Need some advice on gearing up at end game

[MadCat.6780]

Hello!

I'm a returning player from 2012 who is looking to do a bunch of the new end game activities (Fractals, Strikes, Raids) as well as making my way through the expansion zones.  As such, I am looking for advice on how to gear up given my limited resources. (For tl;dr, skip to the end.)

For Fractals / Strikes / Raids (F/S/R), I have seen recommendations on getting a full set of Exotic gear to start out.  However, given to sheer number of stat combinations and their costs, I'm not sure how to proceed.

 

1. My main at the moment is a Warrior.  I also have a Guardian, Thief and Engineer at 80, and while I enjoy support classes like the Guardian (my main in WoW is a Holy Paladin), I keep coming back to the Warrior.  For starters, I'll probably just be DPSing to learn F/S/R mechanics, but I wouldn't mind getting into tanking (or healing with the Guardian) at some point.
2. I have about 100g; most of this probably going to be spent crafting / buying bags, as the item management in GW2 is one of the worst in any RPG game I've ever played and I need the bag space.
   1. Most of this gold I farmed doing dailies a couple of years ago, but ended up burning out as it got tedious and I was not getting anywhere in terms of gearing or doing group content.  Suggestions on making gold that do not involve the Daily farm or the "park 357 alts at various locations around the map and spend 2 hours per day logging in and opening chests" would be helpful.
3. I  have about 560K Karma and I noticed that you can get a full set of Exotic gear from some vendors for ~225K Karma, but I'm not sure if this is worth the Karma.
   1. Is there a better use for Karma than the Exotic gear sets?
4. For Crafting, I have:
   1. Armorsmith: 416
   2. Artificer: 70 😟
   3. Huntsman: 411
   4. Jeweler: 24 😅
   5. Leatherworking: 346
   6. Weaponsmith: 414

 

My current gear set for my Warrior is a mix of Rare / Exotic gear, most of which are level 80, but are also mostly offensive affixes (Assassin's, Berserker's, etc.), so I don't necessarily need an entirely brand new set of Exotics, but with the horizontal progression in this game, it seems like affix and Sigils / Runes selection are considerably more important than in other MMOs.  I have noticed while doing some of the HoT and PoF open world zones that even with 20K health, my Warrior can be quite squishy.  I'm not sure if this is a "doing the mechanics wrong" issue or if just I need a better selection of affixes on my gear, but it has made me shy away from trying to do group content until feel a bit more comfortable with my gear selection.

 

So, with all that said:

1. What would people recommend for affixes for doing Open World expansion content and F/S/R on a:
   1. Warrior
   2. Guardian
   3. Thief
2. Besides rewards from F/S/R, where would the best place to acquire said equipment be?

 

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by MadCat.6780

[Linken.6345]

The exotic armors aint so expensive on the trading post.

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

For a dps warrior/guardian going with Devona will be a good start you might die afew more times while learning to play again.

And I guess for thief you want Nika

You could go after bladed armors in verdant brink were you can buy all but the chest armor from the vendor with the map material you get there from events.

The chest is 100% drop if the meta goes to t4 in a day/night cycle (people still do this) or random drop from the night bosses.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Linken.6345

[Pirogen.9561]

Link: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Tanetris/So_You_Want_To_Gear_a_Character

Its a long list, so my [tl;dr] would be:

• Trinkets first, then weapon, then armor.
• Everything must be exotic or ascended. All slots must be filled in. Don't "mix". So all Berserker. Or all Viper. Keep it simple.
• Trinkets: the cheapest are from Living Seasons maps.Winterberries are the best! All Ascended. This also mean "Bound to Account". Alt friendly

Weapon(exotic): buy on TP. Search by stat. Don't search by "berserker", search "Power/pecision/Ferocity".

Armor(exotic): buy on TP and/or farm Verdant Brink.

Ascended weapon/armor: craft or do Fractals/Strikes/Raids

Crafting: its about money. Not cheap, but it is predictable. May not be the fastest way, but you can be 100% sure you will get what you want.

[Buran.3796]

  You'll get ascended amulet, ring and back pack from Bloodstone Fen. Is not the most farmeable map but those ascended items from this map can be reset in stats as many times as you want just paying 100 undound magic, so they are very convenient.

  You'll get ascended ring, ear ring, back pack and the undewater respirator from Bitterfrost Frontier. Is the most farmeable map for ascended items since you can gather ~50 winterberries + over 1k unbound magic in 5 minutes (using mounts) x character x day, and remember that you can consume the materials to get more unmbound magic if needed. Remember also thet you can have 2 rings of the same kind if one is infused.

   Yoy can get ascended ring and ear ring from Sandswept Isles, and ring, ear ring and amulet from Dragonfall. Dragongfall is quite easy tio farm.

   Finally, you'll get (once quest are done) ascended amult and earing from Bjora Marches. That map has the second most farmeable currency since you can get ~180 iceshards in 3 minutes just opening the 3 big chest of rewards.

   There's other maps which provide ascended trinkets, but those 5 are the best ones.

   For the armor I'll recomend either PvP or WvW ascended ones buyed with tokens; remember that if you don't swap the stats those would serve to craft future legendary armors. For the weapons just craft ascended ones or play fractals.

Edited April 7, 2023 by Buran.3796
Bitterfrost Frontier instead double Bjora Marches.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

2 hours ago, Buran.3796 said:

You'll get ascended ring, ear ring, back pack and the undewater respirator from Bjora Marches. Is the most farmeable map for ascended items since you can gather ~50 winterberries + over 1k unbound magic in 5 minutes (using mounts) x character x day

You probably mean Bitterfrost Frontier...

[Buran.3796]

16 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

You probably mean Bitterfrost Frontier...

   Yep, my bad.

[Nabbut.7480]

Easiest way to get ascended trinkets is to buy them from Laurel Merchant in LA, you likely have enough laurels by now.

All other ascended gear will cost you mostly time if you will craft it from self-gathered materials.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

DO YOUR DAILIES.  Any combination of 3 PvE, PvP, and WvW dailies will get you 2 gold per day.  WvW Big Spender can be done in the guild hall, WvW Veteran Creature Killer will take a few minutes as you wait for the thing to spawn.  If you PvP, you can get one, two, or even all three done in one match.  PvE jumping puzzles almost always have mesmer's porting.  Visiting a vista takes almost no time at all, and most of the lumberer/forager/miner dailies can be completed by hitting someone's home instance in the capital city of the respective zone (Orr is the only zone without a player capital city).  2 Gold for very little time investment is worth it.  You only have to do 3 and there are twelve to choose from (4 PvE, 4 PvP, and 4 WvW).

Karma armor:  Karma has lots of uses, but it also seems to accumulate like water rushing down a giant river.  Karma armor, however, is soulbound as soon as you put it on and it CANNOT be salvaged.  So if you put an expensive set of runes in it, you will need an upgrade extractor to get them back out. 

Buying Exotic Armor on the TP:  Alternatively, you can get a full set of Heavy Devona's armor for less than 4 gold on the TP (berserker stats), Nika's for for medium berserkers will run right at 4 gold for a full set, and a full set of Zhed's light berserker armor is like 2.5 gold.  And all of this will be salvageable.  Devona's, Nika's, and Zhed's armor also all come with decent, if not best in slot, runes as well (Strength, Infiltration, and Centaur's respectively).

For gold making, Silverwastes RIBA farm map is still high on the list.  The money maker here is opening the chests in the chest train that runs around the map after the Vinewrath event and selling the materials. 

[Gibson.4036]

You shouldn’t be spending a ton of gold on bags. 18 slot bags are a couple gold a piece, and plenty large.

[RavensSorrow.6128]

On 4/6/2023 at 1:35 PM, MadCat.6780 said:

1. My main at the moment is a Warrior.
2. I have about 100g; most of this probably going to be spent crafting / buying bags, as the item management in GW2 is one of the worst in any RPG game I've ever played and I need the bag space
3. I  have about 560K Karma 
   1. Is there a better use for Karma than the Exotic gear sets?
4. For Crafting, I have:
   1. Armorsmith: 416
   2. Artificer: 70 😟
   3. Huntsman: 411
   4. Jeweler: 24 😅
   5. Leatherworking: 346
   6. Weaponsmith: 414

 

 

 

 

Hi friend, welcome to the end game. Here are some general tips:

1) If you are looking for Builds for Warrior, check out Hardstuck or Muklabs. Specifically, if you look for Low Intensity (LI) builds they are easy to learn and a good starting point before you go into more intensive rotations.

2) This game can make you feel like you aren't making money as it doesn't reward liquid gold. However, what is really happening is you are collecting currency and materials that can make you gold.  If you aren't chasing any big crafting projects (i.e. Legendaries) selling materials can make you a bunch of gold.  Use the TP often to make money anytime you can. Even if it's just a few silver it really adds up. Also, the fastest way to lose gold is rushing. If you rush a crafting project, it can get quite expensive.

3) Karma is a great currency for making money. You can buy crafting material bags from vendors, then sell the material on the TP. While it varies what is top usually buying trophies or leather can make you some good gold. The gear is easy enough to come by that spending Karma on exotic isn't worth it. Later on vendors do take some Karma for Ascended trinkets, amulets.

4) Crafting is fun, there are some great skins in there. The big thing with crafting is Legendaries though. While these are long term projects if you don't have the gold, you can always start working your way through one. I recently did a Gen 2 and each achievement I did got me a Weapon a skin or even Ascended so the rewards are useful as you build to the legend. 

5) Achievements. Pay attention to these. Alot of rewards, masteries, and items come from them. Even achievement points are rewarding! For example, if you do an Elite Specialization for one of your classes you can get an easy Ascended weapon for them from a collection achievement. The Season of the Dragon meta-achievements gives a ton of materials, bags, even a legendary if you do it all!

A lot of people gave helpful hints on gearing or getting gold, just remember to play what you want. It matters much less the gold per hour if you aren't enjoying it. Also get into F/S early. The first few Strikes in Icebrood Saga are really simple and give some nice rewards. Fractals also are nothing scary at first. Go in learn the mechanics and get some loot in those tier 1s.  As for Raids use the LFG to look for training groups. People do run these, especially when emboldened. 

 

TLDR: Play what is fun, don't wait for full ascended to join groups, use the TP to make money, and set longterm goals.

[MadCat.6780]

On 4/6/2023 at 2:22 PM, Linken.6345 said:

The exotic armors aint so expensive on the trading post.

Well, that depends on the prefix / stats.  Looks like Marauder's or Valkyrie's would be good for my non-Sword Warrior, as it provides offense and defense in Vitality, but these sell for several gold per piece.  I have also heard Celestial is also a good all-rounder, but that's ~15g per piece.

The offensive gear (Berserker's, etc) are affordable, but I have died numerous times to content in HoT, so I think some Vitality is necessary. (I'm trying to avoid Toughness for the time being so that when I do F/S/R I don't end up pulling aggro...)

 

On 4/7/2023 at 4:29 AM, Pirogen.9561 said:

Link: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Tanetris/So_You_Want_To_Gear_a_Character

Thanks for the link.  I haven't gone through all of it, but the early part about stat choices should be helpful.  I honestly just need something relatively inexpensive to get started.  I might just go with a Sword Warrior with Carrion gear...

 

On 4/7/2023 at 11:22 AM, SpiderZ.9146 said:

Easiest way to get ascended trinkets is to buy them from Laurel Merchant in LA, you likely have enough laurels by now.

I've got about 153?  Not sure if that is a lot or not...

 

On 4/7/2023 at 1:16 PM, Gibson.4036 said:

You shouldn’t be spending a ton of gold on bags. 18 slot bags are a couple gold a piece, and plenty large.

The jump in price from 18 to 20 slots is ridiculous, so I'm going to stick with the 18 slot ones for now, but having my bags all have 10 slots per row is really enticing due to my OCD. 😅

 

On 4/7/2023 at 1:02 PM, Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294 said:

DO YOUR DAILIES.

I was doing them a couple of years ago but eventually I just burned out, as it got really tedious, especially when it was "Farm Lumber, Do a dungeon, Do a Jumping Puzzle in a zone you haven't unlocked, Do 4 Events in a HoT". 😐

 

On 4/7/2023 at 1:02 PM, Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294 said:

Karma armor, however, is soulbound as soon as you put it on and it CANNOT be salvaged.

Good advice, thanks!  I think I will spend my Karma elsewhere...
 

Edited April 10, 2023 by MadCat.6780

[MadCat.6780]

On 4/7/2023 at 2:59 PM, RavensSorrow.6128 said:

2) This game can make you feel like you aren't making money as it doesn't reward liquid gold. However, what is really happening is you are collecting currency and materials that can make you gold.  If you aren't chasing any big crafting projects (i.e. Legendaries) selling materials can make you a bunch of gold.  Use the TP often to make money anytime you can. Even if it's just a few silver it really adds up.

My long term gold would be to craft some Legendaries, so I'd rather hang onto the mats.  And I'm not really a fan of selling on the TP.  If my experience in WoW is any indication, an awful lot of time ends up being wasted putting stuff up that never sells, time that could be better spent farming gold, but maybe it's different in GW2...

[Linken.6345]

2 hours ago, MadCat.6780 said:

My long term gold would be to craft some Legendaries, so I'd rather hang onto the mats.  And I'm not really a fan of selling on the TP.  If my experience in WoW is any indication, an awful lot of time ends up being wasted putting stuff up that never sells, time that could be better spent farming gold, but maybe it's different in GW2...

If you do not want to gamble there is always the instant sell option.

You will get less money that way tho.

[Pirogen.9561]

9 hours ago, MadCat.6780 said:

I might just go with a Sword Warrior with Carrion gear...

I did that with my Guardian and it worked very well. Didn't broke any speed/DPS record, but was good enough so I could do story, general Open World. Good Enough(tm) to get better stuff.

Tip: Warrior Sword does mostly bleed condi damage, so get armor runes that increase bleed duration. For Guardian, I picked "burning" amor runes.

 

9 hours ago, MadCat.6780 said:

Good advice, thanks!  I think I will spend my Karma elsewhere...

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Barre_Scorchmane . I like Watchknight..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6mYx_Y5gvQ

[SandraSolace.7682]

@ MadCat.6780

Have you signed up for the newsletter? https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/free-24-slot-bag-with-newsletters/

That will give you a 24 slot bag for free, if it helps.

Edited April 11, 2023 by SandraSolace.7682
Spelling

[Pirogen.9561]

10 hours ago, MadCat.6780 said:

My long term gold would be to craft some Legendaries, so I'd rather hang onto the mats.  And I'm not really a fan of selling on the TP.  If my experience in WoW is any indication, an awful lot of time ends up being wasted putting stuff up that never sells, time that could be better spent farming gold, but maybe it's different in GW2...

Raw gold is very rare in GW2. Most of the money is in the mats and unopened bag or items you sell on TP.

Insta sell vs sell order: do what you want. Just don't sell to NPCs. NPCs get only junk. They even have "Sell junk" button.

 

[MadCat.6780]

9 hours ago, Pirogen.9561 said:

I did that with my Guardian and it worked very well. Didn't broke any speed/DPS record, but was good enough so I could do story, general Open World. Good Enough(tm) to get better stuff.

I picked up Haimi's set for my Guardian.  I figure it should be useful for group content what with the +Healing Power.

 

9 hours ago, Pirogen.9561 said:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Barre_Scorchmane .

Interesting items for sale.  Do you know if the Enhanced Gathering Tools has a set number of charges?  The Material Gathering Tools apparently have 50 charges, but it doesn't state the amount for Enhanced...

 

9 hours ago, SandraSolace.7682 said:

Have you signed up for the newsletter? https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/free-24-slot-bag-with-newsletters/

That will give you a 24 slot bag for free, if it helps.

Not yet; I'm assuming it's per account?
 

9 hours ago, Pirogen.9561 said:

Insta sell vs sell order: do what you want.

The insta-sell might make it worth it, however...

9 hours ago, Pirogen.9561 said:

Raw gold is very rare in GW2. Most of the money is in the mats and unopened bag or items you sell on TP.

...if raw gold is very rare, where are people getting the gold to buy stuff off the TP? 🤔

 

 

Meanwhile, I read that buying the Ascended Amulets from Laurel vendors (especially the WvW Laurel vendor) is a good use of Laurels.  However, I noticed there are several Amulets that have the exact same stats as each other (e.g. Eye of Janthir, The Eyes of Abbadon, Syzygy).  Is there some difference between these I'm missing?

Edited April 11, 2023 by MadCat.6780

[Pirogen.9561]

58 minutes ago, MadCat.6780 said:

Meanwhile, I read that buying the Ascended Amulets from Laurel vendors (especially the WvW Laurel vendor) is a good use of Laurels.  However, I noticed there are several Amulets that have the exact same stats as each other (e.g. Eye of Janthir, The Eyes of Abbadon, Syzygy).  Is there some difference between these I'm missing?

1. Artefact from old days.

2. Some items are "unique". It means you can only equip one  But you have 2 ring slots. So you need 2 different rings.

3. Check what laurels are used for. There is not a lot of way to get them. You don't want to be low on laureals if you want to <insert something> and the curse yourself for burning them on kinda easy to get trinkets. Trinkets are really not hard to get in LW maps. Or fractals/raids/WvW,PvP. Lots of sources for trinkets and not that many for laurels.

[SandraSolace.7682]

Yes, the free bag is per account. Still free space though 😉

[RavensSorrow.6128]

On 4/10/2023 at 6:19 PM, MadCat.6780 said:

My long term gold would be to craft some Legendaries, so I'd rather hang onto the mats.  And I'm not really a fan of selling on the TP.  If my experience in WoW is any indication, an awful lot of time ends up being wasted putting stuff up that never sells, time that could be better spent farming gold, but maybe it's different in GW2...

With the ability to place "buy orders" you can see what people are actually paying for. When you look at the TP you see 2 sides, one buyers place and ones sellers place. The Sell Orders are usually more expensive but take a bit longer to sell. Buy orders are cheaper but are still a great way to make gold. Also you have a material storage and it does fill up, especially on the level 80 (tier 6) crafting materials. Don't be afraid to put your overflow on the tp. Also start working towards a legendary. It takes time. The faster you want it done the more gold that will cost you. 

On 4/11/2023 at 2:04 PM, MadCat.6780 said:

The insta-sell might make it worth it, however...

...if raw gold is very rare, where are people getting the gold to buy stuff off the TP? 🤔

 

I do want to make sure you aren't confusing Rare with no one has gold. While drops of just gold are rare (the easiest ones are Daily Achievements) it doesn't mean people are poor. You have to understand this game has been around for 10 years. People who have done dailies every day for those years exists! Also as you get achievement points some of the rewards are things like 1% gold find. Over years that adds up. People can also convert gems into gold as well (and vice versa). 
If you want gold you should get used to the trading post. It's not impossible to make money without it but it's much slower. I believe you said you wanted to avoid the daily farming. Just find your balance.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

One thing to be aware of, you'll have players to tell you not to mix sets; this is bad advice. If you check Metabattle or Snowcrows you'll see that nearly all builds use mixed sets, and very few classes can just use one stat combination and get away with it.

 

The reason is simple: there's almost always something you want to min/max, and trying to do so is very inefficient if you don't draw from multiple stat combinations. For example, a few classes can crit-cap on full Berserker with just the Fury boon, but most can't, and have to mix in some degree of Assassin's along with it.

 

This isn't a game where you can just throw some gear together an run with it. The only time that really works is with full Celestial and even then only if you go all-in for it.

 

The best place to start is:

- Always cap your main stat, which for power builds is crit-chance, for condition builds is condition duration, and for support builds is boon duration..

- For group content, use a power build with a mix of Assassin's and Berserker's (the later is cheap off the TP for silvers if you search for the stats and not the name). Rune of Scholar is usually run here, but there's cheaper variants like Eagle. Prioritise Precision, then Ferocity, then Power, and as much %damage as you can take. Make sure your crit-chance is exactly 75% with any bonuses from traits, and that your build doesn't include any self-boons or defense. (You'll be carried by your group's healer in almost every encounter.)

- For open-world and solo content, use a power build with a mix of Dragon's and Marauder's. Remember not to pass 75% crit-chance (with any bonuses from traits), if you have a consistent source of self-Fury for your class. Rune of the Wurm and Power+Vitality food works well here especially. You'll generally want to prioritise less %damage and more Might stacking when playing by yourself.

- An alternative open-world build is to run a "DPS booner" build, which is a power build mostly made from Diviner's gear and often running Rune of the Pack. This allows you to give yourself permanent Alacrity or Quickness (each class can only use one of them), as well as many other boons and can make surviving a breeze, but its more difficult to build for and play than pure DPS. This same type of build is used in group content to be the Alac or Quick provider who isn't the healer, who typically brings the other important boon.

- You should start with Ascended only on trinkets since they're easy to get from the Living World maps or just from the Laurel merchant. You only need the Agony Resist from Fractals anyway and you'll be able to build up to 90-110 AR from trinkets alone.

 

There's also condition builds and support builds but they're on a more advanced level of play than power builds usually, so I don't recommend starting with them and instead waiting until you're more experienced with just whacking things with a basic rotation.

Use this to mix your gear before buying it to see how the build looks: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

 

You get a full set of 20 slot bags to put in every slot from playing Living World season 1 (LWS1), and you can obtain a few 32 slot bags from LWS2.2 Sandswept Isles and Icebrood Saga (LWS5), though they're both a bit costly up front but still well-worth it in the long run.

 

The best source of gold in the game per time invested is Fractals. You start out at about 5g/day from the dailies at T1 with basic gear and very low AR, and then as you move up to T4 and max all your masteries (which doesn't take long), you make 20G+/day for about an hour of work. This is liquid gold, not traded gold, so you get to keep all your materials instead of selling them off.

Edited April 13, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[MadCat.6780]

On 4/12/2023 at 2:11 AM, SandraSolace.7682 said:

Yes, the free bag is per account. Still free space though 😉

Gonna have to play favourites to see who gets that bag... 🙁😅

 

21 hours ago, RavensSorrow.6128 said:

Also start working towards a legendary. It takes time.

Would it be better to work towards armor or weapons?  It seems like there is only one Legendary PvE armor set per weight in the entire game...

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by MadCat.6780

[Ashantara.8731]

On 4/11/2023 at 12:08 AM, MadCat.6780 said:

The offensive gear (Berserker's, etc) are affordable, but I have died numerous times to content in HoT, so I think some Vitality is necessary.

Nope. It all depends on how well you move. WASD, evades and dodges as well as proper skills are everything in solo PvE combat. Then you can maw down your enemies in no time with proper DPS gear. 🙂

Edited April 14, 2023 by Ashantara.8731

[Sugar Min.5834]

More sustainability and in your case more vitality helps.

Ok, you can be super cautious and be very good at your profession, and even if you are familiar with the boss mechanics and know what to expect next, sometimes 💩 happens. It's wise to sacrifice a few percentage loss of dps for the ability to tank just one or two more hits. You don't have to go full Marauder, just mix some into your berserker gears. It makes a difference.

Edited April 14, 2023 by Min Min.9368

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

4 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Nope. It all depends on how well you move. WASD, evades and dodges as well as proper skills are everything in solo PvE combat. Then you can maw down your enemies in no time with proper DPS gear. 🙂

This is class specific, as some classes have 50-100% more survivability than others., depending on base health and armor. For example a Warrior can usually take three hits from an enemy, while an Elementalist can only take one (and usually goes down). Telling someone to just dodge/block/etc. everything is unrealistic, as cooldowns exist.

 

Soloing builds "without any defense" typically still run the Protection boon and so on. Its fine to encourage players to be better, but they shouldn't tryhard into frustration.

Edited April 14, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134