Guild Wars 2

This is my 1st mmo, and have been playing them since the late 90s, that I haven’t had a “main” character that I’ve grown tremendously attached to.

I’m pretty sure I blame that on the mishmash of themes and styles, along with (I’m gonna say it lol) no type of faction to associate with, everyone being able to go anywhere (my old dark elf grinded on many orcs to be tolerated by humans, and some still never let the racism go!)

Then my level that I fought for ended up being absolutely useless, because it changes every other zone I’m in, so that silly giant sparkly sword now is kinda useless. This is turning into a rant whoops! Must stop =D

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

silvermember.8941:

I always find it funny, because most of the people talking how guild wars 2 wasn’t grindy either are in denial or only played it after nighfall.

It was grindier after Nightfall.

Again, two words: Holy Lightbringer. Sure, you might be able to find a few efficient farms but they still were pretty pitiful.

Two more words: Traveler’s Gifts. Because if you thought repeating yourself for a limited amounts at a lottery box is bad with Black Lion Chests? Ooof.

Well, i was thinking mainly after nightfall not immediately because it was made easier.

all those titles were added because arenanet hands were tied they couldn’t add more levels. Since PvE and PvP was tied and since guild wars 1 couldnt separate the PvP image from the PvE (which ended up being bigger than the PvP section).

I remember not being able to do any of the content because my LT bringer was too low. Then EoTN (which I forgot about) and I couldn’t do glint’s challenge because my dwarven was too low.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It was grindier after Nightfall.

Again, two words: Holy Lightbringer. Sure, you might be able to find a few efficient farms but they still were pretty pitiful.

Two more words: Traveler’s Gifts. Because if you thought repeating yourself for a limited amounts at a lottery box is bad with Black Lion Chests? Ooof.

I would have prefered not having things like Lightbringer that had an actual effect on gameplay. But LB wasn’t an issue outside of the later areas of Nightfall. And it had zero effect on the rest of the game. That and other similar titles (like the ones effecting pve skills) were eventually toned down in scaling to reach maximum effect at low ranks.

The Traveler Gifts aren’t really that similar to Black Lion Chests. The items required to get gifts were usually fairly easy to come by in the area he was collecting them. Black Lion Chest Keys require real money/gems, doing certain personal story steps, luck with map completion/daily chests (pretty rare), or an extremely lucky random drop (I’ve had this happen two, maybe three, times over a couple thousand hours of playing).

mrstealth.6701:

The Traveler Gifts aren’t really that similar to Black Lion Chests. The items required to get gifts were usually fairly easy to come by in the area he was collecting them. Black Lion Chest Keys require real money/gems, doing certain personal story steps, luck with map completion/daily chests (pretty rare), or an extremely lucky random drop (I’ve had this happen two, maybe three, times over a couple thousand hours of playing).

Well . . . yes. And you could buy Traveler’s Gifts off people. But the RNG was really bad for things like, oh, Inscribable Icy Dragon Sword? Mini Yakkington (I think?), or the later Vampiric Dragon Sword?

Also, Keys are kinda easy to get if you have the stomach for churning new characters on a Personal Story first section you really like. Also, the random drop chance stinks, indeed

mrstealth.6701:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It was grindier after Nightfall.

Again, two words: Holy Lightbringer. Sure, you might be able to find a few efficient farms but they still were pretty pitiful.

Two more words: Traveler’s Gifts. Because if you thought repeating yourself for a limited amounts at a lottery box is bad with Black Lion Chests? Ooof.

I would have prefered not having things like Lightbringer that had an actual effect on gameplay. But LB wasn’t an issue outside of the later areas of Nightfall. And it had zero effect on the rest of the game. That and other similar titles (like the ones effecting pve skills) were eventually toned down in scaling to reach maximum effect at low ranks.

The Traveler Gifts aren’t really that similar to Black Lion Chests. The items required to get gifts were usually fairly easy to come by in the area he was collecting them. Black Lion Chest Keys require real money/gems, doing certain personal story steps, luck with map completion/daily chests (pretty rare), or an extremely lucky random drop (I’ve had this happen two, maybe three, times over a couple thousand hours of playing).

It was still mandatory to progress the game. If you were a nightfall character you couldn’t progress w/o sunspear then later lightbringer points, that is outside the grind required to get a low requirement weapons if you wanted to maximize your attribute spread.

Ascended gear is not well except in fractures. The only people that think Ascended gear is need is you. I only have 1 piece of ascended gear because you don’t need it for anything, well except fractures but you generally get it as you go anyways.

To do glint’s challenge most of the groups required a high dwarven rank as well

silvermember.8941:

It was still mandatory to progress the game. If you were a nightfall character you couldn’t progress w/o sunspear then later lightbringer points, that is outside the grind required to get a low requirement weapons if you wanted to maximize your attribute spread.

The requirement for Sunspear points only occurred once, and it was an amount of points most players should have already surpassed by the point it was required. It was mostly an issue for players that had chosen to skip significant portions of the story and rush ahead to areas before they were intended to have reached them

Lightbringer carried no such requirements, as far as game mechanics were concerned.

As for low req weapon, you could easily get req 9 weapon from collector NPCs. Even max damage/armor blue/purple items where somewhat common drops at req 8. Builds requiring these low unusually low reqs were definitely in the minority, the most common that I am aware being players with warrior as their secondary profession trying to meet the Tactics req for a shield.

To do glint’s challenge most of the groups required a high dwarven rank as well

That was a player-enforced requirement, but it does show the damage to the community that such mechanics can cause.

Level scaling still combats this problem in PvE – if level scaling did make it to a point where you get limited by the max gear for a specific dungeon. For example, what if all dungeons scaled down so that all gear choices higher than exotic will be scaled down to exotic? That way, ascended won’t necessarily have that much impact to PvE, and only affects high-level fractals and Arah.

Advent Leader.1083:

Level scaling still combats this problem in PvE – if level scaling did make it to a point where you get limited by the max gear for a specific dungeon. For example, what if all dungeons scaled down so that all gear choices higher than exotic will be scaled down to exotic? That way, ascended won’t necessarily have that much impact to PvE, and only affects high-level fractals and Arah.

It also affects WvW.

Very frustrating.
I play a Mesmer and I probably have 8 swords, 4 staves, 3 Greatswords, 1 scepter, 1 pistol/torch 3 foci.

I probably made 5 builds I love to run (some a little more efficient than others. ..)

Then I have alts too. A thief (my “main” alt) where I switch stealth, boon sharing, glass and condition with
A necro, Ranger, guardian.

So basically, I have to take a step back while the people who complained about content 6 months ago get their treadmill?

Zindrix.1750:

Advent Leader.1083:

Level scaling still combats this problem in PvE – if level scaling did make it to a point where you get limited by the max gear for a specific dungeon. For example, what if all dungeons scaled down so that all gear choices higher than exotic will be scaled down to exotic? That way, ascended won’t necessarily have that much impact to PvE, and only affects high-level fractals and Arah.

It also affects WvW.

I wouldn’t mind that solution myself, but I’m certain many of us that have ascended trinkets already would not be happy with having their stats reduced as if they did not have that gear. After all, they did earn the gear.

I agree with the solution the OP of this thread suggested, and had actually thought the same thing when I first heard about the legendary weapons change back in July.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Fixing-Ascended-Gear/first

This allows the ascended gear to retain its improvements game-wide, without actually having any better stats than exotic gear. It would also greatly promote build variety and experimentation.

I’m sure some people that insist on sticking to only one build would still be angry over a change like this, but it is better for the game and community overall.

Zindrix.1750:

I’m beginning to wonder if Anet has even considered the impact of all of this “vertical progression”(read: time sink). Ascended weapons will no doubt have higher stats than normal weapons, but they will also probably have higher base damage. This has an even greater impact on the differences between someone geared in full exotics vs full ascended gear.

The issue with this is what happens when you want to change your build? What happens if you dual wield 2 sets of weapons so you need 4 for just 1 build? What happens if you play more than 1 character? 2 characters? 3 characters? There have been other changes that haven’t been alt-friendly and that’s fine, but I think this is becoming too much. I can’t keep up with gearing all of the characters or builds that I play.

---

I realize people are just going to say “you don’t HAVE to get ascended gear”, but I like to play WvW and it’s silly to think that people are running around in gear that is 10-20% more effective than mine just because they play 1 character and I play 7.

Ascended Gear has already killed build diversity and alts in WvW. I’m 10% stronger with my warrior (I don’t play anymore). 10% increased damage will have a huge effect on the outcome of a battle in WvW, especially in small squads. Not to mention you’ll be 20 percent stronger with buffs. Ascended Gear and buffs have no place in PvP.

Lord Kuru.3685:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Zindrix.1750:

Frozencore.5017:

I think you have some wrong number there.
Effectively Ascended gear is only 10% better than exotic gear and if you compare an exotic weapon for instance (power, toughness, vitality) + soldier crest with an (upcoming) ascended weapon ^PTV aswell that difference will like +3 power +3 toughness +3 vitality, i can’t see that ruining wvw experience for anyone, unless u think these +3 stats on every piece will make that much of a difference, anyways i get your point and completly understand your side

Anyways just in case you wanna check it out but you have probably already done it
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item

Ascended trinkets are currently 10% better. Weapons will be different if the base damage is higher because weapon damage is multiplied by stats. So yeah, 9 stat points won’t be much, but increased damage and the sum of full ascended stats will be together.

Exactly this, people often don’t realize when they take a damage modifier such as crit damage that even at 100% crit chance 5% crit damage is only actually a 1.9% increase in damage because of the nature of it being multiplicative. This is in direct opposition to traits, weapon strength, and sigils that offer flat % increases to damage.

Both these two posts.

This will make a huge impact on alts, build diversity, and new players (don’t you want new customers Anet?) in WvW.

Even in PvE: if you ping all rares in a dungeon group, expect to be kicked. Try doing the same with Exotics (for example on your alt) once everyone has Ascended for their mains.

Again why are you forcing yourself to run with those types?

Those type of people already require you to have a certain setup, how is it any different by having ascended?

If someone starts a group and wants a certain setup that’s their deal, if you cant or dont want to comply with their setup, then dont join them start your own group and invite whoever you want. Its not that hard!

I for one welcome ascended weapons and armor. its not a huge gap and gives me and others something to do in the building up of a character however slight it may be. And really its not game breaking.

Namu.5712:

I for one welcome ascended weapons and armor. its not a huge gap and gives me and others something to do in the building up of a character however slight it may be. And really its not game breaking.

So you will be completely happy and have, “something to do in the building of a character,” forever more from this one iteration of power creep ?

or

Will those desiring gear progression want another step of it once they have geared up to Ascended ? And then want it again after that. And again after that ?

Namu.5712:

I for one welcome ascended weapons and armor. its not a huge gap and gives me and others something to do in the building up of a character however slight it may be. And really its not game breaking.

Do you WvW? Do you have more than one lvl 80? People that do are usually the ones that have this issue. If you have 1 character and just run Fractals 24/7 as god and Anet intended, then I guess everything is fine!

Pray For Kosmos.5849:

Zindrix.1750:

I’m beginning to wonder if Anet has even considered the impact of all of this “vertical progression”(read: time sink). Ascended weapons will no doubt have higher stats than normal weapons, but they will also probably have higher base damage. This has an even greater impact on the differences between someone geared in full exotics vs full ascended gear.

The issue with this is what happens when you want to change your build? What happens if you dual wield 2 sets of weapons so you need 4 for just 1 build? What happens if you play more than 1 character? 2 characters? 3 characters? There have been other changes that haven’t been alt-friendly and that’s fine, but I think this is becoming too much. I can’t keep up with gearing all of the characters or builds that I play.

---

I realize people are just going to say “you don’t HAVE to get ascended gear”, but I like to play WvW and it’s silly to think that people are running around in gear that is 10-20% more effective than mine just because they play 1 character and I play 7.

Ascended Gear has already killed build diversity and alts in WvW. I’m 10% stronger with my warrior (I don’t play anymore). 10% increased damage will have a huge effect on the outcome of a battle in WvW, especially in small squads. Not to mention you’ll be 20 percent stronger with buffs. Ascended Gear and buffs have no place in PvP.

If you actually played you would have realize that ultimately ascended gear doesn’t affect WvW in the slightest. People love making justification about whatever, but it doesn’t affect WvW more so than the lack of build diversity and the in balance of classes.

You could argue that 1v1 in WvW it might affect, but the game is definitely not balanced for 1v1. And most of the time you are getting streamroll by a zerg anyways. in a ZvZ ascended gear isn’t going to be the deciding factor.

the biggest issues that affect power are all on the spvp side, everywhere else they are factors that supersede ascended gear.

Anyways, the reality is that ascended gear is here, eventually just like accesories proved that it didn’t matter, the people complaining are either going to quit or deal with it. (more likely are going to deal with it than quit).

Zindrix.1750:

Namu.5712:

I for one welcome ascended weapons and armor. its not a huge gap and gives me and others something to do in the building up of a character however slight it may be. And really its not game breaking.

Do you WvW? Do you have more than one lvl 80? People that do are usually the ones that have this issue. If you have 1 character and just run Fractals 24/7 as god and Anet intended, then I guess everything is fine!

Yup, I have an 80 of each profession. Though I haven’t played in the past few months.

Only two of my characters have full ascended but thats okay, they are my favorite ones. And if by chance I have time to play and build up the others I will.

Each one of my alts has played WvW for a long period against other 80’s and done fine. Player error plays more of a role in WvW than gear does. Anyone that pvp’s in this game knows that.

Ashen.2907:

Namu.5712:

I for one welcome ascended weapons and armor. its not a huge gap and gives me and others something to do in the building up of a character however slight it may be. And really its not game breaking.

So you will be completely happy and have, “something to do in the building of a character,” forever more from this one iteration of power creep ?

or

Will those desiring gear progression want another step of it once they have geared up to Ascended ? And then want it again after that. And again after that ?

Ascended gear was supposed to have launched with the game it just wasn’t ready at launch.

I have doubts they will make another tier of gear beyond ascended or a stat increase.

As long as they keep nice looking gears coming in the ascended variety with the same stats ill be happy with that.

silvermember.8941:

Pray For Kosmos.5849:

Zindrix.1750:

I’m beginning to wonder if Anet has even considered the impact of all of this “vertical progression”(read: time sink). Ascended weapons will no doubt have higher stats than normal weapons, but they will also probably have higher base damage. This has an even greater impact on the differences between someone geared in full exotics vs full ascended gear.

The issue with this is what happens when you want to change your build? What happens if you dual wield 2 sets of weapons so you need 4 for just 1 build? What happens if you play more than 1 character? 2 characters? 3 characters? There have been other changes that haven’t been alt-friendly and that’s fine, but I think this is becoming too much. I can’t keep up with gearing all of the characters or builds that I play.

---

I realize people are just going to say “you don’t HAVE to get ascended gear”, but I like to play WvW and it’s silly to think that people are running around in gear that is 10-20% more effective than mine just because they play 1 character and I play 7.

Ascended Gear has already killed build diversity and alts in WvW. I’m 10% stronger with my warrior (I don’t play anymore). 10% increased damage will have a huge effect on the outcome of a battle in WvW, especially in small squads. Not to mention you’ll be 20 percent stronger with buffs. Ascended Gear and buffs have no place in PvP.

If you actually played you would have realize that ultimately ascended gear doesn’t affect WvW in the slightest. People love making justification about whatever, but it doesn’t affect WvW more so than the lack of build diversity and the in balance of classes.

You could argue that 1v1 in WvW it might affect, but the game is definitely not balanced for 1v1. And most of the time you are getting streamroll by a zerg anyways. in a ZvZ ascended gear isn’t going to be the deciding factor.

the biggest issues that affect power are all on the spvp side, everywhere else they are factors that supersede ascended gear.

Most people are on high pop servers. I am not. Zerg v zerg doesn’t happen on every server. People need to stop with this misconception.

Namu.5712:

Those type of people already require you to have a certain setup, how is it any different by having ascended?

If someone starts a group and wants a certain setup that’s their deal, if you cant or dont want to comply with their setup, then dont join them start your own group and invite whoever you want. Its not that hard!

That is largely a player/community problem, but having gear with that requires months to acquire a single set of only serves to make that more harmful to the game. Even if you want to comply and get the type of gear that groups are expecting, you are forced to wait months to get the gear.

Namu.5712:

Ascended gear was supposed to have launched with the game it just wasn’t ready at launch.

I have doubts they will make another tier of gear beyond ascended or a stat increase.

As long as they keep nice looking gears coming in the ascended variety with the same stats ill be happy with that.

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=32955&storypage=1

“…we added Ascended gear. I know that was a controversial thing, but that was a major new type of advancement that we thought the game needed”

The fact that Anet’s brass considers Ascended gear to be a new type of advancement kind of counters any claim that it was an original part of the design.

Namu.5712:

Ascended gear was supposed to have launched with the game it just wasn’t ready at launch.

There isn’t really anything to support that statement. While PR statements made after the addition of ascended gear said that they should have included it at release, they never claimed it was actually in developement before release. It seems to have been a completely post-launch addition.

Statements from blogs, videos, and interviews just a few weeks before the game’s release continued to imply that exotic was to be the highest tier in the game.

I think these quotes from a November 26, 2012 AMA are quite relevant here.

Chris Whiteside

We do not intend to deploy another tier/rarity of loot such as Rare>Exotic. However we also do not intend to make promises that can be misinterpreted moving forward.

Ascended Gear will be introduced throughout next year,and accessible through many game play activities rather than just on. -Through infusions and existing Tiers there will be the opportunity to increase stats or abilities on a low power curve through multiple types of gameplay in GW2.

The opportunity to enhance existing tiers of loot will not be through a regular cadence of monthly updates instead it is more likely to come from expansions or very big drops of content.

In retrospect Ascended should have been deployed pre launch and earn able throughout most activities in the game (which is how we are moving forward).

Obviously, some of this plan has changed because we are not seeing large updates/expansions, and Anet has shifted and committed to their 2 week temp content rollouts. They have already continued building onto the ascended tier and its infusions with these frequent updates.

There is a definite intention to keep building this power creep within the ascended tier and infusions.

As for his last statement, the tier has been in the game for almost 10 months, and the only improvements we have seen in making it available throughout multiple activities is the addition of rings to the laurel vendors. I am not willing to include the wvw vendor as an additional means of acquisition, as it still requires laurels.

Earrings are also available via 2 means, but one of them still requires laurels in combination with a considerable amount of ecto. Shortly after the earrings were added, there was a post on the forum by Isaiah Cartwright stating that the high ecto cost was to discourage that method, and enforce guild missions/commendations as the way to obtain ascended earrings. If Anet is not willing to consider this as a normal/viable means to acquire them, neither am I.

The only other ways to get Ascended gear aside from the above listed and initial Fractal-only methods is via RNG from guild mission or wvw rank-up reward chests. There is a very low chance of this happening, and you are still reliant on RNG/luck to get an item that is actually useful to you.

silvermember.8941:

It was still mandatory to progress the game. If you were a nightfall character you couldn’t progress w/o sunspear then later lightbringer points,

You could do required amount of points by simply playing the campaign – unless you decided to skip all of the sidequests.

To do glint’s challenge most of the groups required a high dwarven rank as well

Funny thing, i’ve once done Glint’s challenge with heroes, and thought that it was a bit harder than usual. Turns out i did’t have dwarven title enabled – and i have only barely noticed that. Now, the PvE skills were OP, and you kitten yourself hard by not using them (technobabble and pain inverter made some hard encounters a joke, for example), but they started being OP at low (and easily achievable) title levels. I didn’t max those titles for skills – i did it purely of completionist attitude.

Astralporing.1957:

(…pain inverter made some hard encounters a joke, for example)

Hey, you remember when you could kill the Great Destroyer in roughly 30 seconds with Pain Inverter, D-shot, and some good healing keeping you standing up? Good times.

silvermember.8941:

Pray For Kosmos.5849:

Zindrix.1750:

I’m beginning to wonder if Anet has even considered the impact of all of this “vertical progression”(read: time sink). Ascended weapons will no doubt have higher stats than normal weapons, but they will also probably have higher base damage. This has an even greater impact on the differences between someone geared in full exotics vs full ascended gear.

The issue with this is what happens when you want to change your build? What happens if you dual wield 2 sets of weapons so you need 4 for just 1 build? What happens if you play more than 1 character? 2 characters? 3 characters? There have been other changes that haven’t been alt-friendly and that’s fine, but I think this is becoming too much. I can’t keep up with gearing all of the characters or builds that I play.

---

I realize people are just going to say “you don’t HAVE to get ascended gear”, but I like to play WvW and it’s silly to think that people are running around in gear that is 10-20% more effective than mine just because they play 1 character and I play 7.

Ascended Gear has already killed build diversity and alts in WvW. I’m 10% stronger with my warrior (I don’t play anymore). 10% increased damage will have a huge effect on the outcome of a battle in WvW, especially in small squads. Not to mention you’ll be 20 percent stronger with buffs. Ascended Gear and buffs have no place in PvP.

If you actually played you would have realize that ultimately ascended gear doesn’t affect WvW in the slightest. People love making justification about whatever, but it doesn’t affect WvW more so than the lack of build diversity and the in balance of classes.

You could argue that 1v1 in WvW it might affect, but the game is definitely not balanced for 1v1. And most of the time you are getting streamroll by a zerg anyways. in a ZvZ ascended gear isn’t going to be the deciding factor.

the biggest issues that affect power are all on the spvp side, everywhere else they are factors that supersede ascended gear.

The hard solid fact still remains, ascended users will be 10-20% stronger then non-ascended users. If you just think of a ZvZ or a group vs group (say 20 people on each side, one group having ascended geared and another containing no ascended geared) exchanging basic hits, the group containing ascended geared will do anywhere between 0-10% (0% – no one is geared, 10% everyone is geared) more than the group without ascended geared.

Personally, i don’t mind the ascended gear it self, the stats and such…. what i mind is how it’s acquired. Maybe if it was acquired the same way as exotics (cost/effort wise), I and maybe some of the other people wouldn’t kitten as much. But adding time gated mats… the kitten? I understand why WoW has it, to prolong it’s players subscription, but why does GW2 have it….? Gemstore? I guess the more days a player spends in a game the more likely they are to spend money in the gemstore (is that it?)?

Aside from the money-conspiracy theories…. the time gating will also create a huge gap between the gamers/hardcore and the casuals…. the gamers will work towards getting the gear, while the casuals will long in to jump around (sarcasm, they will play the game in their own way, and when they come to WvW they will get their faces rolled, leaving to go on that class’ forum to QQ, or when they get rejected from the party because somehow someone found out that they dont have ascended gear…) and leave maybe do something towards getting the armor maybe not. people that stop playing will also be behind x amount of days since they’ve stopped and when they resumed (giving people that quit a motive to not comeback( but how will they buy the gems if they dont come back… )).

IF they really wanted to add a time gated mechinic in the game… replace the RNG of getting a precursor with something time gated, so that you will know that in X amount of days/weeks/months you will get the precursor, instead of hoping for it. This way the crappy RNG aspect of getting a legendary is removed, yet no one is becoming 10% stronger.

TL/DR:

ASCENDED GEAR WITH TIME GATING IS STUPID FOR MILLIONS OF REASONS.

balance,builds,alts, CasualsVSgamers,grouping, picking up the game again,……….

As much as I love GuildWars (1 and 2), I hate this idea.

Zero Day.2594:

ASCENDED GEAR WITH TIME GATING IS STUPID FOR MILLIONS OF REASONS.

balance,builds,alts, CasualsVSgamers,grouping, picking up the game again,……….

Starting to think, mate, that they don’t care about those reasons. We’ve been beating that drum since November. I think they’re working some “keep ’em grinding and buying gems” profit strategy. It’s certainly not about fun.

Chuo.4238:

I think they’re working some “keep ’em grinding and buying gems” profit strategy. It’s certainly not about fun.

Even then, how is time gating going to help them make people buy gems? Unless they implement a direct (and blunt) shortcut to time gating, at that point they should feel sleezy inside and should shower every hour.

Sure the longer the player is playing, the more chances of them buying gems. What else makes time gating for buying gems?

If anything it will harm the gem store.

People that stopped playing before this update, will look back and say “oh, great, if i come back i’ll be behind, i will just not come back” instead of “oh, sick update, gear is easier to get! maybe now i can play around with builds more freely in pve/wvw” (or something of the likes). People not coming back, less potential gem buyers.

People that hate the idea might quit (and i’m sure that’s a small amount). Less people playing, less buying gems.

Similarly, those that hate the idea but won’t quit, might boycott buying gems.

Yeah Lucem, builds (should) differ in stat allocation, not the sum of stats. Meaning, everyone should have the same sum/pool of stats, but how they choose to allocate them can/should differ.

Ascended gear, makes the sum/pool of stats differ (and allocation differs like always)… which means some people will have 110 points (say) versus some people that have 100 points.

It’s not bad when it’s easily acquired and everyone is once again with the same sum/pool of stats… but when it’s prolonged for no apparent reason….

… where the kitten did the post go… (deleted?)

Zero Day.2594:

Yeah Lucem, builds (should) differ in stat allocation, not the sum of stats. Meaning, everyone should have the same sum/pool of stats, but how they choose to allocate them can/should differ.

Ascended gear, makes the sum/pool of stats differ (and allocation differs like always)… which means some people will have 110 points (say) versus some people that have 100 points.

It’s not bad when it’s easily acquired and everyone is once again with the same sum/pool of stats… but when it’s prolonged for no apparent reason….

… where the kitten did the post go… (deleted?)

I don’t think they would do that, but there’s another post around here titled “Fixing Ascended Gear” that has some good ideas in it.

ETA: Here’s that post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Fixing-Ascended-Gear/first

The problem with vertical progression is not with the power differences of the initial pieces. The problem with VP is inherent in the words that make up the concept. The power level will increase (vertically) and continually increase (progression) over time. It doesn’t progress by stopping. And, because we are talking about the power level of the game, the treadmill ride is non-optional. If you want to play the game over time, you will ride the treadmill. That’s the real problem. And a slow grind only makes it worse. With a wow-like grind you can get it over with in a couple months and relax for the rest of the tier/expansion. With a slow grind, you will always be grinding out the next phase of the power creep.

Adding VP to GW2 is the worst decision Anet has made to date.

Five level 80 characters here. Enjoy playing them all somewhat equally. Spend about half my time in WvW. Not interested in fractals in the least. Feeling screwed over by power creep.

For a player with one main character, the grind is reasonable, and possibly even an incentive to play more.

For someone like me it adds:
5 x (builds per alt) x (individual gear pieces required per discreet build) x (time required per piece)
to the grind required to simply GET BACK TO WHERE I WAS BEFORE ASCENDED GEAR.

That’s right folks, all your exotic weapons are currently best in slot gear. They are getting a downgrade on Tuesday. How fun.

It’s not even about any of that from the company perspective anyway. It’s about cash. Money. Nothing wrong with a company wanting to make money, I suppose. Time gated ascended weapons + legendaries for sale x impatience/foolishness = profit. Simple math.

K so two ways they can make money off this release and time gating:

Making people play more, thus more chances of them buying something.

Impatience leading to buying gems to convert to gold to buy said items.

So that’s two things for making money out of the patch. There’s three things that will harm the gem store with the release.

Zero Day.2594:

K so two ways they can make money off this release and time gating:

Making people play more, thus more chances of them buying something.

Impatience leading to buying gems to convert to gold to buy said items.

So that’s two things for making money out of the patch. There’s three things that will harm the gem store with the release.

What are those? Just curious. They always add more junk every patch hoping people will buy some of it.

Zero Day.2594:

If anything it will harm the gem store.

People that stopped playing before this update, will look back and say “oh, great, if i come back i’ll be behind, i will just not come back” instead of “oh, sick update, gear is easier to get! maybe now i can play around with builds more freely in pve/wvw” (or something of the likes). People not coming back, less potential gem buyers.

People that hate the idea might quit (and i’m sure that’s a small amount). Less people playing, less buying gems.

Similarly, those that hate the idea but won’t quit, might boycott buying gems.

too lazy to re-type….

Zero Day.2594:

Chuo.4238:

I think they’re working some “keep ’em grinding and buying gems” profit strategy. It’s certainly not about fun.

Even then, how is time gating going to help them make people buy gems? Unless they implement a direct (and blunt) shortcut to time gating, at that point they should feel sleezy inside and should shower every hour.

Sure the longer the player is playing, the more chances of them buying gems. What else makes time gating for buying gems?

If anything it will harm the gem store.

People that stopped playing before this update, will look back and say “oh, great, if i come back i’ll be behind, i will just not come back” instead of “oh, sick update, gear is easier to get! maybe now i can play around with builds more freely in pve/wvw” (or something of the likes). People not coming back, less potential gem buyers.

People that hate the idea might quit (and i’m sure that’s a small amount). Less people playing, less buying gems.

Similarly, those that hate the idea but won’t quit, might boycott buying gems.

My theory is that ANet wants to keep as many as possible playing, and that their decision-making process is reactive rather than proactive. Virtually every change they make, even balance changes, have been a reaction to player complaints of one kind or another. Thing is, you cannot please everyone, and every decision made to please one group angers a different group.

At this point, I think they’re going ahead with armor/weapons and hoping that vague assurances that they won’t be doing gear grind (as if Ascended isn’t) will mollify “enough” of those who oppose it. They’ve cheesed off a bunch of people by introducing the gear, and probably don’t want to cheese off those who like it — then “everyone” would be angry.

Yeah, I will not be spending money on GW2 because of Ascended armor and weapons. They’ve seen the last dime from me, not that I expect they care. The thing about that kind of boycott, is that you can only play that card once.

edited for the kitten filter.

Wish they did a poll for this….

“We just don’t want players to grind in Guild Wars 2. No one enjoys that. No one finds it fun. " -Smiles

I love being right.

Remember back when Guild Wars wasn’t synonymous with World of Warcraft.

Time to guess the next gear tier set for 2014? $200.00 on Transcended.

Judge Banks.9018:

“We just don’t want players to grind in Guild Wars 2. No one enjoys that. No one finds it fun. " -Smiles

I love being right.

Remember back when Guild Wars wasn’t synonymous with World of Warcraft.

Time to guess the next gear tier set for 2014? $200.00 on Transcended.

Well i don’t like pink so..time to release red?

Judge Banks.9018:

“We just don’t want players to grind in Guild Wars 2. No one enjoys that. No one finds it fun. " -Smiles

I love being right.

Remember back when Guild Wars wasn’t synonymous with World of Warcraft.

Time to guess the next gear tier set for 2014? $200.00 on Transcended.

Will you trolls ever learn to read statements all the way through rather than taking things out of context? Colin was talking about combat and leveling when he mentioned grinding. You don’t, in fact, grind to get to the fun stuff. Ascended gear isn’t fun. It’s a purposeful tier to bridge the gap between the necessity of ascended and legendary gear.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Will you trolls ever learn to read statements all the way through rather than taking things out of context?

People will ease up on taking it out of context when it stops getting this kind of passionate, emotional reply. It’s very good bait to work people up and fog the issue, distract people from addressing the actual heart of the argument and only focus on details.

It’s a known, accepted, debate topic.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Viking Jorun.5413:

Will you trolls ever learn to read statements all the way through rather than taking things out of context?

People will ease up on taking it out of context when it stops getting this kind of passionate, emotional reply. It’s very good bait to work people up and fog the issue, distract people from addressing the actual heart of the argument and only focus on details.

It’s a known, accepted, debate topic.

… Pretty sure that whole Manifesto argument was quelled when Vayne told everyone off with multiple sources to official dev interview and statements, even a blog post addressing the manifesto shortly after it was created, before the game was even out.

i use dual dagger with my thief so im going to need 2, then short bow for my alt weapon. So 3 total. Boy…i cant wait…..

Viking Jorun.5413:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Viking Jorun.5413:

Will you trolls ever learn to read statements all the way through rather than taking things out of context?

People will ease up on taking it out of context when it stops getting this kind of passionate, emotional reply. It’s very good bait to work people up and fog the issue, distract people from addressing the actual heart of the argument and only focus on details.

It’s a known, accepted, debate topic.

… Pretty sure that whole Manifesto argument was quelled when Vayne told everyone off with multiple sources to official dev interview and statements, even a blog post addressing the manifesto shortly after it was created, before the game was even out.

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you . . .

. . . nobody who is opposed to Vayne’s viewpoint enough to continue to put that stuff out of context? Cares what he has to say. Colin, himself, could show up and explain it (again) and everyone would still ignore it.

Welcome to debate tactics.

Hrithmus.2583:

i use dual dagger with my thief so im going to need 2, then short bow for my alt weapon. So 3 total. Boy…i cant wait…..

Luckily with the update my Kudzu will be upgraded instantly, and at that point ill only have to work toward a sword and shield.

Viking Jorun.5413:

You don’t, in fact, grind to get to the fun stuff.

I do, “in fact,” have to grind to get to the fun stuff.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Ascended gear isn’t fun.

Well, that’s a true statement. The best that might be said is that getting the gear might be enjoyable, but that may not hold true for everyone. The process? Not so much.

Ashen.2907:

Viking Jorun.5413:

You don’t, in fact, grind to get to the fun stuff.

I do, “in fact,” have to grind to get to the fun stuff.

False again. Colin was talking about endgame and leveling, as I said before. You’re already at endgame — the “fun stuff”.

Viking Jorun.5413:

False again. Colin was talking about endgame and leveling, as I said before. You’re already at endgame — the “fun stuff”.

So I can play HotW with my level 17 mesmer without having to grind to 80 ? Or with my level 9 Guardian ?