Guild Wars 2

Is it just me or does it feel like there`s no sense in upgrading equipment as you go for the first 60 or so levels….

I feel like I dwarf my equipment so quickly. At level 30 I decided to upgrade all my gear, next thing you know BAM already at 40 and they were no good, then I said ok at level 50 I`ll try again, I`m only at 55 and 50% of the stuff is starting to loose its flavor.

it is not you, there is no need.

I just use the upgrades that drop. Just like all other mmo’s there is no reason to ever purchase any gear/weapons while leveling because it is very easy and just using the upgrade drops will be more than enough.

Try running AC in sub par gear. Besides the gear is really cheap to buy. TP masterwork gear is often just a few copper in price higher than what you can sell it to the vendor for.

So you can outfit yourself in full masterwork gear for about the cost to use a single waypoint.

Well, you’re only at 55.
a) you level slower at higher levels than at lower levels
b) you do not kill as fast as before at higher levels.

It depends probably a bit on the class, ofcourse, but I doubt that you can level from 50 to 80 in your level 50 armor.

What I did on my first character (a warrior) was more-or-less this…
30 : buy top-DPS weapons
35 : buy top-DPS weapons
40 : buy top-DPS weapons plus level 40 green armor
45 : buy top-DPS weapons
50 : buy top-DPS weapons plus level 50 green armor
55 : buy top-DPS weapons
60 : buy top-DPS weapons plus level 60 green armor
65 : buy top-DPS weapons
70 : level to 80 with a crafting skill
80 : buy two exotic weapons and a set of rare armor

And you can do this VERY cheap, especially if you place buy-orders.

Sure, you CAN do without. But you will see that you will die less and level faster when your equipment is not so outdated.

I actually did level from 50 to 80 in my level 50 armour. Even did a few dungeons here and there. Did not die excessively in open world unless I was swarmed, or more than other people in dungeons. No, did not stick to only the low level maps either. Did not level excessively slow either, but I do like to take my time.

But then, I play ranger and my pet tanking does help a lot. :P

I’m lvl 54 and I use a mix of crafted and drops. Never bought anything.

You can buy from the TP, greens every 10 lvls for peanuts and yellows for a minimal amount once you hit 40. Very little need to care about gear too much before then. I did major upgrades at 40, 50, 60, 70 & 80. The random drops were mostly pathetic and rarely the stats I ever wanted. Of course you can get by with whatever you find, but its fun having gear you actually want or that compliments your build.

i leveled up (much to my friend’s dismay and despair) with lvl 45 GREENS up to about lvl 78, i never used dropped armors (i wanted to craft my own armor, but never got enough cotton scraps to continue so i failed behind that), and i only upgraded weapon’s through drops or quests.

eventually at lvl 78 in around orr, the enemies where hitting me too hard, and i was going down more often than i did, even though my friend was even mailing me pieces of better armor, i wanted to be “proud” of self crafted wearing armor like in other games, eventually after much despair, suffering and tears from her, i finally blew up 5 gold or so to update my armor with crafted armor, it then became a breeze again

As an altoholic and crafter, I generally regear my alts every 5 to 10 levels via crafting. Occasionally will buy something because too lazy to log over and craft an item. That and mats sometimes cost more than a purchased item.

But yes leveling without buying new gear is pretty easy. I got 2 characters to 80 before even using the TP.

I buy everything off T/P for mid-levels and then use crafting to get goodies for level 60 or above. Many times, I just go with the drops and rewards only.

I would recommend to only buy fine items(blue) until 80, where you switch to masterwork(green) or rare(yellow), or if you want to have the best asap, exotics(orange)(You can get those from dungeons, saves a lot of gold)..

Buying fine items is only a few silvers every new upgrades. At the limit, masterworks aren’t that much expensive, but barely any better than fines(unless you only get the weapons). Don’t get rares at low level, too expensive(unless you’re 80).

Dracones.9105:

So you can outfit yourself in full masterwork gear for about the cost to use a single waypoint.

Yeah the only thing that costs anything is decent runes, but you can buy greens with useless ones (minor rune of grawl slaying etc) for 1c above vendor trash price and just replace the rune with shards you get from mining. Then when you want to upgrade – sell your current stuff and buy new gear for just a few coppers more than you sold the last lot for.