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Ascended rings are at the top of the hierarchy of items. It would only make sense that salvaging them would give more materials than rares and exotics. Also, they are exclusively dropped from FotM. So they should probably provide some of the crafting goods which are exclusive to the Mists as well (fractal relics, pristine fractal relics, shards of mist essence, globs mist essence, or vials of mist essence).
Only benefit from collecting ascended rings = 4 silver… strikes me as not very “ascended.”
Lastly, if you want to enjoy sPvP, learn how to lose graciously.
When an individual is better than you are or is doing something you cannot counter, send them a whisper and compliment their play style. Ask them what their build is, figure out their gear, and you will get better as a player. Also, they will feel good for putting time into their build along with their practice.
Also who knows, maybe they will want to play sPvP with you on their team. Now you are more likely to win and you may gain a new sPvP friend. Connections go a long ways, maybe you will find a good guild etc.
Rewards – First off, unfortunately you may not get many PvE benefits from playing sPvP. Most of the pvp rewards are new item skins or armor skins which are only useable in Heart of the Mists and pvp realm. If you want PvE rewards, look more at WvW achievements. The badges of honor you earn in WvW can actually be used to buy armor and gear from the WvW vendors, which can then be equiped in PvE. However all the sPvP rewards (skins) are stuck in the sPvP and tPvP realm. The one thing that will carry into the PvE world is the titles you earn in sPvP though.
For enjoyment, it depends on goals you want to achieve while playing sPvP. For example, I get the most out of sPvP when I maintain at least a 1:1 k/d ratio, have the chance to res teammates, and am able to defend and take points as part of a team (not just solo). So for me, it is important to play with others. I accomplish this by playing with my brothers (talk via Skype or Google hangout) and roam around the maps in a group of 2, or split up to accomplish separate tasks while communicating about how our progress is going (do we need backup, where do reinforcements need to be sent, etc). Hopefully in the future, I can find a small group of guildies who will join me in TS3 or ventrilo.
If I play by myself and I am on a team that does not support each other (no ressing, doesn’t stick together, won’t capture points or defend,) then I move on to WvW or dungeons instead and do something that I will enjoy. I play games to have fun, and getting face stomped by 4v1s continually doesn’t accomplish my goals. I am not getting better as a player, I am not enjoying the moment, and I am not making any memories. I find when I play with a purpose (see below) I enjoy my time in sPvP much more.
If you just want to stomp others, go full berserker set, watch for solo players at low health and gank them. Roam, roam, roam. Pick your fights, fight when you have the advantage, use stealth whenever possible to break up the tempo of fights. Run away when you are outnumbered.
If you hate dying, go with a full bunker or defense build. Hold points and wait for backup. Aggravate, stun, disrupt, and res teammates.
If you want team play, try and find a guild or a small group that has a VOIP server (teamspeak 3, ventrilo, etc) and plays sPvP or WvW together. Your experience will be so much more enjoyable if you have people to coordinate attacks with and who can share the joy of wins or share the misery of loses.
If you just want casual play, then hop into sPvP and experiment with different builds. Make new characters, and throw them into the mists, and try them out as well. All the gear is free and re-skilling traits is free, so experiment frequently!
Power = direct damage increase
Precision = increase critical hit chance
Stacking power vs stacking precision depends on your character’s traits and the type of skills you use. For example, I am a shatter mesmer with full berserker set, so I benefit greatly from increased critical hit chance because I have +85% critical hit damage. My critical hit damage will not be effecitive unless I can achieve a critical hit. So I try to max precision. Alternatively, when I have very low critical hit chance or am using a build with very few skills that rely on critical hits, then I stack power to increase my base damage. The general rule to follow for increasing damage, first priority is power, then crit chance (precision), then crit damage.
Toughness = decrease % of incoming direct damage + increases healing effectiveness
Vitality = increases health pool
Both toughness and vitality increase your effective health pool (EHP), however they do so in separate ways. Toughness prevents you from taking a portion of direct damage while vitality increases your total health pool. This has several implications. First, toughness does not help you against condition damage, but vitality will. However, if you go pure vitality, you will have a “squishy” health pool which is easy to burn through and as a result of the large health pool, will be harder to fill back up.
Toughness essentially applies a resistance against direct damage. Instead of taking a 5,000 dmg hit, you may only take a 4,500 dmg hit. Toughness does not prevent condition dmg though. If someone puts a 5,000 dmg condition on you, you will suffer 5,000 damage. In this case, vitality would be a better option.
However, as your health pool increases in size, then your heal becomes less effective. For example, a 5,000 health heal for a 15,000 health character is a 33% heal. A 5,000 heal for a 25,000 health player is only getting a 20% heal. Therefor the latter player will have to heal more often to keep their health maxed, and this channeling time prevents you from using your damage skills.
Basically at low vitality and low toughness, your effective health pool benefits more from increased toughness. After a certain amount of toughness, your EHP will benefit more from an increased vitality.
General rule: If you have condition removal skills or utilities stack toughness up to 1,100 or 1,300, then get vitality. If you only face condition damage, stack vitality first, then get toughness later. If you have both condition removal and are good at dodging/evading direct damage, then drop both vitality and toughness and get berserkers (pure dmg).