The Temporary grind.
They’ve already acknowledged the roll out was flawed, and they are making ascended gear easier to obtain.
I will believe that when I see it:
as far as I remember Whiteside said there will be additional ways to obtain it, that they might make it cheaper to craft and that he wants to make it less grind. But he also said, he decided to roll the ascended gear out the way it is currently – why did he do that then?
They said back in 2011 that they would increase the level cap, and again during the AMA they said it. The intention was always there, and they have said it during development. It was a fact that was ignored or glossed over.
But there´s a big difference now to pre-release and the original version of the game and to what everyone expected: exotics are not that hard to get and everyone expected to easily get max stats again on level 90 (or whatever), the grind for ascended gear makes this completely different.
And yes, this should not be overlooked when we discuss ascended gear and what it takes for us to get it now: it may all be outdated with a new level-cap next year.
The infusion increase over time could easily be limited purely to FotM.
As even the blue infusions have already additional stats besides agony I wouldn´t believe that.
Yes, it´s no treadmill so far but it´s also not “easy max stats” either anymore.
And we will see progression, maybe not with higher tiers but with legendary armor, higher level cap then 80, . . . and if I would have to get legendaries someday for the best stats I´ll ritually set my copy of the game on fire.
(edited by hydeaut.1758)
That´s one of the points I don´t understand: he knows it´s an awfull grind and he must have known it before – but why did they make it such a grind then?
I suspect they balls’d up the metrics and now are back-pedalling. Which is awesome imo as this means they appreciate their mistake and they appreciate the community.
The issue surrounding ‘grind’ is that it is completely subjective.
Yes, grind is subjective but Whiteside also wrote, they expected that people would be upset. The only conclusion which would make sense to me: they are trying out how far they can go with the grind, trying to keep players as occupied as possible.
If I would be even more suspicious: they knew people would be upset, so they set the grind higher than they really intended, only to come here one week later saying: we listen to our community and make in “only” half that grind.
Either way, I don´t like that direction.
Nevertheless I appreciate the AMA and the effort taken for that and I feel less like better leaving the game soon.
That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.
That´s one of the points I don´t understand: he knows it´s an awfull grind and he must have known it before – but why did they make it such a grind then?
He also stated they MIGHT make it less of a grind, not that they certainly will if they find other ways around it. In my eyes there´s still a chance we´ll get only alternative ways of grinding.
I would like to know a few things concerning FotM:
- what´s the max-level to reach?
- don´t they see that they are splitting up the players with such a system and make it harder on all levels to find groups?
- why didn´t they take some point-based system instead where also a lvl 10+ could still get atleast a little progress by doing lower levels?
Besides I´m really curious about what he really thinks about the ascended gear and the giant grind for it (besides the lame excuse with giving a goal on the way to a legendary, don´t let him get away with that), but that´s already in here.
Another possible flaw of FotM and advantage of the better gear: people can stop progressing at a certain high level and just keep farming the easiest of the dungeons 24/7 for best loot in short time.
‘’oh heck yeah another condition like spectral agony, so how could i counter it with my current given set of tools.’’
You could only counter it with your guild-mates and friends because a random group wouldn´t take you with them on a higher level without proper gear.
I wouldn´t be surprised if receipts for ascended rings would be discovered in the near future – with even higher costs.
And they will add more ascended items in the near future which won´t be cheaper if this kitten here works for them, this is just the beginning.
In fact, I know that’s the case, because 99% of LA didn’t even know about ascended gear.
Yes, you´re probably right here, the majority may not be against ascended gear and you gave the best reason why – though, don´t know why, your arguments seem still kind of flawed to me.
I better get over to the other thread where a handfull of whiners made over 10000 postings in a few days, maybe I´ll find out.
I had a guild-member on last evening, he even hadn´t heard of ascended items already.
I´m sure there are tons of people not on the forums – but the forums and related links are the best source of information what´s coming here, most still very slowly and disguised.
If everyone ingame had to take a look for example at the wiki-page for ascended items and what it needs to get them and has an idea about the stats, things would already look different ingame.
This idea with runes won´t work because Anet would have to balance those runes against ascended gear, making those runes so hard or expensive to get, it wouldn´t help a bit.
Better take a look on the new ascended items and how much they take to craft before deciding what to do with T6-mats – or before deciding to better quit this game .
Last night I already saw a guy post his first 100 Fractal-dungeon tokens in map-chat – hurry up or you will be left behind!
Last night I already saw a guy post his first 100 Fractal-dungeon tokens in map-chat.
So this is just the beginning, within a few weeks you will be left out if you have no proper infusions.
No weapon-stats on kits will become even relatively worse with ascended weapons/better stats on legendaries.
read this:
“Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. PvP will remain unaffected to ensure our intended PvP balance going forward.”
They also said, that the new gear is intended to be a kind of substitute for those who want a goal that doesn´t take as much time as a legendary.
In other words: it probably will still take a lot more time and effort to get ascended gear compared to exotics! So no more easy max-stats for casuals!!! Welcome to grind-wars 2!!!
(edited by hydeaut.1758)
It´s true, we don´t know the outcome compared with runes – but now take a look at the tradepost and see what by far the most expensive rune is: rune of divinity = pure stats with biggest budget, nothing else.
Where the thousands of hours of grinding? its a dungeon…one that everyone will do…wheres the tier of gear? its kittening 2 stat point increase per stat…
The posted ring has about +7,9% power and precision and even around +42% magic find and an infusion-slot on top of it.
This is a game with open-pvp/WvW where any slightest advantage is used! If you consider this stats-increase even without infusion as meaningless, you prove that you have no idea what you´re talking about!
It´s the same in PvE – who uses rares if he can have exotics? As a result you can dump all exotics and all professions which can´t craft better items into the trash.
And this only 2 months after release and against a core-part of the dev´s philosophy for GW. How desperate or stupid must someone be to do such a thing?
2 months after release and Anet throws the most important rule for item-scaling over board? Are you guys from Anet nuts or what? Don´t you realize that your problems massively loosing population mostly are due to other troubles?
And IF you give better stats, they must be equally available through crafting, WvW, Kharma, not only through running stupid dungeons all over again. Anet, you´re going to make things far worse, not better with such a kneejerk reaction!
I also felt powerless at some point when leveling up, untill I started using Flamethrower.
As already mentioned FT is weak at 80 compared to an exotic weapon but usually stronger then guns you will have on lower levels, so probably worth a try.
But be aware that the damage-numbers you see on FT #1 are adding up which each tick (and not showing the damage per tick, same as pistol #2 and also on grenade-barrage).
And I always feel a little bad when I see Casia stating theoretical damage-numbers for grenades as it´s not enough for the target to be within the green circle to be really hit by all grenades, the target should stand in the middle.
I dare say, if players have a hard time surviving, then they might, just might, try working together.
I dare say, if Anet makes Orr harder I would do the same like most of my guild-mates already did: quit GW2 and play games which are less annoying.
Concerning reviving other players: if possible take a look whom you revive. It´s bad, seeing groups of bots running around, it´s worse seeing how they are revived when they sometimes are downed.
(edited by hydeaut.1758)
Orrichalcum, Mithril and other nodes.
I spend almost every day a few hours there, I really hate those undead and their fast respawn, making any NPC-kill a waste – and Anet for forcing me to go there.
Anyone already came across those wonderfull roots sometimes which cripple over and over again and put multiple bleeding-stacks on you? Yes, that´s “pure fun”, just what I expect a game to be . . .
I played around with grenade barrage and different builds on Golems in the mist and saw that – unless the Golem wasn´t exactly in the middle of the green targeting-circle – usually only 4 of the 6 grenades where hitting. Which makes this even more poor theory-crafting.
@ Hydeaut:
Have you ever tried farming on an elementalist? They may have the most visible abilities, but they just barely tag if you time your skills just right, and meteor storm is unreliable. You might not be able to see that axe 5 warrior standing in the ele spell effects though.
With my elementalist, I used to enjoy farming Shelter / Penitent events… until the Halloween patch. I dropped 2-3 rare items per event most of the time.
Maybe you are doing something wrong?
A long range, direct targeted weapon.
Preferable one that doesn’t rely on condition damage.
Yes, and I would like to see our weapons do what weapons are supposed to do: doing compareable direct damage.
In pistol-builds the conditions are doing the damage (with offhand-pistol doing no damage at all on more than close distance), in rifle-builds the real damage comes from toolbelt-skills and lightning-trait.
Kits either suck damagewise or are only good in certain situations and when traited (grenades, bombs)
Try to do these events on another class and be ashamed for whining here!
The truth is elementalists are probably the best farming-class and received most of the loot at penitent before, leaving nothing for (most) other classes (2 – 3 rares at penitent camp – you have no idea what other classes received here, maybe a few skulls and white trash if not grouped)
You should be gratefull, that Anet didn´t change the whole tagging and loot system (which they won´t and probably even can´t), keeping your elementalist still overpowered compared to other classes when it comes to farming.
I agree. But isn’t slot 2 napalm ball?
I sure think napalm ball is a useless skills, it provides less damage then the regular attack, and it misses ALL the time!
The explosion at distance does good damage.
But comparing damage with flamethrower slot 1 (flame jet) there´s probably a popular trap: damage-numbers from flame jet are not per tick, they always show the added damage from all ticks.
Yes, auto-aim wouldn´t do good.
But I wish they would add auto-attack – only preventing the #1 mashing – while keeping the ground/mouse-pointer targeting.
ONLY penitent camp-event at primetime proofs what the best farming classes are, everything else is just fooling around!
Because in the end it boils down to players spamming area-damage on the mob-spawns also in other events, killing them before they even become visible on short range.
I have an engineer and my experience is similar to Ghoest: in an event where NPCs can at least move a little (while already being vulnerable) instead of going down instantly in one spot my area-damage gives me plenty of loot, at penitent camp though my grenade-spam might only get me a few skulls or other white trash (usually running with 150 – 160 magic find).
Heard from an Elementalist in my guild that he can do quite better (with the right skills).
(edited by hydeaut.1758)
I´m sure loot drops work in some way like frOst stated above, I only would add the Magic-find-stats into the formula.
Try it, participate in one of those mega-farming events in Orr where groups of twenty mobs or more are melted 2 seconds after they get vulnerable and you will recognize the most important part here fast and very clearly:
- the number of possible loot-drops from one NPC is limited for participating players
- more damage, more magic find = more drops
- in the end this results in players with high and fast area-damage almost excluding other players from getting any loot at all!!!
This is certainly the case for all event-mobs, not only Orr and it seems also to be the case for Veterans/Champions and maybe even for bosses.
So in the end we all will need to have a high-geared Ele if we want to have some income or mats from NPC-loot!! (or otherwise will have to spend 10x the time to get comparable drops)
(edited by hydeaut.1758)