Guild Wars 2

I’ve been having a great time learning how things work in this game, and level 80 is coming up on my main way too fast. So here are some things I’m not having an easy time finding on various threads, guides, and videos. (I’ve searched for awhile now.)

1. I’m still not clear on the differences between Legendary/Exotic/Ascended armor. Which am I “ultimately” going to strive for? I see lots of 80s running around or screenshots of characters in “pretty” armor that are neither bought on the Gem Store, nor shown on armor gallery websites under dungeons/crafting.

Which leaves me wondering if these are WvW/PvP rewards, personal quest rewards, or this Mystic Forge thing with which I am only vaguely familiar.

So, how did you get your character looking awesome?

2. Now that I mention it, PvP in any and every game makes me nervous. Shortly after I first started playing, I brought three friends with me, so we are all new and we’re thinking we’ll wait until 80 to try WvW. Since we’ll have learned our desired playstyles and skill sets by then. Or finally decided which character to pick as a main. :p

Being the first to 80, I’m the pioneer in this and I want to get us prepared. Until I get a handle on the learning curve, am I going to get stomped so much that I get discouraged? I’ve read various guides that have given me the impression that there are so many players doing this at once, it won’t matter that much if I mess up. Thoughts?

3. Fractals and/or The Mists. If they’re even the same thing. I’m confused. (Hey, maybe that’s where people are getting the impressive-looking armor.)

My impression: Super-hard and people will yell at you. I hope one of you can change my mind about this.

And lastly, thank you for being a great community as a whole. My friends and I have played lots of other MMOs and every day we are surprised at how great GW2 players (generally) are to one another.

1. There is no legendary armor. Only Exotic/Ascended. As far as the process for getting those, I do not know yet. 10 levels away from 80 and haven’t looked into it yet. I know that Ascended is the one to strive for.
Those characters are most likely definitely wearing armor you can find on dungeons/crafting galleries. They may just be mix-and-matching skins, rather than sticking with one set, and have a ton of nice dye options available to them.

2. WvW is a hit or a miss. Lots of zerg, mass vs. mass, or you can also do small group roams. For PvP in general, I prefer sPvP. WvW is, to me, just an easy way to level and farm loot for salvage, money, karma, and experience.

3. The Mists are the WvW zones. Fractals are sort of like dungeons? I dunno, have yet to do any fractals.

If anyone would like to correct me or reiterate anything I’ve said in a better way, please do. I’m nowhere near an “expert”.

1. The Ascended equips have to be crafted, crafting level need to be level 500, the Ascended Acessories can be bought from laurel vendor. Legendaries are something that takes alot of time and effort, just google ingredient or material for legendary and it will list them for you, not easy task. Exotic can be crafted or bought off trading post the market. Some armors are from dungeon or from Cultural armor vendors (list from Tier 1 to Tier 3, every race have their own unique Cultural Armors, Tier 3 cost the most and its only good for looks.) I havent got my legendary yet because im slow in games T.T
2. 2 type of PvP. The sPvP and the WvW. sPvP is your typical PvP but your character are auto 80 and all skill unlocked, It practically completely a diferent world. WvW is on the other hand where you wear the same armor you wear in PvE, but your level gets bumped up to level 80, skill same as your PvE. You gain Exp equal to your level and money equal to your level, like if your level 10 or 20 you get like 30 to 50 copper each cap, and at level 80 you get silvers for each caps.

3. Fractal is practically a Maze like dungeon, you enter and your auto dumped into one of the random dungeons that fractal have, complete them to get a chest and fractal frags at end of each dungeon, it will then ask if you want to continue, yes and youll auto transport to another random dungeon the system will randomly pick for you. Fractal have levels, the higher the level the harder the dungeons are. Example if you go to the swamp dungeon at level 1 its ok, but if you go to swamp and you set it at level 10 or any above it will get harder.

1. Exotics are also rare drops as well and can be found anywhere in the PvE world and WvW.

Also note, Ascended armor is necessary for Fractals. If you have no desire to participate in them, you can stick with exotic gear and still be competitive in WvW.

For more on fractals and ascended armor: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractals_of_the_Mists

1) Exotic will be your first end-game gear if you want. That will be one of your first step as a level 80. Its relatively easy to get and do the job for pretty much anything you can do in the game. Ascended is a bit better (but not that much if you compare it to the higher price), but cost a lot more. You can craft it, or hope for a drop that will fix the stats you need. That is only for ascended armor and weapons. If you talk about ascended trinkets, then for several of those, its easier to get the ascended version over the exotic (rings and amulet at least). Legendary is at the same level as a ascended (stats wise). The two advantage of a legendary is the possibility to swap stats when out of combat and the look of the legendary (THE main reason to craft a legendary is the look). But they cost even more than ascended. Usually someone that play on a regular basic (like 40+ hours per week) will get a legendary in about 3 months. But this can range from 1 month to 1 year depending on your luck and how much gold you can make when you play.
2) In sPvP, its all about skill. If you are better you win, if you have worst you lose. In WvW, a lot more come into play (for the better or the worst). If you can go into a big kitten Zerg, your errors won’t really change anything. You’ll only be 1 part of a big machine. As you get better in WvW, you can do more. Scout, Upgrade, etc. You also get better at fighting and can start to Roam for some fight against less people or join a raiding guild for organized fight on a larger scale.
3) Mist is like a alternate dimensions. Its only a nice escuse for Anet to do pretty much anything they want. WvW, sPvP and Fractal don’t really mix well in the GW2 universe, so all of that are in the ’’Mist’’. Its blurry, its hard to tell what it is, so nobody will ask questions. And if they do, well its in the mist guys, no need for explanation. For Fractal specifically. Its like a pool of several smaller dungeon and a pool of 3 different boss. Each time you complete a fractal, the game choose 3 random small part and 1 boss and that’s what you gonna do. It also scale in difficulty from 1 to 50. I suggest you to find out about the mentor topic on the dungeon forum for people to show you fractal since its kind of complicated. Also, its really hard to go into one by your own and figure out everything by yourselves. Fractal is not really hard, just a lot of information to figure out at the beginning.

Jakdariel.9076:

Also note, Ascended armor is necessary for Fractals. If you have no desire to participate in them, you can stick with exotic gear and still be competitive in WvW.

Note that Ascended armor is needed for HIGH LEVEL fractals. You can do lower level fractals in any armor (as AGONY, the condition that requires the Ascended equipment) does not show up until a certain Fractal level and starts to get progressively more dangerous as you rise in Fractal levels.