Guild Wars 2

After 1.600 hours into the game, getting full ascended builds on ever char, i find myself having no motivation to play any further. Now i play GW2 every now and then (once or twice every month/3-months).

There is nothing to do in the game anymore. There is no gear progression and doing fractals or raids does not feel rewarding at all. Removing the dungeons was also removing a big part of content and variety of the game. I find myself getting bored from doing the same stuff over and over again. It feels mundane.

Back in vanilla gw2, you had to go through masterwork>rare>exotic, but now you instantly jump to exotic.

Everything gives you ascended, whether it is fractals,raids,word bosses.

And now the game ended up being a fashion contest game, with only purpose of “Looking good” rather “Getting Good”.

Hope with the new expansion we will see a new gear progression system that feels rewarding and hard at the same time. Rewarding and easy is never good.

I really hope not. I have 4,300 hours logged into the game currently with five sets of ascended and five legendary weapons. I am more than happy with the gear provided.. and it would appear that the model would be for new stat sets rather than armor sets. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get the ability to ‘Bless’ Ascended armor too.

Every tier of gear you add to GW2 only increases the stress on inpatient new people… and new players really are impatient. I’ve personally watched over twenty people join our guild, play the game for one to three months, progressively, and then simply quit once they start researching the time needed for ascended gear. Everyone wants the best, even if it isn’t needed. Legendary armor is going to be more than enough of a blunder in the same regard.

Hopefully we won’t get gear progression. The lack of power grind seen in other games is one of the best features in GW2. There’s the fashion grind, which offers long-term goals in the game, lets you pick your own goals and isn’t mandatory.

But the game has never been about gear progression. It has always been about fashion wars, you said it yourself. In the next expansion though, they will certainly add new stats combo to hunt and play with. That is the closest "gear progression " you will ever have. Other than that, OP you might want to go raiding for convenient rune swaps.

It wasn’t ruled out entirely if I remember correctly, but also the general plan at the time was not to add any more tiers of gear after ascended (or legendary, which mirrors ascended statistically).

I really hope we don’t get a new tier of gear to grind (legendary notwithstanding) , it’d be really tedious at this point.

Shortage.5427:

Back in vanilla gw2, you had to go through masterwork>rare>exotic, but now you instantly jump to exotic.

That is simply not true, unless you ignored crafting and the stuff you could buy for karma. It took very little effort.

armaduras.8972:

I really hope not. I have 4,300 hours logged into the game currently with five sets of ascended and five legendary weapons. I am more than happy with the gear provided.. and it would appear that the model would be for new stat sets rather than armor sets. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get the ability to ‘Bless’ Ascended armor too.

Every tier of gear you add to GW2 only increases the stress on inpatient new people… and new players really are impatient. I’ve personally watched over twenty people join our guild, play the game for one to three months, progressively, and then simply quit once they start researching the time needed for ascended gear. Everyone wants the best, even if it isn’t needed. Legendary armor is going to be more than enough of a blunder in the same regard.

Yes but you also push away the people who wants this stuff. From my 60 in game friends and 30 followers only 3-4 are online. Also games such as BDO and BnS seem to have stolen lot’s of people from GW2 because it felt a “Waste of time” or rather “Too casual for me”. The more you restrict the people the easier the get bored.

Also it’s a MMORPG game. There is no MMORPG without some type of grinding or gear progression. It was fun till i reached 1600 hours and completed everything.

It all goes back in the box, and move on a diffrent game?

To be honest i saw the new expansion leak and it was amazing. But now i am wondering if it’s worth that much.

Shortage.5427:

armaduras.8972:

I really hope not. I have 4,300 hours logged into the game currently with five sets of ascended and five legendary weapons. I am more than happy with the gear provided.. and it would appear that the model would be for new stat sets rather than armor sets. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get the ability to ‘Bless’ Ascended armor too.

Every tier of gear you add to GW2 only increases the stress on inpatient new people… and new players really are impatient. I’ve personally watched over twenty people join our guild, play the game for one to three months, progressively, and then simply quit once they start researching the time needed for ascended gear. Everyone wants the best, even if it isn’t needed. Legendary armor is going to be more than enough of a blunder in the same regard.

Yes but you also push away the people who wants this stuff. From my 60 in game friends and 30 followers only 3-4 are online. Also games such as BDO and BnS seem to have stolen lot’s of people from GW2 because it felt a “Waste of time” or rather “Too casual for me”. The more you restrict the people the easier the get bored.

Also it’s a MMORPG game. There is no MMORPG without some type of grinding or gear progression. It was fun till i reached 1600 hours and completed everything.

It all goes back in the box, and move on a diffrent game?

To be honest i saw the new expansion leak and it was amazing. But now i am wondering if it’s worth that much.

Now consider your own statement that there is no other MMO without gear grind. Maybe GW2 is specifically targeted at players who don’t like to be forced into gear grind? You’re basically demanding the only game made for them to become like every other game, effectively forcing them to leave the MMO scene altogether. Strikes me as kind of selfish position.

Shortage.5427:

Yes but you also push away the people who wants this stuff.

Indeed, but by introducting the gear progression you would push away all the players that do not want it. Which likely at the moment far outnumber your (non-playing) friends. Whi is not surprising, by the way – all the players that do not like gear grind are in GW2 because it’s the only MMO around without that feature.

Shortage.5427:

Also it’s a MMORPG game. There is no MMORPG without some type of grinding or gear progression.

Well, there is one – GW2 (without the gear progression anyway, grind is still present).

Don’t make every game a carbon copy of each other. Each should have some unique features. It just so happens, that the unique features of GW2 are something that you dislike.

God, I hope not, for all the reasons already posted.

The lack of gear grind is one of the main features of this game that attracts me.

There is plenty to do without gear progression.

And, I’m one of those who would likely stop playing if they introduced a gear and level grind.

With GW and GW2 if real life intrudes and I can’t play for awhile or for some reason I want to take a break then I don’t feel like I have fallen behind with gear or anything. I enjoy not chasing the latest, greatest gear or new level. I really don’t feel like I have to play to keep up with a game. Real life does that enough.

Like right now, real life has me dealing with 2 claims adjusters for the RV and the car since the tow bar broke and the car hit the RV. I am also helping to make sure a friend can get to and home from a surgery. I also have to figure on where to get the vehicles fixed and can they get fixed in time for me to make it across the US to take the granddaughter to Space Camp.

I play games to escape the hectic real life that never goes away. I don’t want a game to be as hectic as real life.

Ascended is close enough, god. If they added another functional tier I would quit.

If gear grind appeals to you, you should chase legendaries. The whole point of them is to be wildly extra for those folks who really need more to do. (I made The Dreamer recently so I’m among this number).

I will drop GW2 forever if that happens. It is my line in the sand for playing this game over others, and was one of the pillars of GW1 and stated to be so all through development of GW2.

Moonyeti.3296:

I will drop GW2 forever if that happens. It is my line in the sand for playing this game over others, and was one of the pillars of GW1 and stated to be so all through development of GW2.

Just imagine the material sinks for such a thing.
30,000 silk scraps for one piece of Nostalgia Cloth, plus 300 Hardened Leather for the Centaur Skin Insignia, so we can finally combine 3 of each of those into one piece of Epiphany-grade gear.

No thanks. IMO there is still plenty to do. Maybe I’m just lucky: the rewards are just an extra to me, not the reason to play. I don’t need more tiers of gear to have fun.

Shortage.5427:

After 1.600 hours into the game, getting full ascended builds on ever char, i find myself having no motivation to play any further. Now i play GW2 every now and then (once or twice every month/3-months).

There is nothing to do in the game anymore. There is no gear progression and doing fractals or raids does not feel rewarding at all. Removing the dungeons was also removing a big part of content and variety of the game. I find myself getting bored from doing the same stuff over and over again. It feels mundane.

Back in vanilla gw2, you had to go through masterwork>rare>exotic, but now you instantly jump to exotic.

Everything gives you ascended, whether it is fractals,raids,word bosses.

And now the game ended up being a fashion contest game, with only purpose of “Looking good” rather “Getting Good”.

Hope with the new expansion we will see a new gear progression system that feels rewarding and hard at the same time. Rewarding and easy is never good.

Are you serious? You have gear progression options available. You can go for legendary weapons and legendary armor.

The options for progression are there, you just refuse to take them.

So the game is plagued by casuals who want to downgrade this game to a fashion contest. This actually quiet sad.

Gear “progression” is a concept that was created to keep monthly subscription players tethered. There is a reason it is called a “treadmill” (i.e. you keep running but you never make progress).

It is still present in many games that don’t have a subscription only because the developers are unable to think outside the box and merely copied the genre’s mechanics onto their own game.

Shortage.5427:

So the game is plagued by casuals who want to downgrade this game to a fashion contest. This actually quiet sad.

Nice try, i’ll take the bait. Can’t downgrade if it has always been that way as a conscious design decision, no less. What is sad to me is it bothers you so much that you have to resort to throwing a tantrum instead playing literally any other MMO out there. Gear progression is not a rarity in the MMO market. Those of us that do not like it have this one game to play.

Shortage.5427:

So the game is plagued by casuals who want to downgrade this game to a fashion contest. This actually quiet sad.

Are you kidding me? The game was sold that way! It was never supposed to have extreme gear progression.

Why do you need gear progression unless you just want higher stats for an easier game? If you also increase the stat of the mobs then you have no progression and all you have is a gear treadmill.

You picked the wrong game if you are looking for a MMO that has gear grinding.

There are already a lot of other MMOs that follow this single formula but GW2 main kick was that it advertise itself as a MMO that does not follow this formula of Gear grinding.

This game main focus is not about getting the best gear in the game but about the world of the game itself which is why it does not increase level cap like other games and why it do not keep dropping higher tier gears to the point player would be able to solo old contents.

GW2 is still considered by a lot of people as the top 3 best MMO today because it follows this unique formula focusing more on the World of the MMO instead of Gear Grinding while every single other MMO follow the Gear Grind Formula where they focus more on adding high level and tier things for players to just grinding until they got it and then grind some more for something better to replace their old stuff for a slightly higher stat instead of focusing on the world of the MMO itself.

FF14, for example, is considered one of the best MMO today but in the endgame all it has is Gear Grinding. Once people got the Gear they want they just drop the game and wait for some new gear later to grinding some more. All it ha sin the end is gear grinding and nothing else. Raids, Trials, Hard content, and etc all are just one big Gear Grinding fest until you got everything you need and just never return to those places unless they introduce something that require to return, and you guess it, grind that place for a certain gear or gear material that you will replace once again in 6 months.

Just want to add in my 2 cents, No thank you to gear grind.
The biggest part of this game that’s supposed to give the feeling of progression is leveling and than mastery system. Which despite my own issues with the mastery system I still think it’s leagues better than typical gear progression.

Already exists

What is gear progression when you really think about it?
It’s an ever spinning hamster wheel of rewards and difficulty the new rewards are locked to the new content that can only be beaten if your toon has the courage to git gud. It keeps raids and other modes alive and well populated because those flashy new rewards at the end of the new content/raid can only be reached by grinding that bit of new content for stats.

In this game we have fractals and I personally believe fractals to be the most solid mode in this entire game. There are all sorts of rewards for getting to the upper tiers of fractals however your going to have to grind out those very fractals to get Agony Resistance to have a chance at the higher difficulty.

Anyone who disagrees with a progression system in this game only need look a the shining superior glory of fractals and its AR in comparison to other parts of the game. If Anet added another extra 100 levels of new fractals, new AR requirements, and even better loot well they’d jump for joy. I firmly beleive that raids are doomed to fail in the long haul unless they a wheel of ever increasing difficulty and rewards just imagine if the raids were tiered like fractals and had AR requirements also a split difficulty with adjusted awards.

Fractals > Dungeons and Fractal Raids > Current Raids.

Shortage.5427:

There is nothing to do in the game anymore.

Time to move on then.

I don’t mean that to dismiss your interest in gear progress — I think it’s a perfectly valid way to enjoy a game; it’s just not something supported in this game. On the contrary, the developers have gone out of their way to ensure that there’s only one tier of max gear that never changes (and that near-max gear is really quite nearly max).

You can, if you want, progress your gear further with plus-stat infusions and keep a variety of prefixes/upgrades for covering various situations. However, that’s pretty limited, too — it’s mostly once & forget, until there’s a major change to the game.

Consequently, this game is missing a key feature that is critically important to your enjoyment. That’s why it’s probably worth your time to find a different game.

tl;dr nothing wrong with wanting gear progression, but neither is there anything wrong with ANet saying it won’t happen in this game.

Exo.2143:

Shortage.5427:

So the game is plagued by casuals who want to downgrade this game to a fashion contest. This actually quiet sad.

Are you kidding me? The game was sold that way! It was never supposed to have extreme gear progression.

The game was sold on underwater content, WvW, living world without expansion, and all that stuff they shattered during their push for ESPORTS. The game was marketted and sold as many things at launch but sadly they’ve flipped on most of it.

Heck I’d say even the requests for gear progression are directly tied to Anets heavy focus on pushing raiding while abandoning core modes like dungeons and WvW.

Shortage. In my opinion you are confusing boredom with gear progression. I am sure you have a preferred playstyle and you have equipped all your toons with the ascended gear to match. We won’t be seeing higher stats in the expacs, but instead we will see mastery “skills” for use in applicable situations. You have to collect the mastery points first before you can xp train in them. So maybe you might want to take a break for a bit. Step back, relax a bit, and return when you have the desire to begin again and grind to collect and finish the masteries….

There are also many players that have issues with crafting exotic armors. I imagine an extra tier or nine is going to push them out.

I mean, it’s fine and all, but this game wasn’t meant for this kind of thing. Honestly, it should have been obvious when the latest gear tier was over 3 years ago, with a number of complaints. Even the most casual of players would have figured that out by now.

OP, the answer is no, this will never happen, they have said it will never happen. You draw your conclusion about that if you want to play this game. But this will guaranteed never happen. Wich is a good thing to me.

ascended was already a mistake… so no more armor progression in term of stats increase.

btw Anet does gimmick rotation progression with expansion, that is what replaced the gear progression, u will need next dumb rotation builds.

No thanks from me too. If they add another tier I’m out. Just as well they’ve said they won’t another one or raise the level cap numerous times.

The best progression, in my opinion, is the player getting better at the game, not adding yet more powerful gear as a crutch to make the game easier.

I would like it if they add stuff like armor infusion for example for new super hard fractals. But new gear tiers are a no for me.

Ashen.2907:

The best progression, in my opinion, is the player getting better at the game, not adding yet more powerful gear as a crutch to make the game easier.

better at the game can be tranlated as buy expansions “to get good” lol…..

Aeolus.3615:

Ashen.2907:

The best progression, in my opinion, is the player getting better at the game, not adding yet more powerful gear as a crutch to make the game easier.

better @game can be tranlated as buy expansions “to get good” lol…..

Power creep in expansions can be a problem IMO.

Ashen.2907:

Aeolus.3615:

Ashen.2907:

The best progression, in my opinion, is the player getting better at the game, not adding yet more powerful gear as a crutch to make the game easier.

better @game can be tranlated as buy expansions “to get good” lol…..

Power creep in expansions can be a problem IMO.

that is how this game evolve… and that is what the class progressions system is, to make players feel necessity to buys the expansion, its not mechanics of the game and game improvements that makes people busy the expansion.

game with 4 years and feels like it doesnt have nothing new….

Shortage.5427:

So the game is plagued by casuals who want to downgrade this game to a fashion contest. This actually quiet sad.

Actaully, the game was never more than this to begin with so to be fair, that’s not a downgrade at all. If anything Anet has stuck to their guns here and the game is better for it. If you want gear progression there is literally EVERY other game out there for that.

Aeolus.3615:

Ashen.2907:

Aeolus.3615:

Ashen.2907:

The best progression, in my opinion, is the player getting better at the game, not adding yet more powerful gear as a crutch to make the game easier.

better @game can be tranlated as buy expansions “to get good” lol…..

Power creep in expansions can be a problem IMO.

that is how this game evolve… and that is what the class progressions system is, to make players feel necessity to buys the expansion, its not mechanics of the game and game improvements that makes people busy the expansion.

game with 4 years and feels like it doesnt have nothing new….

No, you do not need gear progression to keep the game interesting and new. That literally makes no sense. If you are fooled into believing that +10 stat gear feels new and interesting over +8 stat gear, then I don’t even understand why you even play MMO’s in the first place.

Furthermore, after 4+ years, no one in this game should be expecting gear progression … or want it.

Aeolus.3615:

Ashen.2907:

Aeolus.3615:

Ashen.2907:

The best progression, in my opinion, is the player getting better at the game, not adding yet more powerful gear as a crutch to make the game easier.

better @game can be tranlated as buy expansions “to get good” lol…..

Power creep in expansions can be a problem IMO.

that is how this game evolve… and that is what the class progressions system is, to make players feel necessity to buys the expansion, its not mechanics of the game and game improvements that makes people busy the expansion.

game with 4 years and feels like it doesnt have nothing new….

GW games unique selling point is that it has a power ceiling in a AAA quality mmorpg with no sub, if you want power creep, play any one of the many many many other mmorpg out there that hooks players in with the power tread mill. People that are trying to fight this are trying to change a round hole into a square so they can fit through..

Shortage.5427:

After 1.600 hours into the game, getting full ascended builds on ever char, i find myself having no motivation to play any further.

Congratulations, you now have almost half my played time and about 1/7th to 1/8th of what most serious GW2 gamers have (with many having over 10,000 hours played).

Shortage.5427:

So the game is plagued by casuals who want to downgrade this game to a fashion contest. This actually quiet sad.

You seem not to research the games you play. The no gear progression after the initial setup was a central unique selling proposition of GW2 much the same way as it was in GW1. It was communicated very clearly that there would be no horizontal gear progression.

It is also one of the reasons why many people call GW2 endgame fashion wars. Sorry you missed this. Next time, instead of getting insulting, maybe get an overview of what game you are actually playing. You are in luck though, there is a lot of other MMOs where you can happily chase the carrot as long as you want and never run out of chase.

Shortage.5427:

armaduras.8972:

I really hope not. I have 4,300 hours logged into the game currently with five sets of ascended and five legendary weapons. I am more than happy with the gear provided.. and it would appear that the model would be for new stat sets rather than armor sets. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get the ability to ‘Bless’ Ascended armor too.

Every tier of gear you add to GW2 only increases the stress on inpatient new people… and new players really are impatient. I’ve personally watched over twenty people join our guild, play the game for one to three months, progressively, and then simply quit once they start researching the time needed for ascended gear. Everyone wants the best, even if it isn’t needed. Legendary armor is going to be more than enough of a blunder in the same regard.

Yes but you also push away the people who wants this stuff. From my 60 in game friends and 30 followers only 3-4 are online. Also games such as BDO and BnS seem to have stolen lot’s of people from GW2 because it felt a “Waste of time” or rather “Too casual for me”. The more you restrict the people the easier the get bored.

Also it’s a MMORPG game. There is no MMORPG without some type of grinding or gear progression. It was fun till i reached 1600 hours and completed everything.

It all goes back in the box, and move on a diffrent game?

To be honest i saw the new expansion leak and it was amazing. But now i am wondering if it’s worth that much.

truth is bns and bdo are fundamentally different games than guild wars. Attributing the difference to grind, doesnt really work.
bns is an instanced based encounter driven game where the grind is always limited. it has treadmill, but its rarely that hard to progress. i think people who like bns like combat, and the only purpose of the rest of the game is to enhance that

bdo is an open world throwback with no real end to progression, but people play that for very different reasons.

i also dont think you d be any less bored of those games with 1600 hours. In bns you definately have hit cap long ago. and bdo, you might not, but you d probably have no enemies that need your level of gear.

they probably just took too long before offering you an expansion, worry not, its coming soon.

soon youll have new masteries to power up, and new weapons to make, and new builds from new stat distributions to chase, new sigils etc.

btw, do you have legendary armor? have you done raids?

Obtena.7952:

Shortage.5427:

So the game is plagued by casuals who want to downgrade this game to a fashion contest. This actually quiet sad.

Actaully, the game was never more than this to begin with so to be fair, that’s not a downgrade at all. If anything Anet has stuck to their guns here and the game is better for it. If you want gear progression there is literally EVERY other game out there for that.

Aeolus.3615:

Ashen.2907:

Aeolus.3615:

Ashen.2907:

The best progression, in my opinion, is the player getting better at the game, not adding yet more powerful gear as a crutch to make the game easier.

better @game can be tranlated as buy expansions “to get good” lol…..

Power creep in expansions can be a problem IMO.

that is how this game evolve… and that is what the class progressions system is, to make players feel necessity to buys the expansion, its not mechanics of the game and game improvements that makes people busy the expansion.

game with 4 years and feels like it doesnt have nothing new….

No, you do not need gear progression to keep the game interesting and new. That literally makes no sense. If you are fooled into believing that +10 stat gear feels new and interesting over +8 stat gear, then I don’t even understand why you even play MMO’s in the first place.

Furthermore, after 4+ years, no one in this game should be expecting gear progression … or want it.

i didnt said… that… i dont like gear progression as well… just stated that the game exchanged one thing for another…

gear progression is a outdated system, but gw2 class progression doesnt feel right as well..

agree with this ^^ personally i think the issue with the GW2 class progression is that its just to easy and quick to get any gear set you target bar legendary gear. If a skin is easy to get it does not feel epic and rewarding. On a positive, we are in a much healthier place than games stuck in a loop feeding players constant gear upgrades, orange is the new purple in that world.

Aeolus.3615:

Ashen.2907:

The best progression, in my opinion, is the player getting better at the game, not adding yet more powerful gear as a crutch to make the game easier.

better at the game can be tranlated as buy expansions “to get good” lol…..

this an interesting point of view that i didnt really think about.
gw 2 has a ton of grind, but what happens when the casual catches up? the ones who arent interested in getting better, or more skilled. They buy an expansion to get better, but not really to take on greater challenges.
this is where the treadmill usually comes in.

i guess masteries need to fill this role in gw, but do they feel enough like growth for these type of players?

vesica tempestas.1563:

agree with this ^^ personally i think the issue with the GW2 class progression is that its just to easy and quick to get any gear set you target bar legendary gear. If a skin is easy to get it does not feel epic and rewarding. On a positive, we are in a much healthier place than games stuck in a loop feeding players constant gear upgrades, orange is the new purple in that world.

class progression? or gear progression?
what does class progression mean to you, any examples?

vesica tempestas.1563:

If a skin is easy to get it does not feel epic and rewarding.

If a skin is hard to get, it doesn’t feel any more epic. It’s just harder to get. I guess that there are some people that dress not according to aestethic reasons, but to showcase their more rare gear, but in the end, instead of prestigious, they just usually look bad.

@ phys.7689 class/avatar/character.

Astralporing.1957:

vesica tempestas.1563:

If a skin is easy to get it does not feel epic and rewarding.

If a skin is hard to get, it doesn’t feel any more epic. It’s just harder to get. I guess that there are some people that dress not according to aestethic reasons, but to showcase their more rare gear, but in the end, instead of prestigious, they just usually look bad.

Yup that’s exactly right, finally getting that item you have been working for for ages because you really want it and its rare can give a burst of pleasure/prestige, its core to rpg and always has been. Everyone running about with the exact same hammer of godly powerlessness +500 is the other side of the coin. As for player looking bad, that’s the problem of the observer.

Shortage.5427:

So the game is plagued by casuals who want to downgrade this game to a fashion contest. This actually quiet sad.

Um, the game has been like this since launch. You’ve offered up arguments as to why gear progression is fun for you — you haven’t explained how it would benefit this game or its community to change the way it currently works.

That’s not sad; it’s just a difference of opinion, where the burden is on you to show that it’s worth the effort.

vesica tempestas.1563:

Astralporing.1957:

vesica tempestas.1563:

If a skin is easy to get it does not feel epic and rewarding.

If a skin is hard to get, it doesn’t feel any more epic. It’s just harder to get. I guess that there are some people that dress not according to aestethic reasons, but to showcase their more rare gear, but in the end, instead of prestigious, they just usually look bad.

Yup that’s exactly right, finally getting that item you have been working for for ages because you really want it and its rare can give a burst of pleasure/prestige, its core to rpg and always has been. Everyone running about with the exact same hammer of godly powerlessness +500 is the other side of the coin. As for player looking bad, that’s the problem of the observer.

there is diminishing return on this though. legendaries in this game tend to surpass that for many
even ascended surpass it, except the rare drop ones.

for me, the feeling you are talking about usually works best when tied to doing something epic, rather than strictly how many hours it took.

but everyone is different is the problem with big mmos.

thats also true ^^. its the big puzzle that all mmorpg will try to solve by offering different solutions – what content do you offer to the player that has hundreds/thousands of hours under the belt. No easy task.