Lyscir – Main Engi
[????] – HoD
[????] – HoD
Equipment
So I am coming back to playing the game after about a 3 month leave. From what I could pick up, new equipment has been put into the game and I have looked into the gear my characters have been using and found that they seem to be slightly out of date. So here are some questions if anyone would be kind of enough to help me with, I would be greatful.
1. Before I left, I remember different ways of allocating stats with equipment, like weapons or accessories were better if you wanted more stats than armor could provide, Is that the same or did it change somehow with the EPak?
2. Most of my gaming is in open world with not a lot of organized people, so I thought of maybe adding a little bit of balance into my gear along with traits (which I have to redo as well), Is there a general line to go with, while trying to get some balance, (like Zerker/Knights was an older way to introduce some toughness into a build) or is it too dependent on traits that add certain boons to help (like fury/might) so that I just have to decide the build than my gear?
3. Kind of off topic but still related, With introduction of Raids, from some who have done them in Guild Wars 2, Is it more skill based or a combo of right skill/right equipment?
1- The way stats works on armors haven’t changed much since they released the game.
What changed is that some armor fixes were removed (you can no longer have Magic Find, for ex) and 4 stat combinations were added (like marauder).
Its worth mentioning that ever since the trait system changed, you no longer get atributes for builds and the stat from equipment were raised as compensation.
2- In a general way, open world content is not hard enough to bother about stats.
There are a few rare bosses that are imune to crit damage, which leads you to use Power/Vit/Toughness combinations since precision and ferocity don’t work. But those are exceptions and most people just end up using berserkers or marauders.
Worth mentioning that since the new way that conditions stack, condi builds are now somewhat worthy on PvE events. Still slight less effective than berserker for most classes tough.
3- More like right class and right build. Can’t give specifics here, I recommend checking your own class boards for Raid builds.
I mostly agree with SoulSin above. Some additional comments:
1. I remember different ways of allocating stats with equipment, like weapons or accessories were better if you wanted more stats than armor could provide, Is that the same or did it change somehow with the EPak?
Unchanged. Exotic and Ascended gear have the same stat ratios they used to. HoT added a couple four-stat prefixes (notably Viper’s for condi builds) and it’s worth taking a peek at those.
2. Is there a general line to go with, while trying to get some balance, (like Zerker/Knights was an older way to introduce some toughness into a build) ?
I agree with SoulSin’s conclusion: focus on having a ‘good’ build that you know how to run; it will work in open world. (As you get more comfortable, you’ll be able to tweak it appropriately for relevant zones, chain or boss events. Until then, pick something fun for you personally.)
In general, you’ll want some hard control effects (to help break defiance) and something to help you deal with being controlled by foes.
3. Kind of off topic but still related, With introduction of Raids, from some who have done them in Guild Wars 2, Is it more skill based or a combo of right skill/right equipment?
It’s both, but skill matters more.
- Groups without the necessary skill won’t succeed regardless of stats or team composition.
- Experienced groups have succeeded with less-than-optimal stats, builds, or teams.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”