The real reason for Ascended?

The real reason for Ascended?

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Posted by: Mandrax.7342

Mandrax.7342

I’ll be as brief as possible…

Each mystic forge recipe requires 250 crafted ingredients, plus a ton of ectoplasm. There are two main ways to acquire these items, you either farm for them, or you buy them. Whilst farming for them, because of the sheer quantity required, you are going to hit the DR wall. You are also going to run into a lot of other people trying to farm. This means that it’s going to take a LONG time to get all the mats you need.

Currently, Potent Blood cost around 2s each and Ectoplasm cost around 25s each. This is no small amount of gold when you tot it all up. Only those with a lot of time to spare are either going to have the gold, or the time to farm the mats, and farm the dungeons. This means that those who don’t have the time have a choice, they either miss out on the items, or they look at spending real cash on gems in the cash shop to convert the gems to gold.

My theory is that Arenanet are adding this tier of gear specifically to fund future development of the game.

The reason they are releasing items only a few at a time is because if they release them too quickly, people will not have the funds to keep up. By releasing them slowly, people can spend the money over a longer period which means people are more likely to keep paying real cash for these items.

It’s not quite pay to win of course, because everything is available in-game, but it is almost a cleverly disguised version of it.

It’s because of this train of thought that I am 100% certain that we will see more tiers of gear introduced in the future. That is if all goes how Arenanet expects in terms of gem sales.

I could be wrong, but it does seem to make sense to me.

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Posted by: tigirius.9014

tigirius.9014

It does make sense in that sense. They are biting the hand that feeds them tho, because people will get fed up and leave since they threw their manifesto over a cliff.

People take the integrity of their game designers seriously, this won’t be forgiven so easily or forgotten. All over the net we’re already seeing people posting that this company can’t keep their word, that they’ve broken their game, and turned it into a gear treadmill(this time it’s not a troll post either there’s evidence to back it up).

Sad really. I thought this game would be my new home for years to come but if that’s all they are interested in is getting the five-minutes-till-the-next-shiny crowd this isn’t why i bought this game.

Balance Team: Please Fix Mine Toolbelt Positioning!

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Posted by: mcarswell.3768

mcarswell.3768

you’re not wrong. everything about the materials requirements (for pretty much anything) is designed to drive people to the TP. The drop rate is ridiculously low for any individual trying to farm, but since the TP is game wide, there are plenty of mats to be bought. Anet is (literally) banking on people getting impatient and buying gems → gold → mats to make top tier gear.

Berner | Nitzerebb | Suna | Shivayanama
[TSFR] – Jade Quarry

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Posted by: Ganzo.5079

Ganzo.5079

So, a begins to play from 6 months how can encouraged to play, with a new and expensive tier? how its supposed that he can do WvW at decent level if he need to grind to reach the maximun level stats?
They are realesing the new set slowly, aly to give us NOW an appearance of no progression, or a very slow progression.
But for a player that begin to play from 6 month, 1 year or 2 years, the things that for us, are a “little gap”, can become mountains! and that’s why, for example, in WOW for every new expasion, the commons item of the last expasion are as strong as the top tier item of the expasion before.

Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs.
It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill"
LOL

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Posted by: minbariguy.7504

minbariguy.7504

All over the net we’re already seeing people posting that this company can’t keep their word, that they’ve broken their game, and turned it into a gear treadmill(this time it’s not a troll post either there’s evidence to back it up).

While what you say here is technically true, the one-star review bombing on Amazon seems to have stalled out. I’m not sure it will be as effective a tactic at getting ANet’s attention as some hoped.

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Posted by: mcarswell.3768

mcarswell.3768

Oh great, now the conspiracy theories have started.

How is this a conspiracy theory? In a FTP game, the developers only source of ongoing revenue is gem sales. So game mechanics are going to be implemented that encourage people to buy gems.

Berner | Nitzerebb | Suna | Shivayanama
[TSFR] – Jade Quarry

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Posted by: Leonard.2867

Leonard.2867

The real reason for Ascended?

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Posted by: Tobias Trueflight.8350

Tobias Trueflight.8350

I’ll be as brief as possible…

Each mystic forge recipe requires 250 crafted ingredients, plus a ton of ectoplasm. There are two main ways to acquire these items, you either farm for them, or you buy them. Whilst farming for them, because of the sheer quantity required, you are going to hit the DR wall. You are also going to run into a lot of other people trying to farm. This means that it’s going to take a LONG time to get all the mats you need.

Currently, Potent Blood cost around 2s each and Ectoplasm cost around 25s each. This is no small amount of gold when you tot it all up. Only those with a lot of time to spare are either going to have the gold, or the time to farm the mats, and farm the dungeons. This means that those who don’t have the time have a choice, they either miss out on the items, or they look at spending real cash on gems in the cash shop to convert the gems to gold.

My theory is that Arenanet are adding this tier of gear specifically to fund future development of the game.

The reason they are releasing items only a few at a time is because if they release them too quickly, people will not have the funds to keep up. By releasing them slowly, people can spend the money over a longer period which means people are more likely to keep paying real cash for these items.

It’s not quite pay to win of course, because everything is available in-game, but it is almost a cleverly disguised version of it.

It’s because of this train of thought that I am 100% certain that we will see more tiers of gear introduced in the future. That is if all goes how Arenanet expects in terms of gem sales.

I could be wrong, but it does seem to make sense to me.

Hmmm. Doesn’t quite add up. I agree there is a high likelihood of “more tiers in the future” because it’s a nebulous prediction akin to “at some point I will get a promotion”.

However, the staggered rate of release makes sense for a different reason – there were almost no back items on initial release except the Guild Backpacks and the one thing you get from the Personal Story. Mad Memories was the only other option, which is why everyone who got it wore it.

(I used it also for light instead of carrying my torch out at night, too.)

So because the Back Slot was kinda . . . well, very underutilized they opted to release those now rather than later to allow people to fill that slot first since it was likely they may have missed Mad Memories (totally plausible chance, mind you) and thus were stuck looking at a Guild Backpack if they wanted high-level gear for their back.

Rings? Well, those were added into the mix because they can’t ONLY release back items, that would be silly. So toss in about a dozen rings so the amount of Ascended is a little more robust and you can get three Infusions instead of just one.

Also, while it is possible Gems sales could have been intended to go on the rise so they could be exchanged for Gold . . . it’s worth noting that is only the quickest way to get the cash needed. Another is to sell off raw Orichalcum Ore, or other T6 crafting materials you won’t be using for your chosen Ascended items. Which is how some people funded their purchases of higher gear already, come to think of it.

Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.

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Posted by: slazzy.7309

slazzy.7309

So Anet, who doesn’t charge a sub for their game, might well have established a cash shop, where you can buy things your character may want or need. You don’t say!

I’ve been thinking- how would they continue to fund the servers, the development cost, future growth. I’m curious, is NCsoft non-profit? The cash shop leads me to believe they are not, but I’m not really sure. I’ve never seen a game company who wanted to make a profit, so this would be a first.

“My theory is that Arenanet are adding this tier of gear specifically to fund future development of the game.”

Indubitably, my dear Mandrax. Indubitably.

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Posted by: Lothair.8942

Lothair.8942

Oh great, now the conspiracy theories have started.

How is this a conspiracy theory!?? This is exactly what they are doing. The moment you take your head out of your kitten, you will realize it.

Ascended: 250 T6 Mats & 50 Globs of Ectoplasm

I have 3 80’s in this game and at the most, I have 25 T6 Mats across the board – the Globs, not so much of a problem.

So what are my ways of obtaining more T6 mats?

Mystic Forge – 10 Obsidian Shards, 10 Mystic Coins, 10 Globs of Ecto, 10 Crystals = random stack of T6 mats (including Ori, Leather, Cloth) or random stack of Mystic Clovers (yeah, good luck).

Farming – Like many have said, extremely low drop rate and diminishing returns are going to kill you on this.

BLTC – Well, to buy all 250, you’re in the area of 50-75g depending on the item. I have 3 80’s and 35g to my name.

Face it, they are funneling people to the BLTC, it is the fastest way by spending RL money to get what you want.

Effectively, you do have a choice – you can farm indefinitely & slowly or you can Pay to Win.

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Posted by: MyriadStars.5679

MyriadStars.5679

Oh great, now the conspiracy theories have started.

This is not conspiracy theory. There has to be a reason why Anet suddenly released something that is not consistent with their original manifesto.

I’m pretty sure it’s because of profit…otherwise, why?

This is my guess:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/This-is-why-they-introduced-gear-grind/first#post819496

In any case, if ascended gear brings in more profit, then they will introduce more. There is no use complaining…It seems that presently we will have to either live with it and play, or quit the game for something else.

No matter what we do, the lack of response from Anet and their heavy forum censorship are not professional. I saw lots of posts of complaints on the official forum of Diablo 3, and nobody complained about censorship. What happened here actually made me think more highly of Blizzard. There were lots of posts regarding leaving diablo 3 to play gw2 and torchlight 2, and the moderators there did not delete them.

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Posted by: Tobias Trueflight.8350

Tobias Trueflight.8350

People are funneling themselves to the BLTC, mostly out of the sheer convenience. On the other hand, it’s possible to do the farming route so long as you don’t overdo it. I’ll need to check but I think I have not used any of my T6 Fine materials, 25 sounds about on target . . . except for Ancient Bone. Mad King’s Labyrinth was a nice place to get those.

There’s another Mystic Forge method, which is fusing lower tier items upwards. Much more predictable than what you said, though I confess to not knowing the formula off hand.

Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.

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Posted by: XxTAFxX.6741

XxTAFxX.6741

Tbh they could easily add more stuff in the cash shop to make money,for instance more costumes,custom weapon skins ect ect.
They would def make more money that way.

The new gear will prob be to prepare us for the new expansion.
i just hope there are other means to get it besides dungeons.

(edited by XxTAFxX.6741)

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Posted by: Tobias Trueflight.8350

Tobias Trueflight.8350

There are, supposedly, other avenues they’re planning on rolling out “soon”. They described there was an intent to have them available through doing WvWvW content, but they were kind of cagey on exactly how if I recall correctly. Point is, they did say they had plans.

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Posted by: Ash.2175

Ash.2175

I don’t think we’re supposed to acquire this gear in a day (or even a week). If you don’t have as much time to play per day that just means it’ll take you more days to get the gear. This in no way means you have to go buy gems. They said they’re not releasing new gear every 3 months, and either way do you think it will even take you a full 3 months to get the gear? Why is it such a bad thing that better gear takes time to get? I know some people enjoyed the ease of acquiring max level gear in guild wars 1, but I personally have been enjoying the time I spend working towards my gear.

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Posted by: Lothair.8942

Lothair.8942

People are funneling themselves to the BLTC, mostly out of the sheer convenience. On the other hand, it’s possible to do the farming route so long as you don’t overdo it. I’ll need to check but I think I have not used any of my T6 Fine materials, 25 sounds about on target . . . except for Ancient Bone. Mad King’s Labyrinth was a nice place to get those.

There’s another Mystic Forge method, which is fusing lower tier items upwards. Much more predictable than what you said, though I confess to not knowing the formula off hand.

(250 x tier A material) + (1 x tier A+1 material) + (10 x tier A+1 Dust) + (A x Philosopher’s Stone(s)) = A random amount of Tier A+1 materials

Yup, not exactly a science to it, but there is a way to do it. Plus, you are losing a ton of T5 materials for a random amount of T6.

Of course they are funneling themselves to the BLTC, it’s the path of least resistance and it’s what ANET wants. Effectively, Pay 2 Win.

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Posted by: MyriadStars.5679

MyriadStars.5679

I don’t think we’re supposed to acquire this gear in a day (or even a week). If you don’t have as much time to play per day that just means it’ll take you more days to get the gear. This in no way means you have to go buy gems. They said they’re not releasing new gear every 3 months, and either way do you think it will even take you a full 3 months to get the gear? Why is it such a bad thing that better gear takes time to get? I know some people enjoyed the ease of acquiring max level gear in guild wars 1, but I personally have been enjoying the time I spend working towards my gear.

In GW1, i enjoyed the time I spent acquiring prestige armor sets and I acquired 3 full sets. They have the same stats as the basic armor.

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Posted by: Mandrax.7342

Mandrax.7342

Tbh they could easily add more stuff in the cash shop to make money,for instance more costumes,custom skins ect ect.
They would def make more money that way.

The new gear will prob be to prepare us for the new expansion.
i just hope there are other means to get it besides dungeons.

Exactly.

The point I am trying to make is that this game was meant to be the Buy to Play model. But what has actually happened is that we had to play for the game and Arenanet are looking to reap the rewards as if they were Free to Play game.

Free to Play games do not charge for the game. We have all paid money for the game and were meant to get a full game for our money. The game was meant to be funded by the box sales with some additional sales from the cash shop, as Guild Wars was.

The reason for the stat increase is because nobody would use real cash to acquire these new items otherwise. They would likely just stick with the exotics they already had.

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Posted by: Leonard.2867

Leonard.2867

I don’t think we’re supposed to acquire this gear in a day (or even a week). If you don’t have as much time to play per day that just means it’ll take you more days to get the gear. This in no way means you have to go buy gems. They said they’re not releasing new gear every 3 months, and either way do you think it will even take you a full 3 months to get the gear? Why is it such a bad thing that better gear takes time to get? I know some people enjoyed the ease of acquiring max level gear in guild wars 1, but I personally have been enjoying the time I spend working towards my gear.

Why is it a band thing that better gear takes time? Maybe wrong Question… Why is it that better gear is +stats.

Want to avoid gear grinding…. start making mystic coins soul-bound… psh.

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Posted by: Tobias Trueflight.8350

Tobias Trueflight.8350

Well it would be the path of least resistance normally, but now? Mmmm, no. Too many people deciding not to buy Gems. Black Lion isn’t the path of least resistance if you’re boycotting it. The next method is . . . not recommended for anyone.

Me? I’ve been collecting data and trying to figure out where to go get my T6 materials (or T5 materials) when I decide to take the plunge. I have a few options, though I’ll need to make a conscious effort to not overstay my welcome in the spot.

Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.

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Posted by: Leonard.2867

Leonard.2867

Well it would be the path of least resistance normally, but now? Mmmm, no. Too many people deciding not to buy Gems. Black Lion isn’t the path of least resistance if you’re boycotting it. The next method is . . . not recommended for anyone.

Me? I’ve been collecting data and trying to figure out where to go get my T6 materials (or T5 materials) when I decide to take the plunge. I have a few options, though I’ll need to make a conscious effort to not overstay my welcome in the spot.

GW2 Wiki knows all matters GW2 and Google trumps Wiki.

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Posted by: Urxx.6840

Urxx.6840

“My theory is that Arenanet are adding this tier of gear specifically to fund future development of the game.”

Indubitably, my dear Mandrax. Indubitably.

You are trying to delegitimate the disgruntled crowd making us sound like our problem is that ArenaNet is trying to survive by earning money.

That’s not the case at all. Actually a lot of the same people who have been vocal against ascended gear were periodically buying gems for things they didn’t need as a voluntary way of funding the game.

No, the problem is that when they announced the cash shop they were very clear players wouldn’t need to spend real money in order to remain competitive.

But if the most powerful tier of gear in the whole game is out of reach for a large portion of the playerbase, how is that still true? Either they spend real money or they are cut off from ascended gear. If an ascended backpack costs 60+g to craft, how much will it be for a full set of armor and weapons?

With exotics that wasn’t the case. It was very easy to acquire them via crafting, karma, or whatever, even if you didn’t play a lot.

A lot of people bought the game specifically because of the no grind promise and the “only cosmetic things for real money” phylosophy. And now they found out that if you are a casual player, real money is your only chance to be on par with others.

(edited by Urxx.6840)

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Posted by: GADefence.5634

GADefence.5634

If ANet really wanted to make cash they would have just added all the new back items to the gemstore. Instant money.

I think the real reason for this Ascended armour is that ANet made a deal with a form of aspirin company. Hearing all the english as a second language people arguing in favor of gear tiers with the barest understanding of the words they use is really giving me a headache.

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Posted by: Malefactor.2971

Malefactor.2971

If, as they said, they found that players were gearing out in exotics much faster than they had intended, it makes sense (from their perspective) to make acquiring this new tier of gear take longer. That or spend more money in the cash shop.

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Posted by: Mandrax.7342

Mandrax.7342

If ANet really wanted to make cash they would have just added all the new back items to the gemstore. Instant money.

I think the real reason for this Ascended armour is that ANet made a deal with a form of aspirin company. Hearing all the english as a second language people arguing in favor of gear tiers with the barest understanding of the words they use is really giving me a headache.

If they do that, they would be outright accused of Pay to Win methods, something all self respecting developers would want to avoid.

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Posted by: Tobias Trueflight.8350

Tobias Trueflight.8350

If they do that, they would be outright accused of Pay to Win methods, something all self respecting developers would want to avoid.

Not all developers have the luxury of calling the shots, though . . .

Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.

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Posted by: GADefence.5634

GADefence.5634

“If they do that, they would be outright accused of Pay to Win methods, something all self respecting developers would want to avoid.”

Ok, I can see how you took that that way – I meant the skins, not the stats. Offering all backpack items and new armour for money as skins would probably have gotten them somewhere.

Same with finally letting us use tonics and costumes in combat, that would have boosted that sell.

But nope, instead the alienate their playerbase and a portion of them took refunds. Hope that 60$ * player base you shooed off amount of money as a negative to your year end was really worth it ANet.

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Posted by: Mandrax.7342

Mandrax.7342

“If they do that, they would be outright accused of Pay to Win methods, something all self respecting developers would want to avoid.”

Ok, I can see how you took that that way – I meant the skins, not the stats. Offering all backpack items and new armour for money as skins would probably have gotten them somewhere.

Same with finally letting us use tonics and costumes in combat, that would have boosted that sell.

But nope, instead the alienate their playerbase and a portion of them took refunds. Hope that 60$ * player base you shooed off amount of money as a negative to your year end was really worth it ANet.

Ok, I see what you mean now.

I agree. A meaningful cash shop would mean more revenues. The cash shop as it stands is pretty dire. There are people out there with money burning a hole in their pockets for the right items. The shop currently does not have the right items.

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Posted by: Mandrax.7342

Mandrax.7342

If they do that, they would be outright accused of Pay to Win methods, something all self respecting developers would want to avoid.

Not all developers have the luxury of calling the shots, though . . .

True. And with Cox in charge of the cash shop features, it’s likely this entire idea has come from her. Particularly as Nexon games aren’t strangers to Pay to Win. As I said previously, this almost feels like a cleverly disguised P2W feature.

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Posted by: Tobias Trueflight.8350

Tobias Trueflight.8350

. . . I’m sorry, who and what? I’m not as up to date on my companies as I should be, apparently.

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Posted by: Lycis.1843

Lycis.1843

It feels like a tumor in the world of GW2 but it is many times proved that player need progression so with FoTM there´s Progression until you hit the lvl where you can’t overcome the difficulty then you have to repeat until Ascended gear comes. But it is in it’s own instance and space so the outside is save for now until the Ascended Gear comes and the gear becomes maybe significant stronger than exotics. (6xGear=statsx6) or they just making no stats on the gear just Agony resistance.

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Posted by: AcidicVision.5498

AcidicVision.5498

This is nuts. Have you played in Fractals at all yet? There is a high probability of getting golds from the chests at the end of each fractal. And a higher chance for mobs to drop golds than usual. Use a magic find set and your inventory will be half full of gold items after just a few runs.

Those salvage into ectos. I have quadrupled the number of ectos in my bank by just casually leveling up in the dungeon, while still saving a few like type weapons to try to forge for a precursor (by the by, med armor, accessories, tridents and staffs seem to be the frequent rare drops. I haven’t seen a gold bow or sword yet). The other craft materials you need have an increased drop rate in Lost Shores and in the higher levels of FotM.

There is no cash-shop conspiracy here (and I like a good one, like the Crystin Cox/Nexon frenzy we had yesterday). Just play the game, especially the new stuff, and what you need will start flowing in to your bags. Remember, it’s an MMO. The stuff isn’t supposed to take a day. But getting the mats for Ascended is much more reasonable and goes much faster than say…cultural armor, legendaries, or some of the other freaky mystic forge weapons out there.

The Kismet
Dragonbrand

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Posted by: Corvindi.5734

Corvindi.5734

It’s very pay to win by my definition. I understand others will disagree.

I know they need to continue making money past the box fee and whatever we bought in the first month or so, but this is not the way to do it. It affects way more of the game than dungeons and PVE. My biggest objection to the Ascended gear grind is what it does to WvW for those of us who don’t even want to do dungeons, much less farm or buy so many mats.

I’m very upset about this change, I saw this coming when gems for gold was announced, and I would have preferred to be wrong.

“…we don’t expect you to be forced into dungeons at endgame.”

~ArenaNet

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Posted by: Leonard.2867

Leonard.2867

This is nuts. Have you played in Fractals at all yet? There is a high probability of getting golds from the chests at the end of each fractal. And a higher chance for mobs to drop golds than usual. Use a magic find set and your inventory will be half full of gold items after just a few runs.

Those salvage into ectos. I have quadrupled the number of ectos in my bank by just casually leveling up in the dungeon, while still saving a few like type weapons to try to forge for a precursor (by the by, med armor, accessories, tridents and staffs seem to be the frequent rare drops. I haven’t seen a gold bow or sword yet). The other craft materials you need have an increased drop rate in Lost Shores and in the higher levels of FotM.

There is no cash-shop conspiracy here (and I like a good one, like the Crystin Cox/Nexon frenzy we had yesterday). Just play the game, especially the new stuff, and what you need will start flowing in to your bags. Remember, it’s an MMO. The stuff isn’t supposed to take a day. But getting the mats for Ascended is much more reasonable and goes much faster than say…cultural armor, legendaries, or some of the other freaky mystic forge weapons out there.

So are you saying that people are funneled into two locations in efforts to feasibly obtain Ascended gear?

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Posted by: Narkosys.5173

Narkosys.5173

I think it is a little of both – help gem sales as well as grind.
But as explained in other eloquent posts that arent mine- had they spent the time placing and spiffing up the shop with what people want they would buy instead of Rng Chest they would have had more success.

Or as some posters have asked might as well put it in the cash shop and make some money go all the way to p2w since everything is a blank slate now.

I dropped 200 on another cash shop past 2 days since I wont give anet any money and I am on the verge of asking for a refund. I am trying to give them some time.

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Posted by: ThiBash.5634

ThiBash.5634

How about the Transmutation Stones? Ever considered those? You need 1 each time you ‘upgrade your gear’.

That’s also why there’s 2 versions of the ascended items. Even if just 10% of the players prefers the backpack, that’s quite a lot of money earned for no work at all (even I can increase stats in a program).

If you can read this then it is proof that ArenaNet’s moderators just, kind and fair.

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Posted by: Lycis.1843

Lycis.1843

It’s not pay to win, there´s nothing you can buy that you give a advantage over something. And they´re already working on Ascended Gear being available in WvW and many other things for WvW. And they just have updated the old dungeons with better rewards. (I hope)

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Posted by: vox.5019

vox.5019

I can say from experience that korean f2p games are largely designed around broken progression being fixed by cash shop tactics. I haven’t quite made that leap here but it’s been obvious for a while now that the cash shop has gone korean in another feature, the gambling addiction exploiting items.

This industry just needs to move on. We’ve seen a bunch of “WoW 2.0” attempts, and
who actually wants that? Do we really want to be playing those same game mechanics for
another 5 or 10 years? -Mike O’Brien

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Posted by: GADefence.5634

GADefence.5634

“So are you saying that people are funneled into two locations in efforts to feasibly obtain Ascended gear?”

Actually, that’s not true, since I did a few runs before I stopped playing and they don’t drop enough for the 250 T6 mat you’ll need to make up for it.

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Posted by: AcidicVision.5498

AcidicVision.5498

So are you saying that people are funneled into two locations in efforts to feasibly obtain Ascended gear?

Partially. You need essence to craft the back-slots. Those are in FotM. To get the ring you get past level 10, and while doing that you are getting a steady stream of golds and tokens. You need the tokens to buy the infusion from the dungeon merchant.

So right now most of the stuff you need for Ascended gear is in that content.

As far as the fine mats go, that depends. You can get them from anywhere. If you are looking for the blood in-particular, that just happens to be the mat that Karka drop. I think they might drop fangs also but could be mistaken.

Im not sure why you think that is worth pointing out though. They were pretty clear when saying that those areas were where this stuff is initially going to be but soon they will add in other methods, including systems to get all of it in WvW.

Still no conspiracy or cash-shop shenanigans.

The Kismet
Dragonbrand

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Posted by: Lothair.8942

Lothair.8942

Ecto’s aren’t the problem here people – the problem is the T6 fine crafting materials. Ever ask yourself why, when salvaging gear, there is absolutely no chance to retrieve fine crafting materials? Look beyond what is spoon fed to you.

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Posted by: Shayde.2564

Shayde.2564

“If they do that, they would be outright accused of Pay to Win methods, something all self respecting developers would want to avoid.”

Ok, I can see how you took that that way – I meant the skins, not the stats. Offering all backpack items and new armour for money as skins would probably have gotten them somewhere.

Same with finally letting us use tonics and costumes in combat, that would have boosted that sell.

But nope, instead the alienate their playerbase and a portion of them took refunds. Hope that 60$ * player base you shooed off amount of money as a negative to your year end was really worth it ANet.

Ok, I see what you mean now.

I agree. A meaningful cash shop would mean more revenues. The cash shop as it stands is pretty dire. There are people out there with money burning a hole in their pockets for the right items. The shop currently does not have the right items.

Pretty much this: introduce useful items to the cash shop. Off the top of my head makeover kits, cool-looking armor/weapon skins, perhaps even old event skins, permanent banker, TP, merchants etc.

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Posted by: Onshidesigns.1069

Onshidesigns.1069

I don’t see why they would do that to generate money for the cash shop. when they made so much money on the Halloween clothing in the gem store.

If AN really thinks Ascended items will generate more cash shop sales, they are mistaken. Many will look at this as if it’s a mandatory monthly fee. And they play this game because it’s BTP with the option to buy extras items to support the game.

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Posted by: AcidicVision.5498

AcidicVision.5498

Ecto’s aren’t the problem here people – the problem is the T6 fine crafting materials. Ever ask yourself why, when salvaging gear, there is absolutely no chance to retrieve fine crafting materials? Look beyond what is spoon fed to you.

Maybe because they are used to craft some of the rarest stuff in the game and for that to maintain any value et all all of the materials cant just be handed out like candy?

Also there is a guaranteed way to get T6 from salvaging. By promoting up the stuff that you do get.

Stop looking when you reach paranoia.

The Kismet
Dragonbrand

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Posted by: Leonard.2867

Leonard.2867

So are you saying that people are funneled into two locations in efforts to feasibly obtain Ascended gear?

Partially. You need essence to craft the back-slots. Those are in FotM. To get the ring you get past level 10, and while doing that you are getting a steady stream of golds and tokens. You need the tokens to buy the infusion from the dungeon merchant.

So right now most of the stuff you need for Ascended gear is in that content.

As far as the fine mats go, that depends. You can get them from anywhere. If you are looking for the blood in-particular, that just happens to be the mat that Karka drop. I think they might drop fangs also but could be mistaken.

Im not sure why you think that is worth pointing out though. They were pretty clear when saying that those areas were where this stuff is initially going to be but soon they will add in other methods, including systems to get all of it in WvW.

Still no conspiracy or cash-shop shenanigans.

No, I don’t believe in the conspiracy.

Why I point it out actually became more clear to me after you pointed to WvW. Assuming three servers are equally matched, then the WvW content is considered more constant, it feels real, and I feel like a hero in the environment. In PvE it feels, Now I have my FOTM mats, I need to go to said location to get my Tier 6 material. In WvW I go to said location to be a hero, and when a good system is implemented, I get said materials.

I point out that PvE feels more like a grind and not a progression.

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Posted by: Mandrax.7342

Mandrax.7342

This topic looks empty now, have they deleted everything in it or is it me?

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Posted by: Mandrax.7342

Mandrax.7342

Ignore my last, it seems I have some forum bug. I can’t see anything in this topic now unless I log out of my account…