Guild Wars 2

Introduction
I’ve got the idea for this guide because of all those players who have asked advices ingame, to me or in general chat, about dyes and looks. It happened so many times that I decided to create (or to attempt to create since I may not be so good at this) a guide for all of you to consult when you don’t really know how to color your favourite character(s).
Since in GW2 most of the content revolve around having nice skins and stuff, to make your character nice, and since the art of this game, may it be the graphic style or the digital paintings, is awesome, it is important to know how to handle things here, because even eyes want their share.

Terms
First, I want to say that this guide doesn’t want to impose any look or prefer any choice on another: your look is your decision. Here you will find helping tips that hopefully will be useful to add that little something that it’s missing on your toon. Therefore I don’t force you to follow the looks you’ll find here posted in the examples, but you are welcome to use them if you get some ispiration.
Second, this guide will not include everything from the very beginning, not only because I’m a casual player (and quite busy right now), but also because it is a work in progress.
Third, the images and the advices are given based on the max graphic effects, so if you’re playing with a lower res, you may not be able to see all the differences in the various shades of the color. I may do it for low-res users too in the future.
Last, but not least, look up the list of dyes on the Trading Post when deciding which one to buy. In this guide I’ll try to give convenient solutions to get good results with cheap dyes.
Dyes’ prices on the TD

Useful Dye Galleries
Guild Wars 2 Wiki Dye Gallery
Dulfy’s GW2 Dye Gallery
Boojum GW2 Dye Chart

DYES – GENERAL TIPS
Get inspired by your profession: The art in this game separates the professions visually with marked colors. IF you don’t know where to begin with, you can start with this colors, and then develop your own style once you’ve got more confident:

• Blue, Azure and White for Guardians
• Orange and Amber Yellow for Warriors
• Green for Rangers
• Black, Purple and Dark Raspberry for Thieves
• Violet for Mesmers
• Dark Green for Necromancers
• Brown for Engineers
• Crimson for Elementalists

Remember your profession’s skill effects: A Necromancer uses a lot of skills who are dark green and blackish, while a Guardian uses a lot of azure skills. You can get ispiration by those too, and like every other part of your character, you can decide to match your colors with skills effects or not. If you are a perfectionist though, you may want to use colors that you like to match them with shades that fit the skills too, just to avoid contrasting results.
Guardian Blue Effects on a Ruby Armor

Keep an eye on the material: Different material means different effects. When choosing dyes, keep in mind that the quality and the shade of the color will be affected by the material of the armor. You can use the function “Sort by Material” in the Dye Panel. Dyes will look better if used on the right material.

Remember your gear: Different kind of armor means different effects that reflects on your colors too. In general we can sum it up to those rules:

• Cultural and Gem Store Armors have better reflections and effects than other armors.
• WvW Armor and unique Karma Armor is slightly less defined than above.
• Dungeon Armor is slightly less defined than above.
• Normal Armor is the least detailed of them all.

Different tiers of armor have different shades of colors:
Tier 1 Cultural Charr Heavy with Gold Dye
Tier 2 Cultural Charr Heavy with Gold Dye
Tier 3 Cultural Charr Heavy with Gold Dye

Unfortunately in GW2 it is not possible (yet?) to dye your weapon, but it contributes to your look. Remember: the skin and the colors of your gear make a huge impact on your character.
Green Natural Staff on Gold Armor
Flaming Golden Sword on Gold Armor

Your Race is important: The Race you choose defines your look, from your skin to your hair to your fur or trunk. Upon creating your character or using a makeover kit, remember to adjust your appearance so that your clothes and body don’t contrast. The small details are important.

Thanks to Lazuli, Lil Puppy and Behellagh for helping

Know your character: If you are a role-player, or if you like to personalize characters, you may want to build a story around it that will be reflected by its colors too. This will help in deciding which dyes to use. For example, if you’re a Norn devoted to the Wolf, you may decide to assume a grey and brown set, while if your Asura belongs to the Static college, it may want to show it with some red. The same is true for any decision regarding aspects of your personal story, like gods or daytime.

Know your tastes: If you’re having troubles in deciding which dye to use, you may not be so sure about your tastes in the first place. It is a good thing to browse art websites for images or subjects that you already know you like: maybe the reason you like them is also in the colors (for example if you like looking at blood, you may also like its shade of red, without even knowing it).
It is good to browse them anyway: maybe you will find a color you really can’t get your eyes off.

Save your money: You may discover that the shade you were looking for was a cheap dye that you decided to overlooked for a rare and more expensive one. While we can say for sure that rare dyes have particular shades that make them nicer to some, it doesn’t mean they are the most beautiful. Sometimes, to create our look, we have to search among the Fines.

NOTE: I will use the formula of “T3 Heavy Armor with Heavy Dungeon Boots and Dungeon Clothes Leg Armor” because it provides a good mix of materials to show the dyes on. Later on I may add more specific images, but from these alone you should be able to get an idea for almost every character.

1) THE BASICS – BLACK AND WHITE
Like in most of the MMORPG out there, in GW2 Black and White dyes have ruled over the top for some time, before being surclassed by their notorious twins, Abyss and Celestial. Those dyes afore mentioned may be generally too expensive for a broke player; so here are my personal tips for a substitute dye that gives quite a similar look, but are infact way cheaper.

• WHITE SHADES
  - Celestial Dye&White Dye
  Icing Dye
  Fog Dye
  Mithril Dye

• BLACK SHADES
  - Abyss Dye&Black Dye
  Midnight Ice Dye
  Night Shade Dye
  Pitch Dye
  Iron Dye
  Graphite Dye
  Charcoal Dye

(Upgrading)

2) THE PRIMARY COLORS – RED, YELLOW AND BLUE

• YELLOW SHADES
  - Pyre Dye
  Redemption Dye
  Illumination Dye
  Harvest Gold Dye
  - Flare Dye
  Lemonade Dye
  Banana Dye

Reserved for future update

Reserved for future update

Reserved for future update

We aren’t power rangers. Professions aren’t color coded. You may color code them but few if anyone else does.

My Thief wears blood red.

Behellagh.1468:

We aren’t power rangers. Professions aren’t color coded. You may color code them but few if anyone else does.

My Thief wears blood red.

Actually, they kinda are.
Their skill icons, their skill effects, their wallpapers and even their hubs is color coded.

Infact I suggest to start from there if you really don’t have any clue on what to use on your character. But if you already have an idea, of course you go with that.
Professions’ colors may be used as a start, but if somebody already knows what it wants, then of course it skips this passage.

There are more things to consider when choosing colors besides the profession. The type of armor should be taken into account. Cloth wearers can be as colorful as we want, but leather wearers and heavy metal wearers should consider the type of material more.

The particular role the hero would play could influence color. Elementalists might color coordinate with what element they will specialize in. It just so happens my elementalist, Amber Everglow, is strong into fire so her colors are red, orange and yellow. Also what order your hero joins can play a part. Order of Whispers being spies would probably choose colors to blend into the background.

Race can also play an important part. For Sylvari and Charr, in particular, I would coordinate their armor’s colors with their skin/hide colors. I myself would not choose blue for a Sylvari, since blue is so very rare in the plant world, even if the Sylvari was a guardian.

In the beginning I did choose particular colors for each of my characters. When one of mine got a dye that was a color for one of my others it went into the bank until they could pick it up. Thank goodness with dyes being for the account now I don’t have to do that any more.

Lets not forget about color theory! Not that fashion ever cared about that but still!

Due to material affecting the color, be aware that colors like Abyss will not look as good on cloth as say Midnight Fire whereas Midnight Fire doesn’t look as good as Abyss on leather.

And yes, all the professions have a specific color associated with them, they also are inspired by specific gods, weather, temperatures, and other things.

Necro – Green – Grenth, Snow, Cold/Chill

This thread is nice for the suggestions for cheaper dyes that look very similar to more expensive dyes, so kudos for that.

As far as colour selection though, I say just go for whatever you find aesthetically pleasing. If you want to make your Necromancer pretty pastel pink and wield a Princess Wand, go for it! Don’t give a skritt about what other people think; it’s YOUR character and you’re the person going to be spending the most time looking at it, so make something that YOU like looking at.

And there are a couple of different dye charts for the game.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dye#Colors

http://www.dboo.net/gw2_colors.html

http://www.dragonsworn.net/dyes/

http://dulfy.net/2013/12/24/gw2-dye-gallery/

Don’t remember where the color wheel is at so I’m linking my copy, it wasn’t complete before and it’s not exact for some materials.

Note not all galleries are up to date with the latest gem store dyes. Dulfy’s is and the Wiki is almost.