Guild Wars 2

Chicho Gosho.6507:

Ascended items are not required, they are recommended . Learn to read and understand.

They are recommended to what degree? As in, you will have almost no chance of doing raids without it or you might have some problems doing raid without ascended gear?

symke.3105:

They are recommended to what degree? As in, you will have almost no chance of doing raids without it or you might have some problems doing raid without ascended gear?

You have already commented on a post where a dev tells you the answer to this question.

lordkrall.7241:

symke.3105:

They are recommended to what degree? As in, you will have almost no chance of doing raids without it or you might have some problems doing raid without ascended gear?

You have already commented on a post where a dev tells you the answer to this question.

Oh, my bad. Would you be so kind to give me a link to it. I must admit I can’t find the thread you are talking about.

It is in this very thread, page 6. Just a few hours ago.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Ascended-Gear-to-be-Required-for-Raids/page/6#post5552862

ProtoGunner.4953:

Ascended gear is out an eternity, if you don’t have single character with ascended gear you’re doing it wrong. Raiding won’t be your thing then anyways, the game has lots of other stuff to offer.

there are reasons for not having ascended gear, for example:

I have a necro, mesmer, engi and ele.

I plan on maining Rev exclusively when HoT is released.

guess what ascended armor and crafting profession I DON’T have?

I’m just praying that the early bosses will be doable in just ascended accessories, the cost for making ascended armor in a timely manner is just stupid, 12g (or 300 scraps of silk) for a bolt of damask, and I need 25 >_>.

I bet you don’t have cloth and leather…Is that correct? Did i win?

lordkrall.7241:

It is in this very thread, page 6. Just a few hours ago.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Ascended-Gear-to-be-Required-for-Raids/page/6#post5552862

Thank you. I found my post, but I fail to see where dev answered a question to what degree “recommended” is?

I fully support this – If we’re going to have forced roles and trinity gameplay with healers and whatnot we might as well have some gear grind too – the more the better.
I’m looking forward to having to be full legendary for the next expansion’s raids.

symke.3105:

Thank you. I found my post, but I fail to see where dev answered a question to what degree “recommended” is?

He basically says that when people learn the fights it should become easier to do it, even with lower tier gear and even (probably jokingly) with some people going as quaggan.

That makes it sound rather clear that it will not be hardgated in the slightest to Ascended gear for everyone.

lordkrall.7241:

symke.3105:

Thank you. I found my post, but I fail to see where dev answered a question to what degree “recommended” is?

He basically says that when people learn the fights it should become easier to do it, even with lower tier gear and even (probably jokingly) with some people going as quaggan.

That makes it sound rather clear that it will not be hardgated in the slightest to Ascended gear for everyone.

and i guess unskilled player wont be saved by asc. gear with 80g nfusions if they cant dodge and so on

See?

We nitpicked the tweet a bit harshly. Be sure to know the differences between absolutes and variable words folks!

I have no problem with raids being balanced around ascended gear, I have no problem with raids requiring some players to have certain masteries, and I have no problem with healers and such having a more important role within raids. What I do have a problem with is Anet claiming things but then doing the opposite. In other words I hate how Anet cannot simple talk straight to us.

In the raid blog, Anet stated that raids will be accessible to all without any kind of pre-raid grinding, you will not need to wait for a healer and they are not about gear grind. Yet, you need some party members to have certain masteries unlocked and possibly leveled up, healers will be more important (so you will need someone willing to heal. Build swapping has never been an issue, the issue is finding someone who actually wants to heal, as healing is more often than not unrewarding) and raids will initially be the only place to get legendary armour precursors. So we will be waiting around for the right group of players (those with the required masteries and those willing to heal) and we will be doing it to get legendary armour.

I having nothing against any of the above. I like that raids need healers and masteries and I like that raiding will be very rewarding, but please just be honest about it! Saying one thing and then immediately doing the opposite causes players to lose faith in the company’s ability to talk straight. It is very disappointing.

Calcifire.1864:

ProtoGunner.4953:

Ascended gear is out an eternity, if you don’t have single character with ascended gear you’re doing it wrong. Raiding won’t be your thing then anyways, the game has lots of other stuff to offer.

there are reasons for not having ascended gear, for example:

I have a necro, mesmer, engi and ele.

I plan on maining Rev exclusively when HoT is released.

guess what ascended armor and crafting profession I DON’T have?

I’m just praying that the early bosses will be doable in just ascended accessories, the cost for making ascended armor in a timely manner is just stupid, 12g (or 300 scraps of silk) for a bolt of damask, and I need 25 >_>.

Yes, I understand, I don’t have full ascended Heavy and Medium armor. But if it is needed I will complete those sets too. It is rather fair since ascended is account bound. Imagine you have to make ascended for every single character.

lordkrall.7241:

symke.3105:

Thank you. I found my post, but I fail to see where dev answered a question to what degree “recommended” is?

He basically says that when people learn the fights it should become easier to do it, even with lower tier gear and even (probably jokingly) with some people going as quaggan.

That makes it sound rather clear that it will not be hardgated in the slightest to Ascended gear for everyone.

I did assume the same thing while reading that comment, but considering it is made in a humorous way, it’s not something I would put my life on it. Add to that it’s a comment made outside of their own official forum, and it becomes even more “foggy” as something I could trust. The ambiguity that comment presents is the reason I made a question on this forum.

Raids becoming easier as time passes and experience grows, is logical and I don’t think anyone needs to hear that. We all know already that. But we don’t know how those raids will affect players before that happens.

Both masteries and raids are in fact a new (different than competition, i grant it) step of vertical progression.

Ok, there is no new tier of gear. there’s not an evident increase in stats.
But if increasing masteries gives an advantage to those players who grind it, or if there’s a content you can unlock only after leveling…it’s not horizontal.
Anet keeps just playing with semantics, but here is another step upwards.
Dejavu… just like that manifesto/no grind/ no vertical progression situation.

Kevan.8912:

Both masteries and raids are in fact a new (different than competition, i grant it) step of vertical progression.

Ok, there is no new tier of gear. there’s not an evident increase in stats.
But if increasing masteries gives an advantage to those players who grind it, or if there’s a content you can unlock only after leveling…it’s not horizontal.
Anet keeps just playing with semantics, but here is another step upwards.
Dejavu… just like that manifesto/no grind/ no vertical progression situation.

Are you not also just playing with semantics? Masteries are no more a form of vertical progression than crafting is, and masteries are easier to gain experience for than crafting albeit it would take longer to do.

The key difference between vertical and horizontal progression is that vertical progression negates the difficulty or reward of previous content whereas horizontal progression does not. Masteries are very clearly horizontal in this regard as they currently stand. They let you do new things better without making old content obsolete.

Wow, 7 pages already? I think the Moderators need to edit the subject line of this topic as the OP is misleading in this post. I was the second reply on this thread which basically knocked down this entire subject. But I digress.

When the game was released full groups would wipe in Arah dungeon. Now we can watch a video of someone soloing it using one finger.

After HoT launches and the raid encounters are memorized to a exact science, with guides and videos made, you can prepare for forum and reddit posts with a Youtube videos with the subject line " X raid boss in full green gear defeated" or " X raid boss killed while naked," 10 man of all the same profession take down X in X time"

We have about 22 days till launch and people are spinning their wheels and grinding their teeth and gears ready to pounce and nit pick at anything since they have nothing better to do.

For the sake of prosperity if this thread is not deleted I am going to book mark it and bring it up next year just to see how people whined while still playing “Vanilla” GW2

the real deal is, there will be strictly enforced party set ups and builds. keep in mind, the cost in resources and time of ascended armor is not small at all.
people will not be changing their gear often to test what might work. People talk about using ascended mystic forge swapping, but from what people said here, that uses 5-8 gold and 10 skill points. per piece
Most people wont want to do that very often. Also appears not to work on trinkets?

So yeah people are going to be looking for meta, they will be a lot less adaptable (cannot realisticly ask people to change stats to compensate for a missing player type)

Also means you cant simply say, ok guys ill be healer today, or ill be tank, unless you invested in new armors and weapons.
Looks like even for those who can do that, they will probably be storing whole sets of inventory
inventory wars2.
annnd that means you will be specialized to certain armor types.

man anet keeps building on flawed systems.
Ascended time and effort required basically prevented ascended players from playing with new stat builds, which was primarily mitigated by having few viable stat builds.
The armor/inventory system lends itself very poorly to trying an obtaining new stat sets as well.
And then they go and make raids and are like we want you to play with various builds and use different stats! I think they play in their dev environments too much, where they hit a button and get whatever gear they want to have.

Linfang.1087:

Wow, 7 pages already? I think the Moderators need to edit the subject line of this topic as the OP is misleading in this post. I was the second reply on this thread which basically knocked down this entire subject. But I digress.

When the game was released full groups would wipe in Arah dungeon. Now we can watch a video of someone soloing it using one finger.

After HoT launches and the raid encounters are memorized to a exact science, with guides and videos made, you can prepare for forum and reddit posts with a Youtube videos with the subject line " X raid boss in full green gear defeated" or " X raid boss killed while naked," 10 man of all the same profession take down X in X time"

We have about 22 days till launch and people are spinning their wheels and grinding their teeth and gears ready to pounce and nit pick at anything since they have nothing better to do.

For the sake of prosperity if this thread is not deleted I am going to book mark it and bring it up next year just to see how people whined while still playing “Vanilla” GW2

posterity, not prosperity.

it will be interesting to see if all of the idealists in this thread turn out to be correct about the whole “should/must” thing, I have a horrible feeling that it’s going to result in “full ascended or kick” being the norm in the same way that “full zerker only” became a thing, except in this case, it can’t be fixed by throwing a trivial amount of gold at it

Agree with linfang

No one force u to raid if u dont like harder content, no one force u to get ascended gear, just do something else for one year then go on youtube and look how to do it naked
Pretty easy

I hope ascended will be REQUIRED for higher wings, and even with full ascended will be harder, because when u fail once twice etc etc isnt beauty, but when u do the “impossible” the sensation is awesome.
This game has too many noobs stuff, grind maps, 1111111 on boss etc etc… I’m ok with this variety is ever the best way, but this game need something really hard, and i hope raids will be

Lian Olsam.9541:

Agree with linfang

No one force u to raid if u dont like harder content, no one force u to get ascended gear, just do something else for one year then go on youtube and look how to do it naked
Pretty easy

I hope ascended will be REQUIRED for higher wings, and even with full ascended will be harder, because when u fail once twice etc etc isnt beauty, but when u do the “impossible” the sensation is awesome.
This game has too many noobs stuff, grind maps, 1111111 on boss etc etc… I’m ok with this variety is ever the best way, but this game need something really hard, and i hope raids will be

problem with your theory, is ascended armor is a fairly large grind. And funny part is the solution is legendary armor/trinkets/weapon. But in order to get legendary armor you will need to invest in ascended armor, which will then become obsolete.
genius

gw2 throws away the gear treadmil, and creates the gear skyscraper stair.

Coulter.2315:

Guys we’ve all been in full Ascended dungeon runs which go a lot slower/faster than others – the difference player skill and knowledge makes is the primary driver of damage.

If you still don’t have an Ascended character then you’re not really looking for the best performance and raids will need people with that desire (desire to pull the best effectiveness from equipment and play – yes people with Ascended don’t necessarily have this but I would say people that do have this drive won’t be running around without Ascended) .

They haven’t tested it against a very large spread of top level players and so the design is just a guess/aspiration at the moment.

You’ve had years to get Ascended I can’t believe suddenly now you’re upset you might not be doing your best in group content (cause you clearly haven’t been doing it up until now…).

Getting Ascended doesn’t mean you’ll be able to do the raid, but it shows a bit of commitment to doing the best you can in there – thats the mindset raids need.

I don’t have any, because for years I’ve been told I would never need it outside fractals
And now I’m expected to have it for content outside fractals.
How can anyone possibly be surprised that some of us feel lied to?

On that promise I’ve planned for years to make legendary instead of ascended if I was going to put in that kind of grind, and now that’s not going to be possible.
I’ll have to grind ascended, drop hundreds of gold and mats, to be able to work on legendary.
That’s starting to look an awful lot like a treadmill.
So we have to grind ascended if we want to get to legendary, whats next? The next raid will introduce a progressing Agony grind?
I’ve always been fine with needing to grind for some cosmetic stuff, like legendary weapons.
But would it make sense to have to grind out a full set of ascended weapons before you could work on a legendary?
I cannot fathom why people think it’s okay to have to grind out ascended stats before we can get legendary skins.

Am I the only one who’s noticed that the ascended gap bump to 10% they were going to do until the leak would have made this even worse?
Were would we be if we’d all just rolled over for them?

phys.7689:

Lian Olsam.9541:

Agree with linfang

No one force u to raid if u dont like harder content, no one force u to get ascended gear, just do something else for one year then go on youtube and look how to do it naked
Pretty easy

I hope ascended will be REQUIRED for higher wings, and even with full ascended will be harder, because when u fail once twice etc etc isnt beauty, but when u do the “impossible” the sensation is awesome.
This game has too many noobs stuff, grind maps, 1111111 on boss etc etc… I’m ok with this variety is ever the best way, but this game need something really hard, and i hope raids will be

problem with your theory, is ascended armor is a fairly large grind. And funny part is the solution is legendary armor/trinkets/weapon. But in order to get legendary armor you will need to invest in ascended armor, which will then become obsolete.
genius

gw2 throws away the gear treadmil, and creates the gear skyscraper stair.

It is not that large now as it was 2 or even 1 year ago. And it will be even less of a grind in hot. Amount of gold game just throws at people for barely doing anything is going up every few months.

Calcifire.1864:

I have a horrible feeling that it’s going to result in “full ascended or kick” being the norm in the same way that “full zerker only” became a thing, except in this case, it can’t be fixed by throwing a trivial amount of gold at it

But why even stop there?!

Full Ascended will only get you an invite and a foot into the raid instance. You forgot other vital things we need to check on.

You have full Ascended but your ping runs in the triple digits because you are thousands of miles away from the nearest server hub. You also have a history of disconnects.

-kick-

You have full Ascended, but your Dinosaur PC and Video card turn raid encounters into a slide show. This results in delayed skills and reactions to what is going on in game. Also your game can crash at times. Cya!

-kick-

Full Ascended but you area “clicker”! You have not invested in a MMO mouse and/or keyboard with fast and easy access to hot keys. Farewell!

-kick-

We need your API link to GW2efficiency , We need to know your AP. Please link all consumables, no voice chat software? -kick kick kick-

I really can’t wait till these elitist to declare Marshall Law and have a check list and clip board on hand ready to inspect and pre approve you. When my guild already entered the Instance 20 mins ago and took down the boss of the first wing already. hah!

Linfang.1087:

Calcifire.1864:

I have a horrible feeling that it’s going to result in “full ascended or kick” being the norm in the same way that “full zerker only” became a thing, except in this case, it can’t be fixed by throwing a trivial amount of gold at it

But why even stop there?!

Full Ascended will only get you an invite and a foot into the raid instance. You forgot other vital things we need to check on.

You have full Ascended but your ping runs in the triple digits because you are thousands of miles away from the nearest server hub. You also have a history of disconnects.

-kick-

You have full Ascended, but your Dinosaur PC and Video card turn raid encounters into a slide show. This results in delayed skills and reactions to what is going on in game. Also your game can crash at times. Cya!

-kick-

Full Ascended but you area “clicker”! You have not invested in a MMO mouse and/or keyboard with fast and easy access to hot keys. Farewell!

-kick-

We need your API link to GW2efficiency , We need to know your AP. Please link all consumables, no voice chat software? -kick kick kick-

I really can’t wait till these elitist to declare Marshall Law and have a check list and clip board on hand ready to inspect and pre approve you. When my guild already entered the Instance 20 mins ago and took down the boss of the first wing already. hah!

Ugh, the pain.

“UWSC – Need T2, T3. 150+ stones only”

How I don’t miss certain things and never wanted to see them again…

Linfang.1087:

Calcifire.1864:

I have a horrible feeling that it’s going to result in “full ascended or kick” being the norm in the same way that “full zerker only” became a thing, except in this case, it can’t be fixed by throwing a trivial amount of gold at it

But why even stop there?!

Full Ascended will only get you an invite and a foot into the raid instance. You forgot other vital things we need to check on.

You have full Ascended but your ping runs in the triple digits because you are thousands of miles away from the nearest server hub. You also have a history of disconnects.

-kick-

You have full Ascended, but your Dinosaur PC and Video card turn raid encounters into a slide show. This results in delayed skills and reactions to what is going on in game. Also your game can crash at times. Cya!

-kick-

Full Ascended but you area “clicker”! You have not invested in a MMO mouse and/or keyboard with fast and easy access to hot keys. Farewell!

-kick-

We need your API link to GW2efficiency , We need to know your AP. Please link all consumables, no voice chat software? -kick kick kick-

I really can’t wait till these elitist to declare Marshall Law and have a check list and clip board on hand ready to inspect and pre approve you. When my guild already entered the Instance 20 mins ago and took down the boss of the first wing already. hah!

hahaha, this is fun.
Exaggerate much????

You think raids going to require a gaming mouse/keyboard? thats comical.
IF i was doing competitive PvP – MAYBE for the competitive advantage and faster APM… but for PvE content? designed by ANET!!? Come on…. you are really reaching here.

Why would anyone check AP for raids when its easier to just check for ascended gear + masteries…. You don’t need AP, that means absolutely NOTHING besides telling everyone you like to do jumping puzzles and explore the world…….

You make it sound as if this was meant to be something that you can easily PUG.

Not a chance some uncoordinated PUG completes this until MUCH LATER DOWN THE ROAD after there is a well designed strategy guide that most ppl can follow and understand.

Raids are better done with a guild , not random players who will probably end up trolling. You have to be desperate to try and PUG something like a raid….you are not going to succeed at all until theres a well developed strategy for raids.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

It is not that large now as it was 2 or even 1 year ago. And it will be even less of a grind in hot. Amount of gold game just throws at people for barely doing anything is going up every few months.

if you are wearing light armor, you need 10800 scraps of silk.

currently silk is selling for 2s 79c

that means that you need to spend 301g 32s to make the armor.

now let’s add the rest of the materials, shall we?

according to gw2spidy, the current cost to make the damask is 467g 63s 64c
the cost for the leather is 18g 67s 74c
crystalline dust is 28g 51s 20c

so a minimum of 514g 82s 58c

and that’s not including the cost of exotics for dark matter, the insignias you need for the stats (hope you don’t want celestial, because that’s an unavoidable 30 day time gate), or vendor bought materials like thermocatalytic reagents or gossamer thread

over 515g and 36 days to make a set of armor, even more expensive if you want to skip the time gating

and you say that that ISN’T a grind?

when you start measuring things in quantities of TEN THOUSAND in a game with a stack size of 250, the devs need to re-evaluate their recipe costs

compared to a few years ago, the grind is WORSE, silk has exploded in cost since then.

SkiTz.4590:

Linfang.1087:

Calcifire.1864:

I have a horrible feeling that it’s going to result in “full ascended or kick” being the norm in the same way that “full zerker only” became a thing, except in this case, it can’t be fixed by throwing a trivial amount of gold at it

But why even stop there?!

Full Ascended will only get you an invite and a foot into the raid instance. You forgot other vital things we need to check on.

You have full Ascended but your ping runs in the triple digits because you are thousands of miles away from the nearest server hub. You also have a history of disconnects.

-kick-

You have full Ascended, but your Dinosaur PC and Video card turn raid encounters into a slide show. This results in delayed skills and reactions to what is going on in game. Also your game can crash at times. Cya!

-kick-

Full Ascended but you area “clicker”! You have not invested in a MMO mouse and/or keyboard with fast and easy access to hot keys. Farewell!

-kick-

We need your API link to GW2efficiency , We need to know your AP. Please link all consumables, no voice chat software? -kick kick kick-

I really can’t wait till these elitist to declare Marshall Law and have a check list and clip board on hand ready to inspect and pre approve you. When my guild already entered the Instance 20 mins ago and took down the boss of the first wing already. hah!

hahaha, this is fun.
Exaggerate much????

You think raids going to require a gaming mouse/keyboard? thats comical.
IF i was doing competitive PvP – MAYBE for the competitive advantage and faster APM… but for PvE content? designed by ANET!!? Come on…. you are really reaching here.

Why would anyone check AP for raids when its easier to just check for ascended gear + masteries…. You don’t need AP, that means absolutely NOTHING besides telling everyone you like to do jumping puzzles and explore the world…….

You make it sound as if this was meant to be something that you can easily PUG.

Not a chance some uncoordinated PUG completes this until MUCH LATER DOWN THE ROAD after there is a well designed strategy guide that most ppl can follow and understand.

Raids are better done with a guild , not random players who will probably end up trolling. You have to be desperate to try and PUG something like a raid….you are not going to succeed at all until theres a well developed strategy for raids.

Yes people would still PUG for Raids, I can promise you that. Why? Because people still PUG in the hardest areas of GW1.

Furthermore not everyone has an active guild that has all 12 players always ready and willing to do the content that they want at any time.

People are also going to attempt to LFG using their characters with exotics, get kicked, then complain about it bitterly in this forums.

Why would they get kicked? Because now everyone knows that the Raid content is balanced around ascended, not exotic equipment. And many players do not want to waste their time partying with some stranger with inferior equipment, for a very hard content that is balanced around the best equipment in the game.

Calcifire.1864:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

It is not that large now as it was 2 or even 1 year ago. And it will be even less of a grind in hot. Amount of gold game just throws at people for barely doing anything is going up every few months.

if you are wearing light armor, you need 10800 scraps of silk.

currently silk is selling for 2s 79c

that means that you need to spend 301g 32s to make the armor.

now let’s add the rest of the materials, shall we?

according to gw2spidy, the current cost to make the damask is 467g 63s 64c
the cost for the leather is 18g 67s 74c
crystalline dust is 28g 51s 20c

so a minimum of 514g 82s 58c

and that’s not including the cost of exotics for dark matter, the insignias you need for the stats (hope you don’t want celestial, because that’s an unavoidable 30 day time gate), or vendor bought materials like thermocatalytic reagents or gossamer thread

over 515g and 36 days to make a set of armor, even more expensive if you want to skip the time gating

and you say that that ISN’T a grind?

when you start measuring things in quantities of TEN THOUSAND in a game with a stack size of 250, the devs need to re-evaluate their recipe costs

compared to a few years ago, the grind is WORSE, silk has exploded in cost since then.

And if you actually play this game for at least 2 hours/day you can drop this price to less than 100 gold.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Calcifire.1864:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

It is not that large now as it was 2 or even 1 year ago. And it will be even less of a grind in hot. Amount of gold game just throws at people for barely doing anything is going up every few months.

if you are wearing light armor, you need 10800 scraps of silk.

currently silk is selling for 2s 79c

that means that you need to spend 301g 32s to make the armor.

now let’s add the rest of the materials, shall we?

according to gw2spidy, the current cost to make the damask is 467g 63s 64c
the cost for the leather is 18g 67s 74c
crystalline dust is 28g 51s 20c

so a minimum of 514g 82s 58c

and that’s not including the cost of exotics for dark matter, the insignias you need for the stats (hope you don’t want celestial, because that’s an unavoidable 30 day time gate), or vendor bought materials like thermocatalytic reagents or gossamer thread

over 515g and 36 days to make a set of armor, even more expensive if you want to skip the time gating

and you say that that ISN’T a grind?

when you start measuring things in quantities of TEN THOUSAND in a game with a stack size of 250, the devs need to re-evaluate their recipe costs

compared to a few years ago, the grind is WORSE, silk has exploded in cost since then.

And if you actually play this game for at least 2 hours/day you can drop this price to less than 100 gold.

how so? by grinding gold/mats for 2 hours?
btw two hours a day is considered a decent amount of playtime, raid are probably going to be an hour once a week for comparison

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Calcifire.1864:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

It is not that large now as it was 2 or even 1 year ago. And it will be even less of a grind in hot. Amount of gold game just throws at people for barely doing anything is going up every few months.

if you are wearing light armor, you need 10800 scraps of silk.

currently silk is selling for 2s 79c

that means that you need to spend 301g 32s to make the armor.

now let’s add the rest of the materials, shall we?

according to gw2spidy, the current cost to make the damask is 467g 63s 64c
the cost for the leather is 18g 67s 74c
crystalline dust is 28g 51s 20c

so a minimum of 514g 82s 58c

and that’s not including the cost of exotics for dark matter, the insignias you need for the stats (hope you don’t want celestial, because that’s an unavoidable 30 day time gate), or vendor bought materials like thermocatalytic reagents or gossamer thread

over 515g and 36 days to make a set of armor, even more expensive if you want to skip the time gating

and you say that that ISN’T a grind?

when you start measuring things in quantities of TEN THOUSAND in a game with a stack size of 250, the devs need to re-evaluate their recipe costs

compared to a few years ago, the grind is WORSE, silk has exploded in cost since then.

And if you actually play this game for at least 2 hours/day you can drop this price to less than 100 gold.

oh? how is that? by gathering the ten thousand scraps of silk yourself?

how many days are we talking? to do it within the month you’d need to get 130 scraps of silk per hour at that rate.

two hours a day of doing nothing but farming silk. god that DEFINITELY doesn’t sound like a grind.

PvE raids shouldn’t stand for “player versus economy”

DarkSpirit.7046:

SkiTz.4590:

Linfang.1087:

Calcifire.1864:

I have a horrible feeling that it’s going to result in “full ascended or kick” being the norm in the same way that “full zerker only” became a thing, except in this case, it can’t be fixed by throwing a trivial amount of gold at it

But why even stop there?!

Full Ascended will only get you an invite and a foot into the raid instance. You forgot other vital things we need to check on.

You have full Ascended but your ping runs in the triple digits because you are thousands of miles away from the nearest server hub. You also have a history of disconnects.

-kick-

You have full Ascended, but your Dinosaur PC and Video card turn raid encounters into a slide show. This results in delayed skills and reactions to what is going on in game. Also your game can crash at times. Cya!

-kick-

Full Ascended but you area “clicker”! You have not invested in a MMO mouse and/or keyboard with fast and easy access to hot keys. Farewell!

-kick-

We need your API link to GW2efficiency , We need to know your AP. Please link all consumables, no voice chat software? -kick kick kick-

I really can’t wait till these elitist to declare Marshall Law and have a check list and clip board on hand ready to inspect and pre approve you. When my guild already entered the Instance 20 mins ago and took down the boss of the first wing already. hah!

hahaha, this is fun.
Exaggerate much????

You think raids going to require a gaming mouse/keyboard? thats comical.
IF i was doing competitive PvP – MAYBE for the competitive advantage and faster APM… but for PvE content? designed by ANET!!? Come on…. you are really reaching here.

Why would anyone check AP for raids when its easier to just check for ascended gear + masteries…. You don’t need AP, that means absolutely NOTHING besides telling everyone you like to do jumping puzzles and explore the world…….

You make it sound as if this was meant to be something that you can easily PUG.

Not a chance some uncoordinated PUG completes this until MUCH LATER DOWN THE ROAD after there is a well designed strategy guide that most ppl can follow and understand.

Raids are better done with a guild , not random players who will probably end up trolling. You have to be desperate to try and PUG something like a raid….you are not going to succeed at all until theres a well developed strategy for raids.

Yes people would still PUG for Raids, I can promise you that. Why? Because people still PUG in the hardest areas of GW1.

Furthermore not everyone has an active guild that has all 12 players always ready and willing to do the content that they want at any time.

People are also going to attempt to LFG using their characters with exotics, get kicked, then complain about it bitterly in this forums.

Why would they get kicked? Because now everyone knows that the Raid content is balanced around ascended, not exotic equipment. And many players do not want to waste their time partying with some stranger with inferior equipment, for a very hard content that is balanced around the best equipment in the game.

I said ppl are not going to PUG UNTIL a good strategy has been created so that everyone has a good chance at beating it

No one is stopping you from trying to PUG it from day 1 of release but chances are slim of any pug successfully beating it before guilds do.

Also, you deserve to be kicked if you join a LFG that has in their title “ascended only” and you decide “well I have exotics, I can join this LFG that says ascended, i’ll be fine”

Join or create a PUG that says “casual, slow run, exotics are fine” than you won’t be kicked.

Calcifire.1864:

ProtoGunner.4953:

Ascended gear is out an eternity, if you don’t have single character with ascended gear you’re doing it wrong. Raiding won’t be your thing then anyways, the game has lots of other stuff to offer.

there are reasons for not having ascended gear, for example:

I have a necro, mesmer, engi and ele.

I plan on maining Rev exclusively when HoT is released.

guess what ascended armor and crafting profession I DON’T have?

I’m just praying that the early bosses will be doable in just ascended accessories, the cost for making ascended armor in a timely manner is just stupid, 12g (or 300 scraps of silk) for a bolt of damask, and I need 25 >_>.

You have several weeks before the first wing is released and it was stated partial mix of ascended/exotic will be fine for skilled players. So you should already have the trinkets ready or can get them ready in time for any new alts.

Then we have who knows how much time until the raid wings that actually are recommended to have full ascended get released. Meaning you have tons of time to prepare.

Not only that but if you’ve been doing high level fractals, SW farming, guild missions and World Boss runs then you should also have a few ascended boxes and trinkets laying around in your bank. You can also get ascended items from achievements and collections.

If you haven’t been doing end game PvE content on a consistent basis then why do you think you should be given a free pass for the harder end game content? Self-entitled gamers!

We all have plenty of time to prepare people. Stop with the excuses and whining and get to work!

SkiTz.4590:

DarkSpirit.7046:

SkiTz.4590:

Linfang.1087:

Calcifire.1864:

I have a horrible feeling that it’s going to result in “full ascended or kick” being the norm in the same way that “full zerker only” became a thing, except in this case, it can’t be fixed by throwing a trivial amount of gold at it

But why even stop there?!

Full Ascended will only get you an invite and a foot into the raid instance. You forgot other vital things we need to check on.

You have full Ascended but your ping runs in the triple digits because you are thousands of miles away from the nearest server hub. You also have a history of disconnects.

-kick-

You have full Ascended, but your Dinosaur PC and Video card turn raid encounters into a slide show. This results in delayed skills and reactions to what is going on in game. Also your game can crash at times. Cya!

-kick-

Full Ascended but you area “clicker”! You have not invested in a MMO mouse and/or keyboard with fast and easy access to hot keys. Farewell!

-kick-

We need your API link to GW2efficiency , We need to know your AP. Please link all consumables, no voice chat software? -kick kick kick-

I really can’t wait till these elitist to declare Marshall Law and have a check list and clip board on hand ready to inspect and pre approve you. When my guild already entered the Instance 20 mins ago and took down the boss of the first wing already. hah!

hahaha, this is fun.
Exaggerate much????

You think raids going to require a gaming mouse/keyboard? thats comical.
IF i was doing competitive PvP – MAYBE for the competitive advantage and faster APM… but for PvE content? designed by ANET!!? Come on…. you are really reaching here.

Why would anyone check AP for raids when its easier to just check for ascended gear + masteries…. You don’t need AP, that means absolutely NOTHING besides telling everyone you like to do jumping puzzles and explore the world…….

You make it sound as if this was meant to be something that you can easily PUG.

Not a chance some uncoordinated PUG completes this until MUCH LATER DOWN THE ROAD after there is a well designed strategy guide that most ppl can follow and understand.

Raids are better done with a guild , not random players who will probably end up trolling. You have to be desperate to try and PUG something like a raid….you are not going to succeed at all until theres a well developed strategy for raids.

Yes people would still PUG for Raids, I can promise you that. Why? Because people still PUG in the hardest areas of GW1.

Furthermore not everyone has an active guild that has all 12 players always ready and willing to do the content that they want at any time.

People are also going to attempt to LFG using their characters with exotics, get kicked, then complain about it bitterly in this forums.

Why would they get kicked? Because now everyone knows that the Raid content is balanced around ascended, not exotic equipment. And many players do not want to waste their time partying with some stranger with inferior equipment, for a very hard content that is balanced around the best equipment in the game.

I said ppl are not going to PUG UNTIL a good strategy has been created so that everyone has a good chance at beating it

No one is stopping you from trying to PUG it from day 1 of release but chances are slim of any pug successfully beating it before guilds do.

Also, you deserve to be kicked if you join a LFG that has in their title “ascended only” and you decide “well I have exotics, I can join this LFG that says ascended, i’ll be fine”

Join or create a PUG that says “casual, slow run, exotics are fine” than you won’t be kicked.

Why should there be an LFG that says “ascended only” when the devs promised that this game would not be about gear treadmill, but skill?

Casuals, not having the best equipment, need hardcore players to help them through the hardest content in this game, but most of the time people are not willing to spend time to help others.

White Hunter.3416:

Terra.8571:

Astralporing.1957:

Terra.8571:

But simply basing the encounter’s so that the bosses/ mobs do damage against players assuming they had the BiS gear available, for the hardest content in game, seems logical.

Ascended acquisition was so far balanced around it not being required for any content beyond fractals – and even fractals weren’t balanced around ascended stats, merely around AR.
If the above doesn’t hold true, then all the acquisition methods need to be rebalanced in order to make that tier more easily obtainable.

They’re not required now afaik. The tweet never said it was physically impossible to do in exotics, she just said she think’s ascended will be needed because that’s what the Dev’s have required to beat them.

These are the same Dev’s that constantly underestimate the player base – who would have though most dungeons could be done in under 10mins, many under 5mins. They never thought legendaries would be made within 6 weeks or that all their content would be chewed through in a couple of months. Some of the hardest bosses this game are even being soloed e.g. fractal 50 bosses or Lupicus.

Even recently, they release a skill like WHaO without realising the infinite boon uptime that can be gotten with it. Dev’s make mistakes, I think at the very least, they needed to balance this content around ascended stats. I bet, unless there’s some physical link to ascended gear e.g. % damage mitigation, in time, some of this raid content will be farmable with pug exotics. We’ll see, but bottom line is they are balancing content on ascended, that’s a logical thing for the most difficult content.

Ascended are not needed to enter the raid. Just expect many wipes until the community masters them.

TA Aether sayes hello.
Still hard, really hard to find group without firsttimers, or crazy elitists.

Find a nice guild, do it with them. No need to worry about elitists then and the experience is much better. TA Aether isn’t hard, it’s more the rewards don’t justify it’s length. Bosses can all be killed in 5mins or less. It’s just frustrating trying to do some of the events in pugs because of a lack of coordination/ knowledge.

Astralporing.1957:

SO? Devs think it is required now. The same devs that earlier balanced ascended acquisition around it not being required. Since by their own admission that previous assumption no longer holds true, i believe some rebalances are in order now.

Yup, they balanced ascended acquisition on contents 2 Years, read that again, 2 years old. The new content is meant to cater to a higher level of difficulty. It would have been flawed to say this is the hardest content possible and then base it off exotic stats.

A full raid group (10 people) of ascended zerker will do 15% more dps per person than an equivalent exotic group. Add to the fact that fights will probably last longer than the 2-3mins most bosses take currently, that increase dps is now significant. Not to base bosses of ascended stats could trivialise content.

It has now been confirmed that ascended gear is a recommendation not requirement. Feel free to try raids in exo gear, but the fights have been tuned for ascended.

SkiTz.4590:

hahaha, this is fun.
Exaggerate much????

Yes I am being sarcastic. :-D

Bandit.8279:

Calcifire.1864:

ProtoGunner.4953:

Ascended gear is out an eternity, if you don’t have single character with ascended gear you’re doing it wrong. Raiding won’t be your thing then anyways, the game has lots of other stuff to offer.

there are reasons for not having ascended gear, for example:

I have a necro, mesmer, engi and ele.

I plan on maining Rev exclusively when HoT is released.

guess what ascended armor and crafting profession I DON’T have?

I’m just praying that the early bosses will be doable in just ascended accessories, the cost for making ascended armor in a timely manner is just stupid, 12g (or 300 scraps of silk) for a bolt of damask, and I need 25 >_>.

You have several weeks before the first wing is released and it was stated partial mix of ascended/exotic will be fine for skilled players. So you should already have the trinkets ready or can get them ready in time for any new alts.

Then we have who knows how much time until the raid wings that actually are recommended to have full ascended get released. Meaning you have tons of time to prepare.

Not only that but if you’ve been doing high level fractals, SW farming, guild missions and World Boss runs then you should also have a few ascended boxes and trinkets laying around in your bank. You can also get ascended items from achievements and collections.

If you haven’t been doing end game PvE content on a consistent basis then why do you think you should be given a free pass for the harder end game content? Self-entitled gamers!

We all have plenty of time to prepare people. Stop with the excuses and whining and get to work!

lol your funny. ascended boxes are random drop. You could be playing for massive amounts of hours and never see one drop. Back when i was grinding fairly hardcore in the game, like 6+ hours a day on average for months, i saw one single ascended weapons box.
a person with a normal/healthy play per dsy 1-3 hours would probably never see one.

I also find it odd you consider world bosses and silverwastes endgame play, or good preparation for raiding.

cerulean moth.2743:

https://twitter.com/All_Caulle/status/649239988282875907

Crystal RAID confirms ascended gear to be required for raiding – especially for the difficult wings.

Update: Please note that Isaiah Cartwright has posted on reddit that ascended is only recommended. The downfalls of releasing partial information across multiple platforms.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3mz8ta/crystal_reid_raids_will_be_balanced_around/cvk6djq

And this is why they should post things on there own forums first and foremost. They will never learn.

DarkSpirit.7046:

SkiTz.4590:

DarkSpirit.7046:

SkiTz.4590:

Linfang.1087:

Calcifire.1864:

I have a horrible feeling that it’s going to result in “full ascended or kick” being the norm in the same way that “full zerker only” became a thing, except in this case, it can’t be fixed by throwing a trivial amount of gold at it

But why even stop there?!

Full Ascended will only get you an invite and a foot into the raid instance. You forgot other vital things we need to check on.

You have full Ascended but your ping runs in the triple digits because you are thousands of miles away from the nearest server hub. You also have a history of disconnects.

-kick-

You have full Ascended, but your Dinosaur PC and Video card turn raid encounters into a slide show. This results in delayed skills and reactions to what is going on in game. Also your game can crash at times. Cya!

-kick-

Full Ascended but you area “clicker”! You have not invested in a MMO mouse and/or keyboard with fast and easy access to hot keys. Farewell!

-kick-

We need your API link to GW2efficiency , We need to know your AP. Please link all consumables, no voice chat software? -kick kick kick-

I really can’t wait till these elitist to declare Marshall Law and have a check list and clip board on hand ready to inspect and pre approve you. When my guild already entered the Instance 20 mins ago and took down the boss of the first wing already. hah!

hahaha, this is fun.
Exaggerate much????

You think raids going to require a gaming mouse/keyboard? thats comical.
IF i was doing competitive PvP – MAYBE for the competitive advantage and faster APM… but for PvE content? designed by ANET!!? Come on…. you are really reaching here.

Why would anyone check AP for raids when its easier to just check for ascended gear + masteries…. You don’t need AP, that means absolutely NOTHING besides telling everyone you like to do jumping puzzles and explore the world…….

You make it sound as if this was meant to be something that you can easily PUG.

Not a chance some uncoordinated PUG completes this until MUCH LATER DOWN THE ROAD after there is a well designed strategy guide that most ppl can follow and understand.

Raids are better done with a guild , not random players who will probably end up trolling. You have to be desperate to try and PUG something like a raid….you are not going to succeed at all until theres a well developed strategy for raids.

Yes people would still PUG for Raids, I can promise you that. Why? Because people still PUG in the hardest areas of GW1.

Furthermore not everyone has an active guild that has all 12 players always ready and willing to do the content that they want at any time.

People are also going to attempt to LFG using their characters with exotics, get kicked, then complain about it bitterly in this forums.

Why would they get kicked? Because now everyone knows that the Raid content is balanced around ascended, not exotic equipment. And many players do not want to waste their time partying with some stranger with inferior equipment, for a very hard content that is balanced around the best equipment in the game.

I said ppl are not going to PUG UNTIL a good strategy has been created so that everyone has a good chance at beating it

No one is stopping you from trying to PUG it from day 1 of release but chances are slim of any pug successfully beating it before guilds do.

Also, you deserve to be kicked if you join a LFG that has in their title “ascended only” and you decide “well I have exotics, I can join this LFG that says ascended, i’ll be fine”

Join or create a PUG that says “casual, slow run, exotics are fine” than you won’t be kicked.

Why should there be an LFG that says “ascended only” when the devs promised that this game would not be about gear treadmill, but skill?

Casuals, not having the best equipment, need hardcore players to help them through the hardest content in this game, but most of the time people are not willing to spend time to help others.

Because this particular content and fractal are the only things that require ascended…..
Hence, its proabably a good idea to have a group that mets the basic requirements….

You joined fully well knowing that you don’t have the basic requirements. Why on earth would you join than?

It’s like joining a dung run that clearly says “zerk, speed run” but you decide to play some shaman gear based build and casually play the dung. You think you won’t be kicked for that?? Don’t join the PUG if you don’t feel like doing what the title of that particular PUG says…..make your own that satisifes how you wanna play…. and if you don’t wanna do that, then thats your own bloody problem, not anets.

99% of this game can be PUG’d in basic gear. Only one thing in the past 2 years have required gear above normal – fractals. Now they added one more in raids…. Wow… that sure is a lot in 3+ years!

SkiTz.4590:

Because this particular content and fractal are the only things that require ascended…..

Only one thing in the past 2 years have required gear above normal – fractals. Now they added one more in raids…

nonsense post

raids does NOT require ascended

require =/= recommended

just look up the difference between both!

Terra.8571:

White Hunter.3416:

Terra.8571:

Astralporing.1957:

Terra.8571:

But simply basing the encounter’s so that the bosses/ mobs do damage against players assuming they had the BiS gear available, for the hardest content in game, seems logical.

Ascended acquisition was so far balanced around it not being required for any content beyond fractals – and even fractals weren’t balanced around ascended stats, merely around AR.
If the above doesn’t hold true, then all the acquisition methods need to be rebalanced in order to make that tier more easily obtainable.

They’re not required now afaik. The tweet never said it was physically impossible to do in exotics, she just said she think’s ascended will be needed because that’s what the Dev’s have required to beat them.

These are the same Dev’s that constantly underestimate the player base – who would have though most dungeons could be done in under 10mins, many under 5mins. They never thought legendaries would be made within 6 weeks or that all their content would be chewed through in a couple of months. Some of the hardest bosses this game are even being soloed e.g. fractal 50 bosses or Lupicus.

Even recently, they release a skill like WHaO without realising the infinite boon uptime that can be gotten with it. Dev’s make mistakes, I think at the very least, they needed to balance this content around ascended stats. I bet, unless there’s some physical link to ascended gear e.g. % damage mitigation, in time, some of this raid content will be farmable with pug exotics. We’ll see, but bottom line is they are balancing content on ascended, that’s a logical thing for the most difficult content.

Ascended are not needed to enter the raid. Just expect many wipes until the community masters them.

TA Aether sayes hello.
Still hard, really hard to find group without firsttimers, or crazy elitists.

Find a nice guild, do it with them. No need to worry about elitists then and the experience is much better. TA Aether isn’t hard, it’s more the rewards don’t justify it’s length. Bosses can all be killed in 5mins or less. It’s just frustrating trying to do some of the events in pugs because of a lack of coordination/ knowledge.

Astralporing.1957:

SO? Devs think it is required now. The same devs that earlier balanced ascended acquisition around it not being required. Since by their own admission that previous assumption no longer holds true, i believe some rebalances are in order now.

Yup, they balanced ascended acquisition on contents 2 Years, read that again, 2 years old. The new content is meant to cater to a higher level of difficulty. It would have been flawed to say this is the hardest content possible and then base it off exotic stats.

A full raid group (10 people) of ascended zerker will do 15% more dps per person than an equivalent exotic group. That’s around 52% more dps by the ascended group. Add to the fact that fights will probably last longer than the 2-3mins most bosses take currently, that increase dps is now significant. Not to base bosses of ascended stats could trivialise content.

It has now been confirmed that ascended gear is a recommendation not requirement. Feel free to try raids in exo gear, but the fights have been tuned for ascended.

you are correct, they basically had to base it off ascended, but they did create ascended aquisition as a long term prestige goal, that wasnt needed to see any content, except reruns of the same content in fractals.

So while you are right, they needed to balance around the highest teir, he is right that the current aquisition doesnt make sense.

In most raid based games, the required aquisition from one content to the next is relatively small. IE the barrier to entry from say open world, to your first raid is pretty small.
your 1st to your second raid, generally not need that many runs. From level 1 newb to hardest content in the game took me about 20 days in FFXIV to meet the requirements for that top content. Actually beating that top content and getting the gear from there might be a different matter, but less time than trying to gear up full ascended by far. And those games generally have only one applicable stat set per class. Whereas GW2 has many, and they even suggest you are supposed to be changing builds in the raid

Calcifire.1864:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Calcifire.1864:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

It is not that large now as it was 2 or even 1 year ago. And it will be even less of a grind in hot. Amount of gold game just throws at people for barely doing anything is going up every few months.

if you are wearing light armor, you need 10800 scraps of silk.

currently silk is selling for 2s 79c

that means that you need to spend 301g 32s to make the armor.

now let’s add the rest of the materials, shall we?

according to gw2spidy, the current cost to make the damask is 467g 63s 64c
the cost for the leather is 18g 67s 74c
crystalline dust is 28g 51s 20c

so a minimum of 514g 82s 58c

and that’s not including the cost of exotics for dark matter, the insignias you need for the stats (hope you don’t want celestial, because that’s an unavoidable 30 day time gate), or vendor bought materials like thermocatalytic reagents or gossamer thread

over 515g and 36 days to make a set of armor, even more expensive if you want to skip the time gating

and you say that that ISN’T a grind?

when you start measuring things in quantities of TEN THOUSAND in a game with a stack size of 250, the devs need to re-evaluate their recipe costs

compared to a few years ago, the grind is WORSE, silk has exploded in cost since then.

And if you actually play this game for at least 2 hours/day you can drop this price to less than 100 gold.

oh? how is that? by gathering the ten thousand scraps of silk yourself?

how many days are we talking? to do it within the month you’d need to get 130 scraps of silk per hour at that rate.

two hours a day of doing nothing but farming silk. god that DEFINITELY doesn’t sound like a grind.

PvE raids shouldn’t stand for “player versus economy”

130 scraps per hour is very little if you salvage stuff you get and sell mats you don’t need. And “silk has exploded in cost since then”. Other mats did so too and will continue exploding with hot. This combined with how easy you can get them will allow you to get 130 scrap in few minutes. By the time you write your post some random Billy equipped with harvesting tools can hop around the world, get some gold, do his daily ascended crafting and log off.

Zaron.1987:

SkiTz.4590:

Because this particular content and fractal are the only things that require ascended…..

Only one thing in the past 2 years have required gear above normal – fractals. Now they added one more in raids…

nonsense post

raids does NOT require ascended

require =/= recommended

just look up the difference between both!

Ok I just saw that 2 mins after I posted that…
But the point still stands…its probably WISE to wear ascended gear…
I know the difference, full exotic vs full ascended (including infusions) is ~ 12% increase in DPS AND ARMOR.

rivurivurivurivu.3041:

Astralporing.1957:

rivurivurivurivu.3041:

IndigoSundown.5419:

rivurivurivurivu.3041:

don’t get it, why ppl are complaining ?
fractals need ascended gear, raids seems to need it too. whats the problem ?
fractals were the end game for pvers for years and you don’t see ppl complaining about the gear requirement.

There’s no Legendary Armor rewards in FotM, mate.

so ppl are complaining about not having ascended gear to get ascended gear ?
is that it ?

No, not to get ascended gear. To get exclusive rewards (skins, etc). Which seem to get locked out now not only behind skill, time and organizational check, but also behind a gear check on top of that.

aah ok ty
but fractals will also get exclusive skins and will be locked out behind skill, time, organization and gear.
still no one is complaining.

You haven’t been reading forum that much, have you?

TheRandomGuy.7246:

130 scraps per hour is very little if you salvage stuff you get and sell mats you don’t need. And “silk has exploded in cost since then”. Other mats did so too and will continue exploding with hot. This combined with how easy you can get them will allow you to get 130 scrap in few minutes. By the time you write your post some random Billy equipped with harvesting tools can hop around the world, get some gold, do his daily ascended crafting and log off.

ok, you’ve said it’s possible, but HOW?

everyone always says how easy it is to do things then never says how!

yesterday I tallied up the silk I got from salvaging my stuff from vinewrath and the subsequent champ farm, it resulted in 53 scraps.

am I just supernaturally unlucky? am I missing out on a big secret?

Astralporing.1957:

rivurivurivurivu.3041:

Astralporing.1957:

rivurivurivurivu.3041:

IndigoSundown.5419:

rivurivurivurivu.3041:

don’t get it, why ppl are complaining ?
fractals need ascended gear, raids seems to need it too. whats the problem ?
fractals were the end game for pvers for years and you don’t see ppl complaining about the gear requirement.

There’s no Legendary Armor rewards in FotM, mate.

so ppl are complaining about not having ascended gear to get ascended gear ?
is that it ?

No, not to get ascended gear. To get exclusive rewards (skins, etc). Which seem to get locked out now not only behind skill, time and organizational check, but also behind a gear check on top of that.

aah ok ty
but fractals will also get exclusive skins and will be locked out behind skill, time, organization and gear.
still no one is complaining.

You haven’t been reading forum that much, have you?

Yup, been reading for the 2+ years fractal skins have been added to the game.
Seen very few complaints about exclusive skins in fractals……

If there was some major outcry and serious crapstorm about it, you think anet would have done something by now after 2 years right???

Oh they haven’t because its a NON issue except for extreme casuals who believe they are entitled to every single reward in this game without actually doing the work set out by anet for it.

SkiTz.4590:

I know the difference, full exotic vs full ascended (including infusions) is ~ 12% increase in DPS AND ARMOR.

What are you talking about? Armor increases (assuming Toughness as a major stat) by 6.29% for light, 6.2% for medium and 6.08% for heavy armor.

dulfy.net
wiki.guildwars2.com

Edit: That means 6 stacks of vuln cancel the effects of ascended armor stats, right?

The easy solution to this is for them to make it easier to acquire ascended gear in the game – maybe even something as simple as doing away with the time gate on ascended mats and upping drop rates in fractals/pvp/wvw – or possibly by allowing people to earn a full set of ascended armor and 1 or 2 weapons (one time stat selectable) through personal story achievements (much like the trinkets associated with season 2 of the living story).

Randulf.7614:

People cheered when raids were added, but where is the future in making more raids if new and future players are unable to access them until they have gone through a drawn out process of obtaining what the community demands they bring with them?

If you look closely at the other raid threads, you will see that most of the people aren’t really interested in raids being popular. They want exclusives, and those exclusives are worth more to them the less people are doing raids. So, new players being unable to participate is actually desirable for them.

Auesis.7301:

Oh noes, the content designed to be the hardest in the game by an enormous margin also recommends the best available equipment! How unusual!

Actually the hardest content is not raids, but sPvP. And the entry bar is completely skill-based, you can be level 20 in blue gear two days after creating your char and it won’t matter.

SkiTz.4590:

Exotics work just fine in 99 percent of the game
You really gonna complain that 2 things in pve (high lvl fracs and raids) require ascended???

Sure. I have been against introducing ascended since 15th of november 2012. But no, i was an alarmist, because Ascended were fully optional as stat tier, and Anet would obvioulsy never balance any part of their content around that gear tier.
Well, this “never” just happened.

And if you will tell me again that it’s only 2% of content, and i shouldn’t complain because it is only small part, and obviously Anet will never push ascended into more content, so i don’t need to worry, i will just point at what i said above.

Basically, this just reinforces my opinion that ascended should never have been introduced.

lordkrall.7241:

symke.3105:

They are recommended to what degree? As in, you will have almost no chance of doing raids without it or you might have some problems doing raid without ascended gear?

You have already commented on a post where a dev tells you the answer to this question.

If you haven’t noticed, “recommended” meant “we really doubt that anything less than top players in full ascended will be able to kill the main boss”. By the way, the masteries will also be only recommended, but they also straight out said that killing the bosses without those “only required” masteries will be almost impossible.

Nokaru.7831:

Test.8734:

So yeah, saying that ascended gear being grindy is ok because it’s optional is completely irrelevant – by ArenaNet’s own definition, it was not meant to be grindy. Despite how it is.

Is your definition of grind “anything I’m unwilling to do”?

Pretty much. Notice how he conveniently left out the next section in that link of his about what Anet considers grind to be? It pretty much counters his argument of what Anet’s definition of grind is. Of course, he likely was full aware of it and leaving that part out was intentional because it doesn’t fit the narrative of his argument.