Guild Wars 2

Unfortunately I have lost nearly all interest in FotM with the addition of the infinite infusion treadmill. The sad part is I really enjoy doing Fractals. For the most part, it’s really well-designed and balanced.

However, agony shouldn’t even exist. It’s a cheap way to gate content and provide yet another treadmill. With endless infusions, it’s literally infinite.

This morning, I crafted a +5 Power stat infusion for quite a bit of gold. Immediately after, someone linked a datamined +7 Power stat infusion. I realize that datamined info isn’t always accurate, but this seems like another upcoming addition to the infusion treadmill. This time, instead of agony resistance, we get more stats to work for. I was already tempted to give up on higher levels of FotM and just purchase the WvW +5 stat infusions, but after seeing this, I just sighed. Yes, I like to min/max, but I thought it wouldn’t be endless in GW2, especially for someone with alts. For those with alts, we already have an insane amount of min/maxing to do, not including endless infusions.

Datamined? You can BUY infusions on the TP. There’s some up to +12. And currently the added infusions aren’t even required. Especially with the addition of weapons and armor you could likely very easily get enough AR to get where you need to.

TBH, the +5 on the rings should suffice in most cases.
But, its not for everyone, but its something to work towards besides leaderboards for FotM. Just my opinion though.

I’m talking about actual stats, like power, precision, etc. Edited post to reflect that.

Hearte.6852:

Unfortunately I have lost nearly all interest in FotM with the addition of the infinite infusion treadmill. The sad part is I really enjoy doing Fractals. For the most part, it’s really well-designed and balanced.

However, agony shouldn’t even exist. It’s a cheap way to gate content and provide yet another treadmill. With endless infusions, it’s literally infinite.

This morning, I crafted a +5 Power stat infusion for quite a bit of gold. Immediately after, someone linked a datamined +7 Power stat infusion. I realize that datamined info isn’t always accurate, but this seems like another upcoming addition to the infusion treadmill. This time, instead of agony resistance, we get more stats to work for. I was already tempted to give up on higher levels of FotM and just purchase the WvW +5 stat infusions, but after seeing this, I just sighed. Yes, I like to min/max, but I thought it wouldn’t be endless in GW2, especially for someone with alts. For those with alts, we already have an insane amount of min/maxing to do, not including endless infusions.

I understand and I feel for ya. Anet decided to roll this way, so we gotta roll with it. Besides… fractals were meant to be like the arcade games of yore… they kept going… till you died. This is the same principle. There’s no credits screen at level 100. There’s no “You have arrived” moment to end all “You have arrived” moments. To me, its the wrong game genre for that.

I actually think the new agony system fits that paradigm pretty well. We’ll see in time if it really does what its supposed to do, but in the end, fractals are what they are.

And if, heaven forbid, they add levels 81-100 for the main game and new playable races, etc… we’ll both have to do this all over again. Its honestly best to set your expectations at a level they (ANET) can meet or achieve or you’ll always be disappointed.

Unless you’re really obsessed with min/maxing, I don’t see how this is a problem.

And people obsessed with min/maxing are generally the hardest to please. They want all the best stuff, and they want “content” (grind) to do over and over to get it. The problem is, they all want it at different speeds and in different proportions. There will always be some guy with 12 hours a day to play GW2 with better gear than you, which creates a “treadmill” effect. If you’re a min/max-er, you pay for it… and the price is a BUNCH of time.

The PVE in this game isn’t hard enough to require that you have every possible ounce of +2 this-or-that. If you have exo’s and AR, you can do fractals up to a ridiculously high number… especially if you’re a Warrior. (Not a Thief like me… ._.)

Actually the stats from infusions do add up to significant numbers. With ascended armor, you can now cap at +70 stats from infusions alone. Just in terms of Vitality, that’s 700 HP, which is 6.5% of thief/guardian/elementalist HP. I’m concerned about how much more we’re going to get and the possibility that it will be endless, like AR.

It seems to be a not-so-subtle way of sidestepping the gear treadmill with a different one.

I am confused, I thought you could only upgrade AR? You can upgrade stat infusions as well?

I think infusions are the way anet will allow players to increase their character’s power in the future. I definitely prefer this method to another tier of armour, as it preserves player equity (ie. it does not replace ascended armour the way a new tier would, thus preserving the effort the player put into getting the ascended armour).

The problem is that the current 5/5 infusions are so kitten expensive! They are priced at end-gear levels, which leads you to expect they won’t be replaced. One option to preserve the player-equity in these existing infusions would be to make the new infusions an upgradable version of them. That way you would not feel like you wasted a lot of effort getting the current infusions when the new ones came out.

Not only has that infusion been data-mined but during the video preview for the Fractured patch one of the dev’s was using the +7 infusion. You could see it as he moused over his gear. This got me excited, thinking they were actually releasing those infusions with Fractured, but they did not.

From what I’ve read, not only will we have the basic and fine quality infusions (no stats and +5 stats) but they will also release masterwork, rare, exotic, and ascended infusions as well… increasing stats with each tier.

Cicatrix.6149:

Not only has that infusion been data-mined but during the video preview for the Fractured patch one of the dev’s was using the +7 infusion. You could see it as he moused over his gear. This got me excited, thinking they were actually releasing those infusions with Fractured, but they did not.

From what I’ve read, not only will we have the basic and fine quality infusions (no stats and +5 stats) but they will also release masterwork, rare, exotic, and ascended infusions as well… increasing stats with each tier.

Dear god no. If basic = 4, fine = 5, then masterwork could = 6, rare =7, exotic = 8, and ascended could = 9 or 10. Ascended equipment is enough vertical progression, and in my opinion, anything past that is overkill.

Should anyone be interested, here is the video showing the dev using an infusion that is currently not in the game… yet.

It’s at 14:43.

As one with six 5/5s in my trinkets already, I was thoroughly kitten ed when I saw that mouse over in the preview. I can understand and like the agony infusion slot change. Let those that want to grind higher and higher Fractals, also grind higher and higher agony resist. But the 5/5s gives everyone a use for the infusion slots. I’d be okay if the only let the agony resist part get upgraded and the other stat stayed the same.

With nothing other than +5 infusions, a player can still get up to +85 AR. In in highest current fractals (level 50), agony resistance has no effect past 70.

I don’t see a problem

So not only is the infusion in the video +7 power, it’s also +6 AR. It’s slotted in the standard infusion slot, which means it’s a direct upgrade to the 5/5 infusions in every way. Some of these 5/5 omni infusions cost over 100g each at the moment. These were a lofty “final” stat goal as it was, not counting the fact that most people have alts they want to gear. I thought the stat progression was stopping at ascended?

Hearte.6852:

I thought the stat progression was stopping at ascended?

I doubt it’ll ever stop, I mean there’s a quote from Colin floating around that level 80 probably isn’t going to be max level forever either which means all the grind for BiS currently will be for nothing.

DanteZero.9736:

Cicatrix.6149:

Not only has that infusion been data-mined but during the video preview for the Fractured patch one of the dev’s was using the +7 infusion. You could see it as he moused over his gear. This got me excited, thinking they were actually releasing those infusions with Fractured, but they did not.

From what I’ve read, not only will we have the basic and fine quality infusions (no stats and +5 stats) but they will also release masterwork, rare, exotic, and ascended infusions as well… increasing stats with each tier.

Dear god no. If basic = 4, fine = 5, then masterwork could = 6, rare =7, exotic = 8, and ascended could = 9 or 10. Ascended equipment is enough vertical progression, and in my opinion, anything past that is overkill.

Well we do not have ascended runes yet we do not even have rare food so why would you think it would go that way when it has not gone that way for any thing? If its like AR it will be pointless to get any thing beyond the 5 because you would need 2 +5 to get to 6 2 +6 to get to 7 etc.. it becomes so much work that you cant push it any more with out making it no longer worth your time. As is Ascended armor to most ppl is too much work for next to no power and you see the same ppl who said it would brake the game are saying Ascended armor is not strong enofe to make it work the work.
This is all alot of nothing stressing over the best is pointless in GW2 and in real life. A fool is unhappy because of the things they cant get and a wise person is happy about the things they have.

Protoavis.9107:

Hearte.6852:

I thought the stat progression was stopping at ascended?

I doubt it’ll ever stop, I mean there’s a quote from Colin floating around that level 80 probably isn’t going to be max level forever either which means all the grind for BiS currently will be for nothing.

Spot on and this has been pointed out by various people over the last few months. No more gear grind doesn’t mean no infusion grind and not just for agony either.

An increase in level cap may not necessarily lead to higher gear though. It might mean that level 90 is now possible, but all it does is give you 10 more trait points to spend in PvE. (In WvW and sPvP you’re downscaled back to 80.)

The possible infusion gear grind is something I’m wary of happening though. I posted my thoughts in the CDI to let ANet know I hope that’s not a path they’re considering going down.