Guild Wars 2

It seems that ever since FOTM and Acended gear was released, FOTM has turned into GW2’s version of a raid. It’s the first (that I’ve seen) instance in this game to where we have vertical progression. Now before the fanboi’s start their flaming, look at how this is set up. Prior to FOTM, there were many different ways you could gear out your character. You could farm karma, farm dungeons, WvW, or craft your gear. It all depended on the build and stats that you wanted. It opened up many different aspects of the game. If you wanted to do events, you could find a lot doing them. If you wanted to farm dungeons, there were always groups to be had. If you wanted to craft, you could go solo farm or do whatever and chances are you’d get the drops you needed.

Now, when they released FOTM and South Sun Cove, I think Anet completed missed out on an opportunity to turn South Sun Cove into another World Event hub, other than the Karka shell/rich Ori node farm (the later being nerfed last patch). By only having the rings drop in FOTM, they’ve pretty much killed off Orr, made SSC a useless lvl 80 zone and made FOTM the main dungeon/event that people are doing. If they would’ve made Karma another route to buy these items (60k a pop maybe.?.?.?), South Sun Cove wouldn’t be the dead/waste of space like it seems now, but a more lively World Event zone.

Again, there’s 2 things that play into here. 1. People, on average, will always gravitate towards the higher rewards in games. It’s no different here. Just sit in LA and watch the FOTM spam. 2. If you don’t think gear plays a difference in this game, please, go WvW or dungeon farm in Arah with greens/rares compared with Exotic/Acended and tell us all that there’s absolutely no difference.

All this doesn’t even touch on the RNG/crap drop rate on things, but thats for a whole different post….

. It’s the first (that I’ve seen) instance in this game to where we have vertical progression. Now before the fanboi’s start their flaming, look at how this is set up. Prior to FOTM, there were many different ways you could gear out your character. You could farm karma, farm dungeons, WvW, or craft your gear.

And they will release different ways to get ascendeds. Look at the laurel system – 50 dailies, 2 monthlies and enjoy your rings gotten without fractals.

If you don’t think gear plays a difference in this game, please, go WvW or dungeon farm in Arah with greens/rares compared with Exotic/Acended and tell us all that there’s absolutely no difference.

Does it play no difference? No. But there’s very little difference really. I’ve gotten kills in WvW with a level 40, I’ve seen videos of people running fractals in blues, running dungeons in whites, just for a laugh, I know people not bothering to go for Exotic and I know people that won’t bother going for ascended either.

I have no clue what you’re even trying to say with this post. You just seem like another angry person.

I agree with some of what you said, I hate Orr, I hate the place with everything I am. I know they have NOW added way points that not contested. And I blame FOTM for me not finishing my PS, as everyone is there on my server. I’ve not been to SSC yet, as I stopped playing after the lost shore weekend as the buggy broken mess that it was put me right off playing. I jumped on over winters day but didn’t do anything to do with that. Just picked up my thing in the mail. I started playing again to see what the new content is about, and I’m still less than impressed. I think I might just go bad and play Guild Wars. It is a much better game.

Well, yeah, everybody figured it out about… a long time ago. You said nothing that hasn’t been said already.

Mirta.5029:

. It’s the first (that I’ve seen) instance in this game to where we have vertical progression. Now before the fanboi’s start their flaming, look at how this is set up. Prior to FOTM, there were many different ways you could gear out your character. You could farm karma, farm dungeons, WvW, or craft your gear.

And they will release different ways to get ascendeds. Look at the laurel system – 50 dailies, 2 monthlies and enjoy your rings gotten without fractals.

If you don’t think gear plays a difference in this game, please, go WvW or dungeon farm in Arah with greens/rares compared with Exotic/Acended and tell us all that there’s absolutely no difference.

Does it play no difference? No. But there’s very little difference really. I’ve gotten kills in WvW with a level 40, I’ve seen videos of people running fractals in blues, running dungeons in whites, just for a laugh, I know people not bothering to go for Exotic and I know people that won’t bother going for ascended either.

I have no clue what you’re even trying to say with this post. You just seem like another angry person.

Actually, wh te Laurel system, it’s only Amulets, not rings, which makes FOTM the only way to get rings still.

As for WvW, yes, you can get kills at under 80. Hell, I’ve done it plenty on my Ranger and Guard, but to say that gear doesn’t give an advantage in HP, Power, Crit, Def, etc, you’re pretty much kidding yourself.

I’m not angry at all, just a bit disappointed with how they implemented Acended gear and FOTM. I guess people calling it the “WoW Conversion” patch weren’t far off on this.

Mirta.5029:

I have no clue what you’re even trying to say with this post. You just seem like another angry person.

People tend to get that way when a company pointless murders a game they like simply because their monetization department deemed it a good idea. :-P

@OP: Anet already stressed that they wanted to fix everyone getting funneled into FotM… its just taking a REALLY long time. It took them 2 months just to get out one other method of getting ascended gear, so it will probably take a full year to get us back to the point that this game was at prior to the Nov 15th release.

Unfortunately, the Nov 15th patch was similar to SWG’s NGE patch (also released on Nov 15th), both in how it was accepted by the userbase and how it affected the game. The repairs to the damage Anet did with it will take a LONG time. Give it about 6-8 more months and the game will be back to an acceptable place. Not quite what it was before, but better than it is now.

Tolmos.8395:

Mirta.5029:

I have no clue what you’re even trying to say with this post. You just seem like another angry person.

People tend to get that way when a company pointless murders a game they like simply because their monetization department deemed it a good idea. :-P

@OP: Anet already stressed that they wanted to fix everyone getting funneled into FotM… its just taking a REALLY long time. It took them 2 months just to get out one other method of getting ascended gear, so it will probably take a full year to get us back to the point that this game was at prior to the Nov 15th release.

Unfortunately, the Nov 15th patch was similar to SWG’s NGE patch (also released on Nov 15th), both in how it was accepted by the userbase and how it affected the game. The repairs to the damage Anet did with it will take a LONG time. Give it about 6-8 more months and the game will be back to an acceptable place. Not quite what it was before, but better than it is now.

I know where you’re coming from and what Anet was stressing to us. It just seems they really kitten how they did it considering it’s only 2 pieces of gear. Again, not angry, just disappointed.

Zookeeper.2513:

Actually, wh te Laurel system, it’s only Amulets, not rings, which makes FOTM the only way to get rings still.

did you flip the other page? It sells rings for 35 laurels each O_o

Tolmos.8395:

People tend to get that way when a company pointless murders a game they like simply because their monetization department deemed it a good idea. :-P

@OP: Anet already stressed that they wanted to fix everyone getting funneled into FotM… its just taking a REALLY long time. It took them 2 months just to get out one other method of getting ascended gear, so it will probably take a full year to get us back to the point that this game was at prior to the Nov 15th release.

Unfortunately, the Nov 15th patch was similar to SWG’s NGE patch (also released on Nov 15th), both in how it was accepted by the userbase and how it affected the game. The repairs to the damage Anet did with it will take a LONG time. Give it about 6-8 more months and the game will be back to an acceptable place. Not quite what it was before, but better than it is now.

Well I don’t really get how it’s the fault of the monetization department when you can’t buy any advantage to getting ascendeds and there’s no subscription fee so they’re not getting anything out of you not playing it.
Really the reason behind it were people that complained that there’s nothing to do in the end game. Then they got what to do and complained about it.

Mirta.5029:

Really the reason behind it were people that complained that there’s nothing to do in the end game. Then they got what to do and complained about it.

Only a small portion of people, the content locusts that appear at the opening of every game and destroy all the content in it within a matter of weeks, complained about having nothing to do in the game. This fix would have been great for them, if not for the fact that they had already quit and left by the time this “fix” was released. Go back and check forums prior to Nov 15th- all those “there is nothing to do after 80” posts had vanished over a month before this patch released.

So the complaining is now being done by the people who were left behind to deal with the mess those locusts created before heading off to the next shiny game to ruin it.

Tolmos.8395:

Mirta.5029:

Really the reason behind it were people that complained that there’s nothing to do in the end game. Then they got what to do and complained about it.

Only a small portion of people, the content locusts that appear at the opening of every game and destroy all the content in it within a matter of weeks, complained about having nothing to do in the game. This fix would have been great for them, if not for the fact that they had already quit and left by the time this “fix” was released. Go back and check forums prior to Nov 15th- all those “there is nothing to do after 80” posts had vanished over a month before this patch released.

So the complaining is now being done by the people who were left behind to deal with the mess those locusts created before heading off to the next shiny game to ruin it.

well actually complaining lasted until November 15th and sometimes still appears. recently I’ve seen yet another topic of “What to do when you hit 80?”
Personally I’m not an obsessed fractals runner, but I don’t hate them either. I wish that the complaining about ascended would not have left such a great impact and the rest of ascended gear would have been already rolled out, that way my lower level toons could bypass exotics all together and go straight to ascendeds.

Mirta.5029:

Tolmos.8395:

Mirta.5029:

Really the reason behind it were people that complained that there’s nothing to do in the end game. Then they got what to do and complained about it.

Only a small portion of people, the content locusts that appear at the opening of every game and destroy all the content in it within a matter of weeks, complained about having nothing to do in the game. This fix would have been great for them, if not for the fact that they had already quit and left by the time this “fix” was released. Go back and check forums prior to Nov 15th- all those “there is nothing to do after 80” posts had vanished over a month before this patch released.

So the complaining is now being done by the people who were left behind to deal with the mess those locusts created before heading off to the next shiny game to ruin it.

well actually complaining lasted until November 15th and sometimes still appears. recently I’ve seen yet another topic of “What to do when you hit 80?”
Personally I’m not an obsessed fractals runner, but I don’t hate them either. I wish that the complaining about ascended would not have left such a great impact and the rest of ascended gear would have been already rolled out, that way my lower level toons could bypass exotics all together and go straight to ascendeds.

With any luck, you’re already wearing all the ascended gear that will ever roll out and can consider yourself the most geared your character can possibly get! =D

On a side note- I still strongly suggest you go relook at the forums from early October to Nov 15th. I just checked through and saw a total of 4 “What to do at 80” threads. 4. And looking in the past 8 pages of this forum right now, there are 2.

As I said, most of those players had quit by the time the Nov 15th patch rolled out.

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Actually, wh te Laurel system, it’s only Amulets, not rings, which makes FOTM the only way to get rings still.

did you flip the other page? It sells rings for 35 laurels each O_o

Tolmos.8395:

People tend to get that way when a company pointless murders a game they like simply because their monetization department deemed it a good idea. :-P

@OP: Anet already stressed that they wanted to fix everyone getting funneled into FotM… its just taking a REALLY long time. It took them 2 months just to get out one other method of getting ascended gear, so it will probably take a full year to get us back to the point that this game was at prior to the Nov 15th release.

Unfortunately, the Nov 15th patch was similar to SWG’s NGE patch (also released on Nov 15th), both in how it was accepted by the userbase and how it affected the game. The repairs to the damage Anet did with it will take a LONG time. Give it about 6-8 more months and the game will be back to an acceptable place. Not quite what it was before, but better than it is now.

Well I don’t really get how it’s the fault of the monetization department when you can’t buy any advantage to getting ascendeds and there’s no subscription fee so they’re not getting anything out of you not playing it.
Really the reason behind it were people that complained that there’s nothing to do in the end game. Then they got what to do and complained about it.

Oh yay…1 laurel a day…35 for rings/30 for amulets. Still doesn’t make up for the fact that there’s no real other way than FOTM. That is, if you dont mind waiting 3 months for 3 pieces of gear. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy FOTM, but like anything else, if that’s the only way to get something, especially something so little, it gets old fast…even faster than raid content in other games.

Zookeeper.2513:

Oh yay…1 laurel a day…35 for rings/30 for amulets. Still doesn’t make up for the fact that there’s no real other way than FOTM. That is, if you dont mind waiting 3 months for 3 pieces of gear. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy FOTM, but like anything else, if that’s the only way to get something, especially something so little, it gets old fast…even faster than raid content in other games.

That’s about 2 months for the rings, not 3 and running FOTM will get you the rings in 21 days (1 day to get from level 1 to 10, 20 to run dailies 20 times) and there’s no way to get ascended amulets trough fractals.

Seems more like you got too wrapped up in the hype and set your expectations too high.

ANet’s already stated that they wanted ascended gear in the game from the get-go.
But, it’s glaringly obvious that there’s a lot of content that suffered due to a time-crunch to launch the game.

So it’s not additional vertical progression. They’re just fixing and polishing the game which launched half-baked to begin with.

And if you don’t believe that, there’s really nothing else anyone can tell you. You have only your subjective thoughts to rely on.
And I’m speaking from personal experience when I say that subjective thoughts alone aren’t all that reliable when one is frustrated; they lead to nothing but further disappointment and paranoia.

DreamOfACure.4382:

Seems more like you got too wrapped up in the hype and set your expectations too high.

ANet’s already stated that they wanted ascended gear in the game from the get-go.
But, it’s glaringly obvious that there’s a lot of content that suffered due to a time-crunch to launch the game.

So it’s not additional vertical progression. They’re just fixing and polishing the game which launched half-baked to begin with.

And if you don’t believe that, there’s really nothing else anyone can tell you. You have only your subjective thoughts to rely on.
And I’m speaking from personal experience when I say that subjective thoughts alone aren’t all that reliable when one is frustrated; they lead to nothing but further disappointment and paranoia.

It’s just hard to believe it was planned from the beginning when there was never even the remotest hint of its existence, when everything in the game revolved around exotics at launch and made it painfully obvious that exotics were the end all/be all of the game, and then suddenly 3 months later they roll out a SINGLE venue of acquisition for only 2 pieces of ascended gear and say “Oh oh we planned this all along… yea… totally planned guys. I’m super cereal”. And then 2 more months to roll out a half-baked second acquisition method for 1 more item slot.

And all this while the “ascended” item type didn’t even exist in the game until Nov 15th, whereas Legendary existed as a searchable type on AH from day 1 release, despite having no items that fit within its category (making it obvious that legendary WAS planned from release).

Really REALLY hard to believe that.

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Oh yay…1 laurel a day…35 for rings/30 for amulets. Still doesn’t make up for the fact that there’s no real other way than FOTM. That is, if you dont mind waiting 3 months for 3 pieces of gear. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy FOTM, but like anything else, if that’s the only way to get something, especially something so little, it gets old fast…even faster than raid content in other games.

That’s about 2 months for the rings, not 3 and running FOTM will get you the rings in 21 days (1 day to get from level 1 to 10, 20 to run dailies 20 times) and there’s no way to get ascended amulets trough fractals.

Meant the 3 months if you don’t run FOTM. There’s plenty of people avoiding FOTM because they don’t like the constant dungeoning over and over. I wouldn’t have a problem with it IF it didn’t affect other parts of the game, which is has. There are plenty of servers that have issues with world events even before FOTM dropped, but it has just made the problem larger since then. Again, the post was about making FOTM initially the ONLY way to get something (still the most efficient, yet repetitive way), as opposed to before, which in turn affected other parts of the game.

DreamOfACure.4382:

So it’s not additional vertical progression. They’re just fixing and polishing the game which launched half-baked to begin with.

And if you don’t believe that, there’s really nothing else anyone can tell you. You have only your subjective thoughts to rely on.
And I’m speaking from personal experience when I say that subjective thoughts alone aren’t all that reliable when one is frustrated; they lead to nothing but further disappointment and paranoia.

Strangely enough I don’t believe ANet when they say ascended items should’ve been in the game at launch. If that was the case, they should either be craft-able or obtained through some kind of story related process. Currently, your character “progresses” by running an arbitrary VR simulation for some bored asuran scientists or by doing daily achievements. This gives me the impression of a tacked on feature rather than a well thought out progression path. For instance, ascension and armor infusions actually had a story purpose in GW1.

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Oh yay…1 laurel a day…35 for rings/30 for amulets. Still doesn’t make up for the fact that there’s no real other way than FOTM. That is, if you dont mind waiting 3 months for 3 pieces of gear. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy FOTM, but like anything else, if that’s the only way to get something, especially something so little, it gets old fast…even faster than raid content in other games.

That’s about 2 months for the rings, not 3 and running FOTM will get you the rings in 21 days (1 day to get from level 1 to 10, 20 to run dailies 20 times) and there’s no way to get ascended amulets trough fractals.

Thats almost correct, but not really.

There is one HUGE difference. Each toon progresses at their own pace, not at the pace of only one toon like with the laurel system. You also have a chance to get the ring as a drop in the daily chest in fractals.

If you have 1 or 8 toons (well 8 might be pushing it), you will have atleast 2 rings on all of those toons within 21 days. Probably much faster since each toon will have a chance for the drop in the chest, per day, per difficulty.

Laurels are limited to one per day and is maxed at 38-41 per month, depending on the length of the month.

28-31 days per month = 28-31 laurels for dailies + 10 for monthly.

The laurel system is flawed in its current state.

Zookeeper.2513:

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Oh yay…1 laurel a day…35 for rings/30 for amulets. Still doesn’t make up for the fact that there’s no real other way than FOTM. That is, if you dont mind waiting 3 months for 3 pieces of gear. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy FOTM, but like anything else, if that’s the only way to get something, especially something so little, it gets old fast…even faster than raid content in other games.

That’s about 2 months for the rings, not 3 and running FOTM will get you the rings in 21 days (1 day to get from level 1 to 10, 20 to run dailies 20 times) and there’s no way to get ascended amulets trough fractals.

Meant the 3 months if you don’t run FOTM. There’s plenty of people avoiding FOTM because they don’t like the constant dungeoning over and over. I wouldn’t have a problem with it IF it didn’t affect other parts of the game, which is has. There are plenty of servers that have issues with world events even before FOTM dropped, but it has just made the problem larger since then. Again, the post was about making FOTM initially the ONLY way to get something (still the most efficient, yet repetitive way), as opposed to before, which in turn affected other parts of the game.

But isn’t it a late complaint having in mind that they launched the laurel system?
Also low pop servers will always have trouble and high pop servers will never see the problems, because they aren’t experiencing it. I’m on Underworld (high pop, not the highest one though) and there’s always enough people to complete events. The only areas that were semi empty was the Orr, but now that it was fixed it’s far more lively (recently tried re-completing it again on an alt just for the exotics and the money it gives you).

Even though I do see an increase of activity in playerbase.

I mostly log in to do daily and log off.

Living Story content delivered so far is boring and even though if it evolves to something awsome, it sure is taking it’s sweet time to do it.

Game has a great potential but it doesnt have any content after you complete the map.

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Oh yay…1 laurel a day…35 for rings/30 for amulets. Still doesn’t make up for the fact that there’s no real other way than FOTM. That is, if you dont mind waiting 3 months for 3 pieces of gear. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy FOTM, but like anything else, if that’s the only way to get something, especially something so little, it gets old fast…even faster than raid content in other games.

That’s about 2 months for the rings, not 3 and running FOTM will get you the rings in 21 days (1 day to get from level 1 to 10, 20 to run dailies 20 times) and there’s no way to get ascended amulets trough fractals.

Meant the 3 months if you don’t run FOTM. There’s plenty of people avoiding FOTM because they don’t like the constant dungeoning over and over. I wouldn’t have a problem with it IF it didn’t affect other parts of the game, which is has. There are plenty of servers that have issues with world events even before FOTM dropped, but it has just made the problem larger since then. Again, the post was about making FOTM initially the ONLY way to get something (still the most efficient, yet repetitive way), as opposed to before, which in turn affected other parts of the game.

But isn’t it a late complaint having in mind that they launched the laurel system?
Also low pop servers will always have trouble and high pop servers will never see the problems, because they aren’t experiencing it. I’m on Underworld (high pop, not the highest one though) and there’s always enough people to complete events. The only areas that were semi empty was the Orr, but now that it was fixed it’s far more lively (recently tried re-completing it again on an alt just for the exotics and the money it gives you).

Late, maybe, but it’s still valid. Like it was pointed out, the Laurel system seems a bit flawed. 38-41 max a month? OOO….yay. Only way to get Amulets, on top of the other perks it offers. It just seems like another half-kitten attempt at adding/fixing things which seems to be the norm these day’s in the MMO world.

Zookeeper.2513:

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Oh yay…1 laurel a day…35 for rings/30 for amulets. Still doesn’t make up for the fact that there’s no real other way than FOTM. That is, if you dont mind waiting 3 months for 3 pieces of gear. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy FOTM, but like anything else, if that’s the only way to get something, especially something so little, it gets old fast…even faster than raid content in other games.

That’s about 2 months for the rings, not 3 and running FOTM will get you the rings in 21 days (1 day to get from level 1 to 10, 20 to run dailies 20 times) and there’s no way to get ascended amulets trough fractals.

Meant the 3 months if you don’t run FOTM. There’s plenty of people avoiding FOTM because they don’t like the constant dungeoning over and over. I wouldn’t have a problem with it IF it didn’t affect other parts of the game, which is has. There are plenty of servers that have issues with world events even before FOTM dropped, but it has just made the problem larger since then. Again, the post was about making FOTM initially the ONLY way to get something (still the most efficient, yet repetitive way), as opposed to before, which in turn affected other parts of the game.

But isn’t it a late complaint having in mind that they launched the laurel system?
Also low pop servers will always have trouble and high pop servers will never see the problems, because they aren’t experiencing it. I’m on Underworld (high pop, not the highest one though) and there’s always enough people to complete events. The only areas that were semi empty was the Orr, but now that it was fixed it’s far more lively (recently tried re-completing it again on an alt just for the exotics and the money it gives you).

Late, maybe, but it’s still valid. Like it was pointed out, the Laurel system seems a bit flawed. 38-41 max a month? OOO….yay. Only way to get Amulets, on top of the other perks it offers. It just seems like another half-kitten attempt at adding/fixing things which seems to be the norm these day’s in the MMO world.

well monthlies/ dailies are only step one. They’re going to convert the rest of achievement points to it later, so I don’t really see what to cry about.

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Oh yay…1 laurel a day…35 for rings/30 for amulets. Still doesn’t make up for the fact that there’s no real other way than FOTM. That is, if you dont mind waiting 3 months for 3 pieces of gear. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy FOTM, but like anything else, if that’s the only way to get something, especially something so little, it gets old fast…even faster than raid content in other games.

That’s about 2 months for the rings, not 3 and running FOTM will get you the rings in 21 days (1 day to get from level 1 to 10, 20 to run dailies 20 times) and there’s no way to get ascended amulets trough fractals.

Meant the 3 months if you don’t run FOTM. There’s plenty of people avoiding FOTM because they don’t like the constant dungeoning over and over. I wouldn’t have a problem with it IF it didn’t affect other parts of the game, which is has. There are plenty of servers that have issues with world events even before FOTM dropped, but it has just made the problem larger since then. Again, the post was about making FOTM initially the ONLY way to get something (still the most efficient, yet repetitive way), as opposed to before, which in turn affected other parts of the game.

But isn’t it a late complaint having in mind that they launched the laurel system?
Also low pop servers will always have trouble and high pop servers will never see the problems, because they aren’t experiencing it. I’m on Underworld (high pop, not the highest one though) and there’s always enough people to complete events. The only areas that were semi empty was the Orr, but now that it was fixed it’s far more lively (recently tried re-completing it again on an alt just for the exotics and the money it gives you).

Late, maybe, but it’s still valid. Like it was pointed out, the Laurel system seems a bit flawed. 38-41 max a month? OOO….yay. Only way to get Amulets, on top of the other perks it offers. It just seems like another half-kitten attempt at adding/fixing things which seems to be the norm these day’s in the MMO world.

well monthlies/ dailies are only step one. They’re going to convert the rest of achievement points to it later, so I don’t really see what to cry about.

Again, not crying…not angry…not raging. Just making a valid complaint. You release a whole new zone, dungeon, and 2 pieces of gear, yet make it a complete dungeon grind and wasted a entire zone, which in turn hurts/affects other parts of the game. Release a “laurel” system, which doesn’t solve much other than gets people to login for 10 minutes to complete then log off again, and we’re back to the original problem. So yes, Anet has half-kittened the past 2 patches. Nothing to rage, get angry, or cry over, but definitely something to be disappointed in…

Its strange to see where the game is headed, it’s hard to tell, somethings give us Grindy and Boring future for the game, other’s some hope of still having fun with all new things coming.

This month big patch I guess we all will know if the game is going in a good way or it will just follow things like Grind, Vertical progression, etc…

FotM has a very well-designed and lovely environment, but is a grinding method for ascended items, besides that GW2 has the most painful LFG system I’ve ever suffered during the last five years.

Cassius.4831:

FotM has a very well-designed and lovely environment, but is a grinding method for ascended items, besides that GW2 has the most painful LFG system I’ve ever suffered during the last five years.

Pretty much. I like how it’s designed, but the grind for something so little, yet better, is mind numbing. Wish they would’ve made events/karma as another way to get this stuff. Would add something else to do towards it that would’ve broke up the grind a bit.

Guys, is it just me or does someone else also think ANet is expanding way too much the rewards systems?
I mean, why not just put the items to purchase for karma? They brought those Jewelry Boxes, Obsidian Shards everywhere, etc etc. Won’t this become a mess in the future?

I’d love to see a dev comment on this a little bit more in-depth.

Totally Agree OP Fotm is the worst thing i’ve ever had the displeasure of doing, i avoid it like the plague no reward is worth that…The dungeons now are similar i avoid them now too..

I’m waiting on Feb Patch to come if it doesn’t address what i see as major issues im off to some other game.

Valento.9852:

Guys, is it just me or does someone else also think ANet is expanding way too much the rewards systems?
I mean, why not just put the items to purchase for karma? They brought those Jewelry Boxes, Obsidian Shards everywhere, etc etc. Won’t this become a mess in the future?

I’d love to see a dev comment on this a little bit more in-depth.

I don’t think they’re expanding too much, but I do think they’re limiting how people go about getting it. Expanding the Acended by 1-2 items a patch isn’t bad, but making it accessable mainly by a dungeon grind isn’t exactly the best way to go about it, especially when you let an entirely new zone go to waste…ie South Sun Cove. Would’ve been nice to have them make some nice World Events there and make that another place to farm Karma, which in turn you could spend on accended gear…

What gets me is people weren’t happy with having to farm bags to see if those bags dropped the T6 mats we needed for crafting, so what do they do? They added more crafting bags with RNG to the items you get from laurel store instead of outright buying the T6 mats from the vendor. And I guess Karma is completely useless now since we have a new currency system.

Completely agree, the FoTM thing should never have been put into this game, between that and the drop rate issues, the DR, and the RNG for anything meaningful to loot, this game is nothing like we were promised pre-launch.

Doesn’t seem so to me or anyone I know. If they dropped the ball I wouldn’t see more and more people everyday. Seems to me like a few people grasping onto some 5 year old “manifesto” like it’s the bible can’t stop telling everyone the sky is falling when it’s actually raining gold.

Zookeeper.2513:

It seems that ever since FOTM and Acended gear was released, FOTM has turned into GW2’s version of a raid. It’s the first (that I’ve seen) instance in this game to where we have vertical progression. Now before the fanboi’s start their flaming, look at how this is set up. Prior to FOTM, there were many different ways you could gear out your character. You could farm karma, farm dungeons, WvW, or craft your gear. It all depended on the build and stats that you wanted. It opened up many different aspects of the game. If you wanted to do events, you could find a lot doing them. If you wanted to farm dungeons, there were always groups to be had. If you wanted to craft, you could go solo farm or do whatever and chances are you’d get the drops you needed.

Now, when they released FOTM and South Sun Cove, I think Anet completed missed out on an opportunity to turn South Sun Cove into another World Event hub, other than the Karka shell/rich Ori node farm (the later being nerfed last patch). By only having the rings drop in FOTM, they’ve pretty much killed off Orr, made SSC a useless lvl 80 zone and made FOTM the main dungeon/event that people are doing. If they would’ve made Karma another route to buy these items (60k a pop maybe.?.?.?), South Sun Cove wouldn’t be the dead/waste of space like it seems now, but a more lively World Event zone.

Again, there’s 2 things that play into here. 1. People, on average, will always gravitate towards the higher rewards in games. It’s no different here. Just sit in LA and watch the FOTM spam. 2. If you don’t think gear plays a difference in this game, please, go WvW or dungeon farm in Arah with greens/rares compared with Exotic/Acended and tell us all that there’s absolutely no difference.

All this doesn’t even touch on the RNG/crap drop rate on things, but thats for a whole different post….

This is so true its sad.

Reaver.9256:

Doesn’t seem so to me or anyone I know. If they dropped the ball I wouldn’t see more and more people everyday. Seems to me like a few people grasping onto some 5 year old “manifesto” like it’s the bible can’t stop telling everyone the sky is falling when it’s actually raining gold.

Because it’s unreasonable to expect them to stick to their word when, for many, that was the reason they bought the game in the first place?
Nice to see some people so indoctrinated that they couldn’t care less about getting bullkittened as long as their virtual skinner box keeps lighting up…

Substance E.4852:

Reaver.9256:

Doesn’t seem so to me or anyone I know. If they dropped the ball I wouldn’t see more and more people everyday. Seems to me like a few people grasping onto some 5 year old “manifesto” like it’s the bible can’t stop telling everyone the sky is falling when it’s actually raining gold.

Because it’s unreasonable to expect them to stick to their word when, for many, that was the reason they bought the game in the first place?
Nice to see some people so indoctrinated that they couldn’t care less about getting bullkittened as long as their virtual skinner box keeps lighting up…

actually so far I haven’t seen how did they fall away from their manifesto or how did they lie… Then again I’m a person that actually enjoys playing this game and doesn’t whine about every single change in it.

What happened was the game relied on short-sighted vertical progression as a crutch.
It’ll catch up eventually.

Zookeeper.2513:

Mirta.5029:

Zookeeper.2513:

Actually, wh te Laurel system, it’s only Amulets, not rings, which makes FOTM the only way to get rings still.

did you flip the other page? It sells rings for 35 laurels each O_o

Tolmos.8395:

People tend to get that way when a company pointless murders a game they like simply because their monetization department deemed it a good idea. :-P

@OP: Anet already stressed that they wanted to fix everyone getting funneled into FotM… its just taking a REALLY long time. It took them 2 months just to get out one other method of getting ascended gear, so it will probably take a full year to get us back to the point that this game was at prior to the Nov 15th release.

Unfortunately, the Nov 15th patch was similar to SWG’s NGE patch (also released on Nov 15th), both in how it was accepted by the userbase and how it affected the game. The repairs to the damage Anet did with it will take a LONG time. Give it about 6-8 more months and the game will be back to an acceptable place. Not quite what it was before, but better than it is now.

Well I don’t really get how it’s the fault of the monetization department when you can’t buy any advantage to getting ascendeds and there’s no subscription fee so they’re not getting anything out of you not playing it.
Really the reason behind it were people that complained that there’s nothing to do in the end game. Then they got what to do and complained about it.

Oh yay…1 laurel a day…35 for rings/30 for amulets. Still doesn’t make up for the fact that there’s no real other way than FOTM. That is, if you dont mind waiting 3 months for 3 pieces of gear. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy FOTM, but like anything else, if that’s the only way to get something, especially something so little, it gets old fast…even faster than raid content in other games.

You…acknowledge that there is another way to get the rings, then say that there is only one way? You lost me man.

Zookeeper I’d like to add this tidbit to support your argument. I’d love for the naysayers to explain again how Ascended gear isn’t tremendously better then Exotic and won’t produce an unfair advantage in WvW or PVE? I have attached an image comparing two pieces to their exotic counterparts to illustrate my point. I can only imagine the huge advantage the ascended armor will have.

They have invited and encouraged a toxic grinding culture, inexplicably, since 11/15. They know better as all the pre-release marketing demonstrates. It all remains a mystery to me at this point. It’s sad to see them devolve to the level at which they currently operate. They are basically making it up as they go along. Gone are the days of a consistent strong design philosophy guiding the evolution of the game.

Arenanet should stop with the ascended gear crap before it is too late…

Stefanos.1673:

Arenanet should stop with the ascended gear crap before it is too late…

Oh, it is too late by now.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Stefanos.1673:

Arenanet should stop with the ascended gear crap before it is too late…

Oh, it is too late by now.

I just don’t want to admit it just yet…

I’d just like to point out what’s already been mentioned above. Look at the amount of time it takes to get rings from Fractals compared to Laurels. The difference is HUGE! Not to mention, the only way to get Amulet’s is from Laurels. So spending them on rings is complete waste of time. We’re all be herded into Fractals whether we like it or not.

That is how Anet is dropping the ball to me. They are trying to social engineer our behavior instead of creating balance and equality.

FotM is exactly a ‘raid’. You can only get Asended through it.

Eventually, you’ll be able to get it through other means, just like other MMOs. When the raid is old news and the casuals can’t get the gear, the gear finally moves into casual content.

Just like what happened here.

Orr is dead. Can’t get a group to show up for any Champ because every Champ in the game gives crap for loot. Anet said they increased the rewards on killing them, but come now, we know it is a lie. Nothing changed. We get blues and greens same as always. Vendor trash.

In other MMOs, we know if we kill a ‘Champ’ type mob, we get a ‘rare’ type reward 100%. This game is just… crap (in terms of rewards not being RNG).

Lost Shores is just Lost Content. Nothing is there except the only way to grind Apothecary gear. An insane and amateur design concept.

And even with all this “new” content and gear and ways to get it, we still have a gaping hole in gear stat combinations. Where is Rabid? Where is Apothecary (in a reasonable grind)? We get these stupid grinding sessions to try and put this stuff together, and been asking for them to address it. Nope.

All this and STILL no way of crafting exotic back pieces or breathers.
They added ascended before rounding off the previous gear tier; of course they never planned to have ascended in the game. It’s a last minute bodge-job attempt to retain users who’ve already left.

Instead of all this ascended crap, they need to really focus on finishing what was initially released.
They need to make all stat-combinations of exotic available through all means.
We need more than a few token exotic back pieces only available through karma vendors or fractals.
Breathers stop with Gavebeorn’s green masterwork one and go no further; you can’t even get an exotic breather through WvW.

And then, they can finally concentrate on rolling out ascended properly. I still think it has no place in the game at all, but if they’re going to continue to roll it out, then they should do so with consistency.
When releasing a new type of ascended piece, they need to ensure that all stat combinations are available at the same time, as well as all routes of acquisition: crafting, badges of honour, dungeons, fractals, drops and laurels.

The way they’re doing it at the moment stinks of panic and rushing.

Mungrul.9358:

All this and STILL no way of crafting exotic back pieces or breathers.
They added ascended before rounding off the previous gear tier; of course they never planned to have ascended in the game. It’s a last minute bodge-job attempt to retain users who’ve already left.

Instead of all this ascended crap, they need to really focus on finishing what was initially released.
They need to make all stat-combinations of exotic available through all means.
We need more than a few token exotic back pieces only available through karma vendors or fractals.
Breathers stop with Gavebeorn’s green masterwork one and go no further; you can’t even get an exotic breather through WvW.

And then, they can finally concentrate on rolling out ascended properly. I still think it has no place in the game at all, but if they’re going to continue to roll it out, then they should do so with consistency.
When releasing a new type of ascended piece, they need to ensure that all stat combinations are available at the same time, as well as all routes of acquisition: crafting, badges of honour, dungeons, fractals, drops and laurels.

The way they’re doing it at the moment stinks of panic and rushing.

Mostly agreed. However, I would prefer to see the ascended items being fully withdrawn from the game.

Mirta.5029:

And they will release different ways to get ascendeds. Look at the laurel system – 50 dailies, 2 monthlies and enjoy your rings gotten without fractals.

Interesting that you should make this claim since I have failed to do several monthlies. Why? Because they require fractal completion, dungeon completion or both.

ANet had in their hands the perfect platform for a community-centered MMORPG with rich and varied endgame. Instead they caved in to the whines of the WoW content locusts and opted for yet another endless gear treadmill.

Their loss, as they will undoubtly witness when the next “AAA themepark” launches. Watch this space when TESO comes out.

Actually … the added stat combinations are a very nice form of horizontal progression. It allows new stats into the game without completely upsetting the balance. As such, merely by introducing a new stat combination, completely new build opportunities pop up. It’s good for the game to introduce this slowly.

Most importantly, PVT tank and Pow/pre/crit glass cannon are in the game so at least the morbid cookie cutters are satisfied. All other stat combinations are interesting for niche builds that will slowly pop into the game. I consider that a good thing.

tigirius.9014:

Zookeeper I’d like to add this tidbit to support your argument. I’d love for the naysayers to explain again how Ascended gear isn’t tremendously better then Exotic and won’t produce an unfair advantage in WvW or PVE? I have attached an image comparing two pieces to their exotic counterparts to illustrate my point. I can only imagine the huge advantage the ascended armor will have.

Why the frig did you go for an all rounder? Congrats, all your stats are raised by 30, but you just lost 57 toughness -_- plus in specific stats anyone wearing an exotic is beating you right now.
To be honest even if you were comparing a strong ascended with 3 stats (not an all rounder that people find useless), normally what happens is one of your stats gets increased by 20 points, but a different stat gets lowered by 10. In total an ascended is just 0.5% better than an exotic, having in mind that some people choose to wear rares, or greens and still kick kitten ascended will not make much of a difference.

DeWolfe.2174:

I’d just like to point out what’s already been mentioned above. Look at the amount of time it takes to get rings from Fractals compared to Laurels. The difference is HUGE! Not to mention, the only way to get Amulet’s is from Laurels. So spending them on rings is complete waste of time. We’re all be herded into Fractals whether we like it or not.

That is how Anet is dropping the ball to me. They are trying to social engineer our behavior instead of creating balance and equality.

21 days versus 50 days. The difference isn’t all that horribly big.

Cribbage.2056:

Mirta.5029:

And they will release different ways to get ascendeds. Look at the laurel system – 50 dailies, 2 monthlies and enjoy your rings gotten without fractals.

Interesting that you should make this claim since I have failed to do several monthlies. Why? Because they require fractal completion, dungeon completion or both.

Last monthly would not have given you laurels anyway and what is wrong with completing 5 dungeons exactly? You can do it in a day and it is classified as PVE content. If you chose to specifically not complete it, because you dislike a certain part of the monthly, you can only blame yourself for not getting that extra karma, coins and laurels.

Tom Gore.4035:

Instead they caved in to the whines of the WoW content locusts and opted for yet another endless gear treadmill.

I don’t think that you know what a gear treadmill is. A gear treadmill is when you’re required to get a gear tier in order to get a different gear tier. When in this game you can get from green to pink using those words is stupid of you.

Tom Gore.4035:

Watch this space when TESO comes out.

Terra can be a threat because of being another subscription free MMO, TESO however will probably not get that many players. Why?
1. Doesn’t follow the lore of TES games.
2. Does not have any kind of new or innovative fighting system.
3. Subscription fee.
4. Does not look graphically advanced.

@OP
It would be wonderful if forum cryers would first do some research and inform themselves, then make complain threads if there is need.
ANet already stated there will be more ways to get laurels and soon, dailys are only first step. So its more likley that in 1 month you will be able to get more than 1 ring monthly, which makes most of your complaining in this post pointless.