Guild Wars 2

I played GW1, and I recently tried GW2. I’ll give my final review here.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
My first impressions were very positive. I liked the event system, and the cooperative gameplay aspects. When I did my first world boss in the Queensdale swamps, I loved how everyone got a set of loot from the encounter. The graphics were great, and I liked how quests and events meshed together.

INTEREST RISING: DIFFERENT MODES OF PLAY:
I liked the fact that there were different ways you could play and progress. The crafting system was simple and straightfoward, and was not long and frustrating. My interest in the game had started to ramp up significantly. I tried dungeons, eotm, and small group pvp, and liked it all. Small group pvp had a learning curve, but it was the kind of difficulty that was engaging.

REALLY INTO THE GAME – HITTING 80 WITH ELE AND GUARDIAN / LOOKING TO WvW:
I couldn’t decide between ele and guardian, so I decided to co-main them. WvW was my preferred end-game mode and what I wanted to spend most of my time doing when I got to 80. Both ele and guardian seemed to be great support classes for WvW, and I wanted variety, so I leveled them both.

DESCENSION:
When I hit 80 on my guard and ele, it became time to set up my characters to do WvW. I decided to go with a celestial staff ele and a tanky support guardian. But…I found out that to get celestial gear, I would have to make these quartz crystals which were limited to one per day. I didn’t like that, because I view gearing up as the precursor to play, not as the actual play.

But then I researched ascended gear, and found out what I would have to do to get it. I tried fractals of the mists once, and completed the first level successfully. I hated it. It wasn’t fun at all. The whole time I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Now, this wouldn’t be a big deal since I liked the other game modes (especially WvW). I learned that it would be a major grind to get ascended involving a game mode I didn’t like, and that I would be at a disadvantage in WvW without it. That disadvantage looks to be about 10% all told from my research on the internet, which is enough to be substantial. I deleted the game.

Ascended armor/weaps aren’t that hard to get, once you have 500 skill in the desired craft (weaponsmithing/armorsmithing/huntsman, etc). It certainly isn’t a major grind when compared to making a legendary weapon, or when compared to the grinds of Everquest 1, Aion, etc.

Just curious—What game are you playing now?

That’s too bad because you have made a kittenumption (or been misinformed) about what is necessary to be successful in WvW.

Obtena.7952:

That’s too bad because you have made a kittenumption (or been misinformed) about what is necessary to be successful in WvW.

You mean a lone Ele in ascended celestial gear isn’t the ultimate force factor in WvW?

I missed the memo >< It got lost in the “Teamwork and playing smart wins WvW; GW2 isn’t a gear contest” announcement.

LOL ascended gear is nothing special.I use exotic like most of the people and kill ascended all the time.Ascended gear is only worth for doing FRACTALS,cause it give u stat def against condition that you can find only in FRACTALS.Ascended gear does not give even 5% improvements,weapons and rings are worth something but gear itself isn’t.
Anyway GW2 is game where win or lose is decided by player skill and not gear.

Ascended armor isnt needed for anything but fractals. Which means you are basically mad that the gear required for the game mode you dont want to play is hard to get (and its really not that hard with patience, 2-3 hours of play a night can get you a full set of light armor in 36 days).

Also that 10% you looked up is from full ascended armor + weapons (much easier to make than armor, though it takes some crafting) + jewelry (bought with laurels/guild commendations so 0 crafting), so not having ascended armor itself is only like a 4-5% stat difference.

But whatever, good luck in wow, if you manage to get top tier gear there it might be bis for a whole 2 weeks before another expansion comes out and makes it obsolete!

Mourningcry.9428:

Obtena.7952:

That’s too bad because you have made a kittenumption (or been misinformed) about what is necessary to be successful in WvW.

You mean a lone Ele in ascended celestial gear isn’t the ultimate force factor in WvW?

Yeah, that’s what made me quit wvw because it became a cheese fest with celestial ele.

I’d just walk up to a keep and say “eh! Open up! I’m a celestial geared ele!”. And they’d quake in their boots as the doors creaked open and I’d step in side, my mere presence causing any seige to instantly break and supply to just melt away. It a player tried to stop me they just threw their weapons behind them, threw bags of loot and badges at my feet and jumped over the side of the wall.

When I got lord’s room, he’d kill his own guards as and act of mercy before finishing himself. Heck, no timer was needed to show how long it took before the place flipped, it just did.

So until anet removes the divinity that is celestial eles in wvw, I will not play it because its so cheesy.

And the thing is, you could of min-maxed other gear on an Elementalist to get better stats for WvW since condi damage is useless on staff.

I used to WvW in full exotics. I never could kill anyone and died in seconds. Now I go there in full ascended…… and I still can’t kill anyone and die in seconds. Possibly this is skill related.

Anyone who believes that 10% difference isn’t offset by skill and knowledge of their profession hasn’t looked very deeply into it.

Can I haz your stuff? No wait you didn’t play long enough to have anything of value. Thanks for reviewing a game that has been out for 2.5 years and reminding us that its a L2P game. slow clap

Thanks for your review OP.

There are two problems with Guild Wars 2. Half the player base comes from Guild Wars 1 and expects this to be the same game and half the player base comes from other MMOs which are mostly WoW clones and expects this to be the same game. The problem is you can’t please both of those groups with one game.

When this game launched it didn’t have ascended items. People geared up in exotics and left in droves, because many of them felt they had nothing left to do. Not a theory. There were plenty of forum posts about it at the time.

So Anet introduced ascended gear and people started playing again to gear up. But the Guild Wars 1 players got really really mad and many of them left, because you know, vertical progression

First Anet said now they wouldn’t raise the level cap and there wouldn’t be another tier of gear, so yes, it may take you a while to get stuff, but there’s nothing to stop you from playing WvW if that’s what you want to do without ascended gear. This is completely in your head. It’s a limitation you impose on yourself.

This game is a compromise, because of the way the industry has progressed. I don’t particularly like that Anet had to compromise…but I see why they had to.

If you can’t live with it, it doesn’t really matter. Plenty of people who couldn’t live with it left when ascended gear came out. Some of those people have come back. Now that Anet has said definitely there won’t be another tier, most people are …if not happy at least accepting of it.

But the limitations you’re putting on this system is something arbitrary you’ve decided. You can WvW in rares if you want. You simply choose not to.

LetsGoGiants.4962:

I played GW1, and I recently tried GW2. I’ll give my final review here.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
My first impressions were very positive. I liked the event system, and the cooperative gameplay aspects. When I did my first world boss in the Queensdale swamps, I loved how everyone got a set of loot from the encounter. The graphics were great, and I liked how quests and events meshed together.

INTEREST RISING: DIFFERENT MODES OF PLAY:
I liked the fact that there were different ways you could play and progress. The crafting system was simple and straightfoward, and was not long and frustrating. My interest in the game had started to ramp up significantly. I tried dungeons, eotm, and small group pvp, and liked it all. Small group pvp had a learning curve, but it was the kind of difficulty that was engaging.

REALLY INTO THE GAME – HITTING 80 WITH ELE AND GUARDIAN / LOOKING TO WvW:
I couldn’t decide between ele and guardian, so I decided to co-main them. WvW was my preferred end-game mode and what I wanted to spend most of my time doing when I got to 80. Both ele and guardian seemed to be great support classes for WvW, and I wanted variety, so I leveled them both.

DESCENSION:
When I hit 80 on my guard and ele, it became time to set up my characters to do WvW. I decided to go with a celestial staff ele and a tanky support guardian. But…I found out that to get celestial gear, I would have to make these quartz crystals which were limited to one per day. I didn’t like that, because I view gearing up as the precursor to play, not as the actual play.

But then I researched ascended gear, and found out what I would have to do to get it. I tried fractals of the mists once, and completed the first level successfully. I hated it. It wasn’t fun at all. The whole time I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Now, this wouldn’t be a big deal since I liked the other game modes (especially WvW). I learned that it would be a major grind to get ascended involving a game mode I didn’t like, and that I would be at a disadvantage in WvW without it. That disadvantage looks to be about 10% all told from my research on the internet, which is enough to be substantial. I deleted the game.

lol. you need to do more / better research.

Funny….I have played wvw for quite some time now, with nothing but exotic gear and some ascended trinkets. I have never felt like I have been disadvantaged…..I have lots of fun in wvw and am quite successful most of the time. When I do lose, it is either from being outnumbered or the other player has more skill in wvw than I do, or I make some stupid mistakes during a battle.

If you were doing 1v1 all the time in wvw, maybe…..MAYBE…..having full ascended gear would make a slight, very slight difference. But even then, a more skilled player in exotic gear is still going to beat you even if you are in full ascended.

The only place I have heard that ascended actually makes a difference is in fractals.

Is really too bad the OP had a preconceived notion that wvw was only good with the highest gear. Not true. Not true at all.

That is the really nice thing about GW2. You don’t have to be a gear min/maxxer to succeed in most elements of the game.

But then again, it didn’t really sound like you were that attached to the game when all it took for you to delete the game was to read that ascended gear had some slight statistical advantages over exotic. Certainly not very good research on your part……but those last couple of paragraphs in your post read like you were looking for an excuse to dump the game, anyways.

Best of luck in your next game.

First off, ascended gear is about a 4-5% increase overall from exotic gear, and it is the lowest bump. MANY of the best WvW players use exotic gear and don’t bother with ascended as it is just too much work for the amount of characters they use.

Next, fractals are NOT required for ascended gear… They make ascended rings so common they are next to worthless, but that is it. These rings you can otherwise get for pretty cheap with laurels. Anything else in fractals….EXTREMELY rare towards ascended chests. I think maybe after over 100 fractal completions all well above scale 20 I’ve gotten maybe 1 chest and 1 skin. They are not worth it if you want a full set of ascended and only worth it if you want cheap ascended rings which are otherwise acquirable.

Finally, feel free to hate the game as much as you want, but your decision was extremely misinformed and seems to be made in anger instead of a knowledgeable decision based on facts, the closest thing to a fact that you seem to have is that ascended armor exists and sometimes drops in fracs. But everything else was false.

WVW badges should be able to buy ascended gear that ONLY works in WVW. Having to PVE enough to get ascended gear just to be on equal footing in WVW is awful design.

The accessories for laurels/badges help but weapon is the main stat increase, at least add ascended WVW only weapons to WVW.

Armor is very minor and doesn’t matter.

well, in the end, a single random player voicing his opinion, nothing more, nothing less, with a grain of misinformation and misunderstandings. We all have our opinions about games we play, a small difference though: not all of us feel the need to make a big fuzz about “reviews”.

Using exotic gear ATM because I am looking to have fun in game modes other than PvE. Having a crafter make the armor I need, or working with a guildmate to get materials was its own reward.
The most important thing to know about playing in any PvP environment is to make a good build, and know how to play it.

Vayne.8563:

Half the player base comes from Guild Wars 1 and expects this to be the same game and half the player base comes from other MMOs which are mostly WoW clones and expects this to be the same game.

This in my opinion is the best summary of almost every issue around this game I have read in this forum.

LetsGoGiants.4962:

But then I researched ascended gear, and found out what I would have to do to get it. I tried fractals of the mists once, and completed the first level successfully. I hated it. It wasn’t fun at all. The whole time I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Now, this wouldn’t be a big deal since I liked the other game modes (especially WvW). I learned that it would be a major grind to get ascended involving a game mode I didn’t like, and that I would be at a disadvantage in WvW without it. That disadvantage looks to be about 10% all told from my research on the internet, which is enough to be substantial. I deleted the game.

So I doubt this’ll make much difference now but this section here is wrong. Fractals are not required to craft ascended gear. I don’t know who told you that but it’s wrong.

Also you’re not at a disadvantage in WvW for not running ascended. I do just fine in Exotics. A lot of other people do as well (as illustrated in responses above). If you really want ascended gear, set it as a long term goal for yourself and just play the game earning stuff as you go.

Anyway best of luck in whatever you decide to play next.

LetsGoGiants.4962:

I played GW1, and I recently tried GW2. I’ll give my final review here.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
My first impressions were very positive. I liked the event system, and the cooperative gameplay aspects. When I did my first world boss in the Queensdale swamps, I loved how everyone got a set of loot from the encounter. The graphics were great, and I liked how quests and events meshed together.

INTEREST RISING: DIFFERENT MODES OF PLAY:
I liked the fact that there were different ways you could play and progress. The crafting system was simple and straightfoward, and was not long and frustrating. My interest in the game had started to ramp up significantly. I tried dungeons, eotm, and small group pvp, and liked it all. Small group pvp had a learning curve, but it was the kind of difficulty that was engaging.

REALLY INTO THE GAME – HITTING 80 WITH ELE AND GUARDIAN / LOOKING TO WvW:
I couldn’t decide between ele and guardian, so I decided to co-main them. WvW was my preferred end-game mode and what I wanted to spend most of my time doing when I got to 80. Both ele and guardian seemed to be great support classes for WvW, and I wanted variety, so I leveled them both.

DESCENSION:
When I hit 80 on my guard and ele, it became time to set up my characters to do WvW. I decided to go with a celestial staff ele and a tanky support guardian. But…I found out that to get celestial gear, I would have to make these quartz crystals which were limited to one per day. I didn’t like that, because I view gearing up as the precursor to play, not as the actual play.

But then I researched ascended gear, and found out what I would have to do to get it. I tried fractals of the mists once, and completed the first level successfully. I hated it. It wasn’t fun at all. The whole time I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Now, this wouldn’t be a big deal since I liked the other game modes (especially WvW). I learned that it would be a major grind to get ascended involving a game mode I didn’t like, and that I would be at a disadvantage in WvW without it. That disadvantage looks to be about 10% all told from my research on the internet, which is enough to be substantial. I deleted the game.

This guy is either, drunk, a troller or someone who really doenst know a lot. I mean “and that I would be at a disadvantage in WvW without it.” yeah sure, you will have a lil less stats, it really isnt the end of the world, just make up with it by getting better with the class. I’ll bet most of the people he’d had to face doesnt have ascended either and I wonder if he really thinks that anyone would take this joke of an review very seriously.

I used to use rare gear and level 78 exotics when I was 80 because I had zero idea how to make money etc. I did fine when I had that and I’ve since moved on to exotic gear with ascended jewellery. Ascended gear really doesn’t matter you will do just fine with exotics.

This is the biggest troll post I’ve ever read.

I, too, enjoy ragequitting activities when I don’t understand how they work.

Interesting post history. I wonder if the OP read the responses to his other duplicate threads…

Regardless, good luck on your adventures.

Another “bye can i have your stuff” thread? It’s been a few weeks, so yeah, we need another one.

Ascended isn’t necessary to do the content, not even remotely. The meager 5% increase in performance doesn’t matter, especially in Zerg v Zerg, even less so in the PvE content. So, if that’s your rationale, you’re selling the game short for what it has to offer.