Guild Wars 2

I’ve achieved this title playing slowly.
Do you have any idea of how long it may take to achieve it speed clearing hearts/wp/sp/vistas?

Would you be interested in doing it again if there was a good reward at the end?

Even if I’ve skipped different events lately, I don’t dislike all the new contents, mainly because I see them as minigames, and between them I think everyone can find something that he likes.

But the way they are implemented, the kittenload of achievements attached to them, the subcontract with the dulfy’s site, the lack of actual permanent content between them, the idea that a dev can say something like this with a light heart

I remember back in the day grinding for gold in Final Fantasy 1 and Dragon Warrior 1 to be able to buy enough potions to beat the bosses and dungeons. That’s essentially what you’ll be doing. The time invested in doing so ratchets up the tension.

(It’s a quote from the SAB, but honestly… in my opinion we could extend it to the rest of the game)
All of this make me really sad.

At first I was enjoying the content, but then with the introduction of ascended I stopped and started to think.
I’ve played in 1 year more than I played Gw1 in 7 year, and no doubt I liked Gw1 more in so many aspects, so why? Why was I playing? Why was I logging everyday? Was it healthy? Was I having fun?

In the end I come up with the idea that I logged to do my work and that it was not totally my own fault, because even if the game don’t force you, it strongly encourages you to do so even when you are not enjoying the content. If you have not the whole day to spend inside the game, all that is left to you is a work schedule to fill.

As others have also pointed out we do not know why we should work or if is even needed, because no developer has deigned to tell us the real direction of the game.

In conclusion, I feel that this game need more permanent content (and maybe they’re working on it right now), maintain and upgrade the minigames if this doesn’t subtract time to create an epic story (that we are not forced to read on the official website)… and the addition of challenging tasks that are bootable immediately without farming or queues required.
All this should be done always taking into account that the challenge should never lock out less skilled players or casual players. A “normal/hard mode” feature could fit for the first group and no VP for the second group.

These are my thoughts of what, right now, might be good for the community :P

(self-interest: fix the huge clipping issues of the masquerade shoulders+seer’s coat combo and also the acolyte mask, all broken from the launch…)

Dante.1508:

Erick Alastor.3917:

I did a tl:dr of this thread.
I divided people who can accept the new direction of the game (green) from the ones that are not so willing to (red), there is also a group of players of which I did not understand very well their position (gray):
(22 pages are a lot of comments so I might have done a bit of confusion, please forgive me and remember that english is not my native language ç_ç)
Btw:
- 61 are ok with the current form of VP (top poster Vayne with ~111 posts)
- 132 are not ok with the idea of VP (top poster MikaHR ~89 posts)
- Of 35 I was not able to fully understand their position, some I suppose didn’t give a lot of weight to this topic, some other remain neutral and highlight the good points of both reds and greens (top poster Lanfear ~8 post)

p.s. I know I played the ape with some of the greens quotes (not even so much btw), but it’s not a secret that I’m rooting for the reds :P

You can put my name into the Against, i’m completely against this junk and the new direction Guildwars 2 is sliding into.

Honestly so many pages and so much negativity, which wasn’t hard to predict after seeing Nov last year exactly the same.

I believe this company really hasn’t a clue what their players want and are just out for money at this point, i could be wrong but the way Anet projects it on this forum it honestly does not feel like the community good or bad is wanted or even liked at all..

Just look at this thread for example, so much anger and hate for their new additions and not one reply or even a sorry to their community, that’s pretty arrogant imo.

I honestly think that I have a glimpse of what there is on their minds about this thread.
If we don’t count the greens and grays, just 133 people are firmly against this direction.
Why they should care of so few costumers when they have many thousands of players actively playing and enjoying the game?
But I believe that here lies their greatest mistake, relying just on statistics is as comfortable as it is unwise.
In my opinion Gw2 didn’t sold so well because it was “the perfect game” or thanks to their PR, I think they got to where they got primarily thanks to the word of mouth advertising. And for the most part maybe they should say thank you to the users of GW1.
This said, this kind of advertising is viral and very effective, especially on the net, the way in which the old media worked it’s surpassed, they can no longer rely only on an unidirectional communication.
Given that we are all connected I wonder why they don’t fear a domino effect, a negative one, and they seem so calm making some of their customers really angry, from my pov it’s an odd behaviour or a very little cautious one at least.

Hawkian.6580:

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to compile that from a sort of empirical standpoint. It’s certainly a stark portrayal of the official forum community; despite your slight biases showed through it is definitely fascinating to see the breakdown.

You’re welcome.

Hawkian.6580:

Tragically (for both sides, really), attempting to draw any conclusions at all from the content of this thread would be a god-awful idea for anyone interested in the future of the game.

:S

I did a tl:dr of this thread.
I divided people who can accept the new direction of the game (green) from the ones that are not so willing to (red), there is also a group of players of which I did not understand very well their position (gray):
(22 pages are a lot of comments so I might have done a bit of confusion, please forgive me and remember that english is not my native language ç_ç)
Btw:
- 61 are ok with the current form of VP (top poster Vayne with ~111 posts)
- 133 are not ok with the idea of VP (top poster MikaHR ~89 posts)
- Of 34 I was not able to fully understand their position, some I suppose didn’t give a lot of weight to this topic, some other remain neutral and highlight the good points of both reds and greens (top poster Lanfear ~8 post)

p.s. I know I played the ape with some of the greens quotes (not even so much btw), but it’s not a secret that I’m rooting for the reds :P

Vayne.8563:

One of my guildies has access to it. AFAIK he hasn’t used it yet.

Dunno why I’m not surprised, lol

Dark Catalyst.1028:

So, in short, they took the easy way out.

In short at 6:50
The Guild

Im Mudbone.1437:

Blackgate beat it about 3 or so hours ago hours ago around 9pm MST, video is up at http://www.twitch.tv/flickky/c/2951634

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1mmgaa/blackgate_proves_tequatl_is_possible_and_that_he/

Ok we need to stop to feed him, let’s get back on the topic or else devs will have a reason to close this thread.

Vayne.8563:

I simply don’t see the game as having been misrepresented…at least no more than Rift was to me. Because of my experience with Rift, I was saved going through the same thing with Guild Wars 2. I had believed what was said about Rift and most of that never eventuated. The stuff that was said wasn’t born out. And yes, I was one of the people complaining at the forums. Now I see it again. Some stuff was said and that stuff changed.

MMOs change all the time and have been changing forever. Those who write anything in stone about any MMO are fooling themselves. That’s just how I see it.

It’ll happen with the new MMOs too.

Coincidence?
I don’t know if that’s your account there, but judging from what he posted, even Rift had its own white knight Vayne.
If you’re not that guy there should be some sort of cosmic connection between all people who chose that nickname and you should look for him and kill him: There can be only one :|

Btw I agree with you when you say that even other mmorp will not keep their promises.

Tin foil hat on: Sometimes I feel that they intentionally bug/change something to fix it back soon after the complaints, just to show that they listen to the community.
Tom foil hat off: Who cares. They don’t why should I? :P

Ashabhi.1365:

Welcome back!

My only advice would be to not read the forums…

;)

True. Don’t read it, it could be harmful if you never experienced ratiocination.
Otherwise do it and try to discern truth from falsehood in what you read.
HF.

Pack Hunter.6103:

Can someone post a video of the new one? I dont have that pick or know anyone that does

The Treadmiller

Tiger.7506:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

The grinders need to go play Final Fantasy 14 online. Seriously. People who are ok with vertical progression and gear grinding are ruining this game.

Casual elitist are ruining this game.

Casual elitists? :|
Usually casuals ask for equality, they may or may not be a minority but they generally don’t want to feel superior at all, characteristic that I see fit much better to the grinders.

I think I was a good supporter, with my money I’ve bought all campaigns + gwen, a name changer, some extreme makeover, the bonus mission pack (as you can see from some of the skins in this screenshot), mercenary heroes… and not a single time I felt that I needed what I bought to enjoy the content (SAB ICC), nor that what I got for paying was the best skin of the game.
I spent what I spent because I was having FUN playing and wanted to say thanks.
The coolest armors/weapons were avaiable playing, and they were not stronger than the cheapest ones.
Inb4: PVE skills grind was not necessary if you were smart (I’ve already discussed this)
PvP was not affected by your (uselessly) grinded skills.

Now please take a look at my REALLY casual gaming expirience, then think about Gw2 and tell me why is this supposed to end like this?
Inb4: Now they have to pay a lot more devs <- there were so many in the beginning?
Is worth the cost to increase their number if this imply selling the soul of their philosophy because of the greedy Ne—n?

Tiger.7506:

Stop Crying Your Heart Out ( Oasis )

cos all of the stars
are fading away
just try not to worry
you’ll see them some day

Yeah let’s just this game fade away, then when all farmers and elitists will be gone, maybe we will have our real gw2 back again.

And this is why people whine about people who whine about vertical progression.
It’s obvious there will always be people complaining about everything (like for the wallet), but please try to discern better them from us.
Plus I suppose we are quite more numerous.

As far I know they will implement an item in the BLC to expand stacks by other 250.
Who know why do we have stacks and why so high requirement for crafting…

(Per chi fosse interessato) Hot topic even on the italian forum:
http://www.mmorpgitalia.it/site/showthread.php?347153-Set-Ascended-Mio-punto-di-vista
Almost all against this set, some suggest of adding harder content to justify its introduction, other say that they’re pondering about going back to WoW where there is already a point in farming gears (-.-).
(The discussion at one point degenerated into blabbling about legendaries xD)
As always I really hope that this issue will be better handled.
Turning Gw2 into a revamped WoW is not a great idea and anyway it would take time while people would simply go back to their previous vanilla mmoprg.
Moreover many of those players left those kind of games because they experienced a farming burn out.
There are also a lot of people from Gw1 here in Italy (every gw1 campaign was localized back then ç.ç) and I don’t think I have to add what the majority of Gw1 player thinks about vertical progression.

Vayne.8563:

So you’re saying NO ONE complained on any forum about the grind for levels in Luxon or Kurzick. There wasn’t one complaint. There wasn’t any complaint about lightbringer ranks. People didn’t grind all weekend on special bonus weekends, running that stupid quest in the sulfurous wastes, just to grind out the levels to their lightbringer title.

I mean, no one ever did any fast faction farming…that’s FFF in the Guild Wars 1 wiki.

No one felt obligated and no one complained.

Right.

I never said that.
What I’m saying is that, in my opinion, people who complained about that had the right to do so, but I felt that there was almost no reasons to do it.
I would compare those complaints to complaints about legendaries being too difficult to craft ‘cause of rng (pre-stats doping).
On the contrary people complaining on this forum, not only have the right to do so, but they also have a real reason to do it.
+20-30% of stats everywhere/everytime is not something optional, and the time spent to get that bonus is simply absurd (because of grinding/gating/and the"slow release" of items).
(Always in my opnion:)
Should people complain because of ascended gap right now? Maybe not.
Should people complain about ascended because of their implications? Yes.
Why? Because ascended are:
- Not alts friendly.
- Not builds friendly.
- Not “play the way you want” to naturally obtain your gear.
*Why don’t implement them exactly like exotics? (with a slightly higher request in time)
- A possible requirment for higher contents (because of numbers).
- (to quote George Carlin) bad for ya :P

Vayne.8563:

Erick Alastor.3917:

Vayne.8563:

Rank 8 ursans required rank 8 ursans.

People who wanted to run imbagon, ALWAYS wanted to get their luxon/kurzick points up, because 4 seconds wasn’t enough for hard mode DOA and groups wanted more. If you weren’t playing then, then I guess you didn’t see it.

I’m sure the permasin used the Sunspear skill and that it was much better/more effective at the higher level.

And people leveled up stuff like pain inverter and technobabble and necrosis too. You can deny it all you want, but people felt compelled to level that stuff, because it could be better/stronger/more powerful. Not just one or two people, either.

4s instead of (maxed) 6s
About permasin If you’re talking about “Intensity” the same applies to this skill or even to technobabble or pain inverter.
All of them where effective even at the lowest rank, moreover their max effect was not reached at the top rank but right in the middle one (easy to “farm” if you were willing to).

Btw, in this thread we are talking about “vertical progression”.
You can counter a skill with another skill, you can obtain best results using different types of build depending on the situation.
At some point anet, who said that did not intend to work on an hard mode, will have to lock content behind gear.
This is a totally different problem here.
We are not talking about 1-2s of difference of a single skill and the fact that few elite players will demand you a clearly useless top rank.
We are talking of tens of percentile points that work on their own, with 0 effort/skill required to the players (unless you do not intend grinding a proof of skill).

Why do you think PvE only skills were limited to 3 per bar? Because they were arguably the most powerful skills in the game. Introduction of those skills completely trivialized some of the hardest content in the game.

But the real issue comes from the idea that people didn’t feel pressured to level those skills. I felt far more pressure to level those skills than I do to get an ascended weapon. They different in power I get from an ascended weapon isn’t nearly as great as the difference in power in leveling those skills.

Take something like “Save Yourselve’s”. Here’s a shout that allows you to mitigate 90% of all damage in the game…not just to you, but to your entire party. Do you think a 33% longer duration on that….33%!…isn’t going to make a HUGE difference.

I think you’re either remembering wrong, or you’re being completely disingenuous.

Let’s take a poll. How many people would rather mitigate 90% of the damage their party takes (which could be kept up almost all the time), or like 10% higher stats?

I don’t think there’s much contest here.

Wrong again, more or lesser than 80% reduction but only for direct damage type.
And the 33% you are talking about is STILL 2 KITTEN SECONDS. AND ONLY 1S if you have not just started to play.
If you want to argue that SY is overpowered I can agree (even if we have to remember that every class can access to that skill), but trying to convince players that you had to grind for it… Vayne please :S

Vayne.8563:

Rank 8 ursans required rank 8 ursans.

People who wanted to run imbagon, ALWAYS wanted to get their luxon/kurzick points up, because 4 seconds wasn’t enough for hard mode DOA and groups wanted more. If you weren’t playing then, then I guess you didn’t see it.

I’m sure the permasin used the Sunspear skill and that it was much better/more effective at the higher level.

And people leveled up stuff like pain inverter and technobabble and necrosis too. You can deny it all you want, but people felt compelled to level that stuff, because it could be better/stronger/more powerful. Not just one or two people, either.

4s instead of (maxed) 6s
About permasin If you’re talking about “Intensity” the same applies to this skill or even to technobabble or pain inverter.
All of them where effective even at the lowest rank, moreover their max effect was not reached at the top rank but right in the middle one (easy to “farm” if you were willing to).

Btw, in this thread we are talking about “vertical progression”.
You can counter a skill with another skill, you can obtain best results using different types of build depending on the situation.
At some point anet, who said that did not intend to work on an hard mode, will have to lock content behind gear.
This is a totally different problem here.
We are not talking about 1-2s of difference of a single skill and the fact that few elite players will demand you a clearly useless top rank.
We are talking of tens of percentile points that work on their own, with 0 effort/skill required to the players (unless you do not intend grinding a proof of skill).

Vayne.8563:

Conner.4702:

Vayne.8563:

SonicTHI.3217:

Carlin Sanders.3587:

Have gw1 fans forgotten the name of the fancy versions of armor you got on prophecies? does ‘ascended’ armor ring a bell?

exotic was designed to do a job – make top tier something that required effort so that people can actually appreciate what they have. it failed. so they had to bring in ascended to do that job. (would you salvage an ascended weapon? in comparison, would you salvage an exotic? and why?)

edit: and have we forgotten the point of why skill point scrolls exist? are we going to cry and whine when they introduce new skills into the game that seem better than the current meta? of course we will.

I wish people would stop spreading disinformation about GW1 already. 15k GW1 armor had the SAME stats as 1,5k and the SAME as obsidian or any other max armor.
Legendary had the SAME stats as exotic. Ascended was not needed in any way and goes against everything explained in numerous blog posts and interviews over the course of several years.
And no i wouldnt salvage my exotic weapon if it was max stat. Exotics required enough effort for most people. Especially if you wanted to have a fully geared character or god forbid alts.

Ascended was not brought in to do “a job”. It was brought in to please a subset of players that were complaining or leaving in droves – the same people that wanted GW2 to be more like WoW.

Unfortunately these same players can not be pleased. Ever. Once they have their chars geared out in ascended they will either demand new shinies again or leave.

ANET is doing the same 2 stupid things most companies in the last decade tried to do: trying to cater to everyone and trying to do what WoW does best.

I wish Guild Wars 1 players would stop spreading misinformation, like that there was no grind in Guild Wars that affected your character’s power. That’s just wrong. It wasn’t gear, sure, but then, there were plenty of skills that you had to level through rep, that were needed for some builds, like imbagon. Or do you not remember people in Guild Wars 1 looking for groups of r8 ursan?

And I wish the white knight GW2 fanboys would stop posting misinformation. None of the PVE only skills needed a high rep to be useful for the vast majority of the playerbase. You got high enough level just by playing. You are using a very small subset of people to make an argument in your favor. No PVE skills were ever needed to complete any content. Most of them got nerfed extremely fast as well. Take of your tunnelvision glasses for once

Only if you completely ignored the meta. Only if you didn’t want a permasin or an imabagon…which became required to get groups for certain content. Try getting a group for DOA without an imbagon paragon at some point.

Arguably those skills were far more required in GW 1 than ascended gear is in GW 2.

Sometimes I wonder if you even know what you are talking about.
And you are contunially pointing at those two specific builds (even in other threads).
Where it was the grind for the permasin?
And where for the Imbagon?
Prove your statements please.

Becausa as far I know:
1. PvE only skills. (not even a single rank skill needed for the permasin btw)
2. Even at the lowest rank every skill worked.
3. The skills bonus gained “farming points” in many cases was ridiculously low.
4. The middle rank (easily achievable) often offered the same stats of the (extremaly grindy) top rank .

So what you were talking about again?

MikaHR.1978:

Yah, i alwyas dreamed of having alts parked at JPs just to farm gear.

I always dreamed of champion trains and temple zerging for months just to grind some gear.

As i said before, they want to sell vegan meal with meat in it.

But anyways, these changes are not for west market, focus is east now.

/15charr

lol that buy now button

Chickenshoes.6250:

absolutely not. Legendary users have to pay like 10 times the grind just to have this privilege over ascended gear.
[..]

Legendaries were meant to be just nice skins.

If ascended were the last tier and players would be able to swap stats imo there would be a lot less discontent regarding their introduction.

TooBz.3065:

In that case, I think one of the reasons for the constant complaints is that the complaints haven’t been acknowledged. I know that if my wife has a complaint the WORST thing I can do is ignore her.

Even if they said, “we hear you, we know some people are unhappy with this change, but we think it’s best for the game — deal with it” the complaints may die. Without any comment it seems like they may not be paying attention.

On the other hand, sometimes when your dealing with a toddler having a tantrum you have to let them scream it out. So maybe ANet is treating us like toddlers.

Pls make that if you wield a super legenday any player, whose level is lower than your, implode/explode when he gets close to you.
I totally support this.

“We want Guild Wars 2 to be a game like Halo or a COD: you turn it on, look at a list of games, then you get in and you play. It’s all very easy to understand, and that’s what we’ve built.”

Yeah that’s what they had built.
Now we have a grocery list:
- Dailis
- Monthlies
- Gathering
- Temporary content
*with events that require you to zerg/farm to access to the “real content”.
- Crafting (+400)
- Ascended
- BLC “quality of life” items that are starting to become necessary.

I hope this will become another Cantha thread. Don’t let it die and maybe one day they will recognize their own mistakes. ç__ç

I also appreciate the work put in this beautiful world, but I think that while we are staring at those nice and precious stones lying down on the ground we have to think to the Pi/2

Lambent.6375:

Exotics aren’t the equivalent of rares now. Aside from future fractal content, things will still be designed under the premise that players may be wearing masterwork, rare, or exotic gear. (hopefully)

Think about it a full ascended set will be more or lesser 20% powerful than an exotic set. Now multiply that % for 5 people in a dungeon. How can they design new content based on exotic level? Ascended guys will simply facereoll everything.
Colin also said that an “hard mode” for dungeons is highly unlikely .-.

selan.8354:

yup and the joke is, that your bank will fill up with stacks after stacks, because u cant store more than 250 in the crafting slots which is imo ridiculous.

Don’t worry (from datamining) they will release an object in the BLC to increase your stack size by 250. They clearly know that it’s a required feature in a grindy game.
http://i.imgur.com/tZ9dJJW.png

Swagger.1459:

Erick Alastor.3917:

I’ve just made this.
Any resemblance to real events and/or to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This is just how I think part of the community feels.

haha I like it!

can you make videos?

I’m not able to make videos, sorry xD

Lafiel.9372:

Not sure what this thread is about but to be fair, Colin does look like the kind of guy who doesn’t keep his promises and will turn back on his word without hesitation (no sarcasm).

It’s probably the facial hair thing he has going. A common villain thing in movies.

I think Colin is really great, but dosen’t matter how awesome he is, no man can cover all those lies misleading informations :/

I’ve just made this.
Any resemblance to real events and/or to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This is just how I think part of the community feels.

Anet:

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.

The rarest item have unique looks. Stop.
They were taking about legendaies, but now they are on pair with ascended. Stop.
Do you have to repeat again and again a specific content to get them? Yes.
Even if you don’t like that specific content? Yes.
Are some of us interested in this form of gamplay. No.
Will we be less strong than people with an ascended set? Yes.
Is all this invalidating their last sentence that sold us this game? Yes.

In a recent interview Colin Johanson said that they were not happy that people were able to full-equip their character in 1 or 2 weeks with exotics.

So Ascended are here to be carrots.

At least Colin said that he really hopes that this is not the beginning of a treadmill.

Sometimes I wonder what people would have said if they had put ascended also in a dungeon merchant for an amount of tokens that devs consider appropriate.

So I thought: if a max stats exotic GS costs like 2g and its equivalent in dungeon’s tokens is 390 (6,5 runs) an ascended GS, that costs like 58g, should costs something like 11.310 tokens.
Well 188,5 runs, 3 at day for 2 months, just for a single item.
But the limit is set to a specific dungeon, so you can always do more thant 3 paths daily and do your JOB working on other pieces farming other dungeons.

Aaah this would be so cool, because I know for sure that people would still come here, on this forum, with their white armors swearing that there is no grind at all.

Vayne.8563:

Sirendor.1394:

Vayne.8563:

Gobhoblin.7582:

Vayne.8563:

The funny bit is, you did have to grind to get the most power out of your skills in Guild Wars 1. They’ve changed it more recently after Guild Wars 2 was released, presumably because most people no longer play Guild Wars 1 to play Guild Wars 1. They play it to get cool stuff for Guild Wars 2.

But yeah, there was a ton of grind. People forget.

Ok – see the winky face on my post? On my planet, that usually means someone is joking. Calm down.

On the subject of grinding in GW1, maybe I am mis-remembering, but wasn’t all the grind cosmetic? Sure, they introduced the EotN titles that gave you a damage boost against certain beasties – but if I remember rightly they changed that after a massive outcry from the community?

Again, I’m probably looking back with rose-tinted specs, but I don’t remember a GW1 grind that wasn’t cosmetic or title related…no performance benefit, just pure kitten.

…which is why I loved the game. I have no strong ragey feelings about the grind for gear in GW2, other than a profound sense of disappointment.

Guild Wars 1 had skill grind. Every time a new product game out, there were new skills to acquire. Take the skill Save Yourselves. A perfectly innocuous skill, until you realized that your paragon imbagon build was completely dependent upon it and that you couldn’t get into a DOA group if it wasn’t high enough.

That was a Luxon/Kurzick skill which had 12 ranks. Look up FFF in the Guild Wars 1 wiki for instructions on how to fast faction farm. People farmed those points forever, to get skills like that up.

The necromancer skill necrosis from NF was also like that. You want that skill more powerful you have to grind Sunspear points. Technobabble, pain inverter, the sin skill which the permasin build depended on, the norn skill ursan, which people wanted you to have rank 8 or higher in their norn title track.

It’s the same thing here. Do you NEED ascended gear to play this game? No. You don’t. And those skills were so kitten powerful they changed the balance of PvE completely. I mean a lot. Far more than ascended gear will affect this game.

But that was okay because that was skill grind, not gear grind.

That’s the difference. Skill grind > Gear grind. Skill grind is something meaningful, unlocking new skills the more you play and consequently allowing you to play in a more diverse and exciting way, developing your own new strategies etc.

Gear grind on the contrary means that you get a new set with your current stats + x, not really making any changes, except that you do more damage according to the stats, which is not even necessary because they can just make the monsters a little bit easier so you don’t need the + x gear (in this case ascended).

Except that the skill grind made more of an effect on power creep than this gear grind does, and power creep is one of the big bug bears of gear grind systems. The PvE content under skill grind got laughably easy, even with 3 heroes and 4 henchmen.

Meaningful is a funny word. A new skill that’s so powerful you have to keep it on your skill bar or be at a disadvantage isn’t better than a few stats that don’t add up to much. To me, ascended gear is far more easily ignored.

Are you serious?
First: You are talking about PvE-only skills.
Second: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/%22Save_Yourselves!%22 Grinding it from rank 0 to rank 12 = 4s to 6s. OMG crazyness, you clearly HAVE TO USE this kind of OP skills and grind for them.
Third: There were SO MANY skills that those you’re pointing out were not necessarly the best ones, although I do not deny they were very popular, but with so many choices you could have avoided the “pseudo-grind” if you were smart enough.
Think at the first invincimonk, was there a grind to be a 55hp? No, the guy who came out with that idea was just thinking outside the box.
In gw1 with creativity you could overcome any trouble.
In gw2 the build system is (still) too limited, the equip system make sense just for the legendaries (thanks to the switch), and more importantly, while you wear exo even if you’re smart you can’t be more proficient than another smart guy who is equipped with an ascended set.

cesmode.4257:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Here is to hoping that I actually get some rng luck on my side since my highest crafting level is like 10. I rarely craft in any mmo and to now make a BiS piece of gear more or less exclusive to crafting is just ugh for me. My disappointment is compounded by Anet’s decision to go this way with their game, I realize they want to be a popular mmo….but pandering to the crowd that has been trained to only see progression as increasing stats just really makes me sad for the future of the genre as a whole. Unimaginative players that are comfortable with unimaginative design, are going to keep mmorpg game development status quo for a very long time.

I really think arenanet wanted to be the game to change the genre. Nope.

I look to Everquest Next to do that.

And you will be disappointed by that one too, look at this link, locusts have already started whining, they want VP and they will get it.
http://www.eqnextfans.com/forums/everquest-next/general-discussion/40051-absence-of-levels-how-to-progress

Gw2 had a great potential, but the problem lies on both sides, devs lied but I suppose they did it (also) because the whole game has been invaded by a crowd of brainwashed human-shaped bots.

stale.9785:

If the new ascended gear isn’t trivially easy enough for someone who only plays 2-3 hours a week to get, then Anet has quite deliberately kicked their entire GW1 fanbase in the nuts, again.

I’m not surprised, I’ve hit the point I’m not even depressed. What does upset me is that as soon as another, grindier game comes out, the wowgrindboys will move onto that, and the people who wanted to enjoy GW2 are going to be left with the clusterkitten caused by trying to please the grinders.

Bleh.

Black Desert will have NO level cap, and there are many other upcoming brainless-grinding-games. So let’s hope that when all of them will be released, Gw2 devs will be FORCED to turn back

They are not in order of importance.

• 1. Sidekicking has been reintroduced.
  The player that will explore maps higher than his own level will receive exp and rewards appropriate to his real level.

• 2. All items are now Account Bound.
  All equip items share the same standard stats (i.e. power/precision/vitality) and can be modded with 3 upgrades:
  - 1 Jewel (to create a carrion/berserker/knight/etc spec)
  - 1 Rune (for armor only) or 1 Sigil (for weapons only)
  - 1 Infusion
  Players who owned an item with a specific set of stats will have that item replaced with the new one with standard stats plus jewel /rune(sigil)/infusion according to their previous set.
  When applied for the first time (whether they are obtained through crafting, purchase, drop, etc) the different “set of stats” (carrion/berserker/knight/etc) associated with Jewels and infusions will be “unlocked” for that item and will be switchable at will if out of combat.
  Applied Runes and Sigils will also remain soulbound.
  If an item with unlocked jewels/runes/sigils/infusions is given to a new character, this object will appear, however, devoid of everything previously unlocked.
  The secondary character will have to re-unlock all the power-ups he need on that item.
  The item will, however, hold memory of the list of “set of stats” unlocked on the previous character, if therefore returned to that one it will present the old list of unlocked mods.

• 3. Now skins can be permanently unlocked.
  Each transmutation crystal now grants the the ability to save the skin you are transmutating on the transmuted item.
  You will be able to switch skins at will (if out of combat) through a menu accessible right-clicking on the item.
  The skins will be unlocked account bound, but if you give the item with an unlocked skin to a secondary character, in order to use one of the unlocked skin for the first time he will have to spend another transmutation crystal.

• 4. Added some rare and short events that occur in random locations.
  If you manage to complete them in certain span of time you will get a rare skin reward.

• 5. We created a conversion system…
  … with what we think is an appropriate exchange rate and we are going to reduce the too many currencies that flock the game, this way we feel that everyone will be able to play the game how he wants and still attain goals related to our slow vertical progression. Nothing can be converted in Dungeon Tokens and Fractal Relics.

• 6. Daily are now weekly.
  You will not need to complete all the tasks, if you get 60% of them done, you will be rewarded according to that percentage.
  You will get more laurels if you play also on your alts.

• 7. Now if you reach the maximum level, you will be able to destinate part of your extra-accumulated experience to another character of your account who has already gained at least 40 levels.

• 8. We created 2 types of Hard Mode:
  1. Dungeons Hard Mode: this will provide users better rewards (+15% gold/karma).
     Mobs will hit you harder and bosses will behave differently and more randomly.
  2. Open PvE Hard Mode: this will grant you a magic find bonus.
     Players can activate/deactivate the HM with a delay of 1h, but it is possible to reset the delay changing map using a WP (HoM Portal Stone/Mists and WWW will not count).
     PvE HM consist in a downlevelling system that significantly reduces your stats and disable specific skills/stats/traits.

Ahahah Lucky, I’ve posted it on Discussion and a moderator moved it here
So this was the right section….

There is no one who can give me a testimonial evidence or simply…

Are devs still working on (armors and weapons) clipping issues?

Please let me know if some of you have had your item (bought a long time ago) fixed lately.

(I’m still waiting from the beta and none of mine was resolved. Should I give up? :S)

Ok I’ll repost this there.

Thank you. 15charr

Where should I ask something like this then? O_o
I just like to have a feedback from the community (I’ve already posted my clipping issues).

You wasted all those materials. According to anet “unique” is more than a clear explanation. :|

Are devs still working on (armors and weapons) clipping issues?

Please let me know if some of you have had your item (bought a long time ago) fixed lately.

(I’m still waiting from the beta and none of mine was resolved. Should I give up? :S)