Level 80 boost - how good is my gear?

[Rigardo.7416]

I recently got back into GW2, I bought it years ago and never gave it a real chance but lately I've been having cravings to play so I returned and bought the Path of Fire expansion. I boostest my warrior to 80, who I previously enjoyed playing and felt strong, but now at 80 I feel super weak. It feels as though my weapons and armor are incredibly inferior, which is what I expected from boosted gear. But the really issue, is that any new gear I've acquired is much worse than what I already have.

I'm real sorry for this nooby question, but is 80 content supposed to feel this way with boosted gear? Is the gear crap, if so can someone forward me to any guides that help a brand new player like me improve?

Again, sorry for the nooby question, but hopefully people can help introduce a noob like me into what I should be doing.

Edit: I have been trying to google my own answers for this, but I find my search results for GW kind of... lacking/outdated.

[Embered.5089]

The level 80 boost gives you level 80 exotic gear of a generic build for your class. For example, as a guardian, I'd get a Soldier build, aka Power, Toughness, Vitality. Now, that's great for me--I want the tank build. But others would prefer Power, Precision, Ferocity, for a power build, or Power, Precision, Condition for part-condi build, or etc. If you're feeling weaker than usual, then there's three posibilities1) You had ascended/legendary gear before, which is better than exotic level.2) You got stats that you didn't use before, e.g. you used tank before but now have power, which means you're squishier. Or you used power build before but now have tank, so you do less damage. Also make sure to check your Build panel in your Hero's tab, where you customize different traits.3) PoF monsters are actually harder than core Tyria monsters, so you might still be adjusting. When I first ran around PoF in my inefficient build with exotic gear, I thought that I'd had to change into an efficient build or use ascended gear. However, I am currently running around with the same exotic gear and a slightly-better-but-still-inefficient build that I like more. So there's the possibility that you're just not used to the PoF monsters.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

The free gear has Soldier's stats, which is the "best of bad gear". It's not lousy, but it's far from optimal.

• It boosts power primarily & secondarily vitality & toughness. The first is good for direct damage builds; the second two add durability only.
• The aggressive stat for power builds is "Berserker's" — power (primary) with precision and ferocity second. The latter two boost the chance & damage (respectively) of critical hits, which has a huge impact on total damage.
• The aggressive stat for condi builds is Viper's usually, with cheaper "good enough" options available.

The point of the 'free' armor is to get you started.

Generally speaking though, gear is a less important factor. Your choice of weapons, utilities, and how you use them has a huge impact. Good gear makes a good build much better, but it often won't help a bad build except to hide how bad it is for the intended purpose.

A good place to start is Metabattle. You'll note that they only show builds for WvW, PvP, Raids, & Fractals (long story as to why). For your purposes, look at top-rated fractal or top-rated roaming WvW builds. The Fractal builds will be more aggressive, the WvW builds more conservative (typically).

Take a look at

• GS + Axe/Shield (HoT required) or GS + Axe/Shield (without HoT)
• GS/Dagger
• GS/Hammer

Initially, look at the traits/utilities/weapons and then work on your gear.

[Pretty Pixie.8603]

Soldier's does ok damage while granting a lot more survivability. If they had given you beserker's, new players would die a lot more due not learning to play your class as you level. It also gives you a clear goal, get a good gear set for your prefered build, without gimping you too much.

So, not optimal, but not that bad either.

You generally don't get gear from lootdrops. Salvage your greens and blues, sell the mats, and buy the gear you want from the TP, or craft it.

You might feel weak depending on what content you are playing. The expacs assume you know how to play, and are more challenging than core content.

[Danikat.8537]

One thing to bear in mind is that GW2 is much more focused on player skill than equipment. Equipment can and does make a difference (it's where most of your stats come from) but you can't simply level up your gear to the point where the game becomes easy. Even in the best possible equipment with a fully min-maxed build if you don't know what you're doing you're going to die a lot and struggle to get anywhere. (Especially because the game scales you to the zone you're in, so you can't simply out-level things either. The scaling isn't perfect - a downscaled 80 is much more powerful than a character of that level, but it means you'll never one-shot everything effortlessly.)

There's only 6 tiers of equipment in this game and all equipment with the same tier and level requirement is equally good. Exotic is 2nd from top and the best (ascended) is only slightly more powerful, while being much more expensive and potentially time consuming to get. So I don't recommend looking for a straight-forward increase in stats to solve your problem, it's unlikely to be worth it.

Instead I recommend taking some time to get to know the Warrior, experiment with different weapons, utility skills and traits and think about what kind of build you want - do you want to do more damage and you're ok with using active defences (positioning, dodge, block/reflect skills) or do you want more defensive stats so you don't have to be on guard all the time and you're ok with killing things a bit slower? Do you prefer conditions or direct damage? Is it important to have a build which is acceptable in groups or would you rather do your own thing? Then you can decide what stat combination to go for and (if necessary) get new gear, but it will also give you a much better idea of how to play your character which will make a big difference.

[Captain Fury.6587]

I just recently boosted my character and not that I feel week or anything but I have yet to find gear better than the boosted gear. In the last 24 hours I think I’ve participated in 6-8 world bosses. And not a single item was usable for my character

[Nash.2681]

@Captain Fury.6587 said:I just recently boosted my character and not that I feel week or anything but I have yet to find gear better than the boosted gear. In the last 24 hours I think I’ve participated in 6-8 world bosses. And not a single item was usable for my characterWorld bosses are probably the worst place to farm gear since 99,xx % you'll get away with yellow (rare) crap only. Chances that you'll get at least orange (exotic) or even ascended (pink) gear is veeeeery low, let alone with stats you actually want to have.To get a set of exotic gear with the desired stats I'd suggest you to do the following:

• farm some gold (pretty easy nowadays) and buy it straight from the TP
• if you like dungeons and have no problem to find ppl to do them with you or even have a static group, farm one which has armor and weapons of your desired stats
• if you WvW a lot, you can also buy exotic gear for WvW tokens
• if you like crafting and/or already have a lot of materials in your bank, you can just craft your gear yourself

[CptAurellian.9537]

@Nash.2681 said:

@Captain Fury.6587 said:I just recently boosted my character and not that I feel week or anything but I have yet to find gear better than the boosted gear. In the last 24 hours I think I’ve participated in 6-8 world bosses. And not a single item was usable for my characterWorld bosses are probably the worst place to farm gear since 99,xx % you'll get away with yellow (rare) crap only. Chances that you'll get at least orange (exotic) or even ascended (pink) gear is veeeeery low, let alone with stats you actually want to have.To get a set of exotic gear with the desired stats I'd suggest you to do the following:

• farm some gold (pretty easy nowadays) and buy it straight from the TP
• if you like dungeons and have no problem to find ppl to do them with you or even have a static group, farm one which has armor and weapons of your desired stats
• if you WvW a lot, you can also buy exotic gear for WvW tokens
• if you like crafting and/or already have a lot of materials in your bank, you can just craft your gear yourselfDon't forget the karma vendors at the Orr temples, which also offer some usable exotic gear. Concerning crafting, a note of caution - for quite a few stats (e.g. berserker), crafting is much more expensive than buying a named lvl 80 exotic off the TP.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

@CptAurellian.9537 said:Don't forget the karma vendors at the Orr temples, which also offer some usable exotic gear. Concerning crafting, a note of caution - for quite a few stats (e.g. berserker), crafting is much more expensive than buying a named lvl 80 exotic off the TP.

Good advice here.

To the OP: I recently boosted my Thief just to get a full set of Exotic medium gear (with leather so expensive, that was a huge savings for me). Problem is that a boosted thief is given Valkyrie gear, whichs Power + Ferocity + Vitality. While I don't object to vitality to help a boosted player as they learn their class, many of a Thief's key abilities require you crit, so the absence of Precision on the gear is quite odd.

I was prepared though, and had a few pcs of Berserker gear in the bank to help re-distribute my stats while I upgrade to ascendend or other exotic.

So if your Warrior is feeling 'weak', my guess is that you are starved for Precision and Ferocity, as Soldiers gear replaces them with Toughness and Vitality. You likely can quickly replace your accessories with Berserkers - I don't think exotic rings and backs are too expensive in the TP, and see if that helps.

[Nash.2681]

@CptAurellian.9537 said:

@Nash.2681 said:

@Captain Fury.6587 said:I just recently boosted my character and not that I feel week or anything but I have yet to find gear better than the boosted gear. In the last 24 hours I think I’ve participated in 6-8 world bosses. And not a single item was usable for my characterWorld bosses are probably the worst place to farm gear since 99,xx % you'll get away with yellow (rare) crap only. Chances that you'll get at least orange (exotic) or even ascended (pink) gear is veeeeery low, let alone with stats you actually want to have.To get a set of exotic gear with the desired stats I'd suggest you to do the following:

• farm some gold (pretty easy nowadays) and buy it straight from the TP
• if you like dungeons and have no problem to find ppl to do them with you or even have a static group, farm one which has armor and weapons of your desired stats
• if you WvW a lot, you can also buy exotic gear for WvW tokens
• if you like crafting and/or already have a lot of materials in your bank, you can just craft your gear yourselfDon't forget the karma vendors at the Orr temples, which also offer some usable exotic gear. Concerning crafting, a note of caution - for quite a few stats (e.g. berserker), crafting is much more expensive than buying a named lvl 80 exotic off the TP.

I admit, I haven't checked them for years now and thought they offer soldiers stats only, so I didn't mention them. But you're correct, Orr Karma Vendors offer exotic gear with different stats aswell. But be aware- armor from Karma vendors in Orr can NOT be salvaged, so be carefull what runes you put one them, if you ever plan to substitute them (e. g. with ascended armor later on).

[Khisanth.2948]

@Nash.2681 said:

@CptAurellian.9537 said:

@Nash.2681 said:

@Captain Fury.6587 said:I just recently boosted my character and not that I feel week or anything but I have yet to find gear better than the boosted gear. In the last 24 hours I think I’ve participated in 6-8 world bosses. And not a single item was usable for my characterWorld bosses are probably the worst place to farm gear since 99,xx % you'll get away with yellow (rare) crap only. Chances that you'll get at least orange (exotic) or even ascended (pink) gear is veeeeery low, let alone with stats you actually want to have.To get a set of exotic gear with the desired stats I'd suggest you to do the following:

• farm some gold (pretty easy nowadays) and buy it straight from the TP
• if you like dungeons and have no problem to find ppl to do them with you or even have a static group, farm one which has armor and weapons of your desired stats
• if you WvW a lot, you can also buy exotic gear for WvW tokens
• if you like crafting and/or already have a lot of materials in your bank, you can just craft your gear yourselfDon't forget the karma vendors at the Orr temples, which also offer some usable exotic gear. Concerning crafting, a note of caution - for quite a few stats (e.g. berserker), crafting is much more expensive than buying a named lvl 80 exotic off the TP.

I admit, I haven't checked them for years now and thought they offer soldiers stats only, so I didn't mention them. But you're correct, Orr Karma Vendors offer exotic gear with different stats aswell. But be aware- armor from Karma vendors in Orr can NOT be salvaged, so be carefull what runes you put one them, if you ever plan to substitute them (e. g. with ascended armor later on).

Fortunately most runes are cheap enough these days that a set will only cost a handful of gold.

[Sephylon.4938]

Least necros won't die.

@Captain Fury.6587 said:I just recently boosted my character and not that I feel week or anything but I have yet to find gear better than the boosted gear. In the last 24 hours I think I’ve participated in 6-8 world bosses. And not a single item was usable for my character

Do you own hot? You can do verdant brink meta to earn some crowbars to open airship cargoes to get airship parts to buy bladed armor. Otherwise just buy the named armors from the tp. You also need itzel language to buy the bladed armor.

[Nash.2681]

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@Nash.2681 said:

@CptAurellian.9537 said:

@Nash.2681 said:

@Captain Fury.6587 said:I just recently boosted my character and not that I feel week or anything but I have yet to find gear better than the boosted gear. In the last 24 hours I think I’ve participated in 6-8 world bosses. And not a single item was usable for my characterWorld bosses are probably the worst place to farm gear since 99,xx % you'll get away with yellow (rare) crap only. Chances that you'll get at least orange (exotic) or even ascended (pink) gear is veeeeery low, let alone with stats you actually want to have.To get a set of exotic gear with the desired stats I'd suggest you to do the following:

• farm some gold (pretty easy nowadays) and buy it straight from the TP
• if you like dungeons and have no problem to find ppl to do them with you or even have a static group, farm one which has armor and weapons of your desired stats
• if you WvW a lot, you can also buy exotic gear for WvW tokens
• if you like crafting and/or already have a lot of materials in your bank, you can just craft your gear yourselfDon't forget the karma vendors at the Orr temples, which also offer some usable exotic gear. Concerning crafting, a note of caution - for quite a few stats (e.g. berserker), crafting is much more expensive than buying a named lvl 80 exotic off the TP.

I admit, I haven't checked them for years now and thought they offer soldiers stats only, so I didn't mention them. But you're correct, Orr Karma Vendors offer exotic gear with different stats aswell. But be aware- armor from Karma vendors in Orr can NOT be salvaged, so be carefull what runes you put one them, if you ever plan to substitute them (e. g. with ascended armor later on).

Fortunately most runes are cheap enough these days that a set will only cost a handful of gold.

Though prices are compareably low nowadays, this is a matter of perspective. While spending 7-10 gold on a runeset is nothing for veteran players, it might be a lot for someone new / coming back with low ingame wealth.

[Cifrer.6013]

You can buy fairly cheap level 80 exotics from the trading post. Most of the cheaper ones are actually the named gear. Heavy armor would be Devona's for Berserker stats for example. Power, Precision, Ferocity.