Ascended Gear was a Mistake

[Game of Bones.8975]

@Ashen.2907 said:

I dont have a single character fully outfitted in ascended after 5+ years in GW2.

Don't know what you've been doing, but four of my characters have had full sets for a couple of years now.I'm not a competitive player by any means. I didn't get them by WvW, PvP, Raids, or fractals. I farm everything that comes along, sell ingots, and make sure I hit the time-gated ascended crafting mats daily.

[Ashen.2907]

@Game of Bones.8975 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:

I dont have a single character fully outfitted in ascended after 5+ years in GW2.

Don't know what you've been doing, but four of my characters have had full sets for a couple of years now.I'm not a competitive player by any means. I didn't get them by WvW, PvP, Raids, or fractals. I farm everything that comes along, sell ingots, and make sure I hit the time-gated ascended crafting mats daily.

I dont craft. All of the ascended I do have has come from WvW (trinkets bought with laurels and back piece bought from map vendor)

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Ashen.2907 said:I dont craft. All of the ascended I do have has come from WvW (trinkets bought with laurels and back piece bought from map vendor)

You never got ascended gear from Rank Up chests? My friend fully outiftted three characters from that alone. (I don't play enough to have that much gear, but I have gotten a few drops.)

[Ashen.2907]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:I dont craft. All of the ascended I do have has come from WvW (trinkets bought with laurels and back piece bought from map vendor)

You never got ascended gear from Rank Up chests? My friend fully outiftted three characters from that alone. (I don't play enough to have that much gear, but I have gotten a few drops.)

You mean WvW rank up chests?

As I said, WvW is where I have earned all of my ascended except most of my trinkets which were purchased with laurels.

Sorry if my previous post wasnt clear.

[Astralporing.1957]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"IndigoSundown.5419" said:I forgot nothing. had none of the problems you had. So, while GW was not easy for

you

to obtain max stat gear, it was for me. No myth, just different experiences -- kind of like we see in this game for Ascended. The difference for me was that the things I enjoyed doing in GW were rewarding, while in GW2 they just ... aren't.

How did you obtain your weapons? Where did you get the prefixes & suffixes for them?Greens, collectible vendors, endstory gear, and (especially for heroes) preorder gear (which you could replicate infinitely for free) . I tried to equip my heroes with meta, fully optimized gear, and then i have noticed that with hourglass staff and cheapest runes/insignia they were doing equally well to the point i could see absolutely no difference in their effectiveness. The impact fully optimized gear had was much, much lower than in gw2.Additionally, I never had to "build up" a weapon from components. Only people looking for a weapon with specific skin had to. If you weren't interested in skin, there were always easier to get and/or cheaper alternatives. And, generally, when i was making a character, that characer had everything needed by the time i've reached the level cap. It was a bit different at the very beginning, of course, because a lot of options weren't there in Prophecies yet. On the other hand, until Nightfall you didn't need to think about equipping your heroes at all. And anyone that started after Nightfall would have had no problems at all (and i'm not guessing - i do personally know people that started only after GW2 launch, and they all had no problem with gearing up even though by that time gw1 was mostly empty of people already)

[warherox.7943]

Ascended gear should have never been added in the first place. It was only added because players from games like WoW complained about a lack of gear grind. So Anet catered to players that had already left.

[Laila Lightness.8742]

Never crafted a single piece of asc got the as loot over the years and now its to common loot get 1full set and asc turns to easy to get full set on

[Cerioth.7062]

Ascended gear is so trivial to get though, especially compared to gear farming in literally every other MMO....

[Tolmos.8395]

Ascended gear gives raiders something to work towards, and that's good.

The only actual mistake was allowing those stats in WvW. I was here when Ascended gear released, and the dropoff in players who played WvW before and after ascended was pretty noticeable. To the best of my knowledge, I'm not sure the populations in WvW ever really recovered.

Since WvW was basically my favorite part of the game, I ended taking a hiatus not long after ascended released. Now that I'm back, I've resigned myself to crafting up the gear before going into WvW again regularly.

Guild Wars has always been about skill above gear in PvP. It's a shame that never translated into the giant semi-persistent PvP world they created in this game. :(

[ReaverKane.7598]

@Tolmos.8395 said:Ascended gear gives raiders something to work towards, and that's good.

The only actual mistake was allowing those stats in WvW. I was here when Ascended gear released, and the dropoff in players who played WvW before and after ascended was pretty noticeable. To the best of my knowledge, I'm not sure the populations in WvW ever really recovered.

Since WvW was basically my favorite part of the game, I ended taking a hiatus not long after ascended released. Now that I'm back, I've resigned myself to crafting up the gear before going into WvW again regularly.

Guild Wars has always been about skill above gear in PvP. It's a shame that never translated into the giant semi-persistent PvP world they created in this game. :(

I'm going to say that's BS. WvW Tournaments were held months after the release of Ascended Armor (the last ascended items to be added to the game) and they were very popular, and engaged at all times.

[Lionheart.7462]

I can't believe people are actually trying to make the point that ascended gear is hard to get. You can literally get ascended armor, weapons, and trinkets from every game mode in the entire game EXCEPT it is harder to get just running around in the open world. If all you are doing is complaining and only doing map completion and guild events, you will probably have a hard time getting ascended armor and weapons, but even then you can get the new specialization weapons from doing open world PvE collections. If you want ascended armor, literally invest just a little bit of time in PvP, WvW, or raids, and if you can't then stop wasting your time crying about it.

[Rasimir.6239]

@Tolmos.8395 said:Ascended gear gives raiders something to work towards, and that's good.

The only actual mistake was allowing those stats in WvW. I was here when Ascended gear released, and the dropoff in players who played WvW before and after ascended was pretty noticeable. To the best of my knowledge, I'm not sure the populations in WvW ever really recovered.

Since WvW was basically my favorite part of the game, I ended taking a hiatus not long after ascended released. Now that I'm back, I've resigned myself to crafting up the gear before going into WvW again regularly.

Guild Wars has always been about skill above gear in PvP. It's a shame that never translated into the giant semi-persistent PvP world they created in this game. :(Have you tried playing WvW in exotic gear? Unless you are in a very coordinated fight with very skilled people the difference isn't all that noticable, and you can progress towards your ascended gear just as well as in PvE. If it's WvW you enjoy and not PvE, playing the game mode to get your ascended gear (and legendary armor if that is your thing) is in fact your best option to gear up.

[Jumpin Lumpix.6108]

@Lionheart.7462 said:I can't believe people are actually trying to make the point that ascended gear is hard to get. You can literally get ascended armor, weapons, and trinkets from every game mode in the entire game EXCEPT it is harder to get just running around in the open world. If all you are doing is complaining and only doing map completion and guild events, you will probably have a hard time getting ascended armor and weapons, but even then you can get the new specialization weapons from doing open world PvE collections. If you want ascended armor, literally invest just a little bit of time in PvP, WvW, or raids, and if you can't then stop wasting your time crying about it.

Acquiring ascended gear is extremely time consuming and stressful for me and my friends. I wish they would make it easier to get and I've seen plenty of other people agree with me.

[Holykitten.3064]

@Jumpin Lumpix.6108 said:Acquiring ascended gear is extremely time consuming and stressful for me and my friends. I wish they would make it easier to get and I've seen plenty of other people agree with me.

It is time consuming (that was the point of Ascended gear, to be a real time-sink for the game because Exotics were handed out like candy, which no Karma Nerf (should be reverted now) could resolve).But with a tiny bit of effort, it’ll take maybe 4-5 weeks maximum for a full set of armor, weapons and trinkets per character. It’s a consistent goal. You just have to plan it better if you want to craft a set.(I have 9 permanent characters) Of the almost 10 full sets of Ascended armor I have, and a few other boxes, (so 60 pieces + 5 or so randoms) I think I crafted a grand total of maybe 20 pieces. This isn’t including weapons. How? I plan what I want and play how I like. I got a lot of boxes from Fractals, if I need to craft a certain piece, I plan what I need and save for it, whether that’s mats or gold to buy mats.

[PaxTheGreatOne.9472]

• Ascended gear is something more versatile and stable then exotics you needed to craft and soulbind each time.
• The account bound feature makes them a lot more flexible in use and allows porting the gear to a new character.
• The infusion mechanics allow for a bit of added stats and other infusions allowing boosts for certain gametypes.
• Ascneded Crafting is no longer that expensive, if you make your materials , maybe crafting is a bit slow, but doable nonetheless. Materials are now cheap. with most mats being 5-6 gold versus 10 or even 15 gold before.
• Ascneded in WVW is no longer a real issue as you can get ascended gear at the vendor if needed, Legendary even. In my opinion the WVW mastery points are more debalancing then ascneded armor. Remember most WVW guilds and builds are not glass.... most have 2600-3000 armor rating. This can also be a source of mistakes.

I have 26 characters now and I have 29 sets of ascended gear on 23 of them. (So 174 armor pieces) and to complement them I have 168 ascended and 8 legendary weapons. I also have legendary armor on my main. (Warrior with Viper gear atm.) Leaving 2 characters with sets of exotics. (Engineer with Zerk and Guardian with Clerics for RP-ing)

Heavy (7 sets)2 Zerk ( Warrior, Guardian)1 WvW-mix Zerk and Soldier (Warrior)1 Viper (Revenant) (Warrior with leggy gear uses Viper stats as well)1 Marshal (Guardian)1 Commander (Guardian)1 Grieving (Guardian)

Medium (8 sets)2 Zerk (Thief, Ranger)1 Zealot (Ranger)1 Marauder (Thief)1 Minstrel (Ranger)1 Harrier (Ranger)2 Viper (Ranger, Engineer)

Light (14 sets)3 Zerk (Elementalist, Mesmer, Necromancer)1 Zealot (Necromancer)3 Viper (Elementalist, Mesmer, Necromancer)1 Magi (Elemenatlist)1 Marshall (Elementalist)2 Minstrel (Elementalist, Mesmer)1 Celestial (Elementalist)1 Trailblazer (Necromancer)1 Commander (Mesmer)

It's probably a hurdle when making the 1st set, but further sets will come with a lot less cost and issues.

In the end I have obtained about35% through crafting (~60)35% through fractals (~60)20% through raids (~36)7% through PvP and WvW(12)3% through random drops & achievs (the remainder)

Yes, I have a lot of gear stats available. 13 different stat combinations to be exact... I have PvE and WvW characters but I'm mainly focussed on PvE.

[EpicName.4523]

Ascended gear was NOT a mistake. It is something which people strive to obtain, but usually don't NEED to have unless they want to do end game content.

Do you know what WAS a mistake? Having certain stat combinations being extremely hard/difficult to get (example viper, celestial) or simply too expensive for exotic. This forces players to grind ascended gear just so they can acquire certain stat distribution which is otherwise unavailable or not cost/time effective to obtain for exotics.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@EpicName.4523 said:Ascended gear was NOT a mistake. It is something which people strive to obtain, but usually don't NEED to have unless they want to do end game content.

Do you know what WAS a mistake? Having certain stat combinations being extremely hard/difficult to obtain (example viper, celestial) or simply too expensive for exotic. This forces players to grind ascended gear just so they can acquire certain stat distribution which is otherwise unavailable or not cost/time effective to obtain for exotics.

Also time-gating... Time-gating materials is the mother of all mistakes

[Zilong.1407]

The sentiment has been expressed, but I agree that Ascended was a bad move and that it is far too late to take back now. I actually left the game for a time when Ascended stats were introduced as it seemed like a sign for changes that basically went against every reason why i preferred GW2 over something like WoW. Obviously, I came back eventually, but only after checking to make sure that: 1. no gear treadmill had been introduced and 2. that raids and fractals were something I could ignore and still have interesting pve content to do.

[Laila Lightness.8742]

Ascended has made game toxic in some ways i havent crafted a single piece got just from raids and and drops but anet said they wont remove it so why keep discussing it anet wont remove it from game

[Aurelian Omenkind.2470]

As stated so many times already, ascended gear is locked into the economy and metrics of gameplay. The ship has sailed. Also mentioned countless times already, it’s not that hard to come by (aside from armor). Trinkets are easily obtained through various game modes or simply by logging in and collecting laurels with which you can buy them straight out. Weapons are not difficult to craft either with enough mats which are a breeze to farm nowadays.

My main has only 2 pieces of ascended armor out of 6 and I do quite well in most game modes I play. All other alts of mine are only clad in exotic and most still don’t have ascended weapons either. I still hold my own in most situations.

The purpose for ascended was to give legendary stats (sort of) without the extreme gold and time commitment of crafting legendary. Ascended is here to stay and I think it’s a good thing.

[Ayrilana.1396]

Ascended gear has been in the game for almost 4.5 years with many pieces having been available longer than that. Any opportunity to debate about whether it should be in the game or not has long passed, in my opinion. For those that started around the end of 2013, ascended has always been the BiS for them.

When it comes to the availability of ascended to all players, I don’t see this as an issue. Trinkets are incredibly easy to obtain as there are numerous methods available. Backpacks are also very easy to obtain and the living story seasons have provided many ways to obtain them. These are what provide the bulk of the stat difference between ascended and exotic.

Ascended weapons are next in regards to importance and how much they contribute. The weapons are fairly painless to craft but are also available through specialization collections as well as that current event from LS3 (although this only provides like 5 weapon types?).

Ascended Armor only contributes about 2% to damage for DPS which isn’t going to be noticeable except under the very rare situations where you’re up against someone that is of equal skill to you ignoring the differences in classes. In other words, the likelihood of not having ascended armor being the primary contributing factor to you not winning against another is very low.

[Ok I Did It.2854]

The WvW point is kind of mute to be honest, the chances of a full zerg vs zerg where one is all exotic and the other in ascended is so slim its unreal, and when you have exotic vs ascended mixed in, it does not matter, ascended or exotic cannot handle the burst damage you could face now, for solo roaming it could make a difference but skill also plays a part I guess,

In PvE there are so many ways to get ascended gear now, from world bosses, raids, fractals, crafting, collections, etc there really is no reason not to have ascended gear, unless you, don't want it, don't do the content that can drop it as a reward, and or are super causal and only play 1 hour a week therefore don't need it.

[Nuka Cola.8520]

If they were removing it tomorrow i'd be more than happy. I don't care about the fact that it cost me money to craft. Balance is more important for the game.

[Shirlias.8104]

@"Nuka Cola.8520" said:If they were removing it tomorrow i'd be more than happy. I don't care about the fact that it cost me money to craft. Balance is more important for the game.

Removing it has "imho" no sense given the game itself ( just because, as said previously, it's to late to remove it, and also some players play not in order to have fun but to farm and incrase their stats even by a little ).

I would just put standard equipment ( like SPvP ) into WvW, leaving the ascendet only something related to PvE.This will give players the same equipment for 2 game modes out of 3 ( the "competitive modes" ), leaving the endless farm for those who like endgame PvE ( Agony could be add to raids too for an instance ).

[Astralporing.1957]

@Aurelian Omenkind.2470 said:The purpose for ascended was to give legendary stats (sort of) without the extreme gold and time commitment of crafting legendary....what? You do remember, that until the moment Ascended were introduced, Legendaries had exotic stats and no statchanging and were crafted purely for visuals?