Guild Wars 2

variety can be a lot of fun in games, but only being able to do fractals with one character and dungeons with your main and maxed alts(and maxing alts takes a lot of grind) limits this severely.

Interesting. I think some people enjoy leveling and gearing up alts. For some it wouldn’t be a grind at all.

I would say this. If you get your main to a decent level in FotM, chances are you’ve picked up enough pristine relics to equip at least one other alt with 2 rings. The longer you do FotM, the more surplus you’ll have of the materials such as regular fractal relics and pristines. It shouldn’t be too much of a hardship to equip an alt with the fotm gear needed to get it into the 20’s/30’s.

This is not Gear Locking.

Gee, I’ve done dungeons, and I don’t have anyone ‘maxed’. I don’t own any Ascended gear, either. So, I’m thinking I’m not ‘gear-locked’ out of anything, really.

Since when did you need to have a maxed out character to participate effectively in anything besides high level fractals?

I got my first character to try fractals up to fractal level 3 before she was even level 60…

I did many explorables on characters below level 80.

If the OP is getting locked out, its time to find a new guild.

Love it when people are in denial. Gear locking is locking content from people who don’t have a certain score on gear or a certain tier of gear to see content. And don’t tell us the myth that all guilds are active and will accept anyone trying to do these things without the gear they need because the longer it takes for new players to get into the game the fewer people run the old content, it’s a known fact this happens in every mmo.

And then there’s the huge delay in Laurel grinding per character because there’s 1 daily per account.

Dungeons can’t progress without agony resist and we all know that people already ask for specifc classes what makes you people think they don’t ask for maxed gear as well? I don’t do dungeons and even I know that.

OP is right. Sorry folks just not going to deny this one away in the forums and get away with it.

I’m gonna resolve this argument

Tera is gear locking, this isn’t even close. If you’ve never played it, Google is your friend

Hobocop.1508:

Since when did you need to have a maxed out character to participate effectively in anything besides high level fractals?

see any one of the many posts about people running MF in dungeons
or the zerker requirement for various groups…

I have never been locked out of a dungeon for not having the right gear. If you are having that issue its your own kitten fault for trying to go with those idiot party members in the first place lol. I make groups without limits on gear and guess whakittens fun that way.

Hobocop.1508:

Since when did you need to have a maxed out character to participate effectively in anything besides high level fractals?

Pretty much this. You can see every fractal dungeon from level 1-10. You can also complete dungeon paths in yellow gear, which cost like 5 gold to complete a full set.

Nobody is gear locked out of anything. You can see all content in level 80 yellows.

This game is pretty much the polar opposite of most ‘gear-locked’ games. The only step down is to eliminate equipment and stats entirely.

Toast, you probably didn’t have to cite Tera. Almost every other major MMORPG in existence has more stat/gear grind than GW2 (keep in mind the Legendary weapon is not a stat grind. The stats are identical to an exotic weapon).

Nothing is perfect, but concerning the statistical aspect of this game, GW2 has stayed true to form and word. As a player who enjoys a little vertical progression, I wish they would create a little more stat reliance in this game, but so far there has been nothing.

You really aren’t locked out of content by level very harshly in this game. You can start doing dungeons at 30, you have to just be honest and maybe wait a tiny bit longer to form a team (maybe a lot longer if you want Story, no A-Net no-one is going to repeat Story mode for a Daily unless that was the only daily and you had no choice at all, please make it more rewarding to repeat).

I’ve level almost all my toons in dungeons, and it didn’t feel hard to get teams. However do note that instead of everyone yelling across maps they are now using GW2LFG. During prime time I doubt it would take me much more than about 10 mins to find a group for AC with a low level toon. But saying that, I currently don’t have a character of that level, my second Engineer is only 19 at the moment.. … And not getting any higher, because I’m staring at a log in screen that won’t let me into the game.

Shadow Blade.1324:

Hobocop.1508:

Since when did you need to have a maxed out character to participate effectively in anything besides high level fractals?

see any one of the many posts about people running MF in dungeons
or the zerker requirement for various groups…

That’s kitten locking, not the game’s fault.

tolunart.2095:

Shadow Blade.1324:

Hobocop.1508:

Since when did you need to have a maxed out character to participate effectively in anything besides high level fractals?

see any one of the many posts about people running MF in dungeons
or the zerker requirement for various groups…

That’s kitten locking, not the game’s fault.

Well I can understand the MF thing. MF is a kitten stat, it makes you perform worse and get more loot than the rest of the team. I think therefore it more people not wanting to play with people they perceive to be selfish and not willing to do their best to help out the team.

Being new is fine with me. Not being level 80, no problem. Not having the best gear yet is fine. Playing with a non-Standard Build is fine (though I may ask why you are running a Rampager Guardian that only uses a staff)…. Playing with substandard MF gear to get better loot, and not caring that the rest of the team is having to do more work because of it, more of an issue.

tigirius.9014:

Love it when people are in denial. Gear locking is locking content from people who don’t have a certain score on gear or a certain tier of gear to see content.

I would agree. However, ArenaNet’s only hard coded form of “gear locking” would be fractals because of agony. You can do any other content. If someone doesn’t want to let you run it because your gear isn’t good enough, I think that’s a socially conditioned restriction and not “gear locking”.

tigirius.9014:

And don’t tell us the myth that all guilds are active and will accept anyone trying to do these things without the gear they need because the longer it takes for new players to get into the game the fewer people run the old content, it’s a known fact this happens in every mmo.

Agree and disagree. I agree that not all guilds are active, and that not all guilds are willing to accept people regardless of the quality of their gear. You as a player must take responsibility in finding a like-minded guild who you can run dungeons/fractals with.

I disagree that people won’t run older content. If you have a good guild, I don’t see why they wouldn’t be more than happy to help you out. Also, gw2lfg is a great way to run any of the dungeons, “old” or not.

tigirius.9014:

And then there’s the huge delay in Laurel grinding per character because there’s 1 daily per account.

I usually avoid arguing about this, but my stance is that I honestly don’t see a problem with this. So long as you keep decently active in the game, Laurels come to you. Seriously, are you desperate for laurels…?

tigirius.9014:

Dungeons can’t progress without agony resist

Patently false, but I’ll pretend you are talking about FotM. You can do FotM up to lvl 10 without agony. There are people that have gone to 30 without Agony, though you’ll die during Jade Maw.

tigirius.9014:

and we all know that people already ask for specifc classes what makes you people think they don’t ask for maxed gear as well? I don’t do dungeons and even I know that.

And there are people that don’t. Choose to avoid the people who don’t want your class, and work with people who are okay with playing with you. You’ll be happier for it.

However, I’m also of the belief that you should always strive to improve yourself. So if you feel you don’t have optimal gear, work for it.

DigitalKirin.9714:

tigirius.9014:

Dungeons can’t progress without agony resist

Patently false, but I’ll pretend you are talking about FotM. You can do FotM up to lvl 10 without agony. There are people that have gone to 30 without Agony, though you’ll die during Jade Maw.

Very true, when FotM first came out, the only way you could get rings was from fractals and even though you had Agony at level 10 you couldn’t get rings without doing 10+. So we were regularly doing 10+ fractals with no rings.

Also due to the fact there were no Pristine Fractal relics and luck, one of our Thieves was doing practially level 28s before his first ring dropped.

tolunart.2095:

Shadow Blade.1324:

Hobocop.1508:

Since when did you need to have a maxed out character to participate effectively in anything besides high level fractals?

see any one of the many posts about people running MF in dungeons
or the zerker requirement for various groups…

That’s kitten locking, not the game’s fault.

actually it is “the games fault” as the content is designed around a certain level, but doesn’t enforce it on entry, try a dungeon with everyone in white gear or leveling gear that’s lagging a few levels behind their actual level or characters that are a number of levels below the recommended see how far you get.

while you can play without trying to optimize your gear, the experience is far different than what the developers had in mind when they balanced the content with a specific gear threshold in mind, this is true for all content.

Ratty.5176:

Well I can understand the MF thing. MF is a kitten stat, it makes you perform worse and get more loot than the rest of the team.

Being new is fine with me. Not being level 80, no problem. Not having the best gear yet is fine. Playing with a non-Standard Build is fine (though I may ask why you are running a Rampager Guardian that only uses a staff)…. Playing with substandard MF gear to get better loot, and not caring that the rest of the team is having to do more work because of it, more of an issue.

i would have thought a bad build would be a bigger issue than MF tbh, ie if someone takes carrion and has no condition dmg and focuses on healing …

tigirius.9014:

Love it when people are in denial. Gear locking is locking content from people who don’t have a certain score on gear or a certain tier of gear to see content. And don’t tell us the myth that all guilds are active and will accept anyone trying to do these things without the gear they need because the longer it takes for new players to get into the game the fewer people run the old content, it’s a known fact this happens in every mmo.

OP is right. Sorry folks just not going to deny this one away in the forums and get away with it.

The game is supposed to be the fantasy land, the side of the monitor where your keyboard lies – that’s reality.

I have no idea what kind of horrible guild you have landed in that is putting you through such torment, but its not like anything I have ever seen around this MMO.

Aristio.2784:

Nobody is gear locked out of anything. You can see all content in level 80 yellows.

You can complete them in green and blue gear too…

Even green and blue gear that is 10 levels below your character’s level – well, if you’re just one or two of the people there doing that. At least one of guildies seems to always forget to upgrade his gear.

Folks are getting ‘people locked’ by trying to run content with other people who are just nasty individuals… that’s not a problem with the game or the gear – but the kinds of people some choose to game with.

They might claim “I didn’t choose them, its just who I get stuck with…” But not making a choice is a choice. Choose better running mates, or your choice will be to get bad ones.

No one has claimed ‘every guild will let anyone do anything’. Just well, all the guilds of those of us not having these problems – because we all made an active choice to game with better people.

This is one reason why I tend to always run my own guild. Nobody’s gonna block me out of anything in my guild… Nobody but myself that is: I used to pull myself off the raid roster all the time in my WoW guild when I felt I was falling behind – but that’s not an issue here where gear progression pretty much ends the moment you have orange stuff (*).

Skill progression is fairly forgiving too. While one can always improve, I’ve found I can have a fun run with folks once they reach a basic ‘decent enough’ state, and after that all that really counts is whether or not they have an attitude I’m fine with being around.
- Another benefit of being a guild GM, I get to have some say in that kind of thing. :p

If you don’t want to run a guild, and most people don’t, then go onto your server and start looking really hard for the right one for your personality. There’s no limit (that I know of) to how many you can join… so join a few dozen until you hit the right one for you and can slowly pull away from the others.

Its not that hard… You just have to be willing to put in the effort into finding people that some are clearly willing to put into mastering the gameplay. Master the socialplay…

(*
Ascended and Legendary are trivially different from exotic unless you’ve chosen to farm high level fractals. And if you have, by the time you reach the level of fractal where you need AR, you can likely afford 10 AR, or 5 on two toons… Or you can be like me and be sitting on about 100 laurels but with no desire to deal with the community of high level fractals, Chauncey Von Snuffles is looking mighty fine as my idea of ‘progression’. Especially since the difference between a level 80 fractals and a level 1 is… um… nothing… the same map, the same enemies… So why bother?
)

Shadow Blade.1324:

tolunart.2095:

Shadow Blade.1324:

Hobocop.1508:

Since when did you need to have a maxed out character to participate effectively in anything besides high level fractals?

see any one of the many posts about people running MF in dungeons
or the zerker requirement for various groups…

That’s kitten locking, not the game’s fault.

actually it is “the games fault” as the content is designed around a certain level, but doesn’t enforce it on entry, try a dungeon with everyone in white gear or leveling gear that’s lagging a few levels behind their actual level or characters that are a number of levels below the recommended see how far you get.

I have, see my comments above. We managed to get all the way that popup chest thing with some loot that blocks half the screen, but can’t seem to get any further. :P

This isn’t a matter of the game locking or not locking out people. This is a matter of people locking or not locking out people.

There are people in EVERY game who want to do things the most efficient way possible. It’s just a “run” for them. They just want to farm. They’re just running to get as much loot as possible (or tokens) in the shortest period of time. And those people may very well insist that you have the exact right equipment, spec or whatever.

But the GAME doesn’t require it…people do. And there are plenty of other people who play the other way. Where efficiency is secondary to fun, where we’re not looking at a stopwatch to time dungeon runs, and where we’d rather run with friends at a more leisurely pace than get it done faster with strangers (or maybe even people we don’t care to spend time with).

Since these people and guilds DO exist, then the only problem is finding the right people to play with.

Guild Wars 2 doesn’t lock you out of content. If you feel locked out of content, you’re playing with the wrong people.

Contrary to what a lot of people think your guild does make a huge difference.

I was repeatedly turning down invites from my guild to come and do dungeons on my ranger before I was level 80 or had a single piece of exotic (not even ascended) gear. I kept having to explain that I knew I could do them but I wanted to save it so I had something new to do after getting max level. Now I have started doing dungeons (very first one was Arah path 2, on the aforementioned ranger) and they’re nagging me to try WvW.

No one’s ever told me I need Ascended gear. In fact a few people have told me the complete opposite – that it’s a waste of time and I shouldn’t bother getting it unless and until I want to do high level Fractals.

Now I am doing dungeons I make a point of always looking for people who either haven’t done it before or are otherwise worried they won’t get into a group. It might take us a bit longer but we get it done, even in our blues and greens (ok, I have a full set of exotic temple armor, but the runes don’t match and my accessories are a random jumble).

right. I’m going to go around in green gear in arah.
..
..
..
XDDD
also my post applies to leveling as well. it takes the same amount of time to level if you suck at this game as it does when you’re strife. it’s a huge waste of time tbh

also yeah, I may be able to find a team if I’m a lowbie 35 trying to AC(even tho it might take longer) except fractals(with l80) with my chitty ar on alts(not that it would matter. I’m lvl1 fotm on alts. which is another problem.) but contributing significantly less to the team feels like chit.

Kichwas.7152:

Ascended and Legendary are trivially different from exotic unless you’ve chosen to farm high level fractals. And if you have, by the time you reach the level of fractal where you need AR, you can likely afford 10 AR, or 5 on two toons… Or you can be like me and be sitting on about 100 laurels but with no desire to deal with the community of high level fractals, Chauncey Von Snuffles is looking mighty fine as my idea of ‘progression’. Especially since the difference between a level 80 fractals and a level 1 is… um… nothing… the same map, the same enemies… So why bother?

ascended / legendary are not trivially different as you put it, a 10% increase in stats is not trivial, thats not even counting how you can get +6% dmg to WvW npcs from infusions in addition to the stats on them and thats the fine rarity infusion, with the currently available gear add another 6 slots for Armour and its 12% after we have had a few of your so called trivial upgrades, following the trend in rarity increases well end up with 18% dmg to WvW npcs, thats in addition to the actual increase in stats.

Kichwas.7152:

I have, see my comments above. We managed to get all the way that popup chest thing with some loot that blocks half the screen, but can’t seem to get any further. :P

if you mean this

I got my first character to try fractals up to fractal level 3 before she was even level 60…

I did many explorables on characters below level 80.

you know that fractals scales you up to 80 right, broken scaling aside, no other dungeon does that, if your below the level you stay below it, as to doing explorables below 80 the majority are designed for below 80 characters that’s why you are scaled down to 35 for AC explorable 45 for CM etc etc

sorry to break this to you but unless your whole team was under lvl 60 in similar gear to you you were carried through fractals, given other party members who are correctly geared+knowledgeable you can finish almost any dungeon with less than 5, you could even have spent the entire time face down and got to the chest at the end

Shadow Blade.1324:

tolunart.2095:

Shadow Blade.1324:

Hobocop.1508:

Since when did you need to have a maxed out character to participate effectively in anything besides high level fractals?

see any one of the many posts about people running MF in dungeons
or the zerker requirement for various groups…

That’s kitten locking, not the game’s fault.

actually it is “the games fault” as the content is designed around a certain level, but doesn’t enforce it on entry, try a dungeon with everyone in white gear or leveling gear that’s lagging a few levels behind their actual level or characters that are a number of levels below the recommended see how far you get.

while you can play without trying to optimize your gear, the experience is far different than what the developers had in mind when they balanced the content with a specific gear threshold in mind, this is true for all content.

Ratty.5176:

Well I can understand the MF thing. MF is a kitten stat, it makes you perform worse and get more loot than the rest of the team.

Being new is fine with me. Not being level 80, no problem. Not having the best gear yet is fine. Playing with a non-Standard Build is fine (though I may ask why you are running a Rampager Guardian that only uses a staff)…. Playing with substandard MF gear to get better loot, and not caring that the rest of the team is having to do more work because of it, more of an issue.

i would have thought a bad build would be a bigger issue than MF tbh, ie if someone takes carrion and has no condition dmg and focuses on healing …

Why would anyone in their right mind play with white gear, except for the challenge? Also, “a number of levels”? I don’t see why we should let lower levels, who are CLEARLY not levelled for the dungeon correctly (except for that alt levelling phenom), leech off people who can actually contribute to the party while the underlevelled player dies constantly.

There’s no gear locking in the game right now. You don’t need agony resistance to experience the fractals, to see the content and to complete it. You can even do rank 10+ fractals without any agony resistance, and have a chance to get some ascended gear.

As long as it remains that way, I’m fine with it. The day they add a dungeon where you need specific gear to even be able to have a chance to see it, my monetary contribution to this game and ANet will stop immediately.

I don’t understand this topic at all. Gear locking implies the game is hindering you unless you have specific gear. Which it does not.

The only arguably thing for this is +AR gear……but you dont even need to start thinking about that until you pass level10 fractals. So you’re not even limited there.

Level locking…..well, the dungeons have recommended levels. If someone goes in before that recommended level and with subpar gear, thats your own fault, not the games. Its not realistic and just plain stupid to think youd run a dungeon under levelled and with subpar gear. Running around in white, or even blue gear =……well theres no excuse for that. Considering the many ways to obtain green+ gear, it just comes off as lazy if you have anything less.

The only place that is gear locked atm is FotM, and that’s just because of bad design on the part of the creators. I’m sure it seemed like a great idea at the time, to have an infinite number of levels and stuff like that, but being able to even do levels 1-10 is a lottery drawing on whether anyone will be willing to run with you!

But otherwise, the game doesn’t really have any gated content with gear as the key. I hope it stays that way, too.

Tolmos.8395:

The only place that is gear locked atm is FotM, and that’s just because of bad design on the part of the creators.

I think it’s actually quite smart design. They managed to give a “gear grind” and progression system to those who can’t play a game without a carrot and at the same time didn’t stop anyone from still experiencing that content on an “easier” level, and even gain some of the new gear from it (Rank 10 FOTM doesn’t require agony resistance and has a chance of dropping ascended).

Korrigan.4837:

There’s no gear locking in the game right now. You don’t need agony resistance to experience the fractals, to see the content and to complete it. You can even do rank 10+ fractals without any agony resistance, and have a chance to get some ascended gear.

As long as it remains that way, I’m fine with it. The day they add a dungeon where you need specific gear to even be able to have a chance to see it, my monetary contribution to this game and ANet will stop immediately.

ah, to see the content
 
seeing content)))
 
 
 
 
 
 
:)

omg these posts are so funny

Korrigan.4837:

Tolmos.8395:

The only place that is gear locked atm is FotM, and that’s just because of bad design on the part of the creators.

I think it’s actually quite smart design. They managed to give a “gear grind” and progression system to those who can’t play a game without a carrot and at the same time didn’t stop anyone from still experiencing that content on an “easier” level, and even gain some of the new gear from it (Rank 10 FOTM doesn’t require agony resistance and has a chance of dropping ascended).

I agree and disagree. I agree that the idea of locking people out of later levels of the same instance, which is content everyone can see but just on a harder difficulty intended only for those willing to grind their way to it, is a good idea.

What I consider to be the terrible implementation is how many levels there are and how difficult/impossible entrance is for new people. Hard work is one thing- if that’s what makes a player happy, then good for him. But if it’s borderline impossible due to being unable to find groups, that’s another thing. The design should have been set up in such a way that if a hardcore player bent on reaching the upper levels of FotM started today (like right now), they wouldn’t have to spend the first week shouting “LFG LFG”, instead of actually playing, while waiting for players feeling overly charitable to come run in and let him play play the first x number of levels to reach where they are.

If there were henchmen, this design would work a little better.