Berserker vs Nika?

I had some extra levels laying around so I finally boosted my engineer to 80 for fun and I went to buy her some gear. I was going to pick up a full set of zerker gear just to run around in when I realized Nika gear has the exact same stats at 1/8th the price on the trade house. What's the deal with that?

Outside of one being crafted by a player and the other being a drop there's a few small difference.1) Nika's uses the Sneaktheif skin2) Nika's comes with a Superior rune of inflitration

That's it. You can always replace the Rune by socketing in whatever you want and the Skin can be transmuted over.

Named armor is always cheaper because it comes as drops, the other gear you see is crafted by players. However, only a few very common stat combinations are available on named armor, so it doesn't work for all builds.

I think there is some confusion since Berserk can refer to both an armour set and a stat combination. When people say they buy Zerker armour, they usually mean the stat combination. Nika gear has Berserk stats, so it fits the bill.

I recommend filtering all armour by weight (medium), rarity (exotic), level (80-80) and stats (power, precision, ferocity) and then sorting the results by price. That way you are sure to get the cheapest option for the stats you want.Attention: The filter I described will deliver both Berserker's and Assassin's stats. Make sure to pick the one you actually want.

@"Hannelore.8153" said:Named armor is always cheaper because it comes as drops, the other gear you see is crafted by players. However, only a few very common stat combinations are available on named armor, so it doesn't work for all builds.

Crafted armor is usually sold based on the cost of the materials needed to craft it + profit. Arguably dropped armor with the same stats should be sold at the same price, but doesn't - but hey, that is the free market for you, so no complaints from me.

To the OP: Keep in mind also that you an purchase LV 80 Exotic armor with Karma from vendors in the Orr regions. (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Temple_armor). It's a great way to get placeholder armor until you have ascended stuff crafted. The only downside though is any runes you socket cannot be salvaged, so if you're putting in Scholar runes, be sure you don't mind losing them when it's time to swap out the armor.

The equivalents of Nika's (Medium) are Zhed's (Light) and Devona's (Heavy).

See https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

@"Hannelore.8153" said:placeholder armor until you have ascended stuff crafted.

Yeah, getting my armor crafting up to a level I can craft that stuff has been a nightmare. Everyone says, "When you max out your crafting" like it's no big deal but as someone who hasn't played non-stop for 4 years, I can tell you, it's a pain in the ass and if I have to do it on multiple alts? For-get-it. I've probably gone through 200 gold on my warrior and still not been able to max out one proficiency.

@"DotDotWin.4357" said:

. I've probably gone through 200 gold on my warrior and still not been able to max out one proficiency.

Use an online guide, http://gw2crafts.net/ check it out

@DotDotWin.4357 said:

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

@"Hannelore.8153" said:placeholder armor until you have ascended stuff crafted.

Don't max the same crafting line on alts. Just don't. I've done it on characters that I thought I would never stop playing or characters I wanted to do precursor crafting on for their legendary. My ranger I never play anymore actually has more crafting maxed out than I can use on her. It's just bad.

@DotDotWin.4357 said:

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

@"Hannelore.8153" said:placeholder armor until you have ascended stuff crafted.

Crafting in GW2 is painful and soul crushing, no argument from me. And it gets worse, I'm afraid. Once you hit 500 you realize that ascended crafting requires more than just T6 materials. Heavy armor goes through just as much Iron, Steel and Darksteel as it does Mithril, so you'll be farming lower level zones or paying a hefty price for that material on the TP.

Buuuuuuut, it's important to keep in mind that Exotic level gear is technically 'endgame' gear. Ascended gear bumps your stats by about 5%, but whose true purpose is to allow you to stack Agony resist infusions to survive fractals beyond LV 20. If you have no intention of doing fractals, or going higher than T1, you really don't need ascended armor at all. Unless of course you want the best gear possible, in which case: strap on a helmet 'cause it's a bumpy ride.

For what it's worth though, I created my account in Feb 2018, I have 5 LV 80s, most crafting professions at max level, the rest at 400+, 3 characters wearing full ascended armor, weapons and trinkets, and I'm working on gearing up a 4th just because I have nothing else to do use mats on. It seems daunting at first, but after a while it does get easier :)

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

@DotDotWin.4357 said:

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

@"Hannelore.8153" said:placeholder armor until you have ascended stuff crafted.

It's even less than 5% for armor, closer to 2-3%.

The approximate differences in stats between exotic and ascended are:

Armor - approx. 2-3% (the slightly increased armor value is the most valuable, but still negligible)Weapons - approx. 5% (but the increased weapon damage is of value on top of the 4-5% more stats. Thus recommended to get)Trinkets - approx. 10-12%

As such, ascended armor is only of value for min/maxing and required for Tier 4 Fractal content for the agony resistance as mentioned. For just about everything else you are better of just getting exotics (with some very few stat combinations which are expensive as exotic and should be crafted strait to ascended).

@TC use http://gw2crafts.net/ . Getting from 1 to 500 crafting takes around 60-90 gold depending on crafting discipline.

Another advantage is that Asc gear can have its stats changed for relatively cheap, and less complicated then crafting exotics with HOT or POF stats. But keep in mind that Asc armor and weapons are roughly 10x the price of an exotic equivalent.... so you have to carefully consider that if you're not capable of generating substantial amounts of gold.

That said, I've been finding myself using exotic armor more, given how much effort/cost it is to make a new set, and often needing to carry multiple sets to swap builds for different game modes. But since I WvW a lot, I just do the Armor tracks to get them for free. That just leaves trinkets being the one hassle to deal with when setting up a new build.

@starlinvf.1358 said:But since I WvW a lot, I just do the Armor tracks to get them for free. That just leaves trinkets being the one hassle to deal with when setting up a new build.

WvW is a path one could take to get ascended gear without having any crafting levels at all. It takes a super long time, but once the Triumphant Hero Armor (or Weapon) track is completed and you're given the Exotic version, you only need Grandmaster Marks, Skirmish Tickets and Memories of Battle (and 2gold) to purchase the ascended version.

You earn 1 Grandmaster mark fragment in every Bronze, Silver and Gold chest, so that's 3 per week, getting you the 3 Marks you need for one armor piece after 10 weeks of play. As I said, takes a super long time, but no crafting skills are needed.