Guild Wars 2

so as the title says is open world agony coming?
should i expect it in all areas of the game eventually?

because at the moment its contained in fractals which makes having items such as the backpacks which have infusion slots rather than upgrade slots for gems make no sense

lets compare

rare backpacks have
+20
+14
+14
+upgrade

instead of the upgrade the Fervid Censer has + defensive infusion
this means it cannot take exquisite gems which would give an additional

+15
+15
+25

notice how this doubles the available stats to any player wishing to use this item in PvE and also allows them to customize where they want their stats ie they could gem for more damage or defense or to improve a specific build as desired

given that currently agony is present in exactly one location in the game (fractals) which many players have no intention of participating in (ever) why are the items being itemized for playing in that area of the game being released elsewhere when they give no benefit over normal items in every other aspect of the game?

while im sure many will argue you can just transmute them to whatever other backpack you prefer, the same is true in reverse if they had proper upgrade slots.

this returns me to the original question of why were they itemized this way, should we be expecting every karaka to have agony in the future? should we be expecting it while leveling?will we have items that give “+5% keg brawl knockdown resist” dropping in fractals and dungeons etc? because currently this doesn’t make sense to me at all over say making them a skin like the molten backpack or an item with a normal upgrade.

Hopefully not. oO I don’t have any ascended items so far and my agony resistance is at 0.

I’m pretty sure when the big stink occurred the first time around they mentioned it’d probably stay in Fractals.

I don’t see why they would suddenly just apply it in the open world though. Not as many people have max Agony Resistance as some may think. If it just appeared in some open world event there would be a lot of complaining again thats for sure. :/

As far as the way the new items were made. I kind of feel they maybe wanted to try infusion slots instead of the usual gem slots. But it also has turned into a buggy situation that you lose the infusion slot if it is transmuted. Though this may also be the first time gear with infusion slots started being transmuted.

I would hope not as well as an exclusively open world player, however they did mention that it would be necessary for content in the future. One can only guess what that means. Maybe meta bosses will require it which would pretty much make everyone that claimed that ascended was not a gear treadmill wrong instantly.

I was wondering this too when I saw that slot.

I really really hope not since so far I have happily ignored the existence of Ascended let alone agony- I will never set foot in a fractal and I hope it never comes to open world.

It would make no sense to add agony mechanics to world content- what about new players?
What about down leveling?
It would make such a mess of openworld play it is not even funny

think of the new 80’s the newbies.. please think of the children!!

Shadow Blade.1324:

so as the title says is open world agony coming?
should i expect it in all areas of the game eventually?

because at the moment its contained in fractals which makes having items such as the backpacks which have infusion slots rather than upgrade slots for gems make no sense

lets compare

rare backpacks have
+20
+14
+14
+upgrade

instead of the upgrade the Fervid Censer has + defensive infusion
this means it cannot take exquisite gems which would give an additional

+15
+15
+25

notice how this doubles the available stats to any player wishing to use this item in PvE and also allows them to customize where they want their stats ie they could gem for more damage or defense or to improve a specific build as desired

given that currently agony is present in exactly one location in the game (fractals) which many players have no intention of participating in (ever) why are the items being itemized for playing in that area of the game being released elsewhere when they give no benefit over normal items in every other aspect of the game?

while im sure many will argue you can just transmute them to whatever other backpack you prefer, the same is true in reverse if they had proper upgrade slots.

this returns me to the original question of why were they itemized this way, should we be expecting every karaka to have agony in the future? should we be expecting it while leveling?will we have items that give “+5% keg brawl knockdown resist” dropping in fractals and dungeons etc? because currently this doesn’t make sense to me at all over say making them a skin like the molten backpack or an item with a normal upgrade.

Why would it? Agony was added to be part of FotM for those of you who wanted hardcore and more challenging dungeons.. I don’t want it for open world.. It needs to stay in the FotM.

I don’t do fractals so not sure exactly what “infusion” involves, but the most likely explanation would be magic find. They are looking at removing it from the stat boosts and the most likely way to do that would be to put it into a different slot. Since upgrade slots already consist of bonus stats, perhaps making MF an infusion is their solution. That would mean, then, that more equipment would need to have infusion slots, perhaps giving you a choice to upgrade stats or infuse MF or other abilities into the item.

Mursaat. The Agony best be coming.

I’m thinking it may be added to dungeons in a special hard mode. Just a guess though.

Agony would be useful in WvW open world 1v1 arena type areas, to keep fights from lasting too long or for two players to troll an arena by not fighting (agony would hit after a few min and the first player to die loses).

If they ever did add agony to the open world they would add other, open world ways of obtaining it. It will most likely happen as part of an expansion, as a reason to do the expansion content without having to make a whole new tier of gear like in a typical expansion.

I would only believe agony to be implemented in open world areas if there was a hard mode introduced.

EDIT: someone beat me to it while i was looking through other tabs.. drat.

I thought they’ve maybe added an infusion slot, so you don’t need to get an ascended backpack for getting agony resistance with it… of course with the tradeoff that you’ll lose out on a normal upgrade-slot.

this piece is acquired only in this event…

back to topic, i hope agony stays in fotm

they said they would add agony to other parts of the game in the future when they released 15 nov patch.

Where did you read that?

in the interview linked in the 14.000 post thread that was promptly deleted ….
and in some other interviews of the same few days….

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation_Crystal

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation_Crystal

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation_Crystal

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation_Crystal

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation_Crystal

I was pretty surprised it was a defensive slot, I was half expecting it to be utility, since that’s what people want outside FotM (I mean 30% gold find or +4 toughness and 5 unusable AR? decisions decisions)

You used to have to do lvl10 fractals over and over till you got a ring, now there are multiple ways to get agony resist before level 10.

It’s just to make things more accessible for people in my opinion

Emanuel.9781:

~snip~

You sir, are completely missing the point of this thread.

I’m pretty sure they were quick to say Agony would only be a Fractal thing back when everyone was freakin’ out over it. And, like someone said, if they do add it to some new dungeons or whatnot, they’ll give us plenty of new ways to get it.

If they are going to then we will see ring drop in open world also back. As of now you can get some AR from the back items from this event but once this event is over you can no longer get the back items. I just think its going to be a way for a time at least for ppl to get ascended level back items with out doing fractals. At the same time i think they where made to look very cool so these back items are more about skins for pve only then AR etc..

you already get ring from openworld.

What is sad is you don t get necklaces/accessories from fotms…

LordByron.8369:

in the interview linked in the 14.000 post thread that was promptly deleted ….
and in some other interviews of the same few days….

False, unless you can prove it.

Pirlipat.2479:

Hopefully not. oO I don’t have any ascended items so far and my agony resistance is at 0.

You can get 6 ascended items for your character right now. This is almost the equivalent to another piece of gear.

+60
+32
+32

That gap will get larger when weapons and armor are released. If you factor in the +4 stat infusion items that’s another +48 to a defensive or offensive stat.

This might not be important to casual gamers who don’t care about pretty much anything but; hardcore players do care. Hardcore players analyze; discuss builds and designs their characters to be at optimal efficiency.

Wolfheart.1938:

LordByron.8369:

in the interview linked in the 14.000 post thread that was promptly deleted ….
and in some other interviews of the same few days….

False, unless you can prove it.

They did not say anything about introducing specifically agony to the open world, but they did say that agony was only the first of similar mechanics, and that we were goint to see more of those in the world. They might have meant open world (there certainly was some talk about updating open world to account for ascended eq) or just new dungeons. No way to tell now – especially since those ideas seem to have been scrapped.

And as far as infusion slots in rare flower back item and exotic tentacle sclerite shell, it’s most likely that those are a bug and someone just added a bad enhancement slot to them.

I have not done any fractals because no-one would take people like me. Only experienced fractals players can come :/
So I dont know if agony is anything like spectral agony in gw1, it sounds like it you also had to infuse your chars to avoid the damage of this. And this was in not in dungeons but in open(being instanced though) parts of the game.
I would not mind such a change, an area can be avoided if you cant get infused items .

Agony in GW1 was just a story gimmick. It established a type of enemy as “invincible”. You then did one mission and suddenly the invincibly enemies could be face-rolled. Agony was nothing more than a plot twist.

Agony in GW2 serves as a gating mechanic. More importantly, it hurts newbie players far more than it does the experts.

Considering the costs, agony also is a mechanism to undo all your fractal rewards. Fractal tokes will be consumed by backpacks. The money you earn will be consumed by upgrades requiring as little as 250 globs of ectoplasm. On top of that, you need to spend a lot of time outside the fractals to earn amulets and earrings only useful inside the fractals.

So why would the living story need either agony as a mission gimmick, or a gating mechanism?

^Read my mind.

I just hope they don’t further expand on any sort of gear gating in this game.

To much tin foil hat here.

The reason ascended gear has infusions is for agony resist correct, you may also notice ascended pieces have essentially what would be the gem slot , baked into the stats.

In addition to this the back piece could not be utility as no other back piece does and putting a utility infusion on a limited time item and it being the only one doesnt sound to good.

Because it is ascended it has to allow agony resist to be added into a infusion slot , such is the rule of ascended pieces. No one got their tin foil hats for the ascneded backpieces you can make in the mystic forge.

So why is it defensive? Simply for these http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion

Calae.1738:

Pirlipat.2479:

Hopefully not. oO I don’t have any ascended items so far and my agony resistance is at 0.

You can get 6 ascended items for your character right now. This is almost the equivalent to another piece of gear.

+60
+32
+32

That gap will get larger when weapons and armor are released. If you factor in the +4 stat infusion items that’s another +48 to a defensive or offensive stat.

This might not be important to casual gamers who don’t care about pretty much anything but; hardcore players do care. Hardcore players analyze; discuss builds and designs their characters to be at optimal efficiency.

Well I think I was stating my hatred towards this gear enough in the past. I finally decided for myself that I will not let this kind of gear change my gaming behaviour. So if agony resist will one day become a must have or if the stat-difference is taking me away from having my fun —well I guess my time will be over in this game.

That’s why I said “hopefully not”. I wouldn’t like to get shoved out that fast because I like it here.

Warruz.8096:

To much tin foil hat here.

The reason ascended gear has infusions is for agony resist correct, you may also notice ascended pieces have essentially what would be the gem slot , baked into the stats.

In addition to this the back piece could not be utility as no other back piece does and putting a utility infusion on a limited time item and it being the only one doesnt sound to good.

Because it is ascended it has to allow agony resist to be added into a infusion slot , such is the rule of ascended pieces. No one got their tin foil hats for the ascneded backpieces you can make in the mystic forge.

So why is it defensive? Simply for these http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion

I’m not sure if you’ve understood that this thread is a discussion about a rare and an exotic backpiece having an infusion slot instead of a normal upgrade-slot.

aspirine.6852:

I have not done any fractals because no-one would take people like me. Only experienced fractals players can come :/
So I dont know if agony is anything like spectral agony in gw1, it sounds like it you also had to infuse your chars to avoid the damage of this. And this was in not in dungeons but in open(being instanced though) parts of the game.
I would not mind such a change, an area can be avoided if you cant get infused items .

You’re in the wrong guild then. I run fractals with new players quire frequently.

I personally would prefer a new area of the game that needs Agony Resist (that is already in the game and has multiple ways of obtaining), than a new area of the game that requires level 90 or 100 and makes all current armor obsolete. And if they did this I could see them bringing in new items that have Infusion Slots ergo the backpack.

In other words I would not consider AR for a new zone a bad thing if it avoids them increasing the level cap, and they put in more ways of obtaining it (At the moment you can still get 30 AR without ever stepping into a Fractal)

Ratty.5176:

I personally would prefer a new area of the game that needs Agony Resist (that is already in the game and has multiple ways of obtaining), than a new area of the game that requires level 90 or 100 and makes all current armor obsolete. And if they did this I could see them bringing in new items that have Infusion Slots ergo the backpack.

Wait a second, that reminds me to another game. What was it’s name? Arg… forgot it…

I have said from DAY ONE of the release of these items on the OPEN MARKET in LA that agony was coming to the open world some day.

I would prefer that agony not be used in areas other than FotM.

I look at it this way,

They gave half to the crowd who don’t step into fractals and half to the crowd who do.
And if you want to max out the exotic one (not sure if the fervid can be made ascended) to get the additional fixed stat, farm in southsun.

Either that or transmute, transmute, transmute. If your a fractal player, your going to transmute to a capacitor or quiver, if not…then you don’t get the infusion slot.

It’s kind of win win unless you want to just wear it out of the box. Even though I say that, it’s not practical. It’s like this stuff is being over thought about. It happens all the time. Ever heard the phrase “you’re so smart you’re stupid”.

Again, I don’t know who is doing this kind of stuff or making the decisions, but I can say that it is frustrating the heck out of players. Stat combos missing, now stats missing, infusion slots for players who don’t do fractals, ascended gear with “baked in” stats totally getting rid of a jewel system. Back pieces sitting next to all the accessory items but can’t use exquisite jewels or runes, but can use a lesser jewel. Magic Find done in a totally unpractical way. Limited time kitten skins (fused weapons) when you got craptastic dungeon weapon skins ie: CoF and dungeons that don’t even get their own skins..but just recolored stuff ie; SE and CoE. Who is making these decisions.
All separate issues, I know…but this stuff is piling up.

Anyhow…I’d say transmute unless you can use the stats on item, infuse it to get the additional stats. Probably the cheapest ascended backpiece w/how often karkashells are dropping now.

I hope they do. I think it would be a nice dynamic to the game for people have to go get the right gear to do open world stuff as well. You don’t have to do fractals you can also collect laurels to obtain that gear. I like the idea of it.

No. Remember the infusion upgrades that give you additional gold find? or additional karma gain?

And this is why I am not going purchase anymore ascended pieces. The only piece I have so far is the Amulet and I got the utility thinking it was safe. But now I’m just going to wait to get any other items.
I saw a comment from Lindsey Murdock long ago that inferred there could be agony in other places than FoTM. I can’t find a quote and so I have no proof. But it was only a hint about the distant future incorporating the new mechanic in other places.
If it won’t be in PvE elsewhere then I would be happy if all my ascended pieces had utility slots and never worry about agony. It’s just so uncertain and the pieces aren’t as easy to get as exotics.

Just because infused back piece is now available outside of fractals doesn’t mean agony is coming. You can get MF infused into the piece, im sure other damage + stuff aswell in future.

Mungrul.9358:

Please no. Leave it in Fractals, which I can happily ignore.
I have no interest in grinding for infusions and ascended gear to deal with a mechanic that was introduced primarily to satisfy the gear grind crowd, yet is of no relevance outside of Fractals.

Hmm I wouldn’t mind if it popped up in like Dungeon hard modes or something, but yeah don’t put it in open world.

I do think back to the Mursaat and Spectral Agony in GW1, I’d like to see it outside of Fractals for a Mursaat story at some point, but Open World will just make people upset.

Excursion.9752:

I hope they do. I think it would be a nice dynamic to the game for people have to go get the right gear to do open world stuff as well. You don’t have to do fractals you can also collect laurels to obtain that gear. I like the idea of it.

No it’s terrible. It would force people to grind ascended gear and agony resistance.

I dont think arenanet would do this. They saw the backlash of introducing it in the first place. They have always said the following:

-You can do all content without agony, except fractals up to a certain level)
-Play how you want(if they introduced this, then we would NEED to grind agony)

I dont think they would go back on either of those statements. If they did, I’m not sure I’d even come to the forums to complain about it. I’d log off and delete GW2 without having a second thought.

Although it would be a good idea to have a dev or mod come in here squash this before this “idea” spreads like a wildfire in the forum community.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Excursion.9752:

I hope they do. I think it would be a nice dynamic to the game for people have to go get the right gear to do open world stuff as well. You don’t have to do fractals you can also collect laurels to obtain that gear. I like the idea of it.

No it’s terrible. It would force people to grind ascended gear and agony resistance.

There were many places in GW1 that were dangerous to go without being properly geared and grouped, I don’t think the idea of that happening in GW2 is terrible, as long as its just an area for those who want it.

Think of it like an open world fractal.