Guild Wars 2

I am wondering what was the reason behind the pvp sets being so much work.

Ascended Shards of Glory:
Last season we got 1300 shards for simply finishing each chest once .
This season to get 1300 shards we need to finish each chest once + play (and win) roughly 360 games (or if losing up to 720) if my math is correct (Last chest takes 18 wins to “open” and since you get 50/chest, you need 20 chests to get 1k shards).

Where I perceive a problem:
I personally played 200-300 games during each previous pvp season, and obviously, not all of them were wins (50-70% win rates).
So basically, for an average player like me, a full set (1300 shards like we got last season) would take about 2-3 seasons to get enough shards for 1 set. (And then add there’s crafting/gold sink component to it, which pretty much means you pay the same as you would for a normal crafted set).

So, I guess, my question(s):
Does anybody else think that the base amount of [Ascended Shards of Glory] you get from non-repeatable chests should be higher?
Is there a reason ANET made those skins into such ridiculous amount of work?

For the record: 360 games is 30 hours assuming you’re really fast and each match only takes 5 minutes and you have no matchmaking time (does not account for 1 extra pip you getif you have top stats). Each loss adds extra 5 minutes to that number.

EDIT: Just realized I made my calculations assuming 1300 can buy a set….. You 1400 so that’s 396 wins for 1100 shards….

i honestly couldn’t care less. i haven’t taken a toon out of HotM in 2017.

The major change I’ve seen comes with the Marks required…which require crafting. The good news on marks is you have 2 options to choose from to get them…10 Tickets or 10 Pristine Fractal Relics.

I managed to get a full set of ascended on my ranger last season by only playing 3-4 games per day.

That isn’t possible, moonstarmac. You could only acquire a maximum of 1300 Ascended Shards from last season. A full set requires 1400 Ascended Shards. Unless you’re also including other Ascended armor pieces you acquired from elsewhere.

Anyway, while I do think that the drastic reduction in Ascended Shards was excessive (and I wouldn’t mind seeing them get adjusted a bit higher), I think that if ANet intends this to be a sort of long-term reward to keep people playing PvP for longer, it’s probably exactly where they intended it to be.

moonstarmac.4603:

The major change I’ve seen comes with the Marks required…which require crafting. The good news on marks is you have 2 options to choose from to get them…10 Tickets or 10 Pristine Fractal Relics.

I managed to get a full set of ascended on my ranger last season by only playing 3-4 games per day.

Last season it was SUPER easy because you got a ton of tickets with 6 chests. Now you need A LOT more chests (due to the fact each one only gives 50 shards).

And there’s only 1 option if you’re after the skins…..

I enjoy PvP and hit platinum last season, but I’ve played this game for so long that if I don’t feel adequately rewarded for my time I spend that time elsewhere. With this massive nerf to ranked seasonal rewards, I’m definitely spending my time elsewhere in-game for this season.

Jitsuryoku.9038:

I am wondering what was the reason behind the pvp sets being so much work.

Ascended Shards of Glory:
Last season we got 1300 shards for simply finishing each chest once .
This season to get 1300 shards we need to finish each chest once + play (and win) roughly 360 games (or if losing up to 720) if my math is correct (Last chest takes 18 wins to “open” and since you get 50/chest, you need 20 chests to get 1k shards).

I only started PvP this winter, so I was looking forward to completing my ascended gear this season.

After looking at the changes, however, I’ve decided that it’s not worth the effort. I’ll be done quicker and with less grinding being forced down my throat if I simply craft the armor and weapons I still need.

Not enough that they changed the whole ascended vendor system, now it’s like they want players to craft their stuff instead of acquiring it via gameplay. GG, ArenaNet, count me out of PvP this season. Nice way to turn a relative PvP newbie off.

Act like PvP gives you no gains, which with PvE is almost entirely true.

We survived several years with barely any earnings in this game mode; probably this won’t last longer after the rewarding S5, but you can count that one as an anomaly.

Buran.3796:

Act like PvP gives you no gains, which with PvE is almost entirely true.

We survived several years with barely any earnings in this game mode; probably this won’t last longer after the rewarding S5, but you can count that one as an anomaly.

Anomaly or not, I don’t know a single person who got 300+ wins in 1 season and these rewards are marketed to appeal to PvE/WvW (not hardcore PvP) players …. I’m just saying: sometimes no rewards are healthier than rewards that take half of year to get. Since they implemented rewards they might as well make them accessible….

No way i am buying armor from pvp or fractals, the amount of time you need to invest to get the shards/fractal currency, level up crafting profs, farm up the mats for crafting tokens is absurd and unreasonable. By the time you actually get it all done, you will probably get enough boxes dropped (not to mention i raid anyway, can buy stuff with magnetite shards).

It’s incredibly unreasonable. I had thought the entire point of rewards in modes like PvP (tracks or chests) was to give players an alternative method of obtaining the reward. There is no way the Pvp season is providing an alternative method to the reward when players are still forced to have a 500 crafting and go make some tokens. . . It’s upsetting especially considering last season the ascended shard currency was the only requirement.

oh that is no problem you can play every class just be sure to queue with it and matchmaking will consider it when creating your team to play with / against

oh wait that was a dream I had :-(

I only have 400 LIFETIME ranked wins over the past 3 years.

I agree that the “nerf” was extreme.

Last season I got 8 pieces of ascended armor (I only bought the 150 shard ones) for less than 100 games, so 15 hours of total playtime. That was crazy imbalanced and if you assume an average of 67 gold to craft one ascended armor piece, then you got rewarded with 36 gold worth of ascended shards per hour in pvp.

This season you will get 2 pieces of ascended armor for 100 games, so 15 hours of playtime. Since the grandmaster marks you need this season, cost around 60 gold of materials to make (if you have crafting already maxed) per “150”-ascended piece, you save maybe 5 gold per piece to crafting ascended armor outright. So you get 0.7 gold worth of ascended shards per hour in pvp if you don’t do repeats. And why should you repeat, because then it is 0.35 gold worth of ascended shards per hour. So it was nerved by 98%.

—> While I understand that it wasn’t in any way balanced last season, the gold you save by buying armor in pvp and fractals is no longer worth it from a financial standpoint.
—> crafting with the grandmaster marks is in some cases more expensive than making the armor outright, so you use additional currency and get no discount at all. I checked on gw2efficiency.com.

My suggestions would be:
- get a statistical expert to analyze your game mechanics before adding stuff that is out of balance or nerfing them so much.
- reduce the cost for grandmaster marks by 33% or the amouth of grandmaster marks per armor piece by 1 to make sure the additional currency is actually worth it.
- make grandmaster marks sellable, so there is actually a (more expensive) way to get ascended armor without having to level crafting.

The tokens aren’t the issue, ascended is nearly half the price it was before the patch. The only issue is the amount of shards required.

Rink.6108:

….

My suggestions would be:
- get a statistical expert to analyze your game mechanics before adding stuff that is out of balance or nerfing them so much.
- reduce the cost for grandmaster marks by 33% or the amouth of grandmaster marks per armor piece by 1 to make sure the additional currency is actually worth it.
- make grandmaster marks sellable, so there is actually a (more expensive) way to get ascended armor without having to level crafting.

The whole reason they went for grandmaster marks was to avoid giving players easy ascended (without crafting). With this change you either need crafting ,raids or luck to get ascended items. That’s why I don’t agree with “make grandmaster marks sellable”.

I kind of agree (half way) with your other points. At the moment there is little-to-no difference in gold cost between buying armors in fractals/pvp and crafting them (buying is a kitteneaper if you opt for some expensive stats, like trailblazer). I don’t think token price for pvp armors is an issue (because there’s an exclusive skin attached to it, + HoT stats), BUT I also don’t agree with following price per armor piece:
- 54-144 WINS (depending on armor piece) + the normal crafting price (which will usually amount to 2-6 hours of gold grind per piece at good rates).

They probably should’ve either added marks or reduce token gain, not both. Both just makes it terrible and basically not worth doing at all. Basically once you finish the track once to get the Llama box or w/e you want say league tickets there’s little incentive to continue since the reward is so poor.

I agree that last season was too easy but this is the pendulum swinging massively the other way. ANET doesn’t know how to do things in steps.

I personally will pvp for fun. If I don’t enjoy the season i’ll head back to WvW. Because as of this moment the ascended gear grind is not enough of an incentive to play unless im enjoying the game mode. I barely play 300 matches per season so currently I don’t have a way to get this unless I win every match which isn’t going to happen.

Jitsuryoku.9038:

The whole reason they went for grandmaster marks was to avoid giving players easy ascended (without crafting). With this change you either need crafting ,raids or luck to get ascended items. That’s why I don’t agree with “make grandmaster marks sellable”.

Yea, you may be right. I thought they added the ascended armor in pvp and fractals to give players an alternative to crafting in the first place though. And I think to have this alternative is a good thing. Non-pve players often see crafting as tedious, annoying or confusing and if you don’t level up your crafting with a guide, then you may lose a ton of gold by doing so. Did anyone ever have fun while using a guide in a multiplayer game? I can live with it, if they force people to craft for ascended items, but I don’t think it is the best way.

It just doesnt even matter when you have finally farmed ALL those ascended shards at some point….
Since you still have to pay close to the amount that it would cost to craft it normally

The Double Nerf killed the reward incentive for all players who didnt already play PvP…

So it stops WvW players from coming to PvP to equip their toons
Or PvE only players who would have finally tried out PvP
It would have been such a nice thing to draw those players into PvP to increase the player pool there…. which is really needed!

I think they fumbled the PvP rewards from the start. Season 5 had very high rewards which were out of balance with the rest of the game. But rather than address it, they allowed players to finish season 5 and earn their ascended shards under that premise and understanding.

Then, they goofed again when they decided to nerf the actual rewards – which affected players who had already earned them. I would have been fine with them changing the rate of acquisition (make them harder to acquire), but instead they retroactively reduced the value of the actual rewards. Unfortunately, this just created a large amount of bad will as many players felt like they got screwed over on their rewards.

Now, the shards are not only slower to get but drastically reduced in value. The PvP path to ascended gear is far too laborious and costly to be useful in any meaningful way. It’s far more efficient and cost effective to craft them the standard way. I just don’t see the point of even having the pvp pathway.

I think what they should have done is keep the value of the shards as is, but nerf the farming of them. Make them harder to acquire. On season 5, you could just play and get them regardless of the outcome. Instead, make it more related to winning. Maybe unlock a chest after a certain ranking, mmr, etc. Reduce the number of shards given. Plenty of other ways to bring them in balance with the other aspects of the game. Raiding is a great way to get ascended gear but you have to be able to succeed to get it. PvP should be the same.

I don’t believe it should’ve been included from the start. From someone who plays PvP every day I’m in game, it’s stupid that we could even get ascended or legendary things in PvP. Stats do not matter there. They matter in PvE and WvW. We should get them there. PvP could’ve made new skins to buy, that’s fair. The wings of ascension SKIN. Not a legendary backpack. It’s kind of stupid imo, but oh well. People will always complain. “Too easy” “Too hard” “Too much” “Not enough”

Aizza.4950:

PvP could’ve made new skins to buy, that’s fair. The wings of ascension SKIN. Not a legendary backpack. It’s kind of stupid imo, but oh well. People will always complain. “Too easy” “Too hard” “Too much” “Not enough”

I agree it should always have been SKINS from the start (the legendary backpack was a terrible idea) but ANET opened Pandora’s Box when they gave ascended gear in Season 5 and the backpack from S1.

Aizza.4950:

I don’t believe it should’ve been included from the start. From someone who plays PvP every day I’m in game, it’s stupid that we could even get ascended or legendary things in PvP. Stats do not matter there. They matter in PvE and WvW. We should get them there. PvP could’ve made new skins to buy, that’s fair. The wings of ascension SKIN. Not a legendary backpack. It’s kind of stupid imo, but oh well. People will always complain. “Too easy” “Too hard” “Too much” “Not enough”

Why shouldnt there be ascended rewards or legendary rewards? who would thought not everyone sits in pvp all the time and actually plays other aspects of the game. You need ascended for fractals/raids and everywhere else.