Guild Wars 2

Lord Kuru.3685:

mrstealth.6701:

There was a dev comment in one of the league threads about how the 12th rank server might not have a chance vs rank 1, but they could stand a chance against rank 6. Well, YB is 11, and DB is 6. I think it’s fair to say he was quite wrong.

Really?!?! That truly shows how much the devs are completely out of touch.

Here, I found it.

The comment posted.

If you really think the server that is ranked 12th at the start of this stands any chance against the top servers you are delusional.

And Devon Carver’s reply to it.

I never said they did. However, I’d argue that they do in fact stand a chance against the 6th ranked server and the 5th ranked server. We are not trying to only ever match you up against your closest comparable server. That was what was happening with the system before and it was bad. If you are saying you don’t ever even want the chance to try and show your skill against a higher ranked server, then I don’t know what to say.
We will continue to look into ways to change scoring to try and even out some of the population based imbalances, but that is not an easy task and it won’t happen during the season.

I’ve got no problem trying to show skill vs a high ranked server, but there is no skill involved with a server than can fill 3 maps 24/7 vs a server with a morning (NA) population of 15.

And we’re the more “even” server in the matchup against DB. Kain is another 3 ranks below us, and 8 ranks below DB. The fact that ranks 6 and 14 can end up in the same matchup is proof that this entire system is a joke.

There was a dev comment in one of the league threads about how the 12th rank server might not have a chance vs rank 1, but they could stand a chance against rank 6. Well, YB is 11, and DB is 6. I think it’s fair to say he was quite wrong.

The leagues are going to be a nightmare. I’m so looking forward to having to face SoR, JQ, and BG.

Esuni.2498:

And yes the GvGers want their own arena but everything they say is being deleted or ignored. the people who post about GvG tend to get infracted or banned.
This made a snowballing effect of negativity and anger which is seen now.

I’d like to see a dedicated game mode, or even an instance within WvW, added for the GvGers. I’ve seen some good examples in this thread of why posts are deleted. I know it’s just a part of the GvG community doing it, but that aggression, sense of entitlement/self-importance, and outright attacking or insulting other WvWers does not help anyone. I understand trying to defend something you enjoy, but they have to consider the effects thier wishes have on everyone else.

Dr Acula.3496:

Those were simply examples I gave. You also have people roaming for fights that arent taking objectives which also uses up slots in your precious queue as well as people randomly dueling etc. How long are those people going to sit in a BL and take up a slot that one of the mindless zerging sheeple could occupy? So a GvG takes approx 1 hour, and the moment its over those people involved shift focus to either roaming and supporting the WvW war effort or they log off.

A lot of the roamers on my server do take sentries and camps, or prevent kill enemies that would have capped them. They also provide information on enemy presence and movement. This helps our server earn and keep PPT. This is contributing a lot more than the 40-50 players that are intentionally avoiding doing anything helpful to their servers.

Mindless zergs might be commonplace on many servers, but that is certainly not the common practice on YB. The majority of us in WvW are there to participate in WvW in whatever way we can.

Dr Acula.3496:

And who sir, are you, to say what something within a game should and should not be used for? Sure this game type may be called WvW but that doesnt mean there isnt an abundance of non WvW related activites that take place here IE people grabbing Poi, SPs, gathering nodes, doing a fight club, trolling around with a tonic, etc etc. None of these things contribute to your PPT which you seem to have such a massive erection for. I don’t see how having a GvG is manipulating WvW to anyones advantage.

You can get SPs, POIs, and gather nodes while participating in WvW. Most of them are at, or very near, other objectives. Getting POIs and vistas usually involve capturing the structure where it’s located. This is also a very short distraction for a single player, not 40-50 players distracted by a large scale battle. I can mine a node in a matter of seconds, how long does a GvG take?

Troop.1369:

This is World vs World.

This guy just can’t be the voice for WvW, he’s after an ideology that’s not implemented in the game.

Actually even, GvG guys are trying to break or manipulate a mode to their advantage.

That is exactly what it is. This is a small part of the community with some very vocal members that seem to think their needs are more important than want Anet or the majority wants. I do agree that the upcoming bloodlust buff is bad for everyone, but core problem is the players expecting WvW updates that cater to something that was never supposed to exist.

GvG doesn’t bring anything to WvW other than entertainment for the guilds involved. Having the ability to disable the bloodlust buff would be pointless for a WvWer. There is no reason why I would ever want to intentionally lower my character’s stats for WvW.

Anet made their stance on the guilds’ lack of a role in PvP clear long before release. Why would they want to make changes to encourage GvG matches that can negatively impact WvW?

I can respect what you GvGers have created, but some of you need to understand that what you’re doing is using a game mode for something it is not supposed to be used for. You can’t expect Anet to cater to your community when it brings no benfits to, but can potentially harm, the much larger WvW community.

Istaf.1953:

They’re not catering for WvW players either. The new buff will only enhance the coverage war problem, not the zerg problem. This update is bad for everyone, especially servers with low coverage. They should take out the buff aspect of the middle points, while keeping the “stab for points” aspect. Everyone wins.

Yep, that’s one thing I mentioned. Looking at this week’s matchup for YB, those points would just be more of an advantage to Dragonbrand’s ability to have a large force on every map for a considerable portion of the day. They could easily afford the players to hold those points, while still have enough of a force to stomp over every keep because there aren’t enough to defend them.

If anything, this buff should be part of the outnumbered buff. That was actually quite requested back before Orbs were removed. Swapping the old outmanned and orb buffs.

Istaf.1953:

What does that have to do with anything? I’m not shouting “the game is called guild wars, therefore there should be guild battles”. Saying that is arbitrary. What is not arbitrary is that larger 20v20 fights is fun in this game for a lot of people. While it’s called GvG, you could also call sPvP GvG assuming it was two guilds fighting.

I’m not claiming that you are, but it’s something I’ve seen mentioned many times in relation to those wanting a GvG mode. It just seems to be a quite common misconception.

I do agree that bloodlust is a bad idea for both communities. It’s another way for servers with far superior numbers to gain even more of an advantage and is a definite imbalance for GvGs.

However, it is possible that both GvG teams will have the bloodlust buff. They are server-wide (across all 4 maps) so as long as each team has no or 1 bloodlust stack, it can be balanced. The problem is that any capturing of the new points during the GvG could change this.

You also have to consider that Anet might not want this happening. There is a community for it, but that is still a small portion of the playerbase. If they don’t think that community is large enough to go through the effort of making a new gametype, then that won’t happen. And, as unfortunate as it may be, they aren’t likely to change their intentions for WvW to cater to that community’s needs.

Tachenon.5270:

mrstealth.6701:

They drop as a chest with a set stat combo, and you pick the weapon you want of that stat. If you get a Wupwup Weapon Chest, you’ll be able to pick any ascended weapon type with Celestial stat.

Is the chest soulbound? I’m assuming it must be…

I think they’re account bound.

Istaf.1953:

Pretty much every GvGer has been asking for that already. The problem is devs aren’t even acknowledging GvG exist, and seem to want to cover it up.

Unfortunately, it’s not something they wanted to be in the game. Guilds were intended to be a social aspect, not a competitive one. It might be called “Guild Wars”, but the name is lore reference, not a indication of wars between guilds being a part of the game. It’s quite amazing that this community does exist, but you have to realize you are going directly against the grain on what Anet intended for WvW.

That does make it a hard push to make them change their minds. That applies to every part of the game, even PvE. There are many things being asked for there, while what we get are the opposite, or totally unrelated/unwanted changes. All I can say is keeping pushing for it, and try to minimize any possible negative impact on WvW with your matches.

Try to avoid times when full queues are likely, so you’re not keeping out WvWers.

If the server not participating in the GvG decides to take advantage of the reduced WvW force, respond to calls for help or clear the queue so others may enter.

As someone mentioned above, players tend to not interfere with GvG matches, so I think it’s reasonable to expect the same courtesy from GvGers in regards to the WvW match. The two communities can exist together.

Istaf.1953:

Anet really needs to address this. It’s a community made PvP arena that’s somewhat underground, and has that many people interested in it. If they made it official only more people would join in. This has never happened in such a large scale in any other MMO I’ve played. How can they just ignore it?

In all honestly it’s amazing it even works now. Though at anytime people can mess up a GvG, it rarely happens. There’s nothing from stopping the people watching from jumping in, or the other people on map coming to screw with it, but it doesn’t happen. In general It’s respected by players and to me that level of cooperation in a online game with little to nothing being said is amazing and demands attention from the devs

I do agree that Anet should embrace the idea. There is a community with a strong desire for it, and they should get a dedicated place to do this. Some of the GvG community needs to realize this, though. Stop worrying about so staunchly defending your presence in the WvW maps, and push for your own game mode to be added.

If that does get added, you’ll have a place to do GvGs in peace, and still be able to WvW anytime you want. It’s a win for both sides of this.

Jinks.2057:

Let me debunk most of what the naysayers are typing here:

Statement: GvG hurts WvW players
Answer: GvGers paid their $60 just like you and play how they WANT to play. Just like I could xfer a 1000 man guild to your server, fill up a map, and sit there in spawn causing you to lose the week. You can’t do kitten about it …let’s not get into Jumping Puzzles, Grub, etc. mmkay?

Actually, that would be considered match manipulation and would likely result in a lot of banning. Although I would only consider it so myself if there were large amounts of player involved, GvG could fall under the same category.

They paid their $60 and can play any way that Anet deems acceptable.

Gabby.3205:

IMO, it should have been done the other way round. Instead of it giving us a stat combo and then letting us pick the weapon, it should give us a weapon and let us pick the stat combo.

I don’t know why they chose to go the other way. I know if I ever do get a drop, it’s going to be some stat I have no use for. At least with a set weapon, and selectible stats, there is a higher chance of getting something useful. This is especially true for those that have alts, even if it’s just one alt.

It would make even more sense to have them drop as a token, so we can then go pick a weapon from an NPC trader.

Magnetron.5823:

Dear GvG Community,

I know you guys are begging for some structured group combat, but I have to inform and educate you guys about something.

This is WvW.

End of story, If they want to implement stuff for WvW they have the right to do it. So please stop the complaining.

GvG wont happening anytime soon, it has been said a few times already. Deal with it.

I have to agree with this.

While I do respect the community the GvG’ers have created, you have to realize that your actions can be selfish and damaging to the server/WvW community has a whole. I would not be pleased with 25 players being on the map and contributing nothing useful to the actual WvW match, other than taking up 25 queue slots. Those 25 players could be defending and capturing instead of hiding in an isolated corner of the map trading kills (and points very soon) with the enemy.

What it comes down to is this. If you don’t want to participate in WvW, don’t enter it. I would like to see GvG added for those that do want it, so by all means keep pressuring Anet to add it. But consider the repercussions of your GvG matches. You are not being a valuable/needed part of the WvW community when you are doing nothing to contribute to your server’s WvW match, aside from distracting 25 enemy players.

First off, commanders aren’t chosen and you can have as many as you want on a map. And anyone can buy the commander tag for 100g.

Your suggestion sounds like a decent idea, but it needs something to keep it from being a mess of everyone trying to be a squad leader. I think it should still have a cost, but nothing like the 100g a commander tag takes. Maybe have it purchasable with badges or through wvw abilities.

Having map tags for small teams without a commander would be nice, especially for commanders running a multi-team map vs a single zerg. The biggest hurdle would be getting people to actually join and use the squads, but that might work better with your idea since the icon itself changes with squad size. I rarely join squads right because joining one commander totally hides the others’ icons. I think for any multi-tag/commander system every icon should remain visible to all players, but have a different color for the squad you are a member of.

I like the focus, too. I already have a sword and greatsword from the first round of SAB, so I’ll probably just get a focus this time and be done with it.

The dagger…I’m not touching that thing. Some of the others are ok looking, but I don’t like them enough to bother getting.

anzenketh.3759:

Best case scenario if they only dropped one or two you can get it once every about 12 minutes. However in all likelihood it is closer to one half hour to a hour if you are farming them.(Hard to do in WvW) Putting them in line with the 20 from dungeons.

I only took a couple towers and camps while I was in wvw, but the number of empyrean fragments dropped was similar to JPs. The lower end seemed to be favored at 2-3 per, but I did get 9 from one tower lord. I think wvw would be the fastest way to get them, if you’re going with karma/wxp/T7 train with little resistance. On a more even field, I’d agree that it is a similar rate to dungeons, depending on the dungeon in question.

anzenketh.3759:

Here is the information where I got in regards to the Daily chests. I have also seen players report they get the mats from the daily chest on multiple characters.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Upcoming-mega-boss-chest-change/first#post1656442

Yeah, the dragonite ore is per character on the meta boss events/temples/etc. It’s not bad with events like Maw, Golem, and Fire Ele that have a short reset cycle. The same with empyrean fragments and jumping puzzles (not sure on dungeons), but these drop in lesser amounts from what I’ve seen.

WvW seems to lack daily limits at all on at least the empyrean fragments although the amount dropped in wvw per capture is still low, as with JPs. I assume this is true for dragonite as well, but I’ve not done much wvw since the update. Dragonite also drops in small amounts from what I’ve seen.

The empyrean fragments are really the limiting factor here. I know a lot of people do the meta boss events, but going out of our way for jump puzzles isn’t as common. I like JPs, but I don’t want do those anywhere near as often as I do combat oriented events. Unfortunately, you have to do more JPs than events to keep your empyrean drops up with the amount of dragonite.

Vayne.8563:

Beldin.5498:

You have to look at the bigger picture .. not only ONE Weapon, but maybe 3 weapons and 6 pieces of armor in the next future. Oh and don’t forget people who have a lot alts and/or use more weapons and armorsets with different stats.

I am looking at the big picture. You don’t play an MMO for 2 weeks. You play it for months, maybe years. The whole idea is to give people stuff to do. You may not personally need that but a whole lot of people seem to.

That stuff to do doesn’t have to be grinding for weapons. Looking at this from a single char/single build perspective, it’s not bad. But as someone that plays every profession, with multiple sets of gear for most, it’s a massive grind. My options to actually do this are to take a year or more playing as I normally do, or cut that down to months (still a long time for just weapons, when I’m still nowhere near done with jewelry) of repeating world bosses/temples and jump puzzles on multiple characters every day.

The amount of dragonite ore and bloodstone dust available in the open world is fairly generous, but empyrean fragments are going to be a limiting factor, and an annoyance to get. I don’t do dungeons often, and I only have a desire to do them when I want a weapon or armor set from a dungeon. Even with dungeons, the ratio between reward and effort/time is less than with dragonite or bloodstone. We’re still early into the game on ascended weapons, so I’m hoping the rewards will be tweaked to keep the 3 materials more balanced with each other.

I don’t think anyone after The Dreamer wants to be taken seriously, unless it’s the type of person that just wants a legendary just because it’s a legendary/to show off. It’s a ridiculous weapon and that’s how it was designed to be. But that doesn’t mean everyone is going to be happy with the changes, even if they love the ridiculousness of the bow.

I do agree that it should have had footfalls at release, all legendaries should have. It didn’t have the unicorn projectiles at release, either. It just fired rainbow trails. Both of the changes are fitting to the weapon, but again, not everyone is going to like them. It’s just a core problem of changing the appearance of something that someone made/bought specifically for its (previous) appearance.

I’m also in the group that would like another option for shortbow. As well as others for the pistol, and now the staff considering the recent updates there. I’m all for the ‘silly’ options being there, I just don’t want them myself. Hopefully the next set of lengedaries helps to fill in full sets of silly and serious weapons.

These types of changes make me glad I decided against getting a legendary. The Dreamer is probably the last one I’d ever consider because I thought it was overly ridiculous in its original state, but there are been changes made to ones I previously liked that I don’t like after the updates. There are several legendaries I don’t like just because of a single aspect of it, so the thought of changes like this being made after crafting makes me afraid to go through the effort.

I know the intention is to help and make them look better. But looking better is subjective, and you need to be careful with making major aesthetic changes to existing items that people put a of time/effort/money into.

I’m not even going to consider any legendaries till Anet straight up says they are done altering them.

I ended up keeping the staff for my mesmer, even though the stat I was hoping for wasn’t one of the options. I like the idea of getting to choose the stat out of 5 (I think it was 5) combos, but hopefully they remove the account bound status from previously unused/unbound copies, or at least from newly created ones. As is, there is no way to obtain Delusion aside from random luck from drops or the Mystic Forge.

I checked the TP for another previously MF-stat’d weapon, Super Hyperbeam Alpha, and it is still available with a fixed stat (Assassin’s). I assume making Delusion unavailable wasn’t intended, because it doesn’t really make sense.

Zepidel.5349:

mrstealth.6701:

Unless you plan on buying almost all of your Deldrimore Steel and Spiritwood Planks, using that guide to get level 500 is absolutely pointless. It’s a complete waste of money and materials for something you most likely can’t even use yet. Follow it to 450, then toss it aside unless you want to buy a lot of Deldri Steel and Spiritwood, plus grind t7 Obisidian Refinement mats 24/7.

Rely on Obsidian Refinements (Bloodstone, Dragonite, Empyrean) after level 450. You’re going to need 5 each of the refined versions (500 of the dropped material) before you can make a weapon. You’re also going to need quite a few Deldrimor Steel and Spiritwood, which are once daily crafts and also give you crafting XP toward 500.

Good idea except refines gives almost no xp past 475, id literally need to farm champs for hundreds of hours and get over 3m karma for obsidian shards to do enough refines for 500.

I figured the XP would drop off a good bit at 475, but using the refinements to get from 450 to 475 is still a significant savings. Even after that, they will continue helping till you reach 500. You’re going to need quite a few obsidian refinements (15 per weapon), so might as well gain that XP and save the exotic discoveries for the final push. As others have mentioned, the prices will drop and you can save even more money. There isn’t really a reason to rush to 500 till you’re ready to craft a weapon, anyway.

Unless you’re planning on buying your way around the mithrillium/spirit residue timegate, hold off and save yourself some gold.

They drop as a chest with a set stat combo, and you pick the weapon you want of that stat. If you get a Wupwup Weapon Chest, you’ll be able to pick any ascended weapon type with Celestial stat.

The problem I have with this system is that I only use a few different weapon stats across my characters. Berserker, soldier, valkyrie, rabid, rampager, and cleric. There are 17 different stats available for ascended gear (based on the choices the inscription recipe has). So that gives me an 11/17 chance of getting a weapon chest that is useless to me, or at best, significantly throws off my build requiring other gear to be replaced to fix stats.

I usually wouldn’t mind getting a top tier drop of something I can’t use, but I do mind when I can’t even sell it.

Unless you plan on buying almost all of your Deldrimore Steel and Spiritwood Planks, using that guide to get level 500 is absolutely pointless. It’s a complete waste of money and materials for something you most likely can’t even use yet. Follow it to 450, then toss it aside unless you want to buy a lot of Deldri Steel and Spiritwood, plus grind t7 Obisidian Refinement mats 24/7.

Rely on Obsidian Refinements (Bloodstone, Dragonite, Empyrean) after level 450. You’re going to need 5 each of the refined versions (500 of the dropped material) before you can make a weapon. You’re also going to need quite a few Deldrimor Steel and Spiritwood, which are once daily crafts and also give you crafting XP toward 500.

I wouldn’t have tossed in 4 exotic staves had I known it was possibly going to give me a bound weapon in return. I get the dilemma Anet had with how to handle existing items on the TP, but this one is new. There isn’t any reason for this to have the stat choice. I assumed all of the named exotics with MF would have been converted over to Dire or Assassin stats.

And yeah, I can toss it back into the forge or salvage it.

TeriLK.8910:

Funny cause I bought Delusion before the patch, definitely had MF stats and was able to change it, and that’s also why it’s no longer on the TP because since all would have been returned. I realize the wiki has it listed as zerker, but if you go through the history it was changed at some point. Not sure what the discrepancy is.

Well that somewhat explains it. But the weapon should automatically have one of the new stats instead of being like this.

I put 4 crafted staves into the Mystic Forge, and what I got in return was an account bound version of Delusion with no inherent stats, and the option to “Double-click to select” stats.

This weapon never had Magic Find as a stat, but it’s being treated as if it did. It should have inherent berserker stats. There are also none of these staves listed in the TP, which I assume is because of this bug.

colesy.8490:

The way I play involves dodging dangerous attacks, reflects, blocks, invulns and paying attention to fight mechanics. If you’re not able to use your dodge key or pay attention to mechanics, then yes, people who don’t play my way are bad at the game because it really isn’t that hard.

dodging…check
reflects…always have ’em when available
blocks…you bet
invulns…for the few there are, yeah

edit: just thought I’d toss this in here, too
And none of that really matters at all when all you can see in front of you is a lightshow of effects from the enemy and allied skills. It’s pretty hard to see when to dodge/block an incoming attack when you can’t even see the enemy itself for the ball of blinding light.

It will be amusing to see all the dead glass cannon zerkers littering the ground at Teq 2.0

I can’t imagine it’s going to matter what your armour stats are, it’s a bit like Jormag where you can have high toughness armour and still be chewed out if you linger near him too long. Bad players will be bad players, armour choice is irrelevant. The difference is that zerker users are normally at least trying to be good.

They’re usually just trying to follow what someone else told them to do. Anyway, in an event like that, you’re very likely not able to mitigate all of the damage unless your build/gear/food allows for an extreme amount of dodging/endurance regen. Toughness can make a huge difference there. Zerkers only do more (or any) damage while they are alive. And having someone with a support build nearby gives them the chance to stay alive more easily, and have to focus a bit less on avoiding damage. But, where clerics really shines is wvw, which is the main reason I have it. And the main reason upgrading that to ascended would be important.

Oh, and FYI…Secret of Southsun…that was…months ago. I guess that does explain the “zerker is the only build” mentality. Even the dungeon speed clearers figured out you can do it just as fast without a bunch of zerker wars.

Correct. It turns out zerker engis, zerker rangers, zerker thieves and zerker eles are pretty good too.

Oh look, they’re all zerker.

I’m glad you know every one of them, and what builds they all run.
spoilerThey aren't _all_ zerkers. As much as you seem to think it, you don't speak for the entire community, or even just the "good" players.

MikaHR.1978:

Happyfool.8951:

MikaHR.1978:

Happyfool.8951:

MikaHR.1978:

Happyfool.8951:

MikaHR.1978:

Savoy.6824:

@MikaHR youre right I did forget about the infusions. I would quit logging in now but I spent so much money in the gem store that it feels like such a waste to quit. But Im not going to keep doing this.

I feel for you. Unfortunately unless enough people quit nothing will change and Guild Wars 2 will proceede to Grind Wars 2 as planned.

Imagine, you want to play new character or a new build:

6 ascended trinkets
4-6 ascended weapons
6 ascended armor
4-6 ascended sigils
6 ascended runes
16-18 infusions of w/e tier at the time

Just 1 character 1 build

At this rate that puts even worst Korean grinders to shame lol

done. now aside from fractals, tell me which content i can’t do in exotics?

So you think they will add all those stats without any “adjustements to content”.

Yah, i see it now, going around one shotting everything is what they planned all along rofl

Wish that people would THINK before they POST. Ah, wishful thinking.

Have you seen the upcoming changes to Teq? It promotes teamwork and coordination. I am guessing that they going for that in the “difficulty” department, instead of just bumping up numbers. And in the off chance that they do bump up numbers. I imagine the experience would to be the same as wearing yellows in an exotic world. Bit of a challenge, but still doable.

They just have to drop agony in dungeons and….pufff….insta crap

And leveling areas….great thinking rofl. Can you name ANY game that adjusted leveling area to max gear…like…ever?

When lvl65 can wear ascended, maybe they will rofl

ok, you lost me there.

Its not about difficulty, it was never ever in any game about difficulty but it was about gear check.

Teq is part of leveling content. Where exactly could you be lost?

I wouldn’t expect anything like that in the current open world areas. Teq is somewhat geared towards level 80s returning to that zone, but it’s still in a level 65 map.

I don’t think we’ll see gear checks outside of Fractals for a long time, if ever. But the possibility of new areas/content being created and balanced for players with ascended gear is real. Even in games without a hard gear check, content is still balanced for characters that are properly geared. It’s just a matter of whether Anet starts to consider ascended as properly geared, or leaves it as “over geared” while exotic remains the standard for balance.

colesy.8490:

it’s getting tiresome seeing them cater to bad players in the zerg pavilion or secret of southsun where you run whatever the hell you want even if it’s full leech, and if Tequatl truly does take 80 level 65+ well geared players, even better.

Almost as tiresome as seeing the silly trolls that can’t open their eyes wide enough to see beyond the one build they think everyone should run. Yep, everyone that doesn’t play your way is “bad”. You’ll fit in just fine with the ones that start demanding everyone ping ascended gear.

It will be amusing to see all the dead glass cannon zerkers littering the ground at Teq 2.0.

Oh, and FYI…Secret of Southsun…that was…months ago. I guess that does explain the “zerker is the only build” mentality. Even the dungeon speed clearers figured out you can do it just as fast without a bunch of zerker wars.

DeWolfe.2174:

Think about power creep in WvW. WxP and Ascended gear are going to kill the fun of running alt’s. I’m well into the hundred’s on Rank in WvW. It’s just that it’s spread over many alts. Making me less useful and underpowered than I could be.

It’s broken on a core level if you ask me.

Yeah, WvW is where the gear stats are actually a gameplay/balance issue. The WXP ranks that are just as much of an issue, too. Especially the ones that effect character stats.

In PVE, the only gameplay issue would be the possibility of groups expecting everyone to have ascended gear. That is a player-created issue, but the existence of a timegated/longterm gear tier facilitates such problems. Aside from this, the only major current problem is the desire for the best available gear discouraging alternate characters/builds. This isn’t a concern for some players, but for those of us that have and enjoy multiple characters, it is very disappointing and frustrating to have the developers making changes that directly discourage our playstyle. A playstyle that the same developers previously claimed they wanted to encourage.

For now, there isn’t anything outside of Fractals that not having ascended gear limits you from doing. Hopefully this stays true, but there is the very valid concern that Anet will follow suit with so many other MMOs (like they have done with this new gear grind) and develop new/future content that is balanced toward the top tier of gear.

colesy.8490:

Nope. The only stat combo worth using in PvE is power/precision/crit damage. In WvW there’s more variety, but going PVT w/melandru runes is a pretty solid choice.

You’re too closed minded to even try to explain that to, so I won’t bother. I’ll just recommend trying to keep in mind that your beliefs/playstyles/etc are not set in stone facts for everyone else.

No, you feel entitled to ascended weapons because of “ANet said no gear grind” and you’re one of the many people who keep clinging on to that no longer relevant manifesto.

That’s not feeling entitled to weapons. If anything, that’s expecting the game to deliver to what the devs drilled out for 5 years as the design philosophy of the game. That’s not an issue with entitlement, it’s an issue with the developers not sticking to their word.

The fact that you refer to the core design principles of the game as “no longer relevant” says more than I ever could. That is the core of the problem. Someone that didn’t agree with those core principles probably shouldn’t have bought the game to begin with.

No, it’s time, not effort. Running to nodes and pressing the interact key is not effort, that’s willpower.

It still fits the definition of effort, but I’m not here to argue the semantics of the word effort.

And you can burst my fantasy bubble all you want, I’m not the one QQing about ascended weapons, I’m perfectly fine with things the way they are, and seeing you mad is good enough for me.

I’m disappointed, if anything. Disappointed by the developers decisions to not follow through on their vision, and to throw that vision aside in favor of pandering to a portion of the playerbase.

And thanks for confirming what I think most of us realized with your first post.

Not me. I had top end gear for all of max level alts. That gear is no longer top end. This would not bother me in a game that advertised gear stat inflation. It did, and continues to chap my hide in a game that advertised the opposite until after I’d spent money on the game. Whatever. It’s taught me a valuable lesson, that game developer advertising can’t be trusted.

Really? You got weapons and sigils for each dungeon, you kitted them all out in berserker gear and scholar runes and full ascended trinkets?

Let me guess, the answer is no. Well there you go, you’ve got ways to improve your character’s stats and you can stop crying about ascended.

Ok, this wasn’t directed at me…but here it goes anyway. Ignoring the pointless bits….I believe we’re just now getting to the time where it’s actually possible to have a full set of characters (all 8 professions) in ascended trinkets. And that’s assuming laurels were only spent on amulets, fractals were used for rings, and guild commendations were used for earrings. And that every daily was done, every monthly was done, and that guild missions were done regularly with a guild that has all of them unlocked.

Maybe an NPC that would offer you a skin for any legendary you had in your inventory/equipped. The skin being the latest version of the weapon. It would require leaving the old versions in as unique items, but I’m not sure there would be any actual problems with that.

Just make every newly crafted one be the original version, since the skins are freely avaiable. Or even include the updated skin along with it.

Maybe this is just me, but if I wasn’t happy with the way the weapons were before, I would have passed on getting one. Or waited to see the updates. I would assume that someone going through the trouble of getting a legendary would have to be pretty happy with how it looked.

In the case of Bifrost, it was already one of the more noticeable legendaries. I think the only ones that stood out more were the greatswords because of their size, and the Predator/Dreamer because of their loud sound effects and bright projectiles. As far as standing out, even while sheathed, I think Bifrost was at the top.

Well, after seeing the new Bifrost in-game for myself, I’m very glad I didn’t go through the trouble of getting it. I would be quite angry, and probably end up transmuting it.

This is like having an auto manufacturer come to your house and “upgrade” the paint job on your car to a new color you don’t like. I wouldn’t buy from one that did that, and these weapon “upgrades” make me very weary of legendaries.

colesy.8490:

You feel entitled to top end gear for all of your alts without putting any work and/or time in, you just want to make a TP order and then be done with it.

The funny thing is, I’m a min-maxer, and the fact that my two 80s are only in partial ascended doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

lol…I don’t even know why I bother responding to this…maybe it’s just because you do amuse me with your attempts at insulting people for being able to think for themselves and realize there is more than one stat combo or team build in this game

How is being willing to put in the extra time/effort to get it for alts (if the timegates allowed it) considered entitlement? That’s kinda the exact opposite, FYI. And just because something is easy, it doesn’t automatically make it no effort. Expecting a weapon for every character because I crafted it for one would be entitlement.

I don’t want to make a TP order and be done with it. I have no idea where you got that idea. The majority of the weapons I already have were crafted from materials I gathered (that’s time/effort there), unless it’s a stat that can’t be crafted. I just want the stupid timegates gone, or at least character based. Same effort/work, less time waiting. Hate to burst your little fantasy world bubble, but there’s no entitlement about it. Period.

klaashacz.9714:

Well many players are having the same reaction as me. ie – a loss of interest in the game, no desire to play alts, depression at being sold out to the grind. I have now suspended levelling of my guard and since I am not a crafter I won’t be able to access ascended gear apart from trinkets anyway – so i’m locked out. Don’t mention drops please lol.
This ascended gear feels like a real cynical ploy cleverly dropped in on a community of – lets be honest – we are game addicts – who they know they can exploit some more. They want your cash for gems, for transmutation stones, for all that goes with the need to acquire BIS gear. Think on that.

You aren’t the only person thinking that. I don’t doubt that transmute sales and grind addiction are part of Anet’s strategy. It’s just sad that they feel the need to shun players that like having alts to accomplish this, because it’s not necessary.

It would also help if they would quit claiming they will give us multiple ways to get the gear, and actually implement that. So far the only alternate methods have been heavily discouraged by high cost (40ecto earrings) or overuse of the same timegated currency (laurels used for amulets, rings, and earrings, even in wvw)

I never got the “need” for this tier. There are a lot of weapons in between legendary and exotic tiers, in the upper end of the exotics. Weapons like Infinite Light at the very top or Vision of the Mists in the mid/lower end.

The ascended tier didn’t fill a gap, it created one. The tier would be fine if they just made the time gating character based. The material requirements are a bit extreme, but I thought think that is the lesser of the problems. I think reducing the amount of obsidian refinements (bloodstone/dragonite/empyreal) to 250-300 would be better, but not necessary. This is assuming they drop 1 at a time. If they drop in multiples it could be fine as is.

Acquiring the materials is most certainly effort. And the two week figure was just based based on the time gates, not an estimate on realistically obtaining what is actually required to craft. I recommended taking a look at what is needed, how that is obtained, and the limits placed on obtaining it.

For just the my guardian I will need my soldier gear for solo wvw/general pve and my cleric gear for group wvw/dungeons. That is when armor is added sometime in the near future. For now, that character alone needs a hammer, a GS, 2 scepters, 2 shields, a sword, a mace, a torch, 2 staves, and 2 foci. The bare minimum would be a GS, a hammer, a scepter, a focus, and a staff. That’s a minimum of 10 weeks, with a realistic time likely being double that. For only one of my characters that I play no more than at least four others.

Just what is pathetic about not being happy with this situation? Wanting to have more than one character in BiS gear isn’t entitlement. I have no problem earning what I use. I do have a problem when the system is designed to take a ridiculous amount if time, have that time artificially extended by timegates, and have said gates account based so working on alts is not even viable.

colesy.8490:

It is a big deal for more than the stat boost, it’s a big deal also for the trouble to acquire.

I mean, that’s if I’m reading the posts right.

So it’s basically like people whining about precursors where you’re trying to get something that makes a minimum of difference to your efficiency but people want it NOW, so floods of QQ ensue.

I can get weapons with Sigils of Night and Smothering on them for only a few gold, and have them right now. Show me where I can do this with ascended weapons?

That is the problem. Not that they are better, it’s that they are better and have ridiculous timegates attached to getting them.

Or how about you get over the pitiful stat difference or suck it up and get your ascended weapon when everybody else does? All I’m seeing is “I want it NOW!”.

Because you can acquire night sigil relatively easy. If ascended gear was as easy to get, you wouldn’t see me here complaining as much.

You only need ascended gear for Fractals, why the hurry to get them? Well unless you run fractals 40+ obviously.

It’s nothing to do with wanting things now or for free. It’s about the extreme difference in the amount of effort between the old BiS gear and the new BiS gear, combined with the account based time gating artificially making the process take even longer.

You seem determined to refuse to accept that someone would have more than one character or not consider any of several characters to be a main. Or get why anyone would have more than one weapon set, even after trying to make a point involving dungeon specific weapons/sigils. You either don’t understand why people feel this way and don’t want to attempt to, or you’re just trying to troll.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

. . . you do know you didn’t contradict what I said, right? You just pretty much illustrated exactly the same thing, only with a swipe at me as if I said it wasn’t a problem.

That was directed at the other quoted person, colesy.8490. I quoted your quote of his post as a reinforcement of that statement. The swipe was at him, not you.

Sorry for the confusion.

morrolan.9608:

mrstealth.6701:

I can get weapons with Sigils of Night and Smothering on them for only a few gold, and have them right now. Show me where I can do this with ascended weapons?

That is the problem. Not that they are better, it’s that they are better and have ridiculous timegates attached to getting them.

This, I was just about to say the same thing. Plus there is the grind to get to the end of the defence against guards mastery.

I have the exact same issues with the guard mastery lines, as do others. Those ranks should be account based. I don’t want to play the same character in wvw all the time, so instead of having one character with rank 150+, I have 1 with 30, a few with 20, some with 15, etc. I don’t think the ability points should be spent on an account basis, so each character can have a tailored set of ability. But let the ranks be earned on an account basis so we aren’t punished/left behind the power creep simply because we play more than one character.

Anet seems to have completely twisted around the aspects of the game that should be account based or character based.

Dyes were supposed to be account based, but are character based.

I get identical b-day gifts on each character, yet the mail going with it specifically mentions my account being a year old.

Items like the Sclerite and Fervid Censer back pieces can only be acquired once per account, while other holiday items like the Mad King books were per character.

Those items don’t really matter in the end, they are mainly cosmetic things, but the point still stands. It’s like someone puts on a blindfold and starts tossing darts to see what is account bound and what is character bound. Some of it simply lacks logic or reason, while others are outright punishing to those that play multiple characters.

Kelnis.1829:

The immaturity of those quoting the manifesto as gospel is appalling. Game development is a constantly evolving, constantly iterative, process. Evidence is there to suggest they wanted Ascended items in the game at launch. If this had been the case we wouldn’t even being having this debate.

Expecting a developer to stick to the core philosophy they spent years talking about is immature how? I’m not talking about hyped or overhyped PR dribble. This is the core principles of the game’s design that have been chucked out the window.

And I’ve still not seen any evidence of the ascended tier being around before release. The closest thing is Chris Whiteside saying (as I have quoted in a few topics, and I think even earlier in this one) that they wished they had it at launch. They spent years saying they were releasing GW2 “when it was ready”. Even though it did release with quite a few bugs, we can assume that all of the content/items/etc they wanted at release were in and ready. Had they wanted it in at release, it should have been there.

And even if it was in at release, it will still be going against the same game philosophy and design principles. And I, and many others, would still have a problem with it. Being in the game at release or added 5 years after does not change the fact that it is against that philosophy.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

colesy.8490:

morrolan.9608:

colesy.8490:

Defense against guards in WvW increases your HP by about 2.5k. Nobody complains. BUT OMG ITS A MASSIVE DEAL COLESY. Nah, nobody cares.

I’ve seen complaints about it.

And what about the night sigil situation? What if you run CoF and you have force/accuracy and they have night/smothering? That’s your 5%+ damage vs. 20%+ damage. I bet people don’t complain about that.

But ascended gear is such a big deal, amirite?

It is a big deal for more than the stat boost, it’s a big deal also for the trouble to acquire.

I mean, that’s if I’m reading the posts right.

I can get weapons with Sigils of Night and Smothering on them for only a few gold, and have them right now. Show me where I can do this with ascended weapons?

That is the problem. Not that they are better, it’s that they are better and have ridiculous timegates attached to getting them.

It might have changed by now, but here’s what the Looking Ahead: GW2 in 2013 blog from July had on the topic.

We’ll also add a new set of account-bound crafting materials to the game. You’ll receive these materials as guaranteed rewards once per day per unique location for completing content within a category of gameplay in Guild Wars 2.
For example, capturing camps, towers, and keeps in WvW will earn you these crafting materials. In the Living World, you can earn them for killing giant world bosses, defeating dungeons, completing jumping puzzles, completing mini-dungeons, finishing some types of guild missions, capturing temples in Orr, and other activities.

I’m guessing the champions will be exempt from this, unless they manage to pull of the coding for a daily pop-up chest for every champ in the game. And it’s going to be a nightmare for wvw. Every borderland will only be good for one clean sweep through, so this is just more encouragement for karma, wxp, and now T7 zerg trains.

azurrei.5691:

Now, in GW2 an OH weapon is more than just a stat stick as in most MMO’s (to varying degrees…), it actually gives you different abilities – I’d say an OH is worth more in GW2 for whatever that is worth.

In most other MMO’s I’ve seen, the weapons don’t give you skills. It’s common for some skills to require a certain weapon type, but skills are not automatically slotted when you equip a weapon. In GW2, the first 5 skills are hard linked to what weapons you have.

2H weapon = 5 skills
1H mainhand + 1H offhand weapon = 5 skills

1×2H or 2×1H, they are both “worth” 5 skills, yet one is about double the cost in time/materials.

Tellerion.8102:

Kaos.9162:

Seigfried.5938:

However, there will be smaller rewards doled out along the way, and even if you don’t participate in WvW, you could be on the receiving end of some goodies if your server does well.

Anet, WHY would you add something as stupid as this??? This is just another reason for PVE carebears to populate winning servers and do absolutely nothing for it.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we all got rewards for what the PvE players are doing?

Life is unfair

Anet can’t control the unfairness of life. They can, however, control the fairness of their game. They just choose to disregard it.

TehPwnerer.7215:

Um. How does ascended gear kill builds? I fail to see how this is possible at all. I have a build. I get gear for that build. OMG I GOT AN UPGRADE, BETTER CHANGE MY BUILD.

It’s silly to think this way. Also not all of your alts will ever be fully decked out in ascended gear and I think that’s sort of the point. I don’t expect all of my alts to ever be fully decked out in 100% ascended items.

Because once you get that upgraded gear, you are locked into that set of gear and its stats, unless you wish to downgrade back to exotics for another build. If changing build, means downgrading your stats/character strength by 10-20%, you’re a lot less inclined to do that. Want to experiment with a new build? You’re probably going to want to try that new build out at it’s max potential, aka in ascended gear. Is it worth working months for a set of gear just to try something that you might not be happy with?

Why is it that we must have mains and alts? Why do I suddenly have to pick one character out of the 8 professions, and progress on only that character? What if I like 4 of them equally? This is exactly how it is for me. What if I liked all 8 of them equally?

TheDraco.3965:

I am of the complete opposite opinion. If an MMO is so unengaging that you have to play an alt to keep entertained then you’re doing something fundamentally wrong as a designer. I think Anet is taking one step in the right direction with ascended. Now they just have to make PERMANENT CONTENT for the next step of gear to be used for.

It has nothing to do with game being unengaging. I want to play “alts”, and I put that in quotation marks because they aren’t “alts” to me. I don’t have a “main”, nor do I want one. I’m going to play whatever profession I feel like playing today.

The fact that so many other MMOs make leveling and gearing up such an overly time consuming task that you are practically forced into a main is the biggest reason I don’t play those games. GW2 was designed with alts in mind, and marketed (specifically, even…and I wish I could find that blog/article) to players that like having them. The fact that this is changing post-release because of the demands of players that, to be honest, should have known this wasn’t the right game for them(had they actually bothered to look at any of the pre/post-release information), is quite saddening. There are plenty of games with on-going, longterm, vertical character progression via increased stats and more powerful gear. If that is what you are looking for in a game, go play one of them.