Guild Wars 2

Hello GW2 players!
My question in basic is the topic title. I’m curious about what there is to do after you have gotten to level 80. Mostly what I mean by this is what, after 80, can you do that you couldn’t do before being max level? Anything at all. I really don’t know anything about GW2 end game content. How do you gear up your character? And what content is there exclusively for max levels. I really want to get into the game but being a major noob discourages me sometimes lol. Guild Wars 2 is very different from other MMOs, which is great, but it leaves me pretty confused! Thanks for the help!

Well, gearing up your character is usally as simple as going onto the trading post and searching up exotic gear for your character. You can go around the high leveled areas and collect materials or run events and collect/craft/sell the high level drops you get to make money, run dungeons more effectively/do their explorable modes (with better gear and more personal playing experience), do the fractal dungeons, clear all the maps, fight world bosses, do WvWvW or other forms of pvp.

Well there aren’t any entirely new game modes or anything, but there are some zones and at least one dungeon that you can’t do before then. And since that dungeon is also the end of the Personal Story you’ll need to be level 80 to complete that. Some people say you either shouldn’t touch WvW until you’re level 80 or at least won’t really be effective at it until you are but I wouldn’t know about that.

For me the main thing is simply not having to worry about my level any more. I don’t need to check the level of a zone before I enter it, or watch where I’m going within a zone, I don’t need to save gear until I’m the right level to use it etc. I can just get on and do what I want.

Of course there’s also the fact that you’ll finally have all your trait points and should be close to having all your skills (or at least all the ones you really want), and will be able to get gear with 3 stat bonuses, so you can put together a complete build. If you haven’t already decided what build you want then when you hit 80 is the time to decide.

There’s a few different ways you can gear up. I got exotic armor from the temples in Orr for karma (because I already had far more than enough karma), weapons from WvW for badges (which I got from achievement chests) and green accessories from drops which I’m working on upgrading. You can also buy stuff from the TP or craft it. The only one I don’t recommend is waiting for drops because you’ll be waiting a very long time for enough exotics to drop.

Oh yeah, you can also start thinking about getting ascended accessories and weapons, or a legendary if you want. You could make some progress on it before then (like doing dailies) but it’s at level 80 that it’s really worth doing.

Living Story, Fractals of the Mists, and World vs World are the end-game in GW2.

Living Story is brand new content being added on a bi-weekly basis. But it goes away after a limited time. This is one of the primary ways Anet is trying to revolutionize the genre, so don’t miss out on it. Any character can participate since your level is upscaled to whatever is needed to complete the content.

Fractals are your more traditional endgame mini-dungeons where you can grind higher fractal levels and ascended gear. You are able to enter the fractals as an upscaled character, but most groups beyond tier 1 will still require level 80 and fully geared.

WvW is ongoing war against other worlds (servers). Unless you are in a packed top tier world, they could probably use your help on the front lines. It ranges from casual PvP to hardcore guild groups – so don’t worry about going in and others getting mad at you for being inexperienced. You should probably wait until you are at least level 30+.

So at 80 if I wanted to gear up without PVP, going out in to the open world for Living Story and Fractals are the way to go? I read the page on the fractals and it mentions ascended weapons and a few other pieces but what about Ascended armor sets? Or are those obtained via an alternate method? I am very close to the level cap and I am looking for more information as well.

Fractals give you Ascended Rings. Either by luck after lvl 10 or by buying with Pristine Fractal Relics.

Ascended Weapons can drop at higher level fractals. I personally know only one person that lucky. They also can drop from the same places the t7 materials do. But the chances are slim. Most Ascended Weapons are crafted and they are account bound when made.

Ascended Armor comes before the end of the year. Time to start hoarding materials.

Ascended Amulets and Trinkets are sold by Laurel Wendors. Rings too, but laurels are valuable so Fractals is the more expedient way.

Garambola.2461:

Fractals give you Ascended Rings. Either by luck after lvl 10 or by buying with Pristine Fractal Relics.

Ascended Weapons can drop at higher level fractals. I personally know only one person that lucky. They also can drop from the same places the t7 materials do. But the chances are slim. Most Ascended Weapons are crafted and they are account bound when made.

Ascended Armor comes before the end of the year. Time to start hoarding materials.

Ascended Amulets and Trinkets are sold by Laurel Wendors. Rings too, but laurels are valuable so Fractals is the more expedient way.

Thanks for the info, it’s appreciated. So the only way to really gear up is by crafting then? That’s rather annoying. Ascended armor will need to be crafted also and the best way to get the weapons is by hoarding mats and crafting them also while laurels are used for non-set pieces and are obtained by fractals?

Just want to make sure I have it correct.

Khalith.2987:

Garambola.2461:

Fractals give you Ascended Rings. Either by luck after lvl 10 or by buying with Pristine Fractal Relics.

Ascended Weapons can drop at higher level fractals. I personally know only one person that lucky. They also can drop from the same places the t7 materials do. But the chances are slim. Most Ascended Weapons are crafted and they are account bound when made.

Ascended Armor comes before the end of the year. Time to start hoarding materials.

Ascended Amulets and Trinkets are sold by Laurel Wendors. Rings too, but laurels are valuable so Fractals is the more expedient way.

Thanks for the info, it’s appreciated. So the only way to really gear up is by crafting then? That’s rather annoying. Ascended armor will need to be crafted also and the best way to get the weapons is by hoarding mats and crafting them also while laurels are used for non-set pieces and are obtained by fractals?

Just want to make sure I have it correct.

99.9% of the game can be done in exotics, which can be gotten in a variety of ways- heck, you probably could do a lot of it in rares if you’re skilled enough. Ascended isn’t required unless you’re going high into Fractals, which don’t have any special rewards at 21+. Treat it more as a gradual, opt-in way to round out your character over time rather than an absolute threshold that MUST be met.

Effectively, there is nothing to do after 80. You do have options, however:

• If you enjoy the misnomer called “Living Story” you may want to take your level 80 character there every single two weeks, minus three days for patching, starting on a Tuesday near you.
• If you enjoy the grind of crafting, then you might think of creating a Legen-wait-for-it… no seriously, just wait for it (or better yet, never make it, the ‘sparkly’ footprints are not worth it). Or perhaps the slightly less grind-y Ascended weapon. Times 5 or 6 depending on how many weapons you run with.
• If you enjoy dungeon runs, and don’t have a Ranger or Engineer, you may want to, well, runs dungeons. Endlessly. If you enjoy slightly more random dungeons, run Fractals. Endlessly.
• If you enjoy GvG… erm… sorry, killing others in the service of your server, you may jump into WvWvW. And be killed by endless zergballs.
• If you enjoy farming, you may join any of the trains departing stations in Queensdale, Frostgorge (and apparently all over Orr) by simply asking “where train” in map chat. It would be best to learn where the trains kills those poor, defenceless champions in advance so as not to incur any nerd rage.
• If you enjoy standing around and looking pretty (or not, avatar beauty is in the eye of the beholder), I would suggest just outside the bank in Lion’s Arch.
• If you enjoy something challenging, I would suggest Tequatl the S/Funless. On a small server. Alone.
• If you enjoy something silly and utterly mindless, I would suggest either SAB or Scarlet.
• If you enjoy any of the above, buy gems with real money to tip your writers.

Disclaimer: the above is firmly tongue-in-cheek, so go ahead and use the “Report” button

Exotics are just fine really. But Ascended does give something to do after lvl 80, if content otherwise seems already seen.

It will take me about 50 weeks to get all weapons for all my characters. But I do everythig else in the meanwhile.

Khalith.2987:

Garambola.2461:

Fractals give you Ascended Rings. Either by luck after lvl 10 or by buying with Pristine Fractal Relics.

Ascended Weapons can drop at higher level fractals. I personally know only one person that lucky. They also can drop from the same places the t7 materials do. But the chances are slim. Most Ascended Weapons are crafted and they are account bound when made.

Ascended Armor comes before the end of the year. Time to start hoarding materials.

Ascended Amulets and Trinkets are sold by Laurel Wendors. Rings too, but laurels are valuable so Fractals is the more expedient way.

Thanks for the info, it’s appreciated. So the only way to really gear up is by crafting then? That’s rather annoying. Ascended armor will need to be crafted also and the best way to get the weapons is by hoarding mats and crafting them also while laurels are used for non-set pieces and are obtained by fractals?

Just want to make sure I have it correct.

We don’t know how ascended armor will be obtained yet.

Ascended weapons have to be crafted, or they drop rarely from certain places. The only one I know for sure is Tequatl, but there might be others. I haven’t looked into it yet. All Legendary weapons are also ascended but they’re much harder to get.

Ascended accessories are obtained either from Fractals OR from Laurels. You get laurels by doing the daily and monthly achievements which can be done pretty much everywhere, but usually open-world PvE.

But you don’t really need ascended gear. You can do everything in exotics (or even lower tiers) without too much trouble and you can get exotics from a lot of different places. Crafting or buying from the trading post is probably the most reliable way to get the stat combination(s) you want because they’re all available that way, but there are other options.