Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: This topic isn’t about the grind related to Ascended items. If you want to discuss that, there’s plenty of other topics available.

So, you’ve braved the most dangerous places of Tyria. You’ve beaten epic foes, explored exotic locations, found ancient artifacts and saved the world a couple of times. Finally, you’ve obtained the most powerful equipment there is: a full set of Ascended items. Oh, what an achievement! So, what now?

You can do all of that again.

Except it’s easier now.

…what?

We got a new tier of gear. Great. Maybe. However, there’s no content for that gear outside of WvW. It mattering in WvW is probably a bad thing, so let’s ignore that. So, why should I get Ascended gear? So I could run CoF P1 10% faster? No, thanks. What’s ANet’s master plan here? Making the whole game easier?

Alright, so we’re getting revamped world bosses. However, Tequila Sunrise can’t require Ascended gear, because it’s a world boss. If it’s too hard for yellow/orange characters, the majority of players will basically be griefing the minority with Ascended gear. Besides, isn’t getting Ascended the point of that boss? Requiring Ascenced to get Ascended would be extremely stupid.

So, dungeons? Beatable with Rares. FotM? Barely anyone plays at a high enough level for that to matter and those who do will just get a few levels of the same stuff for free difficulty wise. Uh, Queensdale? Nope.

So, what’s the point?

Notice though. There are several reasons for this. 1) They are sticking with their philosophy that there will never be content you NEED highest tier gear for. 2) The jump from Exotic > Ascended is maybe half a tier. The jump from Fine > Mastercraft and Rare > Exotic are MUCH bigger leaps (almost 200 dmg on some weapons) where the jump from Exotic > Ascended is about 50 damage on average. I’m certain Armor will follow the same rule. They offer a relatively small boost for a whole new “tier” their main perk is the infusion slots.

This is why I’ve never understood the MMO player attitude that the only reason to play any part of a game is to get new gear.

It only really makes sense (to me anyway) when you have a gear treadmill where you need that gear to do other content. Otherwise what’s the point? Your gear is just a set of tools to enable you to complete content more easily (or at all), it’s not a goal in it’s own right.

Note that I’m not advocating a gear treadmill here. I think that’s a terrible idea. But I feel like MMO developers and players have locked each other into a kind of vicious circle where developers focused on rewarding players with new gear, and then presenting them with new content to use that gear, and players have hooked into this system and now almost refuse to touch content that doesn’t reward them with new gear.

I’m hoping Anet (although they are an MMO developer) can stay out of that, since they seem to have done a good job of drawing in a lot of people who haven’t played an MMO before, or at least not often or for a long time and therefore are more likely to be used to the single-player game set-up where you do the content because it’s there and that’s what you’re playing the game for and if you get new gear it’s just a tool to help you do that. But you don’t want to spend all your time working towards your gear because at some point you want to get on and do all the other stuff in the game.

Genreninja.8516:

Notice though. There are several reasons for this. 1) They are sticking with their philosophy that there will never be content you NEED highest tier gear for. 2) The jump from Exotic > Ascended is maybe half a tier. The jump from Fine > Mastercraft and Rare > Exotic are MUCH bigger leaps (almost 200 dmg on some weapons) where the jump from Exotic > Ascended is about 50 damage on average. I’m certain Armor will follow the same rule. They offer a relatively small boost for a whole new “tier” their main perk is the infusion slots.

Well isn’t it pointless then if the mass use for infusions is in Fractals? Even in WoW, you have a certain progression in the gear. It’s not Get Naxxaramass 25 Armor and then that’s enough, rather, after that you need Ulduar gear to move on and so forth (Ignore the order, focus on the point).

OP’s point is that There is literally no need for Ascended. The skins even suck largely compared to others. It’s a pointless number, and a nuisance for WvW.

It’s the same point as when it was only going to be Exotic. The point is that it is BiS. That’s it. If they started making content that required Ascended gear to complete then we’d be playing WoW…

The whole point of GW2 is that nothing is required. I can complete FoTM, every dungeon, every path, every world boss with Exotic gear. Heck I’ve done it with Rare gear.

The fact you are looking for a point means you don’t quite get GW2.

dekou.6012:

Disclaimer: This topic isn’t about the grind related to Ascended items. If you want to discuss that, there’s plenty of other topics available.

So, you’ve braved the most dangerous places of Tyria. You’ve beaten epic foes, explored exotic locations, found ancient artifacts and saved the world a couple of times. Finally, you’ve obtained the most powerful equipment there is: a full set of Ascended items. Oh, what an achievement! So, what now?

You can do all of that again.

Except it’s easier now.

…what?

We got a new tier of gear. Great. Maybe. However, there’s no content for that gear outside of WvW. It mattering in WvW is probably a bad thing, so let’s ignore that. So, why should I get Ascended gear? So I could run CoF P1 10% faster? No, thanks. What’s ANet’s master plan here? Making the whole game easier?

Alright, so we’re getting revamped world bosses. However, Tequila Sunrise can’t require Ascended gear, because it’s a world boss. If it’s too hard for yellow/orange characters, the majority of players will basically be griefing the minority with Ascended gear. Besides, isn’t getting Ascended the point of that boss? Requiring Ascenced to get Ascended would be extremely stupid.

So, dungeons? Beatable with Rares. FotM? Barely anyone plays at a high enough level for that to matter and those who do will just get a few levels of the same stuff for free difficulty wise. Uh, Queensdale? Nope.

So, what’s the point?

If you want the content to be challenging, wear greens and do dungeons or take off an armor piece or 2. That should make it “fun” for you again.

I’m confused though… “there is no point” I feel is an invalid, inaccurate, and misleading statement.

For some, there may be no point to the armor. A good example is the OP who feels content is needed to make it purposeful. But to some, to many, the simple fact thakittens better, is good enough.

The reason it’s ugly is already made clear and shouldn’t be confusing: It makes legendaries and skins more valuable. and again, gives them purpose.

It’s unfortunate some people feel underwhelmed. But I think its more due to a miss conception of the bigger picture.

Genreninja.8516:

I’m confused though… “there is no point” I feel is an invalid, inaccurate, and misleading statement.

Fair, I suppose. The point is that it is BiS. Do you need BiS to complete any content is the big question, and the answer is unequivocally NOPE. Every bit of content can be completed in Rare gear, heck even Masterwork.

(I don’t personally consider upper level FoTM “content”. If you’ve played all of the Fractals on level 1 difficulty, you’ve experienced the content, and you can certainly complete level 1 with sub-par gear. Wanting to do higher levels doesn’t change the content, just adds difficulty, I mean if my level 14 ranger can beat FoTM 1, then anyone can…)

The point is so that ANet can maintain higher active player numbers. Higher user and/or concurrency numbers generally mean higher gem sales (people who aren’t playing are not likely to spend money) and the more attractive your game looks to potential new customers.

Ascended is a business tactic, not a gameplay requirement. ANet is hardly the first MMO developer to attempt to cater to as many demographics as possible.

dekou.6012:

So, what’s the point?

The point is that you can put the following in chat:

“LFM for X activity, ascended gear only!!”

I mean, who doesn’t want to be elite like that?

Genreninja.8516:

Notice though. There are several reasons for this. 1) They are sticking with their philosophy that there will never be content you NEED highest tier gear for. 2) The jump from Exotic > Ascended is maybe half a tier. The jump from Fine > Mastercraft and Rare > Exotic are MUCH bigger leaps (almost 200 dmg on some weapons) where the jump from Exotic > Ascended is about 50 damage on average. I’m certain Armor will follow the same rule. They offer a relatively small boost for a whole new “tier” their main perk is the infusion slots.

Sure, there are reasons. There’s still no point. Other than…

Draknar.5748:

It’s the same point as when it was only going to be Exotic. The point is that it is BiS. That’s it. If they started making content that required Ascended gear to complete then we’d be playing WoW…

The whole point of GW2 is that nothing is required. I can complete FoTM, every dungeon, every path, every world boss with Exotic gear. Heck I’ve done it with Rare gear.

The fact you are looking for a point means you don’t quite get GW2.

…this. However, the point of Exotic isn’t just that it’s BiS. It’s also cosmetically superior, which is something GW has always been about. Besides, your Exotic gear is generally easy to get, so it could be considered the basic lvl 80 gear and doesn’t have to have a point.

Ascended, on the other hand, requires a big time investment, doesn’t look much better and isn’t needed anywhere. Like Danikat pointed out, it’s like a gear treadmill… except there’s no goal. After a lot of work, you still get to do the same content, with items that most likely look the same because you transmuted them. Yay.

Lots of my elite friends just need that “10% faster”. Also, I think the world bosses have a very low chance on dropping ascended weapon. RNG is RNG, bear with it.

You should not EVER need BiS to complete content. the one exception being high level fractals (you can still do low fractals easily without, so your not excluded) and this is how it should be, if you want gear gated content, there are plenty of MMO’s that use that, many people consider it a good thing that guild wars does not

I think the goal here. Is to create a treadmill like experience, for those that enjoy it, without forcing it onto those that don’t. And that confuses people; especially those that aren’t part of the group getting the attention right now.

But we as a player base, aren’t used to Developers doing stuff like this. It’s a hit or miss, trial and error type process. Largely I think their direction is successful. But they do have some failures in their smaller efforts.

Danikat.8537:

But I feel like MMO developers and players have locked each other into a kind of vicious circle where developers focused on rewarding players with new gear, and then presenting them with new content to use that gear, and players have hooked into this system and now almost refuse to touch content that doesn’t reward them with new gear.

Pretty much. I think that’s all MMORPGs are right now; and even worse, I think that’s all a rather large part of the MMORPG playerbase wants MMORPGs to be right now.

Well you should be rewarded! Ascended gear is where it’s at

I see it as Anet going “Here’s another mountain to climb”… but mainly for people who collect stuff just for the sake of collecting it. Just like everything else basically… Except this one had a little extra Carrot-yness in the fact that the Base Damage of the weapon is slightly Higher so it’s bound to have more people collecting more than just 1 of them.

I’m still going for just 1 myself to see if it actually improves a really lackluster class (ranger). If it does, then and it’s a definite “okay this feels stronger” thing then I’ll consider making a few more of them b/c I honestly have nothing else to spend gold on and the stupid stuff just keeps piling up day after day despite not even DOING any farming like I used to do back in Gw1 shrug

All I did today was some temples b/c I always do them… and then Arah twice b/c my guildies were and that’s a really rare occurrence. But just like everyday, the wallet gets fatter by 10g and pretty much ANY game literally feels less interesting to me when I’m no longer skrimping and saving just to get by. … It’s like owning every house on Park Ave and laughing at the cute “little people” who put up a hotel on Baltimore. That’s boring to me. I don’t play to “work”, but I do play for challenge and too much income dulls the challenge.

That’s not to say that Ascended’s present a fair “Upkeep” investment either tho, they’re a bit on the ridiculous side when you look at things like Darkmatter and Deld-ingots

Exactly. Its why I didnt even bother getting a full set of exotics and in PvE unless its a dungeon I use a rare set. I even tried some LeveL 80 events with absolutely no armor / trinkets on and didnt have trouble completing them.

Ascended gear I guess was always meant to be a carrot for people who just dont feel cosmetic rewards are carrots of any kind.