Guild Wars 2

Has anyone seen exactly what it takes to get this gear? The info is coming out and it is so ridiculous. I personally would never attempt it:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13gj0p/ascended_gear_and_infusions_how_to_make_them_and/

Here is the basic back slot:
250 Teir 6 fine crafting material
1 Vial of Condensed Mists Essence
50 Globs of Ectoplasm
24 skill points

Then to infuse it:

Base back slot item
Glob of Coagulated Mists Essence
250 Globs of Ectoplasm
Gift of Ascension

I’m sorry but this actually is a blatant cash grab on the side of Anet. 300 globs for a single slot… they are doing this so the “whales” (people who spend hundreds to thousands per month on f2p games) will convert cash to gems to gold to get these items. Simple as that.

Read this article:

http://www.gamesbrief.com/2011/09/whales-true-fans-and-the-ethics-of-free-to-play-games/

Do you think Anet is catering to the Whales or the True Fans? I think this patch and new direction makes it pretty clear. We’ll see how quickly they delete this post.

edit: I’d rather pay a monthly sub for Anet’s for original “missions statement” version of GW2.

Yeah lets waste resource and time because people cant stand the fact other people have better gear then them….brilliant idea. not..

Aelelan.1639:

Columba.9730:

Aelelan.1639:

I still am kind of baffled this discussion is going on now that the dungeon is out. You can complete up to level 10 in the dungeon without ever seeing Agony or any reason to have Ascended gear. Period. What content is gated? You’ve seen the content. 10 TIMES. Nothing exists for someone who has all exotics vs. someone who has Ascended.

The only legitimate concern I can see here is that it’ll have an adverse (albeit miniscule) effect on WvW, and they’ve already said there will be ways to get it through WvW. How is this even a discussion anymore? We have yet to know whether they will add more tiers (in which case there’s reason to worry since there’s no more time investment gap between Legendaries/Exotics). The only thing they’ve done is keep quiet about whether or not there will be new tiers, likely because of a kittentorm like this one. I’d be paranoid to say anything is out of the question too when I know that there will be a flock of angry forumgoers to man the flame cannons if something goes not according to plan. I’d be extremely surprised to know that there are more tiers beyond Ascended but would be happy to eat my words if there ever is one.

Do the math. First, it’s just the beginning. Second the pieces are at least 20% better than exotics. how on earth is that miniscule? LOL

How is “it’s just the beginning” any sort of argument that there will be more tiers in the future? I can’t tell you there won’t be new tiers in the future, and you can’t tell me there will – hell Anet implies in their silence/refusal to speak definitively on the subject that even they can’t speak for what circumstances might arise and potentially warrant another tier. My personal take is that there isn’t a problem to be solved anymore and therefore there should not be any reason why another tier should be introduced. A tier of gear was a solution to a problem (the discrepancy between Legendaries and Exotics) not a precedent to be followed.

If you fixed a broken chair leg with wood glue and the problem is solved, why would anyone in their right minds continue to put glue on the fixed chair leg? The problem is solved, the chair leg is fixed. You don’t need to keep putting on any more glue. Anet saw that their gear tiering system was broken (or rather unbalanced) so they fixed the problem with a middle ground between the two tiers that had the biggest discrepancy. Why would they keep adding more tiers? There is no more problem for them to fix with any more tiers of gear.

There was no problem to fix to begin with. THERE WAS NO DISCREPANCY BETWEEN EXOTIC AND LEGENDARY. Stats were the same. Therefor changing stats had nothing to do with anything, and introducing a new top tier of stats merely introduced a new problem.

Was there a substantial gap between the time required to acquire legendaries and the time required to acquire exotics? Yes. Could they have introduced a tier in between exotic and legendary? Sure. “Legendary” or “Ascended” or whatever they want to call it, the equivalent cosmetic tier of armor would have been great. Instead, here’s what they did:

1. Introduced a new stat tier.
2. Made the acquisition of that stat tier incredibly long and expensive, NOT bridging the time gap between exotic and legendary but LENGTHENING it do to overlap in acquisition methods.
3. Gated new content through the requirement of above stated new stat tier to advance beyond a certain point.
4. Introduced a discrepancy between WvW players and PvE players and their relative power.

And those are just the top four problems, all INTRODUCED by this Ascended gear. What was solved?

Ostra.3927:

(Blizzard was actually found out to do this) to sabotage the game

[Citation Needed]

Orion.7264:

rikkus.8153:

Well maybe I am missing something here, but it seems people are complaining that they “have” to obtain these Ascended items to stay competitive but competitive with what? The only reason to have Ascended items would be to do the new Fractals at the higher levels? I understand it might give players an edge in WvW but couldn’t they just balance it out by releasing a PvP Armor set of comparable stats?

You realize that PvE is a competition? Getting into groups is already segregated between exotics/others, and now you can bet there will be the same with Ascended. At least exotic gear was reasonable to get. New content is also balanced based off of the highest tier of gear, so players in PvE without Ascended gear will struggle through more difficult content (yes, struggle, because the difference in stats between full Ascended gear and full Exotic gear is comparable to the difference between full Exotic and full BLUES) purely because they didn’t grind for months through RNG and massive gold sinks to get their full Ascended sets. Not to mention content that will be artificially gated and locked to players through bullkitten mechanics like Agony.

Based on how they have balanced previous dungeons, there’s no reason to assume that only people with Ascended gear will be capable of running new dungeons. As it is you can run the first 1-10 difficulties of the dungeon without ever using a piece of Ascended gear or even exotic gear for that matter. Hell you don’t even have to be level 80 to do early difficulties as it is. No content is gated by Agony because the only thing waiting for you after difficulty 10 is…the same exact 9 fractals you’ve been playing to get to that point. That’s the content. For 10 difficulties (arguably 13 according to some) you’ve been running the same dungeons you will see when you get passed the threshold into Agony difficulties. Nothing new is waiting for you therefore no gated content. You’ve already seen the content after doing 10 difficulties of the dungeon.

Aelelan.1639:

My personal take is that there isn’t a problem to be solved anymore and therefore there should not be any reason why another tier should be introduced. A tier of gear was a solution to a problem (the discrepancy between Legendaries and Exotics) not a precedent to be followed.

There wasn’t a problem. The problem didn’t exist. Exotic equipment already occupied a smooth spectrum of acquisition difficulty that extended from 2g crafted pieces, to 8-15g unique skins, to 30g and 60g fancy sets, to special event items like the Halloween weapons that could be anywhere from 50g to 80g, up to Exotics that are worth 100-150g, up through the Precursors themselves which can reach 200-300g and are actually literally a midpoint between Exotics and a Legendary, all the way up through many, many weapons that are essentially sub-Legendary, cost as much or more money to create as some Legendaries (some have reached 600-700g in value), and have their own extremely intricate, fancy particle effects that let you stand out as an elite.

There was no gap. There was no problem to be solved. “Filling in a gap between Exotics and Legendaries” is, at best, a misguided and ignorant justification for something that hurts the game, and at worst is a thinly veiled excuse to introduce the same terrible gear treadmill that infests every other MMO out there.

I’m a first time poster. I have 4 80’s, all crafts maxed out, and have previously bought numerous gems to support GW2. I played GW2 everyday before this ascended gear fiasco. I logged in once during the Lost Shores event and immediately logged right back out. I am not going to be another hamster on a treadmill. I’ve played numerous MMO’s and am sick and tired of the same regurgitated gear treadmill crap, that is why I purchased this game. I just want to have fun and WvW without having to grind new kitten gear.

“They have stated they wont release a new tier every 3 months, u can eat your words now :P”

They also said this game would be a no-grind horizontal progression game. I don’t believe a word they say anymore.

If players wanted more content to work for, give it to them in the form of cosmetics. If they want super uber awesome leet haxxorz gear, give it to them in the form of cosmetics. Everyone is fine with that, and they can feel superior as well they should decking themselves out in it. That’s the game they paid for, that’s the game they bought, that’s what everyone was told all along that this game would consist of. Easily acquired max-stat gear, prestigious grindy gear to look like a god. But NO power increase. If they bought this game anyway and don’t like getting what they paid for.. boo kittenin hoo. That’d be like buying SWTOR and then complaining because some characters have force powers and that’s not fair and no one should play Jedi they should all be bounty hunters. Everyone knew what they were getting up front; for some angsty minority to come along and demand that a revolutionary new system adapt to theirs anyway is absolutely kitten That’d be like moving to Canada and demanding capitalized health care. That’d be like moving to Great Britain and demanding they drive on the right side of the road. That’d be like moving to China and demanding that everyone speak English. The tragedy here is that Arenanet caved to these morons, rather than sticking to what was promised, advertised, and successful.

Aelelan.1639:

Orion.7264:

rikkus.8153:

Well maybe I am missing something here, but it seems people are complaining that they “have” to obtain these Ascended items to stay competitive but competitive with what? The only reason to have Ascended items would be to do the new Fractals at the higher levels? I understand it might give players an edge in WvW but couldn’t they just balance it out by releasing a PvP Armor set of comparable stats?

You realize that PvE is a competition? Getting into groups is already segregated between exotics/others, and now you can bet there will be the same with Ascended. At least exotic gear was reasonable to get. New content is also balanced based off of the highest tier of gear, so players in PvE without Ascended gear will struggle through more difficult content (yes, struggle, because the difference in stats between full Ascended gear and full Exotic gear is comparable to the difference between full Exotic and full BLUES) purely because they didn’t grind for months through RNG and massive gold sinks to get their full Ascended sets. Not to mention content that will be artificially gated and locked to players through bullkitten mechanics like Agony.

Based on how they have balanced previous dungeons, there’s no reason to assume that only people with Ascended gear will be capable of running new dungeons. As it is you can run the first 1-10 difficulties of the dungeon without ever using a piece of Ascended gear or even exotic gear for that matter. Hell you don’t even have to be level 80 to do early difficulties as it is. No content is gated by Agony because the only thing waiting for you after difficulty 10 is…the same exact 9 fractals you’ve been playing to get to that point. That’s the content. For 10 difficulties (arguably 13 according to some) you’ve been running the same dungeons you will see when you get passed the threshold into Agony difficulties. Nothing new is waiting for you therefore no gated content. You’ve already seen the content after doing 10 difficulties of the dungeon.

I’m sorry, but no. The only thing waiting for me after the first 10 difficulties is the reward for this dungeon: Ascended gear. It WILL NOT DROP in lower difficulties. It CANNOT BE OTHERWISE OBTAINED. That’s like updating the game so that current dungeons can be completed to a certain point without exotic gear, but require exotic gear to obtain the tokens. Content is certainly gated, reward is gated, and they have explicitly stated their intentions to continue utilizing such mechanics for future content, further requiring new mechanic-combating equipment to continue experiencing the game and the rewards thereof.

Order number: [removed]
Order date: 8/2/2012

Guild Wars 2 Digital Edition $59.99
Serial Code: [removed]

Email: [link removed]
Postal Code: [removed]
Mastercard: [removed]

This is my request for a refund. I bought Guild Wars 2 based on promises made in various developer quotes and the Arenanet ‘MMO manifesto’ that this game would not ever be about a world where players were seperated out by gear-based statistical advantage gained through punishingly repetitive tasks.

Based on the November 15th update that includes community-segregating gear-based statistical advantage gained through punishingly repetitive tasks, I feel like I bought the game under false pretenses.

If I had known that Guild Wars 2 would so shortly follow through with this model of gameplay that I find so repugnant (and that you stated many times you would never include because you hated it too), I would never have bought the game in the first place.

In other words: You broke your promises. You lied through your teeth, provably. I’m done. Give me my money back.

If you ever get your head out of your ‘kitten’, give me a call. You’ve still got an otherwise awesome game.

Orion.7264

There was no problem to fix to begin with. THERE WAS NO DISCREPANCY BETWEEN EXOTIC AND LEGENDARY. Stats were the same. Therefor changing stats had nothing to do with anything, and introducing a new top tier of stats merely introduced a new problem.
Was there a substantial gap between the time required to acquire legendaries and the time required to acquire exotics? Yes. Could they have introduced a tier in between exotic and legendary? Sure. “Legendary” or “Ascended” or whatever they want to call it, the equivalent cosmetic tier of armor would have been great. Instead, here’s what they did:
1. Introduced a new stat tier.
2. Made the acquisition of that stat tier incredibly long and expensive, NOT bridging the time gap between exotic and legendary but LENGTHENING it do to overlap in acquisition methods.
3. Gated new content through the requirement of above stated new stat tier to advance beyond a certain point.
4. Introduced a discrepancy between WvW players and PvE players and their relative power.
And those are just the top four problems, all INTRODUCED by this Ascended gear. What was solved?

I definitely think that the Ascended gear still needs to be balanced. It IS very difficult to get them (albeit not as hard as Legendaries – at least they hit the middle ground) and they could do with being a little easier to get. That’s a fair point. I also agree with you that the set of gear could have been cosmetic or could even have just had the infusion slot for infusions that only give Agony resist. Both reasonable alternatives and ones that I hope that they consider. I suppose that I meant to say that this IS a singular problem WITH a singular solution rather than implying its perfect as is – because it’s not. I’m mainly arguing against two things:

1. The assumption that this somehow means that we’re going to have a gear treadmill with the consistent introduction of new tiers of gear. That’s just something that would not make any sense given the professed reasons for this new tier: Bridge the gap between how hard it is to get Legendaries and how much time it takes to get Exotics. The efficacy of the current state is arguable, but its purpose is not. This came directly from devs.

2. Ascended gear gates content. It doesn’t because Agony is only introduced after the 10th difficulty in Fractals. By this time you’ve run the dungeon at least 10 times (probably more than that) and have seen all the dungeon has to offer. There is nothing new waiting for you after that 10th difficulty in terms of original content. People even have claimed that it’s possible to get passed the 13th difficulty without any Ascended gear.

As for your last point, it has been confirmed that Anet will introduced new ways for Ascended gear to be obtained. PvE and WvW players will have ways to get the same gear. in respective modes. Whether or not that in and of itself is unfair is moot as well because as it was there was already gear discrepancy between players through levels and the gear tiers even before Ascended. The only difference is that this tier takes longer to get.

Edit: Orion posted in reply to a different post. Don’t want to start multi-posting for no reason.

This begs the question – what is the content? The reward or the dungeons themselves? I would say the dungeons themselves. The 9 Fractals. The rewards are simply a by-product of playing content. They aren’t in themselves content. You aren’t experiencing content by getting an item, you’re experiencing content by playing the dungeon they created. Furthermore, the first piece of Agony resist gear is created through the mystic forge – not by drops. the Backslot is created with the mystic forge recipe consisting of:

T6 mats(not from the dungeon at all)
Vial of Condensed Mist Essence(dropped from difficulties 1-10)
50 ectos
Philosopher’s Stones/Crystals – 24 Skill points

So far all things you can get from anything outside of the dungeon or difficulties 1-10. The infusion for the agony resist comes from:

Base back slot item
Glob of Coagulated Mist Essence(5 Vials, Mystic Coin, Fractal Relic, and an Ecto)
250 Ectos
Gift of Ascension

The slotted infusion upgrades are also made with all materials made outside of Fractals 10+. You get my point. You are able to build Agony resist without ever entering difficulties 10+ and this builds more than enough resist to go farther into the dungeon so that rings can start dropping.

Mackdose.6504:

Too bad WvW isn’t meant to be balanced on the player level. Ascended items won’t save you from a trebuchet, ballista, or cata. Saying "WvWers have to PvE to stay “competitive” (false) by playing the game doesn’t make me upset in the least.

You want gear balance? sPvP and tPvP say Hi.

I take it this is your first game with this type of PvP to say something line this? Gear matters and will matter more and more the more ANet introduces.
Its not about gear balance either…. that is just a strawman argument.
It is about having the ability to earn equal rewards from multiple paths instead of adding a single gated PvE dungeon that WvW players now must grind on end.
We went from multiple paths for casual players to just one which quickly can lock casuals out from due to gated mechanics.

Mackdose.6504:

Why is this such a big deal, what exactly changed that the game is significantly worse this week than last? Better dungeon drops, better champion drops, better chest loot, more content, DA KARKA, and you guys want a “legacy” server?

NO ONE is forcing you to play a so called “numbers game.” You choose your play-style, not Anet, not “elitists,” but you.

It doesn’t work like that.

Noone gets to choose what their opponents in WVW are wearing. Why should time spent grinding PVE content matter more than skill in PVP?

Why should people who don’t have the time to grind PVE content be arbitrarily excluded from content when we all paid the same amount for the game?

These are not choices.

My question is this:

Why is it necessary for Ascended gear to have higher stats than Exotics?

This gear is meant for dungeons. In those dungeons, we all know that Anet’s method of increasing difficulty is by giving the enemies a very large amount of health and damage. So then it’s possible for them to tone down the enemy stats and make Ascended gear on par with Exotics (+Infusions for new condition type). Crisis averted.

Anet, make it happen, and save yourself a sliver of credibility.

They won’t answer you. This is a thinly veiled attempt to install gating. Their Nexon overlords will see users buying gems for gold to pay content locusts for an E-ticket to Ascended gear as a win. Why do you think there has been so few additions to the cash shop?

Nope, it’s too late, people already spent gold on them. It’s all over.

Aelelan.1639:

snip

Is there something in the game I cannot experience without acquiring a certain type of gear?

Yes.

Content is being gated. End of story.

Additionally, I’m having trouble even getting GUILDIES to run Fractals with me, because no one sees the point of running Fractals < 10 because the rewards are dismal compared to the rewards for Fractals > 10. Why put work into content for lesser rewards when the same work can get you greater rewards? And yes, I say same, because Agony aside the “difficulty” level of the upper Fractals is negligible. Before you say it, my guild is full of nice and helpful people, but the perceived need created to get the top-tier gear again and not get left behind has even the nice players abandoning others in a mad scrabble to the top. I didn’t have time to play this weekend, so I’m stuck at Fractals 5. Content has been gated not only by gear required, but also by required “prerequisite steps” that just stinks of WoW.

@Logun.2349 I understand where you are coming from. Basically by introducing this new gear tier, players need to conform to a particualr method of gameplay to obtain higher rewards.

What I don’t understand is this. To obtain the curernt exotic/legendary weapons, players do dungeons. With regards to Ascended gear tier, you still need to do the Fractals dungeon, don’t you? Said that, this is only a fresh new addition and perhaps more dungeons and end game content will allow for players to not be forced (i.e. conform) to a particualr method fo gameplay in order to obtain these Ascended items.

I think we shouldnt jump to conclusions as yet. Time will tell.

I have seen only inconsistencies and apparent deception from ArenaNet in following their treatment of ranger-specific balance concerns. However, I was willing to switch professions and ignore my initial misgivings.

The addition of a new gear tier really goes against everything Anet marketed themselves to be during development. It begs the question “Is Anet as independent of the influence of their corporate overlords at NCsoft as they have led us to believe?”

Orion.7264:

Aelelan.1639:

snip

Is there something in the game I cannot experience without acquiring a certain type of gear?

Yes.

Content is being gated. End of story.

Additionally, I’m having trouble even getting GUILDIES to run Fractals with me, because no one sees the point of running Fractals < 10 because the rewards are dismal compared to the rewards for Fractals > 10. Why put work into content for lesser rewards when the same work can get you greater rewards? And yes, I say same, because Agony aside the “difficulty” level of the upper Fractals is negligible. Before you say it, my guild is full of nice and helpful people, but the perceived need created to get the top-tier gear again and not get left behind has even the nice players abandoning others in a mad scrabble to the top. I didn’t have time to play this weekend, so I’m stuck at Fractals 5. Content has been gated not only by gear required, but also by required “prerequisite steps” that just stinks of WoW.

I suppose if you want to consider the ownership of an item content, then the system gates content, but I certainly don’t buy that. The content for me is what you do to get the rewards. At least now I know what you mean. I can rest easy.

The system isn’t perfect but I can understand its necessity and why it was added to the game. Hopefully it will be made better.

Aelelan.1639:

Orion.7264:

Aelelan.1639:

snip

Is there something in the game I cannot experience without acquiring a certain type of gear?

Yes.

Content is being gated. End of story.

Additionally, I’m having trouble even getting GUILDIES to run Fractals with me, because no one sees the point of running Fractals < 10 because the rewards are dismal compared to the rewards for Fractals > 10. Why put work into content for lesser rewards when the same work can get you greater rewards? And yes, I say same, because Agony aside the “difficulty” level of the upper Fractals is negligible. Before you say it, my guild is full of nice and helpful people, but the perceived need created to get the top-tier gear again and not get left behind has even the nice players abandoning others in a mad scrabble to the top. I didn’t have time to play this weekend, so I’m stuck at Fractals 5. Content has been gated not only by gear required, but also by required “prerequisite steps” that just stinks of WoW.

I suppose if you want to consider the ownership of an item content, then the system gates content, but I certainly don’t buy that. The content for me is what you do to get the rewards. At least now I know what you mean. I can rest easy.

The system isn’t perfect but I can understand its necessity and why it was added to the game. Hopefully it will be made better.

That’s not what I mean. Can I do Fractals > 10 without Ascended, infused gear? No.

Content has been gated.

What, I’m supposed to be content that I can do Fractals 1-10? There is something the game will not ALLOW me to do, simply because I haven’t been grinding my kitten off for a specific piece of gear.

Oh hey look, my guildies want to throw together a group to do Fractal 12. I’d love to play with them! Can I? NOPE! Because I’m not infused. Content has been gated.

^ This is a real story and happened today. With Arenanet’s explicit statement that this is how they will handle new content, I can look forward to a lot more of that.

I support this initiative.

Honestly, when I was playing in yellows, i did fine. Fine in all the dungeons, fine in the WvW. Then I got exotics. Still did fine. Wasn’t all that big of a boost really. One tier of gear does not make that big of a difference in this game. You can do everything in exotics, and do it just fine. Or in yellows. Or even greens for that matter. All the content. Doable in greens.

Sure you can’t do fractals at high levels without the new gear, but thats a major grind just to get your fractals level that high in the first place, not for casuals anyways.

Worried about people not playing with you because your gear is not uber enough? why would you want to play with people like that anyways? Most people realise that player skill is vital in this game, and highly skilled player with poor gear can easily out preform a bad player in the best gear.

There is zero content that can’t be done by an 80 in greens. Period. High level fractals aside, you can still do fractals, all of em, in greens.

The point? Relax. This problem is not nearly as big as people think. Ascended gear is a great middle ground. something for the hardcore, but the casuals dont need it to enjoy any of the games content.

As long as they stop now, I don’t see a problem. If they add another tier of gear, or actualy restrict content based on gear then ya. But the game just came out, they weren’t happy with gear system so they tweaked it. Thats different then adding a gear treadmill. If ascended gear was in at launch no one would even had thought twice about it. But you know humans, terrified of change and always over reacting to stuff.

From what Anet has said, sounds like greens will be enough for all content, forever. Yes, there will be things like high level fractals for the more hardcore, but the fractal content is open to everyone. As long as they keep doing that it’s fine. Not only fine, its pretty awesome. The best of both worlds. Hardcore get lots of grinding and progression, and the casuals get to enjoy all the same content. Win win!!!

I’ve taken a break from the game. I thought the new content would bring me back but….with the knowledge of having to grind out another gear tier on my return: I don’t think so. It’s basically destroyed any interest I had in returning to the game. I have some alts too, no interest in having to grind this ridiculous treadmill with them as well.

AndrewMcLeod.3857:

As for ascended gear, to reiterate what Chris has said (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/A-message-from-our-Studio-Design-Director-Chris-Whiteside), it’s not intended as a treadmill, but rather as a tier of rewards that can help bridge the gap between Exotics (a few hours of effort to acquire a piece) and Legendaries (hundreds of hours of effort to acquire one). They’re currently only available in the Fractals of the Mist Dungeon, but we’re going to be adding new ways to acquire them, both inside of WvW as well as elsewhere in PvE.

I don’t understand this. This argument isn’t plausible in the kittening least. There was no gear gap between Exotics and Legendaries. You want to talk about effort – there were the Mystic Forge exotics that took way longer than regular exotics to obtain, with the gifts and the bottles of elonian wine, but also way shorter than legendaries.

THAT was the middle ground – THAT was the middle tier. Instead you add a statistical upgrade on new gear and introduce a stat gear gap yourself. This argument is totally disingenuous and utter trash. Worse than you guys not communicating, is you guys communicating these lies and thinking your customer base to be stupid.

Pre-launch through beta ANET marketed themselves as a very responsive, iterative, active and communicative company. What happened? Your responses to this question are lacking and a real response is needed.

Cough up.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

Aelelan.1639:

I still am kind of baffled this discussion is going on now that the dungeon is out. You can complete up to level 10 in the dungeon without ever seeing Agony or any reason to have Ascended gear. Period. What content is gated? You’ve seen the content. 10 TIMES. Nothing exists for someone who has all exotics vs. someone who has Ascended.

The only legitimate concern I can see here is that it’ll have an adverse (albeit miniscule) effect on WvW, and they’ve already said there will be ways to get it through WvW. How is this even a discussion anymore? We have yet to know whether they will add more tiers (in which case there’s reason to worry since there’s no more time investment gap between Legendaries/Exotics). The only thing they’ve done is keep quiet about whether or not there will be new tiers, likely because of a kittentorm like this one. I’d be paranoid to say anything is out of the question too when I know that there will be a flock of angry forumgoers to man the flame cannons if something goes not according to plan. I’d be extremely surprised to know that there are more tiers beyond Ascended but would be happy to eat my words if there ever is one.

They have stated they wont release a new tier every 3 months, u can eat your words now :P

so every 4 months then? gee , that is So much better!

People need to settle down. Wow someone is better geared then you I didn’t know that was the end all be all to this game . This community really went downhill

Orion.7264:

That’s not what I mean. Can I do Fractals > 10 without Ascended, infused gear? No.

Content has been gated.

What, I’m supposed to be content that I can do Fractals 1-10? There is something the game will not ALLOW me to do, simply because I haven’t been grinding my kitten off for a specific piece of gear.

Oh hey look, my guildies want to throw together a group to do Fractal 12. I’d love to play with them! Can I? NOPE! Because I’m not infused. Content has been gated.

^ This is a real story and happened today. With Arenanet’s explicit statement that this is how they will handle new content, I can look forward to a lot more of that.

The game also won’t allow you to run around completely naked, that content is not being gated though. My only problem is that there isn’t anything different about Fractals 12 vs. Fractals 1. Barring agony and the difficulty increase, they are the same exact dungeons. There is nothing waiting for you beyond Fractal 10 (aside from of course playing with your guildies if they can’t play with you) aside from an increased chance for some rares/exotics (according to what you say). Is the loot chance the content that you’re missing out on? The experience of playing with friends? The increased difficulty? If not the items, I’m still struggling to see what specifically the content is that you are missing out on.

It’s frustrating to know that you can’t go and play with your guildies when they want to do harder difficulties, but that doesn’t mean that you’re missing out on content. You’re missing out on a experience for sure, but that’s not content, that’s just something created by the content, but that still seems like a valid thing to be angry about missing out on.

To bring it back a little, I think that getting so far into particulars in itself shows that there are questions that are worth being answered and problems worth being solved by the concept of Ascended gear (the middle ground between Legendary/Exotic). It has its place within the game, but still hasn’t been fully fleshed out.

The world’s most nonsensical and rambling post has finally come to a close.

Now i was wondering if like exotic gear where you can dump in rares to get an exotic piece from the forge, is there an equilivent change for exotic gear to ascended? or will it be implimented with full release of ascended items.

Loosifah.4739:

Wow you people are still saying “So every 4 months then” because he responded they wouldn’t do it every 3 months? Get over yourselves already.

He OBVIOUSLY worded it that way because every whiny little child and their brother was saying “So 3 months into the game you add a new tier? What about 3 months from now? And then 3 months from then? Are you going to add a new tier EVERY 3 MONTHS!?”

So why didn’t he say when? It’s an evasive and cowardly response. How about not more frequently then every 2 years, or ever?

I understand why Ascended gear has been introduced, but I don’t understand why the STATS themselves have gotten higher.

Why would ArenaNet make a problem for their players and themselves for having Ascended gear have higher stats?

This requires WvW players to do currently Fractals to get the “best” gear in the game, and it makes a whole “haves” and “havenots” issue come up. Exotics were available in a wide variety of areas, and I can get them pretty easily.

But this temporary vacuum you have created has created a lot of issues with the game’s stat ceiling and the players have to essentially re-gear to be the “best” stats and kind of contradicts ArenaNet’s philosophy for the game currently. It could have been easily:

A) Ascended gear used only for Fractals
B) Same stats as Exotics
C) WvW can’t let you use Ascended gear

I just would like to know from ArenaNet personally why stats had to have gone up on Ascended pieces.

Aaron.4807:

Welp. I am done now. I am not playing, deleted the game and coming here to argue with people who don’t even know the basic facts of what Anet has done is just…

Well, more of a waste of time than a game with a gear treadmill is.

So, the locusts get to ruin yet another game with tons of promise and I get to put yet another game studio on my own personal black list.

I think at this point the conspiracy thing is just really wishful thinking. I think that we were just flat out wrong about Anet the whole time.

It has been real and it has been fun, but it wasn’t real fun. I have deleted all links that deal with GW2 now so. I won’t be back. Hopefully one day someone will truly make a MMO for the player.

Good luck.

Boy, you sure showed them.

Please don’t merge this thread, I want this to be solely based on the STATS of the gear, not the GEAR themselves. This is a DIFFERENT topic than that mega thread.

ohhh i would love this server. i’d transfer my kitten there as soon as it becomes available.

Yeah, please don’t merge, and let’s please get a red reply to here. And something direct, not beating around the bush.

Out of everything wrong with the Nov 15th patch, this question highlights by far the biggest and most popular concern.

Ascended gear already has a gating mechanic JUST for the new dungeon – agony. There is absolutely no need to introduce higher-than-exotic stats, if the only purpose of the content is ‘progression’.

I’ve talked to no less than 3 anet employees via in-game whispers, and still no definite answer, it’s like they’re now afraid of getting sued or fired for saying the wrong thing.

To paraphrase an elegant way a few others have put this: vertical progression in GW1 was tolerable (although still annoying) ONLY because it was localized vertical progression (e.g. lightbringer title).

Please answer this man. We eagerly await a response.

Eh… seems the exact same thing as the other topics that have come up about Ascended. Many post mention stats. The discussion goes all over the place.

The simple answer is, Exotic gear could have somehow be given another slot to upgrade infusions. But it wasn’t, for whatever reason.

Another tier of upgrade components could have been introduced. They weren’t.

So now we have Ascended, and it isn’t going away. The only way to make sense of having another tier of armor is to give it higher stats. Otherwise, it is just odd to have Exotic, Ascended, and the possible future Legendary armor, all being the same, but the 2 highest have another upgrade slot.

And agony probably will be used in much more content. Hence, they want us to want to get Ascended.

I love the possibilities with this. But, I worry highly about poor execution. (the current weekend has me worried about bugged content of the future)

With the exception of three pieces of exotic gear all of my gear is Masterwork quality. I did just fine against people in full exotic gear before and I will do just fine against people in ascended gear now. The extra damage they will gain from a full set is not going to make any noticible difference so kitten about it already. You realize ups called people can participate against decked out 80s now, and right? Where’s the QQ for the huge disadvantages they have? WvW requires more teamwork than anything else. One person manning an arrow cart can make or break a seige far more than that extra 5% damage you will gain from upgrading from exotics to ascended over the next several months.

Edit: phone auto correct made typos but I don’t feel like changing them.

Carltonbanks.1754:

Aaron.4807:

Welp. I am done now. I am not playing, deleted the game and coming here to argue with people who don’t even know the basic facts of what Anet has done is just…

Well, more of a waste of time than a game with a gear treadmill is.

So, the locusts get to ruin yet another game with tons of promise and I get to put yet another game studio on my own personal black list.

I think at this point the conspiracy thing is just really wishful thinking. I think that we were just flat out wrong about Anet the whole time.

It has been real and it has been fun, but it wasn’t real fun. I have deleted all links that deal with GW2 now so. I won’t be back. Hopefully one day someone will truly make a MMO for the player.

Good luck.

Boy, you sure showed them.

you don’t think his money is worth as much as yours? lol.

Don’t hold your breath for a reply, probably won’t come. What’s done is done, they won’t change it. They wanted to put in some pve content that would last for a while before they could bring out the next set, they probably think people wouldn’t try for the higher levels of difficulty if the reward wasn’t worth it, so instead of slapping some resist on exotic type gear we got bigger shiny numbers.

the 20+% improvements are there to make the grinders happy.

Hsinimod.5784:

Eh… seems the exact same thing as the other topics that have come up about Ascended.

This is a precise, logical and polite question, so no.

Hsinimod.5784:

The only way to make sense of having another tier of armor is to give it higher stats.

No.

Hsinimod.5784:

they want us to want to get Ascended.

We know.

SneakyErvin.3056:

People keep asking why people are upset about ascendant gear. Here is a short asnwer.

It has to much impact on PvP and it forces PvPers into PvE. Something that should not happen when a game is so centered around a special PvP area.

It has an impact on

• WvWers.
• People playing with alts.
• People wanting to play some other games for a few months.
• People with little time.

Really, the only ones it doesn’t impact is the stereotypical “I play my main 5+ hours per day” content locust players that frequently pop into this thread to tell everyone how good this change is.

Wildclaw.6073:

SneakyErvin.3056:

People keep asking why people are upset about ascendant gear. Here is a short asnwer.

It has to much impact on PvP and it forces PvPers into PvE. Something that should not happen when a game is so centered around a special PvP area.

It has an impact on

• WvWers.
• People playing with alts.
• People wanting to play some other games for a few months.
• People with little time.

Really, the only ones it doesn’t impact is the stereotypical “I play my main 5+ hours per day” content locust players that frequently pop into this thread to tell everyone how good this change is.

it gives at least +20% advantages in wvwvw all for grinding dungeons. how is that fair?

I would love to know too.

Wildclaw.6073:

It has an impact on

• WvWers.
• People playing with alts.
• People wanting to play some other games for a few months.
• People with little time.

• Anyone that wants to use more then one gearset.

Maz.8604:

Zer ist no gear treadmill! Nicht wahr?

I will hear no more of zese inzinuations about ze gear treadmill!

Sie werden sich hinsetzen, Sie werden ruhig sein, Sie werden nicht beleidigen ArenaNet!

o7

Oh my…this is hilarious! I have begun to see a defense forming that cites the fact that ascended gear lacks the bonuses from multiple runes. What this defense fails to account for is the fact that we have yet to see anything higher than “fine” quality infusions. I shudder to see what rare, exotic or even legendary infusions will look like…

slazzy.7309:

I posted that I felt progression was needed. I admit it. I had a whole post about it based on my development studies in The Art of Game Design. Absolutely! That proves I work for a game company? Maybe I feel you need progression to keep interest. It is basic design. Maybe Anet decided that was a good route to go.

Progression in an mmo….why, what a novel idea. Let’s give our players something to do at endgame.

Honestly, I’ve heard so much kittening about how there’s nothing to do at endgame for so many games, I never even conceived I would hear how progression might destroy a game.

And if you think Ascended gear is a treadmill, well, I submit that you haven’t even played this game passed week 1. You are a fair-weather gamer. You go where the mob is the loudest. Think for yourself for once, you’ll feel better about yourself.

Let me tell you a little story. For about 2-1/2 weeks before this game was released, I spent countless hours chasing after titles and collecting items in GW1. You want to know why I did that? I wanted to get my Hall of Monuments to 30 of 50. Want to know why I wanted to get it there? So I could get a bunch of armor and weapons that not everyone would have. Those weapons and armor were purely cosmetic; basically just free transmutes. I knew that was what they would be and I did it anyway. There were tons of other people doing the same thing as me at the time. That proves that you don’t need stat increases to motivate people to play your game.

I am so disgusted by the addition of gear with higher stats into this game that I have quit playing. I may or may not ask for a refund, I haven’t decided yet. I am leaning towards not getting a refund because I am holding out hope they will rectify this situation. If they were to introduce servers without vertical gear progession, I would jump all over that because I really did enjoy the game as advertised. What we have now is not at all what was described pre-release.

People already farmed these or are in the course of getting them. Everyone ingame is spamming LFG fotm lvl 1,2,3,4 that means that people enjoy them , it’s not like your getting left behind everyday you see lfg lvl 1 and 2 , they are short even if you grind one level a day you can get up to lvl 10+ and get the ring you wanted. It’s sad that people are so casual nowdays that want one tier gear for 10 years. Life issues and kids aside no one is forcing you to play them.

i believe there should not be any more better stats that the merely +5% agony resistance rating for each piece of ascended equipment, and the AGONY mechanics should be applied ONLY in the fractal dungeons itself, and not to the other area. the +5% agony resistance should be the only thing that differentiate Exotic and Ascended equipment.

then we’ll all be happy, and you can implement this ascended armor thing as you would like ANET.

I honestly don’t understand why they aren’t the same stats. The only difference between ascended and exotics should be cosmetics and method of acquiring. It’s great to release new awesome looking gear but to increase the stats forces EVERYONE to grind for them if they want to be on an even playing field with others. The game has been out for months, introducing this now is unacceptable.