Guild Wars 2

Hi Illusionists,
Im pretty new to this game and Im almost level 80 on my human female mesmer. I would like to prepare a buy list. What armor should I choose to get the best stats possible? I have the same problem with weapons too. To choose weapons I need a good PvE build too. What do you recommend?
Speaking of gold I think I will be able to spend about 30g at the moment.
Please let me know if you need some more info to advise me.
Thank you!

Before you select what armor to get, you need to decide what kind of mesmer you want to run. I’d suggest going back through and look at the various builds others have posted to find the one you like. Once you decide on a setup you like, then it becomes much easier to figured out what armor to get.

An easy starting point is to get Knights armor & weapons and cavalier trinkets. This will at least provide you with good offense and defense.

Well, there are lots of builds out there. How can I know which are good for what purposes? I need a general build for PvE so I think it should be quite balanced. What should I be looking for?

Considering armor: should I buy some general exotic items and upgrade them with runes or buy a preset one? Is it worth to buy karma armor (is it better/worse)?

Your pve experience depends on other factors.

If your generally running dungeons with guild mates/friends, it might be best to get your build to suit your overall group. While pugging I generally just encourage to not try any support builds since if your party can’t manage the encounters, no amount of support you give them will help.

I started with a staff/condition build, with sceptre/pistol (before sceptre “buff”), using prec/tough/cond dmg with runes of undead. While playing with my support guardian friend. Boosting parties through dungeons runs was easy with the amount of healing, boons and reflection running around with the both of us, but we did encounter parties which would just die regardless of our efforts.

I had to make a big decision in my final spec when ascended gear was introduced …so I don’t just get gear I would never use, and finally reverted to a berserk shatter build. My final decision was encouraged by the fact that I always PvE with my guard friend, so he can help keep me alive while also stacking vulnerability consistently while supplying a lot of AoE damage.

So as far as PvE goes, if you have friends and guild it might be worth researching what role you fit best in your groups. If your a solo pug and feel that you can handel a glass cannon go for berserk.

Side-note: Many people, myself NOT included, consider WvW to be the current end game. And you might want to follow Nordic Natedog’s advice in getting Knights and Cavalier’s since it will allow for some survivability, I personally ran my condition build until confusion was nerfed in WvW, now I run with my normal Berserk Shatter build and I don’t feel the difference since if I get targeted by 10 people I’m gonna die regardless of how much extra survivability I have, but there are conflicting opinions on this as well.

BuahahaXD.5014:

Well, there are lots of builds out there. How can I know which are good for what purposes? I need a general build for PvE so I think it should be quite balanced. What should I be looking for?

Considering armor: should I buy some general exotic items and upgrade them with runes or buy a preset one? Is it worth to buy karma armor (is it better/worse)?

All the builds in the list are sorted by game area and general aspect of build (mantras/shatter/phantasms etc.). You can buy or craft your own armor once you make a clear decision on your gear… all armor stat combinations can be found on wiki with general information from where you can acquire them (crafting/karma/dungeons).

All exotic armors regardless of acquisition method (craft/karma/dungons) share the same stat values if they are of the same rarity (exotic karma = exotic crafted = exotic dungeon).

As for runes, I don’t know any specific builds that use the defaul rune setup of any armor. But as a general fact runes are chosen in order to further enhance your build:

- Getting 6 runes of the same type. Generally shows that you really want the 6th bonus on an armor set. From my above post I said I’m using the Undead runes for “5% toughness is converted to condition damage” since I was using a armor stat combo which grants a decent amount of toughness + 25 points in chaos for another “5% toughness converted to condition damage” while using atunment crystal for another “6% Toughness in condition damage”.
- Mix and match runes from various sets. Is usually a method for maximizing a specific stat, for example boon heavy guardians use “Two Superior Monk and two Superior Water then two Major Water or two Major Monk” in order to get 40% extra boon duration which no other rune combination will grant unless used in this specific combination.
- Orbs. Orbs even though are of rare quality (blue) when stacked on all 6 armor pieces will grant more stats in one category than any rune set available. Quite a few berserk specs (full damage) use ruby orbs since its easy on the money while granting stats just as if you would be wearing a 7th piece of armor.

Hi OP, what’s your playstyle? It’s best to pick a build and gear for it that you enjoy at the end of the day.

It would help if you describe your playstyle a little more in depth so people here can give you useful advice.

In general you can’t go much wrong with buying all PVT karma gear from Orr temples. Then mix and match jewlery from there depend on your playing style. I stacked up all my karma items then drink all my jugs of karma saved from dailies when I hit 80 and got a full set right away.

I currently run celestial ascended amulet (Syzygy ) and accessories with knight backpiece and zerker rings. Then I just swap my weapons and armor based on the build or place I’m going. Knights gear seems to work well all around currently. Rabid is fairly weak and is only somewhat viable in pvp and Zerker is alright for CoF, some WvW roaming, and pvp.

There’s a few checks to make first:

• What do you plan to DO with your mesmer
• How confident are you at staying alive
• Are you willing to spend money in future to upgrade your gear?

On the first part, if you plan to do a lot of dungeons or fractals, then condition/hybrid gear is a no-no, you will want to focus on power. Otherwise “gear to taste”.

On the second condition, if you are already confident at not dying then you could jump straight in with berserkers (power) or rampagers (hybrid) gear, these types provide superior DPS, but provide very little defence. If you want some defence, then you can mix in knights (power) or rabid (condition) to bulk out your armour rating at a net decrease in DPS.

If you are willing to spend some gold in future, you could start out with knights (power) or rabid (condition), and add pieces of berserker (power) or rampagers (hybrid) as you become more confident and proficient. The long term goal being to eventually run pure zerker or rampagers. (I would strongly advise against running pure rabid in PvE after all our nerfs to conditions)

a mix of knight armor and cavalier trinkets are very balanced and will work with practically all direct damage builds.

Later when you feel like you have too mcuh defense or too little you can always swap some pieces for berserker or soldier ^__^