Guild Wars 2

Nar.8327:

In case they can’t be inferred, here are my explicit concerns for this update.

1) Ascended gear will render previous content obsolete.

Yeah, there will be the occasional run through a dungeon for the skins or gifts, but that’s all it will be. There is no longer any incentive to spend time working on an exotic weapon through dungeon tokens when you could be spending that time working on ascended ones. This is why there is such a dramatic price difference between exotics and rares – if rares couldn’t be mystic forged into exotics from time to time, the gap would be even larger. No one wants subpar gear. By introducing superior gear, the eight existing dungeons are rendered obsolete.

2) Ascended items will kill the market for crafted items.

Since there’s been no mention of any new crafting recipes to match this new tier of gear, we can only assume that there aren’t any. The few crafting niches that are still profitable will disappear, and the only reason to bother crafting at all will be for food (which we already have to compete with NPCs for) or for legendaries.

3) Ascended items will destabilize WvWvW.

This one speaks for itself. Introducing a stat bonus to those who do a specific instance forces players outside of their playstyles, and that’s something they don’t appreciate. Yes, I know there will be new ways to get ascended items “in the future,” but that still means that there’s a frustrating window of time during which WvWvW players need to do PvE to compete.

4) Ascended items will further destabilize lower level zones.

We already see this with rares and exotics, which have no low-level counterparts. A character that is level 60 with a full set of rare gear is substantially more powerful than a character of level 40 in full masterwork gear, even if both players are scaled to the same level. We are already seeing elitist PvE groups demanding level 80’s for low level dungeons. Ascended gear will only make this worse.

5) Players feel that their work over the past months has been discredited.

Perhaps the most universal and distressing concern, certainly in this thread, is that we are being lured into a game where we climb a ladder that keeps getting taller as we reach the top. We’ve done that before. Games have been born and died on that philosophy. Many of us who came here did so because we wanted horizontal progression, which this is not.

---

Now, I propose two possible courses of action.

1) Pull the plug on the initial concept, and adjust ascended stats to match exotic stats. Doing this shows the player base that you have listened to our concerns and that there is still some shred of faith in the original design philosophy, while remaining very simple to accomplish. Literally just a few numbers need to be tweaked.

2) Make sure that ALL ascended items introduced include the magic find stat. That way, they will be better than exotic magic find sets (so still allowing characters to progress) but will not be better than more combat-oriented gear. Many of us already carry a magic find set. In short, keep exotics at the top of the power ladder, and just give everyone a new PvE-focused set to work on. Doing this also makes lodestones more likely to drop, further bridging the investment gap between exotics and legendaries.

I didn’t even read the fuul post of this user. Since when it came down to point 2 where he says since there will be now new crafting recipes. I just knew that this guy is just another non informed poster as there are a lot ones in this threads. They stated they will intorduce about 200 new crafting recipes… this is the shame on the forum ppl misinterpret new things don’t read the whole thing and flame about it. There are some really good posts but the bigpart is just stupid flaming around with not a bit of true information.

P.S: You better go play wvw now because you can than with the patch get the complete ascendend armor ( as stated you’ll get it through wvw ) this won’t be through drops.→ badges

And yes not best solution but I still think that they actually had this content in mind before they released the game since Legendary usually had better stats on gw2db for some reason so → They fixed this maybe just back because they haven’t had the content done when they realesed it.. think about it that way→ so they actually had this content in mind before realease but cause everyone presured them to release it it might have not been possible to implement it. think about it that way

IV Endu.8920:

Man I’m pretty sure you’re all a bunch of whiny kittenes.

Anet is doing everything they can to make the game fun and you’re all making assumptions and having negative attitudes towards everything they do.

“Everything they do”? There has been all of one content patch since launch and it flies in the face of the claims made by their own president.

If I have to explain why that is simply messed up I think I’d be wasting both our time.

There is a little problem, that we dont know how infusion work, the wiki said that the infusion provide an inherent agony resistance, but we dont know if the bonus provided BY the infusion is dungeon related only, because if it influence all the world content we have:

infusion gear with better stats then an exotics gear with runes + infusion bonus.

its not an 8% + stat (that is a lot) but its a: +8% stats + infusion bonus (for every item you equip)

So if the the new bonus work in this mood, they are not closing a gap, but they are creating a huge one! making obsolete all the previuos items in the game.

Cutterslaine.2689:

Give us a way to upgrade our exotics to Ascended armor (keeping their skin) and I dont think many would complain.

How about an NPC that in exchange of some Tier 5 crafting mats (or just very few Tier 6) allows you to turn any piece at time of Exotic armor into Ascended without touching the stats and the appearance, thus just activating the infusion slot on them?

gwawer.9805:

To the people who are saying “I didn’t buy this game to grind dungeons I just wanted to stroll about in the world and do my thing and enjoy dynamic events la la la”…

Are you actually doing that? Are you actually going back to zones and re-experiencing the events and the world? Or is this just an ideal that you wish you could do, but never actually could get yourself to do?

Maybe this is why Anet is being flexible now with their original philosophy, because they see that despite their own ideals of having players go out into the world and just “having fun” people simply don’t do that anymore.

People never Did. i mean hell look at the RPG’s of yeaster year they were FAR more “grindy” than this game.

even game’s like mario yes you never had gear you needed to progress but you still needed to gather your little extra live’s and beet each level one by one and if you died OMG you had to start all the way over from the begaining.

most gamer’s look for some form of progression in there game’s whether it be level to level ((to see the end)). Gear/stat upgrade’s.

I have no problem with Gear progression as long as it never becomes as steep as what we see in WOW

Hermes.7014:

Cutterslaine.2689:

Give us a way to upgrade our exotics to Ascended armor (keeping their skin) and I dont think many would complain.

How about an NPC that in exchange of some Tier 5 crafting mats (or just very few Tier 6) allows you to turn any piece at time of Exotic armor into Ascended without touching the stats and the appearance, thus just activating the infusion slot on them?

Bad. Exotics<Ascending statwise. This is evil. >:(

Ganzo.5079:

There is a little problem, that we dont know how infusion work, the wiki said that the infusion provide an inherent agony resistance, but we dont know if the bonus provided BY the infusion is dungeon related only, because if it influence all the world content we have:

And who’s fault is that? AN refuse to communicate or even give us patch notes for months then at the last moment, spring game-changing news on us.

You would have to be crazy NOT to expect people to be upset.

Arena Net are starting to wake up! Ascended Gear, well it’s a start I suppose.

Now give the addition of raids, progression and you will keep a large bored slice of your player base and bring those that have left, returning.

This game could be so much more! if you only cater for the more hardcore game types, I wanted GW2 to be my MMO of choice but due to lack of raids this game lacks.

Now before the torrent of casual tears starts, I ask you why are you so bothered? just don’t join in simple!!! Hey your casual, stats on gear, progression should not bother you in the slightest, not like you have the time or want to make the effort is it?

Fuller servers, more players and most importantly sales would increase as you open up to an alienated raid player base.

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Substance E.4852:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

IonicBlaze.7948:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/A-message-from-our-Studio-Design-Director-Chris-Whiteside "We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.

Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. " this

Good lord shut up people it willbe in WVW it will be in old content

and there not planing on adding much more content like this.

And when will it be? You could get the best Items by all the different ways the game offers. Now U HAVE to farm a stupid dungeon and nothing but that. Everything else is completley worthless. Old Dungeons, crafting, lower maps etc….

Oh no, i have to play the game, oh what ever will i do i cant get the best gear right away QQ QQ QQ

maybe im just bios because i smack players around in PVP with my low level gear already and i role in a Guild thats not so overly obsessed with gear to do high level hard content.

Cool beans, try the new dungeon in your fly greens and tell us how far you get. Also, please don’t use WvW as a gauge for how well you do in pvp. They tried their very hardest to make sure that people who are below 80 are still semi viable so it stands to reason anyone can do WvW in merch fodder gear.

yeah so…. that last bit about WvW thank you for proving my point……

and i bet i will do A-OK for a few rounds of the new dungeon and as I do the Dungeon I will Get better and Better Gear OMG!I)#@@ than i wont be in my crappy greens any more makeing me more efective in said dungeon and in WVW

Go me

In the upcoming Fractals of the Mists dungeon, we’ll introduce a new monster condition called Agony.

This extremely dangerous condition ticks percentages of player health away and can’t be cleansed by normal means. Players who wish to delve deep into the Fractals will find that Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must. The only way to mitigate Agony damage is by building up resistance through Infusions, a new type of upgrade component that can be acquired in the Mystic Forge.

Agony is a staple of the dungeon and can only be countered by ascended gear. You better hope your buddies like rez’ing you because the only thing you will be tackling is the ground.

It is countered by infusions not the ascended gear…if you were wearing all ascended with no infusions you would not have any resilience to agony…“The only way to mitigate Agony damage is by building up resistance through Infusions, a new type of upgrade component that can be acquired in the Mystic Forge.”

Should get your facts strait if you are going to correct someone.

And those infusions can only be put in ascended armor. Ergo, you need ascended armor to do the new dungeon.

Try following your own advice.

“Agony is a staple of the dungeon and can only be countered by ascended gear.”

You need infusions that can only be placed in ascended armor, the armor itself means nothing without the infusions…

Haha, that’s all you have? seriously? Rather than argue my point you have to resort to arguing how I stated it? Sure I’ll concede, you don’t need ascended gear to do the dungeon. What you need is infusions. They, of course, can only be placed in ascended gear to actually have any effect what so ever. But hey, maybe you can get some Tyrian velcro and stick it to your non-pink gear. It’s worth a shot.

There was no point to argue substance…there is no innate resistance to agony in ascended gear…it only comes from the infusions…what point am I suppose to argue with you about?

MrLee.6892:

Conner.4702:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Most players want some form of progression, what Anet has done is add in a specific type of high end gear built around allowing for horizontal progression. A player gets ascended gear and works on getting the infusions to be able to handle the new content. The infusions(that only ascended gear can use) allows players to deal with “Agony”, a new DoT that is specific for the new content(http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion).

Hopefully 3 months from now we will have more new content and maybe a DoT called “Despair” where you will have to work on getting your ascended gear infused again to be able to delve deeper into the next new content….This is not hard logic to follow…and this system isnt a run of the mill system that anyone would expect for vertical progression…it is too unique, and it leans completely in the direction of what someone would expect out of a system built for horizontal progression.

Doomsayers can take their chances and assume that the A-net team is lying and that this system looks nothing like what would be expected out of a horizontal progression system…however, when what I have stated above ends up being the case, I hope you doomsayers ask yourselves if it was worth coming on the forums, making yourself look silly and being butthurt about an assumption?

no…no it wasnt..so please calm down…

You can hope all you want but you know as much as anyone else so please don’t act as though your completely baseless assumptions are any less likely than other peoples assumptions.

Like I said, be butthurt look silly, I actually sat down and said “Why would they make a system like this?…it is a weird way of getting to some form of vertical progression, but it actually makes sense for horizontal progression, and why would they blatantly lie about this being a form of new horizontal progression?”

The difference between you and I is I am erring on the side of logic and trusting their word, where you are assuming the worst and not even considering why this new system would be put in place.

No what you are is hoping that it won’t be as bad as all that. They haven’t given you a binding legal document vowing to not do vertical progression. You are just coming to that conclusion on your own and calling anyone who doesn’t agree with your “logic” butthurt apparently.

Gut instinct =/= logic. Logic is based on facts and established precedent. The precedent is that they are giving in to people who minmaxed and then complained about the lack of content and the fact is that they added in a whole new level of gear to combat the stagnation. If they truly cared about pure horizontal progression this could have easily been done by either creating an infusion system similar to GW1 as these sound so alike I can only assume that the Mursaat will be returning in some form. Or, they could have given us a new item slot that we could use to interchange an ever growing pool of infusions.

FACT: They have stated they are not going to do vertical progression
FACT: This new “need specific infusion to counter agony in new content” is a weird way to go about a form of vertical progression.
FACT: “Assuming” the worst in any situation and being butthurt over it is silly.
FACT: Get butthurt when you have the facts…

FACT: It’s a gear treadmill as it requires new gear with new upgrades
FACT: They stated they will add new infusions, which will require a new grind
FACT: Gear treadmill = Gear treadmill. Doesn’t matter if it is vertical or horizontal.
FACT: They said they would not put in a gear treadmill
FACT: They stated they wanted everyone to be able to do all content, which is impossible when you add gated content

FACT: If you don’t like it you can go play Guild Wars 1

Way to show immaturity. Should I tell you to go play a gear grinder now? Or you think you can add something more adult to the conversation.

MrLee.6892:

FACT: If you don’t like it you can go play Guild Wars 1

And if we do they will introduce trendmill in gw1 as they did for gw2….despite the game is obsolete….

we had promises gw2 would be a no grind game…..

Amulrei.4973:

Ganzo.5079:

There is a little problem, that we dont know how infusion work, the wiki said that the infusion provide an inherent agony resistance, but we dont know if the bonus provided BY the infusion is dungeon related only, because if it influence all the world content we have:

And who’s fault is that? AN refuse to communicate or even give us patch notes for months then at the last moment, spring game-changing news on us.

You would have to be crazy NOT to expect people to be upset.

The game has only been out for months.
The told us about Lost Island Nov 1st and new stuff was coming.
A couple of weeks later we find out more info about the Lost Island patch.

How is this months?

Overreach much budday?

Conner.4702:

MrLee.6892:

Conner.4702:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Most players want some form of progression, what Anet has done is add in a specific type of high end gear built around allowing for horizontal progression. A player gets ascended gear and works on getting the infusions to be able to handle the new content. The infusions(that only ascended gear can use) allows players to deal with “Agony”, a new DoT that is specific for the new content(http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion).

Hopefully 3 months from now we will have more new content and maybe a DoT called “Despair” where you will have to work on getting your ascended gear infused again to be able to delve deeper into the next new content….This is not hard logic to follow…and this system isnt a run of the mill system that anyone would expect for vertical progression…it is too unique, and it leans completely in the direction of what someone would expect out of a system built for horizontal progression.

Doomsayers can take their chances and assume that the A-net team is lying and that this system looks nothing like what would be expected out of a horizontal progression system…however, when what I have stated above ends up being the case, I hope you doomsayers ask yourselves if it was worth coming on the forums, making yourself look silly and being butthurt about an assumption?

no…no it wasnt..so please calm down…

You can hope all you want but you know as much as anyone else so please don’t act as though your completely baseless assumptions are any less likely than other peoples assumptions.

Like I said, be butthurt look silly, I actually sat down and said “Why would they make a system like this?…it is a weird way of getting to some form of vertical progression, but it actually makes sense for horizontal progression, and why would they blatantly lie about this being a form of new horizontal progression?”

The difference between you and I is I am erring on the side of logic and trusting their word, where you are assuming the worst and not even considering why this new system would be put in place.

No what you are is hoping that it won’t be as bad as all that. They haven’t given you a binding legal document vowing to not do vertical progression. You are just coming to that conclusion on your own and calling anyone who doesn’t agree with your “logic” butthurt apparently.

Gut instinct =/= logic. Logic is based on facts and established precedent. The precedent is that they are giving in to people who minmaxed and then complained about the lack of content and the fact is that they added in a whole new level of gear to combat the stagnation. If they truly cared about pure horizontal progression this could have easily been done by either creating an infusion system similar to GW1 as these sound so alike I can only assume that the Mursaat will be returning in some form. Or, they could have given us a new item slot that we could use to interchange an ever growing pool of infusions.

FACT: They have stated they are not going to do vertical progression
FACT: This new “need specific infusion to counter agony in new content” is a weird way to go about a form of vertical progression.
FACT: “Assuming” the worst in any situation and being butthurt over it is silly.
FACT: Get butthurt when you have the facts…

FACT: It’s a gear treadmill as it requires new gear with new upgrades
FACT: They stated they will add new infusions, which will require a new grind
FACT: Gear treadmill = Gear treadmill. Doesn’t matter if it is vertical or horizontal.
FACT: They said they would not put in a gear treadmill
FACT: They stated they wanted everyone to be able to do all content, which is impossible when you add gated content

FACT: If you don’t like it you can go play Guild Wars 1

Way to show immaturity. Should I tell you to go play a gear grinder now? Or you think you can add something more adult to the conversation.

You don’t have to tell him to play a gear grinder. He’s clearly already playing Guild Wars 2.

gwawer.9805:

To the people who are saying “I didn’t buy this game to grind dungeons I just wanted to stroll about in the world and do my thing and enjoy dynamic events la la la”…

Are you actually doing that? Are you actually going back to zones and re-experiencing the events and the world? Or is this just an ideal that you wish you could do, but never actually could get yourself to do?

Maybe this is why Anet is being flexible now with their original philosophy, because they see that despite their own ideals of having players go out into the world and just “having fun” people simply don’t do that anymore.

It would mean they are adjusting GW2 to us which can only be congratulated. It’s the wright thing to do if this game is to keep this amount of players.
But … that also means they should be honest about it and tell us they are changing their philosophy.
No gear grind was/is one of the main selling points of this game. They even went so far to promise if would never happen. It looks like this promise is not valid any more, so the wright thing to do would be for them to inform us of these changes to the basic concepts of the game.
But in the end ANET is only a company which means that money they get from us will always be more important than us.

Conner.4702:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Most players want some form of progression, what Anet has done is add in a specific type of high end gear built around allowing for horizontal progression. A player gets ascended gear and works on getting the infusions to be able to handle the new content. The infusions(that only ascended gear can use) allows players to deal with “Agony”, a new DoT that is specific for the new content(http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion).

Hopefully 3 months from now we will have more new content and maybe a DoT called “Despair” where you will have to work on getting your ascended gear infused again to be able to delve deeper into the next new content….This is not hard logic to follow…and this system isnt a run of the mill system that anyone would expect for vertical progression…it is too unique, and it leans completely in the direction of what someone would expect out of a system built for horizontal progression.

Doomsayers can take their chances and assume that the A-net team is lying and that this system looks nothing like what would be expected out of a horizontal progression system…however, when what I have stated above ends up being the case, I hope you doomsayers ask yourselves if it was worth coming on the forums, making yourself look silly and being butthurt about an assumption?

no…no it wasnt..so please calm down…

You can hope all you want but you know as much as anyone else so please don’t act as though your completely baseless assumptions are any less likely than other peoples assumptions.

Like I said, be butthurt look silly, I actually sat down and said “Why would they make a system like this?…it is a weird way of getting to some form of vertical progression, but it actually makes sense for horizontal progression, and why would they blatantly lie about this being a form of new horizontal progression?”

The difference between you and I is I am erring on the side of logic and trusting their word, where you are assuming the worst and not even considering why this new system would be put in place.

No what you are is hoping that it won’t be as bad as all that. They haven’t given you a binding legal document vowing to not do vertical progression. You are just coming to that conclusion on your own and calling anyone who doesn’t agree with your “logic” butthurt apparently.

Gut instinct =/= logic. Logic is based on facts and established precedent. The precedent is that they are giving in to people who minmaxed and then complained about the lack of content and the fact is that they added in a whole new level of gear to combat the stagnation. If they truly cared about pure horizontal progression this could have easily been done by either creating an infusion system similar to GW1 as these sound so alike I can only assume that the Mursaat will be returning in some form. Or, they could have given us a new item slot that we could use to interchange an ever growing pool of infusions.

FACT: They have stated they are not going to do vertical progression
FACT: This new “need specific infusion to counter agony in new content” is a weird way to go about a form of vertical progression.
FACT: “Assuming” the worst in any situation and being butthurt over it is silly.
FACT: Get butthurt when you have the facts…

FACT: It’s a gear treadmill as it requires new gear with new upgrades
FACT: They stated they will add new infusions, which will require a new grind
FACT: Gear treadmill = Gear treadmill. Doesn’t matter if it is vertical or horizontal.
FACT: They said they would not put in a gear treadmill
FACT: They stated they wanted everyone to be able to do all content, which is impossible when you add gated content

FACT: With out some form of Progression most People will stop playing faster.

even in the old school level 1 to level 10 game’s ((levels = worlds)) there has always been some small progression even if that only meant a new type of Power Up
there was also that Drawl to see the End and to get the High score.

so what do you focus on if your game has no end and doesn’t track score???

Conner.4702:

MrLee.6892:

Conner.4702:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Most players want some form of progression, what Anet has done is add in a specific type of high end gear built around allowing for horizontal progression. A player gets ascended gear and works on getting the infusions to be able to handle the new content. The infusions(that only ascended gear can use) allows players to deal with “Agony”, a new DoT that is specific for the new content(http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion).

Hopefully 3 months from now we will have more new content and maybe a DoT called “Despair” where you will have to work on getting your ascended gear infused again to be able to delve deeper into the next new content….This is not hard logic to follow…and this system isnt a run of the mill system that anyone would expect for vertical progression…it is too unique, and it leans completely in the direction of what someone would expect out of a system built for horizontal progression.

Doomsayers can take their chances and assume that the A-net team is lying and that this system looks nothing like what would be expected out of a horizontal progression system…however, when what I have stated above ends up being the case, I hope you doomsayers ask yourselves if it was worth coming on the forums, making yourself look silly and being butthurt about an assumption?

no…no it wasnt..so please calm down…

You can hope all you want but you know as much as anyone else so please don’t act as though your completely baseless assumptions are any less likely than other peoples assumptions.

Like I said, be butthurt look silly, I actually sat down and said “Why would they make a system like this?…it is a weird way of getting to some form of vertical progression, but it actually makes sense for horizontal progression, and why would they blatantly lie about this being a form of new horizontal progression?”

The difference between you and I is I am erring on the side of logic and trusting their word, where you are assuming the worst and not even considering why this new system would be put in place.

No what you are is hoping that it won’t be as bad as all that. They haven’t given you a binding legal document vowing to not do vertical progression. You are just coming to that conclusion on your own and calling anyone who doesn’t agree with your “logic” butthurt apparently.

Gut instinct =/= logic. Logic is based on facts and established precedent. The precedent is that they are giving in to people who minmaxed and then complained about the lack of content and the fact is that they added in a whole new level of gear to combat the stagnation. If they truly cared about pure horizontal progression this could have easily been done by either creating an infusion system similar to GW1 as these sound so alike I can only assume that the Mursaat will be returning in some form. Or, they could have given us a new item slot that we could use to interchange an ever growing pool of infusions.

FACT: They have stated they are not going to do vertical progression
FACT: This new “need specific infusion to counter agony in new content” is a weird way to go about a form of vertical progression.
FACT: “Assuming” the worst in any situation and being butthurt over it is silly.
FACT: Get butthurt when you have the facts…

FACT: It’s a gear treadmill as it requires new gear with new upgrades
FACT: They stated they will add new infusions, which will require a new grind
FACT: Gear treadmill = Gear treadmill. Doesn’t matter if it is vertical or horizontal.
FACT: They said they would not put in a gear treadmill
FACT: They stated they wanted everyone to be able to do all content, which is impossible when you add gated content

FACT: If you don’t like it you can go play Guild Wars 1

Way to show immaturity. Should I tell you to go play a gear grinder now? Or you think you can add something more adult to the conversation.

lol says the hypocrite.

How about this for immaturity. Na na a boo boo, we are getting a gear progression and there isn’t a darn thing you can do about it. So put your big boy pants on and deal with it or move on!

This is the last time I do fooled by promises of ArenaNet.
Do not buy anything from them ever again

Tapioca.9062:

Conner.4702:

MrLee.6892:

Conner.4702:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Most players want some form of progression, what Anet has done is add in a specific type of high end gear built around allowing for horizontal progression. A player gets ascended gear and works on getting the infusions to be able to handle the new content. The infusions(that only ascended gear can use) allows players to deal with “Agony”, a new DoT that is specific for the new content(http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion).

Hopefully 3 months from now we will have more new content and maybe a DoT called “Despair” where you will have to work on getting your ascended gear infused again to be able to delve deeper into the next new content….This is not hard logic to follow…and this system isnt a run of the mill system that anyone would expect for vertical progression…it is too unique, and it leans completely in the direction of what someone would expect out of a system built for horizontal progression.

Doomsayers can take their chances and assume that the A-net team is lying and that this system looks nothing like what would be expected out of a horizontal progression system…however, when what I have stated above ends up being the case, I hope you doomsayers ask yourselves if it was worth coming on the forums, making yourself look silly and being butthurt about an assumption?

no…no it wasnt..so please calm down…

You can hope all you want but you know as much as anyone else so please don’t act as though your completely baseless assumptions are any less likely than other peoples assumptions.

Like I said, be butthurt look silly, I actually sat down and said “Why would they make a system like this?…it is a weird way of getting to some form of vertical progression, but it actually makes sense for horizontal progression, and why would they blatantly lie about this being a form of new horizontal progression?”

The difference between you and I is I am erring on the side of logic and trusting their word, where you are assuming the worst and not even considering why this new system would be put in place.

No what you are is hoping that it won’t be as bad as all that. They haven’t given you a binding legal document vowing to not do vertical progression. You are just coming to that conclusion on your own and calling anyone who doesn’t agree with your “logic” butthurt apparently.

Gut instinct =/= logic. Logic is based on facts and established precedent. The precedent is that they are giving in to people who minmaxed and then complained about the lack of content and the fact is that they added in a whole new level of gear to combat the stagnation. If they truly cared about pure horizontal progression this could have easily been done by either creating an infusion system similar to GW1 as these sound so alike I can only assume that the Mursaat will be returning in some form. Or, they could have given us a new item slot that we could use to interchange an ever growing pool of infusions.

FACT: They have stated they are not going to do vertical progression
FACT: This new “need specific infusion to counter agony in new content” is a weird way to go about a form of vertical progression.
FACT: “Assuming” the worst in any situation and being butthurt over it is silly.
FACT: Get butthurt when you have the facts…

FACT: It’s a gear treadmill as it requires new gear with new upgrades
FACT: They stated they will add new infusions, which will require a new grind
FACT: Gear treadmill = Gear treadmill. Doesn’t matter if it is vertical or horizontal.
FACT: They said they would not put in a gear treadmill
FACT: They stated they wanted everyone to be able to do all content, which is impossible when you add gated content

FACT: If you don’t like it you can go play Guild Wars 1

Way to show immaturity. Should I tell you to go play a gear grinder now? Or you think you can add something more adult to the conversation.

You don’t have to tell him to play a gear grinder. He’s clearly already playing Guild Wars 2.

An MMO that has a grind!!?!? Who would have thought of such things!
At least I don’t have to sit for hours in Orr anymore and grind.

PowerGamer.2874:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I’d like to respond to concerns players have raised about ascended items. Please keep in mind that we’re releasing this as one portion of a massive November update that introduces and improves many aspects of challenge, progression, and rewards. With this and upcoming updates, we view ourselves as introducing large amounts of content with supporting systems and features, akin to an expansion pack, building on Guild Wars 2 through a series of live releases. So it’s important for us to be able to add an expansion pack’s worth of progression and rewards to support that content.

Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.

Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. PvP will remain unaffected to ensure our intended PvP balance going forward. We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features. As you know we care very much about your support and opinion and are listening intently to what you say.

Finally we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming content, and we will ensure we share our thoughts with you on the experiences we share in the Lost Shores.

Chris Whiteside – Studio Design Director

LOL, is it me or is he actually saying “we don’t want to add gear treadmill but we are adding it anyway”?

No, these people are professionals, they’re more subtle than that.

Gear Grind is when you have to change your armor every 3 months. If you introduce a spurious concept with a number, and you make a way to increased that number on an existing piece, and change that minimum number required every 3 months, then it’s clearly not a gear grind, it’s a progression grind.

The Genius is in the abstraction of the rating requirement and the armor set itself. You get to have what amounts to gear grind, but you get to say it’s different and you didn’t break your word, since nobody needs a new set of armor … after the first new set that is.

Of course the dumb bit is that “after the first new set”, a special quest to get your current armor to the infusable state would have been a lot less of a PR disaster … and easy to develop … and probably fun to acquire too!

133 pages and counting….

Anet, you are trying to sell the idea of ascended gear to us thru the concept “it’s not a gear threadmill, we already did the infusion thing in GW1 and nobody complained about it”.

But it’s not the same thing.

Sure, there is one similarity: ascended gear is necessary only to progress in one specific instance, the new dungeon, just like in GW1 infusion was necessary just with content involving mursaat.

But there’s also a fundamental difference: in GW1 any kind of max level armor could be infused, whereas here only ascended gear can receive infusions.

I think you should remove the idea of ascended gear entirely, add an infusion slot to all lvl 80 exotics, and make the new fractal rewards exotic.

This way who spent time / money on lvl 80 exotics won’t see their set suddenly become sub-par and cut them off from facing content that inflicts agony.

I understand it’s a huge amount of work, since at this point all the changes about ascended gear are certainly finalized in your internal build, but I think the future success of GW2 is at stake, and this time you made a severe mistake, a dangerous step in the wrong direction.

If you want to become the new WoW in terms of following and commercial success, you need to stay away from what they did wrong. Gear grind is one of the main things IMO.

I’ll wait 2 days then watch by myself the whole thing. One thing is for sure, everyone use to whine about everything, if they do something, and if they don’t.
Play the game, try the new patch, (try to) have fun, then decide what to do…
My 2 cents

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Conner.4702:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Substance E.4852:

Xyre.5429:

Most players want some form of progression, what Anet has done is add in a specific type of high end gear built around allowing for horizontal progression. A player gets ascended gear and works on getting the infusions to be able to handle the new content. The infusions(that only ascended gear can use) allows players to deal with “Agony”, a new DoT that is specific for the new content(http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion).

Hopefully 3 months from now we will have more new content and maybe a DoT called “Despair” where you will have to work on getting your ascended gear infused again to be able to delve deeper into the next new content….This is not hard logic to follow…and this system isnt a run of the mill system that anyone would expect for vertical progression…it is too unique, and it leans completely in the direction of what someone would expect out of a system built for horizontal progression.

Doomsayers can take their chances and assume that the A-net team is lying and that this system looks nothing like what would be expected out of a horizontal progression system…however, when what I have stated above ends up being the case, I hope you doomsayers ask yourselves if it was worth coming on the forums, making yourself look silly and being butthurt about an assumption?

no…no it wasnt..so please calm down…

You can hope all you want but you know as much as anyone else so please don’t act as though your completely baseless assumptions are any less likely than other peoples assumptions.

Like I said, be butthurt look silly, I actually sat down and said “Why would they make a system like this?…it is a weird way of getting to some form of vertical progression, but it actually makes sense for horizontal progression, and why would they blatantly lie about this being a form of new horizontal progression?”

The difference between you and I is I am erring on the side of logic and trusting their word, where you are assuming the worst and not even considering why this new system would be put in place.

No what you are is hoping that it won’t be as bad as all that. They haven’t given you a binding legal document vowing to not do vertical progression. You are just coming to that conclusion on your own and calling anyone who doesn’t agree with your “logic” butthurt apparently.

Gut instinct =/= logic. Logic is based on facts and established precedent. The precedent is that they are giving in to people who minmaxed and then complained about the lack of content and the fact is that they added in a whole new level of gear to combat the stagnation. If they truly cared about pure horizontal progression this could have easily been done by either creating an infusion system similar to GW1 as these sound so alike I can only assume that the Mursaat will be returning in some form. Or, they could have given us a new item slot that we could use to interchange an ever growing pool of infusions.

FACT: They have stated they are not going to do vertical progression
FACT: This new “need specific infusion to counter agony in new content” is a weird way to go about a form of vertical progression.
FACT: “Assuming” the worst in any situation and being butthurt over it is silly.
FACT: Get butthurt when you have the facts…

FACT: It’s a gear treadmill as it requires new gear with new upgrades
FACT: They stated they will add new infusions, which will require a new grind
FACT: Gear treadmill = Gear treadmill. Doesn’t matter if it is vertical or horizontal.
FACT: They said they would not put in a gear treadmill
FACT: They stated they wanted everyone to be able to do all content, which is impossible when you add gated content

FACT: With out some form of Progression most People will stop playing faster.

even in the old school level 1 to level 10 game’s ((levels = worlds)) there has always been some small progression even if that only meant a new type of Power Up
there was also that Drawl to see the End and to get the High score.

so what do you focus on if your game has no end and doesn’t track score???

And? You do realise there are more forms of progression than just gear progression.
Only those with limited vision focus on Gear as Progression.

codiac.5642:

No, these people are professionals, they’re more subtle than that.

Gear Grind is when you have to change your armor every 3 months. If you introduce a spurious concept with a number, and you make a way to increased that number on an existing piece, and change that minimum number required every 3 months, then it’s clearly not a gear grind, it’s a progression grind.

The Genius is in the abstraction of the rating requirement and the armor set itself. You get to have what amounts to gear grind, but you get to say it’s different and you didn’t break your word, since nobody needs a new set of armor … after the first new set that is.

Of course the dumb bit is that “after the first new set”, a special quest to get your current armor to the infusable state would have been a lot less of a PR disaster … and easy to develop … and probably fun to acquire too!

Close but not quite. You will need a new set every time they release a new Infusion dungeon as the Infusions will be different. So you are still grinding gear every content release. Not to mention you have to save your gear for the old content if you want to still do it sometimes.

And while if I were picking my disaster I would rather there be no Ascended items and we could quest to get our infusion slot on our exotics, it’s still a disaster of a paradigm shift from the major reason that GW was great and many new players bought into GW2.

Having read Chris Whiteside’s post following up on ascended gear, my disappointment in the move to vertical gear progression is not eased, nor my objection to it.

Some points I would make about why I see gear progression as a problem:

1) One of the main problems I have with this is balance for the earlier areas of the game. As things stand, once you have level 80 and exotic gear, the lower level areas fade in challenge to at least a degree (I do not think this point has been contested anywhere). With stronger gear, these areas will be that much weaker in comparision, less of a challenge, less interesting to revisit – making for a smaller world to explore and revisit. This is something that will only get worse with continuing power creep/ gear progression, with whatever gear more powerful than ascended is added a year or whatever from now (we’ve been told we won’t need new gear every 3 months – but not that we will not need new gear every 6 months, every year, or whatever).

2) Ever been in an area trying to ‘tag’ mobs so that you can get credit to loot them for charged lodestones or whatever? Ever see the mobs killed before you can get to them? This problem will only grow with some players having enhanced gear that “you do not need unless you want to go into higher powered dungeons.” Gear you “do not need” but other players have will make them kill mobs faster, meaning less chance for you to get to the mobs to “tag” them youself. Their gear means you get less loot.

3) Fluxuating balance (especially relevant to pvp). Suppose the game was perfectly balanced between the classes. Then new more powerful gear is suddenly available! Unless all attributes are perfectly aligned (which it is not), the balance team has to go to work readjusting skills and such, using up energy they could have used elsewhere. Designers can attain a better balance if systems are not alway shifting under their feet with more numbers being added to abilities.

4) Players who take a break from the game, and come back, are out of the loop, less likely to get into content. One of the major advatanges of the systems gw2 had without power creep is taken away! Many players have expressed happiness at not having to keep up with gear just to play with their friends, with gear progression this is lost.

In short their are reasons players were drawn to this game for its promised lack of vertical gear progression. There are reasons we are upset and want vertical gear progression stopped flat. If we wanted gear progression, there are any number of MMO’s out there based on that “feature” and there is less reason to invest money in this game when it drops the ball with one of the key features that brought some of us to it.

Those who say “stop playing” are missing out on the true point; what we will do is “stop paying.” And make no mistake, those of us who were playing this game for its unique promises different from other MMO’s do pay, I for one have certainly been putting in more per month through the gem shop that I have ever paid in subscription feels to any other MMOs, because I thought what A-net’s manifesto brougth to us was worth it… But, no more. Not unless this vertical gear progression is stopped flat, in line with the A-net gw2 manifesto.

I do not approve of adding more tiers of gear. We where promised no gear treadmill and it is shameful that this promise is being broken so soon after release.

[Edited by a Moderator, Quotes of removed postings]

Many of us bought into this game on a design promise to not include gated gear progression, or gear grinds.

Now we’re being told that the entire time this was a lie.

Your immaturity aside, this is not the way to run a company. It’s very obvious that Nexon already has their greedy hands around NCSoft and Arenanet. This whole debacle is a slippery slope for loyal customers.

again most players i don’t think have a problem with gear progression as a hole. what it come’s down to is pacing.

if i get locked out of content because of the gear i have and than i have to grind to upgrade that gear that’s when i will start having a problem ((such as when i was leveling up, gear was never importent to me, now that i am max level it is fun to see how much stronger I am mostly do to my gear ((as levels mean jack))

MOVINGSHADOW.4632:

Arena Net are starting to wake up! Ascended Gear, well it’s a start I suppose.

Now give the addition of raids, progression and you will keep a large bored slice of your player base and bring those that have left, returning.

This game could be so much more! if you only cater for the more hardcore game types, I wanted GW2 to be my MMO of choice but due to lack of raids this game lacks.

Now before the torrent of casual tears starts, I ask you why are you so bothered? just don’t join in simple!!! Hey your casual, stats on gear, progression should not bother you in the slightest, not like you have the time or want to make the effort is it?

Fuller servers, more players and most importantly sales would increase as you open up to an alienated raid player base.

Yes because lying to players and forcing on them the very elements they left other games to escape sounds like a wonderful way to secure more players and revenue….

…Oh wait.

veritech.1048:

MOVINGSHADOW.4632:

Arena Net are starting to wake up! Ascended Gear, well it’s a start I suppose.

Now give the addition of raids, progression and you will keep a large bored slice of your player base and bring those that have left, returning.

This game could be so much more! if you only cater for the more hardcore game types, I wanted GW2 to be my MMO of choice but due to lack of raids this game lacks.

Now before the torrent of casual tears starts, I ask you why are you so bothered? just don’t join in simple!!! Hey your casual, stats on gear, progression should not bother you in the slightest, not like you have the time or want to make the effort is it?

Fuller servers, more players and most importantly sales would increase as you open up to an alienated raid player base.

Many of us bought into this game on a design promise to not include gated gear progression, or gear grinds.

Now we’re being told that the entire time this was a lie.

Your immaturity aside, this is not the way to run a company. It’s very obvious that Nexon already has their greedy hands around NCSoft and Arenanet. This whole debacle is a slippery slope for loyal customers.

who say’s your going to be locked out of content do to this???

if players lock you out thats because there Dicks thats not the game’s falt player’s are Kittens.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

I’d like to respond to concerns players have raised about ascended items. Please keep in mind that we’re releasing this as one portion of a massive November update that introduces and improves many aspects of challenge, progression, and rewards. With this and upcoming updates, we view ourselves as introducing large amounts of content with supporting systems and features, akin to an expansion pack, building on Guild Wars 2 through a series of live releases. So it’s important for us to be able to add an expansion pack’s worth of progression and rewards to support that content.

Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.

Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. PvP will remain unaffected to ensure our intended PvP balance going forward. We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features. As you know we care very much about your support and opinion and are listening intently to what you say.

Finally we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming content, and we will ensure we share our thoughts with you on the experiences we share in the Lost Shores.

Chris Whiteside – Studio Design Director

Thank you!

I’m very curious about the decision to, after letting the community rip itself apart over the past day or so, bury the one thing that we all needed to hear on page 117 of a frankenthread on the forums.

Had ANet come right out and said this, a great deal of wailing and gnashing of teeth could have been avoided.

You had to see this coming eventually. I think it`s a step in the right direction though. How long can really play a game that offers no rewards when getting exotic equipment was as easy as spending a few gold on the tp? Did you really think that for the lifespan of this game you were going to be using the same stuff you aquired within the first few months of release? The quest for power and the treasure hunt are what keeps people playing.

UnderdogSMO.9428:

so what do you focus on if your game has no end and doesn’t track score???

We play for fun.

If we want to do chors, we could do our dishes.

What is people’s problem with this? Seriously if you don’t like this then don’t use it. The old content is not suddenly gone and your exotics still work perfectly fine there. The way I see it is that you only need this ascended gear to progress in the new dungeon. Would you also whine about it if they added a new backpiece of exotic quality? This doesn’t exist at the moment either and it would render your 5 gold investment in a rare guild backpiece useless as well according to some people, but I don’t they would whine about it when that would’ve happened.

A game just needs new goals once in a while to keep players interested and that is exactly what they are doing, while still giving you plenty of time to get to that goal.

UnderdogSMO.9428:

veritech.1048:

MrLee.6892:

shynu.7081:

MOVINGSHADOW.4632:

Arena Net are starting to wake up! Ascended Gear, well it’s a start I suppose.

Now give the addition of raids, progression and you will keep a large bored slice of your player base and bring those that have left, returning.

This game could be so much more! if you only cater for the more hardcore game types, I wanted GW2 to be my MMO of choice but due to lack of raids this game lacks.

Now before the torrent of casual tears starts, I ask you why are you so bothered? just don’t join in simple!!! Hey your casual, stats on gear, progression should not bother you in the slightest, not like you have the time or want to make the effort is it?

Fuller servers, more players and most importantly sales would increase as you open up to an alienated raid player base.

Go back to WoW.

Go back to Guild Wars 1

Many of us bought into this game on a design promise to not include gated gear progression, or gear grinds.

Now we’re being told that the entire time this was a lie.

Your immaturity aside, this is not the way to run a company. It’s very obvious that Nexon already has their greedy hands around NCSoft and Arenanet. This whole debacle is a slippery slope for loyal customers.

who say’s your going to be locked out of content do to this???

if players lock you out thats because there Dicks thats not the game’s falt player’s are Kittens.

Not only will not bringing infused gear to dungeons make you a liability, but the entire design concept of infused gear goes against what players have been promised.

It’s very obvious if this change goes through, that Anet cannot be trusted.

If they really do push this change in, then I will move on to greener pastures.

Banewrath.5107:

You had to see this coming eventually. I think it`s a step in the right direction though. How long can really play a game that offers no rewards when getting exotic equipment was as easy as spending a few gold on the tp? Did you really think that for the lifespan of this game you were going to be using the same stuff you aquired within the first few months of release? The quest for power and the treasure hunt are what keeps people playing.

No it’s not. Guild Wars 1 had 7 years of lifespan WITHOUT this STUPID GEAR TREADMILL. You only had to buy the armor you desired without worrying about getting better stats. Sorry about your statement but I think that it is so wrong

Agrik.7465:

Those who say “stop playing” are missing out on the true point; what we will do is “stop paying.” And make no mistake, those of us who were playing this game for its unique promises different from other MMO’s do pay, I for one have certainly been putting in more per month through the gem shop that I have ever paid in subscription feels to any other MMOs, because I thought what A-net’s manifesto brougth to us was worth it… But, no more. Not unless this vertical gear progression is stopped flat, in line with the A-net gw2 manifesto.

This. The absence of the power creep makes (made?) GW2 unique. It’s the main factor I play and pay GW2. The moment I see power creep here I just quit.

Spencer.1386:

I do not approve of adding more tiers of gear. We where promised no gear treadmill and it is shameful that this promise is being broken so soon after release.

Dance or die. Arenanet had a wakeupcall. It´s an MMo. The GW1 playerbase is upset. (the most) A huge pupulation of players left the game already and i know why.
Arenanet know why.
you don´t.

The common reason is, they had nothing to do when they hit 80 and decked out the gear. The only Progression was : Level 1-80, crafting, utility skills, Common- exotics (legendarys) (in less then a week), mapcompletion.

You can do this in 2 weeks.

This is exactly what they should have done.

“Or just bring ascended down to exotics, in stats, and have infussion be a gem, rune and sigil. Then we can equip it on our exotic, and people who want the new look of ascended can still aim for that gear.
That adds new gear for people, without it being a gear treadmill. So basically staying true to what GW2 should be like. It is a pity we have to now grind to get the next level of armour. I feel like my hard work to get exotics was for nothing.

Please Anet, remove the stats from your ascended gear and let is upgrade exotics with infussion.”

BadHealer.3608:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

so what do you focus on if your game has no end and doesn’t track score???

We play for fun.

If we want to do chors, we could do our dishes.

yeah so do I, Love me some jumping puzzles, I also enjoy Dungeon run’s. nothing in this update is going to stop that

and the only thing this new gear is going to effect is how far i can make it into the new endless Dungeon. BIG FREAKING WOOP.

vox.5019:

codiac.5642:

No, these people are professionals, they’re more subtle than that.

Gear Grind is when you have to change your armor every 3 months. If you introduce a spurious concept with a number, and you make a way to increased that number on an existing piece, and change that minimum number required every 3 months, then it’s clearly not a gear grind, it’s a progression grind.

The Genius is in the abstraction of the rating requirement and the armor set itself. You get to have what amounts to gear grind, but you get to say it’s different and you didn’t break your word, since nobody needs a new set of armor … after the first new set that is.

Of course the dumb bit is that “after the first new set”, a special quest to get your current armor to the infusable state would have been a lot less of a PR disaster … and easy to develop … and probably fun to acquire too!

Close but not quite. You will need a new set every time they release a new Infusion dungeon as the Infusions will be different. So you are still grinding gear every content release. Not to mention you have to save your gear for the old content if you want to still do it sometimes.

I haven’t seen any indication there will be other types of effects similar to Agony.

vox.5019:

And while if I were picking my disaster I would rather there be no Ascended items and we could quest to get our infusion slot on our exotics, it’s still a disaster of a paradigm shift from the major reason that GW was great and many new players bought into GW2.

Yeah it would make a lot more sense, that way if they did have an Agony clone you could get one set of armor with infusions for each kind of effect.

ohhh now a really good way for them to have done this would have been to open that gate outside Ebon Hawk and make you go in to the Crystal Desert and ascend, al.la GW1 … but with a dragon in the way

Has anyone considered how best to stage a protest? We can’t picket their offices like with politics, since we’re a global group. They are pretty much ignoring player feedback on the forums (the PR-spin answers that try to dodge the issue do not count as honest consideration). So what to do?

I have a proposal: during the release of the new content, we all go back to playing GW1.

Just leaving the game is a statistic they can’t distinguish from the locusts moving on.
Playing GW1 makes it clear that their core player base isn’t happy with the new GW2 direction and wants the GW1 system back.

Probably it would be too hard to organize enough people to do this, though.

UnderdogSMO.9428:

who say’s your going to be locked out of content do to this???

if players lock you out thats because there Dicks thats not the game’s falt player’s are Kittens.

You are going to be locked out of content where the condition “agony” is inflicted, since the only counter to agony are infusions, and you don’t have an infusion slot on gear that is below ascended level of rarity.

Nobody wants someone who’s constantly dead in their party, especially if the content is getting harder as you progress.

Hey, I didn’t see that post XD

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.

With that patch you just obsoleted all the gear I worked for currently. You set us backwards in our goals. How is that not a gear treadmill?

Why is there a need for a step between exotic and legendary that has better stats? Legendary is all about looks and there’s already a lot wicked looking exotics that are take efforts between the cheapest exotics and legendaries to get in the mystic forge. They are wicked looking and still using exotic stats.

Why did you have to make it so that our max stats multiple sets of exotics that cost us tons of gold and karma and WvWvW tokens are now obsolete? Stuff we bought BECAUSE we though they were the best ever.

UnderdogSMO.9428:

veritech.1048:

MrLee.6892:

shynu.7081:

MOVINGSHADOW.4632:

Arena Net are starting to wake up! Ascended Gear, well it’s a start I suppose.

Now give the addition of raids, progression and you will keep a large bored slice of your player base and bring those that have left, returning.

This game could be so much more! if you only cater for the more hardcore game types, I wanted GW2 to be my MMO of choice but due to lack of raids this game lacks.

Now before the torrent of casual tears starts, I ask you why are you so bothered? just don’t join in simple!!! Hey your casual, stats on gear, progression should not bother you in the slightest, not like you have the time or want to make the effort is it?

Fuller servers, more players and most importantly sales would increase as you open up to an alienated raid player base.

Go back to WoW.

Go back to Guild Wars 1

Many of us bought into this game on a design promise to not include gated gear progression, or gear grinds.

Now we’re being told that the entire time this was a lie.

Your immaturity aside, this is not the way to run a company. It’s very obvious that Nexon already has their greedy hands around NCSoft and Arenanet. This whole debacle is a slippery slope for loyal customers.

who say’s your going to be locked out of content do to this???

if players lock you out thats because there Dicks thats not the game’s falt player’s are Kittens.

You obviously don’t understand what is happening very well do you.

To play the new dungeons at higher lvls, it has been hinted at that new content to be released later will be included in this. The bosses will come with new mechanics the first being “agony”.

The only way you can survive the step up in " agony " damage is resistance via infusion crystals.

To use infusion crystals you need to get Ascended Gear , BUT in order to get resistances are Infusion crystals.
Gained by FARMING x amount of mats and using the Mystic forge.

AKA you are locked out of Higher tier dungeons until you grind better gear upgrades.

Now what we don’t know is how random will the mystic toilet be and will they sell some mats needed on the cash shop , also just how much grinding do they expect us to do before we can even attempt to do high lvl content.

Making this no different than other grind for your gear MMO`s

Urxx.6840:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

who say’s your going to be locked out of content do to this???

if players lock you out thats because there Dicks thats not the game’s falt player’s are Kittens.

You are going to be locked out of content where the condition “agony” is inflicted, since the only counter to agony are infusions, and you don’t have an infusion slot on gear that is below ascended level of rarity.

Nobody wants someone who’s constantly dead in their party, especially if the content is getting harder as you progress.

You can´t run level 80 Dungeons with Level 60 neither.

UnderdogSMO.9428:

gwawer.9805:

To the people who are saying “I didn’t buy this game to grind dungeons I just wanted to stroll about in the world and do my thing and enjoy dynamic events la la la”…

Are you actually doing that? Are you actually going back to zones and re-experiencing the events and the world? Or is this just an ideal that you wish you could do, but never actually could get yourself to do?

Maybe this is why Anet is being flexible now with their original philosophy, because they see that despite their own ideals of having players go out into the world and just “having fun” people simply don’t do that anymore.

People never Did. i mean hell look at the RPG’s of yeaster year they were FAR more “grindy” than this game.

even game’s like mario yes you never had gear you needed to progress but you still needed to gather your little extra live’s and beet each level one by one and if you died OMG you had to start all the way over from the begaining.

most gamer’s look for some form of progression in there game’s whether it be level to level ((to see the end)). Gear/stat upgrade’s.

I have no problem with Gear progression as long as it never becomes as steep as what we see in WOW

I just potter about having fun with the content. Never set foot in a dungeon ( instance with single group of players is not epic to me – it just feels small)

Looks like my money is no longer required by anet. No worries – will find something else to spend my spare cash on… Gin maybe?

Hi,
Like many of you I was severely ticked off with the announcement of Ascended gear. I jumped to many conclusions, many of which I still hold. After reading Chris Whiteside’s announcement, I feel at least a little better.

-The Ascended gear is a one time tier bump. We have him quoted that they are not looking to create a gear treadmill and this is a one time deal. They will add other ascended gear into the game into the future, obtained through new dungeons and old dungeons as well as possibly other ways. A one time addition of a tier of gear that is higher than exotic. I think his reasoning is flawed when he says there needed to be a smoother transition from exotic to legendary. I think it was just fine.

-I do not think even with a full ascended set that content will become obsolete. If arenanet feels this is the case, they can simply ramp up the damage done in these older dungeons. They should take significant steps to make sure this doesnt happen.

-I feel for the PVP players here, still. I am a PVE player and I was/still am against this addition, but PVP players who dont want to run any dungeons are getting slighted at the moment. I understand.

-Chris Whiteside also mentioned that he wants to keep this gear out of WvW, but then mentioned something about having the gear in WvW. This is becoming typical of arenanet being completely grey on topics so that they can move either way the wind blows.

-This isnt the first time that I’ve caught arenanet walking the thin line between what the community THOUGHT they meant and what they really want to do with the game. There are a few instances of bait and switch that I can refer to. They have lured us in with the promise of no gear treadmill, (as well as other possibly smaller yet impactful promises), and then have gone in the opposite direction we thought they would.

I will still play the game. For now. If I begin to see “LFG <new dungeon>, must have full ascended” in map chat most of the time, I will probably leave. If they dare add one more tier to this game, I am not only going to stop playing, I will delete the game. Period. My advice to Anet: Tread carefully, you are upsetting much of your playerbase.

I’m sure there are plenty of valid arguments against Ascended gear I would like to say way to betray the very spirit of this game and the players if this goes through, Anet.

Celle.2716:

You can´t run level 80 Dungeons with Level 60 neither.

True, but you know from the beginning that you have to be max level to do max level content. Here, they are suddenly making obsolete all max level gear a lot of people have put time and money to acquire for any content involving agony.

It’s totally different.