Guild Wars 2

Remove stats from equipment and leave only defense on armor and damage on weapons. Move stats to a character and let players choose a “style” he wants to use, and the level of the stats would be dependant on character level, not equipment.

So if I decide to go berserker style, I will have maxed power, ferocity and precision, while the other stats are reset to 0. Then I go soldier style, and my stats go power, toughness and vitality.

The style should be changeable during combat with some timeout. This might add more variability to combat.

Maximum stats should depend on a level, and different styles should be acquired after completing a line of quests, given by a style master.

A player who mastered several styles may create a style of his own, setting a mix of stats and stat levels as he likes.

This is how I wish ascended armor functioned, but even with how hard it is to get it, I feel like that’s too much to ask of anet. As someone who has to make dozens of versions of a single build before being satisfied, it is gigantic waste of time to even put the resulting build in ascended because anet can nerf it and waste a month of my life.

I like the idea OP, but it is probably going to get tacked on to legendary armor. Not to mention it destroys the daily grind.

@Monoman maybe there is a misunderstanding – I do not see this as an armor feature. It should be rather a change of game mechanics.
Your stats should be tied to your character, so even naked, at level 80, if going the berserker style, your stats will be the same as, say the ascended stuff. Your armor rating would depend on the armor though.
Every piece of armor has the same level of stats, and it does not matter what type of armor it is. OTOH it is the function of character level. Obviously it belongs to the character and not to the armor.
Check feature envy antipattern http://blog.codinghorror.com/code-smells/

There’s a few problems with this:

• People have sunk a lot of time and gold into getting the best gear (Ascended). To take stats off of weapons and armour at this point would negate all of that and undoubtedly cause uproar.
• Runes and some sigils have stats tied to them. How would you rework these components?

Level already dictates your stats, in a sense. A level 70 character has a lower maximum potential stat ceiling compared to a level 80 character because of the gear they can equip and the stats they gain as they level.

Monoman’s idea is, IMO, a lot better; give players the opportunity to unlock stat combinations on their Ascended gear. The main advantage it has over your suggestion is that it doesn’t negate what players have currently put into getting Ascended stats.

So you just made ascended armour and weapons redunant. What about infusion slots, are they now for everyone no matter what level they are? My white armour is now the same as my ascended, why do i need to even play the game if there is absolutly no progression except cosmetic?

Panites.6798:

So you just made ascended armour and weapons redunant.

Nope. I just want to move stats to character and leave damage and armor rating on equipment. I believe it makes more sense.
As for the stat level, I think that exo should equal plain fresh level 80, while ascended level should be gained by some additional quest chain (and maybe a payment to a NPC tutor).

Agony resistance infusions are OK on armor, since they add protection to the character. Anything else should go on character, and should be opened via “self improvement” quest chain.

Ascended weapons should have the higher damage they already have, and ascended armor the ability to receive agony infusions.

Fext.3614:

@Monoman maybe there is a misunderstanding – I do not see this as an armor feature. It should be rather a change of game mechanics.
Your stats should be tied to your character, so even naked, at level 80, if going the berserker style, your stats will be the same as, say the ascended stuff. Your armor rating would depend on the armor though.
Every piece of armor has the same level of stats, and it does not matter what type of armor it is. OTOH it is the function of character level. Obviously it belongs to the character and not to the armor.
Check feature envy antipattern http://blog.codinghorror.com/code-smells/

I understood what you meant. My point was anet won’t even make this a feature of their ascended armor which takes an entire month+ to grind (if you’re light), there is little chance they would tie it to your characters. The reason why there is little chance this will get tied to ascended is because this is a feature of legendary armor and this change will destroy anets daily grind which secures a portion of their player base.

Your idea is infinitely better than ascended armor being able to change stats but it is extremely unlikely anet would do that, so I want to meet them half way with ascended but even that feels like too much.