Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,

Started GW2 about 2 months ago with some friends after several other MMOs. We were so amazed by the gameplay, story, graphics, environment and all the different armor looks. It is the first MMO I enjoy leveling, making alts and enjoying PVE. It’s funny, that we were always PVP players, but now suddenly mainly play PVE. Meanwhile I have 2 lvl 80 chars Just love the game!

The thing, which attracted us to GW, was, that you don’t have to grind endlessly in the endgame to get competitive gear, neither in PVP nor in PVE. It’s one of the only MMOs I know with this theory. It’s all only about the looks and I don’t mind investing some time to get the look I want.

Unfortunately I started getting knowledge about the ascended stuff. Eventhough I’m playing casual (every evening after work) I like to have the best possible stats to be competitive (I don’t know, it might be just a small buff, but still I feel better when I know I have the best possible stats). Honestly it makes me disappointed. For example the weapon will force me to do crafting, but sorry, I have tried it and I have never ever liked it in any MMO. I want to enjoy other parts like dungeons, fractals or WvW, whatever. Why force people to do certain parts and not let them chose? Also it’s too much time and gold investment again same as all other MMOs to get 1 char fully ascended geared and I am a person who’d like to have all the alts maxed out. The ascended is ruining the principes of GW in my eyes… I thought I started an MMO without this grinding stuff…

Anyway I understand ArenaNet needs to find ways to keep the players, but I hope this won’t be the solution, as this is not GW-style in my opinion. I think all the ascended stuff should give a nice option like swapping stats, so that those hardcore players have a reason to grind these, but they shouldn’t be better than exotics. Maybe you feel the same or maybe not, just wanted to share.

Regards,

Hundreds ot thousands of people are with you but still… the QQing about no endgame has won.
Also, I don’t believe they wanted to add ascended items since release.

OP, I agree, but you’re wasting your time, below is a post of mine from another thread.

“Needless to say, my post history will indicate my fervent anger and dislike that Ascended was ever introduced at all. However, I’m smart enough to know that that ship has sailed, and we should not waste time re-litigating this topic. It is what it is, and that being the case, it’s time to move forward and offer viable and reasonable methods to lighten and facilitate the acquisition of Ascended items, as opposed to unrealistic and absurd fantasy scenarios where Anet rolls back the Ascended Gear.

Given this, I think it is important that we focus on making suggestions that move Ascended items towards a multi-acquisition mode (like exotics) as opposed to utterly wasting time in a debate about Horizontal vs Vertical progression. A debate in which, they are NOT going to roll back anything, and they are going to stand by their claim that they had always intended to have low-power curve vertical progression through ascended gear, and possibly other ways in the “distant” future.

So there is nothing to debate, despite their pre-release marketing, Gw2 is now a vertical progression game: period, end of story.

That said, I love the graphics of this game, it’s truly beautiful,. And I love the no must-have classes (trinity), and I enjoy WvW roaming, PvP and also some of the DEs and Dungeon paths. And what’s more, truth be told, there simply is nowhere else for me to go (at least for right now) for my particular play-style as far as mmo’s are concerned. Eventually a company will create, and stand by, a 100% horizontal progression game that also has modern graphics and solid game play – and when they do, I’m all in, but that moment, is not now. For now what we have is a plethora of Vertical Progression MMO’s to choose from, and given the choices I have, I choose GW2.

For my part, I intend to flood whatever thread they create on the subject of Ascended gear with suggestions that lead to a faster, cleaner and far less grindy means of acquisition."

Hm yeah it’s a really difficult situation somehow and I understand it’s really not easy to find the optimal solution^^. Especially when people cry for more endgame and then want it back.

I haven’t been here when the QQ for endgame began. I only know, that I started this game, because of no grinding. Thought everything is just about the looks in GW.

Ision.3207:

I agree, but you’re wasting your time, click the link below and read:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-best-way-to-implement-Ascended-armor/first#post3050005

Oh, thanks xD

So the weapons and accessoires will stay as they are or will ArenaNet also think about that? Does anyone know? :O

I beat the kitten out of an ascended weapon’d mesmer in WvW yesterday with my exotic/rare Hammer LB Warrior build.

Skill > Gear.

You can still be competitive in exotics in WvW, and in PvE there’s nothing to be competitive with.

Skill > Gear.

You can play all part of the game with exotic.
ANet got burned by players acquiring exotics too quickly
“ascended gear is to be a bridge between exotic and Legendary”

Tiger.7506:

Skill > Gear.

You can play all part of the game with exotic.
ANet got burned by players acquiring exotics too quickly
“ascended gear is to be a bridge between exotic and Legendary”

This logic is flawed.

Two players with the same skill -> better gear wins.

What is your point in defending this?

And what kitten gap between exotic and legendary, that gap did not exist before they introduced ascended items… (unless you talk of a time gap in getting your hand on a legendary, which was meaningless statwise…)

im being optimistic and hoping that some day, you wont have to grind for ascended weapons, you could earn them by doing scavenger hunts (remember that black moa chick… awwwwww) or completing the storyline, not living story, actual storyline (once they decide to expand it to the next dragon)

Cry for an end game, at least from a GW1 perspective, means “please give us cool armor skins to chase” or “please give us lots of titles to chase”…

Crying for an end game from WoW perspective “please give us new raids” or “please give us another gear tier to chase” or “please increase lvl cap”

The can’t solve the first “problem” of the GW1 cry, because they make skins for their gem store …. the second cry, um, you could say living story, i think it was just forgotten.

The first problem of WoW cry is yet to be solved. Second cry has already been solved (introduction of ascended gear). and the level cap increase is “not off the table”.

Personally I equivalate WvW with raiding somehow… (Though WvW can be done alone) Both are best done with a guild, both require coordination – someone leading and knowing what to do (whether it be the mechanics from WoW, or the zerg coordination/movement/engagement in WvW) and both at least to me provide endless hours to spend on (though I quit WoW…).

You could say WvW is just zerging, but there’s a bit of tactics/strategy/coordination that goes on commanding the zerg… If you think about it, real life wars would also be considered “zerging”… but they’re not – it’s silly.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Tiger.7506:

Skill > Gear.

You can play all part of the game with exotic.
ANet got burned by players acquiring exotics too quickly
“ascended gear is to be a bridge between exotic and Legendary”

This logic is flawed.

Two players with the same skill -> better gear wins.

What is your point in defending this?

And what kitten gap between exotic and legendary, that gap did not exist before they introduced ascended items… (unless you talk of a time gap in getting your hand on a legendary, which was meaningless statwise…)

Skill matters.

Exosferatu.2961:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Tiger.7506:

Skill > Gear.

You can play all part of the game with exotic.
ANet got burned by players acquiring exotics too quickly
“ascended gear is to be a bridge between exotic and Legendary”

This logic is flawed.

Two players with the same skill -> better gear wins.

What is your point in defending this?

And what kitten gap between exotic and legendary, that gap did not exist before they introduced ascended items… (unless you talk of a time gap in getting your hand on a legendary, which was meaningless statwise…)

Skill matters.

Your link makes me smile. He is a good player, but that has a lot to do with gear and traits. He is using the widely accepted as overpowered perplexity runes on a class that can make maximum use of those runes. Like stun warriors (pre-patch), dire necros, etc. If you really wanted to highlight skill, find a player using rares, and an uncommon spec, and I would take that as evidence of your case.

At least you can take heart with the fact ascended is not making a big difference for condition builds, as the base weapon damage is much less of a factor.

Besides the fact that runes of perplexity are sort of a mess, what I said is still true.

If A is the same for both (skill), then the one with more of B (stats) is better than the other.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Tiger.7506:

Skill > Gear.

You can play all part of the game with exotic.
ANet got burned by players acquiring exotics too quickly
“ascended gear is to be a bridge between exotic and Legendary”

This logic is flawed.

Two players with the same skill -> better gear wins.

What is your point in defending this?

And what kitten gap between exotic and legendary, that gap did not exist before they introduced ascended items… (unless you talk of a time gap in getting your hand on a legendary, which was meaningless statwise…)

Go play sPvP if you want an even playing field.

What is wrong with a balanced game even in WvW or PvE, just statwise?

Kaiyanwan.8521:

What is wrong with a balanced game even in WvW or PvE, just statwise?

I’m not answering any more of your rhetorical questions, they’re not furthering any discussion.

Address my points or make some of your own, please.

I did. If skill is more important than gear, why would you introduce a gear difference. Ascended gear is futile, unless you want to give the less skilled players a chance to beat the skilled ones, which would be stupid.
On the other hand, ascended gear on a skilled player will create a gap between equally skilled players and result in not the skilled one winning (in theory a draw) but the one with the better gear.

How can you not see all that?

And in matter of PvE, I can’t be the only one who is forseeing following:

LFM xyz only full ascended armor and weapon / link gear

Kaiyanwan.8521:

I did. If skill is more important than gear, why would you introduce a gear difference. Ascended gear is futile, unless you want to give the less skilled players a chance to beat the skilled ones, which would be stupid.
On the other hand, ascended gear on a skilled player will create a gap between equally skilled players and result in not the skilled one winning (in theory a draw) but the one with the better gear.

How can you not see all that?

It was already like that before ascended gear, there’s level 80 permutations of all rarities. What difference does one more tier that’s been there for the majority of the game make?

This is also discounting the fact that WvW is won with large scale organization and siege. Not skirmishes and “1v1 me noob” trivium.

As for PvE, you’re arguing a hypothetical scenario that while plausible doesn’t seem to be common. Even less so when you have a guild or a group of friends that you play with.

Mackdose.6504:

It was already like that before ascended gear, there’s level 80 permutations of all rarities. What difference does one more tier that’s been there for the majority of the game make?

As for PvE, you’re arguing a hypothetical scenario that while plausible doesn’t seem to be common. Even less so when you have a guild or a group of friends that you play with.

Before ascended gear, a level 80 char could easily get exotic gear, the barrier was low.
Ascended gear has a very high barrier, especially weapons, which have not been introduced a year ago.
In fact, only the rings have been introduced about a year ago (well and the back). The other stuff is way younger. Keeping an artificial item creep alive.

I’ve been playing MMOs for close to 15 years, I am not blinded by carrots or excuses, “run stuff with guilds and friends” and that stuff, I just see it as what it is.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Mackdose.6504:

It was already like that before ascended gear, there’s level 80 permutations of all rarities. What difference does one more tier that’s been there for the majority of the game make?

As for PvE, you’re arguing a hypothetical scenario that while plausible doesn’t seem to be common. Even less so when you have a guild or a group of friends that you play with.

Before ascended gear, a level 80 char could easily get exotic gear, the barrier was low.
Ascended gear has a very high barrier, especially weapons, which have not been introduced a year ago.
In fact, only the rings have been introduced about a year ago (well and the back). The other stuff is way younger. Keeping an artificial item creep alive.

I’ve been playing MMOs for close to 15 years, I am not blinded by carrots or excuses, “run stuff with guilds and friends” and that stuff, I just see it as what it is.

I know the history of the game, I’ve owned it since pre-purchase.

You didn’t address my primary point, which was “What difference does ascended gear make that wasn’t there originally?”

If your argument is that ascended gear introduced some kind of stat gap that didn’t exist in WvW previously, I’m saying WvW has always been statistically uneven.

No, I give up.
If you cannot see the difference between ascended and exotic gear, their possible ways and difficulties in getting them or that better gear is just better, well how would I convince you?

But maybe you can tell me, what was the introduction of ascended gear good for, besides being a carrot on a stick?

Tiger.7506:

Skill > Gear.

You can play all part of the game with exotic.
ANet got burned by players acquiring exotics too quickly
“ascended gear is to be a bridge between exotic and Legendary”

This is more about warriors being better than mesmers. Ascended is just obscene icing on the cake.

Skill>gear the irony . You’re playing a hammer warrior
Which is Class>skill>gear