Future balanced around Exotic or Ascended?
The current game is balanced around rares. The average “casual” player doesn’t have full exotic gear, such as most of my alts. They do just fine in rares.
Ascended is for hardcore players to have a goal to work towards, not the average player. So unless you intend to tackle hardcore content (such as high level Fractals) then you won’t ever need ascended gear.
And yes, someone will say you need it for WvWvW because everyone else has it and you’ll fall behind. This is an unfounded assumption because most people in WvWvW don’t have it, and in the vast majority of encounters it will make no difference.
Get it because you want it, not because you need it.
^ This is the point a lot here seem to miss. Likely because they are falling back to what they know from other games and just focusing on the numbers.
Stats really are secondary to skill in this game though. If you play well, dodge when you need to, remove conditions when you need to then lvl appropriate rares should do you just fine for pretty much all content in this game.
Don’t worry, a couple of months after the final Ascended armor pieces are added, content will appear that requires it (whether it will be balanced content or just require lots and lots of Agony Resistance like the upper-end Fractals is anyone’s guess – though my money’s on the latter, sadly). Then a couple of months after that, expect the announcement of the next tier of gear.
The current game is balanced around rares.
In my guild we did Fractal 46 with white gear just for the sake of it, only keeping jewelry for AR. We managed it with little trouble.
Colored gear is there for BiS/carrot addicts.
They are a majority in this community, so they must be catered to as well.
^ This is the point a lot here seem to miss. Likely because they are falling back to what they know from other games and just focusing on the numbers.
Stats really are secondary to skill in this game though. If you play well, dodge when you need to, remove conditions when you need to then lvl appropriate rares should do you just fine for pretty much all content in this game.
Nobody is missing that.
What people points out is the fact that EVERY single MMO that add a new tier of gear, do it with content made for that new tier, may it be a new dungeon, raid, map, whatever.
ANet made a new tier of gear and asked the player to go regrind the same old content in order to get more power for doing what?