Guild Wars 2

Rin.1046:

I understand and agree with that, Heimlich. But the impression I got from the AMA was that they intend to make it so that Ascended gear will be easier to get than it currently is. I could be wrong of course, but if it becomes a real problem I’m sure they will adjust things.

The big question mark here is how easy will they make it? They have already stated that ascended gear was to be an in-between tier between exotics (too quickly) and legendary (too long) in terms of time investment, how will they balance it so that it is still a viable in-between tier while making it less of a grind?

Will those with the time be able to grind the ascended gear much faster than those that acquires them through regular play?

I’m waiting on clarification on that as it leads directly to my long-term concern. Since vertical progression is in and will likely be added at major content updates like expansions along with level progression, will that mean a casual player like me who won’t be able invest as much time to achieve new levels of ascended gear be at a disadvantage against those that do every time there is an update/expansion?

Astraea.6075:

I can see why people don’t like the stat increase between exotic and ascended, but try this as a thought experiment. Would your opinion on ascended gear be different if it was available at launch, but still required some grinding to get?

My feeling for ascended would still be negative because it doesn’t address the need to grind in order to stay on par with those that have more time to grind (the other major selling point of the game until now).

This thread takes the cake for worse use of analogies I have ever seen.

Astraea.6075:

I’m sorry to use you as an example of what I see is a problem with these sorts of threads, but I see multiple instances of statements that the company is refusing to be honest with it’s customers. What leads you to believe this? There was a blog post where they stated their reasons, and all the people in an uproar decided that it was just a PR exercise.

While you may disagree with the reasoning (and I’ve seen some good examples of this), what has lead you to think the blog post wasn’t sincere?

My main issue with the blogpost by Chris Whiteside is:

“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.”

I want to know what he means by “massive jump in reward between the two” when at the time of the post there were no difference in benefits between the two tiers.

I want to know more about the “item progression initiative” that Lindsey Murdock mentioned in the initial post which started the entire kittentorm.

Without clarification on those statements or the vision of the future, those blogposts contained so much conflicting information that, while it may not be a flat out lie, is at best misleading.

Renegade.6325:

Infusion slots are so minor anyway. +5 healing power? +5 vitality? Even in “principle” that someone has an advantage, in real terms they do not. 50 health will never save you, it will never push a loss into a victory for you.

The blue (rare) infusions gives +5 stats. There will be higher rarity infusions, possibly up to ascended.

StormGryffen.7638:

The statistics gap and the effort gap. Legendary gear will be the best kind of gear you can possess, unless multiple media outlets are wrong on the subject? (If I’m confused about this, please let me know, I hate to be misinformed.) The leap in stats and effort to receive an Exotic vs. a Legendary item will be significant. This has been an item on the table for a long time. This isn’t a surprise. That anyone could feel ambushed by ascended gear, which seeks to offer a more casual experience (though it has not been fully implemented) than Legendary gear seems to be illogical.

As has been stated numerous time already…

Currently, there are no gaps between exotics and legendaries aside from the amount of time it takes to get a legendary. Legendaries are purely cosmetic and has the same stats as exotics. This has been on the table and was the original design philosophy for a long time.

The developers will increase the stats of legendaries when they introduce the rest of the ascended gear, thus creating the gap. Ascended gear will now serve the role of exotic gear as the top of the gear chain, statistically.

offence.4726:

@StormGryffen yea spot on. So much for the “loyal” fanbase of the game series. Someone above me talked about high school. From what I recall high school teenagers where a bit more understanding

Loyalty infers a devotion to a cause or ideal. If the developers are willing to give up on their ideals to go after more subscriptions, they deserve no loyalty.

Zinkey.6983:

NOTE infusion only adds +5 agony res to the base stats, it does not increase anything else so therefore has no effect on gameplay outside of FoTM. The same applies to rings, each ring has an infused version which only adds +5 agony res.

From Robert Hrouda:

different infusions supply different stat combos based on whether they are offensive or defensive.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Infusions-and-Offensive-Defensive-slots/first#post807559

ASB.4295:

Correction: Legendary grind was optional. Now, it’s the only way to gear up weapons without having to fear them becoming sup par.

If I was a gambling man, I’d bet that even if you grind for the legendaries, they will eventually become obsolete later. To have a tier completely removed from the treadmill seem counter to the new philosophy. I’d bet they introduce higher level legendaries later and not upgrade the existing ones.

namethatimade.6108:

They can only be upgraded via infusion, which only gives you Agony resistance, meaning no runes and sigils.

Incorrect, infusions will grant stat bonuses in addition to agony resistance. Considering there are defensive, offensive, and omni infusions; it’s not out of the question that they may offer bonuses similar to runes and sigils.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Infusions-affect-normal-stats/first

Death Reincarnated.3570:

So I guess people are peeved of more that that there will be too much grinding, rather than grinding itself.

Didn’t players complain that the prerequisites for legendaries were a grind?

You cannot satisfy everyone.

Legendary grind is optional, as in I would not have to do it at all and still remain competitive in WPvP as well as being able to do any future content update without the content being tuned for higher power gear.

With the vertical progression, you will pretty much HAVE to grind in order to be on par.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

So I guess people are peeved of more that that there will be too much grinding, rather than grinding itself.

Didn’t players complain that the prerequisites for legendaries were a grind?

You cannot satisfy everyone.

Legendary grind is optional, as in I would not have to do it at all and still remain competitive in WPvP as well as being able to do any future content update without the content being tuned for higher power gear.

With the vertical progression, you will pretty much HAVE to grind in order to be on par.

Denouement.3268:

I’ve been peaking at this thread and there is something I just don’t get.

All of this strange negativity. What is the source of this? It simply escapes me, I can’t experience it myself even if I tried.

The source is ANet had a vision for this game which they sold to a good many of their user base, an MMO without the grind and gear treadmill. 3 months in and they do a 180, introducing both necessary grind and gear treadmill. It may start of small but it will not end with just this patch.

I’m not on either side of the vertical progression debate, there is no real way to please them both.

And that’s a problem. They are trying to please both but the two play styles are in direct conflict that they cannot possibly make either happy.

Raziel.1853:

And why do you think they introduced this? Because before the forums explode because wasn’t enough stuff to do in PvE.
You don’t want that gear, then don’t go for it, its not like you need it.

Still not reading I see.

Everyone is going to need the gear in order to stay relevant in the future, that’s what happens when you add the grind and power creep.

ANet is trying to cater to two mutually exclusive play style and they’re going to get burned for it.

Raziel.1853:

So basically what you people are saying in over 200 pages is that ur not happy cause is not enough PvE stuff to make you play and enjoy more this side of the game, but ur not happy that they add new PvE stuff including gear. Ok that makes perfect sense!

Apparently English isn’t your strong point. I’ll break it down for you.

1. A selling point for GW2 was the lack of vertical “gear” progression and grind.
2. Lots of people bought into the idea of no grind.
3. Other people wanted the grind and many threatened to leave.
4. ANet does a 180 and introduced the gear grind.
5. Forum explodes with those who bought into the no grind idea feeling lied to.

Oh, I’m in absolute agreement with you. However, the problem is ANet wants expand/retain their user base and gear progression is a major point of contention for a significant amount of their user base.

Unfortunately, I think the two play styles (vertical vs horizontal progression) are mutually exclusive and the token gear grind in dungeons only won’t be enough.

ANet really do have to choose which fan base they wanted to pursue, sitting on the fence will only alienate both groups.

I don’t think restricting the gear progression to just dungeons will be enough to satisfy those that want vertical progression.

Gombar.7324:

Funcom made Age of Conan back in 2008, and I’m one of those that swore never to buy another of their games from that……..

Same here, I swore off Funcom’s games for pretty much the same reason. They made the first 20 levels in AoC beautiful with excellent voice-acting and relatively minimal bugs. The rest of the game was an ugly mess with a broken crafting system, broken group pvp system, lack of late game quests forcing you to grind, no more voice-acting, etc.

However, Funcom’s bait & switch is a more minor offense than ANet’s. Funcom simply needed (a ton of) more time to iron out the problems, they didn’t try to sell me a different product halfway in.

Darken Rahl.5824:

I’m probably in the agree to disagree crowd, but I cannot understand how this can cause this much vitriol, anger, negativity etc. They’ve added a single gear level, three months into the life of the game where most fundamental changes will have to occur, with no further plans (which they have said explicitly, you can hold them to that) to do so in the near future.

They have already explicitly stated that the power level between a casual and hardcore player was supposed to be the same, we know how that went.

The expected lifetime of this game is clearly years, and no matter how buggy some people may have found the event, it is remarkable how they can scale with traffic which most would consider DDOS levels.

It is because the expected lifetime of this game is measured in years that the gear treadmill is an ugly reality. Pandora’s box has been opened and for the long term survival of the game, they need to continue to introduce more powerful gear after gear to appease those that wants it.

Freohr.7905:

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.

I would have more sympathy for them if they had communicated with the user base rather than try to sneak it in with a pretty big content patch. They knew this was going to be a highly flammable issue yet they chose to hide behind a couple of PR spins. To date, there has been extremely little details on what their new plan is (unless you’re german).

Can’t take the heat from your user base? Then expect them to be even more riled up.

Gee, do you think it just might be possible to release new content without adding new gear?

I wore my GW1 armor through all 4 campaigns, I did collect a few more along the ways but they were only cosmetic changes.

Gee, could it be possible that people complaining about nothing to do at level 80 may not be the same people that argue against the gear grind?

Kain Francois.4328:

Enjoy your +30 total vitality.

How many more hits does that actually mitigate at level 80? After thinking about it, I’m convinced the number is so small it doesn’t even make a difference.

It’s like taking 200 damage when you have only 165 HP instead of 150. It doesn’t make a difference.

They might not be breaking their manifesto if they do this right. That is because it is possible numbers will be so miniscule that it makes no difference in level 80 combat.

When they launch their next major update or expansion the +30 will grow to +60, then the next one will grow to +120, and continue to grow to satisfy the demands of those wanting the gear progression.

There is no “doing right” by the manifesto as long as vertical progression is in, as the tenant of the manifesto is in direct conflict with it.

Kana.6793:

For all you know there’s going to be a karma vendor in WvW selling Ascended gear. People are freaking out before they even know how it works.

Ascended gear are meant to be a progression level between exotics and legendaries, they will not be easy to attain without grinding.

We didn’t freak out when people cried for vertical progression and looked what happened.

Auvic.5679:

I repeat:
Not having ascended gear isn’t going to magically make you non-viable in dungeons, WvW, or soloing things. I pretty much solo’d my way to 80 wearing blues that were generally 20-30 levels below my actual level, and I had no issues whatsoever.

You’re looking at the immediate future and not considering the potential long term ramifications.

Why did they add the item progression in the first place? To appease those that want vertical progression. They will have to continue expanding vertically to appease that audience. So their will be a significant gap between those that take advantage of the vertical progression and those that do not.

In one scenario where the ascended gear stats have no impact to anything outside of dungeons, every new dungeon will have to be like Fractals where the basic dungeon content is doable for everyone and the content is repeated with increased difficulty for those that want the challenge. I don’t think this will satisfy the vertical progression crowd for long.

In another scenario, the ascended gear will impact you outside of dungeons, in Wv3 and dynamic events. The stats may not be that huge right now (though that is looking debatable) but over time as the vertical progression increases, those with the progression will have a significant advantage. Considering that it will take some sort of grinding to get the ascended gear, it will be no easy task to overcome that advantage gap.

Other scenarios will fall in between the 2 extremes but you have to consider the growth further down the road.

The Sacred Voice.1623:

It just irks me that people complained constantly about a lack of endgame content and then when extra endgame items appear along with a new, complex endgame dungeon and another endgame area then all they do is howl that the game is pandering to traditional MMO concepts.

We should be respecting that they’ve even fought traditional MMO concepts for this long, their changes to the genre have been well executed and we should cut them a bit of slack I think.

Apparently, considering the game is only 3 months old, they fought the concept for 1 or 2 months. Great show of fortitude there.

Maybe you’re right, maybe people like me who are staunch supporters of their manifesto and vehemently against the gear treadmill should have been more vocal against the cries to change this game into something it was not.

But make no mistake, people who cry for gear profession are not the ones who are screaming now. To see Anet cave in so quickly to their cries is disheartening and I’ve lost all respect for them. Seriously, 3 frickin months.

fled.4691:

In Economics, late comers (GW2) are very often not able to compete with established fist generation industries (WoW). Quite honestly I admire Anet wanting to take the fight to Stormwind, but the smart money was on all of us ex-WoW players who been there, done that, have jobs and families who are no longer able (or interested) to keep up with the 14 or 15 tiers of gear required to raid currently.

In economics that’s called diversification…where if you are one of the few, or the only company who has diverged into a niche (horizontal progression), you will make money hand over fist, even if you don’t have the subscription numbers of Blizzard. Why? because you are not competing for the same audience.

Its actually pretty depressing watching all of this happen 2 weeks after I decided to make the switch and cancel WoW, TSW and SWTOR.

According to James Phinney, lead designer of StarCraft and Guild Wars, every great game starts with one question: “What do I want to play next?”. This may seem an obvious statement, but his point is that designers are often asked to make a game that is specifically designed to be “better” than a successful game from a competitor, rather than making a game that is exciting and new. How many designers have been asked to make a “GTA killer”, or a “Guitar Hero killer”, or a “WoW killer”? I personally have heard numerous designers and producers working on unreleased MMO projects describe their game in these terms: “It’s like WoW, but…” I just shake my head when I hear this, because the team that is best poised to deliver a successful game that is an evolution of WoW is… well, the WoW team. They’ve got their thing, and they’re good at it. Let’s all carve out our own thing, and be the best at it. Truly great games are made by passionate teams who are on fire with the notion of changing the industry. If you are aiming at a competitor rather than aiming to make something fresh and innovative, you’ve lost.

-Jeff Strain, Co-Founder of Anet
How to Create a Successful MMO

It seems Anet lost their ways when they lost some of their leadership.

Llywellyn.4635:

something happened otherwise they would not had to come up with new gear this soon

the most obvious is a significant decrease of players…

the devs acutally live from money and not from a dedicated fanbase

why do people always tend to shout out loud or repeat what other people are complaining about, bevor even start thinking about the why!?

just stop those suggestive threats
and please stop pretending like youre the most important person in the world
if you pay ANet enough money to live from then they may design the game as you want it to be…

till then its just all about to keep the numbers of players increasing
because that means money to keep this game/project alive

and no, they are not selling themselves, they just want to keep this game running and come up with new content and im sure that not all of them are happy with this decision

One of major selling point about the game was the lack of emphasis of gear progression, it was mentioned multiple times and by no less than the president or ArenaNet. It was a major selling point for me and apparently many others as well.

By reneging on the core philosophy of the game, they have invalidated a major reason I play this game. In my eyes, their actions will slowly destroy what the game stood for and therefore no longer worth my time. I don’t pretend to be anymore important than anyone else, I simply speak for myself.

Yes, the game could have failed to be a success had they stuck with the original manifesto. But I would rather they and gave their all and stuck with the original plan (and show some integrity by not keeping critical information from their userbase or intentionally mislead them) than turn the game into a “me too” grind fest, none of which are able to compare to WoW because who wants to play a copy-cat game?

Agrik.7465:

I’d encourage even those “leaving” to continue voicing opinions in case anet decides to court you back. What’s been changed can be changed again, if they realize a mistake has been made.

When you lose someone’s trust, it’s extremely difficult to restore that trust. Had they been honest and open about their intentions I may have given them a chance, I probably still would have left but I wouldn’t hold it against them. This situation was handled poorly and I’m done with them.

The only way I’d come back is if Mike O’Brien formally apologized for reneging on his manifesto, put his head between his legs, and kiss his own kitten

Crater.1625:

So, I’m sure it’s been hashed out to death, but I just saw the “guide” to the dungeon, along with the picture of the rewards, and the description of how you get the tokens.

Now, it’s pretty clear from the icon (looking like part of the glowy piece from Linsey’s original blog), the stats (particularly that there are two ‘sets’ of stats, and one of them is ‘baked-in’), the name (“Prototype”) that the Prototype Fractal Capacitor is the precursor item to the Ascended back piece.
It’s also pretty clear (we’ve been told that the Ascended piece comes from a Mystic Forge recipe) that to get the Ascended piece is going to require the Prototype Exotic model, the “Gift of Ascension”, and possibly two other recipe components.

The Prototype Fractal Capacitor costs 1350 tokens, and the Gift is an additional 500. So the token cost is roughly on par with the cost of a full set of dungeon equipment, including weapons. For one piece.

The rate at which you get tokens, at least according to the information that that site has, is 5 tokens per ‘Fractal’, with each ‘Fractal’ taking 15-30 minutes. So the rate at which you acquire the tokens is slower than it was to get Dungeon tokens at launch (before they quadrupled the daily bonus and moved all the tokens to the last chest, in response to complaints about the massive, tedious grind).

So much for “Hey, maybe it won’t be too that bad.”

They intended to be a middle ground between the relative ease of exotics and extreme difficulty of legendaries. So yeah, enjoy the grind.

Hunterdan.4921:

I came across a thought I posted in another thread. But some of you fellas seem to be rather busy here, so I wanted to run this by you as well. Aside from the ragers, many of you are excellent conversationalists. So, here we go!

I think many of us saw the image of the ring posted, and assumed there would also be a power ring, and a precision ring, a healing ring, etc. But what if there isn’t?
What if the ring shown, was the only ring? It’s stats base lined for running dungeons? Putting everyone on a plateau that they can design pve dungeons around. Modifying variable being your infusion, and whatever weapons you happen to take along. Sure, I could equip my higher DPS ring, but agony would down me. Again, now I am at a plateau that they can design the dungeon around.

Thoughts?

Chances are there will be variations in the stat distribution of ascended gear. It simply wouldn’t make sense to pigeonhole everyone into a few select builds even if it would mean easier balancing of dungeons, and negate the core ability to customize and play your character the way you want to.

But then again, ArenaNet has surprised me lately.

Loosifah.4739:

Why is everyone still crying about this? The update occurs tomorrow; they’re not going to cancel it now even if some of them wanted to.

I personally want to hear a more detailed explanation of this “item progression initiative” and whether the original game philosophy is still being followed.

Gronba.8621:

I don’t entirely agree with you on that, I believe the progression in gear is a knee jerk reaction – its soooo poorly done that they can’t have been planning this for more than a month. Let me elaborate:
1) According to the blog the rings can only be acquired through the fractals – had they had this ready from the get-go there would other sources as well, especially for WvW since the stat increase says f… you to those who don’t want to run the fractals

2) They would have known the backlash from the community – they advertised another game than what we are currently getting and I see no real attempt at damage control what so ever…They would have prepared for damage control from the get go if they had planned this for a long time

3) The way the rings work – there is no longer a “real” upgrade slot – that seems silly, I personally think it’s because they haven’t yet added the code for two upgrade slots (1 regular 1 infusion") if they had the code for two upgrade slots I don’t see the point in kittening those specs that are more all-round compared to those who are more focused.

Agreed, while it’s possible that they may have had some external forces pushing for this prior to release, I think it’s much more likely that this was a knee-jerk reaction to the public outcry for gear progression. They simply tacked on the item progression initiative to an already planned update.

fellyn.5083:

They’ve said they wouldn’t add more levels to the game. I don’t have an exact quote on where/when they said it, to show you though.

Colin Johanson:
“The level cap will be 80 on the initial release of the game, and we absolutely would increase it further into the game, probably through expansions is the most likely place we would do that.”

Teva.2807:

First of all, they didnt lie a first time. If you ACTUALLY read it, it states that it is NOT a gear treadmill.

He states it’s not a gear treadmill, then goes on to give a certifiably false statement as a way to somehow show it’s not a treadmill scenario.

“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.”

Currently, there are no jump in reward, massive or otherwise, between exotics and legendary. Legendary weapons are purely cosmetic and have the same stats as exotics, this was the original design which was stressed by both Mike O’Brien and Colin Johanson.

In order for the above statement to be true, they are intending add a new tier with increased stats and then increasing the stats of the legendary items to match the new tier, hence the beginning of the treadmill.

Derk.3189:

They said they won’t add a new tier every 3 months. But hey, 4 months is totes fine!

In this case, I actually believe they won’t release another tier. I think they’re hoping the ascended and legendary gear will hold people over until their expansion. Then they’ll raise the level cap and add level new appropriate gear within the existing tiers and go “see! we didn’t add any more tiers (but your level 80 stuff are going to be obsolete anyway).”

They’re probably hoping ascended and legendary gear will hold people over until they release their expansion, which will likely raise the level cap and bring gear to match the level cap. That way they can say “see, we didn’t add anymore tiers (just added higher levels of the same tier making your existing stuff obsolete)”.

Eladriel.7295:

Again for the blind impaired.. Agony is the same ability as Spectral Agony that was used by the Mursaats. It is part of GW1 lore and now the history of GW2. So whatever is in GW2 history is fair game to be returned. And FYI Spectral Agony was in the game long before Lord of the Rings online was even thought of. So get over it.

So I guess they should do it like in GW1 where you simply had to get your existing armor infused rather than being forced to get new gear.

Urmomzbf.2640:

For all the people who are complaining “GW2 is going against their word! NO! YOU CANT DO THIS??!! You are creating the gear grind you promised wouldn’t happennnn!!!!” Please think before you speak. It isn’t hard to obtain any gear including Exotics (apart from Legendaries which are only better cosmetically). It isn’t a gear grind. It’s just a twist to the game to make dungeons more exciting and add difficulty due to the “scaling to how you play” not the gear. The game STILL isn’t gear based, just skill based. . .

They stated a reason for the additional tier is because it was too easy to get the exotics, so chances are it’s going to be a little harder to get all of the ascended gear.

A year from now, they’ll add more levels and then gear to go with those levels. Then they’ll add “endgame” dungeons with complimentary ascended gear tuned for those dungeons. Then a new max level character won’t be able try those dungeons unless he spends the time to obtain those ascended gear.

As we release more new end game content in the future, you’ll see more Infusions and Ascended item types being added to the game. Eventually, you’ll be able to kit yourself out with a full set of Ascended gear and high end Infusions to help give you the edge in end game content.

The new additions in November are just the start of our item progression initiative. We’re going to add tons of new high-level content to Guild Wars 2 in the future. As we introduce the new high-level content, we’ll also roll out complimentary Ascended and Legendary items (to say nothing of the other rewards you can earn by playing the content).

-Linsey Murdock, game designer

Deth.4109:

if they changed design then maybe it wasnt a good idea like they thought it was going in, no one is above trial and error.

If they decided to change their core philosophy then I would appreciate it if they would address their player base and let them know about the change in direction. I would still not play the revised game but I could at least respect them for trying and being honest about the change.

If things stay as is with them providing contradictory information and the changes ends up being what I suspect, I will not only quit the game but will also blacklist ArenaNet and not touch any of their future games as well.

Nymia.3256:

It bears repeating, even though I and many others have said it already:

This is the first content update.

And just after 3 months too! Imagine what the next updates can include, a complete re-write to the manifesto and core ideals?

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.

My guess is they will introduce an official expansion next year where they will increase the level cap, and gear level cap to match (so technically they won’t be releasing new tiers, just higher levels within the tiers). So they’re hoping that the hunt for ascended and legendary items will hold off the gear grinders until then, when the circle of life will repeated ad nauseum.

HiddenNick.7206:

One thing that a lot of people misunderstood – the highest gear tier is and its going to be legendary (not exotics as some of you states). Ascended gear will not change that… Or any other tier.

“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

What are they planning to introduce? Gear with higher stats because the current best gear was too easy to get, meaning you’re gonna have work for it.

Yams.3859:

I haven’t read all 147 pages of posts, so apologies if this has already been suggested before:

ANet is a company. Numbers talk to them. At this point, we can reasonably expect Ascended items to make their way into the update this weekend and we may better illustrate our disapproval through actions.

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.

I wholeheartedly agree, if people really feel strongly about this issue then we need to show them in a tangible way. Saying you’re not going to spend money on on the cash shop is not going to be immediately evident to Arenanet since chances are most people aren’t constantly purchasing gems anyway.

I won’t be logging into the game until this mess is cleared up.

With that budget, I’m assuming you want the best possible GPU, the GTX 680m. You have 4 options.

Alienware M17x R4 – most expensive option, comes with backitten keyboard, bordering on laser lightshow.

Clevo P170EM – reference for multiple boutique shop laptops like AVA Direct, Origin PC, Sager, etc. Some boutique shop offers backitten keyboards.

iBUYPOWER CZ-17 – cheaper option for the GTX 680m. A gaudy imitation of the already gaudy Alienware, with lights bleeding everywhere.

Updated MSI GT60 &GT70 – The GT60 is the cheapest option for the GTX 680m while the GT70 is comparable to the others. Backitten keys and not as gaudy as the CZ-17 or Alienware.

The MSI GT60 is below 2k while the others range from 2.3k to 2.8k depending on configuration, with Alienware the most expensive.

Regarding finding gear, you have 2 options. You can either craft your own gear (which tends to be better than the drops you normally get) or you can purchase from the trading post (the scale symbols on your map indicates a trading post).

The benefits to crafting is you also get a good amount of exp from it and you can craft gear that is tailored to the stats you want. The bad thing about crafting is finding all the rare components needed, the rare ones can get expensive if you buy them from the trading post.

At low levels, the prices for gear are quite cheap on the trading post and you should be able to afford a full set of upgrades every 10-15 levels. Early on, it should be easy to find gear with the stats you want, though the market does fluctuate.

In the current market, Intel is the better option in terms of gaming. The latest release of AMD FX chips has closed the gap somewhat but they still fall short of Intel’s performance in all but the most heavily threaded applications (not games). I wouldn’t even recommend the older AMD chips.

You can obviously still game on and AMD system, and the performance may be acceptable or all that you need. Just note that even the highest end AMD chip (FX-8350) cannot compare to an i5-2500k in terms of gaming.

The GTX 580 is more powerful than the 7850, so go for it.

I recommend the AMD 7850, the price for the stock ones have been lowered to $180. It’s only slightly weaker than the 660 GTX but is almost $50 cheaper.

The dual skill is referring to the #3 weapon slot skill which changes depending on both main-hand and off-hand weapons. I believe the bonus will also apply to the #3 skill even if you don’t have an off-hand weapon.

Chronologist.9782:

Denial Of Service.5732:

erm, what do you call an assasin? i sense some trolling in the force, thief could have been called “mc chicken and nuggets” and its still, ninja, thief, assasin, shadow killer class.

well, i guess we should just let this thread die.

He means assassin from GW1

Considering that several of the thief’s abilities like death blossom, scorpion wire, and caltrops shares the same name as assassin skills, I’d say that it’s extremely unlikely that they will also re-introduce assassins.