Guild Wars 2

Vayne.8563:

As I’ve said before, when Ascended gear was first introduced, this game had very little “stickiness”. There was no reason for people to play and it was easy to move on to other games. The ascended gear was a stopgap measure (which seems to have worked).

The stickiness now doesn’t actually come from ascended gear. Anet is going to release the rest of it, because it’s in motion, but the stickiness now comes from chasing achievement points.

If people continue to show up to chase achievement points, then there’s not much reason for Anet to introduce another tier.

The tier was introduced for a reason. If that reason ceases to exist, Anet won’t have to resort to that sort of tactic again.

Mind you the achievement point chase, to me, is far worse than gear grind.

Possibly. Assuming that the gear grinder’s are content with instead grinding achievement points for the rewards from the AP system. If they aren’t impressed with those rewards they’ll make a whole lot of noise and chances are the dev’s will have to cave in and release a new tier to try and keep those players around. (Edit: In the future, of course)

I agree though that, in a way, AP farming is even worse. Eventually you’d obtain all the Ascended items. Farming achievement points lasts forever.

I really love this game, I’ve burnt out sometimes and left for a while but always came back. When they first introduced Ascended items I was incredibly disappointed but – obviously – stayed around. However, slowly I’m beginning to realise… what happens after all the hamster’s in their little wheels have gotten all their Ascended weapons? ArenaNet introducing Ascended armor is the likely answer.

Then what? The issue is about trust, and I don’t trust them. I don’t trust that once the grinder’s have eaten the carrot that is Ascended items, that ArenaNet won’t then add in yet another tier in an attempt to keep them around.

Oh, they’ve said they hope that another tier won’t be added but by now I think we all realise they can’t be taken at face-value. Some on these forums would argue that because game design is a re-iterative process that their previous promises don’t matter. I refuse to accept that argument because the nature of promises is that they are supposed to be kept, not disregarded the moment they become inconvenient. But business is business, right? Something I despise but at least can understand, and so to voice my discontent I’m refusing to put money into the store.

They are so far removed from their original philosophy that it’s becoming tragic. It’ll no doubt take me a large number of months if I wanted to gear up any alts with top-end gear because I refuse to join the hamster’s in their wheels in the grind for these ascended items. I could probably go back to WoW and get the Insane title for the same amount of time it will eventually take to obtain a full set of Ascended for one character, and that’s sad.

Wiped once on first boss, twice on the last boss.

It’s not difficult once you understand the tactics, the fights are just lengthy. Admittedly the cannon’s on the last boss can be irritating, was one guy in our group who just couldn’t survive them and had to be rezzed every time. I have to say, it’s the most fun I’ve had in a dungeon for a long time. I’m fairly critical of arenanet at the best of times but this isn’t one of the things they got wrong.

One thing I’d say though is don’t go with pugs. Take friends or guildies.

(Edit: Apparently using the words hard and then once next to each other in a sentence is forbidden, edited the word to ‘difficult’)

Rompy.1429:

If having a bigger blob means victory then you will blob.
Sun Tzu said that, and I think he knows a little more about fighting than you do, pal.

TF2! Take all my upvotes.

Thanks for your contribution in keeping this thread alive thia.
Edit: Also ty for stepping off the arrowcart long enough to check forums.

I feel this thread shouldn’t be allowed to die.

Anet, please consider looking again at arrow-carts. It seems the current metagame is to build as many as possible, once you’re within range of them you just turn to mush.

I love how we got so far under some surmian’s skin’s that they have to follow us around like puppies to every match-up we get into and bark out something mundane any chance they get. It’s cute.

That aside, to repeat what’s already been said it’s clear we aren’t going to win this one. That didn’t stop myself or plenty of others from showing up last night and doing our best and at several times last night our tick was respectable. I’ll be in again today at some point to keep fighting. I’ve been impressed with the attitude of Piken Square poster’s so far and if that’s the sort of attitude that’s common on that server then I’ve got a healthy dose of respect for them. They also have some very powerful guild groups. When we took Bay in their BL last night [FG] (I hope I’m remembering that correctly) came to clean up the mess for Piken. A very large group of Riverside also showed up, no doubt hoping to take advantage of the fight between Piken and ourselves.

Well… I watched in horror from the ramparts as [FG] and some others that were along for the phat lewtz turned from the door and engaged this Riverside force twice their size and annihilated them. Then they smashed open that door like it was a thin sheet of cardboard and proceeded to turn us into the tyrian equivalent of porridge.

Concerning Riverside, I would say it’s unjustified to claim they just hole up in their keeps and arrow-cart anything to death that dares to come close. I mean, they do this yes, but I’ve had plenty of open battles last night with them too. Some which we even won and plenty more which we lost. Their prime-time force was more powerful than ours though, and it’s clear they have a powerful off-peak team as well when one looks at the points this morning.

You’re both servers to be reckoned with. I don’t think we’ll be able to give you a proper challenge although hopefully the RNG God’s will roll their dice and give you a more competitive match-up next week.

To be honest though I’m enjoying this match-up immensely and hopefully I and other Gunnar’s will be to introduce you to our hammers several times this week despite the disproportionate levels of strength between the servers involved.

Balthazar’s Temple is open on Gunnar’s Hold [EU].
Just completed the event.

Honestly, look at yourselves. How in God’s green earth is it “fair” to penalise hundreds of people for the failings of one individual? They’re disappointed human beings, not “fruits of labor” that belonged to some guy.

This community is a mindbogglingly degenerate cesspit that surpasses even the WoW Community forums with its wanton nastiness. Some of you would actually rather mindlessly lick a company’s boots than have some sympathy for your fellow player. What a disgrace.

This along with ArenaNet’s recent spree of bans for making money off crafting (crafting is supposed to be profitless then I guess? lolwut) has really been the final nail in the coffin. I’m out.

“wah wah, I did it with 5 this isn’t fair!”

You’re being utterly childish. This thread is about the issue of being unable to complete this with an organised group of your choosing, it’s not about how kitten you are about a kitten Wintersday achievement.

I thought the break-out event only occurs if the faction in question has no points on the map? Does the NPC start zerging around the entire map or does he just help take the first tower? If bandwagoners are moaning about a single tower then just… lol.

If he starts owning up everything on the map then yeah, that’s a bit BS.

GW2 deserves plenty of awards, hell, for me personally it’s my game of the year. Anet has done a lot of dumb crap but the game is still fun for me and the content is awesome.

RPG of the Year though, yeah no. I’ve not exactly been playing a lot of different games this year but for GW2 to win the RPG of the Year award the competition must have been absolute drivel. GW2 Personal Story is a terrible mess, especially once you join one of the Orders of Tyria. Seriously, it’s magnificently terrible storytelling. About the only thing I’ve ever seen that’s worse is the Warcraft books written by Knaak. Even then I’m fairly confident I actually like Rhonin more than Trahearne.

Furthermore the majority of the voice acting left much to be desired, Destiny’s Edge voice actors aside. My human male Guardian feels like a soulless husk devoid of character or emotion when he talks. GW2 is a terrible RPG (in my opinion).

Your call to walk in there naked, bro. Why should that exempt you from getting a hammer in your face? It’s war buddy, suck it up.

I’ve had this trouble for the better part of a week now and it seems to be entirely erratic and doesn’t hold to any particular pattern. Basically every so often on a loading screen the game will freeze and cease to respond, requiring me to open task manager and end task and reboot the game back up again to fix the problem.

I’ve tried upgrading drivers as well as re-installing the game and after I upgraded to Windows 8 – previously using Windows 7 – it seemed to have relented but it has begun to occur again. Any ideas on what is causing the problem?

Operating System
Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 64-bit

CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66GHz
Yorkfield 45nm Technology

RAM
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 399MHz (6-6-6-18)

Motherboard
FOXCONN G41MXE/G41MXE-K (Socket775)

Graphics
SyncMaster (1920×1080@60Hz)
1023MB GeForce GTS 450
Driver Version: 9.18.13.1061

Grene Jello.4651:

Freohr.7905:

Grene Jello.4651:

Do you do make good point, yeah I blew up a bit there, which doesn’t really create a comply environment for new players. I should be less harsh with my criticisms, I think I should avoid obvious flaming threads all together, its not worth the stress. Which is why I’ll let some of your more choice words slide.

I guess it just really burns me to hear the arrogance of some players knowing that Anet houses some of the highest regarded pioneers of gaming and brightest/creative minds in the MMO space today. I sometimes feel like firing back with the same fervor and bad taste that is heaped on Anet by seemingly mediocre minds.

You’re right. You should just avoid them. In fact, please do the general community a favor and get the kitten out of the forums completely. Take your ridiculous over 9000 level fanboi’ism with you too. The only minds around here being mediocre are yours and Arena Net’s. If you truly think this Fractal difficulty level thing was a good idea then you’re a clown, plain and simple. People having to use a third-party website to get Fractal parties means the game’s kittening broken. If you can’t see this and still think whoever made this system is a “pioneer” of gaming then there is no hope for you.

Now please eject yourself from the forums, saving yourself stress and saving me from having to make an irritable post.

You’re mad, I can tell.

You’re also ignorant, but I’ll help you rather than flame you.

---

<snip>

---

tldr

So Mike O’Brien (president of ArenaNet) created an archiving file format called MPQ that’s been used in video games as far back as Diablo I and most recently Diablo III, not to mention World of Warcraft and all its expansions along with every other game Blizzard has released.

If that’s not a pioneer, tell me who/what is.

Tag you’re it.

While there is a degree of impressiveness to that, this article singing his praises was back in 1999. We’re on a GW2 forum, you’re intelligent enough to know I’m not talking about whatever O’Brien and his team did back in 1999, I’m appraising the dungeon system in GW2, particularly for Fractals.

Regardless of whether they pioneered something back in the 90’s, there’s certainly nothing fresh about what they’re doing with FoTM. If you honestly don’t think it’s bad that people are forced to sit in Lion’s Arch for ages, or use a third-party website to find a dungeon group in-game then that’s fine. I think you’re a blind fanboy if you honestly believe that, but whatever.

I’m not a hater, GW2 got a lot of things right and they deserve praise for creating such an awesome world, but I’m not going to sit and lick O’Brien’s shoes and tell him that FoTM’s difficulty system is good, because it’s not. It’s terrible.

Grene Jello.4651:

Do you do make good point, yeah I blew up a bit there, which doesn’t really create a comply environment for new players. I should be less harsh with my criticisms, I think I should avoid obvious flaming threads all together, its not worth the stress. Which is why I’ll let some of your more choice words slide.

I guess it just really burns me to hear the arrogance of some players knowing that Anet houses some of the highest regarded pioneers of gaming and brightest/creative minds in the MMO space today. I sometimes feel like firing back with the same fervor and bad taste that is heaped on Anet by seemingly mediocre minds.

You’re right. You should just avoid them. In fact, please do the general community a favor and get the kitten out of the forums completely. Take your ridiculous over 9000 level fanboi’ism with you too. The only minds around here being mediocre are yours and Arena Net’s. If you truly think this Fractal difficulty level thing was a good idea then you’re a clown, plain and simple. People having to use a third-party website to get Fractal parties means the game’s kittening broken. If you can’t see this and still think whoever made this system is a “pioneer” of gaming then there is no hope for you.

Now please eject yourself from the forums, saving yourself stress and saving me from having to make an irritable post.

coglin.1496:

My question is, what do you think “viable” means?

What have you read that would lead you to believe it would not be viable?

All the grenade threads are generally glass cannon builds. All of our main weapons sets are very solid.

It’s nothing that’s been said, but rather what’s not been said. I’ve seen plenty of threads on grenades and pistols but little – on the recent threads – to do with rifles. From that it’s easy to assume that rifles must not be popular and, thus, not as good. So I created this thread to see what some actual Engineer players had to say on the subject.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Grenades are good for large amounts of damage but the have very little survivability and they will break your 1 key.
The rifle is extremely heavy on movement and control, making it excellent for extended fights, especially if you bring along Elixir Gun for Super Elixir and Healing Mist.
Also Overcharged Shot is the most amusing ability in the game. It’s hilarious using it for the killing blow.

Thanks for the info!

Hello all,

I’m thinking of starting a new character and really like the aesthetic of the Engineer, especially an Engineer running around with a Rifle and reducing whichever unfortunate gets in his way down to moa food. I’ve browsed these forums a little and noticed that a lot of threads focus on grenade orientated Engineer’s or ones using pistols.

My question is, are rifles viable for Engineer’s to use at later levels?
Or would I be kittening myself?

I like the idea of tossing grenades like an utter lunatic as well, so I guess I could roll one and go with that but I’ve had a quick play around on an Engineer before (really quick, I got it to level 5 or something) and I thought that Rifles rocked. Of course, they might be utterly terrible at later levels, I don’t know.

Thanks.

Karizee.8076:

Derk.3189:

Karizee.8076:

Dante.1508:

I really cant see why anyone would bother with Guildwars 2 treadmill when WoW treadmill works better…

You’ve got to be joking.
In WoW, not only do you have grind and RNG, you get to top it off with a Raid Leader, Guild Master, Loot Council, or Ninja Looter that determines whether you even get a chance at the gear.

It’s dreadful.

GW2 is miles ahead of WoW in this respect and so many others.

Actually he has a point. WoW treadmill items are at least innovative with what effects the armor sets do.

Not $180 a year innovative effects.

That’s IF you even get it after the RNG, Raid Leader, Guild Master, Loot Council, and Ninja Looter have had their first shot at it. Let’s not forget you only get this lovely chance at a chance once a week.

You have to be a masochist to play that game.
There’s a reason that GW2’s popularity is soaring.

It’s soaring? I don’t want your subjective opinion posed as facts, show me something that can make your post legitimate.

That said, yes, elitism is beginning to show in regards to the Fractals dungeon. It was always going to happen, implementing a dungeon system with difficulty levels and new gear. People will naturally only take the people who are most optimal for the dungeon. GW2 wants to go that route?

Fair enough.

I’ll be getting my 100% Map Completion (because it’s a goal of mine) and then I’ll be heading over to World of Warcraft to re-subscribe to my old account so I can partake in a vertical progression game that doesn’t suck. Oh yes, and apparently because I’m a masochist.

Mr Crazy Moose.5760:

Is this the proper thread for posting about posting in proper threads about posting about proper threads?

Karizee.8076:

Jonin.7230:

Ok seeya. Have fun with those dailies.

And pandas. ew.

Blizzard be working the GW2 forums hard. They must be getting worried

Yeah man, they must be getting real worried over there at Blizzard.

With there millions of players, massive profit through their subscription fee – not to mention micro transactions from race changes / faction changes – and their reputation as the most successful MMO in existence.

While this thread is ridiculous, so is your post.

I hope some of you will read this. I just want to say that I feel like all of ArenaNet is getting a lot of abuse for this, some of which I’ve been guilty of myself. I really want to say that I feel for the developers, though. As I honestly don’t believe this gear treadmill crap was something they had any say in.

Just watched Jonathan Sharp’s video where he introduces the “Temple of the Silent Storm” map. This game is their baby. They’ve spent years creating it. They’re so passionate about it and now NCSoft is turning round and reaming it on the advice of some economic guys that – like every other failed MMO theorists – think that becoming a WoW clone will allow them to share the piggy bank. Really feel for those guys, and don’t think it’s fair to give them crap for this BS.

To be entirely fair, if you got your exotics for their appearance then no, it wasn’t a waste of your time and/or money. However if you, like I, bought the exotics to make your character optimal and then transmuted a different skin onto them then yes, they were not worth it. At least not anymore now that ArenaNet is bringing out a new tier of gear.

And before anyone says, yes I know that the differences in stats are not gigantic, but they are still there.

Sennar.2309:

“Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it,
that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game.
Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.”
-Mike Obrien, President of Arenanet.

Brazen. Very brazen. To come out with this and then, when the game is barely off the shelves, do a complete 180 on their MMO philosophy. Truly they’ve become a company without shame.

Zilm.8459:

Ok, I’m older and when we were growing up there were winners and there were losers. You didn’t get an award for being there, or just showing up, or just being in the area with a pulse.

You won or you lost. You learned from your mistakes and improved. You worked harder. You tried harder. You organized better.

You win or you lose. That was the American philosophy. Now everyone wants something, even when they lose.

In real life you can’t transfer to a bandwagon server and become an instant winner by riding on the coat-tails of better or more dedicated players. WvW is screwed precisely because everyone wants free-wins. Then amusingly the same bandwagon server that did its best to get loads of new recruits starts whining about queues.

God, I love these forums.
You can always come on here to read someone’s ridiculous opinion and have a chuckle.

Edit: Point is, there is no improving. People just move server for easymode.

cherrie.8907:

To be honest, I’ve seen enough.
This is not the game I paid for. I’ll wait for an official response to all this mess and expect it to be frank, sincere and to the point, because the only one so far answered nothing. If this is what GW2 is becoming after 3 months of release, I want out while I can still get my money back.

I think if they were going to respond they would have done it some time ago. No, they’re just going to shove this patch in everyone’s faces and see if its successful or not. I don’t care if it is successful or if it crashes and burns anymore, ArenaNet has already lost all credibility for me personally. I won’t trust a kitten thing that comes out their lying mouths. Congrats on becoming just another sleazy corporate company that places money above sticking to their principles and their dream of what makes a great game, ArenaNet. You’re officially sell-outs.

Sky.9347:

Sennar.2309:

Drunken Mad King.8193:

Sennar.2309:

Can we have an official answhere?I think that at this points guys, the game don’t come back to their phylosophy.Why you are here only to delete post like mine before and don’t give us a real answhere?

They aren’t going to come on here and speak about it. They are just going to jam this system down the throats of their customer base and see the effect on it’s customer base and revenue stream. If it’s too negative of an effect they will back track.

Don’t expect much from them as far as communication and honestly don’t believe much that comes from them. They haven’t been upfront about this and I doubt they ever will.

No they are fraud people.In all of this years if you see blog post, interview etc no one tell that they will introduce this kitten.If i saw that they will do one day, i will not buy Gw2.

Honest to God – I never thought this of the ANet team.

I’ve followed this game since before BWE # 1, and while changes have been made I never lost trust in their team. They adhered to the stated design philosophy, and in my opinion they released an amazing game. I have never enjoyed a game like this since Ultima Online.

It had bugs and balance issues, but I honestly don’t care. It had hackers and glitches, and I don’t care.

I never once badmouthed their team, and I even said “okay, I was wrong on that – much respect to you guys ANet”. Check my post history, I have nothing to hide.

But this time it’s different. I don’t trust many game companies, but I trusted this one.

I don’t even think I will go back to GW1 after this. This may seem all chicken little and overly dramatic to some of you guys… but you have to understand there are no other options for a game built on horizontal progression. This was it, and now it is gone.

It matters to me.

Sadly the Anet that made GW1 isn’t the same Anet that made GW2. Which is becoming more and more apparent with this patch.

Keelin.5781:

tkalamba.2541:

Please read this before anyone continues their rampant speculation

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/guides/basics/complete-guide-fractals-mists#.UKT2QkeP4Po.reddit

This will explain the dungeon in full. You get 5 relics per Fractal, 3 fractals before an increase in difficulty. Relics are used to purchase your gear, so it things look alot less random than people thought.

So assuming that a fractal takes, in the best case, 15 minutes to complete as they wrote:
Those items cost 1.350 relics.
15 min = 5 relics
1.350 / 5 = 270 (Fractals)
270 * 15 (minutes) = 4050 minutes = 67.5 hours
So 67.5 hours of nonstop fractals for one item.
We have 12 equipment slots NOT including weapons.
810 hours to get items for all 12 slots.
Let’s assume that one day is defined as 12 hours.
And we’re back to 67,5. That is 67,5 days of non-stop dungeons to get all of your equipment this way.
Truly, there’s no grinding in GW2.

GW2 Dungeon system, best design 2012

Playing the game now for casual PvE and maybe some WvW on the side. Getting my Thief to 80 for the kewl looking gear then calling it a day. I won’t be doing dungeons and I won’t be giving ArenaNet another penny of my money. Ever, for any game they create.

Welcome to my scrapheap list alongside other such hopefuls like Bioware.

Dev Diary, Day 20, Post-Patch:

“I took a wander in Lion’s Arch today and was dismayed to find it almost empty save for a few denizens searching for a dungeon party for Fractals of the Mists. They were rudely refused by a player known as “Gief Moar iLvls Plz” who told them that if they did not have Ascended gear they could kitten well sit in Lion’s Arch for an eternity until they had gotten it. To this they asked the question “how can we get it if no one lets us join their dungeon groups”. Naturally, this logical question was ignored.

LA seems in good state. Time for lunch break."

Sam.4728:

Godorn.2931:

Umm ok. So let me translate. Hi, we think your stupid. Never mind that we lied.

Depressing isn’t it?

This worst part of this story, though, isn’t how this affects the players. We only lost a few times $60 and some cash on gems. There will be other games. Some might even do what Arenanet promised to do.

The real tragedy is for the developers. I guarantee that the core developers behind the GW2 concept hate this change as much as we do. They spent years and years of their lives building an epic game in line with their philosophy. Why the sudden change? Do you really think the hard working, forward-looking developers made this change? No. It was the business side of the game. Those developers are probably even more depressed than the player base.

I expect droves of developers will be leaving Arenanet soon, due to management forcing them to destroy the game they love. There was probably a dramatic behind the scenes fight, but in the end, you can’t fight the people who pay for your house and your family. Pay attention to where the original GW2 developer teams goes. Perhaps they will find a home with a business partner that doesn’t screw them.

For what it’s worth, I really do believe that. This is Nexon and NCSoft, screwing this game over to try and make a ‘quick buck’. The only thing they’ve succeeded in doing is alienating their most zealous supporters. 150+ pages, predominantly filled with dislike or outright hate towards the changes, proves this.

The fans of the WoW-style of MMO will love this change but we all know how fickle they are. They will move on to a new game or go back to WoW soon enough, and then where will GW2 be? Ask SWTOR how following in Blizzard’s footsteps worked out for them.

The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

For some reason my face just hit my palm, really hard.

Fungalfoot.7213:

The best part is them completely ignoring the community and just going ahead with it anyway. They’ve really gone full Blizzard and it’s depressing. Embarrassing too given their row row fight the power launch trailer

Never go full blizzard.

Lothair.8942:

chronus.1326:

This is getting funnier and funnier.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Nexon-NCSoft-what-we-should-ve-seen-coming/first#post727449

Interesting how this post was deleted. Classic.

Hey, wait a minute, I didn’t buy a plane ticket to China.
What gives ArenaNet?

This thread is delightful. I mean, I feel for you guys to an extent, but surely you can’t have been so naive to think that you could take t1 by storm without becoming a bandwagon server? RUIN’s just the start, Blacktide will be permanently full from here on out until someone else rises up to crush you under their iron fist and the cycle will begin anew.

Thank ArenaNet and free transfers.

Arnath.2319:

Freohr.7905:

Arnath.2319:

cafard.8953:

Arnath.2319:

Not once has Arenanet suggested there would be another stat increase after this, in fact they have said numerous times it would not happen.

Fool me once…

If you want to wear your tin foil hat and make up conspiracy theroys and spend your time hating a company that has produced the best MMO in gaming history with the most amount of content delivered then any other game then go for it. But your behaviour is unhealthy and not welcome in this community.

Have you been reading this thread you dolt? You can’t speak for the community when most of them on this forum denounce this change.

And these forums are less than 5% of the Guild Wars 2 community.

These changes are being added for a reason, they listened to player feedback, they looked at how fast people were getting Exotics and Legendarys and acted.

Okay, let’s take a reasonable stance and assume what you are saying is true.
What feedback? I’ve been playing this game almost every single day since release and not once have I seen ArenaNet use any in-game surveys to find out what their community wants.

I’m calling bullkitten. This was a move backed by shareholders to try and capitalise on the WoW orientated players and retain them. Well, it won’t work. If I want to play a gear grind MMO I’ll go back to WoW that has a proven-track record of being successful at it and where the dungeons don’t absolutely suck.

Arnath.2319:

cafard.8953:

Arnath.2319:

Not once has Arenanet suggested there would be another stat increase after this, in fact they have said numerous times it would not happen.

Fool me once…

If you want to wear your tin foil hat and make up conspiracy theroys and spend your time hating a company that has produced the best MMO in gaming history with the most amount of content delivered then any other game then go for it. But your behaviour is unhealthy and not welcome in this community.

Have you been reading this thread you dolt? You can’t speak for the community when most of them on this forum denounce this change.

Phara Miu.2816:

Taiance.6213:

Jeliel.8372:

“Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games — we leave the grind to other MMOs.”
-Mike Obrien, President of Arenanet

Fun impacts loot collection. The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.”
– Colin Johanson

Lies, lies and more lies.

“I’d like to respond to concerns players have raised about ascended items. Please keep in mind that we’re releasing this as one portion of a massive November update that introduces and improves many aspects of challenge, progression, and rewards. With this and upcoming updates, we view ourselves as introducing large amounts of content with supporting systems and features, akin to an expansion pack, building on Guild Wars 2 through a series of live releases. So it’s important for us to be able to add an expansion pack’s worth of progression and rewards to support that content.

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.

Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. PvP will remain unaffected to ensure our intended PvP balance going forward. We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features. As you know we care very much about your support and opinion and are listening intently to what you say.
Finally we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming content, and we will ensure we share our thoughts with you on the experiences we share in the Lost Shores."

Chris Whiteside – Studio Design Director

Lying about lies, that must be a sad joke.

I’m disgusted.

/signed

/Signed

/Signed.

After re-watching the Manifesto it’s clear to me that everything they said was a heap of lies. They can try to damage control all they want, it’s clear this is a complete reversal of their policy on MMO’s. Why do we need a new tier of gear in-between exotic and legendary? This isn’t because of the huge gap between the two, please, spare me your bull-crap. This is to appease the WoW-orientated demographic of your playerbase that took an interest in this game very close to or after its release.

Well I’m done. You’ve lied to me long enough and your company now reeks of a Bioware-level of dishonesty. I might play a little longer until I get bored of my Thief but I won’t be showing up for your event, I won’t be participating in your new Ascended gear content and I will never spend another penny on a Biowa-I mean Anet product.

You never know. Just don’t trust any official statements confirming or denying your questions, they’ll probably turn out to be lies.

Loosifah.4739:

The thing you’re failing to realize is for every person who hates this, there’s a person who loves it.

Have fun with your two months of inferior treadmill model on GW2 before re-subscribing to WoW.

Still no official comment, despite over 100 pages of – mostly – negative feedback.
Looks like ArenaNet, having sold out on their principles, are hoping that all this bad feeling will just disappear.

Jnaathra.6549:

“Is it Fun? Colin Johanson on How ArenaNet Measures Success”

“We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.”

http://www.arena.net/blog/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success

LOL! Oh man, that is too rich.

I almost wish this game was sub-based, just so I could pull my sub. It would speak more loudly than posting on this thread. Anyway, if they go ahead with this and turn GW2 into a treadmill then I will consign this game to my personal scrapheap of mediocrity.

What a shame.

Tachenon.5270:

You know, guys, we can argue from here to eternity whether Ascended Gear is a bad idea – and I think it is – but something else has occurred to me, in light of recent events: maybe this isn’t Anet’s fault. Maybe they didn’t want to take the game in this direction, or stray so far from what they so proudly proclaimed in the manifesto. Maybe they wanted to put new Halloween masks in GW this year, too, but were denied. And maybe, just maybe one of those masks would have been… a faceplate!

Well, yeah, probably not a faceplate. Still, a sword was swung recently, and it could easily swing again.

I for one welcome our new Nexon overlords.

(Not.)

Tyr.1965:

OdinBudd.5298:

Holy cow, you would think this gear has already been released and tested with all the QQ going on in this thread. Does anyone think that waiting to see what it is, THEN QQ’ng would be a good idea? I understand the desire to not want a gear grind. I am also 100% in this boat and have no desire to get on that carousel of fail. But… I am also willing to wait until this new gear is released before slamming a game I have enjoyed so much, so far.

If it looks like crap and smells like crap, it’s crap. How far does the crap have to be shoved up your nose before you admit that it stinks?

Some people get served up a hot steamy crap and like to call it a sirloin steak.

I dislike it when people say this sort of crap. If you disagree with something, you state your disagreement. You complain your kitten off, and if enough people are shown to disagree then a company decides it’s time to wise up and they appease the fan-base.

If we were to sit and do nothing but twiddle our thumbs and wait docilely for ArenaNet to spoon feed us their crap then nothing would get done. Of course, they probably won’t listen regardless. Bioware didn’t either (and that worked out great), but at least by complaining it becomes obvious that people aren’t happy.

Amiron.1067:

I don’t quite understand why people are getting upset over the mention of Ascended gear. It’s a fraction better than exotics, and it gives you a decent upgrade in end-game dungeons. You work for them to progress your character so that he/she can do the content even more easily.

This isn’t a grind. It’s called progression. Cosmetic rewards are wonderful and all, but it’s not bad to have something to work towards that affects you otherwise.

Also, remember that this content update in November is only introducing accessories/back equipment for Ascended. No armor, no weapons.

Oh please, how long have you been playing MMO’s for?
If it’s an upgrade, no matter how small, you need to have it to remain competitive.

It’s only a matter of time until we start seeing “LFM <Insert Dungeon here>, Ascended Only”. Not only that, it forces players that concentrate on one aspect of the game (eg. WvW or casual PvE) to start grinding dungeons for the Ascended Gear so that they can ensure their character is optimal. That’s the very definition of a gear treadmill.

GW2 had a different model, and as such it did not compete directly with WoW. It was somewhat different and a novel experience. Now they’ve went gear treadmill mode. Ask all the other WoW clones how well that worked out for them. Start with Bioware.

All hamsters, please board the gear treadmill for your daily workout.

I have the strong suspicion that NCSoft and Nexon are forcing ArenaNet’s hand here so as to try and gain the demographic of MMO players that enjoy gear treadmills. Sadly by doing this they alienate their most supportive fanbase, those that came to the Guild Wars franchise because it was something different and didn’t follow what might be better termed as the WoW model.

Now we see the slippery slope start to form. ArenaNet has begun selling out on their own game principles. It’ll only get worse from here on out. I’ll level my Thief to 80 because I’m still having fun on it, but then I’m done. And I’ll never put another penny into an ArenaNet game, they’ve become just like all the others. This has a Bioware-type stench to it.