Guild Wars 2

It has been cited that part of the reason for the ascended items showing up in this most recent patch is that players needed a meaningful sense of progression once hitting 80. A sense of progression that they were not achieving in the search for Legendaries, and were hitting the legendary wall as Lindsay had put it.

To understand the crux of the problem here and figure out how players could have still gotten a sense of meaningful progression in the pursuit of legendaries, we’re going to have to take a look at their means of acquisition..

A Gift of Mastery, A Gift of Fortune, A gift specific to the legendary you’re searching for, and of course the Precursor Weapon. Most of which isn’t so much of an issue, the gifts have specific cost associated with them, and players can easily gauge their progress towards that. They know how many of a given item they’re going to need and feel like they’re making progress when they get one of those drops. This gives a sense of meaningful progression – a set goal with a sense of progress being made towards that goal.

The Gift of Fortune is where things get a little bit more iffy. Sure, like the other gifts, the Gift of Fortune has a very specific cost, which players can progress towards though the Lucky Clovers are somewhat of a crap shoot. There are a couple of recipes listed on the wiki, but they’re not guaranteed to result in clovers. Your mileage may vary, but you’re going to get there.

Finally, we get to the Precursor. Oh god, oh god the precursor. Unlike the other materials involved, there isn’t exactly a measuring bar that you can use to gauge your progress. Maybe the Mystic Forge is feeling generous today? Maybe you’ve got your lucky penny tucked into your left shoe or something? I don’t know. You can get a precursor on your first try, or your hundredth try, or never get one. Its random. Its the randomness here that causes that wall people hit and give up upon. There’s no way to measure progress and thus feel you’re inching ever closer. You effectively need to play the slot machine to get your precursor, or spend a fortune on the Trade Company.

Therein is the problem of the Legendary Wall and the lack of meaningful progress. It isn’t by accident, but by design. Unfortunately, for many players, hitting that wall didn’t dissuade them from pursuing a Legendary Weapon, but turned them off of the game as a whole. They got burnt by the system and aren’t coming back. Adding a new tier of equipment with new stats and infusions will not stop players from hunting the legendary, still hit that same wall(which has been made a little lower if I understand correctly) and still quit when they become disillusioned.

The Legendary Wall hasn’t gone away. Its still there, it still doesn’t offer meaningful progression, and its still pushing players out of the game.