Kos Luftar
Member
The team so far. Few are maybes but that's ok.
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Guild Wars 2 |OT5| We've got fun and games
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Quick repost. Won't flood the forum with it more just wanted it on the page
UltimateIke
Member
Maybe it is because I came in halfway through GW2's existence, so I never got indoctrinated to this core tenent of everyone gets to do everything and be rewarded for little to no effort, but people decrying any amount of exclusivity in content baffles me.
No one is entitled to Ascended gear and no one is entitled to the opportunity to beat raids. Not that Ascended gear is even strictly required, so all the complaints over that still feel like people being hugely upset over the smallest hint that the stuff they have might not be good enough.
Ascended gear takes time and effort to earn. You can call it a "grind" all you want, but it is just another part of playing the game. Some of you have had years to gather gold and materials slowly as you played that could have been invested into such equipment. Rome wasn't built in a day. Sorry (but not really) that you can't have the instant gratification of new shinies for doing nothing. Newer players who haven't had as many opportunities need to keep spending their time in older content, such as dungeons, working their way up to the new stuff. No old content is invalidated with the release of the expansion, so you can't just assume you get to move on and forget about doing the old stuff.
Let them be angry? They can go cry on the official forums if it makes them feel better. If you aren't willing to put in the effort, you don't deserve the rewards. They can go follow a tag around Edge of the Mists or Silverwastes and get free loot for doing nothing since that's about as much as most people seem to be willing to invest themselves. Raids are going to be hard. They are hopefully going to take a lot of practice and a much larger amount of dedication than other areas of PvE in GW2.
No one is entitled to Ascended gear and no one is entitled to the opportunity to beat raids. Not that Ascended gear is even strictly required, so all the complaints over that still feel like people being hugely upset over the smallest hint that the stuff they have might not be good enough.
Ascended gear takes time and effort to earn. You can call it a "grind" all you want, but it is just another part of playing the game. Some of you have had years to gather gold and materials slowly as you played that could have been invested into such equipment. Rome wasn't built in a day. Sorry (but not really) that you can't have the instant gratification of new shinies for doing nothing. Newer players who haven't had as many opportunities need to keep spending their time in older content, such as dungeons, working their way up to the new stuff. No old content is invalidated with the release of the expansion, so you can't just assume you get to move on and forget about doing the old stuff.
Let them be angry? They can go cry on the official forums if it makes them feel better. If you aren't willing to put in the effort, you don't deserve the rewards. They can go follow a tag around Edge of the Mists or Silverwastes and get free loot for doing nothing since that's about as much as most people seem to be willing to invest themselves. Raids are going to be hard. They are hopefully going to take a lot of practice and a much larger amount of dedication than other areas of PvE in GW2.
appletoasty
Member
The drop rate from fractal daily chests are ~4% for a weapon box and ~12% for an armor box from a fractal 41-50, with the % going down as fractal levels go down, so probably about the same, yea.
(Drop rate research from fractals if anyone cares)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...lsRU5LeEJWN3hodklXWGFCU1E&usp=drive_web#gid=0
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18IHVJao5j85KOp6lBTOgO8qs4VYD3Xty-jKPZo8o-Q4/pubhtml
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...lsRU5LeEJWN3hodklXWGFCU1E&usp=drive_web#gid=0
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18IHVJao5j85KOp6lBTOgO8qs4VYD3Xty-jKPZo8o-Q4/pubhtml
I don't particularly like that raids are seemingly balanced around ascended, but I recognize why they are doing it. Even though the stat increase from exotic to ascended is fairly small, that difference gives people in ascended the extra wiggle room to not become more skilled. And while it's only a ~5% difference in stats, I've read it can lead to around ~15% increase in DPS, which across 10 players makes a significant difference.
Raids can (and hopefully will) be difficult for their mechanics, but if they balance around something other than best in slot I can see top players trivializing encounters much more easily than otherwise. I don't believe this will lead to a treadmill and continual grinding as in other games. And it's not like we have to wait that long to find out.
LOL
I still remember when I was bored and read some stuff on the forum. When they released the craft-able portal consumable there was one player who was quite upset that the other class had access to the portal and wanted the mesmer to have a perma-speed utility as well since the mesmer doesn't have it. The poster mentioned that it was really unfair or something. Everyone was trying to explain to him/her that those portal consumables are so damn expensive that it's not going to be practical but he/he didn't understand or didn't listen at all lol
I guess it reminds me that even at the smallest change there are people who gets upset or angry. I'm quite surprised that the "manifesto" hasn't been thoroughly quoted or mentioned, the one about the trinity/player roles.
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
Can we get a 2000 gem giveaway for people not in the guild (is there an EU one?), without the beta and named St3v3, please?
We don't have an EU guild, most all people in EU just play on the NA servers to play with GAF and don't usually mention having much issue with regards to latency or anything.
Jest Chillin
Member
The word indoctrinated is pretty strong but what drew a lot of people to GW2 was the ability to do any activity that you want to rather than being forced to follow a specific path of activities to advance. That's the spirit behind the entire design.
I don't know that the rewards are even a concern. In my eyes it's more about having the ability to take part in the content without having to change the way you play the rest of the game.
A DPS increase should only decrease the length of time it takes to defeat the encounter. I don't actually see how that's viewed as a bad thing honestly. But I'm the type of player that doesn't at all mind being in a prolonged fight either. So a fully Ascended group clearing faster than my full Exotic group doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Astral/H3X
Member
I agree, so long as the Exotic group doesn't just get turned into a bloody smear on the country side.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
1) Ascended Armor Crafting and Weapons Crafting being convoluted, not-fun, and a disproportional large grind. It's a massive investment. You had a lot of mats, and maybe you play more than other people who don't have as much time.
2) Some people are feeling that they are being punished for not having the statistical most sound gear. You can already see the semantic arguments on reddit about the content not being for that type of player. There is nothing challenging or interesting about getting ascended armor or weapons. It's just unnecessarily and boring and time consuming, which is why this vitirol found in other MMOs is such disheartening to hear.
My solution;
Just make it a mastery track/pvp track/wvw vendor/dungeon vendor(that takes any combination of dungeon tokens) for your character were they can work 100-200 hours of meaning gameplay that yields 2 ascended weapons and a ascended armorset or something like that.
There is nothing wrong about not wanting to be statistically inferior. It is a cornerstone for GW. I feel this has little to do with raids and everything to do with people wanting a better path to ascended so they can do any mode of play. The game is about being fun. Some people don't think ascended crafting is fun.
I like Ascended. I like Laurels, I like Luck. I like ascended trinkets, rings, amulets. I think that system is fair, manageable and pretty easy for new players to wrap their head around. Ascended wep/armor crafting, not so much. It's not about skins or entitlements. It's about not wanting to be disadvantage and about not wanting to do inherently- and in my mind- Badly designed content to get it.
We've had this discussion before when ascended first came out, and like Retro says, people were doomsdaying it. The thing is though- They said that eventually ascended armor and weapon acquisition would be expanded to other parts of the game, but we have really not seen that. The chest drops are very poor, and RNG is not the way when it has nothing to do with the rarity of the skin, but just being equal to everyone else. It's become a poorly-explained-outside-the-game-mechanic.
I have it now, and I am not happy about it, because I remember how much it cost me and how much I had to play to get those mats. I'm convinced that when you have a statistically a large part of the playerbase who won't even touch things like raids, and many who are easily frustrated, it means that GW2 is shooting itself in the foot by backpedaling to traditional MMO conventions.
There are countless quotes from Jeff Strain and Mike O'Brien saying that they didn't want a game were you did one thing while leveling, and then had a completely separate end game(raiding) preceded by grinding for a tier from the game that is cumbersome-made available in a very annoying way that doesn't flow with the leveling progress. Ascended is a great goal to strive for for novice player. It's a great milestone for any of your characters or alts, but it shouldn't make people hate the game, and I really feel like it has a negative impact. Again. Not raids. Not Ascended as a gear tier. But Ascended Armor/Wep Crafting. I'm about to give up on every getting my other characters on ascended, but I still want to, because I can feel the damage difference when I am in Zoija's on my warrior. It does matter. And it should. It just shouldn't suck to get it.
I disagree. If you expect to do hard content, you should expect to change and adapt yourself to it. Raids require a certain degree of prestige just in doing them, or they will basically become what fractals are seen as. ArenaNet wants you to feel excited just about doing them, because there is a degree of exclusivity. Not all content is freely accessible in this game, and although I understand the rationale of not liking to miss content, this is part of it. If you want go do it without ascended you are more than welcome to, theres no agony blocking you. But the content was balanced with ascended in mind.
The problem is not the exotic player being in a slower fight, the problem is the fact there is a faster (thus easier due to gear) way for doing the fight. Its no longer challenging if one can "cheese" how fast it was meant to be done.
Yep. I threw my Ranger gear in there to mess with Druid for the Beta. Maybe I'll do the same with Guard (after tonight). Hopefully not too late.
I hope that raid bosses will have health pools large enough that it won't be an issue or invulnerability phases that can't be bypassed, but my understanding of the current top end, speed run meta for instanced content (correct me if I'm wrong, this is just what I've read cuz I ain't about that life) is "kill it before it can do anything mechanically interesting". The faster something dies, the less time players have to contend with its mechanics. That line of thought is also why active defenses are so strong (well that and most stuff does high spike damage). You don't have to worry about managing your endurance, aegis, blind, whatever in the long term because the enemies die too quickly.
Because of the current meta pretty much everything is theory crafted in terms of DPS, but if Anet succeeds with their plan, we may find the increase from exotic to ascended makes some profession's healing or sustainability that much better, making the whole thing easier.
And finally we don't yet know if there will be any other new ways to obtain ascended gear. We got ascended rings and such for the Living World Season 2 achievements so I could see them working in something as maybe the final reward for the HoT story or associated achievements.
I'm gonna try to make my first Legendary. I've never been close to trying because I was so scared of dungeons and stuff. I have no idea if I'll make it but... yeah. Gonna try!
Everything you spend is only spent for your beta characters and everything you get is only on that version of the account. They cloned the account and split them in two paths, basically.
Yep! They clone your account so every unlocked skin, ever little copper, every material, the bank and all that stuff is on there, free to use as you like.
Everything you spend is only spent for your beta characters and everything you get is only on that version of the account. They cloned the account and split them in two paths, basically.
Jest Chillin
Member
There's a difference between adapting TO hard content and having to change the way you play other aspects of the game in order to have a chance at completing hard content.
There should absolutely be no prestige at all in attempting the raid (and actually having a chance to beat it). The prestige should be in completing the raid and Gear Gating is a poor way to force exclusivity.
Faster does not necessarily mean easier. It depends entirely on what the mechanics are and how they work. The difference between Ascended and Exotic should not be such that the Ascended group can DPS past a phase without having to actually navigate it. If that is happening then Ascended DPS is out of line with the rest of the game anyways (Anet has always said that Ascended's stats aren't game changing for the current content) and needs to be adjusted.
The speed run meta works because the mechanics themselves are forgiving. Anet could counter the "dps it down" strat simply by adding a mechanic that applies unavoidable damage every X% (something like a stackable DoT that increases in intensity each stack) to force players to manage DPS rather than try to make the entire fight a burn phase. That's just one example, but I'm sure there's other, better, mechanics as well.
In terms of gear, I'm of the mind it would be better to tune the gear down than to tune the content up in order to keep Ascended in line with the rest of the game. And you're right. There may be new ways to obtain Ascended that aren't so time consuming and tedious. But at that point, doesn't that just make Ascended the new Exotic? Does something else become the new Ascended (as in being a "prestige" gear) or does that not matter anymore?
UltimateIke
Member
Ascended crafting is really not that hard. This is being blown so far out of proportion. Getting my first character into Exotics without a guild helping me and giving tips on where to go and what to do felt hugely more challenging.
Why even have stats in the game if they are just going to make people sad? I could make your same argument about every tier of gear all the way down to Basic whites. Not that it would get us anywhere.
I do want to make it clear that I am willing to do everything I am capable of to help everyone in GAFGuild complete raids if they desire to do so. That same sentiment is shared between a huge number of our members. No one is going to have to feel excluded if they're willing to share with us a little of their time and patience.
It's not about changing the way you already play the game but rather adding new ways. I think that's a lot of what a new game mode is meant to do.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
You can play any number of MMORPGs wíth that shitty rationale which yields on a carrot-on-a-stick rationale. There is no need that GW2 needs to be watered down to such poor pacing and riding on such cheap thrills and hooks.
It has nothing to do with being entitled. People who have followed this game since the beginning (and GW1) know that it has been an essential part of the game to not have its players success being driven about their ability to grind. People have always been on board with the idea that things like Legendary weapons are optional grinds that don't impact gameplay. But Ascended Armor has a statistical superior and noticeable advantage. So it is hypocrisy on ArenaNets part. Take a look at their history and see were the game comes from and the commitments they have made. It's understandable that people are upset.
Also, saying the "instant gratification" argument is pure horseshit. Not wanting to suffer through badly designed gameplay mechanics that just suck or are unnecessarily long, convoluted or boring have nothing to do with not wanting to achieve something in the game. It's one of those fallacies you always see on WoW boards about those "f**king casuals".
I don't have time to gear up my characters in ascended, and even if I did, I wouldn't want to because it's a boring part of the game. It instills bad habits and play patterns that make people grind (asking for a hoarding of specific items makes people do the thing over and over again).
But you know, most of all I just find it weird to see people talk about the game like it's work. It's not. It's supposed to be fun. Once you talk about effort- And let's be honest, GW2s PvE is easy. It's not challenging to collect these things. It's just time consuming and a waste of time. So the only people who are being hurt are those who want to play at an equal footing but don't have a massive amount of time. We have to get the best out of it in the time we have. If we don't progress meaningfully in the smaller increments that we can play in, then well.. then we are just road kill.
Again - Not raids. Talking about shitty ascended crafting and being numerically inferior. I'm on board with raid being difficult, even though I fear the backlash for the many players who are not going to be able to do this.
You = Not everyone else. See it from the other perspective. Casual players having access to adequette gear does not diminish other players. It just makes them able to compete at an equal footing.
But that's a hyperbolic argument. There is a smooth sensible curve that scales well between getting white, blues, greens, rares and exotic. It goes well with the amount of money you earn, and none of those excludes any people from participation.
ASCENDED DOES. Do you get it? It's so far on the other curve.
UltimateIke
Member
"None of those exclud[ing] any people from participation" is why people asked for Raids in the first place. Both from a gear quality and personal ability standpoint. When you aim for the least common denominator, a lot of people are going to be left feeling unsatisfied, unfulfilled with the results.
This is a completely new game mode that isn't meant to be the same as previous stuff. Deal with it, or complain a bunch on forums. I can't really do much more to direct you than that.
This is a completely new game mode that isn't meant to be the same as previous stuff. Deal with it, or complain a bunch on forums. I can't really do much more to direct you than that.
You have a chance to do hard content. You will be perfectly fine with your exotic gear against the fight boss, you will even get ascended drops só that you dont have to go out of your way to fight later bosses. If you quit the game for 3 years and came back you will be able to do raids. But because of the balancing, later fights will be created with ascended gear in mind. And that wont make them any easier to people with ascended gear.
Of course faster means easier. We are talking about numbers here, because other than that ascended will do nothing more than exotic gear already does. Dungeons were balanced with rare gear in mind, and look what exotic has done to them. You have to balance with them in mind and... Thats perfectly fine. You will get free ascended stuff just from killing bosses. You will get drops that previously people had to *work and invest* their time to get for relatively nothing. So you can progress on your own without "doing stuff that goes against what you do".
Astral/H3X
Member
I'm on the fence about Ascended Armor.
On one hand, it gives people something to work towards, and so far REALLY only has any difference in high level fractals. On the other, contrast it with GW1, and up until now GW2, where you've never had to grind for stats, only for the looks, and it.... isn't something I want to see become a trend.
Ascended Trinkets/accessories are about the right amount of "grind", IMO. I've put in only a few hours and already have 3 pieces of ascended accessories, and none of that was really grinding. Just playing, and I got 3 pieces of the ascended accessories. It ultimately felt no more annoying or grindy than getting money for Exotics. But then, you have Ascended armor, which requires LUDICROUS amounts of shit, 28 days of crafting shit, and already being a high level crafter, and suddenly, it's a huge grind. The difference between Exotic and Ascended equipment in terms of acquisition is HUGE, and it's quite frankly very annoying. I do not personally feel as though Ascended equipment is something I'll ever be able to obtain, as I more or less exclusively do dungeons. It's just not feasible to me.
If they made it such that 2 fractals, on average, gave you 1 piece of ascended gear, it'd be one thing. That's in the neighborhood of progressing by playing, rather than grinding to progress to play. But where it's at now is just ludicrous.
Coming from GW1, where there were no qualities of armor, only looks, and GW2 up until Ascended Armor, which just had a bit more expensive armor, it's pretty ugly.
EDIT: To be clear, my issue is not that Ascended Gear exists or can only be gotten through certain channels -- it's that it's an incredible pain in the ass to get.
On one hand, it gives people something to work towards, and so far REALLY only has any difference in high level fractals. On the other, contrast it with GW1, and up until now GW2, where you've never had to grind for stats, only for the looks, and it.... isn't something I want to see become a trend.
Ascended Trinkets/accessories are about the right amount of "grind", IMO. I've put in only a few hours and already have 3 pieces of ascended accessories, and none of that was really grinding. Just playing, and I got 3 pieces of the ascended accessories. It ultimately felt no more annoying or grindy than getting money for Exotics. But then, you have Ascended armor, which requires LUDICROUS amounts of shit, 28 days of crafting shit, and already being a high level crafter, and suddenly, it's a huge grind. The difference between Exotic and Ascended equipment in terms of acquisition is HUGE, and it's quite frankly very annoying. I do not personally feel as though Ascended equipment is something I'll ever be able to obtain, as I more or less exclusively do dungeons. It's just not feasible to me.
If they made it such that 2 fractals, on average, gave you 1 piece of ascended gear, it'd be one thing. That's in the neighborhood of progressing by playing, rather than grinding to progress to play. But where it's at now is just ludicrous.
Coming from GW1, where there were no qualities of armor, only looks, and GW2 up until Ascended Armor, which just had a bit more expensive armor, it's pretty ugly.
EDIT: To be clear, my issue is not that Ascended Gear exists or can only be gotten through certain channels -- it's that it's an incredible pain in the ass to get.
Ooh, I'll come to this. Either on scrapper or druid (whichever seems needed more). I can't make the Friday night one, so I'm glad you're doing this.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
You articulate it better than I ever could. Yes, trinkets/rings feel like they are at a good place effort-wise.
The armor/weapons do not. Pain in the ass is a good discussion.
But again like Jira said- Fractal changes could be a good tinket. So could a reward track in PvP, or a Mastery track in PvE. Or WvW reward.
At least that is what I hope. Because I don't see myself getting the Ascended armor/weps for my Revernant, Druid, or Daredevil. And that sucks that I have to WvW or do dungeons with a disadvantage. Even if it is small, it is still significant in a hard encounter or against a equally skilled opponent.
Astral/H3X
Member
I think I'm going to try my best and get a character through all story related content. I'll probably start this with my current Thief, just because that way I'll get the levels from the personal story, then start working on the Living Story shit, just because I feel like GW2 is actually having a story now.
EDIT: Exactly, if they add more sane methods of acquisition, I'd be happy. Have a small increase in dedication over the trinkets to acquire per piece, and I'll be behind them 100%. And then never have anything past ascended.
EDIT: Exactly, if they add more sane methods of acquisition, I'd be happy. Have a small increase in dedication over the trinkets to acquire per piece, and I'll be behind them 100%. And then never have anything past ascended.
UltimateIke
Member
Share with your Warrior? A lot of the value in Ascended gear comes from it being Account Bound and easily transferable between characters. Buy everyone a set of Exotics for daily use, and pull out the Ascended gear on whoever needs it for the big events.
You know what I think might be a good idea? Add in meta achievements tied to either the HoT storyline or some of the bigger things to do in the jungle that reward a couple of ascended weapons boxes and 1 box for each armor piece. I thinking it should require many of the same sorts of challenges they had in Living World Season 2 such that it requires some time and dedication, but presents a clear path for obtaining it. Each meta achievement for doing the achievements in one segment of the story or world would reward one of these boxes. It would let you work away at the full set while getting a feeling of progress as you get each new piece.
It could be set up the same way as current achievements, such that you only get it once per account. It would let players get their foot in the door gear wise for raids or fractals with one character. From there they could do both of these modes to gear up their other characters. I think that would be a good compromise between making ascended too easy to get or removing all the prestiege and effort of those who've already made sets.
It could be set up the same way as current achievements, such that you only get it once per account. It would let players get their foot in the door gear wise for raids or fractals with one character. From there they could do both of these modes to gear up their other characters. I think that would be a good compromise between making ascended too easy to get or removing all the prestiege and effort of those who've already made sets.
Enigmatic Rainbow
Member
Got to around level 45 just playing and completing maps/doing random events that pop up nearby. Not sure if I'm doing it right entirely.
Also pre-purchased Heart of Thorns the other day after being on a free account for a couple weeks.
I've still never done the other stuff the game has been talking about: Guild Missions, Dungeons, Fractals (?), etc. I'm still confused on them and the terms/acronyms other users have been using in public chat, guild chat, and this thread.
I guess since I'm not near max level I don't have to worry about those for now. Still having fun though regardless.
Also pre-purchased Heart of Thorns the other day after being on a free account for a couple weeks.
I've still never done the other stuff the game has been talking about: Guild Missions, Dungeons, Fractals (?), etc. I'm still confused on them and the terms/acronyms other users have been using in public chat, guild chat, and this thread.
I guess since I'm not near max level I don't have to worry about those for now. Still having fun though regardless.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
Well, my main is a Warrior (Zerker) and my Rev would be a support Herald so I would not go for those stats! Of course that's changeable in Mystic forge now, but it's expensive.
I want ascended on all my characters. I just want an ascended mastery track that allows people like me to advance towards ascended armor/weps at my own leisure. My Necro is 100% pvp. It would be nice if I could work towards a reward track that yields ascended pieces.
My Daredevil is strictly for WvW and in that it would be nice to work towards Ascended there. That's the whole point for me.
I'm really not in disagreement about raids, or raid locking or any of that stuff. I'm just objectively opposed the idea that statistical superiority should be hard or difficult. Hard and difficult are for skins!
Yep, you're doing it right. You don't have to be max level to do guild missions, dungeons, or fractals. Being max level in gw2 means a lot less than it does in other mmos.
That's the main cost to Ascended crafting again? Just the pain to get to crafting level 500 + the time gated materials?
About changing the way you play for the raid, that feels weird for me because part of PvE right now is gaining new traits and skills to help overcome certain challenges, although most of the leveling experience is pretty easy. And if you swap between PvE, WvW, and PvP, you have to change your build to account for weaknesses and necessities related to the field you're fighting on and the types of enemies you're fighting against. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how preparing for Raids will be very different, outside of the gear needed.
On Ascended drops, I do wonder how much they'll provide avenues to trivialize the precious grind to get to crafting 500. On the one hand, they don't want to devalue crafting levels again. On the other, they could be propped up by Legendary crafting.
About changing the way you play for the raid, that feels weird for me because part of PvE right now is gaining new traits and skills to help overcome certain challenges, although most of the leveling experience is pretty easy. And if you swap between PvE, WvW, and PvP, you have to change your build to account for weaknesses and necessities related to the field you're fighting on and the types of enemies you're fighting against. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how preparing for Raids will be very different, outside of the gear needed.
On Ascended drops, I do wonder how much they'll provide avenues to trivialize the precious grind to get to crafting 500. On the one hand, they don't want to devalue crafting levels again. On the other, they could be propped up by Legendary crafting.
You can start Guild Missions as early as Level 15, but because we never know what mission we're going to get (we pick the mission type, the game randomly picks which specific mission we do) we can't say "Oh yeah, Level 50 is fine for tonight." That'll change in HoT when missions are on a specific rotation that can be seen in advance. Guild Missions happen every Saturday at 9pm EST and Sunday at 3pm EST.
Dungeons start at level 30 and come in two varieties; Story and Explorable. Story is sort of an introduction to each dungeon and must be completed before Explorable mode is unlocked. There's a single narrative thread running through story missions that runs neatly alongside the personal story, focusing on the racial heroes that make up Destiny's Edge. Explorable is a bit harder, and there are always at least 3 different paths to pick from.
You'll get in-game mails from the various characters when you reach a level high enough for each dungeon. Just ask guild chat if anyone wants to do the dungeon and chances are good if there's people on and not occupied with something else, they'll go.
Fractals are sort of like... mini-dungeons (called fractals) on shuffle setting. You complete 3 small dungeons and then a boss fractal to complete one full fractal run. Which fractals you get is mostly random (though certain fractals only appear in certain places in the rotation), and they vary greatly thematically and in terms of difficulty. You can theoretically start Fractals at the same time you start dungeons, but due to some of the mechanics and the reward structure it's probably best to wait until level 80 on those.
Ha, whatever. If it's "recommended" rather than "required" the original commentary was meaningless. And that would make sense to me. The stat bonus from Ascended gear simply isn't that meaningful, so I had to interpret it as leveraging some other method of literally requiring the gear.
I'm just reserving judgment altogether. I am particularly sanguine that the raids will derive their difficulty as much as possible from mechanical complexity and intensive communication/skill demand on the part of the players, rather than statistical thresholds derived from gear. If this proves not to be the case it will be pretty unfortunate for reasons that go well beyond the fact that I don't personally desire to suck it up and craft three full sets of ascended armor and one of each weapon type.
I hope that there are those of you who can appreciate the nuance in desiring this to be the case and simultaneously having no issue with raids being "exclusive," in that it isn't meant to be content for every player or the average player.
If it's okay with everyone, it would be awesome if anyone who takes part in the raid content this weekend could spoiler tag discussion of it in this thread. If I'm alone in this sentiment I understand and it's no big deal. I would also be very interested to hear (without specifics) if you guys think the above is the case or not based on your experiences.
I'm just reserving judgment altogether. I am particularly sanguine that the raids will derive their difficulty as much as possible from mechanical complexity and intensive communication/skill demand on the part of the players, rather than statistical thresholds derived from gear. If this proves not to be the case it will be pretty unfortunate for reasons that go well beyond the fact that I don't personally desire to suck it up and craft three full sets of ascended armor and one of each weapon type.
I hope that there are those of you who can appreciate the nuance in desiring this to be the case and simultaneously having no issue with raids being "exclusive," in that it isn't meant to be content for every player or the average player. If it's okay with everyone, it would be awesome if anyone who takes part in the raid content this weekend could spoiler tag discussion of it in this thread. If I'm alone in this sentiment I understand and it's no big deal. I would also be very interested to hear (without specifics) if you guys think the above is the case or not based on your experiences.
Nemesis121
Member
Ascended is recommended for raids, not required.
95% of the PUG shit meta community will tell Exotic players to go fuck themselves, and it will get even worse, when they ask to ping your gear if they don't like your ascended stats they will kick, my guardian can be part zerker ascended or full Cleric ascended, high level pug fractal is already pathetic, can't wait for pug raids lol..
I don't know about Kos' group, but I'm not planning on discussing the raid at all in the thread beyond organizing it. Any discussion about it will be kept in the raid group.Ha, whatever. If it's "recommended" rather than "required" the original commentary was meaningless. And that would make sense to me. The stat bonus from Ascended gear simply isn't that meaningful, so I had to interpret it as leveraging some other method of literally requiring the gear.
I'm just reserving judgment altogether. I am particularly sanguine that the raids will derive their difficulty as much as possible from mechanical complexity and intensive communication/skill demand on the part of the players, rather than statistical thresholds derived from gear. If this proves not to be the case it will be pretty unfortunate for reasons that go well beyond the fact that I don't personally desire to suck it up and craft three full sets of ascended armor and one of each weapon type.
If it's okay with everyone, it would be awesome if anyone who takes part in the raid content this weekend could spoiler tag discussion of it in this thread. If I'm alone in this sentiment I understand and it's no big deal. I would also be very interested to hear (without specifics) if you guys think the above is the case or not based on your experiences.
Pugs won't be raiding or rather won't be succeeding.
Nemesis121
Member
Once the rotations have been completed and people feel like they know how to beat each raid, pugs will run raids, plus people will try pug it for accomplishment, just to say FUCK you to hardest content in the game, Anet, within 2 days pug groups will complete the raid, maybe even less..
NormalFish
Banned
I've played a decent number of MMOs, and the number of content that was never pugged is basically nil. I'll be stunned if the raid isn't figured out within ~3 months of release, and puggable.
IIRC, Arenanet's stance here is that raids are not meant for pugs, and won't even have a section in the LFG. This is content that is intended only for well-coordinated groups that are organized ahead of time.
Of course, that just means that raid pugs will advertise in the open world section. Once that starts happening regularly. Maybe.
For anyone not watching the stream, they're showing off decorations and how you can place some, then erase the items underneath them to create floating items. So who's going to be building the Official GAF Guild jumping puzzles?
And just so whoever gets the job knows, I hate you. We'll all hate you.
And just so whoever gets the job knows, I hate you. We'll all hate you.
I don't think anyone thinks the latter will actually happen, but people see the word "raid" and it triggers some kind of unconscious collective memory, and I think people would be a lot more optimistic if they had chosen any other word than "raid." There's just too much negative baggage attached to that term.
Look at what's considered the hardest fight in the game, Liadri the Concealing Dark;
- - Enrage timer (beat her in two minutes or instant death)
- - Multiple phases
- - Not all fights are designed to be beatable by every build and some fights will be easier on certain professions than others. (verbatim from the Wiki).
I guess I'm always surprised when something new is announced and people automatically assume the worst, or that ArenaNet is somehow radically changing the direction of the game. We went through this when Ascended Gear was first announced; that it was a slippery slope and they were going to have a gear treadmill, that it would be impossible to get, that it would be required by the community to participate. The first and second ended up simply untrue and the third only applies if you're purposely putting yourself in groups that have that expectation.
I'd wait and see before making any kind of judgement on these things, honestly, but I think it's waaaaaaaaaay too early to be shouting about the sky falling.
human onion
Banned
I really miss the jubilee. I never got very far into the gauntlet as I never played seriously at the time, but I would love to get another shot at it now that I'm more savvy.
I'm this close to biting the bullet on the expansion. If I do it before launch it'll be this weekend so I can try out the Scrapper and and the Revenant.
Guild hall stuff sounds incredible, except for the two month gate to use the arena, which seems terrible.
I'm this close to biting the bullet on the expansion. If I do it before launch it'll be this weekend so I can try out the Scrapper and and the Revenant.
Guild hall stuff sounds incredible, except for the two month gate to use the arena, which seems terrible.
Kos Luftar
Member
I'm actually planing going on one of Hawkians Destiny streams and spoiling everything I see in the raid on his stream chat.
Enigmatic Rainbow
Member
Thanks! I'll be sure to try and ask in Guild chat when I think I'm ready to try the other stuff.
Q
Queen of Hunting
Unconfirmed Member
Is guardian viable dps wise
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