armor and weapons

[darbok.3752]

I'm lvl 80, I have exotic equipment. So, from what I can tell above that is ascended and legendary. I like the post 80 questing but I've died a few times when I killed the undead dragon and other instanced quest stuff so I figure maybe better gear my help. I dont play group content too much as I generally dont have time, but it seems unless I do ALOT of pvp, I wont be getting any better gear.  I'm not sure in terms of gear what to do now.

[Lucio.4190]

Everything will be a lot easier if you join a guild. That is my suggestion.

PvP and other stuff will be better with a group that will take care of you and teach you the mechanics, to get you started. Some guilds plan all this and are very active, if you're lucky you'll get the gear in no time and you'll have lots of fun doing it.

Also, you might get to know some new awesome people!

[Khisanth.2948]

Unless your current gear is actually terrible it won't make a huge difference to change. Exotic is fine everything. Fractals only needs ascended because it needs agony infusion slots not because the increased stat. Ascended is also desirable for faster clears of other content.

 

Gear having the appropriate stat does matter though so make sure you aren't going around with some random mix.

 

There is zero need for PvP to get gear ...

[Deedrick.4372]

43 minutes ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

Unless your current gear is actually terrible it won't make a huge difference to change. Exotic is fine everything. Fractals only needs ascended because it needs agony infusion slots not because the increased stat. Ascended is also desirable for faster clears of other content.

 

Gear having the appropriate stat does matter though so make sure you aren't going around with some random mix.

 

There is zero need for PvP to get gear ...

Agree, your build and gear is important in terms of making sure they agree with your play style. PVP and WVW is an easy way for leg/asc gear, but so if fractals and raids for pve.  Exotic vs the asc/leg tier is about 5% different in stats, so don't worry about it unless its a compulsion to have the very best.

[LSD.4673]

Are your exotics level 80? You get a bunch from the story mode from level 68, but there's an absurd scaling between level 80 and level anything-else. 

 

And as said, make sure the stats meet your needs. You typically get one primary stat, and two secondary stats. Most builds will want Power as the primary. If you rely on conditions, you'll want Condition Damage as the primary. Two easy stat combos for that are Soldier's and Dire, which give Vitality and Toughness as well as the previously mentioned primary stats.

You can pick up from the trade post exotic level 80s, or you can queue on the LFG for 5 man dungeons which will reward you with the currency to buy dungeon level 80 stuff.

 

Soldier/Dire has the downside of having no other offensive stats, so you won't kill stuff as fast. But it stops you dying, if that's what you need...

[synk.6907]

FWIW, to add to the above -- when I first got to 80 in those early days of the game, I had mixed stats on gear, naively thinking, "Oh, a little bit of condition damage and precision for bleeds and some power to hit harder", when I should have been focusing on a build type. So if you are getting exotics here and there and they aren't the same stats, or at least suited to the same type of build, that can hamper your success.

 

If you are not mixing up stat across your gear, nevermind, ignore me 😉

 

Ascended gear is good and all, but you don't need it to do anything in PvE, outside of agony resistance.

Edited August 14, 2021 by synk.6907

[Urud.4925]

From my experience, the ascended gear is better to put some more damage when even a tiny bit can make the difference (for example against some tough boss in the crown pavillon - I wasn't able to kill them in exotic and I made it the following year in ascended), but as defense, you usually rely on dodges and avoiding damage in general, so if you take 2 hits in a row from a tough enemy, you're dead in any case, exotic or ascended.

 

This said, the game is not very farming and an ascended gear will last you forever, so it might be a good long term goal. No rush, but you can definitely start to work for it. PvP is not required. You CAN buy it doing ranked PvP (or WvW), but you can also craft it, buy it doing strike missions, fractals, or from some achievement (I also got ascended chests as drop, but it's not a reliable way).

 

Trinkets are very easy to buy doing fractals (3 days of daily in tier1, where there are many first timers), and from commendation tokens (guild missions). Not to mention the maps in LW3 (that now are unlocked for everyone), just gather nodes, you don't even need to play with other players.

 

Armor: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_armor

Trinkets: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_trinket

[ASP.8093]

0.

On the whole, ascended gear isn't a huge difference over exotic. It's probably not gonna be make-or-break for you if you have the correct, mostly-optimal combination of gear. That means synergistic stats, good runes/sigils, a build that makes sense.

(If your preferred build has runes that cost, say, 10 gold each, it's reasonable to start with a cheaper set — Runes of Strength or the Pack instead of Scholar, for instance. If you have no runes, a weird mix of runes, or trash runes in your gear, you're neglecting a big source of stats and bonuses.)

 

1.

Ascended jewelry is pretty easy to get via laurels and guild missions, and a worthwhile upgrade over exotics. If you're stuck on exotic trinkets, make sure they have gems socketed — otherwise you basically lose half the value of that slot (ascended trinkets don't have this problem).

 

2.

Ascended weapons have (mildly) higher base damage in addition to their stats. That should be your next priority. Take your time, it's not make-or-break, but it's a reasonable cost for a reasonable improvement.

 

3.

Ascended armor is mostly just gravy. Feel free to put it off pretty much forever. I know people with many thousands of gold in the bank who still don't put exotic armor on most of their characters, even ones they play every week in World vs World.

[ASP.8093]

7 hours ago, LSD.4673 said:

Two easy stat combos for that are Soldier's and Dire, which give Vitality and Toughness as well as the previously mentioned primary stats.

Power without Precision/Ferocity to boost your damage is pretty weak, though. Yes, you take less damage and can survive a few more hits, but your time-to-kill is so much higher that your defense and sustain abilities are taxed a LOT more than if you just kill enemies in a few hits while pressing the dodge key once or twice.

 

Take something like Marauder's gear instead if you want the extra Vitality without sacrificing more than ~5-10% of your possible damage.

[LSD.4673]

1 hour ago, ASP.8093 said:

Power without Precision/Ferocity to boost your damage is pretty weak, though. Yes, you take less damage and can survive a few more hits, but your time-to-kill is so much higher that your defense and sustain abilities are taxed a LOT more than if you just kill enemies in a few hits while pressing the dodge key once or twice.

 

Take something like Marauder's gear instead if you want the extra Vitality without sacrificing more than ~5-10% of your possible damage.

Like i said, it'll take longer to kill things, but it gives you more survivability. But the main point was that it's easy to obtain: either from dungeons, or from the fact that people salvage dungeon gear for insignias/inscriptions, making them super cheap to craft.

Marauder's is much harder to obtain. If he's had trouble in core zones, HoT will be a nightmare for staying alive to try and get some Marauder gear.

[Rogue.8235]

A lot of good points here about gear.

 

A major point, though, is that player skill makes a huge difference.  This isn't a game where stats will carry you forever.  Even in ascended, a player can struggle if their not actually playing their character well.

 

Learn you're class in and out.  Push your limits to see how much you can take before going down.  Know when to go defensive instaed of trying to burst down the enemy.  Active defenses are always better than defensive stats.  Adding some defensive stats just give you more a little more room for error, but they'll never let you face tank anything.

 

In the open world of core Tyria maps, try soloing champions you come across.  These will let you know how well you can handle your class.  I advise core Tyria champions because they usually lack special attacks that are wildly different from the kinds of abilities you use.  This is important because it'll be easier to identify what killed you if you go down.

[Danikat.8537]

13 minutes ago, Rogue.8235 said:

A lot of good points here about gear.

 

A major point, though, is that player skill makes a huge difference.  This isn't a game where stats will carry you forever.  Even in ascended, a player can struggle if their not actually playing their character well.

 

Learn you're class in and out.  Push your limits to see how much you can take before going down.  Know when to go defensive instaed of trying to burst down the enemy.  Active defenses are always better than defensive stats.  Adding some defensive stats just give you more a little more room for error, but they'll never let you face tank anything.

 

In the open world of core Tyria maps, try soloing champions you come across.  These will let you know how well you can handle your class.  I advise core Tyria champions because they usually lack special attacks that are wildly different from the kinds of abilities you use.  This is important because it'll be easier to identify what killed you if you go down.

That's exactly what I was going to say.

 

Everyone else is absolutely right that getting better equipment doesn't make a big difference, but it's also important to know that what does make a big difference is knowing your character and how to play them. When I got my thief to level 80 I gave him exotic weapons and armour and ascended trinkets, all with matching stats and appropriate runes and sigils and I was dying a lot. Partially it's because I'd given him a more damage focused build than I'm used to, with less passive defence but mostly it's because I'd gotten him to level 80 slowly in short bursts and kept changing my mind on weapons and traits so I didn't really know how to play him. Since then I've gotten a lot better and can handle things which would have been impossible before. The only change I've made to his equipment is to give him a legendary dagger, but 1 weapon doesn't make a big difference to overall stats, mostly it's knowing how my skills work and how to use them together effectively.

 

There isn't really a quick way to "fix" that. Looking up builds guides may help (especially ones that explain why they've made those choices) but mostly it just comes down to practice.