Here is my opinion on Character Progression.
Be it Horizontal or Vertical progression, Guild Wars 2 has a fundamental flaw:
The fact that I have to discard almost everything I previously worked hard for.
Here are examples:
1. Ascended Equipment(Horizontal and Vertical Progression)
Ascended gear provides vertical progression in the game. But you are asking me to discard my current Exotic weapon, and also buy Transmutation stones to keep the skin I like, just so I can progress vertically. It feels like a rip off. Once I transmute my Exotic skin on the Ascended item, my Exotic(all my previous hard work) is gone. Poof! Vanished.
Instead, there should be a system of upgrading equipment. For example, if you told me to take my Exotic weapon and add 5 Dragonite Ingots etc to it to upgrade it to Ascended, I would not mind so much. The fact that I am creating a whole new item and discarding my old item just does not feel like progression to me.
I once played a game where you could improve the quality and level of an item by adding materials on it. It was very heavy in vertical progression. However, what I enjoyed about it is that the same level1 sword i started with became the Ultimate Giant Sword of Doom. Then they introduced a new type of tier and i upgraded it using a million mats to the Ultimate Giant Sword of Doom(+1). It was still my sword all along. I did have to farm 1 million mats, but nowhere did I need to discard my current weapon. Ever.
2. Agony Infusions(Vertical Progression)
I have already posted my opinion on this:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/fractured/Agony-changes/first#post3228864
If I put a +10 AR infusion in my Ring, it is stuck in that Ring. Then if i want to upgrade to +11AR on that Ring, I have to completely replace my +10AR infusion currently in my Ring. All that hard work to get a +10AR infusion, now you are telling me to farm 2 more to make a +11AR infusion and delete the old one? This is a bad system. It completely overwrites the progression I worked so hard previously, making me re-work twice the amount of my previous progression to progress again. There should be a way to simply keep applying +1AR to a Ring, and the Ring has its own progression bar, and it gains +1AR when the bar fills(EXACTLY like Essence of Luck works right now!).
3. One-time-use Skins(Horizontal Progression)
Similar to the above 2. Once you use a skin, it’s used. Game over. There are expensive little out-of-rule tricks with Transmutation Crystals/Splitters to get back a skin and/or transfer it on another character etc, but if you overwrite a skin like Shattered Dragon Wings with a Quaggan Backpack for example, you are not getting the previous Wings back ever again. It’s gone for good. So if I want to change my looks often, I have to have one ascended backpack for each look I want, or pay a super high price of Crystals and Splitters each time i switch. I am not progressing. I am stuck with one look forever because of the high cost, or renounce to a previous look permanently to get a new look.
I honestly dont mind Vertical Progression in this or any game. What I mind the most is discarding what I worked so hard for, or giving up something forever.
Here is a “how bad it could be” scenario:
You currently have Endure Pain equipped on your Warrior. You can replace Endure Pain by Dolyak Signet on your skill bar, but then you cannot use Endure Pain ever again unless you remake your whole character. Does Permanent choices of skill sound cool to you? No. It’s ridiculous, right?
I feel about the 3 above-mentioned examples are as ridiculous as this one.
(edited by Turtle Dragon.9241)