Guild Wars 2

Xhieron.2168:

bcbully.7289:

Omega.1473:

bcbully.7289:

maybe if you people complaining would have bought some gems, this wouldn’t have happened.

People have obviously been buying gems and a lot of them if you read the financial reports that they gave for NCSoft investors.

No, this isn’t because of the core audience not paying up. This is because P.O.S no-lifers spent 1000 hours in the game since launch and are now complaining because they’ve done everything in the game faster than any development team can hope to keep up with. Now those whiny MMO addicts have twisted the one game that didn’t pander to them.

I read the report. It did not separate out cash shop revenue. It showed GW2 making around 3 mill won (or w/e) more than B&S, 13 mill more than Aion, 20mill more than Lineage 1&2.

The thing is all these games offer some form of sub and will surpass GW2 launch sales quickly. Maybe by the end of this yeah in B&S and Aion’s case. On top of that Anet is still in the red.

Much more needs to be spent in the case shop, and people need to be happy doing it. The forst step is to get them staying in game longer. Thus the new progression system. Remember we still haven’t heard how the cash shop will play into this.

I think this is at least partially a fair assessment of the situation. Through the whole evening I’ve had a kind of impending dread to the effect of: “It looks like this experiment didn’t work out after all.” There’s probably a revenue angle, and I’m not so naive as to think there wasn’t plenty of marketing research and probably some focus testing that led to a conclusion that “We need these kind of players to play and spend money, because they’re the ones who’ll spend most, and this is about money.” —Honestly, not a bad thing in and of itself; after all, this is business. From a purely economics perspective, the sensible thing is to toss players like me to the curb now that I’ve already paid my entry fee, and try to trade me in for players who are suckers for the cash shop scams. Good luck competing for those players, though.

I agree with the revenue angle, but I don’t think ArenaNet has the faintest idea of how to market things. Look at the Halloween event. Instead of giving out a nice freebie that could have seduced people into, say, buying a matching item in the shop, they did the out-and-out scam with the Black Lion chests, a major backfire blunder. Likewise, gear grinding is surely going to be about pushing people to buy required items rather than inspiring people to buy interesting items. I think it smacks of desperation rather than good business or good marketing. I have played this game virtually every single day, for at least two hours a day, since early launch. I have not spent a penny in the shop because the items are uncreative and have no relation to the game (e.g., getting a matching set of town clothes, or rounding off a collection of pets I could have started in-game). Why was the first freebie a baseball cap?! Why not an actual Tyrian hat, part of a collection I could buy, or something? My worst fear is that they just counted on attracting a bunch of dopes who would blindly buy anything and everything while they played, and it didn’t work, so now they’re going to get more pushy about it with required gear. (Not that you won’t be able to get gear in-game, but that they’re gonna offer some significant easy way out in the shop.)

No.
15 characters.

I don’t understand all the outcry over this ascended gear.

Like, at all.

What did we have before it?

Exotics/Legendaries

Were they on par with each other statwise?

Yes.

What are we getting now?

Ascended gear/new legendaries

Will they be on par with each other as well as existing legendaries?

Yes.

Is ascended gear simply new “exotics” and provides the playerbase with even more content to strive for and benefit from?

Yes. It does.

Is it a treadmill?

No. Aside from one special, completely optional circumstance, no amount of gear or combination of gear is required to experience content in this game aside from the obvious need to be at an appropriate level.

Why are we whining here folks?

The ceiling has been raised a bit in terms of gear. That’s it. Ascended gear could have just has easily been in the game prior to this patch so what’s the issue?

Seriously, someone explain to me why this is a problem.

No, I hate the new Ascended Items.

Terrible idea. Not even three months in to the game and AN are flip-flopping on their ideals already.

I won’t even start on how this is yet another kick in the groin for WvW players. The shameful hypocrisy and dishonesty is bad enough for all involved.

No, I hate the new ascended items.

Alice.8694:

We can only hope now that they’re adamant on doing this that they maintain their principles and integrity.

There is no indication of this at present. If you are right, I will be very very happy but your optimism is pure speculation at this point. Dont get me wrong, I’m not upset at Anet about this, they have good reasons for it I’m sure, and almost certainly they are financial ones. I just wish the model spoken about before release had proved viable.

Oreoz.2573:

I don’t understand all the outcry over this ascended gear.

Like, at all.

What did we have before it?

Exotics/Legendaries

Were they on par with each other statwise?

Yes.

What are we getting now?

Ascended gear/new legendaries

Will they be on par with each other as well as existing legendaries?

Yes.

Is ascended gear simply new “exotics” and provides the playerbase with even more content to strive for and benefit from?

Yes. It does.

Is it a treadmill?

No. Aside from one special, completely optional circumstance, no amount of gear or combination of gear is required to experience content in this game aside from the obvious need to be at an appropriate level.

Why are we whining here folks?

The ceiling has been raised a bit in terms of gear. That’s it. Ascended gear could have just has easily been in the game prior to this patch so what’s the issue?

Seriously, someone explain to me why this is a problem.

Until they raise the ceiling again. I mean, why not? They’ve already gone back on what they said they would do.

I am not against new content
I am not against new gear
I am not against the cash shop
Hell, I’m not even against paying a subscription.

What I’m against is one slight little change that can completely run away and next thing you know, you’re grinding progressions of gear and start to wonder why you don’t just play WoW.

Oreoz.2573:

I don’t understand all the outcry over this ascended gear.

Like, at all.

What did we have before it?

Exotics/Legendaries

Were they on par with each other statwise?

Yes.

What are we getting now?

Ascended gear/new legendaries

Will they be on par with each other as well as existing legendaries?

Yes.

Is ascended gear simply new “exotics” and provides the playerbase with even more content to strive for and benefit from?

Yes. It does.

Is it a treadmill?

No. Aside from one special, completely optional circumstance, no amount of gear or combination of gear is required to experience content in this game aside from the obvious need to be at an appropriate level.

Why are we whining here folks?

The ceiling has been raised a bit in terms of gear. That’s it. Ascended gear could have just has easily been in the game prior to this patch so what’s the issue?

Seriously, someone explain to me why this is a problem.

Ascended gear has better stats than the exotic equivalent.

I agree with Judgement,if this goes through it’s not the advertised product and I want my money back

Gear grind GW2 come and get it!

Oh boy what fun

If this get implemented in the patch I’m done and No you cant haz my stuff

Wyrmrider.1692:

Compared to its Exotic counterpart, new Ascended-rarity “Explorer” ring has:
+5 Power
+5 Precision
+3% Magic Find
…
Magic Find is valuable. Some gear slots are more efficient for MF than others, but on an exotic ring 3% MF is worth ***67*** of another stat. (Compare: Opal Orichalcum Ring vs. Emerald Orichalcum Ring.)
…
I’m not that interested in debating how many stat points is too many. (The real problem is that in the designer’s own words, “This is just the beginning.”) But for those who are, the currently proposed number isn’t 2 or 3 or 5 stat points per item, it’s closer to 100.

I love how the item they chose to show in comparison was the most deceptive possible. The large value of MF on gear and the separated-out base and static-upgrade stats just make it as likely as possible someone walks away from that post thinking ascended gear is a trivially small upgrade.

No. I really don’t like the ascended stuff.

No, for ascended items, just let any gear be infused like GW1 and I’ll reverse my opinion of the patch.

NO no no no no no NO

I suppose this thread has turned into a communist discussion; since, most of you desire to be equal in power.

AcidicVision.5498:

We don’t know what their drop rates are. We don’t know how many chests are awarded in each of these dungeons/fragments. We don’t know if those drop rates increase in regard to the level you have reached in the dungeon so you are more likely to get one the closer you are to needing it.

But see, if the drop rates are high and it’s easy to get, players who WANT the gear treadmill would be clamoring for the next tier of items in a very short time. Even if drop rates are low, it only delays the inevitable request for the next tier.

This is what the treadmill is. It’s endless. And by adding a new tier just three months after release, they have begun the whole process.

Shame on you Arenanet, you flatened lied in our Faces:

http://www.arena.net/blog/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success

Colin Johanson wrote:

The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

I really do not have more words to express my disappointment with you.

Nope, I absolutely detest this. I came to GW2 BECAUSE there was no gear treadmill and I loved how there was an actual level playing field. As Angrec said, I’m also done with the game. I hope that very vocal minority before is happy with all that complaining about gear “progression” now resulted in what is a fundamental about-turn from their very manifesto.

Nabrok.9023:

First step would be to drop the ascended gear stats back to exotic levels. Second step would be to allow all existing exotics to become infused.

That would make them completely undesirable outside of the Fractals (and possibly other select content) though. As it looks right now, you can’t customize them with jewels and importantly runes, only infusions. And they are much less easily attainable than Exotics.

The only thing Asc gear has over exotics for general PVE right now, to compensate for this rather significant downside, is a miniscule stat increase, and frankly, unless you’re a complete min-maxer I don’t understand the outrage over that.

The ceiling has been raised a bit in terms of gear.

That’s the issue. A huge part of the audience specifically went for GW2 because the ceiling wasn’t going to be raised.

See, if it’s raised once, it will be raised again. We know this, because the blog post specifically mentions that the other slots will follow. That isn’t what we want, and why we are dropping the game over this.

Not a big deal, really. You can handle seeing some mature gamers go, since you have people like Jabronee.9465 to make up for it. Just hope people like him offset the revenue lost due to people like myself dropping.

http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope

It’s not a logical fallacy when it’s already mentioned to happen.

No. Extreme disappointment. Hope, excitement, all dead. No.

Alice.8694:

Talloc.6835:

Until they raise the ceiling again. I mean, why not? They’ve already gone back on what they said they would do.

I am not against new content
I am not against new gear
I am not against the cash shop
Hell, I’m not even against paying a subscription.

What I’m against is one slight little change that can completely run away and next thing you know, you’re grinding progressions of gear and start to wonder why you don’t just play WoW.

http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope

You’re kitten straight I’m making a slippery slope argument.

Biscuithammer.8615:

Oreoz.2573:

I don’t understand all the outcry over this ascended gear.

Like, at all.

What did we have before it?

Exotics/Legendaries

Were they on par with each other statwise?

Yes.

What are we getting now?

Ascended gear/new legendaries

Will they be on par with each other as well as existing legendaries?

Yes.

Is ascended gear simply new “exotics” and provides the playerbase with even more content to strive for and benefit from?

Yes. It does.

Is it a treadmill?

No. Aside from one special, completely optional circumstance, no amount of gear or combination of gear is required to experience content in this game aside from the obvious need to be at an appropriate level.

Why are we whining here folks?

The ceiling has been raised a bit in terms of gear. That’s it. Ascended gear could have just has easily been in the game prior to this patch so what’s the issue?

Seriously, someone explain to me why this is a problem.

Ascended gear has better stats than the exotic equivalent.

oh no i got that. lol

I put it in quotes to symbolize the fact that this gear is simply new endgame gear that a player can attain but does not need to as well.

so “new exotics.”

Hence my confusion as to why people are going bonkers. lol

i’ll have to see how they make infusions work before i can decide.

The amount of butthurt on this thread is ludicrous. Stop waving your banners and screaming that AN has lied to you. They haven’t. They’ve filled in the gap between exotic and legendary in terms of effort. The items aren’t particularly powerful, and are only useful in the fractal dungeon (they don’t have runes slots and will never have rune slots)

It’s a good change, it gives players something to do when they are in their exotics and working on their legendary, and doesn’t disrupt the power balance in the slightest.

Let’s not forget that GW1 WAS A DIFFERENT GAME. It was a single player instanced RPG that allowed you to play with friends or a group of A.I. NPC’s at your side. Oh, you could trade and talk with players, too. It was NOT an MMO with an open world. ArenaNet is attempting to adapt/refine their core GW2 gameplay to attract a wider audience – give them some credit for trying to do it in the least evasive way possible – we still don’t know all the details so there is no need to to argue until we experience it for ourselves.

No, I hate the new ascended items.

Omega.1473:

Alexander Dragonfang.1759:

Jabronee.9465:

Lmao!!
OMFG all the QQs!!
Well if you guys dont like the upcoming changes then go play other games.
No one stopping you. Right fanboys/gals? lol!

Have you people been reading all the opinions & suggestions in these forums?
Did Anet listen? Dont have to tell me. You know yourself.

When someone post an opinion, it will always be treated as QQs or Trolls.
So who is QQing now lol!

I really hope this change is implemented.
Cause firstly im bored to hell. And secondly i’m the kinda person who like changes.
The main purpose to play GW2 is to have fun right?
So lets Have Fun!!!

ARENA NET, THIS IS THE KIND OF PLAYER YOU WANT TO BE YOUR PLAYERBASE? THIS IS THE KIND OF PLAYER WHY YOU ARE BETRAYING YOUR LOYAL FANS? THE PEOPLE WHO PUT HOPES AND FOLLOW ALL THESE YEARS OF DEVOLPMENT?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E

Do you remember that? do you?

As crass as the above post is, this is exactly whats happening. Anet, you’re abandoning your core audience who trusted you for immature, “leet speak” degenerates.

If the social and moral implications of this change in audience does nothing to dissuade them, then I have to question the financial implications of this audience change. I’d imagine the more mature, casual audience has more cash to spend in the cash shop than “stay at homes” who play 12 hours a day and make enough gold to never have to spend cash on gems.

That’s wildly full of BS. I play relatively casually (only 250 hours since launch) and I honestly welcome this. You are making some extreme misjudgements. I can understand people hating on having to have Infusions to do higher levels of the new dungeon (which I personally don’t mind), but hating on higher tiered gear? Doesn’t make any sense. I’m willing to bet Anet wanted to put this in at launch but didn’t have time.

@ Tega
What is wrong with being equal in stats. Unless you are a great noob that is.

GW2 promised gear equality. Now they go, hey we broke our promise, great things to come and only 3 months after it was released.

Gingelyr.3648:

Wyrmrider.1692:

Compared to its Exotic counterpart, new Ascended-rarity “Explorer” ring has:
+5 Power
+5 Precision
+3% Magic Find
…
Magic Find is valuable. Some gear slots are more efficient for MF than others, but on an exotic ring 3% MF is worth ***67*** of another stat. (Compare: Opal Orichalcum Ring vs. Emerald Orichalcum Ring.)
…
I’m not that interested in debating how many stat points is too many. (The real problem is that in the designer’s own words, “This is just the beginning.”) But for those who are, the currently proposed number isn’t 2 or 3 or 5 stat points per item, it’s closer to 100.

I love how the item they chose to show in comparison was the most deceptive possible. The large value of MF on gear and the separated-out base and static-upgrade stats just make it as likely as possible someone walks away from that post thinking ascended gear is a trivially small upgrade.

Its called deceit to attempt to placate the masses.

It failed.

If anything, its backfiring as the information spreads.

Huge NAY.

Excited? More like disgusted. I’m really, really disappointed with you Anet. This is a gear treadmill and you’re sticking it in dungeons or the RNG-forge? What about people who hate dungeons and WvW alot? You know that people will feel pressure to grind out this miserable gear, right? Why go back on this point? That was one of the main draws of this game. No gear treadmill. If you want to add some silly pve thing, keep the gear stats the same as exotic but just add this infusion slot thing and make it so that is ONLY for pve. Not spvp or WvW.

AcidicVision.5498:

Webba.3071:

I would suggest reading the blog post again, all of it this time, and thinking a little more carefully about the implications of it.

I did read the blog post. If you could take a second from being so defensive that condescension is reflexive…what I was asking is how hard are people expecting to be?

We don’t know what their drop rates are. We don’t know how many chests are awarded in each of these dungeons/fragments. We don’t know if those drop rates increase in regard to the level you have reached in the dungeon so you are more likely to get one the closer you are to needing it.

We do know there will only be three slots you can equip infuse-able armor in. Meaning to effectively “max out” you only need three things as opposed to, I don’t know…the entire set of twelve coming out at once.

Now the implications…they are adding another tier of armor…whoop-dee-doo? Something for the min-maxers to rush off towards and keep busy with and the casual players to get too “eventually”. Especially if they only need to find a piece now, and a piece later as they slowly roll in.

A quick tally of players in Lions Arc had about three people claiming to be fully decked in exotics, and about twelve still using golds or greens with an exotic here or there. All lvl 80. All doing dungeons. That isn’t going to change with a new tier. I’m more inclined to say this addition is more pointless than out-right bad.

sigh, not being defensive mate. Just wondering why the precedent of new gear with better stats every 3 months or so is not obvious to you? Its not about the impact of this release of gear, or about how easy it is to get, its about the fact that once this lot of gear is released the only path forward on this road is to release another set even better. And this is the same mistake every other mmo has made. I agree with you, it is a pointless release if it is the only one. And that is the implication that you have not seen, it will not be the only one. It does not matter how hard or easy this stuff is to get, because this is the beginning, not the end.

Yes I am excited

azurrei.5691:

Let’s not forget that GW1 WAS A DIFFERENT GAME. It was a single player instanced RPG that allowed you to play with friends or a group of A.I. NPC’s at your side. Oh, you could trade and talk with players, too. It was NOT an MMO with an open world. ArenaNet is attempting to adapt their core gameplay to attract a wider audience – give them some credit for trying to do it in the least evasive way possible – we still don’t know all the details so there is no need to to argue until we experience it for ourselves.

You must have played Guild Wars 1 in the later years.

Yes for local gear-progression.

No for mindless whine.

Posted by me somewhere else, but here’s my thoughts on seeing the news post. Arenanet can correct me if I’m wrong in any of this, just going off what I gathered from the article.

New Gear/Gem types:

*new gems will be absolutely required to complete certain encounters in the future or you’ll die, this applies to future dungeons as if the mechanic weren’t in these… these new gems would be pointless
*only this new gear can slot the gems
*gems could involve very grindy RNG to make in the forge
*gear will be craftable through mystic forge recipe plus discipline

Getting exotics was too easy in my opinion coming from other games, this helps bridge the gap between average mmo players and what GW2 is. So we have progression that’s not purely cosmetic for PvE now, this could have been done without the artificial difficulty of Agony and just done with stats.

My next issue, what about the pure WvW crowd? This gear does offer a big enough stat advantage to make a difference, as PvP by design is competitive. They will now be forced to do the new gear progression or be at a disadvantage, the Agony buff will not apply for PvP so there’s no need to get the gem this gear is built upon. If at some point new dungeons offer the gear in exchange for tokens, they’ll be forced to PvE. sPvP is completely separated from everything so nothing applies here.

-I’m okay with a progression of gear, exotics are too easy to get.
-If PvPers are forced to do content that has nothing to do with PvP to get this gear, then it’s not okay. At all.
-New debuff and having to build for this is artificial difficulty, not a fan.
-This is being done through gating, over a few dungeons.This could possibly hold new players back from completing later dungeons if implemented incorrectly. In other words, a gear treadmill (even if it stops forever after the last item, it’s still could be a treadmill up until that point).
-What’s stopping me from just buying the gear off the TP like I did with exotics? Effectively destroying that feeling of progression? Will the gear be soulbound on acquire?

This feels like testing for a gear treadmill, and I hope that I’m wrong. This game is amazing and a lot of work goes into designing the look and lore of it. If you possibly backtrack this much on the manifesto though I wouldn’t hesitate to cease all future transactions or even play the game. Let’s hope my thoughts on this matter are proven wrong.

LF2M Fractal, link all Ascension gear or NO INVITE

Doesn’t make any sense

If you watch the video, it does. Higher tiered gear is the very thing the GW core audience has always wanted to avoid. It was one of the main appeals of the game to not have it, and instead have a power plateau at the top that does not get changed.

Wasselin.1235:

Suddenflame.2601:

whoa guys you are forgetting sure the armour is stronger then exotic but it loses the rune slot in exchange for infusions which we have no clue what they do other then it deals with Agony from GW1. Which means the armour in general is weaker then exotics as the exotics have runes slot and Ascended doesn’t. SO there is still no gear grind cause exotics is still the top tier armour for normal WvW and PvE.

I didn’t know you can equip runes on a ring.

For future ascended gears such as armour. So in this case it would be a jeweled Orb.

Zefiris.8297:

The ceiling has been raised a bit in terms of gear.

That’s the issue. A huge part of the audience specifically went for GW2 because the ceiling wasn’t going to be raised.

See, if it’s raised once, it will be raised again. We know this, because the blog post specifically mentions that the other slots will follow. That isn’t what we want, and why we are dropping the game over this.

Not a big deal, really. You can handle seeing some mature gamers go, since you have people like Jabronee.9465 to make up for it. Just hope people like him offset the revenue lost due to people like myself dropping.

http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope

It’s not a logical fallacy when it’s already mentioned to happen.

well see that’s the thing i don’t get.

Why are people getting so mad? It’s just more content. More fun things to do. I would understand if sets of gear were required to complete content but aside from this dungeon that’s not the case at all.

Sure people are worried that now they’re gonna have to get ascended gear to be able to compete in WvW (depending on how things go) but if you ask me if people are complaining that they have to play the game to get better at it (i.e. obtaining new and powerful gear) then I have to wonder why they’re playing at all.

Oreoz.2573:

Seriously, someone explain to me why this is a problem.

Because come January, we get Ascended Tier II. Then in May we get Exalted. Then in August we have Mythic….

The playerbase that Arenanet advertised to and made promises to have barely been able to make a sizeable dent in the full breadth of the game to this point. If you look around in game, play some pugs and talk to people, you’ll see that a lot of people are still on their first or second character and may have one full exotic set at best.

By starting down the gear upgrading path, Arenanet is telling those people “tough luck” by letting the 12 hour a day players dictate the pace of the game’s progression. The casual player will never be able to keep up with this schedule. If every 3-4 months, ANet releases a new tier of gear, their core audience, the people who followed their development with bated breath and who raved about them to their gaming friends, family and coworkers, will be left in the dust always trying to scratch out a new tier of armor instead of being able to put that behind them and just playing for the fun systems and experiences.

The amount of complaining on these forums is disgusting, i thought the Guild Wars 2 community was better than this, but now i see this games community is by far the worst i have ever seen in my life. Grow up all of you.

This is in no way shape or form a “gear treadmill”, use your heads people, this game is three months old and its already dying because there is nothing to do at level 80, Arenanet have received thousands of complaints about this and now there doing something about it.

If Ascended items were added at the launch of Guild Wars 2 no one would be complaining, NO ONE, they would just see this as another thing to work towards just like a legendary.

This game is dying very fast and Arenanet has responded with Ascended items that will slowly be released over many months, this will keep people playing, this will bring in new players, this will keep the game alive!

So please grow up and think about these changes logically.

I`ve only read the first few pages of comments but I am really finding it funny that so many people are raging over new gear added. You don`t have to get the new gear you know. You are still going to be able to play the game the same as it was before with your current gear. But the option is there if you want to try and upgrade to the ascended sets. Did you need exotics to be able to run the lvl 80 zones or run dungeons?

Suddenly I remember hours spent killing turtles in WoW, just do discover my leatherworking craft was useless. That I had to go over and over in dungeons, and I quit WoW.
In GW2 I didn’t expect to see such things.
I have my tailor, my jeweler and my artificer and I thought I could craft my own gear, eventually grinding dungeons only for skins. Eventually.
And I was disappointed already BEFORE these feral news: because, you know, you CAN’T craft a jewel with, for example, Cond. dmg- tough-prec.
And you CAN’T have a full set of light armor with those stats spending karma: there are only 4 pieces out there.
And no weapons with those stats, outside dungeons.
All these things plus my necro being a Bug Fiend and I was really regretting the money spent.
And now this? World of Dumbness?
I want my money back.

Oreoz.2573:

Zefiris.8297:

The ceiling has been raised a bit in terms of gear.

That’s the issue. A huge part of the audience specifically went for GW2 because the ceiling wasn’t going to be raised.

See, if it’s raised once, it will be raised again. We know this, because the blog post specifically mentions that the other slots will follow. That isn’t what we want, and why we are dropping the game over this.

Not a big deal, really. You can handle seeing some mature gamers go, since you have people like Jabronee.9465 to make up for it. Just hope people like him offset the revenue lost due to people like myself dropping.

http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope

It’s not a logical fallacy when it’s already mentioned to happen.

well see that’s the thing i don’t get.

Why are people getting so mad? It’s just more content. More fun things to do. I would understand if sets of gear were required to complete content but aside from this dungeon that’s not the case at all.

Sure people are worried that now they’re gonna have to get ascended gear to be able to compete in WvW (depending on how things go) but if you ask me if people are complaining that they have to play the game to get better at it (i.e. obtaining new and powerful gear) then I have to wonder why they’re playing at all.

How is obtaining gear with more stats getting better at a game?

That’s just turning a 1 in to a 2.

no more pve for me

Stormphoenix.4608:

The amount of butthurt on this thread is ludicrous. Stop waving your banners and screaming that AN has lied to you. They haven’t. They’ve filled in the gap between exotic and legendary in terms of effort. The items aren’t particularly powerful, and are only useful in the fractal dungeon (they don’t have runes slots and will never have rune slots)

It’s a good change, it gives players something to do when they are in their exotics and working on their legendary, and doesn’t disrupt the power balance in the slightest.

The problem is the items ARE more powerful. They have higher stats. They don’t have rune slots, but the stats from runes are already added to the base stats of the items. AND they have an addition infusion slot.

So far there has been no indication that these Ascended items are usable (or have their boosted stats apply) only in the Fractals.

If this goes live im giving all my crap to people in guild and quitting. And I did spend money on gems, 70 bucks. I didnt mind when I thought the game was going in the right direction. Now? I feel cheated.

Pennry.9215:

Yes for new gear. No for that gear having greater stats. Big no for having to grind out defense against a death timer.

My stance is somewhat similar. I’m all for new skins and item appearances, but I’m NOT very thrilled about Ascended items having better stats than Exotics. In the long run, I honestly doubt that the average player will see much difference between wearing an Exotic set and wearing an Ascended set, but it sets a bad precedent.

However, this problem could still be largely eliminated if the higher stats for Ascended/Legendary items was downscaled in all areas BUT the new dungeon (and perhaps for subsequent end-game dungeons). This means that you could still run around in Exotics for 95% of the game, and keep an Ascended set purely for running dungeons that have the Agony mechanic. Players with Legendaries/Ascended sets also would not have any innate advantage over players without them in modes such as WvW and sPvP, or even general PvE.

I’m not necessarily against the Infusion mechanic as a whole, because from reading the description of the dungeon it sounds as if you could still experience all the content of Fractals without any infused armor, since it randomly chooses 3 out of the 9 paths. (Which also means over time, even if you just play level one over and over, you’ll see all 9 paths anyway.) If Agony doesn’t really start to kick in till you’ve completed the 3 paths and decide to stay for 4 – 6, then it would be a fairly easy matter for non-Infused players to simply play the first level until they do get enough Infused gear to stick around for longer.

Let’s avoid Slippery Slope fallacies. They add one new tier of armour, that does not automatically mean that they are going to add even more in the future.

I feel rather disappointed by the addition of these new armours, but I don’t feel betrayed. My interest in GW2 has been dwindling, this might just be the straw that breaks the camels back. Even if they’re only minor upgrades, not sure if I can be bothered trying to get them.