Guild Wars 2

LowfatEnvelope.5934:

nachtnebel.9168:

LowfatEnvelope.5934:

They say the stats will be SLIGHTLY better and everyone is freaking out? What? We haven’t even seen what the stats on this stuff is yet. Also no old content is being made obsolete by this. It sounds like the gear is just a reward so people who enjoy the dungeon can do it more efficiently as it progresses in difficulty, which I think is a good idea. We shall have to wait and see though I suppose.

If SLIGHTLY is not a problem why don’t they make these new items SLIGHTLY WORSE than exotics?

Because why on earth would you go backwards? The game doesn’t need to be easier lol

From a GW vet: Why on earth would you go forwards?

Sylv.5324:

dirtyklingon.2918:

saurus.8290:

so if they add 10 more lvls in next expansion you all leave too?

becouse lvl 80 exotics will be crap

idk if you followed this game prelaunch with statements like this.

i mean seriously.

They’ve said, since way before launch, that 80 may not be the level cap and that they may raise it in future expansions.

I suppose, when that happens, people will claim that ANet never said that.

Just for kicks, can you provide a source to this information? Ive seen someone in these forums say the same thing, that Colin Johansen said the level cap might be raised. But no one is able to provide a source.

I’ve followed GW2 dev for a while before release and no where ever did I read that they would increase the cap.

Until I read something that says otherwise, I operate under the assumption that 80 is cap, even when expansions come out. I will be very disappointed otherwise.

Oh well, time to find a new game. I can always come back if they decide to fix this mess anyways.

LowfatEnvelope.5934:

They say the stats will be SLIGHTLY better and everyone is freaking out? What? We haven’t even seen what the stats on this stuff is yet. Also no old content is being made obsolete by this. It sounds like the gear is just a reward so people who enjoy the dungeon can do it more efficiently as it progresses in difficulty, which I think is a good idea. We shall have to wait and see though I suppose.

Having rolled max-level players in WvW when I was lower level and in lower-level gear (greens and blues), I’m not worried about a slight stat increase. Skillful playing, at these narrow margins, will generally defeat slightly better gear.

The main thing I’m annoyed about is that my top tier gear is made obsolete so soon after launch. I mean, even WoW had like 6 months to a year between upgrades.

Sylv.5324:

dirtyklingon.2918:

saurus.8290:

so if they add 10 more lvls in next expansion you all leave too?

becouse lvl 80 exotics will be crap

idk if you followed this game prelaunch with statements like this.

i mean seriously.

They’ve said, since way before launch, that 80 may not be the level cap and that they may raise it in future expansions.

I suppose, when that happens, people will claim that ANet never said that.

(citation needed)

i did find this lovely post:

http://www.arena.net/blog/progression-and-leveling-in-guild-wars-2

IM not one to hop the drama bandwagon, but this game was advertised for no gear grind, only cosmetic grind. This slippery slope is a giant mistake

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Zefiris.8297:

GW2 is an MMO and if it wants to stay competitive it needs some form of progression.

[Citation needed]

This is actually not the case. Stat progression is only needed to appease a certain kind of addicted player happy, who wants to be able to beat additional challenge by gaining additional avatar strength and is afraid of content that gets more difficult without being able to make it easier by additional stats.

Essentially, your argument is that Simons Quest is a better game than the original Castlevania, because progresssion.

I, and many other people, say nope.
Stat MMOs are simply one particular model, popularized by WoW. They are not the only model. Monocultures are bad.

Well apparently not enough people agree with you. If Anet thought the game was doing well and that progression wasn’t needed then they wouldn’t be adding it.

Clearly they are now attempting to attract players who are more progression oriented. Likely because they are significantly more likely to spend more money in the gem shop and there are significantly more of them then all these people who apparently don’t like progression. At least that is how I see it. If you can think of a different reason for this move then i’m all ears.

Well first of all we all bought the game. And if it comes down to this question it is me or them. I got attracted to the game by the fact that it was advertised to be no gearthreatmill, so now they are selling their loyal fan-base for some flighty WoW-Fans? And an customer who feels betrayed is significantly less likely to spend any more money or recommend a product. Just saying, I’m still hoping for the best.

It starts with gear creep, and then soon following “dungeon pre-requisites” →
if you dont have certain gear you cant join parties for certain dungeons.
Already played one game that was like that, not going to do so again!

It doesn’t feel too great when you have to apologize to your friends who you bribed to play with the MMO manifesto.

Dogblaster.6713:

And because there is no exotic backpack ingame yet .. I dont think this new armor is only for back slot only

I like to look at the bright side of things, though even I am having a hard time with it here.

That said, this smells fishy to me. It could easily be something like:
~ Ascended Gear: Needs X (of the new) resource and Y tokens from a specific dungeon (Z) to create this from any exotic.
~ Combine everything in the MF to acquire: Ascended ooOoogah Mask of the Z: Imbued with Flame Legion magic, you are able to damage Kraka and deal an additional 5% damage for each piece of gear equipped.*

Then, next month, when they add the next level of Kraka (or some other mob of evil) they add a new piece of gear, and little by little everyone builds up a full set of Ascended on the basis of their previous Exotics. (And the dungeons drop some to facilitate the grind.)

*sic: Statistically better than exotics… against Kraka. Though I’d prefer this not go in as it will lead to LFG 4/6 Ascend Kraka!

ITT People assuming the worst based off a very small trickle of information

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Clearly they are now attempting to attract players who are more progression oriented. Likely because they are significantly more likely to spend more money in the gem shop and there are significantly more of them then all these people who apparently don’t like progression. At least that is how I see it. If you can think of a different reason for this move then i’m all ears.

Well, my optimistic hope is that the idea of ‘Ascended’ gear came about as a response to feedback from players who can’t maintain interest in a game without vertical character progression. It’s not hard to find people who share that sentiment, asking for upgrades to gear. And there are relatively few people, up until this point, who have posted to argue against those people – presumably because the people who are opposed to vertical progression felt there was no need to speak up, as the game was already (mostly) serving their needs.

And the reason I’m optimistic about that is that if that is the case, the overwhelmingly negative feedback in this thread might influence ArenaNet to walk back on their decision, and eliminate the statistical advantage of Ascended gear over Exotic gear.

This is currently the largest thread in “Guild Wars 2 Discussion”, by a margin of about 800 posts and counting (I got bored, and checked all 180 or so pages). And although the response in this thread is certainly not entirely negative, I think there have been significantly fewer people For than Against (and probably more people Against than ’It’s Not That Bad’).

If you don’t like the idea of introducing statistically superior equipment to the things that are currently in the game now, it is far better to voice your opinion now, before the update hits the game, than it would be to try to convince ArenaNet to nerf Ascended gear back down to Exotic level after the fact, when it’s already in the game, people already have it in their hands, and when people will get angry to have it taken away from them.

Angry Angus.2187:

ITT People assuming the worst based off a very small trickle of information

THIS IS ARENANETs PR problem. They should give us full detailed information before spreading such information … Not ours fault.

This is up to Anets PR to fix. Dont blame players for freaking out, how would you freak if someone from your government said someting about your country becomming communism after new election .. happy ? xD xD

cesmode.4257:

Just for kicks, can you provide a source to this information?

No one ever sources it because it’s from a spoken interview. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLHfq2lJY5A&t=58m35s

Wheres that blog post they said would be posted? It’s been quite a few hours since those tweets from Martin.

Many Pesky Monk.3140:

Wheres that blog post they said would be posted? It’s been quite a few hours since those tweets from Martin.

Shh. Its being re-written, and ascended armor is being nerfed to exotics. :p

Angry Angus.2187:

ITT People assuming the worst based off a very small trickle of information

at 3 days from the update, ppl expect to know all about the new update! if they give us only “a very small trickle of information”, its their fault for all this mess.

As I posted back 20 pages or so, the biggest issue for me is how they disseminated this information through 3rd parties before bringing it to their fan base that has caused so many to be concerned and potentially misunderstand the concept. I know a blog is in the works but i think it would be beneficial to get some feedback sooner rather than later to calm the crowd so to speak. This is a critical change to the game philosophy if true and will certainly bring some serious backlash from many which again begs the question, why not clearly spell this out before releasing this info to 3rd party sites?

They really should get official on this. Right now people are in a limbo where they know something will happen to the item system but not the exact details. Leads to tons of speculations and pendants to good ol’ “ACCOUNT CANCELLED!” postings.

I would not support a flat linear (infinite increase) system either which permanently affects the balance of the entire game. I have played WoW for 7 years and I don’t crave these things any longer hence why I am playing this game. I also hope that challenge does not equal to monsters hitting harders and taking even longer to kill. But I take it the designers get that most basic of ideas as well now.

I was jokingly speculating that maybe the stat increase is highly esoteric as the dungeon is named Fractals of the Mist. So there must be Mandelbrot dragons, we get +X to Complexity in the infusion slots and are getting equipped with polynomial swords. But on a serious note I hope they took a look at their approach of dungeon and encounter design as well. An injected gear progression system won’t make me suddenly love the current design.

But before descending into a spiralling rage I will just wait until official information is given and I’d advice people to do the same.

Dogblaster.6713:

Angry Angus.2187:

ITT People assuming the worst based off a very small trickle of information

THIS IS AREANETS PR problem. They should give us full detailed information before spreading such a rumor … Not ours fault.

This is up to Anets PR to fix. Dont blame players for freaking out, how would you freak if someone from your government said someting about your contry becomming communism after new election ..

And what will the players freaking out do? I do blame both. ANet should answer some of the player’s questions but also the players need to calm down before making assumptious opinions on the update and just wait for the update then say “I think x could be y” and so on. Complaining about what we don’t know is worthless at this point because the update will still go ahead as planned, and complaining without knowing all means that if ANet does listen to us the players in this thread then they could be getting the wrong idea of what we think because we might change our opinions on content release.

Also the government analogy is a different situation and does not work well with this. As the old saying goes its like comparing apples to oranges.

Come on ANET PRteam, clean this mess up quick.

The longer it stays, the more harm it does.

I love this game, and I am very concerned with how this is turning out.

Many Pesky Monk.3140:

Wheres that blog post they said would be posted? It’s been quite a few hours since those tweets from Martin.

Well the blog post wasn’t intended in the first place so i guess it will take more time than normal.

But i want to have a simple official quote about the following statement:

“Will the Ascended gear be better in Stats for damage/healing/support etc. than Exotic gear?”
“No.” <— This would be enough!

@ Angry Angus, when it comes to changing one of the main advertised features of the game i really don’t think it’s to early at all to start complaining about it, and no way should we wait until this is in the game before we start to voice our opinions on it.

If it is indeed a gear treadmill/power creep that’s coming, then seeing as we were sold the game on the basis this wouldn’t happen – we have every right to to start to complain about it as soon as we get wind of a chance of it.

Angry Angus.2187:

Dogblaster.6713:

Angry Angus.2187:

ITT People assuming the worst based off a very small trickle of information

THIS IS AREANETS PR problem. They should give us full detailed information before spreading such a rumor … Not ours fault.

This is up to Anets PR to fix. Dont blame players for freaking out, how would you freak if someone from your government said someting about your contry becomming communism after new election ..

And what will the players freaking out do? I do blame both. ANet should answer some of the player’s questions but also the players need to calm down before making assumptious opinions on the update and just wait for the update then say “I think x could be y” and so on. Complaining about what we don’t know is worthless at this point because the update will still go ahead as planned, and complaining without knowing all means that if ANet does listen to us the players in this thread then they could be getting the wrong idea of what we think because we might change our opinions on content release.

Also the government analogy is a different situation and does not work well with this. As the old saying goes its like comparing apples to oranges.

The analogy is the same. Both are changes of system

capitalism and communsim
horizontal progresion vs vertical progression

Dogblaster.6713:

Angry Angus.2187:

Dogblaster.6713:

Angry Angus.2187:

ITT People assuming the worst based off a very small trickle of information

THIS IS AREANETS PR problem. They should give us full detailed information before spreading such a rumor … Not ours fault.

This is up to Anets PR to fix. Dont blame players for freaking out, how would you freak if someone from your government said someting about your contry becomming communism after new election ..

And what will the players freaking out do? I do blame both. ANet should answer some of the player’s questions but also the players need to calm down before making assumptious opinions on the update and just wait for the update then say “I think x could be y” and so on. Complaining about what we don’t know is worthless at this point because the update will still go ahead as planned, and complaining without knowing all means that if ANet does listen to us the players in this thread then they could be getting the wrong idea of what we think because we might change our opinions on content release.

Also the government analogy is a different situation and does not work well with this. As the old saying goes its like comparing apples to oranges.

The analogy is the same. Both are changes of system

capitalism and communsim
horizontal progresion vs vertical progression

It may seem I cannot sway your opinion but in the least I disagree and will leave it at that.

Yeah Im wondering this as well. With this much fear, rage, and disquiet why in the world has that blog post not been posted?

This delay only leads credence to it being a gear treadmill type choice and them having to reevaluate the decision with so many people saying “Im done”.

Nathanael.4398:

Many Pesky Monk.3140:

Wheres that blog post they said would be posted? It’s been quite a few hours since those tweets from Martin.

Well the blog post wasn’t intended in the first place so i guess it will take more time than normal.

But i would like to have a simple official quote about the following:

“Will the Ascended gear be better in Stats for damage/healing/support etc. than Exotic gear?”
“No.” <— This would be enough!

I see a lot of people running around their offices in a bit of a flurried panic right about now. This is worse than the BLC fiasco and they went on salvage mode with that within a day.

HERE is something you should watch ..

Few points why horizontal progression is better than vertical progression.

Made by well known streamer

Angry Angus.2187:

ITT People assuming the worst based off a very small trickle of information

Well perhaps they should have put out an informational blog before giving out vague statements to the press first.

It would have curtailed a lot of this angst (or maybe not, depending on what the ascended gear really is).

Angrec.6970:

Yeah Im wondering this as well. With this much fear, rage, and disquiet why in the world has that blog post not been posted?

This delay only leads credence to it being a gear treadmill type choice and them having to reevaluate the decision with so many people saying “Im done”.

It’s more likely a case of rewording it to try and make the gear grind sound more appealing (despite advertising not having this a main selling point).

Blog posts shouldn’t take that long to produce. At my job we routinely produce last minute, urgent news bits longer than their blog posts that need to be emailed to our clients and if it’s urgent it can be drafted, reviewed, edited, and finalized in a few hours. People just have to be willing to make finishing it their priority. So where’s this blog post.

Leiloni.7951:

Blog posts shouldn’t take that long to produce. At my job we routinely produce last minute, urgent news bits longer than their blog posts that need to be emailed to our clients and if it’s urgent it can be drafted, reviewed, edited, and finalized in a few hours. People just have to be willing to make finishing it their priority. So where’s this blog post.

Common opinion: either being re-worded to skew the truth or being re-written to write out this terrible idea.

Wow if this turns out to be the path Anet follows I’m done. Done buying from the gem store and done buying expansion pacs and my desire to play with fade rapidly.

Leiloni.7951:

Blog posts shouldn’t take that long to produce. At my job we routinely produce last minute, urgent news bits longer than their blog posts that need to be emailed to our clients and if it’s urgent it can be drafted, reviewed, edited, and finalized in a few hours. People just have to be willing to make finishing it their priority. So where’s this blog post.

Exactly. I almost have to wonder if they are not having meetings before the blog post due to the extremely negative reaction the community is having. Which makes the whole thing seem suspicious and lends credence to the “gear treadmill” belief.

Angrec.6970:

Leiloni.7951:

Blog posts shouldn’t take that long to produce. At my job we routinely produce last minute, urgent news bits longer than their blog posts that need to be emailed to our clients and if it’s urgent it can be drafted, reviewed, edited, and finalized in a few hours. People just have to be willing to make finishing it their priority. So where’s this blog post.

Exactly. I almost have to wonder if they are not having meetings before the blog post due to the extremely negative reaction the community is having.

That’s a good point actually.

I completely agree withe the OP, something must be done. First the legendaries were put in, I guess to keep people from complaining that GW2 isn’t gear grind fest 3000 like other games (because that’s fun /sarcasm) It’s okay if they are on par with legendaries as far as stats are concerned but they don’t need to add anymore tiers that’s for sure. AT ALL end of story, end of line. Not because I say so, but because they would be going back on their promise to so many of us by copying the one thing we hated the most from the other titles, the gear treadmill. I absolutely do not ever want to return to that paradigm ever again, thanks. I can’t express the disgust I feel at that system of progression.

I do hope this trend of making armors more powerful stops at what I’m dubbing is Tier2 (legendary) because we really don’t need that game experience in this title.

And I would like to say that if they do add a Tier 3 or continue this madness, please put into the game actually accessable via karma points craftable armor sets that aren’t soulbound. That way people wouldn’t need to be forced to run dungeons (only one aspect of the game folks, that’s why they have open world content) to keep up with the rest in stats, it would balance it back to the promise that brought me to this game in the first place, keeping it cosmetic.

The other thing I’d like to comment on is that they have been great at shoving out content. So far their track record for a nonsub game has been faster then all the rest insofar as the speed of the content releases post launch. I’m impressed.

Perhaps (this is just a guess…) they decided to increase the stats first but now reverse their plans about the Ascended Armor.
This is okay and because of the late answer (blog post) they have this nearly one sided statement against better stats on Armor of their community.

tigirius.9014:

I completely agree withe the OP, something must be done. First the legendaries were put in, I guess to keep people from complaining that GW2 isn’t gear grind fest 3000 like other games (because that’s fun /sarcasm) It’s okay if they are on par with legendaries as far as stats are concerned but they don’t need to add anymore tiers that’s for sure. AT ALL end of story, end of line. Not because I say so, but because they would be going back on their promise to so many of us by copying the one thing we hated the most from the other titles, the gear treadmill. I absolutely do not ever want to return to that paradigm ever again, thanks. I can’t express the disgust I feel at that system of progression.

I do hope this trend of making armors more powerful stops at what I’m dubbing is Tier2 (legendary) because we really don’t need that game experience in this title.

The other thing I’d like to comment on is that they have been great at shoving out content. So far their track record for a nonsub game has been faster then all the rest insofar as the speed of the content releases post launch. I’m impressed.

Once again, legendaries have no higher stats than exotics.

They are purely cosmetic sidegrades.

Xyne.9104:

Come on ANET PRteam, clean this mess up quick.

The longer it stays, the more harm it does.

I love this game, and I am very concerned with how this is turning out.

The PR team has little to no power over the internet community.
Actually, the harder they’ll try to lie, the more aggressive will people get.

My real opinion is, that the stats are not better in damage/healing/whatever but have the ability to penetrate through the karkas armor.

focusing all high level content on new zone and new “more hardcore” dungeon is just bad idea.
We now have problems with ppl playing only on cursed shore. It’s not that ppl just “love” this zone, it’s about design. Cursed shore is the only true 80 level zone, with high drop a lot of events and mobs + 80 level rare item drop.
Making other cursed shore 2.0 just transfer all those farming ppl to other place. Making dungeon with better gear just focus all ppl on one dungeon and all other will be just empty. And no, ppl mostly don’t care about skins at all, all those norn rangers with crafted exotic armor or ppl with pearl weapons…

They should change something with rewards and zones. As 80 level going even for straits is just waste of time (no t6 mats, lower level rare items). Going for map with lower level is even more stupid (gathering iron and getting mix of mats from different tiers)

The same problem is imo with wvwvw. IMO those “server” maps are just bad idea. Map was made buy a moron, too big, too empy, too much mountains and dead ends. Resources made for low level players, gathering iron there is just stupid. Eternal is better, gives better pve rewards (platinium + nodes etc), fight is more intense = more fun. So at the end we have 4 wvwvw maps, but only one is “true” and "high end.

Nathanael.4398:

Perhaps (this is just a guess…) they decided to increase the stats first but now reverse their plans about the Ascended Armor

I certainly hope so, i left Rift/WoW for GW2 because i got fed up with constantly having to get new tiers of armor after they got put into the game, you spend ages getting a great set of armor and then, “new content next week and a new tier of armor!!!”.

I came to GW2 because they said they wouldn’t do this, and after only 2 and a half months it seems like they’re going back on what was a key selling point for the game and what was one of the main reasons why i purchased it.

Nathanael.4398:

My real opinion is, that the stats are not better in damage/healing/whatever but have the ability to penetrate through the karkas armor.

If that’s the case, I wouldn’t mind it at all. However, the wording in some of these articles implies that they have higher stats than exotics.

Still waiting on clarification from Anet.

Nathanael.4398:

My real opinion is, that the stats are not better in damage/healing/whatever but have the ability to penetrate through the karkas armor.

The problem with that is that first we will need Karka gear, then we may need desert heat resist gear, then we might need no magnetic gear. Opening the door for needing specific gear sets for specific fights/locations is a terrible idea. It makes sense to need a support, a tanky, a dps, ect type gear set. But then to need those 3 but with Kraka Pen is as bad as a gear treadmill. Its and equivalent to old school fire or nature resist sets… cough cough.

Angry Angus.2187:

ITT People assuming the worst based off a very small trickle of information

Yes, still everybody hopes that the actual content will definitely be something different from such “worst”.
That’s why people are providing this CLEAR feedback to ArenaNet.

krookie.6378:

Nathanael.4398:

My real opinion is, that the stats are not better in damage/healing/whatever but have the ability to penetrate through the karkas armor.

If that’s the case, I wouldn’t mind it at all. However, the wording in some of these articles implies that they have higher stats than exotics.

Still waiting on clarification from Anet.

Agreed, I would be comepltely cool with infusing them in a similar manner to gw1, but a new set would probably kill any desire for me to continue playing this game. And on the note of the articles http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/previews/lost-shores-preview this one realllllyyy has me worried after reading it, anet really needs to put out a clarification soon.

Edewen.8304:

Nathanael.4398:

My real opinion is, that the stats are not better in damage/healing/whatever but have the ability to penetrate through the karkas armor.

The problem with that is that first we will need Karka gear, then we may need desert heat resist gear, then we might need no magnetic gear. Opening the door for needing specific gear sets for specific fights/locations is a terrible idea. It makes sense to need a support, a tanky, a dps, ect type gear set. But then to need those 3 but with Kraka Pen is as bad as a gear treadmill. Its and equivalent to old school fire or nature resist sets… cough cough.

I think the Karka will vanish in the final battle, we will kill them all and no Ascended gear is needed anymore!

I’ll say this, despite some (not many though) posts being a bit rude (on both sides of the fence), it is very nice to see a lot of people standing up for what was a key selling point of the game.

So many posts against a gear treadmill/power creed makes me fell happy inside.

Angrec.6970:

krookie.6378:

Nathanael.4398:

My real opinion is, that the stats are not better in damage/healing/whatever but have the ability to penetrate through the karkas armor.

If that’s the case, I wouldn’t mind it at all. However, the wording in some of these articles implies that they have higher stats than exotics.

Still waiting on clarification from Anet.

Agreed, I would be comepltely cool with infusing them in a similar manner to gw1, but a new set would probably kill any desire for me to continue playing this game. And on the note of the articles http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/previews/lost-shores-preview this one realllllyyy has me worried after reading it, anet really needs to put out a clarification soon.

I highly doubt it’s a whole set. They were always looking for cool ways to implement back armour, this is likely one of their answers. It will just be a variety of back pieces.