Newb question: So what REALLY is the deal with armour/arms/acessorits/etc. and real value?

OK, I'm stupid. That's fine, I accept that.But, hear me out.

I get really, really stacked up with gorgeous armor and arms (hint: exotic and ascended)Nice stuff.

And I spend a lot of time/money/etc. stacking these things up . . . . .

And then . . . . .

they do almost no good at all . . .

I can take the same character,stack them with crap stuff . . ..

And I can take the same characterand stack them up with top shelf stuff . . .

And it DOESN'T MAKE MUCH ANY DIFFERENCE AT ALL!!!!!

Does that not strike you as STRANGE?

Correct me if i'm wrong and i might give unrelated answers, but i'm having problem trying to understand your point. So mean you're saving up Ascended/Exotic quality armors, weapons, trinkets (or maybe materials) and don't know what to do ?.

• For exotic quality there really is no use for stacking them up except as a temporary gears for new characters. I usually salvage them for Dark Matter, Skins, Mats or straight up sell them on TP if worth the value, some might end up being in purpose of Achievements Completion or being used for Mystic Forge recipes or rarely in crafting.
• As for Ascended, well they are account shared any characters can use them as long as it fits the class so worth keeping nonetheless. You can also buy Asc Salvage Kit to get rarer mats see the list : https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ball_of_Dark_Energy/Salvage_Rate, unless you have a good reason or really don't care about extra asc pieces i suggest keeping them for later use (who know).
• In case of ascended mats just refine them into higher tier.

Sorry for not being helpful cuz the way you expressed your point confusing me a bit.

doing almost no good, can mean you don't get to know the class, no offence. gear is nice but there are things likesuitable stats on gear, traits, for the class and rotation

We do not have a gear-treadmill in Guildwars 2. In many other MMORPGs you actually gain a lot stronger with higher tier gear. Once you have reached the exotic rarity and have obtained the stat-combination you want, there is not much progress anymore. The stat increase from exotic to ascended is only marginal and there is no difference between the expensive ascended and the hillariously overpriced Legendary gear. If you spend the same money in other games, you do 3-15 times more damage than with the cheap exotic gear. Basically no average person can cause you real harm and even the strongest bosses have toruble to get your HP even close to 50 %.

Guildwars 2 is not your average MMORPG. A lot of mechanics and designs in this game work differently than the masses. You can gear your character today, take a break of 2-4 years, return and in less than a week you are up to speed again. That is what we like about this game and what many of us prefer, there is no pressure. In order to achieve that, there is no gear-treadmill. That is why the stats have little to no increase once you reach exotic rarity.

Real Value?Ascended and Legendary gear have Infusion slots, which are critical for endgame content. In Fractals (PVE), you have to load the slots with AR infusions or you are locked away from the best loot and higher difficulties. You can upgrade your gear to have more slots and purchase/craft more powerful infusions. There also exist WvW infusions. The infusions are mostly for utility purposes. In fractals they prevent you from dying and allow you to access more challenging stages, in WvW they allow you to be more efficient against NPCs. There also exist basic stat-infusions, but those are also quite underpowered. The more expensive infusions combine minor-stat-increase with utility. Either AR with stat increase or WvW with stat increase. In addition there exist visual infusions that grant a player a certain visual aura. Those are the most expensive ones.

Some people still claim Guildwars 2 is pay to win, because you can buy legendary weapons from TP and exchange gems for gold. But you are mostly done with gear-progression once you have reached exotic. Getting exotic is not difficult, in most cases people stick to Berserker's anyway, which is a joke to acquire nowadays. If you want to get into certain endgame content, you can go for ascended. Everything else is basically for the looks = Fashionwars.

The reason I don't find it strange is because it was a major selling point of the game. This was how it was announced. Of course, I also played Guild Wars 1 and it was the same way there, so it's not strange to me at all. But here's a thought? Why is it strange? Why aren't other game's strange? Hear me out...

In Lord of the Rings, the trilogy on which most modern fantasy is based, how many times did Frodo upgrade his weapon? What jewelry did he wear for stats? What do you even wear in real life for stats? What's strange is that people experience something in other games, and think that's good and okay because everyone copied one game doing it. You don't need stats on armor to make a good game. Why would anyone want to work for something, only to have that thing invalidated every six months and we new tier comes out, so they have to work for it again? Sure they get higher numbers, but they're also fighting creatures of higher power. How is that better? Why do so many people want to be a coatrack for greatness? Why don't you want the power to reside on your hero instead of in your gear?

Much of fantasy fiction has people maybe finding a magic sword and special armor, but they do it once and the rest of it is them being awesome. I'm happy with that setup. Don't you think it's strange that so many people play fantasy games, without even thinking about how the gear treadmill in other games has destroyed your own sense of personal power?

Same thing with the trinity of tank, healer and DPS. How interesting do you think Lord of the Rings would have been if Gandalf healed Boromor and Aragorn and the hobbits were never in danger, because of taunts? The trinity ruins any sort of real fantasy immersion. It's contrived. It makes game design easier in a lot of ways but that doesn't mean it's necessarily for the best, particularly if you want something more plausible to sink your teeth into.

What I find strange is that so many people think the gear treadmill is a good thing. As I've often said, if I wanted gear grind I'd have become a watchmaker.

As many others have said, the stat increase from exotic to ascended is marginal. But the real thing what might hold you back is the stats itself. Just because one piece of equipment is ascended and one exotic doesn't mean the ascended is better for what you want. If the ascended has useless defensive stats for your offensive build and the exotic has usefull offensive stats for your offensive build the exotic is way better. So in short, not only is the quality of gear important, the stat combination might be much more important and builds only get effective if you use the right stat combinations. You might want to look at this to gain an overview about what the stats do and what is really usefull for your build.

As other people have said equipment in GW2 works differently to a lot of other MMOs (or RPGs) you may have played. Higher tier equipment does have better stats, but it's not simply a matter of "stacking" the highest tier you can get and expecting that to make your character stronger. The increase between tiers is fairly small, especially between exotic and ascended.

What's far more important is having the right stat combination for your character. It could actually be better to have exotics with useful stats than ascended with ones you won't benefit from. For example my ranger uses a shortbow and dagger/torch - all weapons which do relatively little direct damage but do cause conditions. So power (the stat which increases direct damage) isn't much use for her, but condition damage and expertise (which increases condition duration) are useful, and she has a lot of traits which benefit critical hits, so precision (which increases the crit percentage) is also useful. Whereas my warrior has very few skills which cause conditions, so condition damage and expertise are useless for him and power is very important.

There's also other things to consider when you're trying to gauge how good your character is, especially if you're comparing them to other games. For example in GW2 if you're above the recommended level for an area you'll automatically be scaled down to the equivalent of the recommended level - you still keep all your skills, traits and each stat on your equipment is scaled individually so a high level character is stronger, but you'll never reach the point where you can go back to a starter area and just one-shot everything with auto-attacks. (And if that sounds disappointing consider that the trade-off is you can go back to starter maps and receive XP and loot appropriate for your level so those areas are never irrelevant to you, which gives you a lot more options in what to do - there's even some 'end game' special events which occur in low level maps.)

Simply beautiful responses here.High value, thought-provoking, intelligent points made.I salute you all.Thanks a million.

@Vayne.8563 said:The reason I don't find it strange is because it was a major selling point of the game. This was how it was announced. Of course, I also played Guild Wars 1 and it was the same way there, so it's not strange to me at all. But here's a thought? Why is it strange? Why aren't other game's strange? Hear me out...

In Lord of the Rings, the trilogy on which most modern fantasy is based, how many times did Frodo upgrade his weapon? What jewelry did he wear for stats? What do you even wear in real life for stats? What's strange is that people experience something in other games, and think that's good and okay because everyone copied one game doing it. You don't need stats on armor to make a good game. Why would anyone want to work for something, only to have that thing invalidated every six months and we new tier comes out, so they have to work for it again? Sure they get higher numbers, but they're also fighting creatures of higher power. How is that better? Why do so many people want to be a coatrack for greatness? Why don't you want the power to reside on your hero instead of in your gear?

Much of fantasy fiction has people maybe finding a magic sword and special armor, but they do it once and the rest of it is them being awesome. I'm happy with that setup. Don't you think it's strange that so many people play fantasy games, without even thinking about how the gear treadmill in other games has destroyed your own sense of personal power?

Same thing with the trinity of tank, healer and DPS. How interesting do you think Lord of the Rings would have been if Gandalf healed Boromor and Aragorn and the hobbits were never in danger, because of taunts? The trinity ruins any sort of real fantasy immersion. It's contrived. It makes game design easier in a lot of ways but that doesn't mean it's necessarily for the best, particularly if you want something more plausible to sink your teeth into.

What I find strange is that so many people think the gear treadmill is a good thing. As I've often said, if I wanted gear grind I'd have become a watchmaker.

This was absolutely brilliant.And very well written.You are (probably) just short of a full Genius.Or maybe . . . .

Another point that got missed here regarding ascended gear - if it isn't the combination of stats that you want or need, you can stat swap ascended in the mystic forge. There is an article on it in the wiki, but basically you need the EXOTIC inscription (for weapons) or insignia (for armor) of the stat type you want, the ascended equipment piece, 5 globs of ecto, and an Anthology of Heroes (that you buy from the mystic forge attendant). So if you get a Hronk's (Magi's) ascended armor box, but need a Zojja's (berserker's), you can make that happen with stat swapping.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stat_changing

@"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:Another point that got missed here regarding ascended gear - if it isn't the combination of stats that you want or need, you can stat swap ascended in the mystic forge. There is an article on it in the wiki, but basically you need the EXOTIC inscription (for weapons) or insignia (for armor) of the stat type you want, the ascended equipment piece, 5 globs of ecto, and an Anthology of Heroes (that you buy from the mystic forge attendant). So if you get a Hronk's (Magi's) ascended armor box, but need a Zojja's (berserker's), you can make that happen with stat swapping.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stat_changing

Thank you Kaltyn very much for that astute observation and communication.You are a GentlePerson and a scholar.

@"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:Another point that got missed here regarding ascended gear - if it isn't the combination of stats that you want or need, you can stat swap ascended in the mystic forge. There is an article on it in the wiki, but basically you need the EXOTIC inscription (for weapons) or insignia (for armor) of the stat type you want, the ascended equipment piece, 5 globs of ecto, and an Anthology of Heroes (that you buy from the mystic forge attendant). So if you get a Hronk's (Magi's) ascended armor box, but need a Zojja's (berserker's), you can make that happen with stat swapping.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stat_changing

But, other than that . . .

What do you suggest that a newb 80 do with their time?

Have to finish the Personal Story now.

Bleeeeccchhh.

Not a big fan of the Personal Story. Still, have to do it.

Book 8, Finally.

Then, Do I do Season 1 followed shortly by Season 2.

Then HoT.

Then Season 3.

Then PoF.

Is that about it?

What? What???AmIright . . . . . or not??

Thanks in advance.

@Kabuki Theatre.9752 said:

@"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:Another point that got missed here regarding ascended gear - if it isn't the combination of stats that you want or need, you can stat swap ascended in the mystic forge. There is an article on it in the wiki, but basically you need the EXOTIC inscription (for weapons) or insignia (for armor) of the stat type you want, the ascended equipment piece, 5 globs of ecto, and an Anthology of Heroes (that you buy from the mystic forge attendant). So if you get a Hronk's (Magi's) ascended armor box, but need a Zojja's (berserker's), you can make that happen with stat swapping.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stat_changing

1) If you don't like story, don't play it more than you have to. There is no actual necessity to finishing the core Personal Story, nor LS2 (see below)2) LS1 is not available, it was only temporary content.3) To actually get to HoT and PoF areas, you'll have to play the first bits of the respective stories.4) LS3 and LS4 is similarily story locked, each map to one episode. You don't have to finish any episode, but there's an instance or two to get to each map.