Guild Wars 2

Hi folks,

First off, let me apologize should the following post come off as if I am whining and crying and having a temper tantrum, as that is not what I am intending for this post, but um….

I had high hopes for this update, I did, as did many other have, I am sure. But come Tuesday, Sept 3rd… a couple things happened upon the update launch.

This is nothing new, price gouging on the trading post, and yes, I was completely unprepared for what items were to be needed for this ascended crafting, but the fact that I ended up seeing the piece of Ancient Wood sky-rocket to over 1g per piece was…. simply pathetic, when just days before hand, it was being sold for 93c per piece.

I ended up searing through 150 of my own gold within 20 minutes time, and yes, I have friends who often tell me upon updates, never buy anything right off the bat, but to wait, but usually I have tunnel vision and forget such advice. Within 20 mins time, I was only able to jump from 400 to 439 Weaponsmith, and I was outted quite a bit of money. I was practically in tears to where my husband came in the room, rubbed my shoulders and convinced me to shut down the game for the time being.

Then today I find my first picture of what these weapons are intended to look like? I’m not impressed. That and I was in conversations with a few people who stated that ArenaNet intervened on price gouging on the trading post and reset prices. I don’t know how true that is or not but… on the topic of unfairness, I know it is Human Nature to want to make a buck and yes, it happened to be that I have several hundred gold saved, but… does that mean I have to spend every penny of it on someone else’s need to become to Donald Trump of Tyria? I don’t think so. And what about to many other players that have nowhere near that amount of money to be doing such crafting? What? We suppose to tell the: Suck to be you, go out farm yourself to wealthy status them come back and go bankrupt while attempting to make weapons that… are a tad less than your standard eye-candy? That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?

Am I just being a child about this or… do I have a few valid points?

I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter

Thanks, guys!

~ Jaymee

IMO, all these temporary stuff updates (temporary events, quests, farming things, achievements) accustom us, that everything MUST be done within certain time limit. If progress is slow, you ough to be nervous, because deep down you think that it will go away and you will get nothing.
I’m disappointed in the direction this game took. I’m not doing SAB (despite the good idea and quality), I’m not farming, I’m just leveling my new necro and visiting temples from time to time.
Nothing from these patches is of expected quality (Living World changed the world to a much worse place for me).
With all these systems, why kitten nothing remains, even a mention of what happened before. I know that everything is to change and many things are in work but the way it all has been planned is beyond critic for me. Game disappointed, is slow in updates (yes! slow! I don’t count this balloon visiting, invasion farming, few new mats farming as substancial patches).
I’d cry too if I had no serious RL problems to take care of.
So, you cool imo

Unfortunately a lot of the recent changes are all about carrots dangling in front of you to entice you to log in daily and grind for these items. I would suggest you do what I’ve done… I’ve resigned myself to the fact that there are some things in this game i will NEVER have because I’m a casual player. I’m not going to grind for something at the expense of having fun in this game.

Wait for a while and hope prices on materials drop again after the rush to hit 500 is over. Take a bit longer and gather the materials yourself, or just stick with exotic gear and have fun in the world. With any new content, I always ask myself “Am I having fun?”. If the answer is no, I avoid that content like the plague.

And no, providing ArenaNet with feedback on what you don’t like is never being childish.

Well you can transmute the weapon skins so you are not stuck with the looks of it once you obtain one. As far as the money issue, I hope this doesn’t come across as rude but you really have no one to blame for that but yourself to be quite honest. It’s just like running out and buying a brand new computer, tv, stereo etc etc when it’s first released. I do feel your disappointment for this patch however, though mine simply comes from having to do all of this to get back to being BiS gear it just seems rather unnecessary to have the gear even in the game since it’s nothing other than a gimmick to keep people playing that don’t understand what horizontal progression is.

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Well you can transmute the weapon skins so you are not stuck with the looks of it once you obtain one. As far as the money issue, I hope this doesn’t come across as rude but you really have no one to blame for that but yourself to be quite honest. It’s just like running out and buying a brand new computer, tv, stereo etc etc when it’s first released. I do feel your disappointment for this patch however, though mine simply comes from having to do all of this to get back to being BiS gear it just seems rather unnecessary to have the gear even in the game since it’s nothing other than a gimmick to keep people playing that don’t understand what horizontal progression is.

Np, honey, you’re not being rude, and you are completely within your bound as well as being absolutely correct that myself alone is to blame for my money loss in my first attempt to Ascended Weapons Making.

Yet, I often fear that you, yes YOU – Arena Net – will pull a fast one on all us little players, the ones who decide not to do such themes by, at some point in the future, introduce something in the permanent story line that would have made Weapon Ascension a key prerequisite to whatever future content that YOU may have in mind.

(My mind never stop running, and I often think such thoughts fairly often)

If anything like that should ever happen… I do not envy the look on your faces when your product hits rock bottom.

My disappointment comes also from a fact that it seems that for about a year players are being treated as idiots. Horizontal progression – here, grind for xxx hours to get one unnecessary weapon. Or – here, have invasions to feel like you’re participating in something grandiose and important – which, in reality, was just farm without purpose (apart from having a lot of materials and gold which isn’t needed).
Every new dungeon is gone, every piece of story content is gone.
Now, many people will get their ascended weapons, which count as nothing.
Don’t feel bad if you’re behind the crowd.
You won’t get crushed at least when new “cool” things are released
I’m still waiting for real changes to the world that will provide lasting gameplay, other than being wagon of the zerg train going from one champ to another while meeting no challenge at all.
Maybe underneath there are a lot of changes, but what we actually get is a crappy modification, no good change.

If I may ask – why did you spent your gold? Why did you wanted to create ascended weapon? I someday maybe will start creating it. But not before I’ll meet a boss that will require me to wield it.

EDIT:
And I tremble before a situation that we get anoter 2-week life span piece of story that will require us having ascended weapon. This day I will throw GW2 box into trash can (or out of window).

Gizmo.8623:

My disappointment comes also from a fact that it seems that for about a year players are being treated as idiots. Horizontal progression – here, grind for xxx hours to get one unnecessary weapon. Or – here, have invasions to feel like you’re participating in something grandiose and important – which, in reality, was just farm without purpose (apart from having a lot of materials and gold which isn’t needed).
Every new dungeon is gone, every piece of story content is gone.
Now, many people will get their ascended weapons, which count as nothing.
Don’t feel bad if you’re behind the crowd.
You won’t get crushed at least when new “cool” things are released
I’m still waiting for real changes to the world that will provide lasting gameplay, other than being wagon of the zerg train going from one champ to another while meeting no challenge at all.
Maybe underneath there are a lot of changes, but what we actually get is a crappy modification, no good change.

If I may ask – why did you spent your gold? Why did you wanted to create ascended weapon? I someday maybe will start creating it. But not before I’ll meet a boss that will require me to wield it.

LOL, Amen to your opinion, sir!

I spent my money as I said earlier in my post, I was completely unprepared for the theme, meaning I have next to nothing material-wise to work with.

I only remember thinking (at the time) that I wanna hit 450… Lemme hit 450, so I can unlock the T7 so I can at least see what it is I would be dealing with… Well… honey, I got to 457 when all was said and done and when I saw that I can only created one f the new ores ONCE every 24 hours – I was like – Son of a &$%@!!!!!! and walked away from the Weaponsmith, gave my computer the finger and then started dinner that night…

I was a bit shocked by this update at first as well. It took a bit of time for me to grasp what all was needed to acquire a new weapon. I spent too much gold. I didn’t fully grasp what I was doing or going. I spent a few days mindlessly zerging Frostgorge Champs to see how fast progress was and see if anyone got drops of the new weapons.

Now I’m a bit burned out. I’ll take a day off from the game and when I return I’ll be better as I’ve just realized I don’t like what I had been doing or feeling post patch. I’ll return to doing what I normally do for fun and if and when I get my ascended weapons I’ll get them. No more rushing for me it was not FUN! (and not productive with the assets I had at hand)

I don’t think your being childish, just honest. Do what you like and liked to do in game and have FUN.

Don’t let it overwhelm you, I’m certain the game will be tweaked many times before it settles back down to stability. These are times when hunters hunt and money is made and lost in buckets. It’s easy not to be their prey just by being a bit patient. Let the Hunters feed on themselves. If you need resources, collect them yourself while doing what you like. There is no big prize for getting an ascended weapon earlier than everyone else.

I also am not and didn’t expect to like the new looks of weapons. Most of my characters have a look I love already that I plan to keep via transmutation.

TLDR – Do what you find fun and entertaining in game and avoid discomfort at all times. It’ll all settle down after a bit. edit- lol “kitten” word synonymous with “a short period of time” – edit2 – lol again – now “bit” not changed to “kitten”

Cheers!

~ Ferguson

Let me add this by also saying that….

Out of everyone in my world, the world around me, my husband, my Mom, most of my friends who play GW 2, just like in GW 1, they often came to be with their questions about any one given thing in the game process because I had:

1. Already done it.

2. Did it to the point where I was skilled and knowledgeable enough in the topic to teach it to others

3. And just overall, used what I know to help others through their game.

This is what I do, I’m 34 yrs old, I’m also disabled and I use Guild Wars to help keep me distracted from how bad real life sucks at times…

I’m also tremendously selfless and I do what I do because should anyone in this game that I care about not understand something or… needs something that they can not learn or attain on their own, I feel the urge to want to help, so with that having been said, I just seem to instinctively do things in MY game to have myself prepared. I’m not much… “use” in the real world so to speak, because of my health, so I tend to want to make myself… above and beyond useful in this silly little MMO we play.

Is that so wrong?

Jaymee.1560:

I spent my money as I said earlier in my post, I was completely unprepared for the theme, meaning I have next to nothing material-wise to work with.

I only remember thinking (at the time) that I wanna hit 450… Lemme hit 450, so I can unlock the T7 so I can at least see what it is I would be dealing with… Well… honey, I got to 457 when all was said and done and when I saw that I can only created one f the new ores ONCE every 24 hours – I was like – Son of a &$%@!!!!!! and walked away from the Weaponsmith, gave my computer the finger and then started dinner that night…

That gave me a good healthy laugh
Indeed, rushing to 450 and then being able to produce whole <+1+> (tadaaam) new material is like hasting, running like crazy to kiss the wall at the full speed. This, again, reinforces my opinion that every piece of content from these 2-week updates is chaotic and is a filler to something more thinked through (sorry for my crippled english).
I too gave a finger but quicker – after I’ve seen Dev presentation of Ascended crafting. I knew that I’ll be kitten ed if I’ll start collecting all these materials with a thought of creating this useless and ugly weapon as quickly as possible. Give me a reason to, I’ll consider.
One thing that also was a slap to my face was that Devs metioned that it should take 2 weeks to create one weapon (waaaaait a minute. 2 weeks? Isn’t it just about when there will be another update?). I’m treated as an idiot. And I don’t appreciate it. Even. One. Bit.

I’m sorry that you had a negative experience, but gratified that you’ve done the responsible thing and just walked away from it.

I may craft to 500, I may not. If I do, it will be with mats I’ve collected myself. If that means I never get an Ascended weapon, then so be it. If that means I cannot do content that appears later, because it is gated by Ascended, then I’ll be gone.

GW2 was a good game. Some of that magic is still there, but much of what has been added recently just isn’t doing it for me. I feel I’ve gotten my money’s worth. However, I no longer feel that the game’s direction justifies my continued financial support. If you continue to be dissatisfied with this aspect of GW2 going forward, I recommend some variation of my approach.

Regardless, good luck. I have little doubt that the folks who’ve been the beneficiary of your good intentions have benefited from them. At the end of the day, that’s what really counts.

Gizmo.8623:

I’m treated as an idiot. And I don’t appreciate it. Even. One. Bit.

Funny this is…quite a few people thank them for it.

Talking about target audience….

@MikaHR:
With a choice of
1) making well-thought and complicated (or rather – mature, full-blown) systems where supposedly players would have hard time of grasping basics (yeah, sure)
2) making easiest possible systems that instantly reward everyone with gold, materials and exotics so everyone could join without problems
Anet choose the second path.
My greatest WTF about this game is that many people sacrificed about 6 years to create this game*. Wonderful game that lack many important things. One Dev even cried about this fact (*) at Pax. And now they hurt their baby with this pathetic content, offending excuses, slow developement (God, our poor PvP) of most important additions.
We have situation of massive confusion – we CAN make ascended weapons but people think that they MUST do them and rush, spend their gold to buy expensive materials (which prices skyrocketed but no one minds), log daily, craft these 1/24h materials. And what they got in return – one subjectively-ugly weapon which isn’t in any way better than any exotic.
We have paranoia, we have toxic game, we don’t have fun. We have chore that isn’t rewarding. And we are getting new chores every 2 weeks.
THAT’s what is disappointing (for me) and runing (my) play experience.

Gizmo.8623:

@MikaHR:
We have chore that isn’t rewarding. And we are getting new chores every 2 weeks.
THAT’s what is disappointing (for me) and runing (my) play experience.

Just play some facebook games, and it will become more clear to you.

@MikaHR:
I don’t have an account there and I don’t intend to. But I know that even using FB is exactly the same as playing the games you mention.
What I have in mind is the new content. Not the game overall.
One year has passed since the premiere and apart Fractals, I don’t play anything NEW. This game ‘gained’ content which I don’t use. Only the same old – leveling character, doing some dungeons and fractals and ultimately joining WvW.

For me facebook games and new content in GW2 are very much alike.

I’m not quite sure what the problem is. You were advised – quite wisely – not to rush into things and ignored the advice and rushed into it without researching what would be involved. I’m assuming you didn’t max your credit cards to buy gold (a different sort of problem altogether), so you didn’t lose anything but some time spent playing the game.

The trading post runs according to the rules of supply and demand. You already know that when the new shiny comes out, a lot of people want it right kitten now! You also know that a substantial portion of the 3-4 million people who bought the game still play at least once in a while. Put the two together and it means that the limited supply on the TP is going to get rushed by people who made a lot of coin farming champions, invasions and so on for the last month.

So what happened to the supply and prices on the TP is completely predictable, as is the inevitable correction when the shiny wears off and prices drop back to more or less their previous levels. You couldn’t wait, like many others, and got burned.

I spent about 60 gold to get huntsman to 450 (if I do make an ascended weapon it will likely be a rifle or bow), and both artificer and weaponsmith to 425. But it’s not a big deal because I’ve been preparing for it by learning how to play the TP and I already got most of the money back. Going forward I’m looking at crafting those T7 mats that aren’t account bound to sell on the TP until I’m ready to make a weapon.

What you could have done was place buy orders for the maximum you were willing to pay for the materials and then waited until you had enough stuff to work with. But you were impatient and paid the asking prices like everyone else who wanted it now and didn’t care about what it cost. I bought most of my mats through buy orders, and while I was sometimes outbid most of the time I got the stuff I needed quickly and for about 40% off compared to the “buy it now” prices.

Speculators can list items for any price they want. But if no one is willing to pay that much then they lose their money, both the 5% listing fee and possibly some of their investment if they end up selling the stuff for less than they bought it. No one is forcing you to buy the stuff at that price, or even buy it at all, you can gather everything you need yourself.

Work smarter, not harder.

And as for Anet requiring ascended gear for content, the only thing they have done this with is the higher level fractals – and lower level fractals give you the equipment needed so it’s more a matter of learning how to do the content than being locked out of it.

No dungeon or LS update or anything will lock you out because you’re wearing greens or yellows instead of exotic gear. Players will kick you, perhaps, but Anet created a game that can be played by anyone regardless of their gear status.

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I’m sorry that you had a negative experience, but gratified that you’ve done the responsible thing and just walked away from it.

I may craft to 500, I may not. If I do, it will be with mats I’ve collected myself. If that means I never get an Ascended weapon, then so be it. If that means I cannot do content that appears later, because it is gated by Ascended, then I’ll be gone.

GW2 was a good game. Some of that magic is still there, but much of what has been added recently just isn’t doing it for me. I feel I’ve gotten my money’s worth. However, I no longer feel that the game’s direction justifies my continued financial support. If you continue to be dissatisfied with this aspect of GW2 going forward, I recommend some variation of my approach.

Regardless, good luck. I have little doubt that the folks who’ve been the beneficiary of your good intentions have benefited from them. At the end of the day, that’s what really counts.

It technically shouldn’t matter if you harvest the materials yourself or buy them off the TP. If I gather 3 ancient wood logs they are worth 25 silver now (approximately) after the TP tax. So if you use then that’s 25s you won’t get.

I did a similar thing to the OP, except that I had gathered materials, quickly crafted up to about 439, then kicked myself when I realized how much I could have received for those materials.

Vol.5241:

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

A tier which doesn’t need to exist as it literally serves no purpose other than to give people busy work. Anet focused their efforts in the wrong direction with ascended and the the two week living story. Instead of actually delivering compelling content and horizontal progression we get bi-weekly to do lists and ascended. So now you have people who are slowly waking up to this and they are upset about it, and they should be as it is not the game that was advertised. Anet has thrown their hat in the ring with trying to be popular versus trying to be different and as such with them pandering to the masses, the people who bought this game on the premise that it is different are being left behind.

I don’t intend to take on the Ascended grind. GW2 has taught me to favor a short/steep grind to a long/slow one. What’s that? WoW has a very fast (~2 months for me), very steep grind with each tier. And, the remainder of the tier you can RELAX and play the game your way. In other words, you get a longer period with no grinding for more power than you spend grinding.

I don’t plan on chasing the power creep that is ascended weapons as it’s too much for me. After the ascended treadmill we’ll all be in the same place relative to each other and the environment. The treadmill ride will have taken us nowhere. I’m going to skip the ride from this point on. I realize that I won’t be able to play the game long-term as this means I’m no longer following the yellow brick road of the power curve. That’s OK, what I’m actually doing is waiting for a new kind of MMO. We’ve got a couple on the horizon that should be interesting.

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

A tier which doesn’t need to exist as it literally serves no purpose other than to give people busy work. Anet focused their efforts in the wrong direction with ascended and the the two week living story. Instead of actually delivering compelling content and horizontal progression we get bi-weekly to do lists and ascended. So now you have people who are slowly waking up to this and they are upset about it, and they should be as it is not the game that was advertised. Anet has thrown their hat in the ring with trying to be popular versus trying to be different and as such with them pandering to the masses, the people who bought this game on the premise that it is different are being left behind.

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

This game was advertised with living story. If you bought this game thinking it would be something different than that is your fault. People like to complain about living story IMO because they dont like change. They are so used to the subscription/expansion model that they don’t want to risk on anything else.

If you don’t like it then by all means you don’t like it. But Anet’s metrics show that this past year has been very successful. Player activity in the summer (when 2-week releases started) has gone up when it traditionally goes down (that’s Colin’s words). That tells me that this Living Story is working and GW2 is working.

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

A tier which doesn’t need to exist as it literally serves no purpose other than to give people busy work. Anet focused their efforts in the wrong direction with ascended and the the two week living story. Instead of actually delivering compelling content and horizontal progression we get bi-weekly to do lists and ascended. So now you have people who are slowly waking up to this and they are upset about it, and they should be as it is not the game that was advertised. Anet has thrown their hat in the ring with trying to be popular versus trying to be different and as such with them pandering to the masses, the people who bought this game on the premise that it is different are being left behind.

While I agree with everything you said, don’t forget, people asked for demanded ascended. They wanted something to grind. I don’t know why, but there is a definite contingent out there who are all “whooooo i can click stuff” awesome. Or maybe it’s the stat increase. IDK.

ANet created this for that set of players. Personally, it’s way to grindy for me. I think having people do different content to get ascended gear is great, but Dragonite and that Em… whatever stuff is a pain in the kitten to gather. (FYI, ANet, it would be better if we had to do like 5-10 world bosses not 50).

As for the content every two weeks, people constantly kitten that there’s nothing to do. ANet came up with an extremely aggressive release schedule. With new content every 2 weeks even with 4 teams they only get 8 weeks to throw something together. I’d give them a break, there isn’t a lot of time. Personally, I hope all the content isn’t this AFK loot fest, but I don’t think I’m the target audience.

Gizmo.8623:

EDIT:
And I tremble before a situation that we get anoter 2-week life span piece of story that will require us having ascended weapon. This day I will throw GW2 box into trash can (or out of window).

Not going to happen.

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

A tier which doesn’t need to exist as it literally serves no purpose other than to give people busy work. Anet focused their efforts in the wrong direction with ascended and the the two week living story. Instead of actually delivering compelling content and horizontal progression we get bi-weekly to do lists and ascended. So now you have people who are slowly waking up to this and they are upset about it, and they should be as it is not the game that was advertised. Anet has thrown their hat in the ring with trying to be popular versus trying to be different and as such with them pandering to the masses, the people who bought this game on the premise that it is different are being left behind.

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

This game was advertised with living story. If you bought this game thinking it would be something different than that is your fault. People like to complain about living story IMO because they dont like change. They are so used to the subscription/expansion model that they don’t want to risk on anything else.

If you don’t like it then by all means you don’t like it. But Anet’s metrics show that this past year has been very successful. Player activity in the summer (when 2-week releases started) has gone up when it traditionally goes down (that’s Colin’s words). That tells me that this Living Story is working and GW2 is working.

What wide gap? It’s nonsense and pr spin, exotic was BiS legendary is cosmetic..
Anet:
Fun impacts loot collection.
The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

This is the game that I bought, where BiS gear was easy to obtain and the chase was for cosmetic. With the introduction of the ascended tier I now am required to jump through the hoops Anet has put in place in order to be just as powerful I either have to grind to get the legendary which was supposed to be optional or ascended. As I said ascended tier’s only purpose is to give people busy work.

My issue is not with living story, but rather it’s implementation and lack of change to the world. It is here for two weeks then gone and nothing has changed except the amount of fluff that people have obtained it simply is not compelling and has nothing to do with the main storyline of the game. Of course people are logging in, if they don’t they miss out on the temporary “content” that consists of a to do list.

So yes while it may have made the game “popular”, that does not mean better or different. I realize Anet is a business and they need to feed their families, but by trying to appease the masses they have basically abandoned what their original design philosophy of the game was. This is the reason I and probably many others are upset with the direction the game has gone.

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

A tier which doesn’t need to exist as it literally serves no purpose other than to give people busy work. Anet focused their efforts in the wrong direction with ascended and the the two week living story. Instead of actually delivering compelling content and horizontal progression we get bi-weekly to do lists and ascended. So now you have people who are slowly waking up to this and they are upset about it, and they should be as it is not the game that was advertised. Anet has thrown their hat in the ring with trying to be popular versus trying to be different and as such with them pandering to the masses, the people who bought this game on the premise that it is different are being left behind.

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

This game was advertised with living story. If you bought this game thinking it would be something different than that is your fault. People like to complain about living story IMO because they dont like change. They are so used to the subscription/expansion model that they don’t want to risk on anything else.

If you don’t like it then by all means you don’t like it. But Anet’s metrics show that this past year has been very successful. Player activity in the summer (when 2-week releases started) has gone up when it traditionally goes down (that’s Colin’s words). That tells me that this Living Story is working and GW2 is working.

Anet:
Fun impacts loot collection.
The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

Again, ascended gear was supposed to be here at release. Anet has said that they do not plan on adding anymore loot tiers to the game. Ascended is the final (and was supposed to be at release).

Furthermore, it’s not required to play the game. You survived the game for a year without ascended. Now that we have it, do you expect to fail dungeon runs and raids?

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

A tier which doesn’t need to exist as it literally serves no purpose other than to give people busy work. Anet focused their efforts in the wrong direction with ascended and the the two week living story. Instead of actually delivering compelling content and horizontal progression we get bi-weekly to do lists and ascended. So now you have people who are slowly waking up to this and they are upset about it, and they should be as it is not the game that was advertised. Anet has thrown their hat in the ring with trying to be popular versus trying to be different and as such with them pandering to the masses, the people who bought this game on the premise that it is different are being left behind.

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

This game was advertised with living story. If you bought this game thinking it would be something different than that is your fault. People like to complain about living story IMO because they dont like change. They are so used to the subscription/expansion model that they don’t want to risk on anything else.

If you don’t like it then by all means you don’t like it. But Anet’s metrics show that this past year has been very successful. Player activity in the summer (when 2-week releases started) has gone up when it traditionally goes down (that’s Colin’s words). That tells me that this Living Story is working and GW2 is working.

Anet:
Fun impacts loot collection.
The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

Again, ascended gear was supposed to be here at release. Anet has said that they do not plan on adding anymore loot tiers to the game. Ascended is the final (and was supposed to be at release).

Furthermore, it’s not required to play the game. You survived the game for a year without ascended. Now that we have it, do you expect to fail dungeon runs and raids?

No it wasnt.

Well, you are at least right about no purpose whatsoever though.

It was rushed, poorly thought out, poorly implemented no purpose addition to the game.

Better idea skip ascended and wait higher tier weapons.

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

A tier which doesn’t need to exist as it literally serves no purpose other than to give people busy work. Anet focused their efforts in the wrong direction with ascended and the the two week living story. Instead of actually delivering compelling content and horizontal progression we get bi-weekly to do lists and ascended. So now you have people who are slowly waking up to this and they are upset about it, and they should be as it is not the game that was advertised. Anet has thrown their hat in the ring with trying to be popular versus trying to be different and as such with them pandering to the masses, the people who bought this game on the premise that it is different are being left behind.

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

This game was advertised with living story. If you bought this game thinking it would be something different than that is your fault. People like to complain about living story IMO because they dont like change. They are so used to the subscription/expansion model that they don’t want to risk on anything else.

If you don’t like it then by all means you don’t like it. But Anet’s metrics show that this past year has been very successful. Player activity in the summer (when 2-week releases started) has gone up when it traditionally goes down (that’s Colin’s words). That tells me that this Living Story is working and GW2 is working.

Anet:
Fun impacts loot collection.
The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

Again, ascended gear was supposed to be here at release. Anet has said that they do not plan on adding anymore loot tiers to the game. Ascended is the final (and was supposed to be at release).

Furthermore, it’s not required to play the game. You survived the game for a year without ascended. Now that we have it, do you expect to fail dungeon runs and raids?

So if it’s not required then why is it here? And no it was not supposed to be in at release, you know how I know this?
http://youtu.be/Jy7CcwnfUdU?t=1m59s

So basically what happened is it’s a response to the “content locusts” and people that have been conditioned to only see character progression as increased stats. Basically they want BiS gear to be a time consuming process, as opposed to the cosmetic horizontal progression that they initially touted over and over and over and over again pre-release.

Vol.5241:

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

I’m pretty sure the sheer cost of making one ascended weapon (around 200g for craft and 40g in mats after) is actually widening the gap between me and a Legendary.

stof.9341:

Vol.5241:

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

I’m pretty sure the sheer cost of making one ascended weapon (around 200g for craft and 40g in mats after) is actually widening the gap between me and a Legendary.

Which is why you probably shouldn’t craft one. Instead of spending 200 gold to craft ascended work toward the legendary which is a) not time gated and b) guaranteed to be BiS.

TooBz.3065:

stof.9341:

Vol.5241:

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

I’m pretty sure the sheer cost of making one ascended weapon (around 200g for craft and 40g in mats after) is actually widening the gap between me and a Legendary.

Which is why you probably shouldn’t craft one. Instead of spending 200 gold to craft ascended work toward the legendary which is a) not time gated and b) guaranteed to be BiS.

But but but, they said ascended is here to bridge the gap.

TooBz.3065:

Which is why you probably shouldn’t craft one. Instead of spending 200 gold to craft ascended work toward the legendary which is a) not time gated and b) guaranteed to be BiS.

But one legendary will not equip my main 4 weapons + various swaps :/ If I want to be full BiS, it’ll cost me absolutely all my savings since the game start, savings I wanted to put into one Legendary.

If I go for BiS, I lose all progress towards legendary, if I go for Legendary I’m missing 3 BiS items.

Thanks ANet, that’s exactly what I needed to improve my DotA 2 skill.

stof.9341:

Vol.5241:

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

I’m pretty sure the sheer cost of making one ascended weapon (around 200g for craft and 40g in mats after) is actually widening the gap between me and a Legendary.

Wait, why wouldn’t you just go straight for the legendary if you’re working toward one?

MikaHR.1978:

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

A tier which doesn’t need to exist as it literally serves no purpose other than to give people busy work. Anet focused their efforts in the wrong direction with ascended and the the two week living story. Instead of actually delivering compelling content and horizontal progression we get bi-weekly to do lists and ascended. So now you have people who are slowly waking up to this and they are upset about it, and they should be as it is not the game that was advertised. Anet has thrown their hat in the ring with trying to be popular versus trying to be different and as such with them pandering to the masses, the people who bought this game on the premise that it is different are being left behind.

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

This game was advertised with living story. If you bought this game thinking it would be something different than that is your fault. People like to complain about living story IMO because they dont like change. They are so used to the subscription/expansion model that they don’t want to risk on anything else.

If you don’t like it then by all means you don’t like it. But Anet’s metrics show that this past year has been very successful. Player activity in the summer (when 2-week releases started) has gone up when it traditionally goes down (that’s Colin’s words). That tells me that this Living Story is working and GW2 is working.

Anet:
Fun impacts loot collection.
The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

Again, ascended gear was supposed to be here at release. Anet has said that they do not plan on adding anymore loot tiers to the game. Ascended is the final (and was supposed to be at release).

Furthermore, it’s not required to play the game. You survived the game for a year without ascended. Now that we have it, do you expect to fail dungeon runs and raids?

No it wasnt.

Well, you are at least right about no purpose whatsoever though.

It was rushed, poorly thought out, poorly implemented no purpose addition to the game.

I was pretty certain this was the case so I looked it up. Lo and behold I was wrong! For that I apologize

http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/news/guild-wars-2s-chris-whiteside-on-ascended-gear-concerns

More great details here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/

That being said, I still do believe that ascended gear is the right thing to do. It’s meant to bridge the gap between

TooBz.3065:

Which is why you probably shouldn’t craft one. Instead of spending 200 gold to craft ascended work toward the legendary which is a) not time gated and b) guaranteed to be BiS.

Assuming the “no more tiers” statement is true, a Legendary weapon is just an ascended weapon with a pretty skin and the ability to change stats. If you don’t need to change stats every five minutes, craft an ascended, do “key runs” until you get enough BL claim tickets to pick your favorite skin, and you won’t need to grind your fingers off chasing a Legendary skin.

Hawkian.6580:

Wait, why wouldn’t you just go straight for the legendary if you’re working toward one?

Because getting BiS items trumps getting a nice skin. Well I think, the effort for both is so big I’m not sure anymore.

tolunart.2095:

TooBz.3065:

Which is why you probably shouldn’t craft one. Instead of spending 200 gold to craft ascended work toward the legendary which is a) not time gated and b) guaranteed to be BiS.

Assuming the “no more tiers” statement is true, a Legendary weapon is just an ascended weapon with a pretty skin and the ability to change stats. If you don’t need to change stats every five minutes, craft an ascended, do “key runs” until you get enough BL claim tickets to pick your favorite skin, and you won’t need to grind your fingers off chasing a Legendary skin.

Yes, but I’m more confident about the promise that Legendary will always be BiS than I am about the statement / expression of intent / desire that ascended is.

Look, a week ago I was kittening that ascended gear would ruin the game forever, let me adapt at my own pace.

Vol.5241:

MikaHR.1978:

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

A tier which doesn’t need to exist as it literally serves no purpose other than to give people busy work. Anet focused their efforts in the wrong direction with ascended and the the two week living story. Instead of actually delivering compelling content and horizontal progression we get bi-weekly to do lists and ascended. So now you have people who are slowly waking up to this and they are upset about it, and they should be as it is not the game that was advertised. Anet has thrown their hat in the ring with trying to be popular versus trying to be different and as such with them pandering to the masses, the people who bought this game on the premise that it is different are being left behind.

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

This game was advertised with living story. If you bought this game thinking it would be something different than that is your fault. People like to complain about living story IMO because they dont like change. They are so used to the subscription/expansion model that they don’t want to risk on anything else.

If you don’t like it then by all means you don’t like it. But Anet’s metrics show that this past year has been very successful. Player activity in the summer (when 2-week releases started) has gone up when it traditionally goes down (that’s Colin’s words). That tells me that this Living Story is working and GW2 is working.

Anet:
Fun impacts loot collection.
The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

Again, ascended gear was supposed to be here at release. Anet has said that they do not plan on adding anymore loot tiers to the game. Ascended is the final (and was supposed to be at release).

Furthermore, it’s not required to play the game. You survived the game for a year without ascended. Now that we have it, do you expect to fail dungeon runs and raids?

No it wasnt.

Well, you are at least right about no purpose whatsoever though.

It was rushed, poorly thought out, poorly implemented no purpose addition to the game.

I was pretty certain this was the case so I looked it up. Lo and behold I was wrong! For that I apologize

http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/news/guild-wars-2s-chris-whiteside-on-ascended-gear-concerns

More great details here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/

That being said, I still do believe that ascended gear is the right thing to do. It’s meant to bridge the gap between

What gap? The time gap? There is no statistical gap since legendaries take on the BiS properties of the highest tier which was exotic. So the only possible gap is a perceived gap by players that don’t understand the concept of horizontal progression. So as I have been saying all along it’s just a time filler, to give people busy work. Instead Anet could have spent their time focusing on ways to give players other means of progression that were not simply about better stats. Evolving weapon skills, ability to collect replaceable traits etc etc, there are so many options they could have implemented but they went with the path of least resistance to appease those that can only see progression through better numbers.

stof.9341:

Hawkian.6580:

Wait, why wouldn’t you just go straight for the legendary if you’re working toward one?

Because getting BiS items trumps getting a nice skin. Well I think, the effort for both is so big I’m not sure anymore.

Well if it’s more important to you it’s more important to you. Assuming it’s your first legendary it seems like the better investment to me :P

Vol.5241:

That being said, I still do believe that ascended gear is the right thing to do. It’s meant to bridge the gap between

There was no gap in the first place.

Vol.5241:

MikaHR.1978:

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Vol.5241:

Did you guys expect Ascended to come off quickly and cheaply? There is a reason why it’s the tier between exotic/legendary.

Furthermore, the price spike is a large result of increased demand. Demand increased for wood so much that people are willing to pay 10s more than pre-patch.

If you are not willing to match other people’s prices, then there is no seller out there that will sell to you.

A tier which doesn’t need to exist as it literally serves no purpose other than to give people busy work. Anet focused their efforts in the wrong direction with ascended and the the two week living story. Instead of actually delivering compelling content and horizontal progression we get bi-weekly to do lists and ascended. So now you have people who are slowly waking up to this and they are upset about it, and they should be as it is not the game that was advertised. Anet has thrown their hat in the ring with trying to be popular versus trying to be different and as such with them pandering to the masses, the people who bought this game on the premise that it is different are being left behind.

They already said the purpose of ascended was to bridge the wide gap.

This game was advertised with living story. If you bought this game thinking it would be something different than that is your fault. People like to complain about living story IMO because they dont like change. They are so used to the subscription/expansion model that they don’t want to risk on anything else.

If you don’t like it then by all means you don’t like it. But Anet’s metrics show that this past year has been very successful. Player activity in the summer (when 2-week releases started) has gone up when it traditionally goes down (that’s Colin’s words). That tells me that this Living Story is working and GW2 is working.

Anet:
Fun impacts loot collection.
The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

Again, ascended gear was supposed to be here at release. Anet has said that they do not plan on adding anymore loot tiers to the game. Ascended is the final (and was supposed to be at release).

Furthermore, it’s not required to play the game. You survived the game for a year without ascended. Now that we have it, do you expect to fail dungeon runs and raids?

No it wasnt.

Well, you are at least right about no purpose whatsoever though.

It was rushed, poorly thought out, poorly implemented no purpose addition to the game.

I was pretty certain this was the case so I looked it up. Lo and behold I was wrong! For that I apologize

http://www.tentonhammer.com/gw2/news/guild-wars-2s-chris-whiteside-on-ascended-gear-concerns

More great details here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/

That being said, I still do believe that ascended gear is the right thing to do. It’s meant to bridge the gap between

And thats coming from a guy who has enough legendaries to not care about ascended weps