Guild Wars 2

TLDR: Ascended armor will make everyone look the same, and otherwise destroy cosmetic flexibility.

So far all the ascended items have been accessories/back items, but have you thought about what will happen to the state of cosmetics when ascended armor starts coming out? Given how ridiculously long it takes to get one ascended piece, it stands to reason that most people won’t be willing to transmute different skins onto ascended gear -especially if they actually look good- since the skin is as hard to get as the ascended piece. If this is the case we will eventually end up with all dedicated players running around in the exact same gear… which is incredibly dull.

Unfortunately for me I like a degree of freedom in changing up my look. This is already hard enough given you currently need different exotic sets with different skins to accomplish this, but ascended armor would completely and utterly destroy any notion of this. For even if the ascended armor had no skin (and had to be transmuted) it would still lock me into using the skin of the one ascended set that I managed to grind for.

A possible option to avoid this would be adding extra slots to all armor pieces and instead of actual armor releasing ascended “jewels” that we can freely slot AND remove from exotic armor pieces.

(and besides cosmetics there is the whole business of locking us into builds, which is even harder to address…)

perhaps ascended armor will come as a piece of “ascended armor upgrade” to be applied onto existing armor pieces to make them have ascended stats.

this would be good.

Nah, ArenaNet will just get to sell a lot of lvl 80 transmute stones at the gem store. People will keep their unique looks. The transmute stone lets you separately pick the appearance, the stat package, and the rune/gem.

bewhatever.2390:

Nah, ArenaNet will just get to sell a lot of lvl 80 transmute stones at the gem store. People will keep their unique looks. The transmute stone lets you separately pick the appearance, the stat package, and the rune/gem.

Believe me, transmute stones do not solve the problem since they PERMANENTLY destroy the look of the item you are transmuting onto. For a 3g exotic this ain’t a big deal, but when you are talking a month to acquire one ascended chestpiece you are not going to want to destroy its look just like that. I have over 300 fine transmute stones (from blcs) and am not in any way comforted by them.

Jabberwock.9014:

Believe me, transmute stones do not solve the problem since they PERMANENTLY destroy the look of the item you are transmitting onto. For a 3g exotic this ain’t a big deal, but when you are talking a month to acquire one ascended chestpiece you are not going to want to destroy its look just like that. I have over 300 fine transmute stones (from blcs) and am not in any way comforted by them.

easy solution:
- ascended armor upgrade stone
- no new skins for ascended armor

use the new ascended armor upgrade stone to upgrade the stats of existing armor pieces to ascended level.

could be the same for weapons as well.

Jabberwock.9014:

bewhatever.2390:

Nah, ArenaNet will just get to sell a lot of lvl 80 transmute stones at the gem store. People will keep their unique looks. The transmute stone lets you separately pick the appearance, the stat package, and the rune/gem.

Believe me, transmute stones do not solve the problem since they PERMANENTLY destroy the look of the item you are transmuting onto. For a 3g exotic this ain’t a big deal, but when you are talking a month to acquire one ascended chestpiece you are not going to want to destroy its look just like that. I have over 300 fine transmute stones (from blcs) and am not in any way comforted by them.

There is absolutely, positively, no way I’m going to walk around this game looking like a WoW raider (or more precisely, WoW 5-man player) in gear that looks like everyone else, no matter how good the model is … and with ArenaNet’s sense of humor the Ascended gear will be as ugly as the legendaries are.

But then I’m one of the players who has been offended by each of the three patches which have rolled out Ascended gear to date, despise gear grinds and came to this game because it didn’t have one, and would be just as happy if ArenaNet took a 6 month hiatus to figure out how to release the next Ascended gear grind without losing any more customers over it

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Jabberwock.9014:

Believe me, transmute stones do not solve the problem since they PERMANENTLY destroy the look of the item you are transmitting onto. For a 3g exotic this ain’t a big deal, but when you are talking a month to acquire one ascended chestpiece you are not going to want to destroy its look just like that. I have over 300 fine transmute stones (from blcs) and am not in any way comforted by them.

easy solution:
- ascended armor upgrade stone
- no new skins for ascended armor

use the new ascended armor upgrade stone to upgrade the stats of existing armor pieces to ascended level.

could be the same for weapons as well.

That’s essentially what I suggested in my first post, so yes. However as I noted I would prefer removable upgrades so we can have multiple exotic sets that we can switch the ascended upgrades between.

There is no problem here. looks != stats. It’s stats people care about. If people like the look as well they will keep it, if not they will transmutate it. If they don’t care about looks than it is moot.

Apart from that, how is it any different now with millions of characters running around in CoF armor?

The problem is for people who want cosmetic flexibility. If I like the ascended look AND a different look, I am shoehorned into using only the ascended look because if I transmute I will never be able to get the ascended look back.

And if people only care about stats how do you explain legendaries? Skins can be a valuable commodity indeed.

People will just transmute them. I see no issue with this. Now if you can’t do that, then that would justify your concerns.

Jabberwock.9014:

That’s essentially what I suggested in my first post, so yes. However as I noted I would prefer removable upgrades so we can have multiple exotic sets that we can switch the ascended upgrades between.

my suggestion “save all skins & stats of armor” covers your “removable upgrades” but unfortunately no ones likes that.

“Oh dear,” (befuddled Betty White voice) ,“am I supposed to notice people in pink gear?”

Seriously, I never pay attention to other player’s gear. In any game I’ve played. I care about the person behind the character, whether they are community-oriented or not (mature, friendly, helpful). Skill can be learned. Gear can be acquired. Oh, and “good” looks are totally subjective.

What if ascended gear has a particle effect.

you have 2 options for ascended gear:

1. upgrade stone with set prefix, a consumable which transforms a armor to a lvl 80 ascended with ascended stats and a unique particle effect. You can keep your look and upgrade it as well.

2. new ascended gear designs with built in particle effect.

Orion the Cursed.1206:

What if ascended gear has a particle effect.

you have 2 options for ascended gear:

1. upgrade stone with set prefix, a consumable which transforms a armor to a lvl 80 ascended with ascended stats and a unique particle effect. You can keep your look and upgrade it as well.

2. new ascended gear designs with built in particle effect.

maybe better if anet gives us all options? let the players choose what they want.
1. upgrade stone good for those who wish to retain their current looks.
2. good for people who want new skins. perhaps introduce lots of different types of ascended armor skins. more variety.

then again, all of this would not be an issue if we got an armor system that allows us to change skins and stats freely.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

2. good for people who want new skins. perhaps introduce lots of different types of ascended armor skins. more variety.

This would be even worse… if there are multiple good skins you can only choose one.

But yeah, it would be best if the cosmetic system was independent of stats, so we could have a closet of skins and not be shoehorned into using only one or two. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening anytime soon…

Jabberwock.9014:

This would be even worse… if there are multiple good skins you can only choose one.

But yeah, it would be best if the cosmetic system was independent of stats, so we could have a closet of skins and not be shoehorned into using only one or two. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening anytime soon…

“multiple good skins you can only choose one.”
well i am sure given enough time people will acquire them all eventually.

“cosmetic system was independent of stats”
in my opinion it would be best if both the skins and stats are interchangeable.

i.e. have the following:
skins: cof, ac, orr temple
stats: soldiers, berserkers, knights

can freely swap as:
soldiers cof, soldiers ac, soldiers orr temple
berserkers cof, berserkers ac, berserkers orr temple
knights cof, knights ac, knights orr temple

there would be no need for armor wardrobe since the armor is capable of storing all skins and stats in one piece. (total 6 pieces head shoulders chest gloves pants boots)
other 6 pieces just stats and inventory icon only i guess
(back amulet ring ring accessory accessory)

“I don’t see that happening anytime soon…”
i think if we make enough noise. it will happen eventually.

bewhatever.2390:

Nah, ArenaNet will just get to sell a lot of lvl 80 transmute stones at the gem store. People will keep their unique looks. The transmute stone lets you separately pick the appearance, the stat package, and the rune/gem.

While lot of people (myself included) are indeed interested in arnor looks for purely cosmetic reasons, there is equally big group that wants to show off theiraccomplishments that way. All those people that claim that cultural armor must cost a lot, or it won’t be as cool are not going to convert their ascended looks into something cheaper. In the end, unless something changes, lot of the “elite” grinders are going to end up looking exactly the same.
At least they will have the option to change their colour sets.

Astralporing.1957:

bewhatever.2390:

Nah, ArenaNet will just get to sell a lot of lvl 80 transmute stones at the gem store. People will keep their unique looks. The transmute stone lets you separately pick the appearance, the stat package, and the rune/gem.

While lot of people (myself included) are indeed interested in arnor looks for purely cosmetic reasons, there is equally big group that wants to show off theiraccomplishments that way. All those people that claim that cultural armor must cost a lot, or it won’t be as cool are not going to convert their ascended looks into something cheaper. In the end, unless something changes, lot of the “elite” grinders are going to end up looking exactly the same.
At least they will have the option to change their colour sets.

I have to comment now, because I am one of those people who think that cultural armor should be difficult to obtain, just like the best looking armors (in my opinion) in GW1 was.

That being said, I would definately transmute the sats of my ascended armor into my cultural tier 3 armor, if I find cultural armor to look better.

So please, do not speak about “all those people”

My main’s main armour set is something that he’d seek out in character. It looks a lot heavier and a lot more durable than most Light armour sets and due to how well it fits his personality, I’d simply transmute any Ascended armour to retain the looks.

Of course, this is providing that the Ascended armour doesn’t suit my character more. Actually, seeing as my characters tend to amass large wardrobes, I might just keep the armour seperate purely so I have more variety.

Cosmetics ftw.

I hope the next set of Ascended gear has slightly better stats than the current ones. Just to keep that grind going!

Libertine.1047:

Astralporing.1957:

bewhatever.2390:

Nah, ArenaNet will just get to sell a lot of lvl 80 transmute stones at the gem store. People will keep their unique looks. The transmute stone lets you separately pick the appearance, the stat package, and the rune/gem.

While lot of people (myself included) are indeed interested in arnor looks for purely cosmetic reasons, there is equally big group that wants to show off theiraccomplishments that way. All those people that claim that cultural armor must cost a lot, or it won’t be as cool are not going to convert their ascended looks into something cheaper. In the end, unless something changes, lot of the “elite” grinders are going to end up looking exactly the same.
At least they will have the option to change their colour sets.

I have to comment now, because I am one of those people who think that cultural armor should be difficult to obtain, just like the best looking armors (in my opinion) in GW1 was.

That being said, I would definately transmute the sats of my ascended armor into my cultural tier 3 armor, if I find cultural armor to look better.

So please, do not speak about “all those people”

If you don’t think T3 Cultural Armor is “difficult to obtain” at 119g, you have an absolutely worthless definition of “difficult to obtain”, I would suggest. What armour set is harder to obtain in GW2?

Eurhetemec.9052:

Libertine.1047:

Astralporing.1957:

bewhatever.2390:

Nah, ArenaNet will just get to sell a lot of lvl 80 transmute stones at the gem store. People will keep their unique looks. The transmute stone lets you separately pick the appearance, the stat package, and the rune/gem.

While lot of people (myself included) are indeed interested in arnor looks for purely cosmetic reasons, there is equally big group that wants to show off theiraccomplishments that way. All those people that claim that cultural armor must cost a lot, or it won’t be as cool are not going to convert their ascended looks into something cheaper. In the end, unless something changes, lot of the “elite” grinders are going to end up looking exactly the same.
At least they will have the option to change their colour sets.

I have to comment now, because I am one of those people who think that cultural armor should be difficult to obtain, just like the best looking armors (in my opinion) in GW1 was.

That being said, I would definately transmute the sats of my ascended armor into my cultural tier 3 armor, if I find cultural armor to look better.

So please, do not speak about “all those people”

If you don’t think T3 Cultural Armor is “difficult to obtain” at 119g, you have an absolutely worthless definition of “difficult to obtain”, I would suggest. What armour set is harder to obtain in GW2?

What? I don’t even… Maybe you should read the relevant posts again?

What I was basicly saying, was: “I think tier 3 should be difficult to obtain and still I think that I would transmute the future ascended items’ stats to my existing tier 3 looks”. I said that because he said: “All those people that claim that cultural armor must cost a lot, or it won’t be as cool are not going to convert their ascended looks into something cheaper.”

P.S. I’m not sure if this is relevant considering my point, but I do think 119g can be difficult to obtain (plus then the fine transmutation stones).

Ascended isn’t Legendary so I really don’t see the big deal. It might take longer in time (but certainly not in effort) to acquire than dungeon suits or your cultural but that doesn’t mean people are going to always want to wear that skin as a badge of pride.

Assuming it’s linked to laurels or guild rewards at any rate (which is purely time).

how about no ascended armor -_-

make t3 cultural the new ascended armor

Yeah I’d transmutate the skin over my ascended. Not bothered what people think of my armor – it isn’t that sort of game and I’m not in a guild worried about such things either