Guild Wars 2

I’m level 20 ranger taking my sweet time getting to 80. I thought by now I would have seen maybe 5 different skins for each piece. Maybe 3 including starter I believe I have seen so far. I read armor can be bought from venders at 5 level increments but it still seems to be the same appearance. Does it get better at higher levels? At this rate there’s only going to be 15 different looks per armor class up to 80. How many different looks are there for medium armor chest pieces up to 79?

The other question I have is do transmutation stones change all future are skins for that gap until new one gets introduced? Cause redoing chest piece 5 times in a row to avoid the same old skin is not worth it. Have a feeling its per piece which confirms further gem store items are a rip off as a whole.

You will start to see more variety as you go, Leather workers have access to 8 complete sets of different gear.. so approx one per 10 levels.. once you have access to the orders there is more suits of gear there.. cultural gear comes into the picture at level 35 and onward.. dungeon armours.. wvw gear.. karma gear..

As for transmutation stones, each use lets you swap the look of one item for another. Simple as that.. they are hardly a gem store rip off though, you get given piles of them for map completion.. sometimes via daily quests, they are in lion chests too, i’m currently sitting on 80 or so of these things without having to buy any :P

Medium armour doesn’t seem to have as much variety as heavy or light, in that I recall some karma merchants selling new heavy/light skins yet the regular padded or leather medium sets. There’s also a more general lack of variety in the design of the medium sets with lots of the trench coat armours being similar in appearance.

You could try getting some of the crafted sets, otherwise its racial or dungeon ones.

Personally I think it’d be really annoying if transmutation stones automatically changed all future skins to the one you picked. Just because I think one skin is better than another doesn’t mean it’s my favourite and I want to be stuck with it indefinately.

And as Ruggy said I don’t think they’re a rip off. They would be if you had to buy them, but most players seem to get more than they’re ever likely to use from daily rewards, map completion and black lion chests.

I’ve done 7 maps (5 of which are towns) and opened 3 chests and I’ve got about 25 transmutation stones sitting in storage, so they’re really not hard to get hold of.

Personally I think buying new armor at lower levels is a waste of money. I’ve gotten to level 35 just using drops and I plan to stick to that as long as I can. No point paying for it when you’ll just be replacing it soon.

I think a transmutation stone should do two things.

1. What it does now.

2. Create a ‘print’ of the piece of armor you selected as the ‘look’ and stored off (I’m fine with character-based, like dyes) to be used later, on a whim, whenever you want, just like a dye, ‘without’ a transmutation stone, if all you want to do is change the ‘look’ of a piece of armor, leaving the stats and stones on the target item in place.

Seems pretty simple.

I have ‘sometimes’ used transmutation stones to ensure I can move the sigil/rune/stone, whatever they may be called, but mostly all I’m trying to do is apply a look. Often times, it’s the same look I’ve already ‘learned’, so to speak, yet I’m burning stones (and some day money) over and over again just to apply a look, which I already ‘learned’.

I mean, how would you feel if the dye drop rates were reduced to that of the availability of a Fine Transmutation stone, but could still buy them from the gem store, and they were one time uses?

Not so warm and fuzzy.

And yes, I’m struggling with medium armor myself right now. I’m thinking about burning $10 to get the Krytan skin for the chest and legs, though I’m not crazy about all the bones and skulls. Find some ‘small’ leather gloves and boots and just be done with it for now. Everything else that is remote decent you can’t get until you are about 120 (<-hyperbole) or have (raises pinky to lips) one MILLION dollars! (<- more hyperbole)

I’m generally a ‘really’ happy person, honestly. I’ve also been playing my Ranger a bit lately, 33rd level now, and a bit saddened by medium armor.

Though for about 20 minutes (I milked it, because I knew I wasn’t going to get to keep it), I got to look like this for a bit.

Danikat.8537:

Personally I think buying new armor at lower levels is a waste of money. I’ve gotten to level 35 just using drops and I plan to stick to that as long as I can. No point paying for it when you’ll just be replacing it soon.

In my opinion it’s better to just buy fine and magical gear from the TP.
Remember that a lot of people sell such items at a value slightly more expensive than the resell value. Pick a stat set you like, buy a higher level one in 5’ish levels and sell the item to a random merchant after you outgrow it. You’ll lose a couple of copper coins at most. Also if an item seems overpriced, try placing a custom offer, most of the time people will accept your low’ish offers eventually so it’s a good idea to buy or place some offers slightly in advance, a level early or before logging out or so, and leave it at the TP untill you need it.

Seeing as how transmuting an item destroys one component imo it’s better not to do it if you’re poor.

Just my 2 cents.