Level Requirements for Armor

In the past there were Level Requirements to wear certain armors. Why was this removed I wonder? I think this would be a good idea to impliment again, because personally I find certain activities that are happening in Guild Wars easily fixable by implimenting a Level Requirement for Armors... OR at least the higher AL armors like the Max armors.

One thing that could be tried would be to have a universal armor skill (i.e. every class has it, or that it's part of every class's Generic skill set), with high grades of armor requiring a higher investment of skill points to be used. However this would require a significant design change and balancing effort, so at this stage it's probably too much to ask for. But it would be interesting, in that you could run into elementalist/mesmers with very good armor but weaker skills/spells, or warriors with thin armor but more/higher skills elsewhere.

But what you said is probably easiest, and just have a blanket level requirement for any given grade of armor available to that class (e.g. best elementalist armor not available till levels 18-20, etc.). It doesn't make a lot of in-game sense, but then, neither does seeing level 8's running around in max armor.

<Hands the OP a flame shield to protect him when all the Forge Runners descend on this topic>

I think there really needs to be only one armor requirement. The only thing being "misused" (and I use the term loosely) is the max AL Forge armor. I'd make it real simple. No levels, just one simple req... you can't wear Forge armor unless you are ascended, period. People complain about ascension being useless? Well there ya go, now it has a purpose. You can't max out your armor without doing it.

and what happens to people already wearing this armor? you cant go into UW or FOW without being ascended, there you go!! a reason to get ascended.. plus the experience bonus.. is pretty nice.. Why dont they just put a freakin' level requirement for max damage items too? Thats pretty cheap in a level 10 arena. Then you'd see how many people cry..

It falls off.

I am starting to really get fed up with this PvP junk ...

The "It falls off" answer pretty much has it right. Rightfully all the lazy people out there that got rushed to the Forge to pick up their max level armor would lose the advantage that cheap tactic gave them. Something to the effect if you don't have the req for the attribute (with wepaons) you hit with less damage... if you didn't have the req for the Forge armor (I like the idea of ascension) then your AL would be a flat 0.

Good plan.

I don't point this out for PvP reasons, I just feel strongly about... certain things, and feel, like the UW/FOW that only ascended characters can wear Droks armor is appropriate. Then that would start the massive Runnings to Ascension instead. *shrugs*

So an increased difficulty on the ascension mission to keep the unready from ascending...

No, better...

The ghost should only let you in if you're a minimum level, say 18 or 19.

The seer should only infuse the ascended as well.

"Running" to ascension would be a much lengthier and complicated procedure than Forge running, which is almost mindless once you memorize the rest spots, etc. To "run" to ascension you would have to walk all the way to Sanctum Cay. Granted I've already seen people doing this, but it is MUCH more involved. Then you have to actually DO the Sanctum Cay mission. Finally they would have to complete the three ascension missions. To that I say "good luck" unless they have a guild to help them. No one in their right mind is going to take a rushed low level player into their group for an ascension mission.

Ohh god, another he has better stuff than me whine post.

On my THIRD character, I decided not to waste my time getting all 75 sets of armor on the way up to Draknar's. So be it. Whaaaaaaaaaaa

I help my team by not taking as much damage as an ascended ranger, and was the group leader on several of the higher missions in PUGs in the Southern Shiverpeaks.

At level 18 I was the only one alive on our Infusion run run, and then took my only chance to gloat (this makes two).

After you beat the game, you may feel the same. Till then, let us play, let me save my money and materials, and don't try and tell me that I have ruined your play experiance in low level PvP areas, because most people that know about the game don't even play them.

If you are worried about fairness in PvP go build yourself a PvP only character and you will have top armor, top level, and top weapons.

Now flame me, go ahead. Just so you know I plan on beating the game without ascending, just to see if I can do it without those 30 attribute points. I am to Sanctum Cay and Abbadon's Mouth at the same time. I guess it's about time to beat the game, since those ascention missions are just too easy.

I agree with the op on this one, although I don't play the early arenas very much - even with new characters, there are plenty of newbies that do, who deserve to be pitted against other characters that they stand even a small chance of beating.

A simple blanket level of 16 for top armour would remove people whoring the low level arenas, whilst still keeping droknar runs viable. To prevent this change from ruining the game for those who already bought top armour but aren't lvl 16, if they don't meet the requirement, then the armour only offers 50% effectiveness.

Like I said, I don't worry about PvP fairness, I could care less about PvP at this point in time. PvE is effected just as much by forge running and people who are too lazy to play. What is the point of a second, third or fourth character if all you are going to do is skip everything and not get a handle on how the character plays differently than the others? If you skip everything you lose the learning experience of KNOWING how to work with a different char in various ways. I just think something should be done. As I said in another topic, forge running is NO accomplishment. If you go ALONE as a low level character from Beacon's Perch to Droknar's Forge, in a speed run sort of thing, I want to see a video as proof, or else its just a nother unaccomplishment, being taken by the low level character just because they got someone who is high level to drag them through it. By all means, if you can run it alone at a low level, more power to you, but it seems to sour things when people can do this. I doubt the devs meant for low levels to merely be dragged through there, it seems a bit of an exploit of other characters and an area in the game if you ask me. But if you feel I'm whining then fine, I wanted ideas on if people thought why they took the Armor Level Reqs out and if its good to be brought in, I didn't need this complaining about what you think is complaining.

totally agree it will stop these people running off to droknar for armour then going to buy gold off ebay because they have not collected enough and apart from farming (which they are not likely to do as it takes time) or going through missions in which case they will have abit of gold if not enough for the armour
So yes to stop scam runners and to cut down on the use of needing to buy gold

Runners ask for over 1 plat for the run, people that can afford 1 plat can also afford 7.5 plat.

People buy gold from Ebay for a lot of reasons, one is because this game drops suck and only way to get any significant amount of gold is spending days farming the same places over and over and over again.

That would create a rather vicious cycle wouldn't it? ANet nerfs drops to discourage bot farming and the subsequent sale of those items on eBay. You argue the result is the opposite of what ANet intended. MORE people put items on eBay because people are desperate for items/gold that they don't think they can obtain legitimately in the game. And after looking at all the bot activity at Riverside and Ember Light... I wonder if botters have been affected at all.

Of course it did, I remenber a month ago 100,000 gp was dirty cheap to get since it required not that much effort ... now its closer to other MMORPGs prices since it became a lot harder.

Bots have it better because people are more likely to use then and farmers stay in the game because there is now a demand for their services.

I agree with the OP on this, I definately think at least Forge Armor should require you to be ascended. The other armors are pick and choose which ones you buy, and I mean hell even if you do go through most of the missions you can get to ascension by lvl 15, so I don't think there should be a level requirement on ascending, but definately for Droknar armor. I've beaten the game several times now and it is not difficult to get ascended and get up to droknars in a day without going through lornars pass.

If you want to get "rushed" get rushed through to sanctum cay via the temple of ages, and get yourself ascended. It doesn't take long at all to do, so it shouldn't bother people who've beaten the game before (it doesn't bother me at all, I don't mind rushing through ascension, I come out at a decent level and have access to droknars armor, but by that point I wouldn't be able to abuse it in the ascalon arenas and what not. Sounds good to me.)

I definately think we need this, hell I've seen people in the desert with Ascalon armor still, if they can get that far with that AC that low, why the HELL do people need the best armor in the game just to go through the Kryta missions (which I might add, are already easy as hell).

It's definately a good idea to make droknar armor only available to those who've ascended. Hell I don't give a rats ass about the UW/Fissure, I never get anything good out of those runs anyway, all it does is cost me money.

Maybe they're not interested in learning to play the character in a PvE context, and would rather devote their time to practicing said character's usage in PvP. That's perfectly valid, if you ask me.

ANet fixed the armour exploit in it's last patch. which initially resulted in a lot of PvP chars running naked around in arenas and tombs cos they are technically not ascended . Well this was only for a short while as ANet quickly fixed it. Anyway, the fix prevented non ascended characters to use end game armour in PvP arenas to prevent abuse in low lvl arenas, basically your armour just drop off when you get into the fight, hence the naked chickens running around hehe. You can still wear the end game armour in PvE which generally isnt any problem at all.

**added**
Well, even with the new patch in place, still there is nothing preventing ppl from getting late game skills or elites that are a lot more powerful into ascalon arena. I've just seen too many ppl in ascalon arena with elite skills, like life transfer, poison arrow, crippling angush etc.. heck the one combination i find invincible in the arena is necro life transfer + life siphon, coupled with vampric gaze, no amount of end game armour can save you from it as the spells ignore armour. He's literally sucking u dry!

But still... I would prefer to have end game armour as soon as I can, saves money by not having to buy all the intermediate armour and makes questing a lot easier. Since you can't abuse it in PvP anymore, what's the point of preventing it for use in PvE by non ascended ppl? It's not that you will spoil other ppl's gaming experience in PvE by wearing droknar armour. This game is open-ended, you can choose how you want to play. Why force ppl to play it linearly? Especially for those who is playing their 3rd or 4th character. Like me, once i get out of pre searing (around lvl5), i have my guildie taxi me to droknar, get my armour, then taxied to scantum cay, did the mission with 6 henchies (you get to party 8 at Temple of Ages), then walla, at crystal desert at lvl 7. went to angury rocks, waited for free rides to all the outposts (believe me, there's a lot nowadays). heck i can ascend at lvl 10 if i wanted to but i just wanted to get the outposts opened up for now. After that i just went and did all the quests that gives skills as these are more important than those that give xp or items. You know, playing this way is really interesting as it will be more challenging to play a low lvl char in the ascension missions.

I would think that, IF (and that's a big IF) ANet decided to put a level requirement or an Ascension requirement on armor, it would have to be "grandfathered" in and would only apply to -new- acquisitions.

i agree with telarins idea except i think elites should be blocked out too.new players should be able to fight people with the "normal" armor for that lvl.i hate watching my bro get pwned in the ascalon arena(he just started) by a guy in full droknars.

although i think ANet did something already.since you get exp again they wasted 3k once they get past lvl 10.although their is the yaks bend arena they need to get to 15 to be the "strongest" their and they will eventually lvl up again.

in using the low arenas to get faction i think that they are weak not being able to compete in higher arenas.

although i do pvp with my new guys in low arenas i dont have any uber armor or anything.