Guild Wars 2

Hi Guys.

Apologies for the many question in one thread. But I would really appreciate the help.

I am a new player. I have been enjoying levelling my only character a Warrior lvl77 atm. My thing in this game so far has been exploring as a loner, I love it.. even running though zones way out of my level. In fact this has helped me a lot especially with getting out of trouble and evading. I have also played a bit of WvW too and WvW is where I see my personal end game being (I play GS in WvW). I noticed early on that even when i was a low lvl like 20~ I was still able to survive and kill lvl 80’s using my GS warrior. From my experience so far in WvW am I right in assuming that gear isn’t that important in WvW? or will I notice the gear difference more when I hit lvl80? From what most people are telling me in chat that I should save my karma and my gold as I am economically poor, some people say they have millions??? When I have looked at the cost of legendaries I know that I could never afford anything like that unless i am doing something wrong? But on the other hand being “poor” and having out levelled gear I haven’t yet noticed real disadvantage.

My wealth so far:

8g 20s
124k Karma
113 BoH

In reality what would be my recommended path for gearing.

Thanks in advance.

Depends on who you ask….it helps to get the highest level gear you can find. The cheapest way to do this is to get daily laurels, and save them up along with WvW badges, so you can get them from the armorsmith/weaponsmith in WvW, but it’ll take a while.

I started using Karma gears when I was low level to save up gold.

Next thing you might wanna do is run dungeons. It’s almost always painful at start – but with practice, you’ll get running buddies – people who you usually run dungeons with and it’ll be alot easier. Finishing a dungeon gives you tokens, on which if you saved enough, you can exchange them for good gears in Lion’s Arch (just ask around where it is). Ascalonian Catacombs is a good dungeon to raid early on, since it’s tokens can be exchanged with a Power/Vit/Toughness level 80 gear. Citadel of Flame paths 1 and 2 are also quite easy – it’s tokens can be exchanged with gears having “zerker” attributes – Power/Prec/Crit damage.

With all honesty – you can survive the world just by wearing “rare” gears. (yellow)

You have enough money to gear up after you hit level 80 in rares 20-30 silver each piece, the karma is enough for 2 pieces of exotic (think they are about 60k each could be 40 I never used that method to get exotics). exotic is around 1-2g per piece with some much more expensive depending on stats and sigil etc. My advice use green to 80 and then rare until you get the gear you feel is best for your play style. That could be through crafting, temples, buying on tp or lucky drops. Ascended is not needed in any way but if you want it, it is availible.

I would suggest to do dungeons for full exotic (orange) armor. In about a week you should be mostly done. Get a set of weapons too.
Do your dailies/monthly and get an amulet and maybe a ring from laurels.

As soon as you’re mostly orange with some yellow, you’re viable for almost all content in the game. All in all, this shouldn’t cost you a copper if you plan a bit.

marnick.4305:

All in all, this shouldn’t cost you a copper if you plan a bit.

This. Excluding repairs, if you die alot. :p

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I will use my Karma to buy what gear I can first so I can save my gold as I don’t see many uses for karma except to buy gear. Where as Gold is much more versatile and useful.

Also what is kitten?

Lol. Kitten is the universal filter-word for anything ‘objectionable’ on the forum.

@Inculpatus… lol thanks.

@knives… :P I have noticed those costs creeping up… though I die a lot less now than when I was learning to play.

@marnick… I think I may give dungeons a go soon… Is LA the best place to ask for things like this? Hopefully that new LFG tool will arriving soon and that will help loners like me with Dungeon content.

segfault.1695:

@Inculpatus… lol thanks.

@knives… :P I have noticed those costs creeping up… though I die a lot less now than when I was learning to play.

@marnick… I think I may give dungeons a go soon… Is LA the best place to ask for things like this? Hopefully that new LFG tool will arriving soon and that will help loners like me with Dungeon content.

The LFG tool is in place and would be your best bet. I strongly recommend saying you’re a first timer as some bosses might need explanation. Most groups are social and welcoming so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. A guild will help too.

The easiest paths are:
Citadel of Flame 1 and 2
Honor of the Waves, all three
Ascalon Catacombs, all three
Sorrow’s Embrace 1 and 3
Crucible of Eternity, all three

Don’t bother with Arah explorables until you’re well experienced. Twilight Arbor is a bit gear dependent so I would delay that until later. Caudecus’ Manor isn’t too difficult but rather confusing so that’s best done with a guild.

As for repairs… nowadays I can do dungeons, fractals and tons of other bosses without one hit of repair damage. Experience goes a long way

segfault.1695:

@Inculpatus… lol thanks.

@knives… :P I have noticed those costs creeping up… though I die a lot less now than when I was learning to play.

@marnick… I think I may give dungeons a go soon… Is LA the best place to ask for things like this? Hopefully that new LFG tool will arriving soon and that will help loners like me with Dungeon content.

LFG is live on all accounts now.

segfault.1695:

@Inculpatus… lol thanks.

@knives… :P I have noticed those costs creeping up… though I die a lot less now than when I was learning to play.

@marnick… I think I may give dungeons a go soon… Is LA the best place to ask for things like this? Hopefully that new LFG tool will arriving soon and that will help loners like me with Dungeon content.

Lol yeah, when I’m playing my Ele, I tend to roll over and die to the simplest of mob. I played Guardian before Ele so, yeah. lol

The temples in orr have 5 out of 6 heavy armor pieces with P/T/V stats on them, and I believe you can get 4 of them from Melandru with the very useful superior rune of Melandru on it. Only the helmet remains which you can get after a few runs of Ascalonian Catacombs (as said).

The problem is that Karma is isn’t that easy to get any more and you still need about 80k of it to get all the Karma gear

Evans.6347:

The temples in orr have 5 out of 6 heavy armor pieces with P/T/V stats on them, and I believe you can get 4 of them from Melandru with the very useful superior rune of Melandru on it. Only the helmet remains which you can get after a few runs of Ascalonian Catacombs (as said).

The problem is that Karma is isn’t that easy to get any more and you still need about 80k of it to get all the Karma gear

Problem with Temple is that people usually don’t actively participate (atleast on Borlis Pass -_- )

But yeah, another good alternative would be temples – you’ll have to cover Orr though.

For PvE, pick up a set of berserker gear and ruby orbs and that’ll basically have you covered for the entire game’s existence.

If you want to zerg in WvW, pick up a mixture of soldier, knight’s and maybe even a berserker or valkyrie piece of gear.

If you want to roam around on your own or in a small group in WvW, I’m sure a mostly berserker set of armour is safe, if not full.

Berserker gear does have a learning curve (do not ever try to “tank” hits), but is far more rewarding than almost anything else in PvE.

Evans.6347:

/snip

The problem is that Karma is isn’t that easy to get any more and you still need about 80k of it to get all the Karma gear

/snip

Karma gear is 42K per piece, give or take. so, for full temple armor (regardless of which temple) it would be 252K karma.

In any case, if you decide to buy your armor, then go ahead and buy the stats you want. The looks aren’t important, as most of them are changeable using those transmutation crystals you see in the gem store.

Right now, I am wearing exotic armor, but I have the “look” of some green that I like.

Good luck to you!

Thanks everyone. I guess I am gonna try to the LFG out tonight and hopefully start to get some dungeons tokens in.

I believe AC gear is P/V/T as well. What I did was buy all rare gear as soon as I hit 80, then replaced it piece by piece with exotics from dungeons and karma. I bought my accessories with gold. Being in rare gear and knowing your class will get you through PvE; exotic just makes it a little easier.

Ashabhi.1365:

Evans.6347:

/snip

The problem is that Karma is isn’t that easy to get any more and you still need about 80k of it to get all the Karma gear

/snip

Karma gear is 42K per piece, give or take. so, for full temple armor (regardless of which temple) it would be 252K karma.

The OP mentions he has about 120k karma. There are only 5 pieces of heavy soldier god armour (most efficiently, 4 at Melandru and 1 at Lyssa). That means he approximately needs about 80k more, give or take a few.

Both Melandru and Lyssa are very often freed on most servers. You can always guest on a server that has them open to grab your gear.

Soldier gear is pretty solid a choice all around. It doesn’t excel in damage like berserker does, and you probably should eventually get such a set (COF tokens), but it will be more than enough for the time being and it’s pretty much free.

Soldier gear is bad.

Yeah you’re right, he should totally get Apothecary gear.

Unless he’s part of a speed clear group which specialises in stacking and complementing each other’s weaknesses, I’m fairly certain he’ll function far better in Soldier gear than in Berserker gear to start. On top of that, it’s the staple gear for Tequatl atm and is used fairly often in WvW builds, so I’m not advising useless investments.

He can always save up for any mixture of other gear while using it.

I guess all of those times I PUG’d in berserker and stayed alive in addition to probably carrying 80% of the group’s DPS would have been even easier if I was in soldier gear I guess, you know, not being able to damage anything and the group wiping due to running out of sustain.

If there was one tip I could offer a new level 80 when it comes to PvE, it would be to jump in the deep end and use maximum damage gear. It’ll force you to adapt and make you a better player as a result rather than using defensive stats as a crutch.

Well, I’m very glad for you it worked out so great for you colesy, but on the flip side of the medal, if said new players dive down in the deep end and instead of swimming they drown, they are put off a profession or perhaps the game itself because they tried too much too quickly. And for what? Worshipped standards.

In the end it’s up to you Segfault to decide if you wants to take the steady road or the instant make or break path. Just take the whole ‘zerk or gtfo mentality with a grain of salt. In most common, casual situations, it’s not going to make such a difference. Least of all 80%. Playing smart comes first, after that you can push the numbers all you like.

But it does make a difference.

Nikaido made a post a few days ago that he PUG’d AC with his normal gear and path 1 went fairly smooth. When in path 3 he swapped his zerker out for a mixture of PVT/cleric, the party repeatedly wiped because nobody was there to carry their DPS anymore.

Well you can’t crit world bosses or structures(iirc), keep that in mind also when thinking of gearing

colesy.8490:

Soldier gear is bad.

He’s new, give him a break.

Go to the wiki and check out “Armor nomenclature”

Find the dungeon(s) that have those stats and farm them.

You can also craft and buy the gear you want.

I would suggest making your desired build first and then seeing what complements it the best.

Good luck.

Dungeons are the most cost effective way to get armor, but also the most time consuming. In my opinion running dungeons is the most fun thing to do to get armor if you have the time.

Thanks for the advice guys. I really appreciate it. Tonight I am gonna make my way down to orr to get possible 2 zerker pieces and maybe a soldier piece, then I am gonna buy what I can… get the best GS/Rifle I can get then I am going dungeoning…

Thank you everyone!

Buy gems with your credit card and exchange it for gold.

Thanks the 5 for the glorious Black Lion RNG Trading company, where oh where would we be without it?

If you dont mind pulling out your credit card I believe you can gear yourself in a full set of berserker (power/precision/crit damage bonus) for about $20 US. That is trinkets, armor, and a couple weapons. Then if you want the opposite of berserker save up your wvwv tokens and start getting your achievement points up to about 4000. I believe achievement point chests give a healthy portion of wvwvw tokens or at least they did. I think you will have enough wvwvw tokens at that point to get an entire set if lvl 80 exotic pvt gear from the wvwv vendor.

just another option

edit . wups i didnt even read the post above me which says buy gems convert to gold

If you zerg in WvW you want PVT. If you roam, fight in small groups, or solo your gear should be determined by your playstyle.

Ascended gear.

No mercy for the new player.

Nuff said.

j/k

alcopaul.2156:

Ascended gear.

No mercy for the new player.

Nuff said.

j/k

This is true. You’re lucky you began playing now. Once Ascended armor comes, new players will never be able to catch up.

Well last night I fought my way over to the temples of Orr at lvl 78 with lvl 62-67 gear, admitted I had to avoid getting out-numbered more than 3-1, but otherwise I was still ok. I bought some PVT/Melandru armour and I spent around 1.5g on the rest of the jewelry/armour/GS/Rifle(yellows and greens).

I went back and did some WvW after for a while… and I managed to add a couple more badges but I didn’t die once. In one situation me and a random ranger were outnumbered 3-2.

Maybe my opinion will change if played PvP or did some dungeon runs but. I am enjoying the game which will lead me to improved gear and I don’t see why I need to buy gear with real money just yet… certainly not while I am not completely sure how I would spend it. I think if I invested now I would probably waste my money… I am gonna experiment with budget gear/builds for now…

And you should. There is no real reason to rush yourself in one way or another. Play and learn with what you have now and in time you will improve yourself anyway.

As for your trinkets, try to do your dailies and monthlies and eventually fork out for ascended (preferably berserker) trinkets. They are mostly free and make rare/exotic trinkets completely obsolete.

Why no-one linked Dulfy’s site to Segfault? Here you go: http://dulfy.net/category/gw2/
- Temple vendors: http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/
- End game gearing: http://dulfy.net/2012/10/03/gw2-endgame-gearing-guide/
- Ascended items: http://dulfy.net/2012/11/17/gw2-ascended-gear-and-infusion-recipes/

The way you play sounds right. Have fun and experiment and when you re ready to decide your playing style get gear for it. Pick ascended stuff after you know what you want (since it takes time to collect laurels from dailies/monthlies). Experiment with cheaper gear (rares or karma gear)

Soldier’s (PVT = power, vitality, toughness) gear is good way to start. When you feel that you can easily survive with that you can start to find ways to increase your dps by reducing vitality(HP) and/or toughness(armor rating) on your gear. PVT gear has power as main stat, so it provides max power from gear, only critical hits, conditions or boons can increase your dps beyond that point.

On normal PvE situation I use full berzerker gear(same power as PVT, but additional dps from much more frequent and harder critical hits), but I still carry PVT gear with me and swap to it when I face world bosses/structures that I can not critical hit (precision and crit dmg are useless if you can not crit) or that are immune to conditions (con. dmg stat is useless in that situation).

Thanks for all your input guys.

colesy.8490:

I guess all of those times I PUG’d in berserker and stayed alive in addition to probably carrying 80% of the group’s DPS would have been even easier if I was in soldier gear I guess, you know, not being able to damage anything and the group wiping due to running out of sustain.

If there was one tip I could offer a new level 80 when it comes to PvE, it would be to jump in the deep end and use maximum damage gear. It’ll force you to adapt and make you a better player as a result rather than using defensive stats as a crutch.

On the other hand, maybe not everyone wants to be the best player possible and simply wants to survive. Soldier’s more prone to error, doesn’t require nearly as much skill micro. For people who just want to relax and have a breather in the evening, celestial or soldier’s is much recommended.

PS: most zerkers I see are dead on the ground and carry 0% of the DPS. Jumping off the deep end often means you just fall to your death.

@marnick I have to agree with you here regarding staying alive, trying to res players takes players out of the fight. I always felt as the noob that my primary objective was not to burden others by dying all the time.

And yet while they were alive they were carrying everyone else. A zerker inflicting crits is doing 2.5x the damage of a PVT user who isn’t.

Also, if the rest of the group wasn’t using bad gear, the zerker wouldn’t die because you’d be able to kill the boss quickly enough.

colesy.8490:

And yet while they were alive they were carrying everyone else. A zerker inflicting crits is doing 2.5x the damage of a PVT user who isn’t.

Also, if the rest of the group wasn’t using bad gear, the zerker wouldn’t die because you’d be able to kill the boss quickly enough.

From the OP it seems like he is interested in WvWvW.
Soldier’s gear is a very good set for that

That whole attitude of “while they were alive….” is precisely why I dislike the whole Zerker or GTFO mentality in PvE.
If you want to wear a Beserker set- fine.
Telling a new player to get one is not great advice simply because a good Berserker needs to be able to evade damage or die.
Certain content also renders Beserker useless because not only will you not stay alive, you will also not crit so that power is really the only stat of use to you

I already said for WvW zerging that probably a mixture of Soldier, Knights and maybe a Valkyrie or Berserker piece would be good.

Telling a new player to get a set of Berserker for PvE is great advice because not only does it cut down on gear costs, but it forces them to play better. I power-leveled my warrior mostly through crafting, stuck a full set of berserker on and then it was just adapt or die. I still only have like 150hrs clocked on her (out of 1.5k+ hours spent altogether in the game) but it’s much better having to pay attention to survive rather than just sitting back knowing that you’ll do bad damage but your gear will just keep you alive.

The only content berserker isn’t as good is against objects/world bosses, and even then you can still deal the same damage as a PVT user, you just don’t have the defensive stats.