Guild Wars 2

So iv been playing for 2 weeks, got my first character to 80 (theif) bought some gold and got me full exotic gear with honor badges from WvWvW, now what ?

i mean exotic are almost as good as legendary/ascended gear right ? and yet its so incredibly easy to get

kinda takes away the feeling of achiving something. Sure you can farm or buy 1k gold just so you can get that cool looking skin, but the effort it takes to getting that amount of gold for a skin is so not worth the time wasted.

i guess my friends were right, this game is fun untill 80, then it just flattens out so hard.

Sure pvp and wvwvw is kinda fun, but it just feels like an arena game, where you might aswell start at 80 pick youre gear and go at it.

Because ascended gear is stupidly expensive and time consuming to come by.

It wouldn’t make much sense having exotic gear take a ton of time to acquire when ascended gear is extremely grindy/time consuming.
Typically the top tier of gear in games/mmos are the grindy ones and everything beneath it is pretty easy to get.

There absolutely is a gear grind, for power. There just isn’t a gear treadmill.

No becouse this game is not about grinding gear to gain power, you instead grind for skins to look diffrent.
Guess you dident do your research and for that Im sorry friend

Linken.6345:

No becouse this game is not about grinding gear to gain power, you instead grind for skins to look diffrent.
Guess you dident do your research and for that Im sorry friend

Have you actually seen the ascended armor skins? they are hideous.

I think by grinding for skins he meant the other generally unique skins, Immobulus, Infinite Light, etc. Not necessarily Ascended Armor/etc.

Exotic gear is easy to get now, because the game has been out for 2+ year’s, so everyone knows the easy ways to get exotic gear, and are more focused on working on the rarer skins.

Apolo.5942:

Linken.6345:

No becouse this game is not about grinding gear to gain power, you instead grind for skins to look diffrent.
Guess you dident do your research and for that Im sorry friend

Have you actually seen the ascended armor skins? they are hideous.

That’s what transmutation charges are for. Taking a skin you like and putting on a weapon that you like the stats of.

I never quite enjoyed the “grinding” part of any game. I prefer leveling, exploring (you can combine these two) or pvping.
And to be honest, in other games it doesn’t really feel like you’re achieving much with new gear either, since everything around you grows stronger as well (well, unless you have the_best_gear_in_the_game maybe).

I personally don’t like the looks of the ascended gear, but I have some other goals, like exploring and stuff. This game has neat level design, and there’s no need to rush through.

Kenshii.6274:

i guess my friends were right, this game is fun untill 80, then it just flattens out so hard.

That’s a funny statement, everyone that i know and plays gw2 thinks the opposite, the game is terrible boring until you are lvl 80.

We don’t play to get gear (that would feel like a job :\), we play because IT’S FUN. Of course some player’s goal is to get X reward, either legendary items or such, but most of us just play because we like to play it. We like to smash enemies in WvsW, or we like to kill dragons like Tequatl in an organized teamspeak with 50 more friends, or we like to go to the new maps and defend the castles against mordrems like if was an Age of Empires game for 1 hour.

I hope you understand my point. Most MMOs makes you “work” to get your desired items, GW2 instead let’s you get them easier so you can enjoy playing. This game offers a lot of activities, I made a post in the spanish forum a few days ago listing all what you can do at level 80… the list is really long. If you think that you have nothing to do just because you have your gear, then please go back to WoW or other MMOs that force you to “have this equipment or gtfo”. This is GW2, this is different!

Exotics were never hard or tedious to get. For those who want hard or tedious, there’s Ascended. Ascended is there if you want to grind for BiS. If you don’t want to grind, then don’t. Gear grind is the most boring aspect of MMO’s. I’m glad that the next best is not that bad.

One story goes that they added ascended because the devs were surprised how easy it was to get Exotic, either via crafting or opening up the temples in Orr. Orr was suppose to be this big multi-stage series of events that would open the temples up for a short time and then close as the hoards of risen surged back. They really underestimated what a determined large, unorganized mob of players can accomplish if the reward was right.

Behellagh.1468:

One story goes that they added ascended because the devs were surprised how easy it was to get Exotic, either via crafting or opening up the temples in Orr. Orr was suppose to be this big multi-stage series of events that would open the temples up for a short time and then close as the hoards of risen surged back. They really underestimated what a determined large, unorganized mob of players can accomplish if the reward was right.

Yup, this whole topic is a big part of the reason ascended gear got added. For every player who appreciated having BIS gear with little effort, there was someone who thought the very idea of having BIS gear with little effort was ludicrous and diminished their sense of accomplishment. Thus Ascended tier was born. I personally hope that Ascended is truly the final tier (with Legendary being a parallel tier) but they haven’t explicitly maintained that new tiers won’t be added. Just that they won’t be added any time soon. We’ll see what the future holds.

Even then, Exotics weren’t really hard to get your hands on if you did crafting. It didn’t take all that much for weapons, and armor . . . well, depends on which class of armor we’re talking here. Before Ascended, it was almost a toss up whether Light or Medium had the worst of it.

After Ascended, Light pulls away with a nice lead due to how much Silk is needed.

“bought some gold”

It was so easy because you took the easiest way.

Well, next time you could earn the gold without paying for gems. It feels a bit more like an accomplishment if you earn the gold through dungeons or whatever.

@OP:

That’s how GW2 works. You don’t grind for the stats, you grind for skins. If you don’t like it I can’t help and ANet can’t either.

Gear grind games are annoying. If you want to hop on a continuous, never-ending gear treadmill then go play WoW where the hours you spend getting gear are wiped out with every patch/new raid instance where you hop back on the treadmill and grind some more.

To me, competitive play is the end-game in GW2 much like it was in GW1. You compete with other players in WvW or PvP knowing you have equal stats and that there’s no huge gear difference between those involved so no-one will get steamrolled over in 1 second because of that.

Because character performance improvement at level 80 is (was) supposed to be about player skill improvement.

If you don’t like to hunt skins, gw2 is most likely not for you.
I think it’s awesome. GW2 have proved that progressions doesn’t have to be about stats.

It was so easy to get because you literally bought the gold with real money, then bought it off of a vendor…

If you wanted it to be hard(er) to gear your character, you could have earned the gold in game, or farmed it through drops, or crafted it.

All of the above.

Ultimately it’s because this game (like GW1) was never supposed to be about grinding levels then grinding gear. It was always intended that relatively soon after level 80 you’d be done with that. From that point on getting better is about learning to use your stats, traits and skills in the best way possible.

This is evident not just in the relatively small number of tiers and the ease of getting exotics but also things like how gear doesn’t affect PvP at all, and most of the dungeons become available before level 80. Levelling up and improving your gear is one of the things you can do, but it’s only a small part of the game, not the main focus as it seems to be in other MMOs.

Having said that they were apparently surprised at just how easy it is to get exotics. So they added ascended gear as an optional extra for those who do want something to grind for. It’s a very minor increase in stats and not at all necessary unless you do high level Fractals, but it seems to keep that group of the playerbase occupied.

As for what you do for fun now? Everything else. Or whatever you were doing before. Or both.

One of the other nice things about GW2 IMO is that the lack of a gear treadmill (and other ideas like down-levelling) means that instead of levelling up and then being funnelled into a few ‘end game’ areas when you reach level 80 the game becomes completely open. You can go to any zone and explore, do any/all the dungeons, finish your story and do the new living story, do WvW, PvP etc. etc. and it’s entirely up to you because you don’t have to focus on the one thing that will award you the gear you need.

So if you found levelling fun just carry on doing whatever you did while you were levelling.

Exotic gear is easy to get for dedicated players and even easier for hardcore players like you seem to be.

And while it is great to have a “smooth” vertical progression, it probably was too smooth before ascended gear and the metrics probably hit the red button with players leaving due to the “what to do now?” syndrome.

In your case, I suggest you try going for ascended gear.

Not because I’m assuming you’re a grinding oriented type of player. But because the way ascended gear acquisition is designed.

There a multiple ways to reach ascended gear so you will discover multiple aspects of the game that you may not have had the time to find out or fully enjoy during your first 2 week.

Having said that you have to have some attunement with grinding and it gets worse with a legendary:p

Behellagh.1468:

One story goes that they added ascended because the devs were surprised how easy it was to get Exotic

Yeah, right. They definitely were surprised, especially since their stated earlier goal was for players to be able to deck themselves in top stat gear by the time they hit level 80. I mean, it was really surprising that the game followed stated designs, right?

Hugs.1856:

And while it is great to have a “smooth” vertical progression, it probably was too smooth before ascended gear and the metrics probably hit the red button with players leaving due to the “what to do now?” syndrome.

The players were leaving, because the honeymoon period ended. Every MMO loses massive numbers of players in its first months – the Locust, the people that tried MMO for the first time (and didn’t like it), the people that thought that it will be “like WoW, but better”, the people whose friends stopped playing due to one of the above reasons… Ascended gear might have stopped some from leaving, but also pushed others away. Was the net result positive? Unlikely (or Anet would have introduced another tier by now).

how about just playing the game?

Astralporing.1957:

Behellagh.1468:

One story goes that they added ascended because the devs were surprised how easy it was to get Exotic

Yeah, right. They definitely were surprised, especially since their stated earlier goal was for players to be able to deck themselves in top stat gear by the time they hit level 80. I mean, it was really surprising that the game followed stated designs, right?

They were surprised that something like 70% of players didn’t actually like this and all left the game after getting exotics since there was nothing left to do except get a 1000 hour of work legendary. One tier took 10 minutes, the next took 60,000 minutes per slot. People were put off by this so they left.

Ascended gear was added because even though people whine and complain a lot about not wanting a gear grind, they actually want a gear grind.

So everyone,
Here is an example like OP, who played a grindfest game before and now he’s perma stunned by how easily you can get top gear in Gw2.

It happens frequently tho.

i think many don’t like to spend so many weeks to craft 1 weapon
like legendary if you look ad trader there only so 20 to sell

if you compare how many players GW2 played its very very low
i think Anet makes it a bit to hard to craft them

and also players wont spend 4k to buy 1 so its rely no use ad all
and am sure allot will stay ad a full exotic gear set its stile very good

Because true exotics lie in Cantha.

Genlog.4983:

i think many don’t like to spend so many weeks to craft 1 weapon

that’s what you think

Genlog.4983:

like legendary if you look ad trader there only so 20 to sell
if you compare how many players GW2 played its very very low

Funny, because I constantly see people running with Twilight, Sunrise, Bitfrost, Dreamer, Kudzu and Incinerator. Bit less with Quip, The Predator or Eternity.

Genlog.4983:

i think Anet makes it a bit to hard to craft them

No. It’s because people think it’s hard.

Genlog.4983:

and also players wont spend 4k to buy 1

They will.

Haishao.6851:

“bought some gold”

It was so easy because you took the easiest way.

This. You didn’t get your exotics by playing the game so why are you complaining about the game being too easy…

Elrey.5472:

Kenshii.6274:

i guess my friends were right, this game is fun untill 80, then it just flattens out so hard.

That’s a funny statement, everyone that i know and plays gw2 thinks the opposite, the game is terrible boring until you are lvl 80.

We don’t play to get gear (that would feel like a job :\), we play because IT’S FUN. Of course some player’s goal is to get X reward, either legendary items or such, but most of us just play because we like to play it. We like to smash enemies in WvsW, or we like to kill dragons like Tequatl in an organized teamspeak with 50 more friends, or we like to go to the new maps and defend the castles against mordrems like if was an Age of Empires game for 1 hour.

I hope you understand my point. Most MMOs makes you “work” to get your desired items, GW2 instead let’s you get them easier so you can enjoy playing. This game offers a lot of activities, I made a post in the spanish forum a few days ago listing all what you can do at level 80… the list is really long. If you think that you have nothing to do just because you have your gear, then please go back to WoW or other MMOs that force you to “have this equipment or gtfo”. This is GW2, this is different!

+10

Because back in the day the game was released to be a fun to play. Exotics you could get relatively easy and then play for fun. Then 3 months later the game massive grind fest(biggest and worst in the industry) was introduced. This leads to massive boring grinding over and over to get gold or the pay win route to be used to get the best gear in game. Personally I am paying for a MMO. I’m having way more fun exploring the new content in WoW. More content in the Warlords expansion then in the entire living story released to date. And still WAY LESS GRIND lawl. GW2 promised so much and delivered so little.

The really bad part though is how the game was released was awesome. Then they started changing it and ruining it.

This game isn’t really about maximizing stats in the first place unlike other MMO’s.

This game requires no grinding to be able to play at max stats as you are downscaled in so much content, however those shiny cosmetics that are optional do require grinding a lot of the time, dem legendary grinds, but you don’t need it at all

As others have said, Exotic gear is designed to be (relatively) easy to acquire so that you can take part in end-game (level 80) content without too much trouble. Your first 80 may need some work to get all Exotics, but your alts can benefit from karma, Laurels, etc. to gear up fairly easily.

For the players who like to grind for BiS gear, Ascended gear is available. Beyond that, the game has a staggering variety of skins and appearances to suit your tastes; find whichever one appeals to you and go for it.

You bought gold and then complained, hahaha

Also Astralporing, anet introduced Ascended because players got exotic much faster than expected. It was expected players would get it about as slowly as it takes to get ascended now.

In an interview anet said there would be no more tiers. Thankfully.

Correction. “We do not have plans to introduce new tiers.” That doesn’t rule out it ever happening again.

But I don’t think they will (or at least, not for many more years). Ascended is working well as a huge mat/time/gold sink, and after the backlash from Ascended’s initial introduction, I think it would be much, much worse if ANet introduced a higher one after all the time and money thousands of players have sunk into Ascended gear.

emikochan.8504:

Also Astralporing, anet introduced Ascended because players got exotic much faster than expected. It was expected players would get it about as slowly as it takes to get ascended now.

Eurogamer interview with Colin Johanson on 9/27/2011

Eurogamer: How are you handling endgame loot – will we be farming bosses?

Colin Johanson: Everyone, including casual gamers, by level 80 should have the best statistical loot in the game. We want everyone on an equal power base.

Less than a year before release, Anet was signing a different tune. Ascended was a panicked reaction when they realized they were bleeding players due to lack of goals. They misread something, but it wasn’t the speed of exotic acquisition.

IndigoSundown.5419:

emikochan.8504:

Also Astralporing, anet introduced Ascended because players got exotic much faster than expected. It was expected players would get it about as slowly as it takes to get ascended now.

Eurogamer interview with Colin Johanson on 9/27/2011

Eurogamer: How are you handling endgame loot – will we be farming bosses?

Colin Johanson: Everyone, including casual gamers, by level 80 should have the best statistical loot in the game. We want everyone on an equal power base.

Less than a year before release, Anet was signing a different tune. Ascended was a panicked reaction when they realized they were bleeding players due to lack of goals. They misread something, but it wasn’t the speed of exotic acquisition.

It was also how people were seeing the Legendary hunt, which isn’t that much different from now – drop cash for gold or get really lucky. Ascended was meant as a “bridge between exotic and legendary”, and most people (rather snarkily) took it as a means of stats.

It was more a matter of effort, and to have a long-term goal as far as gear goes which could be the gear for your character to aspire to earning. At least that’s how I see it. I poke at it now and again when I start accumulating materials too much for my bank to hold, but it’s a side project at best. (Mostly because it’s entirely unnecessary for anything I actually do in the game.)

GW2 is not for people who want to strive for the highest stats in the game, because those stats are practically handed to you. It’s for people who want to focus on skills, ability to play, look pretty, team play strategies.
I would liken it to the difference between Civilization and Starcraft. In Civilization, you always need to have better units than your enemies, and there’s a constant upgrading of those units. In Starcraft, it’s what units you have and how you use those units.
If you come in here wanting to grind your way to the top, you’re gonna have a bad time. ‘The top’ is reached via your ability to play. It’s entirely possible to be on top when you first join.

Kenshii.6274:

bought some gold

Did I read that right? (you bought the gold with gems?) That’s an entirely valid thing to do, but that tells me why exotics would seem trivial to you. Personally, I had a hard time. When I started, my friend gave me 5s and told me to buy some gathering tools and a salvage kit. I almost always had gear that was 10 levels too low because I was always low on cash. The first masterwork, the first rare, the first exotic; those meant something. It took me months to get full exotics (mind you, this was before they added free gold to dungeons and free rares from world bosses, so gold was harder to come by and was mostly obtained from selling materials and loot on the TP)
I can certainly see why getting that in the first week would make the game seem over. I assure you, it isn’t.

Kenshii.6274:

So iv been playing for 2 weeks, got my first character to 80 (theif) bought some gold and got me full exotic gear with honor badges from WvWvW, now what ?

i mean exotic are almost as good as legendary/ascended gear right ? and yet its so incredibly easy to get

kinda takes away the feeling of achiving something. Sure you can farm or buy 1k gold just so you can get that cool looking skin, but the effort it takes to getting that amount of gold for a skin is so not worth the time wasted.

i guess my friends were right, this game is fun untill 80, then it just flattens out so hard.

Sure pvp and wvwvw is kinda fun, but it just feels like an arena game, where you might aswell start at 80 pick youre gear and go at it.

exotics are meant to be “easy” to acquire. this is working as intended. there is nothing wrong here.

if you cannot accept this core gameplay feature, perhaps guild wars 2 is not suitable for you after all.

So since when are games ONLY about getting the best gear?

The game only START at level 80, then fractals, achievement, WvW, PvP(well sorta) and living world opens up to you.

So stop taking the easy way out, and PLAY the game. Bloody hypocrisy.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Ascended was meant as a “bridge between exotic and legendary”, and most people (rather snarkily) took it as a means of stats.

It was more a matter of effort, and to have a long-term goal as far as gear goes which could be the gear for your character to aspire to earning. At least that’s how I see it. I poke at it now and again when I start accumulating materials too much for my bank to hold, but it’s a side project at best. (Mostly because it’s entirely unnecessary for anything I actually do in the game.)

The “bridge between exotic and legendary” statwise was of course a joke, since
legendary had just the same stats as exotics at that time, so there was no reason
at all to have something “between” .. since a “between” simply didn’t existed.

Why is it “stupidly easy”? Because that’s the way it was originally meant to be!

Getting exotics was on par with getting 1.5k gear at 20 in GW1. Something relatively easily attained. It was once stated by Colin that all players should have BiS gear by level 80.

However, a certain crowd pushed, hemmed, and hawed about the lack of gear grind in this game and tada….we have the grind that is ascended. How lovely.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Why is it “stupidly easy”? Because that’s the way it was originally meant to be!

Getting exotics was on par with getting 1.5k gear at 20 in GW1. Something relatively easily attained. It was once stated by Colin that all players should have BiS gear by level 80.

However, a certain crowd pushed, hemmed, and hawed about the lack of gear grind in this game and tada….we have the grind that is ascended. How lovely.

I was thinking the same thing. Getting top gear in Guild Wars 1 was not the end game and it was easily accessible to everyone. You could actually get it long before the level cap (which is low anyway). In fact, you could get even the most expensive armour at around level 3 or so (correct me if I’m wrong) with careful planning.

I’m glad that exotic gear is fairly easy to obtain, even though it’s no longer top tier. If you want more, go ahead and grind for ascended gear.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

However, a certain crowd pushed, hemmed, and hawed about the lack of gear grind in this game and tada….we have the grind that is ascended. How lovely.

Is there a problem with it?
Upon successful craft of whole set, the difference in stats is around ~7%(~10% was before exchange of crit damage% stat into Ferocity)

Does it make them harder to kill, or do they hit really that much harder than exotic geared players?
I don’t think so.

Wish has been granted, availability is present.

Ascended gear isn’t a mandatory.
It’s a choice.

The race is not for the swift, but for those who can endure. The game is about the journey, and not the destination. You should have taken your time to enjoy the scenery, events, and story as you leveled up, and not just rushed through things. You should have made friends while traveling through the game, and did events with them, or friends that joined with you.
There is a lot of stuff in game, whether it’s leveling up, doing storylines, events, or just hanging out with friends.
I’ve been here since the start, and have yet to be bored on the same character I’ve played since before the start. I think it’s funny to see people on here talking about how boring and easy the game is, or how there is nothing to do once you hit 80. I’m always finding things to do, and have yet to be bored.
When I leveled up, it was hard to find exotics as I hit 80, so I crafed my own. But then again, I didn’t take the shortcut and use wvw badges or buy gold to get them.

Tao.5096:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

However, a certain crowd pushed, hemmed, and hawed about the lack of gear grind in this game and tada….we have the grind that is ascended. How lovely.

Is there a problem with it?
Upon successful craft of whole set, the difference in stats is around ~7%(~10% was before exchange of crit damage% stat into Ferocity)

Does it make them harder to kill, or do they hit really that much harder than exotic geared players?
I don’t think so.

Wish has been granted, availability is present.

Ascended gear isn’t a mandatory.
It’s a choice.

You’re correct, ascended isn’t mandatory. For now. There is nothing that says this won’t change, especially with people pushing for exactly that.

Is there an issue with ascended gear itself? No.
With the precedent it sets and the uncertainty it created? Yes

When ascended gear is no longer locked behind laurels, crafting, and time gating and is readily available via karma, dungeon tokens, wvw token, etc… only then will be readily accessible by all. As it should be.

This game wasn’t advertised as gear end game. As gear grind. But if we don’t fight it, that is exactly what it will become.

I doubt there is anything to grind for.
Especially gear, or to craft Ascended.
People simply don’t understand it and bark here and there.
Difference between Exotic and Ascended as Full set is ~7%.
It doesn’t mean it’s ~7% more damage. It’s in all stats.
Starting with base Armor, and ending on selective stats.
Laurels have it’s purpose.
Honestly, what else would you like to spend Laurels on?
If I didn’t gear up all of my level 80 characters including trinkets, then I would already have all Minis which can be bought by Laurels, and really didn’t know what to do else with it, except buying T6 bags.

It’s a choice. Difference stat wise is meaningless.

Also, regarding grinding etc. What else do you have to spend gold on and mats except on fancy skins?
Anything else is barely given for free.
Time gating crafts have their purpose.
yet, you’re not locked out to purchase necessary already timegate-crafted items from broker.

I can say it like this, because I can compare majority of Gw2 mechanics, especially gear, grind and crafting with other games.
And I can assure anyone, that there is no other game which has as simple and as easy way to play, have fun and not feeling like having part-time job.

Difference is even less if you play content lower than lvl 80 .. since then ascended
weapons have only the weapon strenght of exotics, and so do maybe 0,5% more
damage than an exotic.

In the end only ascended jewlery remains their bonus under level 80.

I’m aware Tao. Like I said, my issue isn’t with ascended itself, it’s with the precedent it has set. Yes, Colin has said they they don’t feel (right now) that another gear tier is necessary, but how long till that changes? They’ve already stated that stronger infusion tiers are coming, though I’m really hoping they never actually get around to that. But how much of a difference would there be with ascended infusions as opposed to just the fine level we have now? Could potentially be significant. And that’s exactly where a lot of us don’t want to go. We don’t want GW2 to turn into another gear treadmill. It wasn’t like that in GW1. We want an definitive end point to gear stat progression.

Laurels really didn’t need to be introduced. It’s one more currency that we have to deal with. There were better ways that ascended could have been implemented without the need for yet another currency in the game, and a gated one at that. Its just one more thing that adds to some players feeling of being forced to log in each day. Something Anet claimed they didn’t want to make players feel.

Fancy skins were the whole point. Cosmetic end game was one of the defining factors of the game at its conception. Just as cosmetic hunting was a thing in GW1. FoW and Vabbi armors were the defining cosmetic look to have, and had absolutely 0 affect on combat stats.

GW1 never made people feel like it was a job, so you can’t claim “no other game.” However, many are concerned that with the path GW2 is currently on, it will become just like “all those other games” where is does feel a job.