Guild Wars 2

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

Since this whole thread is hasty generalizations…

How kitten hurt would the anti-ascended crowd be if they got their wish and everything was evenly set like spvp and they still sucked? I mean, right now you can use the “well he had ascended gear!” as a defense mechanism. When you still get thrown in the dumpster on an even field what will happen to your ego then?

No, I think you guys are best off not finding out that the emperor has no clothes. The reality of the situation might be too upsetting for you.

Ah, there’s the DnT attitude I’ve come to expect. Yes, we all sucketh majorly. However, I would rather know that I suck for certain. Who knows it may improve the community as all of us bads will quit the game and leave it pristine for the rest of you.

Edit: Also if ANet didn’t insist that I grind out the same kitten ascended weapon for each of my alts, I wouldn’t give a kitten. I always just have 1 main.

Galen Grey.4709:

TooBz.3065:

That was what I was going to do. Then ANet nerfed Karma (so many respects into Rabid gear / PVT and I don’t have much karma left), so they made the most important WvW stats difficult to get.

Also, I don’t like always being less powerful than the next guy. I’m fine with getting stomped when I mess up, or when I’m outplayed. I do mind when I almost win a fight, but get stomped by someone wielding ascended weapons. Cause I don’t know if I got outplayed or just out grinded (it’s that a word??? You know what I mean).

And frankly, unless you have BiS gear, you don’t really know what the build can do. Is it less effective because a) I stink (always a possibility) or b) because I’m operating at a 5-8% deficit against other players.

Edit: Oh, and I’m bad a pattern recognition, so my brain always thinks “this will be my main, better start gearing up to ascended.” however, 4 – “this will be my main’s” later, I’m ready to throw the computer out the window.

Those however are not your 2 only possibilities. You also have
c) we were outnumbered
d) the other team was better at supporting each other
e) the other team was better at crowd control
f) the other team used more consumables then us
g) my team was less optimal then the other team
h) they had more seige weapons then us
i) rng was against us
j) they had a better build
k) they used a more effective consumable combination
l) they had a better tactical position
m) they had better co-ordination
n) we had more lower level players then they did
o) I was picked as a target by multiple members of the opposing team
p) no one supported me from my team
q) I was in front of my team
I could go on but I guess its enough to prove the point that there is a reason why arenanet state WvW is inbalanced because there are so many factors that come into play that its impossible to balance and those same variables make it impossible to point to any single reason of why you died in a fight.

To me, that argument is a cop out. It’s like saying it doesn’t matter if I have to fight with one hand tied behind my back because the other guy may have had a better breakfast (obviously ascended isn’t that severe but it makes the point). An advantage is an advantage. Just people there are other imbalances in the game does change the fact that this is another one.

Put another way, even if there are many factors that may contribute to a loss, an imbalance in ascended gear will always be a contributing factor, and frankly one we don’t need.

Further, I think ascended gear hurts the game. I think it kills variety. For me, variety is a contributing factor that keeps me playing the game. But I guess that doesn’t matter either.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

TooBz.3065:

Just to put my two cents in. I think that Ascended would have been an issue if they were in the game from the start, but it would have been handled by changing player behavior. Fewer alts, fewer builds, etc…

Also, I think that people generally don’t want things given to them for free but enjoy a certain amount of work to get something. You feel like you are accomplishing something. The trick is that the reward has to be proportional to the effort.

Exotics are pretty good in this respect (or were b4 karma nerf). You could get an exotic weapon for about 4g or through crafting or dungeon runs. Generally, it would take 2-5 days to get one. When you got one, you felt closer to your goal.

However, for me the grind for ascended gear is disproportionate to the reward I get. When I make one I feel hollow, not happy. I wonder why I spent all that time / money / energy creating one. This indicates that, for me, ascended gear is too grindy.

I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as much of an issue, if it had come with launch, and was available via more ways than just crafting.

Of course, if we continue to ask loud enough, we may yet get other ways of obtaining ascended. They have never said that crafting it would be the only way, only that it was how they were implementing it to begin with. However, I do not have a crystal ball. I am not clairvoyant by any means, so I honestly don’t know what will ‘definitively’ happen in the future. No one really can, not even Anet (cause you know what they say about the best laid plans…)

Maybe.. <tin foil hat> I think crafting serves the purpose of forcing people into different zones, if only to harvest the wood / ore / cloth. ANet has been trying for a year to get people into under populated zones. The combination of maguma killer + need for soft wood may move people out of metrica province and into other areas. If this has worked then I don’t see them opening up ascended to other means </tin foil hat>

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

generalraccoon.3857:

In regards to grind and comparison of exotics then and ascendeds now… Personally, I didn’t mind exotics because firstly, there were so many ways to get them and secondly the requirements was not as horrifically tedious current ascended weapon crafting. For some stats, i could have multiple sources for them. Zerker stats for example, i can craft some with what few t6 blood i have, probably get another piece from Arah and a few more from CoF, and yet the ration of which source to get them is entirely up to me and what i enjoy. and failing even that, i could just do ANYTHING that gives money and buy some off the TP. I get them as I please and not funneled mandatorily into specific activities I dont want to.

Would ascended be as bad if it were available in all the same ways as exotics, just more expensive?

Would ascended have been viewed as poorly if the game had launched with it in place, including all its time gating and limitations?

The list of what ifs is a long one, I’ve only listed a couple. The fact still remains that exotics are VP. For those that don’t like dungeons, it was grindy to them. For those that never had the temples open, they had to go out of their way to find a place where they were. While you had no issue with the grind for exotics, others have no issues with the grind for ascended. VP existed before ascended, but the gripe was far less, people simply accepted it as part of the game.

Just to put my two cents in. I think that Ascended would have been an issue if they were in the game from the start, but it would have been handled by changing player behavior. Fewer alts, fewer builds, etc…

Also, I think that people generally don’t want things given to them for free but enjoy a certain amount of work to get something. You feel like you are accomplishing something. The trick is that the reward has to be proportional to the effort.

Exotics are pretty good in this respect (or were b4 karma nerf). You could get an exotic weapon for about 4g or through crafting or dungeon runs. Generally, it would take 2-5 days to get one. When you got one, you felt closer to your goal.

However, for me the grind for ascended gear is disproportionate to the reward I get. When I make one I feel hollow, not happy. I wonder why I spent all that time / money / energy creating one. This indicates that, for me, ascended gear is too grindy.

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

I’m in a hardcore speed run dungeon guild. We need ascended weapons as badly as WvWers need them.

Why do I have to do open world boss content to get the dragonite for them? It is not at all fair that I should have to go outside my chosen game mode to get gear to play my game mode.

See how dumb this sounds?

Except you want ascended weapons because they make your DPS higher and increase the speed with which you can complete the dungeon. So you for, ANet said “hey, do this kitten and we’ll improve your gameplay”

A subset of WvW’ers do not want ascended weapons because they unbalance the game mode and discourage new players from getting involved in WvW. So it’s like ANet said “hey, we’ve decided to kitten your gameplay, do this stuff to fix it.”

edit: I like your videos,

Mackdose.6504:

TooBz.3065:

Mackdose.6504:

TooBz.3065:

Mackdose.6504:

Pariah.8506:

Vol.5241:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Vol.5241:

Ascended gear in WvW is irrelevant. You will not notice the difference, especially when you consider the other bigger variables, such as orb buff, party buffs and blob size

If it’s irrelevant then what’s wrong with making it really irrelevant and disallowing it in WvW?

because the effort to code all that is not worth it? Let alone all the people who invested badges/laurels for ascended gear. We want to shaft those people?

But the effort of designing, coding, modelling, animating and testing to introduce a feature that “makes absolutely no difference” was?

Ascended gear is a armor with an infusion slot for a mechanic introduced as an endless dungeon grind to provide long term goals for players after they completed their exotic set.

It makes “no difference” to the outcome of a WvW match.

It makes larger differences on smaller scales, but never poses an advantage that can’t be overcome by smart play, due to the way combat mechanics work.

I’m kitten sure that any fight I lose to a player I would have lost whether or not he has ascended. There’s just so much more influencing fights than numbers on the gear, and that is obviously by design.

It affects my enjoyment of WvW. No matter how many times someone says “it doesn’t matter” or “it doesn’t affect anything.” It matters to me, it affects me. I enjoy the game less because it’s there. It stops me from doing things I find fun.

It affects your enjoyment how? Try not to be ephemeral.

What exactly are you being stopped by?

So you can tell me I’m wrong? Here’s a non-ephemeral answer (note: enjoyment is subjective)

I have 7 level 80 characters. I have played this game for over a year because every time I get bored with a character I can swap over to another one. Usually the swap is caused by two factors. 1) I am starting to get bored with my current main and 2) I read about a build or think of a build I haven’t tried.

This means that swapping characters is usually accompanied by some degree of a respec. New gear, new stat combinations, at the very least new weapons.

So far I have played (for a considerable amount of time) A P/D thief, a GS / LB ranger, a S/Sw/F mesmer, a D/D ele, a S/D thief, a Axe/Mace/GS warrior, a glamour mesmer, H/S AH Guardian, a BM ranger, A Mantra mesmer, and A Hammer/Sword/wh Warrior. I’ve briefly toyed with Necro’s and Engineers, but haven’t really gotten into them.

I can’t / don’t want to commit to one class or build. Ascended gear makes it more difficult for me to swap around. I don’t want to try new things because I know I’m never going to get the ascended stuff for the build. For example, while I would happly swap out an exotic Zerker amulet for a Rabid one, I’m not going to do the same for ascended gear. It’s too cumbersome to get.

Therefore, I get frustrated. I want to try something, but it’s too expensive / time consuming to do it.

Oh, and I don’t play the game to get frustrated. (In case it wasn’t obvious, you never can tell)

So here’s my question: Why not just experiment with exotic gear and forget about ascended?

The difference, with the exception of the weapon, is negligible.

That was what I was going to do. Then ANet nerfed Karma (so many respects into Rabid gear / PVT and I don’t have much karma left), so they made the most important WvW stats difficult to get.

Also, I don’t like always being less powerful than the next guy. I’m fine with getting stomped when I mess up, or when I’m outplayed. I do mind when I almost win a fight, but get stomped by someone wielding ascended weapons. Cause I don’t know if I got outplayed or just out grinded (it’s that a word??? You know what I mean).

And frankly, unless you have BiS gear, you don’t really know what the build can do. Is it less effective because a) I stink (always a possibility) or b) because I’m operating at a 5-8% deficit against other players.

Edit: Oh, and I’m bad a pattern recognition, so my brain always thinks “this will be my main, better start gearing up to ascended.” however, 4 – “this will be my main’s” later, I’m ready to throw the computer out the window.

Mackdose.6504:

TooBz.3065:

Mackdose.6504:

Pariah.8506:

Vol.5241:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Vol.5241:

Ascended gear in WvW is irrelevant. You will not notice the difference, especially when you consider the other bigger variables, such as orb buff, party buffs and blob size

If it’s irrelevant then what’s wrong with making it really irrelevant and disallowing it in WvW?

because the effort to code all that is not worth it? Let alone all the people who invested badges/laurels for ascended gear. We want to shaft those people?

But the effort of designing, coding, modelling, animating and testing to introduce a feature that “makes absolutely no difference” was?

Ascended gear is a armor with an infusion slot for a mechanic introduced as an endless dungeon grind to provide long term goals for players after they completed their exotic set.

It makes “no difference” to the outcome of a WvW match.

It makes larger differences on smaller scales, but never poses an advantage that can’t be overcome by smart play, due to the way combat mechanics work.

I’m kitten sure that any fight I lose to a player I would have lost whether or not he has ascended. There’s just so much more influencing fights than numbers on the gear, and that is obviously by design.

It affects my enjoyment of WvW. No matter how many times someone says “it doesn’t matter” or “it doesn’t affect anything.” It matters to me, it affects me. I enjoy the game less because it’s there. It stops me from doing things I find fun.

It affects your enjoyment how? Try not to be ephemeral.

What exactly are you being stopped by?

So you can tell me I’m wrong? Here’s a non-ephemeral answer (note: enjoyment is subjective)

I have 7 level 80 characters. I have played this game for over a year because every time I get bored with a character I can swap over to another one. Usually the swap is caused by two factors. 1) I am starting to get bored with my current main and 2) I read about a build or think of a build I haven’t tried.

This means that swapping characters is usually accompanied by some degree of a respec. New gear, new stat combinations, at the very least new weapons.

So far I have played (for a considerable amount of time) A P/D thief, a GS / LB ranger, a S/Sw/F mesmer, a D/D ele, a S/D thief, a Axe/Mace/GS warrior, a glamour mesmer, H/S AH Guardian, a BM ranger, A Mantra mesmer, and A Hammer/Sword/wh Warrior. I’ve briefly toyed with Necro’s and Engineers, but haven’t really gotten into them.

I can’t / don’t want to commit to one class or build. Ascended gear makes it more difficult for me to swap around. I don’t want to try new things because I know I’m never going to get the ascended stuff for the build. For example, while I would happly swap out an exotic Zerker amulet for a Rabid one, I’m not going to do the same for ascended gear. It’s too cumbersome to get.

Therefore, I get frustrated. I want to try something, but it’s too expensive / time consuming to do it.

Oh, and I don’t play the game to get frustrated. (In case it wasn’t obvious, you never can tell)

Mackdose.6504:

Pariah.8506:

Vol.5241:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Vol.5241:

Ascended gear in WvW is irrelevant. You will not notice the difference, especially when you consider the other bigger variables, such as orb buff, party buffs and blob size

If it’s irrelevant then what’s wrong with making it really irrelevant and disallowing it in WvW?

because the effort to code all that is not worth it? Let alone all the people who invested badges/laurels for ascended gear. We want to shaft those people?

But the effort of designing, coding, modelling, animating and testing to introduce a feature that “makes absolutely no difference” was?

Ascended gear is a armor with an infusion slot for a mechanic introduced as an endless dungeon grind to provide long term goals for players after they completed their exotic set.

It makes “no difference” to the outcome of a WvW match.

It makes larger differences on smaller scales, but never poses an advantage that can’t be overcome by smart play, due to the way combat mechanics work.

I’m kitten sure that any fight I lose to a player I would have lost whether or not he has ascended. There’s just so much more influencing fights than numbers on the gear, and that is obviously by design.

It affects my enjoyment of WvW. No matter how many times someone says “it doesn’t matter” or “it doesn’t affect anything.” It matters to me, it affects me. I enjoy the game less because it’s there. It stops me from doing things I find fun.

Lexandro.1456:

All I hear is a lot of QQ from people who either dont want to craft an ascended item and dont have one yet.

Hey why dont we just remove ALL stats/buffs/gear/skills/traits/class mechanics from WvW and have everyone run around in underwear with a 1dps dagger and nothing else. I mean it would be balanced right? Everything else is irrelevant right?

Fact is ascended is here to stay. No amount of griping or forum threads or post is going to get rid of them now. Get with the program and move on already.

Because the program is kitten. It’s terrible. Ascended gear is a hack stop-gap measure to please a bunch of people who only play 1 build on 1 class at the expense of those of use who play multiple builds and / or multiple classes.

How is a bunch of people running around WvW is PVT armor any different that everyone running around in the underwear doing 1 DPS? Total lack of variety.

Variety is the spice of life. Ascended gear kills the variety

Dark Catalyst.1028:

TooBz.3065:

Who cares if another game had grind? It’s the grind in this game that was being discussed.

For me, a long grind kills the game. I like playing different classes and different builds on those classes. Grindy BIS gear makes it so I don’t even want to get started trying something else out. There’s no way I’m going to get yet another set of ascended if I do like it. So why bother.

(Oh and I really appreciate the Karma nerf as well).

Don’t you read these forums? You don’t need ascended gear to enjoy any aspect of this game! Who cares if you’re getting stomped by people in full ascended which gives them a significant statistical advantage over you? LOL, this game isn’t about grinding or having he best gear! It’s about having fun!

LOL, you’re just stuck in the mindset ingrained in you by those other MMOs. Ascended gear doesn’t matter! LOL

Yep. Funny how half the forums say your a terrible gamer if you run with 1 piece of knights gear (it’s sub-optimal you know) and the other half insist that ascended gear doesn’t matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Who cares if another game had grind? It’s the grind in this game that was being discussed.

For me, a long grind kills the game. I like playing different classes and different builds on those classes. Grindy BIS gear makes it so I don’t even want to get started trying something else out. There’s no way I’m going to get yet another set of ascended if I do like it. So why bother.

(Oh and I really appreciate the Karma nerf as well).

No one should care about the manifesto. It’s ancient history and not reflective of the current state of the game.

LHound.8964:

If you do the math using the calculators, statistically the difference on a berserker gear (weapon + trinkets) ascended vs exotics is ~ 6%. in Condition gears the difference is way less!

IMO the difference is quite neglectable for the rage we see in the forums towards Ascended gear (i have full exotics and i do just fine).

I’m more worried about players don’t using any consumables that boosts way more the damage than the said gears!

/cheers

Arguing that ascended gear already doesn’t matter isn’t a very good argument against making it so ascended gear doesn’t matter.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

1) Everyone likes to use the “range has better uptime on damage because you have to dodge in melee” line as a defense to range being better. In reality dodging takes up very little of your overall DPS time (even dodging on cooldown with 100% vigor uptime is only 20% of total time spent) and you will never have to dodge that much, even against dodgefest bosses like Alpha.

2) Mesmer phantasm AI isn’t fantastic but they are on a very short CD and do very good damage, making them easily the most competitive minion class in the game. A mesmer with a single phantasm is competitive DPS. Two phantasms becomes above-average. Three and mesmer DPS is through the roof. There are very few situations where you can’t maintain at least 1 phantasm, which puts you well on par with a warrior.

3) “Common” speedclears are rarely optimized. Most pug speedruns ran with whatever they could get and just relied on low-risk, high-reward classes like warriors rather than actively trying to minmax. That’s why if you were running COF for gold it was basically acceptable to run 4 GS warriors with random specs and one mesmer with pretty much anything, which you will note isn’t remotely close to a minmax spec. Meanwhile I challenge you to find a record-setting run that uses or ever used a GS mesmer.

4) You are underestimating how crippling a bad group can be. I have done runs on COE P1 (the one where Alpha doesn’t do anything) that have died to his PBAOE burn alone, because our DPS wasn’t even enough to keep up with the essences spawning occasionally to heal him and the fight literally took so long that the tiny ticks of burn damage eventually downed everyone. You may be fine with this personally but not everyone is.

Seriously, show me one instance of anyone ever commenting about how amazing a GS mesmer was during a dungeon run. It just doesn’t happen cause even the non-mesmer players know it’s crap.

Don’t answer him it’s a trap.

There’s nothing to say.

Suppose you say, I carried the group, he will say you were hiding in the back and if you weren’t they wouldn’t have died.

Don’t play with him or any other BAD sport. It’s not worth it. It’s also only worth responding to these threads for the FUN FUN FUN trolling of the uptight guys.

If I seem a little slap happy about this it’s only poisoning from the toxic atmosphere these guys create.

Also If the OP was honestly curious, now you know why the hate. If you were trolling +1.

ratche.6204:

coglin.1867:

ratche.6204:

I think most of us transfers from gw1 resent the living story because we think “hey they could bypass this stuff and be working on an expansion” and though I do like most of the living story, none of it compares to visiting my old stomping grounds in Cantha or Elona. There is so much potential there it makes me salivate,

I just despise when posters presume to speak for me. I hardly doubt you know 1% of the players who came from GW1, much less do posters have the right to suggest what “most” of us want. I see this happening all over the forums, and its really starting to get old. I like the living story(well a lot of it anyway), and I feel all of this talk about expansions is foolish. They have already explained that I do not need to purchase an expansion disc for them to add a new race, class, or land mass.

Thats why I used words like THINK and MOST. based on what I have seen on these forums, and the cross sections of players I have talked to about this, I stand by that. I apologize if you think I am trying to talk for you. I am not

I wouldn’t apologize in response to a pedantic argument. It’s not worth it.

Mackdose.6504:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Mackdose.6504:

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Mackdose.6504:

Ahlen.7591:

Zero Day.2594:

@Ahlen
Well glad you “like” or don’t mind ascended weapons…. you fall with the 21% of the people, or the 15%. As skewed as my poll may be…. I assure you, there’s more people that dislike this ascended business (or replace business with a cussing word).

Utter bull. The whiny forum minority doesn’t like ascended gear, but they are an insane minority. More than likely less than a single % of the entire player-base.

This. The people who disliked ascended gear dislike it because it’s not GW1’s way of doing things.

Meanwhile, gear progression remains one of the largest motivators for MMO players by and large. Legions of players play fantasy games to make their character stronger.

This is why we have 80 levels and multiple rarities of gear. ArenaNet iterated on the gear plateau and created a PvE design that is inclusive to the different gear types, rather than exclusive.

People don’t like Ascended because it felt like moving goal posts after they attained Exotics. ArenaNet realized that Exotics were too easy to get and that players needed a longer journey. Ascended gear is that journey.

Time gated materials, grind endless champ trains for mats and sitting at a crafting station are motivating? This is what people want?

Sure sounds fun to me! LOL

No, stats on the gear that are slightly higher than Exotic stats are the motivator.

Did you see how popular Diablo 2 was back in the day?

10-15% dps increase with ascended weapons+full trinkets. Expect 20%+ with that and a full set of armor. “Slight”, indeed.

Ugh.

It’s the same relative increase between Rare -> Exotic. It’s a linear progression.

And no, I don’t care about Berzerker’s crit damage exponent.

The game is balanced around rares, anything over rare and your advantage is shaving seconds off of a boss you would have killed anyway.

Provided you just play PvE. Really, we’ve had these conversations to completion so many times, it’s amazing we never make progress.

Because the “my way or the highway” crowd has decided that it is a bad weapon. Couple that with some people who insist on being kittens about it to anyone who mentions the weapon and you get a bunch of forum kittenwads running amok.

Any weapon you feel is effective is fine Just avoid speed runners and ignore their hate.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

PsyOnic.3108:

To not implement it at all.

+1

Or hand it out for free, or by doing a personal quest chain.

Imagine that, we would get some awesome award for playing a awesome quest. A reward for having fun.

Why on earth is it so hard for ANet to implement something like that?

Because a) they want it to take a long time and b) they want to force people to play all their content.

Yeah, I haven’t been able to do it. So I don’t know that it needs to be harder.

Nike.2631:

FYI: it’s a game, not a simluator for you to live out your 1%er fantasies.

Funny, as I read that as justification for the lower end of the drop rates – if you’re playing it as a game, why are you trying get the rare stuff, other than to live out a 1%er fantasy? I have an Infinite Light on my main. It took me 8 months to amass the lodestones. I got it because it looked cool as part of my costume, not because its 500 times rarer than any Legendary. Evidently I am in the 1% (on that front) but it’s not the fantasy I was trying to live out. I just wanted to kill monsters with hayfever (its FX looks like pollen spraying everywhere each time you swing it…)

Yeah, that was a total unjustified potshot because of the CEO comment.

I agree it’s all supply and demand. People on this board sometimes act like supply is a non-factor when saying “we set the price”, really the price is determined by both ANet and players.

Vol.5241:

TooBz.3065:

Nike.2631:

I think there’s a better analogy than pay checks… its called “get in line”.

The items are flowing into the game, and there is a line that determines who gets them first. The people in front of you are willing to commit more coin than you are. There are people behind you too (seething at you the same way you’re seething at the people ahead of you). The line constantly changes – new people decide they want in and are placed according to their willingness and ability to spend. Other people drop out, deciding to chase other things. The line doesn’t have a fixed front – there is no guarantee that when you amass 500g, you get the shiny. The only guarantee is when you get to the front of the line, you will be served.

I think most people just don’t like being confronted with the inescapable fact they are not special. That other people want what they want and are willing to exert greater wealth to get it. That their “heroic” farming efforts over the last 3 hours/day and a half/two-weeks/whatever is not really any better or more efficient than the effort lots of other people are putting in and that it didn’t catapult them to the front of the line.

It’s still valid to question how many items are introduced into the game and consequently how they are priced.

If they introduce only 1 then only the person willing to pay the most will get it. If they introduce 10,000,000 then everyone can have one for whatever they are willing to pay. They obviously pick somewhere in between. It’s reasonable to ask why they picked the point they did.

FYI: it’s a game, not a simluator for you to live out your 1%er fantasies.

I’m sure they picked this point because they want to have a balance point of exclusivity/balance.

This game already has exotics weapons that touch upon each scale. You have the super rare and expensive skins that require legendary gifts. You then have vision weapons or other cheaper 100-200g exotics. Then you have the weapons that can be easily crafted or dropped in large #’s, and they fall under 5G.

This game revolves around novelty, not stats. So if you want to have the best looking or matching skin for your character, you’ll have to work hard for it.

If you want to be as strong as the guy next to you then it doesn’t take much.

Yep. I completely agree. I just question whether the holiday skins should fall into the exclusive category. I see those as more of a novelty / spirit thing.

Maybe it would be better if there were a range of holiday skins. Quick and cheapies for the masses exclusive skins for those willing to grind.

Nike.2631:

I think there’s a better analogy than pay checks… its called “get in line”.

The items are flowing into the game, and there is a line that determines who gets them first. The people in front of you are willing to commit more coin than you are. There are people behind you too (seething at you the same way you’re seething at the people ahead of you). The line constantly changes – new people decide they want in and are placed according to their willingness and ability to spend. Other people drop out, deciding to chase other things. The line doesn’t have a fixed front – there is no guarantee that when you amass 500g, you get the shiny. The only guarantee is when you get to the front of the line, you will be served.

I think most people just don’t like being confronted with the inescapable fact they are not special. That other people want what they want and are willing to exert greater wealth to get it. That their “heroic” farming efforts over the last 3 hours/day and a half/two-weeks/whatever is not really any better or more efficient than the effort lots of other people are putting in and that it didn’t catapult them to the front of the line.

It’s still valid to question how many items are introduced into the game and consequently how they are priced.

If they introduce only 1 then only the person willing to pay the most will get it. If they introduce 10,000,000 then everyone can have one for whatever they are willing to pay. They obviously pick somewhere in between. It’s reasonable to ask why they picked the point they did.

FYI: it’s a game, not a simluator for you to live out your 1%er fantasies.

1. Server population imbalance
2. Zergs
3. Alt-Friendliness

PvE:
1. Ascended Gear
2. Alt Friendliness
3. Grind / Farming Requirements

I think each piece of ascended armor should be a grind proportional to the grind for ascended weapons.

Re: daily. ANet has to stop trying to dictate how I play their game.

xephire.8324:

Why not ranger?Why no love or other classes besides the holy trinity.

Because the pet mechanics have been more or less broken for a year and there’s no indication that a good solution is on the horizon.

Last Holiday (December) seasons they did not use RNG for anything (I don’t think). Straight skin purchases from the gem store, and minor skins available for a very reasonable amount of stuff.

Apparently they determined that massive RNG and grind is better.

Mesket.5728:

I don’t think players that are still asking for this are fully aware of all the things that are necessary to change, not just the race. Skills, cultural armors, home instance, all choices on character creation… I mean,… I can’t see from a developer point of view how would this even be possible. They would pretty much had to re-do lots of its core just to change a race? Do yourself a favor and move on from this idea… the game was not made for this, it was so not made for this that from the very beginning your character starts printing things to itself that are 100% bounded and dependent on your race.

Hmm… Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean people should quit asking for it. Frankly, ANet should have known this would come up and build things accordingly. I can see that they didn’t, but that’s really their own fault.

1. Less Grind, I want goals that I can attain without hating myself in the morning.
2. More visual options
3. More aggressive and frequent balancing
4. Most zerg breaking options

Essentially, I want ArenaNet to focus on maximize my enjoyment while I play rather than trying to maximize the amount of time I play.

To increase the sales in the gem store:

http://inspirationfeed.com/articles/business/how-time-limited-offers-can-boost-your-sales/

balrog.1307:

So i have been rather skeptical about GW2 at first, mainly because i’m not so much into mmo’s i guess. I tried WoW and it didn’t get to me, i tried SWTOR – and apart from the story missions it was boring as hell, i tried Tera and apart from being pretty it looked like a manequin – fancy clothes on the outside, stale plastic on the inside.

Some time ago, a couple of my friends started playing GW2 and their impressions were something like “omfg this is the best mmo ever made, you have to try it pronto!”. As i said, i was skeptical at first, but as time passed i became more and more interested until finally yesterday i purchased it.

First of all i would like to say that the download speed for the client is just ridiculously low(my ips provides a connection of average 100 – 200 mbit/s), but as i was at work while it downloaded, i guess it’s not a big problem anyway.

And then there was the moment of character creation..and then there were the first quests in the Norn homeland, and then my friends joined and their high levels downscaled so we could play together…public events, inventory & craft system, story, jumping sections, vistas, questing, leveling..sorry, i’m just so overwhelmed by all of this that my overexcited emotions can’t be put on a hold.

The base line – At this moment this game is the best massive multiplayer experience i have ever been part of, and the fact that i’ve just scratched the surface, in my opinion, makes it one of the best gaming experiences i have had this year(which has been rather dissapointing in the case of PC gaming, at least for me).

Thank you Arena.net!Keep up the good work!

All negativity aside. Here is my advice to help you enjoy the game for the longest possible period of time. Focus on only 1 character. Don’t create alts. Just become an expert with 1. You will have more money, more time, and more fun that way.

Bonus points if you roll a warrior, guardian, or mesmer.

Honestly, the end game is going to be whatever you decide to make of it. You can play WvW and run with a zerg or roam. Play PvP. Or grind stuff out in PvE.

Speed running dungeons is popular.

Charming Rogue.8071:

I just don’t get how a game with so much potential, could end up in such a grindfest. Holiday’s are supposed to be fun, yet they suck out all the fun parts. There’s so many and easy ways to make money off the gemstore by just adding rehashed items people want, yet they add crap like fireworks or new boosters (who the heck buys this crap?).

If only there was one sane person left at arenanet that could make all the right decisions for them, cause for some reason they always pick the exact opposite of what people want.

“You want easy to access holiday items? lol think again”

“Oh, we read your feedback, the holiday items costs too much. You know what? We’ll just make them 50 times more expensive, you’re welcome.”

I agree, according to the /age I have played 3.5 hours a day over the past year. Even at that rate there is no way I can keep up with this ridiculous grind. Nor do I want to.

And yes, I want easy holiday items. I want to have FUN. Grinding candy corn is not fun. I want to enjoy my time with the game and not just waste another hour of my life doing something stupid.

Edit: Also to me, the labyrinth seems like another champion farm with a lower payout.

I’m pretty sure the PvP setup is so they could change everyone else into little blue balls of light so that you could see what you were doing.

I think it’s better to have a little blue wisp in your face and not a 30 foot norn in technicolor.

Yeah, I think this is a huge mistake. Way to make a fun time of the year disappointing.

Edit: FYI, ANet I like getting new stuff, I like new looks, I don’t like grinding forever for them.

I’m tempted to try out glacial heart in WvW.

Edit; thanks, my typo.

It’s incredible stupid that I don’t actually know this more than a year into playing the game, but how does healing work.

Let’s suppose I use power return (.4 heal scaling) and have 300 healing.

Does that mean I heal 2,620 + .4(300) = 2,620 + 120 = 2,740 hit points / use?

Thanks,

Thinking about a trinity system, I could see one being very interesting if

1) Enemies prioritized targets intelligently or not depending on their type. (A zombie may target the closest living person, a pirate captain goes after the most dangerous target, a wild animal may attack the largest or the smallest, etc…)

and

2) No clipping though enemies. A wall of tanks can prevent people from going through them.

Now tanks have to work to keep the attention of the attacker, have to position themselves between the enemy and the squishies.

In the current Guild wars system, it would never work.

I don’t know for sure. I’d like to say no, but I probably would.

No. Currently once it’s bound its bound.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Any news on the supposed 20% nerf to Phantasm damage?
whats the cool down on iCounter going to be? with just 30% duration increase mine lasts 10.5seconds. Thats just from 20% Trait and 10% Rune set, no food or anything else.

If it happens I blame Colesy.

I’m going to guess that it’s a clipping issue. Having back items limits what you can do with weapons and hairstyles.

Since I respected so that I can’t easily get stronger bowstrings I have used a rifle on Jormag (the 1200 range lets me hit him without getting hit with the uncleanseable DOT.)

Is there a better way to hit him from range?

Vayne.8563:

TooBz.3065:

Yaki.9563:

The weapon doesn’t make that much difference. The only reason you “need” one is for fractals, but they haven’t even opened 50+ yet.

We don’t Almost no one plays this game to feel mediocre. Everyone Almost everyone wants BiS gear. If they didn’t there would be no reason to add this stuff.

Edited: edit to avoid stupid pedantic arguments.

Stupid pedantic argument incoming. lol

I don’t disagree that no one plays this game to feel mediocre. I do disagree that most people feel mediocre if they don’t have an ascended weapon.

I don’t even think BIS gear is on most people’s radar. Most people are still trying to figure out how to dodge. lol

Ha. Just the person I edited to avoid (bait??? Sometimes I don’t know my own motivations). However, in this case, I don’t think that was either stupid or pedantic. Stupid and pedantic is “I like being mediocre, you don’t speak for all of us.”

You’re point, in contrast, is rather thought provoking. It’s possible that ascended gear is really only a problem for those of us who walk the line between casual and hardcore. Casual in time available but hardcore in drive. (As far as I can tell you are the opposite, hardcore in time casual in drive) Combine that with being an altoholic and you have even a smaller subset of people. most people would just play one character and stick with it.

Nevertheless I will continue to advocate for my particular brand of idiocy.

The fact that the alt-unfriendly aspects of the game do not bother you does not mean they aren’t there. Just that they don’t bother you.

Seras.5702:

Since when does the term “alt-friendly” = all my alts automatically get the stuff I earned on another character? The logic applied to many of these arguments is ridiculous. Currencies are shared now so all your karma earned by your main can now be used to on your alt. Dungeon tokens are account bound. Titles are account bound. AP is account bound.

But just because I spend countless hours and gold earning something on my main, doesn’t mean my alts (of which I have 7) should automatically get free stuff.

There are a couple things that would be better if it were account wide. But things like fractal ranks…I think the idea is that Anet doesn’t want you bringing a fresh alt in rares with 0AR and little dungeon experience into a lvl 38 fractal, just cuz your warrior is geared hardcore.

It all depends on your point of view.

For many people, each character is a unique individual, a new story, that you are creating from scratch. From this point of view, soul bound makes sense but daily’s do not.

For other people, there is one player (me) playing on the account, whether they chose to play a warrior or an elementalist on any given day is irrelevant. From my point of view, I shouldn’t have to have less just because I play 5 characters instead of 1.

Edit: Also, I never asked for “free stuff” I asked for my alts to be able all share the same set of gear. I don’t want two Amulets, I want 1 that I can take off my warrior and put on my mesmer.

Draknar.5748:

TooBz.3065:

I understand where you are going from, but I think that account wide time gating is alt-unfriendly.

This isn’t well thought out, so I apologize for rambling / lack of coherence. But I think anytime you have a reward that is for a character (e.g. soulbound gear) that is purchased using a currency that is time limited at an account level (e.g. laurels) it’s alt-unfriendly.

Honestly, I think the entire issue I have is tied to the fact that items can’t be shared across the account. If they could then there would be little difference between having 1 toon and having 7. Having extra gear would be a convenience item to save time swapping.

But currently if I want a berker sword for my warrior, guardian, mesmer, and thief then I need to get 4 beserker swords, no sharing.

I actually agree with this. I wish we could go back to the old school MMO days where you could move armor and weapons around whenever.

I don’t agree you should be able to put it on TP though, because you have to have some level of consumption in the market otherwise everything would be worthless.

I think all soulbound gear should be account bound. That would solve a lot of these issues.

Absolutely. I was thinking something like an item would become account bound on equip instead of soul bound.