Guild Wars 2

The main problem I see with Ascended Gear isn’t really that it’s a new tier, it’s because the only way to get Ascended Gear is to go through Fractal. Playing through GW2, one of the mechanics that stood out to me the most was that no matter how people played whether it’s PvE, crafting, or WvW everyone can progress doing what they like to do and still be on even footing with the everyone else. With Ascended Gear it seems like Anet is funneling everyone into Fractal whether they want to or not. WvW players specifically who may only enjoy WvW have no choice but to jump into Fractal to get these items.

Whether or not Ascended Gear should exist is still up for debate, but the most important thing I see Anet needs to change right now is how someone attains Ascended Gear. It needs to be available in WvW, crafting, and PvE outside of Fractal. Otherwise it’s really going to be a grind for players who’d rather not run Fractal a dozen+ times just to stay competitive.

I’m going to stay out of the whole new tier of items debate as I don’t have full exotic, I play pretty casually and I’m really still on the fence. That said, I don’t feel like Anet is taking this whole update lightly. I can tell they’re trying to get a compromise here between gear progression, giving players more to work towards and keeping their promise from becoming a WoW style gear grind. It helps a little I think that Ascended Gear is only the ring and back slot so far, as long as they don’t venture further I won’t worry just yet. Though I can understand the frustration.