Guild Wars 2

Klawlyt.6507:

Yaki.9563:

I’m glad they are releasing Ascended gear. This game isn’t compelling enough to play just for the sake of playing. An MMO without progression is laughable.

Here’s what you’re missing. They already made a game like that. It’s called Every Other MMORPG On The Market. And guess what? That game has never been able to hold my attention. EOMMORPGotM has sold well because lots of folks like that style of play, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But a huge part of Guild Wars 2’s marketing was to people who were burned out by playing EOMMORPGotM. I log in and run off to WvW and revel in the fact that I can play in a massivley multiplayer online space and not have to worry about running on the gear treadmill. Part of why I don’t like leveling alts is because I have to start looking at gear again instead of just vendoring it.

As soon as a game starts feeling like a job, I stop. I have a job for that purpose, except it gives me actual money. I am not alone in this sentiment, and GW2 was supposed to be a little paradise for those with similar mindsets to mine. We were the folks who kept GW1 alive, and that’s why we generally feel so betrayed by this pandering to the target audience of EOMMORPGotM.

“Guild Wars 2 is about having fun, not grinding to the fun reward.”

GW2 doesn’t feel like a job to me. I play it maybe 10 hours per week and I’m happy there’s gear progression.

I didn’t know EOMMORPGotM had dynamic events and no-healer/tank dungeons and WvW and rewards for achievements and world exploration and jumping puzzles and awesome holiday events. Maybe you should consider stepping outside of WvW. Go play Warhammer Online or DAoC if that’s all you want to do.

Yaki – multiple ways to play the game has “provided” by Arena Net. If someone only wants to play WvW they that is their choice. That is like me saying if all you want to do is grind objects or do PvE then go play WoW or EQ(1,2) or any other PvE oriented game /boggle

Arena net got it right by restricting gear in s/t PvP. However, they didn’t do the same for WvW which I’d really like to know the reason behind that choice.

VoxShatterfall.5470:

Allowing completion players like you or I to get what we want after 100 hours of grind, without a gate, is like allowing a child access to any sweet they want all at once. While I think most completion players are able to put a halt on the game so they don’t burn out, I think some are just like me who feel good with completion and will stop at almost nothing for it. Time gating is the ONLY way to help manage this compulsive behavior, outside of professional help. Where as completion gamers who CAN pause their playstyle, please recognize that there are other completion gamers who CAN’T do so.

Blame it on me. Blame it on that 1 korean guy who played WoW for 2 weeks straight to get to lvl 80 whatever with the BiS equipment and died of a heart attack thereafter. You can try to blame it on ANET, but when ANET is responsible for a huge chunk of time of peoples’ lives outside of work, sleep, and family I’m sure ANET has a sense of responsibility to keep us from burning out. Just like us as young parents have the sense to not give all the possible candy to our young kids (age demographic is 25-35).

I think that’s a responsibility that falls on the player. If someone wants to do something ingame for 100 hours straight, that is completely their problem. I shouldn’t have Anet trying to babysit me because someone else can’t control themselves. And that is entirely possible in GW2 right now, just not for ascended gear. There aren’t any hard timegates on legendaries at all. The closest thing is the diminishing returns on dungeon tokens for getting the necessary dungeon gift.

TooBz.3065:

Yeah, they are on their path. You just have to decide if you want to go with them.

This is pretty much it, I very much dislike Ascended and i use it because i’m forced to keep up, not because i want it..

I really do hope the populations decline again over this junk, not because i want the game to fail, but because i want Anet to get it through their thick heads that a lot (maybe a majority, not sure, seems so) do not want this stuff..

I guess time will tell..

Dante.1508:

TooBz.3065:

Yeah, they are on their path. You just have to decide if you want to go with them.

This is pretty much it, I very much dislike Ascended and i use it because i’m forced to keep up, not because i want it..

I really do hope the populations decline again over this junk, not because i want the game to fail, but because i want Anet to get it through their thick heads that a lot (maybe a majority, not sure, seems so) do not want this stuff..

I guess time will tell..

I just hope they don’t pull another tier out until this time next year. 2 years is almost an acceptable timeframe, but then I don’t see them putting another tier in UNLESS there was an increase in level cap and new areas which would be harder.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Dante.1508:

This is pretty much it, I very much dislike Ascended and i use it because i’m forced to keep up, not because i want it..

I really do hope the populations decline again over this junk, not because i want the game to fail, but because i want Anet to get it through their thick heads that a lot (maybe a majority, not sure, seems so) do not want this stuff..

I guess time will tell..

I just hope they don’t pull another tier out until this time next year. 2 years is almost an acceptable timeframe, but then I don’t see them putting another tier in UNLESS there was an increase in level cap and new areas which would be harder.

A new tier of gear has already generated this much backlash. I can’t imagine ArenaNet wanting to release something above Ascended or have Ascended gear with better stats like tier 2 Ascended. It’s hard to say what they want to do with the level cap. If they raise it then it’s very likely there will be outrage over something called power creep and all the max level items becoming obsolete. It’s actually an ongoing problem with WoW expansions and I think ArenaNet needs to learn from this so they don’t make the same mistake.

zeromius.1604:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Dante.1508:

This is pretty much it, I very much dislike Ascended and i use it because i’m forced to keep up, not because i want it..

I really do hope the populations decline again over this junk, not because i want the game to fail, but because i want Anet to get it through their thick heads that a lot (maybe a majority, not sure, seems so) do not want this stuff..

I guess time will tell..

I just hope they don’t pull another tier out until this time next year. 2 years is almost an acceptable timeframe, but then I don’t see them putting another tier in UNLESS there was an increase in level cap and new areas which would be harder.

A new tier of gear has already generated this much backlash. I can’t imagine ArenaNet wanting to release something above Ascended or have Ascended gear with better stats like tier 2 Ascended. It’s hard to say what they want to do with the level cap. If they raise it then it’s very likely there will be outrage over something called power creep and all the max level items becoming obsolete. It’s actually an ongoing problem with WoW expansions and I think ArenaNet needs to learn from this so they don’t make the same mistake.

The thing is, it is possible to do it and they haven’t ruled it out. (Of course, they have not ruled very much out, probably learned their lessons on that score.)

I’m more shuddering at the thought if someone decides to design “Legendary Armor”.

(Posted all of this in another thread. Thought I’d throw it in here as well.)
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zen.6091:

Castaliea.3156:

DevonCarver.5370:

zen.6091:

I take it that since legendaries will soon be able to have stat changes out of combat, it would be possible to do this for other gear?

I don’t see that happening and the main reason is that it sets Legendaries apart. It makes them cooler, it makes them more worth trying to get if you care about stats and not just looks. I could be proven wrong at some point, but I don’t expect us to head down that road.

P.S. No.

You could set them apart by giving them changeable Sigils and Stats while just allowing changeable stats for Ascended Gear. Pigeonholing people into running X build because they have X Ascended gear in a game built around encouraging build diversity is completely counter-intuitive. I didn’t play GW to chase gear to make builds with and yet that’s all I’ve done in GW2 despite it supposedly being built around encouraging build/playstyle diversity. I know you’re not the guy to be angry at for this and I’m not so I don’t mean to be rude to you personally but it hurts when you old, favorite, game company does a complete 180 turn in their design philosophy. I’ve made way too many posts on this and it always puts me in a sour mood so I’m just going to stop with it now but I’m very disappointed with you guys as a whole. Completely lost sight of where you came from.

The only people that should be criticising ascended weapons are the WvW folks. Yes, Gw2 is about build diversity. And you can purchase multiple sets of gear for your various builds with rares and exotics. However, if you want that little extra, then you have to earn it. It it ascended gear was easy to get, and everyone got it within a short amount of time, then it would be pointless in releasing. You don’t have to get the gear right when it comes out. Think about how long it took the trinkets to get released. You’ll have plenty of time to get ascended gear. Too many people QQ’ing here are insignificant stat changes. These updates are for the people who need something to do. They’re here to give people something to work for.

This argument is “Use second best gear till you get ascended, duh…..for every build you’ll ever run, try to run, and be forced to run (skill changes).” Really? Yeah that’s awesome.

Getting full, and I mean full, ascended gear on a single character even for one set shows dedication and investment on that character. I should not have to run around with second best equipment simply because some PvE player constantly needs to get shiny stuff to obtain to keep him interested because the constantly updating world doesn’t do it for him. This game was marketed with a few key things in mind not the least of which was “Build diversity” and “Not forcing you to play”. Implementing extreme amounts of time-gated gear, never mind the fact they do make you stronger, does two things; Discourage build diversity and force you to play.

You’re quick to jump on the people who don’t like to use second rate gear yet when it comes to people who need to grind for gear as an excuse to play the game instead of enjoying the constant living world updates, WvW, and even sPvP we best all defend them right? I’m not saying remove it. I actually like the idea of a final step of armor. I’m saying let people who just want to actually enjoy the game and all of it’s future content, not thinking about gear (like how GW was and how GW2 was marketed) have their way too. Let us “finish” our characters so we can enjoy the game and let the people who want to grind for gear either grind for Legendary weapons, Alts, or even a whole other game, then they can come back to GW when they want and enjoy the new content….Exactly like how GW2 was marketed!

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Dante.1508:

TooBz.3065:

Yeah, they are on their path. You just have to decide if you want to go with them.

This is pretty much it, I very much dislike Ascended and i use it because i’m forced to keep up, not because i want it..

I really do hope the populations decline again over this junk, not because i want the game to fail, but because i want Anet to get it through their thick heads that a lot (maybe a majority, not sure, seems so) do not want this stuff..

I guess time will tell..

I just hope they don’t pull another tier out until this time next year. 2 years is almost an acceptable timeframe, but then I don’t see them putting another tier in UNLESS there was an increase in level cap and new areas which would be harder.

I don’t want anymore Tiers, i didn’t even wanted this tier. I’m even considering Going to FF14 just to get outta this mess..

Yes probably FF14 is tread milled but at least it never claimed it wouldn’t be then made it so..

If my friends leave i very much will too, one has left already..

Dante.1508:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Dante.1508:

TooBz.3065:

Yeah, they are on their path. You just have to decide if you want to go with them.

This is pretty much it, I very much dislike Ascended and i use it because i’m forced to keep up, not because i want it..

I really do hope the populations decline again over this junk, not because i want the game to fail, but because i want Anet to get it through their thick heads that a lot (maybe a majority, not sure, seems so) do not want this stuff..

I guess time will tell..

I just hope they don’t pull another tier out until this time next year. 2 years is almost an acceptable timeframe, but then I don’t see them putting another tier in UNLESS there was an increase in level cap and new areas which would be harder.

I don’t want anymore Tiers, i didn’t even wanted this tier. I’m even considering Going to FF14 just to get outta this mess..

Yes probably FF14 is tread milled but at least it never claimed it wouldn’t be then made it so..

Yeah, not gonna lie, I’m less inclined to head to FF14 due to the things I heard about it. I’d be more inclined to find a Minecraft MMO server.

If my friends leave i very much will too, one has left already..

I do not blame you for this, and I’d probably get bored fast if my friends completely disappeared.

Out of the 11 or so “virtual” friends I’ve gamed with over the years dating back to StarCraft and Diablo online and started GW2, I’m the sole player to remain.

Couple went back to WoW, few others to console games and slowing down in general, few back to EQ2, Rift, and SwTOR…

It is what it is. If you ignore the fact they sold a bill of goods without every stating anything about ascended gear (saying Legendary and Exotics are it) you live in lala land. It wasn’t mentioned and thus the backlash. Now we are stuck and people will choose.

Plain and simple.

Castaliea.3156:

*Let us “finish” our characters so we can enjoy the game and let the people who want to grind for gear either grind for Legendary weapons, Alts, or even a whole other game, then they can come back to GW when they want and enjoy the new content….Like how GW2 was exactly marketed!

That would be bad for business. They want money now.

It’s perfectly fine for me if they produce a quality expansion and cost another $60, I’ll definitely buy it. Guess they prefer a cash shop, hence this mess we get.

byjiang.1260:

Castaliea.3156:

*Let us “finish” our characters so we can enjoy the game and let the people who want to grind for gear either grind for Legendary weapons, Alts, or even a whole other game, then they can come back to GW when they want and enjoy the new content….Like how GW2 was exactly marketed!

That would be bad for business. They want money now.

It’s perfectly fine for me if they produce a quality expansion and cost another $60, I’ll definitely buy it. Guess they prefer a cash shop, hence this mess we get.

They’ve managed to fit the worst problems of free-to-play games (high real world cost RNG lottery boxes for ingame items) and sub-to-play games (timegates and long-term gear grind) into a game that doesn’t even belong to either category. And they’re managing to implement and handle it even worse than many of those games. I suppose that is an innovation, but it’s one that will drive customers away, not attract them.

There are so many players asking for an expansion over temp content, and for them to stop the absurd amount of timegating on ascended gear. Stop pandering to players that only want GW2 to be like other games, because those games are still doing it better, and you’ll only lose even more of your players to them.

Make GW2 what you said it would be, and what it should be. Make it for as many people as you can, but don’t make decisions that will appease one portion of the community at the cost of driving away another. If some players want to leave because there isn’t a constant gear grind for them, let them go and work on the strengths that GW2 already has. Build diversity and ease of experimenting with new builds are some of the best of those strengths. Stop trying to destroy them.

Crapgame.6519:

Out of the 11 or so “virtual” friends I’ve gamed with over the years dating back to StarCraft and Diablo online and started GW2, I’m the sole player to remain.

Couple went back to WoW, few others to console games and slowing down in general, few back to EQ2, Rift, and SwTOR…

It is what it is. If you ignore the fact they sold a bill of goods without every stating anything about ascended gear (saying Legendary and Exotics are it) you live in lala land. It wasn’t mentioned and thus the backlash. Now we are stuck and people will choose.

Plain and simple.

People chose to play games where there was more progression. Despite the backlash from Ascended gear, it actually still wasn’t enough for them. That’s why they left.

zeromius.1604:

Crapgame.6519:

Out of the 11 or so “virtual” friends I’ve gamed with over the years dating back to StarCraft and Diablo online and started GW2, I’m the sole player to remain.

Couple went back to WoW, few others to console games and slowing down in general, few back to EQ2, Rift, and SwTOR…

It is what it is. If you ignore the fact they sold a bill of goods without every stating anything about ascended gear (saying Legendary and Exotics are it) you live in lala land. It wasn’t mentioned and thus the backlash. Now we are stuck and people will choose.

Plain and simple.

People chose to play games where there was more progression. Despite the backlash from Ascended gear, it actually still wasn’t enough for them. That’s why they left.

Well, to be honest, I think there’s actually more people playing Minecraft right now than games with progression.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

zeromius.1604:

Crapgame.6519:

Out of the 11 or so “virtual” friends I’ve gamed with over the years dating back to StarCraft and Diablo online and started GW2, I’m the sole player to remain.

Couple went back to WoW, few others to console games and slowing down in general, few back to EQ2, Rift, and SwTOR…

It is what it is. If you ignore the fact they sold a bill of goods without every stating anything about ascended gear (saying Legendary and Exotics are it) you live in lala land. It wasn’t mentioned and thus the backlash. Now we are stuck and people will choose.

Plain and simple.

People chose to play games where there was more progression. Despite the backlash from Ascended gear, it actually still wasn’t enough for them. That’s why they left.

Well, to be honest, I think there’s actually more people playing Minecraft right now than games with progression.

A lot f people seem to think the few percentage of people that are mad somehow represent the majority of opinions. Somehow people seem to associate the less than 5% of players that on average visit game forums for the majority of players.

Arenanet had 1 year to decide if the gear was a good idea and since they are going along with it, it must be beneficial for them.

silvermember.8941:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

zeromius.1604:

Crapgame.6519:

Out of the 11 or so “virtual” friends I’ve gamed with over the years dating back to StarCraft and Diablo online and started GW2, I’m the sole player to remain.

Couple went back to WoW, few others to console games and slowing down in general, few back to EQ2, Rift, and SwTOR…

It is what it is. If you ignore the fact they sold a bill of goods without every stating anything about ascended gear (saying Legendary and Exotics are it) you live in lala land. It wasn’t mentioned and thus the backlash. Now we are stuck and people will choose.

Plain and simple.

People chose to play games where there was more progression. Despite the backlash from Ascended gear, it actually still wasn’t enough for them. That’s why they left.

Well, to be honest, I think there’s actually more people playing Minecraft right now than games with progression.

A lot f people seem to think the few percentage of people that are mad somehow represent the majority of opinions. Somehow people seem to associate the less than 5% of players that on average visit game forums for the majority of players.

Arenanet had 1 year to decide if the gear was a good idea and since they are going along with it, it must be beneficial for them.

I’ll agree with your second paragraph. Seeing that ArenaNet has all the numbers, if they saw a sharp decline in concurrent players after the Ascended items were introduced with the Fractals, they would take appropriate measures and say that they will no longer have additional Ascended items added to the game. Apparently, even though we don’t get to see them, the numbers did not show a decline in concurrent players. If anything, I would assume there was a rise.

As for your first paragraph, you don’t actually have those numbers. Even if the complainers account for only a small percentage of the player base, how would you know that it’s 5%? How do you know it’s not 1%, 8%, 15%, etc? I also don’t know how much power the vocal minority has but they tend to have more than a lot of people would suspect.

There are no doubt people that are quitting and not saying anything. The vocal minority that complains about the game falls into two categories: those that want the game to improve and those that want the game to fail. The ones that want the game to fail are quite malicious. They could just quit the game quietly but then they need to tell everyone about it in order to get more people to join them. If they can’t get what they want then they don’t want anyone else to either.

maddoctor.2738:

Klawlyt.6507:

Believe it or not I know all that. It doesn’t change the fact that GW2 was still heavily marketed to folks who were sick of classic mmo’s and sick of the grind. And while I know mmo’s aren’t static, the game launched with easy to acquire BiS gear coupled with literal YEARS of messaging that the game wasn’t going to come out with a new tier of gear every couple months. And literally 3 months after launch, they introduced a new tier of gear. They’ve wisely held off the next round for another 9 months, but here we are again.

They “excused” themselves by saying Ascended gear was planned to be in the game at release, bad excuse but still an excuse.

3 months after release they introduced Ascended Rings and Ascended Backpieces in Fractals, 2 months later (5 total) we got Ascended Amulets with the Laurel change, 1 month later (6 total) we got Ascended Accessories with the Guild Missions. Now 6 months later (12 total) we get Ascended Weapons through crafting.

They are adding Ascended quality gear in either new, or old activities. There is a good possibility that Ascended Armor will come from Dungeons (I can dream, can I?)

There is no indication that they will release a new tier of gear anytime soon.

I once had a buddy start nailing my ex as soon as she became my ex. When I confronted him about he said “Ah, but I told you I wasn’t interested in dating her.” This is what the ascended excuse feels like. “Well we never said there would be no gear progression.” No, but you messaged pretty heavily that people who aren’t into that should play your game.

As for the deets of when ascended pieces came out, thanks for the clarification. I quit GW2 not long after the first round. and came back in June when it looked like things had maybe settled, and I could acquire them without doing fractals. Depending on the implementation, this could be the final nail in the coffin. My Elder Scrolls collection will be here in a couple weeks, and that should be able to mostly tide me over till ESO comes out next year.

It doesn’t matter that each batch of ascended gear is all part of the same gear tier, because each batch is still a new tier of power creep. Therefore, rounds of power creep have still entered the game at a pretty normal pace compared to EOMMORPGotM, (roughly quarterly) it’s just that each round is comparatively small, and has no higher difficulty content to accompany it.

silvermember.8941:

A lot f people seem to think the few percentage of people that are mad somehow represent the majority of opinions. Somehow people seem to associate the less than 5% of players that on average visit game forums for the majority of players.

Arenanet had 1 year to decide if the gear was a good idea and since they are going along with it, it must be beneficial for them.

I’m sorry, but I cannot resist pointing out the irony in this post. Your argument, if I understand it correctly, is that because Anet is moving forward with this design after having 1 year to refine it, it must be a good design decision.

Yet your signature states:

Theoretically, the concept of the elementalist is sound, too bad this isn’t physics.

Given that Ele was one of the first two professions announced, how long did Anet have to refine the profession? Do you agree with all of their design decisions? When you disagree with the Ele design, where do you go to voice your opinion?

Hjorje.9453:

I have to say, these threads are so funny to read.

No for all of you that have a disagreement on the ascended stuff. How many of you own an ascended item? We knew back in November they were going to keep adding ascended to the game, if you was against it, then you shouldn’t have gotten any in the time frame because it is against your playing style, correct?
.

I have no Ascended items- not one

Morrigan.2809:

Hjorje.9453:

I have to say, these threads are so funny to read.

No for all of you that have a disagreement on the ascended stuff. How many of you own an ascended item? We knew back in November they were going to keep adding ascended to the game, if you was against it, then you shouldn’t have gotten any in the time frame because it is against your playing style, correct?
.

I have no Ascended items- not one

I only have one Ascended item, but I must say that I am with Hjorje on this one. I knew they were coming and have decided to start outfitting both of my two mains with ascended gear when I can afford them.

I like the ascended items concept. I can’t wait to see what the new stuff looks like.

jheryn.8390:

Morrigan.2809:

Hjorje.9453:

I have to say, these threads are so funny to read.

No for all of you that have a disagreement on the ascended stuff. How many of you own an ascended item? We knew back in November they were going to keep adding ascended to the game, if you was against it, then you shouldn’t have gotten any in the time frame because it is against your playing style, correct?
.

I have no Ascended items- not one

I only have one Ascended item, but I must say that I am with Hjorje on this one. I knew they were coming and have decided to start outfitting both of my two mains with ascended gear when I can afford them.

I like the ascended items concept. I can’t wait to see what the new stuff looks like.

I have two. One to replace a Green (!?!) Necklace I hadn’t realized I still had back when I was more enthusiastic about earning Laurels . . . and the Quiver I just made the other day because I was getting tired of a burning book on my back. (I’m keeping it since it works halfway like a light source)

Hjorje.9453:

—snip—

No for all of you that have a disagreement on the ascended stuff. How many of you own an ascended item? We knew back in November they were going to keep adding ascended to the game, if you was against it, then you shouldn’t have gotten any in the time frame because it is against your playing style, correct? I have a feeling group A and group C are closer in size then you may want to admit. Then you figure group B into this as not caring either way, and what ever direction ANET decides to go with the majority will be on there side because of group B. You can’t discount them, because which ever way ANET chooses to do something the majority will always be on their side.

Just my two cent and opinion.

Just because I hate ascended gear doesn’t mean I’m not going to get them if they are out there. You act like I should have refused to pursue and obvious (an unnecessary) advantage based on “play style.” Which to me is ridiculous.

That said, I have refused to do more than dailies / monthlies, I don’t run fractals (so rings are in short supply and back pieces are almost non-existent), etc.. The ascended pieces I have I obtained by playing the game mostly the way I want, with some adjustments (for example, dailies, guild missions, etc…).

Hjorje.9453:

No for all of you that have a disagreement on the ascended stuff. How many of you own an ascended item? We knew back in November they were going to keep adding ascended to the game, if you was against it, then you shouldn’t have gotten any in the time frame because it is against your playing style, correct?

Incorrect, very.

See, the reason I have Ascended stuff is the same reason I hate it: It offers an objective and significant advantage over exotic.

I’m forced to have it to keep up, or I’m at a disadvantage. That’s the problem with ascended. If they were simply exotic stats with an infusion slot most people wouldn’t give a kitten: Get them for fractals, don’t get them if you don’t wanna do fractals.

As is, they offer a significant advantage over exotic, forcing anyone that wishes to remain competitive to go for them. Remove that and I’d happily ignore them.

What is the name of the person working at Arenanet who brought up the whole “Ascended Gear” thing?

I am very much in the OP’s situation. Some of my characters have five sets of gear. My progression is horizontal. Ascended gear does nothing but complicate things for me. I am a veteran of this game and other games to know well enough that the stat differences will matter.

I got way more excited about the addition of new rune sets like Perplexity than I did for any new Ascended gear. The Rune of Perplexity has actually added gameplay value to the game in a way Ascended gear cannot: it’s actually changed what I do and how I play.

But I am afraid to invest into my new builds because it might be nerfed and then all those laurels and whatnot I saved up would be wasted on a build that is no longer viable. So I stick with exotics, but I won’t be able to do that as more and more Ascended gear comes in. The stat differences will mean too much.

So the OP’s solution is what I would like as well. When I heard about the stat-swapability on Legendary weapons, I thought to myself that it would solve any future gear problems.

Unfortunately, they’ve already started down the multiple stat variants path with trinkets, so I don’t know if they’re ready to correct course with Ascended weapons. It would mean that all Ascended weapon crafting recipes would be the same, instead of the different insignia = different stat choice setup that’s been the standard.

Antiriad.7160:

What is the name of the person working at Arenanet who brought up the whole “Ascended Gear” thing?

Linsey Murdock made the first post about it.

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

ProxyDamage.9826:

Hjorje.9453:

No for all of you that have a disagreement on the ascended stuff. How many of you own an ascended item? We knew back in November they were going to keep adding ascended to the game, if you was against it, then you shouldn’t have gotten any in the time frame because it is against your playing style, correct?

Incorrect, very.

See, the reason I have Ascended stuff is the same reason I hate it: It offers an objective and significant advantage over exotic.

I’m forced to have it to keep up, or I’m at a disadvantage. That’s the problem with ascended. If they were simply exotic stats with an infusion slot most people wouldn’t give a kitten: Get them for fractals, don’t get them if you don’t wanna do fractals.

As is, they offer a significant advantage over exotic, forcing anyone that wishes to remain competitive to go for them. Remove that and I’d happily ignore them.

I agree with this. A lot of people just say “you don’t have to get them” but if you want to stay competitive you kind of have to, especially in WvW.

Yay, Ascended weapons revealed to also be a massive vertical progression bullkitten time and money sink…

This thread is now more relevant than ever. What happened to “we don’t make grindy games”?

Estimated two weeks to make an Ascended Weapon. Main uses seven different weapons. I have stat variations for 3 of those weapon types, so let’s go with 10 weapons needed to be crafted. That’s 20 weeks or so to get back to the top of the power curve while retaining my ability to play different builds at top form.

I am sorry, but that’s just not in line with what this segment of the audience needs. We need a solution. Hell, normalizing Ascended gear in WvWvW would be fine. Giving the Legendary stat change system to Ascended would be fine as well. How it currently is set up is not fine. =/

I am not even touching on the impact this has on alts in competitive parts of the game.

You can’t do that anymore. At least not immediately. You have to prioritize 1 build and 1 weapon set. (Oh, and of course, 1 character.)

Maybe give option get these items free without any work. Those who like to grind could grind sake of grinding.

The blog post already says Ascended weps will drop in these chests and you choose the stat combo/weapon too.

Junkpile.7439:

Maybe give option get these items free without any work. Those who like to grind could grind sake of grinding.

That makes sense to me.

But you see grinders need a reason to grind. And it can’t be a long grind for a legendary or a skin, it has to be just the right kind of grind.

Also grinding isn’t fun unless you make everyone else do it to. How else can you show your l33t skillz?

</rant> <disappointment>

Vespirisa.1497:

The blog post already says Ascended weps will drop in these chests and you choose the stat combo/weapon too.

They won’t drop often enough to matter. I’ve see maybe 1 exotic drop a month.

TooBz.3065:

Vespirisa.1497:

The blog post already says Ascended weps will drop in these chests and you choose the stat combo/weapon too.

They won’t drop often enough to matter. I’ve see maybe 1 exotic drop a month.

I’ve gotten four in the last five days I played, so RNG at work ladies and gentlemen! Let’s take bets on how many people will be choking up Urmaug’s Secret for the easy JP finish?

You can post an encyclopedia on how terribly designed ascended acquisition is in GW2 and every word of it could be objectively true and heralded as visionary in the MMO field and it wouldn’t make a kitten difference. The only thing that will impact on ascended item acquisition in GW2 is if people stop playing.

It’s clear that the biggest priority driving ArenaNet’s design this year is metrics. Just like how CNN will run the Miley Cyrus VMA story and give it top prominence on their site so they can boast to their advertisers and investors that they had lots of page views that day (and they milked it with an evolution of Miley Cyrus image gallery), ArenaNet will use every time gated trick in the “not fun but effective” book of kittenty MMO design to push their daily log in metrics. The two week low quality updates (some of them are great), the temporary content, it’s clear the company isn’t driven by a desire to create a revolutionary and great MMO, they want to push their metrics so the higher ups think they’re doing a good job. In ArenaNet’s eyes, 1,000 people playing the game because they absolutely love it and it’s the best experience being offered to them, that 1,000 people isn’t any where near as good as 10,000 people who may not be enjoying themselves but they are logging in every day to charge their quartz crystal or hit the “craft” or kill 10 rats for their daily.

So what are the possible steps we can take to make Arenanet fix ascended gear?
I would donate money for that cause, too. (The money I would have paid Arenanet in their gem store, IF they hadn’t introduced Ascended gear – after that, in last year, I decided to never again give them any money.)

Antiriad.7160:

So what are the possible steps we can take to make Arenanet fix ascended gear?
I would donate money for that cause, too. (The money I would have paid Arenanet in their gem store, IF they hadn’t introduced Ascended gear – after that, in last year, I decided to never again give them any money.)

The way I see it you only have the following options:

- My original suggestion
- Lowering ascended stats to exotic

Ascended stats to exotic and give them the legendary option of stat switching out of combat.

Honestly, I think it’s done. We’ve said what we could. Proxy made some excellent suggestions, they just aren’t using them.

Time to move on and decide how to deal with it.