Guild Wars 2

Then don’t craft and sell your materials on the TP.

I did not see the memo that I “need” to craft…. Can I see yours?

Ascended gear also drops, most probably by a rate which is comparable to the time and effort needed to craft it all.

“Ascended gear drops” , the chances are even lower than a pre. I think crafting a superior tier of gear shouldn’t be forced. It’s not like it was a legendary. I’d rather buy from TP directly 200g\piece, wouldn’t be too bad.

Uhm… I can, without any mats on my hands be able to get one crafting proffesion to 500 and create for myself at least 1 weapon in less than one day. If you think that the effort to craft an ascended weapon/armor should be equal to the drop rate, then we would be seeing TONS more ascended drops! Drop rate for ascended weapons can be put at the same line was precursors almost! Ascended armor is even more rare!

Also the fact that you will be able to craft precursor in the near future, it is evident that there is a huge focus on crafting

Exotics still work just fine… >.>

PeterThomas.7243:

Exotics still work just fine… >.>

Irrelevant. The last major additions to the game were ascended weapons and armour, doesn’t matter if you ‘need’ it or not, naturally most players will want to get a set or two.

The cost and effort required are really a bit much, imho.

a t s e.9614:

“Ascended gear drops” , the chances are even lower than a pre. I think crafting a superior tier of gear shouldn’t be forced. It’s not like it was a legendary. I’d rather buy from TP directly 200g\piece, wouldn’t be too bad.

Have you any drop rate research to back this up? As in my experience, and my entire guild and map chats, boxes are MUCH more common than pres.

Maybe you should try getting it from places it actually drops before making leud statements like that?

Jahroots.6791:

PeterThomas.7243:

Exotics still work just fine… >.>

Irrelevant. The last major additions to the game were ascended weapons and armour, doesn’t matter if you ‘need’ it or not, naturally most players will want to get a set or two.

The cost and effort required are really a bit much, imho.

Nothing is stopping them getting it, if they don’t want to put the effort in why should they get the reward?

I hate crafting as well. Try as I may, I just don’t understand it. But I would like some Ascended gear. That means I’m mostly out of luck with the way it’s being handled in the game right now.

Waiting for drops is not an option. First of all, I want the piece of armor that I choose, with the stats that I choose. Not something random. Second of all, I almost never see Exotic drops. How will I ever see an Ascended drop? So drops are out.

Crafting? I never needed it before. I was always able to get what I needed from the TP. So I never did any until very recently, and that was because I was tired of leveling my Alts. And ya know what? It still only gets me 8-10 levels to craft to level 400. It’s not really as efficient as I see people saying. And despite having done this at least 4 times (using step-by-step instructions from Internet sites), I still don’t really have a handle on what I’m doing. It just doesn’t “click” with my tired ol’ brain. I find it extremely confusing and boring. Even with step-by-step instructions, I would dread having to use this method for getting Ascended gear.

So yes, we need other methods of getting the Ascended gear that we desire. RNG is prohibitive, and Crafting is not for everybody. Us non-crafters are being left out of the hunt for Ascended gear.

Don’t understand crafting? Well, head over to gw2crafts.net and choose your discipline and either a normal or fast guide. It will take you from 0-400 in 5-10 minutes; then you can work your way from 400-500 so you’re geared towards ascended crafting.

It’s a step-by-step guide, you follow it without any need of understanding.

And I have to agree with who said it above; if you’re (not you Hamfast, just “you” in general to those complaining ascended gear isn’t easy to acquire) not willing to put in money and effort, then the top tier is not for you either; exotics will suffice just fine and most people will be using exotics for a long time. Just a number drawn out of thin air, but I can’t believe more than ~5% have full ascended gear yet.

And I think it’s supposed to be top tier as a gold sink, not one for those loaded with cash to get even richer by flooding the TP with crafted gear.

Not sure what the problem is… basic crafting is the same for any skill except cooking: two generic components + the stat item.

Swords: blade + handle + magic (blood/fang/claw etc)
Armor: shell + lining + magic
Jewelry: base + setting + jewel

You “discover” a recipe by making a bunch of components and using the formula to combine them. Make six zerker insignia, twelve armor components, and assemble them to create a full set of zerker armor. You learn fine/master components automatically as your skill goes up, rare/exotic recipes come from a vendor.

Used to be about 10 levels per skill you got to 400, but when they raised the cap to 500 they reduced the XP a bit. Not sure if you can reach 80 just by crafting any more.

Dondarrion.2748:

Don’t understand crafting? Well, head over to gw2crafts.net and choose your discipline and either a normal or fast guide. It will take you from 0-400 in 5-10 minutes; then you can work your way from 400-500 so you’re geared towards ascended crafting.

Yeah, that’s the site I used (normal Guide, being careful since I don’t know what I’m doing). I generally go through 2-3 Crafting Boosters to get to 400, so we’re talking 2-3 hours. There’s no way on God’s green Earth you could possibly do that in 5-10 minutes.

Dondarrion.2748:

It’s a step-by-step guide, you follow it without any need of understanding.

And that is precisely why I hate it. I want to learn! I want to actually understand what the heck I’m doing. (And as careful as I am, they still seem to mess up here and there on that website, leaving me to scratch my head to get back onto the correct path and continue).

Dondarrion.2748:

And I have to agree with who said it above; if you’re (not you Hamfast, just “you” in general to those complaining ascended gear isn’t easy to acquire) not willing to put in money and effort, then the top tier is not for you either

I am willing to put in money and effort. I have already shown that by crafting up to 400 in at least 4 different disciplines even though it makes my brain hurt and bores me to tears.

I would just like to see OTHER ways to get Ascended gear. OTHER types of effort. Crafting makes me want to throw my computer off the roof. This is supposed to be a game… you know… fun. And the GW2 guys always said they wanted us to be able to play the game our way, and to get equipment in a variety of ways so people weren’t pigeonholed into one play style. Time to give us other play styles to earn Ascended gear.

What’s wrong with that?

I agree there should be an alternative to crafting. I’m not sure what the drop rate is or even where ascended armor drops from but it might be worth looking into that. Especially if it drops from specific places so you know what to focus on to try and get it.

But I’d also say if you want to understand what you’re doing when crafting it might be better to not follow a guide so you actually have to think about it and then you’ll learn as you go. (And also don’t do it when you’re tired, trying to learn anything when you’re tired is a bad idea.)

When I started crafting I had no clue what I was doing. I’d just make stuff, and every so often go to the discovery tab and double click things until it let me combine them. But once I started paying attention to what worked and what didn’t I got the hang of it. (It also got easier when I’d discovered enough recipes to see how they were organised.)

As someone said above everything except cooking uses the same system – 2 base items + an upgrade = finished item.

So for example if you want to make a sword you make a sword blade and a sword hilt and an inscription, then if it’s the first time you’ve used that particular inscription you go to the discovery tab to put them together, if you’ve made it before you can just click the recipe on the list.

Then each recipe is repeated several times with better materials. So you’ll start off making copper swords with green wood dowels, then move on to iron, steel etc. and the resulting weapons will be better quality and have a higher level requirement.

They are discussing ways to eliminate the need to craft ascended armor/weapons in the progression CDI threads. Look for a fix for us non-crafters in the next few months I would imagine.

I made it very clear to them crafting isn’t a time sink a lot of people want to invest in, and got a pretty positive response, so look for more ways to acquire the armor/weapons in the future.

Eviscera.9703:

Why?! I hate crafting!

to generate revenue from gem sales.

“I hate crafting!” “I don’t want to wait for drop!”
So wth you want , 2345675423 ways to get ascended?
Stay with your exotics and leave others that spend time and gold working kitten those crafts to have ascended!
You don’t want another way to get ascended,you want an easy way to get ascended!
I hate crafting,i played tons of mmo’s and i always avoided crafting but i want to get that ascended longbow so i have to craft. I don’t want to see ascended gear becoming the new exotic so the way it is right now is the best.

You can always just buy Exotics from the TP. They’re just as good.

Oh, and sell all your Silk if you don’t need them.

Regardless of how many tantrums are thrown by the people who crafted them, more avenues to get the gear will open up, they stand to lose far more than they gain by not opening up ascended gear to WvW players or non crafters, and they have already acknowledged this.

Aeonblade.8709:

Regardless of how many tantrums are thrown by the people who crafted them, more avenues to get the gear will open up, they stand to lose far more than they gain by not opening up ascended gear to WvW players or non crafters, and they have already acknowledged this.

We get Ascended gear in WvW all the time.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Aeonblade.8709:

Regardless of how many tantrums are thrown by the people who crafted them, more avenues to get the gear will open up, they stand to lose far more than they gain by not opening up ascended gear to WvW players or non crafters, and they have already acknowledged this.

We get Ascended gear in WvW all the time.

As someone who rarely does WvW, can you elaborate on this? Do you mean that playing as normal will get you a chance for ascended armour to drop or is there an option for badges to buy ascended armour?

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Aeonblade.8709:

Regardless of how many tantrums are thrown by the people who crafted them, more avenues to get the gear will open up, they stand to lose far more than they gain by not opening up ascended gear to WvW players or non crafters, and they have already acknowledged this.

We get Ascended gear in WvW all the time.

Really? I never seen one drop yet.
I agree the crafting to get one of these weapons is pretty complicated it seems.

Aeonblade.8709:

They are discussing ways to eliminate the need to craft ascended armor/weapons in the progression CDI threads. Look for a fix for us non-crafters in the next few months I would imagine.

I made it very clear to them crafting isn’t a time sink a lot of people want to invest in, and got a pretty positive response, so look for more ways to acquire the armor/weapons in the future.

You’re my hero. Thanks for the info.

Nury.3062:

“I hate crafting!” “I don’t want to wait for drop!”
So wth you want , 2345675423 ways to get ascended?
Stay with your exotics and leave others that spend time and gold working kitten those crafts to have ascended!
You don’t want another way to get ascended,you want an easy way to get ascended!
I hate crafting,i played tons of mmo’s and i always avoided crafting but i want to get that ascended longbow so i have to craft. I don’t want to see ascended gear becoming the new exotic so the way it is right now is the best.

As I explained, I do not mind putting in some time, effort and money to get Ascended gear. I guess you didn’t read that far. But there should be MORE methods to doing this, and apparently ANet may be considering it according to Aeonblade. That is why we post to the forums… so we can communicate with the game developers. And sometimes it works; sometimes a change is made.

If you hate crafting too, then you should be joining us in expressing our concerns. I for one won’t meekly give in to your “it is what it is, so you’d better get used to it” mentality. If the Developers didn’t want feedback on what we’d like, they probably wouldn’t have this forum.

Darkobra.6439:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Aeonblade.8709:

Regardless of how many tantrums are thrown by the people who crafted them, more avenues to get the gear will open up, they stand to lose far more than they gain by not opening up ascended gear to WvW players or non crafters, and they have already acknowledged this.

We get Ascended gear in WvW all the time.

As someone who rarely does WvW, can you elaborate on this? Do you mean that playing as normal will get you a chance for ascended armour to drop or is there an option for badges to buy ascended armour?

If you actively play in WvW, you get two chances for Ascended drops. 1) Each time you rank up, you have a chance to get one in the Rank up chest. 2) For each player you kill, you have a chance at loot. Steel chests have a chance to give you a Precursor, Ascended box, or regular Exotic.

So the current meta to farm Ascended and Precursors is to kill a lot of players, over and over and over. On higher tier matches, you have a chance to get hundreds of kills per hour.

Gold sink. Taking crafting mats out of the economy.

Dondarrion.2748:

Ascended gear also drops, most probably by a rate which is comparable to the time and effort needed to craft it all.

Try at a rate which is about the same as a precursor if you are looking to get a specific set of stats. Crafting is the only way to go unless you want to wait years for you special drop.

I think it would be cool if dungeons had ascended sets (with new themed skins).
Of course, they would have to cost a lot of tokens, but still.

Aeonblade.8709:

They are discussing ways to eliminate the need to craft ascended armor/weapons in the progression CDI threads. Look for a fix for us non-crafters in the next few months I would imagine.

I made it very clear to them crafting isn’t a time sink a lot of people want to invest in, and got a pretty positive response, so look for more ways to acquire the armor/weapons in the future.

My crystal ball tells me thus;

6 months from now ;

“Added ascended weapons and armour to laurel vendors –
Weapons cost 100 laurels each, armour pieces are 75 laurels each”

The way the devs have been going with ascended trinkets this is entirely possible.

a t s e.9614:

“Ascended gear drops” , the chances are even lower than a pre. I think crafting a superior tier of gear shouldn’t be forced. It’s not like it was a legendary. I’d rather buy from TP directly 200g\piece, wouldn’t be too bad.

If you do Fractals, the chance s rather equal to a precursor. Just yesterday I got a Wup Wup chest from a level 10 daily run. It’s not impossible, just play the game and you can get it. Through crafting or drops.

Lexandro.1456:

Aeonblade.8709:

They are discussing ways to eliminate the need to craft ascended armor/weapons in the progression CDI threads. Look for a fix for us non-crafters in the next few months I would imagine.

I made it very clear to them crafting isn’t a time sink a lot of people want to invest in, and got a pretty positive response, so look for more ways to acquire the armor/weapons in the future.

My crystal ball tells me thus;

6 months from now ;

“Added ascended weapons and armour to laurel vendors –
Weapons cost 100 laurels each, armour pieces are 75 laurels each”

The way the devs have been going with ascended trinkets this is entirely possible.

This is probably the most likely scenario, albeit not my preferred one for attaining the gear.

Zanyrage.7164:

a t s e.9614:

“Ascended gear drops” , the chances are even lower than a pre. I think crafting a superior tier of gear shouldn’t be forced. It’s not like it was a legendary. I’d rather buy from TP directly 200g\piece, wouldn’t be too bad.

If you do Fractals, the chance s rather equal to a precursor. Just yesterday I got a Wup Wup chest from a level 10 daily run. It’s not impossible, just play the game and you can get it. Through crafting or drops.

Lucky you. I’ve done fractals for months pre fractured patch, and a a fair number post patch. Ive played for nearly a year and not seen one of these “mythical” precursor drops. And I have only ever seen one ascended crate drop in fractals, and it was a weapon crate for rabid stats a team mate got on 26 just after weapons were added.

So that’s a grand total of 1 drop a year, and not even for me.

Stellar drop rate there.

Zanyrage.7164:

a t s e.9614:

“Ascended gear drops” , the chances are even lower than a pre. I think crafting a superior tier of gear shouldn’t be forced. It’s not like it was a legendary. I’d rather buy from TP directly 200g\piece, wouldn’t be too bad.

If you do Fractals, the chance s rather equal to a precursor. Just yesterday I got a Wup Wup chest from a level 10 daily run. It’s not impossible, just play the game and you can get it. Through crafting or drops.

Equal to precursor is ridiculously low. I have close to 3k hours played, I’ve run over 1000 fractals, have enough dungeon tokens to buy several armor sets each, killed the temples and meta bosses hundreds of times, have 20+ kills in WvW, dumped 1000+yellows into the mystic toilet, I dropped exactly 0 precursors. Yep! I’m really excited about dropping an Ascended with the stats I need cause the odds are so good.

Finnway.2183:

Gold sink. Taking crafting mats out of the economy.

You hit the nail on the head.

a t s e.9614:

“Ascended gear drops” , the chances are even lower than a pre. I think crafting a superior tier of gear shouldn’t be forced. It’s not like it was a legendary. I’d rather buy from TP directly 200g\piece, wouldn’t be too bad.

It’s really not lower than a pre

it’s just they come from certain activities (fractals, wvw, etc)

I don’t wvw much or fractal much but when fractal weekly happened I got an ascended weapon chest, when wvw season 1 ended the liquid karma leveled me up and the bonus chest was an ascended weapon chest, running guild rush and the bonus chest was an ascended accessory….considering apart from doing 2 or 3 dungeons a day, world bosses and whatever the daily or LS achieves are my toon is parked in from of the TP they really don’t seem to be nearly as rare drops as people make out. Granted none of the stats dropped were particularly useful to me.

Meanwhile the only pre’s I’ve had are from the Mystic Forge.

I’m also not interested in crafting. As far as weapon/armor drops, I played for about two months after the weapons were added. I didn’t even see an Exotic drop after the invasion update was over, never mind an Ascended. Did plenty of dungeons, fractals, metas and killed more Champs than I can count. I’m going to be a hard sell on drops being a reliable means to obtain Ascended.

Dondarrion.2748:

Ascended gear also drops, most probably by a rate which is comparable to the time and effort needed to craft it all.

If it is like Ascended weapons, I’d say comparable to 45 years to the time and effort it needs you to craft them.

Flissy.4093:

a t s e.9614:

“Ascended gear drops” , the chances are even lower than a pre. I think crafting a superior tier of gear shouldn’t be forced. It’s not like it was a legendary. I’d rather buy from TP directly 200g\piece, wouldn’t be too bad.

Have you any drop rate research to back this up? As in my experience, and my entire guild and map chats, boxes are MUCH more common than pres.

Maybe you should try getting it from places it actually drops before making leud statements like that?

What exactly are leud statements…?

Hamfast.8719:

Dondarrion.2748:

Don’t understand crafting? Well, head over to gw2crafts.net and choose your discipline and either a normal or fast guide. It will take you from 0-400 in 5-10 minutes; then you can work your way from 400-500 so you’re geared towards ascended crafting.

Yeah, that’s the site I used (normal Guide, being careful since I don’t know what I’m doing). I generally go through 2-3 Crafting Boosters to get to 400, so we’re talking 2-3 hours. There’s no way on God’s green Earth you could possibly do that in 5-10 minutes.

I have absolutely no idea how it takes you anywhere close to 2 hours to craft 1-400. Buy mats, go to station, craft for 10 minutes, done.

tolunart.2095:

Not sure what the problem is… basic crafting is the same for any skill except cooking: two generic components + the stat item.

Swords: blade + handle + magic (blood/fang/claw etc)
Armor: shell + lining + magic
Jewelry: base + setting + jewel

You “discover” a recipe by making a bunch of components and using the formula to combine them. Make six zerker insignia, twelve armor components, and assemble them to create a full set of zerker armor. You learn fine/master components automatically as your skill goes up, rare/exotic recipes come from a vendor.

Used to be about 10 levels per skill you got to 400, but when they raised the cap to 500 they reduced the XP a bit. Not sure if you can reach 80 just by crafting any more.

You can not get lvl80 from crafting currently because 6 of trades give 10 levels while 2 (jeweler and chef) only give 7 levels.

It’s good there’s finally something not so easily attainable by “the masses”. Work hard and you’ll get it.

Corpus Christi.2057:

It’s good there’s finally something not so easily attainable by “the masses”. Work hard and you’ll get it.

Because the hallmark of all good recreation is that it’s hard work.

Corpus Christi.2057:

It’s good there’s finally something not so easily attainable by “the masses”. Work hard and you’ll get it.

*Grind hard, grind hard.
After mindlessly running after champions in Queensdale for two weeks, stand at your lovely crafting station and click click click. DONE!!! OMG I AM SO PRO <3 :’)

Melchior.2135:

Corpus Christi.2057:

It’s good there’s finally something not so easily attainable by “the masses”. Work hard and you’ll get it.

Because the hallmark of all good recreation is that it’s hard work.

Precisely.;)

Pip.2094:

Corpus Christi.2057:

It’s good there’s finally something not so easily attainable by “the masses”. Work hard and you’ll get it.

*Grind hard, grind hard.
After mindlessly running after champions in Queensdale for two weeks, stand at your lovely crafting station and click click click. DONE!!! OMG I AM SO PRO <3 :’)

Ye, it’s awayls better to get something directly from gemstore – 1 click = no grind.

Gotta love couch potatoes…;)

Couch potatos? The masses? What people don’t understand it’s not the nature of having a level of effort to achieve rewards…

It’s the mindlessness of it all. The lack of challenge other than obstinance… the sheer RNG of it all without regard to effort.

It goes against the reason people left well established games to trust in Arenanet’s vision;

They promised a game where you would play as you prefer and equal rewards were available.

I have never crafted in a game; crafting is a mindless and unchallenging activity. However if I spend 3 hours doing something compared to 1 hour; I expect it to be 3 times worth the event which takes 1. Not the same; and not the same as a 2 minute fight in Queensdale.

Somehow running a hamster wheel circuit in a lowbie zone for some percentile chance at materials or chest reward is supposed to be considered “rewarding” gameplay?

People complain about gated content; but that gated content is starting to look pretty good since you actually get rewarded for your effort and time spent.

I have 7 80s; thousands of hours played;dungeon master and have never seen a precursor drop. I am literally wearing the same gear I have been wearing for months and not only has the character’s story died out; but with it…. all character growth.

Oh there’s the “living story.” I was sent overseas for business the past few weeks… nothing has changed.. oh some big tree popped up.. whatever. The few rewards are mundane and I won’t be able to finish the content associated. So it foster’s a huge, why bother mentality.

People don’t want to craft… good. They shouldn’t have to.

But the game needs to give people a way to “grow” even horizontally. The fact the developers are having to ask the playerbase what this means to them.. means they have really lost their way for me.

Dondarrion.2748:

Ascended gear also drops, most probably by a rate which is comparable to the time and effort needed to craft it all.

Drops are absolutely NOT a viable way to acquire this gear when you are looking for a specific set of stats (which most of us are). You pretty much do have to craft. At least until they release an alternative method.

If you think about it, Anet really isn’t asking for all that much. This ascended armor is equal to highest end raid gear in wow as far as stats are concerned.

That being said, the drop-rate is probably absurdly low given their history of drop rates.

Jahroots.6791:

PeterThomas.7243:

Exotics still work just fine… >.>

Irrelevant. The last major additions to the game were ascended weapons and armour, doesn’t matter if you ‘need’ it or not, naturally most players will want to get a set or two.

The cost and effort required are really a bit much, imho.

It is relevant. Ascended gear are like legendary – they’re supposed to take a long time to work toward. They’re for the elites who want the best of the best.

Ascended isn’t required for any aspect of this game, nor does it give an insane advantage over exotics. It doesn’t set a border to exclude non-ascended players. It’s balanced. It’s a bragging right that is rightly deserved.

Arikyali.5804:

Jahroots.6791:

PeterThomas.7243:

Exotics still work just fine… >.>

Irrelevant. The last major additions to the game were ascended weapons and armour, doesn’t matter if you ‘need’ it or not, naturally most players will want to get a set or two.

The cost and effort required are really a bit much, imho.

It is relevant. Ascended gear are like legendary – they’re supposed to take a long time to work toward. They’re for the elites who want the best of the best.

Ascended isn’t required for any aspect of this game, nor does it give an insane advantage over exotics. It doesn’t set a border to exclude non-ascended players. It’s balanced. It’s a bragging right that is rightly deserved.

Lol no its not for “elites”. The tier was added simply because getting an exotic set was deemed “too easy”, not that it was only for “elite players”. Its got nothing to do with “bragging rights” and is not a prestige item. Far from it.

And if they are supposed to take a long time to work toward, then explain why the mats are purchasable off the TP hmm? I had an ascended weapon day 2 of the release because I stockpiled mats to get up to 500 crafting, and I had spare gold to buy in the T7 mats required. Nothing “elite” about buying your way to an item.

Its the BiS gear, its for everyone to own and use. You are in the wrong game my friend if you think wearing some pink bits makes you somehow “leet” and gives prestige. Particularly as Ive seen a crapload of people already running around with the armor on.

The issue as described is not that people cannot get it, its that the method of obtaining it is mind numbingly boring. And people would like a method to attain them that doesn’t involve standing in LA doing nothing at all in the way of content.

“leet” gear and “prestige items”, boy you are funny dude.