ArenaNet: Linsey Murdock unveils High End Ascended Gear (2012-11-13)

[Centaur]

You say "don't care about gear"... but note that there is a big difference between not caring about (grinding for) skins and not caring about having max stat gear. Those complaining about this change may not care about the skins, but they definitely care about the stats.

And actually, I think you can divide those "who already have the gear" into 2 categories... those who dislike grinding, who spent all their hard-earned cash or karma to get what they thought would be max stat gear (and believe me, from what I've seen on the official forum, a lot of those are complaining about this change), and those who don't mind grinding anyway, who think exotic gear was easy to get, who were probably already grinding for better skins (if there were any skins that appealed to them) or they had even already obtained the skins they wanted. Having something else to grind for will not bother them all too much, considering that they don't mind grinding anyway.
And then there's the group that didn't have a full set of exotic gear yet, but maybe had a couple of pieces and were working hard to get the full set. Some of those people already felt that getting exotic gear was a grind, and they weren't too happy with that. Now, halfway through, they are told that they need to start all over again and do a completely different (and longer/harder, given the targeted mid-term goal) grind to get best gear. That doesn't make them happy... even more so as ArenaNet clearly told us that endgame would not be about grinding for better gear.

So whether or not they already had a full set doesn't really make a difference... they cared about gear stats before the update, and they care about the stats after the update. That hasn't changed. It just became a lot harder for them to get that gear.

[Vayne]

I've said about as much as I can say in this thread without going around in more circles than I've already gone around in. I've said I'll wait, and I will wait to see future developments. Deciding what's going to happen without knowing doesn't seem like a course of action I can embrace. If the game changes for the worst, and I can't enjoy myself anymore, obviously I'm going to leave it.

However, until that time comes, I won't be here posting, I'll be playing the game...and enjoying it. So far nothing has stopped me from enjoying the game. If something does happen in the next few months, I'll have gotten that much more of my money's worth.

[Centaur]

It's a pity you've decided to ignore those last posts and questions from me that I feel would actually contribute something more to your reasoning, but yes, you're right, your arguments have been going around in circles and not getting us anywhere, so I understand your reluctance to repeat yourself once more.

[Vayne]

It's a pity you've decided to ignore those last posts and questions from me that I feel would actually contribute something more to your reasoning, but yes, you're right, your arguments have been going around in circles and not getting us anywhere, so I understand your reluctance to repeat yourself once more.

It's a pity that these forums have actually begun to affect a game I'm enjoying. That seems counter productive to me. It's not that I don't respect your opinion, I simply have an opinion of my own. For months on this forums I've basically told everyone be patient, see what happens.

I'm doing now what I've been doing all along.

[frunk]

And you answered. It doesn't. Because you're not trying to get it. You're speculating for other people that may or may not find groups when you're not even going to be looking for them.

I'm not speculating on why other people aren't, I'm explaining why I'm not and why I won't be. I was originally going to pursue max gear for my characters, but it would be a while before I got all of them up to 80. I knew given the way this dungeon is structured that if you don't jump on it early it'll be a struggle, and I have no interest in spending the amount of time needed to get all of them kitted that way. It's speculation, yes, but it's one that informs my decisions now. I might be wrong and there will be plenty of people willing to go back to lower level FotM to help them in a month or two.

Edit: I do however, understand the frustration with feeling "forced" to run a specific form of content to get a specific gear type. But honestly, the whole game is set up this way. If I want a specific gear look I have to do something specific to get it. If you want a legendary, you have to do specific things to get it. Adding numbers to the sets, while they could have easily left that out, they chose not to. But it really doesn't change anything. You still have to do specific things to get specific things. Except now there's a higher number attached.

Once again there's a difference between cosmetic improvements and actual stat improvements. I have no problem if you want to grind to your hearts content to get something that looks better, but I won't be doing that and it's irritating the actual improvements now require the same thing.

I hate Citadel of Flame. But I ran the crap out of that place because the flame coat for medium armor (and the rest of the set) makes me look more like Dante. And that was my choice to do something I don't enjoy for a reward that I really wanted.

Did you really want it because of the way it looked or because you had to work at it to get it? I have a feeling it was a bit of both. The reward wouldn't of been as sweet if it didn't take as much effort and knowing that relatively few other people will do the same. How would you feel if ANet made it ten times easier to get tomorrow?

Just think about the amount of wailing we'll hear from those who put in the effort if they make acquiring Ascended easier later. Look at the complaining over those who got a precursor from the event last weekend and those who didn't. Even people who weren't involved were whining that the price of precursors dropped for a little while, making the price they paid previously exorbitant.

[Fey]

Once again there's a difference between cosmetic improvements and actual stat improvements. I have no problem if you want to grind to your hearts content to get something that looks better, but I won't be doing that and it's irritating the actual improvements now require the same thing.

I see them as the same. Being forced to do content to get a desired reward. You all can keep saying that the higher stats are now "required" to do content, but they're not. If you're not pushing further into the Fractals then you have no reason to own the better gear. This is literally premature e-peen envy. "Someone has something better than me in an MMO. Waaahhh waahh, I want that, waaah". That's literally all I see.

Just because it has a higher stat on it doesn't mean you can just ignore that you have to grind your ass off to get other sets. It's ridiculous. If you're gonna ***** and moan about one part of the system and ignore another, then you're obviously not looking at the bigger picture as a whole and tunnel visioning this one point.

Did you really want it because of the way it looked or because you had to work at it to get it? I have a feeling it was a bit of both. The reward wouldn't of been as sweet if it didn't take as much effort and knowing that relatively few other people will do the same. How would you feel if ANet made it ten times easier to get tomorrow?

I literally only wanted it for the look, and they already made token gear easier to get. They lowered the token cost of gear pieces from explorables at the very beginning of the game. Most people just don't realize it since people that are complaining haven't been grinding explorables since week 1 of launch.

I was perfectly fine with this change despite having spent tokens on gear already because it was better for the game. Even if it screwed me over a little bit, I was looking at the big picture. It would be a little less of a grind for my remaining pieces and anyone else that wanted the sets wouldn't have to grind as much either. That was a good change for the game, despite my loss from it.

As was the change that increased the amount of tokens you get from dungeons, making it even easier to get. Even though I had already been grinding dungeons with the lower amount before that.

[sidxus]

i just run the fractals for the story, that dessa, she's a crazy one

[bokiz333]

I'll ask another question in response to this one. To you and to anyone else who feels like taking the time to answer.

Why does the max stat gear matter to you as a player, right now as the game is? Not why will it in the future. Not what it could be or what you're afraid it will be. Why does it matter to you right now?

I didnt read the whole thread over the last few days but I'll jump on this. Becaues you don't want to have a gera disadvantage in WvW. I'm back playing (and executing my grieving plan with absolute delight) and now have almost 8300 WvW kills. I have NEVER lost to a sub 80 character in a 1on1. You dont have the gear? You're a walking badge. Even if I see 2-3 sub 80's, I'm engaging them half the time (depding on location, objective, whatnot)

[bokiz333]

If your plan is to rely on PuGs for progression, then lol to that. No offense.

This is actually a silly thought for the new dungeon. Have you played it yet? ONLY way you can move up a level is if you do it with a group of players at the same level. So at lvl 8, to move to 9, you need to complete it with 4 other 8's.

So you KNOW (because of game mechanics) that those people have played that dungeon and completed it the same amount of times you did and know how to do that dungeon.

So you can absolutely level up in THIS dungeon with pugs. I got to lvl 10 only but all with pugs just to get enough fractals so I don't fall behind. I run about 1-2 a day and I won't fall behind and will have the backpack and the ring. Then I'll keep doing it so I can get the other gear as it comes out. I will need that gear so I can be better than most other WvWers. If they'll make me grind, I'll grind (Im not enjoying the repetative dungeon at all) but I'll have the best stat gear and will continue to be able to grief players....I've already had a record number of people I made Alt F4 in the last few days.

[Vayne]

I still don't think gear does as much as you think it does and I'm pretty sure before it becomes an issue there'll be ways to get this gear in WvW. There's no reason Anet wouldn't put that in. I mean, why would they not?