Guild Wars 2

BiJay.9830:

Ouiji.3905:

10 stats? l2math. This is just the beginning as every piece of armor and accessory and weapons will be ascended eventually.

Yeah, it’s the beginning. There will be many more ways to aquire ascended gear.

you know people keep saying that but all i keep seeing is grind after grind.

OP is right. and those people who continue to hit the dead horse of bad math saying it’s no significant advantage need to return to school immediately.

Funny how people seem to notice that now, again, when we already had this discussion when Fractals were introduced…

I hated it back then and I’m uncomfortable about it now, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll just boycott ascended items, as long as they don’t introduce ascended armor whose look I absolutely want.

darkace.8925:

Astralporing.1957:

Getting collector weapons and top tier armor took less effort than getting one exotic eq in this game (and i’m not even talking about ascended).

As someone who obtained 30 HoM points and has one of five characters donning exotic armor, I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one.

…um… what? I could easily get my char to cantha and get them lev 20 armor within an hour from rolling a new char. Without using any advantage from previous chars. in fact, I could do it well before i was even level 20 (which was doable in a day-two easily)…
Not sure why would you consider it to be hard. If you do, i’m surprised how did you manage to get even a few HoM points, less alone 30.

Czar Peter.7961:

I completely agree with OP. However, the player base of GW2 demand grind and vertical progression that they have been accustomed to in other RPG’s. I think ANet should find some middle ground: Make the WvW skill/equipment system identical to that of sPvP. This way, PvE becomes the traditional RPG experience where you can grind one “main” so you feel like you’re “progressing”, meanwhile the people who like playing with different classes and builds have WvW and sPvP.

One solution could be that after you get world completion you get the option to skip lvl’ing.
Lvl’s for me is like a tutorial and when i have done the tutorial once i would like a skip option:)
And with the lvl completion they are assured that the person have seen the world already so no need for him/her to do it again if he/she don’t want to.
It would also fix it for the people who love the lvl’ing, this would pleasure both:)

Astralporing.1957:

…um… what? I could easily get my char to cantha and get them lev 20 armor within an hour from rolling a new char. Without using any advantage from previous chars. in fact, I could do it well before i was even level 20 (which was doable in a day-two easily)…
Not sure why would you consider it to be hard. If you do, i’m surprised how did you manage to get even a few HoM points, less alone 30.

If by “level 20” gear, you’re referring to HoM gear, then your anecdotal account of “ease” of acquisition is no more solid evidence than my anecdotal evidence of ease of acquiring exotic gear. The difference is I’m not resorting to ad hominem to try to prove my point.

He’s not referring to HoM gear. You could buy BiS armour with bog-standard artwork for 1,500gp a piece, a tenth the cost of any prestige armour with the same stats that would show in your HoM.
HoM gear was not needed to get BiS stats. It was purely aesthetic.
Stop trying to change history by implying that only HoM gear was BiS.

To be fair, ANet did say GW2 will be more gear-focused than GW1, but making different builds and testing them was pretty much the whole point of GW1’s PvE and it’s gone down the drain in GW2.

I’m not even sure I’d buy an expansion pack at this point. This stuff is probably only going to get worse, until making a lvl 100 char with ful Godlike gear will take a year and winning a lottery.

I was planing to get all 8 classes like I did in GW1, but getting full max gear for all of them at this rate wil take years.
I realy hope the rest of the accended gear will be easyer to get.

People over reacting here just a tad bit. This is supposed to be just the first part of the achievement system overhaul according to what anet has said. I think in the next 2 updates – the ones that are supposed to be massive in size – we’ll see more ways to get laurels via achievements. Probably for some of the 1 time achievements.

Yeah, calendar gating is great for prolonging the illusion of content, so I generally see it as a terrible mechanic to use, especially considering there are people who don’t have time to play every day but have more time to play on weekends. They are hurt really badly by this decision.

Making this new mechanic so unfriendly to alts is a very easily avoidable situation, also a very predictable one. Is ArenaNet just rushing out content for the sake of it to say they did monthly updates instead of releasing content when it’s ready and doesn’t have the horrible design flaws we are constantly seeing?

Calendar gating? That’s a new one. Anyways it won’t be so bad if we’re award laurels retroactively for our efforts on past achievements. One day you might log in and find out that you have a 50 or 60 laurels waiting for you.

That being said I do agree the prices are to high. At the very least the amulets should be 15 and the rings 10.

Sorry, but I’m an altaholic too (I actually have 9 character slots now), and I have been since I started MMOing. There’s one thing I’ve learned that every altaholic should know and that’s that we have to work that much harder to support our stable of characters. This doesn’t just apply to laurels, but to everything.

I have one fully geared 80. All other characters are simply a work in progress. I have no money because I save my mats for crafting, in order to level new characters. A nice piece of gear drops? It goes into the bank with an up and coming toon’s name on it. Liquid karma goes into a shared pool and whichever toon needs it for something, gets it.

There’s only one player for all these characters, which means I have to split my time and resources among all of them. And that’s perfectly fair. What wouldn’t be fair, is receiving special treatment so that I can level and gear them all up as fast as a player who is devoted to one character. In fact, I’ve had to re-read the OP several times because I thought I must be missing the point of it. I’m replying because I don’t think I am.

Being an altaholic comes with a price. If you want all of those shining faces greeting you at character select whenever you log in, you have to pay it — in time and effort. Otherwise, stick to one character and be happy with it. If you’re looking for completion, having a ton of alts is not the way to go about it.

Blacklight speaks some sense!

At the end of the day its only those with multiple characters that are moaning about the laurel system so I dont think things should be changed because of this minority of people. There is also one big huge oversight that so many of you are missing- do you really think theyre going to make laurels the only way to acquire amulets? Seriously? They’ll introduce them to the Fractals soon enough, just have to be patient.

Blacklight.2871:

Sorry, but I’m an altaholic too (I actually have 9 character slots now), and I have been since I started MMOing. There’s one thing I’ve learned that every altaholic should know and that’s that we have to work that much harder to support our stable of characters. This doesn’t just apply to laurels, but to everything.

I have one fully geared 80. All other characters are simply a work in progress. I have no money because I save my mats for crafting, in order to level new characters. A nice piece of gear drops? It goes into the bank with an up and coming toon’s name on it. Liquid karma goes into a shared pool and whichever toon needs it for something, gets it.

There’s only one player for all these characters, which means I have to split my time and resources among all of them. And that’s perfectly fair. What wouldn’t be fair, is receiving special treatment so that I can level and gear them all up as fast as a player who is devoted to one character. In fact, I’ve had to re-read the OP several times because I thought I must be missing the point of it. I’m replying because I don’t think I am.

Being an altaholic comes with a price. If you want all of those shining faces greeting you at character select whenever you log in, you have to pay it — in time and effort. Otherwise, stick to one character and be happy with it. If you’re looking for completion, having a ton of alts is not the way to go about it.

That’s your opinion on how you want it, and that’s fine that you feel that having alts should require more work, but i don’t feel that way. “What wouldn’t be fair, is receiving special treatment so that I can level and gear them all up as fast as a player who is devoted to one character.” Why would this be unfair when everyone can do the same?

If you are not gonna do fractals with all of your characters, do not bother getting them ascended. Those are only for agony resistance, unless your alt’s build is suitable to ascended gear. Ascended stats are only a bit higher than exotics, so whats the problem?

I think the most sensible thing to do for most alt-loving players is to avoid Ascended gear altogether. At least until a more reasonable solution has been implemented in-game.

Ascended gear is not really required for most of GW2, so as long as you avoid the higher level fractals, they are, at least currently, not really needed at all. I know I am not getting any until they finish what they started, and I certainly don’t need-nor like that much-the Fractals experience.

Just change exotic stats little bit better.

The more fundamental problem is the design ideology. There are two ways to make progression in an MMO: either vertical (WoW) or horizontal (GW). Those two can’t coexist because vertical progression kills horizontal if it’s introduced (items become too hard to acquire to be able to get enough of them for multiple builds/characters). Vertical progression is also much more popular in RPGs.

They created the game after the GW model but after 2 months realized that their player base consisted of ex-WoW players and companies usually make decisions that make the most economic sense to them. And so they introduced the FotM treadmill. Then they realised that GW1 players still exist and are trying to mend the problem (failing mostly).

They are trying to find a middle ground (the Triforge amulet can be upgraded to ascended level btw) but I’m afraid that one day Arenanet will just pick one model and stick with it. And that model is not going to be horizontal progression.

There are thousands of players that happily play signet warriors spamming 100B all day since August (or other such examples) and those players make up the majority of the population. Popularity comes at the cost of either dumbing down or catering to the majority (who are ex-WoW or ex-other MMO players) that have no problem with their hard earned BiT items suddenly becoming vendor trash after 1 year.

It’s a shame really since niche games can work just fine (EVE Online is still running after all these years) and it would be so easy to fix this (make ascended rings/amulets craftable by jewelers and you’ve fixed the problem) but I’m not optimistic about the game’s future in the eyes of GW veterans. If Arenanet holds on to their current direction, this game is not going to become another GW, it’s going to become just another MMO.

I think they’re paranoid that players will become bored before the February update. In Februray, laurels will be awarded with achievements.

We really don’t know the potential amount of laurels we’ll be able to aquire per month after the next content update.

Blacklight.2871:

Sorry, but I’m an altaholic too (I actually have 9 character slots now), and I have been since I started MMOing. There’s one thing I’ve learned that every altaholic should know and that’s that we have to work that much harder to support our stable of characters. This doesn’t just apply to laurels, but to everything.

I have one fully geared 80. All other characters are simply a work in progress. I have no money because I save my mats for crafting, in order to level new characters. A nice piece of gear drops? It goes into the bank with an up and coming toon’s name on it. Liquid karma goes into a shared pool and whichever toon needs it for something, gets it.

There’s only one player for all these characters, which means I have to split my time and resources among all of them. And that’s perfectly fair. What wouldn’t be fair, is receiving special treatment so that I can level and gear them all up as fast as a player who is devoted to one character. In fact, I’ve had to re-read the OP several times because I thought I must be missing the point of it. I’m replying because I don’t think I am.

Being an altaholic comes with a price. If you want all of those shining faces greeting you at character select whenever you log in, you have to pay it — in time and effort. Otherwise, stick to one character and be happy with it. If you’re looking for completion, having a ton of alts is not the way to go about it.

Time and effort? So doing the daily multiple times every day isn’t putting the time or effort in?

There is absolutely nothing unfair about someone who plays multiple characters being able to gear them out at the same time, compared to someone who just plays 1 character. I don’t even see one can even see any unfairness in that at wall, there is just no logic behind that.

To those arguing alts require more time, you are correct. I am prepared to devote time to it. I have already made peace with the fact that there will be ascended gear in game. I didnt quit over it like many others I used to play with. I buckled down and did what I needed to do. I put in the extra time and now EACH of my characters has at least 1 appropriate set of rings for their main build. In fact I have 17 more in the bank. For the record, each of my 80s if in full exotics/ascendeds – thats where I chose to spend my time, energy, and ingame/real world money.

My problem isn’t that I am unwilling to work harder. My problem is that I CAN’T. Sure someday they may add new ways to attain laurels. They MIGHT do a lot of things. But as it stands right now in this live build, I am looking at 6 months of dailys with no way to speed it up. What if the ascended earrings are released in 3 months (lol what if.. we know they will be)- and what if they use the same system? 18 months of dailys just to BIS? This system as it stands is not working. In fact its far worse than Fractals.

And for those arguing BiS is not needed… you are simply wrong. WvW is my most important aspect of this game. If it isn’t yours – thats OK too, but don’t belittle my progression compared to yours. All else being equal in an encounter 2 players of equal skill, gear is what it comes down to. In a 10 on 10.. well it just gets worse.

And, Ele Lady, maybe I am going to do fractals on each one of them. If you recall in my original post I stated I play what is needed. Now with the ability to join fractal groups of any level, if my group needs a guardian – they can get one. But only if I can manage to get him geared.

So as of yesterday, playing alts became pretty much impossible if you want to gear them up at your own pace.

I did some calculating and it resulted in rouhgly 1 month needed per character in order to obtain the new necklace. Although, this would be all ok if you could work on each character each day i.e one laurel per character.

However you are limited to one laurel per account and you need 30 for a necklance. There is zero symetry between ascended rings and necks. I dont even see why the necks costs 30 laurels and the rings 35. Currently rings can be bought for 10 pristine fractal relics, and you can obtain one per character per difficulty each day from 10 and up. But suddenly you require more from a currency that is slower to obtain (laurels)…?

Who at Anet let this pass through? Sure I wouldnt mind not being able to buy them for pristine relics since they are hoarded already by many players (me included). But they could atleast add laurels as a reward in the 10+ fractals in the daily chest aswell as for each finished daily instance path. And of course up the number you get for a daily from 1 to 5 and monthly from 10 to 50.

Or they could let dailies be done with each character so you could progress on each toon on a daily basis and not on a monthly basis.

Currently there is only one thing to do in game, log on, do daily on a toon and log off pretty much. Before patch there was things to do for hours that were fun, but not fun enough to do without seeing a little progress at the end of the tunnel. Thankfully there was progress for each fractal, plus it was fun doing them.

I was just about to level another toon (have 4 80s that I love), a ranger, but with this system it seems rather pointless, because I wont be able to fully gear him within the next 5 months.

They said this patch would have alot of new things, multiple options to obtain items, all they did was add a new and slower way to obtain rings and only one way to obtain laurels and int he end the necks.

edit: I also think they should reduce the neck cost to 8 and the rings to 10 laurels, this would add symetry and consistance between the different ways you can obtain them. Right now its donkey backwards.

I play alts all the time and I couldn’t care less. My first 75 laurels are going to that fancy cat anyway. Stats are overrated in this game.

Unbelievable.

Are you really kittening about not being able to FULLY GEAR every single one of your alts within a few months time? Are you seriously telling me that you’re upset because ArenaNet doesn’t just hand you over the best gear in the game… Oh because you got it on one character, so you automatically deserve it on all of your characters.

I don’t use this term often, but you are as entitled as it gets. No MMO is going to just hand you the best gear in the game just because you got it on one of your characters.

Please reread the thread before making this rude generalization. I don’t want it handed to me. I want a path that I am able to work down. I am able to work harder than other players, but there is no system in place that will allow me to do so. I WANT to work harder. Thats my end game.

Awesome.6120:

I play alts all the time and I couldn’t care less. My first 75 laurels are going to that fancy cat anyway. Stats are overrated in this game.

I like your attitude. You do whatever the heck you want, rather than what you are “supposed to do”, because you are having fun your own way (the cat looks funny.)

I see no use for Ascended gear-at least in its current implementation. Will just save Laurels until I can get something really nice in exchange one fateful day ahead.

Vertical progression is the bane of the altoholic. I know, I have 7 level 80 characters and 11 character slots. I actually bought GW2 with the understanding that it would be safe for an altoholic but they apparently caved to those crying for a gear grind. There is simply no way to carry multiple 80’s through vertical progression. In WoW I had 6 at max level but in MoP just leveled one to 90 as I had burned out on the treadmill. Too bad we had to have one in GW2, it could have been a great, truly unique MMO.

Awesome.6120:

I play alts all the time and I couldn’t care less. My first 75 laurels are going to that fancy cat anyway. Stats are overrated in this game.

This post <3

Ouiji.3905:

Single character players get done in about 3 weeks with their appropriate neckwear, while I toil away for 6 months.

It’s really not fair.

Think about this. I know Ascended earrings will be out in 3 months or less. How will they be implemented? Should I quit now? Or are you hoping to hook me for the next 12 months beyond? Ive been MMOing for 20 years now. I can tell ytou that for myself and the folks I play with every day, This type of gearing system is a deal breaker.

Agreed, one of the main attractions of Guild Wars for me and my guild is the play-at-your-pace aspect of it. They have fortunately taken steps in the right direction on this issue with the 28 Jan patch – the Fractals modifications, specifically – but they’ve also taken a giant leap backward.

Tying the pace that players can obtain max stat gear to a completely arbitrary pace that specifically disadvantages dedicated players (i.e., those with multiple max-level characters) is an almost laughably gaping oversight. Hopefully it won’t take ANet three months to revise this system, as it took them to resolve game-breaking issues with FotM.

Raine.1394:

Vertical progression is the bane of the altoholic. I know, I have 7 level 80 characters and 11 character slots. I actually bought GW2 with the understanding that it would be safe for an altoholic but they apparently caved to those crying for a gear grind. There is simply no way to carry multiple 80’s through vertical progression. In WoW I had 6 at max level but in MoP just leveled one to 90 as I had burned out on the treadmill. Too bad we had to have one in GW2, it could have been a great, truly unique MMO.

There’s a difference between vertical progression, though, and vertical progression tied to a timescale outside of the player’s control. I don’t even mind the introduction of vertical progression to GW2 that much – the back items, for example, were obtainable at a faster or slower rate depending on a player’s willingness to grind for materials/money.

The problem with laurels isn’t necessarily inherent to vertical progression, it’s purely a result of the combination of being account-bound and limited to a hard cap of about 1.3 laurels per day (including monthlies).

“Boo hoo, gearing all my alts in max-tier equipment is going to take longer!”

Completionists will take a blow on this, sure. GW2 is designed to exploit those rabid tendencies. Forcing you to log in daily over a long period of time is genius in that more of the aforementioned sort will take it on the chin than give up the game.

Also, the achievement system overhaul is laying the ground work for further additions. I wouldn’t lose faith just yet.

Ascended stuff isn’t really needed for anything it’s flavor stuff they put in to give carebears something to do to get some PvE progression.
That’s why they made it so you need time to get it and can’t just farm it like a robot, that way you play some GW2 every day instead of doing your unhealthy 20 hours run for a week and then sit here all day complaining there is no pve endgame.
If they were farmable in a month, carebears would be here in a month plaguing the forums with complaints because they have nothing to do yadda yadda.
Sadly some people cannot PvP as endgame so Anet needs to put these gimmicks to shut them up, there is no other way as infinite PvE content does not exist.

I like the new laurel system, I think it’s great. I don’t care that it takes me a month or more for an ascended piece. AS LONG AS ASCENDED IS AS HIGH AS THE GEAR GOES, geesh. I’m not playing this game for a gear treadmill.

But back on topic, if you choose to play 11 alts or 10 or 7, that is your choice. Just because you choose to play that many doesn’t mean they all have to have the very bestest gear and you choosing to play that many characters is not Anet’s fault.

You really expect to fully gear 11 characters in the very best the game has to offer? In what time period? A month? A week?

Get over it.

Yeah, the daily progression is a little slow. On the other hand, it’s not any slower than Mystic Coins. And now we get coins + laurels. Coins will be worthless at some point, but probably they’re a good sell for at least the rest of the year, and you can get neat skins with them.

I think the current laurel prices were set with the whole achievement system in mind, and are high so that people with a ton of achievements can’t buy out everything. We’ll hopefully see the rest of the achievements grant laurels soon and then prices will even out.

Gilosean.3805:

Yeah, the daily progression is a little slow. On the other hand, it’s not any slower than Mystic Coins. And now we get coins + laurels. Coins will be worthless at some point, but probably they’re a good sell for at least the rest of the year, and you can get neat skins with them.

The difference is, coins aren’t a hard-cap in the way laurels are. Players can sell their coins, and the market has a very consistent supply of them. Laurels, in contrast, are limited explicitly to the 29-41 laurels per month cap.

Halanna.3927:

You really expect to fully gear 11 characters in the very best the game has to offer? In what time period? A month? A week?

Get over it.

No. What I expect is the ability to work harder to attain it in as speedy a time frame as I am able to work for it. I am willing to work 8 times harder to gear my 8 alts . A month – a week? Why does it matter how fast I can do it compared to others? The fact is that we alt lovers, who change characters to benefit the team – be it in WvW or Dungeons – whatever – are now locked into a calandar based system instead of being given the ability to do what we’ve always done – work harder than the average player.

idk are you guys complaining that u dont have enough time to gear them up to max?isnt that why you play to make time go by the game isnt going anywhere and your not paying for the time being spent into the characters everything comes in time i understand you wanna fill every role to help your guild or team but if you cant then u cant this isnt a job what im saying is take it easy on yourselfs the game was meant to be played for fun not to be treated like a job/chore so enjoy yourself pace yourselfs while tryin to get that gear to max the rest of your characters max 1 when thats maxed on to the next one and rinse and repeat it was your decision to make alts not arena net so why should they remove gear because itll take you longer to attain it. its only gonna get worse when expansions come.thats just my opinion take a step at a time you have all the time in the world you already paid for the game you dont got a monthly fee so dont feel rushed. =D

Kormona.7156:

darkace.8925:

Kormona.7156:

Why not make lvl’s account wide so if i lvl up to 80 and make a new alt i don’t have to go through the same content again? That way i don’t have to spend so much time on making alt’s that i can use in www.

Same content? You are aware that there are no fewer than two, and in many instances three or four, zones for any given level range, right?

Ofc i know that but i have done those on my main for map completion. So if someone want to make it take less time to get ascended items for the alts, why can’t they make it so it take less time to get the alts to 80 right? And if they made map completion count for all the characters the problem will be solved since then u have to visit it either with 1 character or with multiple characters, that’s up to you how you do it:)

Because with the gear in question they but in a barrier to gearing alts. Technically you could lvl all your alts to 80 in as short of time span as you are willing to play per said time span. But with way system is now to get neck item you are limited in basically one per month.

All this obsession with immediate BiS gear for every alts make me sad. Why is everyone in such a rush? you can still do 99% of content without said BiS gear.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

you can still do 99% of content without said BiS gear.

This argument is overused and invalid. The fact that I CAN do 99% of the game content in green magic find gear doesn’t mean I should. It is holding my group back, and it means I would not be playing to my full potential. Ascended gear is the end game – like it or not. Gating it behind punching the clock for 20 minutes a day to complete dailys instead of allowing people to progress toward it at their own rate is the issue at hand in this topic.

Ouiji.3905:

It is holding my group back, and it means I would not be playing to my full potential. Ascended gear is the end game – like it or not.

This is reasoning I would consider invalid.. so to each his own, right?

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Ouiji.3905:

It is holding my group back, and it means I would not be playing to my full potential. Ascended gear is the end game – like it or not.

This is reasoning I would consider invalid.. so to each his own, right?

In other words, you think it’s a perfectly valid statement that because players can use exclusively green-quality gear, they should?

Blueshield.6291:

In other words, you think it’s a perfectly valid statement that because players can use exclusively green-quality gear, they should?

A closer equivalence would be that since players can use non-BiS gear and still participate in any content they want, taking a long time to acquire BiS gear is perfectly reasonable.

The fact that you are able to do something doesn’t mean you should. We can probably agree that that is common sence.

If you chose to wear non-BiS gear for a few months while you work toward your personal goals – all the more power to you. I choose to get the best gear possible on all of my characters by putting in more time then other players. I’m sorry if it makes you sad, but that’s my chosen personal goal. It is no less important than yours.

Unfortunately – my goal is currently not possible given the laurel limit. All I want is a path for players to work on to attain the gear in THEIR OWN timeframe. For some it will be never. For others it will be quicker. Let each player decide how fast the race is – or if they wish to race at all.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Blueshield.6291:

In other words, you think it’s a perfectly valid statement that because players can use exclusively green-quality gear, they should?

A closer equivalence would be that since players can use non-BiS gear and still participate in any content they want, taking a long time to acquire BiS gear is perfectly reasonable.

More relevantly to the OP, though, do you think that the timescales for BiS gear acquisition remain reasonable despite introducing a disparity for players with multiple max-level characters? The timescale in and of itself isn’t as much an issue, I would say, except when applied to people with multiple characters. I for one don’t think that ANet fully intended for altoholics to have to run every single daily and monthly for the next X months (where X equals character amount) just to acquire the amulets, when the armor isn’t even in place yet.

Gear Treadmills suck for people who enjoy alts

Blueshield.6291:

More relevantly to the OP, though, do you think that the timescales for BiS gear acquisition remain reasonable despite introducing a disparity for players with multiple max-level characters?

As someone with 8 characters, I’m perfectly fine with the timescale.

But then I also played gw1 for 6 years… I’m here for the long haul so I’m ok with top end stuff taking months to attain.

All these ppl that absolutely, positively NEED that ascended amulet tomorrow.. what’s their rush? Won’t they just turn into the ppl complaining about lack of content in 2-3 months? This is the same as all the players at release that rushed to 80 in a week and then moaned about lack of endgame.

I’m pretty happy that Anet favors long term players.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

As someone with 8 characters, I’m perfectly fine with the timescale.

But then I also played gw1 for 6 years… I’m here for the long haul so I’m ok with top end stuff taking months to attain.

Saying that you personally don’t have a problem with the timescale is different from saying that you think it’s a reasonable design choice.

A major factor in this is the fact that they haven’t yet implemented the remaining ascended gear – armor and earrings. If they’re tied to the same arbitrary account-bound timescales (unlike the vast majority of gear acquisition in-game, including legendaries) then six months for six characters can rapidly become four and a half years (assuming a rate of 1 month per item, six armor pieces plus two earrings plus one amulet), not counting infusions, of course. This assumes that you don’t create any new characters in the meantime, which is at least possible in a six-month span, but highly unlikely on larger timescales.

And since the activity which is arbitrarily limited to once-per-day is completing a daily, you’ll have a lot of time to be creating new characters.

I play longer on games that are not treadmills. I am not of the WoW generation. In UO if you died you lost all your gear – it wasn’t an issue. In SWG I played for years knowing that the gear I crafted would be BiS and I’d never have to chase that carrot. I get happy with horizontal progression more so than vertical. But I cannot ignore the vertical or I am not able to perform my role in groups at my full potential.

Frankly I was quite content with the speed of attaining exotics when there was nothing but skins to progress toward. I am not looking to smash content in a week then not log back in like the hardcore fractal30+ crowd during the into weekend. I don’t complain about having nothing to do in game – far from it. I am concerned that introdution of this gear in this manner – and more importantly NEW gear when it is released (if it will be gated with the same system) will be pushing us more and more toward single character , single specs with no diversity or you will be at a severe disadvantage.

In 3 months or so- earrings will probably be next. Then weapons maybe? My guardian alone has the ability to use 11 different weapons. 6x armor slots? This laurel system as it stands can’t be maintained while allowing players to have diversity.

Forcing me to one character, one spec.. thats what will cause me insufferable boredom.

SneakyErvin.3056:

So as of yesterday, playing alts became pretty much impossible if you want to gear them up at your own pace.

“I want the best gear in the game for each of my eight characters and I WANT IT NOW!!!”

/stamps foot
/tantrum face