Guild Wars 2

As title says. I was doing map complete in metrica province and for a good 15 minutes or more witnessed the strangest and most shocking map chat conversation I have seen.

People kept talking about how good the community was, how there was no elitism based on what gear you had, how you could play all content in the game with level 60-80 blues and greens just fine and that ascended wasn’t required. Oh and let’s not forget my personal favorite, that max gear in this game is easy to get. These people weren’t sarcastic either, they were very sincere.

It’s a little sad that seeing something like this shocks me, but it was such a huge contrast to what I experience myself in game and hear from everyone I know and of course, read on the glorious salt mine that this forum is. It really says something about the state of the game if this comes across as shocking because just a few years ago it all would have been true. I remember thinking it myself. I would say these people were new but at least one had a mentor tag which shows they at least have HoT and are level 80.

I am just amazed right now and just had to share this odd experience.

I wouldn’t want to play HoT in blues (and I do for some equipment…) but its probably not wrong overall. Skill can overcome a lot of average gear. I’m not advocating it since in this game I like to go as far as is most useful (exotic for me) but its doable.

zenleto.6179:

I wouldn’t want to play HoT in blues (and I do for some equipment…) but its probably not wrong overall. Skill can overcome a lot of average gear. I’m not advocating it since in this game I like to go as far as is most useful (exotic for me) but its doable.

I doubt you can do raids and high level fractals in blues and greens.

Aguri.2896:

zenleto.6179:

I wouldn’t want to play HoT in blues (and I do for some equipment…) but its probably not wrong overall. Skill can overcome a lot of average gear. I’m not advocating it since in this game I like to go as far as is most useful (exotic for me) but its doable.

I doubt you can do raids and high level fractals in blues and greens.

Obviously.

edit: to back that up so I don’t look a prick- those are niche play, and one of them is very new. Anyone who has played this game for long knows about what you start needing for fractals, and raids seem to already have that “elitist” feel about them (not having a go, just saying) that it should be obvious.

Aguri.2896:

how you could play all content in the game with level 60-80 blues and greens just fine and that ascended wasn’t required. Oh and let’s not forget my personal favorite, that max gear in this game is easy to get. These people weren’t sarcastic either, they were very sincere.

This is partially true, but I wouldn’t recommend doing high level content with blues and greens.

Ascended equipment is not required for most high level content. It helps a little bit but most high level content can be done without it.

Exotic equipment is quite cheap at the moment and can even be bought with Karma, Dungeon Tokens and Badges of Honor.

If you want to improve your stats a bit you can buy ascended trinkets with Laurels, Badges of Honor and Pristine Fractal Relics.

Only for very high fractal levels you need full ascended gear. Medium fractals can be done with ascended trinkets and for low level fractals you need no ascended gear.

Shylock.4653:

Only for very high fractal levels you need full ascended gear. Medium fractals can be done with ascended trinkets and for low level fractals you need no ascended gear.

With attunement + infusion and a bit of +1 AR hoarding to build up the larger agony infusions, you can probably do it with trinkets alone now.

I don’t see why any of this comes as a surprise to OP. Your friends aren’t a font of infallible knowledge, let alone the forums.

GW2 is a nice experience before you come to the HoT areas.

I think to get away with blues in greens in the new zones you should require OP class mechanics or great situational awareness and skill to overcome it. The new content should assume you at least have exotics whereas doing good in blues and greens is fine for Cursed Shore where freshly minted 80’s are meant to grind so they can acquire exotics by vendoring lots of blues and greens and gathering.

What I miss about vertical progression though is you’d go to a previous area with strong and intimidate monsters. They’re still strong and dangerous soldiers/monsters/whatever that the locals fear, they’re just not dangerous for you since you’ve long since left them in the dust. One of, if not the best things about RPGs is this great improvement you see in the characters. At level 1 a bear was dangerous, the creatures can outrun Olympic sprinters, climb trees with ease despite weighing hundreds of pounds, hunt moose which are even bigger than they are and moose can tank car crashes even, yet dragons make them look like kitty cats, and higher level dragons make those look like kitties. When your character is a high level you can look back and think, “Wow can’t believe those things were a threat to me before!” It also contributes to what makes Dragon kitten a good anime. Frieza was feared and hyped up and an entire arc was dedicated to taking him out…yet he’s shown to be practically nothing compared to other villains in later arcs. Even the supreme kais are able to take him out in a single blow.

When you equip higher tier gear I like to think it’s the character with those attributes not the armor due to how low base stats are and the only stat the armor contributes story wise is armor and stat changing gear I think of as retconning.

saturn.4810:

GW2 is a nice experience before you come to the HoT areas.

As a Nuhoch might say: Study the jungle to survive.

Agemnon.4608:

What I miss about vertical progression though is you’d go to a previous area with strong and intimidate monsters. They’re still strong and dangerous soldiers/monsters/whatever that the locals fear, they’re just not dangerous for you since you’ve long since left them in the dust.

I don’t miss that at all. GW2’s ‘ruined’ me in this regard, I don’t think I can go back to playing an MMO where I eventually outgrow areas of the world.

I’m so glad when I go to a lower level area, everything is still a relatively reasonable challenge.

If you’re careless in GW2, those bears that killed you at level 1 might still kill you at level 80.

That’s superb design.

Aguri.2896:

People kept talking about how good the community was, how there was no elitism based on what gear you had, how you could play all content in the game with level 60-80 blues and greens just fine and that ascended wasn’t required. Oh and let’s not forget my personal favorite, that max gear in this game is easy to get.

It’s possible that these people are new players with no max characters and therefore no real experience with what it’s like in level 80 areas, HoT zones, and what’s it’s like to get max gear.

Mentor tag means absolutely nothing these days, because 80 is very easy to get— since all you’d have to do is wait for some level up tomes through login chests, and then you just gain 1 more level.

Also, generalizations aren’t applicable in every situation.. There’s always someone that is out there to cause trouble in any place with lots of people, but I just don’t see it happening that much. Finally, I am not sure who said getting ascended gear was easy, but exotics tend to be close enough and aren’t too hard to acquire. However, considering a lot of this game can be cleared with no specific builds, so that’s what they’re probaly getting at.