Guild Wars 2

I do not understand why Arenanet is hesitating to introduce the recipes for jewelers to produce ascended items. It would solve so many problems. And we are waiting over two months now for it.

It’s less an issue of the half-tier stat increase (which will, in fact, matter once nearly full sets of Ascended gear are acquirable), and more an issue of “why should I HAVE to use Exotics for my build whereas all of those people get to use Ascended items for theirs?”

Belenwyn.8674:

I do not understand why Arenanet is hesitating to introduce the recipes for jewelers to produce ascended items. It would solve so many problems. And we are waiting over two months now for it.

Maybe for the same random reason that WvW armor was only provided in one stat set and still has not been expanded. Seriously, how hard is it to duplicate the armor sets to different stats setups that already exist?

Ozymandias.5704:

I think some people are over-dramatizing the “issue”. Exotics are still perfectly viable. And tbh its your skill as a player, not a minute increase in stats, that determines the effectiveness of your character and build. You can still change up your stats quite a lot with changing all your other gear. Its not like your build stands or falls on the ascend items.

Yes, some stat increases are nice, and I would get them myself, but really, I can still play however I want to effectively.

I would not mind more variety, but if you want to see an improvement, put forth a constructive criticism post, not a whine, and you might see more success. I really don’t think the tone in certain posts here is a good idea to bring this to light (talking about the more whiny, “I am a victim, woe is me” type of posts).

My build depends on gear that hasn’t been released yet. I cannot utilize any of the new gear without gimping myself. For the time being, no, I don’t need ascended gear to be competitive. But we are now seeing a trend in ascended gear that’s being released with different and limited stats than what was used before.

In the future if I’m going up against another build decked out with ascended gear, and I’m only in exotic- than yes, I will be at a notable disadvantage regardless of my skill. Builds that utilize this new ascended gear do and will continue to have more of an advantage. This will drive me to likely abandon my current build to go to one that uses the ascended gear, as will others, which leaves us with less versatility in the Guild Wars community.

If you had actually read the original OP, you would see that this thread is not “a whine” as you put it, but a few simple questions that have yet to be answered about the future of gear and viable builds. Your (provoking?) comments about how skill is more important than gear, although generally correct, is not the issue of this thread.

The people who leave posts that you read as “I am a victim”, are simply expressing their concerns and telling Arenanet how these changes affect them. This is constructive criticism. The tone is generally one of frustration because Arenanet continues to be silent on an issue that was already raised over two months ago and their advertising of the new ascended amulets was misleading.

Zerbo.5381:

… This will drive me to likely abandon my current build to go to one that uses the ascended gear, as will others …

I’ll probably just quit if it gets so far as there are almost entire sets available, still with no viable options for my builds. I’m not here to be forced to DPS or walk around with a really high health pool that only helps me to survive as long as I don’t keep getting hit.

Belenwyn.8674:

I do not understand why Arenanet is hesitating to introduce the recipes for jewelers to produce ascended items. It would solve so many problems. And we are waiting over two months now for it.

I think the answer from the developers would be: “because we want you to work a while to get the ascended gear and crafting is instant-satisfaction”.

Ascended gear was clearly created to provide a longer-term gear goal (but not as long term as legendary). It’s a mechanism to create a feeling of “something to do” for some players. In order not to look completely kitten-faced, the stats are weakly increased over exotics (think of the fallout if the ascended stats were significantly higher than exotic stats, and how do you rationalize that with the manifesto).

IMHO, the only way you’ll see “crafted” ascended gear is if one of the materials (or recipes) can only be attained through a gated mechanism like Laurels. This way you can let players craft gear, but they can’t immediately craft every piece they need because they need a gated currency to achieve it. Of course if you stockpile the currency then it’s kinda moot, but they might introduce a new currency…

I am miffed about this as well. ANet, you’ve decided to make AR absolutely necessary to progress in Fractals — the only thing that keeps me (and I’m sure many others) coming back to the game — by rendering the Jade Maw’s agony unavoidable when you need more than the current max of 30 AR to survive on higher levels. So to progress in Fractals — again, the only thing keeping me playing — I have to drop 30 laurels on an amulet that will essentially gimp my build?

I know Ascended gear is a work-in-progress, but I certainly hope you have plans to support a wider range builds. The amulet preview on the content page states that "With 5 new Utility Infusions and 30 Ascended Amulets to choose from, there’s something for every style of player,” which leads me to believe you consider what’s currently on offer to be sufficient.

Can we at least get some manner of an official response on this?

What honestly baffles me about some peoples’ arguments is that they make the claim that the release of other armor combinations is being purposely delayed due to the fact that they will eventually add crafting recipes. However, this is only ONE plausible way of obtaining the armor set when its been stated repeatedly that they want players to “play the way they want to play”. By releasing crafting recipes, they will also release the already ascended versions of Berserk’s, Soldier’s, Celestial’s, Cavalier’s, and Rabid as crafting recipes as well.

How is it in any way fair then that these armor combinations have multiple ways of achieving their gear (fractals, laurels, crafting/trading post) while the other 12 armor combinations only have one way (crafting/trading post)? What if we enjoy doing fractals and have already done the necessary daily runs to afford two pieces of gear? What if we enjoy doing dailies and monthlies to accumulate laurels for our armor pieces?

juno.1840:

Belenwyn.8674:

I do not understand why Arenanet is hesitating to introduce the recipes for jewelers to produce ascended items. It would solve so many problems. And we are waiting over two months now for it.

I think the answer from the developers would be: “because we want you to work a while to get the ascended gear and crafting is instant-satisfaction”.

If they really think that way, all they need to do is say it.
Not that i agree with you – crafting requires materials, you know. If they don’t want mats to be easily bought, all they need to do is to add vials of mist essence to the recipe (though i would expect them to make the vials more easily available then – for pristine/normal relics, for laurels – though NOT 30…, from drops outside fractals).

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

Yay! That’s all we needed to hear. Thank you very much!

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

Thank you for replying. I’m glad to hear that. Could you perhaps give us a hint how fast should we expect it, or is it too soon yet for even a vague estimate?

here’s an idea, don’t try so hard to min/max every stat like your 25 man raid depends on it.

Thanks so much for the information!

Any plans on adding quivers to laurel vendors? quiver skins are currently impossible to get for people who don’t play fractal dungeons.

Boomstin.3460:

Any plans on adding quivers to laurel vendors? quiver skins are currently impossible to get for people who don’t play fractal dungeons.

You don’t need to go deep into FotM for a quiver. All that is needed is attainable in levels 1-9, no need for Agony resist even. The only required drop is a single Vial of condensced Mist Essence.

Thank you for the info. See all you naysayer who called everyone posting in here whiners all we wanted was some information. Now that Izzy has given us that info. we can move forward rather than participate in continued hyperbole and speculation. I’m happy that I can continue to play the way I love, and I’m thankful for the design team taking time out of their schedule to respond to us.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

Thank you muchos. Sort of wish you’d confirm Cleric’s(-like) combos and at least a vague time frame—in the next couple of weeks? months?—though.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

Thank you for your reply.

Is there going to be Knight’s ascended trinkets or not? You were a tiny bit vague.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

Thank heavens! Carrion / Rampager / Knight / Cleric / Apothecary aren’t lost to history yet!

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

Time frame? Reason they were not included to start with? Are there any types that will not be included for design reasons? More info then one sentence?

I’ll take one sentence over complete radio silence any day.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

Thank you very much for the answer! However, there are still some issues that have to be addressed.
1. Will there ever be a possibility to do sth with unwanted rings?
2. Will there be a possibility to gain amulets via another ways, because at this rate it’s… well, too grindy. 20 days of dailes + monthly for 1 amulet is much for hardcore players, whereas for casual players it’s even more troublesome.

This is the minum you could’ve said but it’s better than nothing. Thanks a lot Isaiah!

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

I’m glad we’ve gotten a response! Guess I’ll save those laurels until Knight’s gear comes out.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

So when can I get my amulet from doing fractals? You remember saying we could get the gear how we want right?

Thanks for adding these crap items, no cosmetic boost at all. You are aware your level 80 cosmetic gear is very very limited right?

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

Oooh, like what?

Personally I’d like to see rune and sigil like stats added to these item. I mean, since ascended items have no item upgrade slots, it sort of throws rune and sigils out the window. These sort of bonuses are really what makes builds interesting, and now they’re kinda being passed by.

Edit…I see my answer now.

I would very much like to see items that have stats along the lines of cleric and other that are missing.

@You people complaining about no Knight’s ascended or other combos.

Do you think investing all your gear into 3 stats is wise? It’s not. Try to think outside the box.

With the use of ascended gear you can balance out your build in areas where you could be lacking, or potentially strengthen your build.

For example. Someone using all Knight’s gear may want Knight’s ascended, BUT, using the ascended rings combo power/toughness/critdamage (Cavalier’s) you can substantially boost your critdamage without needing to resort to using berserkers or valkyrie gear. It’s a huge increase in damage (8% crit dmg per ring) and defense (103 toughness per ring), these blow Knight’s out of the water for a majority of builds. Most likely a person with Knight’s will be lacking crit damage, so these rings are incredible.

You guys just need to think outside the box.

krlosis.2653:

Thanks for adding these crap items, no cosmetic boost at all. You are aware your level 80 cosmetic gear is very very limited right?

You can use any level gear as a transmutation to achieve any look you want, outside of the skins that drop on level 80 gear.

Darx.9842:

@You people complaining about no Knight’s ascended or other combos.

Do you think investing all your gear into 3 stats is wise? It’s not. Try to think outside the box.

With the use of ascended gear you can balance out your build in areas where you could be lacking, or potentially strengthen your build.

For example. Someone using all Knight’s gear may want Knight’s ascended, BUT, using the ascended rings combo power/toughness/critdamage (Cavalier’s) you can substantially boost your critdamage without needing to resort to using berserkers or valkyrie gear. It’s a huge increase in damage (8% crit dmg per ring) and defense (103 toughness per ring), these blow Knight’s out of the water for a majority of builds. Most likely a person with Knight’s will be lacking crit damage, so these rings are incredible.

You guys just need to think outside the box.

I guarantee you there are builds that work optimally with full-on stacking of particular stats. Maybe some people can benefit from thinking “outside the box,” but others can certainly benefit from not thinking so hard.

Darx.9842:

@You people complaining about no Knight’s ascended or other combos.

Do you think investing all your gear into 3 stats is wise? It’s not. Try to think outside the box.

With the use of ascended gear you can balance out your build in areas where you could be lacking, or potentially strengthen your build.

For example. Someone using all Knight’s gear may want Knight’s ascended, BUT, using the ascended rings combo power/toughness/critdamage (Cavalier’s) you can substantially boost your critdamage without needing to resort to using berserkers or valkyrie gear. It’s a huge increase in damage (8% crit dmg per ring) and defense (103 toughness per ring), these blow Knight’s out of the water for a majority of builds. Most likely a person with Knight’s will be lacking crit damage, so these rings are incredible.

You guys just need to think outside the box.

You conveniently ignored the loss of precision in the cavalier’s gear which reduced DPS from the lowered crit chance.

Stats on gear is a balancing act. I have knight’s jewelry but I do not have knights armor nor weapons. The jewelry is a balace to my other gear. If I switch my jewelry to something other than knight’s, then I need to rebalance my other gear.

It’s not impossible, just expensive. I’ll wait until knight’s is available on ascended.

Most likely a person with Knight’s will be lacking crit damage, so these rings are incredible.

You guys just need to think outside the box.

Point is, you seem to only think in damage/armor terms. Whereas for many builds high precision is not aimed at damage. It is aimed at providing on-crit utility, like might buff for example. I assure you, that meager +%critdamage (to my damage only) would never compare to the amount of additional damage from might-on-crit I give out to myself and all my party members. And that`s just one example. So. Who`s not thinking outside the box?

Darx.9842:

For example. Someone using all Knight’s gear may want Knight’s ascended, BUT, using the ascended rings combo power/toughness/critdamage (Cavalier’s) you can substantially boost your critdamage without needing to resort to using berserkers or valkyrie gear. It’s a huge increase in damage (8% crit dmg per ring) and defense (103 toughness per ring), these blow Knight’s out of the water for a majority of builds. Most likely a person with Knight’s will be lacking crit damage, so these rings are incredible.

First of all, high crit damage is irrelevant if you cannot crit. Crit chance is based on precision, so any sensible +Crit damage eq must include Prec stat. Cavaliers might at first glance seem to be a good combo, but due to the decreased crit chance in fact their crit damage is wasted. A mix of Knight and Cavalier eq might be nice, though.
Second, some traits in many classes proc off crit effects. Sometimes crit chance is important to you not for increased DPS, but because of those additional effects. In such case exchanging crit chance for crit damage is again not a good idea.

The argument between Knight’s and Cavalier’s could be compared to old Guild Wars 1 balancing between steady and spike damage, where Knight’s is steady with more crits being dished out (my crit rate for example after charging my sigil of perception is 110%), and Cavalier’s is spike, with occasional high damage output.
The problem is that with spike damage in GW1, you controlled exactly when the spike was applied, whereas in GW2, if you’re sacrificing crit rate in order to boost crit damage, you can’t say eactly when the spike is coming.
Personally, I prefer certainty over uncertainty.

Isaiah Cartwright
Guild Wars 2 Lead Designer
We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.
~Izzy @-’—-

Dear ArenaNet, thank you for the reply. Let me start out by saying that i love this game, iv’e been playing since release. I have enjoyed all the extra effort and events very much. I gladly support the game through the gem store, and think, all in all your doing an amazing job.

I am however little confused, about the lack of feedback though. Could we please have a little bit more communication?
Myself, and others have been waiting since ascended gear was introduced, for the other types of stat combos to be released, and there have been many threads that received no reply to this. The missing gear makes little sense to me, certain classes have a huge advantage, by having the stat combinations they want on ascended items, well the rest of us, need to use gear that we would not otherwise choose.

I have waited, along with others patiently, for the release of these items, after it was announced that over 30 new ascended amulets would be added jan 28th patch. Was sure the new release would include the missing item types.

When i saw that no changes were made, and the stat combinations of the new amulets remained the same as the existing rings. and there wasn’t any sort of official announcement, that they were ever going to be included. and i created my beta fractal capacitator. With stats that don’t really fit with my build, (i have a cleric build) 90 gold i think it cost. There are a lot of other people that did this, and even spent another 90 gold to make the infused fractal capacitator.

Now we have this vague statement from you guys, not giving any real information about when/if this new gear ever comes out, or what types of stat combinations will be included, while i hope there will be cleric versions in the next release. It will mean that i’ll be stuck with a 4 silver piece of junk taking up bank space.

O’k sorry, long whiny rant over. To hopeful solution rant. Can you please implement either an option to salvage existing infused backpieces, for the ascended infusion part or even easier (i think) give us the option to transmute a non infused one with an existing one. Creating a new infused version of the item.

Thx, for your time,
Grave Bunny.

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

When?

Like i been saying for awhile now in this same thread. They are going to introduce more eventually along with new state combos for other tiers but noooo you guys had to get Anet to reply to every thread when they already said it 2 months ago!

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

Some people have asked when. That is a good question.

I have another question: How much time will it cost people who already have Ascended (or even infused Ascended items with an infusion) to get these new stats ?

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

I am so flipping happy to read this. Carrion ascended gear…. -Homer drool-

I sort of expected this to happen so I held off on buying a fractal capacitor – the current stat “pyramid” that occurs with gear, the top tier being also the most limited stat wise, seemed pretty ill conceived. Questions about why additional stat groupings weren’t released to begin with aside, I’d too would like to know when we should expect an update with these new items so I can finally use all these fractal relics I’ve been saving up…

Niim.9260:

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.~Izzy @-’—-

Time frame? Reason they were not included to start with? Are there any types that will not be included for design reasons? More info then one sentence?

My thoughts exactly. 30 seconds to type one sentence with a very basic affirmation and almost three months of community questioning is silenced. What sheep we’ve all become.

MarzAttakz.9608:

Niim.9260:

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.~Izzy @-’—-

Time frame? Reason they were not included to start with? Are there any types that will not be included for design reasons? More info then one sentence?

My thoughts exactly. 30 seconds to type one sentence with a very basic affirmation and almost three months of community questioning is silenced. What sheep we’ve all become.

Delaying tactics only work for so long. Eventually they will have to do something about it, or see their whole precious ascended idea fail completely.

Darx.9842:

For example. Someone using all Knight’s gear may want Knight’s ascended, BUT, using the ascended rings combo power/toughness/critdamage (Cavalier’s) you can substantially boost your critdamage without needing to resort to using berserkers or valkyrie gear. It’s a huge increase in damage (8% crit dmg per ring) and defense (103 toughness per ring), these blow Knight’s out of the water for a majority of builds. Most likely a person with Knight’s will be lacking crit damage, so these rings are incredible.

You guys just need to think outside the box.

Ahahah! Being ignorant =/= thinking out of the box. First of all why do you assume I’m stacking only Knight’s gear? My jewellery is Knight’s and I don’t want to spend 39s per glob of ectoplasm to change my other gear just because they can’t be bothered to release the stat combo on ascended items. That being said, what use is crit damage when you sacrifice crit chance to get it? And as many others have pointed out, critical chance is more valuable in 75% of the builds as there are lots of “on crit” traits/sigils. For example, I’d rather have 0 crit damage and the best crit chance possible to proc Empower more often

That being said, if what Suddenflame is true (p.s. we get it you don’t want us to ask questions now that you expressed your point of view can you get out plz?) , why is it taking so long? If more stats were announced 2 months ago, where did they go? And don’t come and tell me it takes a lot of development time because it does not.

I am so flipping happy to read this. Carrion ascended gear…. -Homer drool-

They never said Carrion is one of those stats they are going to introduce. Remember they said they are releasing 30 types of amulets that will “fit any playstyle”? Might be the same thing now. Mixed stats no one would want.
They also never said WHEN they are releasing it.

Aelaren.3784:

I am so flipping happy to read this. Carrion ascended gear…. -Homer drool-

They never said Carrion is one of those stats they are going to introduce. Remember they said they are releasing 30 types of amulets that will “fit any playstyle”? Might be the same thing now. Mixed stats no one would want.
They also never said WHEN they are releasing it.

Nor HOW they will be releasing them. There is nothing in that statement that says they will be available using laurels. Hopefully, they will reserve some of the more popular stat combinations for crafting recipes.

I’m quite sure it has nothing to do with some weird idea of balancing.

There’s some relatively popular sets missing that aren’t even that good. Lets say you could put power/vit/cond dmg stuff in every ascended slot, would the entire world be overrun by those flavor of the month carrion gear wearers? Worried about us all complaining about these newly OP shortbow rangers or something? =P

“Man those guys were free kills before, but once they raised their power and condition damage by 30 and got 200 more hps, they just RUN THE WHOLE SHOOOOWWWW”

Meanwhile in WvW:

servermate 1: “Guys, they’re coming! IT’S A HUGE ARMY OF SHORTBOW RANGERS!”

servermate 2: “Wait wait…are they wearing regular carrion or ascended carrion?”

servermate 1: “Oh, those two up front are just wearing exotics”

servermate 2: “oh okay np” swings weapon randomly, everyone dies

servermate 1: "WAIT THOSE GUYS IN THE BACK ARE WEARING ASCENDED CARRION

entire server: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” overrun, huge massacre, server deleted

Isaiah Cartwright.8569:

We do plan on adding more stat combo to existing ascended item types as well as adding more stat combos to new types.

~Izzy @-’—-

I don’t quite understand this post. It would take a developer 30 minutes to add these items to the game, hell, even I could do it in that time.

So I can only assume you are, for some reason, unwilling to add these items just yet. Which would prompt the question WHY? If it’s a case of not being able to pay a developer for 30min extra work time, I would love to shell out that 10 bucks. Or better yet, I could do it for no money at all.

pretty stupid that it’s taken so long for these other stat combos to come out.