Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been saving up guild accommodations to buy my second piece of ascended gear for my guardian. Being a hardcore bunker, I naturally wanted an ascended accessory that was the same stats as the one I already had (defensive PVT). After double clicking the item to equip it, it swapped with the one I already had and realized only one could be equipped at a time. I then proceeded to flip my keyboard off of my desk. 12 guild accommodations and 5 gold (not to mention the time spent to acquire these) thrown out the window… kitten?!

After researching I found out that this is what a “unique” item means. I unfortunately didn’t know what that meant as I’m sure many other players don’t. This is a horrible design break IMO. There should be a sort of short-term sell-back option or something to avoid this, or at least make it more well-known what a “unique” item is.

For the first time, I’m very disappointed in Guild Wars 2

Yeah, people have posted threads about this before. Anet should really make this part more clear to help avoid this issue for people in the future, cause if people keep posting about it then something is definitely wrong with the way it is presented.

Lol? u can 2 ascended of the same type, u need to read men, there is 2 or 3 ascended(Ring/accessory) of the same stats. I don’t think is a horrible desing, u just need to read that all, if u are too lazy to do it then its ur fail.

What we really need is a limited time sell back… That would solve problems like this.

I personally recommend submitting a ticket. The support staff helped me out when I did the same thing.

Mestinon.9825:

After researching I found out that this is what a “unique” item means.

Next time do your research before your purchase, you’ll never have this problem again.

If you care enough about stats to get ascended gear, then why did you never bother to find out what the ‘Unique’ part on the stats meant?

Another thread about this. Can’t the moderator sticky or put a warning or something.

Ascended trinkets have been out for a very long time now… i originally did this very same thing with a ring.. i purchased with pristine fractal relics not laurels thank goodness.. i have more rings then i can count and pristine fractal relics are worthless so all is good on ascended rings… but Anet really should give the player more IN GAME info on this issue.

Rhysati.4932:

If you care enough about stats to get ascended gear, then why did you never bother to find out what the ‘Unique’ part on the stats meant?

And if you care about 12 guild tokens and 5 gold, you should really bothered to find out that out.

look on the bright side, you now have an extra ascended accessory for one of your other characters.

Israel.7056:

I personally recommend submitting a ticket. The support staff helped me out when I did the same thing.

I did and they said they’re unable to refund any in-game transactions :/

Miku.6297:

What we really need is a limited time sell back… That would solve problems like this.

I recall other games having that and it completely eliminated the problems, AoC and WoW I think had them.

Mestinon.9825:

So I’ve been saving up guild accommodations to buy my second piece of ascended gear for my guardian. Being a hardcore bunker, I naturally wanted an ascended accessory that was the same stats as the one I already had (defensive PVT). After double clicking the item to equip it, it swapped with the one I already had and realized only one could be equipped at a time. I then proceeded to flip my keyboard off of my desk. 12 guild accommodations and 5 gold (not to mention the time spent to acquire these) thrown out the window… kitten?!

After researching I found out that this is what a “unique” item means. I unfortunately didn’t know what that meant as I’m sure many other players don’t. This is a horrible design break IMO. There should be a sort of short-term sell-back option or something to avoid this, or at least make it more well-known what a “unique” item is.

For the first time, I’m very disappointed in Guild Wars 2

You didn’t know what the word “unique” means?

Buy back would definitely be of use in this game for instances like the op’s or at least a tool tip to describe what you are getting yourself into when purchasing items like this that have currencies that take forever to get (laurels/guild comms..of which many still can’t get at all).

On the other hand, if this is not your first rodeo, blame yourself. MMO’s, videogames and other gaming formats have had “Unique” items, of which you could only equip one.

FateOmega.9601:

Another thread about this. Can’t the moderator sticky or put a warning or something.

Indeed. Very good idea.

Secondly, the “unique” term has been in mmo’s for a looong time. Everyone makes this mistake exactly once.

Mestinon.9825:

Israel.7056:

I personally recommend submitting a ticket. The support staff helped me out when I did the same thing.

I did and they said they’re unable to refund any in-game transactions :/

People got replacement items already. Ask again. If enough people waste their customer support time with that stupid feature, maybe they’ll learn and remove the useless Unique thing.

stof.9341:

Mestinon.9825:

Israel.7056:

I personally recommend submitting a ticket. The support staff helped me out when I did the same thing.

I did and they said they’re unable to refund any in-game transactions :/

People got replacement items already. Ask again. If enough people waste their customer support time with that stupid feature, maybe they’ll learn and remove the useless Unique thing.

I’d rather see the playerbase working on a patch that improves their reading comprehension.

kokiman.2364:

I’d rather see the playerbase working on a patch that improves their reading comprehension.

What has the “Unique” feature given us so far? It’s effects on gameplay are 99.9999% frustration from buyers and 0.0001% for some guy that actually used the crafted offensive/defensive infusions and got affected by this thing.

Can you honestly say it was worth the headaches?

They need a clear hint/tooltip that explains the ‘Unique’ status of an object the first time someone acquires one or buys one.

It should not be a surprise that unique means unique.

This is why you should pay attention in primary school reading comprehension class.

I’m sorry but those of you who continue to respond to this issue with “L2READ, BRO,” are wrong, in my opinion.

1: Why would someone even suspect that ‘Unique’ in this context means that one cannot equip two of them?
You say people can’t read or don’t understand what unique means? Fine.
What does the word unique mean?
From the dictionary, the most appropriate definition is:
Unique: existing as the only one or as the sole example; single; solitary in type or characteristics.
Unique does not mean anything like limited to a single usage or restricted in application, it just describes an object’s existence. If you really want to adhere to the definition of the word unique, then purchase of the item should result in its removal from the vendor for all players on the server, or at the very least for the player’s account.

2: For an unsuspecting player, there is no red flag associated with a simple adjective in an item’s description.
For people who have not played other MMOs in which ‘Unique’ is used in the same context as GW2’s Ascended gear, seeing a word like unique in a description box is not something that shouts “do a little research on how this word changes the item’s usability!” We see little adjectives to describe item tiers all the time, and they have no real meaning other than being arbitrary terms to classify the item. When Ascended was added, no one said, “Hey, this item says ascended, I should look into how the meaning of the word ascended might play into the item’s features.” I realize that there is a difference between tier descriptors and the ‘Unique’ descriptor, I’m just saying that we see things all the time that we don’t scrutinize because we have no reason to do so. These unique items all have little descriptors on them e.g.
The Queen’s Necklace
Commissioned for Queen Jennah by a council member, but found too ornate for her tastes.
Should a person see this line and start deconstructing its possible implications for usage of the item?

Just to add this, I was not one of the unlucky ones who invested time and money into an item only to discover I could not equip it, but I probably would have, had I not been fortunate enough to learn from a post like this a while back, before I bought my ascended stuff. It’s just shocking to me how many people out there are blaming the user for being stupid or ignorant or what-have-you.

while unique might be clear for some players, gaming history has used it differently before, describing only the rarity of an item.
http://www.planetdiablo.com/diablo/unique/jewelry/
as far as I know, you could equip two pieces of the same unique item if you were lucky enough to find it twice, which could happen.

while the way GW2 uses it does make sense, it’s not immediately clear for everyone. I only know about it because I do frequent the forums and the question has been asked a few times (and I try to never be the first to buy something, for this exact reason).
is reading the forums really a necessity? wouldn’t at least a hint (like the ‘you can now swap weapons!’ popup) on acquiring the first unique item be a good idea?

If you read the word “unique” and didn’t know what it meant and didn’t look it up it is completely the buyers fault.

When I first saw the word unique, I didn’t know what it meant. My first reaction, before doing anything further, was to type “/wiki Unique” into the chat in-game. It brought me here, and I never wasted a laurel/pristine relic/commendation because of it.

I agree that we could use an in-game “Hint” that tells people what the word unique means, but the onus is really on you, the player, to make sure you’re doing what you really want to be doing. If you ever find yourself making an “assumption” about how something works, investigate it first before jumping to any conclusions and shooting yourself in the foot.

keep one infused and the other not infused, then you can equip them both.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Mestinon.9825:

After researching I found out that this is what a “unique” item means.

Next time do your research before your purchase, you’ll never have this problem again.

The problem is that you don’t know that you need to research anything until your already kittened.

It’s completely unreasonable to expect someone to look up what each word in a description means.

Ascended gear is far to time consuming to obtain, they could make the descriptions a little user friendly.

I like to look at it as if these items are story driven (i wish they would add something to the rings) so its a bit hard to say there are 2 of them on your person.

While we are at it, healing power is much more valuable to a bunker guardian then tough/vitality, especially in a group setting and past a certain treshold of hp/armor. Now I don’t recall if an appropiate ascended item is available, but if there is you now know not to buy the offensive pvt one

Check my posted link, enough said.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/What-the-word-unique-means/first#post1974147

If you were someone who played Guild Wars 1, you might suppose that ArenaNet maintained the same definition in the new game.

Unique was the category for the most rare of items, not their equip ability.

“I totally didn’t bother to read the stats on the item. I’d like someone to make the game less likely to require me to pay attention”

You screwed up. Stop trying to blame the system for your own inability to pay attention. Sometimes things really are your fault.

Victim of the week, really.

I honestly don’t understand why people badger on about “You should’ve looked up what Unique meant before buying”. As if we ever stopped to think what “Exotic” or “Ascended” meant before buying those items in the first place.

The game makes no communication what “Unique” means in the context of this game (especially since Unique means different things in other games). It’s poor game design. Stop making excuses for it.

Mestinon.9825:

Israel.7056:

I personally recommend submitting a ticket. The support staff helped me out when I did the same thing.

I did and they said they’re unable to refund any in-game transactions :/

Try it again.
They already have compensated other players that have not known about the “unique” thing.

For example:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/No-warning-about-ascended-rings/page/4#post1834804
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Can-not-use-the-same-Ascended-item-twice/first#post1889375

Good luck!