Guild Wars 2

Up until this point I have used whatever best piece of armor I have picked up and found through my journey throughout Tyria. It is a miss match of pieces both in appearance and traits (Zerker, Carrion, Cleric….). My gear is rare level with the exception of my boots, which are one tier lower. I have done a decent job of surviving and doing the various achievements and world exploration.

I feel it is time for me to take the next step. I am starting to get serious about map completion in Orr. I need something that is a little more buffed up. I guess the reason why I have waited so long is a combination of money, haven’t found a look I really liked, and not sure which step is best to obtain it.

I guess what I am asking is:

Should I jump from rare to exotic or skip exotic and go to ascended? I am level 400 armorsmithing in crafting.

Do I use the money I have saved and buy armor from the TP, do I grind out a fractals until I have earned enough for my armor, or do I use karma to purchase armor?

Any other tips you can share? I am more a casual player, so I guess I don’t want to waste my time and resources going about it the wrong way.

Well it depends on your build. Give us your build and we can make some armor recommendations. Also since you are in Orr you can buy exotic armor from the temple vendors for 42,000 karma each, so if you have a lot of karma thats a plus.
Fractals will only get you ascended trinkets, which are a plus and are recommended, but i would also suggest reading up on Fractals if you do not know what they are already. Buying from the TP is nice but has limited armor sets and are usually expensive, grinding dungeons for tokens would be more profitable, aesthetically pleasing, and just more fun (in my opinion)

I guess I should have stated it better out right. This is my first MMO. I get the idea of different builds but I don’t really know how to spec for each of them. Right now I run with a GS/Longbow setup (although I am getting kind of bored of the setup). I don’t have a specific build. I guess I am looking to do something more tank’ish.

I have 800k karma.

I only do PvE at this time. I don’t think I will do any WvWvW soon and definitely not PvP.

800K you can buy a full set of exotic gear easily you should be fine on exotic trinkets and armor. and your build is important so find a build that you enjoy.
If you enjoy your current build please type in “Guild Wars 2 Build Editor” on google or some other search engine and create your build, click the little button at the bottom to generate a link that you can copy and past onto this forum. And like i said we can make recommendations.
Edit: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/ decided to paste it myself

This is my current PvE/WvW setup, You can get the cavalier trinkets from the balthazar temple and berserker and knights gear from dungeons/TP/Temples. The only really expensive items would be the Superior sigil of energy, perception, and buying the food in bulk (oil is fairly inexpensive) Foods and oils/stones/crystals are optional.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIEQNAneTjcOFvJPuQMxBAkirqyo4ngUPs7u4A-jgyAYLioRKCAZBk+Al8W0YCMo1uioxqYw0nER1ejioVLFgoCjA-e