Guild Wars 2

I hit 499 artificing this morning, and was shocked that when my last discovery only gave me 3 ranks and I needed 4. The cost for mats has simply made crafting prohibitive.

I’m with the OP. My build isn’t changing: 0/10/0/30/30

Great suggestion!!!

No thank you.

15 Chars

Aeonblade.8709:

I will gear out all of my characters through WvW when it becomes available.

And this is the question I, and many others, want an answer to.

When will ascended armor become available with badges and/or laurels?

Arenanet, please give us an answer, even if it is only to say it never will be.

GenghisKhan.7842:

Hello community ! Hello Arenanet !
I play GW2 since 14 months now, I have five lvl80 characters, I play it almost every day and I have not played any other game since I installed it on my PC. This is how much I like this game !

This is my first post on the forums. I was going to post this without having seen the look of Ascended Armors – which, by the way, I find quite horrible.

I am quite disappointed by the release of Ascended Armors.

Why: I have finished my Ascended Greatsword for my warrior just one week ago, after spending much time in leveling Weaponsmith to 500 and then collecting the missing materials needed to actually forge the weapon. Now my bank is depleted of all materials, and even thinking about repeating above process on Huntsman, for a Longbow, sickened me.

And what happens now ? Arenanet releases Ascended Armor, which will require more TONS of materials to make.

Well, if this is not gear grind, I don’t know how I should call it.

What I find really frustrating is that we players do not have any alternate way to obtain these armors.
Would have developers added the possibility to get them via Badges of Honor, Dungeon tokens, laurels, Guild commendations or whatever else, it would not have been a big problem, I would have got in time, I am not in a hurry.

But no, at this time all we have to do is farm, farm, farm, farm.
No, thank you.

TL;DR Ascended Armors update has come too close to Ascended Weapons update.
Without any alternate way to get them by playing normally, the game is going the farm-fest way.

AGREE 100%

Great first post!!!

I got myself to 450 tailoring over the weekend… it is going to take months, or hundreds of gold to get to 500.

GuildWarsPlayer.5608:

I have 5 level 80’s.

1. Elementalist

2. Mesmer

3. Guardian

4. Warrior

5. Necromancer

Out of those five, as of right now, I’m strongly drawn to the Elementalist for some reason.

Anyone using Elementalist as a main ? If so, what are your feelings as having an Elementalist as a main and would you recommend the profession as a main ?

I now have 6 level 80s made in the following order:

1. Engineer
2. Thief
3. Warrior
4. Necro
5. Elementalist
6. Mesmer

To answer your question. I play a full celestial staff fulElementalist as my main for organized WvW fights. I love my Elementalist. It really shines in fighting against zergs. We have utility, CC, and AoE damage. The staff ele is not a 1v1 profession, however.

That said, my most recent character, the mesmer, is probably my new favorite character for small scale roaming. The damage and active defense is just crazy. The elementalist can’t even come close. The mesmer also has great utility for large scale fights providing veils and situationally for portals. It also has group condition removal and group buffs depending on spec and weapon set.

So the question really becomes how do you want to play an Elementalist? Are you looking to fill a support roll? Do you want to roam looking for small scale fights?

The answer to those questions will determine whether the Elementalist is for you.

Ohhh… and the bottom line, as cliche as it is to say, play what you love.

I love my elementalist, which is why it will always be my main when my guild issues the call to duty.

Pyroatheist.9031:

MrSilver.5269:

Pyro,

Another question. Any disadvantage in going sword/sword and scepter/pistol?

Hey,

None at all. For whatever reason I sorta like having the 2 blocks on the one weaponset, and then swapping over to have blurred frenzy, but that’s absolutely just personal preference.

I found a small disadvantage. If you go scepter/pistol you will lose +50 precision from blade training.

I agree with the OP. I would love the option to hide the chest piece.

And I just found the answer: https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/125258/gw372.jpg

Has anyone crafted an ascended piece yet?

Pyroatheist.9031:

MrSilver.5269:

Pyro,

Another question. Any disadvantage in going sword/sword and scepter/pistol?

Hey,

None at all. For whatever reason I sorta like having the 2 blocks on the one weaponset, and then swapping over to have blurred frenzy, but that’s absolutely just personal preference.

Thanks!!!!

Pyro,

Another question. Any disadvantage in going sword/sword and scepter/pistol?

THANK YOU Pyro for this build and your AMAZING explanations, and answers to questions.

I am LOVING the build.

And YES, caps lock is cruise control for cool.

Has anyone crafted an ascended piece yet?

Andlat Helsonr.1284:

I have five level 80 characters, working on sixth, use several builds on each (especially my necro, where the specs range from carrion condi, go through PVT juggermancer, and end all the way at well glass cannon). I also hate crafting.

So yeah – exactly zero.

Same here (working on my sixth). My bank is filled with various sets of exotic gear for each character, and I have purchased multiple extra bank tabs.

I’ll probably only play my elementalist from here on out, and only because celestial works so well with the profession.

I’m just not happy playing with characters that don’t have everything upgraded to best in slot. I know I’m type-A, but this thread evidences that I am not alone in my thinking.

TooBz.3065:

I thought the leveling was fine for my first 7 characters, but I hit a brick wall on my 8th. Can’t seem to make myself do it one more time.

Then again, who needs 8 level 80 characters anyway.

I feel the same way… half way done with my 6th 80, and I only started it because I had a level 20 scroll and 9 level up scrolls to kick start it. I’m at level 41, and just want to be 80 so I can gear it and get back into WvW with a finished (or what used to be finished) character.

MrRuin.9740:

None. For many reasons. I refuse to grind them out. I don’t like the way it looks. I spent a lot of time and coin making my characters look as they do, not interested in paying yet again to move those looks to gear that we didn’t even need.
I don’t want to be build-locked. Which is what it does – why embrace or experiment with diversity when you can only have a BiS set for 1 build. On top of this, they change skills and trait way too much to bother investing in Ascended. It’s not always bad they tweak with builds so much, but its really pointless to make a BiS set of gear that could become useless the next time they class balance.
I’ll continue to make Ascended weapons as I have mats for them through normal gameplay, as I have been. But full armor sets? No thanks. The negatives far outweigh the positives, making them not at all worth it at all especially coupled with the cost of leveling those crafting professions, IMO.
I don’t want to be forced to pick a “main” to gear in BiS gear, which is basically what this does. Makes you stop saving mats for Ascended weapons for alts, and pouring everything into making 6 pieces of gear for one character. It kills the original feeling of freedom and flexibility I had with many active characters before.
If there was actually a point to it….I might consider it. If fractals even needed it, I might make a ‘fractals-only’ set for the 2 characters I run in fractals, but even now all the AR you need currently is in game now, so why bother?
If there was another option, like farming via fractal relics, or pristine relics, or something like karma, I might be more inclined. Having them as RNG drops does not count as another viable method. Good luck getting one weapon chest to drop matching your build, let alone 6 Armor ones.

This is a great post, with a great observation. Ascended armor/weapons locks you, and limits your ability to swap builds, and characters, which goes against EVERYTHING that Guild Wars was originally about.

Please Devs, if you are listening, make ascended armor obtainable through other means other than crafting and RNG.

At the very least tell us what the future plans are for obtaining it.

Many of us that have been playing since beta through launch that absolutely LOVE this game are worried that the core principles that the franchise have been built on have been irreparably compromised.

Laurelinde.4395:

One, maybe, for WvW. I still haven’t got either weaponsmithing or huntsman to 500 because I can’t always work up the willpower to run through Orr to harvest stuff.

So true.

They need to put tier 6 mat nodes is every zone, including WvW.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@MrSilver: The weapon sigil adds 5% critical chance. Not precision. Now, the stacking perception sigil actually increases your precision, so that boost will transfer.

@Xavi: Make sure you keep your terminology accurate.

Phantasms inherit Critical Damage. The Scholar rune 6 piece bonus is not critical damage, but flat damage, simply a straight % increase to damage. Phantasms will not inherit that bonus. As for the Rage runes bonus, phantasms don’t have your runes. They inherit only the stats the runes provide, so they of course won’t get the extra 5% critical damage while under the effects of fury.

Thanks again.

So I assume that phantasms do benefit from the crit damage % increases from divinity, and traveler runes, as well as from orbs applied to armor.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@MrSilver: Phantasms inherit your basic stats with the exception of vitality.

This means they inherit your precision, but not your crit chance. Fury on the Mesmer will have no effect on the phantasm, but something boosting precision will transfer.

Likewise, phantasms have their own secondary stats, but not primary. Might on the Mesmer will increase phantasm damage, but might on the phantasm does nothing, and fury on the phantasm will increase its critical chance.

Thank you…

I assume that Phantasmal Fury (II Trait Dueling) adds 20% to the inherited precision from the accumulated stats derived from your armor, runes, and weapon, excluding 5% precision from the weapon sigil.

Thank you for the response!

Nretep.2564:

MrSilver.5269:

Do phantasms benefit from your base precision/crit and crit damage?

Not from crit.

So what is the base crit for phantasms? 0% and with fury 20%?

K U T M.4539:

MrSilver.5269:

Do phantasms benefit from your base precision/crit and crit damage?

Yeah.

Thanks! So phantasmal fury is almost a must have for an illusion heavy build?

Question, do phantasms benefit from your base crit/crit damage so that the extra 20% crit from phantasmal fury will stack.

Amazing build btw! Really appreciate all of the help you have provided!

I’ve always had problems with mesmers since day one of release. Finally decided to level one, and it is quickly becoming my new favorite profession. I plan to use it in wvw roaming havoc groups. I play a staff ele as my main, which I also love, but this seems like the change of pace I’ve been looking for.

Do phantasms benefit from your base precision/crit and crit damage?

How about this…

1,000,000 Karma buys you a box of ascended armor.
1,000 badges → Box of armor
50 laurels → box of armor
50 guild commendations → box of armor

5 gold 25 laurels 25 badges → 2h weapon
3 gold 15 laurels 15 badges → 1h weapon
5 gold 25 guild commendations → 2h weapon
3 gold 15 guild commendations → 1h weapon

Just sell level up scrolls in the gem store already. 20 levels for 500 gems.

If this thread is representative of a larger pattern there is a shocking amount of people that have little to no intention of going the ascended route.

There needs to be a better way to get ascended armor/weapons then through RNG and Crafting. I would like to see them purchasable through a combination of gold, karma, laurels, badges and commendations.

Devs, if you are listening, please give us some indication when/if this will be available.

Zoia.3678:

TainoFuerte.8136:

None. It’s nothing more than the laughable grinding nonsense of so many other MMO’s, the same ones I avoided and hoped to continue avoiding by coming to this one.

The more elements this game has in common with those “other” MMO’s the less reasons I have to stay. If I’m going to grind for gear, it might as well be in games tailor made for that type of content that do it much better.

I agree. That’s one of the things I don’t understand about ascended gear. Why do we have it?
In other games with vertical progression, you need better gear to be able to complete the next tier of content. The progression had a purpose. It wasn’t even that hard to decide what gear to get for your character, as most people were either DPS, tank or healer.

In GW2, there’s no purpose to ascended gear as I see it. We really don’t need any better gear than exotics, except maybe for fractals, but fractals are such a small part of this game. Why make ascended gear a part of regular PvE, dungeons and WvW?
Especially in WvW where every % counts. Despite what some might say, and how small of an increase each part gives, someone in full ascended will have a decent advantage over someone in all excotics. It goes against the whole concept of putting players at an equal playingfield. Spend hundreds of gold on crafting or be left behind!

One of the things I liked about GW1 was how many different builds you could make, how easy it was to change between them and how you could make a group with good synergy to beat difficult content. Different content might require a different group setup, but it was no problem for the group members to change their builds.
Exotics in GW2 aren’t too easy to get, imo. It makes it relatively easy to change individual builds and group compositions if needed, but we need several armour sets for that. Gearing a character up in several sets of exotics can cost quite a bit. With ascended gear and how costly and time consuming it is to get, it basically locks your character into one build.

I’m confused as to which direction Anet is taking with this. If Anet ever releases harder content, will they make it harder by requiring better group synergy from the players and their builds, or harder because we need ascended gear?
If the former, why did they implement ascended gear? It makes it much harder, if not impossible, to change your build for different content. Very few people will have several sets of ascended gear to choose between.
If the latter, ascended gear isn’t even that much better than exotics. Like several people have said before, it just locks us into one build, so what’s the point? Will they give us agony in regular content as well?

All I can think of is that it’s just to keep us occupied and play the game longer. Easier to make us grind time gated mats for months, rather than make some meaningful(permanent?) content, yea?

This is a brilliant post.

Ascended Weapons/Armor need to be obtainable through laurels and badges.

PERIOD.

I hope that Arenanet is reading this thread. It speaks volumes about what the the players want from the game, and it isn’t what is being forced upon us.

Zoia.3678:

Ascended gear is the worst thing to happen to this game, imo.

Amen brother.

I just looked at the price of quartz… it is going to cost a fortune to craft to 500 and then get a full set of celestial armor.

I’ve never stepped foot into fractals because of the way they were rolled out, and because I just don’t care for pve.

I also don’t enjoy crafting… at all, but have been forced to do it because it is the only way you can get celestial armor.

Wish we had more info about the crafting grind.

I’m gearing one character with ascended… my celestial staff ele. One gear set to rule them all.

I have 5 geared 80s, but have settled into the staff celestial elementalist as my main for wvw. It took an entire month to get my celestial set. I’ve decided to focus all of my energy on gearing the ele because I assume it is not going to be easy to gear out in full ascended. I’m still struggling to get to 500 artificing (stuck at 487 – please send me your ancient wood) for my staff because I’m relatively poor in game.

So the point of this thread is to find out how many of you intended to gear multiple characters with ascended armor, and if you plan to focus on a single character, which profession and why.

Thanks in advance for your participation.

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

Star Ace.5207:

Amon.5042:

I’m sorry that this will affect those who have already purchased that aberration, but there are limits that shouldn’t be crossed.

No line was ever crossed, it was an ego thing from the beginning, and people feeling “unfairly” treated by having to pay more for a seemingly “identical” item, which it wasn’t (flames effects ruin the armor for many character concepts, doesn’t enhance it-we could argue that the original T3 IS better, and thus warranted the price while still being only available to humans.)

The line that should have not been crossed is that of selling something else to a customer who agreed to purchase one thing and one thing only: the bait and switch, that’s the line that shouldn’t have been crossed.

Your “I am sorry that… but…” means nothing if you cannot see anything wrong in the latter action, while finding fault with the first-you are not sorry at all. Some players weren’t even aware it was a reskin of T3, so they didn’t intend to get T3 for less and “better”, as many believe. A perceived problem is no worse than a true one.

I AM sorry for them, because even if it doesn’t affect me at all I find it to be a rash solution over public uproar-unless they receive their old and preferred skins back (unless they prefer the new one, of course) with no investment on their part, a gem refund only solution won’t cut it (remember, even free transmutation splitters won’t work in many cases.)

Further, THESE affected gem buyers will probably never buy anything back if they are offered a gem refund without restoring their favorite skins back-who knows, some may stop playing altogether just to please some players who felt slighted, but would probably have kept playing anyway. Why? Because some of those gem buyers may have spent real-life money to buy these gems just for the previewed, legally bought skin, and many wouldn’t have transmuted their skins (some even their old cultural T3) if the look was not to their liking.

It is a mess, but they would have avoided it by just ignoring the rage, and now can only be fixed by restoring each account on a case by case scenario, which will be a nightmare for them, most probably (and the reason they would probably prefer to just refund gems, rather than restoring skins, as they must to be really fair.)

I mean no personal offense, and see how the initial action “crosses the line” for you (even if I honestly feel it was nothing to be mad about), but it is the solution that I find so be so incomplete and rash.

As for me, I wouldn’t have OKed their decision to use a cultural skin myself in the beginning for that reskin. Reskins are OK, though, not “lazy”-if people love flames, let them burn all they want. It was indeed a quick cash grab, but it was not “evil” or “greedy” but just giving particle effects-loving fans more, and any and all armors, reskins or originals, are a bonus, not something we must take for granted. But I really didn’t see as wise to use culturals as part of ANY reskin in the game (if the culturals would have been freely available to any other race from the beginning, much like the cultural weapons are, then it would have been OK.)

However, from my personal opinion above to the uproar there was-which was rather ludicrous and “my ego was hurt”-based-there’s a big gap. Basically envying other people for getting the “same” armor for less, even though it’s a whole different look and aesthetic.

Imagine all the good income that was to be made of this, so anyone who says that ANet is “greedy” and “doesn’t listen” to players is just ranting. They often listen more than I wished (Ascended, “nerf this or that!”, and now this), and seem to make decisions that will rob them from some additional income for the sakes of “pleasing everybody”, which is a rather impossible situation.

Great game, wish they just would have bigger meetings with more opinions from different type of people when making decisions.

This basically sums up my whole opinion on this entire debatical as well…

Agreed.

Sums it up perfectly.

Mikuchan.7261:

In short:
Complete reroll and refund of everything proven related to the armor (possibly with a bonus compensation to lighten up the mood).
or
Let people keep the armor.

Otherwise none of the customers will be satisfied at all and ANet will lose alot of reputation on it.
This is important especially because it is the gem store that is giving ANet their salary and if they lose reputition this way, the gem store will suffer from it.

Also… RIP my beloved skin…

THIS.

Do not take away what I paid for.

Allow those people who purchased the skin to keep it, and then re-release a new skin on the gem store.

All I know is that I see VERY few people with the skin in game. The fairest thing to do is to allow those who purchased it to keep it, and then re-release a new skin for others to purchase.

PLEASE don’t take something away from people that purchased gems to buy, overwriting existing t3 skins in the process.

ronpierce.2760:

The best option would have always been finding a middle ground. Let people who bought it keep it. Rework and re-release a new set for everyone to buy. People who bought it would have been happy/relieved, people who hate it would only have to deal with a small handful of people who have it, and the only people who could really be TOO upset are the people who acted too slowly on buying it, but it would be the most globally fair.

EXACTLY!!!!!

LordByron.8369:

exact reason why TOS have no value in my state.
lso because nobody really expect people to read it as its proven almost nobody does…

Which is why I think the Devs should just take a step back and reconsider their decision before they revoke the existing skin from individuals that purchased gems to acquire the item.

At the very least speak to their legal team before making their final decision. I always say, err on the side of caution.

StarbornStriker.6493:

This would be the legal issue. IE the company changed its existing TOS without notifying the population they had done so. You’ll notice whenever a company (say Facebook) changes their TOS, they have to notify you and you have to click on something which says you accept the new terms of the agreement. If you don’t accept the new terms, of course, your account terminates.

If this company quietly updated their TOS to remove the rights their players previously had and did not notify them, thereby allowing them to agree to the new terms of service, then yes, they did something illegal. The new terms wouldn’t be sustainable because the users wouldn’t have agreed to their half of the contract.

Arena net has not done that. They removed an item from their gem store. That’s vastly different from removing terms from their legal documentation without notification.

Agreed, but an argument could be made that the TOS is a contract of adhesion, which is a contract that is considered to be so imbalanced in favor of one party over the other that there is a strong implication it was not freely bargained.

If I was able to get my old t3 human skin that I overwrote. Yes.

StarbornStriker.6493:

YOU ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT NCSOFT HAS NO OBLIGATION TO REFUND ANY PAYMENTS, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, RELATED TO AN ACCOUNT WHETHER OR NOT SUCH PAYMENTS WERE MADE OR AUTHORIZED BY YOU, FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INTERRUPTION OR UNAVAILABILITY OF SERVICE (SEE ALSO SECTION 10). YOU ACKNOWLEDGE, AND FURTHER AGREE, THAT NCSOFT MAY, IN ITS SOLE AND ABSOLUTE DISCRETION, TERMINATE UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 3© ANY ACCOUNT RELATED TO ANY ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN A REFUND OF ANY PAYMENTS, WHETHER SUCH ATTEMPTS ARE MADE BY CONTACTING AN ISSUER OF CREDIT CARDS OR OTHERWISE

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/30/business/la-fi-lazarus-20100430

The creator of Second Life, a San Francisco company called Linden Lab, is being sued in federal court by some of the virtual world’s “residents,” who claim that their property rights have been taken from them.

The lawsuit, which was filed this month in Pittsburgh and seeks class-action status, could have broad ramifications for similar online worlds that offer users open-ended adventures in cyberspace. Its backers see it as a first step toward defining actual rights in virtual places.

The lawsuit alleges that Linden Lab induced up to 50,000 Second Life users to spend as much as $100 million — again, in real money — buying and developing virtual property, and maintaining that property through monthly fees that the company likened to property taxes.

But, it says, Linden quietly changed its contract terms to remove the concept of ownership and has confiscated the property of some users without compensation. The lawsuit seeks more than $5 million in damages for what it says was fraud and violations of California consumer protection laws.

Also see: Bragg v. Linden Research, Inc., 487 F. Supp. 2d 593 (E.D.Penn. 2007)

Bragg v. Linden Research, Inc., 487 F. Supp. 2d 593 (E.D.Penn. 2007), was a civil action (No. 06-4925) removed to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in October 2006. An online virtual world service provider (Linden Lab) terminated the account of a user (Marc Bragg) when it discovered that he had found a way to acquire virtual land at a lower-than-market price. The user brought this suit, which was ultimately settled before a final decision was reached. However, the District Court did decide on two issues which may be important in future virtual world litigation: that the Second Life Terms of Service’s mandatory arbitration provision was unenforceable; and that interaction with a person in a virtual world can satisfy a state’s “minimum contacts” requirement for personal jurisdiction.

To the Devs, I highly recommend that you get in touch with your legal team before you revoke the skin from any of your existing users.

Best to let your lawyers know what you’re doing before you start revoking virtual property rights.

Arnath.2319:

thartalion.2756:

I’m giving Anet a break since it’s Thanksgiving, but i’m still expecting an official response soon (like, beggining of next week max).

They have already responded, the situation has fully resolved itself, there is nothing more to discuss.

People just like complaining, but there is no need for another response from the devs, they have done the right thing and the sooner this thread and this topic dies the sooner we can move on to discussing better things.

Reported this post.

Freedom.2568:

[ ] Change the skin and refund those that don’t like it.
[X] Change the skin but let ppl choose old or new.
[X] Change the skin but let ppl how used it on human T3 to keep old one.
[ ] Keep the skin and change the other two sets to T3 skins.
[ ] Make three new sets making three T3 sets and three normal.

Any of those two. I lost almost the 100 gold I spend on the normal cultural T3 and I don’t want it to lost because of the new skin. Let me keep the current gem store skin or give the old T3 cultural. Isn’t fair to lost my money (the real and virtual one) because of these change

EXACTLY.

I feel like I’m getting screwed twice.

Titan Cronus.9216:

BTW. I bought the new set and used it on my old human t3 set and will be very upset if we lose it because it will have cost me my old human t3 cultural set and the cost of the gems. I know i’ll get them back but I simply wouldn’t have bought the gems for any other skin in the game. I know there will be people left upset at the end of all this no matter what happens and Im likely to be one of them but I just hope that we get to keep the existing skin in some form.

We don’t know that we will get the t3 skin back.

I too overwrote a t3 human set. Not happy about this decision.

vonhellsing.2819:

i dont want a replaced armor skin i bought this skin becouse i like this skin and now arenanet want change what has sold me! ITS SIMPLE new skin for new buyers and to us thats had bought dont CHANGE NOTHING! simple, right and fair.

+1

Bait and switch ain’t cool, or fair.