January 2013: Flame and Frost prelude [Merged Discussion]
Will we be able to spend our accumulated Pristine Fractal Relics for Necklaces or will they remain useless once you’ve purchased your rings?
I think the biggest concern and the confirmation posters were looking for was that all ascended gear and infusions needed to do open world content in game can be obtained through open world and that nothing critical to being successful will be limited to dungeon only. I fully understand the concern especially in light of how ascended was released solely through Fractals , as one who HATES dungeon crawling I do not want to be pigeon holed into having to do content I despise doing out of necessity.
In short, if i wanted to play an MMORPG built around dungeons I’d have stuck with the other game.
If options are given to fully equip myself for all outside content in the open world, at equal levels of gear quality and chances to obtain said gear (I won’t get into the whole open world loot nerf thing) then I think that would satisfy most posting here including myself.
Just ascended amulets? what about the rest of the gear?
Good question!
Ascended rings will also be available for laurels as well. Back slot items will be made more widely available in the future and will likely tie into a different reward system.
(Please note, the ascended gear purchased for laurels will not have agony resistance built in, since that mechanic is currently unique to progression in the fractal dungeons. They are however statistically the same as any other ascended gear.)
We will also introduce an additional reward system (or systems) in the future to make these items more accessible to WvW players on top of the laurel system.
The remaining ascended item types will be introduced in future releases, and may or may not tie into the laurel system, TBD.
(Edited to add note about agony)
This will be good news to my guildies who want ascended gear but do not run Dungeons, thank you ANet
Zhaitans Tears Guild[ TWS ] NSP
Baby Quaggan, tastes good, a bit like baby cow.
Actually, re-reading his quote again makes me think: laurel obtained ascended items may or may not be included in future releases. Thats concerning. Keep it in laurels, and fractals, and add it to WvW too.
This is what concerns me. They love splitting up stat combos and tossing them all over the place. With exotics some combos only come from crafting, some only come from dungeons, some come from Karma and some are from WvW. You can’t get all the combos from the same place. That’s not normally a problem, though.
Now, take that and make it so that the stat combos are all over the place, but now only SOME combos have agony resist and others don’t. It just becomes a huge mess, people who are doing fractals are stuck with a subset of combos that they can use for fractals… I just don’t want to see that happen.
True
I am seeing youre point a little more concerning the stat combo thing. Still, fractals are the “pve endgame”. Grind it out like any other game where you raid the same raid week in and out for 3 months. Its the endgame given, and most of the time you can’t get that level of raid gear elsewhere either.
Still, are you really gimping yourself/build if you took an item with toughness instead of vit? Dont think iat matters TOO much, not right now at least. For me, I took the first two ascended rings I got, just for the AR slot. AR is what matters in the instance, not necessarily the correct stat combo. Thats my view anyways. However, further down the line where we can potentially completely kit out our entire characters gear with ascended, yes then the stat combo becomes an issue. It will make or break your build then, sure. I would like to think that arenanet is not this shortsided to let this one slip through the cracks. … however, fractal levels in the first place was a huge glaring mistake, and I saw this as a problem from hour 1…to which they admitted their goof a week later in the AMA and said they quickly realized this as well. Doesn’t take much to look a few steps down the line, which Im sure they do. Hope this one isnt overlooked.
but for now, its not game breaking, imo.
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.
Will we be able to put the Laurel Ascended Rings into the Forge to add Agony resistance similar to the Fractal Ascended Rings?
EDIT: I guess the correct term is “Infused”. So will we be able to Infuse the Laurel Ascended Rings? (described here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_ascended_equipment)
(edited by juno.1840)
Any chance of adding more ascended rings? They’re currently pretty limited in Stat allocation; carrion for example would be a nice addition so one of my characters can progress foward.
Thank you Martin. Not sure Id like mounts in the game. Kind of like running around world that feels large. Mounts make it smaller.
I remember the Q&A from last week….“bug fixes are first priority compared to new content”, and voila…new content.
Gwens Avengers
Riverside
I’m more curious how we get “Ascended Amulet (Infused)” than “Ascended Amulet”. Will it cost like 500 of these silly Laurels? Will we be able to get them via Fractals? I really don’t want to have to farm a daily achievement thing every day for 2 months to get an amulet.
But if you want full ascended stats, you WILL.
Look, Legendaries were supposed to showcase playing the whole game.
They failed. Grotesquely in some cases.
Now we have an actual tool to showcase playing the whole game. If you want Ascended rings and back piece you play the fractals. If you want an Ascended Amulet, you play dailies. Lets speculate a bit and expand on this. If you want Ascended Boots, you do jump puzzles. If you want Ascened Pants, you do WvWvW. If you want an Asceneded Helmet, you do Dungeons. And so on, until “You want full ascended gear? Play the whole game!”
And finally we have a Legendary accomplishment that works.
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.
I remember the Q&A from last week….“bug fixes are first priority compared to new content”, and voila…new content.
you this post before you even see the list of fixes for this month. for all anyone knows there could be 4 bug fixes for every new item added.
patience is a virtue
Now just give me a quaggenmancer and were set!
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.
So… we can rule out Dragons riding in from Cantha on the backs of unicorns then?
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.So… we can rule out Dragons riding in from Cantha on the backs of unicorns then?
so much awesome in that post.
Related, if no dragons, who is cause all the ruckus up in the north? i like the mystery aspect, nice to see some story lines being added.
I remember the Q&A from last week….“bug fixes are first priority compared to new content”, and voila…new content.
you this post before you even see the list of fixes for this month. for all anyone knows there could be 4 bug fixes for every new item added.
patience is a virtue
No, Patience is not a virtue.
Resolve, Justice and courage are tho.. :P
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.
Well that cleared up one of my questions about the Riding Broom being a mount, but still a bit concerned.
We got a Riding Broom with our Witch Costume for the Halloween Event. You already went and gave out the Witch Hat and now you’re giving out the Riding Broom as well. It just feels like a waste of money for those of us who bought the Witch Outfit for the limited time during the Holiday, and now you’re going to be selling the main item that made the outfit what it was, separately.
Lady Bethany Of Noh – Chronomancer – Lords of Noh [LoN]
Speaking of dragons, if they are not part this story, they when will they come into play? there’s still 4 more dragons to slay.
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.So… we can rule out Dragons riding in from Cantha on the backs of unicorns then?
so much awesome in that post.
Related, if no dragons, who is cause all the ruckus up in the north? i like the mystery aspect, nice to see some story lines being added.
A icy variation of the karka.
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.So… we can rule out Dragons riding in from Cantha on the backs of unicorns then?
so much awesome in that post.
Related, if no dragons, who is cause all the ruckus up in the north? i like the mystery aspect, nice to see some story lines being added.
A icy variation of the karka.
So what you’re saying is, you want to be able to purchase already infused ascended gear via a nice, easy, calm, no pressure way via daily and monthlys. You want to be able to sleepwalk through these dailys, which they most likely will be if current dailys and monthlys are any indication, in order to SIDESTEP a fractal grind for infusions that are only relevant to fractals.
I dont see your logic.
All I see is:
I want to be able to get BiS gear without grinding fractals so that I can join high level fractal groups.
I dont want to fractal grind. This means, I dont want to spend 1.5 hr per day to grind out fractals against RNG. This is too hard because fractals CAN be difficult at times, and RNG does suck.
I want to walk through the green fields of Kessex hills, kill some centaurs, and complete the monthly achievement. Then I can get the infused ascended, to go do those high end fractals.Sounds like you want the easy way out. Not trying to be rude or insulting, but that is pretty much how I see this.
And I know arenanet said ascended gear has always been planned. Just making a point that the vocal minority/majority that wanted gear progression got their way, and these are now probably the same people whining that its too grindy and too RNG based.
you see it wrong and seem to be falling back on the entitled/ wants the reward without the effort argument.
what im asking for isnt to get the gear with less effort, its to get more challenging world content with equivalent rewards to fractals so we can play what we want and then dip in to whatever other area of the game we want any time without having to grind a load in that area to do it, using your own argument we could argue for WvW specific gear and JP specific gear and DE specific gear, wearing anything else while doing that content would make you less than optimal or prevent you from doing it entirely, i don’t really want to carry around multiple sets of gear or have to grind them out for 8 characters and the different builds I want to experiment with.
Id have preferred 0 vertical progression at all ever, its just lazy design adding +1% dmg + 1% dmg resist rather than making interesting new abilities that combo with current ones or more tactical use of builds/ interrupts etc. as a result i don’t really care to join fractals at all, that may change in the future which brings us back to my point; they said you could get BIS from any playstyle and you cant regardless of whether AR continues to apply to just fractals or if its elsewhere in future content if i dont play fractals for say the next 11 months (likely) then decide to try it i then have to grind through it to get the actual BIS gear to enjoy all content with the people who did essentially having to grind the content now or later to catch up.
Your right in that i want to sidestep the fractal grind but i don’t want to sleepwalk through dailies /monthlies / dungeons to get this. id prefer them to drop off champions at the end of some events and jumping puzzles and WvW , provided the activity is long enough to be on par with a dungeon run, whether they are hard or not depends on the player, ie i breeze through jumping puzzles(more challenging JP would be nice combo goemms lab with clocktower or something) and solo champions (better AI please), and some people find that impossible, difficulty is relative, imo dungeons aren’t really challenging after the first 3 or so times you complete them as you’ll have the timings down, after that its just farming.
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.So… we can rule out Dragons riding in from Cantha on the backs of unicorns then?
so much awesome in that post.
Related, if no dragons, who is cause all the ruckus up in the north? i like the mystery aspect, nice to see some story lines being added.
A icy variation of the karka.
Thats Funny
But I hope not. Unless they drop a kitten load of good loot.
Please give us a keyring…
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.So… we can rule out Dragons riding in from Cantha on the backs of unicorns then?
hahahaha! that made me laugh so much! thanks
Will there be any other ways of getting ascended amulets other than laurels?
Are there going to be boss improvements when this patch hits? (mechanics, phases, ect…)
I just don’t understand the Canthan-looking guy on a horse. I know there’s no Cantha being touched upon, but maybe Canthans (not Canthan refugees) will start showing up on the Tyrian continent now that Zhaitan is dead.
I like how dailies will change and give people a reason to explore. As of now I usually do my dailies in the 70-80 zones only. Hopefully with new events plus different dailies it will add variety to game play. Seems they are starting to listen to fan base more these days. I already enjoy the game a lot, that may have a lot to do with my guild. But I think this will give more depth and add replay ability to lower level maps. I’m ready to see the changes for sure I would like a revamp of South Sun Cove also please.
Oh no ice karkas, their multi-hit attack is already massive, if there come up with ice ones we’ll get chilled for eternity!
I usually do daily kill variety in gendarran since it takes only a few mins to get all 15 and its very close to LA entrance. I do the gathering/events in Southsun and Orr. It will be nice to see some variation in the dailys.
“Charr and norn refugees crawl from the wreckage of their homes in the Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau, struggling to find shelter in the south.” If this means that there will be visible, semi-permanent changes to the terrain in those game maps, and whole new heart quests and DE chains, to reflect the passage of time in the game world, like the destruction of the Lion’s Arch lighthouse only more so, then I can only say one thing about that:
AWESOME!!! I’ve been waiting for an MMO role playing game where the game master would have the tools to change the world based on events happening, ever since I discovered the genre back in ’04.
(The more so because I’m really not all that fond of Diessa Plateau. I’d miss Wayfarer’s pretty green valley and bucolic homesteads, though.)
“Charr and norn refugees crawl from the wreckage of their homes in the Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau, struggling to find shelter in the south.” If this means that there will be visible, semi-permanent changes to the terrain in those game maps, and whole new heart quests and DE chains, to reflect the passage of time in the game world, like the destruction of the Lion’s Arch lighthouse only more so, then I can only say one thing about that:
AWESOME!!! I’ve been waiting for an MMO role playing game where the game master would have the tools to change the world based on events happening, ever since I discovered the genre back in ’04.
(The more so because I’m really not all that fond of Diessa Plateau. I’d miss Wayfarer’s pretty green valley and bucolic homesteads, though.)
Nothing that major can really be changed since these are still starter zones.
So what you’re saying is, you want to be able to purchase already infused ascended gear via a nice, easy, calm, no pressure way via daily and monthlys. You want to be able to sleepwalk through these dailys, which they most likely will be if current dailys and monthlys are any indication, in order to SIDESTEP a fractal grind for infusions that are only relevant to fractals.
I dont see your logic.
All I see is:
I want to be able to get BiS gear without grinding fractals so that I can join high level fractal groups.
I dont want to fractal grind. This means, I dont want to spend 1.5 hr per day to grind out fractals against RNG. This is too hard because fractals CAN be difficult at times, and RNG does suck.
I want to walk through the green fields of Kessex hills, kill some centaurs, and complete the monthly achievement. Then I can get the infused ascended, to go do those high end fractals.Sounds like you want the easy way out. Not trying to be rude or insulting, but that is pretty much how I see this.
And I know arenanet said ascended gear has always been planned. Just making a point that the vocal minority/majority that wanted gear progression got their way, and these are now probably the same people whining that its too grindy and too RNG based.
Typically multiple avenues exist for BiG gear. They trade off between “excessive time to complete” on one end of the spectrum to “excessive difficulty to complete” on the other end of the spectrum. The avenues support the diversity of the player base.
ANet has stated many times that multiple avenues will exist to obtain ascended gear. Sounds like you may be upset if it doesn’t include fractals — maybe you feel entitled to grind fractals?
Honestly I’m not tied to any particular avenue of obtaining ascended gear. However I felt compelled to respond to your post because it was really off the mark. Also, stating “Not trying to be rude or insulting” doesn’t make it true.
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.So… we can rule out Dragons riding in from Cantha on the backs of unicorns then?
Affirmative.
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.So… we can rule out Dragons riding in from Cantha on the backs of unicorns then?
Affirmative.
I don’t know whether you can confirm this or not, but are there at least hopes that we can EVENTUALLY get back to Cantha and/or Elona? I don’t even care if it’s in the second paid expansion four years from now, I just want to know if I can hope or if I should give up the thoughts now?
I just don’t understand the Canthan-looking guy on a horse. I know there’s no Cantha being touched upon, but maybe Canthans (not Canthan refugees) will start showing up on the Tyrian continent now that Zhaitan is dead.
If you’re talking about the guy on the left in the picture at the top of the page, he looks more Norn to me.
Why/how did you guys interpret him as being Cathan?
Please give us a keyring…
“Charr and norn refugees crawl from the wreckage of their homes in the Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau, struggling to find shelter in the south.” If this means that there will be visible, semi-permanent changes to the terrain in those game maps, and whole new heart quests and DE chains, to reflect the passage of time in the game world, like the destruction of the Lion’s Arch lighthouse only more so, then I can only say one thing about that:
AWESOME!!! I’ve been waiting for an MMO role playing game where the game master would have the tools to change the world based on events happening, ever since I discovered the genre back in ’04.
(The more so because I’m really not all that fond of Diessa Plateau. I’d miss Wayfarer’s pretty green valley and bucolic homesteads, though.)
That’s nice and all, but I don’t think they actually said that GMs would be making decisions in game to change the map…Not entirely sure where you read that idea.
[Currently Inactive, Playing BF4]
Magic find works. http://sinasdf.imgur.com/
So what you’re saying is, you want to be able to purchase already infused ascended gear via a nice, easy, calm, no pressure way via daily and monthlys. You want to be able to sleepwalk through these dailys, which they most likely will be if current dailys and monthlys are any indication, in order to SIDESTEP a fractal grind for infusions that are only relevant to fractals.
I dont see your logic.
All I see is:
I want to be able to get BiS gear without grinding fractals so that I can join high level fractal groups.
I dont want to fractal grind. This means, I dont want to spend 1.5 hr per day to grind out fractals against RNG. This is too hard because fractals CAN be difficult at times, and RNG does suck.
I want to walk through the green fields of Kessex hills, kill some centaurs, and complete the monthly achievement. Then I can get the infused ascended, to go do those high end fractals.Sounds like you want the easy way out. Not trying to be rude or insulting, but that is pretty much how I see this.
And I know arenanet said ascended gear has always been planned. Just making a point that the vocal minority/majority that wanted gear progression got their way, and these are now probably the same people whining that its too grindy and too RNG based.
Typically multiple avenues exist for BiG gear. They trade off between “excessive time to complete” on one end of the spectrum to “excessive difficulty to complete” on the other end of the spectrum. The avenues support the diversity of the player base.
ANet has stated many times that multiple avenues will exist to obtain ascended gear. Sounds like you may be upset if it doesn’t include fractals — maybe you feel entitled to grind fractals?
Honestly I’m not tied to any particular avenue of obtaining ascended gear. However I felt compelled to respond to your post because it was really off the mark. Also, stating “Not trying to be rude or insulting” doesn’t make it true.
Trying to grasp what youre trying to point out here. I was responding to one or two individuals who wanted the obtain infused ascended gear via laurels. Obtaining the gear that way is probably a lot easier than a fractal grind. The time it takes is variable. I was simply stating that why would people want to grind endlessly and possibly wipe in fractals, when they could just do dailys and monthlys to get infused gear. I understand arenanets longterm goal, to make everything available in multiple ways. But specifically, and I think this is the part you missed, the infusion piece. Infusions have no bearing at all in the game except in fractals. Yet, what I am hearing is that people want to side step around running fractals to get this infusion gear, so they can run..more fractals. Makes no sense.
If they end up putting infusion gear into laurels, Im fine with that too. But I am also OK with it not being available. They are already making the baseline gear available, which is enough for me and most.
Not too completely off the mark, as you stated. But I guess that is in the eye of the beholder…opinions opinions.
Just ascended amulets? what about the rest of the gear?
Good question!
Ascended rings will also be available for laurels as well. Back slot items will be made more widely available in the future and will likely tie into a different reward system.
(Please note, the ascended gear purchased for laurels will not have agony resistance built in, since that mechanic is currently unique to progression in the fractal dungeons. They are however statistically the same as any other ascended gear.)
We will also introduce an additional reward system (or systems) in the future to make these items more accessible to WvW players on top of the laurel system.
The remaining ascended item types will be introduced in future releases, and may or may not tie into the laurel system, TBD.
(Edited to add note about agony)
Will we also be able to purchase rings with nomenclature currently not existant at the fractals merchant including: Cleric’s (Healing/Toughness/Power), Giver’s (Toughness/Healing/Boon Duration), Carrion (Cond Damage/Power/Vitality), Apothecary’s (Healing/Toughness/Cond Damage), and Magi’s (Healing/Precision/Vitality)?
Just want to step in here for a second to comment on a few speculations:
There will be no mounts, no Cantha and no dragons coming with this story arc.
Sorry if that destroyed some dreams.
But how about dragon minions? I don’t want any “new foes” like some snow people who breath fire or an ice karka. Could there possibly be dragon minions or dragon influence?
“The sky falls and the ground shakes in the lands of the north. Charr and norn refugees crawl from the wreckage of their homes in the Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau, struggling to find shelter in the south. The call goes out for volunteers to assist the victims in this time of need, when earth and sky seem to have become the enemy…”
Anyone but me see this and think Cataclysm, GW2 style?
I have a question about the laurels:
If they’re not being awarded retroactively for past achievements, then should we be waiting until the 28th to finish January’s monthly? The way I’m understanding it, finishing the monthly now means no laurels, and finishing the monthly on the 28-31 means laurels, yes?
Can anyone clear this up?
I have a question about the laurels:
If they’re not being awarded retroactively for past achievements, then should we be waiting until the 28th to finish January’s monthly? The way I’m understanding it, finishing the monthly now means no laurels, and finishing the monthly on the 28-31 means laurels, yes?
Can anyone clear this up?
Laurels will be available from monthlies starting in February. It would be unfair for those people that finished their monthlies before learning about the new system, so they aren’t rewarding any for January.
Laurels only being rewarded for daily and monthly achievements was news to me. Having other achievements being rewarded down the road with a different system was news.
Either way, its fine.
I guess I can begin map completions now.
Quaggan… Backpack…..
Words cannot describe my excitement.
[OHai] – Northern Shiverpeaks
i’m gonna be a disapointed fellow if i see too many people running around with quaggan backpacks..
i mean…
omg…
i guess the FotM non-lore related content was a sign how tyria is evolving.
everything else is fine!
So lets count!
Good:
1. New map for Paid tournaments (doesn’t matter for 99% players)
2. New achievement system with new rewards
3. Guesting
4. “Other improvements” (they better be good!)
5. Quaggan Backpack (if you Anet want to hold players using gemstore items…good luck & have fun)
Bad:
1. Ascended gear
2. Guesting (for many players it’s a very bad feature, as it kills free transfers)
3. No fix for dying sPvP
4. No fix for empty zones (mostly mid-lvl ones)
The Quaggan Backpack seems to make the update be more good than bad one.
For me, the new map is not comparable to ascaended gear, but i counted them on same level.
it might be fun aquiring laurels to get an ascended amulet.
it all depends how its implemented.
if its a fun ride, i’m in.
i its completing dailies like dailies are now… its gonna be soso.
but if it requires some kind of smarter things than just “5 of this 5 of that”, it can be cool!
So lets count!
Good:
1. New map for Paid tournaments (doesn’t matter for 99% players)
2. New achievement system with new rewards
3. Guesting
4. “Other improvements” (they better be good!)
5. Quaggan Backpack (if you Anet want to hold players using gemstore items…good luck & have fun)Bad:
1. Ascended gear
2. Guesting (for many players it’s a very bad feature, as it kills free transfers)
3. No fix for dying sPvP
4. No fix for empty zones (mostly mid-lvl ones)The Quaggan Backpack seems to make the update be more good than bad one.
For me, the new map is not comparable to ascaended gear, but i counted them on same level.
Why is Ascended gear bad? If any thing it giving ppl something to work for and there going to be 30 of them giving a person a lot to work with to make new builds. I hope you do know they are going to keep coming out with Ascended gear even if a few ppl do not like them.
Guild : OBEY (The Legacy) I call it Obay , TLC (WvW) , UNIV (other)
Server : FA
The GW2 engine in general has me excited. It’s so malleable that they can easily revamp entire boss fights and even change core mechanics. Personally I hate static boss fights like the Zhaitan fight. I hope ANet learned from the feedback that while the premise of the last boss battle was cool… shooting at him with cannons wasn’t very epic.