Guild Wars 2

• Ascended gear is a HUGE pain to grind.
• Skins are (almost all) one-time use.

These two are in conflict:

With exotics as best-in-slot gear, if you wanted to have two different looks to swap between (or just didn’t want to destroy an old skin when you’re switching to a new one), you’d just get a duplicate piece of gear and skin that.

With Ascended gear, getting a second look is far more costly (you either need a splitter or do another grind). A possible result of this is that people are more hesitant to buy skins.

Could it be that every player who gets an Ascended piece of gear is potentially money lost for Anet?

Example: My necro had two identical exotic daggers with different (expensive) skins that I’d switch between depending on my mood. Now that I have an Ascended dagger, I have no interest in skinning it because it’s going to be a HUGE pain unskinning it in the future (and I don’t like destroying expensive skins by overwriting them).

What if I told you that I’m grinding out Ascended armor for the skin?

Smooth Penguin.5294:

What if I told you that I’m grinding out Ascended armor for the skin?

What are you going to do when you want a different skin?

I suppose I would get new armor?

I’m not getting the point. Skins and stats, its just the combination you prefer. No matter if it was ascended or not. So, suppose you want the stats of ascended, but different skin, than you xfer the skin you prefer to the ascended item stats. That’s why we have a gemstore

ascended medium armor is gangster, the rest sucks

Smooth Penguin.5294:

What if I told you that I’m grinding out Ascended armor for the skin?

I’d say “You’re definitely not a male that wears light armour then.”

Darkobra.6439:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

What if I told you that I’m grinding out Ascended armor for the skin?

I’d say “You’re definitely not a male that wears light armour then.”

I’ve made the shirt work, and possibly the pants and the boots, but the shoulders and gloves, blarg.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

What if I told you that I’m grinding out Ascended armor for the skin?

That there are always a few exceptions to any generalisation in any game. We already know that you represent a tiny fraction of a percent of the players – an extremely small minority. The fact that you are not representative for normal players is not surprising.

Azure.8670:

ascended medium armor is gangster, the rest sucks

I made the medium chest just for the look, if i want another look i simply switch to my old exotics. The difference in stats really make no difference on armor.

However i see the problem on weapons for me, since they give at least that 5% damage bonus.

You guys do know that Transmutation Crystals exist, right? And that they allow you to transfer the skin of one armor onto the stats of another armor. This includes allowing you to get the skin you want onto Ascended Armor of any sort… What’s more is that they only cost 10 dollars for 25 of them… That is 10 dollars for enough to transmute 4.16667 sets of armor (not counting weapons).

Ah, but what if you want to keep both skins and use them as the mood strikes you? Some of my characters will always be in the same outfit. More of them will dress to suit the occasion, because c’mon, not only do you sometimes want formal and sometimes casual, sometimes stealthy and sometimes intimidating, you also need to do laundry at times I get more immersion and variety from having a choice of looks.

Beldin.5498:

Azure.8670:

ascended medium armor is gangster, the rest sucks

I made the medium chest just for the look, if i want another look i simply switch to my old exotics. The difference in stats really make no difference on armor.

However i see the problem on weapons for me, since they give at least that 5% damage bonus.

And if they begin to introduce vertical stat grind into infusion slots (+5 stats now, then +7, then +10, and so on), what will you do then?

Astralporing.1957:

The fact that you are not representative for normal players is not surprising.

Penguin not normal. Penguin sad.

slowly walks back to the trading post to control prices

*note – that last part is a joke

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

You guys do know that Transmutation Crystals exist, right? And that they allow you to transfer the skin of one armor onto the stats of another armor. This includes allowing you to get the skin you want onto Ascended Armor of any sort… What’s more is that they only cost 10 dollars for 25 of them… That is 10 dollars for enough to transmute 4.16667 sets of armor (not counting weapons).

And what if you don’t want to destroy your previous skin? One that you perhaps wish to use again. One that you perhaps paid money for?

I think you’d need a transmutation splitters for this. They cost 6000 gems for 25 splitters. If 10 dollars buys you 25 transmutation crystals, then it costs $18 to split the skins for one set of armor.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Beldin.5498:

Azure.8670:

ascended medium armor is gangster, the rest sucks

I made the medium chest just for the look, if i want another look i simply switch to my old exotics. The difference in stats really make no difference on armor.

However i see the problem on weapons for me, since they give at least that 5% damage bonus.

And if they begin to introduce vertical stat grind into infusion slots (+5 stats now, then +7, then +10, and so on), what will you do then?

I use Traveller Runes on 5 of my characters, that alone cost me more stats than what Ascended and maybe these infusions will give me. So thats how much i really care about having maybe 1-2% more in total stats.

Donari.5237:

Ah, but what if you want to keep both skins and use them as the mood strikes you? Some of my characters will always be in the same outfit. More of them will dress to suit the occasion, because c’mon, not only do you sometimes want formal and sometimes casual, sometimes stealthy and sometimes intimidating, you also need to do laundry at times I get more immersion and variety from having a choice of looks.

You guys really keep multiple sets of armor lying around just for their appearances? Wouldn’t it be more profitable to keep multiple sets of armor for their stats, not for their appearance? I don’t know about you but the only reason I would have more than one set of armor simultaneously on a single character is if I needed more than one type of stat set for that given character depending on the situation I found myself in. Even then, only one of those sets would likely be ascended, because only one of those sets would be worth the time and effort to get ascended armor for.

Beldin.5498:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Beldin.5498:

Azure.8670:

ascended medium armor is gangster, the rest sucks

I made the medium chest just for the look, if i want another look i simply switch to my old exotics. The difference in stats really make no difference on armor.

However i see the problem on weapons for me, since they give at least that 5% damage bonus.

And if they begin to introduce vertical stat grind into infusion slots (+5 stats now, then +7, then +10, and so on), what will you do then?

I use Traveller Runes on 5 of my characters, that alone cost me more stats than what Ascended and maybe these infusions will give me. So thats how much i really care about having maybe 1-2% more in total stats.

It’s not going to be 1%-2% if they keep increasing the max stats of infusions — which I believe is likely… especially since:

1. Anet loves their grind.
2. They “promised” Ascended would be the final tier of gear (for now) and this gets around that in order to keep gear grind in the game.

Some people posting here don’t seem to understand the OP.

Yes, you can transmute but the problem is that if you grinded for hours to get an ascended set and then placed an expensive skin on it, you then are far, far, far less likely to buy more skins and overwrite your super costly ascended gear. When exotic was the tops and was easy to come by, it wasn’t a big deal to pick up some new pieces to add new skins to and show off your new look without losing stats. When the BiS armor is super hard and expensive to get, you’re less like likely to buy fancy new skins when your options are to either put them on sub-optimal gear (exotics) or destroy the expensive skins you already have on your maxed-out armor set.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Beldin.5498:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Beldin.5498:

Azure.8670:

ascended medium armor is gangster, the rest sucks

I made the medium chest just for the look, if i want another look i simply switch to my old exotics. The difference in stats really make no difference on armor.

However i see the problem on weapons for me, since they give at least that 5% damage bonus.

And if they begin to introduce vertical stat grind into infusion slots (+5 stats now, then +7, then +10, and so on), what will you do then?

I use Traveller Runes on 5 of my characters, that alone cost me more stats than what Ascended and maybe these infusions will give me. So thats how much i really care about having maybe 1-2% more in total stats.

It’s not going to be 1%-2% if they keep increasing the max stats of infusions — which I believe is likely… especially since:

1. Anet loves their grind.
2. They “promised” Ascended would be the final tier of gear (for now) and this gets around that in order to keep gear grind in the game.

Yeah and in the end you will pay the price of a legendary for 2 stats more, right ? Sorry i really don’t care that much about some minor stats and better spent my money for skins, since that is the main reason i bought this game .. get easy exotic as “best” armor, and then grind for skins, and not for a gear treadmill, especially not if the difference is so small.

And its more like 0,7% at the moment that a complete armorset gives you, so with +10 infusions it really will maybe be just 2%. Thats 0,3% from each infusion, and that infusion costs what ? 500g ?

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

You guys do know that Transmutation Crystals exist, right? And that they allow you to transfer the skin of one armor onto the stats of another armor. This includes allowing you to get the skin you want onto Ascended Armor of any sort… What’s more is that they only cost 10 dollars for 25 of them… That is 10 dollars for enough to transmute 4.16667 sets of armor (not counting weapons).

Lost me at only.

And no, I don’t eat out. No I don’t go to Starbucks and spend that on coffee. No I don’t frivolously waste anything on anyone and no I’m not some pup that runs to daddy for his credit card.

Just taking all your generalisations away from you before you start. Unless you’ve got one I’ve not heard before.

panzer.6034:

Some people posting here don’t seem to understand the OP.

Yes, you can transmute but the problem is that if you grinded for hours to get an ascended set and then placed an expensive skin on it, you then are far, far, far less likely to buy more skins and overwrite your super costly ascended gear. When exotic was the tops and was easy to come by, it wasn’t a big deal to pick up some new pieces to add new skins to and show off your new look without losing stats. When the BiS armor is super hard and expensive to get, you’re less like likely to buy fancy new skins when your options are to either put them on sub-optimal gear (exotics) or destroy the expensive skins you already have on your maxed-out armor set.

um… except that unless I missed my guess, you can keep the Ascended Stats when you transmute each and every time, and use the new appearance from each new skin each time you transmute without losing the Ascended Stats whatsoever.

And also, thanks to transmutation crystals, it is actually cheaper to buy the actual armor you want the skin of, rather than to buy such and such skin for the armor. Unless the skin is exclusive to being a skin and thus cannot be bought in a pre-existing armor format.

You’d lose the Ascended look. That’s the point, some people like the look. You asked why keep multiple things around for looks and put it in terms of “profit.” I’m not into profit, I’m into RP. So my thief has the monocle, conquest hat, and starter hood, all put on exotics with identical stats and rune so I can swap around without worrying that I’ll forget when heading into combat. One of my guildies routinely forgot to put on weapons before a fight since in RP she didn’t carry them around and that’s far more noticeable than having a cheap white item on your head.

I made the Light coat and skirt for my necro who isn’t even doing Fractals, because they look good on her. That didn’t mean I wanted to overwrite her previous combat gear with the Ascended items — it included some skins she’d wear just to go to a party or a bar or to meet someone to chat.

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

panzer.6034:

Some people posting here don’t seem to understand the OP.

Yes, you can transmute but the problem is that if you grinded for hours to get an ascended set and then placed an expensive skin on it, you then are far, far, far less likely to buy more skins and overwrite your super costly ascended gear. When exotic was the tops and was easy to come by, it wasn’t a big deal to pick up some new pieces to add new skins to and show off your new look without losing stats. When the BiS armor is super hard and expensive to get, you’re less like likely to buy fancy new skins when your options are to either put them on sub-optimal gear (exotics) or destroy the expensive skins you already have on your maxed-out armor set.

um… except that unless I missed my guess, you can keep the Ascended Stats when you transmute each and every time, and use the new appearance from each new skin each time you transmute without losing the Ascended Stats whatsoever.

And also, thanks to transmutation crystals, it is actually cheaper to buy the actual armor you want the skin of, rather than to buy such and such skin for the armor. Unless the skin is exclusive to being a skin and thus cannot be bought in a pre-existing armor format.

When you transmute you lose your old skin. If that’s a skin you bought (or worked hard for) you might not be so happy. Your solutions are:

1. Suck it up and lose the old skin.
2. Buy splitters at 1 for 300 gems or 25 for 6000 gems.
3. Don’t put a new skin.
4. Lose interest in putting skins on Ascended gear altogether.

I’ve noticed that I’ve (unconsciously) chosen #4.