Guild Wars 2

When HoT arrives and huge, sweeping changes are made to core aspects of the game that will make some of our alts unplayable, will we be able to get a gold refund for the gear that will now be useless?

Take for example the changes to burning. The burning condition is in a good place right now. It does high damage but with low duration and can be easily cleansed. I’ve never seen anyone complaining about it being overpowered.

For some reason you’ve decided to make the burn condition a stackable condition like bleeding. You’ve decided to lower the damage of burn, too.

What this means is that certain current class/specs will be useless.

Condi guard and condi ranger, for example. Neither will be able to reliably apply enough burn stacks to reach the same levels they’re at currently, and let’s face it, neither of them are overpowered specs.

So, either you’ll need to change all the burn-related skills in the game to give much higher durations and make it easier to stack burn, or you could just, you know, not change burn at all. Or, if you insist on changing it without rescuing the affected class/specs, then return the gold we wasted on the soon-to-be-useless gear.

… what? conditions across the board are gonna be MORE useful not less… and ofc condition applying skills will be changed, just like stability applying skills got changed, when they added stackable stabilty…

1) MMO never refunds stuff when the change it later in the game. I

2) Speculation much. You think they gonna change burning, but don’t rebalance it? Yup, that’s probably it, they gonna drop the damage, change it to stackable, but leave skill like they are now. Make sense.

3) The made burning stackable so that they can remove the cap on it. If tested it in the beta. They removed the stack limit, but that don’t help burning at all. By making it stackable it kind of fix the problem.

4) Condition build will be more viable than they are now. Calm down and wait to see what they will do with condition before freaking out.

There are no words…. there just aren’t.

NO they aren’t “refunding” your armor
NO they aren’t “replacing” anyones armor
NO they aren’t going to give everyone a free stat reroll.

How do you know your gear is “soon to be useless”? Have you seen the finalized changes? Do share.

GummiBear.2756:

… what? conditions across the board are gonna be MORE useful not less… and ofc condition applying skills will be changed, just like stability applying skills got changed, when they added stackable stabilty…

How will conditions be MORE useful with the advent of condi immunity as a boon? It really seems to me like they want to kill condi roamers altogether.

My first impression is no, ill think about it some and edit my post later

EDIT: thought about it, no, they wont refund your gear

warduke.1780:

GummiBear.2756:

… what? conditions across the board are gonna be MORE useful not less… and ofc condition applying skills will be changed, just like stability applying skills got changed, when they added stackable stabilty…

How will conditions be MORE useful with the advent of condi immunity as a boon? It really seems to me like they want to kill condi roamers altogether.

your burn will likely add more than 1 stack of burning, just like the stability changes do

warduke.1780:

How will conditions be MORE useful with the advent of condi immunity as a boon? It really seems to me like they want to kill condi roamers altogether.

From what I’ve read, resistance doesn’t remove the conditions when applied. It just makes you immune to their damage and effects when it’s active. The boon itself will probably only last for a very short amount of time as well.

warduke.1780:

How will conditions be MORE useful with the advent of condi immunity as a boon? It really seems to me like they want to kill condi roamers altogether.

Aegis and Blind exist. They are trying to kill power build altogether.

Actually yes. They will refund your gear.

An ANET representative should be arriving at your home later this week to interview you on the gear layout and skill set up that you would most like to play. They will ask you some questions about when and how you obtained each piece. Then they will cross-reference the relevant TP prices (runes, sigils, crafting mats, etc) and calculate how much gold they owe you, personally, for your gear.

There may be an affidavit that you’re asked to sign – don’t be alarmed. This is just so that you don’t sue them later for pain and suffering related to the inconvenience of having to re-do your build.

Thaddeus.4891:

1) MMO never refunds stuff when the change it later in the game.

Remember, that for most MMO’s this is unnecessary, since the hamster wheel gear grind assumes you will be changing out of your stuff soon anyway.

Litani.1432:

Actually yes. They will refund your gear.

An ANET representative should be arriving at your home later this week to interview you on the gear layout and skill set up that you would most like to play. They will ask you some questions about when and how you obtained each piece. Then they will cross-reference the relevant TP prices (runes, sigils, crafting mats, etc) and calculate how much gold they owe you, personally, for your gear.

There may be an affidavit that you’re asked to sign – don’t be alarmed. This is just so that you don’t sue them later for pain and suffering related to the inconvenience of having to re-do your build.

Cool. Will be waiting.

warduke.1780:

Also, not surprised to see the usual fanboy/shill posts defending any and all changes. Honestly, I believe that if Anet removed all classes except one from the game permanently, there would still be a sizable crowd of sycophants shouting down any opposition.

It doesn’t really help your argument when you stoop to their level and start calling anyone that disagrees with you “fanboys” and “sycophants”.

Some of their resonances were in bad taste, I’ll agree, but you also have to admit that a good portion of your own argument is based on a lot of half revealed information and data that is in no way final yet and subject to change.

warduke.1780:

Anyone who plays a stance warrior knows how to abuse condi immunity long enough to kill any condi roamer.

Are you saying that hard counter exist in the game. JESUS

As President Frank Underwood said, “You are entitled to NOTHING.”

I wonder have you ever played another MMO, where you grinded raids for 1 year
to finally get the perfect armor, and then a new expansion is released where the
blue gear from quests after 2 levels is suddenly as good as your gear ?

Do you think they will refund you ? Heck you have even payed for it that they made
all your progress worth nothing.

Oh and mostly in the new zones there you suddenly earn 5-10 times more money
than before, so that suddenly all the money you grinded for the last 2 years is now
something you can get in some weeks.

warduke.1780:

Erukk.1408:

warduke.1780:

How will conditions be MORE useful with the advent of condi immunity as a boon? It really seems to me like they want to kill condi roamers altogether.

From what I’ve read, resistance doesn’t remove the conditions when applied. It just makes you immune to their damage and effects when it’s active. The boon itself will probably only last for a very short amount of time as well.

Anyone who plays a stance warrior knows how to abuse condi immunity long enough to kill any condi roamer.

So one class (maybe 3 in total if you count invuln rangers and some bunker guardians) can avoid being damaged by a build for a bit and this is an issue? Not every build for every class should be able to take down every other build of every class. There are going to be strengths and weaknesses between classes as it’s all just a big game of rock, paper, scissors.

warduke.1780:

Also, not surprised to see the usual fanboy/shill posts defending any and all changes. Honestly, I believe that if Anet removed all classes except one from the game permanently, there would still be a sizable crowd of sycophants shouting down any opposition.

lolwut. Excessive hyperbole is excessive.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

There are no words…. there just aren’t.

NO they aren’t “refunding” your armor
NO they aren’t “replacing” anyones armor
NO they aren’t going to give everyone a free stat reroll.

How do you know your gear is “soon to be useless”? Have you seen the finalized changes? Do share.

How do you know that any of the things you posted will not happen? Do share, oh that’s right you don’t know do you. There is a very high chance that they will allow a re-stat to ascended gear and maybe even exotic, but that is just my opinion, nothing has been confirmed at this stage so please stop acting like you know, because no one does except for Arenanet devs.

Short answer is no.

This will be one of those things that people will have to roll with if they plan on continuing in the game.

Speak with your wallet as that will be the only possible way to get their attention if you want.

Vavume.8065:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

There are no words…. there just aren’t.

NO they aren’t “refunding” your armor
NO they aren’t “replacing” anyones armor
NO they aren’t going to give everyone a free stat reroll.

How do you know your gear is “soon to be useless”? Have you seen the finalized changes? Do share.

How do you know that any of the things you posted will not happen? Do share, oh that’s right you don’t know do you. There is a very high chance that they will allow a resstat to ascended gear and maybe even exotic, but that is just my opinion, nothing has been confirmed at this stage so please stop acting like you know, because no one does except for Arenanet devs.

Even if we don’t know it, we highly expect it, and expecting a refund would only
lead to frustration.

So if we get some .. wow .. nice. But .. don’t expect it.

warduke.1780:

…..
Also, not surprised to see the usual fanboy/shill posts defending any and all changes. Honestly, I believe that if Anet removed all classes except one from the game permanently, there would still be a sizable crowd of sycophants shouting down any opposition.

And this outrageous and exaggerated claim isn’t just the opposite of what you are complaining about?

Nobody is going to “refund” you anything and expecting a “refund” is just absurd. The condi immunity boon(s) appear to be are VERY short term w/ long RC…. It may make you need to think about you application of conidtions (to waste their limited immunity), but it’s not going to “destroy” condi builds or make your Alts “useless”. .

….Typical chicken little behavior around this place…

At least wait until your builds get “destroyed” before making absurd requests like this.

Based on what happened with the Ferocity change. No. If you want new gear, you will have to craft new gear.

The thought of receiving any kind of refund because you think your gear is no longer viable is rediculous and selfish entitlement. Its your choice when you invest hundreds of gold into gear and when builds change people complain their tanky, healing, or zercker gear is now useless. You want new gear, craft it again.

Beldin.5498:

I wonder have you ever played another MMO, where you grinded raids for 1 year
to finally get the perfect armor, and then a new expansion is released where the
blue gear from quests after 2 levels is suddenly as good as your gear ?

Do you think they will refund you ? Heck you have even payed for it that they made
all your progress worth nothing.

Oh and mostly in the new zones there you suddenly earn 5-10 times more money
than before, so that suddenly all the money you grinded for the last 2 years is now
something you can get in some weeks.

Other MMOs don’t charge you for character slots.

Not sure where you got that info about earning 5-10 times more gold in new zones… wishful thinking I reckon.

Oh, and the people calling me “entitled” – really? I’ve already put in the work to get my characters where I want them to be. These sorts of changes are unwelcome and unnecessary. What we need instead is huge changes to WvW to rescue it before both it and the game go under.

warduke.1780:

GummiBear.2756:

… what? conditions across the board are gonna be MORE useful not less… and ofc condition applying skills will be changed, just like stability applying skills got changed, when they added stackable stabilty…

How will conditions be MORE useful with the advent of condi immunity as a boon? It really seems to me like they want to kill condi roamers altogether.

resistance boon gonna be likely limited in application compared to the condis you will be able to throw up, is basically protection just against condi instead of direct dmg.

On the flip size you wont be screwed over by having other condi users apply same condi type as you on the same target due to the condi caps (which while bar with bleeding already with the 25cap, was even worse than burning since it only stacked duration, not intensity…

Vavume.8065:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

There are no words…. there just aren’t.

NO they aren’t “refunding” your armor
NO they aren’t “replacing” anyones armor
NO they aren’t going to give everyone a free stat reroll.

How do you know your gear is “soon to be useless”? Have you seen the finalized changes? Do share.

How do you know that any of the things you posted will not happen? Do share, oh that’s right you don’t know do you. There is a very high chance that they will allow a re-stat to ascended gear and maybe even exotic, but that is just my opinion, nothing has been confirmed at this stage so please stop acting like you know, because no one does except for Arenanet devs.

There is a high probability that, as before when they changed kitten around, people will not be offered an option to restat. This is not the first time people have raised a ruckus because ‘x’ or ‘y’ was changing and it would ‘make our gear worthless’ (which it didn’t). The only time they allowed for a free stat reswap was when they completely removed magic find from gear, and even then, those with celestial did not get the option.

The separation of stats from traits will not make someone’s selection of gear worthless. The gear itself is relatively unchange (the mild boost to base stas not withstanding). Gear is not becoming any more or less worthwhile with the trait change.

Considering the ferocity change was as significant as, if not more than, this change, and no gear restat was offered then, its highly unlikely they would offer it now.

While it’s true that we can’t always tell exactly what the devs will do, they do have some precedents from which we can gauge an outcome from.

Complain after the change, not before… because no one knows how the change can affect the game.

I defend.. and attack Anet a lot… usually it depends on what makes sense…

anet not fixing something they really should… i complain non stop.
players assuming things that are so far.. unproven or not true… i defend anet…
players making a point that i do not agree with, i try to debate, and defend….
players making a point that I do agree with… “cheers mate!”

I think anet should change how WvW and server population is calculated… and balanced.

I think players should really calm the hell down about changes that are “assumed” to be bad, but in reality, they just have some really vivid imagination. (i do not like the stability change, but it does make things more challenging… so that part I do like…).

all gears are viable, maybe not to your play style, but sometimes its even fun to play with green/blue items with no runes to challenge yourselves, this game really isnt that hard that you need this magical “BiS” created by elite players.. that actually know the game mechanics so well that they can exploit 0 defense, or they got so far into the game that 35k hp and 3.5k toughness will not save you from a single attack. well unless you are this elite player.. your gear will still work, perfectly? no, but you will not suddenly become equally useful as a level 1 naked character in a lv 50 fractal.

Lets see what they have to offer for the expansion before getting too upset with everything. its good for your health too.

p.s. that ferocity change for 6% stat point.. and the potential -10% on celestial gear for specialization changes… oh why… my ascended celestial stuff that i wasted a month to craft…. I still use it, its not as good as it was before.. but whatever, I’ll wait and see how bad it gets before raging.

Let’s wait to see how the changes will be. I’m also afraid of the burning changes, my Engineer will be a lot weaker and my already weak condi guardian will be worthless. They might put stacks on skills or increase the duration, but if they keep as 1 stack and same duration, bye burning.

warduke.1780:

Beldin.5498:

I wonder have you ever played another MMO, where you grinded raids for 1 year
to finally get the perfect armor, and then a new expansion is released where the
blue gear from quests after 2 levels is suddenly as good as your gear ?

Do you think they will refund you ? Heck you have even payed for it that they made
all your progress worth nothing.

Oh and mostly in the new zones there you suddenly earn 5-10 times more money
than before, so that suddenly all the money you grinded for the last 2 years is now
something you can get in some weeks.

Other MMOs don’t charge you for character slots.

All the ones I’ve played do?

warduke.1780:

Oh, and the people calling me “entitled” – really? I’ve already put in the work to get my characters where I want them to be. These sorts of changes are unwelcome and unnecessary. What we need instead is huge changes to WvW to rescue it before both it and the game go under.

So you’re saying you’re entitled now to WvW changes because you think without them the game will go under but you are arguing with people calling you “entitled”. Read your own post please before submitting it. The changes are not unwelcome and not unnecessary.

Currently in PvE which is ANET’s main focus with this expansion, conditions have a poor place. Condis are capped and builds that aren’t power are shoved under the bed. If you took the time to look on the forums/reddit and in game you’ll find the necro players applauding the condition changes in general because it’s believed condi builds will be more viable.

Condition immunity is a form of counterplay, because some builds don’t have the same access as warriors do when a super condi necro/engi comes into the scene to tear them to shreds.

As others have stated and I think you should read more carefully, nothing has been deemed final yet and official. We do not know exactly how this will react to the current state of the game and its application, so, we have to wait and speculate without tossing on our rage hats.

The question is why would Anet refund you for your gear?
Is the gear suddenly not going to work?
Are they removing certain stats on gear?
Will you be required by the game to use only a particular gear set?
(i.e. unable to enter the new map unless you have a full Rabid gear set)

As far as I can tell, each and every piece of gear will still work, and do exactly what it’s supposed to do.
Nothing is changing, so why should anyone expect to recieve a refund/stat re-roll?

You may bring up MF gear that got a re-roll. Well the reason was that they removed that stat from the game, and change MF in general. Which lead to all the MF gear that people were using being broken. It was missing a stat. So they gave the players the option to change the stats on the gear to account for a stat that was no longer available.

None of that is happening with the expansion, so why would they allow to re-roll or give refunds for gear?

I’m tempted to respond to the text of the original post, but that would be a digression from my best guess as to the OP’s intent, which is:

The upcoming overhaul to builds should cause most of us to reconsider our selection of gear stats, both prefixes and suffixes. What is ANet doing to help us to make that transition?

Answer: they haven’t said whether they have any plans to help us deal with it. The examples we have in the past:

• Wardrobe: all equipped or otherwise bound gear in inventory got absorbed by the wardrobe. Gear that was no longer in inventory? Nope, out of luck. No refunds.
• Dyes: all unlocked dyes were added to the wardrobe and duplicates were ‘refunded’ as unidentified dyes, which were cheap initially, but now worth a pretty penny.
• Town Clothes: turned into tonics and those who paid gems were able to get a refund (in gems).
• Magic Find moved from gear: everyone with such gear was allowed to select stats from a small selection of available choices. However, Celestial stats simply lost the MF bonus.
• Every previous rebalance of runes/sigils: no refund.

Summary: your guess is as good as mine as to whether ANet will consider the cost of changing gear when the specialization system goes live.

warduke.1780:

Erukk.1408:

warduke.1780:

How will conditions be MORE useful with the advent of condi immunity as a boon? It really seems to me like they want to kill condi roamers altogether.

From what I’ve read, resistance doesn’t remove the conditions when applied. It just makes you immune to their damage and effects when it’s active. The boon itself will probably only last for a very short amount of time as well.

Anyone who plays a stance warrior knows how to abuse condi immunity long enough to kill any condi roamer.

Also, not surprised to see the usual fanboy/shill posts defending any and all changes. Honestly, I believe that if Anet removed all classes except one from the game permanently, there would still be a sizable crowd of sycophants shouting down any opposition.

No, actually everyone is answering your question in the topic title which is “Will we receive gear refunds with HoT?”

The consensus of several posters is a solid no. There hasnt been any discussion about whether they will or not though, but they will very likely not do so. Not every answer is no however, there is at least one person that believes Anet will come to your house and evaluate what you need

The best thing to do would be to wait until this change actually happens. If your build truly is broken, then you can come back here and create a topic stating how broken your build has become and how you have to replace every piece of gear because your old build is completely unsalvageable. Then you will have other people who also have broken builds that can join your cause to get a refund (which will likely not happen).

Best of luck to you. Hopefully they do not break your build and invalidate your gear!

Gobble D Goop.4081:

The best thing to do would be to wait until this change actually happens. If your build truly is broken, then you can come back here and create a topic stating how broken your build has become and how you have to replace every piece of gear because your old build is completely unsalvageable. Then you will have other people who also have broken builds that can join your cause to get a refund (which will likely not happen).

Best of luck to you. Hopefully they do not break your build and invalidate your gear!

The thing is that there isn’t a single build that cannot be used to complete any content in the game. Heck you can even do all content without any traits at all. (I’ve done it. Reset traits, and forget to reassign them.)

But gear will actually be getting a buff. They will increase the stats on gear to account for stats no longer being part of the trait lines. Also gear has little to do with builds. You can go do a full support and defensive build using beserker gear.

GW2 is about grinding, what would you do if you didn’t have to grind for that new gear?

Gyler.8150:

GW2 is about grinding, what would you do if you didn’t have to grind for that new gear?

GW2 has never been about grinding to keep your gear relevant. People are wondering if that might change with the upcoming specialization system.

Good to know that GW2 suffers the same types of posts as every other MMO that does system changes with an expansion.

Sigh.

Burning (and poison, really) need to be stackable conditions as long as conditions from different players are going to stack together in the first place (i.e, not independent DoT’s as in other games). Why?

• The current problem with bleeds is that 1-2 players can reach the 25 stack limit, but in the large-scale combats the game is built around, many more players are applying bleeds. Rather than go to independent DoT’s, ANet is choosing to up the stack limit, which I expect will improve the problem.
• Since burning and poison currently do not stack intensity, all it takes for one’s application of these to be irrelevant in said large-scale fights is for one other player to be applying them. With these conditions being able to stack intensity, then these conditions might well be as relevant as bleeds will be under the new system. In other words, it might not be perfect, but better than now.

Obviously, numbers will have to be tweaked, and re-tweaked, before they get it right. Hopefully, that’s some of what’s going on in the beta tests.

OP, can I have your sources that everything right now is indeed CONFIRMED? I mean, holy crap! If nothing is changing now, then HoT must be right around the corner! I feel sorry for the professions that don’t have trait lines done, or just stuff ported over and nothing changed to them yet. Or how now apparently with everything set in stone, engies are gonna litterally carry around a mortar for their new ability.

What has Anet done?!

I wonder why OP assumes the devs wouldn’t simply alter the condi-application of those affected classes…lol

warduke.1780:

When HoT arrives and huge, sweeping changes are made to core aspects of the game that will make some of our alts unplayable, will we be able to get a gold refund for the gear that will now be useless?

You don’t know if it’ll be useless.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

NO they aren’t “refunding” your armor
NO they aren’t “replacing” anyones armor
NO they aren’t going to give everyone a free stat reroll.

You don’t know if they’ll give or not any refunds.

.
.
.

End of thread.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

While it’s true that we can’t always tell exactly what the devs will do, they do have some precedents from which we can gauge an outcome from.

Yes like the re-stat after MF gear was removed, and this is why I personally expect they will allow stat changes with the new trait system, since they have already set that precedent…

Vavume.8065:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

While it’s true that we can’t always tell exactly what the devs will do, they do have some precedents from which we can gauge an outcome from.

Yes like the re-stat after MF gear was removed, and this is why I personally expect they will allow stat changes with the new trait system, since they have already set that precedent…

As explained ealier that was to compensate for an entire stat being removed, and made obsolete.

With HoT there is nothing to suggest that entire stats will be removed from the game. Are they going to remove precision? Healing Power? Boon duration? Not likely. Gear stats will made much more important than they currently are.

So MF and the re-rolling of stats really isn’t a precedent at all.

I didn’t see how they can do a reroll of stats. The magic find situation doesn’t compare. What they did there when they removed magic find gear was set any piece with magic find to selectable stats. To do something comparable for all gear, they would have to make all gear in the game with selectable stats as they can’t single out only gear you are using (as in don’t have the tools) That would mean all the gear not only that you have but all the gear in the trading post and all the gear that drops, all have selectable stats. That would effect the prices of all the gear if they were suddenly all the same. And hit the prices for mats also.

Vavume.8065:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

There are no words…. there just aren’t.

NO they aren’t “refunding” your armor
NO they aren’t “replacing” anyones armor
NO they aren’t going to give everyone a free stat reroll.

How do you know your gear is “soon to be useless”? Have you seen the finalized changes? Do share.

How do you know that any of the things you posted will not happen? Do share, oh that’s right you don’t know do you. There is a very high chance that they will allow a re-stat to ascended gear and maybe even exotic, but that is just my opinion, nothing has been confirmed at this stage so please stop acting like you know, because no one does except for Arenanet devs.

The odds of it happening are worse than being hit by lightning while simultaneously winning every single lottery in the united states. Why? Because with every other change that altered builds, they did kitten all about people having to change gear. What makes you think they will this time?

Vavume.8065:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

While it’s true that we can’t always tell exactly what the devs will do, they do have some precedents from which we can gauge an outcome from.

Yes like the re-stat after MF gear was removed, and this is why I personally expect they will allow stat changes with the new trait system, since they have already set that precedent…

As I pointed out in the same previous post, and pdavis points out a few posts prior, this is the only time Anet has given a stat reroll. And only to the armors that were having that stat removed, thus making that armor obsolete. If I recall correctly, it was completely renamed and re-stated. So yes, I can see in that instance giving people the reroll option.,

However do recall that while celestial armor was also affected by the MF removal, those people did not get a reroll option because their armor was not obsolete.

The same stands here. None of the armor is obsolete. This is no different than the ferocity change, and they didn’t offer a gear re-stat there either.

warduke.1780:

When HoT arrives and huge, sweeping changes are made to core aspects of the game that will make some of our alts unplayable, will we be able to get a gold refund for the gear that will now be useless?

The least ArenaNet should do is allow us to repick the stats of our gear. Just like people can do all the time with legendary items, and just like ArenaNet did when they removed magic find gear from the game.

They pretty much have no real reason to not do that.

If they don’t announce it, simply vote with your wallet. Don’t buy HoT or gems until ArenaNet implements it.

warduke.1780:

Erukk.1408:

warduke.1780:

How will conditions be MORE useful with the advent of condi immunity as a boon? It really seems to me like they want to kill condi roamers altogether.

From what I’ve read, resistance doesn’t remove the conditions when applied. It just makes you immune to their damage and effects when it’s active. The boon itself will probably only last for a very short amount of time as well.

Anyone who plays a stance warrior knows how to abuse condi immunity long enough to kill any condi roamer.

Are you saying it’s not fair that your wvw condi roamer build could _theoretically_have a hard counter? Really?

And since when is using a mechanic abusing it? That’s like saying someone that is able to use blinds properly to avoid melee damage in WvW/PvP is abusing blinds…

If condi immunity is a boon like any other boon, you can strip it or wait it out. How is it any different from blind, aegis, or invuln skills? I’ll save you time, it’s not.

Gyler.8150:

GW2 is about grinding, what would you do if you didn’t have to grind for that new gear?

Have fun, perhaps.

Test.8734:

warduke.1780:

When HoT arrives and huge, sweeping changes are made to core aspects of the game that will make some of our alts unplayable, will we be able to get a gold refund for the gear that will now be useless?

The least ArenaNet should do is allow us to repick the stats of our gear. Just like people can do all the time with legendary items, and just like ArenaNet did when they removed magic find gear from the game.

They pretty much have no real reason to not do that.

If they don’t announce it, simply vote with your wallet. Don’t buy HoT or gems until ArenaNet implements it.

Why. It doesn’t look like they are invalidating any of the stats on the gear. So what would be the need for them to do that? As has been pointed out numerous times in this thread, the magic find change made those stats in the gear obsolete…that’s not happening here as far as we know so far.

1. Every build will still work even if not optimal. You can already solo most of the content regardless of build. WvW was never designed to be balanced, and gear doesn’t matter in PvP. It is very unlikely this will change for the new content. Aside from high end frac or trying to hit record timing in dungeons anything will do, and since your talking about condi I’m pretty sure that’s not going to apply to you.

2. A basic exotic set is cheap and likely still viable come HoT. You MAY be paying top dollar for runes depending what you run, but most of that is readily available even to new players. If you however have an ascended set well then you probably have a more stable income of gold than most players. Get crafting.

Expecting to have your gear refunded is nonsense… Plus if you wasted mats on condi ascended gear knowing zerk was the meta that was your own choice that doesn’t need compensating.