Guild Wars 2

Hi guys

So this is my first character and I’ve just hit level 80. I’ve not really invested much whilst levelling up into gear so I have a teeny bit of gold to be able to upgrade all my level 50 items to level 80 haha.

But, I have no idea where to start.

a) I have a level 400 jeweller and tailor. Do I craft my own ‘tier-1 exotic’ set of armor/trinkets? Or is it cheaper to simply buy it? Will I even be able to buy it with buy orders? :/

b) I don’t really have much time so farming gear tokens or something will take me a while. I’m seeing how ascended items are literally out of the picture for me.

c) I enjoy staff, and scepter/dagger as my go-to items. I genuinely do not like dagger dagger, as a playstyle on a mage caster it doesn’t make sense imo.

And finally,

d) What’s a good type of gear that will be good all around. In WvW, dungeons, 100%ing, future fractals (havent done any yet). I’ve been using carrion with s/d but not sure if its that good.

Or – should I just bite the bullet and buy multiple sets of armor for different purposes? How do you manage your builds?

To play sPvP you actually don’t need to farm any gear, you have all gear available from the start.

You can buy all the Exotic gear for WvW or PvE in the trading post. What gear is good depends on your build so you probably should ask in the ele-forum about that.
Since i don’t play ele, i can’t help you there, maybe someone else with some ele experience will answer here, but you may be better of on the ele-forum.

a) the difference is very tiny, sometimes it is even more expensive to craft rather than buying from TP
b) take your time, Ascended gear is to be considered end-game content and you don’t “need” it, although having it makes certain things easier
c) it is actually better to just learn all possible combinations, because despite the fact you can have overall good results with any equipment, you will be able to overcome certain difficulties using specific “counters”
d) carrion is not our best shot, Elementalist tends to benefit more from power/burst rather than conditions.
Once you will have decided which stats you want to focus (and that mostly comes from which role you want to play in the game: support, scout, nuker ecc) you will find gearing very easy.

I personally use PVT armor and zerker trinkets for a general set up since I can wvw in it. I also have a spare set of zerker armor from CoF.
Whatever you do on any character, I’d always suggest having your critical damage come from your trinkets since they gives the best ratio when it comes to stat trade offs.

You can look at my guide in my sig for my thoughts on the Dungeon Elementalist. That should help get you started.

One thing I will tell you. Carrion is possibly the worst choice for an Elementalist, along with Rabid. Condition Damage on an Elementalist is really bad. You’re best off using a gear set with Power as its primary stat (Berserkers in PvE, Soldiers in WvW, Valkyrie Amulet in PvP).

You don’t have to buy or craft any armor if you are short on mats or gold. There’s not much of a grind to get exotic armor in dungeons. You can also get exotic armor from the karma vendors located at the temples in Orr, 42,000 Karma apiece I believe.

A combination of Knight/Soldier/Cavalier gear will serve you well in WvW.

It’s usually better to buy your gear from the TP rather than craft it when you include opportunity cost.