Is it hard to catch up with a new character?
Not if you don’t count ascended gear. Honestly, there is no rush. The current living story event even levels you up to full 80 so you don’t have to worry about missing out on anything in the mean time. Enjoy the game and play at your own pace.
Just ignore the elitist who claim that you need the best possible gear to do anything.
(edited by Zavve.8205)
I’ve been playing since pre-launch and my characters (which are mostly all Level 80) don’t all have even Exotic gear. There is no disadvantage whatsoever. Take your time, and enjoy the journey. It’s the best part! =)
Exotic gear is really easy to acquire. You don’t need ascended gear as all it is is a 5% increase in stats. If you’re trying to roam in WvW you might want to work towards ascended trinkets as they give a bit more of a boost but these aren’t that hard to aquire either and exotic trinkets are plenty good. So no, you don’t have to worry.
Short answer yes and no
Long answer- You’ll be at a disadvantage to people who have been playing and have full ascended but getting a full exotic set is relatively cheap for a few characters these days and you’ll do slightly (i say slightly loosely) less damage.
Follow the darkness into the depths, it’s more fun than the light can provide.
Depends upon the “who” you want to catch up to.
How long to get best in slot equipment to catch up with the top tiered WvW/PVE players? Months if you play consistently, or shorter if you want to buy your way there with gold. Also to get enough WvW experience to catch up can take quite a bit of time depending on your play time.
SPvP there is no catching up to do.
At a disadvantage: Not in PVE, as long as you have no desire to be part of speed run groups, or possibly high level fractal groups. WvW possibly, depending on play style. Solo/Small Group/Tactical Roamer? yes. Zergling? no
(edited by killcannon.2576)
As a new player, the only thing I could assume you’d struggle with are getting into dungeons. But if that happens, just gear up with rares (yellow tier armor) and you’ll be fine. Most people are more intent on knowing game mechanics, then what gear you’re wearing.
I just started recently. How long would it take to catch up in terms of gear? Would I be at a great disadvantage by the time i hit 80?
Don’t rush to level 80. Take time and be absorbed by the world of Tyria.
Most of the new content coming out can be accessible by lower levels, or allow lower levels to be “upscaled” to level 80. You can jump right into Escape From Lion’s Arch in a level 2 character. So in terms of playable content, there’s hardly any catching up.
You’re not missing out on much content for not having BiS gear. Next best gear is easy to get, and is 10% less effective than BiS gear. If you start your own parties for dungeons, you won’t get kicked for not having BiS gear. It’s impossible to kick someone out of an open world event, so you won’t get kicked for not having BiS there either.
This might be an issue for you if you are hardcore into WvW and want to be at your peak potential, though some can argue that you’ll hardly be in a situation where that 10% stat boost is what cost you a fight. Unless you’re 1v1-ing someone with FULL ascended gear, but classes aren’t balanced for 1v1 fights any way.
Yes. You are very much behind. Ascended gear is an enormously long grind. Ascended armor at the moment gives a small advantage over exotic, but Ascended weaponry can see boosts of 15% if you use stat combos that synergize well.
But wait, there’s more: by the time you’ve grinded to Ascended, the next step in vertical grind may already be upon us. Infusion slot stat grind, perhaps.
Also, save up your laurels. They are heavily time-gated so think twice before spending them.
Some people have trouble deciding what is the effort to fun ratio they want. They will keep doing things that are not fun to them and ignoring things that are. If you are someone like this then yes any game is impossible to catch up in. If you enjoy just having fun then this game is amazingly easy to get caught up to exotic level.
I did when I was first running my toons, run the high level areas of orr and southsun in partial greens armour and accessories with rare weapons (2 levels down from the at the time top level items).
Fun is what you make of it.
I just started recently. How long would it take to catch up in terms of gear? Would I be at a great disadvantage by the time i hit 80?
Don’t rush to level 80. Take time and be absorbed by the world of Tyria.
Yeah, best advice, the moment most player hit max level they start going into old school MMO grind mindset. You know: “Where are the raids?”, “I have all the Legendary weapons, what do I do now?”.
Enjoy the journey, GW2 wasn’t really structured to have the same sort of end-game as your more conventional MMO. There’s no need to rush, because there’s no power creep, no gear treadmill that you need to jump on etc.
EDIT:
Yes. You are very much behind. Ascended gear is an enormously long grind. Ascended armor at the moment gives a small advantage over exotic, but Ascended weaponry can see boosts of 15% if you use stat combos that synergize well.
But wait, there’s more: by the time you’ve grinded to Ascended, the next step in vertical grind may already be upon us. Infusion slot stat grind, perhaps.
Also, save up your laurels. They are heavily time-gated so think twice before spending them.
Yeah…
I just started recently. How long would it take to catch up in terms of gear? Would I be at a great disadvantage by the time i hit 80?
To get to a 80th lvl all exotic geared character is fairly easy, you can easily get one in a month if you play 2 hrs a day on average.
You can complete all content in the game without any real disadvantage.
However, to get full ascended/legendarys could take you from 6 months to forever…
Not really hard to catch up no. Just be sure to buy your gear from ah instead of crafting it yourself. Crafting will cost you tons of money and in the end not being worth it unless you at one point want to craft ascended maybe but ascended itsnt that important either. I have tons of ascended mats already, i just spent it on the new event backpack, and all weapon and armor making crafts on 500 and i havent made a single ascended item yet lol.
Thats to show you how important ascended is. Im not bothering without me knowing 100% sure i wont be wasting mats on something i might not want to use in the future.
Make sure you do gather though coz the mats can be worth a ton plus give nice xp.
Besides that all you have to do is buy your gear from ah. Keep in mind that blue gear , if you dont put any sigil/runes on it can be resold on ah after you’ve worn it so you dont actually loose money on buying it. That plus selling your gathered stuff should make you plenty money. Once you hit 80 you simply buy the exotic gear, they are cheap, few gold at most.
Besides that crafting really isnt worth it. Maybe jewelcrafter is worth it, i have one at 400, since its fairly cheap to make your own exotic jewelry it seems ? Maybe others know better.
Cooking might also be worth it for buffs but then i think you need to go out and gather your own mats which i find to time consuming so i dont use my 400 cooking at all. Some food buffs can be quite expensive.