Guild Wars 2

I got a copy for my birthday, on the 9th, from a relative that didn’t know I had already been playing since august. I had absolutely no trouble returning it and getting a refund.

Individual situations might be different though.

killcannon.2576:

axiology.5807:

killcannon.2576:

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

axiology.5807:

Oh, but you don’t have to be 26% more powerful!

You do, if you want to participate in the new Fractals dungeon.

And any other new dungeons that will be introduced

You’re right, let me change that:

But you don’t have to be 26% more powerful, and those dungeons are totally optional!

That’s right you don’t have to…unless you want access to the content. So you’re saying that it’s gated then correct?

Yes, gated. But I think that was sarcasm in italics…

A-net lies. They’ve done it before. But usually, even when they lie, they don’t do anything bad.

In my almost eight years of enjoying the hell out of A-net products, they’ve only screwed up three times, and this will make the fourth. I will still trust them to do smart things, mostly because they do always fix what they did wrong, even if it takes them two years to do it.

I’m not paying a subscription, so likely, I’ll just see you when they get their heads out of their kitten

axiology.5807:

Oh, but you don’t _have_ to be 26% more powerful!

You do, if you want to participate in the new Fractals dungeon.

Nobody cares about the stats, because naked, I can win in sPvP against people with clothes, and complete every dungeon currently in the game.

The issue is the infusion, and how it’s required to participate in content beyond a specific point, adding a hard gear-check to dungeons. Anyone who thinks the stats are an issue either doesn’t understand that stats have never mattered in this game, or just wants to pretend they do for the comfort.

You never had to farm a rare skill. There were elites, that you could buy, or capture, and standards, that you could buy, or capture, or you could use a tome for either.

You either didn’t play the game, or have absolutely no idea of what you’re trying to say.

Penence, did you play Guild Wars?

The game lasted for 7.5 (and still counting) years, and you were finished with maximum armor at a little over 80% of the storyline of the first game. Three games and two expansions later, it hasn’t changed.

Maybe you didn’t know that A-net is capable of doing better.

Who cares if they introduce new tiers or not, they required it to participate in content once. That alone is a slap in the face to the manifesto, and everything the design philosophy stands for.

You people are missing the entire point behind the new tier.

Infusion, only available through Ascended gear, will be required to survive the Agony condition, that will be present in new dungeons. Thus, you’ve got gearscore, required to participate in content.

Nobody cares about your runes anymore, because they’re just pointless. They will all be replaced with newer, more powerful infusions on your newer, more powerful Ascended armor, that will be required to grind the next tier of infusions for the next tier of ascended armor.

Thosekittenmain.6328:

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

Heh, it’s not gear wars 2. It’s World of Charrcraft. That’s what it’s been since 2007, and A-net has finally decided to simply throw out all of it’s good ideas and appease the WoW kiddies.

Nonsense. What you are doing now is using an indirect ‘slippery slope’ argument. The addition of one tier of equipment does not compare to the way WoW handles equipment tiers.

Until Anet decides to add more tiers to keep the ‘treadmill’ running in the future, we can not speak about a true ‘gear treadmill’.

Don’t let speculation become the source of your complaints.

Maybe you failed to read, but they’re already making new Ascended items required to be able to participate in all content:

“This extremely dangerous condition ticks percentages of player health away and can’t be cleansed by normal means. Players who wish to delve deep into the Fractals will find that Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must.”

The only way to get defense against the condition is infusions, which can only be slotted on Ascended items. When you take into effect that they’ve added in a hard gearscore check to dungeons, and it’s only the beginning…

“The new additions in November are just the start of our item progression initiative.”

Well, you can see exactly where they’re going, with new dungeons adding their own new sets of infused gear, required for the next one…

“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 items.”

So… yeah, World of Charrcraft. You need Ascended gear to participate in dungeons to get more ascended gear to participate in the next dungeons to get the next ascended gear and so on…

Changing the plateau isn’t the problem. They can raise it all they want.

The promise is broken when they require that you get to it to participate in content.

Nobody likes WvW. If you do like WvW, you should probably try some real PvP, or just go PvE because that’s what you are and you’re trying to hide it.

With that said, as soon as the progression grind gets here, I’m staying in the heart of the mists, with the empty tournament roster and hoping for something to save what could have been a good game, had A-net not pulled both of their allowed mistakes for this decade within a couple weeks of each other.

Heh, it’s not gear wars 2. It’s World of Charrcraft. That’s what it’s been since 2007, and A-net has finally decided to simply throw out all of it’s good ideas and appease the WoW kiddies.

They’re not going to get a ping to Europe. I don’t know how people don’t know this...

Or rather, their ping will be exactly the same.

Okomi.8693:

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

The problem is, there’s a few servers who are still completely empty, and nobody wants to move there.

No, there are no servers that have a value below high at any point around the clock. I’ve been checking.

Come to vabbi. Yeah. In fact, all of you who have a problem, spread out to the empty EU servers, which are still NA servers. There is no difference, trust me.

This isn’t shocking new content, and you have nothing new to be thankful for. This is simply the rest of the unfinished product they already sold you. I know it’s wierd, coming from any other company, where you’re used to having to pay for half finished trash drawn in crayon with stories written by a bored 10-year-old, but...

Here in Guild Wars, this is normal. They give you good content, consistantly, for no monthly fee. And only screw up about once every two years. You don’t need to thank them for new content, because this isn’t new, it’s just released in stages to keep it feeling good.

Now, if you’d like to thank A-net for just being generally awesome, and having an amazing business model, great design philosophy, and mostly great employees, you should.

I’ve already got 100% world completion, as do a number of other people.
I’ve already done every dungeon, as have a number of other people.
I’ve got the materials, waiting on a bow that doesn’t have rainbows, butterflies, unicorns, or flowers, to craft my legendary. Plenty of people have already made theirs.
I’ve ranked up in sPvP, as have many people, much farther than I have.
I’ve completed my personal story on four characters, haven’t bothered with the fifth slot, because it’s only different up to level 20.

I completed this game, and I’m ready for new content. The new content I’m getting is stupid though.

And to the above drooling idiot who thinks MMOs are about the gear treadmill, go back to WoW, please. We don’t want you here.

No, it doesn’t mean multiple things. Read the rest of the post: "As we introduce the new high-level content, we’ll also roll out new Ascended items"

I know, it’s hard to read because the page is screwed up on a few people’s browsers, there’s posts like that in the support forums, but please at least try.

The gear treadmill is started. Infusion will be required for dungeon content to be played, and therefore we need Inspection to form parties. It sucks, but it’s already going to happen, so you may as well get used to it, or quit, and come back after A-nets done the redux and apology cycle.

My ranger’s in Krytan, and dang good lookin’. Definately my favorite toon.

No, Cloud, that isn’t speculation. That is a quote, from a game designer.

Edit: Slive already said exactly what I was posting....

It won’t happen, and besides, this is meant to be the gearscore mechanism for all future dungeons. Future content is meant to be locked to people without infusion, via the Agony condition, to force a gear treadmill.

The problem is people played the game too easy. Giving them easy progression without the grind just compounds the problem. New progression will just have to come out faster.

The solution to the problem is to do away with the whole system.

Then what’s it for? The +5 to a stat? Really, because that’s absolutely nothing, and there is no balance issue there.

Ascending gear is not a one time thing, Cloud. Please read the actual blog post from Linsey before you speak any more on the subject.

This does affect the casual player.

Cloud, you’re missing the entire point. Stat boosts don’t matter in a game you can play naked. The obvious slap in the face to the basic design philosophy is the problem. I know, you don’t really know A-net. I get that. But please read, look, and listen, then speak. Or just go back to WoW, where they would like you.

Absolutely not. Absolutely terrible ideas. It won’t let me put all the reasons, so I’ll give you a short list why:

Healing Skills:
Building Momentum: Because 100% critical chance is easy to get, this is broken.
Gain health at 1 tick per second for 10 seconds.
Gain additional health for every critical strike scored during.
Rub Some Dirt In It: Absolutely not, because low health is supposed to be bad, not good.
Heal an amount of health which increases significantly as the
current health total decreases.
Thrilling Signet: Absolutely not. Just one of the worst ideas ever.
P: Gain health whenever you receive any damage. (Healing not
proportional to damage, could be more, could be less.)
A: Gain Health for every foe around you (Max of about 3)

Utility Skills:
Dares:
Dirtiest Trick: Because double length conditions are needed in PvE and not overpowered in PvP?
The next 3 conditions applied to target foe last twice as long.
Strongest Will (Ground Targeted): Really, because you need more?
The next healing skill used by allies in target area heal for 33% more.
Most Fearless (Ground Targeted): Stack abunch of enemies, and take them down with 25 stacks of might on your uber-tank? Exploitable with other skills.
For the next 15 seconds, allies gain might for each different foe attacked within the targeted area.
Least Mercy: Vulnerability for four attacks? Why?
Next 4 attacks on target foe each apply vulnerability. (Stack)
Grudges:
Cowards: Instantly makes you immune to all ranged attackers. Yeah, no.
For 10 Seconds, the berserker cannot be healed, and the max effective range of all attacks targeted at the berserker is 600. (E.G. A rifle couldn’t hit the serker unless he’s within at least 600 units.)
Snakes: On top of your already stupidly powerful healing? No.
For the next 10 seconds, the berserker gains health whenever he loses a condition.
Thugs: Absolutely terrible idea because it can easily be exploited into uber-tanking.
Take double damage from conditions for the next 10 seconds, no single attack can do more than 10% of your total health in damage during this time.
Gamblers: Absolutely terrible. Stacking power because you’re tanking against a thief who can’t ever really damage you due to your huge damage reduction and healing?
The berserker’s critical hit chance becomes 0% for the next 10 seconds. During this time the berserker gains might and protection for every critical attack it receives.
Signets:
Brawler’s Signet: Stability 1/3 of the time, or just an auto-interupt... not bad, but not on this already overpowered profession.
P: Gain 3 Seconds of stability every 9 seconds.
A: Next attack causes knockdown.
Boiling Signet: Nobody needs a lower weapon switch time, especially not your already overpowered profession.
P: Decrease weapon switch cooldown time.
A: Gain Quickness for 3 Seconds.
Numb Signet: Reduced incoming damage, when you heal whenever you take damage... no.
P: Reduces incoming damage.
A: Remove a condition. Remove 2 additional conditions if below 50% Health.
Lively Signet: Bad idea. Instant recharge to any skill is a kick in the mouth, especially when so many can be exploited.
P: Increases Vitality
A: Recharges all rage skills.
Threats:
I’ll do it myself!:
The berserker emits an aura which gives foes vulnerability and revives allies. Revives? Seriously, just an AoE revive?
I’m coming for you!:
The berserker emits an aura which gives swiftness to allies and cripples foes. Again, bad.
I will break you!:
The berserker emits an aura which gives allies might and weakness to foes. Weakness is an incredibly harmful condition in PvP. This is bad.
You’re nothing!:
The berserker emits an aura which takes buffs from foes and conditions from allies. Yeah, no. Strips boons from foes and conditions from allies, not bad, but on this already stupidly overpowered profession....
Outbursts:
Reckless Charge:
The berserker rushes to target foe and attacks. The attack does more damage to both the target and the berserker the further the berserker travels. So you close in on a ranger at maximum range and spike him hard because he was at the required range to damage with a Longbow.... Bad.
Desperate Strike:
The berserker performs an attack that does more damage the less health the berserker has. When you can use this after becoming invincible at low health, then heal yourself up.... Bad.
Tackle:
The berserker throws himself a short distance to target foe, damaging the foe and dealing cripple to both them and the berserker. A horrible idea... your closer cripples you.
Headbutt:
The berserker strikes at a target foe with his head, damaging them and knocking them down. Gives confusion to the berserker. A knockdown with a huge drawback of punishing you for every attack you make afterwards?

Just look at your map, and then the actual map.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Tyria.jpg

That whole world map, from a globe in game, shows Tyria, attatched to Elona, Cantha in the southern sea, and the mysterious aztec continent from Utopia mentioned in Nightfall by the trade prince, in the west (east from elona). Along with an absolutely huge area of Tyria that we’ve never even seen before.

There’s a lot more content, and a lot of it isn’t finished. But, a lot more than you see right now is. That’s just how A-net does things.

xeph.8410:

Olba.5376:

There’s two holes in that. Firstly, it’s only applicable to the dungeon itself, not outside it. Even right now, a good player in Masterwork armor will kill a bad one wearing Exotics. Same thing is going to happen.

This is meaningless. Good players do not wish to kill bad ones.
Killing a bad player is unsatisfying to both sides, all it becomes is a one-sided match that nobody enjoys. Good players wish to compete on equal footing with other good players, because that is when the game is the most enjoyable to both parties.

All the talk about competition is meaningless, because PvDoor isn’t competition, and PvP is regulated. End of story.

Olba.5376:

Nurvus.2891:

Ascended gear won’t be a necessity.
Bad players will still fail even if they have Ascended gear.
Good players will succeed even if they have Exotic gear.

That is the baseline.

A lot of people are talking about WvW, but from what I’ve seen, most WvW fights are decided by numbers rather than gear.

A lot of people are talking about PUGs, but how many people actually do that? I would bet that a significant majority of people prefer to do their dungeon runs in their guilds.

WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?

Not allowing your PUG group to inspect your gear will be taken as you having bad gear. Even if it isn’t. Been there, seen it happen.

Since Ascended gear is the only thing with infusion slots, it will be required at some point.

There’s two holes in that. Firstly, it’s only applicable to the dungeon itself, not outside it. Even right now, a good player in Masterwork armor will kill a bad one wearing Exotics. Same thing is going to happen.

Secondly, you do not know what they mean by that. It could be that you only start requiring it once you get far enough to get a few pieces of Ascended gear. If that were the case, then having Exotics or Rares or whatever wouldn’t matter.

Firstly, in real sPvP, I can still kill a geared person naked, so it never really matters. Anyone who thinks this change matters at all in WvW or PvP is just wrong. But, it will be required to participate in some content, namely the dungeon, and future dungeons.

Secondly, I do know exactly what they mean by that. Requiring it at all, no matter when, is the problem. We have Colin Johanson quoted saying: “The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game.” And then we have Linsey Murdock telling us that this new gear type will be “a must” at some point, to play in a dungeon. That’s where the problem is.

Inspection will be needed, because this gear will be a must. Unless we’re to count on random drop chance, and the infusions required to have been already crafted, ready to be slotted, as soon as the item drops.

This doesn’t fix the fact that they will be required to play in the new dungeon. Nobody cares about the +5 to a stat. It’s the gearscore and hard check.

BlueStoat.9157:

lvl 20 infused monk LFG HM!… seems a lot like it the level 20 gear from proph to me. infusions= insfused agony=spectral agony (only mursaat and only in phoph) ascended= max armor. I still trust a-net and that poll looks like a load of horse _ to me. I will agree that the game was published before completion, the devs did say that people were completing in weeks what they expected to take months (guess they thought no one would play 14 hrs a day). Makes me think that they were planning on rolling out “endgame” a bit later after release and letting us play what they already have while we wait. most of you are already grinding dungeons for cosmetics. why do you care about grinding one for the ability to crawl further into it?

I say first person to the end of the dungeon should get a prize… or maybe make it ever increasing stacks of agony so there is no end just better rewards the higher the agony stacks go; maybe a chance to see a precursor plop on the ground, sure would feel more legendary to me than throwing TP trash at a djin… PLEASE, I REALLY WANT THAT NOW!

Poll was here straight out of our forums.
And of course infusion and agony is a throwback to the Mursaat, Linsey said so.
And the game was released unfinished for a reason. If they release new content little by little, it keeps the people like myself, and many others, from getting too bored. After all, we did finish this game in a couple weeks.

So, you think that this game, in development since the scrapping of Utopia in 2006, was just that small. That in the 6 years that this has been a project, they only made 25 zones, drew the entire map, and left most of it empty and unfinished, put in npcs at the borders to the empty spots that said it would happen soon in their actual dialogue...

Then, they put out a new zone twice as fast as they had been averaging for six years, while busy with a holiday event and keeping the live game going, and it just happens to be at the point when a significant amount of the playerbase is getting ready to leave for other stuff, as the holiday season approaches?

No. A-net doesn’t do that. Just look at their old timeline:
Sometime in 2000: A-net is started.
April, 2005: Prophecies release.
April, 2006: Utopia found out. Factions released.
May, 2006: Utopia "Well under way"
June 2006: Utopia confirmed to be canceled.
October 2006: Nightfall released.
March, 2007: GW2 Announced.
August 2007: Eye of the North released.
April 2010: Guild Wars Beyond begins.
August 2012: Guild Wars 2 released.

In 2005-2006, they made three stand-alone campaigns, and had a fourth "well under way" before scrapping it and beginning work on GW2/EotN/Beyond. Then, over six more years, they make one expansion, three quest chains, and GW2.

And, after years of asking ’em "is it done yet?", and being told "when it’s ready", they release GW2, unfinished, short, and empty?

That’s just nothing like the trend A-net has set over the last decade, and highly unlikely.

Yeah, you can do that here too, only it works better.

Mixing fur lined with drakescale to get rid of the clipping just made you look like an idiot.

They can’t increase server caps, there’s already population problems on full servers.
Guesting won’t be implemented until populations even out.

The problem is, there’s a few servers who are still completely empty, and nobody wants to move there.

Almost all of them were broken. A-net does this, and then they get it right. Give them some time, and maybe get all of the WoW players to go home.

Heh, one auto-attacking ranger = 8-13 stacks of bleed.

So, 30 players with bleeds, 2 hit the cap.

But, they can’t remove the cap, otherwise enemies would go down faster than they already do.

This isn’t a new part of the game, and I’m not being quick to judge. The map was full of areas that we can’t go, with plenty of content to be released over time, in order to keep you playing until whole expansions/campaigns roll out.

This is how A-net works, it’s how they’ve been working for almost 8 years now.

http://poll.pollcode.com/zryv2e_result

That’s the poll, it originally came from a forum topic that is now merged in the General Discussion sub-forum.

And really, new content for free is something we’re used to from A-net. It’s not special that they’re giving us the game that they sold us. This isn’t a big expansion, it’s part of the unfinished product that you bought months ago.

Karma, you’ll have exactly 1 ring, and 1 back slot item to get, and then you’ll be in full Ascended gear until the next patch.

If either of those two items aren’t both on me in the first 12 hours of the patch, I’ll be shocked.

Orr worked fine for me, when there’s people around. People never roamed and did events though, and that’s the problem. Anyone who had a goal stood still on the fast spawning events.

I’ve been with A-net since April of 2005. I’ve given more of my money over the years to A-net than anyone else. I believed in the company started by former Blizzard employees who were all pretty well known for their work. Throughout the entirety of Guild Wars, over seven-and-a-half years, I’ve been a fan.

In all those years, A-net has never failed to deliver games that I could enjoy playing. I can only think of three times before now that I was ever disappointed by them.

To me, the very core of the ideal of GW2 is the first sentence from Mike O’Brien, in the Manifesto:
"We founded ArenaNet to innovate, so Guild Wars 2 is our opportunity to question everything, to make a game that defies existing conventions."

When almost nothing in the manifesto proved to be little more than lies, I could fall back on this, and remember that it is true. A-net does have a chance, an opportunity, to do something different. So, I’ll endure this mistake, as I did the other three, and keep my hopes up that in the future, they will do better.

Cloud.7613:

I highly doubt you NEED back piece to do it initially, so if you did the first path without it, you still need the ring for completing it(Even this is shady because we don’t have the entire picture) I don’t know about you, but I have a friend and 3 others already committing to doing it back piece or not. When the patch hits and you have the full information on how it’ll work and if they are actually NEEDED, please do tell me because at the moment, we’re just guessing.

“Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must.”

What is shady about that? It says, in unmistakable wording, that you will reach a point where defense against agony is a must.

“The only way to mitigate Agony damage is by building up resistance through Infusions”

So, you need defense against Agony, which is only available through Infusions.

“Infusions are a special new type of Upgrade Component that can only be slotted into special Infusion slots on gear… Infusions slots can only be found in gear of a new rarity type: Ascended.”

So, to get infusions, you need Ascended armor.

Now, from those quotes, from Linsey, the way this works is:
You will, at some point, be required to have some Ascended gear in order to participate in the Fractals of the Mists dungeon.

As for more people playing, I think you’ve got it all wrong. You throw in gear progression to a game that’s already been called World of Charrcraft since shortly after Utopia was scrapped, and you don’t get more players. Out of an actual poll of a little over a thousand GW2 players, 52% have said they will leave the game if ascended items are continued.

Think we’d actually make up 52% of the playerbase, when quite honestly, there’s no reason anyone should ever buy this game except for the hope that A-net might do something right?

I have a lot of faith in A-net. They’ve only screwed up three times so far, about to make four, in about eight years.

But, they are going to screw this up. It’s got all the classic signs of everything A-net does before A-net screws up. Will it ruin the game, probably not. Will a lot of people quit, maybe. Will most of those people come back for holidays, very likely. That doesn’t change the point that they’re going to screw this up.

"This is just the beginning. In November, we’re only adding the first level of Infusions and Ascended Rings and Back slots, so that leaves us a lot of room to build upon these levels of Item progression in future content.
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."

So, you’ll be required to have infusion, from Ascended gear in order to progress through the content. In the future, more Ascended gear will be added, and high end infusions will be added. Following in trend, more Infusion will be required to progress through the newer content.

Right now, you craft the Back slot in the Forge, and then grind the dungeon for the Ring. To make new content more challenging, and keep you wanting to keep going, you’ll likely be required to have the Back and Ring pieces in order to take part in the next dungeon, that will give you the Gloves and Boots. And then, even more, when you get in to the place that gives you Head and Shoulders. And even more when you finally get your Chest and Leggings.

Grind more infusion to take part in new dungeons to grind more infusion to take part in new dungeons.

Just because it’s stupidly easy to get exotics doesn’t change the fact that if you make the new, *required* gear harder to get than what we’ve already got, you’re doing something exactly opposing to what we were told we’d be getting.

JBleezz.2697:

I would say that it all depends on implementation. One of the major problems with the Ascended gear as we understand it is that it is earned in a very limited way namely grinding the new dungeon.

If they decided to add it purely to fill the gap between legendarys and exotics and didn’t add new tiers after it I don’t think it would really be a problem. The concern is that it sets a precedent for after the Ascended gear they will add another tier then another and so on.

What Anet should do is add a variety of methods to get Ascended gear outside of dungeons making them harder to attain then exotics but easier then legendarys then don’t add any more tiers.

The problem, Jbleezz, is that if it’s harder to attain than exotics, then you are forced to grind harder to get gear that is required to participate in new content. It’s not that there’s new gear. If they had made new gear with slightly better stats, it wouldn’t matter to anyone at all.

It’s the NEW stat, the one that we’ve been told straight from A-net will be required in order to play the new dungeons beyond a specific point. Instead of “Item Level” your ability to perform in new dungeons will be measured entirely by how much of the new stat you have.

jollyjolly.3516:

Please tell me how this is different from an exotic set? I have a full set of rares and if i want full exotics, I will have to grind for gear that does not give solely cosmetic benefits.

According to what I’m seeing people say on the forums against ascended gear, people should be of the opinion that exotics are horrible and that Arenanet broke these promises on launch day because it requires a grind to acquire exotic gear. But we all know that is not the case. People seem to be alright with exotics. The reason being is that people do not seem to have a full understanding of the difference between gear and gear treadmill, and this update was worded in such a way that, if taken at face value, can appear to be treadmill-y.

In a traditional MMO, the gear treadmill is meant to be an endless cycle of grinding gear, only to use it to grind the next set, and the next set, and the next set etc etc. The reason this is a problem (aside from the monotony), is that it restricts the content available at any given time. For example, in a treadmill based game, some content will be trivialized by the high-powered gear the player will have, and other content will be unavailable because they have not grinded (should this be ground?…) enough dungeons to have gear powerful enough to progress.

In Anet’s case, we do not have this treadmill, because ascended (again, I am making the assumption that no future tiers will be added) will be the final tier. And once people have their max gear, they are not forced into grinding more gear to continue to experience new content as they would in a treadmill MMO.

Jolly, at no point are you required to have exotics to participate in content in the game. That’s the difference.

I can do any content in this game, and as long as I have a group of level appropriate people who press at least two buttons, I can complete it. With this new gear that we’ve been told will be “a must” to complete dungeons, it’s a direct flip on the previous idea that you can play the game without worrying about any form of gearscore.

No, Nurvus. It’s been stated that Ascended gear will be a must. Read the blog:

"In the upcoming Fractals of the Mists dungeon, we’ll introduce a new monster condition called Agony. This extremely dangerous condition ticks percentages of player health away and can’t be cleansed by normal means. Players who wish to delve deep into the Fractals will find that Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must. The only way to mitigate Agony damage is by building up resistance through Infusions"

Since Ascended gear is the only thing with infusion slots, it will be required at some point.

I played a GW1 ranger from day 1.

Personally, female rangers needed more with the coat. Male rangers too. Let’s look at just the male non-coat sets:

Fur lined looked terrible.
Drake Scale had clipping issues in the pants.
Studded Leather had clipping issues in the pants.
Canthan was just ugly.
Kurzick was ugly.
Luxon was actually quite nice, IMO.
Sunspear clipped on so many pieces my eyes almost fell out.
Vabbian had a dye error.
Primeval was ugly and clipped.
Asuran clipped in the pants, and was just a new Drakescale.
Obsidian clipped.

Now, on the coat sets, they all clipped, and quite a few looked bad. But yeah, kind of what you get.

Now, there’s plenty of ranger armor without coats. I’ll name them, just for fun:

Duelist, Studded, Human Cultural Tier 1, Vigil, Norn Cultural Tier 2, Sylvari Cultural Tier 2, Sylvari Cultural Tier 3.

Now, that’s 7 of the ~35 sets of medium armor I had quick access to look at, but there’s likely a couple more.