Thoughts on Ascended Gear? [Merged threads]
People who left becouse of lack of gear progression will come back.
For a 2 days. They will grind another tier and leave again.
People who are not interested in gear progression would play this game for months. And now they might leave.
I can’t see the reason in this..Or they will get their ascended rings in a couple runs of fractals before even fully clearing the place and think to themselves…“well that was easy…I complained over that?”
I have made 8’th alt yesterday. Do I have to go through several AC runs again? No. I can Go to COF, if I like it more. I can craft my stuff, I can earn it in WvW.
But I will have to go to fractals. Maybe I will like it. Or maybe not. But when I was buying this game, I was promised I will have a choice. And that’s the point. Broken promise. Maybe Anet will introduce another tier of gear in next 3 months. I don’t know that now.
I’m not ragequiting here. But I do understand that people are dissapointed.
And I’m worried, becouse those disapointed people are important to this game. They are quite often paying customers.
People who likes gear progression are used to farm 10+ gold in orr for legendaries and they can buy their gems for gold. It is casuals who buy gems with their dollars and euros, that will suffer most.
Endgame without treadmill isn´t possible in “Theme Park MMOs” like GW2´s PvE.
The Devs will always breathlessly race the consumer/grinders gobbling up their painstakingly tested( ) content in a fraction of the time it took to create it.
Sadly WoW has created all too much of these consumer raid-types.
The only real answer to “endless” endgame is the Sandbox.
For GW2 it is WvWvW.
Tournaments and E-Sport are a nice gimmick, at least to me. But I could be wrong.
I hope ANet understands this and will show it by expanding PvP in a meaningful matter.
New category of items.. Okay
New category of items inherently better than existing items.. Not okay
New category of items inherently better than existing items only available through the mystic lottery.. Not okay at all.
New category of items inherently better than existing items only available through the mystic lottery and is required to do new content… RAGE
This, right here. Obviously we don’t have all the details yet, but what details we do have are baffling. I have no clue what’s going on at ANet design meetings, or how they imagined any of this would be viewed as compatible with their “Manifesto”.
Nay for stat-based gear progression.
LinseyOriginal Guild Wars fans may recognize that we took a familiar approach to our new progression.
NAY this ain’t familiar. It’s an insult to fans of the original Guild Wars.
It actually made me physically angry that they invoked GW1’s name to support something that flies in the face of everything that made that game great. It’s like seeing someone invoke George Washington as they burn the American flag.
No. This smells dangerously like gear grind and would be a major disappointment.
“Go play WoW” = “I have no further argument.”
No, more like “there’s plenty of arguments, but since the thread is filled with them already, you should read them”.
The poster has no obligation to sum them up again, since you can just use the scroll button and move up
This will become one more mmo , f2p with beautiful gaphics and terrible pvp.
If you can point out, which part of this announcement explicitly points out that arenanet are turning GW2 into a gear threadmill, power creep snowball. Then your argument might actually hold weight. But you cannot, because it’s simply not there.
Maybe you missed it but…
https://d2vn94glaxzkz3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Ascended-EN.png
There you have it, power creep, small, weak, almost unoticable, but power creep after all.
Don’t bother. White knights never listen to reason.
lets be real here folks.
the majority of you that said you aren’t gonna play anymore………………….are gonna play. cmon now. You will. It’s a free game.
Actually, Guild Wars 2 was sort of going to be my last MMO. The way they set it up kind of spoiled me, especially after a few years of playing WoW.
Then they toss what made it fun out of the window. It’s left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m trying really hard to get them to see why it’s a bad idea. They made a game perfect for a niche market, and now they’re messing it all up.
well they just added more content and more gear and when you consider the static leveling curve it wasn’t gonna take you any longer to get it than it would’ve to get exotics but you don’t like to play mmos anymore so buh bye
sorry for being a kitten but I’m trying to get people to realize how stupid it is to complain about all this.
Ah well, I guess if you’re going to be an kitten I can be one too.
Go back to WoW if you want your +5 rings.
FACEPALM
I’m not even…just….ugh.
You went there?
Really?
“Go play WoW” = “I have no further argument.”
golfclap
It’s a niche game. I have plenty more to say about it, but most people in support of the change are simply regurgitating that “It’s not a slippery slope!” and “It makes me better because…???” and I’ve gotten tired of it.
Don’t feel bad.
Players who put far too much pressure on themselves and others to be the best or have the best are the ones who are creating the problem.
If you eliminate the pressure, you just have the game.
And last I checked we all agree that it’s fun to play the game.
For all we know its a one time addition of another rarity to items. Not an ever increasing new tier of gear. /shrug the guild convo’s we have been having because of this though is quite interesting.
I don’t know how I feel about this, since I don’t care much for stats. I get what I “need” to get as defined by the community. I think gear treadmills are an idiotic farce. that being said, I like that the treadheads have something to “progress” in, & I hope this shuts them up. I highly doubt it will though.
I’d still prefer horizontal progression: more skills, new cosmetics options (capes, auras, more pet-like minis, mounts, etc.. visible medals, housing & housing items,)more achievements, leaderboards etc..
Well, I don’t feel it too strongly, as not really intending to do a lot of endgame, but I would prefer no raidy gear progression system.
Obligatory reply showing concern over the proposed update.
My main concerns:
- This could lead onto more power-creep
- This could lead to content being locked out to those who haven’t acquired ascended gear.
- This could have a knock on effect on current dungeons if all we can get are exotics.
- Can ascended gear be crafted? If not then most people will stick to cooking.
My thoughts about bringing the same old tired model of gear treadmill here too? Very disappointed. I thought that this game would be finally something different. Oh well, nothing good lasts forever.
and I don’t know why you guys keep saying that to be good at something you need the best gear. That’s half the problem right there.
When I make a mistake and get punished for it, I want to know that it was completely because I did something wrong – I used a skill at the wrong time, did not move correctly, did not use the right cooldowns, etc.
The possibility that it was because my gear wasn’t good enough is extremely distasteful, and I am certain I am not alone in thinking this way.
Edit: Note: I am not disagreeing with you, just providing a reason for why people want the best gear. This is why I’m very uncomfortable the new increased stats on Ascended items.
(edited by xeph.8410)
People who left becouse of lack of gear progression will come back.
For a 2 days. They will grind another tier and leave again.
People who are not interested in gear progression would play this game for months. And now they might leave.
I can’t see the reason in this..Or they will get their ascended rings in a couple runs of fractals before even fully clearing the place and think to themselves…“well that was easy…I complained over that?”
I have made 8’th alt yesterday. Do I have to go through several AC runs again? No. I can Go to COF, if I like it more. I can craft my stuff, I can earn it in WvW.
But I will have to go to fractals. Maybe I will like it. Or maybe not. But when I was buying this game, I was promised I will have a choice. And that’s the point. Broken promise. Maybe Anet will introduce another tier of gear in next 3 months. I don’t know that now.
What? You’d have to do AC again to get AC gear, and CoF to get CoF gear. The main reason of doing dungeons is to get the tokens to get the gear skins specific to that dungeon.
Literally the only difference here is a few stat points.
This outrage is hilariously stupid.
I guarantee an ANet dev will post in the next few days and explain that NO, they said nothing about adding new equipment tiers every 6 months, and as the blog explained, they saw a need to bridge the gap between Exotic and Legendary by adding ONE new tier.
You people are going to give yourself aneurisms over nothing. Stop freaking out. Constructive feedback is great, but ya’ll are taking it too far.
“Go play WoW” = “I have no further argument.”
No, more like “there’s plenty of arguments, but since the thread is filled with them already, you should read them”.
The poster has no obligation to sum them up again, since you can just use the scroll button and move up
maybe you should do the same and see i’ve been posting back and forth with various people since page 46 or 47.
But I’m glad you can skip to the end and see something you don’t agree with and feel all empowered by disagreeing with it all smart-like.
golfclap
lets be real here folks.
the majority of you that said you aren’t gonna play anymore………………….are gonna play. cmon now. You will. It’s a free game.
Actually, Guild Wars 2 was sort of going to be my last MMO. The way they set it up kind of spoiled me, especially after a few years of playing WoW.
Then they toss what made it fun out of the window. It’s left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m trying really hard to get them to see why it’s a bad idea. They made a game perfect for a niche market, and now they’re messing it all up.
well they just added more content and more gear and when you consider the static leveling curve it wasn’t gonna take you any longer to get it than it would’ve to get exotics but you don’t like to play mmos anymore so buh bye
sorry for being a kitten but I’m trying to get people to realize how stupid it is to complain about all this.
Ah well, I guess if you’re going to be an kitten I can be one too.
Go back to WoW if you want your +5 rings.
FACEPALM
I’m not even…just….ugh.
You went there?
Really?
“Go play WoW” = “I have no further argument.”
golfclap
It’s a niche game. I have plenty more to say about it, but most people in support of the change are simply regurgitating that “It’s not a slippery slope!” and “It makes me better because…???” and I’ve gotten tired of it.
Don’t feel bad.
Players who put far too much pressure on themselves and others to be the best or have the best are the ones who are creating the problem.
If you eliminate the pressure, you just have the game.
And last I checked we all agree that it’s fun to play the game.
I’d like for it to remain fun to play without trying to incentivize me with higher stats. It creates a barrier for entry that can hurt the longevity of a game, dissuades people from an oversaturated as well as already dominated market, and hurts someone who has real life obligations and is unable to grind just so they can compete.
It’s a dark road, it’s one that’s been traveled before, and I don’t want to see it happen to this game.
On that note: I honestly wouldn’t mind one new set of extra gear if it’s so desperately needed. What I’m worried is that it creates artificial content while the actual game bit are lost under miles and miles of +1 upgrades. I’d play a JRPG if I like watching numbers rise.
I think it’s actually kind of sad how WoW has turned this genre in to something that means the game is pointless if you aren’t always getting upgrades. There’s other ways to get invested in a character besides playing them for a long time. I didn’t like Dart from Legend of Dragoon when I was a kid because I got some fancy sword after killing a boss.
(edited by Talloc.6835)
50 pages of posts in 18 hours, not to mention the 10 other threads that have yet to be merged.
Anet remains quiet.
sigh
Yes to new content, no to power creeping, and no a thousand times if the only way to get the power is to run a dungeon.
They really should postpone the patch and rethink that one. The official thread about this issue is easily the longest thread I have ever seen on this forum (I mean, even the bug report threads don’t come close) so it’s safe to say that a lot of people have a problem with the incoming patch.
Nay for stat-based gear progression.
LinseyOriginal Guild Wars fans may recognize that we took a familiar approach to our new progression.
NAY this ain’t familiar. It’s an insult to fans of the original Guild Wars.
It actually made me physically angry that they invoked GW1’s name to support something that flies in the face of everything that made that game great. It’s like seeing someone invoke George Washington as they burn the American flag.
Penn and Teller did so in a good way check youtube. But apart from that you’re right. It’d be more like invoking George Washington to eliminate the bill of rights.
Delayed content is eventually good. Rushed content is eternally bad. ~ Shigeru Miyamoto
sorry for being a kitten but I’m trying to get people to realize how stupid it is to complain about all this.
With the best will in the world, you seem like a nice guy, so please try to realize that your opinion is not correct just because it is yours and other peoples are not incorrect just because they are different. If, objectively, there was no reason to be upset here then people would not be. Its a completely subjective matter and people will disagree on it. In the same way that I am perfectly happy for you to not be upset about this thing please give me the same courtesy and accept that I am upset even if you don’t understand why.
golfclap
that’s a legit clap btw. I’m not being smart. lol
Heh, fair enough. Seriously, I’m happy for you to like these changes and this update. I don’t though, and I have my reasons for it. I supposed you could see it as a difference between casual and hardcore but I always liked that Anet tried to balance that difference instead of just caving one way or the other.
Totally fine with it. They’re just bridging the gap between the exotic and legendary tiers. If you guys would have read the blog post you would understand that Legendary was always meant to be the highest tier and the ascension tier was only introduced so that people didn’t hit a legendary wall. They stated this would be a one time change only. There is no treadmill…
No to ascended gear.
Asura on patrol in defense of Gandara and Bessie!
Administrator of http://thisisgandara.com
50 pages of posts in 18 hours, not to mention the 10 other threads that have yet to be merged.
Anet remains quiet.
sigh
General Almorra “Some must fight, so that all may be free.”
Yeah, please make an official announcement whether I can create multiple toons that feel “complete” in the end. Cause that’s what I bought the game for. If you’re gonna make that impossible, tell us soon, cause I will need to look for a game that still has that possibility.
† November 16th, 2012
So, Ascended Armor. Agony. Infusions. People are ticked. It looks like the start of a gear treadmill. And I agree that a gear treadmill would be bad for the game.
However, a few have replied that this is what the community has asked for. People were completing every event, obtaining 100% exploration on the map, and then quitting, due to lack of endgame.
GW2 has forms of endgame, such as PvP, WvW, and cosmetics. However, we wouldn’t be having this conversation if it was enough.
New content is great, but players consume it faster than devs can create it.So, my question is this: How do we expand the existing endgame (things to do after “beating” the game) in Guild Wars 2 without implementing a gear treadmill? How have MMOs lacking gear treadmills, such as Guild Wars 1, kept an active player base through the years? Discuss.
EDIT: The purpose of this thread is not to discuss Lost Shores, or whether or not Lost Shores is a gear treadmill. I mentioned it only because that’s what brought this topic up. There’s a ton of other threads to debate ascended armor in.
There’s already plenty to do and their content updates are already plentiful. Everywhere I go is still busy. It’s a non-problem. It looks like ANet is responding to economic freak-out, which would be better solved by putting things in the shop that people actually want, at a price they can understand without doing algebra.
In the long term, quality is more important than quantity. You cannot stop people from blowing through content. What you can do is inspire them to return, replay, re-experience. I’d do more for RPers—like, say, actually be able to sit normally in a chair for starters, or buy more town clothes. It’s silly to me that we’re talking gear grind when women still lie on the floor instead of sitting down and there are pve dynamic events that have been broken since week 1.
Yes for new content
No for new tier of gear 2 months after release
Yes for new content
No for new tier of gear 3 months after release
This is a bad joke.
49 pages and not a reply?
What the f* are you doing?
I have mixed feelings about this, but obviously unlike most people here, I can sort of see arena nets end goal in all this.
They are introducing a new tier, yes. It is slightly stronger, yes. Much stronger, no. What they are trying to do is create a reward system for additional content. However unlike the “other games” they are not adding a whole tier which is 1.2x better then the last, they are adding 5% of a tier that is 1.1x better. It allows them slowly introduce each segment of this gear as a reward for various new content sections.
I have been trying to think of it as this: a long-term goal to upgrade the character, coming in piecemeal sections every so often. Once it is all finished it provides a goal for new players which promotes visiting all the content after they have exotics, however nowhere near good enough to be considered compulsory.
Try it before you slam it is all I am saying really.
I’m not one to come on the forums and complain, but this really annoys me because I didn’t buy this game for a gear treadmill.
“We designed the process of getting Legendary gear to be a long term goal, but players were ready to start on that path much sooner than we expected and were becoming frustrated with a lack of personal progression.”
This sounds like Ascended gear was originally unplanned, but added to appease the whiners who wanted a gear treadmill. I didn’t whine because I was happy with Exotics being the top tier for stats and I could play for fun, knowing legendary gear was on its way (but if legendary weapons were the example, that gear would be cosmetic too).
I would have preferred it if the new dungeons could take EXISTING gear and infuse it, with the new gear simply already having infusion but remaining Exotic in stats.
This outrage is hilariously stupid.
I guarantee an ANet dev will post in the next few days and explain that NO, they said nothing about adding new equipment tiers every 6 months, and as the blog explained, they saw a need to bridge the gap between Exotic and Legendary by adding ONE new tier.
You people are going to give yourself aneurisms over nothing. Stop freaking out. Constructive feedback is great, but ya’ll are taking it too far.
There is no difference between legendary and exotic .. they are totally the same stat-wise
So they added something even better than legendary … use brain next time
Full Ascendent gear = every current dungeon/pve content = easy joke
Everythign will become easyer at level 80 .. Every explorable become easyer than they are now … This is guild wars, nah. crap wars
I feel like they didn’t even really try. All they had to do was release Lost Shores without the ascended gear and see what would happen. Did their halloween event not draw in a big enough crowd?
Wasn’t the concept that you make fun content and people will play without needing a carrot? Did ArenaNet come to doubt their ability to make content fun?
nah, the biggest mistake ArenaNet ever made was having a forum. With QQ threads demanding more carrots (“I have full exotics already, now what?” “why should i grind 500 hours just for a skin?”), i am not surprise they decide to add some “meaningful progression” after all…
There you go…“Where’s-the-end-game?” crowds 1, Guild War purists 0
This exactly!
Yes for gear progression, yes for new content !!!! now it’s game for me, my friend will back to the game, GJ Anet, im always belive in you Somone who didnt like tier gear, go play sPvP, For PvE and WvW must be gear and skill progression as motivation to play, it’s not barbie fashion game, wanna fashion, play barbie and ken…
(edited by QWACIT.9238)
If you can point out, which part of this announcement explicitly points out that arenanet are turning GW2 into a gear threadmill, power creep snowball. Then your argument might actually hold weight. But you cannot, because it’s simply not there.
Maybe you missed it but…
https://d2vn94glaxzkz3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Ascended-EN.png
There you have it, power creep, small, weak, almost unoticable, but power creep after all.
But not a snowball, that is simply a higher plateau. The argument you are making is that somehow these ascended items are going to break the level limit and get progressively stronger.
Nothing mentioned here actually supports that.Do you know what the snowball argument actually is? Please don’t give me a link, I’d like it in your words.
The snowball argument somewhat ironically is another name for the slippery slope fallacy…
But since you are more implying how it relates to this situation:
The sheer act of increasing the item power will somehow cause a momentum that forces Arenanet to add additional levels of power in order to continue the intended effect of adding the first.
It’s basically an assumption that because they added A therefore they must then add B, C, D, E, F and G to sustain the effect intended by adding A.
Which implies a deliberate ignorance to the current system in place and how what they’ve specifically said would effect it.
No for gear treadmill.
I’m very disappointed, not excited.
50 pages of posts in 18 hours, not to mention the 10 other threads that have yet to be merged.
Anet remains quiet.
sigh
General Almorra “Some must fight, so that all may be free.”
Not understanding your reference. :\
Totally fine with it. They’re just bridging the gap between the exotic and legendary tiers. If you guys would have read the blog post you would understand that Legendary was always meant to be the highest tier and the ascension tier was only introduced so that people didn’t hit a legendary wall. They stated this would be a one time change only. There is no treadmill…
You know how this goes. In 2 weeks the lifeless will have all top gear again and start yearning for a tier2 ascended.
Delayed content is eventually good. Rushed content is eternally bad. ~ Shigeru Miyamoto
No, I hate the new ascended items.
You people get a grip, their adding another teir, so what? You have to do dungeons to get dungeon gear now dont you? I doub’t their going to make it as hard as legendairys to get its probably going to be between exotic and legendary. Don’t want to get it? Then don’t. This is why i don’t play mmo’s the playerbase is full of qq babys,
- **************IM NOT* saying anet made the right move here, but IM NOT saying they made the WRONG move here UNTIL WE SEE HOW IT FULLY WORKS******************
This outrage is hilariously stupid.
I guarantee an ANet dev will post in the next few days and explain that NO, they said nothing about adding new equipment tiers every 6 months, and as the blog explained, they saw a need to bridge the gap between Exotic and Legendary by adding ONE new tier.
You people are going to give yourself aneurisms over nothing. Stop freaking out. Constructive feedback is great, but ya’ll are taking it too far.
except they also say it’s just a first level:
“This is just the beginning. In November, we’re only adding the first level of Infusions and Ascended Rings and Back slots, so that leaves us a lot of room to build upon these levels of Item progression in future content.”
Please tell me where it says the entirety of the dungeon (9 wings) can NOT be completed without the Ascended gear. I will definitely agree that the harder playthroughs will require it, be it 2nd time, 3rd, or 30th.
Seeing as we will not be starting immediately with Ascended gear, I am willing to bet there will be quite a few runs through it on X, Y, or Z difficulty until your group has enough Ascended pieces to continue on to the harder difficulties of the exact same dungeon with higher tuned numbers (higher Agony damage most likely).
There is nothing in the blog regarding the, I’ll call it “Dungeon Level 0”, Fractals being 100% unbeatable without a single piece of Ascended gear. I’m going to be sticking with my hopes that this infinitely scaling dungeon can be completed on at least 1 level of difficulty without a single piece of Ascended, anything after that is just for personal, guild, or server-wide boasting, nothing more. This is unless you get better rewards for doing a Fractals 10 run vs Fractals 2 run. Better does not always mean more, so more drops of loot would be fine.
This is largely speculation on my part, but I’m more the cup is half full type most of the time.
To the person who said a better example would have been Arrah. Yeah, but does it make it any less true? Artificial gear gating already being present by people who want to maximize their efficiency at completing a challenge already exists. Nothing is going to change that.
I don’t mind this at all. So long as you are able to complete this new dungeon and any dungeons to come later on at least ONE difficulty level with your other gear levels, this Exotic gear 2.0 won’t matter other than to add a little fluff to those who really wanted it.
This infusion thing reminds me of WoW’s standard dungeons vs heroic versions. You can do most standard instances virtually naked while heroics require certain gear level. Are heroics content? They most certainly are. The major difference is that WoW revolves around a gear treadmill so gear gated content is basically part of the overall philosophy. GW2 does not revolve around a gear grind, yet, and up until this new patch you have access to all content, provided that you’re a competent player.
The artificial barriers that other players put on each other to make their gaming time easier is not the same as a forced barrier by the game. With player created barriers you can still do the content with other players, with a dev enforced barrier you cannot.
This outrage is hilariously stupid.
I guarantee an ANet dev will post in the next few days and explain that NO, they said nothing about adding new equipment tiers every 6 months, and as the blog explained, they saw a need to bridge the gap between Exotic and Legendary by adding ONE new tier.
You people are going to give yourself aneurisms over nothing. Stop freaking out. Constructive feedback is great, but ya’ll are taking it too far.
Just a fyi incase you don’t know, a lot of people think the anti-outrage is, as you put it…
You say they saw a need to bridge a gap. they’re doing exactly the opposite of that.
They are actually creating a gap between exotics and legendary.
(edited by Moderator)
very big No for higher Stats on Weapon / Gear
yes for new Content
Yes for new Skins
Yes for more crafting instead of Mystic forge
Yes for less Luckfactor
If you can point out, which part of this announcement explicitly points out that arenanet are turning GW2 into a gear threadmill, power creep snowball. Then your argument might actually hold weight. But you cannot, because it’s simply not there.
Maybe you missed it but…
https://d2vn94glaxzkz3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Ascended-EN.png
There you have it, power creep, small, weak, almost unoticable, but power creep after all.
But not a snowball, that is simply a higher plateau. The argument you are making is that somehow these ascended items are going to break the level limit and get progressively stronger.
Nothing mentioned here actually supports that.Do you know what the snowball argument actually is? Please don’t give me a link, I’d like it in your words.
The snowball argument somewhat ironically is another name for the slippery slope fallacy…
But since you are more implying how it relates to this situation:
The sheer act of increasing the item power will somehow cause a momentum that forces Arenanet to add additional levels of power in order to continue the intended effect of adding the first.It’s basically an assumption that because they added A therefore they must then add B, C, D, E, F and G to sustain the effect intended by adding A.
Which implies a deliberate ignorance to the current system in place and how what they’ve specifically said would effect it.
And what is your reasoning that they won’t add more progression now that their foot is in the door? I’ve got about five dead MMOs backing up my worries.
I can honestly say I wish I shared your optimism, but this announcement has given me a familiar feeling.
NO for new tier of items
NO for gated content by any means, this is never a great idea and isn’t sustenable on the long run
BIG NO for broken promises, once you start broking your own promises how long before you broke the remaining ones, we start waiting for new tier of items in the spring?, maybe infusion ready items for a bunch of gems?
I only love new content but the way they introduce it is a game killer for me, items hamster wheel again broking all the previous promises?, NO THANKS.
As result i would never see the new content as i’m not going to gring the new items and it could put me out of the game.
whats next ? ..
sPvP gear progression incomming in december
kitten every single thing about this.
Why not fix the downleveling that you advertised so much?
Why not go back and rewatch all the videos that YOU made detailing why gear grind games suck anet?
Seriously, and for a gear grind game, this system isn’t even done well. No customization and RNG all your time away until you uck into an ascension upgrade that fits.
“LFG COF MAGG FULL ASC ONLY”
kitten off.