Guild Wars 2

NO. I believe ascended giving any bonus to stats other than agony resist was a huge mistake in the first place.

Say NO to the gear grind!

So you can craft it, get it for karma, upgrade your current exotic stuff into ascended, etc.. and this is meant to soften the blow of ascended garbage ever being introduced in the first place?

I’m sorry, I really really REALLY am, but the whole point the ascended tier was introduced in the first place according to a blog post by ArenaNet on November 2012 was because the community felt exotic items were.. TOO EASY.. to acquire. That there was nothing to do after you got your shiny orange-named suit, cane, and earrings.

I mean, I’ve heard of people with over 1 million karma, lots of in-game gold to spend on gems, crafting materials, etc. Unless these “ascended upgrade stones” are heavy RNG-based, people will be swimming in them I can guarantee you that. Unless these ascended items cost enormous amounts of karma per piece people will be suited up in full ascended items by the end of the day. Unless these items require large amounts of fractal relics, laurels, globs of ectoplasm, etc.. it won’t fit your grindless utopia, OP.

“The grind is too much” and “I’m tired of exotic weapons/armor, please give us ascended” just don’t match OP. The whole reason the ascended tier was introduced in the first place was to provide more grind and bigger numbers for you guys from other MMORPGs. Want to see the quote?

“Our desire is to create a game that is more inclusive for hardcore and casual players alike, but we don’t want to overlook the basic need for players to feel like they are progressing and growing even after hitting max level. Adding item progression is a delicate process normally undertaken in an expansion, but we feel it’s important to strive to satisfy the basic needs of our players sooner rather than later.”

Linsey Murdock, https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/ 2nd paragraph.

After you’ve achieved full ascended gear. After you’ve gathered all the karma you need for ascended weapons and armors. After you’ve burnt yourself out from redoing those “special dynamic events” through Tyria. After all of this, what’s next? Another tier, this time colored with red letters? You guys dug the grave, now lie in it and stop complaining about “outrageous grind” because the whole point of ascended items was so you brainless hamsters could keep running the wheel. The amount of dungeon armor tokens for exotic dungeon armor was nerfed after release because people felt “the grind was too much” and now look, ascended gear.

/rant

TL;DR – Unless ascended armor and weapons are obtained through grinding, the people who complained in the first place will do so again until Anet caves in, again.

Jovel.5706:

I’m sorry, I really really REALLY am, but the whole point the ascended tier was introduced in the first place according to a blog post by ArenaNet on November 2012 was because the community felt exotic items were.. TOO EASY.. to acquire. That there was nothing to do after you got your shiny orange-named suit, cane, and earrings.

The community disagreed on that point with Anet then.

Jovel.5706:

I mean, I’ve heard of people with over 1 million karma, lots of in-game gold to spend on gems, crafting materials, etc. Unless these “ascended upgrade stones” are heavy RNG-based, people will be swimming in them I can guarantee you that.

Good.

Unless these ascended items cost enormous amounts of karma per piece people will be suited up in full ascended items by the end of the day.

Also good

Jovel.5706:

Unless these items require large amounts of fractal relics, laurels, globs of ectoplasm, etc.. it won’t fit your grindless utopia, OP.

…Didn’t you mean “if”, not “unless”? Because “grind” does not equal “grindless”.

Jovel.5706:

“The grind is too much” and “I’m tired of exotic weapons/armor, please give us ascended” just don’t match OP.

Definitely they don’t match. Noone wants both – it’s a pure strawman used by the white knights crowd in the “you got what you wanted so stop whining” arguments.

Please, do not propagate this misconception further.

Jovel.5706:

TL;DR – Unless ascended armor and weapons are obtained through grinding, the people who complained in the first place will do so again until Anet caves in, again.

Since they are mostly no longer playing, it’s not a problem at all.

I think all ascended items should be available through WvW, just like in PvP, you get whatever skin you want and dont need to do any carebear pve stuff.
1k badges and 200k karma for one ascended e.g. accessory, why not, better than nothing. Atm badges and karma are borderline useless.

About ascended armor – I would say yes if they add a reasonable way to acquire them, NOT LAURELS. The currency is incredibly dumb. Takes 1 month for me to get 1 earring atm. There is no chance to work harder for something and be rewarded for your time, if I am willing to farm/grind for something then I should be allowed to do so, needless to say laurels can not be farmed. I actually never farm/grind, but still, even if I would I know that I will not be rewarded properly.
Also laurels make it next to impossible to gear alts/make new builds. With all the class balance updates many people are going to switch their builds. For example I am going from a condi build to power build which means a whole new set of trinkets…
They should add a way to change the stats of ascended items, through gems or buy some sort of MF ingredient with 5-10 laurels along with a few T6 mats to decide what new stats you want for your ascended and boom, sorted. Always a better option then doing dailies for another 3 months, then to find out Anet are gonna nerf your build and you need a new set for your alt :P.
A bit off-topic there sorry.

What i really want would be able to upgrade my ascended amulets and earrings. But to answer your survey i would prefer ascended weapons over armor i think they would fit in better with the current ascended upgrades and stats than armor.

well, max stats for basic skins should not be too much grind.

special skins, those can grind.

No, they are hardly needed though it is said to come I hope they trash that thought.

(Btw, isn’t Surveys on the forum disallowed?)

I agree that grind sucks, but some people sound like they just want to be handed gear without putting in any time or effort… It only takes a couple hours of play time after you hit 80 to be fully exotic geared (karma vendors + TP + a couple dungeons). Ascended gear is only marginally better and is meant for those of us who want a longer term goal in the game, not something we can get after running Fractals casually 3 times. I’ve watched a dozen or so of my friends quit this game out of boredom because they hit 80 and run out of things to do.

Yes, give us ascended weapons and armor, but don’t make it easy to obtain. It should feel like a real accomplishment of both time invested and skill to beat challenging content.

What’s the problem, if it takes a bit longer to get the best gear? What the hell is the problem? Almost all poeple are complaining, there is nothing to do after hitting 80. Anet introduces a new tier of gear (which I like) and the same poeple are now complaining that it takes too long to get it. BTW, it doesn’t take too long. actually after 1-2 months you are able to have most ascended stuff. That’s really not much for an MMO.

ProtoGunner.4953:

What’s the problem, if it takes a bit longer to get the best gear? What the hell is the problem? Almost all poeple are complaining, there is nothing to do after hitting 80. Anet introduces a new tier of gear (which I like) and the same poeple are now complaining that it takes too long to get it. BTW, it doesn’t take too long. actually after 1-2 months you are able to have most ascended stuff. That’s really not much for an MMO.

“Everyone’s got a cell phone that makes pancakes and rubs their balls.”
- George Carlin

The people that complain about ascended gear being too much grind are the casual, loud-mouthed crybaby demographic that travel from game to game, never spending more than a couple weeks playing. They either don’t have the time or don’t want to invest the time to really delve in to the heart of a game. They want instant gratification, and when they don’t get it, they complain, sometimes until their collective cries are so deafening that the developer is forced to change the game to suite them. These people still abandon the game and wander off to the next new shiny thing that grabs their attention. They don’t realize that they leave a wake of devastation across every game they move to; always lowering the bar wherever they go.

Again, they want instant gratification, and they feel that because they spent money on the box, they are entitled to every single nook, cranny, nit, pick, gibblet, and bobble in the game regardless of how much time they invest or how much skill they bring to the table.

Xenon.4537:

I agree that grind sucks, but some people sound like they just want to be handed gear without putting in any time or effort… It only takes a couple hours of play time after you hit 80 to be fully exotic geared (karma vendors + TP + a couple dungeons).

There are so many things I find objectionable about this paragraph.

Firstly, why SHOULD it take a long time to get optimal gear? When WvW is a big chunk of endgame, shouldn’t all players be able to compete on an equal footing?
Give me one good reason that doesn’t effectively amount to “I deserve better gear because I play more than anyone else”.

Secondly, this kind of thinking breeds elitism and comes from other MMOs. Hint: GW2 on release wasn’t like other MMOs; if everyone had quick and easy access to all top level stat combinations, gear checking for dungeons would be nowhere near as bad as it is even now.

Thirdly, your claim that it “only takes a couple hours of play time after you hit 80 to be fully exotic geared” is an outright lie, especially if it’s your first level 80 character. After your second or third character, okay, you may be able to get almost one full set of Exotic gear of one particular type when you get the next character to 80, but only one set, which will lock that character into a limited amount of effective builds.

Fourthly, how about that full set of Exotic P/v/t gear for WvW? Good luck in getting that in “a couple of hours”. The only ways to get P/v/t gear are through temple karma vendors or WvW itself.
And even then, only 5/6 pieces of armour are available through temple karma vendors, necessitating some WvW. You can only get P/v/t trinkets and backpieces through the temple karma vendors with there being no option to get them via badges of honour. And finally, unless you go Legendary, you can only get P/v/t weapons through WvW.

If I had it my way, you’d get a complete set of top stat gear upon reaching 80, and you’d be able to change stat combinations on the fly at no cost. The only grind would be for appearance, and all appearances would be tokens rather than requiring transmutation stones.
But unimaginative people with some trumped up, badly ingrained ideas of what “Progression” consists of, just keep spoiling this vision.

Mungrul.9358:

Xenon.4537:

I agree that grind sucks, but some people sound like they just want to be handed gear without putting in any time or effort… It only takes a couple hours of play time after you hit 80 to be fully exotic geared (karma vendors + TP + a couple dungeons).

There are so many things I find objectionable about this paragraph.

Firstly, why SHOULD it take a long time to get optimal gear? When WvW is a big chunk of endgame, shouldn’t all players be able to compete on an equal footing?
Give me one good reason that doesn’t effectively amount to “I deserve better gear because I play more than anyone else”.

Secondly, this kind of thinking breeds elitism and comes from other MMOs. Hint: GW2 on release wasn’t like other MMOs; if everyone had quick and easy access to all top level stat combinations, gear checking for dungeons would be nowhere near as bad as it is even now.

Thirdly, your claim that it “only takes a couple hours of play time after you hit 80 to be fully exotic geared” is an outright lie, especially if it’s your first level 80 character. After your second or third character, okay, you may be able to get almost one full set of Exotic gear of one particular type when you get the next character to 80, but only one set, which will lock that character into a limited amount of effective builds.

Fourthly, how about that full set of Exotic P/v/t gear for WvW? Good luck in getting that in “a couple of hours”. The only ways to get P/v/t gear are through temple karma vendors or WvW itself.
And even then, only 5/6 pieces of armour are available through temple karma vendors, necessitating some WvW. You can only get P/v/t trinkets and backpieces through the temple karma vendors with there being no option to get them via badges of honour. And finally, unless you go Legendary, you can only get P/v/t weapons through WvW.

If I had it my way, you’d get a complete set of top stat gear upon reaching 80, and you’d be able to change stat combinations on the fly at no cost. The only grind would be for appearance, and all appearances would be tokens rather than requiring transmutation stones.
But unimaginative people with some trumped up, badly ingrained ideas of what “Progression” consists of, just keep spoiling this vision.

So you want instant gratification then? Well I don’t. There are plenty of people who don’t, plain and simple. All of my friends left the game because it was too easy. You said I can get “at most one set” of exotic gear when I hit 80. This is exactly what I was talking about. If you could get access to every type of gear and swap stats on the fly the moment you ding 80, what would the point of dungeons be? Fun? Sure fun is great and all, but there should be a reward for doing things. If not gear, then what? Skins? Not everyone is satisfied getting just a skin. A lot of us enjoy the effort of making our character stronger through gear.

By the way, gear checks? Yes, I’ve seen the berserker speed run groups doing CoF, but I’ve never had trouble finding groups of regular folks to do CoF. Use gw2lfg.com and you will never have trouble finding a group for anything. If you are running in to people asking for gear checks, it’s because they want to speed clear (which is a specific tactic taking gasp specific gear) or they are incompetent in which case you don’t want to run with them anyway.

And thank you for being the 9001st person to wield the word “elitism” as a cudgel against those who simply wish to raise the bar. Just because I want the game to ask for one iota of effort does not make me an elitist.

Xenon.4537:

Not everyone is satisfied getting just a skin. A lot of us enjoy the effort of making our character stronger through gear.

That’s fantastic! I completely respect your desire for this type of game. Lucky for you, there are a lot of MMOs that offer this already. GW2 was supposed to be the one MMO for those of us that don’t want to grind gear for better stats and want to play for fun and aesthetical rewards. But instead of enjoying the 20 or so McDonalds that are already in town, people had to walk into the one Burger King in the area and start demanding Big Macs…completely ruining it for those of us who enjoy Whoppers. Now we have 21 McDonalds and those of us that like Whoppers are being told we’re wrong to complain because “some people like Big Macs”.

Xenon.4537:

Stuff

Where did I say I wanted instant gratification?!

The problem with people like you is that you see the gear and the stats as the reward rather than the winning or taking part itself. The most important thing in any game is the game itself, not some nebulous virtual item. I cherish a hard-won victory much more than a simple orange item in my inventory. Yes, getting loot tickles some primitive, unsophisticated part of my psyche, but it’s a fleeting thing. It’s lowest-common-denominator stuff, and frankly, while this may sound snobbish, I turn my nose up at such unsophisticated carrots on sticks and the people who require them to have fun.

The point of play should be enjoying yourself.
The point of dungeons should be the challenge.
The point of WvW should be the competition.
The point SHOULDN’T be something that gives you a distinct advantage over other players with potentially more skill than you, simply because you have a larger wallet or more time to mindlessly grind repetitive tasks.

Of course, it’s a played-out, tired argument, but it doesn’t make it any less true, and others here have already said it:
If you want that type of game, go play one of the many thousands like it already out there.

You don’t have to change everything in the world into your ideal model. Try respecting other people for once and being less selfish, and realise that some people like different things to you and don’t appreciate it when you try to make them do things your way.

Variety, as they say, is the spice of life.

That being said, if your friends are like you and can only get satisfaction by being rewarded some meaningless crap in an online game, well I’m quite glad they’ve left.

I am personally excited for ascended armor. But most of all I hope it introduces new skins. I would love to build up a super rare ascended armor set. It would certainly breathe some new life into the game.

It has to be done right though. Just making it require a ton of T6 mats would be pretty boring. A combination of methods for each piece like the current jewelery is obtained would be best.

ProtoGunner.4953:

What’s the problem, if it takes a bit longer to get the best gear? What the hell is the problem? Almost all poeple are complaining, there is nothing to do after hitting 80. Anet introduces a new tier of gear (which I like) and the same poeple are now complaining that it takes too long to get it. BTW, it doesn’t take too long. actually after 1-2 months you are able to have most ascended stuff. That’s really not much for an MMO.

As it has been pointed out many times already, these are not the same people. Most of the original “no endgame” crowd has already left.

ProtoGunner.4953:

BTW, it doesn’t take too long. actually after 1-2 months you are able to have most ascended stuff.

For me it’s closer to 3-4 months. Per one char (i have 8 of them). And not all of the Ascended stuff is out yet.
Do the count.
(it’s not only unrealistically long, it’s also currently long enough that i can reasonably expect that i’ll have to change my build before i complete a gear set.)

Xenon.4537:

The people that complain about ascended gear being too much grind are the casual, loud-mouthed crybaby demographic that travel from game to game, never spending more than a couple weeks playing.

More like the people that asked for the ascended gear with heavy grind were “elyte” loud-mouthed whining demographics that travel from game to game, never satisfied, always leaving soon, because the game is “not hardcore enough” and “lacks proper endgame” (Hint: and no endgame is big enough and hardcore enough for them).
The all-demanding MMO-jumping crowd is not casuals, but hardcore. people that get bored after a month of two, because they already managed to do everything that was to do in a game. They do not invest their time in the game, because they do not care about story or immersion.
They are the content locust. Not casuals. And the ascended gear in this game is also their doing.

for me,

some very minimal reasonable grind for basic skins max stats
some degree of acceptable grind for special skins max stats
huge grind for really really special skins max stats

i.e. basic skins, max stats should have little or no grind.

those who want very special skins can grind away. their choice

I think the best course of action for the Ascended is to have them being made by combining 4-5 similar exotics along with some other hard to get stuff…

That way, exotics will still have value even after the introduction of ascended gear.

No kittening way, ascended items are kittening stupid and should never have been implemented, putting in a gear grind in a game that should not be about gear grinds is kittening stupid.

If they are still planning on adding ascended weapons and armor, I want them to say so. I want a confirmation. I don’t want a blog post a few days before it goes live saying “New Ascended Items!”…I want to know what their intentions are in advance.

A) no. I want exotics buffed to ascended stats – ascended should only be BIS for fractals.

Draygo.9473:

A) no. I want exotics buffed to ascended stats – ascended should only be BIS for fractals.

how would you feel if there is a newly introduced upgrade stones that make exotic stats into ascended stats?

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Draygo.9473:

A) no. I want exotics buffed to ascended stats – ascended should only be BIS for fractals.

how would you feel if there is a newly introduced upgrade stones that make exotic stats into ascended stats?

I think that is pointless. It just is a way for anet to get people to spend money on upgrade stones, while they could actually just leave max stats on exotics and be done with it. Personally I think they should do this:

- Ascended are only used so you can add infusions in.
- Ascended are downgraded to the stats of exotics, with an extra slot for infusions.
- Infusions will only give any advantage in FotM.

TLDR: Ascended = Exotics + FotM Infusion = BALANCE & NO TREADMILL

No. It was bad enough that they introduced Ascended gear at all. I would prefer that they not introduce any more. But we all know that’s not going to be the case….

xarallei.4279:

No. It was bad enough that they introduced Ascended gear at all. I would prefer that they not introduce any more. But we all know that’s not going to be the case….

aye, since we know the inevitable will come, lets try to make it less damaging as possible.

if we have more less grinding options to access ascended stats, then …

it should be better yes?

ANet has said that Ascended armor and weapons are coming. I personally don’t mind having them there as something for the “gear grinders” to work towards, as long as:

1. They are not required to do end-game content. Currently Ascended gear is only essential for Fractals 20+. You can get by with Exotics, Rares, or even Masterwork gear for the rest of the game. If ANet maintains this stance going forward with Ascended weapons/armor, I see no problem with it.

2. There is a way to upgrade level 80 Exotic gear to Ascended status. My personal suggestion would be to do this via the Mystic Forge, by introducing recipes where you put an Exotic item, Mist Essence, Crystals/Stones and Ectos/Obsidian into the Forge, and the Forge spits back an Ascended copy of the same item. Make Mist Essence tradable and acquirable from Laurels, and you now have a way for everybody to upgrade their gear to Ascended tier.

Zaxares.5419:

1. They are not required to do end-game content. Currently Ascended gear is only essential for Fractals 20+. You can get by with Exotics, Rares, or even Masterwork gear for the rest of the game. If ANet maintains this stance going forward with Ascended weapons/armor, I see no problem with it.

the stats different of
12 exotics vs 12 ascended
can be quite significant …
armor: 6 pieces helmet shoulders chest pants gloves boots
trinkets: 6 pieces back neck ring ring accessory accessory

2. There is a way to upgrade level 80 Exotic gear to Ascended status. My personal suggestion would be to do this via the Mystic Forge, by introducing recipes where you put an Exotic item, Mist Essence, Crystals/Stones and Ectos/Obsidian into the Forge, and the Forge spits back an Ascended copy of the same item. Make Mist Essence tradable and acquirable from Laurels, and you now have a way for everybody to upgrade their gear to Ascended tier.

sure, if the amount of materials required is reasonable and does not require an outrageous grind to acquire.

Yes, the stat difference for 12 Ascended vs 12 Exotics is quite significant, but again, this isn’t a problem if you really don’t need Ascended gear to get through the majority of the game’s content. My level 80 characters are still running around with level 79 Masterwork gear (for a variety of reasons), and yet I still did pretty well in the Aetherblade dungeon when compared to other players.

If, however, ANet structured future content so that Ascended becomes the new Exotic, I’d have a problem with it.

Agreed with you on the second point. We should not need a stack of Ectos/Mist Essence/Crystals to make ONE Ascended item from an Exotic, for instance.

Zaxares.5419:

Yes, the stat difference for 12 Ascended vs 12 Exotics is quite significant, but again, this isn’t a problem if you really don’t need Ascended gear to get through the majority of the game’s content. My level 80 characters are still running around with level 79 Masterwork gear (for a variety of reasons), and yet I still did pretty well in the Aetherblade dungeon when compared to other players.

You seem to have forgotten the PvP players. While it is all fine for PvE, that stat difference is very major to them.

So while your level 80 characters are still doing fine in level 79 greens in PvE, they wouldn’t do so well against a level 80 in full Ascended in PvP. Which is where the gear difference really matters. In PvE, you’re not competing against other players, while in PvP you are.

So while some people will think Ascended gear is fine cause it is restricted to Fractals and not needed any where else in PvE, they seem to forget the PvP crowd and how it will affect them.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

You seem to have forgotten the PvP players. While it is all fine for PvE, that stat difference is very major to them.

Ah yes, I did forget about PvP. Still, all ANet would need to do is buff up the gear in sPvP to Ascended tier by default. WvW is a bit more tricky, but you could include Ascended gear purchasable with Badges of Honor, so WvW players also have something to work towards besides WvW masteries.

Zaxares.5419:

SpyderArachnid.5619:

You seem to have forgotten the PvP players. While it is all fine for PvE, that stat difference is very major to them.

Ah yes, I did forget about PvP. Still, all ANet would need to do is buff up the gear in sPvP to Ascended tier by default. WvW is a bit more tricky, but you could include Ascended gear purchasable with Badges of Honor, so WvW players also have something to work towards besides WvW masteries.

WvW vendors do sell ascended items but laurels are still needed though.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Laurel_merchant

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Zaxares.5419:

SpyderArachnid.5619:

You seem to have forgotten the PvP players. While it is all fine for PvE, that stat difference is very major to them.

Ah yes, I did forget about PvP. Still, all ANet would need to do is buff up the gear in sPvP to Ascended tier by default. WvW is a bit more tricky, but you could include Ascended gear purchasable with Badges of Honor, so WvW players also have something to work towards besides WvW masteries.

WvW vendors do sell ascended items but laurels are still needed though.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Laurel_merchant

You can earn laurels by doing PvP dailies and monthlies, so that’s not much of an issue. But you still cannot get an Ascended back piece for PvP. They have to do Fractals for that still (meaning PvP players have to do PvE content just to gear up for PvP).

Fingers crossed that Ascended backpieces also get included for WvW when Ascended weapons/armor make their debut then.

Zaxares.5419:

Fingers crossed that Ascended backpieces also get included for WvW when Ascended weapons/armor make their debut then.

Sad thing is, Ascended back pieces were one of the first Ascended items to be introduced to the game. Yet they still haven’t made an alternative way to obtain them. But they have done it for every other Ascended piece.

Kind of odd that the first Ascended item is still restricted to Fractals, while all the others have alternative ways of obtaining them.

And if PvP players are having to wait this long just to get Ascended back items in PvP, think how long it will be before they can even get Ascended weapons and armor in PvP.

I don’t want ascended items at all.
but since they are announced and will come, i’d rather have them all craftable for reasonable ressources. should take at most twice the amount for exotic. better 1.5

Ok, so assume they add Ascended Gear.
Great, now your stats are +5% better.
And now what? What’s the point?
Where will you use? Obviously in PvP if you’re playing it.
What about PvE? Everything’s facerollable even without those extra 5% (not counting FOTM).
So yeah, people are overreacting.
Fights are easy both with Ascended and Exotic gear, just spam 1 and dodge that red circle.

Nick.6972:

Great, now your stats are +5% better.

The problem i see is that people get a placebo effect that if they are not wearing ascended, they are as good as closed to naked compared to those who have it. 5% of 1,000 is 50 in a game where the max damage is in the range of 7-9k it is really insignificant.

I would even go as far as wanting to have legendary gear. Sure, it will take me months or over a year to get it (having work and rl stuff does put a dent on my gaming time) but after getting everything else what you going to do with all that gold? Let it sit in the bank and earn interest?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: no, we don’t like treadmills. It’s already taking quite a lot of time to properly level up an alt subsequent to the recent gutting of my legendary equipped ranger. It will take forever for her to acquire ascended trinkets, due to manner in which the laurel system was implemented, and given the limited impact WvW badges have on acquiring ascended trinkets.

Gated content effectively prevents people to play several character classes in WvW and PvE. In other words, it does not deepen the game experience; it flattens that experience and reduces it to a time-gated grind.

Yes, add ascended gear (weapons+armor) provided they come with a whole array of new looks. I don’t give a kitten about stats improvement, please do increase stats if you want from exotic to ascended, but add more, lucrative end-game skins.

And while they’re at it, introduce the ascended gear as both drops from difficult/challenging end-game content, or purchaseable with tokens from end-game content… i.e. like the dungeons/badges of honor/pvp tokens + gold already function. I’ve got no problem with stuff to grind towards, but it needs to come paired with more end-game content catered to all player styles.

If ascended gear was as easy to get as exotics currently are, I would have no problem at all with them adding weapons and armour.

I’m not sure I would like them to be aquired with laurels, unless they altered the costs (including the existing trinkets), because it would just take too long to gear up one character. And for those of us, like me, who have 2 or 3 main characters, it would take a ridiculous amount of time to gear them all up to max stats. And don’t be fooled, a fully ascended character would have quite a stat advantage compared to a fully exoticed character. The difference would be enough to help a player win against an equal skilled, or even a slighter better skilled, opponent. The trinkets alone are already enough to provide a slight, yet noticable, advantage.

So while I am not against adding extra ascended gear, I am very wary about how it will be implemented and how easy/difficult/slow it will be to aquire.

Rooks Zaer.5846:

Xenon.4537:

Not everyone is satisfied getting just a skin. A lot of us enjoy the effort of making our character stronger through gear.

That’s fantastic! I completely respect your desire for this type of game. Lucky for you, there are a lot of MMOs that offer this already. GW2 was supposed to be the one MMO for those of us that don’t want to grind gear for better stats and want to play for fun and aesthetical rewards. But instead of enjoying the 20 or so McDonalds that are already in town, people had to walk into the one Burger King in the area and start demanding Big Macs…completely ruining it for those of us who enjoy Whoppers. Now we have 21 McDonalds and those of us that like Whoppers are being told we’re wrong to complain because “some people like Big Macs”.

I understand where you are coming from, but my response within this analogy would be that I don’t want a big mac OR a whopper. I want a steak, and there aren’t any steakhouses yet.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the customers giving feedback on the quality and variety of the food in the restaurant in the hopes that things continue to improve overall. I think it’s totally possible for them to serve me a lobster which takes longer for me to eat, but gives me a great experience, vs some one else ordering the quick and easy chicken nuggets. There’s no reason we can’t both eat at the same Red Lobster, is all I’m saying.

No.

I left the game when ascended rings arrived (although returned 2 months later with laurels) and I’ll do it again if I’m forced to change the gear of all my seven lvl 80 characters.

Cassius.4831:

No.

I left the game when ascended rings arrived (although returned 2 months later with laurels) and I’ll do it again if I’m forced to change the gear of all my seven lvl 80 characters.

I’m just genuinely curious what you do on your seven level 80 toons if they are all fully geared out?

Xenon.4537:

Cassius.4831:

No.

I left the game when ascended rings arrived (although returned 2 months later with laurels) and I’ll do it again if I’m forced to change the gear of all my seven lvl 80 characters.

I’m just genuinely curious what you do on your seven level 80 toons if they are all fully geared out?

- WvW (ninja, although I usually finish defending something and joining a zerg)
- Living Stories (dungeons, puzzles, achievements)
- Achievements (I would like to finish dive master or dungeon master, for instance)
- Standard dungeons (sometimes for special rewards, sometimes for fun with guildies)
- Fractals (I need tokens and more ascended/infused rings – only some of my characters have them nowadays -)
- PvE events and farming (I have a legendary, but… well, I would like to have more )
- sPvP (a little, but if I’m bored of all the other things… I go there)

… and, finally, leveling my Warrior (lvl49 yet )

I usually play with my engineer, but since each character has diferrent gameplay styles, sometimes I switch to another to avoid get bored.

Cassius.4831:

Xenon.4537:

Cassius.4831:

No.

I left the game when ascended rings arrived (although returned 2 months later with laurels) and I’ll do it again if I’m forced to change the gear of all my seven lvl 80 characters.

I’m just genuinely curious what you do on your seven level 80 toons if they are all fully geared out?

- WvW (ninja, although I usually finish defending something and joining a zerg)
- Living Stories (dungeons, puzzles, achievements)
- Achievements (I would like to finish dive master or dungeon master, for instance)
- Standard dungeons (sometimes for special rewards, sometimes for fun with guildies)
- Fractals (I need tokens and more ascended/infused rings – only some of my characters have them nowadays -)
- PvE events and farming (I have a legendary, but… well, I would like to have more )
- sPvP (a little, but if I’m bored of all the other things… I go there)

… and, finally, leveling my Warrior (lvl49 yet )

I usually play with my engineer, but since each character has diferrent gameplay styles, sometimes I switch to another to avoid get bored.

I love doing all those things too, but I’ve never had a problem doing them with just exotics, or even rares (sometimes I’m too lazy to buy exotic trinkets). Do you really find ascended gear necessary to do these things? And if not, why quit the game because of their existence?

How do you know if ascended armor and weapons will be the end of it? What about double ascended or SSJ3? SSJ4?

If ascended is the end of it and successfully provides a slow release gear progression those in favor of it after a time will only want another tier.

Xenon.4537:

Cassius.4831:

Xenon.4537:

Cassius.4831:

No.

I left the game when ascended rings arrived (although returned 2 months later with laurels) and I’ll do it again if I’m forced to change the gear of all my seven lvl 80 characters.

I’m just genuinely curious what you do on your seven level 80 toons if they are all fully geared out?

- WvW (ninja, although I usually finish defending something and joining a zerg)
- Living Stories (dungeons, puzzles, achievements)
- Achievements (I would like to finish dive master or dungeon master, for instance)
- Standard dungeons (sometimes for special rewards, sometimes for fun with guildies)
- Fractals (I need tokens and more ascended/infused rings – only some of my characters have them nowadays -)
- PvE events and farming (I have a legendary, but… well, I would like to have more )
- sPvP (a little, but if I’m bored of all the other things… I go there)

… and, finally, leveling my Warrior (lvl49 yet )

I usually play with my engineer, but since each character has diferrent gameplay styles, sometimes I switch to another to avoid get bored.

I love doing all those things too, but I’ve never had a problem doing them with just exotics, or even rares (sometimes I’m too lazy to buy exotic trinkets). Do you really find ascended gear necessary to do these things? And if not, why quit the game because of their existence?

Probably WvW power creep will force him to upgrade ALL that gear across all his chars, when he starts to notice other people’s full ascended is giving them an annoying edge, forcing him to pick one char only to focus the annoying grind, which will suck for him cause he’s losing variety in gameplay.

Even if someone has only one or two chars. What about multiple gear that compliment multiple builds? Effin nightmare. So effectively, he’ll have a WORSE game than before. Limited in effective builds and gameplay variety, more visibly in WvW.

At some point he’ll get kitten ed and leave the game for good.
Good guess?

No. I do not want new weapons/armor until they fix the current system.

Getting exotics is easy. Getting legendary’s, not so much. I would much rather they add in a better way to get precursors, and revamp the legendary weapons to not involve so much grind. Being able to embark on a story quest type adventure, full of epicocity and awesomness in order to gain a legendary, rather than farming for 100’s of hours for mats/gold to get one would be awesome. even if it meant it was soulbound. The quest could take 30 hours, whatever, it’d still be better than the current system. I don’t want weapons better than legendary’s being introduced until a player who’s been playing less than 9 months can achieve getting a legendary without enormous amounts of trouble.

Also, knowing Anet, anything introduced to upscale your exotic weps/honor would cost 100 laurels, be a .00001% chance to drop consumable from one mob in one dungeon that everyone would farm, or it would be in a RNG chest.

So no, I don’t want Ascended gear yet.

Harbard.5738:

Xenon.4537:

Cassius.4831:

Xenon.4537:

Cassius.4831:

No.

I left the game when ascended rings arrived (although returned 2 months later with laurels) and I’ll do it again if I’m forced to change the gear of all my seven lvl 80 characters.

I’m just genuinely curious what you do on your seven level 80 toons if they are all fully geared out?

- WvW (ninja, although I usually finish defending something and joining a zerg)
- Living Stories (dungeons, puzzles, achievements)
- Achievements (I would like to finish dive master or dungeon master, for instance)
- Standard dungeons (sometimes for special rewards, sometimes for fun with guildies)
- Fractals (I need tokens and more ascended/infused rings – only some of my characters have them nowadays -)
- PvE events and farming (I have a legendary, but… well, I would like to have more )
- sPvP (a little, but if I’m bored of all the other things… I go there)

… and, finally, leveling my Warrior (lvl49 yet )

I usually play with my engineer, but since each character has diferrent gameplay styles, sometimes I switch to another to avoid get bored.

I love doing all those things too, but I’ve never had a problem doing them with just exotics, or even rares (sometimes I’m too lazy to buy exotic trinkets). Do you really find ascended gear necessary to do these things? And if not, why quit the game because of their existence?

Probably WvW power creep will force him to upgrade ALL that gear across all his chars, when he starts to notice other people’s full ascended is giving them an annoying edge, forcing him to pick one char only to focus the annoying grind, which will suck for him cause he’s losing variety in gameplay.

Even if someone has only one or two chars. What about multiple gear that compliment multiple builds? Effin nightmare. So effectively, he’ll have a WORSE game than before. Limited in effective builds and gameplay variety, more visibly in WvW.

At some point he’ll get kitten ed and leave the game for good.
Good guess?

Yes, good guess

For me, upgrading my gear is a mere mean to reach my goal: enjoy the game. I only find getting better gear fun the first time – same with leveling -. After that, it turns predictible and tedious and I only want to do it as soon as possible so I can explore the possibilities of my character.

Zaxares.5419:

Yes, the stat difference for 12 Ascended vs 12 Exotics is quite significant, but again, this isn’t a problem if you really don’t need Ascended gear to get through the majority of the game’s content.

It is a HUGE issue, for PvP. They shouldn’t using ascended in WvW cause it will mean pay to win.