Guild Wars 2

Narkosys.5173:

A dev stated clearly there is no reset.

Was he absolutely categorical? If so, we can probably expect a reset soon.

The difference is that dungeons don’t pay anything of tangible value.

Its not a job that pays you and a job that puts you in debt. its the difference between a job that pays you enough to live off of comfortably, and a job that pays you more money than you actually need.

Strangely enough I’ve already made this decision. I was offered a job I didn’t like, which paid more, and chose to keep the job I liked, that I could live off of comfortably, because it made me happier.

The real problem people have with fractals is not the fractals, its the ascended gear “treadmill”

That treadmill is the point of the fractals. Its a scaling difficulty with scaling rewards that encourages constant statistical upgrades to progress through difficulty.

That is also the only treadmill in the game, and the only one you need that gear for. Like the old dungeons? Guess what? They got loot upgrades in the last patch too. Hate dungeons? Several world boss events got tweaked, and the loot from all champions and veterans was upgraded last patch as well.

The problem is, quite simply, people are convincing themselves they need ascended items when they don’t. It’s like complaining that you need the +1 stat points on a legendary weapon. You don’t. While its possible to numbers and theorycraft all you want, I’ve got some ascended upgrades from the pool avaliable now. What they added to my stats is only tangible when viewing the numbers. They don’t make any other content in the game remarkably easier. Orr and southsun are still just as hard as ever. WvW is just as challenging.

The point I’m making is that everyone complaining about ascended gear “grind” and the rewards fails to understand the simple fact that, much like cosmetic rewards, this is an upgrade they don’t actually need. They want it. They want it because they think it will trivialize content they can already do in the gear they have. They want it because it’s pink, or they want it because someone told them it’s “the best”

What they fail to realize is that they don’t actually need it. They don’t actually need exotics for that matter. You can do every dungeon and event just fine in greens, with a party in greens.

I like fractals. I like scaling difficulty things, I’ve always loved games with ‘endless dungeons’ and I’m a sucker for “high score” mechanics. I’m one of the people fractals were designed for. its like walking in to EVE and complaining that its too difficult to own a successful 0.0 mining corp and make 20 billion ISK per week. You actually don’t need 20 billion ISK per week, and the vast majorit of players complaining about the current ascended items don’t actually need them. When they do need them they’ll be able to get them without “grinding a single type of content”

TLDR: If you hate fractals, or PUGS then why are you doing them? Go do something else.

Orion.7264:

rgrwng.4072:

why does it take 1300 Fractal tokens for a back piece? can’t i just buy one from the armor merchant (not counting the merchant that has them, already)? i would pay up to 5 gold for one, just saying… i currently have 20 tokens, and was super excited, until i looked at the selection of items i could get.

Thanks to all the groups i had that were so patient with me!

Those are just the exotic ones, which have no bearing on the Ascended ones. For the Ascended, you need 300 globs of Ectoplasm, 6 Vials of mist essence, 250 of a t6 material, and some other assorted skill-point items.

False. You need ONE vial of mist essence and FIFTY Ectos.

You can then UPGRADE that ascended item to and infused ascended item with more ectos/vials.

I just want to point out to the people who haven’t yet tried how easy it is to get your back item.

I got the item on the first mob of my second fractal. (this wasn’t just luck, another in my group looted 3, and two other ppl each looted 1). Then it took me 45 minutes to get the mats for forge…

Ring is after lvl 10. I’m no where near that yet but I will get there. Honestly, this is not a gear treadmill.

So far fractals has been a lot of fun, and I must say the art and environments are AMAZING. Good job Arena net

Sorry but that was pure luck. I’ve not had anything drop for me above rare. So yes just pure luck on your groups side.

Oh If I get this item just will left 40 g… just it…

PopeUrban.2578:

Orion.7264:

rgrwng.4072:

why does it take 1300 Fractal tokens for a back piece? can’t i just buy one from the armor merchant (not counting the merchant that has them, already)? i would pay up to 5 gold for one, just saying… i currently have 20 tokens, and was super excited, until i looked at the selection of items i could get.

Thanks to all the groups i had that were so patient with me!

Those are just the exotic ones, which have no bearing on the Ascended ones. For the Ascended, you need 300 globs of Ectoplasm, 6 Vials of mist essence, 250 of a t6 material, and some other assorted skill-point items.

False. You need ONE vial of mist essence and FIFTY Ectos.

You can then UPGRADE that ascended item to and infused ascended item with more ectos/vials.

And 250 tier 6 mats.

You can then upgrade that item to an (infused) item with:

Glob of Coagulated Mists Essence
250 Globs of Ectoplasm
Gift of Ascension

krookie.6378:

PopeUrban.2578:

Orion.7264:

rgrwng.4072:

why does it take 1300 Fractal tokens for a back piece? can’t i just buy one from the armor merchant (not counting the merchant that has them, already)? i would pay up to 5 gold for one, just saying… i currently have 20 tokens, and was super excited, until i looked at the selection of items i could get.

Thanks to all the groups i had that were so patient with me!

I am aware of this. I was simply pointing out that it was a flawed statement to lump all of those materials together in one number for shock value.
Those are just the exotic ones, which have no bearing on the Ascended ones. For the Ascended, you need 300 globs of Ectoplasm, 6 Vials of mist essence, 250 of a t6 material, and some other assorted skill-point items.

False. You need ONE vial of mist essence and FIFTY Ectos.

You can then UPGRADE that ascended item to and infused ascended item with more ectos/vials.

And 250 tier 6 mats.

You can then upgrade that item to an (infused) item with:

Glob of Coagulated Mists Essence
250 Globs of Ectoplasm
Gift of Ascension

Um that is called RNG (on the good side). My guild has done tons of them and we have seen the item drop 1 time. That is what RNG is. Amazing and wonderful when you hit it right away. Sucks when it doesn’t happen for a long long long time or at all.

I’m not sure what backpiece you are referring to, but it’s not Ascended capable of holding infusions if you got it from a random drop in Tier 1 (level 1-9) fractals. The Ascended backpieces are crafted via the Mystic forge and upon receiving the Vial/Glob/whatever of mist stuff you have to spend 25-100g (depending on version) to make it.

http://dulfy.net/2012/11/17/gw2-ascended-gear-and-infusion-recipes/

I’m currently at level 11 and have never seen one drop nor have any of the people I have run with. The Ascended rings have a chance to drop in the daily Tier 2 (10-19); however, it seems only one person in the group gets one at a time… The rest of us get a ‘bag of gold’ that actually doesn’t have any gold in it.

In fact, I would say this has been the single most frustrating experience in my time playing GW2 and has nearly led me to leave the game for awhile. If you really work it, you can reach level 16 without Infusions; however, after that it’s pretty needed. In other words, I’m pretty much stuck until I get lucky on a daily which is frustrating as hell when some of the people I run with want to progress but the rest of us can’t because of a stupid RND that results in a total grind each day to try and get what is required to move forward.

It’s also kind of frustrating that many of our friends can’t even run the same content as us because they have not been able to play often enough to achieve the same level in Fractals meaning we all have to go back to old, stale, boring content (too easy) to grind them up to our level. People should be able to enter at whatever level they choose regardless of if they progressed through or not.

Edit: Wanted to add that Karma really MUST be added to this dungeon as it feels empty rewardwise at the end if all you received is trash drops (which is 99% of the time).

“TLDR: If you hate fractals, or PUGS then why are you doing them? Go do something else.”

No offense but it doesn’t seem you are reading what I am saying.

Something else has been removed pretty much. I suggest you go to the cursed shore and see how many people are there. Or go to the Lost Shore. The fact of the matter is virtually no one is doing these anymore. In fact I was wanting to do the the arah dungeon for my monthly. We ran out of people halfway through at the point with fire elementals.

I also said I would move on to other things for now and hope they add it in PVE content. However your argument is: “TLDR: If you hate fractals, or PUGS then why are you doing them? Go do something else.”

It ignores the issue at hand. My point is I should hate fractals or pugs. In fact which I said I do not multiple times. However the experience should be more pleasant.

What I am saying is:
This is a game, games should be fun.

My argument is also you should not be pigeonholed into one option for play for the best gear in the game. Lengendaries were for instance legendary. I was fine with the grind they required even if they had amazing stats because there were multiple ways to get them, they also were not really a mandatory part of gear progression.

Its simple, people were flock to where its most profitable. The problem is there is no other places to profit right now.

So you think grinding about 80g+ for one ascended isn’t a grind? Its stupid, boring and a game breaking

funny. it took me 5 hours of pure misery to get my vial of essence. I hated every second of it.

Zoul.1087:

“TLDR: If you hate fractals, or PUGS then why are you doing them? Go do something else.”

No offense but it doesn’t seem you are reading what I am saying.

Something else has been removed pretty much. I suggest you go to the cursed shore and see how many people are there. Or go to the Lost Shore. The fact of the matter is virtually no one is doing these anymore. In fact I was wanting to do the the arah dungeon for my monthly. We ran out of people halfway through at the point with fire elementals.

I also said I would move on to other things for now and hope they add it in PVE content. However your argument is: “TLDR: If you hate fractals, or PUGS then why are you doing them? Go do something else.”

It ignores the issue at hand. My point is I should hate fractals or pugs. In fact which I said I do not multiple times. However the experience should be more pleasant.

What I am saying is:
This is a game, games should be fun.

My argument is also you should not be pigeonholed into one option for play for the best gear in the game. Lengendaries were for instance legendary. I was fine with the grind they required even if they had amazing stats because there were multiple ways to get them, they also were not really a mandatory part of gear progression.

Then why are you mad? Because you had a bad group doing Fractals that made your wife cry? That’s 1 experience and suddenly the whole dungeon concept is horrible? That’s a large fallacy.

You said your experience should be more pleasant. Fair enough. What made your experience so bad? It seems to stem from the attitude of PuGs more so than the dungeon itself. Isn’t that a bigger problem then? The attitude of the community, not so much the gear or dungeon involved? Blaming the game because a PuG was unpleasant is like blaming a restaurant because someone’s child ran up to you and stabbed your wife with a knife.

I have the Tome of the rubicon. it is an ascended item, and i made it on my first day of doing fractals. (I also started that day with 60s to my name)

If you are having trouble getting the mist essence then try using full MF gear. I wasn’t when i looted mine, but the guy that got the 3 in one fractal had full MF gear on. Hopefully you guys get yours soon. Btw dont make the one with the powerful bloods or it will cost you 100G however if you go for the scale one (i think that one has same stats, but i can’t check atm) it will cost maybe 2 gold for 250 of them.

Hopefully you guys get your mist essence’s soon

The funny thing is people who are doing fractals in the hope to get ascended items are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out they’ll need hundreds and hundreds of gold to craft them.

@TsukasaHuraji

I believe you haven’t done enough research on this to come to that conclusion. I spent maybe 5 gold on mine. probably less.

Raydaq.5421:

I have the Tome of the rubicon. it is an ascended item, and i made it on my first day of doing fractals. (I also started that day with 60s to my name)

If you are having trouble getting the mist essence then try using full MF gear. I wasn’t when i looted mine, but the guy that got the 3 in one fractal had full MF gear on. Hopefully you guys get yours soon. Btw dont make the one with the powerful bloods or it will cost you 100G however if you go for the scale one (i think that one has same stats, but i can’t check atm) it will cost maybe 2 gold for 250 of them.

Hopefully you guys get your mist essence’s soon

I had +180% magic find. it still took me 5 hours.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

The funny thing is people who are doing fractals in the hope to get ascended items are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out they’ll need hundreds and hundreds of gold to craft them.

Not really. More like around 100 at most. And that’s via the only current known way to get them. We don’t know all the recipes. We still have an unknown recipe with other items using vials.

Not a grind you say? then get me a couple of them.

Columba.9730:

Raydaq.5421:

I have the Tome of the rubicon. it is an ascended item, and i made it on my first day of doing fractals. (I also started that day with 60s to my name)

If you are having trouble getting the mist essence then try using full MF gear. I wasn’t when i looted mine, but the guy that got the 3 in one fractal had full MF gear on. Hopefully you guys get yours soon. Btw dont make the one with the powerful bloods or it will cost you 100G however if you go for the scale one (i think that one has same stats, but i can’t check atm) it will cost maybe 2 gold for 250 of them.

Hopefully you guys get your mist essence’s soon

I had +180% magic find. it still took me 5 hours.

That’s some bad luck. Really though, unless you are flying through the fractals like crazy and at 10+ where there is agony then you really dont need these.

Raydaq.5421:

Columba.9730:

Raydaq.5421:

I have the Tome of the rubicon. it is an ascended item, and i made it on my first day of doing fractals. (I also started that day with 60s to my name)

If you are having trouble getting the mist essence then try using full MF gear. I wasn’t when i looted mine, but the guy that got the 3 in one fractal had full MF gear on. Hopefully you guys get yours soon. Btw dont make the one with the powerful bloods or it will cost you 100G however if you go for the scale one (i think that one has same stats, but i can’t check atm) it will cost maybe 2 gold for 250 of them.

Hopefully you guys get your mist essence’s soon

I had +180% magic find. it still took me 5 hours.

That’s some bad luck. Really though, unless you are flying through the fractals like crazy and at 10+ where there is agony then you really dont need these.

I needed it for the god-mode backpack. I ground every mob.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

The funny thing is people who are doing fractals in the hope to get ascended items are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out they’ll need hundreds and hundreds of gold to craft them.

Also false.

250 T6 fine mats is the bulk of the cost, and is pretty easy to get once you know which one you want. Just sell the T6 mats you don’t need. I had all of 40 silver in my bank when I got my vial. A quick liquidation of the stuff I didn’t actually need paid for the remaining T6 mats. Its really not that hard. I’d wager most people have a lot of valuable mats just gathering dust in the bank.

Also remember you can use the MF to upgrade T5 mats to T6 mats, and the drop rates of T5 mats are extremely generous in any L80 zone.

50 ectos? That’s extremely easy to come by with the rebalancing to loot. Just salvage rares you can pick up pretty easily anywhere and you’ll have it in less than a week.

Philosopher’s stones/crystals?
That’s just skill points. You can do literally anything to pay for these, and it won’t cost you a single copper.

Yes, it is a grind. It’s also currently limited to PVE only which is even worse.

Really funny, so you have to grind, and use MF gear too? and this isnt grind? only the fact tha ppl use that cursed MF gear in a dungeon group to drop a particular item, is synonymous of GRIND.

Zoul.1087:

What I am saying is:
This is a game, games should be fun.

My argument is also you should not be pigeonholed into one option for play for the best gear in the game. Lengendaries were for instance legendary. I was fine with the grind they required even if they had amazing stats because there were multiple ways to get them, they also were not really a mandatory part of gear progression.

Ascended gear (the topic of this post, and I apologize if I’ve been off topic) is also not a mandatory part of gear progression. Unless you’re looking to climb in to higher level fractals.

PopeUrban.2578:

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

The funny thing is people who are doing fractals in the hope to get ascended items are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out they’ll need hundreds and hundreds of gold to craft them.

Also false.

250 T6 fine mats is the bulk of the cost, and is pretty easy to get once you know which one you want. Just sell the T6 mats you don’t need. I had all of 40 silver in my bank when I got my vial. A quick liquidation of the stuff I didn’t actually need paid for the remaining T6 mats. Its really not that hard. I’d wager most people have a lot of valuable mats just gathering dust in the bank.

Also remember you can use the MF to upgrade T5 mats to T6 mats, and the drop rates of T5 mats are extremely generous in any L80 zone.

50 ectos? That’s extremely easy to come by with the rebalancing to loot. Just salvage rares you can pick up pretty easily anywhere and you’ll have it in less than a week.

Philosopher’s stones/crystals?
That’s just skill points. You can do literally anything to pay for these, and it won’t cost you a single copper.

How do you upgrade T5 mats to T6 mats? are you talking about improved drop rates in lieu of t5 mats?

Aleaf.8174:

Zoul.1087:

“TLDR: If you hate fractals, or PUGS then why are you doing them? Go do something else.”

Then why are you mad? Because you had a bad group doing Fractals that made your wife cry? That’s 1 experience and suddenly the whole dungeon concept is horrible? That’s a large fallacy.

You said your experience should be more pleasant. Fair enough. What made your experience so bad? It seems to stem from the attitude of PuGs more so than the dungeon itself. Isn’t that a bigger problem then? The attitude of the community, not so much the gear or dungeon involved? Blaming the game because a PuG was unpleasant is like blaming a restaurant because someone’s child ran up to you and stabbed your wife with a knife.

Where in my post did I say I was mad? or did I say rarr I am angry? Again I keep asking people go to back and read you don’t seem to be getting what I am conveying.

No it is not simply pugs. Please read my other threads. Its a matter of being consistent. Let me bullet point so you don’t have to read a wall of text.

- Some dungeons (such as Underground Facility Fractal) are very unforgiving and allow little room for error. Meaning if you have a bad group. Forget it. It is not consistent. I am using this dungeon as an example. As with a bad group you can lose 30 minutes of work in 3 minutes.

- Forcing players to team up based on level does not work as people pass each other in level and will only do their current level.

- Putting the richest rewards all in one point attracts everyone to that same point.

- The ascended items cannot be bought from TP or acquired anywhere else. So yes you have to do the dungeon right now.

- I don’t like that Ascended items are a gear check with their agony resistance. Player skill should count for 99% of the game. Be it dodging etc. Gear checks are why I returned my copy of diablo 3.

- Encouraging players to be greedy or hurry to the next reward does not make it a rewarding experience.

I loved the halloween event and I even thought the last Karka event was fun. I have no problem with the ascended items being in the game. However to laser focus them in one place is not good for the rest of the game.

“Ascended gear (the topic of this post, and I apologize if I’ve been off topic) is also not a mandatory part of gear progression. Unless you’re looking to climb in to higher level fractals.”

Neither are exotics or rares. It doesn’t mean you won’t get them. You can use the lower tier but for you not to be at a disadvantage to everyone else you have to go up in tiers.

Raydaq.5421:

@TsukasaHuraji

I believe you haven’t done enough research on this to come to that conclusion. I spent maybe 5 gold on mine. probably less.

If I’ve read correctly, it takes 250 of a fine tier 6 material to make one. The cheapest fine T6 is Ancient Bones, currently at 2 silver 68 copper (that’s over 7 gold for a stack), in addition to the 50 ecto required (another 12g 70s at current price). The other T6 mats are significantly higher. Venom Sacs are under 5s each, but are apparently not used for any of these back items. The next step up is Vicious Claws at 9s80c each (just under 30g for 250).

LFP FotM lvl4.

I’d been trying to complete a lvl 4 fractal group for over an hour until I finally gave up. Grinding is the least of my worries. Not to mention how hard it’ll be to find groups for dungeons now that the reward armor doesn’t even have max stats. Story mode groups are nearly impossible to create at this point.

Also I disconnected while doing fractals 3 yesterday and couldn’t rejoin my party so I had to do it all over again… Pretty much every run I lose someone due to a disconnect. Hopefully they’ll fix this soon but the same thing happened with the Halloween event instances and they didn’t learn anything from it.

PopeUrban.2578:

The real problem people have with fractals is not the fractals, its the ascended gear “treadmill”

That treadmill is the point of the fractals. Its a scaling difficulty with scaling rewards that encourages constant statistical upgrades to progress through difficulty.

The problem is, quite simply, people are convincing themselves they need ascended items when they don’t.

You just made the argument that some of us who hate the change have been saying for days.

1. You said it is a treadmill. That is what we have been saying.
2. You said “people are convincing themselves they ‘need’ ascended items when they don’t.”

We have been saying that the vertical progression group has “convinced” themselves that they need “gear stat tier progression” in order to have character progression. We have been saying that GW2 was not designed or launched for that.

The GW2 horizontal progression model was based on “choice” and fun. Do what you want because you are enjoying it.

Linsey Murdock said about the introduction of Ascendant Gear/Lost Shores:
“Our desire is to create a game that is more inclusive for hardcore and casual players alike, but we don’t want to overlook the basic ‘need’ for players to feel like they are progressing and growing even after hitting max level.”

Why did the “most dedicated players” feel that they “needed” the introduction of gear stat progression to advance their characters?

Raydaq.5421:

I have the Tome of the rubicon. it is an ascended item, and i made it on my first day of doing fractals. (I also started that day with 60s to my name)

If you are having trouble getting the mist essence then try using full MF gear. I wasn’t when i looted mine, but the guy that got the 3 in one fractal had full MF gear on. Hopefully you guys get yours soon. Btw dont make the one with the powerful bloods or it will cost you 100G however if you go for the scale one (i think that one has same stats, but i can’t check atm) it will cost maybe 2 gold for 250 of them.

Hopefully you guys get your mist essence’s soon

They don’t have the same stats.

Quiver of Swift Flight(vial of powerful blood):
+24 Power
+17 Precision
+1% Critical Damage
+32 Power
+18 Precision
+4% Critical Damage

Sight be True(armored scales):
+17 Power
+24 Toughness
+1% Critical Damage
+32 Toughness
+18 Power
+4% Critical Damage

matenzo.9518:

LFP FotM lvl4.

I’d been trying to complete a lvl 4 fractal group for over an hour until I finally gave up. Grinding is the least of my worries. Not to mention how hard it’ll be to find groups for dungeons now that the reward armor doesn’t even have max stats. Story mode groups are nearly impossible to create at this point.

Also I disconnected while doing fractals 3 yesterday and couldn’t rejoin my party so I had to do it all over again… Pretty much every run I lose someone due to a disconnect. Hopefully they’ll fix this soon but the same thing happened with the Halloween event instances and they didn’t learn anything from it.

I would have grouped with you but I’m currently at fractals level 0.

Zoul.1087:

Aleaf.8174:

Zoul.1087:

“TLDR: If you hate fractals, or PUGS then why are you doing them? Go do something else.”

Then why are you mad? Because you had a bad group doing Fractals that made your wife cry? That’s 1 experience and suddenly the whole dungeon concept is horrible? That’s a large fallacy.

You said your experience should be more pleasant. Fair enough. What made your experience so bad? It seems to stem from the attitude of PuGs more so than the dungeon itself. Isn’t that a bigger problem then? The attitude of the community, not so much the gear or dungeon involved? Blaming the game because a PuG was unpleasant is like blaming a restaurant because someone’s child ran up to you and stabbed your wife with a knife.

Where in my post did I say I was mad? or did I say rarr I am angry? Again I keep asking people go to back and read you don’t seem to be getting what I am conveying.

No it is not simply pugs. Please read my other threads. Its a matter of being consistent. Let me bullet point so you don’t have to read a wall of text.

- Some dungeons (such as Underground Facility Fractal) are very unforgiving and allow little room for error. Meaning if you have a bad group. Forget it. It is not consistent.

- Forcing players to team up based on level does not work as people pass each other in level and will only do their current level.

- Putting the richest rewards all in one point attracts everyone to that same point.

- The ascended items cannot be bought from TP or acquired anywhere else. So yes you have to do the dungeon right now.

- I don’t like that Ascended items are a gear check with their agony resistance. Player skill should count for 99% of the game. Be it dodging etc. Gear checks are why I returned my copy of diablo 3.

- Encouraging players to be greedy or hurry to the next reward does not make it a rewarding experience.

I loved the halloween event and I even thought the last Karka event was fun. I have no problem with the ascended items being in the game. However to laser focus them in one place is not good for the rest of the game.

So you’re complaining about:

-Content being hard and inconsisent
-Players refusing to help those below them in progression
-Pigeon holing players into 1 dungeon
-Ascendant Gear lack of availability elsewhere
-Gear Checks vs Skill Checks
-Encouraging Players to Rush to the Reward

First off I want to say this: As someone who has actually seen agony in effect, Ascendant Gear isn’t needed for those who are skilled. In other words, most people who are deeper into progression don’t even have Ascendant Gear.

Do you NEED Agony Resistance past lvl 11? Not really no. Is it nice so you can avoid being 1 shotted? Yeah.

In addition, two points are player actions and reactions. You can’t blame the company because players act a certain way. You can’t blame the Anet because players are looking for their own personal interest as opposed to the community as a whole. That’s what a guild is for.

Also, Anet has already stated they are working a way to acquire Ascendant Gear outside the dungeon. Patience is a virtue.

As for Gear Check vs Skill Check, as I’ve stated, most people in higher levels aren’t even in Ascendant Gear.

And you can’t stop players from rushing to the end of the race for a reward. It’s like giving a kid a bag of candy and telling him to pace himself till the end of the day. You know the moment you turn around, that bag is empty.

Ganzo.5079:

Really funny, so you have to grind, and use MF gear too? and this isnt grind? only the fact tha ppl use that cursed MF gear in a dungeon group to drop a particular item, is synonymous of GRIND.

Also it annoys people like me to have proper DPS, no MF gear so I can maximise the chances of actual finishing dungeons, whilst others capitalise on that.

Weird, If anything I find fractals easy, 3 mening them even. I say most could be 2 men and a couple 1men.

Plus their was also the chance of getting a bad group for dgns, and having people yell at you.

They was also already people saying have exotics are you cant come with us.

Which for lvl 1-10 the next tier don’t help at all pretty much.

So I dont see how this change anything, unless you get about lvl 20 where the next gear is important.

Also getting a good group have always been more important then your own pure skill.
That have not change at all, if you get a bad group for reg dgns, the same going to happen as in fractals.

Maybe it me but I dont see how this change anything.

Other then they really need to do something about the dc.

However I am really sorry for your bad luck, I have had bad groups my self for fractals.

When I do I just work harder to try and get people to do what is needed.

krookie.6378:

Raydaq.5421:

I have the Tome of the rubicon. it is an ascended item, and i made it on my first day of doing fractals. (I also started that day with 60s to my name)

If you are having trouble getting the mist essence then try using full MF gear. I wasn’t when i looted mine, but the guy that got the 3 in one fractal had full MF gear on. Hopefully you guys get yours soon. Btw dont make the one with the powerful bloods or it will cost you 100G however if you go for the scale one (i think that one has same stats, but i can’t check atm) it will cost maybe 2 gold for 250 of them.

Hopefully you guys get your mist essence’s soon

They don’t have the same stats.

Quiver of Swift Flight(vial of powerful blood):
+24 Power
+17 Precision
+1% Critical Damage
+32 Power
+18 Precision
+4% Critical Damage

Sight be True(armored scales):
+17 Power
+24 Toughness
+1% Critical Damage
+32 Toughness
+18 Power
+4% Critical Damage

Yes, and those stats are a big difference. Basically, like I’ve said ~ Ascended items need re-thinking so non-hardcore grinders/cheaters/exploiters can get them without spending half a year grinding up 100g+

dalendria.3762:

PopeUrban.2578:

The real problem people have with fractals is not the fractals, its the ascended gear “treadmill”

That treadmill is the point of the fractals. Its a scaling difficulty with scaling rewards that encourages constant statistical upgrades to progress through difficulty.

The problem is, quite simply, people are convincing themselves they need ascended items when they don’t.

You just made the argument that some of us who hate the change have been saying for days.

1. You said it is a treadmill. That is what we have been saying.
2. You said “people are convincing themselves they ‘need’ ascended items when they don’t.”

We have been saying that the vertical progression group has “convinced” themselves that they need “gear stat tier progression” in order to have character progression. We have been saying that GW2 was not designed or launched for that.

The GW2 horizontal progression model was based on “choice” and fun. Do what you want because you are enjoying it.

Linsey Murdock said about the introduction of Ascendant Gear/Lost Shores:
“Our desire is to create a game that is more inclusive for hardcore and casual players alike, but we don’t want to overlook the basic ‘need’ for players to feel like they are progressing and growing even after hitting max level.”

Why did the “most dedicated players” feel that they “needed” the introduction of gear stat progression to advance their characters?

Because, in the content that is designed to be repeated at increasing challenge levels there would otherwise be a hard ceiling on the “endless challenge” which is the entire point of fractals. Ascended gear did not breed fractals, fractals bred ascended gear. Quite simply it is a type of content (optional content for the types of players that enjoy it, like jumping puzzles or dungeons) that would have just been a bad implementation without vertical progression to compensate for the vertical progression of the fractals.

I would have been fine with exotics being the be all and end all of gear, and for content that isn’t specifically designed around vertical progression (everything else in the game) that vertial progession is still, and will remain, entirely optional.

When you need high tier ascended gear to adventure outside of fractals, at that point it’s a mandatory grind, and a gear treadmill that forces players to do content they don’t like. That isn’t happenning. Fractals are, quite literally, a little segregated pocket universe for people who like and want a sense of linear statistical progression.

For everyone else, when the time comes that you too actually need the ascended gear to complete (complete, not trivialize) content then it will be available to you, as has been stated multiple times by multiple developers. For those people, ascended gear is a want, like legendary weapons or dungeon skins.

I never cared about legendary weapons, because I didn’t need them, and I didn’t like the skins. I care about ascended gear because I need it to do something I find very enjoyable: progressing fractal difficulty. I wasn’t pawing at the door or petitioning that the game needed vertical progression, but in this instance the vertical progression is the only logical answer. If that sense of vertical progression bleeds in to the non-vertical content in the game, then yes, that is a large problem. Currently, that isn’t heppenning, and people are making a big deal about being “required” to grind content they hate in order to grind content they hate. I find it baffling.

I have not done any of the content that allows me to acquire this gear, but I can say that I think people are really blowing this out of proportion. I am by no means a grind lover, but ask yourselves, if there isn’t something to aim for in end game, how long do you foresee yourself playing? I know i will get the knee jerk response of “I’ll play even more!” or something along those lines, but really! There has been a grind from the get go. A minimal one yes, but it is still there. From what I understand, while this gear takes more time than most in this game to get, it is still much better than trying to acquire an item similar to it in another mmo.

I heard someone complaining that it took them 5 hours. 5 hours sounds like heaven to me compared to what I have had to go through in the past.

I know I’m not going to change many opinions on this, but…..well….there it is.

Maybe it is not. But overall the game is all about grinding.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

Ganzo.5079:

Really funny, so you have to grind, and use MF gear too? and this isnt grind? only the fact tha ppl use that cursed MF gear in a dungeon group to drop a particular item, is synonymous of GRIND.

Also it annoys people like me to have proper DPS, no MF gear so I can maximise the chances of actual finishing dungeons, whilst others capitalise on that.

Wait wait wait, you mean people actually have problems clearing Fractals below lvl 10?

“So you’re complaining about:”

No I am merely pointing out an experience in the game.

“And you can’t stop players from rushing to the end of the race for a reward. It’s like giving a kid a bag of candy and telling him to pace himself till the end of the day. You know the moment you turn around, that bag is empty.”

The solution would be to require more than one place of everything to happen.

Like I said its all in once place.

Also any gear check of any kind is bad.

If your read the other posts all the other areas of the game have not only become vacant due to ascended items, the areas themselves have been nerfed. Why?

Its complete and total pigeonholing. Maybe they should nerf AFTER they have a replacement for said areas.

Even the developers are telling us that Ascended gear bridges the effort gap between Exotic and Legendary. But the OP will try to have us believe anything.

Zoul.1087:

“So you’re complaining about:”

No I am merely pointing out an experience in the game.

“And you can’t stop players from rushing to the end of the race for a reward. It’s like giving a kid a bag of candy and telling him to pace himself till the end of the day. You know the moment you turn around, that bag is empty.”

The solution would be to require more than one place of everything to happen.

Like I said its all in once place.

Also any gear check of any kind is bad.

If your read the other posts all the other areas of the game have not only become vacant due to ascended items, the areas themselves have been nerfed. Why?

Its complete and total pigeonholing. Maybe they should nerf AFTER they have a replacement for said areas.

But it’s NOT a gear check. Hell I’m pretty sure I can clear lvls 1 – 10 in greens if I wanted to. I have YET to encounter any point where Agony Resistance is even needed. And I’m pretty far compared to most people in Lion’s Arch

And how are other areas nerfed? The only nerf I can recall is they reduced the timer on Plinx because being able to grind close to 24k Karma an hour wasn’t in their plan.

Zoul.1087:

“So you’re complaining about:”

No I am merely pointing out an experience in the game.

“And you can’t stop players from rushing to the end of the race for a reward. It’s like giving a kid a bag of candy and telling him to pace himself till the end of the day. You know the moment you turn around, that bag is empty.”

The solution would be to require more than one place of everything to happen.

Like I said its all in once place.

Also any gear check of any kind is bad.

If your read the other posts all the other areas of the game have not only become vacant due to ascended items, the areas themselves have been nerfed. Why?

Its complete and total pigeonholing. Maybe they should nerf AFTER they have a replacement for said areas.

Do you really think they would come out with multy places to get all the next tier all at once.

No every month are so they will come out with more places to get this tier. It not possible to make a giant update like that all at once. They gotta make small piece at a time, then fix it and then can make more places of it.

Plus on my servers no other places are empty. Even in chat I still see map shout about multy other dgns and Ive join groups for other dgns to ta/se/arah/cm/coe is what I done since the update have come out.

Read my other statement to get the whole view of what I am saying, dont wanna repeat it.

Aleaf.8174:

Wait wait wait, you mean people actually have problems clearing Fractals below lvl 10?

I’ve had groups with rogues that had no ranged weapons, an elementalist with no underwater weapon whatsoever. I have had groups where people would leave the group immediately if we get swamp/dredge/ascalon as #2/3.

Pugs are whole new levels of fail at times.

When you get that one group though, the ones where people don’t stand in the fire…smoothness. It’s glorious.

[/quote]

I just don’t like playing a game where it reduces my wife to tears due to rude players.[/quote]

^This. Since the new patch went live, this is all I have been seeing from a once fun community. Two months on (a particular server) where people were having fun, not being jerks, or at least they were somewhere else.

Once this patch hit, it seems they all came out of the woodwork. Because of this, If I can’t solo the content, I won’t go their. I’m sick of running into the…..rude…..players.

inb4:this is the internet, get thick skin.

Zoul.1087:

Also any gear check of any kind is bad.

If there is gear, there are gear checks. Walk in to Orr in your starter gear. You’ll get gear checked pretty hard. Gear with stats and level requirements is, by nature, a gated difficulty and linearly progressive system. The only question then is whether this progression stops.

For gear in GW2, yes, this progression stops. It has been plainly stated that legendary is “top tier” and ascended was implemented as a “mid tier” between exotic and legendary because there was too big of a gap. it has also been plainly stated that the ‘treadmill’ progression on ascended gear comes in the form of inusions, and infusions are only useful at all inside higher difficulty fractals. This “Gear check” exists because otherwise it would be literally impossible to have an “increasing endless difficulty” inside that area.

As for the emptying of other zones, this is nothing new. New content is released and people flock to it. The designer’s challenge is to create tangible reasons for people to experience a broad range of content. Arenanet’s strategy for this seems to be in the form of unique skins and found crafting materials per area.

Orr, in general, was extremely overpopulated until recently and the same people that are all flocking to fractals. people that don’t care what content they do, and are primarily motivated by bank and character sheet numbers. Group events in orr are still completely doable with only five people (a group) I’ve personally done the entire cursed shore chain all the way to Arah with a group of five. is it harder? Yes, but only because borken event scaling previously made that zone extremely trivial compared to the massive numbers of people at any given event.

I think the point of Anet Chris’ post needs to be considered.

They are intending to completely re-work all dungeons. To me that feels like Ascended may begin to play a bigger role. I could be wrong, but I rarely am.

Right now, Fractals are the most frustrating thing on the planet for me. Not due to difficulty (they are actually very easy once you figure them out), but due to the constant grind of running the same content over and over. I’m only at level 11 and am bored to the point where if the first Fractal isn’t a ‘group favorite’ we just reset it and try again. Frankly, the only reason we run it is for the Ascended ring chance on daily and trying to get mist for backpieces to stay ahead of the curve for when they drop full Ascended armor sets on the masses. The biggest game-breaking mechanic actually (since you can get to level 16 without Ascended stuff if you have decent skill) is two-fold: You’re friends can’t join you at your difficulty unless they ‘grind’ their way up to it and you can’t jump into a higher difficulty because you are bored sick of the content you are in (i.e., several of us would like to just skip straight to the next Tier… 20+ in my case, and get on with it).

It’s a total grind and anyone who says differently is just arguing over semantics. It’s a dungeon grind to reach the strong content, it’s a gear grind to be able to do the decent content due to the most ridiculous thing ever added to a game (Agony) and it’s a character grind as you have to constantly re-run lower levels to not only get all your friends to your level, but to also get all your alts to the same level as your main (which is MEGA kitten #8230; The difficulty should be account wide).

Don’t get me started on the ultra bad mechanic of everyone having to jump on the same overflow server to enter and the fact that if someone d/c’s or has to leave it breaks the entire run. What a total joke.