Guild Wars 2

Why are there so many threads about this? It’s easy enough to get. It’s not a real advantage. This happened forever ago so it isn’t chaning now. Ect

Kenjo.9651:

Even if Ascended stats were lowered to exotic level, you wouldn’t lose the reward. The reward is in the infusion slots.

Sadly, this isn’t entirely true. Ascended jewelry cannot be equipped with gemstones, and thus can’t have their stats improved beyond infusions which only give +5 to a single stat at best. They make up for this by having their gemstone equivalent rolled into their primary stat for the jewelry.

If you made them give the same stats, they would be worse than an upgraded masterwork version.

I guess you haven’t heard about WvW +5 stat infusions…

WvW stat infusions have no agony bonuses, unlike the crafted ones you can make which have both. They also cost laurels, at 5 for the cheapest stat. You’ll need a total of 70 laurels to get a stat on every item.

Kenjo.9651:

Ascended gear was originally intended for Fractals, with the purpose of giving added bonuses from infusions. The stat increase was to cater to all the crybabies from other MMO’s that wanted gear to grind. It never needed a stat boost.

The stat bonus is a reward for the effort involved in making the gear. It’s a 5% increase, so it’s not drastic enough to cause major balancing issues but it’s a nice touch for people who have spent the huge amounts of time and gold to invest in a set.

The real question you need to ask yourselves is why do you want to remove something that people worked hard to earn, when it clearly doesn’t have as great an impact on gameplay as you might like to believe?

Why does it bother people what others have? Because based on all the threads about ascended gear lately, it looks like the main problem is not that you feel like you cannot complete any content but that others have gear that is ascended.

Due to scaling, they don’t have any advantages in sub 80 areas.
Due to the nature of wvw, the difference is quite negligible really. (even in 1v1s, it’s rare that you fight a really balanced 1v1 in which the small difference could be of importance)
Due to the nature of open world pve… nobody really cares what tier of gear you are zerging that boss in.

It’s basically a compromise. People who don’t want to get it, don’t have to, while people who want to have the best gear can have some goal.

Seeing quite a few posts regarding not being able to get ascended stuff…
There is 1 way and as lame as it is at least it gets you what you want… I’ve crafted ascended because I can within my limits and why not? Min maxer here as much as I can.

You can pretty much buy specific ascended anyway like I do:

- buy gems & convert to gold

- have skill points (e.g: 20 for 1 asc orb thing)
- have laurels to buy ascended recipe (e.g: 5 laurels = 1 recipe)
- have an abundance of Karma (easily acquired via EOTM Ktrain) to purchase Obby Shards

- buy Trick or Treat Bags and get the ascended mats (dragonite,
Emp frags & bloodstone)
- buy necessary inscription thing off TP
- buy necessary asc mats off TP (e.g: Deldrimoor Steel Ingots etc)

Practically bought save for the skill points, laurels & Karma as those require time and/or PvE/Ktrain in EOTM from champ bags.

Boom. There’s your asc wep etc.

Zephyra.4709:

Seeing quite a few posts regarding not being able to get ascended stuff…
There is 1 way and as lame as it is at least it gets you what you want… I’ve crafted ascended because I can within my limits and why not? Min maxer here as much as I can.

You can pretty much buy specific ascended anyway like I do:

- buy gems & convert to gold

- have skill points (e.g: 20 for 1 asc orb thing)
- have laurels to buy ascended recipe (e.g: 5 laurels = 1 recipe)
- have an abundance of Karma (easily acquired via EOTM Ktrain) to purchase Obby Shards

- buy Trick or Treat Bags and get the ascended mats (dragonite,
Emp frags & bloodstone)
- buy necessary inscription thing off TP
- buy necessary asc mats off TP (e.g: Deldrimoor Steel Ingots etc)

Practically bought save for the skill points, laurels & Karma as those require time and/or PvE/Ktrain in EOTM from champ bags.

Boom. There’s your asc wep etc.

But you don’t understand.

What some of these people want is the same thing you (or me) put in tons of effort and time for free.

Spend gold on it? Pffft. Get real man! You need all that gold you get for… oh wait. Nothing.

Astralporing.1957:

I guess you haven’t heard about WvW +5 stat infusions…

Making the ascended equipment useless for fractals, the only part where it actually matters. I’m sure most people do this.

Astralporing.1957:

Which theory? That the introduction of ascended did not slow down player hemorrhage? You have proof in the very game design you bring up.

When ascended gear was introduced, the devs clearly said that it was only a start of vertical gear progression which they intended to continue. At HoT introduction however, the same Mike O’Brian who around Ascended release said people that thought there will be no new gear tiers are naive, clearly stated that BiS eq will remain BiS (and that he fully expected for the crowd to storm the stage if he said otherwise). That shift in design can be only attributed to ascended not fulfilling their purpose. And since their only purpose was player retention…

You are twisting Mike O’Brian meaning and intent in the most foul way possible. He ment they will bestaying with ascended as cap gear as promissed.

To review how gearing evolved in GW2:

-> game gets introduced as not going to work on power creep and not introducing a gear treadmill
-> game launches with exotic tier as max
-> people reach cap gear sooner then anet predicted
-> ascended armor is slowly introduced into the game over a 1 year time periond. anet explains that they expected exotic gear to take longer so they have to add a gear tier
-> many people are upset (myself included) but either learn to accept it or leave the game
-> ncsoft even offers people refunds on their game
- HoT gets announced and a dev tells the community that they will stick to their addapted manifesto of not increasing the gear cap

To in any shape or form come to the conclusion that they are not introducing a new equipment cap from this timeline or chain of events is shameful. It either means you twist events or willfully ommit parts of this chain to unsuccessfully make a point (if you were aware of how ascended got introduced).

Or you were unaware and to lazy to even do a simple background check on the topic you are arguing. Both are unacceptable in my opinion.

Lemuria.3195:

Kenjo.9651:

Even if Ascended stats were lowered to exotic level, you wouldn’t lose the reward. The reward is in the infusion slots.

Sadly, this isn’t entirely true. Ascended jewelry cannot be equipped with gemstones, and thus can’t have their stats improved beyond infusions which only give +5 to a single stat at best. They make up for this by having their gemstone equivalent rolled into their primary stat for the jewelry.

If you made them give the same stats, they would be worse than an upgraded masterwork version.

I guess you haven’t heard about WvW +5 stat infusions…

WvW stat infusions have no agony bonuses, unlike the crafted ones you can make which have both. They also cost laurels, at 5 for the cheapest stat. You’ll need a total of 70 laurels to get a stat on every item.

Kenjo.9651:

Ascended gear was originally intended for Fractals, with the purpose of giving added bonuses from infusions. The stat increase was to cater to all the crybabies from other MMO’s that wanted gear to grind. It never needed a stat boost.

The stat bonus is a reward for the effort involved in making the gear. It’s a 5% increase, so it’s not drastic enough to cause major balancing issues but it’s a nice touch for people who have spent the huge amounts of time and gold to invest in a set.

The real question you need to ask yourselves is why do you want to remove something that people worked hard to earn, when it clearly doesn’t have as great an impact on gameplay as you might like to believe?

5% per player might not be much for the indivdual but take a 30vs30 zerg in wvw if one zerg is pure exotic geared, the other full ascedended, then we talking 150%

GummiBear.2756:

Lemuria.3195:

Kenjo.9651:

Even if Ascended stats were lowered to exotic level, you wouldn’t lose the reward. The reward is in the infusion slots.

Sadly, this isn’t entirely true. Ascended jewelry cannot be equipped with gemstones, and thus can’t have their stats improved beyond infusions which only give +5 to a single stat at best. They make up for this by having their gemstone equivalent rolled into their primary stat for the jewelry.

If you made them give the same stats, they would be worse than an upgraded masterwork version.

I guess you haven’t heard about WvW +5 stat infusions…

WvW stat infusions have no agony bonuses, unlike the crafted ones you can make which have both. They also cost laurels, at 5 for the cheapest stat. You’ll need a total of 70 laurels to get a stat on every item.

Kenjo.9651:

Ascended gear was originally intended for Fractals, with the purpose of giving added bonuses from infusions. The stat increase was to cater to all the crybabies from other MMO’s that wanted gear to grind. It never needed a stat boost.

The stat bonus is a reward for the effort involved in making the gear. It’s a 5% increase, so it’s not drastic enough to cause major balancing issues but it’s a nice touch for people who have spent the huge amounts of time and gold to invest in a set.

The real question you need to ask yourselves is why do you want to remove something that people worked hard to earn, when it clearly doesn’t have as great an impact on gameplay as you might like to believe?

5% per player might not be much for the indivdual but take a 30vs30 zerg in wvw if one zerg is pure exotic geared, the other full ascedended, then we talking 150%

True, and the zerg running the most Sentinel, Soldiers, Knight and Valkyrie would win since WvW gets decided by who get’s downed/killed first. All of these stats are essentially useless in PvE.

So now we are talking about a fully geared zerg with all members getting useless stats for anything but WvW AND spending 70 laurels having a slight advantage over the other side.

And that’s not even considering team composition or tactics and how able the commanders on both sides are. Factors which are WAY more important in ZvZ fights.

I don’t see the argument. :?

Funny thing… My guild’s predominantly involved in PVP. In SW:TOR we all worked hard to get good PVP gear. Then they nerfed the one-but-best gear overnight, made newb off-the-rack-gear better. And we all ragequit. Why? Because months of work had just gone down the drain, something which especially impacted our more casual members.

Admittedly, the impact of gear in GW2 is way, way less and Ascended gear actually isn’t much of a step up from Exotic (apart from the essential agony resistance for Fractals). But it IS something people have to spend a lot of time and effort on obtaining. And nerfing it is simply NOT a good idea, unless you actually want people to /ragequit. People do not like to see their toys taken away from them, especially if they were hard to get in the first place.

I’m wearing ascended gear on my thief and warrior and wouldn’t bat an eye if it’s stat increase would go away. I thought it was a horrible move to implement it in it’s current format.
After all “it’s only important in fractals”, right guys?!

Ascended crafting should have been a gateway for new cool armor and weapon skins not stat chase. They are on the right track with Mawdrey so I’m hoping they’ll see that opportunity and modify it.

Andraus.3874:

Why are there so many threads about this? It’s easy enough to get.

If the latter was actually true, we wouldn’t have those threads.

Cyninja.2954:

You are twisting Mike O’Brian meaning and intent in the most foul way possible. He ment they will bestaying with ascended as cap gear as promissed.

…you really don’t remember their November 2012 declarations, do you? When the ascended gear got introduced, they definitely weren’t intending to stop at this. The first promise that ascended will stay the BiS tier came only at the time of HoT reveal – that’s nearly 2 and a half years later.

Now, ask yourself, why they decided to stop the hamster wheel after ascended if when they introduced this tier they intended it to be only a start of vertical progression? Was it because ascended fulfilled their hopes, or because it didn’t?

Godmoney.2048:

As someone who has full ascended on at least 1 character it is insignificant. I just finally finished full ascended on my power/crit mesmer. I can’t even tell a difference. When I played Rift or WOW and got a upgrade it was noticeable for sure. Even a single socketed gem in Rift could make my crits hit significantly harder. Not so much in GW2.

Full ascended Jewelry with exotic armor and weapons puts you on par with anyone in full ascended in my opinion. Ascended jewelry is easy enough to get. Ascended armor could use a crafting buff. Way too expensive imo.

Ascended armour is definitely very expensive for the tiny boost it gives, but I have a feeling it’s intentional.

The weapon is the key part – that’s nearly 6% damage by itself, and it is noticeable. But far easier to get than Ascended armour.

Astralporing.1957:

Andraus.3874:

Why are there so many threads about this? It’s easy enough to get.

If the latter was actually true, we wouldn’t have those threads.

Cyninja.2954:

You are twisting Mike O’Brian meaning and intent in the most foul way possible. He ment they will bestaying with ascended as cap gear as promissed.

…you really don’t remember their November 2012 declarations, do you? When the ascended gear got introduced, they definitely weren’t intending to stop at this. The first promise that ascended will stay the BiS tier came only at the time of HoT reveal – that’s nearly 2 and a half years later.

Now, ask yourself, why they decided to stop the hamster wheel after ascended if when they introduced this tier they intended it to be only a start of vertical progression? Was it because ascended fulfilled their hopes, or because it didn’t?

You should really not mention things that can easily be googled and researched. Yes I do remember the addition of ascended gear and the very clear statement of anet, that it would be the last tier of gear for a very long future.

For reference:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/13/arenanet-explains-new-ascended-item-tier/

The blog post of Lindsey Murdock on the issue:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/

Here a reddit thread on the matter.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/135lrk/arenanet_about_ascended_armor/

I’m really not sure where you get this notiion that they had plans to keep adding gear tiers. If at all they were VERY clear on that ascended would be the top tier for a LONG time to be. Anything else after the ascended anouncement backlash would have been suicide.

Again, you are either deliberately twisting facts or not doing research.

Cyninja.2954:

I’m really not sure where you get this notiion that they had plans to keep adding gear tiers. If at all they were VERY clear on that ascended would be the top tier for a LONG time to be. Anything else after the ascended anouncement backlash would have been suicide.

After the announcement backlash, true. I am talking about the statements from November 2012, from around the time it got introduced (pay special attention to the Chris Whiteside reddit AMA from that time. It’s enlightening (especially when Mike O’Brian says that in his vision you should play a moderate amount of hours monthly to stay on the top of stat progression curve…). And the backlash you are talking about is exactly why those statements were later changed – because instead of helping with player retention, ascended gear made a lot of people quit, and turned out to be something a lot of those that remained strongly disliked – a situation that still had not changed.

Now, if the ascended gear worked as Anet had hoped, the backlash either would have been ignored, or wouldn’t happen at all. Basically, Anet seriously miscalculated. And we have to live with repercussions even now.

So, trying to explain ascended existence now by design reasons is not a good approach, as those designs failed.

Astralporing.1957:

…you really don’t remember their November 2012 declarations, do you? When the ascended gear got introduced, they definitely weren’t intending to stop at this. The first promise that ascended will stay the BiS tier came only at the time of HoT reveal – that’s nearly 2 and a half years later.

Now, ask yourself, why they decided to stop the hamster wheel after ascended if when they introduced this tier they intended it to be only a start of vertical progression? Was it because ascended fulfilled their hopes, or because it didn’t?

Astralporing.1957:

After the announcement backlash, true. I am talking about the statements from November 2012, from around the time it got introduced. And the backlash you are talking about is exactly why those statements were later changed – because instead of helping with player retention, ascended gear made a lot of people quit, and turned out to be something a lot of those that remained strongly disliked – a situation that still had not changed.

So wait, they changed their stance on ascended equipment after the backlash in 2012 (see the links provided and check their timestamps. Their dated NOvember 2012) , but the first announcement of not increasing gear cap came with HoT? I’m confused…

Would you be so kind as to provide evidence or anything that clearly states what their intentions with ascended were before they changed their stance on the gear cap, which changed after the backlash from the community (in 2012), which supposedly happend 3 years later before HoT.

If you can’t provide some announcement or anything semi- useful that can be considered proof I’m done since I’m now almost fully convinced you are just trolling.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

nolop.8095:

If the stat difference is that insignificant, why not remove it ?

The stat difference is not insignificant. Why do you want to negate my hard work instead of building your own armor?

It is insignificant with armor.

The DPS difference between a character in full exotic armor with ascended trinkets and weapons vs. a character in full ascended armor with ascended trinkets and weapons is 2.3%. This has been figured out time and time again.

Ascended armor is only worth it if you a) want to run high level fractals or b) simply want the absolute BiS. Otherwise simply work on trinkets and weapons and call it a day.

@OP it should not be removed because it is not difficult to obtain if you put even a little bit of effort into it. Every MMO needs a time sink. This is one of them. Ascended armor isn’t new, the Ascended tier of armor was added within 3months of the game’s release…

Cyninja.2954:

So wait, they changed their stance on ascended equipment after the backlash in 2012 (see the links provided and check their timestamps. Their dated NOvember 2012) , but the first announcement of not increasing gear cap came with HoT? I’m confused…

Don’t be. Changing the stance and officially admitting to it are two different things.

Cyninja.2954:

Would you be so kind as to provide evidence or anything that clearly states what their intentions with ascended were before they changed their stance on the gear cap

Sure.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c77csxm
Especially those thoughts:
“How is introducing VP respecting the player? Because it’s fun to be challenged and rewarded. Because it’s fun to have the character you play grow and evolve over time. Because ArenaNet (sort of) held a hard line against all VP with GW1 — no VP ever, year after year — and it wasn’t that fun. It was stagnant.”

“But rephrase, perhaps to something like this: I want to play a reasonable number of hours per month and still be competitive, not falling behind a power curve that’s only accessible to those with the most time. Then that is more along the lines of what we said, and we intend to stick by it.”

“I need to keep playing or else eventually I’ll fall significantly behind … Why on earth do you want people to play for so long? Well, obviously there are many reasons why it’s good for any online world for people to actually play it. But the design motivation here is simple. We’re intending to build content that’s most fun for people who are playing the game, not that’s most fun for people who are not playing the game. If you want to take a break for a year, that’s fine, but we’re not going to freeze the game for you while you’re gone.”

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c7762pk
“More generally, I hope we’ve been clear that GW2 is not a game with virtually no stat progression in it like GW1 was. "

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c774er8
“I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.”
(mind you, the “zero grind” statement was made at the time when there was no way to buy ascended rings, and the cost of backpacks was way more prohibitive than it is now).

Those i could find with a 5-minute search. There were several others at that time i can’t immediately find links to (most importantly one that repeated that they are intending to up the level cap, one that said “no new tiers anytime soon, but we will be increasing stats within already existing tiers”, one mentioning than new levels of infusions were part of the geat progression plans, and finally the one that said that people shoudl not worry, because next time they up a tier, all legendaries will be automatically upgraded).

Generally, the feeling of statements at that time was that there definitely will be a vertical progression from this point on, and that to stay on top of it, you’d need to continuously put some effort, or get left behind. You are free to disbelieve that, of course.

Cyninja.2954:

So wait, they changed their stance on ascended equipment after the backlash in 2012 (see the links provided and check their timestamps. Their dated NOvember 2012) , but the first announcement of not increasing gear cap came with HoT? I’m confused…

Would you be so kind as to provide evidence or anything that clearly states what their intentions with ascended were before they changed their stance on the gear cap, which changed after the backlash from the community (in 2012), which supposedly happend 3 years later before HoT.

If you can’t provide some announcement or anything semi- useful that can be considered proof I’m done since I’m now almost fully convinced you are just trolling.

This interview is from ~10 months after Ascended was introduced, and around the time weapons released. Whether there would be additional tiers or not was obviously on player minds. Even here, he states he “hopes” it will be the last tier, but does not promise.

Given this, kindly provide the evidence that Asc. was always meant to be the final tier. I very much doubt you will find such a statement, but have at it.

Fwiw, the HoT reveal “promise” is unequivocal that no new tier will come with HoT. It did not sound (to me) like a promise that no new tier will come, ever. In other words, the Pax interview from Sept 2013 seems to still be the ANet stance.

I think that using ascended weapons as “something to do” is bad design. Crafting an ascended weapon / armor isn’t difficult, it’s tedious and time consuming. Mainly because IMO most methods to make money are tedious and/or time consuming.

Good luck making enough money in WvW or PvP to make ascended stuff. You have to either grind dungeons, champ train, or chest runs in the silverwaste, none of which I find fun.

So to me, ascended is nothing more than a necessary distraction from the game play elements I like.

Being fully ascended makes a significant difference in wvw. the stat difference might seem small per individual, but it makes a difference when talking blobs, especially when you factor in the +5 wvw inscriptions.

Astralporing.1957:

snip

Okay, I viewed those as anet being more careful with how they approach the gear topic moving away from saying stuff like “never” or dealing in absolutes.

I stand by my assessment that their main focus was ascended as top tier for a long time to be. I do understand how someone very sceptical can understand those differently.

IndigoSundown.5419:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy7CcwnfUdU

This interview is from ~10 months after Ascended was introduced, and around the time weapons released. Whether there would be additional tiers or not was obviously on player minds. Even here, he states he “hopes” it will be the last tier, but does not promise.

Given this, kindly provide the evidence that Asc. was always meant to be the final tier. I very much doubt you will find such a statement, but have at it.

Fwiw, the HoT reveal “promise” is unequivocal that no new tier will come with HoT. It did not sound (to me) like a promise that no new tier will come, ever. In other words, the Pax interview from Sept 2013 seems to still be the ANet stance.

I agree, the interview shows that anet became very careful dealing in absolutes.

Let me quote Colin Johanson from that interview:

Question: Is there going to be more or above ascended gear? Are you going to upgrade the weapon and armor every 2 years?
Answer Colin: I really hope not. When we brought the game out we hoped exotic would take a certain amount of time to get. I think we did a really poor job of calculating how long it would take to get… (here he clrealy states that ascendend was the solution to their misscalculation of how long it takes to gear up).

Now that being said I don’t want to promise we are never going to do it because 7 years from now we might turn around and do it, or some one else is in charge…

But to me I feel like this should be it. – Colin Johanson

It shows anet was happy at the time with ascendend and had NO plans to upgrade to another tier. How anyone can get any other impression from “I really hope not”, “7 years from now” or"I feel this should be it" is beyond me.

HoT is the perfect opportunity to up the stats of exotics to be on par with ascended items.

What???

I took the time and gold to make all the ascended weapons… sooooo you think that should be for nothing and I should have bought some cheap exotic weapons?

I think you are lazy and wrong sir.

Why would anyone craft if you could just get everything in one day without effort by doing a boss train? That in itself would be boring before theoretically plowing through all the HoT content with my beastly ascended gear.

The increase in stats was a mistake, one they certainly shouldn’t make any worse.

Grinding for gear because of better stats is one of the things that helped ruined WoW, Blizzard even realised it eventually and tried to do something about it.

All level 80s should be able to compete. In WoW around the time of the Pandas, PvP was so out of balance that a new 90 ( WoW) did not stand a chance against someone with better gear.

this whole thread is a joke, you people lvl to 80 and then complain about nothing to do. Then you want them to make legendary gear? when you can’t even make ascended? LOL

The bulk of your stats come from trinkets which are incredibly easy to get nowadays. Back items require a little more work although a couple of the living story ones were/are cheap to make.

Only weapons and armor require crafting. Armor is debatable regarding it’s worth compared to the cost. They tend to lose their usefulness when you get down leveled as the various areas all have stat caps. Ascended weapons also lose their weapon strength modifier as it gets knocked down to exotic or lower as you go into zones lower than 80.

This horrible, game ruining, inhumane, Illuminati level people controlling, worst ewah 5% stat increase that was introduced years ago, is useless in 99% of the content and requires players to not afk in LA must be REMOVED right NAO !!!!1111zerker11!
Am I doing it right?

Genesis.4593:

this whole thread is a joke, you people lvl to 80 and then complain about nothing to do. Then you want them to make legendary gear? when you can’t even make ascended? LOL

This. Honestly, I’m a lazy gamer when it comes to stuff like this, and there are plenty of youtube video guides that can get you from 1-400 in under an hour in the most optimal way possible. If I can craft ascended weapons, then anyone can. lol

IMO armor stat should not be the reason why you want a higher tier, it should be the options.
all armor should be the same level, whether you have white armor or ascended, armor should be a flat rate.
however, the higher the tier the better quality you can use to upgrade it, so now you have a better reason to have higher tier.
-white: none
-blue: one minor
-green: one minor and one major and lower
-yellow: one major and lower and one superior and lower
-orange: two superior and lower
-purple: one superior and lower and one ascended and lower (this will then be added in HoT)

i already think there are way to many tiers of armor, it’s also way to WoW-ish and not so GW-ish.
my way does it the GW way, it gives no one the advantage on armor but tiers do matter in the way of improving your characters.

BIGHARSHNESS.3510:

Genesis.4593:

this whole thread is a joke, you people lvl to 80 and then complain about nothing to do. Then you want them to make legendary gear? when you can’t even make ascended? LOL

This. Honestly, I’m a lazy gamer when it comes to stuff like this, and there are plenty of youtube video guides that can get you from 1-400 in under an hour in the most optimal way possible. If I can craft ascended weapons, then anyone can. lol

Nobody said it was hard or required any skill. It’s just grind (either for mats, or for gold to buy mats) – and a lot of it. The fact that there’s nothing interesting whatsoever about it makes the whole matter even worse.

Astralporing.1957:

BIGHARSHNESS.3510:

Genesis.4593:

this whole thread is a joke, you people lvl to 80 and then complain about nothing to do. Then you want them to make legendary gear? when you can’t even make ascended? LOL

This. Honestly, I’m a lazy gamer when it comes to stuff like this, and there are plenty of youtube video guides that can get you from 1-400 in under an hour in the most optimal way possible. If I can craft ascended weapons, then anyone can. lol

Nobody said it was hard or required any skill. It’s just grind (either for mats, or for gold to buy mats) – and a lot of it. The fact that there’s nothing interesting whatsoever about it makes the whole matter even worse.

This, and it takes away time and gold you could have used on acquiring stuff you actually want like skins, commander tag or whatever you fancy in the game, you know that supposed horizontal progression

Thats odd…im gaining money while also gather materials to craft my ascended armor…i dont buy anything for it at all…while im out exploring the world or doing whatever i want in whatever zone im in i gather everything while im out there, i dont skip mobs etc, the amount of loot one gets doing that is pretty impressive! Sure im not anywhere near as much money as i could be making, but im having fun doing it and thats all that matters to me

Rather than removing the minor stat increase that Ascended gives across the board, wouldn’t it make more sense to just normalize the 2 in WvW, where it actually matters? That way, the players who crafted it will have more power to use in all forms of PvE, and no PvP will be affected by it.

Still boggles my mind that WvW is affected by gear stats to begin with…

Dante.1763:

Thats odd…im gaining money while also gather materials to craft my ascended armor…i dont buy anything for it at all…while im out exploring the world or doing whatever i want in whatever zone im in i gather everything while im out there, i dont skip mobs etc, the amount of loot one gets doing that is pretty impressive! Sure im not anywhere near as much money as i could be making, but im having fun doing it and thats all that matters to me

and all the mats you using to make the asc. gear you could have sold for even more money (or used for recipes for other skins you really wanted) if you didn’t have to get the asc. gear

nolop.8095:

HoT is the perfect opportunity to up the stats of exotics to be on par with ascended items.
Having no equipment spiral has always been one of the best things about GW.

So why not take this chance to even out the playing field and adjust the stats to one base level.

Now you might think the stat difference is rather small and has no significant impact. But if you compar it to other games like WoW, wich is pretty much the poster child for an endless gear treadmill, you can see the stat increase is about the same as in WoW, percentage wise.

If ANet comes through with their promises of “truly chalenging PvE content” I can’t help but wonder what this content will be balanced around.

If it’s balanced for exotics the hardcore crowd will just plow through the contend and be disappointed because it’s no challenge.
On the other hand if it’s balanced around ascended gear we will have a hard split in the community, at least in dungeons ect.

I’d be very interested to know how people who have all the ascended stuff would feel about a change like this.

I agree!

Down with the gear treadmill!

Agree with OP. And some comments.

1. Full ascended vs full exotic is 11.5%, not “5%” and not “miniscule”.

2. If you aren’t required t have ascended for pve, its only because the pve encounters are tuned sooooo easy. IF hot changes that difficulty, you will see a very interesting change in gw2.

3. I wouldn’t care about ascended if I didn’t utterly hate, and I mean hate, crafting. I hate that. With a passion. If there were really other ways to get it that were reasonable, such as drops from hard earned pve encounters, I think I would find it interesting. Now, I don’t find it interesting, stimulating, or worthy.

By the way, do people realize that “intending” something isnt actually the same as “doing” something? I mean… I intend to get every existing precursor out of the forge (gotten 6 so far actually) by the end of the year. Am I actually going to attempt to do it? Given rng, probably not. Not actively at least. I just like flushing things to see what comes out.

Afterall….. they said they intend to bring back SAB. But……. I dont see it.

edit: stat increases are quite literally meaningless from exotic to ascended, giving as little as +0 increase in damage, or as minor as +10 damage. An ascended weapon vs exotic weapon is a difference of up to 20% damage. Want proof? Go look it up yourself on any of the skill builders out there.

GummiBear.2756:

and all the mats you using to make the asc. gear you could have sold for even more money (or used for recipes for other skins you really wanted) if you didn’t have to get the asc. gear

Woopty doo? What am i going to do with that money, really? I dont need a commanders tag, i dont command things, it would be nice for open world events sure! But i dont need one. As i said a few pages back im making ascended armor because i want to, for the achievement, nothing more. I dont care about the stats(they are minor and not important), i find most of them uglier than hell(and thats important in an appearance driven game).

You might find this shocking but i dont enjoy hoarding money. I have the three legendary precursors i want already(The Minstrel(yes i have the legendary), The Chosen, and The Lover), none of the super expensive skins are very appealing to me(Aside from Infinte Light which ill craft when i get enough lodestones), so all i have to spend my money on is mats(which i wont) and buying lame skins, and other stupid things(which i do).

There is nothing wrong with ascended gear, its there for those who want it, and isnt needed for those that dont want it, outside of high level fractals which makes sense. It doesnt matter at all in PVP, and in WVW its minor the same as it is in PVE. If you want it, spend the time to make it, dont rush to it and use all your money, make the armor set slowly as you get the mats doing whatever you enjoy doing(Dont know about PVP here(Then again it doesnt matter in PVP), but i know you get a decent amount of materials from salvaging stuff in WVW and PVE). But do not take away something from those who have already spent a crap ton of money(if they chose that way) to get. Look at the backlash anet is getting on the trait system because of how expensive traits are. Now imagine that, but worse because of how expensive(if you buy it) an ascended armor and weapon set is.

Also heres a little thing for everyone! http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2mgibt/why_ascended_gear_is_a_big_joke_in_pve/

Basandra Skye.4031:

By the way, do people realize that “intending” something isnt actually the same as “doing” something? I mean… I intend to get every existing precursor out of the forge (gotten 6 so far actually) by the end of the year. Am I actually going to attempt to do it? Given rng, probably not. Not actively at least. I just like flushing things to see what comes out.

Afterall….. they said they intend to bring back SAB. But……. I dont see it.

edit: stat increases are quite literally meaningless from exotic to ascended, giving as little as +0 increase in damage, or as minor as +10 damage. An ascended weapon vs exotic weapon is a difference of up to 20% damage. Want proof? Go look it up yourself on any of the skill builders out there.

So if the differences are meaningless, we can make them the same, yes?

A Volcano.2510:

Basandra Skye.4031:

By the way, do people realize that “intending” something isnt actually the same as “doing” something? I mean… I intend to get every existing precursor out of the forge (gotten 6 so far actually) by the end of the year. Am I actually going to attempt to do it? Given rng, probably not. Not actively at least. I just like flushing things to see what comes out.

Afterall….. they said they intend to bring back SAB. But……. I dont see it.

edit: stat increases are quite literally meaningless from exotic to ascended, giving as little as +0 increase in damage, or as minor as +10 damage. An ascended weapon vs exotic weapon is a difference of up to 20% damage. Want proof? Go look it up yourself on any of the skill builders out there.

So if the differences are meaningless, we can make them the same, yes?

Again, why do you want them the same? Because you want ascended tier stats but dont want to put the effort? Why stop there? Why not give every piece of armor the same stats? Make everything equal? There’s no reason to do something so frivolous.

If someone wants ascended, they can put out the effort to get it. They dont want to put out the effort? They can make do in exotic gear.

Basandra Skye.4031:

A Volcano.2510:

Basandra Skye.4031:

By the way, do people realize that “intending” something isnt actually the same as “doing” something? I mean… I intend to get every existing precursor out of the forge (gotten 6 so far actually) by the end of the year. Am I actually going to attempt to do it? Given rng, probably not. Not actively at least. I just like flushing things to see what comes out.

Afterall….. they said they intend to bring back SAB. But……. I dont see it.

edit: stat increases are quite literally meaningless from exotic to ascended, giving as little as +0 increase in damage, or as minor as +10 damage. An ascended weapon vs exotic weapon is a difference of up to 20% damage. Want proof? Go look it up yourself on any of the skill builders out there.

So if the differences are meaningless, we can make them the same, yes?

Again, why do you want them the same? Because you want ascended tier stats but dont want to put the effort? Why stop there? Why not give every piece of armor the same stats? Make everything equal? There’s no reason to do something so frivolous.

If someone wants ascended, they can put out the effort to get it. They dont want to put out the effort? They can make do in exotic gear.

You seem very defensive.

You said “stat increases are quite literally meaningless from exotic to ascended,” and I said if they are meaningless why not make them the same?

Then you protested. The OBVIOUS corollary is that you don’t really think they are meaningless.

Yes?

Edit: Logic hurts, I know. I am just sick of people saying that there is no practical gear stat difference, while at the same time defending for their life the stat difference. Hypocrisy comes to mind.

What do you propose those who have worked on, whether enjoying it or not, making ascended armor in full for more than a few characters to one character get if such a change was implemented?

Surely you don’t suggest they get nothing in return for their efforts, otherwise be prepared for an outcry from a fair share of people. Imagine losing your decorated possessions because someone thought it was too hard or time consuming for them to get themselves so no one should have it.

Even as a PvP player I think this is ridiculous. Especially because it is now. Ascended armor has been in the game for long enough now that there is no reason to prod it apart from improving the functionality of it and armor in general now that traitlines will lose their stat bonus.

I honestly doubt Anet want to rouse the calm that has set in by taking away something from players some of which have made more effort than they ever have on other games for.

For reference I have 6-7 pieces of Ascended armor total on my account across 12 characters. I think there are far more unfair things that need addressing, (RNG drops, Precursor market manipulation, and market manipulation in general etc). So for TDLR’s sake, I disagree, sorry OP.

A Volcano.2510:

You seem very defensive.

You said “stat increases are quite literally meaningless from exotic to ascended,” and I said if they are meaningless why not make them the same?

Then you protested. The OBVIOUS corollary is that you don’t really think they are meaningless.

Yes?

Edit: Logic hurts, I know. I am just sick of people saying that there is no practical gear stat difference, while at the same time defending for their life the stat difference. Hypocrisy comes to mind.

The stat difference withholding trinkets which are very accessible is small. People aren’t defending the stat difference, they are defending the time and effort spent. When you’re willing to give up something you worked hard for such as a precursor you grinded money for as a show of solidarity for this Ascended armor change, then we’ll listen to you.

It shouldn’t matter right? It is only exotic stats. It’s not like the assigned value to an item because of the effort to obtain is a thing anywhere in any walk of life or anything.

Having full ascended gear will gain more value as the game progresses as it seems unlikely that they will release any zones sub-80. At the moment its uses are minimal.

I would just have this thread closed. Every point has been said at least 2-3 times. Agree to disagree seems to be the solution here.

A Volcano.2510:

Basandra Skye.4031:

A Volcano.2510:

Basandra Skye.4031:

By the way, do people realize that “intending” something isnt actually the same as “doing” something? I mean… I intend to get every existing precursor out of the forge (gotten 6 so far actually) by the end of the year. Am I actually going to attempt to do it? Given rng, probably not. Not actively at least. I just like flushing things to see what comes out.

Afterall….. they said they intend to bring back SAB. But……. I dont see it.

edit: stat increases are quite literally meaningless from exotic to ascended, giving as little as +0 increase in damage, or as minor as +10 damage. An ascended weapon vs exotic weapon is a difference of up to 20% damage. Want proof? Go look it up yourself on any of the skill builders out there.

So if the differences are meaningless, we can make them the same, yes?

Again, why do you want them the same? Because you want ascended tier stats but dont want to put the effort? Why stop there? Why not give every piece of armor the same stats? Make everything equal? There’s no reason to do something so frivolous.

If someone wants ascended, they can put out the effort to get it. They dont want to put out the effort? They can make do in exotic gear.

You seem very defensive.

You said “stat increases are quite literally meaningless from exotic to ascended,” and I said if they are meaningless why not make them the same?

Then you protested. The OBVIOUS corollary is that you don’t really think they are meaningless.

Yes?

Edit: Logic hurts, I know. I am just sick of people saying that there is no practical gear stat difference, while at the same time defending for their life the stat difference. Hypocrisy comes to mind.

If we assume the stat difference is indeed not worth mentioning, both trains of thought have merit.

A.) The first being, if it’s small, why not remove it? (mostly people without ascended)

B.) The second being, it’s so small, why remove it? (mostly people who have ascended but also some who openly admint to not having ascended and being fine with it)

There is just 1 difference between both at the moment. Most people in category B have invested a huge amount of time into getting ascended. It is logical that here people would get defensive and defend their invested time instead of just having that taken from them.

Most people aren’t defending the stat difference, they are defending their time investment. A very logical human reaction in my opinion.

If you want a solution or to persuade people from camp B to change their mind, offer them something different for their invested time. For example, reduce ascended stat difference to exotic, but let people freely chose desired stats, same as with legendary items. I’m sure most would flock to your argument and the stat difference would be gone. Ofcorse I could see a lot of people from camp A raging over this kind of proposal.

Andraus.3874:

I would just have this thread closed. Every point has been said at least 2-3 times. Agree to disagree seems to be the solution here.

This. Since the main arguments from both sides have been given and repeated multiple times, while no side offers any alternatives this thread became pointless past the first page.

Cyninja.2954:

For example, reduce ascended stat difference to exotic, but let people freely chose desired stats, same as with legendary items.

I have always liked this idea. Smells like convenience and QoL freshly brewed in the morning.

Bubi.7942:

- From now on, every character you own has a chance to spontanously combust – if it does, it gets deleted forever

The first part could be useful on a guardian. The drawback is a bit too harsh though …

Cyninja.2954:

And that’s not even considering team composition or tactics and how able the commanders on both sides are. Factors which are WAY more important in ZvZ fights.

I don’t see the argument. :?

or the tendency for one of the sides to run at the first sign of trouble -_-

As someone who’s sitting on 35 bolts of damask and 111 silk bolts, I would in no way feel cheated if Ascended gear was made equal to exotics. It would just mean that I wont take a month before I can try out other stats if I feel like playing a different build. With the expansion looking it it’ll make conditions more valuable, it would be even more appreciated.

This then also applies to every single character. If you play every class, that’s 8 sets of ascended armor you need to make. Sigils tend to be fairly consistent between classes, but different classes tend to benefit disproportionately with different runes.

Mireles Lore.5942:

Why would they create something, have a sizeable part of the player base invest in it, and then take it away?
.

That’s an excellent question. Let’s ask the newest trait changes, SAB, and LS Season 1 and see what they have to say.