Originally posted by Whitebeards

Originally posted by grimal

Not bleeding players?  I don't know about everyone else, but for me playing on Tarnished Coast, the sub 80 zones have become nearly barren of players.  It's *stark* difference to where it was a month or more ago.

My guess is based on serrver status. All EU servers full/high after two months same as release. Same on US majority of servers on full and others on High which is amazing after 2 months.

So i doubt that players were quitting in droves that such decisions had to be made.

Yeah, my server is "high" or "full" most the time too.  But I think most of the population is either doing WvWvW or end level stuff. For leveling 30-50 past few days most zones I have been in have been dead.  Been very hard to find a group for things that require it.

Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

The ascended have the gems stats as base stats - if an exotic with a gem can boost 6 stats so can an ascended with that gem as inherent stats.

Additionally instead of having 2 rings with same base stats and then add different gems, you might as well just add the 2 different rings and let the higher stats make up for it.

I'm pretty sure a level 80 in a level 80 zone with better gear can durvive better than a level 80 with lesser gear- obvious is obvious.

By the way, people will be boosted to level 80 in lost shores.

I've read the devs blogs - they say the sky is still blue even though it is red now. What they say and what they are doing is a different thing.

You just want to say they didn't change the direction of the game for some reason.

Of course it changed, I can see it.

Yes, I put down wrong arguments.

If you want to say they didn't change direction then use correct arguments, draw correct paralels with GW1.

Which one is better?

 

68 power vs 63 power, 68 precision vs 63 precision, 10% MF vs 7% MF.

It is even more curious because Anet says Ascended items themselves are better than exotics.

You can look left or right, just don't tell me what is in front isn't there because it goes against what you believe and are things you think it is negative (that is why you are trying to say the ascended items aren't better).

Ascended items are better, ascended items are gear progession

You ok with it?

Awesome.

Just don't tell me Arenanet didn't defended a cosmetic progession over stats progression and that the items aren't better (which is stupid since it is fairly easy to see that 50>48, 18>15, 10%>7%).

Can you PLEASE use your EYES for once and stop being blinded by your stubborness?

Maybe you could also stop turning my own words in my mouth only so you can prove your point better while you are at it?

As you can see by yourself I didn't say that Ascended Items doesn't have better stats (which you of course ignored and said that I meant "they aren't better" so you can prove your point).

I said that it is POWER vs FLEXIBILITY.

Even you posted a picture you still claim that they have the same amount of attributes.

Are you blind or can't you count?

The ring you posted has 5 stats, the exotic with a jewel boosts 6 stats.

ALL 5 stats in the ascended are STATIC

In the Exotics case you have 3 Static attributes while the other 3 can be influenced by you.

While you have higher power, precision and magic find in your ascended, I can have toughness, condition damage and vitality ADDITIONALLY through a jewel.

So while you are higher than me on power, precision and magic find, I can still be more powerful than you in toughness, condition damage and vitality.

Awesome how one sighted and blind you are right?

Now recheck the picture you posted and If you can't understand something or can't read or see properly then ASK first in the future.

Thanks!

Originally posted by Raekon

Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

The ascended have the gems stats as base stats - if an exotic with a gem can boost 6 stats so can an ascended with that gem as inherent stats.

Additionally instead of having 2 rings with same base stats and then add different gems, you might as well just add the 2 different rings and let the higher stats make up for it.

I'm pretty sure a level 80 in a level 80 zone with better gear can durvive better than a level 80 with lesser gear- obvious is obvious.

By the way, people will be boosted to level 80 in lost shores.

I've read the devs blogs - they say the sky is still blue even though it is red now. What they say and what they are doing is a different thing.

You just want to say they didn't change the direction of the game for some reason.

Of course it changed, I can see it.

Yes, I put down wrong arguments.

If you want to say they didn't change direction then use correct arguments, draw correct paralels with GW1.

Which one is better?

 

68 power vs 63 power, 68 precision vs 63 precision, 10% MF vs 7% MF.

It is even more curious because Anet says Ascended items themselves are better than exotics.

You can look left or right, just don't tell me what is in front isn't there because it goes against what you believe and are things you think it is negative (that is why you are trying to say the ascended items aren't better).

Ascended items are better, ascended items are gear progession

You ok with it?

Awesome.

Just don't tell me Arenanet didn't defended a cosmetic progession over stats progression and that the items aren't better (which is stupid since it is fairly easy to see that 50>48, 18>15, 10%>7%).

Can you PLEASE use your EYES for once and stop being blinded by your stubborness?

Maybe you could also stop turning my own words in my mouth only so you can prove your point better while you are at it?

As you can see by yourself I didn't say that Ascended Items doesn't have better stats (which you of course ignored and said that I meant "they aren't better" so you can prove your point).

I said that it is POWER vs FLEXIBILITY.

Even you posted a picture you still claim that they have the same amount of attributes.

Are you blind or can't you count?

The ring you posted has 5 stats, the exotic with a jewel boosts 6 stats.

ALL 5 stats in the ascended are STATIC

In the Exotics case you have 3 Static attributes while the other 3 can be influenced by you.

While you have higher power, precision and magic find in your ascended, I can have toughness, condition damage and vitality ADDITIONALLY through a jewel.

So while you are higher than me on power, precision and magic find, I can still be more powerful than you in toughness, condition damage and vitality.

Awesome how one sighted and blind you are right?

Now recheck the picture you posted and If you can't understand something or can't read or see properly then ASK first in the future.

Thanks!

And by the way both posted items only boost 3 stats, one has 5 lines and the other has 6 lines.

Flexibility over power right?

Lets not talk about infusions that add +stats just yet.

Or maybe I can use 1 of these and 1 of these:

Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

Originally posted by Raekon

Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

The ascended have the gems stats as base stats - if an exotic with a gem can boost 6 stats so can an ascended with that gem as inherent stats.

Additionally instead of having 2 rings with same base stats and then add different gems, you might as well just add the 2 different rings and let the higher stats make up for it.

I'm pretty sure a level 80 in a level 80 zone with better gear can durvive better than a level 80 with lesser gear- obvious is obvious.

By the way, people will be boosted to level 80 in lost shores.

I've read the devs blogs - they say the sky is still blue even though it is red now. What they say and what they are doing is a different thing.

You just want to say they didn't change the direction of the game for some reason.

Of course it changed, I can see it.

Yes, I put down wrong arguments.

If you want to say they didn't change direction then use correct arguments, draw correct paralels with GW1.

Which one is better?

 

68 power vs 63 power, 68 precision vs 63 precision, 10% MF vs 7% MF.

It is even more curious because Anet says Ascended items themselves are better than exotics.

You can look left or right, just don't tell me what is in front isn't there because it goes against what you believe and are things you think it is negative (that is why you are trying to say the ascended items aren't better).

Ascended items are better, ascended items are gear progession

You ok with it?

Awesome.

Just don't tell me Arenanet didn't defended a cosmetic progession over stats progression and that the items aren't better (which is stupid since it is fairly easy to see that 50>48, 18>15, 10%>7%).

Can you PLEASE use your EYES for once and stop being blinded by your stubborness?

Maybe you could also stop turning my own words in my mouth only so you can prove your point better while you are at it?

As you can see by yourself I didn't say that Ascended Items doesn't have better stats (which you of course ignored and said that I meant "they aren't better" so you can prove your point).

I said that it is POWER vs FLEXIBILITY.

Even you posted a picture you still claim that they have the same amount of attributes.

Are you blind or can't you count?

The ring you posted has 5 stats, the exotic with a jewel boosts 6 stats.

ALL 5 stats in the ascended are STATIC

In the Exotics case you have 3 Static attributes while the other 3 can be influenced by you.

While you have higher power, precision and magic find in your ascended, I can have toughness, condition damage and vitality ADDITIONALLY through a jewel.

So while you are higher than me on power, precision and magic find, I can still be more powerful than you in toughness, condition damage and vitality.

Awesome how one sighted and blind you are right?

Now recheck the picture you posted and If you can't understand something or can't read or see properly then ASK first in the future.

Thanks!

 

Flexibility over power right?

Lets not talk about infusions that add +stats just yet.

Or maybe I can use 1 of these and 1 of these:

 

First of all a correction on my previous post: The Ascended had 3 stats, not 5. The 2 just boosted 2 out of the 3 main stats.

The ascended rings STILL have only 3 (Yakkingtons) to 4 (Vassars) different stats, with exotic you can STILL boost 6 stats.

So even if 5 to 6 lines are there, you still effectively only boost 2 out of 3 to 4 stats.

With exotics you either boost 3 stats in overall OR you boost 6 different stats which makes you stronger to the stats the ascended doesn't have, while you remain weaker by a very low percentage to the stats both gears have.

Through the Karka event we got a EXOTIC ring like the Solaria and Lunaria ones you posted here with EXACT the same amount of attributes and from what I can tell so far with the SAME stats (at least the whites cause I'm at work and can't check the other ones for now).

It was already confirmed that the Infusion slot will give defensive abilities against Agony.

That alone indicates that they won't be regular stats that are boosting your gear like the upgrade jewels are doing with exotics but rather buffs that strengthen you against Agony effect of certain enemies.

So all in all you have with the defensive abilities against agony enemies that will be probably useless against "normal" enemies.

Why you still don't wanna accept this FACT is really beyond me. 

Originally posted by jpnz

Actually ANet answered your question by not answering it.

Look at the wording and ask why they wouldn't explictly say what they mean. Pretty obvious that GW2 is heading in a differnet path than GW1. Whether someone likes it or not is up to them.

I am looking forward to better gear myself but that might not be what other people want.

Either that, or they're not anwering simply because they haven't made up their minds yet.  They might be waiting to see how this all plays out.  They want to see how many people get into grinding FotM vs how many honestly quit over it.  Maybe that's why they sent out a survey, too.

I think its pretty clear that they either don't know which way to take the game, or there's some serious internal disagreement about it.

(edit: oops, I thought I was answering the most recent post on page 27.. forgot the forum keeps sending me back to the first page of every thread, lately.  Why does it do that, btw?  It's kind of annoying..)

Of course this is the first batch of them.

And what matters is the total points you can get, not how many different pieces they come from.

If one piece gives more of X than I need less X elsewhere to get the same total.

More, weapons and armors will have higher base defense and higer base damage.

And again, nothing prevents new rings to be added that have all the combinations you can obtain with jewels.

Not that your stats distribution makes any sense.

Originally posted by Raekon

The ascended rings STILL have only 3 (Yakkingtons) to 4 (Vassars) different stats, with exotic you can STILL boost 6 stats.

So even if 5 to 6 lines are there, you still effectively only boost 2 out of 3 to 4 stats.

With exotics you either boost 3 stats in overall OR you boost 6 different stats which makes you stronger to the stats the ascended doesn't have, while you remain weaker by a very low percentage to the stats both gears have.

Raekon, I think you're one of the better posters on this site. However, your credibility goes out the window when you try to defend the exotics and pretend they're comparable in power to the ascended items. Clearly they're not.

You have to pick your battles wisely, mate.

Originally posted by Tredvolt

Originally posted by Raekon

The ascended rings STILL have only 3 (Yakkingtons) to 4 (Vassars) different stats, with exotic you can STILL boost 6 stats.

So even if 5 to 6 lines are there, you still effectively only boost 2 out of 3 to 4 stats.

With exotics you either boost 3 stats in overall OR you boost 6 different stats which makes you stronger to the stats the ascended doesn't have, while you remain weaker by a very low percentage to the stats both gears have.

Raekon, I think you're one of the better posters on this site. However, your credibility goes out the window when you try to defend the exotics and pretend they're comparable in power to the ascended items. Clearly they're not.

You have to pick your battles wisely, mate.

Thanks for the compliment dear Tredvolt.

However, as you can see the Exotics even with lower stats, are not worthless.

IF you go for the exact same amount of 2 stats like in the screenshot, then of course the Ascended has slightly better stats.

IF you check the stats the way I put them through the jewel, you will see that I'm right that even the exotics are in dissadvantage when it comes to one vs one comparison, they have the flexibility the ascended doesn't have.

So IF you use this flexibility, you will have a even lower percentage on the attributes since you are losing the boost from the gem in the exotics.

For that  though you can boost 2 to 3 attributes, the ascended doesn't provide you with and get slightly higher stats through the jewel bonus of the exotics.

It's really not that hard to see that.

Just replace the 3 attributes the gem is giving to the exotics with other attributes in the comparison screenie.

Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

 

Of course this is the first batch of them.

And what matters is the total points you can get, not how many different pieces they come from.

If one piece gives more of X than I need less X elsewhere to get the same total.

More, weapons and armors will have higher base defense and higer base damage.

And again, nothing prevents new rings to be added that have all the combinations you can obtain with jewels.

Not that your stats distribution makes any sense.

According to the rings screenie comparison:

Ascended Ring in overall: +68 Power, +68 Precision, +10% Magic Find

Exotic Ring in overal (opal included): +63 Power, +63 Precision, +7% Magic Find

Now take the Opals extra stats out by adding a other type of opal and you have the following as example:

Exotic Ring in overall (changed opal): +48 Power, +48 Precision, +3% Magic Find, + 15 Toughness, +15 Vitality, +4% Condition Damage.

Yeah my distribution doesn't make sense to you because it's valid to what I say right?

Saying that nothing prevents new rings to be added that have all the combinations doesn't mean that it will indeed be like that. You are assuming what you think it COULD happen, there is still no proof for that, nor a official statement.

I wouldn't had thought that you would join the "the end of the world is near" doomsayers and I'm honestly dissappointed to see that a veteran like you is taking this direction.

Would it be THAT hard to enjoy the game for what it is now and wait and see how it turns after a official statement or real proof comes our way?

Originally posted by Raekon

Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

 

Of course this is the first batch of them.

And what matters is the total points you can get, not how many different pieces they come from.

If one piece gives more of X than I need less X elsewhere to get the same total.

More, weapons and armors will have higher base defense and higer base damage.

And again, nothing prevents new rings to be added that have all the combinations you can obtain with jewels.

Not that your stats distribution makes any sense.

According to the rings screenie comparison:

Ascended Ring in overall: +68 Power, +68 Precision, +10% Magic Find

Exotic Ring in overal (opal included): +63 Power, +63 Precision, +7% Magic Find

Now take the Opals extra stats out by adding a other type of opal and you have the following as example:

Exotic Ring in overall (changed opal): +48 Power, +48 Precision, +3% Magic Find, + 15 Toughness, +15 Vitality, +4% Condition Damage.

Yeah my distribution doesn't make sense to you because it's valid to what I say right?

Saying that nothing prevents new rings to be added that have all the combinations doesn't mean that it will indeed be like that. You are assuming what you think it COULD happen, there is still no proof for that, nor a official statement.

I wouldn't had thought that you would join the "the end of the world is near" doomsayers and I'm honestly dissappointed to see that a veteran like you is taking this direction.

Would it be THAT hard to enjoy the game for what it is now and wait and see how it turns after a official statement or real proof comes our way?

Your stats don't make sense because you don't pick items with the intent of having each piece of gear with the highest number of stats. (Well you do in this case because you want to show that exotics are the superior/credible choice).

You pick items to raise certain stats so it makes sense for your build.

So if you want X magic find, which items get you closer to get that X amount?

The Ascended.

If you want X amount of power, which items get you closer to that X amount?

The ascended.

You want a rounded stat distribution?

Get ascended items with different primary stats.

By the way no jewel gives +4% condition damage. They give +25 condition damage.

You might as well get the magic find from the ascended ring and remove other items that give + magic find to stack other stats.

By having an ascended ring that gives 10% magic find you are freeing up a jewel that would be required to achieve that magic find percentage.

I'm sorry but exotics are only the superior choice while ascended items aren't available for that specific slot.

Originally posted by fayknaym

Originally posted by Whitebeards

Originally posted by fayknaym

Originally posted by xpiher

Looks like our fears were justified. From reports:

Ring get awared after you complete level 10 fractal, in the bouns chest

Condensed essence is a random number generated drop throughout the entire dungeon that is account bound. If you want the back piece (which will be needed for future content updates) then prepare to mindlessly run fractals all day. 

So not only is there treadmill and its grindy, its the worst kind of grind: Random drops :/

I believe you only need one condensed essence to make the acended back piece and its probably the easiest material you need to get. 

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vial_of_Condensed_Mists_Essence

I got it just after completing level 1 fractal.

I don't think you need to be worried about them adding multiple tiers of gear. There was definately something missing between exotic and legendary and they're trying to bridge that gap. Exotic is too easy to get. Just get to 80 and buy full exotic off tp. Bam. Best gear. There should be more to aquiring the gear with the best stats than just that and that's what I think they realized after they launched the game.

So if they every announce a tier beyond ascended, then ok you can start complaining again, but until then I think your fears are unjustified. I definately felt like there was something missing and now I'm very happy they are adding the ascended gear.

Yeah but that would make more sense if Legendary had higher stats than exotics which caused a huge gap of missing stats. But that was not the case now is it? Legendary were only different because they were more flashy. That was the only difference.

So why try to fill the gap which never existed in terms of stats?

Maybe there didn't exist a gap in terms of stats, but there was definately a huge gap in terms of player satisfaction. It was too easy to get the best in slot. I think arena net realized that and that is why legendaries weapons will also become of ascended quality once ascended weapons are released. There will be a higher sense of satisfaction from obtaining one because of 1) the unique model and 2) best stats that can't be obtained by buying a weapon off the tp for 3 gold. You now get two things for all that hard work instead of one. There is more of a reward so it is more satisfying.

In other words, if the way to obtain exotics at 80 had been what getting ascended gear is right now, they wouldn't need to add another tier of gear.

It makes the game feel more meaty, ya know?

Yes, you're also describing the textbook difinition of the phenoma that has gripped a portion of the mindless MMO player base known as "chasing the carrot" AKA "gear grind treadmill."  Which is exactly what this company marketed GW2 to be devoid of, and why most most loyal GW players bought the game and are therefore voicing their displeasure over.  Simply put, you dont mind being lead aournd a gear grind treadmill like a hamster as long as you are rewarded with +1.  Others put more value in to how they spend their time while playing an MMORPG. 

Originally posted by zomard100
Anyone play this game? Was on Gundara today and can't find anyone :(

I stopped the other day.  I think I lasted more than the majority.

I could not find any except those in LA spamming for LFG for FOTM.  The game has become a lobby based game for most of the population.

Edit: I play on Tarnished Coast.

I still see people in every back of beyond area like Lornar's Pass and Timberline Falls.

Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

I still see people in every back of beyond area like Lornar's Pass and Timberline Falls.

As you say, this may very well be a server and zone thing, rather than a trend.  On Henge of Denravi, a server gutted by the departure of more than one large Wv3 guild, there was no one in Mount Maelstrom on Tuesday night (7:00-10:30 west coast time), as in didn't see anyone, and no one responded to zone chat.  Went to Sparkfly ~10:30, Dragon came up, my roommate put it in chat, 15-20 people climbed out of the woodwork.