Guild Wars 2

Hello ANet!

Like many casual players, over the last couple of years I’ve spent a lot of time buying, crafting and acquiring Exotic and Ascended gear for my stable of characters. I realize that with the coming changes they won’t necessarily be rendered “obsolete”, but may well have to be completely scrapped regardless since the traits and skills on which they were based are going to be altered. That’s pretty harsh. It took me months to make one set of Ascended gear, and I don’t have nearly enough gold to re-outfit my other seven characters with Exotics. It could severely hinder my play going forward, which would really hurt just before Heart of Thorns hits.

So, as my request to go along with the new trait/skill system, could you please look at giving every Soulbound Exotic/Ascended item a free single stat-combination choice?

Thank you!
- ROMzombie

Well, the good news is, a full set of exotic gear is cheap. And if you can’t afford it, you can get the stats you’re looking for from dungeons and PvP tracks, with patience.

As for Ascended, if you made a full zerker set for PvE (The only place it is required only in high level fractals), then you’re still going to be fine. Ascended is not mandatory and you are perfectly fine with using Exotic armor.

If you didn’t make a zerker set of ascended, then you are still probably going to be fine. Most builds look like they will be even stronger after hoT releases, and even if they aren’t going to be stronger, they will be still be viable.

Umm, the builds you used before will use the same gear now. Thats not getting changed.

Now new builds will use new gear stats but that hasn’t changed since the dawn of the game.

If your build and gear isn’t considered “meta” when the patch hits then thats your fault for following meta and not just playing a spec and gear you enjoy.

Granted I agree that ascended gear cost way too kitten much money for a single set of gear with single stats. My mesmer has 3 sets of gear and my guardian like 4. The only real use to ascended gear is getting a “meta” build zerker set for instances but I really couldn’t give a toss about instances. If silk wasn’t so kitten much money I might actually care about making it.

Ascended is really not that bad… I think the cost is appropriate for BiS gear. You can easily get enough money to do it by just playing the game for a while and accruing gold/mats. That’s what you’re supposed to do; it is a casual game, after all. I crafted my first set of ascended armor over several months.. but now I’ve built up enough resources to go craft a whole set (or two) right now at relatively minimal gold cost.

Andred.1087:

Ascended is really not that bad… I think the cost is appropriate for BiS gear. You can easily get enough money to do it by just playing the game for a while and accruing gold/mats. That’s what you’re supposed to do; it is a casual game, after all.

Oh I have enough gold to buy all the mats for all 3 tiers, it’s just an issue I really don’t see the reason as to why exactly. Sure it’s better, but not by much. As far as I can tell ascended is really only used for fractals because of an asinine agony damage system.

heartless.6803:

Andred.1087:

Ascended is really not that bad… I think the cost is appropriate for BiS gear. You can easily get enough money to do it by just playing the game for a while and accruing gold/mats. That’s what you’re supposed to do; it is a casual game, after all.

Oh I have enough gold to buy all the mats for all 3 tiers, it’s just an issue I really don’t see the reason as to why exactly. Sure it’s better, but not by much. As far as I can tell ascended is really only used for fractals because of an asinine agony damage system.

Yeah I mean, that’s fair. I did Fractals a lot, so I needed more ascended gear. But since I can foresee-ably afford to equip all my characters (that I use, anyway) with ascended, I might as well. Except my Ele, since I have yet to do any work in Tailor.

Andred.1087:

heartless.6803:

Andred.1087:

Ascended is really not that bad… I think the cost is appropriate for BiS gear. You can easily get enough money to do it by just playing the game for a while and accruing gold/mats. That’s what you’re supposed to do; it is a casual game, after all.

Oh I have enough gold to buy all the mats for all 3 tiers, it’s just an issue I really don’t see the reason as to why exactly. Sure it’s better, but not by much. As far as I can tell ascended is really only used for fractals because of an asinine agony damage system.

Yeah I mean, that’s fair. I did Fractals a lot, so I needed more ascended gear. But since I can foresee-ably afford to equip all my characters (that I use, anyway) with ascended, I might as well. Except my Ele, since I have yet to do any work in Tailor.

I don’t do instances, I can’t deal with the pug mentality. It wrecks my already low self esteem. I choose to do mostly solo activities. I should be finishing Bolt soon, and debating on just buying Bifrost.

ROMzombie.5196:

So, as my request to go along with the new trait/skill system, could you please look at giving every Soulbound Exotic/Ascended item a free single stat-combination choice?

That’s the minimum they should do, and we know they have the technology for that (they did it when they removed magic find gear).

If ArenaNet doesn’t announce doing exactly that soon, I think we will need to vote with our wallet. I suggest not buying HoT (or gems) until they fix it.

Rampager’s Asceneded What’s that there nerfing conditions again and removing Debillitating Dissipation completely from the game and that entire condition based playstyle?

Well my Ascended Rampager’s and the pain needed to craft it is officially worthless now so thank you Anet. Yes I would like a respec option…

Either that or bail completely on this game my playstyle is gone my secondary is gone and conditions are more than worthless now so my Ascended might as well be gone as well. A person picks a class and playstyle to main and that’s what gets them hooked to the game you kill that main and they have no tether’s as people play many games and those same friends can be found elsewhere even more so if they leave as well.

If they mess with the stat options on the armor themselves they may very well allow for one free stat swap chooseable the next time you log into that character after it hits the system. At least for any with affected armors. Probably also the same for weapons.

But if they don’t alter the armor at all, then you’re likely going to be out of luck.

Of course this is all conjecture and who knows what ANet will do.

And take this time to realize that MMO’s change over time. Some changes are small, others are huge. Nothing is set in stone in an MMO. Weigh the cost of what it takes to make/unlock/etc the item/trait/etc vs the benefit of it vs how you would feel if they make it obsolete before you feel you’ve gotten your money’s worth out of it.

Test.8734:

ROMzombie.5196:

So, as my request to go along with the new trait/skill system, could you please look at giving every Soulbound Exotic/Ascended item a free single stat-combination choice?

That’s the minimum they should do, and we know they have the technology for that (they did it when they removed magic find gear).

If ArenaNet doesn’t announce doing exactly that soon, I think we will need to vote with our wallet. I suggest not buying HoT (or gems) until they fix it.

It sounds to me like you’re blowing the problem massively out of proportion.

Several of my builds have lost their healing power or toughness from traits, and a celestial build has lost its extra damage stats from traits, so a respec option would be very much appreciated. Taking chosen stats away from traits and slapping a round + everything onto base stats really messes with a lot of builds that weren’t just one stat combo.

Then again, I doubt anything will be done. Afterall, the trait changes punish those of us who used more mix and match style builds anyway.

I’m hoping this issue won’t just fall into the fathomless pit of forum posts, and is actually raised to the attention of staff as a legitimate concern. Will you get many complaints from the hardcore/vocal players who often populate the forums? Probably not.

The way it stands, however, it is posed to hit us casual players hard.

This shows how bad the grindy nature of Ascended gear is for the game. All that grind to get your gear, and it’s now obsolete.

At least you can merchant the gear for gold.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

So nice… All of you always forget WvW…

You might not need something else then zerk zerk zerk in pve showing how limited the gameplay is.

But there are people who build balanced armor sets for WvW, they needed 2500 or 2300 for their armor value and now the builds are going to be stripped from toughness and viatlity, making the balanced armor set obsolete… If you werre max toughness you do not care at all, same with zerk: it’s for the brainless.

I lol at your ignorance… and cry for those who lost great investments.

Of course a lot can be done with rings and maybe a weapons, I think 90-95% of the builds can be saved with relatively minor investments, but this will not come without a cost, either in time, laurels, or even one or more ascneded pieces and new runes. I would really like to say…. I like the removal of stats, but I hate the chaos it creates…

Ignorance is bliss… So I guess you are bliss.

Just think about it. PvE is for the brainless, by the brainless…. Bliss….

And this post should make my feelings clear:

Not bliss…

WvW is niche gameplay. Of course it is going to be a minor consideration (as opposed to a main consideration) when far reaching changes occur.

Doam.8305:

A person picks a class and playstyle to main and that’s what gets them hooked to the game

I dont think thats true for everyone, but it sure applies to me. I dont pick “meta” builds, or read online how to make my character.
When i make a new character i play it, i experiment and diversify and find a playstyle that i enjoy to actively play. Sometimes its a good build, sometimes not so, but its fun!

This big trait condensation is going to hit me hard. Some of my characters i can preserve the playstyle i enjoy them for. But other characters will be unsalvageable.

I would have to completely take them back to the drawingboard. Find out if there is another way to play them that i enjoy. And the gear will probably be obsolete in the process.

Talk about invalidating time spend.

Pretty much section 10a of the user agreement says sorry, stuff can change.

10. SERVICE AND AVAILABILITY

a) You acknowledge that NCSOFT may in its sole and absolute discretion provide subsequent versions, enhancements, modifications, upgrades or patches related to any part of the Service.

I agree, this is something that should be considered.

I love theory crafting and creating interesting builds. That being said, I’m extremely excited for the new trait system. However, the thought of having to make up the extra stats from traits with brand new gear is daunting. It’s taken me months upon months to get full ascended trinkets for my characters, it would be frustrating for them to become useless. Even having to buy/craft new runes can be a huge hit to players with multiple classes.

Until Anet comes out and gives us solid information on how this is going to go down, all we can do is fear the worst and hope for the best

Fermi.2409:

…..
It sounds to me like you’re blowing the problem massively out of proportion.

The above applies to about 50% of posts here and 90% of posts in the HoT forum….

heartless.6803:

Umm, the builds you used before will use the same gear now. Thats not getting changed.

Many builds are removed.

Worst case scenario, change your trinkets, which are easiest to replace, with the stats you want. At least now there is a slight slight, dim, tiny possibility they will fix condition damage… So cross them fingers.

I think they really need to allow all ascended gear to be re-stated, like they did back when magic find gear needed to be changed, however I think allowing exotic gear would be a step to far, exotics are not expensive these days.

I seem to recall something about HOT not “undoing players’ hard work to gear up” by introducing new gear tiers or a level cap raise. I appreciate that. I also appreciate the idea to divorce traits from stats.

However, currently, nearly a third of the allocatable stats in a build come from traits. Some of these are being moved to base stats, and the rest to gear. It seems strange to have an expansion not include the potential to have to re-gear while an update to an existing system might call for it — at least for some builds.

I think a one-time reset for gear stat prefixes on L80 characters would be a good thing. If it doesn’t happen, I’m sure I’ll adapt, but I think providing such a fix would demonstrate consistency with regard to the “no re-gearing needed” statement.

Working as intended. More gold and timesink to keep players busy replacing their gear.

Vavume.8065:

I think they really need to allow all ascended gear to be re-stated, like they did back when magic find gear needed to be changed, however I think allowing exotic gear would be a step to far, exotics are not expensive these days.

This really frosts my gourd.

Why? Because one of the selling points when Ascended was shoved down our throats was that it was not required, and that exotics were almost as good. Well, guess what. Some of us stuck with exotics because we didn’t want the whole re-gear thing that others demanded. Now you want to stick us with re-gearing again while you play the “Ascended is too expensive or time consuming” card?

You know what. To heck with that. If ANet doesn’t want to offer a re-stat to everyone at L80, then I say no re-stat for anyone. So you “worked” or spent on Ascended? Big deal, that’s why it was put into the game. If you don’t want the same courtesies extended to all players, I hope no one gets a re-stat.

Could you be more specific about why certain gear is no longer going to be good? Not “because a trait got removed” but specifics. Because with the trait redesign they showed at the ready up, I didn’t see a single change that meant a class who found good use in a certain armor type will no longer find it useful with the changes.

heartless.6803:

Umm, the builds you used before will use the same gear now. Thats not getting changed.

Now new builds will use new gear stats but that hasn’t changed since the dawn of the game.

If your build and gear isn’t considered “meta” when the patch hits then thats your fault for following meta and not just playing a spec and gear you enjoy.

This is not true at all. Many builds rely on getting different stats from their traits than what is on their armour.

dietzero.3514:

heartless.6803:

Umm, the builds you used before will use the same gear now. Thats not getting changed.

Now new builds will use new gear stats but that hasn’t changed since the dawn of the game.

If your build and gear isn’t considered “meta” when the patch hits then thats your fault for following meta and not just playing a spec and gear you enjoy.

This is not true at all. Many builds rely on getting different stats from their traits than what is on their armour.

Whether you realize it or not, that was poor build design, and maybe why they are removing stats from lines altogether. People were unaware they were making bad builds. Picking a trait was always more beneficial than picking a stat. You might make some argument that there wasn’t enough useful traits so then it just went to stats, but they’ve given the impression this might be remedied by removing some of the useless traits, and making some of the lackluster one’s default skill changes (larger AoE on symbols for example).

Sorin.4310:

dietzero.3514:

heartless.6803:

Umm, the builds you used before will use the same gear now. Thats not getting changed.

Now new builds will use new gear stats but that hasn’t changed since the dawn of the game.

If your build and gear isn’t considered “meta” when the patch hits then thats your fault for following meta and not just playing a spec and gear you enjoy.

This is not true at all. Many builds rely on getting different stats from their traits than what is on their armour.

Whether you realize it or not, that was poor build design, and maybe why they are removing stats from lines altogether. People were unaware they were making bad builds. Picking a trait was always more beneficial than picking a stat. You might make some argument that there wasn’t enough useful traits so then it just went to stats, but they’ve given the impression this might be remedied by removing some of the useless traits, and making some of the lackluster one’s default skill changes (larger AoE on symbols for example).

Ok?

Many builds relied on the stats from traits to supplement their gear, which had different stats.

Your armor and weapons will be fine~ you may need to swap around some trinkets to offset any stat differences you depended on through traits.

Next time we’ll all know to go zerker. Stat diversity? What’s that? Build diversity? Anet’s working on removing that problem as well now.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vavume.8065:

I think they really need to allow all ascended gear to be re-stated, like they did back when magic find gear needed to be changed, however I think allowing exotic gear would be a step to far, exotics are not expensive these days.

This really frosts my gourd.

Why? Because one of the selling points when Ascended was shoved down our throats was that it was not required, and that exotics were almost as good. Well, guess what. Some of us stuck with exotics because we didn’t want the whole re-gear thing that others demanded. Now you want to stick us with re-gearing again while you play the “Ascended is too expensive or time consuming” card?

You know what. To heck with that. If ANet doesn’t want to offer a re-stat to everyone at L80, then I say no re-stat for anyone. So you “worked” or spent on Ascended? Big deal, that’s why it was put into the game. If you don’t want the same courtesies extended to all players, I hope no one gets a re-stat.

You do sound upset and tbh I don’t see it getting any better for you, I really do not see them allowing exotics to be re stated, a full set of exotic armor is around 15-20g which is not a big deal, ascended however is more like 300g, the qq that will be seen on these forums if they do not allow for re stating ascended will be on a massive scale, and arenanet will have to give in to it, like they have on many occasions when there was major qq on the forums. The amount of people qqing about exotics though will be small in comparison and tbh does not hold much weight.

GW2 is all about grind though. I don’t see this changing at all.

Vavume: You can say that a full of Exotics is about 15-20g right now, but when every player in the game is having to rebuild their gear sets at once? I can guarantee that the market will skyrocket, pricing it right out of range of the causal players.

Also, that 15-20g? I have eight characters (nine when Revenant comes out), and I have nowhere near 135-180g.

Vavume.8065:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vavume.8065:

I think they really need to allow all ascended gear to be re-stated, like they did back when magic find gear needed to be changed, however I think allowing exotic gear would be a step to far, exotics are not expensive these days.

This really frosts my gourd.

Why? Because one of the selling points when Ascended was shoved down our throats was that it was not required, and that exotics were almost as good. Well, guess what. Some of us stuck with exotics because we didn’t want the whole re-gear thing that others demanded. Now you want to stick us with re-gearing again while you play the “Ascended is too expensive or time consuming” card?

You know what. To heck with that. If ANet doesn’t want to offer a re-stat to everyone at L80, then I say no re-stat for anyone. So you “worked” or spent on Ascended? Big deal, that’s why it was put into the game. If you don’t want the same courtesies extended to all players, I hope no one gets a re-stat.

You do sound upset and tbh I don’t see it getting any better for you, I really do not see them allowing exotics to be re stated, a full set of exotic armor is around 15-20g which is not a big deal, ascended however is more like 300g, the qq that will be seen on these forums if they do not allow for re stating ascended will be on a massive scale, and arenanet will have to give in to it, like they have on many occasions when there was major qq on the forums. The amount of people qqing about exotics though will be small in comparison and tbh does not hold much weight.

Yeah, I’m bitter. Based on pre-launch hype, I expected a flat gear curve at max level, with BiS easy to acquire. This went away due to player boohoo about nothing to pursue. The irony of, “We want something hard to get.” and then whining about having to re-stat a few pieces because it’s hard to get is too much.

You may well be right. ANet may cave (again) to people over Ascended. You may be right that they won’t extend a re-stat to lower tiers. If they can’t be bothered to extend the same courtesy to everyone, then they can kiss me goodbye. If they go down that road, it becomes a fairness issue.

Honestly, though, I don’t expect a re-stat for anyone.

Vavume.8065:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vavume.8065:

I think they really need to allow all ascended gear to be re-stated, like they did back when magic find gear needed to be changed, however I think allowing exotic gear would be a step to far, exotics are not expensive these days.

This really frosts my gourd.

Why? Because one of the selling points when Ascended was shoved down our throats was that it was not required, and that exotics were almost as good. Well, guess what. Some of us stuck with exotics because we didn’t want the whole re-gear thing that others demanded. Now you want to stick us with re-gearing again while you play the “Ascended is too expensive or time consuming” card?

You know what. To heck with that. If ANet doesn’t want to offer a re-stat to everyone at L80, then I say no re-stat for anyone. So you “worked” or spent on Ascended? Big deal, that’s why it was put into the game. If you don’t want the same courtesies extended to all players, I hope no one gets a re-stat.

You do sound upset and tbh I don’t see it getting any better for you, I really do not see them allowing exotics to be re stated, a full set of exotic armor is around 15-20g which is not a big deal, ascended however is more like 300g, the qq that will be seen on these forums if they do not allow for re stating ascended will be on a massive scale, and arenanet will have to give in to it, like they have on many occasions when there was major qq on the forums. The amount of people qqing about exotics though will be small in comparison and tbh does not hold much weight.

15-20g may not be a big deal for you, but it is for those of us casuals who do not farm the same map over and over and over again for gold or what not and do not frequent dungeons or fractals.

If they offer a stat change, they should offer it to anyone with affected armor. Whether the armor is ascended, exotic, or even basic.

Having thought about it a bit more they may well extend a re stat to exotics, since after all they did that with the magic find gear, so why not I guess.

Seera.5916:

Vavume.8065:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vavume.8065:

I think they really need to allow all ascended gear to be re-stated, like they did back when magic find gear needed to be changed, however I think allowing exotic gear would be a step to far, exotics are not expensive these days.

This really frosts my gourd.

Why? Because one of the selling points when Ascended was shoved down our throats was that it was not required, and that exotics were almost as good. Well, guess what. Some of us stuck with exotics because we didn’t want the whole re-gear thing that others demanded. Now you want to stick us with re-gearing again while you play the “Ascended is too expensive or time consuming” card?

You know what. To heck with that. If ANet doesn’t want to offer a re-stat to everyone at L80, then I say no re-stat for anyone. So you “worked” or spent on Ascended? Big deal, that’s why it was put into the game. If you don’t want the same courtesies extended to all players, I hope no one gets a re-stat.

You do sound upset and tbh I don’t see it getting any better for you, I really do not see them allowing exotics to be re stated, a full set of exotic armor is around 15-20g which is not a big deal, ascended however is more like 300g, the qq that will be seen on these forums if they do not allow for re stating ascended will be on a massive scale, and arenanet will have to give in to it, like they have on many occasions when there was major qq on the forums. The amount of people qqing about exotics though will be small in comparison and tbh does not hold much weight.

15-20g may not be a big deal for you, but it is for those of us casuals who do not farm the same map over and over and over again for gold or what not and do not frequent dungeons or fractals.

If they offer a stat change, they should offer it to anyone with affected armor. Whether the armor is ascended, exotic, or even basic.

If you are so casual that 15-20g is a big deal then you don’t have ascended armor or weapons because those aren’t items one casually acquire.

That’s the whole point those guys are making. While exotic gear isn’t a big deal to you, for them it’s a massive investment. I can definitely sympathize. If people have families, jobs, etc… Then they pay good money for the expansion, Anet should show them the same common decency and respect any good business should show its paying customers.

Whether a player has armor worth 300 gold or 50 gold is irrelevant. What matters is that they shelled out the 39.95 to buy the expansion

Behellagh.1468:

Seera.5916:

Vavume.8065:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vavume.8065:

I think they really need to allow all ascended gear to be re-stated, like they did back when magic find gear needed to be changed, however I think allowing exotic gear would be a step to far, exotics are not expensive these days.

This really frosts my gourd.

Why? Because one of the selling points when Ascended was shoved down our throats was that it was not required, and that exotics were almost as good. Well, guess what. Some of us stuck with exotics because we didn’t want the whole re-gear thing that others demanded. Now you want to stick us with re-gearing again while you play the “Ascended is too expensive or time consuming” card?

You know what. To heck with that. If ANet doesn’t want to offer a re-stat to everyone at L80, then I say no re-stat for anyone. So you “worked” or spent on Ascended? Big deal, that’s why it was put into the game. If you don’t want the same courtesies extended to all players, I hope no one gets a re-stat.

You do sound upset and tbh I don’t see it getting any better for you, I really do not see them allowing exotics to be re stated, a full set of exotic armor is around 15-20g which is not a big deal, ascended however is more like 300g, the qq that will be seen on these forums if they do not allow for re stating ascended will be on a massive scale, and arenanet will have to give in to it, like they have on many occasions when there was major qq on the forums. The amount of people qqing about exotics though will be small in comparison and tbh does not hold much weight.

15-20g may not be a big deal for you, but it is for those of us casuals who do not farm the same map over and over and over again for gold or what not and do not frequent dungeons or fractals.

If they offer a stat change, they should offer it to anyone with affected armor. Whether the armor is ascended, exotic, or even basic.

If you are so casual that 15-20g is a big deal then you don’t have ascended armor or weapons because those aren’t items one casually acquire.

You’re right. I don’t. I likely would if I hadn’t taken as many breaks from the game as I had, I’ve been playing since head start. Ascended gear will come after I get everything for Meteorlogicus except for the precursor. And I’m down to the T6 mats, charged lodestones, ecto, and runestones. I’m predicting HoT will be out before I get everything but the precursor.

I do have ascended rings and trinkets. I have one ascended weapon. Assassin stats. But only because RNG was kind to me. I haven’t decided what weapon to make it so the chest is in my bank until I decide.

But Derenek is right. The cost of the armor is irrelevant. If they change the stats on a particular armor, they should offer free respecs to any who are affected. Regardless of what their armor cost.

Yes but the question I was replying to was getting a respec on ascended gear.

Balance changes occur all the time, should players get respecs then?

How much of this is speculation, does anyone have any hard numbers? Didn’t the devs say some of those bonuses will be split between a character’s base line stats and upgrades? Why don’t we wait until we see what they’ve done, get a few more facts before we break out the torches and pitchforks?

Behellagh.1468:

Yes but the question I was replying to was getting a respec on ascended gear.

Balance changes occur all the time, should players get respecs then?

How much of this is speculation, does anyone have any hard numbers? Didn’t the devs say some of those bonuses will be split between a character’s base line stats and upgrades? Why don’t we wait until we see what they’ve done, get a few more facts before we break out the torches and pitchforks?

The adoption of Ferocity was both a systems change and a balance change. This is just a systems change. All players will still have the same numbers of stats (assuming the same gear tier). They will just be acquired through different means. While the trait changes themselves are a balance change, the stat shift is only a balance change in that all 4 primary base stats will get a small boost, and characters may not have the same exact number of stat points as now.

We’ve been given plenty of info, and waiting until the system is out has never worked before. The only thing we don’t know is exactly how many stat points gear will gain. We know that traits currently add as many as 1400 points. We know that 74 points will be going into the 4 base stats that currently sit at 926. We also know that the intent is for characters to have “similar” (which I take to mean close, but likely not exactly the same) total stat points. That means as many as 1100 stat points being added to gear.

Right now, the stat allocations that will be affected least are those where the stats from traits and stats from gear are the same. A full-on Berserker/Assassin with 6/6/X/X/X could actually see an increase in direct damage because the stat points added to gear will add to Power/Precision/Ferocity and currently either ~1/2 of the stats from their traits are Condition Damage/Duration (Necro/Warrior/Guardian/Engineer) or 1/4 are (the other 4 professions). Bunker builds with Toughness, Vitality and Healing from both gear/traits will also be less affected. For that not to happen, ANet would have to add stat slots to gear — otherwise they can only add the stats to the 3 slots the gear already has.

The builds that will be most affected are those which utilize one set of stats from traits and different stats from gear — the hybrid builds. These players will have to use more hybrid gear pieces than they currently do to maintain similar stats, whereas the extreme builds discussed in the prior paragraph will not have that burden, and will likely also see some small gains.

Funny the Twitch stream I saw oft repeated “work in progress” when it came down to details.

Details, yes, but until we hear a “Yes, you’ll get to respec your gear”, or “No, sorry, you’re screwed” we don’t know that the issue has been raised to the level of being a credible concern that they should plan to have ready before releasing the trait/skill/equipment rework.

Thus, the thread.

Behellagh.1468:

Yes but the question I was replying to was getting a respec on ascended gear.

Balance changes occur all the time, should players get respecs then?

As long as ascended armor remains prohibitively costly to get? Sure. Either that, or make it easier to acquire. Or stop making changes that may make people want to change stats on gear, i guess.
Basically, the more effort is put into any form of progression, the more game should avoid invalidating that progression in any way.

I wished there would be a system to upgrade ascended items with two (maybe three) additional stat combination to freely swap between them.

This calls out for legendary armor…changeable stats, just like the weapons

metaldude.4132:

This calls out for legendary armor…changeable stats, just like the weapons

How long will it take to be fully equipped with legendary items? How much will it cost to produce 12 legendary items?

Maybe they could transform precursors (weapons and future gear) in ascended items and implement 3 stat combos. This would make precursors interesting for a much broader audience.

They completely removed clone death mechanic and condition traits from the game.
They also removed Mesmer Glamours Conditions from the game as well this completely kills a couple condition based playstyles. Always felt Shatter conditions were pointless as once your clones are shattered all at once your left open for attack and traiting for that means you passed up on other skills.

So my Rampager’s Ascended armor is worthless and I’d very much like a respec or a return of my original playstyle. Actually my heal is worthless now too because it relies on clones on the field for passive regeneration and shattering prevents that regen so more than just gear needs to be changed with the trait changes and trait removals they are doing in this game.