This is not another “Thoughts about Ascended Q&A or Pros vs. Cons”.
This is just the mere idea of “Gear Score”. I am sure you are aware of this Arenanet, as well as half of the community player base that is familiar with this, no thanks to Blizzard with their “World of Warcraft” and their abusement of this idea which in the end, caused alot of Drama and a large Gap for Casuals and Hard Core players.
Link: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/
However after reading that articled, provided by the link above; I see bad clues that is bound to cause a large gap in the player base.
Quote: "… we have found that our most dedicated players were achieving their set of Exotic gear and hitting “the Legendary wall.” We designed the process of getting Legendary gear to be a long term goal, but players were ready to start on that path much sooner than we expected and were becoming frustrated … " – Linsey Murdock
Comment: You do realize that using Hard Core Players, the very few 1% that owns Legendarys, as a idea player base for judgement and conclusions about gear progress, does not make up for the casual base and thus, hint #1 Player gap.
Quote: " We have always worked hard to create a sense of satisfying progression rather than gear grind … " – Linsey Murdock
Comment: A lot of players will disagree about this since you just admitted in the quote above about “long term goal”, thus again you are leaning towards people that are grinding “Guild Wars 2” rather than enjoying it. Also the people that has these Legendarys, by no means obtained them by normal means.
Alot of them have publicly announced in documentary, screen shots, videos, forums, and personal websites using alot of real life money for purchasing gems to convert to gold, to having 20 – 75 people in their own guild, helping them obtain their Legendary in less than 2 months.
Which by your website, you posted that obtaining the Legendary was mostly to be on your part with the help of some people, however you over looked on how many people could help out and over looked how much money people were willing to spend on purchasing Gems to convert to Gold.
Alot of Casuals, are still obtaining the Legendary the old fashion way. So you are by default, ignoring the rest of the player base.
Quote: " You’ll also see more Legendary items in the future and an update to our existing Legendary weapons. Legendary items were always intended to be on par with other “best-in-slot” items. " – Linsey Murdock
Comment: Okay after reading this, you kinda defeat the purpose of first quote above, about players progressing or “grinding” as casuals call it. So already the “Grinding” player 1% base. Already and still at, “the wall”, so to speak.
Not to mention, you said the nightmare words and I quote “best-in-slot”. Meaning that this will cause a player gap by allowing people asking for “Gear Score” to participate in anything.
Note: Something that Blizzard Fan-boys love to cause drama with.
Also this will cause WvWvW, to be even more nightmare for PvP player base, and will cause those players to be “forced” too get Legendarys themselves, if they ever wanted to be on fair competition.
Conclusion of my Point: You are letting these Hardcore players, push you around to make rash judgements in solutions for future gear content.
(edited by Shadowlancer.7102)