Fractals are ruined by AR

[Boogiepop Void.6473]

Agony Resistance forces you to play only certain characters. Is this not optimal for the fractal? Is it replaced by a better spec or class in general? TOO BAD. You built this character, you now have to play them for months in order to build up the stock of AR to even consider another. Spend months being the dead weight in your group, being constantly kicked and rejected from LFG, because you are not allowed by the mechanics of the system to adapt. Do you have and can play exactly what you need? Well you can't, because you don't have AR. Do you have 2 characters you would like to switch between as needed for your team? TOO BAD, play 1 of them since the other doesn't have the AR.

In a game that claims to pride itself on adaptability and ability to play as you want, Agony Resistance means you are trapped in whatever seemed like a good idea at the time. You have no freedom even to change weapons in most cases. You must play EXACTLY what you speced out possibly months in advance AND NOTHING ELSE and do so over and over and over to "EARN THE RIGHT TO CHANGE".

Edited March 19, 2022 by Boogiepop Void.6473

[Linken.6345]

You can buy https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion_Extraction_Device

inside fractal loby that you can then use to move your agony infusions to another character.

This is litteraly not a problem.

[Strider Pj.2193]

And AR is cheaper than it’s been in a long time..

[Boogiepop Void.6473]

A) Why are you being charged and having to spend time to change characters? yes it's not much but still it's more than any other place in the entire game, and with no actual benefit to the player other than being "allowed" to play high tier fractals.

B) Even with the extraction it's a massive hassle to swap things over between characters, and not something you want to do very often. Your average LFG isn't going to sit there while you spend time changing all your infusions between each fractal, they will just kick you for holding things up.

 

What is the objective of AR? For you to work your way up and prove you are good enough to run the higher difficulty, and to prove you put in the effort to get there. Why is what is essentially a proof of work/effort system for a PLAYER bound to something about a specific CHARACTER the person plays? If you put in the time and effort to reach the point of being ready for T4 fractals, why are you expected to either juggle inventory or do so over and over per character? It literally defeats it's own purpose by not really being a skill/experience check, and creates hassle, frustration and inflexibility in the process.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Boogiepop Void.6473

[Linken.6345]

Then use some of the gold you got from fractals  or elsewere and buy another set of 18 +9s

[TheQuickFox.3826]

It would be nice if you could combine WvW and AR infusions. I play WvW on a daily basis and fractals infrequently. Therefore I only have WvW infusions on me. Which is a bit annoying when I need some AR for the occasional fractal.

 

Maybe an idea for combined, stat-selectable legendary infusions.

[knite.1542]

Maybe you should boycott fractals in protest of these ridiculous prices.

I agree with you btw. 83ish gold (I just checked in game) for 150AR is outlandish. They are trying to gatekeep fractals from us!

 

THIS HAS TO CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!

[Boogiepop Void.6473]

15 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Then use some of the gold you got from fractals  or elsewere and buy another set of 18 +9s

I don't have that kind of gold lying around, especially for just the right to play content I already ground for access to on another character.

[Melech.4308]

2 hours ago, Boogiepop Void.6473 said:

Agony Resistance forces you to play only certain characters. Is this not optimal for the fractal? Is it replaced by a better spec or class in general? TOO BAD. You built this character, you now have to play them for months in order to build up the stock of AR to even consider another. Spend months being the dead weight in your group, being constantly kicked and rejected from LFG, because you are not allowed by the mechanics of the system to adapt. Do you have and can play exactly what you need? Well you can't, because you don't have AR. Do you have 2 characters you would like to switch between as needed for your team? TOO BAD, play 1 of them since the other doesn't have the AR.

In a game that claims to pride itself on adaptability and ability to play as you want, Agony Resistance means you are trapped in whatever seemed like a good idea at the time. You have no freedom even to change weapons in most cases. You must play EXACTLY what you speced out possibly months in advance AND NOTHING ELSE and do so over and over and over to "EARN THE RIGHT TO CHANGE".

You know that fractals come in tiers, right? 1-25 are novices and you can play however you want, without AR. Tier 2 is a bit higher but still doable without AR. You just have to focus a bit.

Also, I do not understand how you came to the conclusion that AR forces you to play only for certain characters. What? Where did that come from?

[Sarius.9285]

yea, AR is a dumb mechanic that doesn't serve a purpose besides limiting which characters you play, it should be accoun wide

[Kichwas.7152]

I deleted 4 characters this week and then remade them on different races.

2 of them already in Fractals.

You can buy rings and set them up for 3 agony slots with fractal relics ground out in short order in low (t1-2) fractals.

buy some +9a and that’s 54 AR in minutes.

One more trinket and you get to 63 AR which means any tier 2 fractal without even needing potions. But with potions bought from the vendor in the fractal zone you don't need this.

It is trivially easy to have a new 80 ready for Fractals if it’s not your first and you, as such, already have some laurels and tokens.

lastly for fractals there are two stat sets that will always be good and are meta about 80% of the time. Berserker or Viper - Power of Condition setup. You can, before making a perfect build - just keep sending trinkets of those types around to new alts. Chances are it is what your build wants, and if not, it sill be good enough for tier 2.

(typed on my phone so might be some typos).

Edited March 19, 2022 by Kichwas.7152
Fixed spelling now that I'm on my PC.

[xenon.3264]

14 hours ago, knite.1542 said:

Maybe you should boycott fractals in protest of these ridiculous prices.

I agree with you btw. 83ish gold (I just checked in game) for 150AR is outlandish. They are trying to gatekeep fractals from us!

 

THIS HAS TO CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!

moreover 83 gold is just like something you earn in  months of fractals to be played .. oh wait no , it's just 4 days  of t4.

 

 

[Kichwas.7152]

1 hour ago, xenon.3264 said:

moreover 83 gold is just like something you earn in  months of fractals to be played .. oh wait no , it's just 4 days  of t4.

 

Even in T3, it's maybe only 5 days. I mean yeah... it's so easy to get a new alt geared for Fractals.

And for a new alt - which likely means learning a new rotation and all, T2 can be entered within minutes of making the character. It takes longer to get to the zone and set up your skill bar than to actually get the gear needed for T2.

 

I can basically be sure of being locked in a race with one other person for the top spot in DPS in a T1-T2 fractal with only exotic gear and 2-3 ascended trinkets (rings and one accessory). 

 

And T2 gives enough gold that within a week you can buy the rest of the gear and make that new alt your new main - assuming you had no gold to begin with. Which... if you've even unlocked up to T2, is not likely.

Just the day before yesterday I went from 15g left to over 400... I was at 15 because I just did all this with 4 new alts. I got to over 400 because I don't care for legendaries so I sold the last year's stack of mystic coins...

Which points to another way to rapid fund a new alt. Look at you material storage and identify the things you don't need and put them on the trading post as... not the bottom entry, but 2-3 steps up (unless the bottom few entries are in the thousands so an item not selling). Wait a day. Then go buy a full set of Ascended gear. If you have unlocked high enough Fractals to need ascended gear, then it is almost a guarantee that your bank has a backlog of mats worth a few thousand gold if you are just willing to sit down and slowly sell it all off. The big thing holding most people back on this point is tedium of going through a million mats.

 

- So... at 15g left just the other day. I'm posting here as someone who is routinely nearly out of gold and has always been that way since launch of the game. I'm about the worst 'gold farmer' any MMO has ever seen. And yet I still find it very easy to get new alts rapidly ready for Fractals / raids / WvW / or whatever.

 

 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Kichwas.7152

[Asum.4960]

16 hours ago, Boogiepop Void.6473 said:

I don't have that kind of gold lying around, especially for just the right to play content I already ground for access to on another character.

That's 2-3h of Fractal farming or 2-3 days of doing Fractal Dailies. 

 

It's maybe not the best system, but hardly something that "forces you to play a character for months".

[ArchonWing.9480]

16 hours ago, TheQuickFox.3826 said:

It would be nice if you could combine WvW and AR infusions. I play WvW on a daily basis and fractals infrequently. Therefore I only have WvW infusions on me. Which is a bit annoying when I need some AR for the occasional fractal.

 

Maybe an idea for combined, stat-selectable legendary infusions.

They should already do it with the fancy infusions that already give agony resist. It would affect very little.

Legendary infusions sound great but knowing them it's going to cost your firstborn and probably more.

[decease.3215]

Personally i think they should rework the system.  Maybe complese each fractal will earn account wide AR.  Doesn't have to be too much.  Matbe 1 AR per fractal level.   In the end after you complete all fractal new character only need 50 AR to run T4

[Fuchslein.8639]

Nowadays you get agony-infussion thrown at you. They cost NOTHING.

T4 Fractals are still one of the most rewarding game-modes for the time you have to invest. You get asc weapons, armor, mystical coins and a ton of gold for little effort.

I really don't see the problem.

[Doggie.3184]

and here I thought they were ruined by DWD gating and HB requirements.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Doggie.3184

[Yellow Rainbow.6142]

Account bound AR would be nice other than that, I don't think fractals are really ruined by AR requirement. I currently have 3 characters 150+ AR and when I want to play different character, I have to move AR around.

May be 5 +9 infusion = 1 +9 account bound AR to keep cost of AR balance would work?

[Shiyo.3578]

Having to re-infuse my gear everytime I want to do fractals is why I don't bother anymore.

[Omega.6801]

AR is fine. You get gold and AR by doing fractals so you get what you need while you're doing what get's you what you need. It's imho a rather clever system to provide long term goals like, having stat infusions on all characters, or having high enough AR infusions, to only need a few to swap around etc.

Edited March 20, 2022 by lokh.2695

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

For me its mostly just that you can't use the same character in Fractals and in WvW without multiple sets of fully-infused trinkets (unless you have all Legendaries). It needs to be normalised so the WvW infusions can be combined with an Agony infusion in the Mystic Forge permanently.

 

Having a character that can't play all content is regressive to the game design.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Hannelore.8153

[ArchonWing.9480]

8 hours ago, Doggie.3184 said:

and here I thought they were ruined by DWD gating and HB requirements.

Nobody cares about that stuff in t4s. Just CMs maybe.

[Scavarius.6059]

8 hours ago, Yellow Rainbow.6142 said:

Account bound AR would be nice

but ... there is accountbount ar. you can get up to 40ar from it. granted you actually have to wprk for it ...

[Kichwas.7152]

12 hours ago, Yellow Rainbow.6142 said:

Account bound AR would be nice other than that, I don't think fractals are really ruined by AR requirement. I currently have 3 characters 150+ AR and when I want to play different character, I have to move AR around.

May be 5 +9 infusion = 1 +9 account bound AR to keep cost of AR balance would work?

I can see the appeal from a personal level but then I have to realize that I would HATE to be in a T3+ Fractal with someone who had account bound AR.

At some point the ability to instant-ready a new alt needs a gate to slow it down so that people have a higher chance of entering content with characters they've learned to play first. There's never any guarantee, but even a small hurdle helps.

That's probably why this is one of the few things in GW2 that is not account bound. They make it super easy to get into T1 - any new 80 can be there even as a new player. Any player with a decent amount of time in the game can nearly instantly have a new alt into T2. But T3 takes a little commitment, and T4 takes a lot. That helps increase the chance of more player skill in the content that will need it. Some people skip past that and groups suffer, but for the most part you do see more people playing builds they know the higher up you go.

 

  

4 hours ago, Scavarius.6059 said:

but ... there is accountbount ar. you can get up to 40ar from it. granted you actually have to wprk for it ...

And this is also true in another sense as well. All Ascended gear is account bound. So you can just pass it around your toons. For trinkets that's pretty universal - as a I noted before there are basically two stats blocks that will work for most builds - berserker or viper. For the rest of your gear you just have to account for armor type and weapon. But even with those restrictions some gear can move around.

 

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by Kichwas.7152