Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’m relatively new to the game and have no idea how would I approach getting items I want (Berserker sets). My ranger is currently level 78 and is running Longbow + S/A.

I read that you can do CoF to collect badges for berserker gear but I figured that would take forever with my limited time as well as not being gear’d enough to do so + having no knowledge of the dungeon (people not wanting me in the group)

I did some research on my own and found out that I can probably get full set of Rubicon Berserker set with karmas I have currently. Is it a wise investment? Also, what weapons would you guys recommend for weapon sets I have on currently.

*I’m more interested in PVE than PVP

The problem with karma gear is you can’t get any runes out that you put in because you can’t salvage it. If you’re going to be using cheap(ish) runes it’s fine.

CoF P1+2 can be run in less than an hour each day, and would give you a full set of armour in 10-11 days. The paths are quite easy, and mostly consist of following the person in front, so you should be OK if you join all welcome or nondescript groups and say you’re new and ask if that’s OK (or will at least result in you getting kicked at the start if it isn’t).

Check DnT’s ranger guide for up to date build and weapon information for dungeons and GW2 dungeons for handy walkthroughs.

You can run dungeons with rare/yellow gear fine, especially CoF path 1 which is a very fast & easy run (10-20 min average running with random strangers I’d say, faster with a good group. You’ll get 60 tokens (+1.5g) per day running just that path once, so it can be worth looking into if only to get a couple pieces & buy the others with the gold.

Re: the lack of experience, just steer clear of exp/AP requirements, see if you can find lfgs saying “all welcome”. You can also make your own. The most important IMO is that you say that it’s your first time – in my experience a lot of people are willing to talk newbies through the dungeon, as long as they’re polite enough to warn beforehand and are willing to learn. The people we get annoyed at are people who join and say nothing, don’t listen and mess things up when we can see they don’t know what they’re doing.

Karma gear is good, but just keep in mind that it cannot be salvaged so you won’t be able to recover any rune you stick in it if you want to change later.

For the weapons, LB & S/A are good, consider also getting a warhorn (for blast finisher on skill 5). Just take whatever weapon has the right stats (berserker again) and is max level – I’d say check on the trading post, or buy them with dungeon tokens.

COE and arah give berserker as well.

What others have said….I would stay clear of Karma gear. Just get yourself some rare armour from the TP, its not very expensive and you can recover a good portion of your money by salvaging it for ectos after you get your exotic armour (so its not wasted money). Rare armour with either some vitality or toughness + power will give you enough protection/dps to stay alive while you learn the dungeons as well as help pull your own weight.

Do CoF 1 and 2 daily for a couple weeks and you are done. You will have all of your berserker armour/weapons PLUS you will make some decent money from dungeon loot and rewards which you will need for buying superior sigils/runes.

Thank you for your insights. I have decided to buy Rares and learn CoF!

Also, I see a lot of people mention ectos. What ssalvage kit should I use on Rares if I happen to get an exotic in the future? Thanks!!

Edit: Oh and another thing, I want to buy ascended zerker amulet sold by EOTM NPC. Costs 20 laurel + 250 badges or so. Should I buy that?

I’d recommend either master or mystic kits. Any Black Lion salvage kits you may have are best used to recover expensive runes or possibly insignias on exotic stuff.

The ascended amulet is a good idea yes. Also, in the event that you are in EU zone feel free to add me ingame and I can show you through CoF (+CoE if you’re interested).

IMO karma gear is fine if you’re reasonably sure you’re going to keep using that stat combo (because then you won’t want to get rid of it, and being unable to salvage it doesn’t matter).

Same with gear bought with WvW badges (which has the same limitation), although that’s probably not worth bothering with unless you’ve already played a lot of WvW because getting badges can be quite slow.

Two options I haven’t seen mentioned:

• Buy it from the TP with gold. This is probably less popular because there’s lots of uses for gold, whereas most other currencies are for getting gear and a few specific other things, so it’s better to save your gold, but it’s an option.
• Level crafting (if you haven’t already) and make your own. Levelling crafting can be expensive, but actually making the armor is relatively cheap. If you like to experiment with different builds and stat combinations this could be a good option because then you can make multiple sets.

NOiD.2381:

Thank you for your insights. I have decided to buy Rares and learn CoF!

Also, I see a lot of people mention ectos. What ssalvage kit should I use on Rares if I happen to get an exotic in the future? Thanks!!

Edit: Oh and another thing, I want to buy ascended zerker amulet sold by EOTM NPC. Costs 20 laurel + 250 badges or so. Should I buy that?

Ya, this is probably the best way to get Ascended Amulet. But watch out for other kind of ascended trinket. There is other better way to acquire ascended accessories (guild missions) and ascended rings (fractals).

Master Salvage kit is nice, but you can craft Mystic Salvage kit without much problem. They have the same effect as master salvage kit, but you’ll have 250 use, not only 25. Much easier and cost less. Black Lion should be keep for specific situation (if you want to recover a rune). Usually, I keep 1or 2 stack of black lion salvage kit and use all the rest on exotic. When i run out of black lion salvage kit (but still have my 1-2 stack for specific situation), then i use mystic salvage kit on exotikittenil I get other black lion salvage kit.

I don’t know if anyone mentioned it but if you run CoF 1 have a Greatsword for the brazier part using a sword can easily launch you out of the circle and that’s really annoying for the gate guy.

As far as Armor rares with rubys work till you get exotics, use ranger runes in the exotics. You can salvage the rares as you upgrade to get your money back(ectos).

Wow, every one of you were so helpful.

I didn’t know about WvW zerk gear that could be obtained through badges ( Have tons from EoTM) + few silvers/gold. So, I just bought those exotics instead since they were better investment than buying rares in the TP in my opinion. I still planning on doing dungeons for my own benefits and whatnot.

Also, I play in NA so I won’t be able to add you jackaljag

No problem, good luck with running the dungeons! If you have any more questions down the line do feel free to pm or mail me ingame, those work even cross-region

You could also craft it

exotic gear is cheap enough that if you run dungeons, you will be able to afford buying exotics off the TP before you can buy them with dungeon tokens. You would probably only need to run CoF and get 3 exotics with dungeon tokens and 3 from the TP?
Also, there isn’t a huge difference between rare and exotic.
If you’re level 78, I would get your level 80 items. don’t bother getting level 78 items that you’ll just replace with 80’s in an hour.

NOiD.2381:

Wow, every one of you were so helpful.

I didn’t know about WvW zerk gear that could be obtained through badges ( Have tons from EoTM) + few silvers/gold. So, I just bought those exotics instead since they were better investment than buying rares in the TP in my opinion. I still planning on doing dungeons for my own benefits and whatnot.

Also, I play in NA so I won’t be able to add you jackaljag

A note about eotm armor. That armor, like karma armor, cannot be salvaged or dumped in the forge. However, the difference between exotic armor and ascended armor is really not that big and isnt really even marginally necessary unless you are doing high level fractals. i routinely run lower level fractals (up to 19 so far) in my eotm armor.

Yes, for the ascended amulet, laurels/badges is the best way to go there. Rings=fractals, accessories = guild missions.

As for karma gear, as was mentioned, you cant forge or salvage those and they are soulbound. However, they are a different set of skins only rarely obtained from drops elsewhere (fractals/forge only places I believe) So, if you like the skins and you need the stats on another character its isnt a wrong option. its what I plan to do on my warrior in fact.

Also, you probably have figured this out, but just to mention. The differences between different level 80 armors with the same prefix is only the skin so have fun personalizing your look.

EDIT: o and if you have a crafting discipline up to 400 anyway, the level 78 crafting backpacks with a level 65 rare gem in them are actually better than a level 80 exotic back making them a very good value for what you get and actually only second to an ascended back piece. If you didnt plan to level crafting for some reason, then that might makeit a bit more cost prohibitive, but you have to level some crafting anyway if you want ascended weapons/armor later.

Exotic gear is pretty affordable!

I reached 80 a few days ago with 15g in my bag.
Then I dug through my bank/collectibles looking for things to sell, and it turns out i had close to 20g worth of random collectibles deposited in there!
More than enough to deck my warrior out in exotic gear, weapons and runes!

I’m a new 80 so if you’d like someone to learn the various dungeon paths together with, feel free to look me up!

Arianhod.3485:

You could also craft it

Surprised this was so far down the responses. Getting the money for the bloods is not hard and running lvl 80 zones for T6 mats that may be bloods (or other mats to sell to get blood) is part of PVE.

That Guy.5704:

A note about eotm armor. That armor, like karma armor, cannot be salvaged or dumped in the forge.

you mean the armageddon armor? that can absolutely be salvaged and dumped in the forge. I recommend you salvage it only if it is able to give an insignia (soldier, magi, shaman, etc.), and use a master kit. otherwise I just save them and toss them into the forge and sell on the TP whatever comes out (usually worth around 4g)

Mystic.5934:

That Guy.5704:

A note about eotm armor. That armor, like karma armor, cannot be salvaged or dumped in the forge.

you mean the armageddon armor? that can absolutely be salvaged and dumped in the forge. I recommend you salvage it only if it is able to give an insignia (soldier, magi, shaman, etc.), and use a master kit. otherwise I just save them and toss them into the forge and sell on the TP whatever comes out (usually worth around 4g)

It certainly cannot be salvaged. Karma and badge of honor gear is not salvageable. Some karma stuff can be forged, but badge stuff can’t be.

Mystic.5934:

That Guy.5704:

A note about eotm armor. That armor, like karma armor, cannot be salvaged or dumped in the forge.

you mean the armageddon armor? that can absolutely be salvaged and dumped in the forge. I recommend you salvage it only if it is able to give an insignia (soldier, magi, shaman, etc.), and use a master kit. otherwise I just save them and toss them into the forge and sell on the TP whatever comes out (usually worth around 4g)

You can salvage the armageddon skinned armor you get from fractals, but not what yo buy from a karma merchant. same skin, different origin, different salvage rules. However, I think I was a bit unclear ,the karma can be forged, not salvaged. badge of honor: neither.