Question: A bit lost what to do and where to go.

Hello, I'm a bit lost what to do next. I've been wrapping up some HoT content lately but I noticed that my character is rather weak. So I went out to map chat and asked if I should upgrade my gear to exotic or go for ascended right of the bat. Some say don't ugprade anything it's waste wait for new expansion, some say upgrade to exotic and some to ascended...

Btw I'm playing guardian and some people told me "go for full berserker stats" so should I go for berserker exotics or not? I just want to progress thro open World PvE for now and later hopefully I would like to raid. I managed to gather around 75 laurels and 1.2k badges of honor aswell as around 160k karma.

Any tips would be most welcome as I'm really confused what to do.

Depends on your personal play style, if you like power build, i suggest marauder (if you craft, otherwise berserker) exotic armor mix with soldier exotic trinket, and you can slowly swap out the soldier gear for marauder or berserker ascended trinket when you are more confident in your skill.

@Crossaber.8934 said:Depends on your personal play style, if you like power build, i suggest marauder (if you craft, otherwise berserker) exotic armor mix with soldier exotic trinket, and you can slowly swap out the soldier gear for marauder or berserker ascended trinket when you are more confident in your skill.

Could you provide a link for marauder build or crafting guide?

You should have full exotics for basic PvE play. Ascended isn't necessary for anything but raids and high level fractals and even then, the raids don't absolutely require it once you know what to do. Fractals are a hard requirement for the agony resistance though.

I would do as above has stated. Berserker stats are good for most professions in the open world PvE environment. Different stat combinations can be more useful in certain situations on different classes though. Exotics are affordable. Ascended gear would take quite a sum of gold and significant effort to accomplish just for open world use. You can just buy exotics from the TP with the correct stats I believe and you can get the bladed armor pieces from the verdant brink vendor for the map currency.

doing open World PvE you are more than good with exotic armor but it never hurts to have the ascended armors from crafting and use your laurels to upgrade your ascended trinket very easy that why . just might want to save up on laurels tho so you can get them all at once B)

You are going to get varied opinions here and it depends on peoples game mode. So, first off, non-opinion side, exotics gear will have better stats then green and ascended will have better stats then exotic. If not in exotic, I would work on that since ascended if you haven't started has time gates. You need to start to craft ascended materials or be prepared to buy them off the TP. So targetting exotics first makes sense.

If you haven't looked up information on ascended crafting this might help:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_crafting

Now opinion side. Choose gear that fits your play style. If you are looking to be DPS the more DPS you can do the better in PvE. But if you are running solo and can't survive then an old averb from another game comes to mind, you do 0 DPS when dead so I side on gear to your playstyle and work your way to more DPS from there as you refine and get better. Now its best to know what set you want before making it in ascended but even then there are now ways to convert one ascended set to another so there is more give there then there was in past. With a recipe you can transmute an ascended items with one stat to another via a recipe in the mystic forge.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Anthology_of_Heroes

Now side note on opinion, PvE and WvW gear is the same. So if you plan to WvW in the future you might think of a set that works for both or plan on having multiple sets. PvP, your gear doesn't matter since its a template based system but the others share PvE gear (Raids and Fractals).

Hope that helps, good hunting!

Look at armour that is paid for by karma in the original Orr zones at the various temples. Easy quick supply of armour. Next use map currencies to get ascended trinkets/accesories in various season 3 maps and select stats. Finally craft ascended weapons and only if want craft ascended armour.

@TheGrimm.5624 said:You are going to get varied opinions here and it depends on peoples game mode. So, first off, non-opinion side, exotics gear will have better stats then green and ascended will have better stats then exotic. If not in exotic, I would work on that since ascended if you haven't started has time gates. You need to start to craft ascended materials or be prepared to buy them off the TP. So targetting exotics first makes sense.

If you haven't looked up information on ascended crafting this might help:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_crafting

Now opinion side. Choose gear that fits your play style. If you are looking to be DPS the more DPS you can do the better in PvE. But if you are running solo and can't survive then an old averb from another game comes to mind, you do 0 DPS when dead so I side on gear to your playstyle and work your way to more DPS from there as you refine and get better. Now its best to know what set you want before making it in ascended but even then there are now ways to convert one ascended set to another so there is more give there then there was in past. With a recipe you can transmute an ascended items with one stat to another via a recipe in the mystic forge.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Anthology_of_Heroes

Now side note on opinion, PvE and WvW gear is the same. So if you plan to WvW in the future you might think of a set that works for both or plan on having multiple sets. PvP, your gear doesn't matter since its a template based system but the others share PvE gear (Raids and Fractals).

Hope that helps, good hunting!

when they not even said a thing at all about DPS in PVE why bring that up here when the player is playing in PVE ???? and not interested at all in wvw or pvp or any other parts of the game at all . and only interesting in pve ONLY that make no sense at all . but your right about the part of different varied opinions here :#

Yes, they were correct to suggest Berserker exotics, although Marauder stats work too. The former is much easier obtain as they can be purchased with some Dungeon currencies (e.g. Citadel of Flame, Crucible of Eternity), and the armor pieces can mostly be purchased with Airship Parts, the zone currency of Verdant Brink (i.e. the first zone of Heart of Thorns). Ruby Orichalcum Amulet, Earrings, and Rings can be purchased from the Trading Post to fill out your trinket slots. Finally, the most accessible back piece are sold at the Heart Vendors in Siren's Landing, the new area recently introduced with final Living World Season 3 chapter.

Beyond that, make sure you specialize in the Radiance trait line, picking up both the Retribution and Righteous Instincts major traits. These two will give you a significant boost in damage while you have the Retaliation boon, which your character can apply themselves through skills like Symbol of Wrath and Stand Your Ground.

Hope this helps.

• https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Dragonhunter_-_DPS
• I run full Marauder's armor and Berserker's trinkets.
• My primary weapons are Scepter/Torch and Scepter/Focus.

I recommend a fully ascended set of gear. However, keep in mind that on Friday, the new expansion will be released and things can change rapidly.

@TheGrimm.5624 said:Now side note on opinion, PvE and WvW gear is the same.

That is not true. A Guardian's role in WvW is 100% support/boons/heal, the most common build uses Celestial gear with staff and hammer.

@Ashantara.8731 said:

• https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Dragonhunter_-_DPS
• I run full Berserker's gear. There are people who use Marauder's armor, though.
• My primary weapons are Scepter/Torch and Scepter/Focus.

I recommend a fully ascended set of gear. However, keep in mind that on Friday, the new expansion will be released and things can change rapidly.

@TheGrimm.5624 said:Now side note on opinion, PvE and WvW gear is the same.

what has that got to do at all even with some one only playing PVE ???????? op made it very clear in their first post they have no interest at all in other game types this game offers

@WARIORSCHARGEING.2637 said:

when they not even said a thing at all about DPS in PVE why bring that up here when the player is playing in PVE ???? and not interested at all in wvw or pvp or any other parts of the game at all . and only interesting in pve ONLY that make no sense at all . but your right about the part of different varied opinions here :#

Simple, have known people to gear up for PvE and then find out they like WvW and then they had to re-gear. Made some people want to quit the game when they felt that all that time was wasted. Mind you this was in the days we couldn't convert ascended gear from one stat set to another. Also know some people that prefer to spec for sustain since that works better for them and their groups were fine with that since those people could solo content with their play style. Better to know then not and be surprised later.

Edit: corrected quote

I run full Crusader stats, even on my weapon sets. Granted, they are ascended as I play Fractals. I have heard the trick is not to do what I did - make your toughness too high or the enemies will target you a lot more. So it is a power/toughness build that I run.

What the guys before me said, Exotic Beserker. I use Scepter/Shield/Torch and GS, depending on how I feel or what the fight requires, and cause I love the shield :-). Exotic will basically get you everywhere except Fractals. and if you use Scepter, run the Zeal trait with Symbolic Avenger, it is a nice power boost.

Thanks for help.

@WARIORSCHARGEING.2637 said:doing open World PvE you are more than good with exotic armor but it never hurts to have the ascended armors from crafting and use your laurels to upgrade your ascended trinket very easy that why . just might want to save up on laurels tho so you can get them all at once B)

I definitely don't use Laurels to purchase trinkets as I use the Laurels for crafting. You can easily get ascended trinkets from Living World Season 3 maps and the Bloodstone trinkets are even stat swappable which is ideal. Here is a good guide for Ascended Trinkets:

http://guildwars2.rocks/saving-money/cheap-ascended-trinkets/

As most people have mentioned: Exotic armor and weapons are easier to aquire than ascended. And for open world they're more than sufficient. You can slowly switch parts for ascended quality once you have the materials (especially the time-gated ones).

Trinkets are a different matter. I wouldn't bother with exotic trinkets. Especially not if you have 75 laurels.

• Amulet: Buy the amulet from a laurel merchant in WvW. That way you can save some laurels and supplement them with badges. If you don't have enough badges, go for the normal laurel merchant.
• Rings: Buy the rings from the fractal vendor. If you don't have fractal tokens, buy the rings from a normal laurel merchant. Rings are rather cheap.
• Accessories: Buy the accessories from a guild token vendor. If you don't have enough guild tokens, you can also buy them from a normal laurel merchant, but they're rather expensive.
• Backpack: I hear there are some cheap ascended backpack options in the new LS3 maps. You can also go for the exotic fractal backpack and upgrade it to ascended later. If neither is an option for you, just postpone the backpack purchase for later.

Reminder: You can not equip 2 unique items that have the same name!, so don't buy the same ascended ring or accessory twice. Instead buy two different ones with the same stats.

You mentioned raiding in your opening post. If raiding is your goal, I recommend getting familiar with a raid build early and getting the stats that are required for raiding. You can find raid builds for Guardian for example here: https://qtfy.eu/guildwars/guardian/

Good luck and happy crafting.

@Djinn.9245 said:

@WARIORSCHARGEING.2637 said:doing open World PvE you are more than good with exotic armor but it never hurts to have the ascended armors from crafting and use your laurels to upgrade your ascended trinket very easy that why . just might want to save up on laurels tho so you can get them all at once B)

I only if I am even lucky do living story once at all even . and never ever go back to the living story maps at all . I find the living story maps very pain filled . so I just do them once at best for the story and move on . and for me I find laurels ones far more easy for me .

@Ashantara.8731 said:

• https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Dragonhunter_-_DPS
• I run full Marauder's armor and Berserker's trinkets.
• My primary weapons are Scepter/Torch and Scepter/Focus.

I recommend a fully ascended set of gear. However, keep in mind that on Friday, the new expansion will be released and things can change rapidly.

@TheGrimm.5624 said:Now side note on opinion, PvE and WvW gear is the same.

I think you mis-read that. I was referring to the fact that unlike PvP where you have a different set of stats regardless of the gear your toon is wearing when you go in, PvE and WvW derive their stats from the gear. I was not referring to what build to use.

I run my Guardian/Dragonhunter in PVE with full Beserker armor and weapons ... I have full ascended trinkets and she kicks some serious butt! I find that most PVE ONLY your going to find that Beserker works for most classes. There are a few variations and it is totally up to you ... but this is the most consistent build for PVE over the last 5 years.

@WARIORSCHARGEING.2637 said:

@Djinn.9245 said:

@WARIORSCHARGEING.2637 said:doing open World PvE you are more than good with exotic armor but it never hurts to have the ascended armors from crafting and use your laurels to upgrade your ascended trinket very easy that why . just might want to save up on laurels tho so you can get them all at once B)

You of course will do what you prefer. But it isn't easy to gain Laurels at a good pace, while it is easy to gain Map Currency for the Living Story maps. So I would hesitate to recommend to a newer player to use up his Laurels. This really good website that I linked earlier goes into all the pros and cons of different ways to gain Ascended Trinkets:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/home/leaving?target=http%3A%2F%2Fguildwars2.rocks%2Fsaving-money%2Fcheap-ascended-trinkets%2F