Guild Wars 2

This is one possible solution to the problem of alts and Ascendeds (where because of time-gating and RNG, it is prohibitively time-consuming to gear alts).

There is no question GW2 launched as a very alt-friendly game. Exotic gear and leveling xp could be obtained in a relatively grind-free way. That change drastically after launch. However, it may be possible to salvage some of that original promise.

The proposal is that once an Ascended slot has been filled on one character it becomes progressively easier to fill that slot on other characters.

The best way to do this would be to establish a system of blank precursors for Ascendeds. Blank precursors would then be turned into the Ascended item of choice (while adding whatever other resources — ore, shards etc — that are needed to get the grind time right).

The blank precursor is where the main time-gate would be (with the purchase token still being laurels). However, since it is a blank precursor, and not the Ascended item itself (which has stats, useable by only certain classes etc.), it would be easy to reduce the time-gate for each subsequent alt who needs it.

The best way to do this is that each alt, when they reach level 80, gets an heirloom token that would count for so many laurels, but could only be spent on a blank precursor.

Either the heirloom token could be at a static amount for each subsequent alt (say 75% of laurels needed), or the amount could increase for each subsequent alt (say 50% then 55%, then 60% etc.)

There are some obvious objections to this, most importantly “welfare Ascendeds”. But then the “welfare” argument has been made about the whole game, which was at launch based on sharing of resources, reduced grind, easy gearing up and so forth.

It’s not too late for Anet to institute a system like this, before attitudes like “welfare Ascendeds” take root in the future, and make it impossible.