Guild Wars 2

None right now since I have 0 in any crafting profession. I don’t consider crafting as a particularly fun activity. Nor the hunt for the materials. Maybe that I’ll gear my character it if we ever get an alternate method of acquiring ascended gear. Until then I’ll keep away from what I used to enjoy a lot in this game: roaming in WvW. I’m just not competitive anymore.

Guild Wars had a similar system where you had to unlock items and skills over time through Balthazar Faction. It worked well there so I don’t think it is a bad approach from start.

What worries me more is that in Guild Wars unlocking went fairly quick but in this game progress is a nightmare made of grind and more grind. It is pretty much the defining factor of WvW/PvE nowadays. So when someone says he wants to mesh the game modes together in a better way, I have a very bad feeling about it.

The current implementation of ascended gear is a disaster. Because it only rewards one play style it forces everyone to do the same: follow the karma train through the borderland. It makes every other secondary activity non profitable, even punishes them. But a healthy games needs exactly that: freedom for the player and player driven activities. A shopping list and a time table destroy the fun.

Zero Day.2594:

Elmo Benchwarmer.3025:

Just got hit by a 10k Backstab followed by a 9k Heartseaker on my 2.8k armour toon from a Thief wielding 2 legendary daggers. Now with even more power creep I can see how this is going to be a lot of fun. So much skill needs to be rewarded.

Enjoy.

if you wish to suggest a thief nerf, please do it here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Nerf-Wish-list/first#post3313984

You Sir/Lady should read posts carefully before posting.

Have a wonderful day!

Just got hit by a 10k Backstab followed by a 9k Heartseaker on my 2.8k armour toon from a Thief wielding 2 legendary daggers. Now with even more power creep I can see how this is going to be a lot of fun. So much skill needs to be rewarded.

Enjoy.

TainoFuerte.8136:

So… what’s going to happen now? Once “everyone” or the “hardcores” or whomever finishes all their ascended gear… what then? Will there be “nothing to do”, just like it was at release when everyone “got their exotics and left”?

What is Arenanet going to do to keep these people playing? Supposedly, Ascended gear stops here, right? So what are these people going to be doing? How’s Arenanet going to settle this? The people that get their gear quickly will be done and they’ll be at exactly the same place they were when all there was were exotics. “got gear what do now?”

What’s next? How will these people be satisfied? If the entire point of vertical progression is to keep people busy by grinding out better stats, what’s going to happen now that it’s supposedly going to stop?

Because I sure hope it’s not going to be something like increasing the level cap or introducing infusions with higher stats or something, because then I’d have to lol at all the “GW2 doesn’t have a gear treadmill” and “the stat differences are small so it doesn’t matter” apologist nonsense I read in the olden days.

Still not sure what the hell the problem was in the first place. Exotics are too easy to get? Wasn’t that the whole point? Isn’t what how gearing in the game was marketed? I knew full well they’d be easy to get. That’s why I got the game in the first place. I dunno, but apparently, as a consumer, I should appreciate how they want to waste my time getting to exactly the same place I was before – BiS.

I’m just quoting this because I think this is 100% accurate.

Be it 5, 10 or 15% ascended gear is a problem in WvW. It creates even more power creep in a game mode that’s already suffering from a massive power creep from WXP ranks and Bloodlust. Since they (sadly) won’t ban ascended gear from WvW I don’t understand why it’s so hard to add a WvW ascended gear vendor. Say 25 Laurel, 250 badges and 25k karma for a piece of equipment other than trinkets. That would be a lot slower than in PvE, would still cost quite some but at least you wouldn’t force people to farm champions in PvE all day instead of letting them play the way they want to play (pun intended).

It definitely is a huge power creep and it shoudln’t have been implemented in the first place. Anyone arguing that WvW is supposed to be imbalanced is just trolling in my humble opinion. You don’t advertise your game for being imbalanced. In it’s current implementation ascended gear is just a terrible addition to the game.

Credit where credit’s due. That is definitely a good addition to WvW and I thank you for it.

But because I am a heartless gamer, when will we be able to get ascended weapons at a reasonable rate in WvW?

But adding tiers of gear is no progression. If you get killed during an encounter you should revise your overall approach, skill use and tactics. Just equipping a more powerful item doesn’t make you a better player. It doesn’t add any depth or value to the game.

It’s not because you traded your Citroën for a Porsche that you are now a better driver.

Putting max level at 80 was in my humble opinion completely unnecessary. Level 40 or 50 would have been more than enough. You would just have earned your trait points in a much faster way, making it less tedious. The added advantage would have been more max level zones. (I didn’t forget downscaling but that is not well done either, since with a fully geared level 80 you can basically just wtfroflstomp through any explorable.)

It’s a disappointment for me.

We now have the worst part of PvE (kill X this, collect X that, go X times there) in PvP. Instead of promoting PvP Season 1 promoted farming. Farming to gain WXP to stay competitive, farming to get ascended materials to stay competitive, farming for the sake of farming.

/signed for removing Living Story from WvW.

Account.9832:

4. New infusions introduced that simply add a visual effect to the weapon or armour they are placed on (ex., fire / lightning / poison / smoke / frost / blood / etc.)

I really like this idea. It’s exactly what progression should be like: more character customization. And customization is exactly what ascended gear removes from the game (one skin, missing stats, forced to stick with one build for a long time since it’s so hard to get, etc.).

If ascended gear got removed I for once would start to fully support Arena Net again. Reading through this thread I get the feeling I am not the only one.

But the thing is I do not mind ascended gear in PvE. I do mind it in PvP (WvW), the only place where it actually creates an imbalance.

First the terrible reward system forces players to zerg. It is at the moment the only way to get ascended rewards. Every other activity becomes punishing to a dedicated WvW player (most namely scouting, roaming and GvG). But it is these player driven activities that make a game stay interesting in the long run. The more room you give to players, the more entertaining the game becomes. Right now all you get is a shopping list (a recipe) and a schedule (time gated content). Both not exactly exciting, no matter what way you look at it.

Second the ascended gear adds to the never ending power creep (started with WXP ranks, than Bloodlust). Fighting in WvW became extremely dull over the past few months. No matter how much the stat difference gets downplayed, a halfway competent player in ascended gear will destroy a just as competent opponent in only exotics. You have to keep in mind that a player character is animated by a breathing, thinking being that knows exactly how it can overcome its opposition and gain the upper hand. It is not some wacky AI that complies to the same rules over and over again. Saying that upscaled or other tier gears exist is a void argument. You cannot excuse more imbalance with existing balance. That argument virtually cancels out the idea of improvement, which is fundamental to any human activity. If anything a game should reduce the gear difference over time, not increase it.

I’d be a happy face. I would buy gems off the gem store (plenty).

But quite frankly I’d be OK if it got removed from PvP (WvW) where it has a disastrous effect on combat which is as dull right now as possibly can be. Right now WvW only revolves around farming as many keeps in as little time as possible since it is the only way to get ascended rewards. Remove the gear progression and give players a choice again. Player driven activities make games strong and last long. Ascended gear completely cancels that out since it dictates a very specidifc approach to the game. And don’t get me started on the power creep…

I’d actually prefer all the offensive WXP ranks got toned down. The offensive power creep already makes fighting in WvW already extremely dull. Countering it with a defensive power creep will only lead to buffing the offense again the moment people realize keeps have become impenatrable objectives. In my book WvW was more balanced at release than it is now. I’d love to get back to more balanced. It made the format a lot more entertaining than it is right now.

Like so many other servers, my server is currently getting farmed by our stronger opposition. Their massive zerg switches borderlands with a regular precision, caps everything, leaves our borderland when everything is captured and comes back minutes later to restart the farming run.

While it is no fun to see I can’t even blame them since, if you want to stay competitive, it is the only reasonable thing to do. If you want to be on top gear wise and rank wise you really don’t have a choice.

The current state of WvW clearly shows how harmful power creep is to any PvP format. Since Arena Net is probably not going to change their mind anytime soon I really wish they would at least ease the pressure put on players.

A good start would be to make BiS gear available from a WvW weapon, accessory and armour locker (just like in sPvP). Those items could only ever be used in WvW. The moment you leave WvW, you stow your gear away (just like in sPvP). The basic items should be for free (again just like in sPvP) and the fancier looks can only be unlocked through a lot of Badges of Honour or any other combination of currencies or even Mystic Forge recipies (again just like in sPvP). That would allow a WvW player to stay competitive, would give them someting to work for (the notorious horizontal progression) and wouldn’t affect PvE at all. I am convinced that quite some PvE players would even use this convenience to test builds and gear before they purchase it. And since the best way to experience a build is to go pick a fight, we would hopefully see some fresh blood in WvW. As a bonus you take pressure from players to stay on top of the food chain and allow them to define the metagame again unlike it is right now. A game is in my humble opinion only as good as the possibilities the player has. And right now we only have a shopping list and a schedule, both not exactly exciting. With the addition of that convenience the overall WvW experience would wastly improve. Scouting wouldn’t be detrimental. Defence won’t penalize the player. Even if there is still no reward, there is at least no drawback to not farming WvW. The lesser of two evils basically. Right now I for once feel scouting or even roaming (what made up almost 100% my play time up until now) as useless.

Second, the WvW ranks need to change, especially the dreaded Guard Leech and Applied Fortitude stacks. Those bring a severe imbalance to the game and thus again promote farming in WvW. If you don’t got those ranks, you’r at a severe disadvantage. That’s what it pretty much boils down too. You need them to be competitive. So what needs to be done is either make those ranks easily obtainable so that everyone can have them or change them completely so that they only affect NPCs. I would honestly prefer the latter solution. Because again the power creep makes builds available that (at least in GW1) would have been considered griefing. Those are hyper defensive builds that still dish out loads of damage. The lack of offensive gear is compensated by those stacks, the better gear and to some extent food. But for the sake of a healthy PvP environment defensive builds must be low on the damage side. Low offense on defensive setups would in return promote offensive builds bringing more diversity to gameplay or at least force groups to run a mix of offense and defence. You would see increased player interaction (the defensive types protecting the offensive types) and not an environement where every player just looks after himself (first you have to keep up with the farm train, second teamplay is meaningless).

As for the other ranks (Ram Mastery, Catapult Mastery, Trebuchet Mastery, etc.) I think they all need a counterpart. There could be for example defensive siege weaponry that lets you destroy projectiles mid air (just like those canons you had on your airship during the last story mission). Those counter measures need to be player activated, requiring active play and good timing. An associated title could improve the effectiviness of said weapons and balance out the offensive types. The player that destroys the porjectiles would get his WXP reward for it and defence would not be meaningless anymore. Of course you should not be able to secure a keep 100% of the time but it would make objectives defensible again and even promote defence, something that is absolutely lacking right now.

Anyway those are just some ideas (certainly not new ones either) I’m throwing out since I do not want to give in to only negativity (although sadly there is plenty). WvW is a great format and it’s a shame to see it going to kitten (I actually typed that out) hell.

Guard Leech and Applied Fortitude are brokenly overpowered. Like sadly so many other things in WvW.

phys.7689:

No, sports aren’t supposed to be fair, they are competitive. That is two different things, sports rewards hard work, and natural inclination way more than wvw does.

Sports sets certqin rules, then asks the player if he’s willing to compete. That’s all.

Don’t let the IOC know that. You’ll get sued.

Fairness is one of the paradigms of sports. Just look at the uproar doping caused in the Tour de France. German TV channels stopped live transmissions alltogether. Even technology gets banned for giving unfair advantages.

“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_doping”

haviz.1340:

Very sad to see them begin acquired outside of fractals.

This. Ascended gear isn’t needed anywhere else. Leave it in fractals. Just like you leave your PvP trinket in the mists. A hard split can work both ways.

phys.7689:

Wvw isn’t even, and conceptually was meant to reward charachter progression. That said charachter progression should be available to and encourage wvw playstyles

Allow me to disagree.

I can’t help but feel that saying WvW was never meant to be and never will be balanced is essentially a non argument. No game designer promotes his game as imbalanced. You don’t design a game to be imbalanced. When you start it out, you want it to be as balanced as it possibly can be.

That WvW favours numbers and that usually a large group defeats a small group doesn’t legitimate even more imbalance. If it did there wouldn’t have been the Confusion or Bloodlust nerfs. And I’m not even arguing the point that larger teams have an advantage.

What I’m saying is that you need an even starting ground. Everyone’s base equipment should be the same. If you can fool the opposition to run into your zerg more power to you. But on the other hand with some attention and map communication you can dodge the zerg alright if you want to. And the introduction of the ruins and the Edge of the mist map clearly shows that small party play is indeed a part of WvW. And in small party play balance is of the essence.

If you want protection stay with the larger group. But don’t introduce gear that throws off balance where it actually is (or should be) and matters: in the small fights (although I want to make clear that in my opinion the power creep is bad even in larger battltes).

Yes, yes and yes.

Getting Ascended gear of any sorts simply isn’t fun. I can see why people want it in PvE but WvW is PvP. An even playing ground is key to a successful PvP format. Aside from the obvious artificial barrier Ascended gear introduces it generates even more power creep (like there wasn’t already enough: WvW server buffs, bloodlust, WXP ranks, food, etc.) something that is already harming the game now and will only get worse over time if it doesn’t stop.