meta-based berserker builds; mine being one of them. I use Valkyrie armor, which mathematically provides the best stat bonuses for my build. That said, it is not a standalone armor set; it’s border-line useless without a 6-deep investment into the precision line on top of a sigil of accuracy.

Without this, my ~4000 gold will be entirely wasted. There are other similar stat distributions which have the same problems.

DeceiverX.8361:

Andred.1087:

Why is everybody under the impression that stats gained from traits are integral to builds? Gear already far outweighs traits in stat contribution, so I fail to see how this change will require anybody to get new armor.

Because for some people, it is an integral part of their build. Not everyone just runs berserker gear yet can maintain even better stats than meta-based berserker builds; mine being one of them. I use Valkyrie armor, which mathematically provides the best stat bonuses for my build. That said, it is not a standalone armor set; it’s border-line useless without a 6-deep investment into the precision line on top of a sigil of accuracy.

Without this, my ~4000 gold will be entirely wasted. There are other similar stat distributions which have the same problems.

I don’t think Valkyrie stat is mathematically the best stat bonus for your build. If anything it would be some combination of Berserker/Assassin/(to-be-released Ferocity primary-power-precision prefix) or Rampager/Sinister/(to-be-released Power primary-condi-precision) (once condi cap is increased)

By using Valkyrie, one purposefully decreases their damage output and replaces it with Vitality which is not necessary all PvE scenarios, which the said member would become a hindrance to the team. IIRC a full valkyrie set is only at about 70% of damage output as Berserker.

Back on topic, I hope with this trait-stat break, they need to increase the difference between Ascended and exotic – maybe about 15% to 20% stat difference like Exotic to rare. There is no gear treadmill here, Ascended has been out since the launch of the game to set the highest limit. (it was released two months after the launch – so close to it in relation to the game lifespan so one might as well consider it part of the original plan anyway)

Change your trinkets what is free. Use stats what you lost and miss

Stars.2179:

DeceiverX.8361:

Andred.1087:

Why is everybody under the impression that stats gained from traits are integral to builds? Gear already far outweighs traits in stat contribution, so I fail to see how this change will require anybody to get new armor.

Because for some people, it is an integral part of their build. Not everyone just runs berserker gear yet can maintain even better stats than meta-based berserker builds; mine being one of them. I use Valkyrie armor, which mathematically provides the best stat bonuses for my build. That said, it is not a standalone armor set; it’s border-line useless without a 6-deep investment into the precision line on top of a sigil of accuracy.

Without this, my ~4000 gold will be entirely wasted. There are other similar stat distributions which have the same problems.

I don’t think Valkyrie stat is mathematically the best stat bonus for your build. If anything it would be some combination of Berserker/Assassin/(to-be-released Ferocity primary-power-precision prefix) or Rampager/Sinister/(to-be-released Power primary-condi-precision) (once condi cap is increased)

By using Valkyrie, one purposefully decreases their damage output and replaces it with Vitality which is not necessary all PvE scenarios, which the said member would become a hindrance to the team. IIRC a full valkyrie set is only at about 70% of damage output as Berserker.

Back on topic, I hope with this trait-stat break, they need to increase the difference between Ascended and exotic – maybe about 15% to 20% stat difference like Exotic to rare. There is no gear treadmill here, Ascended has been out since the launch of the game to set the highest limit. (it was released two months after the launch – so close to it in relation to the game lifespan so one might as well consider it part of the original plan anyway)

For one, I don’t recall ever posting my build in this thread, so you cannot make claims as to what may or may not increase my damage. There’s also a reason I am one of, if not currently, the hardest-hitting thief in GW2.

I am not concentrating on PvE DPS, though. As a heavy WvW-based player, the burst potential of valkyrie equipment on a given hit can be superior to berserker by almost a factor of 20% when taking food buffs and stacks into consideration. As such, proper swapping and Sigil of Intelligence allows for key burst skills to always crit when desired, allowing for this massive power increase to still always land critical attacks, while keeping fury uptime doesn’t dramatically reduce DPS due to what can still be relatively high (40-50% before fury) crit chance from traits and stats from those traits alone. All the while, I’m still sporting around 5k more health, being able to pump out more damage while not needing to necessarily dodge, play defensive/stop attacking and reset.

This is particularly why a refund on ascended armor stat distribution is so desirable; for some builds, it’s totally destructive, and frankly, the omni infusions are the things that get hit the hardest here, for those can’t even be salvaged out if the user even feels it fair to need to re-make the armor.

Simply, if there is some basis for using existing resources to make the customer base happy, there is no reason not to. ANet has the full potential to follow through with either approach, as both have already been done before. Not doing so only hurts their clients, which is ultimately bad business and will hurt player morale and profits down the line.

As for increasing the stats on ascended items: No. Also, that is not “on topic.” If you want to discuss buffing ascended gear, take that to another thread. but first, some insight:

The investment to ascended gear to min-max stats is to do so for the infusions. There is already a huge buy-in investment with the 500 crafting, and already around a 12% increase in damage in comparison without considering infusion slots having omni infusions. GW2 is meant to be a game about keeping the competition stiff and not creating any kind of gear treadmill whatsoever. I like that I can still have a losing chance to people in exotics (who earned them for free nonetheless in what can be a few days) who play well enough. I’ve been on the wrong end of a treadmill before; frankly, this persistence by ANet to remove vertical progression is one of the main reasons I still play this game. Follow this, and you remove the skilled play. A lot of it was already lost when Ascended was first introduced. That’s pretty much what happens, and it’s not a good thing.

Please keep subsequent replies relevant to the initial discussion/feedback.

How about a craftable item, few ecto’s a new insignia other items, and you can use it to reroll the stats on ascended gear.

Basically you craft a new item that is fairly cheap aside from the new insignia and it changes the stats to that new insignia.

That’s still asking for a lot for what is a problem caused by ANet’s changes and nothing else. They have already done select-stats/blank template items before when they removed Magic Find as a stat from armor. All items with magic find got menus to be turned into any stat combination that exists in the game that the user wanted. I see no reason for anyone to pay for ANet’s changes.

DeceiverX.8361:

OPTION 2:
A character-based dialog menu which allows for the input of bonus character stats which would equate to those roughly obtained from the existing trait system, allowing for the selection of three primary stats and two secondary ones and to not adjust stats from gear.

I like this the best because it gives players more control over the stats of their build without worrying about gear as much.

I have multiple Ascended armor sets on various classes and I took a long break from this game.

My greatest concern is coming back from a long break only to find that my stats are off and I have to spend months to get time gated gear to re-update my stats before enjoying the expansion >_>

I honestly don’t see the problem. There is no reason at all to change your gear. Just save up laurels, which are easy to accumulate, and buy new jewelry. If you’ve been spending them on T6 mats consistently, then maybe it’s not easier, but I tend to suspect it still is.

Kal Spiro.9745:

I honestly don’t see the problem. There is no reason at all to change your gear. Just save up laurels, which are easy to accumulate, and buy new jewelry. If you’ve been spending them on T6 mats consistently, then maybe it’s not easier, but I tend to suspect it still is.

Laurel accumulation is very slow when you’re talking about getting 5 ascended trinkets for each of 8 characters.

I think the biggest question to be answered:
How are we to regain the 30% condition or boon duration. Currently the only way to increase condition duration from gear is giver’s weapons yielding a maximum of 20% additional condition duration. And as for boon duration, I think it would take a full set of giver’s armor to even reach 10%.
These are hardly something you can just swap out 1 or 2 pieces of gear to correct for.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Kal Spiro.9745:

I honestly don’t see the problem. There is no reason at all to change your gear. Just save up laurels, which are easy to accumulate, and buy new jewelry. If you’ve been spending them on T6 mats consistently, then maybe it’s not easier, but I tend to suspect it still is.

Laurel accumulation is very slow when you’re talking about getting 5 ascended trinkets for each of 8 characters.

Well there is your problem right there. I gear my main. The rest of my alts can go kitten themselves. They get exotics and they’ll like them.

Shufflepants.9785:

I think the biggest question to be answered:
How are we to regain the 30% condition or boon duration. Currently the only way to increase condition duration from gear is giver’s weapons yielding a maximum of 20% additional condition duration. And as for boon duration, I think it would take a full set of giver’s armor to even reach 10%.
These are hardly something you can just swap out 1 or 2 pieces of gear to correct for.

We’ll just have to see what they do with those stats as far as increasing gear values.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Well there is your problem right there. I gear my main. The rest of my alts can go kitten themselves. They get exotics and they’ll like them.

I LOL’d at this. Oh, the fate of the lowly MMO alt! No love, y’all. No love.

I think they need to implement option 1 for ascended items like they did for magic find. They have the capability so just do it. This way they get rid of any possible complaints about invalidating choices made under an old system.