Guild Wars 2

I dont wish to grind so that i can get an extra +2 to power and prec or whatever.
So i don’t.
Considering how heavily diminishing returns to stats set in after a while, ascended gear is practically for flaunting the size of your cyber member.
If you think there will be a perceivable difference in the effectiveness of your character who is in full exo as compared to ascended, i want whatever it is you’re smoking.
I mean, really. With full exo, your stat points should be more than a thousand for everything.
Do you really think adding 10-20 more is going to change anything?
Drama queens. Really.

No, vertical progression or horizontal progression is not the reason for me chosing gw2. PvP separation (gank free gaming) and gw quality stories is what I was looking for.

If I quit I would just stop playing because I am bored. But you don’t really quit gw2, you just stop playing.

The problem right now in game is simple, and I’m going to make a new post about and I might even start demanding action on it, to the point of even arranging protests.

Raine.1394:

Katai.6240:

Can someone explain to me why Ascended gear is such a big deal? I mean, did a couple of rings and backpack really obliterated this game? Is this game that fragile? And we don’t know how armors are acquired, either. How can they break the game when they’re not even in yet?

If you can show me evidence on how agony resistance or a few dozen extra skill points significantly affects PvE or WvW, then I’ll concede.

Here’s what I understand from Ascended gear.

• Slightly better than Exotic, slightly worse than Legendary. Mostly a negligible difference in PvE and WvW. If a handful of stats is making you lose at WvW, I think you’re doing something wrong.
• No upgrade slot. Which means less versatility than Exotic gear. If armor continues to not have upgrade slots, then we make use of our Runes with special effects on them. This makes them slightly worse than Ascended gear depending on the type of runes you prefer to use.
• Has Agony resistance and takes Agony increasing infusions. This is only relevant in Fractals. People are crying because they can’t get ascended gear because they don’t play Fractals. Why do you want a stat restricted to a mode you don’t play?

Then people are saying that Ascended makes Exotics obsolete, except we don’t know how we get Ascended armors? Maybe we use Exotics to craft Ascended. Who knows?

The problem is not the degree of progression they’ve introduced with Ascended gear. The problem is that they have committed themselves to vertical progression. Vertical progression “progresses” by periodically raising the power-level. This won’t stop, ever, and you will find that if you don’t hop on the treadmill at some point, you will not be able to play the new content. That’s the way all WoW-like games work. You can ignore it for a time, but eventually the difference between you and the environment will simply be too great for you to play. Let me repeat it since I see so many posts on the insignificance of the stat increase: The degree of vertical progression with Ascended gear does not matter in the slightest; what matters is the introduction of vertical progression.

But the vertical progression only affects one part of the game, FotM. Those who care about getting to deeper areas of FotM can have their vertical progression to get armor with higher agony resistance. Everyone else couldn’t care less. How does ascended gear affect anyone doing anything outside of FotM in a meaningful way? All you’re doing is upgrading your armor to get more agony resistance.

Roland Shadow.6192

The world I leveled my first character to 80 in no longer exists. With internal design decisions they have funneled characters into the fractals. With increased vertical progression on a per character basis their design decisions have stifled the lower level zones as living zones, now instead of leveling an alt and enjoying the game through the lens of another class populating the rich world with players you have people sitting in Lions Arch spamming LFG FotM lvl XX trying to get a head start on the Ascended Gear treadmill. This leaves the lower zones a barren wasteland compared to what they once were in most if not all servers.

Absolutely, positively 100% accurate on that. I’ve found few people running around mid-level areas, and finding a group for story mode on a dungeon is now time consuming and difficult. The devs took a massive dump all over PVE and players with alternate characters.

So, that leads to a question; can I get a refund on those now-useless extra character slots I bought? I’ll delete the characters in them willingly if that’s an issue. But those slots are now useless , because there’s no way I’ll bother leveling one of each class in a world that’s barren and empty of other players where even your primary character will never be good enough given the rate of stat inflation…

Corvindi.5734:

I didn’t quit. I just switched my pvp from WvW to the TP. Unfortunately, I just got pwned by some dye traders who made it look like prices were dropping or flattening earlier, causing me to sell off, then cry when I realized they were still jumping up. I have a lot to learn about this new form of pvp, but at least it’s not gear dependent.

That is the best thing I’ve read on these forums so far! Cheers!

Why quit the game over Ascended gear?

1) There was already vertical progression out of the box: white > blue > green > yellow > orange > purple
They just added a magenta-ish colour between orange and purple.

2) According to the AMA, Ascended gear was already planned and no new rarity will be added anymore.

3) The differences between Ascended gear and Exotic gear so far are minimal.

4) You’re perfectly competitive in full exotics.

Emotion plays a large part in this entire discussion, but let’s not blow things out of proportion now.

I’m finding it extremely difficult not to quit even though i really don’t want to leave.

GW1 was only game I played for the last 7 yrs, and spent 5 of them years looking forward to and preparing for GW2. Along with my guildmates.

Since ascended was introduced this changed things for me if not in a direct way but has changed my gameplay experience.

I suffer Aspergers, and the group of friends I played with over the last 7 yrs have all but left GW2 now, friends i was comfortable with. Now I am basically playing the game solo, even more so as the population has been funneled from the open world to FotM. I cannot even finish my personal story due to this. And suffering from Aspergers I find it difficult to start begging people for help to do DE’s in a sparcely populated Orr to get Arah opened and to start LFG to finish story. This is why I never do dungeons, and the game seems to be heading in the direction where dungeons is the only Endgame.

I see arguments within the forum flying back and forth with regards to VP and that whether the increase in stats matter or not. This is not the issue for me and I suspect others. The fact it has been introduced has had an impact on other areas of the game, from fragmenting the community to funnelling the population from one area of the game. And yes I am concerned that if i do take a break from game for any reason, will it be worth coming back if I am so far behind on the stat I can’t catch up.

Plus, I find I am logging on without any goals. Before i had a plan to aim for exotics on all my alts, maybe even go for Triforge. But with not knowing exactly the direction the game is going I have no idea what will or won’t be obsolete by the time I have attained something. So I am wandering around a pretty deserted open world, doing daily’s wishing I could even finish my goal of completing my personal story, and trying to figure out what goal should i aim for and coming up with nothing.

Like I have said, I really don’t want to leave, I have invested a lot of time and money in the GW franchise over the years and indeed the last 3 month. And if I can get a sense of what goals I can go for without being stuck on a neverending power creep, and manage to get into a new circle of friends within the GW community who that I can feel comfortable with and have no pressure applied onto me and help each other achieve goals. Then I would be happy to stay. At moment I feel stuck between a rock and hard place, I dont want to leave but the direction the game is going its making it difficult for me to enjoy staying.

ekimsfree.9406:

How do you quit something you’re not obligated to play?
No contract, no sub. Play, don’t play, it’s not a big deal. Drama Queens.

Actually, you paid for the game. Thats something. As for people quitting the game, every person who quits the game, hurts the game and hurts everyone in someway.

The best thing is for giving reasons for people to stay. And right now, its hard.

Katai.6240:

But the vertical progression only affects one part of the game, FotM. Those who care about getting to deeper areas of FotM can have their vertical progression to get armor with higher agony resistance. Everyone else couldn’t care less. How does ascended gear affect anyone doing anything outside of FotM in a meaningful way? All you’re doing is upgrading your armor to get more agony resistance.

No, there’s plenty of documented evidence showing that ascended gear has higher base stats than exotic. Further, the Q&A on reddit revealed that there will be more tiers within the infusions, and there’s no reason to believe those higher-tier infusions won’t have base stat numbers too… so you can feel like a hamster in a wheel chaisng those too.

Katai.6240:

But the vertical progression only affects one part of the game, FotM. Those who care about getting to deeper areas of FotM can have their vertical progression to get armor with higher agony resistance. Everyone else couldn’t care less. How does ascended gear affect anyone doing anything outside of FotM in a meaningful way? All you’re doing is upgrading your armor to get more agony resistance.

I am neutral on this, but the ascend gear has much better stats in general and these are useable everywhere. So what I say, but there is more to it than just agony protection.

Baron of Winters.5697:

Katai.6240:

But the vertical progression only affects one part of the game, FotM. Those who care about getting to deeper areas of FotM can have their vertical progression to get armor with higher agony resistance. Everyone else couldn’t care less. How does ascended gear affect anyone doing anything outside of FotM in a meaningful way? All you’re doing is upgrading your armor to get more agony resistance.

No, there’s plenty of documented evidence showing that ascended gear has higher base stats than exotic. Further, the Q&A on reddit revealed that there will be more tiers within the infusions (so you can feel like a hamster in a wheel chaisng those too).

There is, much higher. Someone linked a data mined weapon about 3 weeks ago in Overflow map chat, I don’t remember the stats but it was far higher quality/stats than current exotics, I do remember it had a vendor price of over 6g – and that should tell you something.

It’s changed my perception of the game, but I haven’t quit yet. I started GW2 because it was supposed to be unique: a step away from the other MMOs that are out there. For the first month it was… then they started the first steps of the treadmill and it changed the game entirely.

I was pretty disheartened, and still am, that it went like that. I already play gear grinders and have little desire to play another… but at the same time there are enough other features to make me sad at leaving the game. I feel… cheated? I guess that’s the best way to put it. I was told one thing, and given another.

But I’m still here, for better or worse. I’ll try for ascended gear whenever other methods of it come out. If karma farming isn’t one of those methods, then I’ll probably continue to play until the next step of the treadmill is added and a new gear tier appears… or until they raise the level cap, like all the other WoW clones. At that point it would affect my gameplay too much to ignore and I’d have to head on out the door.

GregT.4702:

If you’re on the forums right now, you haven’t quit the game over Ascended Gear.

And you’re very likely not going to. You’re either going to:

( a ) quit the game because actually you’ve finished all the content you want to and you’re bored with it;
( b ) quit the game because as a hardcore player you have a high game rotation and honestly you were going to move on to another game soon no matter what GW2 did;
( c ) not quit the game, and keep complaining for another three years; or
( d ) not quit the game, and enjoy it.

I consider “quitting” a game, to be a slow process for some, usually the hope that it will turn itself around keeps players focused on the forums, where if suddenly the mood changes and the consensus is that it has in fact improved, they will log back in and forget quitting the game. They do, as I did eventually stop posting on the forums and/or stop caring completely, but usually they as decent folks usually do, give it a little bit of time and or discuss to hopefully help drive the direction back to the right path for the game.

a: if the game wasn’t flawed, bugged and possibly bland and boring, then the content wouldn’t become obsolete so quickly, something tells me you’re coming from a console market standpoint, where churn n burn is a common practice, and generally their lifespan game wise is garbage. This is a pc game, generally they aren’t as easily burnt through and abandoned.

b: “hardcore” does not mean that you need a “game rotation” that assumption is just odd to say the least.

c and d: depends on your definition of quitting, and eventually even the promise of a free meal becomes pointless and loses it’s allure, if in fact it always gives you chronic diarrhea.

ekimsfree.9406:

How do you quit something you’re not obligated to play?
No contract, no sub. Play, don’t play, it’s not a big deal. Drama Queens.

The same way you can comment on a thread and add NOTHING to the discussion save for stating a moot point that’s as obvious as day. Because they’re entitled to their opinions, only most have the common decency to in fact offer said opinions in respectful manners. Same cannot be said for you, also by posting in such a rude manner into a perfectly rational discussion and as stated add nothing to it, you in fact prove that you are posting for the sole purpose of being dramatic.
You’re projecting the drama queen issue, because you’re guilty of it yourself clearly.

I’ve found the best way I can play Guild Wars 2 currently and not quit is to simply pretend that Ascended Gear and Fractals do not exist.

alcedonia.7831:

My 5 year old son just killed an ant. I love him terribly but this is a sign of things to come. It is obvious he will grow up to be a murderer. It hurts but i now have to persecute him as such.

No. Really.

Yes, we all know the slippery slope fallacy. But that’s far from the only issue GW2 has at the moment.

on a side note: Perhaps you can train him, to only kill ants that deserve it.

I have logged in 3 times since the Nov 15 patch, and did nothing but clear out TP orders and chat with what’s left of the guild I brought to the game. Before then, I was playing GW2 exclusively with my game time, logging in at least every 2 days. I still check these boards regularly, although that has been dwindling, but I will continue to until the next patch to see if the devs do indeed “backpedal” this awful change in direction.

Yes, I am fully aware that my being here implies I still like the game. I still love the game. I looked forward to it for years, only to have it ruined in months, so yes, I am still paying attention to what it does/where it goes. I refuse to play it because of what I know it will become by going down the treadmill path, and because the absurdly excessive grind that has been introduced for “BiS” (temporarily) gear does not permit me to do the things in game I would like to do (world completion, alt characters/stories, all paths to all dungeons, additional exotic sets for alternate traits…). Fortunately it’s free, and if Anet regains their good sense, I’ll be thrilled and back in a heartbeat (although won’t be buying gems until my confidence is truly restored). They’ve said they’re continuing on with the statgrind plan, but I’ll still watch and see.

Alastar.2863:

What I would like to ask the people who say they quit is this:

You complain about Gear treadmills and Grinding and the Ascended Gear,
Can you name ANY mmo that has less of a “Grind” then this game?
Can you name Any mmo that has an easier Gear Treadmill?
Can you name Any mmo that has absolutely NO issues with one weapon being superior over another? (outside of Eve Online [I think.] or Battlestar Galactica online.)

Yes too all Guildwars 1, the first game was great. Was it a MMO yep.

Gotta say i haven’t quit yet but the lack of solo, casual play with great loot drops is making the game stale as, dungeons are not worth the time anymore and all i ever hear and see is FotM and Ascended, both of which can go the way of the dinosaur in my opinion, terrible ideas badly implemented. Go back to your roots Guildwars 2.. not look to WoW grinders for inspiration please.

Alastar.2863:

What I would like to ask the people who say they quit is this:

You complain about Gear treadmills and Grinding and the Ascended Gear,
Can you name ANY mmo that has less of a “Grind” then this game?
Can you name Any mmo that has an easier Gear Treadmill?
Can you name Any mmo that has absolutely NO issues with one weapon being superior over another? (outside of Eve Online [I think.] or Battlestar Galactica online.)

Those questions are exactly why so many people are quitting.

• This game was sold on the basis of not having a grind, and what grind it did have had a foreseeable end. Once you hit the gear plateau, it was going to be all about cosmetics, story and exploration. A step away from other MMOs.
• This game’s predecessor had a FAR smaller treadmill… since it was nonexistant. It was a gear plateau. That doesn’t exist here. It did, for the first 2 months, but now the game has changed. The end game is no longer about exploration or story. It’s no longer simply about farming for the best cosmetic look. It’s about farming for gear. Just like every other MMO out there.
• Again, its predecessor GW1. And it was assumed it would be the same here. Foolish assumption, I guess. Cloning successful game strategies is a better selling concept than originality.

@ GregT.4702
This isn’t like subscription based games where you end your sub and stop paying and forfeit your ability to post on the games forums if that’s what you meant. I agree with the spirit of your post though.

It seems in every MMO these days there will inevitably be some change that some players are bound to object to and of those who do object there will be varying degrees of reaction (or _over_reaction, more to the point). Some will ignite into a downright apoplectic siezure of seething, venomous verbal assaults swearing to all things holy that they’ll boycott the offending company for their lifetime hence forth. Some will just state their suspicion of the path the current change could be leading to and then go about playing the game to wait and see with all the other emotionally stable players though. (By the way, I’m speaking purely in generalities OP, my description of some of the “extremists” is in no way directed at you Sir or Madam.)

To be fair some companies will take customer feedback (and apparently mix in some LSD and / or other severe hallucinogens) and metaphorically grab the wheel of their MMO, aim it at a brick wall and put the pedal to the metal cackling like mad men WAY off their meds as they pancake the whole thing into the wall at 130 m.p.h (see: SWTOR).

Personally, common sense suggests (well to me at least) that they’re either noticing that most of their players are spending most of their time in one dungeon trying to get a couple items to drop. Which means all the content, mobs, bosses, dynamic events, zones, dungeons, etc. (collectively known as “variety”) that they spent so much time designing is where the majority of them um, well… aren’t. Kinda like a luxury cruise liner that’s built and designed to cruise entire oceans and coastlines that is now just pretty much cruising the same 10 mile circle – the people holding tickets are bound to get REAL bored REAL fast. So I’d be expecting this to change P.D.Q.

If you were caving in some guys head in PvP when he had exotic rings and a backpiece, I think the chances of him now beating the complete bejeebus out of you with an extra +10 to a few stats from a ring and a backpiece are pretty slim too. It’s hardly the kinda of overwhelmimng gear advantage of some guy in teir 18 raid gear over some schmo in green quest rewards.

If I had to bet, I’d bet this recent content addition is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a whole new zone to fill in now, a whole bunch of gear to compliment that couple of rings and backpack, and if I was A-Net – my biggest priority right now would be to pry such a big chunk of my players out of that one new dungeon and get em spread back out in my world. And I’d wanna have more than one path for my players to take to gearing up as well (in keeping with the appeal to the “casual” market). I don’t think, ‘do this dungeon over and over or else’ is even close to their intention (at least I REALLY hope it isn’t). If anything maybe they should have waited to release this dungeon and zone as part of a much larger content patch but I think the doom-sayers are assuming the worst case without any real reason to. Also if I were A-Net though I would definitely feel that time is a factor in getting out some alternatives to THEE DUNGEON everyone’s set up camp around since it’s release.

The beauty of this MMO financial and design model though is that you can put it down and walk away and come back later without being so far behind it’s not even worth trying.

GregT.4702:

If you’re on the forums right now, you haven’t quit the game over Ascended Gear.

No, no actually I have. Haven’t logged in since I think it was the 16th of November? Maybe the 17th. Ether way it’s not at all fun to play the game in it’s current state knowing that your just grinding out to the next level to be trumped by the next level.

However it is very interesting to read about a game company destroying their own game and community. While many have quit the game I know several are still being entertained by the forums.

TheUndefined.1720:

So much wonderful feedback in this thread. Great posts everyone!

I’m not going to say I’ve ‘quit,’ Guild Wars 2, because really I’m just taking a break.

I have a sour taste in my mouth with how ArenaNet handled this whole situation. However, I honestly couldn’t think of a better way to have handled the community’s outcry myself. So in the end I don’t necessarily hold them entirely accountable.

They posted a long detailed response to the fans, and answered honestly in the reddit Q/A.

This very much seems to be what ArenaNet wants to do with their game. The difference between other game corporations, and ArenaNet is ArenaNet can be incredibly stubborn. They’re going to do what they want with this game after all is said and done. I can really respect that attitude even if it does tick me off.

My break is caused by a few factors though, and I can’t attribute my pause entirely towards the introduction of ascended gear.

• I really dislike how imbalanced the classes are atm. (Some classes are fun to play while others are just a chore, or feel terribly ineffective)
• I absolutly abhor how they’ve taken out skill capping from Guild Wars 1. (In all honesty going out, and hunting dozens of skills in GW1 kept me playing that game for a very long time. That was my personal horizontal progression.)
• I’ve grown very tired of reading nerf nerf nerf! from patch notes instead of balancing skills, or just down right fixing them.
• The amount of work I put into this game doesn’t equal the reward I’m given.

Sure the ascended armor really left a sting, and especially a few comments on the Q/A. Yet, ultimately what’s driven me away from this game is the nagging feeling Arena Net aren’t managing Guild Wars 2’s priorities properly.

Just my opinion though.

• I really dislike how imbalanced the classes are atm. (Some classes are fun to play while others are just a chore, or feel terribly ineffective)

This is not entirely true, alot of players just don’t know how to play a certain profession correctly.
Might be a little bit more role diversity, but i can’t notice a bar difference between professions at it’s current state.

Definitly some PvP things, like a ranger being a little bit of a let down.
Atleast out of all the 7 classes don’t see to be afraid any ranger.

Alot of minor things that shouln’t make a difference by that count, maybe mist form when in downed state…

In PvE it doesn’t make a crack of a difference.

By far the fractals are fun, just with the disconnects every now and then you might end up being stuck on the lower brackets.
On level 15 it’s still doable without any agony resistance.
It’s totally artificial that people just want the best items like in an eye blink.
Which is being worked on, so you might aswell wait.
It’s just a bit sad to complain about it, just because you feel that it’s too grindy.
Some of the players might have it, but hey. You’ll get it aswell!
Just takes a little longer.

As regards Baron of Winters.5697‘s commentary / posting:
This is what I was getting at. I truly don’t feel that these changes brought about in one patch constitues a large enough sample to conclude they’ve completely reversed their philosophy and are hence forth just going to begin piling higher levels, stats and tiers of gear on top of each other at a “WoW-ish” style and pace. I hit 80 and literally finished my B.I.S Exotic gear on 11/14. If I were to make any educated guess about what this patch portends for the future and it’s progression style and pace it would be that I’ll have even longer to cobble together an Ascended set.

Honestly I’m not feeling pressed to do so anyway, I was doing WvW in blues and greens and never felt at a disadvantage. Comparitively the gap between Exotic and Ascended as it is now barely registers compared to the gap that my quest sub-80 blues and greens were comapred to full Exotics. I’ll get em when I get em, it’s a goal to keep me logging in just like maxing my crafts, gaining Influence and buffs for my guild and buying my Exotic set was. Carrot on a stick or whatever, it made me want to log in.

One patch that adds one dungeon, one zone and a couple accesories of a new “tier” of gear does not a pattern make though. Judging the future progression of this game solely by the patch of 11/15 is logically invalid barring ESP. The changes of the 11/15 patch, at most, may deserve a wary and suspicious eye. Assuming those changes are step one in abandoning the entire design philosophy of GW2 is jsut a tad of an over-reaction (by tad I mean huge of course ;P) though i.m.h.o. Nother couple of patches that just ratchet it up and birth the same kind of “arms race” found in many other games though and we have a verifiable, "WTF happened to the years of PR about the “casual” GW2 A-Net?!?!"

I do agree that releasing this “content patch” with one zone essentially completely barren of any content, and a single dungeon representing the ONLY step up in content we’ve had since launch was a mistake though. It shouldn’t have been difficult for them to predict that at least a large enough portion of their player base was going to end up sitting around LA spamming “LFG FotM Tier [whatever]” and a really huge portion of the game world they spent so much time designing was going to be deserted along with enough players feeling left out to be an issue. If anything, this patch should have been a part of a larger patch offering more content through out their world and offering something to every (with in reason) player of every different play style. The only thing this one really has to offer their entire player population is a dungeon that yeah – HAS to be grinded. The fact that even those players who don’t mind the grind still have to fit themselves into one of a couple dozen or so tiers just magnifies is dividing of the community that much more.

Who am I to say though? I’m by no stretch a programmer that could even approach programming an MMO let alone produce and market it multi-nationally. I’m certainly by no means qualified to critisize the folks at A-Net or any game / software producers though. Maybe they did make a mistake releasing this patch as it was or maybe they didn’t? Even if it was a mistake, they’re human and by no means would such a mistake (if it was one) sour the game for me, let alone ruin it. I’d guess that their next “content patch” will be aimed directly at the heart of spreading the content back out (rather than solely concentrated in LA) and opening up a lot more doors to the Ascended gear. I seriously doubt they instituted one tier with one stat that applies to the higher end of one dungeon. Leaving the “casual vs. hardore”, “vertical vs. horizontal” and whatever other conflicts out of the equation completly and all that work around just one part of one dungeon makes precisely ZERO sense anyway.

To even approach a “fair shot” you’d have to give it at least one more “content patch” to judge. But hey, if you’d be having more fun doing something else than playing GW2 then by all means go for it! Afterall, it is YOUR liesure time and ultimately that’s what it comes down to. Whether you stay with GW2 or abandon civilization to live an isolated Ascetic life a’ la Siddartha Guatama you don’t have to qualify it with me A-Net or anyone else! Whatever blows your hair back friend (unless you shave it all off in the interest of the whole Aescetic bit of course)!

Oh hey @ Snix Spoonman.3871:

I’m trying to finish up my Personal Story Quests as well but I stopped just short of finishing a few weeks ago because the rewards for killing Zhaitan were ABSOLUTE GARBAGE! I mean garbage to the point of like – the rewards come in bags literally called “Exotic Bags” however everyone was getting pretty much solely blues and greens with a very few rare (yellow) items in the level ranges of the teens – 80! So really, just finishing the maps for Malchor’s Leap and / or Cursed Shore got you 2 Exotics each but killing Zhaitan would get you some random useless green or blue that you coudln’t even sell on the TP above their vendor value much less even get an Ectoplasm from. They aren’t even worth Salvaging in most cases, just strait up selling to a vendor!

I was just wondering if you had heard if this bug (it HAS to be a bug!!!) had been fixed? Anyway, I’m at the point of wanting to finish my Personal Story as well (assuming it’s fixed). I’m gonna add your name to my firend’s list if it’s cool with you and please feel free to add my name to yours and we can at least help each other finish our Stories. Even if you aren’t up to the “Killing Zhaitan” part I’d be more than happy to help you get to that point (heh, not it like it’s in anyway hard though) and hopefully maybe we can find a couple other’s who would want to get in on this as well and we can all get this done.

Either way, feel free to hit me up in game. For any reason really, doesn’t just have to be about the Story Quests. I haven’t felt a big need to hop in FotM either so I’m still on tier 1. Maybe we can get a group together to start on that too?

I’ll quit the game… the one I waited for for 5 years and spent $1000 on a new computer and bought lots of accessories I didn’t need to increase my play experience, and spent nearly $200 on gems already… if Fractals are the only way to get Ascended (or better than exotic) gear and the only dungeon to get it on and if the much harder, more interesting, and lore related dungeons (the current ones) aren’t given better gear.

Full Arahs shouldn’t be weaker than something received from lvl 10 fractals. Especially since the common Arah path takes 2-4 hours.

what arah path takes 2-4 hours?

If arah path 3 takes you 2-4 hours, ascended gear is the least of your concerns.

Still contentedly playing the game I bought six months ago, still enjoying (with the obvious niggles about bugs) the experience. Not bothering with Ascended items until they become trivial to obtain … if lack of Ascended items means I get gated out of content (and I don’t mean +10 fractals, I mean regular PvE content) then I’ll stop playing but until that point I’m having fun.

Why does it matter if people stop playing the game? Because people who don’t play the game don’t buy anything in the gem store. People who don’t play the game are less likely to pay for expansions. People who don’t play the game make the world seem emptier for those that do, which disincentivises those that are still playing from continuing. In short, even without a subscription active players still generate income.

Wiser with Age.3714:

I’ve not played for the past couple of weeks. For me, it was a combination of the Fractal + Ascended + Reddit AMA. It’s kind of ironic that it was the Reddit that finished pushing me over the edge.

I think that people like you just look for excuse to leave and go back playing what you used to… If it wasn’t about ascended gear or not getting the exact answers you expected, it would be about something else.

I have a friend who stopped playing because he didn’t like the fact that there are quests like feeding cows which he considers it silly. How is that any different then your case?

cimon.5798:

first off this game is a young pup who in the kitten said exotics was gunna be top teir in there progression. quit being babies about everything you people on here make me cringe sometimes with how much you whine about the silliest crap in the world QQmoar

Fair enough. I was attempting a little more tact but basically, “Yeah!”

Honestly, I’m not big on exhaustively researching a game, especially prior to it’s release. My guildies and friends do that then through course of hearing them discuss it, I get sold. Not to sugar coat it but yeah, I’m just a follower ;P.

I never once read or heard mention to the effect that, “the armor, gear and items that are in the game at launch are the only items that will ever be in our game.” Never heard any statement that could be misunderstood to even hint at that. Furthermore, I guess I just kind of assumed their would be more powerful gear and items, even a level cap raise above 80 eventually.

Seeing so many people rant and rail against A-Net though over the patch of 11/15 I guess I also just assumed that there was such a “promise” from A-Net. Seeing some people so extremely kittened off after this patch made me wonder if I was missing some important detail that I was supposed to be really angry about though.

There’s adding a 5 man dungeon with a ring and back accessory. Then there’s adding a 25 – 40 man dungeon that has to be mastered and run week after week after week for months to eventually replace every item and shred of gear you possess just so you’ll be prepared to do exactly that again when the next content addition is added. Oh yeah, and you’ll probably need to grind out an entirely different set for PvP, well… so you can grind out the next PvP set when that’s added too.

If the “grind” of GW2, whether pre or post 11/15 is demanding too much of your time to keep up then this entire genre probably isn’t for you. Really I’d stick to Solitaire if GW2 is too “grindy”, maybe a game of Mahjong if you have the whole weekend off but take it easy and don’t over commit. Just see how it goes before you lock yourself in to a full set of tiles.

The ascended gear with nothing changed my game play.So no i won’t quit

GregT.4702:

If you’re on the forums right now, you haven’t quit the game over Ascended Gear.

And you’re very likely not going to. You’re either going to:

( a ) quit the game because actually you’ve finished all the content you want to and you’re bored with it;
( b ) quit the game because as a hardcore player you have a high game rotation and honestly you were going to move on to another game soon no matter what GW2 did;
( c ) not quit the game, and keep complaining for another three years; or
( d ) not quit the game, and enjoy it.

Nonsense.
I’m on the forum but haven’t logged in since basically a few days after the FotM patch.

I’m waiting for ANet to make good on their promise that Ascended gear would be earnable in all aspects of the game and not just by having to repeat grinding FotM.

When I can get equal powerelevel gear without having to run FotM over and over and over – I’ll get back into this game. (Unless ANet has done something else bad).

People can be active/follow a game on the forum without playing.

I used to play quite a lot, stopped with implementation of new gear and AMA confirming new tiers of upgrades will be implemented slowly to give people progression. Also as people have brought to light, level caps will be raised with expansions – “anyone can increase the length of the experience bar and call it content” – Isiah Cartwright

Vertical progression is not progression at all, as you are staying in the same place skill wise, it encourages time played > skill, and so makes casuals who dont play much weaker with every new stat increase implemented.

All this new tier/level cap says to me, is that Arenanet can’t sell their game on their content anymore, they don’t think it will be fun enough to play by itself and thus need to actively “force” encourage people to go to new content with increased numbers → the easiest way to encourage people to go to new content.

I only play now with my girlfriend as we are in a long distance relationship and virtual interaction helps us feel closer.

Left due to ascended gear +1
No more passion for the game to say anything else.
Except was and still am extremely disappointed.

For me, quit the game because

- Class are boring, No way to create your own build like GW1, you get bored after 3-4hours playing with whatever class
The skill balance team, are the MOST incomptent person i ever see in my life.

-GW2 is grind, grind, grind, grind,
——grind for mat to lvl crafting skill, or craft armor – jewel
——Grind dungeon for exotic armor set – exotic weapons, which is MORE than fre*king boring
——-Now Grind AGAIN because if this idiotistic Ascended gear introduced with awfull FAKE excuse like “filling gap, ascended gear was supposed to be at GW2 release” or whatever other BS because they think player are just Dumbest brainless fanboy.

very nice !

Basicly, the game could have been awesome if they really took what was awesome from GW1.
But no, they just failed, and the game turned into another pointless crap mmo with 0 tactic or brain needed. Just grind, grind, grind, grind, and irl money because of TP.

GG Anet. How waste a entire game with somes awfull details and fail setting.

cimon.5798:

… gunna be top teir in there progression…

There wasn’t “gunna” be vertical gear progression (in the stats treadmill sense), that was that point, they spent years banging on about how the world did not need yet another “WoW 2.0” and that progression would be on things like cosmetics, there would be no gear treadmill.

To the OP, I’ve played about 30 mins since the FoTM patch, doubtful I will be back, particularly as I’ve found a game that does mass PvP better and the PvE in GW2 is simply terrible and aimed at ultra casuals / bads (talking about PvE as in world bosses / champs / dungeons, in regard to the actual world / quests, that aspect is very good).

It was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me, I’ve barely logged into to the game since the introduction of ascended gear and have lost interest.

Most of my guild have taken a break from GW2 too, we were a Guild Wars 1 guild that played GW1 avidly from 2005 – 2012 and waited eagerly for the sequel.

Unfortunately the sequel was a disappointment to most of us, I enjoyed levelling up to level 80, and doing most of the dungeons, yet the flawed introduction of ascended gear was just too much, since then I tried to level up alts but it just seems a chore, so now I’m happy to take a break and hope the game improves, though tbh I highly doubt it.

Gele.2048:

So take from the first dungeon items and DO evry dungeon and evry quest and evrything in the game whit that gear horisental that was teh reason why i was not playing now im ENJOYING !!!!

See right there? This is a “dedicated player”. So everyone who was wondering now has an answer. Since i am not that “dedicated” though i find myself logging less and less. I think i am waiting the next ascended armor piece to stop for good.

In my guild of about 100 people about 25% stopped playing, and nearly 50% of the rest barely login every week.
Some of them went back to WoW because GW2 wasn’t so different as advertised.
Many of them stopped playing beacuse of non existent fix and balance (both in PVE and PVP)
Many of them stopped because lack of variety in PVP (both WWW and MISTS)

Nearly all the people that barely login now (and that may leave shortly) are tired of grinding and feel like there isn’t much to do except for grind.

This is the situation of my guild and of many other guilds I have contacts within.

I have logged in like a few others basicly.. 3 times since the Lost shores.

Here is the truth about why the Ascended was the final straw for a lot of us.

Yes there was a gear treadmill. But it was not impossible and it meant in a relatively short time and with dedication ALL types of players would be equal in the end. The dungeon runners, the open world explorers, the WvWers would all have a fair shot at the end game equipment. There was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Now? Now there is no light at the end o the tunnel… now there is just another tunnel. Anet has officially said they will continue with the gear treadmill. So those of us that already didnt like it but accepted it because it was a easy and widely obtainable end are now facing the same thing that we DONT like with other MMOs. Anet said “if you dont like MMOs, you should like us” except they failed to understand one of the BIGGEST reasons people dont like MMOs is the stupid gear treadmill.

This now feeds into the broken promises bit. Anet failed here because they did not focus on what they should have.

Bugs and glitchs in Personal Story and Dungeons making people completely stuck and unable to finish or do that content. This has been months now, I know 2 people out of 10 that cannot finish their personal story and 7 out of 10 have had to re run dungeons because it glitched out at some point. What happened to the mini games? What happened to more town cloths in the cash shop?

Finally. The designers of GW2 had a plan and it worked. They produced a good game with a full MMO experience that offered multiple style of players a place to live. The one exception is the Raiders. I understand wanting to fix this.

The problem is the live team do not have an understanding of how to do it, so they just threw numbers at people and said “Here! Go get more powerful!” It is lazy and sloppy design and basically spits of all the history GW has built and all the good faith Anet had before hand for truly being smart and innovative in their ideas.

Will I still play GW2? Yeah I will always come back, play a little and if they fix the issues in a year then I will play again every day as I did before. I will plop down 50 dollars a month as I used to… but if not, if they do not start to fix this game and make it what it could have been… then no, it will become a forgotten what could have been" and I will move on to games that are fun to play rather then a chore to play.

HiddenNick.7206:

Wiser with Age.3714:

I’ve not played for the past couple of weeks. For me, it was a combination of the Fractal + Ascended + Reddit AMA. It’s kind of ironic that it was the Reddit that finished pushing me over the edge.

I think that people like you just look for excuse to leave and go back playing what you used to… If it wasn’t about ascended gear or not getting the exact answers you expected, it would be about something else.

I have a friend who stopped playing because he didn’t like the fact that there are quests like feeding cows which he considers it silly. How is that any different then your case?

If this hypothetic MMO was about some kind of high adventure setting and the MMO developers threw in a random cow quest as an abberation that went against their design philosophy, went against their stated intentions, clearly offered the best equipment available in the game, required extreme repetition, and basically acted as a forecast of what was to come, then that analogy would be accurate.

I’ve been without a MMO for over half a year because I didn’t like any of my options on the market. Each MMO was left after the devs started to noticably change their games or produced content that was clearly against their stated goals for the game. At this point, I’m even crazy enough to think about getting into The Secret World since it meets many of the criteria points that I care about (regardless of the enforced trinity requirements and the hard mode dungeon grinding in the end game scene). While I certainly don’t agree with everything that Funcom is doing, they are being consistent with their concept and haven’t tried to make any kind of substancial promise that they have no intent of keeping.

If Ascended was added with an expansion after they reset the gear ceiling in a level cap raise, then I’d have much less of a problem with it. Or if it was added at around the 6 month or 12 month mark based on numerous months of consumer feedback from the live state of the game, then I could be understanding. Yet to switch things up in less than 3 months of the live game in a move that clearly seems to be a deviation from their stated intentions sends all kinds of warning flags. Either ArenaNet got over ruled by corporate, they completely misjudged their target market demographics, or they intentionally engaged in a bait ’n switch situation with their advertised product. None of these potential answers are very comforting.

EDIT

What would have satisfied me with the Reddit AMA? If ArenaNet had truly acted ignorant and clueless, then I could have at least accepted that they were just naieve or foolish. Had they admitted that they were wrong because they were out of touch and made quick steps that were visible in the game to correct their previous actions, then it would have been easy to forgive them. Instead ArenaNet presented an image that they knew exactly what was going on and still did what they wanted even when they knew that it would cause serious problems. That is either extreme foolishness, arrogance, or simply a company lying its rear end off in an attempt to save face (which only makes them look even more foolish).

I got the Yakkington’s Ring last night, my first ascended piece. I also haven’t decided whether to craft a quiver or go for a fully jacked up capacitor. Quit over ascended? Hell no, I’m having a blast just trying to obtain them. Yes, it’s a bit grindy and slow, however I spend most of my time in WvW, so this PvE draw really is a pleasant change of pace when I need a mental reset.

Nope, doesn’t effect me in how I play the game, so I don’t care the slightest.

I’m still having fun running with my guild in WvW. The only thing that prevents me from logging in is the fact that I play multiple games and there’s so many other games to play like Halo 4, FarCry 3, Aftermath Battlefield 3 expansion and Planetside 2. I can’t play them all at the same time you know.

I just don’t understand why everyone stresses so much over a simple new tier in a game that is 3 months old. You’ll need to regear again anyways the second they raise the level cap so there’s no point in freaking out over it.

tkalamba.2541:

I just don’t understand why everyone stresses so much over a simple new tier in a game that is 3 months old. You’ll need to regear again anyways the second they raise the level cap so there’s no point in freaking out over it.

If you a buy a game sold to you on one philosophy then they u-turn within 3 months, it is a perfectly valid complaint.

Would you say the same if they u-turned on other pre-game promises? For example they stated they would not have open world PvP (in the full proper sense), can you imagine the uproar if three months in they went all EVE and decided to make introduce full open world PvP on every server.

I somehow suspect that many of the hypocrites who say sticking in a gear treadmill is fine, would be having a fit.

Raising the level cap at an expanision is fine, it was expected, introducing a gear treadmill in direct opposition to their pre-game interviews/ Q&A/ videos, etc is not. Of course now they will have less peolpe buying their expansion,and they are now competing with all the other “WoW 2.0” gear treadmill clones, except with one hand tied behind their back, because teh PvE in GW2 simply does not compare for most raiders.

Yareon.2835:

In my guild of about 100 people about 25% stopped playing, and nearly 50% of the rest barely login every week.
Some of them went back to WoW because GW2 wasn’t so different as advertised.
Many of them stopped playing beacuse of non existent fix and balance (both in PVE and PVP)
Many of them stopped because lack of variety in PVP (both WWW and MISTS)

Nearly all the people that barely login now (and that may leave shortly) are tired of grinding and feel like there isn’t much to do except for grind.

This is the situation of my guild and of many other guilds I have contacts within.

+1 this says it best for me too, i hope the company reads this post over many others..

Sylosi.6503:

tkalamba.2541:

I just don’t understand why everyone stresses so much over a simple new tier in a game that is 3 months old. You’ll need to regear again anyways the second they raise the level cap so there’s no point in freaking out over it.

If you a buy a game sold to you on one philosophy then they u-turn within 3 months, it is a perfectly valid complaint.

Would you say the same if they u-turned on other pre-game promises? For example they stated they would not have open world PvP (in the full proper sense), can you imagine the uproar of three months in they went all EVE and decided to make introduce full open world PvP on every server.

I somehow suspect that many of the hypocrites who say sticking in a gear treadmill is fine, would be having a fit.

Raising the level cap at an expanision is fine, it was expected, introducing a gear treadmill in direct opposition to their pre-game interviews/ Q&A/ videos, etc is not.

There is zero difference between adding new gear to obtain and adding a higher level cap. You will still need to gain new gear to hit the new max…. It’s still vertical progression and was stated from the get go. I expected it.

I also don’t throw fits over a game. I simply choose to play what I like, and not play what I don’t like. Simple as that. Stressing over small changes is such a waste of time and energy that could be better used else where. If the game didn’t deliver on what I thought they promised on, I simply would have not played it. I’ve bought plenty of games in the past where I play, realize It wasn’t what I wanted, stopped playing, and that was it.

Sylosi.6503:

tkalamba.2541:

I just don’t understand why everyone stresses so much over a simple new tier in a game that is 3 months old. You’ll need to regear again anyways the second they raise the level cap so there’s no point in freaking out over it.

If you a buy a game sold to you on one philosophy then they u-turn within 3 months, it is a perfectly valid complaint.

Would you say the same if they u-turned on other pre-game promises? For example they stated they would not have open world PvP (in the full proper sense), can you imagine the uproar of three months in they went all EVE and decided to make introduce full open world PvP on every server.

I somehow suspect that many of the hypocrites who say sticking in a gear treadmill is fine, would be having a fit.

Raising the level cap at an expanision is fine, it was expected, introducing a gear treadmill in direct opposition to their pre-game interviews/ Q&A/ videos, etc is not. Of course now they will have less peolpe buying their expansion, because they are now competing with all the over “WoW 2.0” clones fighting for scraps.

Fun fact… they didn’t stick in a gear treadmill. They added a step between exotics and legendaries to fill the time gap in between and to open the door to tons of lateral progression.

GregT.4702:

If you’re on the forums right now, you haven’t quit the game over Ascended Gear.

And you’re very likely not going to. You’re either going to:

( a ) quit the game because actually you’ve finished all the content you want to and you’re bored with it;
( b ) quit the game because as a hardcore player you have a high game rotation and honestly you were going to move on to another game soon no matter what GW2 did;
( c ) not quit the game, and keep complaining for another three years; or
( d ) not quit the game, and enjoy it.

(e) lose interest in the game, hardly ever log on but still follow the forums for what the game used to be.

VOLKON.1290:

Fun fact… they didn’t stick in a gear treadmill. They added a step between exotics and legendaries to fill the time gap in between and to open the door to tons of lateral progression.

Fun fact, they added a gear treadmill that broke pre-game statments like this (from their lead dev):

“We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.”

You now have to hop on to a gear treadmill (a treadmill which currently breaks another one of their pre-game promises that you can play the game how you want) if you wish to remain just as powerful, pre-release prestigious gear meant cosmetic, if they just wanted to fill a space between exotic and legendary then it would of been cosmetic, the stats on a legendary were the same as an exotic.

They didn’t fill a space, they created an end game gear treadmill, because of whining / failure of tPvP.

I don’t think it’s so much the ascended gear itself that’s making me lose interest… Rather, the direction the game is going. Granted, there’s no pressure to really play (which was a nice selling point) so I’ve definitely decreased my time investment in it pretty substantially.

Actually I doubt that many people quit just because of the ascended gear. I think the majority of people who quit when this patch came out quit for more reasons aside from this.

For me this is certainly true. Ascended gear was just the symbol that was raised that represented the general feeling a number of people had that Anet wasn’t doing what they promised. I find that the aspects of grind and my story are the bigger disappointments for me. If I actually still would enjoy leveling toons in this game I could’ve ignored this new endgame and just stick to having fun. Problem is that this patch came at a time when I was no longer really enjoying the game and the patch just made the decision easy to quit.