To be honest, I rarely bother to write on forums, but this is just ridiculous.
I can’t understand the amount of anger or distrust that the simple addition of new optional content to the game is creating. No one is or will ever force you to go to the new dungeon or get the new gear, nor you need the new gear to be competitive at any other aspect of the game. The supposed 8% increase to your stats will mean next to nothing in most aspects of the game.
This dungeon seems to be for people that want to try their hand at something that gets progressively harder, both for bragging rights and for the possible rewards that this will yield. If you enjoy this kind of test, now you should be happy. If you don’t, you can still skip the dungeon without being penalized in any way.
This is not the beginning of a gear treadmill, nor it is the end of GW as it stands. If you think it is, maybe you are missing the point that ArenaNet has been trying to adhere to much more than other company: play the game however you want it and have fun.
You enjoy crafting? Go ahead. Dungeons? Sure. Hate those but enjoy trying PvP? Do some WvWvW or tournaments or what have you. Just enjoy the game.
If none of these aspects really interests you, then take a break and stop playing. Being a free to play game, you can always come back whenever you feel like it and dive back into it without having to worry or pay for checking things out to see if things changed to your liking.
They can’t please everybody, but they are doing quite a good job in giving most people a good variety of options to deal with so that they can play however they like.
I will definitely give the new dungeon a shot. If it is not something I enjoy doing, I won’t do it and move to something else. It’s that simple.
It isn’t optional. That’s the point of power-creep, and that’s why people keep saying it’s a gear treadmill. Ascended items are far and away better than Exotics, and they’ve even said that they’re likely going to update the current content to be in line with requiring them. This is not what an “optional” thing is. That is required. Even without that, in order to be on-par with the future content, these items will still be required.
The only sense that it would be optional in is that you have the option to simply stop playing.
People seem to think anet can just wave a wand to fix problems in a jiffy. Some things are fixed easier than others, and the current patch (problems it caused aside) did fix/ adjust a lot of things that needed some attention.
Fixing bugs and adjusting balance isn’t easy. I’ve done coding and have spent hours fixing issues in code I’ve made entirely on my own. I can only imagine what a pain it is when part of a larger team.
Rather than just raging people need to constructively give feed back of what has been fixed, and what needs to be fixed. It makes it easier to find issues for the devs, and players can easily look over issues and check them. Belive it or not screaming things like “nerf thieves!” doesn’t help the dev team. If a specific problem didn’t get addressed make sure to mention that it didn’t.
Giving constructive feedback is essentially impossible. They simply don’t want to hear it. Anything that has a direct relation to the patch or ascended gear immediately gets thrown into the giant trash bins they call “merged threads.” Constructive discussion is impossible.
I have a feeling that Anet will lose a chunk of their player base from their mess up.
They already have. I’m assuming that the “refer a friend” happening on the same weekend that they alienated half their player base by betraying their “manifesto” is no coincidence. Kinda feels like they’re pushing us out and hoping to steal some of WoW’s cake in one fell swoop.
I know I wouldn’t want to do PR on this. This community makes me sad. It’s been nearly a week now of constant hate and RAEGEEGE!!!11oneoe1 at Anet on these forums.
And how can they reply? Anything they say will be broken down, needlepicked, turned against them, and then saved to file to use as evidence against them 5 months down the line. So its better for them to say nothing at all.
Yes, there are parts of this patch that aren’t needed (looking at you, Ascended). And there are parts of the profession mods that don’t make sense either (I was not aware that Warrior was the class in need of the most help).
But its not like these guys are sitting in their office, stroking their chinbeards, and muttering quietly to one another, “How do we best screw over those gamers so that we get the most cash?”
I agree with OP. They need a chance. Show me an MMO that doesn’t have a rocky start.
Yeah, that’s pretty much the price you pay when you lie to your customers, go back on your promises and essentially betray the very core of your game, then you sit there in utter silence. Saying something and having it mauled by the angry mob is better than saying nothing and being mauled by the angry mob anyway, in addition to having people claim that your silence is essentially confirmation of all their issues.
For those who are not happy with the stat increase, why don’t we decide on a day where no one logs into the game for a day? A weekend day (say Saturday Nov 24, one week after the content update, starting GMT 0:00 for 24 hours) would have the largest impact as player logins are highest. The benefits are two-fold:
1) For those claiming that this direction alienates a majority of the playerbase, ANet will have some concrete numbers to work with. It could be the case that much of what we see here is grandstanding and we are all happily chasing giant crabs to care, or ANet might see a 50% drop in playerbase for that period.
2) Talk is cheap. If we all feel as strongly about this as the forum posts suggest, we need to do more than complain.
This is only a suggestion and we should decide on its merits or lack-thereof after this weekend once we have a better idea of how frequently Ascended loop drops and what the Infusions are.
Just some thoughts.
Now that Ascended gear is here for good, I’d like to bring back my earlier suggestion. What are people’s interests in this? Any traction?
I’ll do one better, I’ll stop logging into the game..ever. Freed 16 gigs of space. Onto the next disappointment.
So they went through with the increased stats, in spite of the massive outcry.
I havn’t been this mad at a game since Diablo 3. They took my favorite MMO ever, a bright spot of uniqueness and creativity in a sea of WoW clones, and they turned it into a WoW clone.
the chat filter will not let me adequately express my feelings. I’ll give them a week to fix it, or at least release plans to fix it, then I’m uninstalling and never coming back.
The increase is actually far larger than initially speculated too. Further, it seems that infusions also add to base stats, even though they explicitly stated that it would affect dungeons only.
Your post title is very misleading… You should rename it “item” progression. I for one want to progress… in life and in my games. I’ve played “that other MMO” game for many years and I enjoyed my time there. I just got tired of chasing a moving target. Even so, I still don’t fault Anet for what they’re doing. I’m willing to give them a chance. If ascended gear works, great. If it doesn’t, I hope they change it.
Now if you don’t want any progression at all… I can’t help you. My only advise would be to stop playing mmorpgs.
There’s a character limit, and quoting progression gets the point across. It’s also not limited to items alone. It’s the idea of vertical progression in general.
If it wasn’t for the gear, I would be really happy about this patch. I’d also continue to play the game. That aside, I’ve always liked the idea of an endless dungeon. Just sort of an iron-man challenge. See how far you can get, keep pushing yourself to get just a little further. It’s just a shame that they added the agony thing. I’d rather have seen even something as simple as an increase in HP, spawn frequency and spawn quantity. Ideally there would be new mechanics every X level too, to keep things interesting.
why go to kotaku when you know…you could have just done this on your own website
Kotaku gets more traffic, Arenanet gets to advertise it to people that don’t play the game. If they did it on their own website, it would only reach people that have already paid for the game.
So, why do this at all? Gotcha, its advertisement, plain and simple. Not an actual Q&A session to deal with player concerns.
Advertisement is exactly it, but if that’s the sole reason it seems like its now a bad move. I imagine that they weren’t quite expecting this level of resistance to the announcement, and made the plans to do a Q&A a long time ago. Now it seems like any potential customers will be thrown right into the middle of all the vitriol ANet is getting.
Still though, even if it is just fluff, there might be some useful scraps let slip here and there.
I prefer gear progression because once you hit max level that’s all there is. I don’t really progress my character anymore once I hit max level, I sit at the same strength I am regardless of what I do. I’d like to see my character become more powerful, it’s satisfying knowing that. However, I am not against my character being acknowledged for accomplishments at max level and doing things in the world.. I just feel the latter is more satisfying to me.
This is actually a fair point. I can see the appeal in knowing your character can get stronger, but does it have to be in the form of gear upgrades? And again, does that strength actually mean anything when the enemies increase in strength at the exact same rate? It seems like all you would get out of it is seeing slightly larger numbers, even though those numbers are essentially just fluff.
Would you be satisfied if the increase in power was only active in a specific dungeon? What about lateral progression, where your character still evolves and improves, but not in sheer power? Accomplished by new skills, new ways to build your character, new item models to further customize the looks, etc.
For me, seeing the character itself get better does little for me. I prefer to become better at handling that character, finding new ways to defeat my enemies, getting those new skills to play with.
Discussion is all fine and good. There’s no need to spam the forum and fill the front page with related thread when there’s a 8000 post thread that’s dedicated to ‘discuss’ this issue.
Be serious here, discussion can’t happen in a thread that big and moving that fast. It’s a garbage can to keep complaints out of sight and out of mind. Now that people have cooled off a little bit, let the non-kneejerk thoughts be heard.
It’s not fair to those people who had their similar topic post moved there though is it? If this topic isn’t moved, then forum should move all similar topic back so they can be heard again, since the kneejerk action has gone. (according to you).
So you want them to remove any post that was even remotely related on the most obscure of levels to the patch? That’s pretty unrealistic. Sure, this question was ultimately inspired by the patch, but it has no direct relation to it. You can’t really expect a single thread to hold all discussion that has so much as a passing relation to a single, vague idea. If you have nothing meaningful to add to this, I invite you to remain in the thread you’re so fixated on.
I’d still like to see some insight into the topic at hand.
I’ll bet nothing of real substance will be addressed. It’s less than a day to the whole patch, it’s just a PR puff piece. There’s no way anything substantive will be discussed or revealed, at least not in time for anyone to do anything about it.
At this point nothing will be changed, sure. But we might get some insight on the whys and the future.
I don’t pretend to pay attention to a lot of gaming news sites till they have a article relevant to my interest…….but what is wrong with kotaku exactly?
The Gawker family of sites have something of a…reputation. Kotaku however is one of the better ones, second behind i09 in quality. That said, their developer Q&A sessions are driven entirely by site visitors. Kotaku is little more than a simple host. They’re generally informative and useful, I see little reason why this one would be any different.
I don’t understand – these type of threads are all relative to the new content. We have seen it all before. 8000 similar posts and still counting. However, why hasn’t this been moved? I really do believe it’s time for forum mod to move every gear progression related post to that single thread because at the moment, there is literally nothing that hasn’t been said about this topic.
Discussion is all fine and good. There’s no need to spam the forum and fill the front page with related thread when there’s a 8000 post thread that’s dedicated to ‘discuss’ this issue.
Leaving thread like like unmoved also makes me wonder why did other people’s topic gets moved in the first place? Forum Mod, please start moving things again.
It’s not relative to anything, and it’s not specifically related to the new patch. It’s a question about the general motivation behind this desire for “progression.”
I think you’re on to something about gear progression being just as much about prestige as it is about character “progression”. I just don’t get why you assume everyone who thinks like that is some sort of elitist jerk.
I for one chase gear-rewards for prestige, rather than stats. I…and I assume most people, don’t really care what sort of stats their gear has. The role of a status symbol is what makes new gear appealing.
The same logic also applies to Legendaries although their acquisition thus far has been 99% dedication, 1% skill.
As to why? I guess it’s the same reason people buy Sports Cars despite a 70mph speed limit. Recognition…
I assume that because that’s what it seems like. Very rarely will I actually see a well thought out post detailing why someone would like to see more challenge and better rewards. 99% of the time it’s just people saying things along the lines of “it’s too easy.”
As far as your chasing of prestige, that’s originally what Legendary items were meant to be. But then people started asking for better stats. I’m genuinely curious as to why. You say “recognition” which is exactly my point. It’s the simple fact that you have something others don’t.
Yes and if its lets say 100, then the difficulty to reach 100 should be VERY VERY HIGH.
The reason the endgame in gw2 is getting so much criticism is because ITS WAY TOO EASY to get to 80. It should takes months and months and months to reach max level
No it shouldn’t. I should not have to work a full time job in a game. If you really want to spend months trying to level, they should add experience modifiers players can use at will. If you really, truly enjoy spending that much time, you’re free to do it. If you just want to feel like you’re better for doing something others wont, you’ll complain about the fact that it’s “too easy.” I’d bet money that over 90% of the people that would claim to want such a long level time would be here complaining about how it’s too easy to level, and the personal modifiers are useless/unfair/pointless/whatever.
I think that they don’t. Instead, it seems to me like what the people asking for “progression” actually want is to simply feel like they’re better than the next guy. Every single time I see someone say something along the lines of “exotics are too easy!” or “you don’t even have to work for your gear!” this is what I think. They want progression in the sense that they want to pretend that they’re always better than those “casuals,” and “lazy” players that don’t actually like to constantly chase after a shiny purple carrot forever. They want to “work” for their gear so they can claim to have some sort of inherent superiority over the people that just want to play the game. I feel that these people use gear treadmills and raids as a bludgeon to beat the lesser filth out of their way.
Does anyone actually, legitimately enjoy constantly chasing after constantly improving gear? If so, why? What’s the point? I don’t want to hear that it somehow makes the content more challenging. Getting gear that allows you to deal 1000 more damage to an enemy that has 1000 more hit points is essentially useless, and you gain nothing beyond that sense of superiority. If you have a legitimate reason beyond this, I would love to hear it.
What a phenomenally useless comment. 8% is definitely significant, especially when multiplied 14 times. 8% is an extra 1200 HP on someone with 15000 base. 8% is an extra 280 damage on a 3500 hit. These are not negligible increases. 1% is not significant, and you know what? People would be just as pissed. The bottom line is that everyone that bought into their “manifesto” was unapologetically and blatantly lied to.
I can’t see where they said they’ll have better stats.
They said they’ll add more update related items, that’s it.
Do the halloween exotics have better stats? Nope.
@above
At launch we will only have ring and back items, they’re going to add the rest of the slots as they go.
are you serious? did you not even read what Ascended items are? go read the release adn then come back. turn the lights on, and maybe have your browser turned to font 40. it’s in plain as day english, ascended stats are better than Exotic. no if, ands, or buts. They’ve even stated that it’s a new tier, and will make existing content easier for you! (meaning it’ll be a big increase on your character’s performance). Not to mention, it has alot of +magic find, which is the highest rated stat.
It’s the start of the never ending god kitten treadmill. they want to be like WoW for whatever reason despite having success with their original design.
And legendary stats are better then ascended which is also better then exotics? What is your point? Your already grinding for legendary… they are just adding a inbetween gear…. it won’t be the best in the game. Therefore the whole argument about a gear treadmill is totally debunked.
This nothing but this i dont see why people cant understand this
Currently there is no “progression” from exotic to legendary. They have the same stats. The only “reward” is aesthetic.
Now with Ascended gear, you have to grind for them, as their “rewards” are not only aesthetic but also have stat increase.
They are creating a stat gap between exotic and legendary with ascend being in the middle…… at least thats how it reads in the announcement made by Chris.
They are not. They’re adding a gap in between exotic and the new tier, Ascended. There is no gap to legendary (which will be EQUAL to Ascended with the patch), there never was. It was a problem they invented.
to clear stuff up folks (cuz the devs PR is purposely muddy), legendary = same stats as exotic. After patch, legendary = same stats as Ascended.
so dose this mean if we get our legendery we NEVER have to worry about a “gear grind” again as it will always be the equivalent to the strongst wepon?
For the patch this week, yes. Legendary will be equivalent to Ascended. For the future, who knows. (judging from other MMOs “item progression”, dont count on it.)
There was never any stat gap between legendary and exotics anyway, so the entire Ascended thing with better stats is why people are pissed. We all bought the game to get away from stuff like that since that is what they marketed GW2 as.
Exotics were basically a freebie when you hit 80. I am sorry thats the truth.
That’s the point. That is precisely what they were meant to be. There was never meant to be an item rarity that was better and more difficult to obtain. It was supposed to be all about aesthetics.
They are creating a stat gap between exotic and legendary with ascend being in the middle…… at least thats how it reads in the announcement made by Chris.
That is the whole point. They are creating a stat where before there was not.
So that they can say that ascended are the stop gap for legendaries. They are creating their own need for a stop gap.
The only difference from legendaries and exotics before was aesthetics. Now after creating this new stats gap (in the first place), they are going to fill it up.
It makes no sense, other then to add Gear Progression and Power Creep.
I really don’t think this is going to establish a Power Creep. Exotic gear was far too easy to obtain. I’ve mulled my way to 80, and around a bit after that, and have obtained a number of Exotics with little direct effort. Were I to gear out, my only course of action after that would to be to look towards legendaries. Which are so far out of my league, I would never obtain them.
That’s the gap they’re intending to fill. Something rarer (We would assume) than exotics, but not quite as insane to obtain as legendaries.
As for the stat increase…I have no idea. So you want it more?
Being easy to obtain was the point. Their original design philosophy was to make it so that max level items were easily obtained in order to keep everyone on level playing ground. This is the way it worked in GW1, and the way it worked up until now. The idea that you have to “work” in a game is absurd. Games are meant to be fun, entertaining. If you wanted something extra, you were to be able to get different unique item skins, but the stats were always the same.
They threw that philosophy out the window, shot it like a clay pigeon and pissed on the remains.
Wow, to think that people are complaining this much about a new tier or armor, what about when they raise the level cap and you gotta get it all again. Hahaha, it’s a game, deal with it. Arenanet aren’t stupid, and I like this idea.
/ilovethisgame.
Great. There are dozens of other games that offer endless gear grinding for you. People came to GW2 because it was promised that there would be no such thing. They were lied to. Not everyone likes having a carrot dangled in front of them for eternity. Some of us just want to play the game and have fun without being forced into content we have zero interest in just to remain on level ground.
I can’t see where they said they’ll have better stats.
They said they’ll add more update related items, that’s it.
Do the halloween exotics have better stats? Nope.
@above
At launch we will only have ring and back items, they’re going to add the rest of the slots as they go.
are you serious? did you not even read what Ascended items are? go read the release adn then come back. turn the lights on, and maybe have your browser turned to font 40. it’s in plain as day english, ascended stats are better than Exotic. no if, ands, or buts. They’ve even stated that it’s a new tier, and will make existing content easier for you! (meaning it’ll be a big increase on your character’s performance). Not to mention, it has alot of +magic find, which is the highest rated stat.
It’s the start of the never ending god kitten treadmill. they want to be like WoW for whatever reason despite having success with their original design.
And legendary stats are better then ascended which is also better then exotics? What is your point? Your already grinding for legendary… they are just adding a inbetween gear…. it won’t be the best in the game. Therefore the whole argument about a gear treadmill is totally debunked.
This nothing but this i dont see why people cant understand this
I don’t understand how you don’t seem to grasp the concept of a gear treadmill. The fact that Ascended items are not the best, and there will be further tiers is exactly what a gear treadmill is. Endlessly running in place trying to catch up to the highest level. The argument isn’t debunked. It is confirmed without doubt.
That’s what I’ve always been saying.
Are you reading half of my posts?
As updates go along they won’t be giving them better stats, this is the same thing as exotic.
What part of “new rarity” and “better stats” are you not understanding? How exactly do you think that Ascended items, which are higher in rarity and item level, are going to be identical to exotics? That defeats the purpose entirely, and it’s not even close to what they said they were doing.
Will current legendary weapons be buffed (Ascended status) at launch of the Lost Shores? If not, when will that take place?
Has already been answered. Current legendary weapons will be increased to Ascended level with the launch of Lost Shores.
If that’s the case, then there’s going to be a gap between exotic weapons and legendary weapons for a period of time. This concerns me alot as it’ll give players that have obtained legendary weapons an advantage in both PvE and WvW content, stat wise.
What I would like to know is when ArenaNet plans on introducing more Ascended gear that’ll be available to the majority of players to obtain. Because the longer it’ll take for them to address these concerns the more divided the community will become.
I was mistaken. They will update the weapons once they release the Ascended weapons as well.
I can’t see where they said they’ll have better stats.
They said they’ll add more update related items, that’s it.
Do the halloween exotics have better stats? Nope.
@above
At launch we will only have ring and back items, they’re going to add the rest of the slots as they go.
This new rarity type falls between Exotic and Legendary on the spectrum of rarity and has slightly higher stats than Exotics
This means exactly what it says. Ascended items will all have higher stats. This includes the remaining pieces they will be adding. You are seeing what you want to see, not what is actually said.
Calm down. You are all making wild assumptions and accusations with literally zero basis.
Needing ascended gear to do anything in Fractals? No evidence that this is the case.
Taking a break and coming back to find you can’t do anything because gear is outdated? No evidence this will be the case.
Ascended Armor being more powerful than Exotics? No evidence that this is the case. Because if it’s going to work like the accessories, then you can’t put runes on them and there are stats on runes that are simply miles ahead of a few extra raw stat points.
Gated content? No evidence this will be the case.
I like wild conjecture as much as the next guy but you guys are being some of the most whiny, self-entitled and generally unpleasant people I have ever seen on any MMO forum. By all means continue battering the developers that are giving you all of this content for free.
ANet please don’t listen to these idiots and do whatever you want because contrary to popular belief, this is your game and it doesn’t belong to these ridiculous whiners.
Please see the picture and do the math. Thank You.
Please learn reading comprehension. Thank You:
Because if it’s going to work like the accessories, then you can’t put runes on them and there are stats on runes that are simply miles ahead of a few extra raw stat points.
Yeah sure accessories have a negligible higher amount of stats, not game breaking. If the Armor works like the accessories in that picture, there will be no runes on said armor and Runes are way better than those few extra stat points.
…wat.
If armor works as the accessories do, then they will still be better since the stat bonuses will be baked into the items, just like they are for the rings. At worst, you’ll lose the “% chance to do X” bonuses, if even that.
Please do the english.
You are not gated from this content.
If that was the case, it’d be impossible because there’s no way to get anything but rings and back.
Please do the reading.
“Players who wish to delve deep into the Fractals will find that Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must”
That is the definition of content gating. So too is releasing thing piecemeal like they are, given that they have also already confirmed that there will be the full range of Ascended items.
Did they really need to add more stats to the new rarity class?
If what you say is true and they don´t add more tiers with better stats, what was the point of adding better stats to this tier?
They said it in the blog: to lessen the huge gap between obtaining exotics and legendaries, exactly what the community, as a whole, has been asking for the past month and a half or so.
Did they need to do this? no. But they did exactly what the community was asking, and now they’re getting a huge amount of drama from everyone and their grandmas. It’s not rational, and it’s not fair.
Probably because that “free” content is showing every sign of forcing players to grind new gear repeatedly, which the developers explicitly said would never happen. Just because it annoys you doesn’t make it any less valid.
Care to point out what “signs” are leading you to conclude this will be a grind? Max stat exotics can hardly be considered a grind, and now you’re saying the next step up, with absolutely no indication of how you even acquire them, will be a grind? Rubbish. We don’t know anything about them. Just saying what you feel doesn’t make it valid.
Yeah, go read the blog post and the single, solitary developer reply to this thread. The blog post blatantly says “this is just the beginning of our new progression initiative.”
That is pretty much the most explicit “sign” you can get. Further, they have indeed detailed how they will be acquired. Random dungeon drops, absurd mystic forge recipes and crafting, all of which are quintessential examples of what it is to “grind.”
You do not know anything about them. Anyone capable of conscious thought and reading comprehension knows most of the important details.
Much of the issues people are complaining about wouldn’t even exist had ANet not broken it’s promises in the first place, or at the very least gave some indication that they would be adding new gear levels throughout the game before it was released.
If I was a NCsoft exec. I’d probably be kicked back with my feet on the desk thinking
“Ha they’re not going anywhere they’re still posting! hah”
edit- well I wouldn’t, but I think they are…
Well it is common knowledge the vocal section of the community that posts on mediums such as this are indeed a small percentage. As outraged as we are, I don’t think any of us want to see the game fail. That is why we are fighting this madness as hard as we are.
The problem is the silent majority of people will not care to wage such campaigns. They will simply pack their bags and leave if the game becomes not to their liking. Considering the game was founded and forged on tenants such as no gear progression or grinding in order to access content, to release a massive, MASSIVE change like AN are planning on doing that flies completely in the face of that is not only dishonest but threatens to drive off majority of the player-base.
Long story short, for every one of us that is protesting these changes, you can safely say there ten or so more who will simply go elsewhere. Regardless of your stance on the issue, the potential of losing that many of your paying customers to appease a very, very small minority who want to make this game what it never was made to be is nothing short of madness and bad for all involved.
It’s not common knowledge. It’s assumed knowledge. I have never seen a single developer release actual numbers. I’d also say that in this case even the supposed “vocal minority” is significantly large, and yet ANet continues to treat everyone here with utter contempt.
-Facepalm- I can’t believe how whiny this community is, it’s nauseating.
It seems to me people are more upset about there being a new rarity of item that gives better stats rather than infusions being able to be applied only to this new rarity, which I find rather odd.
Why is it that people have no problem with the idea of exotics having max stats at launch? So what if anet wants to add a higher stated rarity? Is having less or more than 5 types of rarities blasphemous or something? I’m willing to bet most of the people complaining about acquiring ascended items now are only complaining because they found out they have to work a bit more to get max stats, something that wasn’t all that hard in the first place. I mean, seriously, getting full exotics isn’t even a grind. I got mine 2 days after reaching level 80 using the money and materials I gathered from just playing the game up to that point.
I want to make this clear, the act of adding a new rarity to the game does not mean gw2 has become a gear-treadmill. It means they have changed what they consider what maxed stats should be. That is the only thing that can be concluded from this. The only time this becomes a gear-treadmill is when anet starts to consistently add better rarities to the game every time they add new content. While I can’t guarantee this won’t happen, I’m fairly confident this will never be the case with anet.
People like to jump on the bandwagon and over-dramatize everything, but in the end all they’re doing is making fools of themselves. I’m willing to bet people wouldn’t have thought twice about ascended items if they were present at launch. People just don’t like change.
This community has done more to annoy me than impress me. I swear, the level of entitlement it has is just appalling. People don’t like the direction of the FREE content they get is going, so they instantly start whining and spelling doom and begging for nerfs when things don’t look good for them. Seriously people, grow up.
Probably because that “free” content is showing every sign of forcing players to grind new gear repeatedly, which the developers explicitly said would never happen. Just because it annoys you doesn’t make it any less valid.
from reading the introduction from the main page on infusions it looks like:
1) maybe (lets see how people like/dislike them)
2) you can use it in WvW but it will prob put you at a disadvantage (you give up that upgrade slot so while “base ascended” > “base exotic” then “ascended infused” < “exotic with rune/upgrade”). plus, infusions will do nothing for you in WvW.
3) it replaces the upgrade slot so no runes, gems, etc. meaning you are giving up something to get something
4) ascended gear so far is only backpiece and ring, so i would take it as a “No”
ANET, how did i do?
1) False. They will in all likelyhood push forward with this regardless of what people think. There’s enough whiny ex-WoW players to make them a sufficiently loud vocal minority.
2) False. The potential gem bonuses are baked into the item in order to make room for the Infused slot. You give up the ability to pick and choose the bonuses and as such lose some customization, but you receive a net gain of stats. (Note: This is assuming that they will bake runes into the armor items as well. This might not be the case, but there is no evidence to suggest that they wont.)
3) See above.
4) Partially true. There will not likely be a gem slot, but they’ve already announced that they plan on rolling out a full range of Ascended gear, starting this weekend with rings and backpacks, with the rest coming by December.
Ask Turbine how this same sort of system worked for LotRO… dungeon gating.. locking off content/items except for a select group and type of player (raiders)… it turned LotRO into a ghost town… if fact it did so much damage to the community that they eventually pulled the system out of the game..
This is actually a valid concern, however we know nothing of the frequency of Agony mobs, particularly those that will be added after Lost Shores. Maybe they’ll be concentrated on a select few elite monsters in a dungeon or two. It’d be unfortunate if some close minded PUGs would lock you out on those particular ones, but I doubt the rest (i.e. most) future endgame content will need it. ANet isn’t dumb. They realize the casual, particularly new, players won’t attain Ascended gear any time soon, and will design future content around it.
This change indicates otherwise. Especially that phenomenally contradictory news post where they said that adding a gear grind is not a gear grind, and that starting the endless upgrade treadmill is not a treadmill.
“We have always worked hard to create a sense of satisfying progression rather than gear grind and this new item progression initiative is no exception. By adding challenging new combat mechanics to end-game content and ways to mitigate those mechanics through gear progression for high-end players, we can add personal progression without making the game feel like an endless treadmill of gear that is just out of your reach.”
this gear will only affect PvE not PvP Cause in pvp the infusion is useless so exotics with full rune set will be better cause you will get the bonus’s full affect are ppl forgetting this
First of all, punctuation. Second, go read the actual news post and look at the item comparison. Without the infusion, Ascended gear has much better stats. The bonuses that would otherwise be on the runes are baked into the item itself, and they’re also higher than the rune is. All told, each stat gains a +5 point increase. On a single item. Multiply that by a possible 14 item slots, and you get yourself a significant stat difference over Exotic items with the best runes.
Didn’t need a gear treadmill to play this amount, won’t hit 1100 if the treadmill is added.
I play for fun, not to grind same crap over to make a fair chance in PvE/PvP.
Honestly, you should probably take a break. Playing the equivalent of 24 hours a day for 43 days out of ~60 is a little excessive.
only mmo where people complain when new gear is added.
Because many people are (were) playing this game specifically because they were told there would not be a gear treadmill. It’s bait and switch, which is illegal, but they’ve spun it enough where no one can do anything about it.
Some things to consider: Ascended is a new “rarity” of gear instead of a new “tier” of a current quality. Meaning that Ascended should be treated as its own quality level instead of “Tier 1 Exotic”, “Tier 2 Exotic”, “Tier 10 Exotic”, and so on. Ascended is also exclusive to level 80, whereas Exotic starts somewhere around late 60’s. It’s just another thing to look forward to when you reach max level. Vertical in a way, yes, but I’m not surprised that this would be implemented, considering that GW2 has attracted way more than just the old GW1 crowd. ANet had to find a way to please those who have came from other MMOs with similar gear mechanics. I’m just hoping it doesn’t go overboard with “tier gear” under fancier names instead of the typical numbered tier system.
If anything, you should start worrying if/when ANet would introduce “Tier 2 Ascended” items.
Personally I’m waiting for the “legendary” armor, and how they’re going to overcome that one. Super Legendary? INTRODUCING TURBOLEGENDARY: The 67th new item level. Are you all enjoying your not-gear treadmill?
“We have always worked hard to create a sense of satisfying progression rather than gear grind and this new item progression initiative is no exception. By adding challenging new combat mechanics to end-game content and ways to mitigate those mechanics through gear progression for high-end players, we can add personal progression without making the game feel like an endless treadmill of gear that is just out of your reach.”
Can anyone explain this part of the post to me please? I’ve read it 5 times now and I can’t seem to understand what she is trying to say..
There is no explaining that. It is exactly as it appears. Contradictory marketing bullkitten.
