Content Gates Vs Gear Gates

[Cyclone Jack]

While I am not surprised to see them add Infusion and (Spectral) Agony to the game, I am surprised that they added a completely new Tier of items. What they should have done was just add a new Infusion slot to all Exotic gear, so that all people need to do is find the special drops to Infuse their armor. This way, you don't add in Item Creep and you now have a mechanic that can be used in other special dungeons (instead of Infusing for Agony, you can Infuse with anti-Titan or anti-Joko, etc).

[kuruptz]

ye i agree with cyclone jack they should just add infusion slots

suprised they adding new tier of items even though my opinion people are overreacting

but i guess i just dont care much about the game

[Zeek Daniels]

Yea that is what they should have done. The problem is prolly that what do you do about all the existing exotic sets? Do they get the infusion slots too? Do i need to go back and acquire another full dungeon set cuz my current set doesnt have infusion slots. Also think about this. The current content in GW2 doesnt need infusion slots to complete the challenges. So why add them to the existing gear. The new content also doesnt require infusion slots at its base level. So ppl in exotics and lower can complete that content just like any other content.

By making a new "tier" only needed in a certain dungeon, wait lemme rephrase that, By making a new "tier" that is only needed in the highest of difficulties in a repeatable dungeon that anyone can do any number of times on any difficulty they wish.

They could actually still of had ascended armor just make the have the same stats as exotics but with an infusion slot. That way you separate FoM dungeons from storymode/explorable dungeons.
-still not a gear treadmill-

[Bovinity Divinity]

Best part of this entire thing has been watching Zeek practice for his future political career.

[Zeek Daniels]

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[Bovinity Divinity]

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....ok, ok, I'm not a slogan creator, it seems.

[Karizee]

Zeek Daniels 2016

[Corros]

Time for some negative campaigning...


Zeek is weak!

[Shamanic]

Keep it on topic please guys :P

[Durzlla]

Keep it on topic please guys :P

But this is more fun =P

It's nice to know Zeek actually see what Anet is likely doing, and guys, "there will be more progression." Does t mean shit, maybe they just mean "we will have a full set of ascended gear EVENTUALLY!! And then the legendary gear (which has been said to be coming well after launch apart from the weapons) and then technically more infusion = more progression...

[Osprey39]

Yea that is what they should have done. The problem is prolly that what do you do about all the existing exotic sets? Do they get the infusion slots too? Do i need to go back and acquire another full dungeon set cuz my current set doesnt have infusion slots. Also think about this. The current content in GW2 doesnt need infusion slots to complete the challenges. So why add them to the existing gear. The new content also doesnt require infusion slots at its base level. So ppl in exotics and lower can complete that content just like any other content.

By making a new "tier" only needed in a certain dungeon, wait lemme rephrase that, By making a new "tier" that is only needed in the highest of difficulties in a repeatable dungeon that anyone can do any number of times on any difficulty they wish.

They could actually still of had ascended armor just make the have the same stats as exotics but with an infusion slot. That way you separate FoM dungeons from storymode/explorable dungeons.
-still not a gear treadmill-

The problem I have is with how it will effect WvW players. If the gear is better, you pretty much have to get it to have a 'full power' level 80 in WvW. That means if I want to be maxed out statwise in WvW that I will HAVE to run this dungeon instead of running it because I want to see it (which is how I have been playing up til now.)

I don't give a rat's ass whether it's technically content gating or not. The beauty of this game was that there were multiple ways to gear out your character and you weren't forced to do anything you may not want to do because it had a 'BiS' item. My necro has full exotics consisting of Karma, crafted, dungeon and unique loot drop pieces. Now what I'm understanding is all that stuff is going to be obsoleted by this new armor that is 7% better than what I have (that's the number I saw earlier in this thread anyway.) That DOES NOT make me a happy camper.

[Cyclone Jack]

Also think about this. The current content in GW2 doesnt need infusion slots to complete the challenges. So why add them to the existing gear. The new content also doesnt require infusion slots at its base level. So ppl in exotics and lower can complete that content just like any other content.

By making a new "tier" only needed in a certain dungeon, wait lemme rephrase that, By making a new "tier" that is only needed in the highest of difficulties in a repeatable dungeon that anyone can do any number of times on any difficulty they wish.

You didn't need new gear to get Infused in GW1, so there really is no reason that it requires new gear in GW2. All this does is get people to get new armor that they may not like and force them to get more Transmutations. It gets people in WvW to go get the next tier of armor (depending on the stats, Ascended may actually be worse for PvP than Exotic, to be determined). It adds higher tier equipment that may not be craftable. Basically, they are breaking their own rules after telling everybody how it was going to be. If they make this exception, what other manifesto rules will they be willing to make an exception for?

As for challenging content, GW1 had plenty of challenging content that didn't require vertical progression of any kind.

Again, I'm not against adding the Infusion slot, as that will allow them to have a variety of specialized dungeons that can have a variety of different Infusions that can be placed into your armor. I'm just upset that it took them a mere 2 months to break one of their own manifesto rules. If it was announced prior to launch that there would be a new Ascended tier of gear added shortly after launch, to coincide with additional content that was not yet ready, then they could have avoided this entire issue.

[Sylvanie]

Now pls tell me how the content required you to grind for gear in order to complete it.

The thing is that ArenaNet is not going to introduce the new agony mechanic, ascended gear, and infusions for just this dungeon alone. This will be expanded on in future content patches and there will be new PvE content built around the new mechanics. I'm not particularly concerned about basically one tier of gear being added right now (depending on how much of a grind it will be). What concerns me is that we have no guarantee that it will stop. They can't reuse the way the Fractals of the Mists dungeons is constructed over and over (because it won't make a lot of sense elsewhere) and they are unlikely to limit the agony mechanic to this one dungeon.

The underlying issue is really one of trust (or lack thereof). This is as clearly a broken promise as there has ever been one; other aspects of ArenaNet's manifesto may have been executed imperfectly, but I'm not stressing out over someone not being able to implement their vision perfectly as long as they are trying; I'd rather they aim high and fail occasionally than not try at all. But with respect to gear treadmills, they now have gone back on their word, so I will NOT take their word for it when they claim that everything will be fine.

[Zeek Daniels]

The thing is that ArenaNet is not going to introduce the new agony mechanic, ascended gear, and infusions for just this dungeon alone. This will be expanded on in future content patches and there will be new PvE content built around the new mechanics. I'm not particularly concerned about basically one tier of gear being added right now (depending on how much of a grind it will be). What concerns me is that we have no guarantee that it will stop. They can't reuse the way the Fractals of the Mists dungeons is constructed over and over (because it won't make a lot of sense elsewhere) and they are unlikely to limit the agony mechanic to this one dungeon.

The underlying issue is really one of trust (or lack thereof). This is as clearly a broken promise as there has ever been one; other aspects of ArenaNet's manifesto may have been executed imperfectly, but I'm not stressing out over someone not being able to implement their vision perfectly as long as they are trying; I'd rather they aim high and fail occasionally than not try at all. But with respect to gear treadmills, they now have gone back on their word, so I will NOT take their word for it when they claim that everything will be fine.

They way i read it was that the dungeon itself will get new encounters added to the rotation. So in essence its a randomly generated dungeon that never ends. Anet can keep adding new parts to it and keep raising the difficulty cap which will require better infusions. Storymode dungeons and explore dungeons should still be added to the game but these dungeons have endings and are of the same difficulty as current storymode dungeons and explore dungeons. If Anet makes ascendence gear a requirement for new storymode and explore dungeons then you guys all have the right to complain. But as it stands right now, this gear is only ment for the high end players who want greater challenges.

Also as to the WvW posts. I havent been in WvW since launch, been to busy with school and mainly focusing on PvE and Spvp. I wouldnt have thought gear mattered that much when ppl are just beating on walls and doors, maybe it matters in small scale fights for resource camps but i dont think the stats provide that much of a shift. Also Anet should not allow infusions to work against other players. If they do even i will be complaining.

[Sylvanie]

They way i read it was that the dungeon itself will get new encounters added to the rotation. So in essence its a randomly generated dungeon that never ends. Anet can keep adding new parts to it and keep raising the difficulty cap which will require better infusions. Storymode dungeons and explore dungeons should still be added to the game but these dungeons have endings and are of the same difficulty as current storymode dungeons and explore dungeons. If Anet makes ascendence gear a requirement for new storymode and explore dungeons then you guys all have the right to complain. But as it stands right now, this gear is only ment for the high end players who want greater challenges.

Can you source the claim that Agony and Infusions will be limited to Fractals of the Mists only? Or are you just speculating?

[Doozerjun]

From the way I read it, it looks like the Agony mechanic is going to be put in their instances that they make from now on.

[Bovinity Divinity]

From the way I read it, it looks like the Agony mechanic is going to be put in their instances that they make from now on.

It's only funny because like...a week ago?...we just had a discussion here on how the current combat mechanics (Dodge, especially) were going to eventually force a system where mobs have some sort of unavoidable damage.

[Doozerjun]

It's only funny because like...a week ago?...we just had a discussion here on how the current combat mechanics (Dodge, especially) were going to eventually force a system where mobs have some sort of unavoidable damage.

Yeah but this is just a gear check, not a skill check at all.

[Zeek Daniels]

Can you source the claim that Agony and Infusions will be limited to Fractals of the Mists only? Or are you just speculating?

Not gonna link it but the blog says that Agony is a new condition in the FoM dungeon. Your infusion is going to combat this reducing its damage, not other players dmg or other mobs dmg, just that conditions dmg. They said infusions can be gained from Mystic forge however but infusions slots are from gear drops inside the FoM itself.

[madrox]

As clear a change in design philosophy as I have ever seen from a game developer, and it makes me wonder what ANet are seeing that they have made it so soon. Radiance didn't make people in LotRO suddenly change their playstyles and was pretty much an unmitigated disaster, but this implementation comes a lot sooner in the games life and may be less disruptive. Resistance gear ftw.