Choosing your Order: cosmetics vs story vs ???

[MadCat.6780]

I reached the point in my character's personal story where I have to choose an Order.  I did some research on them on the Wiki to see how the choice may affect my character, but there seems to be very little information other than the cosmetic armor I can buy and the immediate quests I get after selecting the Order.

 

I was thinking of going Order of Whispers for my Thief, as it fits thematically, but I'm not sure I like their Medium armor set.  (I feel like I'm back in Shadowlands, being forced to make a Covenant choice between cosmetics and story, though thankfully it doesn't look like I get any special abilities from the Order.)

What is the difference for my character if I choose one Order to the exclusion of the others besides the cosmetics?  Does Order choice matter beyond the base game (e.g. in HoT or PoF)?  Is there a way to change your Order selection later on?

[The Greyhawk.9107]

If you choose The Order of You-know-what you get to be paired up with Tybalt, the best of the three Orders mentors. Also, remember that any cosmetics you unlock is unlocked account wide, so if you like another order's cosmetics better you can always unlock them on a different character and then mix and match.

[Veprovina.4876]

The order choice is purely for story role-playing purposes. You get a different story Path for your core personal story, which inevitably ends the same for all orders. 

Sometimes your order gets mentioned here and there in expansion and living world stories, like when interacting with characters from your order, but it's purely flavour and doesn't affect the story. It only affects the personal story, what missions you get til they coalesce into the final singular path.

 

Just pick what you think your character fits into and go from there. Any cosmetics attached to a particular choice are account wide. This encourages people to make multiple characters and choose different story paths and orders to unlock every cosmetic choice. The game is very alt friendly and sometimes even wants you to play more than one character. So it starts teaching you that early.

 

All in all don't sweat too much about your choice, just pick an order you think is fit for your character an enjoy the story. You can always make another character and choose a different order next time. There's plenty of incentives to do that.

[MadCat.6780]

6 hours ago, The Greyhawk.9107 said:

Also, remember that any cosmetics you unlock is unlocked account wide, so if you like another order's cosmetics better you can always unlock them on a different character and then mix and match.

 

OK, that helps!  I thought that the Order cosmetics would be locked to the Order (that's how they did in WoW with the Covenants 🙄)

 

6 hours ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

Just pick what you think your character fits into and go from there. Any cosmetics attached to a particular choice are account wide. This encourages people to make multiple characters and choose different story paths and orders to unlock every cosmetic choice...All in all don't sweat too much about your choice, just pick an order you think is fit for your character an enjoy the story. You can always make another character and choose a different order next time. There's plenty of incentives to do that.

I'm trying to maximize my options, but I've already messed up the heavy armor set, as both my Guardian and Warrior went Vigil, and most likely my Revenant will go Whispers, so unless I use me level 80 boost to make another Guardian and go Priory, I'll be missing out on the Priory heavy armor.

Thanks!

Edited July 13, 2021 by MadCat.6780

[Ashantara.8731]

6 hours ago, The Greyhawk.9107 said:

If you choose The Order of You-know-what you get to be paired up with Tybalt, the best of the three Orders mentors.

 

Lies! Forgal is the best! Made me laugh all the time with his snippy one-liners, plus had the most touching personal background.

[Rasimir.6239]

Personally I tend to choose priory for most of my asura and sylvari these days simply because I love seeing Sieran and my character try to build an experimental sword sheath 😄. I used to be a big Tybalt fan (my first character was whispers and charr), but Sieran has grown on me over the years 🙂.

 

Other than that, I try to spread it out, choosing an order with a story path I haven't played in a while, or one I want a particular weapon skin from (you get a choice of order weapons as a story reward), or one that introduces a character that shows up again later, or simply throw the dice.

Edited July 13, 2021 by Rasimir.6239

[The Greyhawk.9107]

18 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

 

Lies! Forgal is the best! Made me laugh all the time with his snippy one-liners, plus had the most touching personal background.

Fight me.

[Astralporing.1957]

1 hour ago, MadCat.6780 said:

 

OK, that helps!  I thought that the Order cosmetics would be locked to the Order (that's how they did in WoW with the Covenants 🙄)

 

I'm trying to maximize my options, but I've already messed up the heavy armor set, as both my Guardian and Warrior went Vigil, and most likely my Revenant will go Whispers, so unless I use me level 80 boost to make another Guardian and go Priory, I'll be missing out on the Priory heavy armor.

Thanks!

You can buy the armor from the Order vendor, and you don't have to buy the weight fitting your class. So, you can for example make an elementalist, go priory, and buy/unlock all 3 weight sets from that order. Yes, it will cost a bit, but it is definitely a valid option.

 

...And as for weapon skins, i personally used my key farming character to get all of them...

Edited July 13, 2021 by Astralporing.1957

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, MadCat.6780 said:

 

OK, that helps!  I thought that the Order cosmetics would be locked to the Order (that's how they did in WoW with the Covenants 🙄)

 

I'm trying to maximize my options, but I've already messed up the heavy armor set, as both my Guardian and Warrior went Vigil, and most likely my Revenant will go Whispers, so unless I use me level 80 boost to make another Guardian and go Priory, I'll be missing out on the Priory heavy armor.

Thanks!

The only restriction on armour (and weapon) skins is that a character has to be a member of the Order to buy them. A light armoured character can buy the heavy and medium sets to unlock them in the wardrobe - they just can't use the ones that will land in their inventory (I can't remember if they can be sold or salvaged, if not you'll just have to delete them).

 

It used to be more restrictive before the wardrobe system was introduced, because the armour is soulbound on acquire so getting the skin to another character was complicated. But these days it's much simpler.

 

Also there's no requirement for a character to wear their Order's armour and as far as I know NPCs won't comment on it if they do and the ones that know they're part of an Order will always know, no matter what they're wearing.

 

Other than the armour sets you have access to buy and the storyline your Order makes very little difference. Some NPCs (both in the story and outside of it) will comment on it, with the most extensive being Order of Whispers whose agents get some extra info on events nearby from certain NPCs. They also have access to the innermost parts of their Order's headquarters but aside from the story and buying the armour there's not a lot of reason to go there.

[Ashantara.8731]

49 minutes ago, The Greyhawk.9107 said:

Fight me.

 

Not in public! Too many witnesses. 😉 Let's go outside. 😋

[Game of Bones.8975]

What most everyone said it true. 

Once your storyline is through, you really forget what Order you belong to unless you try to collect all their dedicated weapons/armor.