Flame and Frost : starting January 28th

[BladeDVD]

@ sorudo

Like exotic armor in the game, you buy the armor, and then you buy the upgrades to customize them how you like. In this case it only costs laurels, no gold.

Fractals currently randomly reward you ascended rings from doing them. They also have a backpack you can craft outside of them from the vendor or mystic forge. These amulets will be the next ascended gear introduced in the game, not requiring one to do fractals -- nice way to get protection to get into fractals if one has not already or wants some to get into groups better.

Oh, so you will be able to get an amulet with up to 5 agony resistance while waiting for your agony infused ring (with up to 10 AR) to drop? That does sound better.

Re: Laurels...I think we don't know what the exact exchange rate is going to be yet do we? Might still end up being a pain. 30 dailies + the monthly will get you 40 laurels a month as far as I know. (Starts with February in case anyone missed that on the first reading like I did.)

[CHIPS]

one thing that bothers me is the following.

Redeem these laurels for rewards like the new Ascended gear and Infusions!

the first thing i was thinking of is "yay, finally a way to get max armor", until i saw this.

With 5 new Utility Infusions and 30 Ascended Amulets to choose from, there’s something for every style of player.

what a load of crap, i care little for things like that when i can't even get the armor or weapon i want.

again they think little of the poor and allot on the rich.

All that matters is the stats. You can transfuse them to anything if you don't like them.

I agree with Sharkinu that if you need some gems buy them now before prices skyrocket.

[Смерть]

Oh, so you will be able to get an amulet with up to 5 agony resistance while waiting for your agony infused ring (with up to 10 AR) to drop? That does sound better.

No, no... I read it wrong -- I assumed by "5 new Utility Infusions" it would include agony resistance, but they don't really say glancing over it a second time. Perhaps they have an agony resistance one you can get with laurels, will have to see.

They are ascended gear though -- without built in agony resistance, like the rings that drop in fractals are not until you infuse them. Hopefully the infusions from fractals you can buy will be able to be fitted to these amulets. While this takes a little more work than infusing them through laurels -- in the end one would just have to do fractals for a little while until they could by an infusion. Would be way easier to equip oneself with protection this way than waiting for a ring to drop in any case. Have to see how it all turns out.

If they are going to introduce non-agony ascended gear through these amulets -- I'll be bummed.

[BladeDVD]

You will be able to add infusions. [dev tracker]

I thought they got rid of Defensive or Offensive Infusions....maybe it was that they just made all infusion slots take any kind of infusion. That makes me wonder what they mean by "utility" infusions.

And I'm curious as to why you're bummed about them introducing non-agony ascended gear? They said they would be putting out the rest of the Ascended gear over the rest of this year and that there would be different infusions coming out. Even the fractal ring drops don't always come infused. Is this really any different?

[nkuvu]

I agree with Sharkinu that if you need some gems buy them now before prices skyrocket.

Too late. Gem prices are already skyrocketing.

Also...

one thing that bothers me is the following.

Redeem these laurels for rewards like the new Ascended gear and Infusions!

the first thing i was thinking of is "yay, finally a way to get max armor", until i saw this.

With 5 new Utility Infusions and 30 Ascended Amulets to choose from, there’s something for every style of player.

what a load of crap, i care little for things like that when i can't even get the armor or weapon i want.

again they think little of the poor and allot on the rich.

I have no idea what your complaint is. Really.

You can get laurels from daily achievements. What does it matter how much gold you have?

[RD]

Maybe sorudo just misunderstood and he thinks the laurels have 30 different items you need to collect?

[Смерть]

You will be able to add infusions. [dev tracker]

I thought they got rid of Defensive or Offensive Infusions....maybe it was that they just made all infusion slots take any kind of infusion. That makes me wonder what they mean by "utility" infusions.

And I'm curious as to why you're bummed about them introducing non-agony ascended gear? They said they would be putting out the rest of the Ascended gear over the rest of this year and that there would be different infusions coming out. Even the fractal ring drops don't always come infused. Is this really any different?

Would be bummed if the ascended gear does not take agony infusions whatsoever -- which is probably not the case; and that they will. My mind went there in assumption over "utility" which I hope is not a new upgrade without agony resistances that will only be allowed these amulets (and rings as the dev tracker mentions) -- leaving agony resistance to stuff exclusively associated with Fractals.

[sorudo]

i really have no energy to explain everything the sesamstreet way so ill keep it simple, it's the WoW farm hell all over again.
there is a really big reason why i don't like the generic gear grind games, they are more based on how much you farm rather then how much you play the game.
GW1 was about how much you play the game, GW2 is getting more and more how much you farm.

[nkuvu]

So doing the daily achievements is somehow grinding now?

That's hilarious.

On topic of infusion:

You will also be able to put infusions in the ascended gear from laurels, yes!

(source is BladeDVD's dev tracker link above)

It makes a certain amount of sense that the laurel-purchased items don't have agony resistance, since you didn't get it from a fractal. But you can still add the infusion if you plan on doing fractals later. Or something. It made sense in my head, anyway.

I am looking forward to getting some nifty Ascended gear, even if I don't plan on doing anything with infusion.

[Смерть]

I am looking forward to getting some nifty Ascended gear, even if I don't plan on doing anything with infusion.

Yes. I am glad they are providing different ways to get them. And thanks for adding the dev tracker bit that I missed - yay.