Guild Wars 2

Jornophelanthas.1475:

@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.

Hm, not so sure. Do you think more people joined GW2 once they heard there was some sort of gear/character progression that traditional MMOs have? Or do you think more people left the game because of ascended?

Zero Day.2594:

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?

A poor decision made in game development, or in anticipating the game’s economy.

As a game developer, you cannot undo such a situation. Not without a full restart of the game, which might as well be pulling the plug on the game itself, as that would alienate every single player. Such drastic measures are not productive, and not necessary.

So what do you do? You develop new content to fill the niche that exotic gear was supposed to occupy. (Possibly a little more difficult to obtain, to compensate for the easily-obtainalbe exotic gear already in the game.)

So ascended is not really the problem. The problem is exotic. Ascended is the proposed solution.

Reesha.7901:

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.

You are missing the point here. The chance of dropping an Epic loot and also getting it in WoW was determined by the expansions length. In other words, if the expansion lasted for 7 months then the gear drop rate was determinated to correspond the to the chance of all players getting that item in 7 months or less, if they needed it. After 7 months had past, a new expansion was out with new gear, making the old gear obsolete.

Since there are no plans to make better gear in Gw2, that means that the ascended will never be obsolete. Meaning that its drop rate is determinated to the lifetime of the game, 5,6,7 or more years. In other words the gear drop rate is determinated to correspond the to the chance of you getting that gear in 5,6,7 or more years. In other words ascended gear drop rate in gw2 is lower then in WoW, but is determinated to 2 years or someting like that, becasue 5 or more years would be a bit to harsh, if you ask me.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Zero Day.2594:

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?

A poor decision made in game development, or in anticipating the game’s economy.

As a game developer, you cannot undo such a situation. Not without a full restart of the game, which might as well be pulling the plug on the game itself, as that would alienate every single player. Such drastic measures are not productive, and not necessary.

So what do you do? You develop new content to fill the niche that exotic gear was supposed to occupy. (Possibly a little more difficult to obtain, to compensate for the easily-obtainalbe exotic gear already in the game.)

So ascended is not really the problem. The problem is exotic. Ascended is the proposed solution.

At this point, either we’re on the same page as to what the “problem” is or close…

Scavanger hunt, has been asked for how long now?
Ability to craft? (HEY! why not make it the same kitten mats as ascended is now? or a bit more)
list of ideas go on…

Rouven.7409:

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?

No, no. Don’t get me wrong. I was not trying to say that raiding should be the way to obtain gear in Gw2. I was simply pointing out that RNG in this game cannot really be compared to WoW’s gear progression.

The RNG chance in this game means: Go chop wood!, because outside crafting, there is no reliable way to work towards ascended weapons/armor.

In WoW it was the other way around: Raid or accept not getting PvE BiS.

I would like to see more ways to work towards ascended outside crafting.

BTW, to anyone wondering…it seems that we can only craft ascended gear. No where does it mention that it will be available via drops in FoTM or any boss chests in the world. Just craft.

“The Armorsmith, Leatherworker, and Tailor crafting disciplines have a new skill cap of 500, which means that you can now craft your own Ascended armor!”

cesmode.4257:

BTW, to anyone wondering…it seems that we can only craft ascended gear. No where does it mention that it will be available via drops in FoTM or any boss chests in the world. Just craft.

“The Armorsmith, Leatherworker, and Tailor crafting disciplines have a new skill cap of 500, which means that you can now craft your own Ascended armor!”

this is just a one line teaser, they dont usually go into details like that until the patch notes.

I suppose that even ArenaNet can’t even make the game interesting in the long term without adding armor with better stats and grind and time lock.

There was Original Guild Wars though…

Watching the Wintersday video…heres my modified version of the poem that is being narrated… I hope you enjoy!

Toymaker Tixx and his golem Toxx are back back with more mats and grind.
From Achievement points, to ascended gear, you may be left behind.

So bundle up tight in your grindiest finest, and spread some ascended tear…
For the days are short, and the nights are long..ascended gear is here

bloody tears

I don’t even have the patience for getting ascended weapons . . .

Zayeban.2806:

You are missing the point here. The chance of dropping an Epic loot and also getting it in WoW was determined by the expansions length. In other words, if the expansion lasted for 7 months then the gear drop rate was determinated to correspond the to the chance of all players getting that item in 7 months or less, if they needed it. After 7 months had past, a new expansion was out with new gear, making the old gear obsolete.

Since there are no plans to make better gear in Gw2, that means that the ascended will never be obsolete. Meaning that its drop rate is determinated to the lifetime of the game, 5,6,7 or more years. In other words the gear drop rate is determinated to correspond the to the chance of you getting that gear in 5,6,7 or more years. In other words ascended gear drop rate in gw2 is lower then in WoW, but is determinated to 2 years or someting like that, becasue 5 or more years would be a bit to harsh, if you ask me.

Mhm – no. I just think I see it differently. Looking at precursor drops etc., I am pretty sure not everyone will see an ascended drop due to RNG.
Unlike WoW, we don’t have the option to decide who gets the loot. Some people might get lucky and have several ascended weapons drop for them, but with stats that they don’t need. Those will just go to waste.
In WoW, at least you could decide who would benefit the most from the item in question and decide accordingly on who had the right to bid on the item.

All in all: I just think it would be very nice to have an option to work towards ascended outside crafting or RNG.

So I am confused here with some of these post, why was earning exotics easily so bad? There is no content in the game that warrants a higher stat tier, some say Fractals but higher stats are not needed their either, something as simple as a rune sets/ sigils or jewels into your accessories with agony resist would have served just fine. Earning the best statistical gear should be easy, it offers variety and options to the player base, especially with an MMO where one balancing patch could destroy your build, I like knowing I can earn another stat set quickly so I can be competitive again.

Like this statement here: “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…"

This is why most of us bought Gw2, Ascended goes against this philosophy in every way and until Anet offers the player base a variety of interesting fun ways to earn the best statistical gear in game Ascended will always be a big dark black cloud of negativity over Anets head.

rjnemer.7816:

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.

The one does not exclude the other. They can introduce many differed ascended armor and one you might be able to then buy with relics while others might come as a drop from a dungeon.

Obviously I am not talking about tokens as indeed that go’s against what I am saying. I am indeed talking about it more of a rng way. Rng can be bad and it can be good. The chest from the trading post is something people really dislike. That is the bad sort of RNG but rng drops.. well if you dislike that then you should dislike any mmo as thats how most of them work. But that would indeed be an option I do like. And then there is the option for quest where it’s not RNG but a guaranteed quest.

If you know an item drops from a dungeon or a mob with x drop-rate you can very much work towards it. You simply know you should get it within about x kills / runs and you can be lucky getting it sooner or unlucky getting it later. It however would be farm-able. If it’s like 1/10.000 then it’s not something you can work towards anymore.

The tokens are in a way similar.. you know (just as with the RNG) oke I need to do this 10 times or 100 times and then I can buy the item. The big difference is that you just see the token (yet another currency) go up slowly what is very boring. While with the rng option every run there is an option for it to drop, so every run is exiting. Or every kill if one type of mob would drop it.

So rng can be fun if done correctly, so using % that are reachable and also making it something you can indeed ‘farm’. So if it would be a dungeon don’t allow just one run per day and if a type of mob can drop something make sure there are area’s with many of them so you can run around there farming them.

It’s gets exiting because every time the next kill or the next run you are able to get the item you would like to have to much.

Currency driven is way more boring, just seeing the currency number get up little by little to eventually being able to buy it. That does not mean some similar items (maybe only a differed skin, but same stats) should not be available with a currency but at this moment everything is currency driven and that is boring.

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.

Accessories already been there for that long, didn’t see any such posts yet.

Reesha.7901:

No, no. Don’t get me wrong. I was not trying to say that raiding should be the way to obtain gear in Gw2. I was simply pointing out that RNG in this game cannot really be compared to WoW’s gear progression.

The RNG chance in this game means: Go chop wood!, because outside crafting, there is no reliable way to work towards ascended weapons/armor.

In WoW it was the other way around: Raid or accept not getting PvE BiS.

I would like to see more ways to work towards ascended outside crafting.

Oh agreed, there should be multiple ways of obtaining them, definitely as drops in fractals.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

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?

Maybe but even if they only have one currency it can still be all currency driven. Just with that one currency. The reason they want to get gold into sPvP is imho purely so the gem-store gets more involved in sPvP. Nearly all decisions Anet is making seem to be influenced by the gem-store. At least now there is yet another reason for people to buy gems to convert to gold is probably what they are thinking.

I would just like to see more options to really work towards an item without a currency in between. Just by completing a quest or indeed a specific rng drop from a dungeon / boss or mob.
It keep thinks more interesting.

Many MMO’s at least give you multiple options and I never went for the currency / gold farm option. Here it’s basically the only options you have.

Rouven.7409:

Reesha.7901:

No, no. Don’t get me wrong. I was not trying to say that raiding should be the way to obtain gear in Gw2. I was simply pointing out that RNG in this game cannot really be compared to WoW’s gear progression.

The RNG chance in this game means: Go chop wood!, because outside crafting, there is no reliable way to work towards ascended weapons/armor.

In WoW it was the other way around: Raid or accept not getting PvE BiS.

I would like to see more ways to work towards ascended outside crafting.

Oh agreed, there should be multiple ways of obtaining them, definitely as drops in fractals.

Yes, there should be many more ways to obtain this gear than just crafting.

Personally, I feel it should be available via all the same means as exotics (sans being tradable of course), but simply cost more. Make them purchasable via dungeon tokens, but make them twice if not 3 times the cost of exotics. Just give me more options!

Latinkuro.9420:

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

Hope dies last, but I am sure you can already bury it. It is meant to be something to keep people busy – for a long time. The more interesting question is, do we need 6 vision crystals for a full set or do we get a new component with 200 dust/fragments/ores each? This is, where my hope still exists…

Seveleniumus.5973:

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.

Accessories already been there for that long, didn’t see any such posts yet.

At least it’s good that people can’t inspect you too.

When they ask for Ascended accessories you just grab a Berserker Ascended amulet item code or something and like it.

You can do the same with the Ascended armor, and when they as why it got no runes on it you can just say ‘’Huh, weird, I suppose it’s a bgg because I got this rune set on’’

The game is filled with bugs anyway so you can get past the check easily.

Dahkeus.8243:

While you’re working on that long term goal, those top players will be smashing face in WvW.

Nope.

If you cannot beat an opponent in a duel while he’s in exotics and you’re in rares for example, you will not beat him if you upgraded to exotics. It’s not a big difference. There’s too many factors in a duel between players (skill, builds, all the conditions, buffs, runes, sigils, certain class advantages, foods, maintenance oils, etc.) and a few more percent in damage will not win you a fight against an equally skilled opponent.

An opponent in WvW running sigil of the night (if it happens to be night time) would do more damage than someone in full ascended if they don’t run that sigil for whatever reason.

If I upgraded TWO of my exotic weapons to ascended, I would get the following as an upgrade:

8 power
.3% crit chance
0% crit damage.

In the end, only bad players will blame a loss on an opponent having ascended gear.

Ascended armor is gear grind for the sake of gear grind and it is bad for the game. On the hand, if players actually need ascended armor for any content then it will exclude players who don’t have it, which is again bad for the game.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Rouven.7409:

Reesha.7901:

No, no. Don’t get me wrong. I was not trying to say that raiding should be the way to obtain gear in Gw2. I was simply pointing out that RNG in this game cannot really be compared to WoW’s gear progression.

The RNG chance in this game means: Go chop wood!, because outside crafting, there is no reliable way to work towards ascended weapons/armor.

In WoW it was the other way around: Raid or accept not getting PvE BiS.

I would like to see more ways to work towards ascended outside crafting.

Oh agreed, there should be multiple ways of obtaining them, definitely as drops in fractals.

Yes, there should be many more ways to obtain this gear than just crafting.

Personally, I feel it should be available via all the same means as exotics (sans being tradable of course), but simply cost more. Make them purchasable via dungeon tokens, but make them twice if not 3 times the cost of exotics. Just give me more options!

I like that idea.

I also think a suggestion, I saw elsewhere, would be nice: Have world bosses drop an ascended token of some sort, and you would then need x amount of them to buy an ascended piece from a vendor.

It would also be rather nice if you could choose stats on the RNG drops. If you get lucky with RNG (and that is a big if), then you need extra RNG luck in order to get a drop with the right stats.

However: more ways to obtain them in the first way pretty please. I for one dislike crafting with a passion. :<

They did say, repeatedly, that they want ascended gear to be obtainable through various parts of the game.

Right now, I see:
-fractals for rings
-laurels for rings,accessories,amulets
-Crafting for everything else.

Sure you can find a weapon in a chest. I don’t see anyone coming to the forums, or posting in map chat that they have looted one from a chest. It doesn’t happen. Im convinced they do not exist in chests(almost).

They need to up the chance at looting them from chests and finding them throughout the world. Making crafting the most reliable way to obtain ascended weapons/armor is such a design flaw its not even funny. With the excessively low drop rate of these items in chests, I can say that again, arenanet walks the fine line between what they say and what they do. They say it can be obtained in the world and in various places, yet it just doesn’t happen. So, I can sit here confidently and call some bluffs.

cesmode.4257:

I wonder what the game will look like 6 months to a year from now… Now that we will be able to craft ascended gear and armor, what to do? Where to go from here?

6 months to a year from now, most of the players will still be crafting and nowhere close to finish. There are people now (active people, playing several hours a day, 7k+ ap) that don’t have their weapon crafting professions maxed yet. I shudder to think how bad it is for those below top 10%.

Grind Wars 2. Nothing new here.
This game was already ruined by the “Gibe stats plox” crew in 3 months. Way to go!

I will agree with the sentiment here, but it’s not a really big deal for me. I’ll just gear up my main character and all my alts will be in exotics. With all my characters, I think I can do 99% of the gw2 content (except fractals) and it’s extremely doable in exotics.. even in rares lol. Anet put a carrot for us to chase, ill just take a bite and leave instead of chasing it forever.

JohnnySupernova.9182:

Infusions aren’t really an alternative to ascended gear since they’re still a big gold sink (or time and gold sink)

Sort of. Gold sink, no. Unless you’re running level50, you don’t need anything other than the +5 infusions. Which can be easily farmed. For running level 50, it would make more sense to buy +10 than farm them.
As a time sink, I guess you could call it that. Though you only need them in the place you farm them. If you don’t like or run fractals, there’s no need to farm them. And if you like fractals or are farming them for skins or whatever…then you get them automatically.

Astralporing.1957:

cesmode.4257:

I wonder what the game will look like 6 months to a year from now… Now that we will be able to craft ascended gear and armor, what to do? Where to go from here?

6 months to a year from now, most of the players will still be crafting and nowhere close to finish. There are people now (active people, playing several hours a day, 7k+ ap) that don’t have their weapon crafting professions maxed yet. I shudder to think how bad it is for those below top 10%.

A sad reality, you could be correct. I play 2-3 hours per night, probably 6 or 7 during the weekends or when I am off/home. I have 6500+ AP, and my Huntsman crafting is at 470 I believe. Im not dropping 50 gold to craft my way to 500. And Im not spending a dime on the cash shop to do this.

If I am still crafting ascended gear in 6 months, fine. If content becomes player gated with ‘LFM ascended only’ for simple dungeons, or if guilds start requiring it or whatever, then this is not OK. If arenanet ups the level cap and with it comes new gear to grind out, this is not OK.

This has to be, and better be the final gear tier. Or many many many people will drop this game like a bad habit.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

@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.

I think the solution was to do nothing about token acquisition at launch the system was perfect.
messing with it and than introducing time gated crap along with ascended introduced a new problem far worse than the original issue.

EvilSardine.9635:

Dahkeus.8243:

While you’re working on that long term goal, those top players will be smashing face in WvW.

Nope.

If you cannot beat an opponent in a duel while he’s in exotics and you’re in rares for example, you will not beat him if you upgraded to exotics. It’s not a big difference. There’s too many factors in a duel between players (skill, builds, all the conditions, buffs, runes, sigils, certain class advantages, foods, maintenance oils, etc.) and a few more percent in damage will not win you a fight against an equally skilled opponent.

An opponent in WvW running sigil of the night (if it happens to be night time) would do more damage than someone in full ascended if they don’t run that sigil for whatever reason.

If I upgraded TWO of my exotic weapons to ascended, I would get the following as an upgrade:

8 power
.3% crit chance
0% crit damage.

In the end, only bad players will blame a loss on an opponent having ascended gear.

you can gain 8% crit damage 1% crit and 50ish power from replacing accessories, before infusions, you forgot the increased base damage on your weapons also. So 6 accessories 6 prices of armor, so roughly 15% crit damage, 2% crit, 100 power and I still haven’t done infusions but have 12 of them so I could add 110 power to that.

that’s a pretty big bumped in stats anyway you cut it.

cesmode.4257:

They did say, repeatedly, that they want ascended gear to be obtainable through various parts of the game.

Right now, I see:
-fractals for rings
-laurels for rings,accessories,amulets
-Crafting for everything else.

Sure you can find a weapon in a chest. I don’t see anyone coming to the forums, or posting in map chat that they have looted one from a chest. It doesn’t happen. Im convinced they do not exist in chests(almost).

Leaving out pieces from MF, the items from guild missions. Also weapon chests do drop it is how I received my ascendedweapon.

cesmode.4257:

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.

To be completely accurate, they said, in the AMA, that they had no current plans to implement a tier beyond Ascended and that they intended to carry VP on through infusions. But, nowhere have they said that Ascended is the final tier—at least I have never seen a statement to that effect.

Zypher.7609:

cesmode.4257:

They did say, repeatedly, that they want ascended gear to be obtainable through various parts of the game.

Right now, I see:
-fractals for rings
-laurels for rings,accessories,amulets
-Crafting for everything else.

Sure you can find a weapon in a chest. I don’t see anyone coming to the forums, or posting in map chat that they have looted one from a chest. It doesn’t happen. Im convinced they do not exist in chests(almost).

Leaving out pieces from MF, the items from guild missions. Also weapon chests do drop it is how I received my ascendedweapon.

Lies. You really crafted it, you just cant remember because it was so mind numbingly boring and tedious that you pushed it out of your mind.

Seriously, youre like one in a million. Any time I do a chest event, and people link the rare crud that they find, no one links a pink. ever. ever.

They are almost as rare as precursors, and look at the problem that whole system is having.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Since there is no content in the game that requires ascended gear just take your time and have fun making it.

Too bad the crafting process is not fun at all.

As someone who has a limited amount of time to play this game and a few 80’s that I like to switch between frequently the emphasis on ascended gear has me very disappointed.

Lets say, for example, that I am able to settle into one profession and just focus on getting ascended gear for that one toon. I know that Berserkers is all that is truly viable so I really only have to get one set.

Alright, that’s fine. I can slowly gather up the mats and level up my crafting abilities to eventually get that one set, in a couple of months.

A few months down the line some balance changes hit or new content hits that makes Berserkers less valuable and makes supporting and bunkering far more valuable.

Awesome! Now I can play something new!

… But wait none of the gear I worked months for works with these new builds…

So I have to go to a lower tier of gear to try these new builds (Which doesn’t feel good or make me happy) and/or spend a plethora of time and money crafting new ascended gear. This is not fun for me as a player, I’m forced to decide between a perpetual grind or being pigeon holed into one playstyle. That’s not a great choice. Now multiply that by multiple max level toons…

Isn’t the “not being forced into one playstyle” the reason this game chose to forsake the traditional trinity? So why the bait and switch?

Proposed solution: Give us the ability to swap item stats around. It can be fairly expensive (I’d say I’d pay up to 5g for a complete set change, maybe more if the armor is ascended).

if they introduced say Ancestral Gear a year from now dec 10th 2014, I would be fine with it, as long as the time gating crap is NOT part of the equation anymore.
It would give the majority of players something to do in terms of personal character growth.

time gating is the death of all my alts it has taken all my money and all my resources to get all my alts to have ascended.

cesmode.4257:

Zypher.7609:

cesmode.4257:

They did say, repeatedly, that they want ascended gear to be obtainable through various parts of the game.

Right now, I see:
-fractals for rings
-laurels for rings,accessories,amulets
-Crafting for everything else.

Sure you can find a weapon in a chest. I don’t see anyone coming to the forums, or posting in map chat that they have looted one from a chest. It doesn’t happen. Im convinced they do not exist in chests(almost).

Leaving out pieces from MF, the items from guild missions. Also weapon chests do drop it is how I received my ascendedweapon.

Lies. You really crafted it, you just cant remember because it was so mind numbingly boring and tedious that you pushed it out of your mind.

Seriously, youre like one in a million. Any time I do a chest event, and people link the rare crud that they find, no one links a pink. ever. ever.

They are almost as rare as precursors, and look at the problem that whole system is having.

There are a lot of people that play this game remember, so just because you are not in the area where items are found does not mean they are not found somewhere else. But yeah I think only about 5 in our guild have found a chest. I have not attempted the crafting yet since I already had my weapon and I only play 1 character. But with armor I will be going for the set.

AScended gear is so bad a decision in so many ways for this game, but now it is done and there is nothing we can do.
When arrives the time that they put content out of the FOtM designed for Ascended gear I will know it is the end for me, just that.

What I can’t really understand is that they are trying to satisfy the stat grinders, but what about the others? The ones that were looking this game as a grind for skins? This new release does not introduce any armor/skin to be obtained in game appart pets from last year (well, ascended are also skins…but well… quite underwhelming if they are what was datamined. THeir interest is in stats)

The two communities could be pleased. Ascended lovers and Skin lovers. Give game incentives for both. This release seems quite poor for my style of game. Happy for the Ascended lovers bunch though. Merry Christmas to you.

Compared to a lot of other crafting systems, I do not think this one is bad at all, but that is just me.

Ascended armor is coming, everyone might as well just accept it and move an. I do not see it as that big of a deal personally.

Fjandi.2516:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Since there is no content in the game that requires ascended gear just take your time and have fun making it.

Too bad the crafting process is not fun at all.

I want to second and agree with ZudetGambeous, but I also agree with you that it isnt much fun. Especially after returning late to the game, and just beginning my ascended weapon crafting(only at 470 and sloooowly climbing). Now I have an asceded armor climb piled ontop of me. Sure, I’ll probably take my time with it. I’ll just feel a bit behind and it annoys me to high heaven that this is where the game ended up. Going into GW2, I felt it would be a game where I could quit, come back and pick up where I left off without feeling behind. Thats not where we are at now.

I hate the fact that they are forcing people to craft in order to get ascended gears.
I personally hate crafting in this game, and the probability of getting ascended weapon in fotm is just…so low x_x
I don’t get why can’t ascended gears be sold in TP, so that people can just get the gear doing what they like, instead of forcing people to collect ingredients and level up crafting….

Reesha.7901:

Mhm – no. I just think I see it differently. Looking at precursor drops etc., I am pretty sure not everyone will see an ascended drop due to RNG.
Unlike WoW, we don’t have the option to decide who gets the loot. Some people might get lucky and have several ascended weapons drop for them, but with stats that they don’t need. Those will just go to waste.
In WoW, at least you could decide who would benefit the most from the item in question and decide accordingly on who had the right to bid on the item.

All in all: I just think it would be very nice to have an option to work towards ascended outside crafting or RNG.

I see what u mean. But just to remind you that I do Fractals with randoms (just like the majority of us do), which is equivalent as doing raids with randoms in WoW. In other words: doing LFR. LFR uses a system called Personal Loot which means that every player has a fixed percentage chance of receiving a loot item. There is no pool of shared drop items in LFR, everyone gets his own items just like in GW2.

However, playing fractals frequently, i must say the drop rate of getting an ascended Box drop, let alone the stats you need, is too low from my point of view and could get a bit of tweaking.

Also i do agree that having more options to get an ascended gear/weapons would be welcome. If we can get rings with Pristine Fractal Relics (which are almost already obsolete as this point in game), why can’t we get ascended gear/weapons with them, also? Making Pristine Fractal Relics valuable again. That doesn’t mean that they should be cheap in any way. It only means there is another way to get them.

coglin.1867:

Compared to a lot of other crafting systems, I do not think this one is bad at all, but that is just me.

Ascended armor is coming, everyone might as well just accept it and move an. I do not see it as that big of a deal personally.

it isn’t a big deal YET because endgame content is still balanced around exotic stats as an endgame gear.

The moment new content starts to be balanced with the assumption that ascended is endgame gear, well that’s when the crap hits the ceiling.

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.

Thanks I figured/slightly remembered it as such, but one can hope.

On the plus side, if the stats that were mined a couple of months ago is true, this armor is basically pointless. I don’t think there were any Armor values, but the stat increase for a full ascended armor set vs. exotic was roughly 22 (going from memory here) for the main stat. And if you used infusions (technically the data mined armor didn’t have an infusion slot if I recall, but assuming it does have one) you’d get max ~52 for one stat (and like 13-17 for 2 others). I don’t remember my calculations exactly, but I think my projected ascended armor values (based off the % increase from rare to exotic) only provided ~1% DR for someone in knights gear. I’d argue not exactly worth it for the gold it costs to level up crafting and the time it takes for the time gated mats.

Also, if I was Anet, and the armor did have infusion slots, I’d say make them the Agony Resistance only infusion slots. That way they only benefit fractal players; WvW’ers/PvEers don’t need to blow their money getting the extra armor for +22 to a stat and fractal runners have more slots to use the new infusions (considering how prohibitively expensive it is to get +35 or +40 AR from only 3 slots). But that requires a lot less grind/less money sink for players, so I doubt it will happen. :/

coglin.1867:

Compared to a lot of other crafting systems, I do not think this one is bad at all, but that is just me.

Ascended armor is coming, everyone might as well just accept it and move an. I do not see it as that big of a deal personally.

I do prefer GW2 version of crafting over other games’ versions. Most of it anyway… the cooking driving me batty though.

I can accept ascended, so long as they do not introduce another tier afterwards. I can swallow their “exotics were too easy to get” and “we wanted top gear to take a certain amount of time to get” and even “we’ll have a small power curve” statements, but only if they stop the tiers here. They want to take sigils, and runes, and infusions, and build them up until they have all the tiers in those as well, fine. That makes sense, and yes would produce a measurable power curve for those desiring the stat climb, while still not making it too outrageous for those that don’t want to stat climb (if done properly). However at that point, logic would determine that the VP would stop. If that is the path they take, and that’s were they stop, I’d be a very happy player. I’d even willing show it where it counts, by opening my wallet. Until such time, I will simply take it one day at a time.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

coglin.1867:

Compared to a lot of other crafting systems, I do not think this one is bad at all, but that is just me.

Ascended armor is coming, everyone might as well just accept it and move an. I do not see it as that big of a deal personally.

I do prefer GW2 version of crafting over other games’ versions. Most of it anyway… the cooking driving me batty though.

I can accept ascended, so long as they do not introduce another tier afterwards. I can swallow their “exotics were too easy to get” and “we wanted top gear to take a certain amount of time to get” and even “we’ll have a small power curve” statements, but only if they stop the tiers here. They want to take sigils, and runes, and infusions, and build them up until they have all the tiers in those as well, fine. That makes sense, and yes would produce a measurable power curve for those desiring the stat climb, while still not making it too outrageous for those that don’t want to stat climb (if done properly). However at that point, logic would determine that the VP would stop. If that is the path they take, and that’s were they stop, I’d be a very happy player. I’d even willing show it where it counts, by opening my wallet. Until such time, I will simply take it one day at a time.

Very well put, and I agree. However, you seem to have way more patience than I do. A year to release all ascended items, weapons, and gear. Another year to release ascended sigils, runs, etc. Ugh, its just an unattainable mountain. I look up at Ascended Mountain and I just get tired and don’t even want to start the climb. But you’re right. According to Arenanet’s preachings, there is an end. There will be a day where we do not have any more gear to grind or upgrades to grind into ascended. Where we simply play to play and have fun. And I hope it ends there.

I myself will go batty if they then come at us and say “Now you can upgrade your…wait for it…..your weapon abilities, and utilities to ascended versions!”

You have not seen my fury until that day.

EvilUeki.7354:

I hate the fact that they are forcing people to craft in order to get ascended gears.

You can get ascended weapon drops in WvW and PvE content, so I think it is safe to assume you will be able to acquire ascended armor in the same manner. So saying they force you is a little much.

Latinkuro.9420:

coglin.1867:

Compared to a lot of other crafting systems, I do not think this one is bad at all, but that is just me.

Ascended armor is coming, everyone might as well just accept it and move an. I do not see it as that big of a deal personally.

it isn’t a big deal YET because endgame content is still balanced around exotic stats as an endgame gear.

The moment new content starts to be balanced with the assumption that ascended is endgame gear, well that’s when the crap hits the ceiling.

actually everything was originally balanced around rares as the gear people would be wearing. Only in the most recent LS updates has that switched to exotics.

coglin.1867:

EvilUeki.7354:

I hate the fact that they are forcing people to craft in order to get ascended gears.

You can get ascended weapon drops in WvW and PvE content, so I think it is safe to assume you will be able to acquire ascended armor in the same manner. So saying they force you is a little much.

best of luck with getting it as a drop (and the right kind).

This feels like the ascended weapons talk all over again. Maybe worse because you’ll need to craft 6 pieces now? Wonder how that works.

Either way I have 2 ascended weapons on different characters and decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Armor will probably be the same if not worse.

I’ll be happy to make a little coin from those interested on the 10th.