Guild Wars 2

After another try a ticket was created without a hick up this time – No 23117.

Got the confirmation on the support site, and an email went instantly through. I submitted the actual issue in my reply email.

There is no ticket number, i got no email from support as i submitted my new ticket with the new system. That one went trough without an error but how can i see a ticket number if the support page won’t let me log in?

And this is a new ticket (or was going be, no idea where it went to!), with the new system – the email i used is my account-email, not the game-account email and not the old ncsoft support email i used.

Just tell me please what data i need to log in to the new support page – it asks for an email and a password, which ones?

No confirmation email yet. I can’t log into support to check if a ticket has been generated – the system does not accept my account log in (which is the data i provided to submit a new ticket).

Can’t log in, can’t check, no idea – lots of wasted time, calling it quits for tonight.

I think it went through now (without having to log in to support). I had to type in my account email on top of having to type in an email in the first field which is weird. At least you don’t have to type in the email to log in to the game, i guess that is a plus…

I don’t have an email confirmation yet, i will let you know if there’s any further trouble.

Thank you for now.

As i try to submit a ticket i get asked to log in to my GW2 support account – which one is this please?

Which email am i supposed to use? The one for the game, for my account, or for my former support account?

Help please.

Oh i forgot – this is an external service right? Zendesk.com whatever…

So i should happily give sensitive information to another company? Weren’t you so worried about security ANet?

Tell me i have it all wrong, because i want to submit a ticket, but will not do it if my data goes all over the place/internet.

Where did the old NCSoft-support log in go?

Now in order to submit a ticket i also have to put in my real name AND the serial code? REALLY?

I logged into the old support in order to submit a ticket simply with my support-account plus password. That was is it. That’s how it should be.

Tell me this new stuff is just a joke? How much info am i supposed to type in each time – and serial code is an absolute no go.

If there’s no way to reach support the old way, that’s it for me, amazing hoax to make a customer not want to submit a ticket in the first place.

Shout out to the EL guild from Aurora – chasing a single enemy with your guild-group plus half a dozen randoms for 3 plus minutes… great fighting spirit!

There’s not a single thread about broken game mechanics where some ‘L2P’ guy isn’t chiming in. Yes you should see everything coming and just hit dodge every other second because you got unlimited endurance…
Everything is fine, you can react, you can counter, you got all the tools you need at the right time – EXCEPT the game design is about hard-counters and rock/paper/scissor (ANets biggest fail ever as the basic game design was about no dedicated roles). Some classes are not meant to counter others, they need the assistance of other classes.

This is a more well thought out reply i’d like to answer:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

The solution is quite simple: We need a LOT more access to stability. As it stands right now, stability is a rare boon that has short durations with very long cooldowns. Any reasonable build has access to stability at maybe a 15% up time, and the current solution to stability is to just wait 3 seconds for it to go away, then resume the chain stunning again. Stability is never there when you need it, and there’s not enough for when you need it.

Since every class has plenty of access to CC, a nice counter to this would be so every class as plenty of access to Stability as well. Then, stability does more than buy you a few seconds where you are immobilized instead of knocked down. Stability gives you a rather large safe zone, making it so opponent’s defensive utilities have to be played smarter, and their controls have to take initiative. If they don’t want to give very class longer duration stability, then the least they can do is give short duration stability on every stun break that isn’t some type of evade. That way, you aren’t instantly re-stunned a quarter second later.

So why fight fire with fire? Wrong approach entirely – the perma CC spiral is out of hand already. Smart game design is about making tactical choices at the right time, not to spam CC over and over – it’s just bad. We don’t need more pseudo-counters to CC but much less spamable CC with long cooldowns.

Nothing in GW2 is coming even remotely close to the GW story campaigns and lore.

The lore got butchered, twisted and mostly turned into nonsense fluff stuff. Tyria turned into a weirdo Science-Fantasy Zombie pseudo apocalypse (replace zombie with corrupted or possessed or whatever for different alien dragons). The complexity and depth of the personal story is suited for the comprehension level of below average IQ 12 year old…

Yes – vastly disappointed in that regard.

Esplen.3940:

There’s one reason why you don’t need DR on CC. Stunbreakers.

If one can apply CC faster than you can take it off? Especially if skills with added CC are on lower cooldown than your means to take it off. Just fail…

To the OP – yes you make perfect sense but ANet is still sticking to the esports mania, having utterly ruined a solid chance to make a fun PvP experience by having the crappy 3-way king of the hill concept dictate all the PvP mechanics and balances. Wasted potential, and they won’t budge until SPvP and WvW is utterly devoid of players – at which point it won’t matter any more lol.

It’s quite lovely to see that Dev on the one man WvW-team still being alive and kicking. Hi to you! But WvW has A LOT more serious problems where improvements are required.

Seeing someone working, no matter if it’s just 5 minutes a month, on revamping the WvW achievements actually makes me cringe. Achievements will not help make WvW more enjoyable, engaging, challenging fun whatever. It will not draw more PvErs in by adding even more daily points to grind. It will only sooth a bit our bruised and beaten poor WvW-egos, creating just another excuse and illusion that ANet gives a kitten about WvW.

Talking about achievements: WvW achievements are still mixed in with the PvE ones! Besides, with the overall achievement score now after almost a year being worth something i.e. reward chests, what about limiting the overall daily points you can accumulate?
Is the only reason players are “incited” to also participate in that most pathetic time sink that is hot-join SPvP to inflate hours logged so someone at ANet can pull out some fancy charts convincing whomever that SPvP is rocking right?

… so much to do.

Zephaust Zenith.8376:

Caran.3217:

Hermes.7014:

It’s unevitable. With new content will eventually come a level cap increase, perhaps a new level of traits and more powerful weapons and armor.
Guild Wars 2 began differently, but will become similar to the vast majority of MMOs.

I’m even fine with that, though as long as gear elitism and farm/grindfests are kept off the game.

You’re kidding yourself aren’t you or not being serious? GW1 has proven that nothing you state is ‘inevitable’.

You also seriously think that if GW2 becomes like all the other MMORPGs (RPG dude!), it won’t be plagued by the thinks you don’t like? That is very naive.

Read my previous post above in the same page.

Ascended gear is just one of the concerns.
Another GW1 major features might have changed with the sequel.

Yep seems like they planed this, to be just like that ‘other’ MMORPG, from the outset. Fighting the fight everyone else has lost – up front subscription fee or ‘hidden’ one like you elaborated.

Shame i have been falling for all the spin and lies.

Muppolle.8075:

Gw2 has been sitting on my shelf for awhile now and i was exited to see the news of this content patch…yes finally a new area that isnt infested with anoying risen.
Then i saw this and gw2 is going to the bin and not the shelf.

Be smart and be a better human next time, embrace mother nature! Buy digital like i did, all it takes is an uninstall, no real waste material!

Hermes.7014:

It’s unevitable. With new content will eventually come a level cap increase, perhaps a new level of traits and more powerful weapons and armor.
Guild Wars 2 began differently, but will become similar to the vast majority of MMOs.

I’m even fine with that, though as long as gear elitism and farm/grindfests are kept off the game.

You’re kidding yourself aren’t you or not being serious? GW1 has proven that nothing you state is ‘inevitable’.

You also seriously think that if GW2 becomes like all the other MMORPGs (RPG dude!), it won’t be plagued by the thinks you don’t like? That is very naive.

Namu.5712:

Caran.3217:

stof.9341:

Chrissle.8690:

There´s one flaw in your philosphy about only farming for looks though. Imagine a new dungeon coming out. Only new looks on the dungeon sets, not better stats. 50% of the player base likes the looks, 50% hate them. What incentive do the 50% that hate the looks of the new armor have to do the content?

Around the same motivation that I have doing dungeons where I don’t want the gear at the end : they are fun to do.

Some people have been brainwashed into believing that gear progressing equals fun and is a desirable goal in itself to keep them motivated playing.

The fun is the challenging content or not, and to show off that you have beaten it a new skin is all that’s need if you want to boast. Increasing stats has nothing to do with it whatsoever. It’s a lie, an illusion – you have not gotten better at the game just with stats because new content can be scaled to said new stats.

Its not really brainwashing.

Why do you buy a faster fancier car in real life? For the appeal, for the power, and for the looks.

Its really human nature, and its especially prevalent in the USA where your social status/worth is based on how many shiny’s you own and how much they cost.

You spend years grinding for that fast sports car, then you get it and of course the first thing you do is parade around town showing off its sleek lines…. then after that you take it out on the open road and gun it and watch the speed rise and say to yourself ya this things got so much power and speed compared to my old car!

Now flip that into the mmo world… you spend hours/days/weeks/months grinding for that new gear that has boosted stats. It looks better, its stonger. You get it and you put it on dye do whatever your gonna do with it and go show off… then you go kill some bad guys with your fancy gear and say oh ya I hit way harder now!

You see this mentality directly translates from how you think in real life. Well maybe not how you think personnally but how a great number of people in general think.

Real life comparisons are very likely to utterly fail, like yours did. Not to mention there’s a speed limit everywhere except on the Autobahn HAHAHA.

It doesn’t matter if you go faster now, i the ‘god developer’ make the boss mob go faster now as well. Now you have to keep chasing him AGAIN right? You gained NO power whatsoever, but your vision is still focused on the carrot…

SuddenlyOnFire.3162:

I am truly perplexed at the reaction of some people.
Are you guys really complaining about getting new stuff every month for free? Do you really don’t get it that they are throwing with content at us for free? Are you really saying I’m gonna stop playing their game because they added too much stuff and I want to prove how manly I am on the forums ?

Even if they do add a gear treadmill (which they don’t), even if they do add new item tiers on a regular base (which they will NOT do, stop reading between the bloody lines … “oh noes, why did they say 3 months? why not 4? is 3 a secret code for ‘mwuahahahaha’?”), they are still the best MMO company in my eyes. Because they kept the most important promise: Unparalleled content release rate which we don’t even have to pay for.

Am I also the only one who vaguely remembers the gazillion other trolls on the forum posting that there is nothing to do at lvl 80? I am quite positive that some them are also complaining here.

So ANet is a charity organisation to make players happy right?

Their business model before this 180° turn was:
Support the game by buying stuff with real money because we made cool stuff. If you like it, please pay for our efforts: OPTIONAL PAYMENT!

The new business model is: We tier/gate/key content so if you want to keep playing new content you either grind your backside off or you MUST PAY. If your friends want to play with you, and aren’t up to date in gear, they MUST PAY as well.

I think the old business model was the better one. Sure some player might not have liked something they designed, so they made less money. That choice is now being taken away. They got greedy and clearly intend to introduce a ‘hidden’ subscription fee through the gem-store.
Risky gamble i might say, this will not end well, mark my words.

johnnymanhands.7310:

Last night I spent a couple of hours idling in Lion’s Arch. Tonight I didn’t bother logging in at all.

The great tragedy of the new gear tier is that it was introduced in the name of progression, but has in fact killed all sense of progress in the game. By announcing new rings and backpeices that are superior to anything in the game today, you’ve effectively said “don’t bother working towards any of the existing back pieces and rings because they’re going to be salvage fodder after this weekend” and by announcing that ascended pieces will be phased into all other slots over coming patches you’ve effectively said “oh and don’t bother with these either”. Instead of adding a sense of progression between exotics and legendaries, you’ve removed all incentive to progress towards anything but legendaries because they’re the only thing that won’t be superceded by your coming patches.

If this announcement hadn’t come out, I’d probably be out in WvW right now earning badges for my Soldier’s jewellery set to use in a linebacker build for my warrior or farming gold to get some rampages armour for my elementalist. Getting new gear for new builds and new classes, that was “progression”, instead I’m writing a forum post because there’s no point in working towards jewellery or armour that will be soon be worthless.

The thing with gear is that regardless of how many different colours that are on item descriptions, there are only 2 effective tiers:

• Tier 1: The optimal gear for a build that you want to play
• Tier 2: Gear you salvage/sell to get optimal gear for a build that you want to play.

In the 700 hrs since launch I’d collected over 50 exotics which I used to run 6 different builds across my 2 level 80 characters. Those exotics have now been relegated from tier 1 to tier 2 and there is no point grinding out sets for new builds if I’ll just have to do it again in a few days/weeks/months. A sadder story belongs to my sub-80 characters, with the new tier being only partially introduced they have no gear to even aim for if they hit the level cap, so they’ll likely never be played.

I’m not adverse to grind, someone does not play as many hours as I do without enjoying it. In fact, I’d shudder to think how many griffons and raptors met their end in my pursuit of loot, but there needs to be a purpose to it and that is where the introduction of new gear tiers hurts the game. If you don’t get to keep the rewards of your effort, then it negates the thrill of getting it in the first place.

I’ve been playing Guild Wars since 2005, have racked up over 8000 hours (including an average of 9.5h/day since the launch of gw2!) and have spent hundreds of dollars on storage, bag slots and character slots – suffice to say I’m about as personally invested in this game as its possible for a player to be. If it were a sport team, I’d be one of those guys in the stands wearing nothing but body paint. When I see you changing the defining quality of the game, I can’t help but be disappointed. I’ll still be logged in at 3am Saturday when the patch goes live, but I know the experience will one filled with melancholy rather than excitement.

I hope that you’ll reconsider the new direction and I’ll get to keep the game I love.

PS. http://imgur.com/KxffM This is the r9 15/-5 Fellblade that dropped for me in 2005 during the first week of Sorrow’s Furnace. It was with me every step for the next seven 7 years, together we saved 3 continents, killed a god, fought our way to hall of heroes and defended our guild against invaders and my new gw2 warrior still wields it today thanks to the hall of monuments. It is as much a part of my Guild Wars story as my warrior was. Having it in no way lessened the excitement when I finally obtained a 15/50 sephis sword, but do think that I as a player would have had the same level of investment in it if I had had to get a new, more powerful one for each of the original expansions?

Thank you for a great post. This is exactly what all those that have ‘no problem’ with gear progression seems to utterly miss, either by lack of experience, failure in using a bit of abstract thinking to make up for not having it experienced first hand, or simple ignorance.

At the end of the road every gear treadmill leads to burn out and quitting, no matter how long the process takes. If that’s what keeps you playing, you will stop playing at one point in the future.

stof.9341:

Chrissle.8690:

There´s one flaw in your philosphy about only farming for looks though. Imagine a new dungeon coming out. Only new looks on the dungeon sets, not better stats. 50% of the player base likes the looks, 50% hate them. What incentive do the 50% that hate the looks of the new armor have to do the content?

Around the same motivation that I have doing dungeons where I don’t want the gear at the end : they are fun to do.

Some people have been brainwashed into believing that gear progressing equals fun and is a desirable goal in itself to keep them motivated playing.

The fun is the challenging content or not, and to show off that you have beaten it a new skin is all that’s need if you want to boast. Increasing stats has nothing to do with it whatsoever. It’s a lie, an illusion – you have not gotten better at the game just with stats because new content can be scaled to said new stats.

Buttercup.5871:

First of all: I am not a fan of a gear-grind either. I had recently bought a second exotic set, this time with karma (240k karma), on the assumption that it would remain the best gear. I was wrong.

However.

I have played Guild Wars 1. Having played that game, I know that the Underworld was such a huge success, for years and years and years, because it was actually HARD. You could lose something when you entered (1 gold entry fee). You could be ruthlessly kicked out if the party died. But if you succeeded, it was rewarding. It really was. It had some cool, exclusive stuff.

I have played a few dungeons in Guild Wars 2, and all of them are simply not that difficult if the entire group is max geared. So in this respect, I applaud Anet for their efforts to introduce an “Underworld” kind of dungeon. Something worth exploring, something that is increasingly difficult, but which is ultimately rewarding.

The only major problems that I see with the new “ascended gear” are:

- the negative effects on crafting (however, if players will be allowed to upgrade existing exotic gear to ascended gear, and if they will be allowed to add an infusion slot to existing exotic gear – with mats from the new dungeon – this could remedy the inevitable crash of large parts of the market);
- the inevitable emptying of the majority of Tyria (which crashes the concept of DE’s), and, perhaps most importantly
- WvW. As Anet stated, PvP should be on equal terms. WvW, of course, is PvP, especially if you like skirmishing away from the “zerg”. When fighting 1 vs 1, you want to know that, at the very least, you’re on equal footing with your opponent, and that you didn’t win/lose because you had better/worse gear.

If the above concerns are/have been addressed, I am positive that the Lost Shores will be a huge success.

So what is your point concerning the new gear tier of Ascended? You went to UW with max stat gear and didn’t get higher stat gear out of it – simple as that! What has increasing stats on gear to do with presenting challenging content?

SlimJim.3087:

@winter what I mean when I say “TREADMILL” doesnt solely reflect gear… im using it in a very general and broad way to describe progression within the game. Heroes for example were a thing that with time spent could progress to making you rather powerful.

As for FoW and UW yes they didnt have stat upgrades but they had unique items and rewards which combined with their difficulty made them feel rewarding when they first launched.

We are talking about the gear treadmill though, it does not matter at all what by your very own definition you designate as a treadmill FOR YOU.

Fact is there was maximum stat gear: It doesn’t matter how long it took to get, or picking up on your hero example, how many heroes and/or alts you kitted out. This was/is your choice. It also does not matter if some dungeon drops cool skins and you think you must have them but the process is a treadmill for you? Still the same stats, getting them was your CHOICE – not a NEED in order to have max stat gear.

Unspecified.9142:

[had to cut quote because post was to long]

Chasing a carrot on a stick
This is obviously a metaphor meant to conjure images of something like this:
http://i.imgur.com/hRPwE.jpg?1

You can’t get the carrot on the stick because the apparatus is designed to keep the carrot perpetually in view but forever out of reach. You’re supposed to see it and think “Hey, I can get that if I just move forward a little bit. That’s not hard.” However, the system (the carrot on a stick) is designed to make sure that when you move to where the carrot was, or where you think it should be, it’s not there. You can still see it though and you’re supposed to think “Oh, I just have to move forward a little bit more.” Repeat ad nauseum.

Why GW2 doesn’t have a Gear Treadmill
You are supposed to reach the finish line. You are supposed to hit the power cap. Exotics are not exactly hard to get. I can pretty easily acquire one exotic per day without much effort. One per week if I barely play.

I’ve played a number of other MMOs and I distinctly remember running instances 50+ times trying to get a particular item to drop that was Best In Slot (BIS) and not getting it. There was no guarantee I would ever get it. Statistically I should get it eventually but realistically I might not. These other games are actually designed so the odds of you ever getting every BIS item on your character was statistically improbably (borderline impossible). That’s why it’s a treadmill.

The biggest difference between GW2 and other games is that I am guaranteed to get what I want (legendary weapons could be considered an exception for various reasons). If I really planned it out, I could probably even figure out exactly how long it will take me to get any particular exotic item. I can write a list of exactly what I need to do and the words “Pray it drops” do not appear anywhere on the list (legendary exception). At the very least I will get enough money to buy what I need off the TP because 90% of things are not Bind On Acquire in GW2. The few exceptions are things which are generally guaranteed drops (e.g. Dungeon Tokens) and/or easy enough to get (e.g. Badge of Honor).

A metaphor to put in perspective
GW2 is a series of short races. You know where the finish line is and how far you have to run. As long as you don’t quit before the stationary finish line you cross it. No tricks. The amount of effort it takes for each short race is exactly what you thought it would be from the start (legendary exception). Your get your shiny trophy for your trophy room at the end. If you keep running these races you keep getting trophies and eventually you have a pretty full trophy room.

Other games are a series of races but no one tells you where the finish line is. You have no idea how far you have to run. You may not even know which direction you’re supposed to be running in. There is no ‘starting line’ rather a starting circle. You can run in any direction but you have no idea which direction the finish line is in. It might be right around the corner. It might be on the other side of the world. No one knows.

The Biggest Difference
The guarantee. If you are guaranteed to get what you’re chasing it’s not a gear treadmill, period.

You are plain and simply wrong. A gear treadmill is simply defined as one tier of gear being replaced by another ‘better’ one, thus ‘forcing’ the player through the repeated process of gearing up.
Any game with a level cap increase will have a treadmill, hence GW1 didn’t raise the cap. And the gear is attainable, it doesn’t matter if everyone managed to get the best gear for every slot, or how much time it took, or if there was a RNG element thrown in like you example with the 50 runs.

thedukesd.3829:

I read some of the posts (not all I admit) and I see how Gw1 history repeat itself:
- paragon rework promise – gw2 launch and no paragon rework…
- shadow form nerf – people complaining about the nerf before it was implemented, nerf was implemented, most people complaining about the nerf before it was implemented left the game

This is way worse, it’s not about a class, not to mention a single skill, this is about abandoning a fundamental principle the game design was supposed the be based on.

The magnitude of this ‘change in direction’ doesn’t even compare, not closely. Judging from this thread that said principle was one if not the primary reason why they bought this game. It is for me.

Vash.9183:

Gilandred.9870:

Why aren’t the two gentlemen who originally declared that there would be no gear grind out front and center on this issue? Come out and take the heat; don’t send in others to do that which you should be doing….

If you consider this a gear-grind, then you must not have played many MMOs in depth. This is just a much needed addition to end-game armor. All you have had to do up to this point was run a couple dungeons and you have your top-tier exotic armor.

As it was supposed to be? Do you understand the meaning of ‘not having to grind for gear’? Doesn’t this imply the so called top-gear is easy to get?

I loved that idea, that’s why i bought the game, and that’s why i will stop playing and spending on money in the future on this franchise if they change their original promise. Hint: I have played a lot of MMORPGs (yeah what happened to the RPG part i may ask) over the last 10 years, some very much in depth. I know what i want.

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Caran.3217:

Zaxares.5419:

On the Infusion topic, I don’t believe it is a true “gating” mechanism. Yes, the Fractals dungeon will have the Agony mechanic, but from reading the blog post by Leah, it sounds as if Agony will only start kicking in if you decide to hang around in the dungeon for longer than 1 or 2 “runs”. Thus, a player kitted out in Exotics (or even Rares or Masterworks) could still join a group and complete 1 run through the dungeon. But if they decide to stay for a second or third time, then Agony will make that increasingly difficult.

I still don’t really understand why ANet decided to increase the stats for Ascended items though. I think if they had scrapped that idea altogether and just have Ascended items be items with an additional Infusion slot (and give players the ability to add Infusion slots to existing armor/equipment through crafting), it would avoided a lot of this kerfuffle.

A lot but not all. There’s one issue remaining which is the biggest in my opinion, and a major reason why people are so opposed to gear grinds. They are still gating the content, locking people out of it that aren’t on the same ‘step’ as those that have run the dungeon multiple times and did get the new gear.

And this is going to get only worse with the prospect of additional new content further down the road, as has been announced already. Going to acquire more/new tiers of Ascended gear equals new ‘keys’ to unlock the artificially introduced ‘gates’, literally looking anyone out that hasn’t played for some time.
Friends wanting to come back to do the new content with you? What you gonna tell them: ‘Sorry mate, get geared up first and maybe you can join us next week. I won’t do old content for the 500th time just to play with you, because it’s not fun for me anymore. Tough luck’.

considering how fractals work that wont be a problem

Read the announcement on Guildwars2.com: The game will be [quote:] “SCALING the dungeon to the HIGHEST common attained level”. Reading further that highest level is clearly defined by as how many times someone has run the dungeon (the term ‘level’ here is very misleading). As you get better rewards with higher ‘scaling’, which eventually will be Ascended gear loot, how is that not eventually locking players out that have none?

Zaxares.5419:

On the Infusion topic, I don’t believe it is a true “gating” mechanism. Yes, the Fractals dungeon will have the Agony mechanic, but from reading the blog post by Leah, it sounds as if Agony will only start kicking in if you decide to hang around in the dungeon for longer than 1 or 2 “runs”. Thus, a player kitted out in Exotics (or even Rares or Masterworks) could still join a group and complete 1 run through the dungeon. But if they decide to stay for a second or third time, then Agony will make that increasingly difficult.

I still don’t really understand why ANet decided to increase the stats for Ascended items though. I think if they had scrapped that idea altogether and just have Ascended items be items with an additional Infusion slot (and give players the ability to add Infusion slots to existing armor/equipment through crafting), it would avoided a lot of this kerfuffle.

A lot but not all. There’s one issue remaining which is the biggest in my opinion, and a major reason why people are so opposed to gear grinds. They are still gating the content, locking people out of it that aren’t on the same ‘step’ as those that have run the dungeon multiple times and did get the new gear.

And this is going to get only worse with the prospect of additional new content further down the road, as has been announced already. Going to acquire more/new tiers of Ascended gear equals new ‘keys’ to unlock the artificially introduced ‘gates’, literally looking anyone out that hasn’t played for some time.
Friends wanting to come back to do the new content with you? What you gonna tell them: ‘Sorry mate, get geared up first and maybe you can join us next week. I won’t do old content for the 500th time just to play with you, because it’s not fun for me anymore. Tough luck’.

EverythingXen.1835:

Caran.3217:

EverythingXen.1835:

Greep.6394:

EverythingXen.1835:

8% is not significant.

Power precision and crit dam stats compound on each other, so it will severely imbalance glass cannon builds since the game was balanced around those stats being at a set level.

If that proves to be true, then it will be adjusted after implementation. Big deal.

Why not balance on the gear that is out there? Why add new levels/tiers of gear and balance afterwards, to add more and rebalance again… and again. Even less of a deal?

Because adding a tier of gear does not imbalance anything.

Assuming everyone has the new tier of gear in every possible slot, something called a gear treadmill which this game advertised not to have.

Furthermore assuming that stat progression is linear, which has been proven that it is not e.g. increasing damage output versus increasing toughness.

Game mechanics are more often than not very complex systems, where tweaking small variables can have ‘undesired’ results, hence all the testing (if a developers are allowed to take the time and/or beta test), hence all the never ending rebalancing in games with item progression…

I strongly advise you to do some in depth research, on GW2 mechanics and preferably other systems as well to broaden your horizon, before making arguments based on simple assumptions.

EverythingXen.1835:

Greep.6394:

EverythingXen.1835:

8% is not significant.

Power precision and crit dam stats compound on each other, so it will severely imbalance glass cannon builds since the game was balanced around those stats being at a set level.

If that proves to be true, then it will be adjusted after implementation. Big deal.

Why not balance on the gear that is out there? Why add new levels/tiers of gear and balance afterwards, to add more and rebalance again… and again. Even less of a deal?

MajorMelchett.6042:

Here’s what i’m wondering, when was this decided?, see the update comes out around 3 months after release BUT surely the ideas for the items got decided much sooner.

So was this decided before release or very shortly after release?. I see a lot of posts saying “this was put in after only 3 months”, BUT it’s more of a case of “did they plan this before release?” or “how soon after release did they come up with this?”.

I’d love to know, if it was before release then considering the info we got given in blogs/videos it’s even worse than chaging it now, and if it was shortly after release then it’s almost as bad as that as they decided to not tell any of us and let us waste time/effort/gold/real money on things that we had no idea would become outdated in such a short period of time.
-
Ask yourself this, if you had known a month ago (or at release) that a new higher level back item was on the way so soon, would you have bought the 5 gold back item or waited for the new one? (or any similar item that will be Ascended) – i know for a fact i would have waited as i only got my back item a few days ago.

A lot of people are in the same boat, and possibly way more than ANet realizes or the ignorant will even fathom.

Flushing one of the design pillars of the game down the drain, cheating players out of the soon to be ‘last tier’ armour they took time, effort and possibly real money to acquire, in good faith that this would be the end is like pulling the carpet, literally.

RamzaBehoulve.5640:

Caran.3217:

Creslin.1758:

Shunsui Jiraiya.9103:

I’m desperate for Arenanet to answer to the following.

After the full set of Ascended items have been drip fed into the game is another tier on the road map?

The answer will decide if I continue to play.

NB: So poor show to see that the controversial news and response to hate posts are being made by anyone other than Mike. Its your baby so take responsibility.

Yep, I agree. If Ascended is the last gear tier…I can live with it. In fact, I an even understand it because Exotics were a bit too easy to get, and at least this will give ANet a lot of “reward fodder” to make their content more interesting.

But if this is just the start of a long-chain of gear tiers…I’m out. That is a treadmill…they said their wouldn’t be a treadmill so I’m going to just have to trust that for now…but we really need some reassurance here.

Why are you fooling yourself?

Who says exotics were a bit to easy to get? The powergrinders running non-stop 24h karma trains through lost shore? The ones that exploited the dungeons early on taking short cuts to bosses to farm the hell out of them amassing marks in little time that is not possible any more? People running glass cannon AoE dps builds in WvWvW depending on their mates to get carried so they can actually collect the bags with marks, ending up with a lot more than others that screwed over by this stupid contribution system?

What exactly is your benchmark of ‘easy to get’? Did you think of people that can not play 8 hours a day? Or are you just repeating the pathetic spin, that poor excuse by which this new gear grind is being sold?

I didn’t grind anything, I just played to 80, raised my crafts to max and sold a few pieces. A few hours later I was in full Exotic.

There is no difficulty in acquiring exotic level stats. It’s a fixed amount of time you need to spend gathering the resources needed.

Ascended is added between Exotic and Legendary to fix difficulty and time gap that are between the two.

So what is your point? Is everyone in a hurry to get a legendary weapon, that as of now doesn’t have better stats but is purely cosmetic, just a nice to have thing IF you like the looks? Why is a gap filler needed?

Oh wait, is it to appease brainless hamsters that got bored already? Wouldn’t simply adding new content be enough?

New content takes time to design: Implementing a basic gear grind as an supposedly easy low cost fix, which only keeps a ‘hardcore player’ minority busy, and this only for a set amount of time.

There seems to be a fundamental lack of comprehension that there is another demographic of MMORPG players that does NOT need a gear grind to keep them playing. They could care less about min/maxing stats, they just want to PLAY and enjoy a game for it’s content.

JackLafayette.9360:

/snip because it’s a really long post.

You got the comparison: ‘GW2 Ascended gear = GW1 Infusion’ all wrong.

It’s not a singular process to infuse existing gear but an entirely new tier with better stats than ANY existing gear right now, and it is an ongoing treadmill as you will need more and more Ascended stuff to face new ‘challenges’ in the future.

Read some more of the last dozen pages here, some good stuff.

heavyscythe.9780:

Seriously I don’t get why people are so angry about new content being released.

If this update came 3 months from now we would be celebrating but instead we are complaining. All Areanet has done is keep things fresh by giving us things to work towards.

I am a casual player with only 1 lvl 80 character and 2 alts below 30 yet I find the challenge appealing. I’m not the type of player who skips straight to end game I spend most of my time playing through each level range of the game.

Considering the number of lvl 80 players with exotic or legendary armors that already exist, this update only gives players more activities to spend time on rather than getting bored and leaving as soon as they get to 80 and get 100% map completion.

The only people who would really worry about this new tier level are those who spend a lot of time in PvP and all it does in that case is to give people a bit more variety in opponents, instead of several opponents with the exact same equipment sets.

It also makes it so you have to challenge yourself to keep up with the new tier. The reason games are fun is because they are challenging, what is the point of a game that gives you everything with little effort on your part.

A new tier level just keeps the game interesting, if you want to continue to get the legendary instead of the new tier that is fine. But if you want to keep up with the rest of the players you should work towards getting the new tier equipment.

Many (seemingly less MMORPG experienced players) have argued like you before in this thread. Many have refuted the false assumption you are repeating:

Stat Increase DOES NOT EQUAL Increase in difficulty of content!

A gear treadmill will in no way keep the game ‘interesting’, that is a massive misconception. It will only keep a certain demographic of players playing for a little more time, till the next tier grind is released.

Deth.4109:

Caran.3217:

Deth.4109:

Jestunhi.7429:

Deth.4109:

Jestunhi.7429:

If there weren’t another tier lined up after this one then how would they keep the new target audience?

If they want to keep grinders then they need a constant grind, not just one new tier to occupy them for a few hours each time a new item is added.

how do you know theres a “NEW” target for the game????. what if ascendeds are there way of setting up for a more logically sustainable method of fufilling the original models purpose?

Clearly this new change is not aimed at the audience which all their previous statements, press releases, interviews, etc were aimed at, because they are now saying the exact opposite of what they were saying before.

thats some what true, assuming ascendeds arent intended to become the new permanent level cap standard. i mean if they are then it pleases both types of players, example: all level 80s will in the future wear ascended armor, but by adding new infusions<possibly aquired through various means but for the purpose of my example ones specific to duneons> then hard core gear grinder pvers will have to constantly chase new infusios by doing this dungeon and thefore also be appeased.

Sorry to say but there is no logic whatsoever in your post.

People that have spent time, effort and possibly real money to get exotic gear are cheated and have to repeat the process of gearing up all over.

People that love a gear treadmill because they for whatever reason think this is needed to keep them playing will always demand more, the next tier.

Two fundamentally exclusive ‘ways to play’ – ANet sold a game on advertising A) and now they want to sell those people. This can not work ever.

thats the point of me saying its a more sustainable method, the market of gamers especially the ones who like mmos dont care for a system like what was in place with max level exotics. to most its literally “playing dress up” by adding more infusions for gear treadmill players they give them more ways to increase there effectiveness and create a flat levle “next tier”. not that those items would be any more powerful so much so as they simply increase the effectivness of that player in a particular setting. and because they can create gear upgrades via infusions rather than new armor tiers it creates the item level cap we were pormised with the original model.

Read up on ‘LotRO’ and ‘Radiance’, people being picking this up for the last dozens of pages and saw a valid comparison to what ANet is doing now.

It is gated content, you do exclude people that don’t have specific gear form doing new content. It failed in LotRO, hard – they finally removed it all together, and admitted it was bad design that segregated the players.

History repeats itself, a new WoW clone is in the coming. There is no way you can refute this.

Creslin.1758:

Caran.3217:

Creslin.1758:

Shunsui Jiraiya.9103:

I’m desperate for Arenanet to answer to the following.

After the full set of Ascended items have been drip fed into the game is another tier on the road map?

The answer will decide if I continue to play.

NB: So poor show to see that the controversial news and response to hate posts are being made by anyone other than Mike. Its your baby so take responsibility.

Yep, I agree. If Ascended is the last gear tier…I can live with it. In fact, I an even understand it because Exotics were a bit too easy to get, and at least this will give ANet a lot of “reward fodder” to make their content more interesting.

But if this is just the start of a long-chain of gear tiers…I’m out. That is a treadmill…they said their wouldn’t be a treadmill so I’m going to just have to trust that for now…but we really need some reassurance here.

Why are you fooling yourself?

Who says exotics were a bit to easy to get? The powergrinders running non-stop 24h karma trains through lost shore? The ones that exploited the dungeons early on taking short cuts to bosses to farm the hell out of them amassing marks in little time that is not possible any more? People running glass cannon AoE dps builds in WvWvW depending on their mates to get carried so they can actually collect the bags with marks, ending up with a lot more than others that screwed over by this stupid contribution system?

What exactly is your benchmark of ‘easy to get’? Did you think of people that can not play 8 hours a day? Or are you just repeating the pathetic spin, that poor excuse by which this new gear grind is being sold?

They really aren’t that hard to get…it costs like probably less than 2g per piece of exotic gear if you can craft…and it’s megaeasy to max out a crafting skill.

You can just buy items at a low buy price and then sell them at a higher sell price to get the money, then you’re done. I have nearly full exotic, and I think I’ve done maybe a total of 5 or 6 dungeon runs…rest almost all WvW…no farming at all.

Besides the fact that it is not that easy to buy low and sell high, because it also requires a time investment playing the market and knowing when and where to make that profit (also not everyone’s cup of enjoyment), what’s wrong with getting ‘endgame gear’ asap?

Many many people in this thread pointed it out, it makes no difference in the long run if you get the max gear in a day or a month. It ‘was’ (as it seems now) supposed to be easy to get because the focus wasn’t on gear.
I could deck out my alt in GW1 with the ‘best stats’ (although not necessarily best looking) gear as soon as he got to the vendor that sold it for little coin, pocket change for my main. There wasn’t even a level requirement on the gear.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with exotics being easy to get anyway. Unless you like to grind for gear as a means to keep you playing.. chasing the ever extending stat cap.

DO NOT WANT!

Deth.4109:

Jestunhi.7429:

Deth.4109:

Jestunhi.7429:

If there weren’t another tier lined up after this one then how would they keep the new target audience?

If they want to keep grinders then they need a constant grind, not just one new tier to occupy them for a few hours each time a new item is added.

how do you know theres a “NEW” target for the game????. what if ascendeds are there way of setting up for a more logically sustainable method of fufilling the original models purpose?

Clearly this new change is not aimed at the audience which all their previous statements, press releases, interviews, etc were aimed at, because they are now saying the exact opposite of what they were saying before.

thats some what true, assuming ascendeds arent intended to become the new permanent level cap standard. i mean if they are then it pleases both types of players, example: all level 80s will in the future wear ascended armor, but by adding new infusions<possibly aquired through various means but for the purpose of my example ones specific to duneons> then hard core gear grinder pvers will have to constantly chase new infusios by doing this dungeon and thefore also be appeased.

Sorry to say but there is no logic whatsoever in your post.

People that have spent time, effort and possibly real money to get exotic gear are cheated and have to repeat the process of gearing up all over.

People that love a gear treadmill because they for whatever reason think this is needed to keep them playing will always demand more, the next tier.

Two fundamentally exclusive ‘ways to play’ – ANet sold a game on advertising A) and now they want to sell those people. This can not work ever.

Creslin.1758:

Shunsui Jiraiya.9103:

I’m desperate for Arenanet to answer to the following.

After the full set of Ascended items have been drip fed into the game is another tier on the road map?

The answer will decide if I continue to play.

NB: So poor show to see that the controversial news and response to hate posts are being made by anyone other than Mike. Its your baby so take responsibility.

Yep, I agree. If Ascended is the last gear tier…I can live with it. In fact, I an even understand it because Exotics were a bit too easy to get, and at least this will give ANet a lot of “reward fodder” to make their content more interesting.

But if this is just the start of a long-chain of gear tiers…I’m out. That is a treadmill…they said their wouldn’t be a treadmill so I’m going to just have to trust that for now…but we really need some reassurance here.

Why are you fooling yourself?

Who says exotics were a bit to easy to get? The powergrinders running non-stop 24h karma trains through lost shore? The ones that exploited the dungeons early on taking short cuts to bosses to farm the hell out of them amassing marks in little time that is not possible any more? People running glass cannon AoE dps builds in WvWvW depending on their mates to get carried so they can actually collect the bags with marks, ending up with a lot more than others that screwed over by this stupid contribution system?

What exactly is your benchmark of ‘easy to get’? Did you think of people that can not play 8 hours a day? Or are you just repeating the pathetic spin, that poor excuse by which this new gear grind is being sold?

LadenSwallow.1468:

Well I decided to post a complaint to the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) given the contradiction between these sources:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success/

and

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear

Key differences that I could see:

June 2012: The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game… those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

and

November 2012: Ascended gear has Infusion slots, and rarer versions of the items also come with additional Agony Resistance built into them.

June 2012: We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills

and

November 2012: The only way to mitigate Agony damage is by building up resistance through Infusions, a new type of upgrade component that can be acquired in the Mystic Forge.

I bought this game under the distinct impression that I could get to max level/equipment, then play how I wanted to (which may itself include periods of not playing – I work full time and have other games to play). I have only 1 level 80 character, approximately 70% exotics and was working on the rest (with the rest currently including jewellery so at the moment I’m not strictly speaking affected, but the effect of this update is to make me very angry at the future prospects). I had also decided to perhaps start levelling some alternate characters, and when those character slots are all full to perhaps have bought more over the coming years, along with expansion packs etc.

Depending on the outcome I’m not sure I will bother, after all, I still have many games in my library that I haven’t even touched yet. I can just as easily abandon this game as ANet has abandoned their principles.

Amen.

Nexrex.8273:

Darkmoon Mist Raven.5913:

this kitten storm could have been, and could still be, easily averted : keep the patch the same, with the ascented gear, and just remove the stat increase.

SOLVED. now everyone can get excited about the patch content !

i’ll take the job, thank you.

Amen, my thoughts exactly, I’ll take the job as well.

And i wouldn’t pay either of you for that fail job! Exotic gear is still made obsolete, wasted utterly. Hint: Other posters are more qualified for the ‘job’ – they would simply add a new slot to existing exotic gear.

xtorma.1283:

Doesn’t really matter. You will either stop playing or keep playing. They have already made the decision that it will not impact them negatively finacially. Thier hope is that it will bring in more people, keep some people who would have left from leaving, and that will offset those that leave.

I am sure they knew that there would be a level of dissent. I am sure they surmised that they would lose players. I am sure they took all this into account and decided that the ones they throw under the bus would not impact thier bottomline as much as sticking to thier original plan.

If you are disappointed and quit, they don’t really care, you have already been factored in and accounted for.

Hahaha, yes sure thing because they’re so wise and can’t make massive mistakes. Flip back a page or two and find the post with the link to the LotRO Devs admitting total failure with a new game concept/mechanic, after they lost a lot of their playerbase and had to go F2P. So much for ‘accounting for’ lmao.

Magiofdeath.2745:

The QQ in this thread, from both sides, is legendary. There should be a new legendary weapon based on this thread and it should be called “QQ’ers Lament”.

I’m neither for or against this. I’m ok with this because they already have a massive grind to get legendarys, so don’t see the harm in adding a gear progression grind (hint: the grind, no matter what it is, is strong in this game). I have my doubts about this because we don’t have enough inventory/bank space for all this crap – I had 4 armor sets in GW1 for my ranger, which was no problem, because EVERY SINGLE material had a collection for it – we are missing our collection for rare mats. GW1 also didn’t have mystic forge consumables, WvW blueprints, the amount of runes GW2 has, sigils, etc. I also had more than enough bank space at the end of GW1 – I’m not saying we won’t be giving increased inventory/bank space as this game continues on, but currently (without buying an additional finite number of bank slots) we simply do not have enough room for multiple sets of armor/weapons let alone 4 sets of armor. I am not going to worry about the ascended gear making current gear obsolete just yet – I would like to see how it goes when the update goes live. The inventory space as the game grows is a huge concern for me though. While GW1 didn’t have it, I would fully support a armor/weapon skin locker like we have in PvP. They could just make it so that when you earn the armor/weapon, you unlock the skin as a transmute similar to that of the HoM skins.

Comedy material, so there’s more stuff to grind for in GW2 now and you’re fine with adding more like a gear-grind?

And stop QQing about bank space please, you know… buy a few gems and unlock more bank slots – that’s how this game is supposed to be funded long term (you played GW1 – really?)

Swagger.1459:

Caran.3217:

Swagger.1459:

since this is the hot and poppin’ thread…

Swagger.1459:

considering the new gear circumstances, i personally feel it would be decent of arenanet/ncsoft to reimburse players their gem, gold and/or karma expenditures or provide free ascended equipment upgrades for those who purchased any exotic gear.

i have enjoyed many aspects of the game, spent a considerable amount of $ to support it and i’m not opposed to gear progression (except when the words “mystic forge” are used), but i never would have invested in 2nd tier gear, skins, runes, order gear, transmutaions and so on, had i know about ascended gear.

i know that i’m not in this boat alone, so hopefully the devs make the right decisions while going foward with ascended gear for their customers.

thanks for reading

edit- not attemting to start a riot with this post, just trying to present a fair compromise.

Wrong solution, not gonna happen. There are way better suggestions in the last 10 pages.

Edit: Just like the one posted above

i understand there may be some different suggestions but arenanet will go foward with ascended gear so that leaves very few options for those who have invested a lot time, $ and game currency.

If they do go forward with that crap idea introducing gear grind, making my time and money investment so far obsolete, by breaking their promise what sold me on the game in the first place – i have only one option left. No more of my money for that company.

I enjoyed the game a lot so far and that last option would make me sad, but i will not keep supporting a scam.

Swagger.1459:

since this is the hot and poppin’ thread…

Swagger.1459:

considering the new gear circumstances, i personally feel it would be decent of arenanet/ncsoft to reimburse players their gem, gold and/or karma expenditures or provide free ascended equipment upgrades for those who purchased any exotic gear.

i have enjoyed many aspects of the game, spent a considerable amount of $ to support it and i’m not opposed to gear progression (except when the words “mystic forge” are used), but i never would have invested in 2nd tier gear, skins, runes, order gear, transmutaions and so on, had i know about ascended gear.

i know that i’m not in this boat alone, so hopefully the devs make the right decisions while going foward with ascended gear for their customers.

thanks for reading

edit- not attemting to start a riot with this post, just trying to present a fair compromise.

Wrong solution, not gonna happen. There are way better suggestions in the last 10 pages.

Edit: Just like the one posted above

Healix.5819:

evasionmoon.1345:

Im not playing Guild Wars 2 for gear grinding tier1 tier2 tier3 tier4 ext.

Since they’re gating the release of the gear, the “tiers” will actually all be of the same ascended tier.

Since the first dungeon will be rings + back, one could assume the next dungeon would be 3 other items, such as earrings + necklace and so on for each new dungeon.

Once they get through all the gear, then it’s masterwork infusion upgrades. After that, rare, exotic and ascended.

They have a lot of room to work with before reaching the next level. Assuming a 2-3 month delay inbetween updates, the level cap will probably increase before reaching the end (full ascended with ascended infusions), where it then starts all over again.

DO NOT WANT LEVEL CAP INCREASE!

Some people are playing the wrong game and now they change the game to be like the other games. Why had it to go this way? Who made the call? Why now and not back then?

Norida.8692:

Now if thoses who are angry are pve only, i would like to know how can you make a mmo withtout having character improvement over time ? don’t you understand it IS boring in a mmo (while it wasn’t in gw1 because it wasn’t a mmo) to not see you character grow stronger ? haven’t you played a real roleplaying game before ? when your character need to face a new dungeon with new trials that you cannot overcome without a new artefact, a new armor ? THIS is a roleplaying game (as in massive multiplayer online roleplaying game).

Right now when i heard of this new dungeon and this new armor i was exited because i thout hey ! new condition that require me to wear a new armor ! it felt like real roleplaying dvd and stuff.

You know, D&D (or AD&D) haven’t been the only RolePlaying games ever invented? Actually shortly after D&D came out (with it’s levels) there were new RPGs coming out that did away with the whole level progression thing?

And that was back in the late 70ies, last century….

Healix.5819:

They realized that what they did with exotics was a mistake. The fact that you could be fully decked out in final tier min/maxed gear in a day greatly reduces the game’s lifespan for a large group of players. If exotics actually took effort to get and at least a month to obtain, then ascended gear may not be needed. With ascended gear, they’re purposely gating the acquisition of it. The first dungeon will be 2 pieces. At that rate, it’ll take 6-9 months to complete a full set.

A lot of people seem to be misreading this line: “we’re only adding the first level of Infusions and Ascended Rings and Back slots”. Some people seem to be reading it as “we’re adding the first tier of ascended items” when it actually says “we’re adding ascended rings and back pieces along with the first tier of infusion upgrades”.

As for claiming there’s a gear treadmill because of a single tier, there will always be one. This isn’t GW1 where the level cap will be the same forever.

Ascended items aren’t even the best items available. Sure, if you look at a simple side by side comparison or don’t care about stats they are, but look at the big picture. It would actually be really funny if all ascended gear had magic find on it, because you know, it comes from a dungeon that revolves around grinding it for rare ascended gear.

You know, in GW1 i could level a character to max level in about 8 hours, and even buy him the ‘best’ armour (as in max stats) way before that. People still played for years. Not everyone needs gear progression.

Double the current maximum slider value (and also allow for less sensitivity as well). You should not be forced to use 3rd party software. Every other MMORPG i played in the last 5 years allowed for a broader range of camera/mouse sensitivity than GW2 currently does.

This is a massive oversight, please adjust this.

Tyr.1965:

I’ve calmed down a bit since spending all day monitoring this thread yesterday, having been vehemently against this new tier. Mr. Whiteside’s post has a self-contradicting tone at first glance, but I’m beginning to understand where they are coming from with this decision.

ArenaNet made a mistake in balancing the tiers that are already in the game. They made exotics far too easy to obtain in relation to legendary weapons. Both items are equal in power but nowhere near equal in time, effort, and resources to acquire. There is virtually no prestige at all to exotic armor yet a ton of prestige in legendary weapons. When they eventually release legendary armor, it would have been the same case. There is a very extreme gap right now.

What they want to do, is make Ascendant gear be what Exotic gear was supposed to be. Ascended will take longer to acquire than Exotic, the way that Exotic was supposed to take longer to acquire than Rare gear. However, it still won’t take as long to acquire as legendary armor and weapons, which will be eventually scaled up to Ascended level once Ascended weapons are introduced.

Of course, Ascended has to be better than Exotic because Exotic is better than Rare and Rare is better than Masterwork, and so on. We have to think of Ascended as being the new Exotic because ArenaNet simply failed to make Exotic gear live up to its name.

Many players want to work towards something but don’t necessarily want to take the big plunge from Exotic to Legendary status. This new tier will give us all something to work towards over time. When all the Ascended gear is finally in the game, we’ll look back and feel a sense of accomplishment that many of us didnt feel with Exotics and perhaps then, more of us will start working towards Legendary gear.

I know it’s all scarey and it really wants to feel like ArenaNet is turning their backs on us, but take an objective step back and breathe. All they’re trying to do is fix their initial mistake and make the last tier of gear before Legendary take a bit more time to obtain. It wouldn’t seem nearly as scarey if all this were in place at launch.

I won’t get into the Agony mechanic and the resistance gear they’re adding. I personally think that is a stupid, boring, lazy, outdated, and historically unsuccessful mechanic. It is far from eloquent and I hope they reconsider. But in regards to the new tier, I see it as a necessary fix to a system they didnt quite get right from launch.

I think now I can relax and log back into the game and give them a chance. I’m definitely going to be extremely hesitant to spend another dime in the gem store in the immediate future because ANet has handled this entire debacle very, very poorly. Sometimes the community just needs straight-forward explanations instead of convoluted public relations spins and we didn’t get that here, which only added fuel to the fire. But I understand why they’re doing what they’re doing; I just wish they got it right from the start and didn’t have to do this. Let’s hope the road forward is less rocky than it is today.

Good for you, i just finished getting a total of 4 exotic sets plus several exotic weapons for my two ‘main’ characters i like to play. Easy to obtain? No not really, there was quite some grind and no-fun time sink involved. I was happy to be ‘done’ with it, looking forward to just playing the way i want to now and what i enjoy for the sake of it being fun for me.

Now to grind out new sets of armour – no thank you, i will not do that.

Urxx.6840:

What irritates me the most is that I feel insulted because they treated us like we were dumb.

You can’t introduce a new tier of gear which cuts out whoever doesn’t own it from certain content, and then insult my intelligence trying to convince me it doesn’t go against 7 years of design phylosophy of GW1 and what you previously stated about GW2 itself.

“It’s just a way to fill a gap between exotics and legendaries”.

No, it’s not.
That would be something prettier than an exotic but less exclusive and hard to acquire thana a legendary. But with the same stats and slots.

We aren’t a bunch of idiots, you know.

I have come to the very sad conclusion by looking at how most game companies/developers treated the ones that feed them for the past 10 years that they do think the majority of their players base is somewhat dumb. It’s a sad world.

Uorya.6593:

“Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.”

Read this and stop complaining, they did it only to put a little progression between exotics and legendary, they are not going to put a gear progression and they are not going to put more tiers, they just want to make sure that between exotic and legendary there is another tier that fill the gap between them, that’s all

What GAP pray tell?

New gear has better stats (no matter how small) – current exotic weapons have the same stats as the current implementation of legendary weapons.
So what GAP?

I’m ending it here, but if you have the time just read through the last 5-10 pages of this thread and there’s plenty of evidence and good arguments that we’re facing a gear-treadmill (you can call it ‘little by little progression’ if you like ok).

Rhyaehar.9504:

kistell.5684:

KingClash.3186:

Woah.. This is the biggest crybaby thread for this game to date.
No one cares whatsoever if you leave the game so stop being attention w****s
Just be happy that something new is being introduced, that or just walk away; dont come to the forums and toss a mega hissy fit.
#Getoverit

Not very bright are you, Anet are using a business model build on micro transactions,
Losing players due to upsetting them is not good for business, look at other failed MMO`s due to upsetting their user base.

Exactly.
Remember that it’s not the most hardcore of players that spend the most on Gems – they buy them for the hoardes of in-game gold they accumulate.
The whole system was designed with casual players as Gem suppliers in mind: they are to buy them to “save time”.

Who is, in general, the most annoyed with gear treadmills (not always, for example I consider my gf a hardcore player: while she disagrees, she hates gear treadmill anyway)?
Who is the most hit by a new tier of gear and so soon, after they worked so hard for their Exotic sets?

But somehow Arena Net still decided to chase and try to please crowd which burns trhough content with inhuman speed to cry for more, and which by general does not spend much real money on Gems because they can afford to buy all they need via in-game money. What will new tier change? They will have their Ascended gear in a week or two and they will cry for more, a fools game that can’t be win that way.

This decision is – for me – bad for Guild Wars 2 business model, for the community, and it gives ANet a bad PR for breaking design principles they promised to hold.

Very true and a very good post.