Guild Wars 2

To get that healing power / condition damage you can have a full set of ascended celestial armor and one divinity rune.

If this is correct, then the other runes are a set where the 6th rune isn’t worth it. Something like citadel.

From the other side, the current gold to gems ratio is too low to be worth buying gold (at least to me). 4.5g is just not worth a dollar.

I think part of the problem could be fixed if they just closed the gap between the two numbers. Perhaps 30% is too much. (I note that every other transaction has only a 15% tax)

Also… there is plenty of shame to go around. You are only thinking of yourself. How can you get more gem store goodies without spending real cash, and therefore are only interested in the player base that is like you.

Come up with a solution that a) doesn’t hurt the economy b) provides gem buyers with more value c) provides gem sellers with more value and d) doesn’t hurt ANet.

The capping solution provides less incentive to buy gems, which hurts ANet, and provides less value for the gems you have, which hurts players who buy gold (thought the gem store, of course), for the benefit of people with lots of time and gold.

The warrior should have been called barbarian and made a light armor class with medium health. That would have solved a fair number of complaints. Or, in the alternative, had no ranged options.

I haven’t received any Karma from one.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Just make a new character. If you have no extra slots to make a new one, Anet puts them on sale every now and then.

Because… soulbound.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Feature-Build-Balance-Preview

Key point

Critical Damage:
We’re adding a new stat to the game called ferocity which affects your critical damage multiplier, similarly to how precision affects critical chance.
All existing percentage critical damage stats on gear and items will be converted into the appropriate amount of ferocity, which will then factor into your critical damage multiplier.
We expect that in the most extreme power DPS focused builds this change will account for a maximum reduction of about 10% damage.
This change will not affect PvP, as critical damage is already at a much lower value and item attributes will be adjusted in order to compensate for the changes.

For me it’s a) nerfs – when I created my elementalist a year ago it felt like a god. How it feels like an ant. b) random drops – I just don’t have much luck in this game and it’s disappointing more or less all the time.

Latinkuro.9420:

You must be joking or trolling or both right ?
I’ve been playing since b4 launch and I have yet to see 1 kitten precursor either from drop or the kitten mystic toilet. That should tell you how horrible RNG is in this kitten game it;s about the only thing that might actually make me kitten quit this game I love so much.

Or an ascended drop, and I play every day and rarely miss a daily. It’s really enough to make me feel like the game hates me and I should move on.

Hey OP,

Ignore people who say that. They are either deliberately trolling or blindly attacking anything that threatens either a) their advantage or b) their preference for vertical progression.

And a full tank (exotic http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQFASjkOxwpQuQMxBA0DAAAgjCAAQfAAA-jkxAoLgsXR0YLjFRjVvgpLJiq94FRrGA-w, ascended http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQFASjkOxwpQuQMxBA0DAAAgjCAAQfAAA-jUBBofApmFRjtMqIasKbYqXER1A-w)

skipping the math, because use a spreadsheet.

But the difference is 12% more damage.

So if you really want to talk about how ascended gear doesn’t matter, please explain to me why 8-13% additional damage is insignificant.

lets look at a tanky build

Exotic http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQFASjkOxwpQuQMxBA0DAAAgjCAAQfAAA-j0xAoLgsXR0YLjFRjVtgpKTq+UQ2bUEtaA-w
Ascended http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQFASjkOxwpQuQMxBA0DAAAgjCAAQfAAA-jkBBofApmFRjtMqIas6aYKXJVFTQGA-w

1166 * 2110 * (1 + .21 * 1.09) = x * 1111 * 2060 * (1 + .22 * 1.01)
3023414 = x * 2797200

x = 1.0809

So even a tanky build gets 8.09% more damage out of ascended gear.

I never understand how a piece of knights armor can be enough to make you a “bad” but ascended advantages are insignificant.

Note: this ignores infusions, which just make the difference greater

Math (hold on)
damage = weapon damage * power * skill coefficient (skill) * (1 + crit chance (cc) * crit damage (cd) ) / armor

using ‘a’ as a prefix for ascended
power = p
skill coefficient = skill
crit change = cc
crid damage = cd
armor = armor
x = multiplier to compare ascended to exotic

you get:

awd * ap * skill * (1 + acc * acd) / armor = x * wd * p * skill * (1 + cc * cd) / armor

simplifying you get

awd * ap * (1 + acc * acd) = x *wd * p * (1 + cc * dd)

Using Nike’s dungeon running warrior build
For exotic, I’m using http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQFARjkOxwpQuQMxBAzDAAAgLDAAQfAAA-jkxAYLgkXR0YLuFRjVtgpKJiq9GFRrGA-w
For ascended, I’m using http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQFARjkOxwpQuQMxBAzDAAAgLDAAQfAAA-jUBBYfAZmFRjt4qIas6aYKXER1A-w

1155 * 2468 * (1 + .51 * (.94 + .5)) = x * 1100 * 2383 * (1 + .49 * (.84 + .5))
1155 * 2468 * (1 + .51 * 1.44) = x * 1100 * 2383 * ( 1 +.49 * 1.34)
2850540 * 1.7344 = x * 2621300 * 1.6566
4943977 = x * 4342446

X = 4943977 / 4342446 = 1.1385

Therefore, full ascended berserker gear is at least 13.85% more effective (DPS) than the same build with exotic gear.

Cali.1209:

I thought you needed to mystic forge nuggets, not pebbles, in order for a chance at a silver doubloon?

Pebbles can give a copper or silver doubloon, nuggets can give a silver or platinum doubloon.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

TooBz.3065:

2-4 per week is a very, very high success rate. You must be very lucky in this game.

I usually get about 2 per week, but RNG blesses me every now and then with more. I’ve never gotten more than 4 in a seven day span (Monday to Sunday) though.

That’s pretty much in line with what I’ve seen. Usually 2 sometimes more.

2-4 per week is a very, very high success rate. You must be very lucky in this game.

I have no problem admitting that I don’t want to work for BIS gear. I don’t have a problem with work, but I do it at work.

This is my leisure time and I don’t want to do anything in the game that feels like work.

People play MMOs for different reasons, some people like progression, some like the social aspects, and some exploration. My personal preference is high on the exploration and social aspects and very very low on the progression aspects.

laokoko.7403:

Can you actually crit hit wurm. I think people can get away with just ascended jewel and weapon, and I doubt the difference is that big.

Beside I’m sure Penguin is in full ascended and legendary gear.

Yeah, most people who say you don’t need something usually already have it.

Thanks, I wanted to learn how different classes work, and now that I have, I don’t know what to do with them.

Once they reach level 80 are they camped at a jumping puzzle or at a harvesting node? Or is there another use for them I can’t think of.

silvermember.8941:

Death Prosecutor.8713:

Anet’s Pre release hype was “no more grind”, basically realizing the “grind” issues and how disenchanted players of GW were with it. Now we have the Ascended Armor / FOTM “Grind”. What the heck Anet? Was pre release hype re: No grind just a con job? Would seem a bit hypocritical to me. This games direction is going to vertical in my opinion. I think Anet is shooting itself in the foot!

Arenanet made that game but within the first month realized that a lot more people actually wanted grind in their MMORPG because once they hit level cap, they had nothing to work on. the people they were trying to attract with the no grind, were not significant enough to sustain the game long term and to generate profit, so they did what any company that wants to stay in business do, they change and gave the people want they wanted. for example, a lot of gw1 players did not transition due to the changes in the combat system and click to move, others wanted gw1 but with updated graphics, the point being gw1 fans became insignificant to the success with gw2 adn once they realized that began cutting all threads relating to it except the b2p model. They also thought that dynamic event was going to be endgame, but people only seem to care about DE when there is some type of reward attached to it. The point being their design intentions did not match the reality of the market.

—snip—

Unless someone from ANet told you this, it’s conjecture.

mercury ranique.2170:

Ascended armor is totally optional. The amount of extra armor/stats is very minimal and tbh, if you need that minimal change to be a good player, you are doing something wrong. So it is a convinience and also a golddrain.

I agree on the Armor, not really worth it. Disagree on ascended items in general (which is the topic). Ascended weapons give a free 5% damage buff ignoring stat increases. Which I don’t think is minimal.

RainbowSyrup.4130:

TooBz.3065:

RainbowSyrup.4130:

Death Prosecutor.8713:

I do have patience! I have played GW2 diligently since release day, have tolerated it’s early months of bug filled gaming. I have 5 lvl 80’s, three characters with maxed crafting lvl’s, a number of ascended weapons and celestial armor. I however wouldn’t pay time or gold, or grind for the ascended. Besides, I don’t really care for it’s appearance and the difference in stats doesn’t warrant the effort anyway.

Don’t you think you’re contradicting yourself a bit here? You don’t care for the appearance or the stats, so why are you complaining? You don’t NEED it. It’s for the people who ENJOY the extra character progression. You can do anything in this game without ascended armor.

What about people who enjoy BIS gear and don’t enjoy tedium? I swear, everyone in this forum assumes that everyone likes the same thing. If I want BIS gear then I need to get ascended gear, and getting ascended gear is terrible.

I also enjoy making builds and performing tweaks to get the best performance out of my characters. But If I want to “tweak” something about ascended gear I need at least a week and (for weapons and armor) about 20 gold.

If you want BiS gear, work for it.

You are implicitly assuming that what you like is superior to what I like (which is not true, because I don’t care about what you like). You are also very dismissive of my points, which is rude.

How about we get rid of ascended gear and those of you who like character progression just work on legendaries?

There was plenty of potential character progression before ascended gear, but you (collectively, not individually) were not willing to work for it.

Doggie.3184:

Vol.7601:

No.

Ascended Armor is very expensive and gives value to all the components. It promotes trade and acts as a gold sink whenever people buy/sell these components.

There’s enough affixes, armor types, skins and weapons to make something like that barely effected if at all. I could understand that being your reason if I was talking about making Ascended stuff have changeable stats like Legendary ones but I’m not. I don’t want to throw ascended weapons in the garbage because I nolonger want to use that build.

For some people in this game, the entire thing is a great big economic simulator. Of course, to keep the simulation running people have to have enough fun to keep playing when viable alternatives are presented.

RainbowSyrup.4130:

Death Prosecutor.8713:

I do have patience! I have played GW2 diligently since release day, have tolerated it’s early months of bug filled gaming. I have 5 lvl 80’s, three characters with maxed crafting lvl’s, a number of ascended weapons and celestial armor. I however wouldn’t pay time or gold, or grind for the ascended. Besides, I don’t really care for it’s appearance and the difference in stats doesn’t warrant the effort anyway.

Don’t you think you’re contradicting yourself a bit here? You don’t care for the appearance or the stats, so why are you complaining? You don’t NEED it. It’s for the people who ENJOY the extra character progression. You can do anything in this game without ascended armor.

What about people who enjoy BIS gear and don’t enjoy tedium? I swear, everyone in this forum assumes that everyone likes the same thing. If I want BIS gear then I need to get ascended gear, and getting ascended gear is terrible.

I also enjoy making builds and performing tweaks to get the best performance out of my characters. But If I want to “tweak” something about ascended gear I need at least a week and (for weapons and armor) about 20 gold.

I leveled a second mesmer to have one condition set and one power based. I ended up deleting the condition mesmer, but that has more to do with the cost of outfitting a character rather than anything else.

I also enjoy the leveling process.

Belzebu.3912:

I’m not a hardcore player at all (I play about 2 hours a day), and I hate any sort of grind, and still I crafted my legendary about the same time as the ascended weapons appeared and I finished my ascended armor almost 1 month about its launch.

Most of the people whining about the grind are the ones that only do QD or FG trains, so they lack some of the ascended materials, or are the people that only play the TP and buy everything, except the items that can’t be bought, so they would need to “grind” to get them.

Really, if you play just a bit of everything like a few hours of WvW per week, do a couple world bosses a day and do the guild missions, you’ll be flooded with the ascended materials.

Ugh! I just said I don’t want to debate this anymore and along comes something I can’t ignore.

I hate the champ trains as much as I hate ascended gear (I mean I don’t give a kitten if other people champ train, I just find it boring). I hate grinding anything and I love variety and change.

At least some people who dislike ascended gear dislike it because they want to mix things up (different classes and different builds) without being at a 5-10% power deficit.

Ision.3207:

Fascinating thread, and the comments made by the majority of posters is fascinating as well. Just imagine the majority response to this topic a mere 12 months ago …

So my oh my, just look how the demographics of the Gw2 player base changed since November of 2012!

Well done Anet; you pulled it off.

I assume you are referring to the general pro-ascended / grind sentiment. I hate ascended gear and think it’ s terrible in all aspects. Nothing good came from it.

However, I also don’t care anymore to debate the subject, I’ve said my peace and was ignored. There is no reasonable way to know if ascended gear saved the game, will eventually kill it, or neither.

zenleto.6179:

And for those of us who like our characters to be separated from each other, to individually progress on their own, what would we get out if it?

I’m sure both of you would manage.

I also fail to understand how RNG dye drops (or BLTP purchases with shared funeds) are progression . But that’s just me.

John Smith.4610:

Given the input/output of materials and their value to players I would hypothesize that players find many outputs of crafting worthwhile for one reason or another.

An example, I pulled the approximate amount of crafting materials destroyed in the time I took to read this post and the number I received was 136,909 items. There’s a high demand and velocity of crafting materials, which I would say is good evidence that there must be something to do with those crafting materials.

Thanks for posting! The information you give out is always so interesting.

Well we just transferred in, and so far have been very happy. But to each his own.

Um… I’m on Dragonbrand and I don’t have any such trouble. Of course, I quit doing the Marrionette. I did succeed three times before I moved back into other things.

Reverence.6915:

Eh, skipping 8 pages of fluff.

I come from a grindy MMO background. From Runescape, to Maplestory, to Perfect World etc. I play a lot of Diablo 3 and Borderlands 2 to get my daily fix of grinding.

GW2 has very little grind. None for levels, none for armour. Your armour and level improves with player progression. The only thing I would consider a grind is Glory, which ANet is removing anyway.

Running maybe 2 dungeons a week and spending all my remaining game time in WvW has gotten my level 80s geared with exotics and ascended, only some armour skins being bought off the TP cause WvW skins are pretty ugly.

If you consider Legendaries being a grind, then I suggest you go and actually play MMOs with game completion rewards. They’re far more time consuming to obtain than GW2’s legendaries, which can be obtained in under a month of “hardcore” play.

When comparing two things, if the first is better than the second does not mean that the first is good.

That may be too abstract, let me spell it out. Just because Maple story (or whatever) has more grind than GW2 does not mean that GW2 does not have grind or that the level of grind is acceptable.

I don’t feel betrayed, but I do feel disappointed.

Whether it’s because they made statements that I misinterpreted or they made statement that they later turned their back on is irrelevant. As I will say everytime this comes up. It’s a waste of time to debate the manifesto.

People have been asking about this since ascended gear was introduced over a year ago. I remember that at one point, ArenaNet said is was coming soon. But that was probably almost a year ago.

They probably aren’t coming until ascended jewel crafting.

Guild wars 2 also has entitled and spoiled brats who think that they can dictate to everyone else how the game must be played. “Don’t use these classes”, “use this spec”, “use these weapons”, “don’t do that”, “do this”, “ping gear”…

bah.

Not everyone has every build made for PvE. WvW builds could change a lot (that is become substantially weaker) because of this change.

Also, weakening crit damage shifts the balance between critical damage and power (that is, for example, it may be better to take Soldier’s gear over a combination of Cavalier and Valkyrie)

If you hover over each zone on the map it should tell you if it’s complete. Can you identify the zone that’s missing one?

Rugnars Steading in the Wayfarer foothills it easy to miss.

They drop from… <titter> … anyplace… <hee hee hee>… that drops <haa haaa haa> ascended crafting <bwhaaa haa ahaaaa> materials…. <sob>

Also, I think there’s something wrong when the optimal build for many power classes is to have crit damage on everything.

When the game launched 1 silver was a decent amount of money. Today, not so much. As the economy inflates (yes inflation) there is less reason to do those events.

The events take 5-10 minutes and pay 1 silvers. That’s up to 12 silvers an hour! Or two gems worth of gold!

Honestly, I don’t care at all about PvE. It’s a fun, but it’s not really difficult. I care more about WvW, which I think is more interesting.

While I can’t predict the full extent of the impact of this change, nerfing critical damage may help change some of the ganking dynamic, which is good for the game (IMO). As things currently stand, if a thief gets the drop on you, you’re pretty much dead, unless it’s a really bad thief and you are a really good player. After the change, some of the initial burst will be toned down some.

I don’t see that as a necessarily bad change.

While I agree that there should be warning before something like this happens. Running with the zerg is just like the champ train. It’s not very skill intensive, and instead of loot you are earning levels. Level 30 can happen much less than a week.

Ok. Sorry, I was assuming that you were just trying to kick a hornets nest, and, for me, the nerve is dead (almost).

In a nutshell, I would say that soulbound items are alt-unfriendly. Ascended gear makes it worse. I want to go and play the parts of the game I enjoy (WvW, map exploration) without worrying about getting BiS gear.

I also like variety. I enjoy my mesmer, thief, warrior, guardian, elementalist, and necro, but I don’t want to spend a lot of time gearing them up. The current system requires that I spend way too much time / resources on gear.

“So don’t” is the inevitable reply. Yeah…

Mazreal Blackknight.1564:

My post was non judgemental. I didn’t understand the term. I asked for clarification.

Because, IMO, this post is reintroducing an old fight that I thought we had finished discussing months go. Frankly, I don’t care anymore. I’m just here waiting for the next thing to come along.

Look up the old posts if you want to know how people feel. If you want to fight, do it with someone else. I’ll delete my post.

Depends on the game you’re talking about. For many RPGs, you can pass gear freely between party members. (Dragon Age: Origins for example, Baldur’s Gate, etc…). To me, Guild Wars 2 feels more like that, rather than a single player experience. I have a team of characters, and only one can be present at any given time. (like forming a party of one).

From this perspective, the idea of soul bound gear makes absolutely no sense. The only reason to do it is to prolong the amount of time someone spends in game getting the gear.

IMO, guild wars 2 is not alt-friendly based simply on the fact that if Guild War 2 were the way it is now a year and a half ago, I would never have created an alt.

Thank you for fixing this so quickly. Your efforts are appreciated.

Personally, I don’t mind the change. I do mind re-grinding gear for the 3 alts I still play regularly.

kylwilson.9137:

Oh please.

If this works towards putting and end to ‘stacking’, then everyone who is so clingy to the current state of the Zerker meta and eat it frankly.

Good lord some (most) people. This Zerker meta has been so cancerous. It’s still going to be the primary choice for those looking for this abhorrent playstyle. Less emphasis on the style part of the word.

IMO, this change will do nothing to change the PvE zerker meta. it will still be just as “cancerous” as before, the playstyle just as “abhorrent.”

Just like the introduction of ascended gear, this does nothing in PvE. The effects will be felt elsewhere, where the challenge is more complex that stack and DPS.

(note: I enjoy dungeons, but like any puzzle, they’ve been solved. Without changing the mechanics in the dungeon, changing armor does nothing).

As a min max type person myself, I think this could have a substantial impact, but not in PvE. Zerker’s will still be the gear of choice. Assassin’s gear is likely dead.

However, depending on the size of the nerf, it may have a greater impact in WvW, where some vitality and toughness are important.

In my case, my theorycrafting suggests that I will be slightly better off to get new equipment rather than keeping what I currently have. (mainly because Power becomes more important relative to Crit Damage, therefore two pieces of soldier gear is better than a piece of valkyrie and cavalier).

Suddenflame.2601:

ronpierce.2760:

Incorrect. The reward is completely necessary when going from Exotic to Ascended if you play wvw.

It is not necessary. A person in masterwork armour could pawn a person in exotic armour as it has been done many times before. You apparently do not play WvW enough. There is hardly any instance that your on par with someone else skill level. In WvW your more likely to be part of the zerg therefore your rank of armour will have very little effect on the whole. Also, WvW is competitive Server vs. server not person vs. person level.

I hate this argument. It’s terrible. Basically, someone asserts that all things being equal ascended gear gives an advantage in WvW and you state that all things are never equal.

In reality, you can’t argue that doing damage is important in WvW and that doing more damage is better than doing less damage. Having more toughness is better than having less toughness. Etc…

Of course, Ascended gear isn’t the only factor in individual success in WvW. Skill and numbers play a role. But it’s disingenuous (and frankly undermines credibility) to claim its not a factor.