Questions about Gearing.

[Sinfury.2095]

Hi all,

Wanted to ask the veterans here some questions regarding gearing.   I bounce around between a Ranger, Mesmer and Thief and currently my Thief and Ranger I play the most.  Ranger being level 66 and Thief being 50.  I have 158 Tomes of Knowledge in bank from loggin in alot over the years but not playing either. I don't want to use my ToN up on my first character. Want to level up right the first time. 

 

My problem is this though, when I hit 63 on Ranger I got a message I can use Exotics so the obvious place I went to first to look for gear and weapons was TP.  The gear is level 66 and people have the weapons listed for 2 to 4 gold upwards to 16 gold.   Now for a new player such as myself that is finally putting time into the game for once I obviously don't have gold for pre-80 gear so what is my solutions? Do I stop where I am in leveling and go start crafting and if yes where do I start? What craft? It seems like I would have to buy a lot of mats to get to the gearing part of where I am on my characters. 

 

One solution is I do see other gear on the TP that is more affordable, Rares that are way more affordable, is buying  rares from TP a more viable option till level 80? Because once I get to 80 I am just replacing this gear with what Exotics again? I am not even sure where to begin to go for gear once I am 80.  I don't buy Karma gear either when finishing a heart because I felt like gear on TP was cheap enough every 10 levels rather than spending 3 to 4 hundred karma for one piece of gear.

 

I play on Northern Shiverpeaks server if that means anything, but from what I understand it doesn't matter because game pulls gear and sells on TP from all regions? 

 

I got invited to a guild other day but nobody talks or communicates much on it but I don't ever usually ask for gear to be made or anything.

 

Any advice from the community on how I should gear post 63 would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sinfury.2095

[TheQuickFox.3826]

As long as you're leveling you should not put any gold into gear. The gear you get from drops, story rewards and level up rewards is enough to get you to level 80. Save the gold for then, once you are level 80, take a look for a build that suits you, for example at MetaBattle. Then you can either buy exotic (orange) gear of your choice directly off the trading post (cheapest option) or train a crafting profession and make it yourself. (This is more expensive as you need to obtain crafting materials but in the long run you need your crafting professions anyway)

[Sinfury.2095]

Ok its funny you mention story rewards, I haven't even started the story for either my Thief or Ranger.  I should start doing that perhaps lol. All I have been doing is maps to 100% completion. I haven't even done any of the dungeons either as well.  

 

Good to know I can do without Exotics till 80 though.  I really need to start crafting as well.

 

Thanks

[costepj.5120]

You get exotic armour pieces as level rewards at 65, 72, 75 (five pieces total)

[Erich.1783]

If you decide to start crafting there is are some good guides for leveling crafting cheaply, not sure if I can post the link here, but searching "gw2 crafting guide" gave me the site I would recommend as the first choice.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

It's fine to mention relevant links at the forum. Crafting guides:

https://gw2crafts.net/

[Endaris.1452]

As others said, don't bother before level 80. Most notably, level 78-80 gear tends to be much more affordable because exotic armor drops depend on character level meaning the vast majority of it will drop for those levels and not for lower ones. Exotic armor below level 70 is basically exclusively gained from crafting or from map completion rewards.

Personally I would even say, if you already leveled without tomes to level 60ish, just do the rest with tomes. Tomes of Knowledge have no other truly relevant use in the game, so just burn through them. Other than getting the third specialization unlocked at level 71 there is no significant difference between a level 66 and a level 80 character because your base stats are going to get downscaled on lower level maps regardless.

[ShadowCatz.8437]

@Sinfury.2095

You are talking about "gear" and which quality (tier; at this stage Exotic equipment and armour).

What is important is that you decide for which attribute that you want each of your character to focus on as your main stats (major and minor attribute) and use the same Attribute on almost all pieces to get the highest number out of it.

Here is an overview for Attributes in GW2: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attribute_combinations

Exocit are not bound to your character until you equip it, so decide or save your exotic and move it to bank, if you plan to use it on another character on your account. Ascended equipment and weapon are always account bound, so you can move it to another characer even if you have equipped it once (but you can sell it or buy it on TP).

Don't forget that you also will have two ring, one backpack, two accessories and one amulette (marked with 5 in link down here).

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Equipment

Don't buy rings, accessories or amulette as you get that from playing and doing Story content. Later you also get Ascended quality of those, so you don't need to waste any Gold on TP to get those. Especially repeating some story content to get achievment done will reward you with Ascended Trinkets and sometime Back pack (or Back Item).

Here is a list of how to get Back Pack on from which source: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Back_item

Back pack can be crafted and later you will also get different option on how to get Ascended back pack. I would suggest that you study GW2 wiki for each these option and also make use of its Attribute page as there you will see an overview for in what content you get certain Attributes (Viper's and Trailblazer where added with HoT expansion as an example - use filter for expansion to see which Attribute that you need to have to get access to that Attribute in case you don't own all Expansion up to EoD).

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attribute_combinations

[Sinfury.2095]

20 minutes ago, Endaris.1452 said:

As others said, don't bother before level 80. Most notably, level 78-80 gear tends to be much more affordable because exotic armor drops depend on character level meaning the vast majority of it will drop for those levels and not for lower ones. Exotic armor below level 70 is basically exclusively gained from crafting or from map completion rewards.

Personally I would even say, if you already leveled without tomes to level 60ish, just do the rest with tomes. Tomes of Knowledge have no other truly relevant use in the game, so just burn through them. Other than getting the third specialization unlocked at level 71 there is no significant difference between a level 66 and a level 80 character because your base stats are going to get downscaled on lower level maps regardless.

Actually never really thought of it that way because I still get scaled down to whatever map I haven't completed. I may just do that thank you. Anyone else like to add a opinion on whether to use my tomes up on first character if I am at 66 already?

 

To the others, thank you for the links, I will check them out for crafting!

[ShadowCatz.8437]

2 minutes ago, Sinfury.2095 said:

Actually never really thought of it that way because I still get scaled down to whatever map I haven't completed. I may just do that thank you. Anyone else like to add a opinion on whether to use my tomes up on first character if I am at 66 already?

 

To the others, thank you for the links, I will check them out for crafting!

As you have more then one character which is below level 80, you use those ToK to get one character to level 80 which will in turn unlock your Mastery Tracks that you can work on for every character that is above level 80.

When you a character that is level 80 and make use of ToK you will instead get Spirit Shards which is a curreny you will see in your Wallet.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spirit_Shard

[Sinfury.2095]

4 minutes ago, ShadowCatz.8437 said:

As you have more then one character which is below level 80, you use those ToK to get one character to level 80 which will in turn unlock your Mastery Tracks that you can work on for every character that is above level 80.

When you a character that is level 80 and make use of ToK you will instead get Spirit Shards which is a curreny you will see in your Wallet.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spirit_Shard

Ok thank you for the link, so the wiki is little confusing, if I use a ToK on a already 80 character I will get spirit shards is how i take it? Also once 80 you still gain experience and gain levels of some kind is that why I see some people running around with a 280 or 300 beside their name?

 

Thanks

[Infinity.2876]

Rares can be helpful especially if your not sure about what stats you want to have on your armor as they are fairly cheap and can carry you through most of ow. But exotics are more comfortable.

[Deedrick.4372]

34 minutes ago, Sinfury.2095 said:

Ok thank you for the link, so the wiki is little confusing, if I use a ToK on a already 80 character I will get spirit shards is how i take it? Also once 80 you still gain experience and gain levels of some kind is that why I see some people running around with a 280 or 300 beside their name?

 

Thanks

 

Yes, after level 80, levels give spirit shards. If you have HoT/PoF/EoD then you begin to get Mastery levels. These are the higher numbers you see. I wouldn't waste ToK on spirit shards until you are sure you don't want to play with leveling an alt. Some of us are to the point where we have ten thousand of them and spirit shards are the only use.

[Sinfury.2095]

39 minutes ago, Infinity.2876 said:

Rares can be helpful especially if your not sure about what stats you want to have on your armor as they are fairly cheap and can carry you through most of ow. But exotics are more comfortable.

Yea I see that and very affordable as well. That third stat on exotics is pretty big too so I see that as well.

 

21 minutes ago, Deedrick.4372 said:

 

Yes, after level 80, levels give spirit shards. If you have HoT/PoF/EoD then you begin to get Mastery levels. These are the higher numbers you see. I wouldn't waste ToK on spirit shards until you are sure you don't want to play with leveling an alt. Some of us are to the point where we have ten thousand of them and spirit shards are the only use.

Yea I plan to hold onto them but I don't think using 14 of them to make my ranger 80 and using 30 for my thief will break me. I mean I have 158 last I looked, and I like both professions quite alot so its investment post 80.

[Gibson.4036]

Honestly, you don't even need rares pre-80. The blues and greens you get handed are fine.

[Sinfury.2095]

14 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Honestly, you don't even need rares pre-80. The blues and greens you get handed are fine.

Good to know TY.

[Ashantara.8731]

On 8/16/2022 at 1:50 PM, TheQuickFox.3826 said:

As long as you're leveling you should not put any gold into gear. The gear you get from drops, story rewards and level up rewards is enough to get you to level 80. Save the gold for then, once you are level 80, take a look for a build that suits you, for example at MetaBattle. Then you can either buy exotic (orange) gear of your choice directly off the trading post (cheapest option) or train a crafting profession and make it yourself. (This is more expensive as you need to obtain crafting materials but in the long run you need your crafting professions anyway)

@Sinfury.2095, this is the best advice.

If you ever want to look into crafting later, use this site to level your crafting discipline(s): http://gw2crafts.net/

On 8/16/2022 at 2:20 PM, TheQuickFox.3826 said:

It's fine to mention relevant links at the forum. Crafting guides:

https://gw2crafts.net/

Oops! 😉
 

Edited August 18, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[DeanBB.4268]

When leveling, I check my armor and weapons every time I hit a "10" level - 30, 40, etc. If something is over 9 levels old, I replace it. I stick with the starting trinkets except what gets replaced with level and loot rewards.

I would advise upgrading to level 80 exotic trinkets when you get there (I believe an earlier post said not to) since it could be a while before you get to where the ascended trinkets are, and the maps (HoT, looking at you) are more challenging. There are a lot of stat points in trinkets. Decide what kind of build you'll be running (power, condi, etc) so you only buy them once. Or craft them, if you go that route.

[Falson.5284]

Also you mentioned not having done dungeons yet. They are a good source of exotic equipment once you hit level 80 if you don't have a lot of gold. Start doing the different dungeons now and saving up their currency and you'll be able to get some nice gear for much cheaper than crafting or trading post 

[Buran.3796]

On 8/16/2022 at 1:36 PM, Sinfury.2095 said:

Any advice from the community on how I should gear post 63 would be greatly appreciated.

      In general terms I won't worry  about gear before level 80. Then at 80 the TP is a good source of exotics, along dungeons, PvP and WvW rewards and HoT rewards. Them, for ascended trinkets (amulet + rings + ear rings + back pack and even the underwater respirator) the two best sources are farming winterberries in the Frostbite Frontier and the local currencies and volatile magic in Dragonfall & Sandswept Isles seasonal maps.

   Then, for armor ar gear (ascended) I would recomend you to up your crafting skills in the armor and weapons of choices up to level 500, and craft them. The you should focus in trying to complete your first legendary armor set: If you're playing PvP or WvW  instead of rising your crafting you can save the tokens and Grandmaster Chest and use them to get the precursors (you SHOULDN'T change the stats of those armor pieces once selected, so be careful with your choices). Then you would need the crafting at 500 to complete those legendaries.

   Thief and Ranger share the same armor type: mid (leather), whereas Mesmer uese light (clothes). Unless you're decided to main Mesmer going with the others will allow you to share the armor.

Edited August 18, 2022 by Buran.3796