Guild Wars 2

I’m lvl 80, have about 67K karma saved up, and since I’m still using a green short bow I was planning on buying a rare short bow with karma points. As far as I can tell the stats are pretty much the same, wondering if anyone had opinions on which ones actually look better when used (never seen anyone with one) or other opinions. Thanks.

I would NOT buy a rare Karma bow at all.

If it is exotic, that is great. That means it is top tier. If it is only a rare simply buy an exotic bow (1.5g to 4G) of the stats, not skin you like then buy the T1 version of the karma bow you like.

Then just transmute the skin. This way you get the stats you need AND the skin you like. I wouldn’t spend 67k Karma on a weapon that isn’t exotic OR doesn’t have the stats I want.

Kyias.1845:

I would NOT buy a rare Karma bow at all.

If it is exotic, that is great. That means it is top tier. If it is only a rare simply buy an exotic bow (1.5g to 4G) of the stats, not skin you like then buy the T1 version of the karma bow you like.

Then just transmute the skin. This way you get the stats you need AND the skin you like. I wouldn’t spend 67k Karma on a weapon that isn’t exotic OR doesn’t have the stats I want.

Mind blown.

For starters, you act as if spending karma for an upgrade is a bad thing. If it helps him do dungeons he can get free exotic weapons AND armor. With the money he doesn’t spend on a weapon he will just replace if he does in fact do dungeons with bags that will increase sellable items.

Spending karma often is a bad thing. Or at least, a Very Silly thing since you can often get the same/better weapon for a reasonable amount of cash, which is far easier to make than karma.
Take the Kryta skin weapons for example; it’s about 43k for a level 40 item. You can pay that, or you could pay 1-4 gold, get an exotic level 80 max stat perfect thingy, get a transmutation orb, and then just buy a 10 copper krytan skin and merge it.

Why is bad spending karma? Not everyone wants a legendary, I myself bought the peacemaker’s longbow and i don’t regret it, to me it looks 100x better than legendary bows will ever look. The karma skin will last you forever because you can simply transmute it to your next weapon.
However i don’t think there are many Karma Shortbows that look any decent i’m afraid, but it’s a matter of taste.

For the record, T1 skins are not the same as T3 skins.

On armor i agree that spending karma is not that great unless you really love the skin.

Thing is Sleepy, many karma weapons are random drops, skin-wise. So you can get a weapon with the stats you want (eg, dungeon weapon) get a rubbish weapon with the skin you want, and then spend a bit of cash to get a transmutation stone. Cash is much easier to replenish then karma, so it’s just daft to effectively waste all that hard earned karma instead.

To use an analogy; it’s like paying 20 gold for something you could get with 2000 karma. You can do it if you want, but it’s a bit dumb.

You won’t find T3 karma weapons anywhere else, otherwise they wouldn’t cost karma. I haven’t found mine anywhere so far, if you do let me know, i didn’t check every cultural T3 weapon tho

Also, karma now is much easier to get and i believe they will probably make it easier in the future, 45k karma for month achievement, 4.5k for daily achievement and 1.8k per dungeon…it’s like 6-10k karma without farming it for pretty much everyone that plays an hour or two.

I’ve gotten 5/6 pieces of karma set and T3 weapon and i don’t regret it…back then you could gain 15k+ karma per hour anyways, karma is not hard to earn…it’s just boring and dull to farm events.

Excuse me while I quietly facepalm; you’re not reading what I’m saying. There’s no point spending karma on things you can get with gold or from drops because then you’ve wasted karma. Karma which you could be spending on stuff that you cannot get with gold or from drops.

Notice how I kept using the Krytan skin as an example, the tier 1 human karma weapon?

Loki, tier 1 and 2 probably can be gotten from elsewhere, but first…these cost a ridiculous low amount of karma, and second…you won’t find T3 weapon skins for gold (as far as i know). People pays 50-300g on skins right now, i’m pretty sure that spending 63k karma is far from expensive because that’s like 5h of karma farm at most.

I believe the OP wants to know some cool looking shortbows that can be bought with karma, not if he should or not spend karma.

Buy 16 rare bows, make of them 4 exotic at mystic forge and then one Eir’s. It is beautiful and powerful! )

To the OP… the Ebon Vanguard bows are really awesome looking, in my opinion. They don’t have particle effects, but they look really nice and have a nice animation when used. Both the short bow and long bow look the same, which I think is cool…. having a great big, elegant looking bow that has the short bow skills is pretty neat.

Definitely check them out.

Eh I prefere the flame bow for my longbow, although I might give ebon vanguard bows another shake. The wing theme kinda doesnt do it for me tho.

Well…there are lots of options because tastes differ.

I also like the asura tier 3, the charr tier 2, and the lionguard bows.

OP, get the Ebon Hawk short bow.

Don’t get it from the T1 karma vendor in the city though. There’s a heart vendor in the Ebon Hawk area where you defend her cattle from harpies and she actually sells the same skin for the short bow for a fraction of the T1 vendor.

Aridia.3042:

OP, get the Ebon Hawk short bow.

Don’t get it from the T1 karma vendor in the city though. There’s a heart vendor in the Ebon Hawk area where you defend her cattle from harpies and she actually sells the same skin for the short bow for a fraction of the T1 vendor.

Good info right there, is it the same color?

^
Yes it is. Same navy blue with gold trims. IIRC, the only difference is the item icon. But you’re only paying like 500 or so karma so I guess we can’t complain.

Unfortunately, there’s no cheap longbow equivalent though. I had to use 9600 karma to get the Ebon Hawk T1 for my LB.

Eh I thought about the longbow version but Im not so sure, can you post a screenie of it? I wasnt fond of the winged theme but since Im using a bird as my main pet I might start thinking about using it.

I’ve seen some pretty sweet looking bow designs from the dungeon token vendors in that fort in Lion’s Arch.

I especially like the AC versions. The LB is a beast.

http://www.gw2db.com/items/54263-hawk-longbow

Click view in 3d.

I don’t really like most of the LBs TBH. L2 really spoiled me.

This, Krytan LB, and Eir’s LB are the only ones I like.

Check out flame bow, its pretty nice for longbow. Also I agree, krytan skin is legit also. Titan, link some of the bow skins if you can.

Cloud.7613:

Kyias.1845:

I would NOT buy a rare Karma bow at all.

If it is exotic, that is great. That means it is top tier. If it is only a rare simply buy an exotic bow (1.5g to 4G) of the stats, not skin you like then buy the T1 version of the karma bow you like.

Then just transmute the skin. This way you get the stats you need AND the skin you like. I wouldn’t spend 67k Karma on a weapon that isn’t exotic OR doesn’t have the stats I want.

Mind blown.

For starters, you act as if spending karma for an upgrade is a bad thing. If it helps him do dungeons he can get free exotic weapons AND armor. With the money he doesn’t spend on a weapon he will just replace if he does in fact do dungeons with bags that will increase sellable items.

You didn’t read my post.

67k karma for a RARE weapon is a bad thing. Nothing wrong with karma purchases. You are reading too much into it. chill.

Kyias, what else then, would you recommend I spend Karma on? I’ve bought a few recipes (sp?), and an occasional accessory. I’m saving gold for culture armor, so don’t want to spend karma on those. I need a rare bow, haven’t found one yet, and no chance of buying/making an exotic any time soon. I just haven’t found anything else useful to spend Karma on, so might as well blow it on a bow. Your thoughts?

Accessories, armor, weapons, spend it on w/e the hell you want. If you have the option of exotics which I believe you do, get them. If you want a skin, and its expensive, look for a cheaper option first and if there isnt one, get it. Its your money man, do what you want with it.

I can eventually ge exotics, I just can’t afford the time to find the ‘best’ way or the best stuff. . So figure I’d ask opinions.

Dave.

Save the karma for armor. Cultural armor T3 is not exotic, therefore you will eventually need to get gear to transmute it into anyway.

Go to orr and start buying the exotic armor sets so you can have some base stats at least for transmutation.

Karma armor is 100x more a waste than weapons, karma stats can be found from dungeons, and pretty much the only worth to buy from Karma as ranger is the power/vit/dur set which you can get from Ascalon very fast (2h at most for a piece?)

Save gold for jewerly and karma for skins mainly (legendary included). Karma purpose is skins for the most part, there is nothing wrong with getting a rare weapon/armor skin that you can later use on your good stats but ugly as hell exotic item.

I bought a Wolfborn shortbow and Adamant Guard longbow. Both have been transmuted with lv80 exotics. I also have a 3rd bow (short bow) which cost me 5.5G for the skin (Whisperer) also transmuted with a lv80 exotic.

Choosing your “best” bow skin all depends on your overall look. If it matches, great. If not, no matter how cool the bow looks, if it doesn’t flow with the rest of your armor/dyes, it’s no good.

What crafting did you pick-up? I choose Huntsman and Leatherworking. I made my entire Berserking armour set and then made the Berserker’s Pearl Needler shortbow. Worked out perfectly if you ask me.

Hey Dave:

I want to first say that my response is dictated based on time vs reward. I play a good amount but not enough to be hardcore and not so little to be considered a casual player. I have a family FT job etc so time is my most precious resource in the game. That said I would lay out the following for you:

A Rare Shortbow on the TP will cost: 20s-25s
An exotic shortbow on TP will cost: 1.5G-2.5G

Karma in my experience takes more time and effort to gather compared to gold. You cna gather 1G per hour by only gathering before loot. To get 67k Karma for a rare weapon will take you significantly longer.

HOWEVER You could take that same 67k karma and go to Orr and trade in 45k-47k of it for an exotic armor piece (or save it until you can aafford an entire set) or spend that karma on a weapon skin to make your weap look better instead.

In 2 hours of money grinding you will have an exotic weapon. In 15 minutes you could have the silver to buy a rare. To get 67k karma however will take you days to recoup so spend it wisely. Money is far easier to acquire than karma is and you can have an exotic weapon in under a day. You cannot say the same for that 67k of karma.

My personal recommendation is to use greens and then upgrade directly to exotics as you afford them. If you really want to get rare equip though the options I show above are FAR more effective in terms of your time and effort than a 1 time 67k karma drop.

That is my opinion as a Guild Leader helping my guildmates get the items they like and as a player who likes to maximize my enjoyment of this game in the time I am allowed.

Hope this helps.

Buy whichever you like the most. Yes there are a few that you can buy on the TP for less time invested than if you got the karma version, but that isn’t always the case. For example, I wanted the warden bow. As far as I could see, there wasn’t any bow on the TP that had that skin. In fact, the only time I ever saw those drop was at launch when the giant jungle wurm was glitched and was awarding lvl 80 gear to people.

Aridia.3042:

OP, get the Ebon Hawk short bow.

Don’t get it from the T1 karma vendor in the city though. There’s a heart vendor in the Ebon Hawk area where you defend her cattle from harpies and she actually sells the same skin for the short bow for a fraction of the T1 vendor.

Hi, thanks for the info! May i know on which map is Ebon Hawk?

^
Ebon Hawk is at Fields of Ruin. There’s a direct port to it from the lower lvl of Divinity’s Reach.

http://gw2cartographers.com/

The Heart Vendor with the cheap shortbow skin is towards the northeast corner of that map.

Kyias, so you say spending 67k on a weapon is bad but spending 42k on a piece of armor is not? That makes no sense considering getting a piece from many dungeons takes less than 2 hours and you won’t gain 42k in two hours anymore.

Conclusion, spend karma on whatever you like.

Sleepy:

One is an EXOTIC armor piece part of a full rune set you can ONLY get from karma vendors or the TP (rune that is.) It is the highest tier of armor in the game in terms of stats and a unique armor skin which cannot be obtained via another method. (Orr Temples)

The weapon is a RARE weapon that will become obsolete the moment you can afford your first exotic: be it TP purchase or a dungeon drop. Also the skin itself could have been purchased via T1 cultural vendors for a fraction of the price, in some cases even cheaper than that.

The difference is simply one is an investment into an endgame set. The other is a temporary purchase which will only be a skin in the near future (and a skin you could have gotten for much cheaper.)

My assessments are based on time investment vs reward given. If someone WANTS to spend 67k karma on an item skin they could get for 10k or LESS then that is their choice. It however is not the most profitable decision.

Do you even believe T1 skins are the same as T3 ones? Poor you…if that was the case i wouldn’t have bought one of these 63k skins. Why does people still think you can get T3 skins buying a T1 skin? I would like to know who made people believe that crap.

You also forget that karma sets have quite a “special” stats, they are not very optimal outside of the skin except the power/vit/dur set and you can’t get a whole set with the same stats from the same karma vendor which makes the runes on it completely useless (not that they are any good for rangers anyway). You can’t even get the whole power/vit/dur set because no vendor sells legs with those stats, however Ascalon Catacombs offer you that same set and it’s the cheapest one you can find tokens wise.

So in the end…if you buy something with karma it will be mainly for the skin.

What specifically are you looking at?

SOME vendors T3 skins are unique. Lionsguard and Ebonhawk culture weapons are the same across all 3 tiers.

I didn’t forget anything about the karma sets. They do what they are intended to do.

If you don’t want to spend your karma in this manner that is fine but it isn’t a wasted resource like you try to make it out to be. It has value for high end merchandise.

No need to be aggressive in a thread about feedback.

I’m trying to say it’s waste both ways, buying weapon or armor for karma are both equally a “waste”. Having an exotic with wrong stats for your build/class is not going to make it better than using a green with proper stats.

This comes from someone who has both karma set and weapon, BOTH are equally a “waste”…saying that buying a weapon is a waste but buying armor is not simply makes no sense, it’s exotic armor…but not all exotics are good. A green set with stats more adapted to your build will be better than random gear for the sake of it being exotic.

Even tho i have the karma set, i’ve never used it because its stats are not good for the builds i use.