Pretty sure “taking everything we love about GW and making it better” wasn’t meant to be “put gear treadmill and gear check in the game and go against everything it ever stood for”. You’ll probably say there’s already gear check but the difference is gear check has always come from players but now it comes from Anet. And FoTM doesn’t count cause you can play plenty of levels without AR. People talk to me like I’m some peasant for not crafting full ascended armor and spending my money on what I actually like, as if parking alts in Malchor’s or running around Gendarran for soft wood is so heroic and fun. I farmed FoW sets for my GW characters because all I needed was my build and skill now it’s just my gear that matters. I farmed them because I wanted/liked them , not because they offered stat advantage. In fact that’s exactly the thing I loved about GW. It introduced me to online gaming and was precious to me because of it’s lack of lvl grind, gear grind and fetch quests but it’s become another “insert mmo here” title. I don’t even wanna call it Guild Wars 2 anymore. I know typing this doesn’t matter the people who cared about what GW was probably aren’t even at Anet anymore.
You could’ve made challenging raids without gear requirement. You could’ve put the player in a transformation while in raid or simply using the system you use for sPvP limit their stats but I guess it’s better to ramp up the ascended cost, nerf ascended drops, set gear requirement and wait for the gems to gold. I must be the one naive. I must be in the minority to think happy players would spend more money in your gem store willingly instead of being forced. I guess I have to go back and stand in empty outposts in GW since GW2 wants to cater to any other mmo community except it’s own. It was an inspired and unique game by ex blizzards, now it’s just another “appeal to the wow-ers” title. Laugh at me all you want I’ll probably won’t log in to see it. To you it’s just a game to me it’s soul crushing.. When you log in it’s not fun anymore, it’s just another workplace. Until (if ever) I find another game to fill the hollowness I guess I’ll spend my time watching guildies being rejected from raids cause they’re not full ascended and being rejected myself. Gl with raids to everyone else who enjoys being milked by the system and is extremely happy and lucky to not have all the memories I have from GW to drag them around in every other game they play.
First of all, if you don’t like Raids, simply don’t play. There are a ton of other things you can do in the game besides Raids.
Second, your “Gear Treadmill” isn’t as ridiculous as other MMOs out there. Depending on the amount of time you’ve played the game, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem having all the right gear you need to progress. The way to defeat the Raids aren’t set in stone, so there are tons of possibilities for you to experiment with what you have and make improvements as you go along if things don’t work out. If you are having trouble adjusting to the content, its fine. It always happens when introduced to something new. And to be clear, this is PVE End-Game content, not PVP. Its an entirely separate game you want to play. If you don’t like PVE, stay away from it.
Thirdly, if you are being rejected from playing content because your Guild or PUGs groups demands so much of you, then you are probably in a really bad guild and should avoid PUGs in the first place. Cause for this particular content, you are going to need friends who can communicate and coordinate during the encounters. PUGs are unreliable for the most part with the amount of actual difficulty you are being presented here. If your Guild rejects you because you suck or don’t have the gear,you can do a variety of things. Get the gear you need through Fractals, make the gear yourself with all the possible resources you currently have, or purchase it with gold. If you can’t do it, just work on it at your own pace. And besides, Exotic Gear still works, you may need to complement your armor with Ascended Trinkets and amulets to boost your required stats, and you can get those through Laurel Vendors mostly.
If you can’t do that, just leave the toxic guild. You don’t need them.
Fourthly, EVERY GAME nowadays wants to cater to as many people as possible. Its just how business works. If you want to sell a product, do everything you can to make as many people as possible want to purchase it. It won’t just cater to a minority, cause the minority can’t sustain a game like this. It need everyone on board for it to stay afloat. HoT did a fair amount of good with its release, and there is more to come. If you realized that you spent $60 or less (depending on sales events) on more than 3 years worth of content and updates that were free on the core game, than we can expect just as much if not more content within the year or 2 til the new expansion. Don’t expect EVERYTHING to appear on release. This isn’t a console release.
Fifthly, you aren’t being milked in this game. Everything is optional, you choose whether or not you spend more money on gems and such. And just to remind you, there is NO subscription fee. What other methods can Arenanet do to earn more money? Its your own decision to spend money on things you want for your account.
And look, I’m not saying everything is perfect. There is always a few problems to be had in games, but as far as Raids go, its only a problem for you because some bad players out there are making your experience worse for you. You don’t have to deal with them.
Just play with players who know how to have a good time. I really hope you do find them.
Glad you like it.