Guild Wars 2

I do every pve with a mixture of rare/exotics, I don’t even look at the stats except for condi damage. I manage to play everything. Seriously, what’s the fuss? You can’t play your alt, why?

Mikau.6920:

anzenketh.3759:

For those that pay attention will find that this update actually solves the alt problem. Before you HAD to wait to get any ascended. Now this actually reduces the time to get ascended.

What I got from the TWITCH stream was that the results of what you make from the account bound time gated items are tradeable in the trading post.
http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/2844578

So theoretically you could make your ascended armor without any timegate it would just cost you more.

If you do want to make it yourself however it should take about 2 weeks per piece.

NOTE: This is a good thing. It makes crafting useful after you got the armor/weapons you are looking for. Can’t have everything.

I’m a little more happy! Do the weapons will be account bound after equiping them? Even transmutating them (I hate the GS look and wanna keep my GS look)? I really hope so.

Yes the weapons are account bound. All Transmuted items are account bound anyways.

Zero Day.2594:

@anzenketh
Great! (sarcasm)…. so i want five items (2 daggers, 1 pistol, sb, sword), ~10 weeks… or i could buy (shortcut) mats via TP for i would guess as high as 10-20g? perhaps i should load up on some gems… (kitten no)
crafting had its place for crafting for yourself out of mats you found, if you choose to.
@Xsorus
cool. i’m still 10-20% stronger than you wearing my fancy ascended gear.

The ascended weapons will be obtainable by other means it is just a lot harder. We do not know what their drop rate will be. Currently they do not drop at all outside of WvW and fractals last I checked. We do not know yet how much the result of the account bound items that is trad-able will cost. If I were to guess it would cost maybe 1-2 gold more then ecto price. So around 5 gold max is what I would guess. These are not rare drop precursors after all.
The Players dictate the price not Arena Net

butch.8136:

I do every pve with a mixture of rare/exotics, I don’t even look at the stats except for condi damage. I manage to play everything. Seriously, what’s the fuss? You can’t play your alt, why?

Try playing serious wvw in that set up and see how long you last- especially if your alt is just wearing rares (as well as being rank 0).

10% might not make much difference beating down entirely predictable NPCs in pve but in wvw small scale fights it’s the difference between winning and losing.

Although I dread to think how much damage a thief will do to squishy builds with these new weapons.

The biggest problem is laurels being used in the process- that’s a completely shut gate as far as multiple alts are concerned.

Anet have clearly worked out that the vast majority of people only ever play one toon and cater exclusively for them.

Victory.2879:

The biggest problem is laurels being used in the process- that’s a completely shut gate as far as multiple alts are concerned.

Anet have clearly worked out that the vast majority of people only ever play one toon and cater exclusively for them.

I still need 390 Laurels just to get a single set of amulet+2 rings for my 6 remaining chars, most of which require 2 or more sets. Plus the 4500 badges it would take to get them at that lower laurel price. It would be 570 laurels without using badges. This goes up by 80 laurels per character/build for those not able to viably acquire earrings through guild mission. Even if used laurels for amulets only, it would take 150 with badges, or 210 without.

Excluding the achievement reward chests, you can only earn 485 laurels per year. I think the numbers speak for themselves.

I don’t know how many laurels the new recipe will take, but I’m certainly in no position to start dumping them into new items. I’m not done with the “old” ones yet. And this isn’t counting the other things that can be bought with laurels, plus whatever they decide to add in another month or two.

I think people are being too hostile about this, but I agree with the sentiment. One thing that has always been problematic for me in MMOs is that I play a lot of alts instead of just focusing on one character or class. In every MMO I’ve played, I end up with a lot of characters without much powerful gear rather than just one with the best stuff. GW2 was a godsend for me because it let me easily level and fully gear alts without a lot of fuss. I could get to 80, get everything I needed, then play that class whenever I want.

This is slowly being pushed out of reality. WvW bonuses are character bound instead of account bound, so I have 6 characters at rank 30 instead of one at rank 150, and I get to always feel like low-man-on-totem-pole with all the bronze+ guys running around. I only have any ascended accessories on my warrior, but I was never too bothered about it because it didn’t seem too out of reach to get just a few pieces for other characters as well. But now with full ascended gear sets that are ALSO time gated and tied to the same resource as accessories, it feels like I’m being told to pick one class to give the nice things to, and forget about the rest, just like in other MMOs.

This is a massive turn off. I’m not trying to be one of those “hey everyone, look, I’m quitting” guys, but my interest level completely plummeted when I read the news of time gated ascended sets today. I don’t know if I’m completely done, but I’m definitely going to take a break from GW2 and see what else is on the market right now that may fit my interests more.

Brienson.7319:

. But now with full ascended gear sets that are ALSO time gated and tied to the same resource as accessories,

That is the most kitten ing part of it. And requiring laurels for recipes will mean directly limiting build variety because we have to purchase the recipe for each individual stat combo. It’s 5 laurels per stat combo, per weapon type, per character that needs to craft it. There are different recipes for a berserker greatsword, a knight’s greatsword, and a berserker hammer, that take 5 laurels each.

edit: this is much worse than I orginally though, I mistook the weapon recipes as being for a GS/hammer/etc, in general. Each individual stat of each individual weapon has it’s own 5 laurel recipe. And each one takes 3g in addition to the 5 days worth of laurel.

Brienson.7319:

I think people are being too hostile about this, but I agree with the sentiment. One thing that has always been problematic for me in MMOs is that I play a lot of alts instead of just focusing on one character or class. In every MMO I’ve played, I end up with a lot of characters without much powerful gear rather than just one with the best stuff. GW2 was a godsend for me because it let me easily level and fully gear alts without a lot of fuss. I could get to 80, get everything I needed, then play that class whenever I want.

This is slowly being pushed out of reality. WvW bonuses are character bound instead of account bound, so I have 6 characters at rank 30 instead of one at rank 150, and I get to always feel like low-man-on-totem-pole with all the bronze+ guys running around. I only have any ascended accessories on my warrior, but I was never too bothered about it because it didn’t seem too out of reach to get just a few pieces for other characters as well. But now with full ascended gear sets that are ALSO time gated and tied to the same resource as accessories, it feels like I’m being told to pick one class to give the nice things to, and forget about the rest, just like in other MMOs.

This is a massive turn off. I’m not trying to be one of those “hey everyone, look, I’m quitting” guys, but my interest level completely plummeted when I read the news of time gated ascended sets today. I don’t know if I’m completely done, but I’m definitely going to take a break from GW2 and see what else is on the market right now that may fit my interests more.

Pretty much where I’m at. I’ve been interested enough to put a thousand hours or so into this game since head start. I have 3 characters now that I want to support about 2 builds on each. In the current game, even up to now, that is not a particularly grueling task though the addition of Ascended accessories hurt tremendously due to the account-gating. In a post-fully Ascended economy it’s going to be a 92-week grind to have all of them re-join the power plateau unless I want to either stop supporting their builds or cut one or even two of them out entirely.

Those kinds of choices are not what I bought into when this game rolled out. The exact opposite idea was the one I was sold, where joining the power plateau wasn’t hard at all and build experimentation and character variety were encouraged. The idea being presented here is the exact opposite of supporting those concepts.

Ayrilana.1396:

It doesn’t ruin build diversity. I don’t see why a handful of people keep saying this. It’s no different from using rares instead of exotics. The build is the same except the set with the higher quality is moderately better.

This is so wrong I can’t even comprehend how you could think this. Exotics are so easy to get they might as well be rare. You can easily buy multiple different exotic armor sets with different stats in one day, with a couple of hours of farming. Ascended on the other hand are at least 20x harder to get than exotic and are time gated. This makes it impossible to make multiple different ascended builds in any reasonable amount of time/resources. If you end up disliking the ascended armor you got or get sick of your current class or build, you are SoL. And in my case they seem to be hell bent on ruining my main class (ele), so if nothing is changed soon all the ascended gear on her will be wasted.

And imagine starting the game right now. If I started and saw the obscene amount of time I have to play every day to get even one character fully outfitted in some type of ascended gear so I can compete at the highest levels, I would flat out quit.

I was watching the crafting part of the livestream and trying to pick up as much info as I could from what she was showing. The items the July blog stated were acquired “once per day per unique location” are these Empyreal Fragments/Dragonite Ore/etc shown in the video.

Later in the video you can see that it takes 100 of these “once per day per unique location” items to make the refined items like Empyreal Stars/Dragonite Ingots.

And then even later you see that a Vision Crystal takes 5 each of Empyreal Stars/Dragonite Ingots/Bloodstone Bricks.

So to make a single Vision Crystal you need 500 each of Empryeal Fragments, Dragonite Ore, and Bloodstone Dust. So, where do these come from?
Bloodstone Dust – drops from champ loot boxes
Dragonite Ore – temple/world bosses and keeps/castles in WvW
Empyreal Fragments – dungeons/mini-dungeons/jump puzzles and camps/towers in wvw

Looking back at the July blog and assuming it is still true, this is “once per day per unique location”. So you’re going to be needing to do a lot of different champs, a lot of different dungeons, and a lot of different wvw objectives to get these 1500 items.

It is also worth noting that in this part of the video, she shows how to make something called “Mithrillium”. which can only be crafted once per day. But the greatsword blade/hilt she crafts later on do not take Mithrillium. They take 3 each of something called “Deldrimore Steel Ingots” which are visible in the Refinement, but are never shown in detail. It’s likely that the Deldrimore Steel does use Mithrillium, but it can’t be known for sure, and the exact materials and amounts are kept hidden in this video.

Edit: A bit more on Mithrillium and Deldrimor Steel
While details behind Mithrillium’s relation to Deldrimor Steel are not shown on screen, we do see the relationship between a Glob of Elder Spirit Residue and a Spiritwood Plank. Like Mithrillium, this Residue is in the “Ectoplasm Refinement” category. It’s tooltip states that it is used in the refinement of Spiritwood. Spiritwood Planks are in the “Refinement” category next to Deldrimor Steed Ingots.

With Mithrillium’s partner material clearly being related to the “Refinement” section’s Spiritwood, Mithrillium itself is most likely used in a similar fashion. The only visible option on the screen would place it as being used for Deldrimore Steel, that section’s new material going along with Spiritwood.

This still leaves the question of how many Mithrillium/Residues are needed, and what other materials, if any, are used in this refinement. But since each greatsword component (hilt and blade) take at least 3 days to craft, as it requires 3 Deldrimor Steel, which in turn will require Mithrillium. That is a minimum of 6 days to craft only the blade and hilt, which will be higher if Deldrimor Steel takes more than a 1 Mithrillium.

I sure hope this game doesn’t go the way SWTOR went for me. I’m in a highly pessimistic mode with all this time gating and new tier kerfluffel.

I hope they have their stuff together on this, otherwise I’m out. So sad. This game had so much potential, it still may. I’ll know for sure next week.

(15 level 80s to gear, and more alts still leveling…)

Ferguson.2157:

I sure hope this game doesn’t go the way SWTOR went for me. I’m in a highly pessimistic mode with all this time gating and new tier kerfluffel.

I hope they have their stuff together on this, otherwise I’m out. So sad. This game had so much potential, it still may. I’ll know for sure next week.

(15 level 80s to gear, and more alts still leveling…)

15 level 80s? Might as well forget it, man. All of their post-launch currency systems have been based around a single character. This stuff is account-gated as well, not character-gated.

Ferguson.2157:

(15 level 80s to gear, and more alts still leveling…)

well that’s a kick to the nuts….. hard enough for me to feel

Yup , definitely not alt friendly. Makes me sad, but not angry. Ascended gear is just a few points more and it does add up.

At least exotic gear is still viable in World PvE and dungeons. I wonder how high of crit damage a full Ascended berserker build will get. Probably like 250% with food. 50k crits on auto attack here I come!

Ferguson.2157:

I sure hope this game doesn’t go the way SWTOR went for me. I’m in a highly pessimistic mode with all this time gating and new tier kerfluffel.

I hope they have their stuff together on this, otherwise I’m out. So sad. This game had so much potential, it still may. I’ll know for sure next week.

(15 level 80s to gear, and more alts still leveling…)

I’ve got 8 or 9 80s and I’m already planning what Ascended weapons I’m going make for some of them. Not for all of them, just some of them. Forge weapons for others, stick with certain exotics for still others.

I’ve only been planning for 5 minutes and I’m excited! I don’t mind doing a bit at a time. It just adds to the fun. For me, at least, but its all in the approach.

I hope this doesn’t become your gamebreaker.

i think im done with GW2 now. trinkets were a downhill slope, then they added wvw skills to add more vit and dmg for people who just grind all day. now looking at even more dmg and unbalanced garbage for WvW.

sad part is that they could have just locked WvW at exotic stats and then balanced the game…. but nope…. lets just go cray cray and ruin it for giggles

It’s so sad to see this implementation. They are going in the right direction with legendaries but the complete opposite direction with ascended gear.

Might as well save up for a legendary because I’m not grinding for multiple stats of the same weapon.

Anet, you are single handedly killing the playing many builds and the viability of alts.

Yeah, it is very sad indeed. One of the biggest reasons I was never able to really get into other MMOs was the drawn out gear progression, and constantly released higher quality gear. Anet sold me on the one that didn’t have this, and I trusted their word because they had a 7 year old game that was still successful without having it. Every step taken down this direction breaks that trust even more, and makes it that much more clear that Anet has no intentions of turning back until it is far too late.

The amount of effort it takes to get the current ascended trinkets isn’t bad, with the exception of back items. The problem is the timegating, and the fact that the timegate doesn’t care if you have 1 characters or 20 characters.

Ascended weapons are adding a ridiculous amount effort, while keeping the same timegates, and even using the same resources. Laurels are so over used now that those with alts/multiple builds will need years to gather enough of them just to get the new “basic max gear”. I can’t decide which is worse, needing laurels to buy each stat combo for each weapon type, having once daily timegated crafted, or needing hundreds of items you can only gather once daily per location. The combination of all these factors is absolutely appalling. The amount of grind, timegating, and convoluted mess of intertwined materials and refinements would make the developers of some Eastern MMOs jealous.

I do still love the game, and there is so much that is great and unique about it. But there are these huge black marks, and they just keep adding more. I might have been able to deal with these new weapons if they didn’t take laurels, and didn’t have the timegates/daily limits on Ecto Refinement crafting and obtaining Obsidian Refinement materials. Even if the limits were character based, it wouldn’t be nearly as bad. I just can’t accept all of that combined.

The damage has been done. Anet has chosen the minority of the fanbase they wish to work to keep. The fans of every other MMO, that came here looking for something the game was marketed for not having. The middle majority likely don’t care about any of this, until if at some point it directly effects them. And then we have the other minority. People that were tired of what every other MMO had to offer, and wanted the one MMO that was supposed to break that mold. Along with those of us that loved Guild Wars, believed in what Guild Wars 2 was designed to be, and trusted Anet to stay true to that image, and to their longtime fans.

Game developers sometimes have to make decisions that sacrifice portions of their playerbase. You can’t please everyone all the time. It happens. It’s terrible when it’s post release and pleases one group at the cost of another. But it’s absolutely shameful when one decides to sacrifice their own integrity, their own game design philosophy, and the fans that stuck with them because of that philosophy.

This was supposed to be ingame before release. Would you be QQ’ing then? No, it would be part of the game. A gear treadmill repeats itself over and over, Anet said time and time before that this is the only high-end tier there will be.

butch.8136:

This was supposed to be ingame before release. Would you be QQ’ing then? No, it would be part of the game.

I have not seen anything to support this idea at all. The only thing Anet said even close was that they felt they should have implemented it before release. There is no indication at all that it was actually in any stage of development prior to release.

Even if it were included at launch, I’m sure many of us would still feel the same way, because the acquisition of ascended gear goes against so much of what were told and had marketed to us.

Here is what Chris Whiteside had to say on this back in November.

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).

butch.8136

A gear treadmill repeats itself over and over, Anet said time and time before that this is the only high-end tier there will be.

No, here is what Chris Whiteside actually said.

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.

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 possibility of additional tiers was intentionally left open, although the expressed a desire to avoid it. The also specifically stated that the intend on continuing to release more powerful items within the ascended tier. Releasing more powerful items in an existing tier isn’t really any different than adding them in a new tier.

butch.8136:

This was supposed to be ingame before release. Would you be QQ’ing then? No, it would be part of the game. A gear treadmill repeats itself over and over, Anet said time and time before that this is the only high-end tier there will be.

Personally, I wouldn’t be QQing because I wouldn’t be playing. I only started this game because my friends were here (never played another MMO). They were here because of the no grind policy. They all (yes, ALL) quit the game shortly after laurels were introduced. They were willing to ignore rings but dailies were too much.

I’m deciding what I want to do. Either drop down to a single main or quit the game. Either way, this experience has soured me on MMO’s and I don’t think I’ll play another one.

I don’t see the big deal, all you need to do is pick up a zerker weapon for PvE and a PVT one for WvW, boom, done.

Even better if you don’t do much PvE or WvW so you only have to get a single weapon.

colesy.8490:

I don’t see the big deal, all you need to do is pick up a zerker weapon for PvE and a PVT one for WvW, boom, done.

Even better if you don’t do much PvE or WvW so you only have to get a single weapon.

Sure, provided you don’t run multiple specs or enjoy variety.

Jabberwock.9014:

This is so wrong I can’t even comprehend how you could think this. Exotics are so easy to get they might as well be rare. You can easily buy multiple different exotic armor sets with different stats in one day, with a couple of hours of farming.

Let’s not be hasty, it takes like 3g worth of mats per exotic 80 part. With 13 items per set, not counting underwater weapons and using two 2handed weapons, that’s quite a lot already.

Ya cos you only use 1 weapon in PvE and one weapon in WvW, only one. And you don’t have alts.

Even if your argument actually made sense it’s still months to make the weapons with just those stats.

Weekend only players are kittened

I play 7 different characters on a regular basis. I got lucky in Fractals with Ring drops and have all Ascended rings on all 7 characters who are all at level 80. I used my Laurels to buy them all Amulets. I have 2 characters with all Ascended jewelry. As you can tell, I play a lot. I know that we don’t technically have to have any of this stuff. I would feel better though if we knew WHAT the ceiling was. Is this the last tier of high end stuff? If there is no ceiling then this is really off putting. ArenaNet games have never been about getting the best stats. There was always a ceiling and that was what was appealing to me. It was always about spending time getting the look you wanted if you wanted to go that route but you were never time gated in a serious manner for the top statted gear. Now all of a sudden we are.

I think ArenaNet would have been better suited introducing the new weapon sets first and the new utility skills. Why keep increasing stats without adding permanent content that challenged us with those new stats in mind? It makes no sense.

I am not gonna say anything caustic or demeaning because that is just gross, but I would like to express my total and utter disappointment in the decision makers at ArenaNet for this decision. You could have at least given us new permanent content in the form of an expansion to soften the blow. Now we just have an arbitrarily implemented time gate for gear if we want BiS items with no reason for it whatsoever.

Have you guys forgotten how GW1 was? We didn’t play all of those campaigns because you offered progression. We played because they were fun. These two week updates are fun, but an arbitrary gear treadmill for no reason is less fun than a gear grind when you know at the end of it you get to do raids or whatever and I can’t stand that in games, so how do you think I feel about it when it has no purpose?

It takes 2 weeks to make 1 weapon. Remember the part where I said I play 7 characters regularly? I use multiple weapons on those characters excluding my Elementalist and Engineer that only use 1 weapon each. My warrior will take 8 weeks to gear up for ONLY her preferred weapons. I don’t know how else to put it, so I will be blunt: It’s asinine. I have dropped literally thousands of hours over 8 years playing your games and almost as much money.

If you don’t do anything regading changing the system, at least have the common decency to tell us where the ceiling is so we can plan accordingly. If there is no ceiling then I will go to a game that has one. I like playing for fun and things I like cosmetically. Put me on a multiple month treadmill for no reason and I will simply step off and walk away with a heavy heart. I don’t really know how to fully express my deep disappointment in the arbitrary time gating of these items.

I completely agree that PvE should be all zerker all the time. I disagree that WvW should be all PVT all the time. I’ve seen a lot more variety be very successful there.

PVT is the safest choice if you want something that’ll be useful practically regardless of conditions. Pretty much any other gear requires you to build around it.

But, before you criticize me for hating time gated gear, remember we aren’t playing the same game.

How?

Ya cos you only use 1 weapon in PvE and one weapon in WvW, only one. And you don’t have alts.

There will always be a weapon you use more than others. On my mesmer, I run sword in both main hands, and you don’t need to stick the same sword in your second set of weapons either, you can just stick an off-hand in and then it uses the stats and sigil of your first set’s mainhand. So for example, if I’m running sword/focus and sword pistol, in my first weapon set I can put the sword and focus in, and in my second wea/on set I just put the pistol in and then when I swap to it I still use the mainhand sword from my first set.

If you have alts and a bunch of bad builds then tough, you’re going to have to wait months for them to get full ascended weapons. Or you could just make a legendary which can take on any stats you want.

Considering the minor difference in stats and the fact that ascended trinkets (excluding backpiece) are very easy to obtain, I don’t see the big deal.

colesy.8490:

I completely agree that PvE should be all zerker all the time. I disagree that WvW should be all PVT all the time. I’ve seen a lot more variety be very successful there.

PVT is the safest choice if you want something that’ll be useful practically regardless of conditions. Pretty much any other gear requires you to build around it.

So I should have to get a generic “one size doesn’t really fit all” gear set instead of a couple different sets tailored to different builds?

Just because you are fine with always using zerker or always using PVT, doesn’t mean the rest of us are.

I’m actually quite happy with bad players being forced to wait longer. Good job ANet

colesy.8490:

I’m actually quite happy with bad players being forced to wait longer. Good job ANet

I suppose this will make all those squishy zerkers be locked into their bad builds shortsighted decisions. At least it will get me some easy bags and badges.

edit:
I guess the trolls do some good after all…sometimes. Made me see a little bit of an upside to this.

Thrashbarg.9820:

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

Wrong. The difficulty (like there is any) is not changing with the update. What this means is that if you do absolutely nothing in regards to upgrading your current gear, you will not notice any changes. What was effective today will still be effective after the update. What WILL be different is that there will be players who are slightly more effective than you.

Builds will not die. All builds will still be viable after the update as they are now. This is not counting any nerfs that they might have in store. Don’t believe the doomsday nonsense that the players who feel they must have the best in slot gear are spewing.

Ayrilana.1396:

Thrashbarg.9820:

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

Wrong. The difficulty (like there is any) is not changing with the update. What this means is that if you do absolutely nothing in regards to upgrading your current gear, you will not notice any changes. What was effective today will still be effective after the update. What WILL be different is that there will be players who are slightly more effective than you.

Builds will not die. All builds will still be viable after the update as they are now. This is not counting any nerfs that they might have in store. Don’t believe the doomsday nonsense that the players who feel they must have the best in slot gear are spewing.

You’re right, when considering existing pve content. Other players gaining more power is definitely a real problem in wvw. And after the full set of ascended gear is out, and more players have had a chance to get their mains into a set of it, there is the chance of future pve content being designed with this tier in mind. New content in MMOs, especially content that is supposed to high-end/challenging, is typically designed for players with the best gear available.

While this does not mean such gear must be an absolute requirement, the design of the content strongly encourages it, as well as encourages player/party enforcement of using it. This already exists in the game with exotic gear, and it will certainly carry over to the ascended tier, as well.

Ayrilana.1396:

Wrong. The difficulty (like there is any) is not changing with the update. What this means is that if you do absolutely nothing in regards to upgrading your current gear, you will not notice any changes. What was effective today will still be effective after the update. What WILL be different is that there will be players who are slightly more effective than you.

Which means that the only reason to introduce Ascended was to facilitate players who believe they deserve to have better numbers than other players.

If the 8-10% difference is so insignificant kitten many people here have said, then why introduce it at all?

Because it gives a sense of progression.

colesy.8490:

I’m actually quite happy with bad players being forced to wait longer. Good job ANet

Yes. bad players experiment and make better and better builds while “pros” like you have crapped build that aint even best in what they supposed to do.

Rightio bro

MikaHR.1978:

colesy.8490:

I’m actually quite happy with bad players being forced to wait longer. Good job ANet

Yes. bad players experiment and make better and better builds while “pros” like you have crapped build that aint even best in what they supposed to do.

Rightio bro

That pro player thinks mesmers GS is very very bad for dungeons and run a sword in both hands while not even using Deceptive Evasion in dungeons because “its not in the current dungeon meta”. he’s pro like that!

butch.8136:

Because it gives a sense of progression.

Funny that we never had any “sense of progression” in GW1 and quite honestly didn’t need it. There was never a stat increase and never a gear increase across 3 campaigns and 1 expansion. The allure of this series for many was that it is all about fun, and not arbitrary gear grind. Why introduce no new higher level content but higher end gear? it makes no sense whatsoever.

If I wanted a challenge I would just buy level 40 gear for my level 80 and have my guildies do the same and then go run Caudecus Manor Explorable Mode.

I am of the complete opposite opinion. If an MMO is so unengaging that you have to play an alt to keep entertained then you’re doing something fundamentally wrong as a designer. I think Anet is taking one step in the right direction with ascended. Now they just have to make PERMANENT CONTENT for the next step of gear to be used for.

I am of the complete opposite opinion. If an MMO is so unengaging that you have to
have artificial stat differences to keep entertained, then you’re doing something fundamentally wrong as a designer.

Mikau.6920:

Now is just wait and see what will happen in the game… I hope this don’t obrigate us to get ascended weapons or at least isn’t insane to get as ascended trinkets… (heavy laurels, live in fractals or the guild thingy)

Sadly, I was building both my Warrior and my Necro (Guard is my main)…

We’ll call this game Word of Guild Wars? (Wait to see)

….well hate to break it to you it’s much worse.

according to the live stream it will take 2 weeks to get 1 ascended weapon a warrior and necro will likely need 3/4 so that’s two months PER acc.

lets point the finger at the upcoming hellish update ascended armor now
six pieces most likely similar process so another 2 weeks per piece that’s 3 months of grindin per acc.

now lets add the inevitable future dungeons will become much eaiser since ascended weapons / armor will be roughly 20% (that is no typo) better since it has a higher weapon strength plus stats. now lets recall the starting dungeon ac designed for lvl 35s and how anet had to buff it.

now imagine if they do that with ascended in mind point being gw2 is poorly designed currently for a vertical progression in pve so guess what here comes the elitist and very possible buffs keep in mind part of this is sort of hypothetical but the numbers I supplied was quite real.

also keep in mind how serious wvw guilds are with armor and weapons I highly doubt ascended doesn’t show real improvement if you can get enough of them.

it’s major issue is because of the insane time requirement it kills alts out right 1 char = at least 5 months to bring them up to the top tier and unlike trinkets who have little influence other then a few measly points in power per say weapons weapon strength will greatly enhance it’s over all effectiveness.

the only place I think is safe from this update is spvp and thank god for that I guess.

this wouldn’t be a problem if the amror was sellable or easily accessed hell was exotic really that bad. because htats what it is at the end of the day all this work to break even or get a edge on opposing players god help you if you have a life.

if it wasnt because the so defended bound system….you just could buy it from the TP

I can’t help but think…if time was spent working on the things that people have been asking for…revamping dungeons, improving the stories, improving and designing new sPvP maps, and working on all those little quality of life things (UI and sound improvements, for example, and so many other things that have been mentioned here)…

…instead of focusing on making grinds for gear that nobody even asked for…

ANet wouldn’t have made themselves such a big target.

TheDraco.3965:

I am of the complete opposite opinion. If an MMO is so unengaging that you have to play an alt to keep entertained then you’re doing something fundamentally wrong as a designer. I think Anet is taking one step in the right direction with ascended. Now they just have to make PERMANENT CONTENT for the next step of gear to be used for.

It has nothing to do with game being unengaging. I want to play “alts”, and I put that in quotation marks because they aren’t “alts” to me. I don’t have a “main”, nor do I want one. I’m going to play whatever profession I feel like playing today.

The fact that so many other MMOs make leveling and gearing up such an overly time consuming task that you are practically forced into a main is the biggest reason I don’t play those games. GW2 was designed with alts in mind, and marketed (specifically, even…and I wish I could find that blog/article) to players that like having them. The fact that this is changing post-release because of the demands of players that, to be honest, should have known this wasn’t the right game for them(had they actually bothered to look at any of the pre/post-release information), is quite saddening. There are plenty of games with on-going, longterm, vertical character progression via increased stats and more powerful gear. If that is what you are looking for in a game, go play one of them.

Um. How does ascended gear kill builds? I fail to see how this is possible at all. I have a build. I get gear for that build. OMG I GOT AN UPGRADE, BETTER CHANGE MY BUILD.

It’s silly to think this way. Also not all of your alts will ever be fully decked out in ascended gear and I think that’s sort of the point. I don’t expect all of my alts to ever be fully decked out in 100% ascended items.

TehPwnerer.7215:

Um. How does ascended gear kill builds? I fail to see how this is possible at all. I have a build. I get gear for that build. OMG I GOT AN UPGRADE, BETTER CHANGE MY BUILD.

It’s silly to think this way. Also not all of your alts will ever be fully decked out in ascended gear and I think that’s sort of the point. I don’t expect all of my alts to ever be fully decked out in 100% ascended items.

Because once you get that upgraded gear, you are locked into that set of gear and its stats, unless you wish to downgrade back to exotics for another build. If changing build, means downgrading your stats/character strength by 10-20%, you’re a lot less inclined to do that. Want to experiment with a new build? You’re probably going to want to try that new build out at it’s max potential, aka in ascended gear. Is it worth working months for a set of gear just to try something that you might not be happy with?

Why is it that we must have mains and alts? Why do I suddenly have to pick one character out of the 8 professions, and progress on only that character? What if I like 4 of them equally? This is exactly how it is for me. What if I liked all 8 of them equally?

TheDraco.3965:

I am of the complete opposite opinion. If an MMO is so unengaging that you have to play an alt to keep entertained then you’re doing something fundamentally wrong as a designer. I think Anet is taking one step in the right direction with ascended. Now they just have to make PERMANENT CONTENT for the next step of gear to be used for.

You are entitled to your opinion. I am of the opposite breed that has played alts or different factions/races or archetypes in any game type.
MMO’s like EQ
Fighters like streetfighter or Tekken or Mortal Kombat
Platformers like super Mario
Stealthers like Tenchu
RTS/sims like StarCraft or Civ or even age of empires.
Shooters like BF2/2142/3 (those had classes unlike something like halo)

Suffice to say, I like variety. I had 2 accounts and about 26 characters in gw. Here I have 12 or so. Every single MMO that I have played I have had at least one of every class, one of every race. Well, in games that had classes anyway. Sometimes I would even go further with genders and class per race/faction/sect/order/affinity.

It is quite simple. I played GW1 and it was a brilliant game, why – well principally because it was about skill. You levelled to 20 with as many characters you wanted. You went to the armour crafter with the materials that you could easliy get at l20 – he made your level 20 armour. Then you went out and played. Alliance battles were such fun because all had the same stats, a level playing field and it was all about the builds and player skill. THAT is what marked GW1 out. Remember the pro GVG matches – awesome.

The developers sold this game as innovative with GW1 values akittens heart, different to the other MMO’s on the market and led me to believe that there would be a level playing field with skill and builds again being what it was all about. In other words fun.

I am afraid that they LIED to me and the whole community. This really angers me that they so callously misrepresented the game and their intentions. Personally i have sunk a lot of money and time into levelling multiple characters to 80 with exotic gear and weapons because i like to try all the builds and love wvw.
Now the goalposts move and i sadly won’t even have access to top tier weapons on the TP even. I must craft which is not for me.
I played LOTRO after GW1 and got sick of the constant moving of the goalposts – i could never keep up and always felt like my character was worse than others. i stopped playing to come here with high hopes that this was a no grind game. High hopes that GW1 values would give me the same years of enjoyment. Since the news about ascended weapons and armour it is clear that the original values have been corrupted and the game is now just another MMO. They will say that the differences are minimal in stats etc but that is not the point. It is the psychological effect of seeing your hard earned character stats and gear instantly dropped from top tier (legendaries were irrelevant stat wise) to 2nd rate (however long this takes). Also like others i now realise that Alts are clearly no longer possible which completely destroys a big part of my enjoyment of this game. VARIETY has been killed off. It is just not realistic to gear multiple characters now. Now i am stressed about the game – why – because i know i will always have that carrot in front of my nose. I left LOTRO because i didn’t want that carrot any more. I have overnight lost interest in all my alts and in the game. Developers – you will not get any more of my money. You deceived us all and made a good but bog standard MMO with in build grind. You ultimately have failed to have sufficient courage to see your grand experiment through. It would have been successful without gear progression. Traits, builds, new skills, new content, accessible challenging and fun pvp (like alliance battles) would have kept me and others interested. I know many people who are just downright bored and disillusioned with this game now. I’m sorry but so am i !

I just don’t like being misled , lied to and to see a great game sold down the river of grind.
Over and out.

Being in full exotics will not make you obsolete. The stat differences are not that massive.

That’s like saying that up until now, being in rares made you obsolete, and it doesn’t. You are still very effective in yellows, including in WvW.

Sylv.5324:

Being in full exotics will not make you obsolete. The stat differences are not that massive.

That’s like saying that up until now, being in rares made you obsolete, and it doesn’t. You are still very effective in yellows, including in WvW.

But you’re not at the best, and some people really wish that as opposed to being capable enough. That’s what a lot of people just are either not grasping or forgetting . . .

There are an ample amount of people for whom it’s about being the best somehow, and gear was the easiest way to do this for a long time. It’s no longer so easy, and is a slight bit restrictive. It’s now going to be a slow, and slightly difficult process (in terms of “not easy”). Ascended is pretty much going to move into the spot Legendary should have had – requiring time but not insanely specific luck (Precursors, hehehe, through Mystic Forge . . . oh my. It’ll be something rarely seen, which will say different things to different people.

For some who see someone with it, it will be “wow that’s neat, how did they get that? How can I get one?” For others, it’ll be “pheh, that’s another casher right there”.

You know, like what people say when someone is standing around with Foefire’s Essence, or any other flashy special exotic.