Guild Wars 2

Zanthrax.6538:

Gallrvaghn.4921:

O’Brien, O’Brien, O’Brien. Tsk tsk. Perhaps you and your team forgot about this interview. Or maybe these were all a bunch of lies. Or maybe it wasn’t you who was saying these lines (gasp):

“Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.”

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/21/guild-wars-2-interview-monetization/#dOdOoqq2XMbtv2o4.99

New PVP map? Yay!
New events? Yay!
New dungeon? Yay!
New PVE mechanic? Yay!
New gear tier? Uh-oh..

The news about this new patch made me kitten in meh pants but the moment after I read the Ascended Gear Blogpost, all my excitement for the new patch went down the drain.

Where the thousands of hours of grinding? its a dungeon…one that everyone will do…wheres the tier of gear? its kittening 2 stat point increase per stat…

Defend this new gear all you want, the fact that they are back flipping on their manifesto is still disappointing and disheartening for me. They are going for the gear treadmill route. And might I just add another quote which I am praying that they too will soon NOT HOLD ON TO:

The new additions in November are just the start of our item progression initiative. We’re going to add tons of new high-level content to Guild Wars 2 in the future. As we introduce the new high-level content, we’ll also roll out complimentary Ascended and Legendary items (to say nothing of the other rewards you can earn by playing the content)."

No, im not excited.

No, I hate the new ascended items.

I understand the agony thing, but isn’t just in the dungeon? Didn’t she also say top tier stuff will be adjusted to remain top tier? Where is the treadmill? .

P.S. Thanks Valhallen for explaining it. Like I said, first MMO. I’m not really familiar with “treadmill” and “gear grinding” lol but they’re pretty self-explanatory.

ur right, it is what they said. i´m just not as positive as u about it. frankly i dont believe that ascendent will be the last tier at all (but well, thats to be seen in the future) and think even as a bridge to legendary its badly implemented. i love the game and hope i´m wrong, but for whatever reasons they did implement a new tier and introduced gear progression(and for me broke a promise with that) as i said already with this they lost my trust.

Death by Chickens.6902:

TTGP.8517:

no1 complains about ascendent gear per se. they need infusions for the dungeon, fine, thats something u can disable outside of this dungeon. dont care since i dont run dungeons anyway. but they didnt need to implement higher stats on these items, messing aroud with players in wvw or players that just want the feeling of accomplishment finishing a character. this is where the gear treadmill starts and frankly with breaking that particular manifesto promise they lost my trust that ascendent will be the last tier of gear.

This is what I’m trying to dispel though, the idea that this is the beginning of a “gear treadmill”. I agree that it wasn’t really necessary to raise the stats on the new tier, however, it is extremely clear that they only added the new tier in order to A ) bridge the progression gap to legendary, and B ) enable them to add infusions as a way to mitigate new monster abilities.

They are so incredibly clear that they will only be adding more Ascendant items, starting with back and accessories. If people want to read out of context and assume there will be more tiers, fine, do that. But if you read the blog post thoroughly it says nothing about this.

Myrrdhinn.5627:

I usually respect everyone’s opinion and don’t involve myself into such argument, but I hate to see this..

Stop whining.. seriously!
You don’t have to get the Ascended armor set unless you want to play the new dungeon. It’ll basically gives better protection against the new game mechanic.
It ‘ll slightly powerful than exotic yes, but guess what, I don’t have full exotic set and I don’t have a single problem with dungeons, WvW whatsoever.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.Duh…

So locking people who don’t want to grind out of content is now a good thing?

hplee.2839:

endless grind? ever heard about a thing called Legendary weapon? that thing is already in game yoy

That at the moment is only a fashion upgrade, so we don’t care. If you want something that looks cool and you want your grind, your choice.
Not to make it mandatory.

This Guild Wars 2 community makes me sick. Look at how you are all acting! Your behaving like pathetic spoilt children.

They have NOT broken any promises introducing Ascended gear, this is not a “gear treadmill” and it is not even a grind!

They are introducing TWO new items with this patch, a ring and a backpiece, the majority of you complainers will easily get those items within hours of the dungeon opening and you can all go back to your [Edit] lifes until they introduce two more Ascended items a few months from now.

Its TWO items, only two, there is no grind there, stop pretending there is.

Ascended items are here to create the illusion of charector progression, it is gated on purpose so the very large amount of players who do enjoy a more stat increases progression with there hero will be encouraged to keep playing for a longer period of time.

Also, this is where the stat increase ends, if you payed attention to the blog you would noticed that this increase is a once off, yes they did say they would add more Ascended items but there stats what get any bigger than that.

I honestly hope all you complainers stop, take a deep breath, and think for a second instead of raging on the forums.

These changes are now inevitable, it is only TWO items to start with, that wont kill anyone, this wont be the end of the game. Life will continue i promise.

Myrrdhinn.5627:

I usually respect everyone’s opinion and don’t involve myself into such argument, but I hate to see this..

Stop whining.. seriously!
You don’t have to get the Ascended armor set unless you want to play the new dungeon. It’ll basically gives better protection against the new game mechanic.
It ‘ll slightly powerful than exotic yes, but guess what, I don’t have full exotic set and I don’t have a single problem with dungeons, WvW whatsoever.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.Duh…

And people already require exotic’s only for content because of the stats. Now with this they are going to require it. Not to mention you cant just walk into this dungeon and help out buddies. You have to grind this gear to be of use to them unlike the current other dungeons.

Jrunyon.3012:

Oh nooooo, I wont be able to progress to the deepest parts of the optional dungeon without the new armor which is only useful for this dungeon…. This game sucks omg you are tearing me apart Anet.

Its like all logic goes out the window when people come onto these forums.

Yeah, I remember reading that exact same argument — pretty much word for word — when Radiance was introduced to LotRO.

A few months later, Turbine was on its knees, praying for our forgiveness.

A while after that, their game went Free-2-Play.

These days, even though Radiance is long gone, it’s still on life support.

Guess people aren’t so quick to forgive and forget. I sure as hell never gave them a second chance. Fool me once…

Jrunyon.3012:

Wagnard.4027:

Jrunyon.3012:

Those situations arent comparable.

But they are. An overall 8% change in the game balance is a lot.

Id take a lot of different rune sets over a 1% crit rate increase any day.

And your point is?

In my eyes A-net will lose more than win with this bullkitten

I would like to hear official response to us, what was the reason for introducing next tier. I dont buy this “gap between exotic and legendary”. GW has always been about horizontal progression and those of us who invested a lot of time aquiring exotic items feel cheated. Why not make ascended equal to exotic stat-wise but make additional upgrade slot for infusion. That would be the best option as others have already stated…

Wagnard.4027:

saurus.8290:

10 more dmg make you more PRO?
0.00001% more crit chance make you more PRO?
getting 4% MF in WvW make you more PRO?
not able to add runes, orbs or sigils to these items make you more PRO?

The stats is just ONE problem.
Another one is “Restricted Content” = bad idea (If you have multiple alts, you can see the problem in the long run)

BTW : Your argument is a fallacy Ad Hominem

the same “restricted content” was in GW1
to progress more into the story you HAD to infuse your armor

Safer Saviour.9685:

I would like a dev to answer me one question – will Ascended be the only tier of rarity added to this game?

And what if they answered? Would you believe them?

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I’ve been lied to. I don’t trust anymore.

Eyevan.6027:

bamono.7098:

don’t have much to do besides grind

This, because this is pretty much what the entire game is.

Then stop playing.

Do you insist on eating meals you don’t like? Do you repeatedly visit clubs you hate? How many times have you read that book you thought was utter kitten? Do you deliberately wear Tee shirts you think are ugly? etc etc

No?

Wagnard.4027:

Jrunyon.3012:

Wagnard.4027:

Jrunyon.3012:

Those situations arent comparable.

But they are. An overall 8% change in the game balance is a lot.

Id take a lot of different rune sets over a 1% crit rate increase and a bit of extra power any day.

And your point is?

Thats about all your getting with the new equips

You know what would be amazing? If people flipping relaxed and waited to see first hand how it’s implemented, rather than going into a Cheetos-spewing nerd rage over how this is a broken promise. As another poster said, it’s a way to close the gap between exotics and legendaries. I wouldn’t exactly call that a gear treadmill.

I saw a suggestion somewhere else I thought made a lot of sense though. Let players infuse their current armor, providing it’s of say…rare quality or better. We could infuse our current armor in GW1 with a visit to the Seer, we should be able to do something like that now. This would definitely go a long way I think to appease people concerned about the ‘gear treadmill.’

If we wanted gear progression i would go back to wow.. as well its already established and does it better. I thought guild wars 2 had to much potential but if this goes ahead then I too will be uninstalling the game from my computer.

They could have added in so much more i.e. guild halls/guild vs guild to bring some point in actually having a guild. But NO instead they bring in more increased stat’ed gear… why not have this gear at exotic level? This would mean the “old” content would not become outdated.

Also the amount of bug fixes that could have been done instead of adding new stat progression gear…

That is just some of the stuff I am disappointed with. ANet should really think about what they are doing and If they take there hat off and apologize for this massive balls up and pull the release of the content back a couple of weeks so they have time to fix this… Then I and many others will most likely accept there apology and keep on playing and support the game. However I already know that they are cowards hiding behind there blog of “we don’t give a crap you will like what we think is best” and things will not change. If this happens i will never give another penny to Anet..

Good Job on ruining your game Anet.

Very excited, waiting for the new content. Don’t know what’s the rage about.

Dear Anet,

It’s been a great seven years and I don’t feel cheated for the money I spent on multiple copies of CE I purchased for myself and loved ones or the pay-day treats of gems. Halloween – now THAT was content that made me eager for the good things to come.

I had hoped this game would keep me engaged for many years, as GW1 did. But no MMO has been able to convince me that gear grind is content, or that gated content is fun or enjoyable. Gear grind is laziness at best. I trusted you to hold firm to your convictions and follow your manifesto.

The fact that Lindsey breathlessly champions that this is but the first in a planned series of such updates is enough for me to see the direction things are going. It’s not a train I’m interested in boarding and that’s fine. Plenty of other trains around.

I imagine from here on out I’ll just enjoy my novelty chat client. I have no problem with just using bandwidth and contributing nothing, I’ve paid my dues and the game is free, right?

I want to be wrong, I wish I felt like I was misunderstanding what I was seeing, but the images and explanation make it all too clear that this was not the game I originally signed up for. If I wanted this kind of game experience, I would still be playing Aion or Lotro where I’ve seen these kinds of decisions play out and damage or fragment the community.

I respect that you have to run a business and you must have data that tells you this is the right thing to do. But, as a customer, I am not interested in this kind of game and will no longer make purchases in the gem shop or this franchise.

Thank you and best wishes.

Naoko.7096:

GW2: Ascended gears are just another tier. It’s not a requirement to have it to experience any future new content X/Y/Z. You can have fun with all in-game content and dungeons with any tier equipments. You don’t need to grind to experience content X/Y/Z.

Yous should read the blog post. You can’t complete the new dungoen unless you have that gear. So Ascended Gear blocks you from content.
This wouldn’t be a problem if you would automatically get Ascended Gear just by following the story through the new dungeon. Once you reach the point where it’s necessary an NPC shows up and gives it to you for free, or, even better, he transforms your gear into Ascended Gear.

Transit.4158:

Myrrdhinn.5627:

I usually respect everyone’s opinion and don’t involve myself into such argument, but I hate to see this..

Stop whining.. seriously!
You don’t have to get the Ascended armor set unless you want to play the new dungeon. It’ll basically gives better protection against the new game mechanic.
It ‘ll slightly powerful than exotic yes, but guess what, I don’t have full exotic set and I don’t have a single problem with dungeons, WvW whatsoever.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.Duh…

So locking people who don’t want to grind out of content is now a good thing?

You won’t be locked out. It’ll only gives better protection, but you can finish the dungeon without it with a bigger challenge. And by the way.. if you like the new dungeon.. you’ll be there anyway no matter what, because you enjoying it..

Jrunyon.3012:

Wagnard.4027:

Jrunyon.3012:

Wagnard.4027:

Jrunyon.3012:

Those situations arent comparable.

But they are. An overall 8% change in the game balance is a lot.

Id take a lot of different rune sets over a 1% crit rate increase any day.

And your point is?

Thats about all your getting with the new equips

you are 100% sure there is only Power, Precision, and Magic Find Ascended gear?

Sorry, I should not use mathematical terms…

you are completely sure there is only Power, Precision, and Magic Find Ascended gear?

Heck yes I am excited!!! Can’t wait for Lost Shores and the Ascended gear!!

Transit.4158:

Myrrdhinn.5627:

I usually respect everyone’s opinion and don’t involve myself into such argument, but I hate to see this..

Stop whining.. seriously!
You don’t have to get the Ascended armor set unless you want to play the new dungeon. It’ll basically gives better protection against the new game mechanic.
It ‘ll slightly powerful than exotic yes, but guess what, I don’t have full exotic set and I don’t have a single problem with dungeons, WvW whatsoever.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.Duh…

So locking people who don’t want to grind out of content is now a good thing?

so preventing people who want to have some sort of progression or motivation to play the game after they have full exotics and do not want to grind like a zombie for legendary weapon skin(lol “mere skin”) is now a good thing?

Naoko.7096:

People are really so paranoid here. 56 pages.
Don’t worry too much. -_-

- PLEASE Read This -

They still live by their philosophy. Why can’t you guys see that?
More importantly, what are you guys afraid of?

GW2: Ascended gears are just another tier. It’s not a requirement to have it to experience any future new content X/Y/Z. You can have fun with all in-game content and dungeons with any tier equipments. You don’t need to grind to experience content X/Y/Z.

Traditional MMO: Better gears are needed to experience new contents, story in PVE and raids. Those gears are a mandatory requirement to reap the fun of the the new content X/Y/Z. Players are forced to grind just to experience newer content.

They are so different.
Yet, it ponders me why can’t people see it.

You dont get it do you, current ascendent gear will last for how long ? 3 months? year?

Then they introduce even more poverful ascendent gear so its start again. THis is not their philosophy..

Guild Wars philosophy = you obtained best gear (aka exotic) and there will never ever better gear. stat wise. Even after 7years the armor you equiped at release, was the best.

Every player was equal, WvW vs PvE players, those who dont likes dungeons had the same gear in wvw like those who runs dungeon only.
After this update, those who run dungeons and have ascendent gear, they will have advantage over those who dont, in wvw .. .DO YOU GET IT?

Thank you OP for the idea and being awsome !
Let’s help sending these carebears back to the pit where they crawled out of !

Transit.4158:

Myrrdhinn.5627:

I usually respect everyone’s opinion and don’t involve myself into such argument, but I hate to see this..

Stop whining.. seriously!
You don’t have to get the Ascended armor set unless you want to play the new dungeon. It’ll basically gives better protection against the new game mechanic.
It ‘ll slightly powerful than exotic yes, but guess what, I don’t have full exotic set and I don’t have a single problem with dungeons, WvW whatsoever.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.Duh…

So locking people who don’t want to grind out of content is now a good thing?

To be honest we have no idea at what point the Agony mechanic kicks in. It’s there to ramp up the difficulty once you’ve gone through the dungeon the first time. I suspect the actual usefulness of the Agony-resist armour will only be called into effect on the 2nd or 3rd ‘run’ and at that point you’ll most likely be seeing only a small percentage of players going further than the 2nd run anyway.

It’s only gating you if the equipment is extremely hard or long-winded to get. It’s only 2 pieces of gear at the moment, and considering it’s stat and not aesthetic based, Anet will make it widely available so that everyone can have a shot at the Dungeon anyway.

Why create a cool conceptual dungeon with an interesting mechanic and then gate it from the start? No sane person would.

IonicBlaze.7948:

In my eyes A-net will lose more than win with this bullkitten

It’s pretty obvious when you look at the reactions. Only a tiny minority like the change, the vast majority dislikes it.

Jrunyon.3012:

Wagnard.4027:

Jrunyon.3012:

Wagnard.4027:

Jrunyon.3012:

Those situations arent comparable.

But they are. An overall 8% change in the game balance is a lot.

Id take a lot of different rune sets over a 1% crit rate increase and a bit of extra power any day.

And your point is?

Thats about all your getting with the new equips

No. Using percentage as argument too we are getting 8% change. Not just 1%.

I cant wait for this now. I will use this to my advantage in PvP to kick butt and all those who dont have the time will be left behind.
Exit the grind for looks enter the grind for power. About time Anet however my old guildies still arent coming back.

Arnath.2319:

This Guild Wars 2 community makes me sick. Look at how you are all acting! Your behaving like pathetic spoilt children.

They have NOT broken any promises introducing Ascended gear, this is not a “gear treadmill” and it is not even a grind!

They are introducing TWO new items with this patch, a ring and a backpiece, the majority of you complainers will easily get those items within hours of the dungeon opening and you can all go back to your simple boring lifes until they introduce two more Ascended items a few months from now.

Its TWO items, only two, there is no grind there, stop pretending there is.

Ascended items are here to create the illusion of charector progression, it is gated on purpose so the very large amount of players who do enjoy a more stat increases progression with there hero will be encouraged to keep playing for a longer period of time.

Also, this is where the stat increase ends, if you payed attention to the blog you would noticed that this increase is a once off, yes they did say they would add more Ascended items but there stats what get any bigger than that.

I honestly hope all you complainers stop, take a deep breath, and think for a second instead of raging on the forums.

These changes are now inevitable, it is only TWO items to start with, that wont kill anyone, this wont be the end of the game. Life will continue i promise.

This is the answer. There is no threadmill item grinding or whatever.
Let the pve looking people enjoy because pvp in this game is kitten.

And there is still refund option for the game.

Ok, not trying to have a fight about whether they should or not, I just don’t get why people are raging. It sounds like they’re keeping the top tier items top tier according to her own post. Why does everyone keep saying it won’t be?

OMG PPL
its not better buy “3 precision”. Its better buy 8%. Its a lot.
Second if they intruduce ascended armors = armors get more defense. New weapons = more weapon damage. Better stats are making those difference even higher.

Its like rare vs exotic. Only a moron can tell that there is no difference at all.

Norax.2405:

Parthis.2091:

Nah, people are moaning because moaning is what people do.

The new gear tier is actually very, very clever. if you want to progress further and further into this one feature, you’ll need more of a stat that makes progressing further and further possible.

No one needs the new gear. It’s a trade off.

Personally I applaud Anet for this lateral thinking; by adding variable infusions to the game in a teir of gear that is clearly intended for PvE, they’ve created a framework that allows them to add challenging content WITHOUT the need to re-gear completely.

Add a new dungeon with interesting mechanics? Introduce new infusions that players can apply to their existing gear, etc etc.

kittening wow player, go back to your cave. That infusion will provide better stats EVERYWHERE, so to get a max armor you need to grind again. It’s not like triforge pendant, its just a flawed decision that they made. gear progresion is BAD for the game. GW1 didnt need it in 7 years, ¿why in 3 months this one needs it?

https://d2vn94glaxzkz3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Ascended-EN.png

I don’t even know where to start. Try to think this through. It’s clear from your post you’re not the brightest of bulbs.

Infusions protect against schools and conditions players cannot cast.

GW1 had infusions. So you’re failing neatly there too. Infusions are a mechanic. Nothing more.

You’ve seen one screenshot of one item compared with another. But please, panic all you like, it’s actually very funny to see.

Are you a WvW or sPvP player? Or a PvE player?

The important thing for me is that this equipment will only be needed for this one dungeon. Yes they said there will be other dungeons later but we can worry about that when it happens, they’ve got plenty of time to revise the situation before then.

If you don’t want to bother getting Ascended armor all you’re missing out on is the upper tiers of that one dungeon. And if you don’t want to do the dungeon you don’t need to bother with Ascended armor. Unless you’re one of those “hardcore” players who rushed through everything in the first few weeks there should be more than enough content that you don’t need to worry about it for a while yet, and when you do you might find the Ascended armor required is not so difficult for you to get.

We also don’t know how hard it will be to get. It might turn out that it’s actually on a par with exotics and if you’ve reached the point where you need it then it’s reasonably within your grasp.

I admit I am worried that we could end up with a gear treadmill, at least for one aspect of the game, if this continues to be the form that future updates take, but I think it’s a huge jump to say we’re at that point now or it’s absolutely guarenteed that Anet are going down that route.

At the moment it looks more like the infused armor in GW1 or the various titles that give you an advantage against specifc types of enemies. Imagine if they had added Lightbringer ranks and skills after the release of Nightfall. You’ve just gotten into Vabbi and encountered the Order of Whispers, you feel like you’re making good progress but suddenly people all over are talking about how you’ve got to get these special skills and grind this title to fight the final boss or stand a chance in the end-game dungeon. It would seem like an overwhelming amount of extra work.

But actually you start doing it and unless you skip all the bounties (and if you do then that’s your own fault) by the time you need the title you’ve gotten a big chunk of progress already and the rest is fairly easy. (And you actually don’t need max lightbringer rank if you’ve got a decent party.)

(I also have to say, and I say this as someone who’s highest level character is 37 and who has never had more than 2g in the bank, that if you’re a “casual” player by choice or because of the limitations real life puts on your game time, then you have to accept that you’re never going to be on a par with the people who devote all their time to the game. I can’t imagine where I’m going to get the time and money to get a legendary weapon, I haven’t even started thinking about exotics yet, but it doesn’t bother me. I’ve got plenty to do in this game alredy and I’m having fun doing it. I had fun playing GW1 for 6 years and never completed UW, never even went into most of the Realm of Torment and never tried HA. I still tell myself I might do one day. I’m very much a completionist, but I accepted a long time ago I can’t, and don’t want to, keep up with the fastest players. I want to play at my own pace and have fun doing it. So I pick and choose my goals and do them in my own time and if someone else gets there first then…well, good for them.)

I’m a casual player and rarely have the time to do my dailies. All my friends have exotics and I probably won’t have any for a very long time. I already feel like I have to grind in this game and adding another tier will not help my problem.

I thought I would only have to compete with my friends’ gear aesthetically but this no longer seems to be the case.

I wonder what Anet will introduce next? Monthly fees?

Myrrdhinn.5627:

I usually respect everyone’s opinion and don’t involve myself into such argument, but I hate to see this..

Stop whining.. seriously!
You don’t have to get the Ascended armor set unless you want to play the new dungeon. It’ll basically gives better protection against the new game mechanic.
It ‘ll slightly powerful than exotic yes, but guess what, I don’t have full exotic set and I don’t have a single problem with dungeons, WvW whatsoever.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.

So.. you making yourselves the problem. If you don’t want it you don’t get it. It’s that simple. If you don’t like the new dungeon, you don’t go in there. You won’t miss on anything.Duh…

You can also do WvW at level 10 with tutorial gear. But most people will want the best gear. I mainly do WvW but I do like to do PvE sometimes. Big part of GW2 compared to other games is it’s free so I can leave it, come back with next expansion and try new dungeons and stuff for fun without having to grind previous dungeons for gear.

All this is going to do it add the usual gated content they have in other game. Need x amount of resists to do this or new infusion stat to try that. This is against everything Anet said about the game before launch/up until now.

Naoko.7096:

MMO needs progression.
It’s evident that players leave at dangerous rate because there’s no progression.

GW1 managed, and garnered a great deal of respect (and cash) from its playerbase because of its ethical and anti-grind game design principles. The players this type of grindy treadmill content actually pleases are almost certainly to be in the minority, and they will never be satisfied unless the game magically generates new rewards for all eternity. Other people who like enough of the game to keep playing will grit their teeth and get on the treadmill, of course, but they will resent it. Resentment = a playerbase that spends less, because their money gets spend on initiatives like this.

Creating grind to make new content 100% accessible is just a lazy method of ‘releasing content’. There are tonnes of things they could have done to generate new rewards for this dungeon without kicking off a stat/gear treadmill. Prestige gear was always supposed to be cosmetic – ANet stated that themselves. Guild Wars used to be about skill, with a very low ‘maximum’ barrier to being fully competitive. No matter how slight the power creep with this single addition, that it has been added so early in the game’s lifespan and with clearly stated intentions of it being the first of many is worrying and a direct contradiction to quotes by ArenaNet themselves.

I love GW2, and I respect ArenaNet as a great development team, but I’m worried about this change, and speaking up constructively about it is the only way to make those concerns known.

Arnath.2319:

This Guild Wars 2 community makes me sick. Look at how you are all acting! Your behaving like pathetic spoilt children.

They have NOT broken any promises introducing Ascended gear, this is not a “gear treadmill” and it is not even a grind!

They are introducing TWO new items with this patch, a ring and a backpiece, the majority of you complainers will easily get those items within hours of the dungeon opening and you can all go back to your simple boring lifes until they introduce two more Ascended items a few months from now.

Its TWO items, only two, there is no grind there, stop pretending there is.

Ascended items are here to create the illusion of charector progression, it is gated on purpose so the very large amount of players who do enjoy a more stat increases progression with there hero will be encouraged to keep playing for a longer period of time.

Also, this is where the stat increase ends, if you payed attention to the blog you would noticed that this increase is a once off, yes they did say they would add more Ascended items but there stats what get any bigger than that.

I honestly hope all you complainers stop, take a deep breath, and think for a second instead of raging on the forums.

These changes are now inevitable, it is only TWO items to start with, that wont kill anyone, this wont be the end of the game. Life will continue i promise.

Did you miss the part where they said they will continue to expand it and eventually you will able to have a full kit of Ascended items?

And of course the same folks that had full exotics a few days after the game went live will have them in a few days (unless they make them achievable only to a minority, which is probably worse).

Parthis.2091:

Eyevan.6027:

bamono.7098:

don’t have much to do besides grind

This, because this is pretty much what the entire game is.

Then stop playing.

Do you insist on eating meals you don’t like? Do you repeatedly visit clubs you hate? How many times have you read that book you thought was utter kitten? Do you deliberately wear Tee shirts you think are ugly? etc etc

No?

It’s not about just stop playing. It’s about Anet making promises that they now, 3 months in, are breaking.

yarpen.1364:

OMG PPL
its not better buy “3 precision”. Its better buy 8%. Its a lot.
Second if they intruduce ascended armors = armors get more defense. New weapons = more weapon damage. Better stats are making those difference even higher.

Its like rare vs exotic. Only a moron can tell that there is no difference at all.

Currently players are able to complete ALL content in the game without using Exotics. Exotics just make life slightly easier. This is not the definition of a requirement, it is the definition of player choice. This will be the same.

edit: regards to outside the dungeon that is. Inside of the dungeon, stats will be meaningless as we’re all going to be in different gear anyway, just with 1 or 2 items the same, at the start.

illgot.1056:

Jrunyon.3012:

Wagnard.4027:

Jrunyon.3012:

Wagnard.4027:

Jrunyon.3012:

Those situations arent comparable.

But they are. An overall 8% change in the game balance is a lot.

Id take a lot of different rune sets over a 1% crit rate increase any day.

And your point is?

Thats about all your getting with the new equips

you are 100% sure there is only Power, Precision, and Magic Find Ascended gear?

Sorry, I should not use mathematical terms…

you are completely sure there is only Power, Precision, and Magic Find Ascended gear?

Its like im actually dealing with a 12 year old. Keep your condescending remarks out of the discussion.
Who said I was sure of that, obviously they would have other sets, but they would be scaled the same way as the set that is previewed, so whats your point?

Better question would be, did you actually not play guild wars1?

Well, I’m another old LotRO player (cheers to others!). I remember the “radiance” fail and can’t get rid of the feeling, it is very similar with the new “Infusion”.

Starting my GW2 adventure, I hoped to:

1. Never be forced to farm a specific gear to be able to do any content.
2. Never see another “gating mechanism” to make illusion of progress.
3. Never be in the grind mill of “new, better gear” each update… What’s next? Clestial, angelic, uberpower tier?
4. Never hear the same old chat:
“Hey mate, you wanna do the dung, its cool”
“Sure, why not”
“And what’s your Infusion?”
“40 only”
“Owww, go kill some centaurs noob, we take 200+ only”

It worked till now, but I’m really worried about the new concept of Infusion gating…

No.

If it will be a gear grind.

Less than a year ago I was present at the kittentorm at Bioware official forums, when they finally cemented their disregard for core fanbase. I won’t say that BW is doomed, I’m rather curios how it will play out for them with new fanbase (personally, being fan of a RPG I left). Right now, reading “thank you for your feedback” response from A-Net kinda brings memories, since it’s almost word for word the BW response to enraged fans. Obviously, it’s not on the same level as BW scandal, but not responding to forum’s outcry will not make the problem go away, it will only anger and disappoint fans more. And it’s pretty obvious that the core fanbase, these that played GW1 with it’s twenty levels and cheap max level armor and weapon for years, is the one that’s disappointed.

One of the beauties of GW1 was the fact that I could leave the game for year and then return and dive right into some mission or dungeon without need to upgrade my armor or weapon. Maybe we did misunderstand and are just panicking, but the lack of response and clarification from developers does note bode well…

bamono.7098:

Ok, not trying to have a fight about whether they should or not, I just don’t get why people are raging. It sounds like they’re keeping the top tier items top tier according to her own post. Why does everyone keep saying it won’t be?

The screen shot in the article shows that Ascended gear will have slightly better stats than exotics with gems already built in, plus a new slot for infusions. This obviously makes current exotics they will replace completely obsolete.

So lets say you just spent 4g, 60k karma, 300 dungeon tokens or whatever on supposedly the “best amulet you can get”. When this new patch comes out, that item is now worthless and must be replaced with an Ascended item in order to complete the current dungeon.

This goes against everything Anet has been saying for the last few years about GW2.

bamono.7098:

Ok cool. I was afraid there was some glaring problem I couldn’t see.

Actually there’s a glaring problem that you don’t see but not many are talking/writing about it.

If Ascended gear is stronger, even slighly, than Exotic gear then Anet is creating the well known PVE gear > RvR gear Paradox.

I don’t have to remind my “lost” brothers and sistas the LoTD/Tyrant fiasco I suppose. Mythic did made that mistake, twice in the past but they have learned the lesson, the hard way although. Of course it’s still “IF” than Anet is making the same mistake all over again.

Personal note.
Pop in OE vent Myr to say hello. Doks misses you a lot, so do we all too.

Loumy.7841:

Naoko did it occur to you that players who want to win in WvWvW need this new gear because of the better stats?
It’s not optional anymore…

So you currently can’t do WvW without a level 80 character, all traits unlocked and a full set of exotic gear?

That’s a genuine question by the way. I haven’t tried WvW yet, but my impression was that it’s open to all levels and whilst having max stat gear will be an advantage it’s not enough of an advantage that you have to have it to compete.