Guild Wars 2

I wanted to try to generate some thoughtful discussion on things what you like and what you think needs improvement about GW2’s handling of gear. I’ll start with a few observations that are fairly high-level:

- the wardrobe collectible system works pretty well in setting up a motivation to go after different pieces you think look cool.

- I don’t want a gear treadmill, but the progression we have now needs to somehow be more interesting. A small stat boost or stat swapping just isn’t interesting enough to make the pursuit of asc/leg motivating or rewarding. I also think it sets up a problem where they can’t introduce new asc./leg gear later on, because what’s the point if you already have a set? Opening up some form of horizontal progression with ascended and legendary would be ideal – like access to new skills or traits.

- Relative availability and value seems poorly calibrated between Rare and exotic tiers. Generally, it seems like rare is too inaccessible or expensive for its strategic value, while exotic is too accessible and cheap. Most people just go straight to exotic at 80, which seems like it was unintended (and probably why they introduced ascended), while rare gear is pretty much exclusively used for selling and salvaging. I’d like to see some changes here. It’s probably too late to make exotic rarer, so we need to see some increased availability and reduced prices on rare sets (especially vendor sets) IMO.

- The BL weapon system is pretty dubious and I think the way they handle it is bad for business. I think they focus too much on making new skins that apply the same look across all weapon types, when they should focus more on making unique weapons. It makes individual weapons feel less interesting than they should and less rewarding to obtain, and it probably gives them a disincentive for doing work on the next item below.

- We need new weapon types at this point. It’s been long enough. I feel confident they haven’t done this in part because of the system they created around BL skins, etc. with existing weapons, and that’s bad. I think we need to see less focus on creating 12 new weapon skins for each BL skin, and more focus on creating unique weapon skins and new weapons altogether.

A couple of things just off the top of my head…

Outfits: I would like to be able to dye them in the same way as my armour

Weapon dyes would be great

Stats on ascended gear should be significantly greater but not OP

Infusions, given how much they (relatively)cost, ought to a higher stat increase

More variety in medium chest armour. Love trenchcoats but maybe not so many of ’em

Make more gear salvageable

All of this, of course, is pure opinion.

I don’t think ascended/legendary gear or infusions should give higher boosts. Those items are purely for min-maxing and must never be a requirement for anything but the highest tier of content (high-lvl fractals and raids). Having increased stats on ascended at all makes people feel like they need them already. Making them better would just set off a gear-treadmill that this game managed to avoid for so many years.

I agree on the black lion skins though. Many weapons feel like they were just designed to fill a set and are plain ugly. And the whole RNG ticket-scrap mechanic makes me want to puke. Though it’s not as bad as the skins you can only get by pure RNG from the bl chests.

Please no more stat difference, I protested ascended as soon as it was clear they would have such a large distance years ago.

Also stat swapping is amazing, and the only reason I work towards legendaries. Don’t underestimate the power of having every stat combo at your disposal, including future ones.

Like you said, wardrobe is great. I would probably stopped coming back to this game if it wasn’t for things like the wardrobe keeping track of my progress in such a visible way

Asc legendary also allows you to be atributed infususions and gain more dmg than a normal exotic set.

I would like more non long coat options for medium armor.

I detest the addition of ascended gear to the game.
I dislike the fact that so much is essentially gated behind crafting in this game.

I would LOVE to see weapon dye as an option..even if it had to be collected independantly of armor dyes.

To be clear, I wasn’t suggesting that asc./legendary have better stats than they do currently. I strongly feel like they shouldn’t. I just meant there needs to be something cooler about them than a stat boost or stat swapping to make them appealing to collect, especially as the game moves forward – Instead of adding new tiers in the future, they can add new types of asc/legendary with unique qualities to make them worth chasing.

I agree the BL weapon skins should be unique and individual, or maybe in small collections rather than every single weapon in one themed set every time, especially when some just look like they’ve been made to complete the set.

Einlanzer.1627:

To be clear, I wasn’t suggesting that asc./legendary have better stats than they do currently. I strongly feel like they shouldn’t. I just meant there needs to be something cooler about them than a stat boost or stat swapping to make them appealing to collect, especially as the game moves forward – Instead of adding new tiers in the future, they can add new types of asc/legendary with unique qualities to make them worth chasing.

And thats what skins are for mate instead of chasing better stats, you chase a diffrent look.

All they need to do is keep introducing dif skins on the ascended/ legendary items they put into the game going forward.

Linken.6345:

Einlanzer.1627:

To be clear, I wasn’t suggesting that asc./legendary have better stats than they do currently. I strongly feel like they shouldn’t. I just meant there needs to be something cooler about them than a stat boost or stat swapping to make them appealing to collect, especially as the game moves forward – Instead of adding new tiers in the future, they can add new types of asc/legendary with unique qualities to make them worth chasing.

And thats what skins are for mate instead of chasing better stats, you chase a diffrent look.

All they need to do is keep introducing dif skins on the ascended/ legendary items they put into the game going forward.

That’s not good enough for everything, IMO. For some things, there needs to be more to it than that.