The real gear problem

[kharmin.7683]

19 hours ago, Parasite.5389 said:

Unless they've used a boost to get to level 80 on day one, it's safe to say that most "new" players have the required understanding through gameplay, to know what their gear/stats do what content is available, and that this isn't a Single player experience, where the game has to hold your hand at every step and that other people play this game!

 

 

You have a lot more faith in the new players than most, I'd wager.

[Jianyu.7065]

The first few paragraphs of your post isn't very concise and it is kind of difficult to understand where you're coming from. However, I think a lot of the ideas you have in the second part are great. 

My wife just started playing this game a month ago. We got her the complete edition plus Soto. She started as a Ranger and has been very open to exploring all facets of the game. The only complaint she has had about gear, is that most of what you find is useless, and she became overwhelmed about what she should do with the excess. When I told her to salvage it, she questions if she will need any of it later. As a relatively experienced player (1400 hours) I thought it was best to leave her to her own devices and really only play the game with her rather than teach her about the game - I would only give advice and recommendations if asked, and even then just more so point her in a direction. Since she started she has managed to save up 200g and is just now wondering about gear as a level 80 Soulbeast at the end of PoF - who has managed just fine. She isn't an experienced gamer either, but she does like gaming. That said, you know what she did to stay geared up...crafting. Can you believe that? She crafted her way to level 500 with zero guidance - not even wiki, and she used that to stay decently equipped up until now. I remember when we got on the subject of earning gold and she says she has 200g and asks if that's a lot, and I told that it is a lot for her, but honestly, that's a lot for most of us. 

So, I think that while some of the systems are out of date, that they are still functionally usefull if players slow down a little bit and pay attention to the details. We forget what fun is sometimes because we're so concerned about being caught up with everyone else. My wife doesn't care about any of that, and by using the systems in the game for what they are worth, she accumulated a decent amount of wealth that seems out of touch for many players.

Also, there is a big update 12 days away that is changing some things you complained about, so we need to see how that plays out. But again, I like your suggestions.

[Bladestrom.6425]

5 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

I only use celestial these days.. its been ages since i've needed to even search for any gear, i never use exotics anymore i can craft everything ascended..

I can't use wiki either the whole design makes no sense to me.. i try to search them and can never find what i want. Its like Twitter to this day i have no idea how to navigate it, thats why i never made an account.

there ya go 😛  https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=how+to+use+wiki

[Khisanth.2948]

3 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

You have a lot more faith in the new players than most, I'd wager.

Every player was a new player at some point. Your time on the forums might have biased your judgement.

[Obfuscate.6430]

There is no real tutorial but map chat is always available for on the spot advice. You'll still get a couple of jokesters telling you to use the wiki but plenty of people would be happy to give tips and advice to new players.  Some core game stats are still meta, and you can buy them cheaply from the trading post as others suggested. 
If you don't care for crafting, you can sell your mats to make gold quickly. 
Salvage blue loot bags, sell green loot bags on the trading post, open yellow loot bags and salvage with a master's salvage kit to get ectos easy. 
You'll have gold in no time to buy your gear. 

I 100% agree that there should be some kind of tutorial or guide on understanding the stats. Guild Wars 1 had it. 
For a long time I didn't even know how my gear affected the kind of damage my character did. 
 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

16 minutes ago, Obfuscate.6430 said:

There is no real tutorial but map chat is always available for on the spot advice. You'll still get a couple of jokesters telling you to use the wiki but plenty of people would be happy to give tips and advice to new players.  Some core game stats are still meta, and you can buy them cheaply from the trading post as others suggested. 
If you don't care for crafting, you can sell your mats to make gold quickly. 
Salvage blue loot bags, sell green loot bags on the trading post, open yellow loot bags and salvage with a master's salvage kit to get ectos easy. 
You'll have gold in no time to buy your gear. 

I 100% agree that there should be some kind of tutorial or guide on understanding the stats. Guild Wars 1 had it. 
For a long time I didn't even know how my gear affected the kind of damage my character did. 
 

I think it is confusing to call Unidentified Gear (whether blue or green or yellow) loot bags as there is such a thing as actual Blue Loot Containers (Bags), Green Loot Containers (Bags) and Yellow (and Orange) Loot Containers (Bags).

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

There's a facet to the gear design in this game that doesn't get talked about a lot, but nonetheless is pretty darn important for the lower levels.  There are very few truly incompetent gear sets in this game.

We're used to looking at all of our gear from the perspective of raids, wherein it is all about maximizing pure damage.  But, from a very generalist perspective, most of the gear sets in this game are competent.  The ones from the base game usually come with 2 offensive stats and one defensive stat (Knight, Carrion, Rabid, Valkyrie, etc), or they come with one offensive stat with two defensive stats (Soldiers).  Either way, you're getting a good mix of offensive and defensive stats.  Some like Berserkers, Assassins, Rampagers, Sinister are pure offense, but those aren't much of an issue either.

It was made this way partly because this game was designed from a PvP base upward.  The base stats of the characters were all meant to be minimally competent in whatever is done, with the gear providing some means of offense no matter what is chosen.  There's a few n00b traps in there (rabid, nomad's, minstrels to name a few), but most of them are obscure enough that your average n00b isn't going to bumble into them  The real onus put onto the player comes in two forms: knowing to match gear with similar kinds, and knowing what strike/condition damage is.  If they get those two down, then they'll be good to go.

[TheNurgle.4825]

On 8/9/2023 at 11:06 AM, Danikat.8537 said:

What did you put in your LFG message? If I want a group that won't rush ahead I put something like "Path 1 - no skipping. Everyone welcome" and it's always filled up in about 10 minutes.

Although it does depend on what time you're doing it. Peak time for EU is about 17:00 - 23:00 UTC and for NA it's around reset (I'm not sure of the exact times) so if you're doing it outside of those times it can take longer for a group to fill up.

Few years back before ANET merged dungeon tokens I wanted finally unlock all skins from dungeons and getting group for any dungeon was nightmare. Ascalon catacombs was probably easiest since it is first one and new ppl try to do it. Later I went with PvP and WvW rewards tracks since it was faster and easier. LFG tool is archaic and to see if anyone else is LF dungeon run is to constantly switch between each section.