Guild Wars 2

*This is a suggestion. *
For me its pretty good, so read it few times before you will start criticize it.

IDEA

Create elastic gear (since gear has stats) that would work well to help players use many builds, rest them and don’t punish them for mistakes, but help them learn and get better.

HOW?

The idea would be to create Ascended with one stats and then by mixing it in Mystic Forge with: new ascended insignias (so market is balanced), explorable item (scavenge hunt), and some skill points (sink) to unlock that new stats on that ascended weapon.

explorable item – would be different item (or a group of items to combine in MF) from many contents in the world (gatherables/bosses/temples/dungeons/etc) that would add a bit for exploration and scavenge hunt for people who want to upgrade their gear. (!) but not a grind, more like do something not only pay for it.

WHY?

For some of us changes to the trait system was step in the right direction, but for me the worst part of it I’m still bound to statistics on my armor/weapons and they impact a lot what I can to with my build.

Yes, thats a lot of pain and it sometimes forces you to make another set of gear.
But if you want to make ascended (that cost a lot) you don’t want to make new set with different stat – lets be real about it.

If you can make ascended into the elastic gear that will change for your needs – people will use it more often and will have new goals for them.
An ability to make one of them and then upgrade it to make them ideal for people who want to experiment with builds, and that is something that has to be encouraged in this game, especially with balance updates that sometimes make some builds from good to bad.

There of course will be people who will want to have all stats on each gear and thats great for them too. Everybody would win this way.

What about LEGENDARIES?

Legendaries are extremely pricey, but that cost should be a convenience like unlimited gathering tools.

Basically I would leave them as they are – an item that will always will be max level and with all possible stats as default without a need for any upgrade in the future.

This would work for everyone I guess.
Some people would make ascended items instead for legendaries, but the skin is also part of legendaries exclusivity.

INFUSIONS and SIGILS/RUNES?

I would use this system also on them to allow players unlock sigils on gear more than replace them over and over, especially when with wardrobe we lost ability to reuse once gained runes, that pains many players.

SUMMARY
I would love to see it come to the GW2 as a necessary step when game developers try to make this game more community friendly and that goes towards builds diversity. I see people want that, but without a good tools that would support this it’s still a not enough.

Please think about it.

So wait.. you want Ascended weapons, which already have the same LEVEL of stats as legendary to be able to swap stats around just like a legendary?

Essentially you want a Weapon with Legendary stats and capabilities for like one tenth the cost…

ummm no…. that’s a horrible idea…

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

So wait.. you want Ascended weapons, which already have the same LEVEL of stats as legendary to be able to swap stats around just like a legendary?

Essentially you want a Weapon with Legendary stats and capabilities for like one tenth the cost…

ummm no…. that’s a horrible idea…

Well, to be fair, that’s exactly what legendaries were before ascended weapons came out. Extremely expensive weapons with the same stats and capabilities as exotics.

How about they actually go ahead and implement the Legendary trinkets first. They said we would see at least one Legendary trinket before the end of 2013 in interviews. But that time came and passed, with nothing happening. After that, they should work on adding awesome-looking Legendary armors as well. While they’re at it, perhaps do that scavenger hunt for precursors they were talking about? That’s been said to be coming for a year and a half..

PS: I don’t think Ascended should be able to swap stats. Reserve that for Legendary items. We need stuff to strive towards in the game. It allows us to set ourselves some goals.

Olvendred.3027:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

So wait.. you want Ascended weapons, which already have the same LEVEL of stats as legendary to be able to swap stats around just like a legendary?

Essentially you want a Weapon with Legendary stats and capabilities for like one tenth the cost…

ummm no…. that’s a horrible idea…

Well, to be fair, that’s exactly what legendaries were before ascended weapons came out. Extremely expensive weapons with the same stats and capabilities as exotics.

aaaaaaaaannnnnnd that’s the reason they changed it… so Legendaries would be their own tier and be separated from the pack…

Olvendred.3027:

Well, to be fair, that’s exactly what legendaries were before ascended weapons came out. Extremely expensive weapons with the same stats and capabilities as exotics.

Exactly. Legendaries were only some items to be for the looks.
They added some depth to them so people would like them more, cause a lot of community folks just weren’t interested, but they did a great feature that allowed our weapon to change stats and that is something very needed by the part of community that likes to make builds. Many people wont make ascended because there is nothing coming from making one. 5% more stats or so to spend like 100g instead of 5g max?

Also the idea would work that you have to put more and more work in this gear as time progresses (if you want), and that would be no legendary (no skin, no all stats by default). legendary still would have a lot more convenience, but people who play the game instead of farming whole days would have a very usable tool in ascended gear.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

So wait.. you want Ascended weapons, which already have the same LEVEL of stats as legendary to be able to swap stats around just like a legendary?

Essentially you want a Weapon with Legendary stats and capabilities for like one tenth the cost…

ummm no…. that’s a horrible idea…

Well try to ask yourself if more people than you want to use the game?
How many of them likes to try new builds?
How many people (like me) don’t bother with ascended that is just a waste of money?
Are you feeling offended that others would have similar experience than probably you who made legendary?

But if you make ascended more that it is now, it will have it’s own market fore people that are more hardcore than causals (those use exotics now), but don’t grind and play TP and farm gold 20h/7days.

Those hardcore people would need more stuff to do, more horizontal progression instead of another gold sink to make them farm next to forever and upgrading ascended would do that and it would be healthy for the bored part of the community.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

aaaaaaaaannnnnnd that’s the reason they changed it… so Legendaries would be their own tier and be separated from the pack…

So basically you want people who have legendaries feel better than others just because they have them and you don’t care or all others that struggle with builds and changes to traits and all that.

Thats so really…. wise…
I hope you will someday look what you represent.

Currently, you can have entire sets shared by characters.

But the more sets you get, the more space you need.

I’d just focus on that.

Instead some complicated method to turn ascended into wannabe legendaries, make ascended gear unlocks.

After getting the first one copy for most ascended gear, or two copies for weapons that can be dual-wieled, that particular item-type/stats combination would be unlocked in the bank, under a new “Ascended Gear” tab.

You get your first Zojja sword, you go to the bank, and under the “ascended gear” tab, you go to swords, and you’ll see that the entry for Zojja’s Sword will indicate “1/2”. Craft 1 more, and the numbers will disappear, and the entry will get unlocked.
Craft a single Theodosus’s Staff, and it gets unlocked. You no longer need to constantly swap it in the bank when you want to go cleric with your guardian or elementalist.

You will have it unlocked, and you no longer need to craft it anymore or constantly use the bank to get use it with more characters.

Legendaries would stay unique and special because they can change stats on the fly, anywhere without a bank, and at the same time you would no longer need to constantly juggle items in the bank as each character can get their own copies of the items.
But each character would have to apply their own transmutations if they are going to et their own copies, so more transmutation charges wold get used, which is good for gem spending.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Currently, you can have entire sets shared by characters.

But the more sets you get, the more space you need.

I’d just focus on that.

Instead some complicated method to turn ascended into wannabe legendaries, make ascended gear unlocks.

After getting the first one copy for most ascended gear, or two copies for weapons that can be dual-wieled, that particular item-type/stats combination would be unlocked in the bank, under a new “Ascended Gear” tab.

You get your first Zojja sword, you go to the bank, and under the “ascended gear” tab, you go to swords, and you’ll see that the entry for Zojja’s Sword will indicate “1/2”. Craft 1 more, and the numbers will disappear, and the entry will get unlocked.
Craft a single Theodosus’s Staff, and it gets unlocked. You no longer need to constantly swap it in the bank when you want to go cleric with your guardian or elementalist.

You will have it unlocked, and you no longer need to craft it anymore or constantly use the bank to get use it with more characters.

Legendaries would stay unique and special because they can change stats on the fly, anywhere without a bank, and at the same time you would no longer need to constantly juggle items in the bank as each character can get their own copies of the items.
But each character would have to apply their own transmutations if they are going to et their own copies, so more transmutation charges wold get used, which is good for gem spending.

I prefer my idea, but this would work good also.

As YOU said 5% stat difference… It is for gear grinders… people who want top tier stats and be able to easily grind them out.

That SAID your logic is flawed… yes it is 5% BUT you are not including infusions… if they WvW infusions make a HUGE difference… If they run fractals, infusions make a HUGE difference

Also another thing… if they are a WvWer… believe it or not that 5% for some builds makes a MASSIVE difference… if you can survive in a fight for a couple of extra seconds it makes ALL the difference in the world…

I currently have 7 legendaries, 5 toons in FULL ascended gear and all using ascended or better weapons… trust me when I say my opinion is an educated one on the usefullness of how ascended is currently implemented…

Would I love the idea of being able to switch around my ascended stats? Sure I would… Do I think it warrants diminishing the tier of Legendaries? GOD NO… In no way shape or form should Ascended EVER have the same capabilities of a legendary…

You mention that Legendaries were once exotic level of stats by quoting the other guy… yet you fail to realise that is PRECISELY why they were changed because they deserve to be MORE than a skin… ANET has already changed it AWAY from a type that you want and you want them to change it back and I’m sorry that just won’t happen…

Septemptus.7164:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

aaaaaaaaannnnnnd that’s the reason they changed it… so Legendaries would be their own tier and be separated from the pack…

So basically you want people who have legendaries feel better than others just because they have them and you don’t care or all others that struggle with builds and changes to traits and all that.

Thats so really…. wise…
I hope you will someday look what you represent.

now now… stop trying to turn me into an elitist because that I DEFINITELY am not… I share my good fortune not only with guildies and friends but with random strangers as well… I believe in a Pay it forward attitude… I try to do one good deed a day in game and I tell people to NEVER pay me back to just pay it forward to someone in need one day… I think I represent all that is good in MMO player culture to be honest… I am just a pragmatist when it comes to things like this and I believe that Legendaries should mean something. All of that effort should allow you to have something that is more than JUST a skin. A legendary takes 5-10 times the effort of an ascended and yet you want ascended to be on par with them and I think that is just not right sorry…

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Septemptus.7164:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

aaaaaaaaannnnnnd that’s the reason they changed it… so Legendaries would be their own tier and be separated from the pack…

So basically you want people who have legendaries feel better than others just because they have them and you don’t care or all others that struggle with builds and changes to traits and all that.

Thats so really…. wise…
I hope you will someday look what you represent.

now now… stop trying to turn me into an elitist because that I DEFINITELY am not… I share my good fortune not only with guildies and friends but with random strangers as well… I believe in a Pay it forward attitude… I try to do one good deed a day in game and I tell people to NEVER pay me back to just pay it forward to someone in need one day… I think I represent all that is good in MMO player culture to be honest… I am just a pragmatist when it comes to things like this and I believe that Legendaries should mean something. All of that effort should allow you to have something that is more than JUST a skin. A legendary takes 5-10 times the effort of an ascended and yet you want ascended to be on par with them and I think that is just not right sorry…

Well if you say on par when you would need a lot of time and effort to unlock each new stat combos? Well… Thats something strange.
Besides legendaries were legendaries when you weren’t able to buy them on TP just for cash, so that 5-10 times means just more time to grind and that it essentially what people do. There is nothing special in gear you can easily buy if you just spend hours grinding. Having additional goals to horizontally extend your items usability – that is something worth playing for.

I refuse to grind without a reason and from that comes my point of view.
Since as you said you have 7 legendaries – you come from different part of the game (and I understand why you don’t want to feel loss of time if your legendaries would became almost nothing more than ascended with skins).

I believe that people should be able to adjust to traits changes with their gear.
I also believe that players should have additional goals than farming gold for legendaries or farm gold for precursors/materials for legendaries – basically looking for spots to farm better and faster.

The system i described would not only add o lot of variety and needed horizontal progression but would answer to people who are bored and brain dead from farming.
Yes, me included, I’m bored by playing and would welcome some goals to get instead of grind I’m sick off.

Farmers will always farm anyway…

Septemptus.7164:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Septemptus.7164:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

aaaaaaaaannnnnnd that’s the reason they changed it… so Legendaries would be their own tier and be separated from the pack…

So basically you want people who have legendaries feel better than others just because they have them and you don’t care or all others that struggle with builds and changes to traits and all that.

Thats so really…. wise…
I hope you will someday look what you represent.

now now… stop trying to turn me into an elitist because that I DEFINITELY am not… I share my good fortune not only with guildies and friends but with random strangers as well… I believe in a Pay it forward attitude… I try to do one good deed a day in game and I tell people to NEVER pay me back to just pay it forward to someone in need one day… I think I represent all that is good in MMO player culture to be honest… I am just a pragmatist when it comes to things like this and I believe that Legendaries should mean something. All of that effort should allow you to have something that is more than JUST a skin. A legendary takes 5-10 times the effort of an ascended and yet you want ascended to be on par with them and I think that is just not right sorry…

Well if you say on par when you would need a lot of time and effort to unlock each new stat combos? Well… Thats something strange.
Besides legendaries were legendaries when you weren’t able to buy them on TP just for cash, so that 5-10 times means just more time to grind and that it essentially what people do. There is nothing special in gear you can easily buy if you just spend hours grinding. Having additional goals to horizontally extend your items usability – that is something worth playing for.

I refuse to grind without a reason and from that comes my point of view.
Since as you said you have 7 legendaries – you come from different part of the game (and I understand why you don’t want to feel loss of time if your legendaries would became almost nothing more than ascended with skins).

I believe that people should be able to adjust to traits changes with their gear.
I also believe that players should have additional goals than farming gold for legendaries or farm gold for precursors/materials for legendaries – basically looking for spots to farm better and faster.

The system i described would not only add o lot of variety and needed horizontal progression but would answer to people who are bored and brain dead from farming.
Yes, me included, I’m bored by playing and would welcome some goals to get instead of grind I’m sick off.

Farmers will always farm anyway…

Is there any reason why you refuse to address my counterpoint to your 5% argument?

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Is there any reason why you refuse to address my counterpoint to your 5% argument?

Simple as that I don’t care for 5% or 10% or even 15%, but I care for stat combinations that I wear and the fact I can’t change builds when I want to try to be condi mesmer than a zerker mesmer or I want to WvW and sentinels work a lot better on my ranger than zerk I use in PvE.

I made 11 characters lvl 80 so I refuse to make ascended for them. It’s not worth of time with this many characters I play, and I play most of them in rotation cause it’s fun. Yet some changes are for good and some are for bad, so I would need redo a lot of gear after changes simply because I don’t believe zerk gear is good for all.
To get an elastic solution so I might have goals and the feeling of being able to adjust to changes is what I need in GW2 more than anything.

Septemptus.7164:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Is there any reason why you refuse to address my counterpoint to your 5% argument?

Simple as that I don’t care for 5% or 10% or even 15%, but I care for stat combinations that I wear and the fact I can’t change builds when I want to try to be condi mesmer than a zerker mesmer or I want to WvW and sentinels work a lot better on my ranger in there.

I made 11 characters lvl 80 so I refuse to make ascended for them. It’s not worth of time with this many characters I play, and I play most of them in rotation cause it’s fun. Yet some changes are for good and some are for bad, so I would need redo a lot of gear after changes simply because I don’t believe zerk gear is good for all.
To get an elastic solution so I might have goals and the feeling of being able to adjust to changes is what I need in GW2 more than anything.

AAAAAHHHHHH so now your true motive comes to light….

This isn’t about changing a toon’s build… this is the selfish need to want to have an account bound weapon with adjustable stats that you can switch between your level 80’s… your post is about your sense of self entitlement… Gotcha!

The game already has that… it’s called a Legendary… stop expecting everything to be handed to you on a silver platter… go and do the work to get it or just buy exotics end of story…

As someone who owns two legendaries, I actually agree with the suggestion that we should be able to change ascended gear stats. Crafting ascended gear is a very expensive and time consuming process, and in a way it limits build versatility because to try out a new build, you have to go through the lengthy and expensive process of crafting new ascended gear again. This completely clashes with the simplified and now cost free trait changing system and comes across as very counter productive.

I wouldn’t mind if there was some cost involved in changing the stats on ascended gear, but as long as it’s easier, less time consuming and a bit more affordable than crafting an entirely new set, that would already be a great improvement.

As for the argument that it would make ascended too similar to legendary gear, I crafted legendary weapons for one purpose and one purpose only; for the skins. I didn’t craft it just for an easier way to change stats, that’s just a secondary perk that legendaries never had before, that was mostly introduced to stop legendaries from losing their names and status when transmuting them with items with different stats.

There is an issue with stats tied to grindy equipment:

Lets for example thing i am enojying my celestial character…..
A “feature patch” arrives and suddenly my hard earned equipment becomes useless for my build.

Repeat every X months.

In the past a stats Exchange scroll was datamined, we would really need some of those :|

And they should give free stats change after every “feature patch”
(aka nerf patch).

LordByron.8369:

There is an issue with stats tied to grindy equipment:

Lets for example thing i am enojying my celestial character…..
A “feature patch” arrives and suddenly my hard earned equipment becomes useless for my build.

Repeat every X months.

In the past a stats Exchange scroll was datamined, we would really need some of those :|

And they should give free stats change after every “feature patch”
(aka nerf patch).

They did that for anyone who had celestial gear and magic find gear… allowed them to switch the stats…

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

LordByron.8369:

There is an issue with stats tied to grindy equipment:

Lets for example thing i am enojying my celestial character…..
A “feature patch” arrives and suddenly my hard earned equipment becomes useless for my build.

Repeat every X months.

In the past a stats Exchange scroll was datamined, we would really need some of those :|

And they should give free stats change after every “feature patch”
(aka nerf patch).

They did that for anyone who had celestial gear and magic find gear… allowed them to switch the stats…

Actually, they didn’t do that for celestial gear. I had ascended celestial armor on my guard, which took forever to craft thanks to the time gate on Quartz as well – and I never got the option to change stats after celestial crit damage was severely nerfed.

IMO these are good ideas that I could imagine in the future of the game. The real question I’d have is this: how would it benefit the developers of GW2? Aside from competitive pvp, the game developers don’t seem to be interested in making such beneficial features in the game for veteran players. Small tweaks to the hero menu and small things that should have been introduced over a year ago seem to be all they can really put out atm on top of their precious Living Story nonsense.

Bitter, yes. Opinionated, certainly. Your idea is good. It’s certainly just my opinion (and I hope to be proven wrong by the developers) that the people in charge simply don’t care about making such innovative and desirable changes to the game that would require effort and wouldn’t end in a gem store cash-grab in the end.

Thanatos.2691:

IMO these are good ideas that I could imagine in the future of the game. The real question I’d have is this: how would it benefit the developers of GW2? Aside from competitive pvp, the game developers don’t seem to be interested in making such beneficial features in the game for veteran players. Small tweaks to the hero menu and small things that should have been introduced over a year ago seem to be all they can really put out atm on top of their precious Living Story nonsense.

Bitter, yes. Opinionated, certainly. Your idea is good. It’s certainly just my opinion (and I hope to be proven wrong by the developers) that the people in charge simply don’t care about making such innovative and desirable changes to the game that would require effort and wouldn’t end in a gem store cash-grab in the end.

Approval and bringing the idea by support is all we can do and that I believe is what is needed. It also is very needed by devs to address that build variety problem by this change.

This is something that they do for veterans and I hope they will if we support that since veterans now feel a lot left behind.

The idea with an item to change stats would also be nice. It could work, but the idea to back up ascended gear as meaningful should benefit this game more.

No. This isn’t needed. I don’t often agree with Solomon but on this I am with him. His points are correct. Stat swaps on the fly a perk for owning one of the rarest weapons in the game. It was a perk anet added just for them. And it should stay that way.

Thanatos.2691:

IMO these are good ideas that I could imagine in the future of the game. The real question I’d have is this: how would it benefit the developers of GW2? Aside from competitive pvp, the game developers don’t seem to be interested in making such beneficial features in the game for veteran players. Small tweaks to the hero menu and small things that should have been introduced over a year ago seem to be all they can really put out atm on top of their precious Living Story nonsense.

Bitter, yes. Opinionated, certainly. Your idea is good. It’s certainly just my opinion (and I hope to be proven wrong by the developers) that the people in charge simply don’t care about making such innovative and desirable changes to the game that would require effort and wouldn’t end in a gem store cash-grab in the end.

Well, I think the logical response is that by keeping players happy, you keep them playing. The more people you have playing your game, the more potential spenders you have. Players who can foresee themselves playing the game for a long time are more likely to invest money on the gem store than players who are growing irritable and considering leaving.

That’s how I see it at least, I can’t say if Anet sees it the same way though.

@Septemptus
@Tenrai Senshi

I agree with you guys :\ I guess 2 years of positively supporting ANet with most of the friends I made on the game finally leaving for other games is really getting to me.

Admittedly, GW2 has had amazing advertising and I assume it has a healthy number of new players, but my confidence in their respect for customers drops a little with each of my friends who choose to leave the game. I really don’t like being another player who’s losing faith in the company developing this amazing game, but they have given no reason for customers to trust them from what I’ve seen personally.

I really would like to see ideas like OP’s put into the game. More build customization would always be welcome for players both veteran and new I’m sure. In GW1, characters had the option to save different loadouts to quickly adapt to different places in the game without the hassle of picking out each individual class feature and stat combination.

Thanatos.2691:

I really would like to see ideas like OP’s put into the game. More build customization would always be welcome for players both veteran and new I’m sure. In GW1, characters had the option to save different loadouts to quickly adapt to different places in the game without the hassle of picking out each individual class feature and stat combination.

Thats something that would give a lot of QoL to players – very true.
It would be a good step towards veterans and people having alts.

I just read an amazing thread that show that ascended now aren’t worth it for players – Yes those for who the game was supposed to be targeted and also those for who stat changes would be important.

Read it:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Should-I-bother-with-crafting-Ascended-stuff

There is a simple answer to this: introduce a gemstore item which resets the stat allocation on ascended gear, allowing you to choose a new set.

This would destroy any runes, sigils and non-crafted agony infusions (crafted AR blobs would simply be removed from the item and placed in your inventory) as a new item is created.

Encounter-specific ascended drops such as tequatls’ hoard and triple trouble cannot be reset (not sure about this).

Funky.4861:

There is a simple answer to this: introduce a gemstore item which resets the stat allocation on ascended gear, allowing you to choose a new set.

This would destroy any runes, sigils and non-crafted agony infusions (crafted AR blobs would simply be removed from the item and placed in your inventory) as a new item is created.

Encounter-specific ascended drops such as tequatls’ hoard and triple trouble cannot be reset (not sure about this).

This could work, but my idea leaves less people buying gems (less people posting about how bad it is) and more horizontal progression for people to enjoy.

Yet if this item would become cheap gem item (like 10-20 gems per use I could consider it). The price would have to be stall since it would be must to use at least 7 times per change.

Or just make a kit like salvage kit that resets items as you mentioned.

Septemptus.7164:

Read it:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Should-I-bother-with-crafting-Ascended-stuff

The most common mistake while considering stt differences are:
-Ignoring basic stats (they were even removed from the UI lately but weapon have base attack that changes with tiers).

-Ignoring the fact ascended have that little slot, in wich you can put stat boosts.
That means you can have 60 more stat points just with infusions plus everything else.

It makes some noticeable difference actually.

And for once having a non GEM related solution would be nice before we pay gems even for WPs (we can play anyway just walking between WP don’t we? WP are a commodity)

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

So wait.. you want Ascended weapons, which already have the same LEVEL of stats as legendary to be able to swap stats around just like a legendary?

Essentially you want a Weapon with Legendary stats and capabilities for like one tenth the cost…

ummm no…. that’s a horrible idea…

you got it wrong.

legendary weapons are expensive because of the stupid skin.
not the stats changing feature.

the stats changing feature is a quality of life upgrade that they forgot to implement to ascended gear.

You got it wrong too.
Legendary weapons are expensive because they are granted to be the BiS tier forever.
Then comes the stat change

Finally the footsteps
Since legendary are almost the most common between expensive skins, they are not much sought after for that.

Talyn.3295:

No. This isn’t needed. I don’t often agree with Solomon but on this I am with him. His points are correct. Stat swaps on the fly a perk for owning one of the rarest weapons in the game. It was a perk anet added just for them. And it should stay that way.

This game would be a better game with stat change on the fly for all items, not only ascended. And yet because a few priviledge people farmed legendaries we can’t have it?

I’m the guy who suggested swappable stats on Legendaries in the first place.
I don’t play any more for numerous reasons.

However, I honestly think changeable stats should be rolled out to all gear.
It’s a gameplay mechanic and a way to streamline and enhance the user experience.
Commodifying such things is one of the major reasons I stopped playing this game.

Putting barriers in the way of the optimal experience is monumentally stupid and short-sighted game design.

Mungrul.9358:

I’m the guy who suggested swappable stats on Legendaries in the first place.
I don’t play any more for numerous reasons.

However, I honestly think changeable stats should be rolled out to all gear.
It’s a gameplay mechanic and a way to streamline and enhance the user experience.
Commodifying such things is one of the major reasons I stopped playing this game.

Putting barriers in the way of the optimal experience is monumentally stupid and short-sighted game design.

So when we log in for the very first time we should all be given free weapons and armor with maximum stats and stat swaps. This way everyone is equal. Then we can all do nothing all day but stand there and talk.

I doubt you were the very first even if you were it doesn’t make you right. This game I’d already the easiest game in existence. Even ascended weapons are easier to get then they should be.

I have way more ascended weapons then I do legendary ones. And even though this would make my own life so much easier I am against it. This isn’t the first of these entitlement threads and it will not be the last. But this will be my last time responding to this one.

Septemptus.7164:

*This is a suggestion. *
For me its pretty good, so read it few times before you will start criticize it.

IDEA

Create elastic gear (since gear has stats) that would work well to help players use many builds, rest them and don’t punish them for mistakes, but help them learn and get better.

HOW?

The idea would be to create Ascended with one stats and then by mixing it in Mystic Forge with: new ascended insignias (so market is balanced), explorable item (scavenge hunt), and some skill points (sink) to unlock that new stats on that ascended weapon.

explorable item – would be different item (or a group of items to combine in MF) from many contents in the world (gatherables/bosses/temples/dungeons/etc) that would add a bit for exploration and scavenge hunt for people who want to upgrade their gear. (!) but not a grind, more like do something not only pay for it.

WHY?

For some of us changes to the trait system was step in the right direction, but for me the worst part of it I’m still bound to statistics on my armor/weapons and they impact a lot what I can to with my build.

Yes, thats a lot of pain and it sometimes forces you to make another set of gear.
But if you want to make ascended (that cost a lot) you don’t want to make new set with different stat – lets be real about it.

If you can make ascended into the elastic gear that will change for your needs – people will use it more often and will have new goals for them.
An ability to make one of them and then upgrade it to make them ideal for people who want to experiment with builds, and that is something that has to be encouraged in this game, especially with balance updates that sometimes make some builds from good to bad.

There of course will be people who will want to have all stats on each gear and thats great for them too. Everybody would win this way.

What about LEGENDARIES?

Legendaries are extremely pricey, but that cost should be a convenience like unlimited gathering tools.

Basically I would leave them as they are – an item that will always will be max level and with all possible stats as default without a need for any upgrade in the future.

This would work for everyone I guess.
Some people would make ascended items instead for legendaries, but the skin is also part of legendaries exclusivity.

INFUSIONS and SIGILS/RUNES?

I would use this system also on them to allow players unlock sigils on gear more than replace them over and over, especially when with wardrobe we lost ability to reuse once gained runes, that pains many players.

SUMMARY
I would love to see it come to the GW2 as a necessary step when game developers try to make this game more community friendly and that goes towards builds diversity. I see people want that, but without a good tools that would support this it’s still a not enough.

Please think about it.

How many legendaries do you have?

Talyn.3295:

So when we log in for the very first time we should all be given free weapons and armor with maximum stats and stat swaps. This way everyone is equal. Then we can all do nothing all day but stand there and talk.

I doubt you were the very first even if you were it doesn’t make you right. This game I’d already the easiest game in existence. Even ascended weapons are easier to get then they should be.

I have way more ascended weapons then I do legendary ones. And even though this would make my own life so much easier I am against it. This isn’t the first of these entitlement threads and it will not be the last. But this will be my last time responding to this one.

See, you’re approaching the game as if gear is the be-all and end-all, where surely the gameplay is the most important thing in a game?

I see this all the time in MMO communities, and it’s all down to people justifying the time they spend playing as well as the amount of money.

You feel guilty about the amount of time you’re spending playing, as there’s still a societal stigma attached to gaming, so you trick your brain into convincing itself that what you’re doing isn’t a complete waste of time.

The barriers put in place by developers serve to reinforce this behaviour. Their primary interest is to keep you playing and therefore paying.

There are numerous ways to achieve player retention; some that are easy and require minimal investment, such as artificial barriers between the player and the optimal playstyle (wardrobe tokens, repeating content daily, achievements with high thresholds, inflexible gear stats, etc.), or more difficult and expensive methods such as deep and meaningful additions to lore & content, and the introduction of new gameplay elements that affect the way people play the game (expansion packs, new areas, changes to existing areas, new classes and skills, etc.).

The idea behind this is that players would be spending less time in towns crafting or trading and more time actually playing, because changing build would no longer require a massive investment of time and resources.
Let’s face it, when you’re refining ore or flipping stock on the trading post, you’re not playing the game. You’re wasting your time banging your head against barriers put in place to keep you logged in.

The current state of affairs in commercial MMOs is a hideous collaboration between players and developers that neither want to admit to and is only damaging the genre.

Of course, while the MMO world is populated by mediocre gamers who have no interest in winning through ability but rather through sheer, bloody-minded repetition, the industry will be all to happy to cater to them.

As to me not being the first person to suggest changeable stats on Legendaries, well I’ll let this speak for itself.

Maybe after 2 years we will finally get build templates to switch builds on the fly

So take away the only feature that makes a legendary weapon unique, in that it is able to switch stats…..

-1

+1 to OP.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

So wait.. you want Ascended weapons, which already have the same LEVEL of stats as legendary to be able to swap stats around just like a legendary?

Essentially you want a Weapon with Legendary stats and capabilities for like one tenth the cost…

ummm no…. that’s a horrible idea…

No I don’t think so, it would reduce legendaries to what they should be: a unique visual effect and the guarantee that it will be always a top weapon.

I don’t think it’s a fair investment protection (and we talk about a mayor investment of 300-400 gold for an armor set) that you need new ascended stuff whenever ANet has the idea to tweak balance.

No way should the stats be changeable.

I have 2 Legendaries, and 4 Ascended Weapons, and I still say no. It took a year to make each Legendary I have, and only about 2 weeks to make each Ascended. If you want the best, you have to work for it. And, it does not come down to RNG… I never had a pre drop, I had to buy my pre’s from doing things in the game and saving gold. It’s hard, but it should be hard to make a Legendary.

I’ll add that the only way I would support this feature on the Ascended Weapons, is to have the Legendary Weapon stats be 5% higher.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

So wait.. you want Ascended weapons, which already have the same LEVEL of stats as legendary to be able to swap stats around just like a legendary?

Essentially you want a Weapon with Legendary stats and capabilities for like one tenth the cost…

ummm no…. that’s a horrible idea…

Legendaries were just a skin at launch, they should be just a skin now.

It should be noted that the OP did not suggest free, any-time, unlimited stat changes. The post suggests a mystic forge recipe. Even a single ascended inscription is reasonably expensive (relevant exotic inscription + 10 Dark Matter + 10 Crystalline Dust + Deldrimor Steel Plated Dowel). Throw in a couple of other items as well.

The ascended weapons would have changeable stats, but it would cost about a quarter the price of an entire new ascended weapon each time. I hardly think that comes anywhere close to what legendaries have.

I would rather ANet just add mystic forge recipes, like 1 Ascended weapon + 5 T6 mat + 1 mystic coin + 1 augur’s stone = 1 Ascended weapon of a different stat type.

So say you made a Wupwup greatsword, but instead you want Zojja’s greatsword: toss the Wupwup in with 5 vials of powerful blood, a mystic coin, and an auger’s stone into the mystic toilet and it’ll spit out a Zojja’s greatsword. It would basically just be paying the cost of the old T6 mat, plus a mystic coin, plus 20 skill points to (and the cost of any sigils that are lost) to reforge your weapon as something else; you won’t be saving on any material costs because it’s still just the one weapon and you’d have to pay every time you change your mind again.

From an implementation standpoint it’s also pretty much just a simple (if tedious) task of writing and implementing recipes for every possible combination. No need to add new MF ingredients into the game or rework ascended gear’s code to implement stat switching, just good ol’ “old item in, new item out”.

You’re forgetting one important thing:

Legendaries are massive, massive item sinks. Ascended items are not. That is important because by making Ascended account bound, ANet has already made the impact that Ascended has on the material economy dwindle, as you can use a single set across multiple characters as long as they are ok with the same set of stats.

Allowing Ascended gear to change stats would mean that you could easily play the game with just 1 set of ascended armor. After all, you cannot play two characters on the same account at the same time, so buying multiple sets of Ascended armor would only make sense from a convenience point of view.

However, if we’re talking about a stat change mechanic that required the Mystic Forge, that could be worked around. But even there, you would still need to make sure that it comes with an appropriate item sink. For example, your recipe could be something like this:

• 1 Ascended piece of gear + 1 Zojja’s Insignia + 1 Vision Crystal + 1 Item X = 1 Zojja’s Ascended gear

Where the Item X would be a new item made from a bunch of T6 materials or something.

Basically, rather than having a recipe that makes your item able to swap stats on the fly, add in recipes that allow you to trade in 1 set of stats for another.

+1 to the OP.

This thread makes my head hurt. I just can’t with you people sometimes. What kind of a player base rejects an idea that benefits all of us?

This wouldn’t take anything away from Legendary weapons, rather it would be adding value to Ascended gear. It’d take us one step closer to the seamless build swapping so many of us hope for, and every Ascended drop would be truly amazing (as is, some stat combos are so worthless you’d be better off equipping a green).

I would also like to see an item, (maybe purchased with pristine fractal relics) that lets you reset ascended back item stats like Light of Dwayna.

Jahroots.6791:

This thread makes my head hurt. I just can’t with you people sometimes. What kind of a player base rejects an idea that benefits all of us?

There is one player category that suffers, the richest among us:
The legendary makers/sellers

Which is another reason for me to support that proposal

I’m of the opinion that legendaries should be for prestige, with no advantage over other weapons except the flashy blinding skins.

Jahroots.6791:

This thread makes my head hurt. I just can’t with you people sometimes. What kind of a player base rejects an idea that benefits all of us?

Did you suddenly all the people?

Joking aside, it doesn’t benefit everyone, it only benefits people who have only a few ascended weapons; for people who took the time and effort to craft ascended weapons for all of their characters (which I’m not, by the way, I only have an ascended greatsword and hammer, both from ascended weapon chests that I got from PvP), this not only doesn’t help them, it debases their efforts. It would create the same kind of drama that we saw when the wardrobe angered people who spent the time and money crafting dual Incinerators/Bolts just for the skin.

And, honestly, it’s really not worth the development time. I’d rather see ANet work on other aspects of the game than add stat switching to weapons (and armor, you know people will demand this for armor as well) that are only marginally better than exotics.

Codra.2794:

I would also like to see an item, (maybe purchased with pristine fractal relics) that lets you reset ascended back item stats like Light of Dwayna.

Now this I would love to see. You can kinda do that now by infusing a backpiece, but that’s pretty much a one-time deal.

Pandaman.4758:

Joking aside, it doesn’t benefit everyone, it only benefits people who have only a few ascended weapons; for people who took the time and effort to craft ascended weapons for all of their characters (which I’m not, by the way, I only have an ascended greatsword and hammer, both from ascended weapon chests that I got from PvP), this not only doesn’t help them, it debases their efforts. It would create the same kind of drama that we saw when the wardrobe angered people who spent the time and money crafting dual Incinerators/Bolts just for the skin.

And, honestly, it’s really not worth the development time. I’d rather see ANet work on other aspects of the game than add stat switching to weapons (and armor, you know people will demand this for armor as well) that are only marginally better than exotics.

First off, I don’t think broadening options for everyone should be restricted because it will upset a few.

Even a player who owns one or two full Ascended sets (armour, weapons and trinkets) now has access to all of the stats. He or she can then simply give the extras to any alt. The only way one can ‘lose’ with a change like this is if you’ve already crafted full sets of every possible stat combination available in-game for all of your characters.

Ascended weapons are in a pretty good place, but the armour is so outrageously costly and time consuming to make that it really ought to offer something more than a minor increase in efficiency. This isn’t something I would consider a waste of dev time, Ascended crafting is a significant portion of the endgame in GW2.

Mungrul.9358:

Talyn.3295:

So when we log in for the very first time we should all be given free weapons and armor with maximum stats and stat swaps. This way everyone is equal. Then we can all do nothing all day but stand there and talk.

I doubt you were the very first even if you were it doesn’t make you right. This game I’d already the easiest game in existence. Even ascended weapons are easier to get then they should be.

I have way more ascended weapons then I do legendary ones. And even though this would make my own life so much easier I am against it. This isn’t the first of these entitlement threads and it will not be the last. But this will be my last time responding to this one.

See, you’re approaching the game as if gear is the be-all and end-all, where surely the gameplay is the most important thing in a game?

I see this all the time in MMO communities, and it’s all down to people justifying the time they spend playing as well as the amount of money.

You feel guilty about the amount of time you’re spending playing, as there’s still a societal stigma attached to gaming, so you trick your brain into convincing itself that what you’re doing isn’t a complete waste of time.

The barriers put in place by developers serve to reinforce this behaviour. Their primary interest is to keep you playing and therefore paying.

There are numerous ways to achieve player retention; some that are easy and require minimal investment, such as artificial barriers between the player and the optimal playstyle (wardrobe tokens, repeating content daily, achievements with high thresholds, inflexible gear stats, etc.), or more difficult and expensive methods such as deep and meaningful additions to lore & content, and the introduction of new gameplay elements that affect the way people play the game (expansion packs, new areas, changes to existing areas, new classes and skills, etc.).

The idea behind this is that players would be spending less time in towns crafting or trading and more time actually playing, because changing build would no longer require a massive investment of time and resources.
Let’s face it, when you’re refining ore or flipping stock on the trading post, you’re not playing the game. You’re wasting your time banging your head against barriers put in place to keep you logged in.

The current state of affairs in commercial MMOs is a hideous collaboration between players and developers that neither want to admit to and is only damaging the genre.

Of course, while the MMO world is populated by mediocre gamers who have no interest in winning through ability but rather through sheer, bloody-minded repetition, the industry will be all to happy to cater to them.

As to me not being the first person to suggest changeable stats on Legendaries, well I’ll let this speak for itself.

so since you are so knowledgeable about how to make a good mmo/game why have you not made one yourself?