Guild Wars 2

Artorous.8573:

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.

And you knew what their gear level was how? You can’t even see people’s names in WvW but somehow you are able to glean what kind of equipment they are wearing. Ok, sure…

The extra damage they will gain from a full set is not going to make any noticible difference so kitten about it already.

Yeah right. How many kills do you have in WvW. I’m asking because that is really the only metric available to gauge experience. I’m here to tell ya that I noticed a huge difference going from greens to exotics. In greens people just ignored what I was doing in large fights but once I got full exotics, I could make large groups of people back off areas due to the damage I was doing to them as a staff necro. I also died a whole hell of a lot easier in greens than I did in exotics. You probably gain 200 armor or so and that is very significant.

You realize ups called people can participate against decked out 80s now, and right? Where’s the QQ for the huge disadvantages they have?

You don’t have to go to WvW before you’re level 80. That’s a choice people make and if they don’t know what they are in for before they go, they will after the first time depending on what level they are (I’ve found that if you’re really low level you are actually more powerful than when you are in the mid-levels because they game compensates more heavily since your gear has little to no stats on it.)

You know this might even be worth it. Even <5% of the game leaving due to ascended gear (I’m guessing it’s more like 10%) is tens of thousands of players, so it might warrant the massive coding changes and the WvWvW splits and so on. Call them the “non-kitteny” servers.

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

Obviously, you have not been paying attention. Ascend gear will have such a high stat increase that it will imbalance fight between ppl who don’t have it. The gear will be allowed in WVW.

How many times are you going to ignore the facts as a matter of convenience?

Guys, we already know money intimidated the head (blingg vs noll). That they were exploited by an external attacker, Nexon (buy 4373). And they are under new management, that new nexon monetizing kitten.

The devs did not want these changes, us arguing and discussing about these mean squat. They already know all our issues, it is just they cannot do anything about it with Nexon breathing down their necks. They already told us through these easter eggs what really happened. When something like Nexon gets involved in a little company like Anet, they are forced to follow. It is a job at the end of the day, and they have families to feed. Let’s respect and understand what happened for the devs’ sake. And just hope when this patch crashes NCsoft’s stock even more, Nexon would back away and wash their hands and GW2 will be back to how it should have been.

offence.4726:

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.

Does anyone need to point out to you why this argument is so poor? Put it this way: Lots of people spent a lot of time doing the Orr chains. Why?
Was it because they were the best source of income in the game or was it because running the same de again and again was fun fun fun?

You are just doing the same thing but now in a box with less people.

Hell, at least we could walk away from the de chain when we wanted to and you weren’t stuck in a small space with a screaming teenager that never developed basic social skills.

offence.4726:

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 do see fewer and fewer level 1’s every day. At times none. Also I’m having trouble leveling my alts because my preferred method is via dungeons. Right now the only dungeon groups forming are for fractals, so yes I kind of am being forced to play them. Except of course I can’t because nobody wants to take an upscaled lowbie.

I’ll save you the trouble of a response and do it for you. “It’s new, of course people are going to be running it and not the other dungeons.” To which I’d say “And that’s exactly why you can’t determine how enjoyable it really is until it’s no longer new content and has settled into its life in the game.”

Also, personally I think it’s sad that gamers want to be treated like a hamster to retain the feeling of games that string them along with the illusion of progress for years to keep them paying subs.

It’s a personal effort after all , if you are a casual gamer who maxed his exotic set and have probably second BiS inslot why would you want ascendant gear for +5+10+20 stat ? Where will you be using that “hardcore” gear , once a week in wvw or the daily dungeon ? It’s the same previous mmo argument and here it comes: play harder ( work harder ) then the rest get an extra edge it’s just like in the real life or is it not ? No one is forcing you to do it you will still be competitive either way. So why cry about an extra +5 stat you don’t need and won’t use ?

ckeeton.4907:

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

It’s not about being “better” than another player (in PvE at least). It’s about being able to play with players.
For instance, I don’t have much time to play but i do enjoy running a dungeon when i can.
But how will i be able to do so if there’s no one running anything except what brings you the next tier of gear ?
That’s where the problem lies. Who will be running something that’s not a direct upgrade to the kitten ?

A non ascended server…..

yes… this I like.

Will there be a mystic forge recipe where you can throw old cursed-shore-vendor armors in, plus may be new karma-bought ingredients and, poof, you get ascended upgrades? Because I invested 250k karma to equip each of my 3 lvl80s. And then one day, I woke up and found out my current armors will be outdated.

Because some people wants to be special snowflakes where ego is tied to numbers on gear and time spent acquiring, and also not realizing they are playing the wrong game to start with.

These are also the same people that sours the experience of the rest of the players in every MMO ever, even those with vertical progression.

offence.4726:

It’s a personal effort after all , if you are a casual gamer who maxed his exotic set and have probably second BiS inslot why would you want ascendant gear for +5+10+20 stat ? Where will you be using that “hardcore” gear , once a week in wvw or the daily dungeon ? It’s the same previous mmo argument and here it comes: play harder ( work harder ) then the rest get an extra edge it’s just like in the real life or is it not ? No one is forcing you to do it you will still be competitive either way. So why cry about an extra +5 stat you don’t need and won’t use ?

This is a little hard to follow but I’ll try. You’re suggesting that because I want a gear plateau I’m not hardcore or competitive? Well I suggest that because you want a stat advantage you are neither. Stat advantages are a refuge for the skill anemic to obtain the thrill of a victory they “earned” by repetitive easy tasks before the challenge even took place.

I want an even playing field so I can truly measure my skill over others and “in yo face! son!” them with 100% assurance that it was my own skill and experience that got me the victory. I’ve been competitive since I first saw a row of quarters on an arcade fighter. Sorry but your argument is irrelevant and indicative of the slow decline of challenge in gaming.

This new gear needs to stay out of wvwvw.

offence.4726:

It’s a personal effort after all , if you are a casual gamer who maxed his exotic set and have probably second BiS inslot why would you want ascendant gear for +5+10+20 stat ? Where will you be using that “hardcore” gear , once a week in wvw or the daily dungeon ? It’s the same previous mmo argument and here it comes: play harder ( work harder ) then the rest get an extra edge it’s just like in the real life or is it not ? No one is forcing you to do it you will still be competitive either way. So why cry about an extra +5 stat you don’t need and won’t use ?

[/quote]

mumble…
ok i fail as gamer… i thinking that “HARD WORD” was something like, learn you class on every minimal aspects, know how to combine skills and talents to overcome your opponents.
but now i know that hard work, is simply grind grind grind.

/end sarcasm

only one thing… before put random numbers

. So why cry about an extra +5 stat you don’t need and won’t use ?

look this!
http://www.gw2db.com/items

vox.5019:

offence.4726:

It’s a personal effort after all , if you are a casual gamer who maxed his exotic set and have probably second BiS inslot why would you want ascendant gear for +5+10+20 stat ? Where will you be using that “hardcore” gear , once a week in wvw or the daily dungeon ? It’s the same previous mmo argument and here it comes: play harder ( work harder ) then the rest get an extra edge it’s just like in the real life or is it not ? No one is forcing you to do it you will still be competitive either way. So why cry about an extra +5 stat you don’t need and won’t use ?

This is a little hard to follow but I’ll try. You’re suggesting that because I want a gear plateau I’m not hardcore or competitive? Well I suggest that because you want a stat advantage you are neither. Stat advantages are a refuge for the skill anemic to obtain the thrill of a victory they “earned” by repetitive easy tasks before the challenge even took place.

I want an even playing field so I can truly measure my skill over others and “in yo face! son!” them with 100% assurance that it was my own skill and experience that got me the victory. I’ve been competitive since I first saw a row of quarters on an arcade fighter. Sorry but your argument is irrelevant and indicative of the slow decline of challenge in gaming.

amen.

and what you just wrote was the whole design philosophy of gw2 from everything i read/watched prior to release.

i was looking forward to this current event. i really was. then this. and i now feel so bummed out. i feel how i felt after every wow update which began reducing your skill tree to, like, no tree and reducing your gear to worthless in one update.

you can already see the raider mentality really beginning to take over now. and that’s the saddest thing for a game which was seeming to promote dungeons and raids as being secondary to the wide open world events we could all have fun with.

who killed anet’s dream game?

offence.4726:

It’s a personal effort after all , if you are a casual gamer who maxed his exotic set and have probably second BiS inslot why would you want ascendant gear for +5+10+20 stat ? Where will you be using that “hardcore” gear , once a week in wvw or the daily dungeon ? It’s the same previous mmo argument and here it comes: play harder ( work harder ) then the rest get an extra edge it’s just like in the real life or is it not ? No one is forcing you to do it you will still be competitive either way. So why cry about an extra +5 stat you don’t need and won’t use ?

Nope, 20% + better gear will not allow us to compete in WvWvW.

offence.4726:

It’s a personal effort after all , if you are a casual gamer who maxed his exotic set and have probably second BiS inslot why would you want ascendant gear for +5+10+20 stat ? Where will you be using that “hardcore” gear , once a week in wvw or the daily dungeon ? It’s the same previous mmo argument and here it comes: play harder ( work harder ) then the rest get an extra edge it’s just like in the real life or is it not ? No one is forcing you to do it you will still be competitive either way. So why cry about an extra +5 stat you don’t need and won’t use ?

Where will the people be using ascended gear? Once they have the best gear they sure won’t be using it for fractals. More dungeons, as per Anets statement, will use the agony mechanic meaning that casuals will be forced to get ascended gear or be unable to do the new dungeons.

Also with the stat differences and more and more ascended gear you won’t be competitive. It’s like saying a level 80 with white gear is still competitive with someone in exotics. Sure they still do damage but there is a big difference between them. Now the stat differences themselves might look small but combined with the large amount of % damage traits it gets multiplied out.

Just the berserker jewel stats gets upped by 6 stats and 1% crit damage. That’s 20% more of each stat and 33% more crit damage. Just using the accessory slots jewel stats, that’s 36 stats and 6% crit damage JUST FOR THE JEWEL SLOT. Then on top of that you have 5 extra stats per infusion slot. That’s a total of 66 extra stats and 6% crit damage for jewel slot alone.

As for gear, comparing the pale tree ring and the berserker’s ring. It gets 4 extra power, 2 precision, and 1% crit damage OR 6% more power, 4% more precision, and 33% more crit damage. For the overall ring including jewel slot and infusion it is 21 extra stats and 2% crit damage or 13.5% more stats and 33% more cit damage. If you feel so inclined to average in the crit damage it’s 23.25%. If you use condition damage instead of crit damage then that average is 12% and the overall average is 12.75%.(Its late so math might be wrong!)

Even at the low end making ascended players 12.75% more powerful is A LOT. If you want to see the difference then try taking off your helmet and one of the following: boots, gloves, or shoulders. That will give you a 12.09% overall gear stat reduction. Your chestplate is worth 15.5%, rings & pants are each worth 10%, neck 13.8%, earrings each 8.6%. Maybe you like playing without a piece of gear. Oh and this doesn’t include a back piece as when I ran these numbers there wasn’t much of a choice there :P.

P.S. ArenaNet’s weighting of stats is INSANE, % crit damage varies so much a crossed all pieces of gear. Current exotic gear has it ranging from 16 stat points on helm, pants, rings to 12 stat points on shoulders, gloves, and boots. I designed my current set of gear around maximizing my total stat points based on these fluctuations, IE use a power/toughness/vit helm instead of berserkers because the 2% crit damage costs me 32 stats, where on say boots that same 2% crit only costs me 24 stats.

vox.5019:

offence.4726:

It’s a personal effort after all , if you are a casual gamer who maxed his exotic set and have probably second BiS inslot why would you want ascendant gear for +5+10+20 stat ? Where will you be using that “hardcore” gear , once a week in wvw or the daily dungeon ? It’s the same previous mmo argument and here it comes: play harder ( work harder ) then the rest get an extra edge it’s just like in the real life or is it not ? No one is forcing you to do it you will still be competitive either way. So why cry about an extra +5 stat you don’t need and won’t use ?

This is a little hard to follow but I’ll try. You’re suggesting that because I want a gear plateau I’m not hardcore or competitive? Well I suggest that because you want a stat advantage you are neither. Stat advantages are a refuge for the skill anemic to obtain the thrill of a victory they “earned” by repetitive easy tasks before the challenge even took place.

I want an even playing field so I can truly measure my skill over others and “in yo face! son!” them with 100% assurance that it was my own skill and experience that got me the victory. I’ve been competitive since I first saw a row of quarters on an arcade fighter. Sorry but your argument is irrelevant and indicative of the slow decline of challenge in gaming.

This, very much so, and very well said.
I want players’ skill and experience to speak for them, not gear.
Especially in any kind of PvP, but as a primarly PvE games, in PvE as well.

All the lot with Legendary items don’t impress me at all.
What impressed me? All-Mesmer runs in end-game instances in GW1.

I want my party members to take me in because of my skill, not because of my gear.
If I stay alive and you die all the time, I want the satifaction of being better and/or more experienced than you. The fact that my gear has +1000% resistance won;t give me that.

I was lied to as a consumer and supporter of Anet, I won’t be purchasing any future games developed by your company.

I hope we can get the gear besides dungeons.
I hate doing dungeons with pugs,not keen on the dungeons anyway.

As of now it’s hard to get a group to do even lvl 1 as they all want lvl 5-10+.
So the new players are going to be left behind.

I just hope anet sees sense and make the gear doable by other means,even if we have to grind some gold to buy them or able to make them.
otherwise they will lose a lot of players because not many ppl want to run dungeons with elitists.

The elitists wow days are over for me,that’s why i turned to gw 2 to avoid all that.
I really hope anet don’t go down that route and rethinks a way to please everyone.

Also Just look at lost shores now,dead as a door nail,only ppl there are the ones for the ori nodes.
Well that area did not last long now did it.
I know it nothing to do with the armour and stuff,but just shows that anet are doing it all wrong if new places are empty so quick.
This will happen to the game if anet don’t pull there socks up.

I am buying another game with less grinding.

Am I the only one that noticed the fact that Ascended rings drop from chests at level 10-11, and are account bound? This is Aion all over again, grind for better gear by doing the same thing over and over with a small chance to get an item, and even smaller to get the item you need. I guess NCSoft attitude grew on ArenaNet. Well, I guess this is the end of Wv3 for me. Too much boring grinding to PVP.

offence.4726:

It’s a personal effort after all , if you are a casual gamer who maxed his exotic set and have probably second BiS inslot why would you want ascendant gear for +5+10+20 stat ? Where will you be using that “hardcore” gear , once a week in wvw or the daily dungeon ? It’s the same previous mmo argument and here it comes: play harder ( work harder ) then the rest get an extra edge it’s just like in the real life or is it not ? No one is forcing you to do it you will still be competitive either way. So why cry about an extra +5 stat you don’t need and won’t use ?

I can’t stand that “work harder” stuff anymore. What exactely is “work” with running a dungeon and what exactely is “hard” doing so – compared to rl which you did. Sitting your kitten flat in front of your screen doing nothing productive is not supposed to be work. The same way you can say I’m working hard watching tv 8 hours a day. The only thing you do is consuming content you do nothing with it. If you want hard work do it in rl this is still a game after all.

Edit: I can accept your opinion even though I’m not agreeing to it but please people stop mistaking playing video-games for work.

Honestly, I don’t really understand why people are getting so upset about the ascended gear business. I get that some people are concerned about being excluded from events, but I don’t see that happening….well not anymore than it already does.

People seem to think that GW2 is slowly turning into a “grind fest.” I disagree. I think that the simple addition of a higher grade armor for people to aim for at end game is just extending the system we already have. (Give or take some stat changes.) We all aim for better armor as we progress through them game, so why not have more after hitting the level cap?

Granted, I have not reached level cap yet, so I don’t know all the details on what there is to do after that. I just feel like people are getting all worked up too early. Give it a chance! People seem to forget that different zones scale player’s levels down. Sure you get a slight boost from the gear you have so you don’t die AS easily as you did when you went through initially, but you can still die fairly easily if you aren’t paying attention. I imagine the same will be with ascended gear.

I can’t say I am completely up to date on the status of this issue, but I have read a fair amount to threads and therefore I felt the need to post this as my own opinion on the matter based on the information given to me.

Ultimately, it is like I said. This all seems to be just more of what we were already doing, just added to end game with a slight twist.

Okay…. I think I’m done. I hope to see you all in game.

drmambo.7619:

We all aim for better armor as we progress through them game, so why not have more after hitting the level cap?

Wrong.

To some players, the single greatest aim when playing the game is to get more powerful items and see a constant influx of “+1” numbers. Those players, we like to call “hamsters”, and the gear treadmill is made for them.

For everyone else, the aim in playing the game was to have fun, not be a hamster, so the reason we were playing GW2 was exactly to avoid this kind of gear treadmill that has taken over the WoW clones.

It’s amazing that some players can’t even see how it’s possible to have a game without the gear treadmill.

drmambo.7619:

Honestly, I don’t really understand why people are getting so upset about the ascended gear business.

WvW.

That, and the whole manifesto/play-for-fun-not-grind-philosophy being chucked out in favor of the same MMO model from which many of us thought we had escaped.

Is it possible to still enjoy the game? Of course, but it’s a bit like enjoying an ice cream sundae that you ordered without maraschino cherries only to have a big glop of fake red sweet added after you’ve paid and started to eat. Sure, you can eat around the gross part, and pretend it isn’t there, but the longer that takes, the more it’s flavor will permeate the rest of the desert and that doesn’t change the fact it wasn’t what you were trying to buy originally.

Erasculio.2914:

drmambo.7619:

We all aim for better armor as we progress through them game, so why not have more after hitting the level cap?

Wrong.

To some players, the single greatest aim when playing the game is to get more powerful items and see a constant influx of “+1” numbers. Those players, we like to call “hamsters”, and the gear treadmill is made for them.

For everyone else, the aim in playing the game was to have fun, not be a hamster, so the reason we were playing GW2 was exactly to avoid this kind of gear treadmill that has taken over the WoW clones.

It’s amazing that some players can’t even see how it’s possible to have a game without the gear treadmill.

I understand where you are coming from and personally that is what drew me to this game in the first place. I hate the grind in other MMOs as well. Perhaps I did not word that as well as I could have. I just don’t think that this addition to the game means that all of its gameplay will turn into a grind. There is still plenty to do in the game that is very open to players who are undergeared. (so far as I have seen at least.) This new armor isn’t exactly on my favorites list of dlc but I would like to give the game the benefit of the doubt.

EDIT: I also hate the elitest players who just sat around in game displaying their high level gear. I sincerely hope this does not happen here. I feel like there is still a large amount of players playing the game the way it was meant to be played. Perhaps I am wrong and this game will plunge into “darkness” I’m just trying to keep a positive mind set so I can help keep this game alive. X)

@Pirlipat I was originally the one raging against this change , because I went nuts years ago when playing mmos with 2 Tiers of gear. I could never settle to have the 2nd best , thing is anet took the casual approach to this since I sit in overflow for an hour at nights which is new to me, this means the game is on fire atm with people playing it. I was only comparing hardlife work to ingame hardwork : when you work your kitten of at a law firm you deserve that promotion even if you have to do 10x the work and by that it’s of course the same repetitive work over the guy that is contempt with his and doesn’t want to spend the extra hours at the office and settles. Same thing applys to an ingame situation why a person who plays more , harder , spends more time doesnt’t deserve that extra edge ? Why would a guy who plays 1 hour a day have the gear of a guy who plays / works 8 hours a day. That is the basic argument and I will close by saying that you can play those fractals casually or hardcore to achieve your goals.

Erasculio.2914:

drmambo.7619:

We all aim for better armor as we progress through them game, so why not have more after hitting the level cap?

Wrong.

To some players, the single greatest aim when playing the game is to get more powerful items and see a constant influx of “+1” numbers. Those players, we like to call “hamsters”, and the gear treadmill is made for them.

For everyone else, the aim in playing the game was to have fun, not be a hamster, so the reason we were playing GW2 was exactly to avoid this kind of gear treadmill that has taken over the WoW clones.

It’s amazing that some players can’t even see how it’s possible to have a game without the gear treadmill.

+1 !

drmambo.7619:

This new armor isn’t exactly on my favorites list of dlc but I would like to give the game the benefit of the doubt.

The problem is that we already gave the game the benefit of doubt. When it was made clear that exotic items require some grind to get, people were annoyed, but since it was a small grind most players were willing to give ArenaNet the benefit of doubt and go with it.

Now, not only the exotic grind is being used by ArenaNet as an excuse to add more grind, but also players who want the gear treadmill are using the exotic grind to justify the ascended grind. If players had been more vocal against the exotic grind in the beginning, maybe this wouldn’t be happening as we are seeing right now.

offence.4726:

@Pirlipat I was originally the one raging against this change , because I went nuts years ago when playing mmos with 2 Tiers of gear. I could never settle to have the 2nd best , thing is anet took the casual approach to this since I sit in overflow for an hour at nights which is new to me, this means the game is on fire atm with people playing it.

There are not more players in the game. Its simple: In LA there are a lot of people because they craft, roleplay, trading in tradingpost etc. since gamelaunch. Now there are the people that used to be in Orr + the other people. Thats why there is an overflow now. The game as a whole hasnt more players…Thats what i see in LA.

Erasculio.2914:

drmambo.7619:

This new armor isn’t exactly on my favorites list of dlc but I would like to give the game the benefit of the doubt.

The problem is that we already gave the game the benefit of doubt. When it was made clear that exotic items require some grind to get, people were annoyed, but since it was a small grind most players were willing to give ArenaNet the benefit of doubt and go with it.

Now, not only the exotic grind is being used by ArenaNet as an excuse to add more grind, but also players who want the gear treadmill are using the exotic grind to justify the ascended grind. If players had been more vocal against the exotic grind in the beginning, maybe this wouldn’t be happening as we are seeing right now.

I can get behind what you are saying. I am sure I will be annoyed when I get there as well. Perhaps I am a bit too laid back for this sort of thing. I don’t like grinding, but as long as it doesn’t take me months to get something like a chest piece, I’m okay.

Whatever happens with this situation, I just hope this game continues to thrive. I would really hate to see something so different be discarded over something that may not be all that bad.

The addition of this gear may not have been a good idea by any means, but I would hate to see this game die and then have a new “revolutionary” MMO be massively successful, only to turn out to be what we have seen since Wow.

Progression is all I want. If they can somehow make this new gear system work with what they have, that would be ideal. I know some have already declared the contrary. I, however, feel it’s too soon to tell.

Its not a great game, it falls far short of that, a good game to play for free, but most other sub or even free to play games have more content and depth in comparison.

Well, why not? Don’t you have fun doing the dungeon? Do you think it’s so awefully boring that you deserve something in return. Do you bring any money to the company by doing so? (Not by spending cash in their shop I mean).

Well you know the slogan with which they advertised this game: “Our time is now” NOW not when you optained the new gear not when you put “hard work” in it not when you’ve spend hours and hours in the game. As someone who has just started the game you will still have plenty of disadavantages in WvW for example and even on 80 you will still be worse than someone playing that game for a huge amount of time. And thats enough I think.

And btw I don’t mind doing something for my gear. I decided to craft my exotics and this will take me quite some time but after all I decide how to have fun in the game, I decide how I want to achive something and I refuse to run in the hamsterweel for the next shiney gear and the next and the next…

Repost from mega thread:

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.

Just checked in, with a slight hope that there would have been a response of some sort about all of this from some of the high ranking staff……this does really not bode well. Too, a lot of talk has spread out to the forums on other gaming sites and blogs, about Anet having dropped the ball, turned their back on the manifesto and so on. All the while asking for clearification on what the new stand means for the game, and what the future plans are for the game as a whole.

And yet….all is silent from Anet HQ.

Its amazing how a small stat increase on the few items released made all previous dungeon content obsolete, very rare do i see anyone spamming for other dungeons now. Not sure if this was intentional on ANets part.

Pirlipat.2479:

Well, why not? Don’t you have fun doing the dungeon? Do you think it’s so awefully boring that you deserve something in return. Do you bring any money to the company by doing so? (Not by spending cash in their shop I mean).

Did you reach the part where without agony resist you cannot beat the bonus boss, and that the agony resist ring is given through RNG on a daily reward for beating the boss at level 10+? The part where your party of friends all got their ring and even 2-3 copies and you are stuck as a dead weight to them cause you weren’t favored by the RNG?

It’s funny because it’s true.
Still sad.

Deadcell.9052:

Its amazing how a small stat increase on the few items released made all previous dungeon content obsolete, very rare do i see anyone spamming for other dungeons now. Not sure if this was intentional on ANets part.

This is what happens when new tiers of gear are released. All other tiers and content that offers those tiers becomes redundant. It’s happened in WoW for years and years.

Surely ArenaNet MUST have realised that it would happen? If they did then it was obviously a conscious decision. If they didn’t, well, we should be very worried about the future of the game.

Orion.7264:

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.

LOL that is kinda circular logic if the only reason to get the new gear is to be able to do a harder version of a fractal you have already done. You don’t “need” the ascended gear for any other real reason than that. This is very much similar to “Hard Modes” in WoW, SWTOR, and any other MMO. They have a story mode that everyone can complete and see the content and a Hard Mode for the more hardcore players .

Gombar.7324:

Just checked in, with a slight hope that there would have been a response of some sort about all of this from some of the high ranking staff……this does really not bode well. Too, a lot of talk has spread out to the forums on other gaming sites and blogs, about Anet having dropped the ball, turned their back on the manifesto and so on. All the while asking for clearification on what the new stand means for the game, and what the future plans are for the game as a whole.

And yet….all is silent from Anet HQ.

I guess they think that ascended gear is not a big deal and thta the 10300+ posts in this thread is a very small minority of the population. Probably true, but if you asked the non-forum goer in mapchat what he/she thinks, they would probably feel the same. When I’ve mentioned this to someone in game that hasnt read the forum or patch notes, he was pretty shocked and called it lame.

They just think they know better than us, which is true in most cases but when you have this big of a response from your playerbase, I think they deserve some explanation or better response. They’ve had a week to write up a response, so this wouldn’t be a knee-jerk reaction at this point.

1. Leave half the servers the way they are now.
2. Take the other half of the servers and disable FotM.
3. Block server transfers from one version of the game to the other.

Keep both groups happy. GW2 Regular, and GW2 Light.

(and for your coders… IF GW_Client=Regular THEN Agony_Enabled=True.)

Grimstor.4160:

1. Leave half the servers the way they are now.
2. Take the other half of the servers and disable FotM.
3. Block server transfers from one version of the game to the other.

Keep both groups happy. GW2 Regular, and GW2 Light.

(and for your coders… IF GW_Client=Regular THEN Agony_Enabled=True.)

No, don’t disable transfer. Leave it on.
But if you’re on no-FotM server, your Ascended gear has Exotic stats and your Infusion does not work (no stats).

Then we could see which option is really more popular and not just ad hoc, but over time: giving players enough time to understand what Ascended gear and Infusion really bring with them.

@Gombar "Too, a lot of talk has spread out to the forums on other gaming sites and blogs, about Anet having dropped the ball, turned their back on the manifesto and so on. "

Yes, it is spreading. People are posting this on metacritic. Soon it will be on retailer sites under the customer review sections. Players who came here because of horizontal progression and are disgusted by this mistake are leaving (requesting refunds, uninstalling, stop playing). I hope the news spreads so that people who intended to buy the product based on the manifesto are warned. No reason for them to buy a product that no longer has the core feature they were looking for.

The sad part about future sales is that people who like “gear stat progression” are less likely to buy GW2. Gear progression is only one of the things they are used to. They also are used to the holy trinity, raids and quest hubs. This game has none of them. Even if they hear about this horrible change, when they find out the other “key” MMO features are missing, they will not buy it.

The same holds for those polluting the game with their gear progression demands. Once they get the “new hotness” and that special feeling wears off, they will be gone. Why? There is no raiding. They will use Fractals to get their carrot. Once they are done, they are done with the game.

So who will be left supporting this game and its cash shop?

People are even asking about the refunds in mapchat now.. but I’m sure those not on the forum are enjoying themselves, right?

Maybe the reason they haven’t responded with a resounding defence of these changes is because they don’t agree with them themselves?

It would be pretty amusing if the devs are raging at every “we support the changes post”

The more they stay silent, the more I think these changes were mandated for above.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

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

See you in 4 months, then.

Posted 11 hours ago:

AndrewMcLeod.3857:

Derk.3189:

Stormleaf.1769:

Erulogos.2591:

Quoting you both as you both make the same argument, essentially, and miss the same issue.

The issue is not with -current- content. No Ascended gear is required to finish every dungeon and kill every boss currently walking Tyria.

The issue is with -future- content. It was stated, when Ascended gear was announced, that Agony (and thus Agony resist) was something that would be involved in content going forward. It was not stated, one way or the other, if it would be required to even attempt future content, and it therefore becomes a simple question: grind Ascended and Agony resist now, so you are ready for the new content no matter what, or wait and see if it will be required, and hope that, if it is, enough other people waited that you can get groups to grind it out.

It is true that as of this moment in time, the grind heavy gear is not required to see any of the content in the game. But we don’t know when or if it will be, and Anet has not said one way or the other. A lot of folks saying it is required are basically taking the cautious path, assuming it will be and preparing for the worst.

The issue with this is that ArenaNet could have easily made this content require Agony resistance from the beginning as well, by making it some Mystic Forge thing and introducing Agony at fractal level 1. They didn’t; heck, they even made it so low levels can participate. Exotics aren’t even a requirement for the early difficulty levels. If they didn’t do it now, why do you think they’re magically going to start doing it in the future? None of the content in GW2 has been restricted like that. There is zero indication of ArenaNet ever restricting content like that, and it’s simply not helpful to base your argument on an assumption that they’ll magically start doing it.

AHHAHA You really think they did that for the players? Its just there to draw out the content, an additional carrot on another stick. Oh you want to see what agony is like? Hit me up 10 levels.

The Agony mechanic wasn’t introduced at the start of the dungeon so that everybody can experience the content. While one of the goals of the Fractals of the Mists dungeon was to provide some difficult content for players looking for a challenge, we also wanted the dungeon to be available for everybody to experience. While getting far into the dungeon requires agony resistance from ascended gear, the content was designed to provide challenging content, and to allow players to choose what difficulty they wanted to play at.

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’m most concerned about coming to Lion’s Arch later on down the road to see everyone dressed in the exact same ascendance gear. All individual looks will be gone because why would people want to look unique when they can kill anyone who does? Groups will take one look at how your equipped and instantly the “noob” argument will come into play which is sad because I haven’t seen any of that going on so far. It was like a breath of fresh air…