Guild Wars 2

I mainly play WvW, and I have little interest in crafting and absolutely no interest in unlocking recipes via PvE. How do I acquire 4-stat exotic gear such as Marauder’s?

(In case it is relevant, I do own HoT.)

crusader is the other, and like Donari said they are available at the tailor/ect vendors near any crafting station, and to further clarify you use the regular discovery process to create the armor. All your buying karma wise from the vendor is the insignia recipe.

sadly you are quite screwed in that both the insignia and the gear are account bound for most all the 4 stat items. Luckily marauder is one of two armor sets you have to just buy the recipe from the regular karma vendors. You still need leatherworker/tailor/armorsmith at 400 though.

Head Kracker.4790:

sadly you are quite screwed in that both the insignia and the gear are account bound for most all the 4 stat items. Luckily marauder is one of two armor sets you have to just buy the recipe from the regular karma vendors. You still need leatherworker/tailor/armorsmith at 400 though.

Thank you for your response. What is the other karma-for-recipe armor set? Also, where are these vendors? Are they in a major city like Lion’s Arch? (Though I own HoT, I haven’t bothered to progress past VB—it’s just not my cup of tea.)

As feedback for ANet: this situation feels like a violation of the spirit of GW2’s no-treadmill philosophy. Not the letter, but the spirit. Four-stat armor provides a raw stat increase over mixing and matching other gear sets. It should be available in all the same ways those sets are available (e.g. via the TP).

Any crafting trainer will have a recipe tab. Scroll down to the bottom for higher tier recipes.

Preserver.8457:

Head Kracker.4790:

sadly you are quite screwed in that both the insignia and the gear are account bound for most all the 4 stat items. Luckily marauder is one of two armor sets you have to just buy the recipe from the regular karma vendors. You still need leatherworker/tailor/armorsmith at 400 though.

Thank you for your response. What is the other karma-for-recipe armor set? Also, where are these vendors? Are they in a major city like Lion’s Arch? (Though I own HoT, I haven’t bothered to progress past VB—it’s just not my cup of tea.)

As feedback for ANet: this situation feels like a violation of the spirit of GW2’s no-treadmill philosophy. Not the letter, but the spirit. Four-stat armor provides a raw stat increase over mixing and matching other gear sets. It should be available in all the same ways those sets are available (e.g. via the TP).

I don’t think it should matter if 4-stat does or does not provide a “raw stat increase”. The point is that the game, at launch, allowed people to get max gear of any stat without crafting. Even with ascended gear, drops were possible (and now, there are even more options).

Even more importantly, I think ANet has used the account-bound gating for far too many situations. Gating of any sort should be used sparingly, where critical for gameplay or economic reasons. If the component mats are gated, then the refined mats shouldn’t be and vice-versa.

Head Kracker.4790:

crusader is the other, and like Donari said they are available at the tailor/ect vendors near any crafting station, and to further clarify you use the regular discovery process to create the armor. All your buying karma wise from the vendor is the insignia recipe.

Thank you again for your answer. All in all, it does sound like a screwed situation. Perhaps if I wait until the next quarterly update, they’ll have addressed it. Maybe.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I don’t think it should matter if 4-stat does or does not provide a “raw stat increase”. The point is that the game, at launch, allowed people to get max gear of any stat without crafting. Even with ascended gear, drops were possible (and now, there are even more options).

Even more importantly, I think ANet has used the account-bound gating for far too many situations. Gating of any sort should be used sparingly, where critical for gameplay or economic reasons. If the component mats are gated, then the refined mats shouldn’t be and vice-versa.

I think I misread this at first, but coming back to it a few days later, I think I understand what you mean, and I agree. You’re saying that all stat combos (including e.g. Nomad) should be easily available to all players? If so, I definitely agree.

To me, GW2 distinguished itself as an MMO by making gear and stats easily available and putting the focus on the (fun!) gameplay. Over time, ANet has slowly undone what made GW2 special, and with HoT they dealt a swift blow. Or, as you put it, they’ve relied on “account-bound gating for far too many situations.”

(Thanks for your response!)