Guild Wars 2

Karma is the most universal currency for any part of the game that would use Ascended gear. It is also a currency with excess amounts found in a large percentage of the audience. An excess found in the population at a likely larger percentage than any other currency.

WvWvW players have currency and earn currency. Open world players have currency and earn currency. Dungeons reward currency. Guild Missions can reward currency.

So why is the playerbase chasing gated content instead of using the most universal reward to get these items? I could understand if Ascended items only mattered to FotM, but best-in-slot gear matters to the entire game. So why is the system used for the entire game not the system used to attain Ascended gear?

so people dont just get it all on the first day(some of us have over 100 karma jugs), a sort if incentive to continue playing for a bit more time.

Expect them to introduce new currency & tokens in the future.

btw. BiS means nothing. All of the content (outside fotm) can be completed with a mix of masterwork-rare-exotic gear. If you want there are karma merchants in orr that sell exotic trinkets

BiS means a lot. Sure, you can do many things in lower quality gear, but people don’t want to do such. Players want to see their character at the character’s peak and that involves best in slot gear.

Honestly, I never saw a problem with getting a set of gear rather quickly. It’s very important to trying different builds.

Even considering that, they could still make the items very expensive on karma so that it requires having put in plenty of effort, but by making it cost karma, it makes the items more universally attainable.

I think they have enough currency already, and they need to start shedding some of this currency add on that’s been going on. I love the game but between tokens, gold, gems, fractals, karma, pristine fractals, and now guild commendations … I am second thinking it, I appreciate the no gear grind after ascension gear but every new piece of ascension is a new currency, looking at it, game has been out 7 months and we have more currency types then how many months the game has been out……

Need to rethink this

etiolate.9185:

So why is the playerbase chasing gated content instead of using the most universal reward to get these items? I could understand if Ascended items only mattered to FotM, but best-in-slot gear matters to the entire game. So why is the system used for the entire game not the system used to attain Ascended gear?

Because they want us to grind for it, and they want to control the speed of grind, so heaven forbid we won’t get the whole set in any reasonable time.
Expect any new ascended piece to use both laurels and some completely new currency (even if it will be acquirable through already existing game subsystem).

Karma is stupid easy to get. People would have full ascended sets within hours by tanking jugs/drops with karma boosts on. No thanks. I want a new system for ascended items too, but not one that’s so trivial and easy mode.

Ascended gear is designed to give a long term goal (to get a full set). You’re meant to have to take time to achieve it, which is why all newly added pieces have used some type of new currency to obtain. Amulets are not currently available via fractal relics for example because people would have instantly bought them and for those that like stats, they would no longer have a goal.

They have direct control over how many laurels, and now guild commendations, you can possibly obtain. This way, they get to decided when you can obtain all your gear.

Most MMOs go with a tiered route, allowing you to obtain “masterwork” quality gear in a short time frame. Then, around 3 months later, they introduce “rare” quality gear, then “exotic” gear after that and so on. Since GW is not a gear based game, they chose to add 1 tier of gear over the entire duration in which a typical MMO would introduce several. When a new expansion comes, this process starts all over again. It’s simply a goal to keep you active and the population online. It’s also an incentive for those that only like stats, not caring about cosmetics, which ArenaNet probably found out was quite a bit of people from the initial launch.

Once ArenaNet has decided that you should have been able to obtain it by now, you’ll start to see ascended gear introduced in new places. But since the stats aren’t major, they might not actually do this and instead just rely on expansion resets. If they go that route, ascended gear for WvW will probably be tied to the new unlock system they’re introducing, rather than allowing it to be crafted or purchased with an existing currency.