New path to legendary armor?

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Sure it does. Lots of people do content to get the rewards it offers. Expanding how Legendary gear is obtained in content most people do will most certainly change their engagement.  

 

23 minutes ago, Obtena.7952 said:

My argument there is that if we assume most people play casually, they aren't 'pursuing' content they don't want to play for those rewards anyways but likely have no problem engaging in content they do want to play for longer if they have those long term rewards as a reason to do so. I'm pretty casual ... my 'longest' term goal to engage in a map/LS is simply the rewards it offers. In most cases, that's not even the map achievement. Think about that. If I'm typical, then that means the standard 'engagement' of a casual player for a map or event is around one month. That's pretty bad for long term engagement. Why do you think we have the current LS 'reissue' happening for the next 3-4 months? Because Anet needs casual player money and they don't have any significant long term goals that those players are willing to do. 

 

I mean, removing casual players simply seeking legendary armor by doing raids would butcher the raid community? That's pretty far fetched considering how hard done by the raid element of the game is ALREADY considering we are ALREADY making casual players seek legendary armor doing raids wouldn't you say? Put another way ... don't you think the lack of success of raid content is a strong indicator of how willing casual players are willing to subject themselves to that content, EVEN if  it's the primary path for them to get legendary armor? 

 

Then they can do spvp or wvw instead they got choices.

[Obtena.7952]

22 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

 

 

Then they can do spvp or wvw instead they got choices.

OK ... I mean, I'm not arguing people don't have choices so that changes nothing about my point. 

 

My point is that Anet has went to the effort of creating these assets to get people engaged with the game and they have missed out on engaging what is likely the largest segment of that population, simply because of some fallacy that this segment will subject themselves to content they don't want to do just to get that reward. 

 

Honestly, I really don't think it's that big of a deal as long as Anet continues to create content that appeals to that segment (let's call them casuals) but in the last few years, that's not really been the case. I mean, why do you think we are getting LS 'reissues' for the next few months? I'm going to bet because the game lacks the long term engagement with a significant portion of its players ... and Anet needs the development bux because of the delay of EoD. Expanding paths to obtain Leg. armor is a reasonable way to address that. 

Edited July 18, 2021 by Obtena.7952

[Endilbiach.4132]

1 hour ago, Zalavaaris.5329 said:

The problem I have is this. What is the biggest game mode people do in this game? I don't have the specific answer as I don't work on the team. But I would guess open world, leveling, and story/living world. SO if you add these end game rewards to the already most popular mode and the EASIEST game mode no less, why would anyone pursue the other content? You bring up engaging content but adding these alternate routes would butcher the harder content communities. A PERFECT example of this is the new legendary amulet coming for the living world revisit achievements. That is by far the most brain dead legendary in the game. It's literally being handed out to anyone regardless of player ability. I wanted to go for the pvp amulet to finish my set. Now theres no chance in hell im going to do that because It's content I already don't want to do AND now theres an easy easy alternative to it. Why ever enter the mode? 

 

It makes me laugh that you're actually perfectly illustrating my point as to why this is a good thing.  You don't enjoy pvp, you're miserable in pvp, but you were going to have to do it if you wanted a legendary amulet.  Now you don't have to.  In terms of game play you're now happier, doing things you LIKE to do, and knowing that after enough time and work you're going to get a legendary amulet instead of having to pvp for I literally don't know how long.

And now, your misery will be kept out of pvp, where people who LIKE pvp will now only be with other people who LIKE pvp.  The content community may 'lose' numbers but it will gain quality.  Same argument for raids, 100%.  And most people in wvw already aren't in there for the legendary armor, lemme tell you.  The ones that are find the most unpopulated maps, hide, kill sentries and guards for participation, and farm 11+ pips every 5 minutes, so it's not like they're contributing to the game mode anyway.

[Dunroy.1058]

I want to just start out by saying I think that people should be able to play the game in whatever manner they enjoy, and receive rewards appropriate to the level of commitment they have to that game mode. In that sense legendary armor having an OW acquisition method is something I'd be ok with.

 

I just want to add something that OP didn't appear to consider with their initial post though. That is, other people having to play your preferred game mode to acquire their legendaries.

 

You don't want to feel forced to play PVP, WVW, or Raids to acquire a legendary set of armor, but to acquire any legendary weapon, outside of buying a gen 1 off the TP requires running countless metas in HoT or PoF for Gift of Maguuma or Desert respectively, or for crafting a gen 1, exploring every core map for a gift of exploration.

 

As a WvW player who does T4 Fractals for a cash injection when I require it, running this mindless repetitive OW metas for said gifts is the definition of tedium, but I don't have an alternative.

 

I'm not coming here with suggestions, or to belittle your request at all, but I do just want to point out that you are able to do most of your legendary crafting in your preferred game mode without setting foot in another, aside from WvW for Gift of Battle. But one reward track in WvW is much faster than the multiple meta grinding I have to do for a Gift of Desert/Maguuma if I want to head into your preferred mode for a component for a legendary.

 

So I guess this is sort of a count your blessings comment. No you can't make legendary armor in the OW, but you can get 2 trinkets, and every weapon. Which is more than any other single game mode.

[rrusse.7058]

I fully support more ways for players to play.

 

I’ve had no trouble crafting legendary weapons but the armory has motivated me to work on making legendary armor.

 

I’ve run ascended on all of my characters and that’s been fine. I don’t NEED legendary armor but it would be nice to have obviously.

 

I’ve been revisiting WvW and while the impetus was for slowly working on armor. It is not always on my mind. Enjoying the gameplay or finding something enjoyable about the game mode is essential. You will burn yourself out otherwise.

 

The more options there are for making armor the better I’d say. Hopefully it means less players burn out trying to get it. Granted it still needs to be a challenge to make the armors. About the same as any weapon.

[SkyCake.4216]

I'm for it. Open World PvE is pretty much the only game-mode GW2 does better than other (and more popular) MMOs. I think it should lean into the idea more. I also think, however, that the idea of "hard mode maps" that I've seen suggested a couple of times could come with it. A Verdant Brink where you know every person there is going for meta because the map "instance" was created for that purpose could be tweaked and balance however the devs felt appropriate with appropriate rewards. Those rewards being legendary armor progression. Or, not. I'd still be for it. I don't think any content in this game is prestigious enough to warrant not getting legendary armor while doing something like Drizzlewood Coast. 

 

I also would like to see new skins.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

This is no way official information, but I expect that in the long run, every major game type will get it's own full set of legendary armor and trinkets.

 

• (Open world) PvE and crafting professions
• sPvP
• WvW
• Raids

Edited July 19, 2021 by TheQuickFox.3826

[Sobx.1758]

2 minutes ago, TheQuickFox.3826 said:

This is no way official information, but I expect that in the long run, every major game type will get it's own full set of legendary armor and trinkets.

 

• (Open world) PvE and crafting professions
• sPvP
• WvW
• Raids

Nah, the pvp/wvw/pve split as currently is fine.

[Sobx.1758]

5 minutes ago, Endilbiach.4132 said:

Have you not figured out that we're really tired of hearing from your "raids are a gift from the gods and you should all kneel before those of us who like them" self?

That's not even remotely close to anything I wrote. I understand you want to have your private echo chamber here, but nah.

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by Sobx.1758

[Endilbiach.4132]

33 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

That's not even remotely close to anything I wrote. I understand you want to have your private echo chamber here, but nah.

 

 

Perhaps, but it's definitely what you mean.  You have yet to add anything constructive or frankly even cogent to this conversation, and thus I am done giving you any more of my time.

[rrusse.7058]

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Nah, the pvp/wvw/pve split as currently is fine.

Some argue there should be fractal legendary armor. With CMs the content is more or less raids with 5-man groups as opposed to 10.

[Endilbiach.4132]

Just now, rrusse.7058 said:

Some argue there should be fractal legendary armor. With CMs the content is more or less raids with 5-man groups as opposed to 10.

 

See, as much as I personally don't care for fractals this would be MUCH more approachable than a raids-only armor.  I might still not get it in the end, but at least I wouldn't feel so incredibly locked out by it, and it would certainly be available to a larger portion of the playerbase.

[Sobx.1758]

15 minutes ago, rrusse.7058 said:

Some argue there should be fractal legendary armor. With CMs the content is more or less raids with 5-man groups as opposed to 10.

Perhaps some do, but what is this changing here?

 

17 minutes ago, Endilbiach.4132 said:

Perhaps, but it's definitely what you mean. 

No, it's not. If that's what you got from it, you should re-read the posts with understanding instead of pretending I wrote/meant something I clearly don't, just so you can push your agenda.

 

13 minutes ago, Endilbiach.4132 said:

 

See, as much as I personally don't care for fractals this would be MUCH more approachable than a raids-only armor.  I might still not get it in the end, but at least I wouldn't feel so incredibly locked out by it, and it would certainly be available to a larger portion of the playerbase.

How exactly are you locked out of participating in raids? 

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by Sobx.1758

[rrusse.7058]

4 minutes ago, Endilbiach.4132 said:

 

See, as much as I personally don't care for fractals this would be MUCH more approachable than a raids-only armor.  I might still not get it in the end, but at least I wouldn't feel so incredibly locked out by it, and it would certainly be available to a larger portion of the playerbase.

Since the patch dropped the idea of other avenues for making legendary armor has been on my mind. 
 

The Living World “remix” has been fun and it gives 2 legendary items by the end if you do it all and of course buy End of Dragons.

 

Arenanet likely doesn’t have the resources and time to make quests like they did for the gen 1 legendaries, so I’m thinking they could implement something for armor in a similar way to how they did gen 2 legends after HoT and PoF.

 

There is no “quest” associated with it, but does take a sizable amount of resources. I wonder if that is sufficient enough though. Would it “lessen” the value of having say “raid legendary” armor?

 

As others have said, you don’t play PvP and WvW for the legendary armor. So perhaps it doesn’t matter at all? You get raid armor because you want to do raids.

[rrusse.7058]

8 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Perhaps some do, but what is this changing here?

Just other avenues for getting legendary gear while still being challenging and requiring some amount of time and commitment to achieve.

Edited July 19, 2021 by rrusse.7058

[Endilbiach.4132]

4 minutes ago, rrusse.7058 said:

Since the patch dropped the idea of other avenues for making legendary armor has been on my mind. 
 

The Living World “remix” has been fun and it gives 2 legendary items by the end if you do it all and of course buy End of Dragons.

 

Arenanet likely doesn’t have the resources and time to make quests like they did for the gen 1 legendaries, so I’m thinking they could implement something for armor in a similar way to how they did gen 2 legends after HoT and PoF.

 

There is no “quest” associated with it, but does take a sizable amount of resources. I wonder if that is sufficient enough though. Would it “lessen” the value of having say “raid legendary” armor?

 

As others have said, you don’t play PvP and WvW for the legendary armor. So perhaps it doesn’t matter at all? You get raid armor because you want to do raids.

 

On your last point, I think the most important thing that people are forgetting is that since its earliest days the core concept of gearing up characters in GW2 is that it's supposed to be possible for everyone to be on a statistically level playing field regardless of your skill level.  Endgame grinds for the best gear possible weren't supposed to be a thing, but rather and endgame grind for a SKIN.  Take a look at The Anomaly for instance.  It's an exotic, berserkers stat focus that costs 374g on the TP.  Why?  Because it looks wicked cool and is expensive to make, that's it, it's not actually better than anything.  So the fact that the *best* gear is now locked behind exclusionist content feels counter to the original concept of GW2.

 

As I said elsewhere to someone earlier:

Raids should be about the content, not the rewards.

WvW should be about the content, not the rewards.

PvP should be about the content, not the rewards.

That's what GW2 was in the beginning.

[Sobx.1758]

14 minutes ago, rrusse.7058 said:

Just other avenues for getting legendary gear while still being challenging and requiring some amount of time and commitment to achieve.

What's the point if they're more or less raids anyways, might as well get into raids?

[rrusse.7058]

16 minutes ago, Endilbiach.4132 said:

On your last point, I think the most important thing that people are forgetting is that since its earliest days the core concept of gearing up characters in GW2 is that it's supposed to be possible for everyone to be on a statistically level playing field

No disagreement there. I still think back to 2012 GW2 and how it was back then to get a single legendary weapon. Back then there was no legendary crafting and to get a Gift of Exploration you had to explore everything, including WvW maps. If anything the “grinding” part of making legends back then was the fact that precursors were random either as a drop or from the Mystic Forge.

 

We could discuss the nature of what “grind” is, but asking players to do that back then was not easy, it did however ask for a certain amount of “mastery” and dedication of players for what is indeed a skin, certainly back then as there was no transmuting and no armory then either.

 

Of course things change and legendaries are no longer just cool skins, they are now a new experience for players that allow ease of play, hence why I agree there need to be other ways to obtain legendary armor in particular.

 

I’m just not sure about what the “best” implementation is.

Edited July 19, 2021 by rrusse.7058

[Sobx.1758]

15 minutes ago, Endilbiach.4132 said:

 

On your last point, I think the most important thing that people are forgetting is that since its earliest days the core concept of gearing up characters in GW2 is that it's supposed to be possible for everyone to be on a statistically level playing field regardless of your skill level.  Endgame grinds for the best gear possible weren't supposed to be a thing, but rather and endgame grind for a SKIN.  Take a look at The Anomaly for instance.  It's an exotic, berserkers stat focus that costs 374g on the TP.  Why?  Because it looks wicked cool and is expensive to make, that's it, it's not actually better than anything.  So the fact that the *best* gear is now locked behind exclusionist content feels counter to the original concept of GW2.

Ascended is BiS gear as well, you don't get power with legendaries so nothing in that respect changed here, no need to pretend that it did.

 

16 minutes ago, Endilbiach.4132 said:

As I said elsewhere to someone earlier:

Raids should be about the content, not the rewards.

WvW should be about the content, not the rewards.

PvP should be about the content, not the rewards.

That's what GW2 was in the beginning.

Everything should be aabout content, not the rewards. And yet, despite each content having rewards, you're complaining because you want more/different rewards 🤔

[rrusse.7058]

24 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

What's the point if they're more or less raids anyways, might as well get into raids?

Yes, you’re right but that’s just it. That’s not how the culture and how the playerbase of GW2 turned out.

 

Players tend to play the game not as a package deal, but as pocketed communities. For better or for worse the community is divided as PvEers, PvPers and WvWers. Think whenever there was a patch, until now it was a running joke to mention the “Alliances” update for WvW.

 

Look another patch and nothing about WvW, ded gaem!

 

Players stick to their mode for the most part while not too many dabble in all 3. Even the dev team wasn’t prepared for this culture to emerge. Mike ‘O Brien was convinced that players “play everything” and the WvW community was completely taken aback because it’s “our mode” and “our way to play.”

 

Edit: want to clarify that within PvE communities this includes sub-communities including casual, raiders, fractals and more.

Edited July 19, 2021 by rrusse.7058
Clarity

[Infusion.7149]

1 hour ago, rrusse.7058 said:

Yes, you’re right but that’s just it. That’s not how the culture and how the playerbase of GW2 turned out.

 

Players tend to play the game not as a package deal, but as pocketed communities. For better or for worse the community is divided as PvEers, PvPers and WvWers. Think whenever there was a patch, until now it was a running joke to mention the “Alliances” update for WvW.

 

Look another patch and nothing about WvW, ded gaem!

 

Players stick to their mode for the most part while not too many dabble in all 3. Even the dev team wasn’t prepared for this culture to emerge. Mike ‘O Brien was convinced that players “play everything” and the WvW community was completely taken aback because it’s “our mode” and “our way to play.”

 

Edit: want to clarify that within PvE communities this includes sub-communities including casual, raiders, fractals and more.

No they had metrics saying WvW players played PvE. In actuality at the time PvE was the only way to afford WvW because repairs, siege, upgrades, food, commander tags, everything cost money and gems to gold was far lower. The "poor WvW commander" that needed siege donations was a common thing and that is why some PvE guilds bankrolling server matchups resulted in server hopping (TP Guild is funding Maguuma now, used to be JQ was a big trading post operation). There were no skirmish tracks either nor skirmishes in general and WvW was required for map completion for gen 1 legendary weapons. That is why a lot of PvE players bandwagoned onto servers that were winning and manipulated WvW transfers.

Also alliances was mentioned as an upcoming feature, imagine if a promised PvE feature was delayed for years. Imagine if legendary armory was announced May 2020 and in May 2023 it still didn't even have public testing.

The best thing they implemented for WvW this year was a proper EoTM arena. This gets GvG guilds that don't fight in/around objectives off the WvW maps and reduces steamrolling of random players that aren't aiming to GvG.

---

Not sure how a fractal armor would work, but fractals and openworld bosses are already included in Envoy collection as well. Calling it a raid armor is not 100% correct.

P.S. ascended didn't exist at launch, I was actually one of the people against its stat creep because I felt that it should have just been an infusion slot difference.

Ascended is still best in slot stat-wise. So claiming legendary is best in slot is disingenuous.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Infusion.7149

[rrusse.7058]

32 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

PvE was the only way to afford WvW because repairs, siege, upgrades, food, commander tags, everything cost money and gems to gold was far lower. The "poor WvW commander" that needed siege donations was a common thing and that is why some PvE guilds bankrolling server matchups resulted in server hopping (TP Guild is funding Maguuma now, used to be JQ was a big trading post operation)

Right, they were and continue to do that as a means to an end. To play WvW as best as possible. Other commenters in this thread alone has said they do fractals just to fund their WvW activities because it’s the one game mode that costs the most and offers the least amount of gold for gameplay hours.

 

32 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Also alliances was mentioned as an upcoming feature, imagine if a promised PvE feature was delayed for years. Imagine if legendary armory was announced May 2020 and in May 2023 it still didn't even have public testing.

The alliances feature was brought up over a year ago and has been in limbo until recently. We do have experience with a PvE feature sitting in limbo for a while as well with legendary crafting. It was announced, the community waited and it wasn’t until the HoT days that we saw it finally reach release. Granted it’s as you said the alliance system is going to need public testing but Grouch explained why that is. Iterating on the alliance system is what WvW needs.

 

32 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Not sure how a fractal armor would work, but fractals and openworld bosses are already included in Envoy collection as well. Calling it a raid armor is not 100% correct.

P.S. ascended didn't exist at launch, I was actually one of the people against its stat creep because I felt that it should have just been an infusion slot difference.

Ascended is still best in slot stat-wise. So claiming legendary is best in slot is disingenuous.

In terms of fractal armor I was simply making a suggestion and sharing that some members of the community like fractals exclusively, have the weapons and want to see high tier armor tied to fractals. If we want to discuss that difficult content is tied to high end rewards then fractals is one way to do so.

 

I also know Ascended tier gear was not at launch. I never made the argument that legendary armor is the only best in slot gear.

Edited July 19, 2021 by rrusse.7058

[Astralporing.1957]

4 hours ago, rrusse.7058 said:

Some argue there should be fractal legendary armor. With CMs the content is more or less raids with 5-man groups as opposed to 10.

Not unless it was at the level of the backpack only (so, without CMs, and with the farmable materials necessary not coming from any specific fractal type or tier). Fractal CMs, as you already noticed, are pretty much similar content to raids, so it would simply be giving a second set of armor to mostly the same group of people, while still ignoring the most of PvE players. So, still a possibility, but only much later in the pipeline and those that currently do not have access to legendary armor are already covered.

[Asum.4960]

8 hours ago, TheQuickFox.3826 said:

This is no way official information, but I expect that in the long run, every major game type will get it's own full set of legendary armor and trinkets.

 

• (Open world) PvE and crafting professions
• sPvP
• WvW
• Raids

Every major gamemode, those being PvE, structured PvP and WvW, do have their own set. 

 

Raids is not a separate gamemode. The difference between a story boss, event boss and Raid boss is quality and difficulty. 

Additionally the PvE armor consists of Raids, Map completions, Fractals, Meta Events etc., it's by all means a general PvE armor (besides newer modes such as Strikes and DRM's which had not been implemented at the time yet). 

 

Also, as some others said, no, "PvP" does not have two armors, and it's not an argument why therefor so should PvE. 

If you think Structured/competitive PvP is even remotely similar to roaming vast PvPvE WvW maps or doing giant zerg battles, you don't know what you are talking about. 

 

The "game mode argument" goes against more sets, not for them.

 

I don't think arguing for new armors for every PvE sub-type (actually just a Raid Armor, OW Armor, Strike Armor, DRM Armor etc.) is going to be all that fruitful (players have been asking for a Fractal armor since long before sPvP and WvW armors were even a thought)

Now one avenue that Anet could tap though is a generalist approach, which would make a lot more sense design wise. 

 

GW2 relies on it's players to dabble in a variety of gamemodes to stay engaged long term, as such they do try to encourage cross-pollination with their endgame rewards (see Gift of Battle for OW/PvE Legendary Weapons). 

Giving each niche content it's own armor is not only not possible for Anet resource wise, it also goes against their philosophy of exposing players to different types of content and would just lead to more people burning out in their niches. 

 

As alternative, the Achievement Point system already exists and could provide a play what you want but benefit from branching out way to acquire Legendary Armor for those fundamentally opposed to fighting other players or participating in challenging content. 

 

The Hellfire and Radiant skins sets could serve as foundation for this generalist Armor, with Achievement point threshholds around that Level providing "Gifts of Achievement Prowess", for example at 40k, 45k and 50k, for the 3 weight sets total, with some additional collections for "Gifts of Achievement Dedication". 

These Gifts of Achievement could then be combined with the usual Gift of Prosperity (+ giving the Hellfire and Radiant a physical Ascended "Precursor" set) for the AP armor. 

 

That way Anet could both please everybody saying they actually do want to put the effort in but just don't like all of X gamemodes by providing them a method which they can constantly and easily progress on by general play at the cost of being for a very long time, high dedication goal, as well as silence those who really just want free rewards with their argument of current Armor exclusivity - all without pigeonholing players into niches or invalidating the effort of the more targeted methods of specific gamemodes. 

 

Ofc Anet would have to be careful with not massively inflating AP gain with future content, but in general the armor becoming easier and offering a broader selection of viable activities to progress towards it isn't imo necessarily a bad thing as the game winds down it's life cycle.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Asum.4960

[Dante.1763]

25 minutes ago, Asum.4960 said:

Every major gamemode, those being PvE, structured PvP and WvW, do have their own set. 

 

Raids is not a separate gamemode. The difference between a story boss, event boss and Raid boss is quality and difficulty. 

Additionally the PvE armor consists of Raids, Map completions, Fractals, Meta Events etc., it's by all means a general PvE armor (besides newer modes such as Strikes and DRM's which had not been implemented at the time yet). 

 

Also, as some others said, no, "PvP" does not have two armors, and it's not an argument why therefor so should PvE. 

If you think Structured/competitive PvP is even remotely similar to roaming vast PvPvE WvW maps or doing giant zerg battles, you don't know what you are talking about. 

 

The "game mode argument" goes against more sets, not for them.

 

I don't think arguing for new armors for every PvE sub-type (actually just a Raid Armor, OW Armor, Strike Armor, DRM Armor etc.) is going to be all that fruitful (players have been asking for a Fractal armor since long before sPvP and WvW armors were even a thought)

Now one avenue that Anet could tap though is a generalist approach, which would make a lot more sense design wise. 

 

GW2 relies on it's players to dabble in a variety of gamemodes to stay engaged long term, as such they do try to encourage cross-pollination with their endgame rewards (see Gift of Battle for OW/PvE Legendary Weapons). 

Giving each niche content it's own armor is not only not possible for Anet resource wise, it also goes against their philosophy of exposing players to different types of content and would just lead to more people burning out in their niches. 

 

As alternative, the Achievement Point system already exists and could provide a play what you want but benefit from branching out way to acquire Legendary Armor for those fundamentally opposed to fighting other players or participating in challenging content. 

 

The Hellfire and Radiant skins sets could serve as foundation for this generalist Armor, with Achievement point threshholds around that Level providing "Gifts of Achievement Prowess", for example at 40k, 45k and 50k, for the 3 weight sets total, with some additional collections for "Gifts of Achievement Dedication". 

These Gifts of Achievement could then be combined with the usual Gift of Prosperity (+ giving the Hellfire and Radiant a physical Ascended "Precursor" set) for the AP armor. 

 

That way Anet could both please everybody saying they actually do want to put the effort in but just don't like all of X gamemodes by providing them a method which they can constantly and easily progress on by general play at the cost of being for a very long time, high dedication goal, as well as silence those who really just want free rewards with their argument of current Armor exclusivity - all without pigeonholing players into niches or invalidating the effort of the more targeted methods of specific gamemodes. 

 

Ofc Anet would have to be careful with not massively inflating AP gain with future content, but in general the armor becoming easier and offering a broader selection of viable activities to progress towards it isn't imo necessarily a bad thing as the game winds down it's life cycle.

40k ap is a tad bit to high. 20k, 25k and 30k or 25k, 30k and 35k is much more reasonable.

 

Ive been playing off and on since beta and im almost to 22k ap. Theres about 14k ap i can earn left and thats including the 5k im missing in daily ap and ALL the pvp and wvw achievements that i dont have. Without doing the remaining pvp and wvw stuff im down to 12k(including missing daily ap). Meaning id max out around 34k ap.  The most ap im missing from any one source aside from pvv/wvw is the ap from the latest story they added.

 

I could see 30k, 35k and 40k IF they returned all the lws1 achievements to the game and added a bunch of new ones to boot.

 

Marionette has been the largest boost to my ap in years from a single source.

 

Theyve already slowed down how much ap is obtainable too so no need to worry about that moving forward either.