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

[bokiz333]

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?

Says the guy that occassionally WvW's to the guy that plays WvW with a small (22 players) but incredibly (5+ hours a day) active and skilled WvW guild. Gear matters.

I have literally hundreds or encounters with sub 80's in WvW...and not a single loss; and I'm not some uber WvW god that take no damage and craps thunder and lightining. I die plenty, and I have died in 1on1's, hoever infrequent. But it was never to a sub 80....how is that?

Look at the difference in damage between exotic and rare...and then stat difference in armor as well. Somebody that has major runes. with rare gear and weapons, has less protection and deals less damage to a player with more protection and more damage...not really hard to see how that's going to make a difference.

You can "think" it doesn't make a difference, but they AN themselves wouldn't have made sPvP not have gear differences if it didn't matter. I mean we're arguing basic math here, gear makes a fairly noticable difference...I won't argue books with you Vayne, I wouldn't argue math and min/maxing with an actuary.


And your comments (just like many others of yours on this) have been addressed many times...do you really need me to repeat them again? Fine....WHEN WILL they be available? What will be the currency? Are peopel ok having a stat disadvantage to PVEers because you chose to keep PVPing? etc

[Fey]

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)

Well that's great and all, but the point of WvW isn't to run around alone and engage in a lot of 1v1's. You can do that, obviously. But a few extra stats wont help much during a siege.

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.

I'm more than aware, I've been running them plenty. But by design, if this is the "progression" that you're all afraid of, PuGs aren't going to be the optimal way to clear them. In the beginning, yes. Everyone was (and still are) running PuGs of various levels. But this is the type of progression that will be best accomplished with a team. Especially as difficulties rise. And if you're building a team, you're going to make sure every member on that team is up to par. Which includes going back a few levels and catching ideal members up.

[bokiz333]

Well that's great and all, but the point of WvW isn't to run around alone and engage in a lot of 1v1's. You can do that, obviously. But a few extra stats wont help much during a siege.



I'm more than aware, I've been running them plenty. But by design, if this is the "progression" that you're all afraid of, PuGs aren't going to be the optimal way to clear them. In the beginning, yes. Everyone was (and still are) running PuGs of various levels. But this is the type of progression that will be best accomplished with a team. Especially as difficulties rise. And if you're building a team, you're going to make sure every member on that team is up to par. Which includes going back a few levels and catching ideal members up.

So PUGs aren't that bad then and you shouldn't have laughed at that. Really the only diff between pugs and guild will be voice comm, but again, you've run the dungeon so many times, you know what to do. Its been a total non issue.

And I've addressed this issue of solo many many times. People who tihnk WvW is not for soloing have no idea what they're talking about. Most of these people also think WvW is about zergs running around. I've done more good for my team solo than most people have groping up. I've killed more dollys and cut of so much supply that I've prob singlehandedly influenced the map that day. (and died plenty doing it)

I've capped more camps solo than I can count, that means more supply for us, more people who don't have to come there and are free to fight elsewhere. I've stopped many 1-2 man teams from doing the same to our side.

And prob most importanly, I'm constantly running around (seemingly nobody else does this) and I catch so much "stealth" or not so stealth enemy movements...and then they wonder how did we get 10 peolpe to defend this camp so fast or how did they know we're ninja attacking this keep...because I saw them thats why.

Solo play isn't for everyone (and I don't do it all the time..I respond to calls to defend, to attack, and group up with my guild all the time) but it can be a huge help. And I don't want to be under geared because it can make a difference betwen a win and a loss when you're fighitng a player, 2 guards and a dolly...and the dolly making it and you dying and having to run back or wining. And I like winning.

[Fey]

So PUGs aren't that bad then and you shouldn't have laughed at that. Really the only diff between pugs and guild will be voice comm, but again, you've run the dungeon so many times, you know what to do. Its been a total non issue.

Except that they've said they're going to frequently add new dungeons to the fractals. I laughed, because PuGs are a temporary solution. But that's not the point. If you'd read, the issue was finding groups in the future when lower leveled difficulties aren't run as often.

But eventually, this issue will spread as groups in general become scarce because regardless of the game, content will get stale. So, the obvious solution would be finding dedicated groups to run with. Which more often than not will include catching ideal members up.

I.E. My group is on difficulty 10, two members quit for whatever reason. I can't find people interested in difficulty 10 to replace them but there are some in difficulty 7 and 8 that would like to join but also can't find groups for their respective difficulties to catch up.

I've been a raid leader long enough to know how progression is going to pan out. That is, of course, assuming all you people complaining about this change are correct.

[frunk]

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.

The required part is the method of getting the gear, not the necessity of acquiring it. In order to get the gear you are "required" to do this one particular dungeon. I don't care if someone else has it, I care about the content balance getting screwed over even worse. If the gear really was required for the game I'd probably quit.

The fact that you claim it is mostly unnecessary only makes it worse. Why add it to the game if it isn't really needed now or in the future? Why screw over a design premise for a fairly pointless change?

[Sericenthe]

posted the information here: http://www.guildwars2forum.com/threa...l=1#post144767

There was a web based Q&A today where Arena said that Ascended gear will be added throughout the year and will be available throughout the game. Appears they admit that funneling EVERYBODY at level 80 into one dungeon was a mistake.

[Vayne]

The required part is the method of getting the gear, not the necessity of acquiring it. In order to get the gear you are "required" to do this one particular dungeon. I don't care if someone else has it, I care about the content balance getting screwed over even worse. If the gear really was required for the game I'd probably quit.

The fact that you claim it is mostly unnecessary only makes it worse. Why add it to the game if it isn't really needed now or in the future? Why screw over a design premise for a fairly pointless change?

The reason you add it to the game is to compromise between the people who HAVE TO see numbers and the people who don't want to have gear grind. It's called a compromise for a reason.

Anet doesn't want to lose millions of people who grew up on MMOs with vertical progression. They don't want to lose people like me. So they tried to figure out, as best as they can a compromise. People will grind for the tiniest of advantages.

WvW is really the only place this can matter and unlike Bokiz I don't believe a guy in all exotics is going to roflstomp a guy in all rares.

There are too many variables to begin with. His skill, your skill His build, your build. His gear, your gear. His reflexes for that matter. Does he have a stun breaker? A knockback? A speed boost? Is it a one on one battle?

These are all things that make a difference. Do you know how many times I've been in a one on one battle, about to die and some complete stranger comes out of nowhere to either pick me up, or knock the guy killing me back until my heal recharges? Or I'm about to kill someone and someone comes out of nowhere to save that person?

Or the zerg shows up?

Nope, I really don't believe this is going to make a difference to the vast majority of the player base...even if some of that majority feels they absolutely must have them.

The other side is that Anet has stated that armor will be available in WvW anyway, so there won't be just one path to it anyway.

[frunk]

There's no question there's a noticeable difference between the rarity levels. Most of the time it doesn't matter that much because the content is on the easy side. That's my concern, how could adding more powerful gear improve the game by making a fairly easy game easier? The people who go after this gear might be happy for a while, but they won't be interested in the rest of the even more ROFLStompable world. They'll be doing FotM or WvW, that's it.

[Vayne]

There's no question there's a noticeable difference between the rarity levels. Most of the time it doesn't matter that much because the content is on the easy side. That's my concern, how could adding more powerful gear improve the game by making a fairly easy game easier? The people who go after this gear might be happy for a while, but they won't be interested in the rest of the even more ROFLStompable world. They'll be doing FotM or WvW, that's it.

People who are farming this gear aren't really interested in the open world stuff anyway. Most of them are either dungeon grinders or WvW guys anyway. The guys who want to play in the open world are going to still want to play in the open world as long as there's stuff for them to do. Like pretty much most of my guild.

People talk like this divide doesn't already exist...but it does. There are already people who pretty much ignore the open world and only do WvW or dungeons for the tokens they need. They exist now...before all this happens. And this change is large in part for those people.

What Anet had to be careful about is making it so that those people could get something but it wouldn't affect players like me. And those things, if they do affect players like me can be adjusted.

That's what MMOs are...an imperfect vehicle that needs constant adjustment. Skill balance, reward balance, difficulty balance...it's all ongoing.

That's why I'm not particularly worried and why I'm not panicking.

[Jim Hunter]

posted the information here: http://www.guildwars2forum.com/threa...l=1#post144767

There was a web based Q&A today where Arena said that Ascended gear will be added throughout the year and will be available throughout the game. Appears they admit that funneling EVERYBODY at level 80 into one dungeon was a mistake.

Waiting until tomorrow until he finishes answering and someone compiles the Q&A into a format that is a bit easier to read. I tried following it on reddit but their layout is a nightmare.

Anyway I got the main answers I was looking for even if I didn't like the answers. We'll see for sure tomorrow but this looks like it's not going to be the kind of game they led me to believe it would be. I won't be deleting or asking for a refund but I also won't be giving them any cash and rarely (if ever) playing.

Damned shame, this game had a lot of promise.