Guild Wars 2

Side Link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Upgrades-Open-the-Way-for-Build-Saver/first#post6443467
Just as a reminder for myself.

I follow my own strong principl,e, that this Game would run much better balanced, if GW2 would receive finally a proper and universal rebalancing about its whole Combat System.

A very big part of Character Progression as like Combats are the Upgrades – so Sigils, Runes, Gemstones, Infusions ect. – and this part of the Combat System is something about GW2, which suffers currently on – how should I express it best – on overenrichment

The Game has way more Upgrades, than are neccessary. The game needs to be purified from all of these unneeded upgrades and upgrade types, which are mostly all those weak useless minor and major upgrades, that are useless, because the player can’t do anythign with them, not even salvage them right now, if they aren’t needed.

Another point, that would make Upgrades and Game Balance easier to handle for anet would be to remove all Stats from Gear, including Upgrades.
This would purify this game from so much obsolete things alone, that balancing the classes should become alot easier.

But first a small caption, because I will mention here some terms, which I want to describe first ,what is meant with them:

Combat Skill Relation; Actively – An Effect, which changes Effects of a Combat Skill directly when you use the Combat Skill.
Combat Skill Relation; Passively – An Effect, which is there, while a Combat Skill is reloading, or while it is active, or while you are using it passively in the background
Combat Relation; Passively – An Effect, that is there, while you do something like a Dodge Roll, a Block, switching Weapons, receiving Boons, getting/removing Conditions ect.
Combat Relation; Extension – Adds an Effect to an other Effect and extends with it the original Effect
Combat Relation; Improvement – Increases an Effect in its Efficiency/Duration
Combat Relation: Skin Unlock – Simply unlocking a Reskin for a Combat Skill, becasuse I want to see Infusions becoming more useful in the Game, other than being only AR Boosts or “Auras”

These kinds of terms can get mixed partwise into each other when you think about all kinds of possible mechanics that can be included into Upgrades to make them more interesting and fun for the overall Combat System
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Now I’ll answer first a question from an other Thread that lead to this one here.

“How would my concept stop the economy from tanking, if we remove Stats from Gear?”

With this question I think the questioner means, what kind of options ANet would have, to ensure, that things, that are now valuable, aren’t valuable anymore once this big change would make alot of things obsolete (and in fact easier for all players to handle and to overview), if Anet seriously would rebalance the Game, by removing all Stats from all Gear.

Truth is, if that would have, would lose alot of things value, but mostly only those things in the game, which are used alot by tons of players…so basically everythign in this game, that is currently “Meta” while everything, that is rarely used by hardly anyone most likely won’t be affected at all by this change.

The real question is more for me – why should Anet do something against a decreasing value of materials ect.
In the end the market and its prices will regulate itself still just through demand and offer. So why should ANet interfere into this, only because some meta builds and their required items to get them will eventually lose in value, because they arenät maybe so wanted anymore as like before, so that people are able to get specific “Stats” for their Builds.

Anet can, if they want find alot of new sinks for the affected items that eventually lose too much value. They can add always new crafting recipes for somethign that will require something that has lost alot of value due to the removal of Stats from Gear and that item will instantly sky rocket again with its value high, due to the hype of people wanting to get that new thing, especially if that new recipe is for some kind of super good looking skin that requires alot of said materials that people start to buy the market empty so that they don’t have to grind for the materials.

The quality of life, and fun aspects of being able to change your attributes anytime out of combat just overweight the little con, that eventuaklly might appear from removing Stats from gear, when that con can be solved anytiem through adding new sinks for the affected items that lost value to prevent the economy from tanking this way.
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With this being said so far, I will go on with the Concept and its discussion with the next posting.

The basic spirit behind my idea, the ideal concept of Upgrades for GW2, that play a big role in generally balancing the game is “Reduction”, same as I stand for Reduction, when it comes to Conditions and Boons.

Reduction is the basic spirit also, why GW2 started as what it has started 2012 and why we have much lesser Skills in the Game, than in GW1, why we have no Dual Class System anymore, why we have no tons Hexes anymore, but Conditions instead. Theres a red line in this whole Game Design and it is Reduction, to ensure, that things get not too overcomplex or too overenriched like it is currently the case with Upgrades, where we have lots of useless ones, k*tten players can make no use of them, because we can#t salvage them, can’t stack them, can’t merge them, can’t sell them quickly.

The game has obsolete Upgrade type, that nobody needs, because in the end the only important Upgrade types currently that you need are superior Sigils, Superior Runes and eventually if you go for more Stats (urgh) exotic Gemstones, which is totally pointless, because Runes/Sigils with their effects are alot better and more useful and create Build Diversity, while just Stat Boosts from gemstones do this not.

Upgrade Types like Talismans, Signets, Medaillons are so useless, because you level in this game so quickly, you outgrow these weak upgrades so fast, that you never need them. also in time,s where players have countless amounts of instant Level Up Boosters, people have their Max Level Characters so quickly, that these weak Upgrades play for you never a role in the whole game. All what matters for players these days are only the high end Upgrades, because they are it in the end, which have some kind of value for the players, while all the weak rest is just cheap garbage that has no worth at all for anyone.

So under the spirit of reduction I think its best for GW2 to reduce the amount of Upgrade Types and to make sure, that each remaining Upgrade type receives its very own unique speciality for what these Upgrades should be good for.

The most simplest Concept I could come up with did I post basically already in the other Thread, but here is it again for this own discussion now:

Weapons
- 2 Upgrade Types: Sigils & new Materias
- Materias are created out of Infusions + Materials/ Loot Items (if Materia is no good term, then take “Essence”
- Sigils change actively all Combat Skills Relations – Example: Sigil of Fire = A Fire Explosion can happen after you use a Combat Skill, which deals AoE Damage
- Materias change passively all Combat Skill Relations – Example: Materia of Summoning = Your Summons passively regenerate Health for every Summon Skill in your Bar, that is currently reloading as long there is as least 1 Summon Skill that is reloading and your Protection Boons are increased by 10% while a summon of you is alive.

Armor Parts
- 2 Upgrade Types: Runes & Gemstones
- Rune Set with Bonus Effects are now reduced from 6 Parts to 4 Parts required for a Set and Runes can be put now also too into Accessoires. This will make it now possible to have up to 3 Rune Set Combos in your Build, if you put into your whole Equipment only Runes.
- Gemstones reworked to Extension and/or Improvement Effects
Example:

Minor > Major > Superior > Ascended
Emerald Jewel > Polished Emerald Jewel > Exquisite Emerald Jewel > Brilliant Emerald Jewel

Example Effect
Put in an Emerald Jewel into your Armor and it will increase the Duration of the first Boon you receive 5 seconds after the begin of a Battle by +x% based on its Rarity Grade.

Minor = Can be used from Level 1 to 20
Major = Can be used from Level 21 to 40
Superior = Can be used from Lvl 41 to 60
Ascended = Can be used from Level 61 to 80

If you want to use now highr end Upgrades, you first need to use low end Upgrades and “REFINE” them through a Jeweler to their next Rarity Grade by raising the Quality of the Upgrade, which is the required Level of an Item. The moment you refine the Quality of an Upgrade over its Rarity Grade Limit, it becomes the next higher Rarity Grade, until you have refined your Upgrade into Ascended Status

Accessoires
- 3 Upgrade Types – Crests, Runes & Infusions
- Armors and Weapons have no Infusion Slots anymore, all AR/Infusions needed should come from Accessoires to give Accessoires more importancy after the removal of Stats from gear, because currently are Accessoires nothing but only cheap boring Stat Boosters
- Infusions receive different Slot Types – Immunity Slots & Design Slots
Immunity Slots increase AR and the moment you put an Immunity infusion into the Slot, you gain Agony Resistance with it so more and so longer you suffer Agony, so higher will rise the Immunity Level automatically of the Infusion over time, until its Limit is reached and you need to refine it to turn it into a better Infusion that can reach a higher Immunity Level – stop with grinding millions of infusions and turning AR into a real part of Character Progression, that comes naturally from playing Fractals and getting hit with Agony. Limited to 2 per Equipment.
Design Slots unlock for your character either unique Aura Effects or Skill Skins with that you can change the Look of your Combat Skills. Limited to 1 per Equipment
- Crests add now instead of Stats new unique Combat related Extensions or Improvements.
Example: Crest of the Assassin added to an Accessoire would now increase the Efficienty of Fury for you if it should be an Improvement, or as an Exension Effect, it could lead to the additional effect, that you gain a chance of performing poisonous counterattacks, when you gain Fury as extended effect while you have Fury.

Quality Bonus
Raising the quality of an Item isn’t used only to brign the Upgrad to its next Rarity Grade. If a Upgrad reaches maximum Quality (Level Req 80 Ascended), then will each Upgrade in either a Weapon, Armor Part or Accessoire give the Character based on what Type of Upgrade it is the Character some kind of Special Bonus.

Weapon Upgrade = Each maxed Weapon Upgrade on your Character increases for that Weapon the Base Damage by +5%

Armor Upgrade = Each maxed Armor Upgrade on your Character raises its Base Defense Value by 10%. So an Equipnment that has normally 100 Defense, will have 110 with an maxed lvl 80 rec ascended Upgrade slotted in it.

Accessoire Upgrade = Each maxed Accessoire Upgrade on your Character will raise your maximum Boon Durations by 2,5%, so with 6 maxed accessoires = +15% longer Boons for you.

Now I want to answer an important question, which many surely have on their lips ^^

How should Upgrades be receiveable undr my system, how to we get them, do they still drop ect.??

Many people in GW2 dislike it, that we get so overwhelmened with so many useless upgrades, that it is not funny anymore.
So what should we do with them, how can we make something useful out of those upgrades, that are not userful for us anymore.
This is, what I think we should do:

Under this concept, should all upgrades in this game be receiveable only through Crafting. Upgrades will completely stop coming from dropped loot of killed enemies.
Only exception: Rewarded Loot that you get from Loot Chests and these Rewards that give your Equipment that has Upgrades, will from this point on always reward you also with an Upgrade, that is appropriate to the quality and rarity of the item you are rewarded with.

Means, if I loot out of such a rewrd chest for example an exotic sword weapon, then this item will have also a superior sigil or materia bonded to it, that will have the same quality as like the weapon. so if the exotic weapon is of Level 60 quality, then also too the upgrade in it will be of lvl 60 quality.
Do I refine this exotic weapon with its upgrade now to Lvl 61, then I can turn this found weapon into an Ascended Weapon of Lvl 61 Quality and if i want to have with that Weapon its Quality Bonus, then I have to refine this weapon 19x more until it reaches quality lvl 80 to be maxed, what will unlock for the Weapon its Weapon Upgrade based Quality Bonus.

How do we refine a Weapon/Armor/Accessoire?

Very simple, you take your Weapon to a Weapon Smith and you say to the Smith, that he should refine your Weapon.
The NPC wil tell you then what you need to bring to the NPC, so that he can refine your weapon for you to increase it’s quality.
Here will come in now the material sink and item sink that can come in also handy to stabilize the economy to ensure, that items don’t lose too much value therefore that Stats get removed from gear and that Upgrades don’t drop in millions anymore.

The massive reduction in drops of low end upgrades will make sure that their worth will rise up – plus the additional sink of low end Upgrades to refine weapons to raise their quality will also help in making sure, that the value of low end Upgrades becomes better, because now you will NEED alot of low end Upgrades to be able to get better high end upgrades and refined weapons.
GW2 has currently worthlss low end upgrades, because the player absolutely doesn’t need them for anything. The moment your character outgrows them, you will never need them. thats the problem of the game currently and thats something, what needs to get changed.
When the amoutn of drops gets drastically reduced and when you suddenly need them in high amounts to be able to refine your weapons to make them better, then their value will automaticalyl become better and this will turn the situation of low end upgrades being worthless currently into low end upgrades receiving suddenly the potential to become the most valuable upgrades, that are always needed, so that you are able to refine your weak equipment into stronger equipment, be it the weapon, the armor or the accessoires.

Under this basic principle of reducing the Upgrade Types to the least minimum amount of

• Sigils
• Materias
• Runes
• Gemstones/ Jewels
• Crests
• Infusions

- Can the old obsolete Upgrade Types be all removed
- Can be removed tons of obsolete recipes
- Can be reworked the whole Prefix Stuff, because Stats don’t define the Prefix anymore

Weapons are now defined by Sigil (Suffix) and Name + Materia (Prefix)
Example: Sigil of Fire + Materia of Summoning + Mythril Sword = Orpheal’s Summoning-Mythril Sword of Fire
(but better would be a Feature, that allows us to give Equipment unique own Names, like giving a ranger pet its name, so should we be able to give our crafted items unique names that should follow the same rules, like giving our Characters a name)

Armors are now defined by its Rune or it’s Gemstone (Suffix) and your Name (Prefix)
Example: Name + Rune of Shadows + Mythril Cloak = Orpheal’s Mythril Cloak of Shadows That kind of prefix will get all soulbound items now

Accessoires are now defined by either its Name+Crest (Prefix) and Infusion or Rune (Suffix) based on it, what you put into the weapon first – an Infusion or a Rune
Here it becomes a bit tricky due to intertwined prefixes that need to be put all in front first and intertwined Suffixes to be turned into prefixes as well, because there can be always only 1 Suffix
Example: Name+Crest of the Assassin + Brilliant Emerald + Rune of Shadows =
Orpheal’s Brilliant Assassin’s Crest Emerald of Shadows
German:
Orpheal’s brillianter Assassinenwappen-Smaragd der Schatten