Guild Wars 2

Raggzie.8721:

2 days ago I finally got my first exotic set and I was SOOO happy. Now this! I really hope it doesnt take too long or get to be impossible to obtain the armor :‘( Dont break my heart Anet… but hey, if its good it’ll be good! But if its bad.. It’ll be bad… Only time will tell…..

Until tomorrow….

Some people have done the math on gw2hub and I have some bad news for you…

Anet specifically designed this gear for vertical progression and plan for it to last a loooong time.

Xae.7204:

I like the idea.

Near Trivial improvement doesn’t bother me.

This ins’t Molten Core -> BWL.

The overall power creep seems negligible, and it is only being introduced a slot or two at a time.

Yeah, not much difference between this:
http://www.gw2db.com/items/71366-red-ring-of-death

and these:

http://www.gw2db.com/items/58008-ruby-orichalcum-ring
http://www.gw2db.com/items/20923-exquisite-ruby-jewel-s

104 power, 69 precision, 8% crit damage vs. 92 power, 63 precison and 6% crit damage. Those are respective increases of 13%, 9.5% and 33-1/3%. Nope, not much difference at all.

/sarcasm off

Cyanous.4597:

To be honest, I rarely bother to write on forums, but this is just ridiculous.

I can’t understand the amount of anger or distrust that the simple addition of new optional content to the game is creating. No one is or will ever force you to go to the new dungeon or get the new gear, nor you need the new gear to be competitive at any other aspect of the game. The supposed 8% increase to your stats will mean next to nothing in most aspects of the game.

This dungeon seems to be for people that want to try their hand at something that gets progressively harder, both for bragging rights and for the possible rewards that this will yield. If you enjoy this kind of test, now you should be happy. If you don’t, you can still skip the dungeon without being penalized in any way.

This is not the beginning of a gear treadmill, nor it is the end of GW as it stands. If you think it is, maybe you are missing the point that ArenaNet has been trying to adhere to much more than other company: play the game however you want it and have fun.

You enjoy crafting? Go ahead. Dungeons? Sure. Hate those but enjoy trying PvP? Do some WvWvW or tournaments or what have you. Just enjoy the game.

If none of these aspects really interests you, then take a break and stop playing. Being a free to play game, you can always come back whenever you feel like it and dive back into it without having to worry or pay for checking things out to see if things changed to your liking.

They can’t please everybody, but they are doing quite a good job in giving most people a good variety of options to deal with so that they can play however they like.

I will definitely give the new dungeon a shot. If it is not something I enjoy doing, I won’t do it and move to something else. It’s that simple.

This is nothing like 8%

http://i.imgur.com/BeyFB.png

The infusion slot also have stats.

And be sure to check this http://www.gw2db.com/items?filter-item-rarity=8

Where it is the “slight” change from exotics? I am serious, check it, you are going to be amazed.

But don’t jump too high, it takes hundreds of runs. Perhaps the grinders aren’t going to be as elated either.

MissClara.6847:

Can ascended gear be crafted?
If ascended gear cannot be crafted, then how does one acquire it?
What are infusions? Can you “infuse” gear that isn’t ascended?

1. Currently there is no way to craft Ascended tier gear. (A grevious oversight, in my opinion, but PERHAPS ANet may change this with a future update.)

2. As far as I know, the only way to attain Ascended gear is by playing the new Fractals of the Mists dungeon. Completing each fractal gives you 5 (possibly more for higher difficulties) Fractal Relics, which you can trade in with a merchant there for special components. These components, in turn, can be used in the Mystic Forge to create new Ascended items.

Ascended items may also drop from chests or bosses in the dungeon, but I’m not 100% certain on this, so don’t take it as gospel.

3. Infusions are some of the new items that can be created via the Mystic Forge, using components obtained from the Fractal merchant. Only Ascended tier items can be infused (they are the only items with an Infusion slot).

MissClara.6847:

Hi – this is my first forum post – I’m trying to find out more about ascended gear (and I really don’t want to search the last 187 pages of raging) so if anyone out there knows, here are my questions:

Can ascended gear be crafted?
If ascended gear cannot be crafted, then how does one acquire it?
What are infusions? Can you “infuse” gear that isn’t ascended?

If anyone knows anything or a site with “recipes” on ascended gear or items used to create it, I would really appreciate it. My head is spinning with everything that’s going on

Thank you in advance for anyone who replies!

Tomorrow, Anet introduces a new dungeon called the Fractals. But the deeper you go into the Fractals, the more a new condition, called Agony, takes its toll on you. Eventually, the Agony will make it almost impossible to continue.

To counter the Agony, you have to wear Ascended gear. Ascended gear can be equipped with Infusions, which grant stat bonuses and Agony resistance. Only Ascended armor can be infused (however, runes cannot be used on Ascended Armor).

Unfortunately, Ascended Armor has been introduced as a new gear tier. In other words, it is statistically superior to the current top, Exotics (Legendaries have been scaled up to match Ascended). Together with Infusions, Ascended is vastly superior to Exotic Armor in stats, which is concerning for PvE and WvW (Ascended nonfuctional in PvP).
http://www.gw2db.com/items?filter-item-rarity=8
Currently, only back slots and rings exist as Ascended items. However, Anet has stated that they intend to make full Ascended armor sets and weapons.

Anet has stated that eventually, Ascended and Infusion will be able to be obtained through WvW and PvE. Currently, it can only be found within the Fractals, or made by throwing various materials from the Fractals into the Mystic Forge.

I’m thinking that’s true about the grinders. In a few days I’m sure to be entertained by the tears of dungeon runners who have finally realized just how boring and long their new grind is going to be.

Can’t wait!

Ultima Thule.3950:

Cyanous.4597:

To be honest, I rarely bother to write on forums, but this is just ridiculous.

I can’t understand the amount of anger or distrust that the simple addition of new optional content to the game is creating. No one is or will ever force you to go to the new dungeon or get the new gear, nor you need the new gear to be competitive at any other aspect of the game. The supposed 8% increase to your stats will mean next to nothing in most aspects of the game.

This dungeon seems to be for people that want to try their hand at something that gets progressively harder, both for bragging rights and for the possible rewards that this will yield. If you enjoy this kind of test, now you should be happy. If you don’t, you can still skip the dungeon without being penalized in any way.

This is not the beginning of a gear treadmill, nor it is the end of GW as it stands. If you think it is, maybe you are missing the point that ArenaNet has been trying to adhere to much more than other company: play the game however you want it and have fun.

You enjoy crafting? Go ahead. Dungeons? Sure. Hate those but enjoy trying PvP? Do some WvWvW or tournaments or what have you. Just enjoy the game.

If none of these aspects really interests you, then take a break and stop playing. Being a free to play game, you can always come back whenever you feel like it and dive back into it without having to worry or pay for checking things out to see if things changed to your liking.

They can’t please everybody, but they are doing quite a good job in giving most people a good variety of options to deal with so that they can play however they like.

I will definitely give the new dungeon a shot. If it is not something I enjoy doing, I won’t do it and move to something else. It’s that simple.

This is nothing like 8%

http://i.imgur.com/BeyFB.png

The infusion slot also have stats.

And be sure to check this http://www.gw2db.com/items?filter-item-rarity=8

Where it is the “slight” change from exotics? I am serious, check it, you are going to be amazed.

But don’t jump too high, it takes hundreds of runs. Perhaps the grinders aren’t going to be as elated either.

Holy kitten. What the hell is with that ring. Even crap in Diablo doesn’t have that many stats on it….

Oooo account bound too. But don’t worry guys in 4 months you can grind out Helm and ammy. So make sure to come back and do it!….</sarcasm>

good freakin game ANUT….good freakin game..

So, am I the only one here who thinks there’s already plenty of grinding in this game? I’m talking about the personal story- having to run through areas hoping for events to start to level up before doing the next quest. Where’s the complaints on that? GW1 never had it, but i’ve never seen anybody complain over it.

I love roleplaying this game and playing with friends, but if you’re more interested in the plot rather than mass events with others, this game has been a serious level grinder since day 1- hell, I play with friends in events and explore for fun and it’s still a pain to make that 2-3 level gap every time.

If you’re going to criticize this for being against the spirit of the original Guild Wars, why don’t you criticize the lack of AIs you can really fight with, lack of ability to chose all your skills rather than just a few that aren’t set by your weapons, and being able to truly play this on your own? Even if you want to play solo, you still have to do events that will require certain player participation rather than being able to tackle it head on.

And, dat level grinding.

I love how they used the names of stuff from GW1 for all the items, whose purpose runs directly counter to everything we liked about GW1. Just a huge “Fornicate you fans! Sound of troll warming up his voice.” from Anet.

• = adjusted for auto-filter

Logun.2349:

Cyanous.4597:

To be honest, I rarely bother to write on forums, but this is just ridiculous.

I can’t understand the amount of anger or distrust that the simple addition of new optional content to the game is creating. No one is or will ever force you to go to the new dungeon or get the new gear, nor you need the new gear to be competitive at any other aspect of the game. The supposed 8% increase to your stats will mean next to nothing in most aspects of the game.

This dungeon seems to be for people that want to try their hand at something that gets progressively harder, both for bragging rights and for the possible rewards that this will yield. If you enjoy this kind of test, now you should be happy. If you don’t, you can still skip the dungeon without being penalized in any way.

This is not the beginning of a gear treadmill, nor it is the end of GW as it stands. If you think it is, maybe you are missing the point that ArenaNet has been trying to adhere to much more than other company: play the game however you want it and have fun.

You enjoy crafting? Go ahead. Dungeons? Sure. Hate those but enjoy trying PvP? Do some WvWvW or tournaments or what have you. Just enjoy the game.

If none of these aspects really interests you, then take a break and stop playing. Being a free to play game, you can always come back whenever you feel like it and dive back into it without having to worry or pay for checking things out to see if things changed to your liking.

They can’t please everybody, but they are doing quite a good job in giving most people a good variety of options to deal with so that they can play however they like.

I will definitely give the new dungeon a shot. If it is not something I enjoy doing, I won’t do it and move to something else. It’s that simple.

It’s going to be more than an 8% increase since we know now that infusion are going to have stats as well. And if you read back a bit you’ll see on the Reddit post they are not confirming that this will be the last gear level increase we’ll see. They also said the rest of the end game New and existing content will be adjusted for the new tier. So you will need this gear for open world endgame content.

Done. I Quit. This is the worst thing that could have ever possibly happened: They have automatically said “you can’t play our game if you do get our gear.” And this will be a grind like you wouldn’t believe, something, I’m not going to tolerate.

AzureNightmare.3914:

So, am I the only one here who thinks there’s already plenty of grinding in this game? I’m talking about the personal story- having to run through areas hoping for events to start to level up before doing the next quest. Where’s the complaints on that? GW1 never had it, but i’ve never seen anybody complain over it.

I love roleplaying this game and playing with friends, but if you’re more interested in the plot rather than mass events with others, this game has been a serious level grinder since day 1- hell, I play with friends in events and explore for fun and it’s still a pain to make that 2-3 level gap every time.

If you’re going to criticize this for being against the spirit of the original Guild Wars, why don’t you criticize the lack of AIs you can really fight with, lack of ability to chose all your skills rather than just a few that aren’t set by your weapons, and being able to truly play this on your own? Even if you want to play solo, you still have to do events that will require certain player participation rather than being able to tackle it head on.

And, dat level grinding.

LOL Azure,

Unfortunately I only played the Original for a Month, and thought the companions AI was dumber than a box of rocks, SO I sont get an infraction on topic below

Yes the stat increase is well above 8% unlike advertised

at least group the stats….why do we have to read 16 lines of stats..

I got a ring today guys its has.
+1 Power
+2 Power
-3 Power
+4 1/2 Power
+1 Power
+1/2 Power
-2 Power

A free cookie to whoever solves my math problem!

I find the comparison of the GW1 addition of additional stat bonuses comparable to this to be an insulting lie. Addition upgrades in GW1 (of which there were very few) are comparable to… aditional upgrades in GW2, such as a new rune. Something which doesn’t do something completely new, just adds variety to what was already done, like the Mad King Runes. There was very little (if any) outcry over those because they were like the GW1 runes.

Sometimes the limited feedback we get from the community managers seems more like it’s to antagonise and argue with their manipulative selection of “facts” which don’t line up, rather than the concerns being accurately understood and considered. It seems like they are forcing the point, saying “don’t worry, you’ll like it once we do it to you,” rather than listening to what people are saying now.

what did you guys do from 1 to 80? Sit on the same gear for 80 levels? Get used to it: GW and GW2 were always games where you got better gear while playing the content. Now that there is new content, there is new gear. It’s a reward mechanism; you get your shiny because you do well.

There is no gating, no treadmill: all of the new content (9 shards, new zone etc) is fully available for everyone. People with exotics are free to try it. Hell, even people with rare only will be able to beat this content…

…and then there is this new stuff: the challenge mode aka scaling dungeon. You’ve probably seen the 9 shards (all of the new dungeon) a couple of times when you find the same shards become much harder. So if you want to try this new difficulty mode you’ll have to devote yourself to it. You’ll have to use the Infusion-loot you aquired while playing the new dungeon in order to unlock the same stages in a more difficult version. You could try it without, but you will probably die. It’s the same as the dungeons before: if you are lv.20 you shouldn’t try Ascalon Catacombs. You’d die horribly.

Don’t forget: you’ll be able to choose a lower difficulty. You don’t need to play the dungeon on lv.5 when you go in there with friends. Show them the shards on lv.2 if you like.

so this is positive:
-) all content available to everyone – horizontal progression
-) challenge mode for people who need vertical progression – something to work towards

AzureNightmare.3914:

So, am I the only one here who thinks there’s already plenty of grinding in this game? I’m talking about the personal story- having to run through areas hoping for events to start to level up before doing the next quest. Where’s the complaints on that? GW1 never had it, but i’ve never seen anybody complain over it.

I love roleplaying this game and playing with friends, but if you’re more interested in the plot rather than mass events with others, this game has been a serious level grinder since day 1- hell, I play with friends in events and explore for fun and it’s still a pain to make that 2-3 level gap every time.

If you’re going to criticize this for being against the spirit of the original Guild Wars, why don’t you criticize the lack of AIs you can really fight with, lack of ability to chose all your skills rather than just a few that aren’t set by your weapons, and being able to truly play this on your own? Even if you want to play solo, you still have to do events that will require certain player participation rather than being able to tackle it head on.

And, dat level grinding.

I never played GW1 so can’t comment on that but for me the thing that made me endure the times that felt like grinding was that at least there was an end to it that I could look forward to.
I also didn’t run around looking for events to fill levels, when I came to a point where the mobs where to high level I would go do some crafting, exploration or wvw (in other words, stuff I enjoy doing).

Shiren.9532:

I find the comparison of the GW1 addition of additional stat bonuses comparable to this to be an insulting lie. Addition upgrades in GW1 (of which there were very few) are comparable to… aditional upgrades in GW2, such as a new rune. Something which doesn’t do something completely new, just adds variety to what was already done, like the Mad King Runes. There was very little (if any) outcry over those because they were like the GW1 runes.

Sometimes the limited feedback we get from the community managers seems more like it’s to antagonise and argue with their manipulative selection of “facts” which don’t line up, rather than the concerns being accurately understood and considered. It seems like they are forcing the point, saying “don’t worry, you’ll like it once we do it to you,” rather than listening to what people are saying now.

To increase the power of a legendary in GW2 would be like increasing the armor of FoW armor in GW1. Both are items attained through acquiring multiple rare materials. The difference is now 1 is required to be top geared.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

what did you guys do from 1 to 80?

Grit my teeth and wait for it to be over so that I could be maxed out and actually start playing the game instead of working on my character.

(I wasn’t willing to put up with even that much grind on my second and third characters; I crafted right to 80.)

Arreyanne.2683:

AzureNightmare.3914:

So, am I the only one here who thinks there’s already plenty of grinding in this game? I’m talking about the personal story- having to run through areas hoping for events to start to level up before doing the next quest. Where’s the complaints on that? GW1 never had it, but i’ve never seen anybody complain over it.

I love roleplaying this game and playing with friends, but if you’re more interested in the plot rather than mass events with others, this game has been a serious level grinder since day 1- hell, I play with friends in events and explore for fun and it’s still a pain to make that 2-3 level gap every time.

If you’re going to criticize this for being against the spirit of the original Guild Wars, why don’t you criticize the lack of AIs you can really fight with, lack of ability to chose all your skills rather than just a few that aren’t set by your weapons, and being able to truly play this on your own? Even if you want to play solo, you still have to do events that will require certain player participation rather than being able to tackle it head on.

And, dat level grinding.

LOL Azure,

Unfortunately I only played the Original for a Month, and thought the companions AI was dumber than a box of rocks, SO I sont get an infraction on topic below

Yes the stat increase is well above 8% unlike advertised

Good, good game, I still recommend it <:

Not gonna lie, heroes and henchmen could have their tendencies to kitten out, but it was still pretty fun- that you could truly play the entire game by yourself if you wanted to, that if you wanted to you could really make it a single player game.

… Well, excluding Gyala Hatchery and The Eternal Grove, anyways. Kitten them. Kitten them to the Underworld- especially now that GW1’s servers are much more quiet and they don’t have large groups in their outposts anymore looking for players.

That being said though, I still can’t help but feel this was always a game that required grinding if you wanted to advance in the story, something I felt GW1 never really required- not because it leveled with you, but for the most part you were always on the same level as the rest of the game even when they start going level 20+ when you’re just 20. To me, the whole anti-grinding thing… was never there for day one to me.

EDIT: … Really? D-rp gets censored to kitten? Really? How is that even a bad word?

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

so this is positive:
-) all content available to everyone – horizontal progression
-) challenge mode for people who need vertical progression – something to work towards

Correction:

all content is available to everyone who wants to grind a dungeon

Those of us who play this game because we believed we could play the way WE WANTED without feeling left behind are screwed. I play WvW solely. I am now being set up to be at a statistical disadvantage to those who want to grind dungeons. I have no interest in grinding dungeons, I don’t play other MMOs for that reason and I play this one because I was told (by their manifesto and their overall original game design) that I would be able to play the way I wanted.

This is clearly not the case.

there are many post regarding how ppl feel towards Ascended gear both for and against it so here is what i recon should happen

Allow us to trade our exotics in for it

Thank you Ostra.3927, Hilko.1760, Zaxares.5419, and Sirge.8934 . It’s been so easy to find photos of gear, but a lot harder to come across solid information.

I guess this doesn’t really affect me personally as a player too much (not a big fan of WvW), except that I really like to craft things, so it’s too bad they can’t be crafted right now (hope to see that changed!).

Sirge – I can see how this gear may make one player slightly stronger in WvW, and frustrate people as a result since it is competitive, but my question is why do you (and many others who share your opinion) find it concerning that a player may have a few extra stats in PvE? It’s not like anyone is ever rooting for the E to beat the P (okay, maybe with a few exceptions for the especially annoying people out there). Just playing. Also, thank you for your very informative response (and please don’t misconstrue this as trolling or baiting, I guess I just don’t see why people are too upset outside of the effects this may have in WvW).

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

what did you guys do from 1 to 80? Sit on the same gear for 80 levels? Get used to it: GW and GW2 were always games where you got better gear while playing the content. Now that there is new content, there is new gear. It’s a reward mechanism; you get your shiny because you do well.

Except that in GW1, the new gear you got was for looks only. So no, there is no comparing the horizontal progression of the original GW to the stat-increasing vertical progression they’ve just added.

I would have been happy if they had added a form of grinding so long as it didn’t add any stats to armor. With stat increases at end-game you always risk creating gated content and requiring players to grind long hours (even if they don’t enjoy that playstyle at all) just to see the parts of the game they do enjoy.

I gotta be honest. I came into the knowledge of this new gear freaking out and thinking it was the end of the world. But now that I have seen the stats and how easy they are to obtain, I’ve come to realize that my faith in ANet should have been stronger.

These new items are exactly what the game needed. Anyone that wasn’t happy with the missing stat grind before is WELCOME to spend 90 hours running the same dungeon paths 360 times to acquire them, AND THEY SHOULD… I mean LOOK AT THOSE STATS.

In before ANet patches in the inability to use Ascended gear in WvW and open world PvE. You wanted stat grind, we gotcha stat grind right here.

AzureNightmare.3914:

That being said though, I still can’t help but feel this was always a game that required grinding if you wanted to advance in the story, something I felt GW1 never really required- not because it leveled with you, but for the most part you were always on the same level as the rest of the game even when they start going level 20+ when you’re just 20. To me, the whole anti-grinding thing… was never there for day one to me.

The thing is, most of the grinds that were there have been optional. 400 crafting, dungeon tokens, karma, etc- all for cosmetic rewards or minor tweaks to stat distribution. The grind for basic exotics was moderate, and only had to be done once per character, so it gave a nice sense of fulfillment and freedom when you finally finished. Everything after that is just for the sense of accomplishment, and optional in regards to gameplay.

The new items completely eliminate that paradigm. Optional, side-grade grinding is dead. Wandering aimlessly to see what happens, leveling alts without guilt or rush, sitting back and reading the dialogue and lore, is now a dead gameplay style.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

what did you guys do from 1 to 80? Sit on the same gear for 80 levels?

No, I geared up and HATED EVERY SECOND OF IT. All I wanted was to get to that final plateau where I never had to worry about making sure my boots weren’t out of date. I hated seeing all of my hard earned money disappear every 10 levels because I had to grind out crafting or purchase stuff through the TP just to keep up with my content level.

If only the story actually gave decent leveling gear instead of blue pieces with crappy stat distributions.

MissClara.6847:

Thank you Ostra.3927, Hilko.1760, Zaxares.5419, and Sirge.8934 . It’s been so easy to find photos of gear, but a lot harder to come across solid information.

I guess this doesn’t really affect me personally as a player too much (not a big fan of WvW), except that I really like to craft things, so it’s too bad they can’t be crafted right now (hope to see that changed!).

Sirge – I can see how this gear may make one player slightly stronger in WvW, and frustrate people as a result since it is competitive, but my question is why do you (and many others who share your opinion) find it concerning that a player may have a few extra stats in PvE? It’s not like anyone is ever rooting for the E to beat the P (okay, maybe with a few exceptions for the especially annoying people out there). Just playing. Also, thank you for your very informative response (and please don’t misconstrue this as trolling or baiting, I guess I just don’t see why people are too upset outside of the effects this may have in WvW).

A few extra stats (i’d say more than a few according to the screens) and a few more stats to come with newer gear items is the beginning of a rift between the “elite” and the players. It’s all about being on a level playing field as everyone else in the game. PvE, WvW, sPvP, it doen’t matter but a stat increase is a stat increase.

Guild Wars was a game that once you hit that max gear ceiling the only thing stopping you from succeeding was your noobness or lack of knowledge/skill.

Kozmec.1280:

I gotta be honest. I came into the knowledge of this new gear freaking out and thinking it was the end of the world. But now that I have seen the stats and how easy they are to obtain, I’ve come to realize that my faith in ANet should have been stronger.

These new items are exactly what the game needed. Anyone that wasn’t happy with the missing stat grind before is WELCOME to spend 90 hours running the same dungeon paths 360 times to acquire them, AND THEY SHOULD… I mean LOOK AT THOSE STATS.

In before ANet patches in the inability to use Ascended gear in WvW and open world PvE. You wanted stat grind, we gotcha stat grind right here.

For those that couldn’t tell (and there will be some) this is sarcasm. I had to read it a couple times myself before I noticed.

I’m starting to think there should be a “Poe’s Law” for generic sarcasm as well.

Omega.1473:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

what did you guys do from 1 to 80? Sit on the same gear for 80 levels?

No, I geared up and HATED EVERY SECOND OF IT. All I wanted was to get to that final plateau where I never had to worry about making sure my boots weren’t out of date. I hated seeing all of my hard earned money disappear every 10 levels because I had to grind out crafting or purchase stuff through the TP just to keep up with my content level.

If only the story actually gave decent leveling gear instead of blue pieces with crappy stat distributions.

This is how I feel about gearing up. I don’t want to chase numbers over and over.

AzureNightmare.3914:

So, am I the only one here who thinks there’s already plenty of grinding in this game? I’m talking about the personal story- having to run through areas hoping for events to start to level up before doing the next quest. Where’s the complaints on that? GW1 never had it, but i’ve never seen anybody complain over it.

I love roleplaying this game and playing with friends, but if you’re more interested in the plot rather than mass events with others, this game has been a serious level grinder since day 1- hell, I play with friends in events and explore for fun and it’s still a pain to make that 2-3 level gap every time.

If you’re going to criticize this for being against the spirit of the original Guild Wars, why don’t you criticize the lack of AIs you can really fight with, lack of ability to chose all your skills rather than just a few that aren’t set by your weapons, and being able to truly play this on your own? Even if you want to play solo, you still have to do events that will require certain player participation rather than being able to tackle it head on.

And, dat level grinding.

Make sure you go to other races areas, for example in my case I mainly level off of my races areas (I favor the areas of the norm and charr, but I don’t have any myself, and my default “home” is Hoelbrak, home instance included, despite I am no norm ) The map is huge, don’t remain doing what is “expected”

But in general I agree with you, but you won’t get anything better in today’s MMO market (that is, until the patch hits). Personally I am trying GW1 now, (yep incredibly I never played it until now) I have no idea yet if I will go beyond the trial, but who knows this fiasco might drawn people back there, in the other hand many might not be in the mood to give any more money to Anet.

But other companies will notice this, someone will pick this up.

MissClara.6847:

Thank you Ostra.3927, Hilko.1760, Zaxares.5419, and Sirge.8934 . It’s been so easy to find photos of gear, but a lot harder to come across solid information.

I guess this doesn’t really affect me personally as a player too much (not a big fan of WvW), except that I really like to craft things, so it’s too bad they can’t be crafted right now (hope to see that changed!).

Sirge – I can see how this gear may make one player slightly stronger in WvW, and frustrate people as a result since it is competitive, but my question is why do you (and many others who share your opinion) find it concerning that a player may have a few extra stats in PvE? It’s not like anyone is ever rooting for the E to beat the P (okay, maybe with a few exceptions for the especially annoying people out there). Just playing. Also, thank you for your very informative response (and please don’t misconstrue this as trolling or baiting, I guess I just don’t see why people are too upset outside of the effects this may have in WvW).

PvE players are upset because they see this as the beginning of a “gear treadmill” – basically, players will have to play through hours and hours and hours (90 for one piece last someone calculated) just to gear themselves out to be able to have the “best stats”. Eventually people will begin to plateau and you’ll hit groups that demand that everyone involved have those stats; if you don’t, you’re kicked from the group. Then new content comes out that gives even better stats, and if you don’t have the previous “best stats”, you can’t play that content or you get kicked from groups a lot (the content becomes “gated”), and the cycle repeats. This is the basic formula of many MMOs such as WoW and while some players enjoy it, others are getting very tired of always having to grind through content they hate just to be eligible for the content they do want to see. Also, many players are upset on principle because they were promised at the launch of GW2 that there would never be such a gear grind. It wouldn’t be so irritating if there were more MMOs that don’t require players to grind for gear, but sadly, those are few and far between.

Probably not the best explanation ever but I hope that cleared things up a bit. Of course, everyone has their own reasons for liking or not liking something, and can probably expand on what I’ve written here.

Kozmec.1280:

I gotta be honest. I came into the knowledge of this new gear freaking out and thinking it was the end of the world. But now that I have seen the stats and how easy they are to obtain, I’ve come to realize that my faith in ANet should have been stronger.

These new items are exactly what the game needed. Anyone that wasn’t happy with the missing stat grind before is WELCOME to spend 90 hours running the same dungeon paths 360 times to acquire them, AND THEY SHOULD… I mean LOOK AT THOSE STATS.

In before ANet patches in the inability to use Ascended gear in WvW and open world PvE. You wanted stat grind, we gotcha stat grind right here.

90 hours per piece is easy? for you perhaps. I won’t get a piece in fewer than 3 months.

Columba.9730:

Kozmec.1280:

I gotta be honest. I came into the knowledge of this new gear freaking out and thinking it was the end of the world. But now that I have seen the stats and how easy they are to obtain, I’ve come to realize that my faith in ANet should have been stronger.

These new items are exactly what the game needed. Anyone that wasn’t happy with the missing stat grind before is WELCOME to spend 90 hours running the same dungeon paths 360 times to acquire them, AND THEY SHOULD… I mean LOOK AT THOSE STATS.

In before ANet patches in the inability to use Ascended gear in WvW and open world PvE. You wanted stat grind, we gotcha stat grind right here.

90 hours per piece is easy? for you perhaps. I won’t get a piece in fewer than 3 months.

Nah, I uninstalled this thing 5 minutes after I read the blog post. <3 the new gear, making getting back to real life easy since November 13th.

Columba.9730:

Kozmec.1280:

I gotta be honest. I came into the knowledge of this new gear freaking out and thinking it was the end of the world. But now that I have seen the stats and how easy they are to obtain, I’ve come to realize that my faith in ANet should have been stronger.

These new items are exactly what the game needed. Anyone that wasn’t happy with the missing stat grind before is WELCOME to spend 90 hours running the same dungeon paths 360 times to acquire them, AND THEY SHOULD… I mean LOOK AT THOSE STATS.

In before ANet patches in the inability to use Ascended gear in WvW and open world PvE. You wanted stat grind, we gotcha stat grind right here.

90 hours per piece is easy? for you perhaps. I won’t get a piece in fewer than 3 months.

He/She was being sarcastic.

MissClara.6847:

Thank you Ostra.3927, Hilko.1760, Zaxares.5419, and Sirge.8934 . It’s been so easy to find photos of gear, but a lot harder to come across solid information.

I guess this doesn’t really affect me personally as a player too much (not a big fan of WvW), except that I really like to craft things, so it’s too bad they can’t be crafted right now (hope to see that changed!).

Sirge – I can see how this gear may make one player slightly stronger in WvW, and frustrate people as a result since it is competitive, but my question is why do you (and many others who share your opinion) find it concerning that a player may have a few extra stats in PvE? It’s not like anyone is ever rooting for the E to beat the P (okay, maybe with a few exceptions for the especially annoying people out there). Just playing. Also, thank you for your very informative response (and please don’t misconstrue this as trolling or baiting, I guess I just don’t see why people are too upset outside of the effects this may have in WvW).

It’s not a small stats advantage. See my post on this page for one item:

Yeah, not much difference between this:
http://www.gw2db.com/items/71366-red-ring-of-death
and these:
http://www.gw2db.com/items/58008-ruby-orichalcum-ring
http://www.gw2db.com/items/20923-exquisite-ruby-jewel-s
104 power, 69 precision, 8% crit damage vs. 92 power, 63 precison and 6% crit damage. Those are respective increases of 13%, 9.5% and 33-1/3%. Nope, not much difference at all.
/sarcasm off

13% increase on the primary stat. That’s a significant advantage when you consider there will eventually be ascended pieces for every slot. That means someone with 2500 power (made up number for comparison’s sake) would end up with 2825 power when upgraded to ascended gear. That’s pretty kitten significant. The best food only gives something like 100 power and every serious WvW player runs food buffs.

The worst part about this is the grind required to get this stuff. I simply will not do it, it’s way too much and I don’t have the time for it. However, there are plenty of people with a lot more time on their hands than I have that will do it and also do WvW so I’m left to either play WvW with a sub-par character or quit the game because WvW is my primary motivation for playing GW2. I really don’t want to fight uphill all the time with a sub-par character so I guess the choice is clear.

Hilko.1760:

Guild Wars was a game that once you hit that max gear ceiling the only thing stopping you from succeeding was your noobness or lack of knowledge/skill.

First, thank you for your response earlier as well. Really cleared things up

I will agree with you on this point, except that I don’t think it should be in the past tense (yet, anyways). – I am a very casual player. I might play 2-3 hours in one day tops, maybe three days a week. I never play on weekends because I have a lot of other things to do, and I still enjoy playing a lot of other games. I just hit 80 on my first character, and have 3 pieces of exotic gear. I like PvE the most, and I actually do find enjoyment in running dungeons, exploring maps, gathering and crafting.

I am not likely to ever spend time “grinding” in order to obtain an item. Legendary weapons are out of the question for me, and that’s fine by me. If I come across ascended gear in a dungeon run, that’s great, but I won’t go out of my way to run dungeons if I don’t enjoy them just for gear (I’m not criticizing anyone who does, that’s just my own personal play style).

My point is, that as long as I can still enjoy running dungeons, and face and “beat” new content with rare/exotic gear, then the ascended gears won’t ever bother me, like legendaries. However, if I ever get to new map where my level is on par with the map and I physically(?) cannot advance unless I get ascended/legendary gear, that will be my dealbreaker. I guess we’ll just see how things play out tomorrow by seeing how hard it is to drop ascended gear

Hilko.1760:

MissClara.6847:

Thank you Ostra.3927, Hilko.1760, Zaxares.5419, and Sirge.8934 . It’s been so easy to find photos of gear, but a lot harder to come across solid information.

I guess this doesn’t really affect me personally as a player too much (not a big fan of WvW), except that I really like to craft things, so it’s too bad they can’t be crafted right now (hope to see that changed!).

Sirge – I can see how this gear may make one player slightly stronger in WvW, and frustrate people as a result since it is competitive, but my question is why do you (and many others who share your opinion) find it concerning that a player may have a few extra stats in PvE? It’s not like anyone is ever rooting for the E to beat the P (okay, maybe with a few exceptions for the especially annoying people out there). Just playing. Also, thank you for your very informative response (and please don’t misconstrue this as trolling or baiting, I guess I just don’t see why people are too upset outside of the effects this may have in WvW).

A few extra stats (i’d say more than a few according to the screens) and a few more stats to come with newer gear items is the beginning of a rift between the “elite” and the players. It’s all about being on a level playing field as everyone else in the game. PvE, WvW, sPvP, it doen’t matter but a stat increase is a stat increase.

Guild Wars was a game that once you hit that max gear ceiling the only thing stopping you from succeeding was your noobness or lack of knowledge/skill.

To expand on what Hilko has said, it primarily raises fears of “elitism” and segregation among the PvE community. There are already people out there who spam messages like “LF3M for Arah, no Exotics = no Invite!” in town. While it’s true that you can still beat dungeons with players outfitted in Masterwork/Rare (or even Blue items!), the extra stats provided by Exotics do offer a greater buffer against failure for less skilled groups, and among higher-skilled groups, enables them to complete dungeons faster.

The greater plateau of power provided by Ascended items raises these fears to a new level, and because Ascended items appear to take a considerable amount of effort to get, many players fear they simply won’t be able to compete.

The second, and perhaps greater, fear among players is that Ascended items are only the beginning, and that down the track will continue to release higher and higher-powered items, resulting in a “gear treadmill” where players play for hours each day to attain the next tier of items, only to have the next content introduce even more powerful items, forcing them to repeat the process all over again. It’s like a moving set of goal posts; you will never be able to reach the finish line, no matter how hard you try. This fear is exacerbated by the fact that ANet so far has not outright denied the possibility of introducing higher tiers in the future. (I imagine that this is simply them not wanting to paint themselves into a corner. They probably have no plans to introduce more right now, but if they come to that decision in the future, they don’t want to have players howling that they “broke their promise! Again!”)

@Zaxares: People are really saying that they won’t invite if you don’t have exotic gear?! I haven’t seen that yet in Jade Quarry (but I don’t play an awful lot). Real shame. I don’t yet know how this will turn, but I am just hoping that ascended won’t be ridiculously hard to find if the bonuses will be so large. Another thing, a lot screens show that the gear is account-bound. I hope it’s not – it would be good to sell on the TP to make available to more players (that, and I have the awful luck of getting great items that I can never use, example, heavy gear and bows when I play a necromancer).

I bet this is getting a good laugh at some other game companies, and a few “I told you so’s” around their dev cubicles.

I bought GW2, so I intend to play it…my way. I actually like leveling, and personal story, map completion, WvW and sPvP. If WvW gets stupid over gear, then I’ll just stick with sPvP.

I’m not having anything to do with this new content. Not doing event, not doing dungeon, not buying from gem store.

I’ll have to decide what to do about gear at 80, but since people have done content that’s here so far without Ascended gear, can’t think why I would need it. In the meantime, will be interesting to watch how it all plays out.

drwookie.6391:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

so this is positive:
-) all content available to everyone – horizontal progression
-) challenge mode for people who need vertical progression – something to work towards

Correction:

all content is available to everyone who wants to grind a dungeon

Those of us who play this game because we believed we could play the way WE WANTED without feeling left behind are screwed. I play WvW solely. I am now being set up to be at a statistical disadvantage to those who want to grind dungeons. I have no interest in grinding dungeons, I don’t play other MMOs for that reason and I play this one because I was told (by their manifesto and their overall original game design) that I would be able to play the way I wanted.

This is clearly not the case.

did you even read my post?

all content IS available, you don’t need to grind the dungeon. Every shard can be played with the gear you have before entering the dungeon. It’s only the harder difficulties of this shards (this is not new content, only the same content with more healthpoints) which you need to devote for – aka grind.

WvW is great. No need to visit the dungeon for best loot. Chris already stated that the new tier (ascended) will be available in WvW also.

You absolutely can play the game you want. Others want grind. Where can they find it? It was said in the Manifesto that you could play the way you want. Now those people can finally find it in the new dungeon.

again: the new dungeon (all 9 shards) are playable without grind. There is this optional component to it that you can get to harder difficulties in this dungeon by grinding Infusion. Optional.

stpetemermaid.5947:

I bet this is getting a good laugh at some other game companies, and a few “I told you so’s” around their dev cubicles.

I bought GW2, so I intend to play it…my way. I actually like leveling, and personal story, map completion, WvW and sPvP. If WvW gets stupid over gear, then I’ll just stick with sPvP.

The problem with that idea for me is that sPvP is a totally different game from WvW with the small teams and control points (I like killing people, not running around capping points.) I do the public games for a diversion at times but I’ve never been able to really get into it. Still, good for you if you can find solace there.

WvW is great. No need to visit the dungeon for best loot. Chris already stated that the new tier (ascended) will be available in WvW also.

note he didnt say when. if yet another tier of gear comes out after ascended, this could happen when ascended goes out of date. other games do this often, make the previous tier super easy to get when its outdated.

I think I am going to take a break.

I’ve played way too much GW2. I’ve dumped money into the gemstore because I wanted to support the game. You’ve lost that support.

For the record, I have purchased $240+ worth of GW2 merchandise be it copies for hesitant friends or gems. I did this completely satisfied, because I believed Anet’s marketing lies. This satisfaction has turned to something sour.

Anet/NCsoft – you’re doing this to yourself. You’re killing your game not even six months out of the gate. You’re souring your core player base who bought into your idea of a non-progression MMO.

Very disappointing.

MissClara.6847:

@Zaxares: People are really saying that they won’t invite if you don’t have exotic gear?! I haven’t seen that yet in Jade Quarry (but I don’t play an awful lot). Real shame. I don’t yet know how this will turn, but I am just hoping that ascended won’t be ridiculously hard to find if the bonuses will be so large. Another thing, a lot screens show that the gear is account-bound. I hope it’s not – it would be good to sell on the TP to make available to more players (that, and I have the awful luck of getting great items that I can never use, example, heavy gear and bows when I play a necromancer).

I’ve only seen it once or twice on my server (Tarnished Coast), so they are the minority, but the risk is always there. When you’re putting together a group for a dungeon and you have two candidates for the final spot, one with all Exotics, and one with all Greens, who would you pick, all other things being equal?

And yes, it does seem that all Ascended gear is currently account bound. (In some ways, that’s a good thing, because it prevents players from simply buying their way to the highest tier of power.) At the same time, if Ascended items do drop randomly from the Fractals dungeon, it would be incredibly annoying to get stuck with an item whose stats you don’t like or that don’t suit your build. (I have 5 characters myself, so usually what I can’t use on one character can find a use on another.)

That said, it is still early days. ANet could always introduce crafting recipes for Ascended items down the line, or make any number of changes that could affect this situation. For now, I’d recommend just enjoying the Lost Shores content, maybe give Fractals a try, and wait and see what happens next.

Crater.1625:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

what did you guys do from 1 to 80?

Grit my teeth and wait for it to be over so that I could be maxed out and actually start playing the game instead of working on my character.

(I wasn’t willing to put up with even that much grind on my second and third characters; I crafted right to 80.)

Come on, there is so much to do without the need to work on your character. I can’t see where I have to work on my character in GW2 when playing the game. It’s not like there is a gearcheck ANYWHERE. I was fully able to go to Orr with my lv.71+ gear and had no problems at all. Even dungeons are no problem if you are a good player. Skill > Gear in GW2 – proven true for me because I experienced it this way.

Please tell me where you had to grind in order to play the game. Maybe you’re doing it wrong.

+ see: it has been made entirely possible to level your characters by crafting. This is intended, it caters to you. Where is your problem?

Osprey.6587:

stpetemermaid.5947:

I bet this is getting a good laugh at some other game companies, and a few “I told you so’s” around their dev cubicles.

I bought GW2, so I intend to play it…my way. I actually like leveling, and personal story, map completion, WvW and sPvP. If WvW gets stupid over gear, then I’ll just stick with sPvP.

The problem with that idea for me is that sPvP is a totally different game from WvW with the small teams and control points (I like killing people, not running around capping points.) I do the public games for a diversion at times but I’ve never been able to really get into it. Still, good for you if you can find solace there.

I agree that they are very different. I was actually looking forward to WvW more, but I won’t grind gear for it, or MF. Have done that too much for PvP in other games. It’s a shame that the Ascended gear is going to affect WvW too.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

drwookie.6391:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

so this is positive:
-) all content available to everyone – horizontal progression
-) challenge mode for people who need vertical progression – something to work towards

Correction:

all content is available to everyone who wants to grind a dungeon

Those of us who play this game because we believed we could play the way WE WANTED without feeling left behind are screwed. I play WvW solely. I am now being set up to be at a statistical disadvantage to those who want to grind dungeons. I have no interest in grinding dungeons, I don’t play other MMOs for that reason and I play this one because I was told (by their manifesto and their overall original game design) that I would be able to play the way I wanted.

This is clearly not the case.

did you even read my post?

all content IS available, you don’t need to grind the dungeon. Every shard can be played with the gear you have before entering the dungeon. It’s only the harder difficulties of this shards (this is not new content, only the same content with more healthpoints) which you need to devote for – aka grind.

WvW is great. No need to visit the dungeon for best loot. Chris already stated that the new tier (ascended) will be available in WvW also.

Notice he didn’t say how it would be obtained. Currently there are two ways to get exotics in WvW. You can get them as loot drops off players (lol, yeah that happens frequently :P) or you can buy them with Badges of Honor. Only problem with the latter is it costs 300-400 badges per piece and they only have one stat configuration which is power/toughness/vitality IIRC. So if you’re a condition damage build, you’re SOL. Needless to say, I have only gotten one exotic piece across my 3 characters from WvW even though that is what I do the most. That wasn’t a big deal to me because I was able to get my exotics fairly easily through other means. With ascended gear, I won’t be able to. Whiteside can say it will be available in WvW all he wants but unless something changes radically with how gear is currently obtained from WvW, it’s not a viable source.

To those that say it does not affect you so you have a wait and see. This is valid and if I had not seen this kind of thing happen in plenty of other MMOs I would be in your shoes.

Here is what will happen assuming they only add more tiers of items every say 6 months from here on out.

Week 1 ascended gear comes out. Exotics will drop in price slightly meaning it will be easier to gear up for those looking to start the treadmill.

week 2 The grinders are are getting close to finding the sweetspot for the dungeon runs. LFG for FoTM will start seeing “LFG for FoTM lvl 2 only send /w”

Week 4 “LFG for FoTM lvl 4 only +link ascended gear” Those without will begin waiting a longer and longer time to get a group together. Current dungeons will be nearly abondoned as PUGS except for COF and AC with the popular skins.

Week 6 Current dungeons nearly a ghost town except for guild invites only. Grinders have flooded the market with un-wanted exotics that no-one wants to buy anymore. Your exotics will be worth what lvl 80 greens are now. WvW will be ran by the richer guilds that have grinded out the new FoTM dungeon for their ascended gear.

Week 12 Anet announced a new infusion that gives better stats. IF you were lucky to get infused before to max level you will now be forced to do the grind again to stay up with your friends.

Week 16 Anet announces the old dungeons are getting a revamp, new upscaled rewards to make the grinders want it and harder enemies to match the ascended stats. Those new players or casual players that still have exotics or lower? They are not going to be able to play the dungeon until they grind out the 600k karma in Orr to get the exotics, to be able to begin running the lowest levels of the FoTM dungeon.

6 months later, they announce the “Blessed” series of armor and increase its stats another 30% above the ascended gear and bump legendary (or maybe even replace) to match. And it starts all over again.

This is the structure of what is to come. The time frame may be less or more but this WILL be the future, as it has always been the future for a gear based treadmill.

Kudzu.7569:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

what did you guys do from 1 to 80? Sit on the same gear for 80 levels? Get used to it: GW and GW2 were always games where you got better gear while playing the content. Now that there is new content, there is new gear. It’s a reward mechanism; you get your shiny because you do well.

Except that in GW1, the new gear you got was for looks only. So no, there is no comparing the horizontal progression of the original GW to the stat-increasing vertical progression they’ve just added.

I would have been happy if they had added a form of grinding so long as it didn’t add any stats to armor. With stat increases at end-game you always risk creating gated content and requiring players to grind long hours (even if they don’t enjoy that playstyle at all) just to see the parts of the game they do enjoy.

Really? I thought I’ve seen some green items somewhere when sorrows furnace was released…

What do we know of tiers in GW2 so far? Do we have to grind those new tier items for weeks like in other games? So far: No. Why should it be different now? They already said that Infusion is the thing you will have to grind, not ascended gear. Do we have to use a new tier in order to play new content in GW2? Absolutely No. The new dungeon (all 9 shards) are entirely open to everyone; even to everyone without ascended gear. You’ll only need this gear in order to unlock a new difficulty – for the same content. So you don’t need to grind for new content but for a new difficulty.

@ Osprey : You’re forgetting the easiest way to get Exotics through WvWvW – buy it off the TP with gold. I’ve made a profit on most nights in the Mists and was able to buy an Exalted medium helm to transmute with my earnings.

Can we do that with Ascended gear? Nope. Everything so far is account bound.

Omega.1473:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

what did you guys do from 1 to 80? Sit on the same gear for 80 levels?

No, I geared up and HATED EVERY SECOND OF IT.

Lol why do you still play a game you hate then? I don’t buy Need for Speed, realize that I hate it, play on and on and go to the forums and cry about it. If you hate the main content of GW2, then why bother playing it? Just to troll in the forums?