Guild Wars 2

It is only cosmetic grind, so whine about it?
Seen many new threads about people complaining about unobtainable goals and such?
You need these flashy items, they are only a want.
Same goes with dungeon armor, they are a want not a need.
You beat just about everything in this game with rare gear, heck even with “green” gear.

Zephyr Lee.2491:

It is only cosmetic grind, so whine about it?
Seen many new threads about people complaining about unobtainable goals and such?
You need these flashy items, they are only a want.
Same goes with dungeon armor, they are a want not a need.
You beat just about everything in this game with rare gear, heck even with “green” gear.

By cosmetic grind, I assume you mean grinding for gear that has the EXACT same stats as others but only looks different, since that is it’s definition. Since Rares < exotics < ascended gear, and Legendaries will later become BiS at all times, those don’t particularly fit in the category so, I am forced to ask…

What are you talking about? lol Is there some new cosmetic item line I missed the whine about attaining?

When you think about it, they have a point though.

What was GW2 advertised as? A cosmetic game. No need to chase gear treadmills and fight for that next highest stat point. Everything was cosmetic in GW2. It was advertised as no grind, having only cosmetic options so you didn’t feel left behind.

That is exactly the thing though. In other games, the grind is for the next highest stat. That is how those games work. They keep putting new tiers and higher levels for you to grind out the next point that will make you stronger.

GW2 isn’t like that though. It is a game based off of cosmetics only. So there is no farming for the next highest stat. You play to get cosmetics and to make yourself pretty. That is the point of this game. It is just like other games, but you work for cosmetics.

Now in a game that prided itself on no grind, there is a lot of grind in the main aspect of the game. A cosmetic grind, which is what GW2 is all about. Cosmetics. So when people say, “It’s only cosmetic, you don’t have to do it”, they forget that there is nothing else to do in this game if you are not grinding for cosmetics. Everything in GW2 is cosmetic. That is the main focus.

So naturally, people are going to complain about the main focus of the game being a grind, after it was advertised as no grind.

Perhaps it’s another cookie cutter “There is no grind in GW2” thread. They always go hand-in-hand with any thread mentioning game grind.

Also, not all grind concerns cosmetic appearances.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

When you think about it, they have a point though.

What was GW2 advertised as? A cosmetic game. No need to chase gear treadmills and fight for that next highest stat point. Everything was cosmetic in GW2. It was advertised as no grind, having only cosmetic options so you didn’t feel left behind.

That is exactly the thing though. In other games, the grind is for the next highest stat. That is how those games work. They keep putting new tiers and higher levels for you to grind out the next point that will make you stronger.

GW2 isn’t like that though. It is a game based off of cosmetics only. So there is no farming for the next highest stat. You play to get cosmetics and to make yourself pretty. That is the point of this game. It is just like other games, but you work for cosmetics.

Now in a game that prided itself on no grind, there is a lot of grind in the main aspect of the game. A cosmetic grind, which is what GW2 is all about. Cosmetics. So when people say, “It’s only cosmetic, you don’t have to do it”, they forget that there is nothing else to do in this game if you are not grinding for cosmetics. Everything in GW2 is cosmetic. That is the main focus.

So naturally, people are going to complain about the main focus of the game being a grind, after it was advertised as no grind.

And also – Ascended Gear.

The whole “only cosmetic” argument just went out the window with the Lost Shores update.

Sky.9347:

SpyderArachnid.5619:

When you think about it, they have a point though.

What was GW2 advertised as? A cosmetic game. No need to chase gear treadmills and fight for that next highest stat point. Everything was cosmetic in GW2. It was advertised as no grind, having only cosmetic options so you didn’t feel left behind.

That is exactly the thing though. In other games, the grind is for the next highest stat. That is how those games work. They keep putting new tiers and higher levels for you to grind out the next point that will make you stronger.

GW2 isn’t like that though. It is a game based off of cosmetics only. So there is no farming for the next highest stat. You play to get cosmetics and to make yourself pretty. That is the point of this game. It is just like other games, but you work for cosmetics.

Now in a game that prided itself on no grind, there is a lot of grind in the main aspect of the game. A cosmetic grind, which is what GW2 is all about. Cosmetics. So when people say, “It’s only cosmetic, you don’t have to do it”, they forget that there is nothing else to do in this game if you are not grinding for cosmetics. Everything in GW2 is cosmetic. That is the main focus.

So naturally, people are going to complain about the main focus of the game being a grind, after it was advertised as no grind.

And also – Ascended Gear.

The whole “only cosmetic” argument just went out the window with the Lost Shores update.

Very true and I forgot to mention that as well.

Still, the rest of the game is cosmetic. Currently, there is only one area of the game that is a stat grind and that is Fractals.

But my point still stands. The game was advertised as a no grind game. This game is a pure cosmetic game. So when you advertise a no grind game in a purely cosmetic game, it should be expected that cosmetics are not a grind. Since that is the main focus of this game.

Because everyone wants to look like a sparkling princess RIGHT NOW!
whips out princess wand and flips hair

People have different ways they play the game.

I have not significantly grinded in this game yet. I don’t do anything in the game unless I want to do it for fun. Which seems to be the opposite of a grind. I’m still playing, I’m still enjoying the game, and I have some ascended gear. In my experience with the game they have kept their promise.

Some play it for the destination. They don’t feel satisfied until they obtain something, and that’s a perfectly reasonable way to play the game too. For these people they see the journey as a grind, and force themselves to continue doing a particular task even when they don’t want to. For them yes, they see it as a broken promise.

It’s really just the two playstyles clashing, the old ’what’s more enjoyable, the journey or the destination?’ thing.

Exotics are more than enough for all of PvE (except fractals). Dungeons can be beaten with all green gear…very easily.

ANet decided that they needed a tier between legendaries and exotics, so we got ascended. Some like it, others don’t, but what’s done is done. However, Legendary status will ALWAYS match the highest tier.

They have since stated that they were wrong to roll out ascended gear only attainable in fractals are are working to remedy that situation.

They have also stated that there will not be a new tier for the remainder of this year. Some have taken that quote to mean there will be a new tier later, but as there is no confirmation, it is a rumor and best and intentionally toxic at worst. This is coming from me, a player who will leave or play SUBSTANTIALLY less if another tier is added.

Yes, the game is primarily geared toward attaining the skins you like the most. They made a mistake with the time requirements between legendary weapons and exotics and are attempting to rectify that with ascended gear.

However, at it’s heart, it’s a skin hunting game. That is also why I am frustrated that we don’t have more armor skins added during the holidays, but they should be adding more skins as time goes on.

nawrasz.6219:

Because everyone wants to look like a sparkling princess RIGHT NOW!
whips out princess wand and flips hair

Technically I want to look like a Nightmare princess RIGHT NOW, but dungeon runs feel less than appealing right now.

And just think, dungeons are actually one of the SMALLER grinds in the game to date. After all, they “only” take about 23 runs to finish (slap on another 9 if you want a legendary that requires the same dungeon).

Vorch.2985:

Exotics are more than enough for all of PvE (except fractals). Dungeons can be beaten with all green gear…very easily.

ANet decided that they needed a tier between legendaries and exotics, so we got ascended. Some like it, others don’t, but what’s done is done. However, Legendary status will ALWAYS match the highest tier.

They have since stated that they were wrong to roll out ascended gear only attainable in fractals are are working to remedy that situation.

They have also stated that there will not be a new tier for the remainder of this year. Some have taken that quote to mean there will be a new tier later, but as there is no confirmation, it is a rumor and best and intentionally toxic at worst. This is coming from me, a player who will leave or play SUBSTANTIALLY less if another tier is added.

Yes, the game is primarily geared toward attaining the skins you like the most. They made a mistake with the time requirements between legendary weapons and exotics and are attempting to rectify that with ascended gear.

However, at it’s heart, it’s a skin hunting game. That is also why I am frustrated that we don’t have more armor skins added during the holidays, but they should be adding more skins as time goes on.

Actually…

They said Vertical Progression is here to stay.
They said they wouldn’t be adding a new tier every 6 months, and plan to use increasing tiers of Infusions for a while to come before adding a new tier of gear.

They are dressing it up and being very creative with terminology. You should read the old AMA very carefully.

Vertical Progression is “required” for the most “hardcore and dedicated players”.

Tolmos.8395:

By cosmetic grind, I assume you mean grinding for gear that has the EXACT same stats as others but only looks different, since that is it’s definition.

Well, that’s exactly what we have in the game.

Since Rares < exotics < ascended gear, and Legendaries will later become BiS at all times, those don’t particularly fit in the category so, I am forced to ask…

What are you talking about? lol Is there some new cosmetic item line I missed the whine about attaining?

Talk about Ascended gear grind tomorrow and if you want it through WvW in February, until then just wait. As for the Legendaries part… it all depends how Ascended weapons will be acquired, if Rings/Amulets are any indication they will br acquired very very easily, so again you have nothing to base your arguments – yet.

maddoctor.2738:

Tolmos.8395:

By cosmetic grind, I assume you mean grinding for gear that has the EXACT same stats as others but only looks different, since that is it’s definition.

Well, that’s exactly what we have in the game.

Since Rares < exotics < ascended gear, and Legendaries will later become BiS at all times, those don’t particularly fit in the category so, I am forced to ask…

What are you talking about? lol Is there some new cosmetic item line I missed the whine about attaining?

Talk about Ascended gear grind tomorrow and if you want it through WvW in February, until then just wait. As for the Legendaries part… it all depends how Ascended weapons will be acquired, if Rings/Amulets are any indication they will br acquired very very easily, so again you have nothing to base your arguments – yet.

Actually, he’s basing his argument on the current game.
You’re basing yours on the possible game tomorrow.

You know something, I must run pass and see 100’s of players in an evening, I dont take a blind bit of notice about what they are wearing or what weapon they are wielding, in fact I think the bigger weapons (2 handed swords are they ?) look like they’ve been cut out of cardboard for some kiddies school play.

The thing that does strike me, some armour is really ugly, especially the human female, and the terrible colours and colour combinations some of you guys choose, pink, really, on a big brave warrior, come on, have you not got girlfriends/wives.

Just because it’s big and spicky, or your weapon is big and flashy, doesn’t make you any more powerful or stronger really, transmuted starter armour can have the same stats.

Tl;DR……… I take no notice of what your wearing, your colour choices are disgusting.

Sky.9347:

Actually, he’s basing his argument on the current game.
You’re basing yours on the possible game tomorrow.

So if Anet has already identified the issue of having Ascended only in Fractals, and repeatedly said (and announced) that it will be fixed, not in the future, but tomorrow, yet we still get complains? How about just waiting for less than 24h (it’s not much) and then taking out the tomahawk of war.

Also, Legendaries are currently BiS and comparable to Exotics, that’s in the current game… so Legendaries ARE just cosmetic, and they ARE the main reason for grind complains, a reason that as you yourself said, is invalid for the current state of the game.

maddoctor.2738:

Sky.9347:

Actually, he’s basing his argument on the current game.
You’re basing yours on the possible game tomorrow.

So if Anet has already identified the issue of having Ascended only in Fractals, and repeatedly said (and announced) that it will be fixed, not in the future, but tomorrow, yet we still get complains? How about just waiting for less than 24h (it’s not much) and then taking out the tomahawk of war.

The thing is, ANet destroyed most player’s trust through bad decisions followed by blatant mistakes.

I have absolutely zero faith that the patch tomorrow will correct much of this, or learn from past mistakes.

Sure, we can wait and see. Maybe they will prove me wrong. Chances are, based on their post-release history, that they will massively bumble it up.

How much of a grind will these new Ascended pieces be? Will the older pieces be spread out? Will grind be reduced? Will all avenues be equally rewarding?

We will find out soon. I’m going to be laughing so hard while browsing the forums from work tomorrow… it should be a blast seeing what kind of trouble these ‘wascilly wabbits’ get themselves into this time.

Sky.9347:

We will find out soon. I’m going to be laughing so hard while browsing the forums from work tomorrow… it should be a blast seeing what kind of trouble these ‘wascilly wabbits’ get themselves into this time.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow… it’s their big “earn back the trust of your playerbase day” or a “make even more players lose faith to you day”. We’ll see which of the two is really happens, as it stands they have a 50/50 chance on both :P

Since nothing in this game requires skill (except maybe soloing Giganticus Lupicus, but not every class has the needed skills for it), grind is the only way to have cosmetical progression.

maddoctor.2738:

Sky.9347:

We will find out soon. I’m going to be laughing so hard while browsing the forums from work tomorrow… it should be a blast seeing what kind of trouble these ‘wascilly wabbits’ get themselves into this time.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow… it’s their big “earn back the trust of your playerbase day” or a “make even more players lose faith to you day”. We’ll see which of the two is really happens, as it stands they have a 50/50 chance on both :P

On this I completely agree.

They’ve already lost me 100% for PvE and WvW, but I am on the fence about sPvP.

Tomorrow is the do or die. Hopefully they know that.

A mistake tomorrow could spell the end of GW2. A success tomorrow might put them back on the radar for hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds OF thousands of players.

The anticipation is delicious.

maddoctor.2738:

Sky.9347:

Actually, he’s basing his argument on the current game.
You’re basing yours on the possible game tomorrow.

So if Anet has already identified the issue of having Ascended only in Fractals, and repeatedly said (and announced) that it will be fixed, not in the future, but tomorrow, yet we still get complains? How about just waiting for less than 24h (it’s not much) and then taking out the tomahawk of war.

Funny….

I seem to recall this exact same argument being used by this forum’s white knights back on November 15th. How’d that work out for y’all?

Oh, right, massively broken event chain, massive culling issues leading to hundred-man-groups being wiped and thousands of players being denied an event reward for over a month, a grossly undesirable map full of somewhat overpowered mobs, tons of extra “optional” farming for gear that is nearly 10% stronger than the gear that came before it….and all culminating in so many complaints and quitters that the devs have 180’d on their original policy and vowed to fix all the mistakes in these upcoming patches. The ones that you’re now heralding as the patches that will put all of these complaints to rest.

You’d think at some point people would learn to have just a bit more skepticism of releases before they came out. I’m excited about the release, certainly, but at no point am I allowing myself to have blind faith in it, either.

Maybe it’ll be the best release ever, or maybe it’ll be the worst. I’m waiting and seeing, myself, rather than just assuming that it will fix everything.

maddoctor.2738:

So if Anet has already identified the issue of having Ascended only in Fractals, and repeatedly said (and announced) that it will be fixed, not in the future, but tomorrow, yet we still get complains? How about just waiting for less than 24h (it’s not much) and then taking out the tomahawk of war.

Whether its available just in fractals or not its still vertical progression and still against their original manifesto.

Solid Gold.9310:

The thing that does strike me, some armour is really ugly, especially the human female, and the terrible colours and colour combinations some of you guys choose, pink, really, on a big brave warrior, come on, have you not got girlfriends/wives.

Just because it’s big and spicky, or your weapon is big and flashy, doesn’t make you any more powerful or stronger really, transmuted starter armour can have the same stats.

Tl;DR……… I take no notice of what your wearing, your colour choices are disgusting.

What exactly is the colour of bravery? What about the colour of courage? Did you know that pink originally was the boy’s colour as it was considered a stronger colour, more masculine than blue? What’s with the colour fascism?

morrolan.9608:

Whether its available just in fractals or not its still vertical progression and still against their original manifesto.

It’s not. Tomorrow they’re allowing people not running fractals to get ascended gear and then they’re going horizontal from there.

Colin said no power creeping in 2013 and I think 2014 is about right for an expansion, so it sounds like power is effectively plateau’ed and there’s no vertical progression.

I was also extremely suspicious when they announced the ascended tier, but it turns out that it is exactly what they said: a new tier of rarity to make the bridge between exotics and legendaries. Exotics are stupidly cheap to craft while legendaries cost 2,500 gold in the BLMK.

Bearhugger.4326:

morrolan.9608:

Whether its available just in fractals or not its still vertical progression and still against their original manifesto.

It’s not. Tomorrow they’re allowing people not running fractals to get ascended gear and then they’re going horizontal from there.

Colin said no power creeping in 2013 and I think 2014 is about right for an expansion, so it sounds like power is effectively plateau’ed and there’s no vertical progression.

I was also extremely suspicious when they announced the ascended tier, but it turns out that it is exactly what they said: a new tier of rarity to make the bridge between exotics and legendaries. Exotics are stupidly cheap to craft while legendaries cost 2,500 gold in the BLMK.

The AMA said there would be increased tiers of Infusions and purposeful vertical progression (along a “shallow” power curve).

Have they changed that plan, again?

EDIT: I went and watched the 2013 preview video. There wasn’t a single word about power creep.

Bearhugger.4326:

morrolan.9608:

Whether its available just in fractals or not its still vertical progression and still against their original manifesto.

It’s not. Tomorrow they’re allowing people not running fractals to get ascended gear and then they’re going horizontal from there.

Colin said no power creeping in 2013 and I think 2014 is about right for an expansion, so it sounds like power is effectively plateau’ed and there’s no vertical progression.

I was also extremely suspicious when they announced the ascended tier, but it turns out that it is exactly what they said: a new tier of rarity to make the bridge between exotics and legendaries. Exotics are stupidly cheap to craft while legendaries cost 2,500 gold in the BLMK.

You can only get Ascended Rings and Amulets (sort of) from the new token system from daily/monthly achievements. Except these “Ascended” items don’t have any infusion slots. They are just stats. Meaning you still have to do Fractals to get Infusion Ascended items. And the Ascended back slots are still Fractals only. You can’t get those outside of Fractals.

And they said they will not add a new tier this year. They will continue to add the rest of the Ascended gear, but no new tier this year. And they also said they are going forward with Vertical Progression. So that means more tiers in the future. Meaning this isn’t the only tier and it will not plateau.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Bearhugger.4326:

morrolan.9608:

Whether its available just in fractals or not its still vertical progression and still against their original manifesto.

It’s not. Tomorrow they’re allowing people not running fractals to get ascended gear and then they’re going horizontal from there.

Colin said no power creeping in 2013 and I think 2014 is about right for an expansion, so it sounds like power is effectively plateau’ed and there’s no vertical progression.

I was also extremely suspicious when they announced the ascended tier, but it turns out that it is exactly what they said: a new tier of rarity to make the bridge between exotics and legendaries. Exotics are stupidly cheap to craft while legendaries cost 2,500 gold in the BLMK.

You can only get Ascended Rings and Amulets (sort of) from the new token system from daily/monthly achievements. Except these “Ascended” items don’t have any infusion slots. They are just stats. Meaning you still have to do Fractals to get Infusion Ascended items. And the Ascended back slots are still Fractals only. You can’t get those outside of Fractals.

And they said they will not add a new tier this year. They will continue to add the rest of the Ascended gear, but no new tier this year. And they also said they are going forward with Vertical Progression. So that means more tiers in the future. Meaning this isn’t the only tier and it will not plateau.

I’m ok with higher tiered infusions. I’m not ok with another stat increase. The only stat increase that I could deal with would be accompanied with the level increase that they already stated.

The crying is probably because the Legendary grind is the only “progression” remaining once you’ve geared up in fractals and it takes a significantly higher time/gold investment than anything before it. It’s also completely unsatisfying and involves 0 actual content. By saying it’s optional you’re basically just admitting that there is no content/achievements past fractals so these players might as well quit.

Since Anet threw away the non-grinding-only-cosmetic manifesto with the Off-shore update, they might as well introduce the Holy Trinity classes into the game. Anyway their manifesto is already in the bin.

There is a real grind if you’re looking to have multiple armor sets of different attributes not even speaking about cosmetics.
It’s not huge I suppose, but somewhat discouraging.

Sky.9347:

maddoctor.2738:

Sky.9347:

Actually, he’s basing his argument on the current game.
You’re basing yours on the possible game tomorrow.

So if Anet has already identified the issue of having Ascended only in Fractals, and repeatedly said (and announced) that it will be fixed, not in the future, but tomorrow, yet we still get complains? How about just waiting for less than 24h (it’s not much) and then taking out the tomahawk of war.

The thing is, ANet destroyed most player’s trust through bad decisions followed by blatant mistakes.

I have absolutely zero faith that the patch tomorrow will correct much of this, or learn from past mistakes.

Sure, we can wait and see. Maybe they will prove me wrong. Chances are, based on their post-release history, that they will massively bumble it up.

How much of a grind will these new Ascended pieces be? Will the older pieces be spread out? Will grind be reduced? Will all avenues be equally rewarding?

We will find out soon. I’m going to be laughing so hard while browsing the forums from work tomorrow… it should be a blast seeing what kind of trouble these ‘wascilly wabbits’ get themselves into this time.

Speak for yourself. I understand you may be a melodrama major but relax. If they design something and put it in the game it isn’t a 1 week process for them to design a completely different system to appease all the doomcriers after the fact.

The game isn’t going to die because of ascended. You’re creating a problem out of nothing. It’s easily solved. They know it. We know it. They just have to write lines of code and put it in the game. Are you going to right the code? Then stop talking and let them do their job.

I would hate to be a developer of any product and have to listen to the most whiny ungrateful people on earth.

EDIT: TL;DR: FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS

The funny thing is, Ascended gear was introduced to provide an in-between in terms of grind from Exotic to Legendary…

And, yet, they’re making Ascended gear easier to get (no RNG… just daily reward grind) because of all the complaints about RNG grind. And let’s face it, the reason for this is because RNG-grind isn’t “fair”…

Two different people could do a round of Fractals 10x and one could come up with zero Ascended rings, while the other gets 10 Ascended rings.

This isn’t so much an issue with purely cosmetic items, but when you add stats (and the infusion mechanism) to the equation… It creates a disparity between those that have the Ascended gear and those that don’t. You couldn’t easily progress past level 10 without some sort of infusion against Spectral Agony.

Now it’s become clear that stat-grind has come and gone (for the most part)… And we’re back to cosmetic grind (where we should have stayed in the first place).

ArenaNet, at least, noted the public outrage with how Ascended gear was introduced and the grind required. But now we’re back to where they were originally… That the only real grind is cosmetic.

I, honestly, think all the legendaries aren’t worth the grind. They just give some special “footprint” effects and such. And they’ll be replaced by new gear when this year’s expansion comes out.

I also don’t think infusions are currently worth grinding for. They have insane crafting material requirements, when you can get a basic infusion for 75 fractal relics. You can’t recover infusions once they’re placed… And they give minimal stat boosts.

Ascended gear and infusions were initially introduced as a crafting material sink to increase the price of ecto and other T6 mats.

I’m fairly certain I remember devs (or maybe the economist John Smith) stating they wanted to make ecto “more valuable.”

Vorch.2985:

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Bearhugger.4326:

morrolan.9608:

Whether its available just in fractals or not its still vertical progression and still against their original manifesto.

It’s not. Tomorrow they’re allowing people not running fractals to get ascended gear and then they’re going horizontal from there.

Colin said no power creeping in 2013 and I think 2014 is about right for an expansion, so it sounds like power is effectively plateau’ed and there’s no vertical progression.

I was also extremely suspicious when they announced the ascended tier, but it turns out that it is exactly what they said: a new tier of rarity to make the bridge between exotics and legendaries. Exotics are stupidly cheap to craft while legendaries cost 2,500 gold in the BLMK.

You can only get Ascended Rings and Amulets (sort of) from the new token system from daily/monthly achievements. Except these “Ascended” items don’t have any infusion slots. They are just stats. Meaning you still have to do Fractals to get Infusion Ascended items. And the Ascended back slots are still Fractals only. You can’t get those outside of Fractals.

And they said they will not add a new tier this year. They will continue to add the rest of the Ascended gear, but no new tier this year. And they also said they are going forward with Vertical Progression. So that means more tiers in the future. Meaning this isn’t the only tier and it will not plateau.

I’m ok with higher tiered infusions. I’m not ok with another stat increase. The only stat increase that I could deal with would be accompanied with the level increase that they already stated.

Higher tiered infusions will contain higher stats.
Why else would they be higher tiered?

Wreckdum.8367:

Sky.9347:

maddoctor.2738:

Sky.9347:

Actually, he’s basing his argument on the current game.
You’re basing yours on the possible game tomorrow.

So if Anet has already identified the issue of having Ascended only in Fractals, and repeatedly said (and announced) that it will be fixed, not in the future, but tomorrow, yet we still get complains? How about just waiting for less than 24h (it’s not much) and then taking out the tomahawk of war.

The thing is, ANet destroyed most player’s trust through bad decisions followed by blatant mistakes.

I have absolutely zero faith that the patch tomorrow will correct much of this, or learn from past mistakes.

Sure, we can wait and see. Maybe they will prove me wrong. Chances are, based on their post-release history, that they will massively bumble it up.

How much of a grind will these new Ascended pieces be? Will the older pieces be spread out? Will grind be reduced? Will all avenues be equally rewarding?

We will find out soon. I’m going to be laughing so hard while browsing the forums from work tomorrow… it should be a blast seeing what kind of trouble these ‘wascilly wabbits’ get themselves into this time.

Speak for yourself. I understand you may be a melodrama major but relax. If they design something and put it in the game it isn’t a 1 week process for them to design a completely different system to appease all the doomcriers after the fact.

The game isn’t going to die because of ascended. You’re creating a problem out of nothing. It’s easily solved. They know it. We know it. They just have to write lines of code and put it in the game. Are you going to right the code? Then stop talking and let them do their job.

I would hate to be a developer of any product and have to listen to the most whiny ungrateful people on earth.

EDIT: TL;DR: FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS

Time will tell, champ. Be as dismissive as you want, but each mistake costs them months – possibly years – of goodwill.

Funny you use the word “ungrateful” though, as if I wasn’t a paying customer.

Sky.9347:

Wreckdum.8367:

Sky.9347:

maddoctor.2738:

Sky.9347:

Actually, he’s basing his argument on the current game.
You’re basing yours on the possible game tomorrow.

So if Anet has already identified the issue of having Ascended only in Fractals, and repeatedly said (and announced) that it will be fixed, not in the future, but tomorrow, yet we still get complains? How about just waiting for less than 24h (it’s not much) and then taking out the tomahawk of war.

The thing is, ANet destroyed most player’s trust through bad decisions followed by blatant mistakes.

I have absolutely zero faith that the patch tomorrow will correct much of this, or learn from past mistakes.

Sure, we can wait and see. Maybe they will prove me wrong. Chances are, based on their post-release history, that they will massively bumble it up.

How much of a grind will these new Ascended pieces be? Will the older pieces be spread out? Will grind be reduced? Will all avenues be equally rewarding?

We will find out soon. I’m going to be laughing so hard while browsing the forums from work tomorrow… it should be a blast seeing what kind of trouble these ‘wascilly wabbits’ get themselves into this time.

EDIT: TL;DR: FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS

Time will tell, champ. Be as dismissive as you want, but each mistake costs them months – possibly years – of goodwill.

Funny you use the word “ungrateful” though, as if I wasn’t a paying customer.

I agree with this, but I’m not sure if we (as a community) understand ArenaNet’s overall business model for Guild Wars 2.

For all we know, they could be gearing Guild Wars 2 as a high-profit, short-life type of investment.

In this case, they wouldn’t care what goodwill they lose… Since they’d be solely focused on making as much money as quickly as they can. (Without any focus on the future.)

However, the developers really do seem to be investing a lot of time into the community and trying to ease certain fears (like the Reddit AMA with Chris Whiteside and the recent Twitch-video thing.)

Ultimately, it wouldn’t really be in the developer’s best interest to focus on a churn-and-burn type of monetization… Since if Guild Wars 2 fails because of that, the Guild Wars (and thus ArenaNet) name will be worthless and it’d be difficult for them to ever release anything in the future.

Solid Gold.9310:

The thing that does strike me, some armour is really ugly, especially the human female, and the terrible colours and colour combinations some of you guys choose, pink, really, on a big brave warrior, come on, have you not got girlfriends/wives.

No, I don’t have a girlfriend or a wife. I know it’s sad. I do have a husband though. Oh, what’s that? Females are actually playing a video game? Yes, yes they are. And some of us like pink, although I prefer a nice lilac. My warrior looks lovely in lilac.

Although the possibility my color choices might offend someone never actually occurred to me. Probably because it’s irrelevant.

It’s not all cosmetic grind, to get any gear you must grind, Dungeons Crafting or Money for Trading post all requires Grind..

In Guildwars i got all my drops just playing the game, i never had to farm mats or currency to get max level gear, i could get it at any merchant and be viable and look good..i do here and its a grind..

Dante.1508:

It’s not all cosmetic grind, to get any gear you must grind, Dungeons Crafting or Money for Trading post all requires Grind..

In Guildwars i got all my drops just playing the game, i never had to farm mats or currency to get max level gear, i could get it at any merchant and be viable and look good..i do here and its a grind..

Agreed.

You could get max stat armor for like 2 platinum (probably on par with 2 gold in GW2) at a vendor. (In Factions, they introduced vendors that accepted collectible drops in exchange for max-level armor pieces.)

After that, it was a purely cosmetic grind. ~75 platinum (plus 250 of a few crafting materials) for the “prestige” armor.

No need to grind crafting professions to get the gear you needed.

Heck, having the “Game of the Year edition” bonus (which was also sold for $5 in the in-game store) allowed you to create max-stat bonus items for every profession by simply typing “/bonus” at any time.

(The pre-order keys for Factions and Nightfall gave bonus items specific to the professions introduced in those campaigns.)

So they gave away max-stat weapons for free, essentially.

The “deluxe” $25 thing in GW2 just gives you a mini, some consumables, and an elite skill on-par with other elites.

Imagine if it allowed you to create level 80 Ascended weapons for each character… That’s how the original game was.

I’ll probably get warned or something but i don’t care:

Guys, you are all just spoiled. Do you know what’s grinding? Grinding is to get the top lvl in YEARS. Yes, you read me, YEARS. Grinding is mindlessly killing mobs for months to get a 0.01 drop that is a PART of the recipe. Or it could make you have to separate a night of the weekend to be able to raid with the guild and do the things fast and right, like in WoW, because you DON’T want a pug raid. That’s kitten grinding.

Here, oh no, with a relative intense dungeoning, you’ll have to do fractals for… a week? If you work and do lots of stuff, A MONTH?

Oh man, this is just a crap game. Worst grinding ever. Really.

Ooshi.8607:

What exactly is the colour of bravery? What about the colour of courage?

Green. Duh.

Kids these days, never played The Legend of Zelda.
:P

(Disclaimer for the humor-impaired: this is a joking post)