Guild Wars 2

Hello guys I’ve posted a poll on reddit to get your opinion on whether or not anet should change the way gearing works in wvw; Here is the post: (https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4ekq90/wvw_opinion_poll_wvw_gear/);

Hello guys, I’ve played gw2 at launch but stopped after reaching lvl 80 for two and a half years. I then came back just before the launch of HoT. I’ve had a lot of fun mostly thanks to WvW where I spend most of my time. I know WvW has some issues and I know that anet is going to try to tackle those in upcoming patches. I’ve been thinking about some things they might implement and one of those got me thinking a lot; Gear in WvW.

What happens today is that you use your PvE gear in WvW. In order to be competitive you need to have a specific set for this game mode. It took me quite some time and grind (as you don’t make a lot of money in WvW) but managed to to have a decent set on my DH (3 ascended armor pieces (crafted), all ascended trinkets, 2 ascended weapons(elite spec weapons – reaper, dh, scrapper)). The grind was kind of tedious and if I didn’t love WvW so much I would have just quit the game. As much as I love wvw I would now also like to start do some raids in order to play the only content I’ve barely touched; however I at the moment I know I won’t do it as for that to happen I need to change my armor stats & runes (I haven’t the will nor the money to swap at twice a week between stats for my ascended gear).

I’ll stop with my problems as those are personal however I thought that those problems might occur to other persons this way or the other way around.

We thus come to the following question; Would you guys love to have a gearing system that would work in some ways similarly to the gearing system in sPvP?

In my opinion the ideal system would be the one where you can change your gear as in gw2skills.net. The pieces of armor stats, runes and sigils can be unlocked through badges of honor. If you don’t select anything in a specific gear slot you get the gear you are wearing in that slot.

I was hoping you guys could give me your opinion in this section below and vote on the strawpoll I’ve created.
http://strawpoll.me/7359752

The issue here is that there is a game mode for this already in sPvP. That mode is meant to create an equal playing field for all players.

WvW is designed to be a game mode that allows players to progress their characters and play with those gains in a competitive environment. Even if Anet wanted to undo that design, doing so would alienate a majority of players that spent a significant amount of game time earning gear.

Also ascended trinkets are purchased simply by logging in, a couple ascended weapons are not that difficult to build and the difference between exotic/ascended armor is pretty slight. Ascended items are also all drops… course they are very rare drops. More fuel to the fire is that this system is actually better than most MMOs where gear grind is mandatory.

I put up a similar idea already on another topic, just as opposed to Amulets, the idea would be for Specific WvW Armor.

STIHL.2489:

Something else I would like to see.

You all know how you have Amulets and Stuff in SPvP, so that your PvP Build can be, nothing like your PvE build, but when you go between WvW and PvE, you are stuck with the same armor and runes.

I would like to see it where you have a set or armor for WvW, that is uniquely different then what you have for PvE. Not sure how they would do this, maybe everyone has “Invader Armor” and they get to pick the first stat (like the generic drop down menu), but later you can change it the same way you can change Ascended, Mix the Armor with a Insigna, and Poof you have new stats. If you mix it with an Ascended Insigna, you can get Ascended Invader Armor.

Just wanted to put this idea out there, since I was just fumbling around with runes today, and it was like “This would be great for PvE and that would be Great for WvW.. and I am sooo not making 2 sets of armor”

I like the idea of earning a legendary gear system through playing WvW. Make it so every 500 ranks you get a chest that gives you a piece of legendary gear (chest so you can choose the gear) that allows you to swap stats/runes the way gw2skills.net works.

Grandfather in the current players so all the ranks they have previously earned net them rewards. Also remove WXP from EotM going forward so that the WvW armor is earned in WvW.

dubstax.9102:

Puck.9612:

I like the idea of earning a legendary gear system through playing WvW. Make it so every 500 ranks you get a chest that gives you a piece of legendary gear (chest so you can choose the gear) that allows you to swap stats/runes the way gw2skills.net works.

Grandfather in the current players so all the ranks they have previously earned net them rewards. Also remove WXP from EotM going forward so that the WvW armor is earned in WvW.

Okay… and are you ready for massive complaints from people who put a lot of money and time into legendary weapons when they realize that now all you have to do is grind World vs. World ranks and you too can have something “legendary.”

Yup.
Because all we have to do to justify it is point to the past 4 years of getting kittened over.

dubstax.9102:

Okay… and are you ready for massive complaints from people who put a lot of money and time into legendary weapons when they realize that now all you have to do is grind World vs. World ranks and you too can have something “legendary.”

People always complain. Always. They complain when something is added to the game and when something is removed. They complain when something gets buffed, when something gets nerfed and when nothing changes they complain about it constantly.

The basic point is – WvW players should be able to gear up without going through usual PvE-grind. The armors, trinkets, food, basic stuff you use while in WvW should be available without leaving WvW. It’s fairly silly to enter WvW only to find you really should grind other gamemodes for few years first. Because, honestly, if you enjoy PvE enough to grind all that wonderful gear, you won’t like WvW that much.

Next problem we have is that WvW is extremely difficuly for new players. They die a lot. They have wrong gear. They use wrong skills. They never use correct food. They dodge at wrong time. While fun for veterans to gank new players, it also means gamemode will slowly die. At some point all the veterans get bored and leave, without enough new players replacing them, we end up with half-empty servers and really boring matches.

Making WvW-specific armor available to everyone, so they all have same stats and have access to similar items without years of PvE-grind, is one way to help new players feel like they could enjoy it. Years of experience will still mean any veteran can always gank them, but it will not happen so fast. It is not much fun when enemy dies with 1 shot, it’s boring for both sides.

There is more to make WvW really better, like looking over the condis, classes and their skills. Maybe add some WvW-specific skills and remove some of the nasty game-breaking ones from WvW. Some fight mechanics that are ok in PvE do no have place in WvW. But sure, WvW-armor would be nice thing to have too.

Half the fun in WvW is gearing up and min-maxing your build.

All we need is the new stats added to the WvW gear vendor and a merchant that sells runes, sigils and consumables.

gw1 gearing (stats being linked to character, not gear) was one of the “things i liked about gw1”, but never got to gw2:(

It would be nice to be able to pick stats but I like the freedom to mix and match my pieces.. I for one wouldn’t like a system like pvp has because that locks you into 1 gear set.

If they could implement something that you unlock stuff through badges etc etc I’m all for it if it lets me choose the stats on each piece.

I mainly wvw on 5 professions. Only profession I have the same stats on is my glass staff ele. The rest I usually mix pvt stuff to my liking where I feel I’m decent and can hold my own in solo to zerg play.

I really hope we do get updated gear stats from vendors though and you don’t really need ascended gear to wvw.. I think out of the 10 toons I do have only 2 are full ascended. The rest use gear from the vendors or bought from the AH.

I said yes and here’s why.

When I first started out in WvW I was immediately at a disadvantage because not only was I new, but my gear was under par compared to most players, with the addition of not having the guard stack advantage.

Its very disheartening getting face rolled all the time and some either wait till they have the gear to enter WvW or just go ahead and end up getting frustrated and quit.

I say we need those players now. Almost every toon I have is in full ascended gear minus a few trinkets. If anyone should complain its me because I just got on par with the vets, but looking at the wvw landscape it is clear to see that it is in trouble. For the love of the sport WvW needs to become more player friendly to the new or returning players, and we don’t need them drawn away to Pve in order to get geared.

I love WvW and I believe this is the way to go to breath life back into it.

Also I started with GW1 and it was never about the gear…it was how you played your build aka buildwars.

dubstax.9102:

@ Puck.9612 & FogLeg.9354

I’m just saying MMOs are full of special little snowflakes and that I can see the forum riots now if you end up being able to earn something “legendary” by simply playing a game mode.

Personally I am down for whatever so long as the rewards for World vs. World are actually brought up to par with other game modes like sPvP, PvE, and raids.

Change the name to “war gear”. Have one of the Dev’s say something like, “There is no such thing as a pure PvE’er, all PvE’ers really love to WvW so they will have fun earning their new war gear.”

I prefer as-is, where you bring over the same gear you acquired in PvE. However that comes with a big caveat; I think the system as-is stands to be improved.

It seems pretty clear to me the intent of WvW was “the endgame”. Yeah, dungeons are fun, but what can compare to triumph and domination over fellow players on the field of combat!? And sPvP is too controlled, what is victory without the chaos of luck!? When I was a bright-eyed noob (now just a bad) playing WvW the first time on a level 50 hammer guard it seemed like the only purpose of PvE was preparing/gearing for high-level WvW, and I was enthralled. Thing is things have changed: fractals and raids came out. More unique stat arrays, runes, and sigils were added. Exotics were easy to get but ascended is not. For ascended armor I’d say “ehhhh” since the stat difference isn’t too great and the price is mainly for that infusion slot. Trinkets are annoying, but laurels cover most of them but backpieces (inb4 legendary WvW backpiece). So the main issue would appear to be the difference between ascended and exotic weapons, as there is a decent disparity in stats and weapon strength. And currently the only reliable, reasonable way to get ascended weapons/armor is PvE grind. So a basic (not necessarily good) solution would be to make ascended weapons/mats somehow available to WvW via drops or purchases.

The other issue is despite what Anet intended, there are plenty of people who only want to play WvW without dealing with PvE. Either they’ve seen enough PvE and don’t care to see it again, or they didn’t bother to begin with and don’t care. Both are fine, but then exotic armor acquisition becomes a problem. The stat types available at WvW vendors is very limited, and I think should be expanded to include more types to offer a better range of options to pure WvW-er’s.

I liked the old system prehot, all lines at your disposal. I felt like I had more control of what I wanted out of a build. Now I feel like I’m forced to run a trait line with a choice of only 3 categories. IMO, this has led to narrowing down builds leading to less diversity out there.

Much more build diversity prehot.

No, would prefer that WvW gear remains as we have today. With that said we should be able to acquire more gear or supplies for gear from inside of WvW. Be that by more Ascended drops or WvW currency that could be used to purchase gear or other avenues. Same with Legendary armor. There should be a mechanism to allow people to acquire that inside of WvW since gear does make a difference in this play mode.

@RodOfDeath, I agree that build diversity has gone down since launch. Not only because of the lack of choices one can make post-HoT, but also because of the rise of single points of reference like metabattle.com where many starters get their builds and never try anything else.

I wouldn’t want it to get any worse than is already is…so, “No” I think we should be free to experiment in WvW.

No. Taking advantage of GW2’s mix-and-match, “horizontal progression” gear system and coupling it with the game’s excellent group combat mechanics is what made WvW the best part of GW2 — as a prior poster wrote, it was the real endgame.

Knowledge and ability outweigh gear. If people quit as soon as they start losing, there’s nothing we can do to help them. They can have maxed out stats and all the shiniest weapons, but if they throw tantrums and storm off because they stood in the fire, that’s on them. No amount of downy-tender coddling will enable them to enjoy a competitive game mode if they can’t handle the idea of defeat. We all started out ignorant. We liked WvW enough to stick with it and improve.

All we need is a way to access HoT stats without having to run the PvE Raid. Make it a grind, if that’s your deal; make it costly, whatever. Just don’t force us, for example, to build a full Viper’s set in order to acquire a full Viper’s set.

I would quit GW2 if this was implemented as all I do is play wvw.

Rocket.1723:

@RodOfDeath, I agree that build diversity has gone down since launch. Not only because of the lack of choices one can make post-HoT, but also because of the rise of single points of reference like metabattle.com where many starters get their builds and never try anything else.

I wouldn’t want it to get any worse than is already is…so, “No” I think we should be free to experiment in WvW.

You do realize that the current gear system in WvW limits build deversity due to the grind for gear and that a gwskills.net style pannel for gear would keep build deversity while removing the barrier for entry and allow for more on the fly experimentation, right?

Ocosh.5843:

No. Taking advantage of GW2’s mix-and-match, “horizontal progression” gear system and coupling it with the game’s excellent group combat mechanics is what made WvW the best part of GW2 — as a prior poster wrote, it was the real endgame.

Knowledge and ability outweigh gear. If people quit as soon as they start losing, there’s nothing we can do to help them. They can have maxed out stats and all the shiniest weapons, but if they throw tantrums and storm off because they stood in the fire, that’s on them. No amount of downy-tender coddling will enable them to enjoy a competitive game mode if they can’t handle the idea of defeat. We all started out ignorant. We liked WvW enough to stick with it and improve.

All we need is a way to access HoT stats without having to run the PvE Raid. Make it a grind, if that’s your deal; make it costly, whatever. Just don’t force us, for example, to build a full Viper’s set in order to acquire a full Viper’s set.

I was lucky enough to have enough ascended chest drops that I could convert a full set to vipers. Even still I had to spend a couple days in PvE to grind out that currency you could only get from doing pve events so I could buy the insignia recipe…

when I say it took me a couple days what I mean was a few hours one day until I was disconnected right at the conclusion of a meta event and when I came back on the instance was full and I didn’t get a reward. I was so disgusted with their kittenty grind that I logged off for a week before coming back on a rainy day to finish.

I don’t think I could stomach spending anymore time on that boring kitten. If wvw gets shafted again in the future and forced to pve for gear that you need to be competitive I will quit the game before doing that crap again.

I have a job, I pay the game to enjoy myself, not to grind away hours of the day on brain dead pve.

Paulie.6215:

I would quit GW2 if this was implemented as all I do is play wvw.

That’s a very constructive argument… Could you tell us why?
In my opinion I mplementing such a system would:
+ increase the amount of players in borderland
+ increase build diversity
+ decrease the amount of gold you spend for wvw specific gear and consumables
+ even out fights : skill wins over gear

Only benefits except for the fact that that people that grinded for ascended gear (me included) won’t one shot new wvwers. I’m ready to make that concession for the big amount of benefits.

ZombieLeach.5862:

Rocket.1723:

@RodOfDeath, I agree that build diversity has gone down since launch. Not only because of the lack of choices one can make post-HoT, but also because of the rise of single points of reference like metabattle.com where many starters get their builds and never try anything else.

I wouldn’t want it to get any worse than is already is…so, “No” I think we should be free to experiment in WvW.

You do realize that the current gear system in WvW limits build deversity due to the grind for gear and that a gwskills.net style pannel for gear would keep build deversity while removing the barrier for entry and allow for more on the fly experimentation, right?

This!

Truth is the only reason I can see why someone would not want it is to have a tiny edge over noobs.

I have five toons with full ascended gear including class weapon swaps minus a few trinkets. Take a guess at how much time that pulled away from WvW so I could go Silverwaste my tail off….. I mean really guys? Its not like we get some special secret decoder ring when we pimp out in ascended. The stat tweak is minor. I’ve been in GW2 for a little over a year and managed to pull off all that ascended gear.

But there is a twist to that. I’m disabled and as long as I can manage to sit upright I can play. Granted I can take small breaks to lay down if I start hurting too much, which I do often, but I still have way more free time to play a MMO than when I was pulling down a paycheck.

People work hard these days and often come home too tired to even log in. Who do you think buys MMO’s to play? People who can’t afford to bounce off to Rio for the weekend. The average player these days is 35 and usually male (which is changing more and more go girl power!).

Life is hard enough. Peoples entertainment shouldn’t become a chore first before they can play WvW.

This is similar to an issue with Diablo 3. People complained that their gear/builds did not feel special due to being able to change their setup any time. In Diablo 2 you had to remake your character just to replace a few stat points. Many people did, and had fun doing it. Also removing the need to buy your own gear in Wvw removes a gold sink which may mess up the economy.

Ogre.3124:

This is similar to an issue with Diablo 3. People complained that their gear/builds did not feel special due to being able to change their setup any time. In Diablo 2 you had to remake your character just to replace a few stat points. Many people did, and had fun doing it. Also removing the need to buy your own gear in Wvw removes a gold sink which may mess up the economy.

There are admin commands for them to adjust anything and everything concerning the economy. Its been a MMO feature for a very long time. And GW1 was never about the gear, it was about how well you played your build.

Kamara.4187:

I said yes and here’s why.

When I first started out in WvW I was immediately at a disadvantage because not only was I new, but my gear was under par compared to most players, with the addition of not having the guard stack advantage.

Its very disheartening getting face rolled all the time and some either wait till they have the gear to enter WvW or just go ahead and end up getting frustrated and quit.

I say we need those players now. Almost every toon I have is in full ascended gear minus a few trinkets. If anyone should complain its me because I just got on par with the vets, but looking at the wvw landscape it is clear to see that it is in trouble. For the love of the sport WvW needs to become more player friendly to the new or returning players, and we don’t need them drawn away to Pve in order to get geared.

I love WvW and I believe this is the way to go to breath life back into it.

Also I started with GW1 and it was never about the gear…it was how you played your build aka buildwars.

Everybody that started wvw 6 months to a year after its inception had the exact same disadvantages as any new player entering now, including no guard stacks or other wvw rank bonuses, and because it took forever to get them in some cases some of the late enterers may have took years to get on par with the vets.

I’m not arguing with anyone who’s currently at a disadvantage, I’m saying that everyone is or has been at a disadvantage at one point. Those that stuck with it, earned buffs to help more, only to lose our guard stacks in order to level the playing field.

Now, it’s gear that should be equal? Why give a majority of new people (that are most likely just going to zerg it up) another advantage over those stuck it out, learned what gear/food/traits to run again and again week after week by experimenting and spending loads of money or time to get all their gear and then some?

We do need new players, but further punishing older players is not the answer.

HazyDaisy.4107:

Kamara.4187:

I said yes and here’s why.

When I first started out in WvW I was immediately at a disadvantage because not only was I new, but my gear was under par compared to most players, with the addition of not having the guard stack advantage.

Its very disheartening getting face rolled all the time and some either wait till they have the gear to enter WvW or just go ahead and end up getting frustrated and quit.

I say we need those players now. Almost every toon I have is in full ascended gear minus a few trinkets. If anyone should complain its me because I just got on par with the vets, but looking at the wvw landscape it is clear to see that it is in trouble. For the love of the sport WvW needs to become more player friendly to the new or returning players, and we don’t need them drawn away to Pve in order to get geared.

I love WvW and I believe this is the way to go to breath life back into it.

Also I started with GW1 and it was never about the gear…it was how you played your build aka buildwars.

Everybody that started wvw 6 months to a year after its inception had the exact same disadvantages as any new player entering now, including no guard stacks or other wvw rank bonuses, and because it took forever to get them in some cases some of the late enterers may have took years to get on par with the vets.

I’m not arguing with anyone who’s currently at a disadvantage, I’m saying that everyone is or has been at a disadvantage at one point. Those that stuck with it, earned buffs to help more, only to lose our guard stacks in order to level the playing field.

Now, it’s gear that should be equal? Why give a majority of new people (that are most likely just going to zerg it up) another advantage over those stuck it out, learned what gear/food/traits to run again and again week after week by experimenting and spending loads of money or time to get all their gear and then some?

We do need new players, but further punishing older players is not the answer.

Its not an advantage or punishment to move to a more player friendly WvW system that would be available to all WvW players. Seasoned players will still have the advantage of knowing the classes and builds better because that wisdom only comes with time and practice.

I like the fine tuning we can do with actual gear. Stuffing everything into amulets is too simplified for wvw. Wvw not really meant to be even. You run something…maybe meta maybe not…and tweak all the little details until they work for some of your favorite wvw situations. You get blown up a few times and either adjust a little, change everything or go full meta.

I would love having separate armor/weapons/trinkets for wvw though. I would actually love 3 or 4 armor sets that we could switch in and out of while out of combat and full hp.

Carrying stuff for pve, wvw, raid/dungeon/fractal is a pain.

Reh.5986:

I like the fine tuning we can do with actual gear. Stuffing everything into amulets is too simplified for wvw. Wvw not really meant to be even. You run something…maybe meta maybe not…and tweak all the little details until they work for some of your favorite wvw situations. You get blown up a few times and either adjust a little, change everything or go full meta.

I would love having separate armor/weapons/trinkets for wvw though. I would actually love 3 or 4 armor sets that we could switch in and out of while out of combat and full hp.

Carrying stuff for pve, wvw, raid/dungeon/fractal is a pain.

This ^^. Having different armor sets that you can switch! Cramming my inventory full oh stuff I don’t always use is a waste. This whole making WvW gear like spvp no thanks. Also exotic gear isn’t that much of a disadvantage as ascended and can be easily bought (not every type) with badges and very little gold… that are salvageable now.

why does people start a game & starts grinding for gear?
I played wvw my 1st 6 months normally with exo gear & it worked just fine.
as I kept playing mats started to gather up automatically , when I had enough mats for 1 piece I went for it , boom made a full set of heavy armor set just like that.

stop trying to grind kitten playing long enough will progress you in long run easily & won’t feel like grinding.

Shilajit.9023:

why does people start a game & starts grinding for gear?
I played wvw my 1st 6 months normally with exo gear & it worked just fine.
as I kept playing mats started to gather up automatically , when I had enough mats for 1 piece I went for it , boom made a full set of heavy armor set just like that.

stop trying to grind kitten playing long enough will progress you in long run easily & won’t feel like grinding.

Oh ho look at this showoff here, with his fancy exotics lol. Heh I started wvw with greens and blue trinkets, played that way for a few months till I could get rares lol.

Yea I don’t see the point in this. You can do just fine with exotic gear too. And exotic gear is easy to get anyway, there’s no need to farm like a mad makittenlverwastes or something as the differences are so minimal.

Brocktanor.1794:

That’s a very constructive argument… Could you tell us why?
In my opinion I mplementing such a system would:
+ increase the amount of players in borderland
+ increase build diversity
+ decrease the amount of gold you spend for wvw specific gear and consumables
+ even out fights : skill wins over gear

Only benefits except for the fact that that people that grinded for ascended gear (me included) won’t one shot new wvwers. I’m ready to make that concession for the big amount of benefits.

I think you’re overestimating how much of an advantage Ascended gear gives over Exotics. Unless your target is naked, AFK, uplevelled and has 25 stacks of Vulnerability on them, you’re never going to one shot them.

There’s no need to get all complicated by adding sPvP (or gw2skills) styled stat choices, all we need is more stat variations in the WvW gear vendors, including access to runes and sigils and a merchant that sells food and oils in exchange for badges.

Currently, skill and builds win over gear but you’re not killing anything if you’re running around naked. Exotic gear isn’t expensive (barring the insane prices on the HoT stats) so there’s little excuse to not have it equipped.

A lot of people enjoy gearing up their characters for WvW, removing that would remove some of the sense of accomplishment and attachment to the characters we’ve spent so much time and effort on getting just right and getting that feeling of joy when you win a fight and that effort is paid off.

I think some of you are missing the point. It’s not about the stat difference, it’s about being able to swap builds and experiment without having to grind pve (for exclusive gear), or having to carry around loads of gear.

One of the things that kept me playing GW1 for as many years as I did was being able to easily experiment with new builds. I probably had 25+ builds saved for each profession and I know there were plenty more that I experimented with and discarded.

Some people like the gear treadmill but having to grind pve mobs just to test out an idea absolutely disgusts me and leads to me taking long breaks from the game out of boredom. I’m not the type of person that gets hooked by grinds and time gates, I just want to find new and interesting ways to kill my opponents.

I had a treb that was supppsed to be firing on red keep, fired at me (blue) repeatidly from a green sm last night while I was capping a lowly sentry. That’s the level of green skill these days as well as a new way to kill someone that can’t dodge.

In that respect it really doesn’t matter what armor stats they or I are running, but it does matter how many points the trebber had invested in treb mastery.

Insta switchable stats ie legendary armor (including trinkets) would be nice for wvw, they’d be nice to earn anywhere, but one should have to work a little for the priveledge.