Guild Wars 2

Eain.7825:

Power creep is the only solution. There always has to be something to chase. There have to be better items, better upgrades, more things to do. As it stands Guild Wars 2 is a game where I could within 3 to 4 months have 5 exoticed 80’s, all of different classes. If I achieve that I’m done. I literally have nothing more to do.

It’s the only solution because it’s the only solution you know. There doesn’t always have to be something to CHASE, simply something to DO.

I liked playing this game, I liked it a hell of a lot more after I hit 80 and had all the gear I wanted. I had nothing to chase, and so the world was wide open for just goofing off and doing whatever was fun.

Now, sure, I can still do that — but it’s the nagging knowledge that I’m in kitten gear, that if I don’t go and run that dungeon I’ll not only miss THIS content but the NEXT content — that ruins everything.

Now I have no motivation to level up any alts — I typically don’t in MMOs because it’s a chore, I was here though. Why not, I could easily gear them in max strength gear and shelf them until I felt like playing them. Not no more!

Go play Progress Quest if what you are after is bigger numbers. Go play with Pandas. Just.. just go away, and stop crapping on the one MMO on the market that wasn’t catering to mudflation.

DIMH.5362:

when you said that people complain when there’s “not enough to do” in end game but then complain when there’s additional content..

I’ve got a max level character with exotics in every slot save backpack, last count I had 175 dyes unlocked but that was a month ago, I’ve got enough gold I grabbed a scythe staff skin, and have numerous superior siege in bank and many many more that have been crunched in WvW.

I never felt I didn’t have enough to do.

I don’t mind additional content.

I DO mind the introduction of a gear treadmill.

Hunterdan.4921:

I think people are making mountains out of molehills. A new tier of loot does not equate to OMG NEW LOOT EVERY 3 MONTHS THAT WE HAVE TO GET TO STAY COMPETITIVE.

It will be a normal, accepted part of the game hours after it becomes available.

It likely already is, because everyone who does not subscribe to that design philosophy has or will have quit.

And, actually.. yeah, it does mean that. They’re giving us 3 Ascended now. Later we will get more Ascended gear. What happens when every slot is Ascended? Do you HONESTLY think they’ll stop? It took 3 months after release to go back on a design promise they’ve made for YEARS — do you think that a year from now when everyone is in full Ascended and the Pandas start crying for more progression, that Anet will say “No not this time LOL!”

No, they’ll release more gear. They caved once and have shown that they will cave to the tears of the Pandas, they have shown they don’t give two damns about their gw1 player base or the gw2 player base that is here BECAUSE we don’t have to chase gear endlessly.

Alloy.2839:

I played D3 and read the forums. I don’t play anymore but I still check the forums occasionally. They have calmed down considerably since 2 months ago. Let’s hope the same occurs here as people who don’t enjoy GW2 for what it is move on.

That’s funny, I would’ve said the same thing. Because I did enjoy GW2 for what it was, that’s why i gave them my kittening money.

And now they’re changing it to a different type of game that I don’t like. Because people who didn’t enjoy GW2 for what it was, who wanted it to be like every other kittening MMO on the market, cried, and Anet listened to them.

Steamy pile of treadmill on my chest.

And don’t forget they mentioned they want to add progression to WvW, which I’m sure will end well. ‘cause nothing says "I’m better at playing this game than you are" more than “I played this game longer than you and auto-win”.
ohhhh yay

camoflaugz.5031:

Infact most MMO players love gear.

Except of course for the huge number of people who bought this game because we would never have to chase gear, because there is no other MMO that offers that.

There isn’t.

Unless I go back to DAOC, which I can’t — game’s too old, and I can’t get myself through setting up my UI for a solid hour or two before I play.

I like how you think your experience with, what, one MMO? Maybe one MMO and several of its clones? I like how you think that’s how ALL MMOS MUST WORK! and that there is no other option.

But hey enjoy your gear treadmill. Must be nice, if that’s all you want and all you think is possible from the genre.

Go play Progress Quest.

Mastoras.9680:

You know all these replies about, “well if you want gear progression, go play those other mmos”. Has it dawned on you guys, that maybe, we actually like this game. Maybe, it just has the right stuff in it, and if only it just had couple more features, that would mean the world to many of us?

Yes if we wanted to go play another mmo we would, but we dont, because we like what we see here. We wouldnt be posting our requests if we hated the game.

Dont view us as your enemy. Everything you love about your GW traditions are there, now just another layer to cater to ones who would like to chase that aspect. Just like some of go chasing your puzzle pieces, your exploring, your wvwvw, your spvp….well theres also the dungeon grinders, and even legendaries.

Anyways agree with OP

So if I’ve an allergy to peanuts, you would tell me that eating a Snickers would be fine because the peanuts are just another layer to appeal to people who aren’t me?

Don’t view you as the enemy? You want to change the one thing about this game that got me to hand Anet my money. I bought this game because they said there was no gear progression, that there was a gear plateau and that was the end of it.

I bought their lies, and now you’re dancing and laughing because you’re.. what? You’re being given what’s available in EVERY OTHER MMO ON THE MARKET. I am having taken from me what was ONLY AVAILABLE IN THIS MMO.

But yeaaah, I’m the one overreacting. Gosh darn me, why should I expect there to actually be anything differentiating any of the MMOs out on the market? They’re all just reskins of one another.

It’s funny, I keep playing MMOs that appear to be unlike WoW, and then I quit them when it becomes obvious that they only want to emulate WoW. If I wanted to play WoW I would play WoW. Simple. I quit that crap a long, long time ago, because I do not like that kind of gameplay. Now it’s here. What to do, what to do…

I think that’s kinda partly why they’re merging all the threads to be honest.

I don’t recall them merging threads of people whining that there wasn’t a gear treadmill.

Next patch I expect ranked progression in WvW (cause I know when I play Chess, it’s only because after I’ve won a bunch I get to turn my pawns into queens and win even harder ’cause.. ’cause I SPENT THE TIME AND I GOT MY PROGRESSION AND IT MAKES THE GAME BETTER RIGHT)

Dunno, pretty sad and disappointed and pretty much think there won’t ever be an MMO I’ll ever want to play — they all keep turning into the exact same thing that I’ve already done and do not like.

Cloud.7613:

warmonkey.8013:

Cloud.7613:

Wouldn’t it be comical if Ascended item armor pieces don’t have rune slots so the stats are out classed by exotic with runes. Would make sense no?

Infusion slots in every piece.

They don’t have rune slots. Look at the ring. The slot that normally would contain a gem? Those stats are included in the item’s base stats. There is also a slot of an Infusion.

It wouldn’t be comical if that were the case, it would be good. It’s not gonna be like that, though. Get ready to salvage all your exotics, kids, the treadmill is starting up.

Kid? Getting personal, really mate? really? lol. Sorry, but I’m rich enough in game and wouldn’t mind the challenge, enjoy going elsewhere because you don’t like change in an MMO. <3

I wasn’t getting personal at all, but now I will. Your reading comprehension is quite sub-par.

I would have loved a change in an MMO, unfortunately that was GW2 prior to this anouncement. THAT WAS the change. Now? This? This is not a change. This is just something unique and different getting gussied up and turning itself into every other single MMO on the market (none of which are doing phenomenal, except for WoW, which isn’t growing but shrinking and has been in the NA/EU market for quite some time).

If I wanted to play this sort of game, I would already be playing this sort of game. I didn’t want to and so I was not. I DID want to play a game that wouldn’t tell me that I can do anything but the only meaningful thing to do is run the newest dungeons for the newest gear, forever, eternally — and I had that game for 3 months, but I guess it’s now gone and there’s no MMO on the market (gw1 and daoc aside; they aren’t dead yet) that is NOT a gear treadmill, mudflation, stinkfest of things I do not enjoy doing.

Whatever. There’s other games for me to play that actually understand that playing the game itself is what should be fun, and that if you need to dangle carrots — it’s not fun.

Cloud.7613:

Wouldn’t it be comical if Ascended item armor pieces don’t have rune slots so the stats are out classed by exotic with runes. Would make sense no?

Infusion slots in every piece.

They don’t have rune slots. Look at the ring. The slot that normally would contain a gem? Those stats are included in the item’s base stats. There is also a slot of an Infusion.

It wouldn’t be comical if that were the case, it would be good. It’s not gonna be like that, though. Get ready to salvage all your exotics, kids, the treadmill is starting up.

Thosekittenmain.6328:

Slippery slop fallacy invades your argument again. You simply do not know that at this point in time!

This is not a slippery slope fallacy.

That is how gear treadmills work. That is gear-based progression. THAT IS WHAT THAT PHRASE MEANS! That is how the concept is implemented.

I’m saying that 2+2=4 and hence 4+4=8 and you’re calling it a slippery slope.

Besides, I do know that at this point in time. See above. That’s how this sort of thing works. This is mudflation. Ever hear that term? Know what a MUD is? Know how it came to be? Eventually a MUD operator would add a new most-powerful item. It would be EXCITING! There might an event! But, later.. that most-powerful item, it’s kinda boring, so you’ve gotta one-up it.

Oh snap, now you’re stuck in a cycle. Now you do it over and over, because there IS no end. Once you set an endpoint, and then decide that you need to move that endpoint, you will come to the same conclusion later.

This has been A Thing in online gaming for, what, 30 years now? Don’t tell me I don’t know what’s coming.

Thosekittenmain.6328:

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025:

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

You seem to conventiently forget that the infusions will be dungeon-related. The stats on the Ascended Gear will very likely stay the same.

They added this tiers exactly to avoid the need for the gear treadmill to happen. By cleverly using the infusion slots to challenge players on new higher level content, there is little need to increase the actual stats of these players by introducing additional new tiers.

You only need to farm Ascended Gear once. Afterwards, you only need infusions.

Actually the stats ARE better, considerably so. It’s at LEAST as big a jump as from Rare to Exotic.

You only need to farm for Ascended gear once…. per character…. per build… but later you’ll get to enjoy farming up an all-new set of end-game gear, because you can’t sit there and tell me that they won’t introduce ANOTHER tier after this. Why wouldn’t they? They just did now after saying they never would, why NOT do it again?

There’s nothing clever about this at all. It’s tiered gear progression, it’s mudflation, call it what you will but this game is about to become completely unremarkable within the MMO market. Absolutely, completely, unremarkable.

Silentstorm.7531:

Well a game should cater to everyone if it wants to be successful. It’s good to atleast try to anyway so i’m not against it.

Cater to one group by introducing a feature you promised another group would never be included.

Great strategy.

Enjoy your mudlfation.

Vasham.2408:

warmonkey.8013:

Thosekittenmain.6328:

You are blowing a perceived problem out of proportion. ‘The game would only remain playable without this patch’, really?

A great number of people have decided they do not want to play a game with a gear treadmill.

A small treadmill is still a treadmill, and inevitably will become a larger treadmill. That’s how the concept works.

It’s not being blown out of proportion. We bought this game because it had things we liked and did not have things we do not like. Lack of mudflation was a major selling point for many of us. Many of us old farts aren’t interested in playing a game that’s going to mess around with that sort of thing, because we have in the past and we understand the game design decisions that a gear treadmill forces, and we do not like those game design decisions.

Logical fallacy much?

They’ve confirmed that there will be no new “tiers” of ascended gear already. Maybe you should relax.

Firstly, where, because I’ve not seen that.
Secondly, so what? They call the next tier “Ultra” or something. It’s not a new tier of Ascended!
And thirdly, so what? They also said there would be a gear plateau, that there wasn’t going to be any of this mess. Now there is. So.. I’m supposed to not be upset about them breaking one promise because they make another? Are you serious with that?

This is how gear treadmills work, and there will be exactly as many reasons and arguments for it 3 months from now as there are now — and they’ll just do it again, because they’re doing it now. They’ve ALREADY MADE THE DECISION. It’s a done deal. We will be getting gear-based progression.

I do not ever want to play a game, ever again, that involves gear-based progression. It’s a gimmick that I do not care for and excuses lazy gamemaking and caters to a crowd that is never satisfied with available content. It’s either too hard and they can’t finish it, or it’s too easy and they’re already done.

But hey, cater to that market. They certainly will be sticking arou- oh they’re already back playing with pandas, nevermind.

Thosekittenmain.6328:

You are blowing a perceived problem out of proportion. ‘The game would only remain playable without this patch’, really?

A great number of people have decided they do not want to play a game with a gear treadmill.

A small treadmill is still a treadmill, and inevitably will become a larger treadmill. That’s how the concept works.

It’s not being blown out of proportion. We bought this game because it had things we liked and did not have things we do not like. Lack of mudflation was a major selling point for many of us. Many of us old farts aren’t interested in playing a game that’s going to mess around with that sort of thing, because we have in the past and we understand the game design decisions that a gear treadmill forces, and we do not like those game design decisions.

gw1 was stat-capped very hard, it did fine.
daoc was stat-capped, it did fine.

therefor,

-This is how the industry of MMORPG works. So, the “i bought this game because i do what i want with just the 6 dungeons i went for the exotic” is pretty much invalid.

that statement isn’t just pretty much invalid, it’s entirely invalid. MMORPG does not equate to “gear treadmill”, though that is the most common (read: simplest) variety you may find. It also has pretty broad appeal, because when you dangle a carrot in someone’s face they are unlikely to look down and realize they don’t like what they are walking through to reach it.

And, frankly, why anyone would play a game, would do something for fun, that IS NOT fun — that perplexes me. Being rewarded for something not fun does not make it fun, it makes it tolerable — maybe. If the only reason you run dungeons is for gear — YOU DO NOT LIKE DUNGEONS. So what to do about it?

Grow up, grow a pair, admit you don’t care for dungeons, and find a game that won’t require you to run them to keep up with new content.

3 months later find out that game lied to you.

Make this post, go cry in your cereal.

I SAID GOOD DAY SIR.

Deth.4109:

Webba.3071:

There are a disturbingly large number of people who think that atm legendaries have better stats than exotics. This thread is worth it just to correct them.

yeah its sad most people dont know at least that simple fact about the game lol.

many people didn’t buy this game to buy this game

they bought this game because they wanted to play WoW
and they assume everything will be just like it was in WoW

soon they might be right :\

niclas.7693:

Do you really want to continue farming events for gold, and get a different looking armor, or go into a dungeon with your mates and fight for a better gear and feel good about it?

The former, thanks. I can do any of that if I want, or do none of it, it’s all the same.
That means I only do things because I’m having fun doing them right then at that time.

The latter? Huh. Hey, you wanna do something worthwhile? Nothing else in the game is worth spending your time doing except getting this new armor, because without grinding for this new armor, you’ll be excluded from the new content! And then the content after that? My god you’ll be playing catch-up! And by the third content release, if you’re not onboard the mudflation express — watch out! Everyone else will be doing >100% your HP in a single attack, and no one will want you in their group!

Yeah. No. That’s garbage. I played WoW, for a long time, I played WoW for a long time after I started hating it even.

If you don’t enjoy running dungeons for no reward, fact of the matter is you don’t enjoy running dungeons PERIOD.

You disagree. I know you do — they always do. Here’s a question. How often have you ever run a dungeon that you didn’t need loot from? ‘cause, I’ve been doing it almost daily for the past few weeks. No reason, it’s just fun, and I’ve nothing better to do except do what’s fun. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I know those runs can, some day, be used to gear up an alt in endgame gear.. well, it didn’t hurt. Now that’s pretty pointless isn’t it?

Now, you make all those runs necessary? Put something in there that I want, but can’t get, and must keep trying over and over to win at RNG?

That’s frustration, that’s aggravation, that makes me want to punch puppies in the face, that’s not something I’m ever going to do again.

Deth.4109:

xarallei.4279:

This “gap” excuse is pretty lame. Adding stats is not necessary for filling up such a gap. Adding content is what is necessary.

From what i gathered, Ascended armor will replace exotics as the new cap standard, and they will not be releasing new tiers(probably more like adding in extra infusions to combat specific enemy types) and as they see the limited scope of Exotic gear and its overall use in pve they can boost stats on the “new standard” and then never again.

if you say you’ll never do something,
and then do it,
what kind of person does it make me if I believe you when you immediately say you’ll never do that exact same thing again?

Yougottawanna.7420:

Having ascended stuff just be magic find would be a strange decision I think, just because MF itself is not that popular and I doubt they would roll out a new tier of armor centered around it.

it would be strange, and i don’t think it’s the case — but it SHOULD be.

Look if the gear is all for running a dungeon, if the gear is a random drop as I’ve heard, putting magic find on it makes sense. They could keep exotic stats, add magic find (so you can find more gear faster), and it’d basically be just a side-grade over exotics.

That’s cool, I guess. I could get behind that.

Making exotics second-class? That’s kinda against the statements they made about their design decisions, that’s kinda one thing they said would not happen, I’m not cool with that.

If the goal is to satisfy players that want to find gear with more stats, and use that gear to find more gear, why NOT use magic find? It would keep exotics max-strength gear, but also differentiate the Ascended gear for the intended use of that gear while not screwing Exotics over in every other aspect of the game.

I’ll agree with this.

In fact I’ll go so far as to say this: If all new Ascended gear contains magic find, I’m fine with it. It’s for PvE, right? Keep magic find on there. The stat inflation would put Ascended as almost as good as Exotics, except with a ton of magic find. I can dig that.

Just adding a new tier of gear, however.. well, that’s one reason i got this game, so that would never happen, i don’t want to play that kind of game and so i won’t.

Crackbone.5710:

No amount of forum rage is going to change that its coming on Friday.

No, but maybe a proper amount of forum rage will make them feel ashamed of what is coming on Friday, and they should be.

Rurik Telmonkin.3648:

Yes its new gear, yes it might be a gear treadmill. No it is not at the moment, especially because they said the infusion slot is limited to the Ascended gear for now. They can and hopefully will add this power boost to normal gear down the line, making it on par with the dungeon gear.

It IS a gear treadmill, it IS, right now. That’s how it works. There’s a Best Tier of gear, and then, a few months later — there’s a new Best Tier of gear.

That has just happened, and the blog post said it’s just the beginning of their gear progression. GW2 is now a gear treadmill game.

They said it would not be, promised it wasn’t going to have vertical gear progression. Now it does.

They won’t add the infusion slot to normal gear later, what they will do later is add gear more powerful than Ascended gear. That’s a gear treadmill. That’s how it works.

Or do you think the people who were crying that exotics were too easy to get will he happy? 2 months from now? After they have all the newest Best Tier of gear, do you honestly think they won’t cry about not having new gear to chase? THAT’S WHAT THEY DO! They cry in Pandacraft about running out of progression, you think they won’t here?

So what happens? Well, at this point, it’s not even a big deal. Anet has introduced gear progression, so now it’s here, so now when that happens it’s not as big of a deal to introduce Extra-Ascended gear in their Valentine’s Day patch.

And suddenly I’m playing a kitteny game that I never wanted to play again, and suddenly I’m only being rewarded for running the newest dungeons, not the ones that I have been doing for kicks (I am and have been in entirely exotics, I do them because it’s entertaining and because I DON’T HAVE TO).

I got this game because I was promised this garbage would NOT be here.
Other people got this game and were angry because there wasn’t gear progression, despite its absence being a pretty big point.
So now we’ve got people who followed the game and were excited about what the game was going to be — they’re getting kitten on.
And the people who just bought a new game and want it to be like every other MMO they’ve played (and quit)? They’re getting rewarded.

Makes sense! Rather than go your own way, be the ONE AND ONLY MMO on the market that doesn’t make you grind dungeons for endgame gear.. Anet has decided that they’ll be happy just eating Panda scraps.

Disgraceful.

SiNoS.2147:

When a game has to go F2P in order to even attempt to make it shows that infact they are dieing. Thats fact. All you keep spouting is i have no proof. Troll needs to move on. Im done feeding you.

i heard league of legends is doing just TERRIBLE, not making one dime

I take back all the good I’ve said about this game.

People buy a game because it promises them something.
Other people buy a game because it’s new.

Other people complain because they knew nothing about the game, want it to be like every other game on the market.
People who bought the game because they were told it would never have what other people are asking for are told to deal with it, their informed purchase means nothing.

wat?

SiNoS.2147:

Taemek.1602:

SiNoS.2147:

Taemek.1602:

Lost Shores dictates otherwise.

I think there is enough threads about this topic already, there does not need to be a negative demoralizing thread generated again.

Clearly it does as A-Net has abandoned there moral’s to please a very loud minority of the population. Maybe they will listen if we get just as loud.

Again, you have no proof, and even if A-net did once upon a time promise no gear grind treadmill type character based progression, the fact that they have changed thier minds tells me that the crowd they are attempting to appease to is a little bit more then the minority you claim it to be.

Buisnesses, let me correct that, multi-million dollar industries do not make knee jerk reactions based on minority out breaks without proven data to support it is a majority and has the potential to earn dollars.

They also obviously dont follow trends. All games that catered to this minority, except one, has ended up losing most of its player base because of it.

I guess they just feel that living off that other game’s scraps will be better for GW2.

Interesting supposition, but doubtful I’ll stick around to see how it turns out. :\ I like this game, too.

Don’t add a gear treadmill.

Don’t do it.
The reason I got this game is that it did not have one.

I followed this game and supported it because it was something that said things I liked to hear and did things that I heard lived up to what was said. There was no gear treadmill and wouldn’t be.
Other people just bought it and got mad it wasn’t like every other single MMO on the market that they’ve played and quit but still only want to play things like what they’ve played and quit and complained about while playing and quitting but never wanting anything to ever be really that different.

I’m getting punished and they are being rewarded.

Makes sense!

Lopez.7369:

Didn’t Martin Kerstein say there would be a blog post on this today? What happened to that?

I dunno but anet also said there would be no vertical gear progression.

hopefully they’ll get that blog post out in the next 3 hours 20 minutes, and they also weren’t lying about the gear thing either. hopefully.

if not, whatever. one more MMO i’ve quit.

i mean, i enjoy the PvE in this game — true story. i hate pve, but it’s fun enough here because it’s optional, because at the end of the run i walk away with the fun that i had rather than “gosh that’s 1/3 of the way to 1 item of the 12 i’ll need to collect..”
but throw in some gear that’s better than the best stuff now, and i know that in a few months.. the same thing will happen. and then again. and again. and eventually the game is nothing but doing things so you can go get the newest bestest set of gear so you’re on a level for a few months until it happens again.

nah. that’s garbage.

surely there will be a blog post soon.

Once again;
still have never transferred, still getting no bonuses on any character, nor are several of my guildmates

what the dilly yo

I’m hoping for big things, but expecting tooltip changes and new ability icons…

that tends to be how things go for me and my chosen class.
still, ive got hope

I’m playing around with it, but for a long time I was running 10/20/20/10/10
was pretty good for… everything really. i don’t find any of the 30-point traits very compelling.

10 point blood magic — mark of evasion
just so you and everyone knows, this is a blast finisher on a 10sec cooldown. it’s undocumented, and pretty awesome. last i checked it only puts 2 stacks of bleed on things it hits, rather than 3 like mark of blood should, but it does benefit from the greater marks trait in death magic (making it huge and unblockable)

mystic wand is a great mainhand scepter and it’s cheap to make. 75 ancient wood logs to an artificer for cores and rods, 50 skill points, 30 mystic coins → prec/tough/cond exotic scepter

got a pow/prec/cond staff because they’re cheap (mine was just over 2g), a prec/tough/cond staff is harder to find (but you can get it from dungeons easily enough, iirc it’s 390 tokens). i went with prec because it’s my primary weapon in WvW and crits on greater marks is nice. obviously the only sigil for staff is sigil of fire that fire blast is awesome, and with ~50% crit (i’m over that atm) and hitting multiple targets.. let’s say it’s WvW, you hit 5 people, 50% chance to crit and 30% chance on crit = if my math is right a 55.6% chance to proc
so you drop 4 marks it’s basically a 96% chance to proc the fire blast, which is almost as much damage as staff4, so your 4-mark-combo drops ~2500-3k direct damage and ~5k-6k in condition damage over the next 10sec or so
which doesn’t sound like much maybe, but it’s at 1200 range and it’s unblockable

for an offhand, get a warhorn, i’m addicted to swiftness, it’s the only way to travel, between warhorn and spectral walk we can have 100% swiftness uptime… swap offhand and SW to something else as needed but if you’re doing WvW or travelling through Orr, just do yourself the favor and run fast

dagger offhand is good for PvE, focus offhand isn’t bad either, not sure which I really like better..

i run corrosive poison + epidemic, and either blood is power or well of suffering.. usually BiP, the stacks of might seem to really be more damage than WoS was..
group i run with usually i’m the primary or only source of poison, so with BiP / CPC / Epi, and 20% cdr on corruption skills, it’s nice. epidemic down to a 12sec CD is hilarious when things live long enough to cast it twice

if you’re after prec/tough/cond armor, chest and feet need to be either from the mystic forge (pricey) or tokens (easy!), i believe the rest you can get for karma which is pretty easy to do (helm i forget? i think i had just bought a power/prec/cond exotic and transmuted it, idk, at the very least you can get one for tokens)

sigil of earth on scepter, offhand gets.. idk, another sigil of earth provides an additional 24% chance to proc on crit (total 84% chance to proc on crit, w/ 50% crit = 47% chance to proc on hit outside cooldown period, which iirc is 2sec, which i believe is 2 swings of scepter), think i put 10% bleed duration on another offhand, and i think i stuck.. something silly on another? might on weapon swap maybe? who cares haha, either get the might one or the additional sigil of earth imo

ta daaa you’re a beast of a necro

I’m not sure aggro works that way, first of all.. I’m not sure how it works at all.

You’ve only 2 choices for gear that have primary condition damage — either pow/vit/cond or prec/tough/cond

necros have decent base HP, you don’t get much out of power unless you’re a power build (you DO get SOMETHING, though, so I’d not ignore it).. but you get more condition damage from toughness, and though I’ve not tested it and shouldn’t say anything.. my gut tells me we get more damage per point of precision than power..
simply on account of either sigil of earth (on my scepter.. and on some of my offhands too, for a total 84% chance to proc on crit), or sigil of fire on staff, and of course i often grab the trait for chance of life force gain on crit

plus, hey, we don’t often have conditions sitting on us for long but crits and conditions aren’t affected by weakness.. so, bonus!

sometimes my bleeds tick for 164 and that’s pretty rad.

I dunno. 1 boon every 10? I stack bleeds, poison, and weakness like it’s going out of style. sometimes there’s a chill in there too. and sometimes vulnerability. and they all tend to get reapplied quickly, minus the vuln. which is just on my well of suffering (’cause axe is kinda ….)
any conditions they stack on me? i either eat em for HP, or transfer some with dagger4, or transfer the whole lot with staff4 (which is my fav, nothing like dumping a bunch of condis on someone while they do the same to you, they clear theirs, and then you just dump all yours onto them.. ideally after throwing BiP and corrosive poison cloud in there.. they put more on you, you eat em for HP.. you win)

I’m not a fan really of scepter for PvP. It’s too slow. I use it, usually scepter/warhorn sometimes /dagger, but mostly it’s staff. unblockable, huge marks, combo on poison fields for more weakness which is HUGE unless you’re against a condition or crit build — everything that’s not a condition or a crit does half damage? yesplz

I’m not saying the class is A-OK, and it’s a pain against some class/specs.. but i mean, heck, if all someone is doing is pulling off 1 condi every 10 seconds.. mole hill out of a mountain!

I think it WOULD be nice if we had easier access to more conditions. Still not sure how we didn’t get any burning, and so little access to chilled… but eh! maybe some day we’ll get hammers and instead of a scythe blade they’ll get a black fire thing and it’ll be a melee condition build and that would make me very happy ;]

10/20/20/10/10

real. that’s what i’ve been using for everything and i’ve had a hard time finding anything i want to change about it.

greater marks + 20% CDR on staff = you can tag pretty well in DE’s. It gets rough when there’s too many people, but I think that’s the same for everyone

well of suffering / corrosive poison / spectral walk for my utilities, traited for gtaoe wells
though lately i’ve been playing with swapping BiP for WoS and taking the reduced CD on corruption skill instead
and sometimes epidemic instead of spectral walk, but usually, for most DEs, epidemic is a waste because things die too fast. very nice for killing shades, though..

none of the 30pt traits are that compelling, not next to a stack of might on life blast, or life blast piercing causing vulnerability, both are brilliant for AoE pulls and increasing bleed damage (been swapping a lot with the BiP power and keeping stacks of might up is pretty fun), the 10 point Blood trait for creating a Mark of Blood when you dodge is PRICELESS because it’s a blast finisher. Take that one. All the time. I think it only puts 2 bleeds on them, not 3 like it should, but you get regen, it’s the size of HUGE because you’re traited for greater marks (and also unblockable), and it’s a blast finisher.
I mean really. See that fire field? Roll into it, now everyone has might. See that water fountain? Area healing. All your poison fields? Area weakness. and so on.. combo fields are awesome, and blast finisher on dodge is our lowest CD finisher (staff4, bone minions, and flesh worm are also blast finishers.. but on longer CD and minions are unreliable, they’ll either die to aoe or just stand next to you not attacking anything when you wanna blow them up).

You’ll want 10 in blood. Take the trait that drops a mark of blood when you dodge.

you now have a blast finisher on a 10sec CD.

it’s worth it

no reason to pay so much, scepter is only 75 ancient logs, 30 mystic coins, and 50 skill points. skill points are cheap..

Fisher.8290:

Personally, I would never play PD in GW2. It is trading the thrill of taking on challenges and sometimes beating the odds with running and fear. This is a game and I want it to be exciting, not just thankful to be surviving. It is simply too restricting in the content available and a completely different state of mind.

EXCITING! Exactly

I may look down on PvE monkeys who love their tiered gear progression excuse for content (I do… ‘cause I don’t like it), and I may not ever care to play permadeath anything (I kinda really don’t, though I suppose DayZ is permadeath since you lose all your stuff.. but that has no progression other than finding new stuff!)..

but permadeath? more power to ya, I wouldn’t enjoy it, but best of luck.

Me, I like pulling more mobs.. and harder mobs.. and more harder mobs.. until I get to the point that, OK, yes, this right here, this is more than I can handle. This is too strong for me. Then I’ll try a different approach, see if I can play better to handle that kind of pull. The best pulls, in my mind, are the ones where I get downed, and then rally immediately as a mob dies, fall over again, rally again because another mob died, throw a dodge in and blast any and all abilities off cooldown at whatever’s remaining, and then loot their bodies with 100-some HP
EXCITEMENT!

Yeah I like heading down to the pirate ship in Cursed Shore by myself and pulling multiple mobs at once.. that for me is enjoyment. Oh god, will this work, can I pull this off, yes I can ok this is under controOHH GOD THEY’RE RESPAWNING ALREADY! Hehe.

If you wanna get to 80 without dying…. drop 40+ gold and craft your way there.

There really isn’t any other way to do it, not as far as I can see.

Besides, you’ll never know how much you can accomplish until you find the point where you fail. That’s a lot of the fun, for me at least. Will this kill me? I dunno but WE’RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT! To quote Sam Jackson.. hold on to your butts! ;D

i went with coral as well, though i think one ring i went pow/vit/cond instead
51% crit w/ staff, 45% with scepter (scepter/horn are prec/tough/cond, scepter is power/prec/cond)

it’s left me with north of 1.2k cond. dmg, and a high crit rate, and a decent bit of power for attacks that scale with power.. i’m not exactly a hard target though i am rocking a spattering of toughness and a little vitality, but hey! that just means I gotta work at not getting it! gives me something to do

Dungeons are just a mindless zerg fest that is apparently dominated by Warrior/Guardian only groups. Yea I got kicked from a group because I was a Elementalist. Was I mad? No. Because they said why would we take you when we can get a Guardian that has way more survivability and healing? So I figured that made sense and I just moved on. But I digress.

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

Look, the dungeons aren’t that bad. You can’t just semi-AFK and mash your 2 dps buttons (or 2 heal buttons, or 2 taunt buttons…), but class comp does not really matter.
Trust me. My staff necro generally tears it up in instances. Flesh Golem decides that we need to pull additional packs of mobs sometimes.. but if the group’s paying attention and knows how to play, well, as I was telling my guildies last night.. “We’re still winning on my screen”.

Yeah imagine, doing well in an instance is more about people knowing how to play their class and the game than it is about class comp.

I talked my friend about whats what around 80s. He said honestly theres nothing to look forward to. Just endless grind for gear thats near useless since theres zero endgame content. He said the last dragon boss was the easiest out of all the dragons that are already a joke to fight since there is no fear of failure.

Actually, no. WoW is an endless grind for gear that’s near useless since any gear you get will only allow you to keep doing the same thing in a new place. GW2 is anything but an endless grind for gear. I have only 1 more exotic to get my hands on until I’m filled out — for my first stat setup, at least! — and I’ve been taking my time. … and also doing silly things like dropping 17g for the scythe skin (BECAUSE I’M A NECRO!).. yeah, gear is easy in this game, and you can experience all content with whatever you’re wearing.

I hate PvE, but I’m loving it in GW2 because it’s entirely optional, my only motivation to do it is to have fun — at no point am I compelled to run this instance over that instance because I need this or that drop, at no point am I compelled to repeatedly run any instance just to get into another instance later. I just.. do whatever seems like a fun time.

It’s fantastic.

And if you’ve run out of places to level, try moving to a new zone. There’s a bunch of different areas for any given level range, yanno. iirc there was a bit of a lull for my (human) necro around level.. 30? 50? I forget, but I dipped into some Norn areas for a bit, explored some over-leveled content and found that killing mobs over my level wasn’t TOO hard after all.

If the zones are as empty as you imply, you should be getting ridiculous exp from mobs. Friend of mine was getting 1% of a level per mob kill thanks to the bonus exp from it not having been killed in a long time. That’s.. fast. That’s very fast.

ohh i get it! it’s like minesweeper!

i think i lost

if necro pets worked like ranger pets I’d be pleased beyond belief. don’t ever assume that because a ranger pet works one way that necro minions will work the same way.

You think that’s bad… there’s 2 Risen Quaggans guarding a rich candy corn node, and I’ve yet to kill them. I can take on the Vet Giants by myself and not sweat too hard, but those Quaggan..

they’re north/northeast of Grenth’s island, go find them. I can’t properly describe what happens. You’re welcome for the repair bill.

I don’t think the long cast time is intended. You actually spend more time BETWEEN casts than it takes TO cast — the cast bar fills, you shoot a (broken.. low damage..) ball of black out, and then you swim upwards to your original position awkwardly.

That returning to position takes longer than the cast time.

So, yeah. It should be twice the firing rate it is. Slightly more.

Oh, and #2 underwater is also broken, you have to cast it at the right time or it’ll never go off — if you cast it during recovery from an unyielding blast, it just.. won’t go. Or something like that. I am sure, though, that you can press 2 and nothing else and not have the ability cast.

Which is great and all since it’s our only really decent underwater DS ability, a tiny dinky poison cloud..

they make your character do a voice-over when they die

that’s about it.

oh, sometimes bad guys in pvp will rally off them? so i guess that’s nice. for the guy you’re trying to kill. yeah.

I’m still not getting bonuses. Still on the same server, I’ve never transferred. Same is still true for several of my guildmates as well.

Cezton.2415:

I never said this.

The game just doesn’t have enough rewards and choices to spend your currency on.

The title of this thread is “Too much equality”

Here’s a quote from the first post.

The cosmetic approach, the approach for all to have fun and be equal feels like it will be the downfall of this game after a few months of everyone doing the same things.

For all the be equal is part of the problem, you say.

Nah.. nah. That’s the #1 reason I waited until the last minute to pre-order (just in time for the headstart). I waited until I heard, from many of my guildmates, that there was no gear grind, that there wasn’t a gear treadmill, and that end-game gear was pretty easily attainable.

Nah.. nah. That’s the #1 reason I waited until the last minute to pre-order (just in time for the headstart). I waited until I heard, from many of my guildmates, that there was no gear grind, that there wasn’t a gear treadmill, and that end-game gear was pretty easily attainable.That’s what I want. Gear plateau. Cosmetic differences I’m down with — I’m about to go all hardcore mode to try and get the Halloween Scythe skin for my staff — but I will not ever play another MMO that’s going to structure their game around an endless chase after the newest shiniest stat sticks.
If I grind for gear, I’d like it to be my choice — not a necessity if I don’t wish to be left behind with inferior gear.
If I decide I’m too busy to log in for 2-3 weeks — I don’t want to regret maybe missing out on a drop I had been hoping to get for a long time.

Nah.. nah. That’s the #1 reason I waited until the last minute to pre-order (just in time for the headstart). I waited until I heard, from many of my guildmates, that there was no gear grind, that there wasn’t a gear treadmill, and that end-game gear was pretty easily attainable.That’s what I want. Gear plateau. Cosmetic differences I’m down with — I’m about to go all hardcore mode to try and get the Halloween Scythe skin for my staff — but I will not ever play another MMO that’s going to structure their game around an endless chase after the newest shiniest stat sticks.
If I grind for gear, I’d like it to be my choice — not a necessity if I don’t wish to be left behind with inferior gear.
If I decide I’m too busy to log in for 2-3 weeks — I don’t want to regret maybe missing out on a drop I had been hoping to get for a long time.I haven’t done close to half the dungeons in this game. I have done quite a few that I have no intention of getting anything from — I tend to only play one character, and while AC tokens would be nice for my warrior, he’s level 16 and will likely not hit 20 given a month’s time, and they’re useless for my necro.
I run ‘em because it’s fun, because other guys in my guild would like to and my gosh, IT’S JUST FUN! I don’t care about the rewards. It’s just something fun to do, if I feel like it. If I decide it wouldn’t be fun for me, right then, at that moment? I don’t have to, and will never have to ever again until it seems like something fun to do.

Nah.. nah. That’s the #1 reason I waited until the last minute to pre-order (just in time for the headstart). I waited until I heard, from many of my guildmates, that there was no gear grind, that there wasn’t a gear treadmill, and that end-game gear was pretty easily attainable.That’s what I want. Gear plateau. Cosmetic differences I’m down with — I’m about to go all hardcore mode to try and get the Halloween Scythe skin for my staff — but I will not ever play another MMO that’s going to structure their game around an endless chase after the newest shiniest stat sticks.
If I grind for gear, I’d like it to be my choice — not a necessity if I don’t wish to be left behind with inferior gear.
If I decide I’m too busy to log in for 2-3 weeks — I don’t want to regret maybe missing out on a drop I had been hoping to get for a long time.I haven’t done close to half the dungeons in this game. I have done quite a few that I have no intention of getting anything from — I tend to only play one character, and while AC tokens would be nice for my warrior, he’s level 16 and will likely not hit 20 given a month’s time, and they’re useless for my necro.
I run ‘em because it’s fun, because other guys in my guild would like to and my gosh, IT’S JUST FUN! I don’t care about the rewards. It’s just something fun to do, if I feel like it. If I decide it wouldn’t be fun for me, right then, at that moment? I don’t have to, and will never have to ever again until it seems like something fun to do.I don’t need karma for anything. I still do events, because it’s fun. Why? Can’t tell you. I get nothing out of it, but that’s just it — I’m just doing it because it’s something fun to do at the time, and I will never feel a compulsion to do something that isn’t fun for me, right then, at that time.

Nah.. nah. That’s the #1 reason I waited until the last minute to pre-order (just in time for the headstart). I waited until I heard, from many of my guildmates, that there was no gear grind, that there wasn’t a gear treadmill, and that end-game gear was pretty easily attainable.That’s what I want. Gear plateau. Cosmetic differences I’m down with — I’m about to go all hardcore mode to try and get the Halloween Scythe skin for my staff — but I will not ever play another MMO that’s going to structure their game around an endless chase after the newest shiniest stat sticks.
If I grind for gear, I’d like it to be my choice — not a necessity if I don’t wish to be left behind with inferior gear.
If I decide I’m too busy to log in for 2-3 weeks — I don’t want to regret maybe missing out on a drop I had been hoping to get for a long time.I haven’t done close to half the dungeons in this game. I have done quite a few that I have no intention of getting anything from — I tend to only play one character, and while AC tokens would be nice for my warrior, he’s level 16 and will likely not hit 20 given a month’s time, and they’re useless for my necro.
I run ‘em because it’s fun, because other guys in my guild would like to and my gosh, IT’S JUST FUN! I don’t care about the rewards. It’s just something fun to do, if I feel like it. If I decide it wouldn’t be fun for me, right then, at that moment? I don’t have to, and will never have to ever again until it seems like something fun to do.I don’t need karma for anything. I still do events, because it’s fun. Why? Can’t tell you. I get nothing out of it, but that’s just it — I’m just doing it because it’s something fun to do at the time, and I will never feel a compulsion to do something that isn’t fun for me, right then, at that time.You guys want your grind? You think GW2 is “dumbed down”? How much fun was it, honestly, in EQ, to either rush online right after a server reset (I hope you logged out in the right place!) to try and catch a mob spawn that drops a particular item you need? How much fun was it to see someone already there but at least breathe a sigh of relief that you’d at least get an accurate respawn time out of it? C’mon now — that is dumb. Tell me it’s not, I dare you.

Nah.. nah. That’s the #1 reason I waited until the last minute to pre-order (just in time for the headstart). I waited until I heard, from many of my guildmates, that there was no gear grind, that there wasn’t a gear treadmill, and that end-game gear was pretty easily attainable.That’s what I want. Gear plateau. Cosmetic differences I’m down with — I’m about to go all hardcore mode to try and get the Halloween Scythe skin for my staff — but I will not ever play another MMO that’s going to structure their game around an endless chase after the newest shiniest stat sticks.
If I grind for gear, I’d like it to be my choice — not a necessity if I don’t wish to be left behind with inferior gear.
If I decide I’m too busy to log in for 2-3 weeks — I don’t want to regret maybe missing out on a drop I had been hoping to get for a long time.I haven’t done close to half the dungeons in this game. I have done quite a few that I have no intention of getting anything from — I tend to only play one character, and while AC tokens would be nice for my warrior, he’s level 16 and will likely not hit 20 given a month’s time, and they’re useless for my necro.
I run ‘em because it’s fun, because other guys in my guild would like to and my gosh, IT’S JUST FUN! I don’t care about the rewards. It’s just something fun to do, if I feel like it. If I decide it wouldn’t be fun for me, right then, at that moment? I don’t have to, and will never have to ever again until it seems like something fun to do.I don’t need karma for anything. I still do events, because it’s fun. Why? Can’t tell you. I get nothing out of it, but that’s just it — I’m just doing it because it’s something fun to do at the time, and I will never feel a compulsion to do something that isn’t fun for me, right then, at that time.You guys want your grind? You think GW2 is “dumbed down”? How much fun was it, honestly, in EQ, to either rush online right after a server reset (I hope you logged out in the right place!) to try and catch a mob spawn that drops a particular item you need? How much fun was it to see someone already there but at least breathe a sigh of relief that you’d at least get an accurate respawn time out of it? C’mon now — that is dumb. Tell me it’s not, I dare you.I do find it amusing that, in finishing that bit and then reading further into this thread, the guy above me also brought up EQ. Heh.

Nah.. nah. That’s the #1 reason I waited until the last minute to pre-order (just in time for the headstart). I waited until I heard, from many of my guildmates, that there was no gear grind, that there wasn’t a gear treadmill, and that end-game gear was pretty easily attainable.That’s what I want. Gear plateau. Cosmetic differences I’m down with — I’m about to go all hardcore mode to try and get the Halloween Scythe skin for my staff — but I will not ever play another MMO that’s going to structure their game around an endless chase after the newest shiniest stat sticks.
If I grind for gear, I’d like it to be my choice — not a necessity if I don’t wish to be left behind with inferior gear.
If I decide I’m too busy to log in for 2-3 weeks — I don’t want to regret maybe missing out on a drop I had been hoping to get for a long time.I haven’t done close to half the dungeons in this game. I have done quite a few that I have no intention of getting anything from — I tend to only play one character, and while AC tokens would be nice for my warrior, he’s level 16 and will likely not hit 20 given a month’s time, and they’re useless for my necro.
I run ‘em because it’s fun, because other guys in my guild would like to and my gosh, IT’S JUST FUN! I don’t care about the rewards. It’s just something fun to do, if I feel like it. If I decide it wouldn’t be fun for me, right then, at that moment? I don’t have to, and will never have to ever again until it seems like something fun to do.I don’t need karma for anything. I still do events, because it’s fun. Why? Can’t tell you. I get nothing out of it, but that’s just it — I’m just doing it because it’s something fun to do at the time, and I will never feel a compulsion to do something that isn’t fun for me, right then, at that time.You guys want your grind? You think GW2 is “dumbed down”? How much fun was it, honestly, in EQ, to either rush online right after a server reset (I hope you logged out in the right place!) to try and catch a mob spawn that drops a particular item you need? How much fun was it to see someone already there but at least breathe a sigh of relief that you’d at least get an accurate respawn time out of it? C’mon now — that is dumb. Tell me it’s not, I dare you.I do find it amusing that, in finishing that bit and then reading further into this thread, the guy above me also brought up EQ. Heh.DAoC’s endgame model was always better than EQ’s. WoW simply took EQ’s endgame model and updated it, but at the core it was no different at all. GW2 is taking DAoC’s model, and for that we thank you. Just, uh, don’t take a big steamy TOA on me please, PvP guys may PvE but we (I…) are rankled when the PvE is forced on us (…me).

Draco.2806:

No, no excuses, just plain wrong. It’s a silly thing to ask for from PvE players

But PvE requirements are A-OK to ask from PvP players amirite?

Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to step on your toes — I may have avoided them had your foot not been on my ankle..

Cezton.2415:

Heads up folks, MMOs are about grinding.

Heads up Cezton, you’re obviously looking for another game. Have you tried Diablo 3? I hear good things from both people playing it. Or maybe try out Progress Quest.

I’m pretty sure GW1 was a success, as was DAoC, which also had a gear plateau at end-game.

Stop telling me the game is garbage just because you want to log in and do a bunch of stuff you don’t enjoy so that later you’ll get 5 seconds of enjoyment out of picking up a new item. I’m too busy logging in and doing stuff I do enjoy because I don’t need to concern myself with chasing the newest item that I need to keep up with the game.