Guild Wars 2

cesmode.4257:

Oh, and a new healing skill? So disappointing. Wheres the utility skills or weapon skills?

LOL, you didn’t see it coming?
Sorry,…. It’s extraordinary (unrealistically) high hopes to hope for new/additional weapon skills. Utilities are more likely, but yeah heals take the cake.

About time. I was waiting 2 months for it. And can now finally put my “million” Bloodstone Dust and Empyreal Fragments to a good use.

I’m excited.

Can we get an official statement on this?

So far, with every release, the future ain’t looking very bright for me with this game. I dunno how I can stay optimistic anymore for GW2.

Why so soon? I still haven’t even level artificer or huntsman yet.

Junkpile.7439:

Why so soon? I still haven’t even level artificer or huntsman yet.

I don’t have any ascended yet too even though I’ve been farming Tequatl and Frostgorge religiously hoping for a drop.

Wallace MacBix.2089:

I can’t remember what the devs said (it was either on the forums or during the Fractals live stream), so if someone can refresh my memory I’d appreciate it.

Did the devs say that ascended armor will be obtainable through fractals when it’s introduced? (I think they said yes, but I can’t remember). And a secondary question/wishful thinking, did they mention how? (like with fractal relics instead of pure chance from a random drop).

Ascended armor will be available in fractals in the same way weapons are.
I’m assuming the same will hold for all other places too, but they only mentioned fractals since it was in a fractals thread I read it.

Mikuchan.7261:

Wallace MacBix.2089:

I can’t remember what the devs said (it was either on the forums or during the Fractals live stream), so if someone can refresh my memory I’d appreciate it.

Did the devs say that ascended armor will be obtainable through fractals when it’s introduced? (I think they said yes, but I can’t remember). And a secondary question/wishful thinking, did they mention how? (like with fractal relics instead of pure chance from a random drop).

Ascended armor will be available in fractals in the same way weapons are.
I’m assuming the same will hold for all other places too, but they only mentioned fractals since it was in a fractals thread I read it.

More RNG to this game? Well, GJ

I hope it is a box of armor instead of piece by piece, or the grind for this will be astronomical.

I hope it will be easier than leveling 400-500 weaponsmith…

They only said that there would be no more tiers in 2013. 2013 is nearly over, so adding another tier will soon be back within the realm of possibility. They’ve also talked about progression through better infusions.

Anyone that thinks they can now see the finish line for stat grinding is going to be in for a surprise.

Junkpile.7439:

Why so soon? I still haven’t even level artificer or huntsman yet.

The majority of players can’t be denied new content just because a few players didn’t reach the old content to its full extent yet. Gw2 goes on, so don’t fall behind.

I’m also hoping for a box, for people that mix armor status would be a pain, but still I think that make 2 boxes would be better than make the individual pieces.

I hope there will be very viable ways to go for ascended armor without having to use the boring crafting.

The boxes for weapons are nice but not nice enough because it’s to random. You can’t really work towards a drop. It’s to random.

Kain Francois.4328:

I hope it will be easier than leveling 400-500 weaponsmith…

It will most likely have the same difficulty curve.

Probably need to buy some gold. First game ever where i actually consider buying gold.

Using fractal relics and pristine relics to buy ascended armor pieces would be cool. You know, since its the ONLY place in gw2 where ascended is REQUIRED.

Junkpile.7439:

Probably need to buy some gold. First game ever where i actually consider buying gold.

Depends on how patient you are. If you’re not in a hurry to have it now, take your time. You won’t be penalized for it.

You would like it to be crafted as a boxed set? That would only mean you’d have to gather all those materials up front instead of making it piece by piece. Of course it’ll be crafted in pieces, that’s how crafting works, though it could also come in a box, since they have those recipes for other sets.

For drops, they might not event have any. If they do, it’ll come by piece. If it was a boxed full set, it would have such a low drop rate that it wouldn’t exist.

Junkpile.7439:

Probably need to buy some gold. First game ever where i actually consider buying gold.

It’s exactly for that reason you shouldn’t buy gold. Don’t support bad things!

STRanger.5120:

Mikuchan.7261:

Wallace MacBix.2089:

I can’t remember what the devs said (it was either on the forums or during the Fractals live stream), so if someone can refresh my memory I’d appreciate it.

Did the devs say that ascended armor will be obtainable through fractals when it’s introduced? (I think they said yes, but I can’t remember). And a secondary question/wishful thinking, did they mention how? (like with fractal relics instead of pure chance from a random drop).

Ascended armor will be available in fractals in the same way weapons are.
I’m assuming the same will hold for all other places too, but they only mentioned fractals since it was in a fractals thread I read it.

More RNG to this game? Well, GJ

That’s not any different than how other lootable armor drops work. All games use RNG for loot drops. They simply limited ascended to certain areas for loot drops, which is again…not any different than other games.

Examples:

GW1: Totem Axes only dropped from Root Behemoths, and only in the single section in which they existed in the The Falls zone, and you weren’t in any way promised one just by killing the thing. Kill several and you might get one. I know I, and many others, did several runs fruitless runs where we walked away with none.

WoW: ‘X’ armor piece can only be obtained from ‘Y’ raid, and you have to fight every other raid member for it by rolling. Additionally it has a minuscule chance of dropping, so you have to run the raid at least ‘Z’ times before you even see one drop.

What in the world are you up in arms about?

Have they released stats or recipes yet?

rjnemer.7816:

Using fractal relics and pristine relics to buy ascended armor pieces would be cool. You know, since its the ONLY place in gw2 where ascended is REQUIRED.

But then it’s yet another currency grind to get your items. It’s already all currency grind, mainly gold but always currency.

Just give the option to really go for specific items. Some can drop from quest (well if they would have quest in this game) some from a dungeon, some from a mob, some from a boss and so on. In that way you can work towards your item in a more fun way in stead of farming for a currency to get it.

Leveling the skill is the real threshold. Once you have done that, crafting a new set of armor for a second character (or a third) is relatively easy.

Yes, it requires ascended materials, but it is easy to stock up on those.
Yes, it requires obsidian shards, so go liberate the Temple of Balthazar, so you can buy them for the boatloads karma everyone still has.
Yes, it requires globs of dark matter, so you had better salvage the exotics you crafted in order to reach 500 (and craft a few more afterwards using the tier 6 materials you hardly need for the ascended gear).
Yes, it requires lots of tier 2-5 materials. So walk around and harvest any you find.

The purpose is not to give yourself a shopping list that you need to grind off single-mindedly. Instead, the purpose is to just play the game the way you like, and to work on multiple items on that list while doing things you enjoy.
(E..g. If you like doing fractals, just have fun doing them. And while you’re at it, you can save fractal relics to purchase obsidian shards with, find various tier 5 and 6 crafting materials, the odd exotic drop and a handful of tier 7 materials as well.)

The problem is not that ascended takes too long to get; the real problem was that exotics were far too easy to get.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

The problem is not that ascended takes too long to get; the real problem was that exotics were far too easy to get.

I got my exotics from the tradepost, because sure as hell i dont get them as drops.

Leamas.5803:

Have they released stats or recipes yet?

I think the stats and looks were on Reddit at some point. However i didn’t see any recipes yet.

Link: ascended_armor

Jornophelanthas.1475:

The problem is not that ascended takes too long to get; the real problem was that exotics were far too easy to get.

That was not a “problem”.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

…
The purpose is not to give yourself a shopping list that you need to grind off single-mindedly. Instead, the purpose is to just play the game the way you like, and to work on multiple items on that list while doing things you enjoy.
…
The problem is not that ascended takes too long to get; the real problem was that exotics were far too easy to get.

“Everyone, including casual gamers, by level 80 should have the best statistical loot in the game. We want everyone on an equal power base. The rare stuff becomes the really awesome looking armours. It’s all about collecting the unique looking stuff and collecting all the other rare collectable items in the game: armour pieces, potentially different potions…"
Right.

Rooks Zaer.5846:

Jornophelanthas.1475:

The problem is not that ascended takes too long to get; the real problem was that exotics were far too easy to get.

That was not a “problem”.

My understanding of the “problem” was that there was too big of a gap for some odd reason (precursor RNG? Nah, can’t be) between getting exotics and legendaries. As well they found exotics were easier to get than they expected.

Devata.6589:

rjnemer.7816:

Using fractal relics and pristine relics to buy ascended armor pieces would be cool. You know, since its the ONLY place in gw2 where ascended is REQUIRED.

But then it’s yet another currency grind to get your items. It’s already all currency grind, mainly gold but always currency.

Just give the option to really go for specific items. Some can drop from quest (well if they would have quest in this game) some from a dungeon, some from a mob, some from a boss and so on. In that way you can work towards your item in a more fun way in stead of farming for a currency to get it.

I already have thousands of relics and almost a hundred pristine’s with NOTHING to spend them on. I also do not find doing fractals grindy. I find them fun.

Besides, if you were to put it in dungeons that would require a TON of tokens (which goes against what you just said) and if you put it in drop tables then its all RNG. No one likes rng.

Also, you cant “work towards” anything if its all rng based. When you say “work towards” its going to be a grind to an extent. It just depends on if you enjoy that content or not.

Exotic Armor = Dungeon Tokens + Crafting + Rng Drops
Ascended armor = Relics + Crafting + Rng Drops

It only makes sense.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

WoW: ‘X’ armor piece can only be obtained from ‘Y’ raid, and you have to fight every other raid member for it by rolling. Additionally it has a minuscule chance of dropping, so you have to run the raid at least ‘Z’ times before you even see one drop.

At least in WoW, you were sure something always did drop from the boss. Yes, you had to kill several times, but if you cleared the instance once a week, raiding was a reliable way to gear up an entire guild.

Regarding fighting other raid members for loot by /roll: That was true for the 5 man dungeons and in the pug version of the raid instances. Any organized guild I have ever been a part of, in that game, used DKP or loot council to assure a fair distribution of loot.

Rooks Zaer.5846:

They only said that there would be no more tiers in 2013. 2013 is nearly over, so adding another tier will soon be back within the realm of possibility. They’ve also talked about progression through better infusions.

Anyone that thinks they can now see the finish line for stat grinding is going to be in for a surprise.

Incorrect, I believe they said no more tiers. Period. They said ascended gear will be released within 2013, but ascended is the final tier.

they can always implement infusions with higher stats.

If they were going to make fractals give ascended armor, I’d guess that they would add another currency to it (probably only available at 30/50+), rather than allow you to use an old one. They don’t want you to have it all on patch day.

Would be nice to be able to choose both stats and archetype from box, if actually lucky enough to get a drop if such a thing will be available. o.o Maybe I’m asking too much though, but hell, we need 6 pieces. o.o for multiple chars…

I’ve only found 1 ascended box’d weapon in the long amount of time I’ve been playing.

Keep dreaming about the box.

ANet you act like politicians.

-Ok first announce account bound wxp for players with alterns.
(Now players with alterns are happy.)
-Ok time to announce ascended armors next week.

And yet more forced crafting upon us. Thanks Arenanet, you’re officially making this game boring for me.

Devata.6589:

rjnemer.7816:

Using fractal relics and pristine relics to buy ascended armor pieces would be cool. You know, since its the ONLY place in gw2 where ascended is REQUIRED.

But then it’s yet another currency grind to get your items. It’s already all currency grind, mainly gold but always currency.

Just give the option to really go for specific items. Some can drop from quest (well if they would have quest in this game) some from a dungeon, some from a mob, some from a boss and so on. In that way you can work towards your item in a more fun way in stead of farming for a currency to get it.

Didn’t we recently hear something about how prisitine relics would be used? Something about converting them to a number of regular relics or some such? So they could be used just like normal relics? Think it was in a recent twitch stream.

And in the recent pvp news post, they said they were going to be doing away with glory (long term) and gold would become the standard currency across both pvp and pve. (Not sure how I feel about that one really…)

Maybe they are feeling they are juggling too many currencies too?

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

STRanger.5120:

Mikuchan.7261:

Wallace MacBix.2089:

I can’t remember what the devs said (it was either on the forums or during the Fractals live stream), so if someone can refresh my memory I’d appreciate it.

Did the devs say that ascended armor will be obtainable through fractals when it’s introduced? (I think they said yes, but I can’t remember). And a secondary question/wishful thinking, did they mention how? (like with fractal relics instead of pure chance from a random drop).

Ascended armor will be available in fractals in the same way weapons are.
I’m assuming the same will hold for all other places too, but they only mentioned fractals since it was in a fractals thread I read it.

More RNG to this game? Well, GJ

That’s not any different than how other lootable armor drops work. All games use RNG for loot drops. They simply limited ascended to certain areas for loot drops, which is again…not any different than other games.

Examples:

GW1: Totem Axes only dropped from Root Behemoths, and only in the single section in which they existed in the The Falls zone, and you weren’t in any way promised one just by killing the thing. Kill several and you might get one. I know I, and many others, did several runs fruitless runs where we walked away with none.

WoW: ‘X’ armor piece can only be obtained from ‘Y’ raid, and you have to fight every other raid member for it by rolling. Additionally it has a minuscule chance of dropping, so you have to run the raid at least ‘Z’ times before you even see one drop.

What in the world are you up in arms about?

in wow you can earn a full set of gear thru pvp. If someone had greater then the best gear you can get thru pvp from doing heroic raids that gear gets scaled back to match top level pvp gear in pvp.

as a wvw player I would like to see this gear available thru wvw in a manor consistent to fractals OR have mats drop at a rate consistent with pve. Something really. I really like the play your way philosophy. But stats matter when your fighting players and every edge counts. So either some way can be made to let people who wvw get ascended (crafting mats, drops, badge+karma+gold) or playing your way is a theory that never came to fruition.

aspirine.6852:

Jornophelanthas.1475:

The problem is not that ascended takes too long to get; the real problem was that exotics were far too easy to get.

I got my exotics from the tradepost, because sure as hell i dont get them as drops.

That is exactly the problem I meant. There is no threshold at all to obtain a set of exotics, apart from just a pile of gold (which can be bought through gems).

Rooks Zaer.5846:

That was not a “problem”.

It is a problem from a game developers’ point of view. If everyone has the highest tier of equipment within a few months of the game’s release, there is nothing left for the players to work towards.
Players who have nothing left to work towards, grow bored with the game.
Players who are bored with the game abandon the game.
If enough players abandon the game, the game dies.

ArenaNet has implemented Legendary equipment as a long-term goal, but this put the bar very high, leaving a very large gap in between exotic and legendary.

That is where ascended comes in. Ascended equipment is an intermediate goal, which can be realized along the way between exotic (which is almost instantly attainable) and legendary (which takes a looong time to earn).

Ascended equipment is a medium-term goal for us players to work towards, and it is meant to take some time: short enough to keep us invested in the game and not discouraged, but also long enough to keep us working at it for some time, and not grow bored.

It’s a fine line, and some players will be discouraged by long-term goals. But giving players instant gratification on all content is one of the best ways to ensure that an MMO will lose its player base.

Healix.5819:

If they were going to make fractals give ascended armor, I’d guess that they would add another currency to it (probably only available at 30/50+), rather than allow you to use an old one. They don’t want you to have it all on patch day.

I dont think it would matter. I know a couple of people with a ton of gold saved up along with all the ascended ores needed to craft 10-12 pieces of armor as long as the formula doesnt change to much.

Not only that but i would expect a chest piece to cost 1500 relics + 10 pristines minimum.

Not going to bother. Started farming for ascended weapons, gave up after a few weeks. Not willing to waste my time like this anymore. The grind is getting absolutely ridiculous. And since the weapons neither look good, nor are they necessary stat-wise and the same goes for the armor I will just turn my head, shrug it off and not bother.

aspirine.6852:

Jornophelanthas.1475:

The problem is not that ascended takes too long to get; the real problem was that exotics were far too easy to get.

I got my exotics from the tradepost, because sure as hell i dont get them as drops.

and who do you think is to blame for exotics becoming to easy to acquire ?

The QQ community of course at launch token acquisition was just right to make exotics the end game gear it was meant to be than a.net buckled to all the QQ about tokens being to hard to get result: they upped it to 60 tokens per run and right there and than exotics as an endgame gear was totally and utterly obliterated. it suddenly became far to easy to get exotics.

which in turn resulted in the necessity to introduce a new end game gear that was NOT easy to get a LONG TERM GEAR TYPE

and so the ascended blunder started.

We, the community are the ones responsible for this blunder not the dev’s and not the direction of the game but the QQ community is.

sad how a minority can ruin a game.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

…

Rooks Zaer.5846:

That was not a “problem”.

…

ArenaNet has implemented Legendary equipment as a long-term goal, but this put the bar very high, leaving a very large gap in between exotic and legendary.

That is where ascended comes in. Ascended equipment is an intermediate goal, which can be realized along the way between exotic (which is almost instantly attainable) and legendary (which takes a looong time to earn).

…

(Probably didn’t read my previous post.)

Why was there a gap in the first place? Okay, the gap is the problem, but what’s causing that gap? What’s the source of the problem? What’s the actual problem?

Lamont.5973:

Essence Snow.3194:

Hmm long term goal eh? Let’s take in consideration how long it’ll take to gear up everyone’s 5 char slots that came with the game.

Is there even enough time in the life cycle of this game to get this gear?

I’ve been staying out of the whole “grind” discussion while I waited to give ascended a chance. But with the last few updates I’m getting really discouraged. On GW1 I had two accounts (16) characters I think. And the nice thing was that I could work on getting my obsidian armor for one or two toons and still know that I could gear up the rest of my characters with maximum stats for effective and enjoyable game play. Players also had to work together and make sure their builds meshed for most of the dungeons and more elite areas.

But, having crafted 6 ascended weapons (3 each for my 2 main toons), I am looking at my other toons thinking it will be pure misery to craft even one more of those stupid pink things. So the rest of my toons will pretty much stay in the barn. And now I’m gonna have to craft 6 pieces of ascended armor PER TOON after raising the required crafting disciplines.

Meanwhile the combat system is still clunky and clumsy, the story line is boring, the living story gave us villains flatter than a Nebraska landscape, the missions are dull, so unchallenging a 3 year old could do them, and unrepeatable, and most of the new content can be completed in a couple of days easy. Plus there is absolutely no need to mesh builds in the vast majority of the dungeons and “elite” areas. And on top of that crafting ascended is artificially time gated to slow things down.

This game has essentially become: join zerg, read book while waiting for boss, set skill 1 on repeat, read book till boss is dead, pick up loot and move to next boss, check some chests for emperial shards, go craft some ascended crap.

Frankly, I’m not looking forward to this wintersday and so I think for the first time in 7 years, my holiday plans will not include guild wars.

You summed up the beauty of the gear system in GW1 perfectly. That’s what I was looking forward to when I bought GW2.

@Latinkuro:

Yes, ArenaNet made exotics too easy to acquire. But placing blame does not help the situation. Something needed to be done.

Doing nothing was a surefire way of shortening the game’s lifespan.

Gradually introducing ascended gear might help the situation.

Reesha.7901:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

WoW: ‘X’ armor piece can only be obtained from ‘Y’ raid, and you have to fight every other raid member for it by rolling. Additionally it has a minuscule chance of dropping, so you have to run the raid at least ‘Z’ times before you even see one drop.

At least in WoW, you were sure something always did drop from the boss. Yes, you had to kill several times, but if you cleared the instance once a week, raiding was a reliable way to gear up an entire guild.

Regarding fighting other raid members for loot by /roll: That was true for the 5 man dungeons and in the pug version of the raid instances. Any organized guild I have ever been a part of, in that game, used DKP or loot council to assure a fair distribution of loot.

Yeah, don’t want to see that here, I am happy and content that I don’t have to raid. I don’t have a problem with not being able short term to outfit my 9 characters with ascended gear. Heck I don’t even have all in exotics even though I could. This is just me personally, I understand others would like the ascended to be more like exotics, but then what would have been the point?

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Yes, ArenaNet made exotics too easy to acquire. But placing blame does not help the situation. Something needed to be done.

Doing nothing was a surefire way of shortening the game’s lifespan.

Gradually introducing ascended gear might help the situation.

They didn’t address the problem actually, because the gap still exists between ascended and legendary. if the “gap” was the “problem”….

Ascended could have been avoided if they fixed the “problem” and not attempting to patch up the “gap”.

I can see it now…in 6 months…dungeon group…“LF2M – MUST have ascended gear!!” In a year it will be the norm.

Leamas.5803:

I can see it now…in 6 months…dungeon group…“LF2M – MUST have ascended gear!!” In a year it will be the norm.

Blasphemy! That will never happen!
(sarcasm)