Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’m a newcomer to the game and I’m at level 43 where I can wear a Tier 1 cultural armor set. I’m just wondering, am I really required to use the cultural set at that level?

Since the level requirement for cultural armor is 40, that means you can now wear it. It doesn’t mean that since you’re past 40, you have to, but it’s a new option for you.

No. You are not required to use any armor skin. You can get the same or better stats in other ways. There are a few achievements you get when you buy enough cultural armors but that’s about it.

Tier 1 Cultural armor is level 35, so no I would definitely not use it at 43.

I got it at 35 mainly for the skin unlocks and its good for a couple different achievements.

If you want to do the cultural armor achievement and collection.

Armor and weapons work a bit differently in this game to many others.

There are 6 tiers (White/Common, Blue/Fine, Green/Masterwork, Yellow/Rare, Orange/Exotic and Pink/Ascended) and all equipment with the same rarity and level requirement is equally good.

Which means the cultural armor is no better (or worse) than any other level 35 rare armor with the same stats, and is actually worse than some of the equipment you can get at level 43.

The main appeal of cultural armor (and other special sets like dungeon armor) is the appearance. Unlike the stats those skins are not available anywhere else in the game and for many people making your character look good (and/or collecting a variety of options) is as important as getting good stats.

But in my opinion that’s not really worth worrying about until you’re level 80 because when you’re still levelling up you’ll switch the equipment you’re using regularly anyway.

If you like how they look then just buy it for the skin unlock.
But don’t get them and unlock he skin before you are the right level, otherwise you will bug the achievement for buying them.