Guild Wars 2

With the recent trend to move toward Account bound equipment I’ve been trying to decide which new armor to get.

I want to get a secondary (different stated) set for my level 80 character and was looking into the Temple armor because I like what it looks like and it uses karma to purchase.

But then I read that it is soulbound, so I wouldn’t be able to share this second set with any of my other alts. Yet, I believe the Ascended gear is now account bound? (or did I misunderstand the feature update)

Do you think it’s worth to try and get an ascended set (it will be a berserker set) which is why I figured I would try and make it account bound if I could since it is useful for pretty much all the characters.

Or should I just spend the karma, and get the set cheaply with a cool skin and bind it to one character?

Any advice which way would be better to go?

Ascended gear is indeed account bound. The problem is that it is VERY expensive to make compared to just getting exos.

My take on it is that if you have the means/time to grind out an (zerk especially) ascended set then it will be very useful and also you’ll be set if you ever want to run high level fractals or something, but if you don’t then just stick to karma exotics for now.

Ascended is a huge undertaking. I just feel like since this is for my main, if I get the karma exotics first and then months down the road eventually get ascended, I’ll be sitting on this really pretty karma armor that would be great to use on my alts, and can’t be given to any of them. Which to me is just a huge waste of a perfectly good set. Especially if I could have then used that karma to buy it for my alt who won’t ever have ascended stuff.

But again, ascended is a huge undertaking, and I really want to have this new set relatively soon to be able to do more diverse content.

If you like the look of the Karma Armor, might as well get it, it’ll unlock the skins for you to use on other characters, or on an Ascended set if you do get that later on.

Sadly that’s kind of how it works for every other kind of armor sub-Ascended. My alternative was keeping my karma for obsidian shards for the asc crafting + legendaries, and buying exo armor using dungeon tokens – that way at least the armor is salvageable.

Question #1: Do you love the design of the Temple Armor and want to have a character wear it? If yes, then get it. Just buying it will make the skins available to all your characters that wear the same weight armor. Check the Wardrobe.

Question#2: How is your crafting skill on that particular type of armor maker? If you want Ascended, you will have to get it up to 500. To get to 425 refining materials is a good way to start, but after that you need to craft some exotic armor before hitting 450. Why not make armor your character can wear first?

Karma armor has a negative side: it cannot be salvaged. Therefore it is not prudent to put very expensive runes in it unless one intends to keep the armor for a very long time.

Crafting Ascended is a project that takes either a lot of gold or a lot of patience and work. I enjoy having this goal, I am now working on the last weight class set. Still missing helm and shoulders of the medium. If only silk weren’t so expensive…

Once you get a bit further into the game, exotic armor will actually be fairly easy to get, and it won’t feel like such a waste to give a new set for each character. You can get it in Orr for karma, in WvW for badges of honor + gold, on the trading post for straight gold, by crafting with material you’ve already collected (and even use it to level your crafting, like somebody above pointed out), from the dungeon vendors in Lion’s Arch in exchange for dungeon tokens, as rewards for pvp reward tracks, or if you are lucky as drops in all areas of the game.

I’ve pretty much got two exotic sets on each of my 80s (except for the latest, but that’s #11 already ), one for dungeons and one for wvw. I have a full set of ascended light armor on one of my mesmers, but I rarely switch it to another characters except for higher level fractals. There is a stat difference between exotic and ascended, but once you have a decent understanding of your character and their skills, you can pretty much do anything in this game with full exotics just as well as with full ascended.

Unless you have the crafting skill and materials ready to craft ascended soon, get yourself a nice set of exotic gear to enjoy the game now, instead of gimping yourself for weeks or months just so not to “waste” what will probably be easy to come by at the time you get your ascended equipment going. And if you like the skins of the exotic set you are after, go and buy it, even if it’s just to unlock the skin in your wardrobe.

Thank you for all the responses. You gave me a lot to think about.

I do love the design of the temple armor and would eventually want the skin, more so than the exalted armor that comes with crafted exotics. So spending the karma on that would not really be a waste, I hear karma is pretty easily obtainable, even though I only have about 400k, but I haven’t really done many karma specific activities.

My tailoring is a little over 400, so I could still work on crafting exotics. I made my current exotic by crafting and I do have another light armor character to make stuff for besides, so I guess keeping the karma armor for my main wouldn’t be such a big deal.