Guild Wars 2

When Anet introduced ascended gear I jumped on that torches and pitchfork bandwagon. I, like many people, seethed at the thought of the sudden grind I had to go through to get the new gear. I gave the game bad reviews on websites and discouraged friends who were thinking about buying the game from buying it. I’ve recently come to the conclusion I was wrong.

I have been playing since beta, and had head start access. Since launch the game has kept me occupied for 600+ hours over 6.5 months. I’ve spent most of that time doing something I wanted to in game, and then finishing up my dailies as my final act of the night. And I began to wonder… if I just started a new account today, where would I be in 6.5 months in terms of Ascended gear? (As a note, I spend most of my time in PvE, and realize that people who spend most of their time in WvW get the short end of the stick when it comes to Ascended gear.)

Let me begin with the Laurel system. At first I hated it… I saw it as an arbitrary filter to slow down the acquisition of ascended gear. Having to wait another month for my amulet after I had already been playing for months, as well as feeling my dailies were suddenly a requirement, left me jaded. Recently I decided to calculate where I would be in terms of laurels if they had existed at release. That number came out to about 265 laurels. (I am not counting the possibility of having completed the Aug 2012 dailies/monthly, nor the days people were able to get multiple laurels due to patch releases)

A full five Ascended accessory set for one character costs 180 laurels… which would have left me with a whopping extra 85 laurels breathing room, or nearly 3 months worth of dailies I could have skipped without concern. Or by now I would have one main decked out, and any two accessories of my choice on an alt if I only used laurels. Not so bad. And then it got better.

I recently (in the last month and a half) started running fractals regularly with a group of friends. We had all felt like we exhausted most other areas of the game, and so was something we did to have fun together rather than something to grind. We have achieved level 21 since, and I have gotten a total of 9 ascended rings. 2 for my main, two for my regular alt and 5 more sitting in my bank waiting for other alts. Just decking out my main through casual runs of fractals saved me 70 laurels… which means by now I would have 155 extra laurels. Which mean I could have a fully decked out alt as well. That definitely seems reasonable to me.

Over my 600+ hours and 6.5 months playing the game, I’ve completed all paths on 7 of 8 of the dungeons; gotten to level 21 in fractals; have 3 level 80 toons; completed the personal story of one character and 4 of the five races stories; have been initiated into all three orders; gotten the Master Crafter title; completed every single monthly; participated fully in three in game world events… I could go on, but I wont.

I’ve realized that Ascended gear, at least for me, is only and illusion of grind because by the time it was introduced I had exhausted much of the game already, and it is one of the few things I have left to do. If I started playing today and spent as much time in game doing the exact same things as I have in the past 6.5 months, I could have all the Ascended gear I’d ever want 6.5 months from now, by just finishing up my dailies at the end of the night. I wouldn’t really even have to try… with the Laurel system Ascended gear would be pretty much waiting for me when I was ready for it. Considering that an MMO is meant to be a long term “commitment”, having more than enough end game gear after 6.5 months seems pretty reasonable to me.

If I was starting the game today, I wouldn’t even blink at Ascended gear. I feel like the grind I perceive now wouldn’t even be there because I would have the opportunity to work on the gear alongside whatever else I was doing in game. I guess I just fell into the “I want it now” trap.

TL;DR: None. If you want to participate in the discussion, read the argument.

…all I had to think about was what I wanted to wear and how I wanted to build my next alt.

(This paragraph is the TLDR)
With the last few months of updates I’ve been feeling like I have been pulled “over here”, and then “over there” before I even get a chance to get my mind around what the kitten is happening “over here”… I feel like I’m being pulled in so many different directions with each patch, that I am quickly loosing focus on what I CAN reasonably accomplish, and thus am slowly loosing my interest in the game. The following is an example of what I mean:

It used to be for me that my goal was work on my legendary while I spent some time leveling an alt. Everything I did during my play time, whether it was run dungeons on my main or leveling an alt, it felt like contributed to that goal one way or another. Along the way I got some bonuses, like an armor set I wanted to make my main toon look how I wanted him to feel. Still, it all felt streamlined and nice.

Then FOTM came out with ascended rings. Oh, more gear… I guess I can fit that somewhere in my schedule. No biggy.

Then Laruels and ascended amulets were introduced. My dailies, which once did only for XP and karma on an alt and never felt like I had to do, suddenly become necessary. Ok…. so… legendary. FOTM. Dailies. Gearing out an Alt. Hmm…

Now ascended accessories have been introduced via Guild commendations. Oh, so now I have to make sure I am free when my guild does missions… and legendary. FOTM. Dailies. Gearing up an Alt. Suppose I could cut out guild missions if I use laurels… 40? plus 50 Ectos And they give less stats than amulets, and those only cost 30 Laurels flat. Well I guess I don’t need an alt, even though it would be nice to switch between characters once in a while…

Oh by the way, don’t forget about this living story we’ve got going on here. Well maybe I’ll start working on my legendary if the RNG gods find me fit to get The Colossus…

WAIT THERE’S MORE! Monthies reset in two days. Oh kitten.

It’s probably too late now to fix, but the game seems to be loosing the ability to help me focus with each new patch. I feel like each patch adds more, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, but all of this “more” just feels like bloat with no real focus on what it, or I, and supposed to accomplish. Does anyone feel the same way?