It's kind of like RMT. People can talk all they want about methods to get rid of farmers and gold spammers, and they can complain all day long to the company that something must be done. It doesn't matter. As long as there are enough players willing to pay to get ahead the RMT will exist to take their money. Just like as long as there are enough players willing to be essentially extorted by the company into turning to the cash shop to get ahead, bad practices in the cash shop will still exist to take their money. Complaining about it won't solve the problem. Only enough people refusing to participate will. Which basically means it'll likely never go away.
The mechanism exists, all be it an indirect one - krono and slr. And while I I've never really had an issue with krono sellers (because it helps game population), it is silly not to recognize that there is a way to use real money to purchase gear. And to the op, DBG is purposely building cash shop pressure into your game design. People keep talking about what the game "was". Well, new ownership, different goals, different game.
[quote=" It was supposed to be a progressive social (grouping) game but has turned into an “Elite” catering “only if you have plat or DBC to burn” non-social, non-progressive game.."[/quote] I get where you are coming from but to say that the game is only meant to be for grouping is wrong as well. The game has always catered to both those that prefer to solo and those that love to group. I hate hate hate grouping with a passion. I especially hate raids (haven't done one since 2007). Take away the areas that I can solo and there is no point to my going out and adventuring. Granted I'm mostly a crafter/decorator but I still enjoy going out and adventuring once in a while. Why should I be limited because you believe that I need to group with others?
If you don't want to pay to upgrade your spells, then don't. Its not required by anything or anyone (except the most **** of raid guilds and peeps interested in a high parse) to play and enjoy the game. Or complete Expert dungeons. I've never payed anything extra outside using my 500 monthly SC to finish a spell upgrade occasionally.
You are wrong. You can do the free research option totally to upgrade everything. You tell me what Ascension has more than three spells you will use regularly (okay, Geomancy has four). Not one has more than eight spells that need to be upgraded at all because of the three flavors of the ascension form, and when you get the level 11 ability you get the potion to level it. Seriously, here's what each class has: ELEMENTALIST Stuff to upgrade immediately: Wildfire (DD) Scorched Earth (DD + DOT + debuff) Glacial Freeze (DD + debuff) Less Important, in descending order of usefulness: Brittle Armor (pretty good debuff) Elemental Amalgamation (lvl 11 dumbfire) Elemental Avatar (endline ascension form, buffs potency) Thermal Depletion (debuff) Bulwark of Rime (reduces elemental damage for a bit for a few seconds) Frozen Heaves (wimpy blue AOE) ETHEREALIST Stuff to upgrade immediately: Levinbolt (DD) Etherflash (DD, ports you to target ally) Cascading Force (five smallish DDs on enemy) Less Important, in descending order of usefulness: Ethershadow Assassin (burns 80% of your power for a big DD) Etherial Conduit (short term big potency buff) Etherlord (endline ascension form, buffs potency) Ethermancy (lvl 11 power-sucking potency buff) Siphoned Fervor (small fervor buff) Implosion (wimpy AOE DD that sucks all your enemies close to you) GEOMANCER Stuff to upgrade immediately: Stone Hammer (DD + Daze) Terrestrial Coffin (DD + Root) Telluric Rending (DD + debuff) Mudslide (DD + Stun) Less Important, in descending order of usefulness: Granite Protector (lvl 11 dumbfire pet) Erosion (small DD + DOT + debuff) Union of Stone (endline ascension form, buffs potency) Terrene Destruction (small buff, stifles caster) Obsidian Mind (short term group buff vs. physical damage + immunity to control effects and knockbacks) THAUMATURGIST Stuff to upgrade immediately: Septic Strike (DD) Virulent Outbreak (DD) Tainted Mutation (debuff + Verdict) Less Important, in descending order of usefulness: Toxic Life (debuff) Blood Contract (small DD + DOT + heal + HOT) Withering (small AOE debuff) Revocation of Life (lvl 11 short term wimpy DD + DOT, if target dies power boost plus a big heal) Sanguine Embrace (endline ascension form, buffs potency) Necrotic Caress (reactive debuff, only procs if caster is hit with melee)
Ya, I laughed pretty hard when I read that list too. I don't think he's actually used any of the ascension spells. Looks like he just read the descriptions (poorly), and made random guesses.
I'm sure you were trying to be helpful but man that list has some big gaps in it. Elementalist: 1. Bulwark of Rime is insanely good for all tank classes, especially when paired with the charm you get from running your 2.0. 2. Frozen heavens hits hard and will be a major DPS contributor on any encounter with 3+ mobs. I cast it even on named fights with 1 target, and its still out performs just about everything non ascension related. 3. Brittle Armor is a tremendous debuff, especially when surged and paired with the orange rune from panda. At master i believe it debuffs for 220 CM per stack x 30 stacks. Pretty big deal when you compare it to other CM debuffs. Etherealist: 1. Ethershadow Assassin is easily, EASILY the hardest hitting ability in game right now.... not sure why this didnt make the list. 2. Implosion does a ton of damage on pulls that have more than a single mob. Geomancer: 1. Granite protector actually can hold it's own decently well. The damage output largely depends on what your group/raid is debuffing, But i do see it making up a portion of people's parses. 2. Erosion is another great debuff, not sure why people consistently underestimate the usefulness and impact of debuffing a mob... it really makes a huge difference. Thaumy: I honestly haven't played on my thaumy ascension enough to give fair feedback on it, but it does look like you just recommended the DD spells and ignored everything else.
However you select the ones you use most, do you think there's more than three in each Ascension that are priorities to upgrade?
Yeah that list is pretty off. The level 10 potency buff is arguably the most important one for any dps class... Bulwark of Rime is the entire reason to be an elementalist for some classes, Frozen heavens is pretty solid too and I know the amalgamation isn't one-shotting raid mobs anymore but I think it's still alright... Erosion is one of the best spells for Geomancer, the temp pet is still alright too... Implosion is legitimately the best AoE damage spell in the game, bar none, and Ethershadow Assassin is one of the best single target damage spells in the game... Blood Contract and Revocation of life are ... well, if you're a Thaum you're gonna need all the help you can get... And doesn't the level 11 thing only give you 1 30 day potion? That would get you to Journeyman, what about adept-grandmaster? (I haven't done this quest yet because I'm not playing right now anyway, so maybe I'm wrong about that bit) Should've started the post with "I am wrong" instead of "you are wrong" because at least it would've contained something accurate.
The list you are referring to, was clearly made by someone who does not actively use ascension abilities, or has such a poor understanding of combat and combat mechanics, they should make an effort to avoid making any lists on similar topics. I am not saying the intention was bad, but bad advice can often be worse than no advice. If someone followed Sigrfrifa's list, they would be worse for it.
Amount of money I have spent on this game, outside of the sub and xpac: $0 My place on a T4 raid parse: 2-3. Friend who has all GMd ascensions and same gear as me, money spent: close to $1000 I'd think. Place on parse: 4-5. You can buy all the 999 foot stilts you want, but if you don't know how to use them...
Taking a step back to the original subject before the thread got derailed, I think this kind of out-of-the-box thinking is great. I think your exact proposal would have some issues, but honestly it's not that your idea is bad so much as that resolve is bad no matter how you present it. I think the better solution would be for them to do away with resolve, which has been a terrible idea from the start, and fix their loot script's value weights. Right now the script seems to think that 43% flurry == 800 potency or whatever... these incorrect values mean the script they're using to make items (at least I hope it's a script, if it's a person doing it then just wow) actually thinks http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/1490406202 is an equivalent alternative to http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/3725393767 . Instead, you have players running around with http://u.eq2wire.com/item/index/1034870890 because the really good one is so rare and they don't want to take a massive hit to their potency to equip the ones they've gotten with higher resolve. If stat distributions on items made any sense, this problem wouldn't exist at all.
So wait, your defense of the pay2win ascension system is that even though each class has several abilities, much of them are a waste? "Its not that bad because they can't design abilities well given their lack of fundamental understanding of the game." Good luck to anyone still playing if they do learn how to design for the game.
No.. it is not helpful at all since that list, as others pointed out, is way off. Not the first time Siggy gives advice about something she don't understand, even though I know she is trying to be helpful (or trying to get a job as a mod on the forums, that is the feeling I gotten over the years reading her posts, but that is pure speculation).
Yes I truly do believe there are more than 3 spells in each ascension class that could be considered "priority".
I'm sure you're just trying to be helpful, but anyone who follows that list of recommended upgrades is going to be disappointed. There are more than just three spells each ascension class should be using regularly. The level 10 potency buff is a huge amount of potency for each class, however, also possible it will upgrade at 15. Possible it won't as well. I'll leave that off what I'd recommend but it should be noted that it is a huge buff. I also don't play Geo on anyone so I can't comment. Elementalist Bulwark of Rime (Pretty huge as a tank especially) Brittle Armor (Nice debuff that helps everyone in the group/raid) Frozen Heaves Glacial Freeze (Especially if you raid this should be gmed) Scroched Earth Wildfire I don't have elemental amalgamation upgraded yet so I can't say how it scales. Etherealist Cascading Force Ethershadow Assassin Etherflash Implosion Levinbolt Thaumaturgist Blood Contract Revocation of Life Septic Strike Tainted Mutation (If you don't understand why look at the gm) Virulent Outbreak If you're thaum you likely want withering and toxic life too since they'll also increase your damage and any other thaums. Like I said I don't play Geo so I will not even begin to guess for them but I doubt they only have 3. Your list, unfortunately, leaves out some of the best abilities from the ascension classes.
