[POLL] What Type of Gear Do You Run in WvW?

[TheGrimm.5624]

Was curious on the impact that balance patches play on people when it comes to gear. I assume that we have a diverse group of people considering differences in players that main toons to the other end where people have 20+ mains. When you mix in exotics to legendaries you will also get a variety of impact that patches like this can play. So one metric that Anet may not consider is the cost of re-gearing when patches like this are introduced. For some people it's like starting over and it's a positive thing, but for others it's a question of regear or move on to another game depending on the time they spent setting up a build and acquiring the materials to build it. Considering that with this patch there are also plans on more patches potentially meaning more regearing if people are trying to stay current. Ironically legendary gear users face less impact of this followed up by exotic gear users leaving ascended gear users potentially paying the highest costs. So that said I was curious (without having access to Arena Net's stats) what forum goers average level of gear is. Note, for those that run multiple toons, what's your most numerous level of gear for the toons that you take out to WvW in. This poll is more about your armor and less weapons and jewelry. I appreciate your time.

[Jabari.7026]

This is not really a gear thing as such, but I think WvW need to be locked until the toon is level 80. Still think at level 60 is too soon, especially considering all these level 80 boosters. The chance for them to have better gear is higher then if locked at level 80.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

lol, why bother making ascended when anet reinvents the wheel every so often? exotic is good enough and way less hassle.

plus which ascended is barely an increase in stats, it only matters in pve.

[TheGrimm.5624]

@Rumba.3174 said:This is not really a gear thing as such, but I think WvW need to be locked until the toon is level 80. Still think at level 60 is too soon, especially considering all these level 80 boosters. The chance for them to have better gear is higher then if locked at level 80.

Not sure if they removed the uplevel flag, but can't remember the last time I saw one. I admit I entered WvW as an uplevel in blue/green gear when first starting and coming from a game that did a better job with bolstering it was rough. But if I was starting new again I would still prefer to be able to level up thru WvW as you can do in PvP, rough as it was or not. I maybe a PvXer but not everyone is into the PvE side of the game. Players still remain the more interesting fights that are out there. Now maybe if we get monster play in PvE....

[GDchiaScrub.3241]

No white option. Also masterwork is "green." Technically. The only time switching stats on Ascended armor is a pain is when a time gated material was/is used (like celestial charged quartz bs). I don't recall if it destroyed infusions when you put it in the mystic forge but I'm pretty sure it does. Of coruse it's easy to deal with anet's balance if you run full celestial, stars sigil and runes then stop caring about performance.

D:

[TheGrimm.5624]

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:lol, why bother making ascended when anet reinvents the wheel every so often? exotic is good enough and way less hassle.

That's what I am curious about. And your comment is exactly the point, not so bad to swap out Exotic or Legendary, but the impact on Ascended can be costly. Look at Trailblazers its almost back to pre-PoF pricing at around the 250 gold mark. WvW also still remains the mode that has the worst payouts for time. If anything I think ANet should add new coin drops in pip rewards to account for the cost that people might experience in regearing. For Legendary people its extra coin, but it might take the bit off those that are not.

[TheGrimm.5624]

@"GDchiaScrub.3241" said:No white option. Also masterwork is "green." Technically. The only time switching stats on Ascended armor is a pain is when a time gated material was/is used (like celestial charged quartz bs). I don't recall if it destroyed infusions when you put it in the mystic forge but I'm pretty sure it does. Of coruse it's easy to deal with anet's balance if you run full celestial, stars sigil and runes then stop caring about performance.

D:

Ha! I was thinking masterwork was yellow, moar coffee! Good point, and left other for white and or for those that really dig the nekid builds. Interesting point on the cele builds, haven't gotten to test those yet, downside to being an alt-o-holic.

[GDchiaScrub.3241]

@TheGrimm.5624 said:

@"GDchiaScrub.3241" said:No white option. Also masterwork is "green." Technically. The only time switching stats on Ascended armor is a pain is when a time gated material was/is used (like celestial charged quartz bs). I don't recall if it destroyed infusions when you put it in the mystic forge but I'm pretty sure it does. Of coruse it's easy to deal with anet's balance if you run full celestial, stars sigil and runes then stop caring about performance.

D:

Ha! I was thinking masterwork was yellow, moar coffee! Good point, and left other for white and or for those that really dig the nekid builds. Interesting point on the cele builds, haven't gotten to test those yet, downside to being an alt-o-holic.

Well I didn't say full cele was good, but it does have high meme value when wanting something with a rainbow theme for RPing.

D:

[acidic.4356]

around 16 sets of ascended gear + 2 legendary sets , working on last legendary set for "light classes" then debating whether to salvage all the ascended sets, hmm

[TheGrimm.5624]

@GDchiaScrub.3241 said:Well I didn't say full cele was good, but it does have high meme value when wanting something with a rainbow theme for RPing.

D:

Check, after work will adjust the current plan of charging the zerg solo with the cele toons. Dreams crushed. Moving along.

[Kylden Ar.3724]

Really should have been multiple select. Depends on the toon. Some are full Ascended, some are Ascended Exotic Mix, some are Exotic/Rare mix.

[TheGrimm.5624]

@"acidic.4356" said:around 16 sets of ascended gear + 2 legendary sets , working on last legendary set for "light classes" then debating whether to salvage all the ascended sets, hmm

Yeah in a similar boat, WvW being end game I am thinking more people have been building out to Ascended sets prior to Legendary release and I think we now have more people in Ascended than exotics. I know forums are a subset of the player base but I think they are probably pretty active, so it might be a directional sampling.

[TheGrimm.5624]

@Kylden Ar.3724 said:Really should have been multiple select. Depends on the toon. Some are full Ascended, some are Ascended Exotic Mix, some are Exotic/Rare mix.

Love the day we have that option on the forums. ANet, can you put a QoL request into the software provider?

[acidic.4356]

the only thing stopping me salvaging the ascended sets is then il have to remember to take my leggy sets off after use, to then swap to other chars, all the swappin around i could do without tbh, which kinda takes away the point of making leggy sets in one way - ofc stat swapping is the one benefit left.and yes if wed known legendary was going to be a thing, i think alot of ppl wouldnt have made any, or as many ascended sets.

[TheGrimm.5624]

@acidic.4356 said:the only thing stopping me salvaging the ascended sets is then il have to remember to take my leggy sets off after use, to then swap to other chars, all the swappin around i could do without tbh, which kinda takes away the point of making leggy sets in one way - ofc stat swapping is the one benefit left.and yes if wed known legendary was going to be a thing, i think alot of ppl wouldnt have made any, or as many ascended sets.

If they ever release a new set of elites you might need that gear, better to keep it as you convert. There might be demand for the old stuff. Doing the same, working thru one set of Legend for each weight class and then that armor goes to the toon that is being reworked. Once the build is play tested they get ascended gear with those stats and legendary armor goes to the next toon that's being tested for a new build.

[Junkpile.7439]

I have 14 ascended gear sets. Still need to buy coupe sets so i can get all wvw skins.

[KeyOrion.9506]

I have a full set of Legendary armor with Legendary runes on my armor now. With the few additions of legendary trinkets, backpieces, and ascended rings and what not...I can almost pretty much run anything I want. The player that has the ability to change their build without having to swap out armor and weapons sets all the time, is the player that has the best opportunity to swap on the fly by the click of a button.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

It's a mixture. Everyone has ascended trinkets obv., and everyone has ascended weapons, but some are full ascended, while others are wearing exotics. I don't honestly know why anyone would run Rare or less, it isn't like exotics are difficult to acquire from either WvW/PvP or PvE sources.

[ArchonWing.9480]

I have legendary armor but only on one character, so I'm more or less @ ascended. With the trash template system we have now, ascended gear is much more convieient to put in gear slots since legendaries are basically stuck to 2 stats unless you constantly go in to change.

Unless this is the your 16th alt or you are new to the game, I'm not really sure how regearing can be an issue. It's cheap to change ascended gear. At most it can cost 16g to change a piece of armor to minstrel. Monk runes can be gotten for free if you run the track. Armor is also least impactful relative to weapons and trinkets meaning if you don't swap all of it, it doesn't really matter. If you are really poor, you can also pick cheaper versions of stats like dire instead of trailblazer, grieving instead of viper, marauder instead of zerker.

So assuming you need to stat change 6 pieces of armor and 4 weapons constantly to minstrel because you are indecisive, this adds up to 200g. This is basically nothing. It can't even buy an outfit on the gem store. It makes no sense to spend 2k gold on legendary armor to save gold. You might as well just craft several sets of of ascended with different stats.

And also, how many stats are actually useful? Most stats are too half hearted to be used in any meta. There's a reason why minstrel healers are still minstrel healers. There's just not a better stat for them. You're not suddenly going to see apothecary firebrands. So even if major changes happen every 6 weeks (which they won't), the changes won't be drastic enough to warrant a new set of gear.

In the end, nobody is entitled to have their gear work forever. It's the player's responsibility to update their gear as needed.(Ironically, crafting exotic minstrel is a terrible idea since most of the cost comes from pearls.)

[Svarty.8019]

Exotics on lots of characters, ascended on a couple, legendary on a couple.

[Strider Pj.2193]

@TheGrimm.5624 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:lol, why bother making ascended when anet reinvents the wheel every so often? exotic is good enough and way less hassle.

That's what I am curious about. And your comment is exactly the point, not so bad to swap out Exotic or Legendary, but the impact on Ascended can be costly. Look at Trailblazers its almost back to pre-PoF pricing at around the 250 gold mark. WvW also still remains the mode that has the worst payouts for time. If anything I think ANet should add new coin drops in pip rewards to account for the cost that people might experience in regearing. For Legendary people its extra coin, but it might take the bit off those that are not.

Converting your ascended doesn’t cost nearly that..

But yeah, legendary is the way to go.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Ascended, all the way. I've even outfitted a few sets with full +5 wvw infusions.

It's better than you'd think. I do 12.5% more damage than a comparable exotic set, and I also take less damage, too.

[KrHome.1920]

In a game where balance patches often miss the mark, the best possible gear is simply the way to go and this is ascended + infusions.

And if you can afford it then legendary lowers frustration a lot as you don't have to spend a lot of conversion money each time some balance patch messes up your build and you have to try something else.

[Brutal Augus.5917]

A combination of legendary and asc on all toons

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

Full ascended bringers gear on all 19 of my theefs with 12 bee infusions each for maximum buzzing