Guild Wars 2

stof.9341:

souldonkey.9534:

Arenanet didn’t say that. A game news site did. Arenanet said that Ascended Items are “ancient and powerful artifacts” which is vague as kitten.

And all those different news site pulled that exact same info out of nowhere? Was that some collective hallucination and ArenaNet never said anything of the like in their press release? And putting links to those news sites on their official Twitter without any problem, without any remark isn’t saying that they see no problem with what was posted?

They sure said they’ll post some blog thing to explain everything. But people have the right to be scared of such info just because it was presented in such a way. It is THEIR fault this is happening.

People are losing their minds over nothing here. Nothing has been explained here. The only thing that even your precious news sites said was that the ascended “items” are better than exotics. That does not mean they will be required for anything. That does not mean it’s a new tier of armor. That does not mean that you’re exotic armor is worthless.

That. does. not. mean. anything. People are blowing this out of proportion with having little to no information about it. Even the “news” sites people seem so fond of referring to don’t have anything on them more than “they’re better than exotic”. NOWHERE does it say anything about Ascended Items even being armor.

Edewen.8304:

souldonkey.9534:

Arenanet didn’t say that. A game news site did. Arenanet said that Ascended Items are “ancient and powerful artifacts” which is vague as kitten.

You say this as if the only information the 3rd party site have is from the website. If the articles were inaccurate translations of what is to be expected then… wait for it…. ANET WOULD NOT HAVE GIVEN POSTED THE LINKS.

By promoting the articles, they in fact put their seal of approval on its content.

That doesn’t mean they went through the article with a fine tooth comb. They read it, felt it was good enough, and allowed it to be posted. You’re reaching.

Xyne.9104:

souldonkey.9534:

Creeper.9360:

Angry Angus.2187:

ITT People assuming the worst based off a very small trickle of information

Well perhaps they should have put out an informational blog before giving out vague statements to the press first.

It would have curtailed a lot of this angst (or maybe not, depending on what the ascended gear really is).

Or maybe people should take responsibility for their own immature temper tantrums and not jump to conclusions over said vague information. Anet has ALWAYS been vague about their info. Why is this still surprising to people? When will people learn to not flip out over these kinds of announcements?

I somehow believe that the vagueness was deliberate.

They are using it to test players/community reaction to changes.

While some feedbacks can be nonconstructive, I’ve seen a handful with really interesting ideas.

I have also noticed a trend of releasing vague info, letting the community rage for a bit, and then putting out the fire. You don’t do that as often as Anet does without it being at least a little intentional.

stof.9341:

souldonkey.9534:

Or maybe people should take responsibility for their own immature temper tantrums and not jump to conclusions over said vague information. Anet has ALWAYS been vague about their info. Why is this still surprising to people? When will people learn to not flip out over these kinds of announcements?

What is vague about :

“The patch will introduce ascended items. Ascended armors are “slightly more powerful than exotics” and can, in some cases, hold slots for infusions. Infusions will allow you to increase your character’s power."

I’m not a native English but my grasp of the language is rather good. For me it’s written “the patch will introduce Ascended armors which are better than Exotic”

Arenanet didn’t say that. A game news site did. Arenanet said that Ascended Items are “ancient and powerful artifacts” which is vague as kitten.

Creeper.9360:

Angry Angus.2187:

ITT People assuming the worst based off a very small trickle of information

Well perhaps they should have put out an informational blog before giving out vague statements to the press first.

It would have curtailed a lot of this angst (or maybe not, depending on what the ascended gear really is).

Or maybe people should take responsibility for their own immature temper tantrums and not jump to conclusions over said vague information. Anet has ALWAYS been vague about their info. Why is this still surprising to people? When will people learn to not flip out over these kinds of announcements?

Zefiris.8297:

“Whelp, anet lied. Time to quit. GG guys, later.” don’t help anyone.

I agree. That’s why I, for example, just said my opinion on it, and also pointed out that my opinion was only for the – hopefully wrong – case of the worst worries being true.

I sure am not quitting now, in fact, I was just finishing my last jumping puzzle. I only will if the game continues into a way I don’t like.

Which makes sense. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s a game, and people shouldn’t play things they don’t like for whatever reason.

And that I’m ok with. Sadly, not everyone is as level headed as you and takes to the more dramatic overreaction type posts. I would also not like a gear treadmill to be introduced. I also don’t think Arenanet suddenly became stupid over night and decided to implement one.

Aaron.4807:

souldonkey.9534:

Aaron.4807:

This is the dumbest thing that Anet could have ever done. Seriously, what the hell are they thinking?

You don’t even know the details so how can you say it’s dumb, let alone the dumbest thing they could have ever done? Dramatic much?

Not dramatic but if this adds a new tier of gear to the game then Anet basically added a gear treadmill to the game, which they have REPEATEDLY. let me repeat that, REPEATEDLY have over 5 years now told us we would not have to deal with.

So, now, here we are, staring down the thing THAT WE HATE and saying, “come on guys, this might not be baaaaaaaaaad, maaaaaaaan.” This is terrible, this is kitteny gear progression and artificial content inflation.

Not. Good.

If they have repeatedly said that over 5 years, and don’t have a history of going back on their word, why then would you think this time would be any different?

Zefiris.8297:

@souldonkey
And thats what we hope for, that they are, indeed, not more powerful. If, for example, they had the same stats, but made them variable (ie: You being able to use this to get stat combinations currently unavailable or even change them on the fly) I’d have no issue with it.

People really are waiting for a)what this is and b)are telling anet exactly what their opinions are if it’s a stat progression.

Which people SHOULD do. If you ever worked in a company, you’ll notice that the HARDEST thing is getting to know what your customers actually want. It’s really hard! That’s why giving feedback is actually really important.

It’d be pretty terrible if industry newssites fail so badly at basic reading standards!

Yes but posts like:

“Whelp, anet lied. Time to quit. GG guys, later.” don’t help anyone.

Crater.1625:

souldonkey.9534:

You never once said hypothetical before you posted wildly hyperbolic false information. So yes. I do. You just don’t know how to express you “hypothetical” ideas properly.

No, you really don’t understand what I was saying.

No. You just don’t know how to articulate your thoughts to a written equivalent. But I digress. Again, I’m done with my argument with you. Feel free to continue thinking this is the end of Guild Wars 2 without having any concrete information on it. I’m sure that’ll work out fine.

Aaron.4807:

This is the dumbest thing that Anet could have ever done. Seriously, what the hell are they thinking?

You don’t even know the details so how can you say it’s dumb, let alone the dumbest thing they could have ever done? Dramatic much?

Leiloni.7951:

souldonkey.9534:

Key quote here is “multiple fan sites”. Arenanet’s site just says that the items are “artifacts of great power”. That is not the same as “they are more powerful than your current gear”.

Well fansites was my word but it’s incorrect – they are actually industry news sites. They get their information from previews given by ArenaNet. The idea being to drum up interest in the new update. So yes, the information is reliable.

It’s still not from Anet’s mouths, so to speak. It’s worded how the writers of those articles choose to write it based on an interview they had. The official stance from Anet’s website says NOTHING about the items being more powerful. So no. It’s not reliable, nor is it a good argument for the Ascended Items being more powerful replacements for our current exotics.

Crater.1625:

souldonkey.9534:

Seems to me like you lack reading comprehension cupcake. You have not understood a word I have typed, so you’re no longer worth arguing with. There are quite a few “sky is falling” posts in this thread so to claim otherwise is simply naive. And you yourself said specifically that doubling your power was bad. Ok, yeah. I agree, that would be bad. But the reason I pointed out that it had not been stated anywhere that that was the case was because you did not state that. You simply said “doubling your attack power is bad”. It was a baseless argument that served no purpose other than to be dramatic (something you excel at, btw). So yeah, with that, I’ll take my leave of this conversation. Until you can grow up a a bit and learn to read properly, I’m done arguing with you.

You still don’t understand what ‘hypothetical’ means.

You never once said hypothetical before you posted wildly hyperbolic false information. So yes. I do. You just don’t know how to express your “hypothetical” ideas properly.

Leiloni.7951:

Deth.4109:

“Introducing Ascended items, artifacts of great power that can be improved by a special new type of upgrade called Infusions, which can be found in dungeons. Look for more information about Ascended gear soon”! NOTHING here explicitly states these items are better in way than exotics, if any thing they could be the same stats with different methods of customization<be it cosmetic or Effect(not statisical). To be honest this thread has killed my faith in the GW2 community, i feel as if every last raging person in this thread needs to quit gaming and get therapy and stopi acting like a kittening idiot.

Multiple fan sites do in fact state that they are statistically better:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/11/12/guild-wars-2s-lost-shores-content-primer/
“slightly more powerful than exotics”

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/6882/A-Peek-into-the-November-Update.html/page/1
“a bit more powerful than exotic quality”

http://www.buffed.de/Guild-Wars-2-PC-169660/News/Guild-wars-2-November-Update-mit-Item-Progression-1034934/
Translation provided by DirtyKlingon on page 1 of this thread:
This is a departure from the principle, that an improvementof items should not be in the game rather the exotics (and the more beautiful butequal legendaries) should be the end of the value-flagpole. Arenanet reasonedthis change of course with the feedback from fans and players. The appreciation of equip is a big motivation for many"

Clearly all of those fansites have been given the exact same preview because they all formatted their articles in the exact same way. Also it’s pretty clear there is a stat increase, as evident by those sites as well as the lack of a denial in this thread – the only thing ANet posted in this thread was a “we’re posting a blog update soon” and that’s it.

Key quote here is “multiple fan sites”. Arenanet’s site just says that the items are “artifacts of great power”. That is not the same as “they are more powerful than your current gear”.

Crater.1625:

souldonkey.9534:

No one has stated anywhere that the Ascended Items will “permanently double your attack power” so how bout we wait for some facts before spreading hyperbolic crap like that. The article was very vague in saying that it would “increase power”. No one has any clue what that means. I’m speculating that it’s probably similar to Weh no Suh, or Infusion. You’re claiming the sky is falling because it will somehow “double your attack power”. All Arenanet has said is that they are “artifacts of great power”. That does not say anything about them increasing power or increasing any stats.

You do not have good reading comprehension skills. You are bad at it. That was (pretty obviously) a hypothetical example to illustrate why one of those ideas is fundamentally, in principle, absolutely fine, and why one of those ideas is fundamentally, in principle, absolutely not fine.

I don’t know where you got it in your head that I – or anyone - is claiming to know exactly to what extent the Ascended equipment will improve your character. I haven’t even claimed that it will offer your character a flat vertical increase in power over current gear.

What I have said is that flat vertical increases in power are bad in principle and that if that’s what Ascended equipment amounts to, then they should not be added to Guild Wars 2, and that I am uninterested in playing the game if that’s what they are. I don’t know that they will be, and I hope that they won’t be.
Maybe all they’ll let you do is double-jump, and they’ll be useful for newer, harder jumping puzzles. That would be fun.
Maybe they’ll have stats that are equal in value to Exotic equipment, but can be customized on the fly so that you can shift between Berserker stats, Cleric’s stats, or Traveler’s stats – or create your own stat spread, not offered on any current equipment – simply by opening up your Hero menu, without having to waste an extra 6-12+ inventory slots on a completely new set of equipment. That would be fantastic, and would represent a decrease in equipment grind that would breathe new life into the game.

But maybe you’re going to get an extra 300 Power, deal 25% more damage to Karka, and gain 10% Endurance every time a Karka hits you. That would be awful, and I would not want to continue playing the game.

Nobody is claiming that the sky is falling. What people are saying is that if ArenaNet is setting up plans to knock the sky down intentionally, we would like them to reconsider, and that if they do go ahead with knocking the sky down, we’re probably not going to be there when it hits the ground.

Seems to me like you lack reading comprehension cupcake. You have not understood a word I have typed, so you’re no longer worth arguing with. There are quite a few “sky is falling” posts in this thread so to claim otherwise is simply naive. And you yourself said specifically that doubling your power was bad. Ok, yeah. I agree, that would be bad. But the reason I pointed out that it had not been stated anywhere that that was the case was because you did not state that. You simply said “doubling your attack power is bad”. It was a baseless argument that served no purpose other than to be dramatic (something you excel at, btw). So yeah, with that, I’ll take my leave of this conversation. Until you can grow up a a bit and learn to read properly, I’m done arguing with you.

MinkoAk.7049:

I do not see anyone asking the only relevant question… assuming the Ascendant items are a new tier… what colour will their names be written with ?

Pink. Obviously.

This thread is so off the rails I think I need a boat. I say it should be locked until the blog post is released, lest this never ending cycle just repeat itself until that happens anyway.

Crater.1625:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I don’t understand the people flipping out over this… how is:

White<Blue<Green<Yellow<Orange< Ascended any different or worse then

White<Blue<Green<Yellow<Orange

There is no gear treadmill. A gear treadmill would be if you needed exotic armor to complete one tier of content and then you needed ascended gear to complete the next tier. This is not at all what is happening. You can still run all the content in the game in blues.

White->Blue->Green->Yellow->Orange is a gear treadmill. It’s already far from ideal.

I tolerate it – and I wouldn’t, if Exotics were any more of a grind to get than they are now – with the implicit understanding that a full set of Exotic gear means that you are done improving your equipment, and that any equipment obtained after getting a full set of Exotics will either A) Not be any more powerful than your existing equipment, but will carry a different-but-equally-strong stat distribution that allows you to alter your build and playstyle, or Offer no mechanical advantage or improvement whatsoever, existing only as a cosmetic change to your equipment’s appearance.

The game is currently at the absolute limit of the amount of gear grind and vertical progression that I can put up with. Any more, and I’m simply not interested in the game.

So you expected to leave the tutorial and be handed a shiny new set of exotics? Yeah, good luck with that…

At this point in this thread I honestly hope everyone claiming the sky is falling because of a change they know nothing about follows through on their threats to leave. I would really rather have sane, rational, PATIENT people playing this game than impatient 6 year olds whining that their toy is broken before they even know if it’s broken or not.

Crater.1625:

souldonkey.9534:

You couldn’t fight Shiro without becoming closer to the stars. It was literally not possible. Yes it was a part of progressing the story line,

Hey, look! You found the point! Completing the Closer to the Stars mission was a requirement to advance further in the game. It was not an increase in your mechanical power. A requirement that you complete mission 1 before you can play mission 2 is fine. A mechanic where completing mission 1 permanently doubles your attack power, and mission 2 is intended for people who deal twice the damage they did in mission 1, is not.

No one has stated anywhere that the Ascended Items will “permanently double your attack power” so how bout we wait for some facts before spreading hyperbolic crap like that. The article was very vague in saying that it would “increase power”. No one has any clue what that means. I’m speculating that it’s probably similar to Weh no Suh, or Infusion. You’re claiming the sky is falling because it will somehow “double your attack power”. All Arenanet has said is that they are “artifacts of great power”. That does not say anything about them increasing power or increasing any stats.

Erasculio.2914:

souldonkey.9534:

You can’t progress in Factions unless you’re Weh no Suh.
You can’t progress in the new dungeon unless you’re ascended.

Uh… You have not played Factions, have you? You became Weh no Suh during the middle of the storyline. The fight against Shiro was at the end of the storyline. You could not play the storyline out of order.

Ergo, it’s the same thing as claiming that, in GW2, you can’t progress to join an order unless you have done your first story arc. You cannot reach the point in the story in which you join an order if you have not done the previous story arcs before.

What? Did you even read what I said? I never said anything about joining the orders…

I said you couldn’t progress in the new dungeon without ascended gear (which isn’t even confirmed yet), and that’s similar to how you couldn’t progress in Factions unless you were Weh nu Suh. When you become Weh no Suh and when you fight Shiro is irrelevant. And yes, I’ve beaten Factions many times. Didn’t get 30/50 in my HoM without doing that.

krookie.6378:

souldonkey.9534:

bcbully.7289:

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

I believe I read somewhere that the gear will only be better within the dungeon itself and function as a normal piece of gear outside of the dungeon. (if I can find the post I will edit this)

That’s even worse. LFG for dungeon, must have ascended armor…

How’s that worse? That’s just like Prophecies endgame. Or Factions (must be Weh no Suh) or NF (must have Lightbringer R3 minimum).

That’s a bit different though.

Weh no Su was awarded after completing a certain mission in the campaign. It was also required because it allowed you to enter certain end-game locations that would not be accessible. otherwise

You can solo grind for Lightbringer. Also, I may be wrong since I haven’t done that campaign in a long time but I believe that you get R3 by just simply finishing the campaign.

Either way, it’s not the same as requiring certain gear to participate in an instance.

Wait, how is that different?

He’s saying this will become a “LFM, must be ascended” scenario. In GW1 you could get runs to areas you weren’t supposed to be without getting infused. Yes, you couldn’t progress in Factions unless you were Weh no Suh, but how is that different than not being able to progress here?

You can’t progress in Factions unless you’re Weh no Suh.
You can’t progress in the new dungeon unless you’re ascended.

At least in this case it only deals with 1 dungeon, not half the friggin’ game.

Crater.1625:

souldonkey.9534:

Ok, so if you like the vabbian armor better why would you keep the armor set you have? To fill up bank space? When I played GW1 my bank was full and I had 2 mule characters just for holding the rest of my crap. And I had one armor set.

And what? It was a bad mechanic that they never revisited? Did you even play any of the other campaigns? They literally had it in every one. Closer to the Stars in Factions, and Lightbringer track for damaging margonites in Nightfall.

I’d keep it because my old armour was another Elite set that I liked with another Superior Vigor rune so why would I flush all that away? More to the point, if I loved my new armour and hated my old armour, maybe I’d keep it just so that I couldn’t have to waste a bunch of time farting around with re-infusing a new set of armour just in case I happened to go play in an area with more Mursaat – which, you know, kind of throws a wrench into the argument that Infusion as a mechanic was totally fine and not a bad idea at all.

Re: The later factions, you’re right: I forgot that Nightfall had all of those awful title tracks that just made you stronger versus certain enemies without adding any sort of interesting mechanic. Call it something like a repressed memory, after dealing with how terrible a design decision they were. And now that you’ve brought it all flooding back, Nightfall also had parts where you had to just sit there and grind enemies by the dozens to earn enough Sunspear points to advance the plot – so let’s go ahead and say that Nightfall had some serious blunders in it.
However, having said that, none of the Lightbringer-esque mechanics had anything to do with equipment. As terrible as they were, my pre-launch weapons are still the best you could have to do that particular content with.

You’re wrong about Closer to the Stars in Factions, though. That was almost entirely contained within the game’s plot, and did not just arbitrarily make your character more powerful, or really different in any way.
And everything it did was 100% unrelated to equipment, needless to say.

You couldn’t fight Shiro without becoming closer to the stars. It was literally not possible. Yes it was a part of progressing the story line, but guess what, so was Infusion. Weh no Suh is literally meant to make you able to see Shiro, thus being able to fight him. So no. You’re wrong about that. And as for your argument about Infusion or Nightfall’s mechanics being bad well, as the Dude says, “That’s like, your opinion man.”

GW1 gets praised as the holy grail of MMOs (even though it’s not an MMO, but that’s a different argument) in these forums all the time yet, when I make a comparison about how a feature that you don’t like about GW2 is very similar to a feature that was in GW1, suddenly the tables have turned? Interesting…

bcbully.7289:

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

I believe I read somewhere that the gear will only be better within the dungeon itself and function as a normal piece of gear outside of the dungeon. (if I can find the post I will edit this)

That’s even worse. LFG for dungeon, must have ascended armor…

How’s that worse? That’s just like Prophecies endgame. Or Factions (must be Weh no Suh) or NF (must have Lightbringer R3 minimum).

Crater.1625:

souldonkey.9534:

Yeah, but how do you think you would fare if you decided you liked, say, the vabbi set and then decided to go back and fight mursaat with your new vabbi armor before infusing it?

Vabbian armour is an entirely cosmetic change with no statistical benefits compared to my existing armour, which I still have and I can still wear if I want to, for whatever reason, go fight some Mursaat without bothering to Infuse – and I won’t be any less powerful than if I did go through with Infusing the Vabbian armour.

That’s a pretty bad example, anyway. Infusion in general was a bad mechanic in Guild Wars 1, and you’ll notice that ArenaNet never went back and replicated it or made anything similar in later expansions.

Ok, so if you like the vabbian armor better why would you keep the armor set you have? To fill up bank space? When I played GW1 my bank was full and I had 2 mule characters just for holding the rest of my crap. And I had one armor set.

And what? It was a bad mechanic that they never revisited? Did you even play any of the other campaigns? They literally had it in every one. Closer to the Stars in Factions, and Lightbringer track for damaging margonites in Nightfall.

Crater.1625:

Bruno Sardine.2907:

Yeah no offense to players that bought stuff… but in an ever evolving game that might have an expansion, did you really think the items you had would be the best forever? That’s like buying an Audi or whatever and thinking they’re never coming out with a better model.

The max-stat weapons that I found in Guild Wars 1 on April 25, 2005, during the early-access headstart event, before the game even technically officially launched, are still equipped on my characters on November 12, 2012, and are still exactly as powerful as the absolute best equipment that you can get in the game, after seven and a half years, and three expansions.

So yes, I thought that having Exotic weapons in Guild Wars 2 would be ‘safe’ from gear inflation, less than three months later.

Yeah, but how do you think you would fare if you decided you liked, say, the vabbi set and then decided to go back and fight mursaat with your new vabbi armor before infusing it?

Shunsui Jiraiya.9103:

souldonkey.9534:

Shunsui Jiraiya.9103:

souldonkey.9534:

Fellaz.4073:

Ascend gear idea its a really bad idea, I play this game because I don’t want the gear progression!

It has not been said, anywhere, that this patch will introduce any gear progression.

Quote from : Massively

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/11/12/guild-wars-2s-lost-shores-content-primer/

“With great challenges come great rewards. The patch will introduce ascended items. Ascended armors are “slightly more powerful than exotics” and can, in some cases, hold slots for infusions. Infusions will allow you to increase your character’s power. Guild Wars players are familiar with infusing armor, although I’ll be my hat that the process doesn’t involve creepy Seers this time ’round."

Article references a conversation with Colin Johnson however is not directly quoted from him.

Again, I know we need an official statement however this reeks of a power Plato removal. I really want to trust Anet, though with NSoft involvement Im nervous they may buckle to wow retention tactics.

This says nothing about gear progression. It just refers to a new type of “ITEM”. That is no indication that there will be forced gear progression implemented.

This bit more than suggests gear progression “Ascended armors are “slightly more powerful than exotics””

If we have a patch that add’s a bit more power every x months… over years that is a gear treadmill.

Again… waiting for blogpost.

No it doesn’t. “More power” is the vaguest statement of all time. More “what” power? More attack power, healing power, condition power, defense against karka power, attack against karka power, ability to do harder fractals power, etc.? That post does nothing but speculate at best and raise grounds for hyperbolic discussions such as this one at worst. I still have yet to see anything saying the words “gear treadmill” or “gear progression” in anything that has been confirmed, so all of the arguments of “I’m uninstalling because there’s a gear grind now” are ridiculous at this point.

Sky.9347:

souldonkey.9534:

cesmode.4257:

souldonkey.9534:

cesmode.4257:

Where is your source?

The blog post on the website:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/november-2012/#the-lost-shores

You quoted something that is a big more specific than whats on that page. Within this current thread they said they would be releasing a blogpost explaining their intentions (maybe about 45 minutes ago they said this). Awaiting THAT blogpost to explain what exactly Ascended gear is…

No…? I quoted exactly word for word what is on that page under the “highlights” section.

I’m not seeing anything on that page. People have linked it all day, but I still don’t see anything except a one line subheadline thing and three pictures.

There’s a bunch of stuff there. This is the part I’m referencing specifically:

http://i.imgur.com/E9xqT.png

Cogbyrn.7283:

souldonkey.9534:

Directly from the blog post:

New Ascended Gear & Infusions
Introducing Ascended items, artifacts of great power that can be improved by a special new type of upgrade called Infusions, which can be found in dungeons. Look for more information about Ascended gear soon!

Ascended ITEMS with Infusion slots. These are whole new gear pieces people, NOT a new tier of armor. kitten the new dungeon deals with “fractals” that get harder the more you go in. Anyone think that maybe, just maybe, these new “ascended Items” are just gear pieces made for this particular dungeon (and likely for similar future dungeons), where you might have to upgrade your “infusions” based on certain fractals?

That actually sounds pretty cool. It’s basically a form of progression that isn’t necessary, but gives a reason to keep re-doing this dungeon.

Want to complete the dungeon once?
Cool, you can. You don’t need Ascended gear or Infusions to do it. You finished, have fun.

Want to run it multiple times and challenge yourself with higher difficulty each time?
Cool, go for it. Make sure you have your Ascended item and the proper Infusion.

This literally helps both sides of this coin. If you like to grind and like to max stats, you can grind the fractals till they become so difficult you start to bleed from the ears, and you can min-max on the infusions to your hearts content. If you just like to experience content once or twice you can run this dungeon a few times do that and you’ll have no issues with it.

I’m quoting this post again on account of its excellent analysis. He could be wrong, but Souldonkey wins the award for the best interpretation of what could be.

I’ll be interested to see the blog post.

Thank you, and I also hope it’s something similar to my theory. Arenanet has ALWAYS been a company that sticks to it’s guns. If they design a game based around an ideal, in this case “no gear treadmills”, they have a history of not going back on decisions like that. I have no reason to think differently now.

Honestly the theory that I gave is perfectly in line with their past thinking. Infused armor in Prophecies, Closer to the Stars in Factions, The lightbringer skills in Nightfall designed specifically to hurt the Margonites. This all fits in with what they’ve done in the past…

Shunsui Jiraiya.9103:

souldonkey.9534:

Fellaz.4073:

Ascend gear idea its a really bad idea, I play this game because I don’t want the gear progression!

It has not been said, anywhere, that this patch will introduce any gear progression.

Quote from : Massively

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/11/12/guild-wars-2s-lost-shores-content-primer/

“With great challenges come great rewards. The patch will introduce ascended items. Ascended armors are “slightly more powerful than exotics” and can, in some cases, hold slots for infusions. Infusions will allow you to increase your character’s power. Guild Wars players are familiar with infusing armor, although I’ll be my hat that the process doesn’t involve creepy Seers this time ’round."

Article references a conversation with Colin Johnson however is not directly quoted from him.

Again, I know we need an official statement however this reeks of a power Plato removal. I really want to trust Anet, though with NSoft involvement Im nervous they may buckle to wow retention tactics.

This says nothing about gear progression. It just refers to a new type of “ITEM”. That is no indication that there will be forced gear progression implemented.

cesmode.4257:

souldonkey.9534:

cesmode.4257:

Where is your source?

The blog post on the website:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/november-2012/#the-lost-shores

You quoted something that is a big more specific than whats on that page. Within this current thread they said they would be releasing a blogpost explaining their intentions (maybe about 45 minutes ago they said this). Awaiting THAT blogpost to explain what exactly Ascended gear is…

No…? I quoted exactly word for word what is on that page under the “highlights” section.

alcopaul.2156:

bcbully.7289:

I wonder what ilevel Ascended gear is.

Level 81? OMG I have a level 81 armorrrrrr!

He said *i*Level. It was a WoW joke.

cesmode.4257:

Where is your source?

The blog post on the website:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/november-2012/#the-lost-shores

Fellaz.4073:

Ascend gear idea its a really bad idea, I play this game because I don’t want the gear progression!

It has not been said, anywhere, that this patch will introduce any gear progression.

Directly from the blog post:

New Ascended Gear & Infusions
Introducing Ascended items, artifacts of great power that can be improved by a special new type of upgrade called Infusions, which can be found in dungeons. Look for more information about Ascended gear soon!

Ascended ITEMS with Infusion slots. These are whole new gear pieces people, NOT a new tier of armor. kitten the new dungeon deals with “fractals” that get harder the more you go in. Anyone think that maybe, just maybe, these new “ascended Items” are just gear pieces made for this particular dungeon (and likely for similar future dungeons), where you might have to upgrade your “infusions” based on certain fractals?

That actually sounds pretty cool. It’s basically a form of progression that isn’t necessary, but gives a reason to keep re-doing this dungeon.

Want to complete the dungeon once?
Cool, you can. You don’t need Ascended gear or Infusions to do it. You finished, have fun.

Want to run it multiple times and challenge yourself with higher difficulty each time?
Cool, go for it. Make sure you have your Ascended item and the proper Infusion.

This literally helps both sides of this coin. If you like to grind and like to max stats, you can grind the fractals till they become so difficult you start to bleed from the ears, and you can min-max on the infusions to your hearts content. If you just like to experience content once or twice you can run this dungeon a few times do that and you’ll have no issues with it.

From the linked article:

Visually, the Karka will feature a heavily armored shell of sorts that players will have to penetrate. ArenaNet has even worked on a new shader technology that allows players to actually see pieces of the armor fall off of the Karka as they wear it down.
That all comes later, though. Initially, players will be unable to penetrate the Karka’s armor and it’s this roadblock that will kick off a series of events taking players throughout the world as they learn about the Karka’s origins and research a means to get through theseemingly impenetrable armor.

This sounds literally EXACTLY like “Hey guys, so the Mursaat have this thing called Spectral Agony, and yeah, it’ll kitten you up. Oh, also you can’t see them. You need to ascend so you can see them and infuse your armor so they don’t 2 shot you. Here, go talk to this dude. He’ll have you do some junk and things and you’ll be all set.”

Am I the only one that sees this or do people here honestly just get the jollies from complaining about stuff no one knows anything about yet?

Orissa.1872:

I got 3 minutes to do my stuff, however the game kicked me when 2 minutes were left. My boyfriend is in dungeon now, he got 30 minutes to finish it, no kicks so far

Dungeons are instanced. Him and his party will get kicked when they leave the instance.

I feel like I’m the only one that played GW1 from the beginning. Y’know, when the 15k armor sets were stupid expensive and took a ridiculous amount of farming to get. It was extremely difficult to make gold when GW1 launched. the 15k sets would cost you around 100p, which would equate to roughly about 100g in GW2, and all had the same stats as every other set. The 15k sets had a little more armor on them than the cheaper ones, they were mostly for cosmetic purposes. Guess who has 2 thumbs and had the 15k set because it looked sweet…

This guy. Also, as someone who just got to 80 and spent way too much gold while leveling up (I estimate I spent about 40g while leveling), I have just under 2g to my name currently. I’m starting my progress towards cultural T3 and I think the prices are just fine. If they were much lower it wouldn’t feel like an accomplishment to get it.

It sounds as if it’s more a problem of who you recruit than the guild system as is. If you recruit people, and they never represent and don’t know who you are, why are you keeping them in your guild? Why did you recruit them in the first place? Was it an instance of you advertising in /m and he whispered you for an invite? Ok, well if that’s the case you went into it knowing nothing about the character, as most recruits end up being.

That’s why I have a “Recruit” rank in my guild. For the first 2 weeks anyone is in my guild they are set to “recruit” status. They can do nothing in the guild besides represent and chat. If, after 2 weeks, they’ve represented at least some of the time and have proven that they aren’t a total kitten, they get bumped up to Sergeant, my lowest member rank. Here they can get items out of the and deposit into the guild stash as well as the representation privileges of recruits. If they stick around, and prove themselves loyal members, I give them more perks and power within the guild. That’s their incentive. If I, or anyone in my server (notice I said server and not guild), are ever disrespected by a member of my guild, they will be demoted to recruit for a period of time determined by the level of infraction and will be told why.

If they decide to leave, they’re free to do so. If they continue such behavior, they will be kicked. Not everyone is cut out for guild loyalty. If they want to join a guild with all the perks and the leader of that guild is ok with having some immature, disrespectful child in their guild then all power to that GL. I won’t have crap like that in my guild. There are people that are loyal to one guild in this game. You just have to keep them around and boot the free loaders (who will usually show their true colors during my first 2 week trial period). Usually the freeloaders will complain about the “recruit” rank not having any privileges or will just leave before the 2 weeks. Others still will stick it out for 2 weeks, and then complain that they only have access to the stash, but cannot activate guild upgrades after the 2 weeks. They too will bounce, or be booted for harassment. Have something like that in place and you’ll never have to deal with these people longer than a few weeks. It’s all about weeding the garden. Keep the best plants alive and growing and pull the weeds early, before their roots are too deep.

Yeah it’s definitely annoying. It doesn’t seem to bother me as much as some others, but that’s likely because I sort of expected it. All the high level zones in GW1 were the same way. Nearly impossible to run through without killing stuff because of all the knockdowns and snares.

Southern shiverpeaks were especially horrible at this (which is why I was able to make so much coin running players to Droks). Torment was bad, Jade see and Echovold were bad, RoF was bad, etc. I’ve just gotten used to it I guess and didn’t really expect it to be different in this game. As annoying as it is, I must admit that it’s an incredibly effective way of preventing players from just running through an area and skipping content.

Erm…I work full time (an hour and a half away from my house no less) and have, at best, 2 hours a day to play as well and I got every single achievement, an entire bank tab (literally one whole tab) full of Halloween items, and most of the gold I spent I got back. I didn’t buy mats for the special weapons, so that wasn’t an issue.

It sounds to me like your problem was an inability to prioritize better. I didn’t bother with the suspicious locations as it only took me about an hour to master the clock tower. I just farmed that from that point on and got ToT bags at the end and candy corn I could give to trick or theaters for more bags. Even if you couldn’t do the clock tower you could have farmed the Labyrinth. I guarantee you would have gotten more candy corn and ToT bags and had more fun doing that than running around scanning suspicious locations that you looked up on Reddit.

If you have a limited amount of time, but you want to get as much out of the event as possible, prioritize your tasks. Simple as that. You only disappointed yourself here.

Nebilim.5127:

The point of the relatively small amount of resources we put toward JPs are meant to bring more people in, not trade one demographic for another.

But that’s exactly what you are doing here. You are dumbing down mechanics of the game to appease to the casual mass. And believe me, you will lose players this way too. People will be mad that you can just do events by smashing your face onto the keyboard. And then classify the event/holiday as extremely boring. I bet this holiday was special to a lot of people due to the hard to do jumping puzzle; It was truly something you could call achievement. In matter of fact, act 2 was the best part of the halloween for me.

Don’t lump people that don’t enjoy or can’t do jump puzzles in with “casuals”. They’re separate groups. I’m a pretty casual player and I’m very good at the jump puzzles. If they dumb it down, they won’t be doing it for “casual” players like me, it will be fore players (whether casual or not) that aren’t good at/don’t do jump puzzles.

Anrothan Aimhirghin.7381:

you have 8 minutes to complete and it is doable… just ask a friend to help u and ur done!

You have to hover over the first book. There’s text that describes a place where refugees are or something like that. First location is Ascalonian Settlement in Gandarran fields. Hurry up and go get it before the event’s over!

MacGuffin.2456:

souldonkey.9534:

I did it a bunch of times and I did run into a syncing glitch in the puzzle a couple of times. It seemed my character was out of sync with the server by a few seconds. So that when I would jump it would look like the perfect time to my character but in actuality it was waaay too soon. Exiting the client and re-logging fixed it. Happened to me twice and to a friend once. We even tested it by having him and I both on the stairs and I jumped when it looked perfect to me and he told me the window hadn’t even begun to come around yet so I was way early.

This must be what I ran into, it just took me hours to realize that was the issue without someone else there to spot me. Relogging fixed it for sure. I hope future timed puzzles have fewer sync issues.

Yeah my buddy failed it 4 times in a row at the jump into the window part and we had both completed the puzzle dozens of times by then so we had a feeling something was off. The next time I went up with him and we figured out what the issue was.

Maklin.9301:

Criminon.8432:

We’re talking about the halloween event here. You didn’t have to do the jump puzzle to access any of the halloween events or mini games. So your statement is pretty invalid.

In regards to your complaint about map completion, no one is making you complete the map. There are several other things for you to do in the game. Most people complete the map to get legendaries. Most people that get legendaries are dedicated to the game.

Jump puzzles are learned. ANYONE can learn to do them, given enough time and training. That’s like saying there are some people that can’t work at burger king.

Actually, I have met a LOT of people that could not work at Burger King over the years. I’d love to live in the alternate reality you inhabit….where anyone can learn anything (i.e. physical limitations have no effect) just by wanting to hard enough, or practicing hard enough. But unfortunately, that is not the way reality works. Some folks cannot complete certain tasks, period. And Anet can either cater to you ’don’t change anything — make it harder!’ hardcores and alienate others or make accomodations for casuals and find a happy medium (that perhaps does not satisfy both). Which do you think is in their long-term best interest?

You fall back on the same old, tired, ‘no one is making you’ whine of a fanboy with no real answer. If there were NO rewards for doing it, no titles, sure no one would be making you and it would be another thing to ignore. If there were alternate methods of completion, no one would be making you….but they stick decent rewards and titles behind the One True Way of Platforming and then claim you have a choice. You can choose to breathe or not breathe too, one isn’t very fun, but then again most false choices (like we are presented ingame) are not real choices.

And btw, the elitism of your statement ‘dedicated to the game’ is amusing….we’re all dedicated to the tune of $60+ (version dependent) plus whatever we spent / are spending in the gem shop…no more no less. Since there is no subscription fee, your voice (while more strident and confrontational in posts here) is no more important than mine or any other player. Those that don’t fanboy to ANET and fawn over devs like Mr. Foreman have the same rights to post here as you do. You don’t get a gold star and special status for dedication…that is irrelevant to any discussion.

By the same token as your post, though, Why should Anet cater to people that can’t do it by not having hard content. This was the only content in the Halloween event that was difficult. The dungeon was easy. The scavenger hunt quests were easy. The Labyrinth was easy. Hell, even the PvP was easy by PvP standards. Why should Anet remove, or not include in future events, one very difficult event just because some people can’t do it? I feel for the people that couldn’t do it and you have every right to the game as other people, but I don’t see you complaining that you can’t get the other “hard” achievements in this game so why should the fact that this was a temporary event be any different than those achievements?

Edit: Also, your Burger King analogy sucks. If you know people that can’t work at Burger King then those people likely couldn’t do a lot of other jobs as well. Should we just dumb everything down (turn of phrase, not calling them dumb) so that all jobs are on those people’s level? That’s pretty much what you’re suggesting with this clock tower. Give people that are good at jump puzzles no challenge just because a minority can’t do it. No thanks, I like my challenge thank you.

I personally coached at least a dozen people through it while I was farming it, some of which told me they’d been there for hours. I got a lot of whispers of thanks for helping people with tips on how to do more difficult jumps and with my encouragement. All it takes is a little patience and a little practice. For people with disabilities, there’s a good chance you can’t do most of the jump puzzles in the game so it should come as no surprise that this one wouldn’t be any different.

sanadin.8317:

Gave up, doesn’t bother me.

I jumped into the broken clock face… but didn’t go in. I know I must have been off my a millimeter in some direction, but to me it looked like a perfect jump. If the final jump is going to be this anal, I’m not interested.

I did it a bunch of times and I did run into a syncing glitch in the puzzle a couple of times. It seemed my character was out of sync with the server by a few seconds. So that when I would jump it would look like the perfect time to my character but in actuality it was waaay too soon. Exiting the client and re-logging fixed it. Happened to me twice and to a friend once. We even tested it by having him and I both on the stairs and I jumped when it looked perfect to me and he told me the window hadn’t even begun to come around yet so I was way early.

Focksbot.6798:

souldonkey.9534:

Focksbot.6798:

(I’ve done many of the other jumping puzzles and I don’t believe they adequately prepare you for a timed one at all – they can all be done first time by carefully lining up the camera for each jump.)

Have you done Spekk’s lab? That one’s timed and is great practice for this. It’s a bit easier, but it prepares you for the “can’t stop moving” aspect of the clock tower.

Thanks for the tip. I haven’t done this one yet but I’ll keep an eye out for it.

Ultimately, I worry that I will always struggle with the timed ones because of how awkward I feel the controls are, but I might surprise myself.

Yeah, given your condition they’ll probably always be difficult. Spekk’s lab might help, though so I’d give it a shot. It’s in Caledon Forest. The jumps themselves are relatively easy as the panels are flat, but the timed aspect of it makes it a pretty good challenge.

arabeth.2361:

“I did not consider the MK boss map as a jumping puzzle. All you are doing is dropping down. And I made it so there are MANY paths down.”
“I was just seriously surprised that anyone would consider the verticality in that map a ‘jumping puzzle’.”

It absolutely was a jumping puzzle. It required precise jumping and penalized you with (thankfully harmless) death and a location reset if you failed. How is that not a jumping puzzle?

I suspect that as a jumping puzzle designer, you’re very good at jumping puzzles. Certainly, the Mad King dungeon was not a particularly difficult jumping puzzle, but it -was- difficult and it required platforming skills. I suspect that perhaps you (and maybe most of your team?) is so good that something like this seems too trivial to be a “jumping puzzle?” That doesn’t mean it isn’t.

Honestly, as a long-time veteran of side-scrolling, first-person, and over-the-shoulder 2D and 3D platforming games, I still had trouble getting to the chest at the bottom of the map without dying at least once, even after doing the puzzle half a dozen times. (Feeling like I had to rush due to the fact that the person who made the party leaving the dungeon would kill your chance for loot did not help.) I didn’t mind it, but I knew it was a jumping puzzle.

Having jumping be involved != jumping puzzle. The jumps were very easy to make and there was a very obvious path. There were also only a handful of required jumps. Just because you have to jump somewhere doesn’t inherently make it a jumping puzzle.

Focksbot.6798:

(I’ve done many of the other jumping puzzles and I don’t believe they adequately prepare you for a timed one at all – they can all be done first time by carefully lining up the camera for each jump.)

Have you done Spekk’s lab? That one’s timed and is great practice for this. It’s a bit easier, but it prepares you for the “can’t stop moving” aspect of the clock tower.

FYI for Josh Foreman, I really hope he sees this. Don’t listen to people complaining and please don’t stop making these hard. PLEASE. I completed this puzzle multiple times on every single race. I have a max height Norn and a min height Asura so anyone saying it’s impossible on any height is full of it. This puzzle was amazingly difficult and FUN because of that. I honestly can’t believe some of the complaints I’ve read here. I also didn’t have anyone complaining rudely about my Norn being too big. A few people made remark about it but I was civil with them and they were civil right back. Nothing but fun and courteous jokes passed around on Sanctum of Rall, and I spent a lot of time doing that puzzle because it was so fun. I literally received not 1 single rude or threatening remark. Please don’t change the way you design these Josh. I loved this event more than any other Halloween content. Keep up the good work, you diabolical genius.

Rage. Rage was my motivator. I’m not gonna say how much cussing I did or how angry I got before I finally got it, but let’s just say Palpatine would have been proud.