Guild Wars 2

Ok, I’ve been playing since release and love the game. I love the variation in the different classes and all the different skills etc, and up til now I’ve enjoyed doing Jumping Puzzles and DE’s etc.
Then I hit 80. I’m still trying to carry on with my personal story, I’m in the Straits of Devastation and because my Gear is a little “lacking” I’m finding the zone to be a pain. Looking around or posting in the Map channel there does not seem to be much player activity and so the contested waypoints have stayed contested for days.
So I thought that I could maybe put down some Gold on the Tier 3 Cultural armor, what I didn’t realise is that it was so expensive, and for some reason the mats that I have in abundance in my Bank don’t sell for much at all and all the things that I need to craft better armor are obscenely expensive. I thought about buying some Gems and trading in for Gold but then can’t bring myself to do it because it’s just going to cost too much.
I’ve boosted some of my gear and even put some Magic-Find Runes on but the amount of drops I’ve had this week are always blue and dropping far less than what they were before.
I’ve hit a wall in my PvE and my understanding of WvW is that there is Invader Armor to aim for but that is about it, my only other recourse was to work on the original dungeons but the activity on those has dropped through the floor and I have no interest in grinding FoTM as that model of Gear-progression is one of the reasons I left “that other game” over twelve months ago.

I’m not sure why I’m posting, if I’m asking for advice or what. What I thought was gonna be “my game” has now ended up putting walls up (primarily because even though I hoard everything it doesn’t seem to be worth anything).

Anyone got any ideas or constructive feedback on what’s happening with the game?
I wasn’t expecting a grind-fest to this extent.

Have you considered doing dungeons? Also, do you have a guild with members you can obtain assistance from?

If you’re finding a zone to be a nuisance you don’t want to waste time with magic find gear. Your foremost goal is being able to kill the mobs – if you can’t kill mobs then having extra chance of loot is pointless

Hold off with your T3 plans too; again, it’s no good running about in sexy-but-useless rare gear if you can’t handle the high level zones. (I was convinced I was going to jump straight into T3 too, but when I got to orr I decided to settle for T1 and bought myself a set of exotics… I got there eventually anyway, just took me a few weeks longer :p )

Look into possibly buying some level 76-79 exotic armour, usually these are MUCH cheaper than level 80 exotics but are only a few stats points off the mark and much better than level 80 rares. Also, have a good long hard look at your playstyle and build, watch some videos to get some ideas; people don’t like to admit they still have lessons to learn but the biggest bar to success in orr is not gear, but combat strategy; orr is where the mobs bar no holds and you’ll need to start playing a better game, I know when I got there I thought I was hot stuff, and I didn’t have too much trouble, but looking back all I can say to myself was “nooooob!”)

Once you get a foothold into the level 80 zones you’ll have a good chance at scoring T6 crafting materials which sell for a fair bit (20s each easily) and start thinking about what to do with that gold (invest it back into better gear, or perhaps investment funds)

I got 15 characters.

After getting one to level 80 and quickly rushing though all of the content, doing everything and getting 100% (you have to do that, because ANet tends to put stuff during festivals and events in annoying places). I’m focusing more in the rest of the characters.
I play every day with the one with the lowest level, doing dailies and playing with people I find while exploring.
Then I do some PvP for an hour, and try to do some WvW if I have time too.

Until they fix many of the issues in the latter maps, I find that to be much more fun.
I’m also slowly gathering materials to max crafting disciplines, instead grinding gold in latter areas to buy them.
I’m getting WAAAAAAY less wealth than those that stick to higher level areas, but at least I’m having fun.

I’m currently on the level 20-30 range with them.

Did you vistit the dragon champions already? There are 3 dragon champions that spawn in 3 different areas every 3 hours.
Shatterer – Blazeridge steps – Lowland burns waypoint
Tequatl the Sunless – Sprakfly fen – Splintered Coast WP
Claw of Jormag – Frostgorge Sound – Somewhere close to the HotW dungeon.
They leave a chest with nice loot behind too.

You can also go and explore maps. The reward for it may not be much but it is a nice change from the undead.

FotM can be a nice farmspot though. Doing one or two runs a day can get you some rares and exotics to salvage/sell. It also takes care of 3/4th of the daily. All that’s left is gathering. The jug of Karma can come in handy as well. In Orr there is a vendor in front of Arah who gives you a nice armour (exotic too, I think) for 42k/piece.

I’d love to offer you some advice but unfortunately I’m in the exact same boat.
Hit 80 on the weekend and cleared my bank of unused mats to buy me a full set of rares and MW jewellery. Been trying to grind my way through the straits for the last couple of days so I can get to the point where I can continue my story quests.
Honestly the gear hasn’t helped much at all. the Straits seem to be a complete mire of chainpulling, CC and condition wielding undead on stupidly fast respawn timers. Itls steadily going from being a challange to incredibly frustrating.
Apart from the 2 suggestions youlve already mentioned (FotM and buying gold), the only other options are get some assistance or get out of Orr. Judging from the posts Ilve read, you really need to be exocticed up if you are hoping to solo through the Orr.
good luck trying to scout up enough gold to get an exotic set from lower lvl areas though. Since Anet nerfed the open world drop rates through the floor it should only take you a solid year of grinding
I honestly would’ve thrown the towel in already if my good friend hadn’t decided to purchase this dog of a game last week.
Oh and I hope you’ve prepared for the incoming stream of “Get a guild”, l2play and “You just suck at GW2” posts that will follow in this thread.

Firstly get a full set of cheap rares off the TP, they are nowhere NEAR as expensive as the cultural stuff. That will really get you in a better place for those 80 zones and the personal story.

At 80 the exp dungeons are the quickest path to getting exotic geared at this point. Crafting may be the worst method at the moment as material prices are very high and buying the piece of the TP will often be much cheaper.

If you look at a variety of activities then you can get exotic geared in a variety of ways. I found the best way was to really mix and match methods.
- Buy a couple of Karma pieces.
- Get a couple dungeon pieces.
- Buy a couple items off the TP.
- Craft a couple.

Really at the moment there is nothing you absolutely need a full set of exotics to participate in beyond the higher level fractals. I think that’s important to keep in mind to feel like the game you are playing is not a grindfest.

Welcome to 80! My first character got there a week or two ago, so I probably can’t tell you everything you can do, but here’s a start…

• Try WvW. Kill Dolyaks and Sentries for some moderate gold if you don’t like PvP-type stuff, or join a zerg and help take supply camps, defend/take camps, etc.
• Run through Straits of Devastation and Malchor’s Leap as fast as you can. Put on all of your “get out of jail free” utilities and avoid enemies. Do not stop for quests, and only detour for the occasional waypoint – chances are it’s contested anyway. The undead are more manageable (and there are more people in) Cursed Shore.
• If you must farm in Malchor’s, stay near Pagga’s Waypoint and the far east side of the map. Lower enemy density, IIRC.
• Try Frostgorge Sound. The enemies are more spread out, and again, there’s a higher chance of running into other players.
• In Cursed Shore, farm near the north central waypoint. It is close to the Plinx chain and also you can often run back to that fort for a safe spot if you start getting overwhelmed.
• Dungeons. Even AC can net you decent money. Until Anet implements an in-game LFG tool, try using gw2lfg.com to find other people. You can do any dungeon except FotM with people from other servers in your same region (EU/NA).
• If you enjoy exploration, just start exploring low level areas and working your way up. The low level crafting mats can still be sold for decent money or you can save them for your next character.

How I manage drops to maximize my loot->gold+ectos:

• Whites+Blues (all levels): Salvage using basic salvage kits all whites and blues under 75c. Vendor blues that would sell for 75+c.
• Greens: First, check BLTC to see if it sells for a decent price (>2.5x vendor price). If not, salvage using basic salvage kit immediately if it’s under level 70. If it’s level 70 or higher, save for MF. (alternatively, you can vendor/salvage all if you’re not going to salvage your own ectos).
• Yellows (dropped or from MF) with unimpressive runes/sigils: Check BLTC to see if it sells. If under level 70, cutoff is 1.15x vendor price (for BLTC fees), else salvage using basic salvage kit. If level 70 or higher, cutoff is the current price of an ecto+sale fees (35s-ish). Sell if it meets cutoff, else salvage using journeyman’s salvage kit.
• Yellows with runes/sigils worth something: Check BLTC for price of item and for attached sigil. If sale price > ecto+rune/sigil price, sell. Else scrap using journeyman’s salvage kit and hope for the best.
• Oranges: Sell on BLTC or scrap using journeyman’s kit and hope for the best if I want the rune/sigil
• Pink: Yeah, never have encountered one

I still don’t have a full set of exotics, but I basically just crafted a set of level 80 greens for myself when I hit 80 and have slowly been upgrading them will yellow or orange drops or with crafted oranges. If you can get into a rhythm for a dungeon, then farming that isn’t a bad option (other than the fact that it’s still farming).

Okey coke, I’ll set my sights a little lower on the TP.

Thanks for the feedback, folks.

I often see threads like this where a player is struggling to use magic find and RNG loot drops to make gold to buy equipment from the BLTP. This mindset appears to originate in some of the other MMOs and RPGs on the market that only support this one model. Of course GW2 supports this model, but it also offers several other forms of currency to use in obtaining equipment, for example karma and dungeon tokens. The game is OK, you just need to expand your perspective.

The following is the method I used to equip my level 80 warrior, other classes may vary but the ele and engineer seem to benefit from this method also. In my opinion “defense before offense” is the metric to apply to equipment. This makes the best of the readily available (BLTP) crafted equipment the Knight’s sets. You can get a set of level 80 Knight’s rares for not too much silver. These will allow you to survive and run dungeons. Now comes the interesting part, An exotic equipment set is available for Ascolonian Catacomb dungeon tokens. This set has Power/Toughness/Vitality versus the Knight’s Power/Precision/Toughness, and that makes it as good as or better than the Knight’s set. The pieces cost something like 250 to 350 tokens each. The AC dungeon is level 30 and has 3 paths. I believe you get 60 tokens per path for the first run of the day. After that it drops to 20 tokens per path. It will take a few runs to get a set, and it does require enjoying playing the game, including the dungeons. My warrior currently has a mix of Knight’s and AC dungeon exotics and can pretty much wander any of the PvE maps without much trouble. If a monster pulls me in, it is greatsword time. Mobbed by 3 or 5 risen? No problem.

Also, before level 80, the Power/Toughness/Vitality equipment is available from heart quest karma vendors. I believe it is soul bound on acquire so it doesn’t appear on the BLTP (Black Lion Trading Post). I didn’t notice this while leveling my warrior but my alts are sure going to take advantage of this equipment.

In short, get over the loot/gold mindset and take advantage of the other methods of getting equipment. Hope this helps.