155 replies to this topic

[Arek]

MikeFish, on 03 August 2012 - 05:10 PM, said:

Ok wow, so the idea that everybody will be able to achieve the best gear for level 80 easily is now completely dispersed... I was under the impression that the stuff you could buy from traders was max stat gear.

I'm seriously hoping that it's just a matter of the karma vendors and crafting patterns for exotic level 80 items not being implemented yet.  I don't care if it takes a rather large amount of karma or a lot of crafting materials to make the exotic items, but I was under the impression as well that the max stat items could be gained without going into the explorable mode dungeons.  ArenaNet has changed their stance on things before, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that they have changed here as well, but I will be greatly disappointed if that's the case.

[Terra]

Cebbar, on 03 August 2012 - 09:10 PM, said:

On the skill points thing, do we know for sure that you will stop receiving skill points at L80?  In Guild Wars right now you continue gaining skill points every time you increase by one level's amount of XP anyway.  This is not to mention that perhaps skill point items will be craftable, or purchaseable through Karma or so like our Stars of Transcendence now.  Not sure I like that but it could be possible?

Given the effort ArenaNet have put into making everything "equal", I don't think they would really force players to forego a 30-point Elite just to get a Legendary weapon?

I mentioned you can obtain skill points for each level after 80. Also I mention WvW has 13 skill points which reset every 2 weeks (or whenever server resets). So you can theoretically get unlimited skill points. Also I have UPDATED! the faq guys, I've been kindly informed how to craft exotics!

The only sad bit is all the gear has offensive stats or unappealing stats to me. There doesn;t appear to be a soldier's amulet or much defensive (e.g. no vitality + toughness combo) kinda gear though crafting - that set must belong to one of the other ways of getting exotics. IMO soldier's gear will become one of the most desirable sets in wvw and PvE - it offers an excellent balance between offence and defence.

Arek, on 03 August 2012 - 10:43 PM, said:

I'm seriously hoping that it's just a matter of the karma vendors and crafting patterns for exotic level 80 items not being implemented yet.  I don't care if it takes a rather large amount of karma or a lot of crafting materials to make the exotic items, but I was under the impression as well that the max stat items could be gained without going into the explorable mode dungeons.  ArenaNet has changed their stance on things before, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that they have changed here as well, but I will be greatly disappointed if that's the case.

They haven't changed, post is updated now!

[Korra]

In other words, it will be a pain in the ass to get all the items for a build. or can we change the stats of the armor too?

If i want to make a toughness/Power build in pve i'll have to look for all the items that give toughness/power or will i be able to add/remove that in some way? Let's say i want a nightmare set for that build, but nightmare set don't have the attributes i want.

And i'm guessing there will be the same attribute combinations that the amulets provide? That's great.

[Lord_Demosthene]

Cebbar, on 03 August 2012 - 10:29 PM, said:

I partially agree, and partially don't.

Yes it's cheeky of them to have L80 rare and L80 exotic gear having different stats.  Perhaps they want you to think of it as Rare items being good enough for anything, and Exotic gear is something to work toward for people who want to develop their L80 characters further.  Of course players will not see it this way, and I'm sure within a month we will see, as you say, "Arah LF Guardian + Ele, full Ex gear quick run".  That will be a bit sad...

As for grind, well, I really think that remains to be seen.  You look at games like Aion where you repeat the same instance over and over and over until your fingers bleed, and because you're relying on luck for the armour set piece to drop you could be there forever.  Guild Wars' way of getting around this is to allow you to buy your gear through a token system, so even if nothing useable drops for you in the dungeon, you still get some progress toward being able to afford something you want.  Given the calculations in the OP are correct, I don't really consider this real grinding, certainly not on the scale of some other games.

Being realistic though, you do need to work for gear sometimes.  If it's just given to you on a plate it's no longer special at all soooo I guess this is a balance ArenaNet need to make a gamble on and we will see if it pays off.

I'm looking at it from pure functionality standpoint. In original Guild Wars you could afford max-stats armour by the time you hit max level, and then fully upgrade that armour and get desirable weapon by the end of the campaign. After that it was a purely aesthetic choice, making it convenient for PvE guys to make gear for different builds, if we forget the part where equipment (sadly) takes up quite a lot of space in inventory/storage (hence, equipment packs later introduced to the game). In PvP it was immediate.

WvW is neither here nor there, but at the very worst, just like GW2's PvE, it should have the same freedom when it comes to gear customisation as original GW's PvE. The core change of philosophy is that Anet believes their core audience won't buy the 'aesthetics are worth working for' argument, and feels that it has to reinforce their decision with actual stat benefits. In order to justify these benefits, the amount of time and effort becomes paramount, especially for end-game gear when compared to average-stat end-game gear. As a consequence, we enter a vicious cycle of constant "grind", with subsequent expansions raising level cap and introducing new kind of exotic gear.

PvE-wise it's not end of the world, even if it will obviously piss off "GW1 had it right" group, but WvW is a different case here ... mainly because as Anet have pointed before, players who wish to play only WvW should be able to get all the gear, skill points and levels necessary to compete just by playing it, without pressure to enter PvE in the first place. Recent developments have cast a serious doubt on the rationality of this strategy, whether it comes to availability of customised level 80 exotic gear or time effectiveness of pursuing skill points, farming gold and equipment in WvW instead of PvE. There is also the dubious choice of gathering crafting materials, killing mobs and loitering in WvW dungeon instead of actively taking keeps, towers and caravan posts ... which obviously detracts from the whole point of WvW in the first place.

[Terra]

Korra, on 03 August 2012 - 10:53 PM, said:

In other words, it will be a pain in the ass to get all the items for a build. or can we change the stats of the armor too?

If i want to make a toughness/Power build in pve i'll have to look for all the items that give toughness/power or will i be able to add/remove that in some way? Let's say i want a nightmare set for that build, but nightmare set don't have the attributes i want.

And i'm guessing there will be the same attribute combinations that the amulets provide? That's great.

It's going to be a pain, stats on gear is fixed. If the skin you want doesn't have the stats you want you will need to get the exotic with the stats you want and transmute the two. Crafting exotics seem gettable but may be expensive. The other methods look like a lot of effort is needed by the user.

[Korra]

Terra, on 03 August 2012 - 10:57 PM, said:

It's going to be a pain, stats on gear is fixed. If the skin you want doesn't have the stats you want you will need to get the exotic with the stats you want and transmute the two. Crafting exotics seem gettable but may be expensive. The other methods look like a lot of effort is needed by the user.

Yeah then i guess i'll end up crafting the desired set with the inscription i want nad transmutatting into the skins i want. I'm planning to make atleast 4 sets for pve/wvw so it's not gonna be an easy ride.

Toughness/power/vit
Crit dmg/precision/power
Cleric set
and condition damage :/

[Terra]

Korra, on 03 August 2012 - 11:05 PM, said:

Yeah then i guess i'll end up crafting the desired set with the inscription i want nad transmutatting into the skins i want. I'm planning to make atleast 4 sets for pve/wvw so it's not gonna be an easy ride.

Toughness/power/vit
Crit dmg/precision/power
Cleric set
and condition damage :/

Toughness/ Power/ Vitality (i.e. Soldier's set) isn't a crafted set unfortunately (not as far as we are aware). I linked it in my post but here it is again: http://wiki.guildwar...iki/Inscription

As you can see at the bottom, not many defensive sets. So you 'may' have to grind both the skin and that set out depending where it comes from.

The jewellery set distribution looks pretty rubbish as well. Look here: http://wiki.guildwar...afting_material

Check the tier 4 shards (they'll be the same as the tier 6 mats in terms of stat distribution). Again no soldier set and minimal defensive sets. Looks like a lot of grinding for exotic jewellery too <.<

[Korra]

Terra, on 03 August 2012 - 11:14 PM, said:

Toughness/ Power/ Vitality (i.e. Soldier's set) isn't a crafted set unfortunately (not as far as we are aware). I linked it in my post but here it is again: http://wiki.guildwar...iki/Inscription

As you can see at the bottom, not many defensive sets. So you 'may' have to grind both the skin and that set out depending where it comes from.

The jewellery set distribution looks pretty rubbish as well. Look here: http://wiki.guildwar...afting_material

Check the tier 4 shards (they'll be the same as the tier 6 mats in terms of stat distribution). Again no soldier set and minimal defensive sets. Looks like a lot of grinding for exotic jewellery too <.<

I don't even know how we will gte the "soldier sets" but for what i see on jewels i'll be making Emerald (toughness/vit/prec) for my main build and ruby ( pow/pre/critical damage) for my glass cannon build first.

[Jokerx7]

Terra, on 03 August 2012 - 04:37 PM, said:

Much harder than exotics and there are only known legendary weapons. We now know that the recipe for legendary weapons are:

• Bloodstone Shard = 200 Skill Points
  
• Exotic Weapon = These exotic weapons will most likely need skill points to make in the first place!
  
• Gift of Energy/ Metal/ Wood = 400 Artificer/ Weaponsmith/ Huntsman
  
• Other Gift/ Statue = 400 Artificer/ Hunstman/ Jeweller/ Cook/ Tailor/ Leatherworker/ Armoursmith

Source about the Bloodstone? At BWE3 the item used to make them was the Orb of Power. http://wiki.guildwar...fting_material) Which costs 100 SP, not 200. Same on BWE2. I haven't searched for it on the stress test, but 200 SP is excessive. =/ And I can't found anything on the wiki or any trusted source about those shards. http://wiki.guildwar...one Shard&go=Go

[Scottus_Maximus]

Great post! You broke it down like a boss! *Very informative*!! Thanks for your time and effort.

[PseudoLegendary]

Very informative post, thanks for taking the time to create this.

[Dalden]

So, say i've gathered a very pretty set of exotic gear, I can't wear that into Pvp? If an amulet takes over all the stats of gear in pvp, then why does what we look like matter? Shouldn't I be able to wear what I want in pvp if all the stats are nulled anyways?

And does WvWvW count as Pvp?

[Threeleaf]

Great post, but deeply disappointing if true.

What you're saying is that for a few stat combinations it's easy to get top quality gear, but for most players, wanting stat combinations that aren't the basic vanilla set of 8, the gear grind is going to be a huge part of the game.

[Terra]

Jokerx7, on 04 August 2012 - 03:10 AM, said:

Source about the Bloodstone? At BWE3 the item used to make them was the Orb of Power. http://wiki.guildwar...ing_material%29 Which costs 100 SP, not 200. Same on BWE2. I haven't searched for it on the stress test, but 200 SP is excessive. =/ And I can't found anything on the wiki or any trusted source about those shards. http://wiki.guildwar...one Shard&go=Go

It's new, they added it in BWE3. I have a video of it here. It's right at the end of the video in the first tab. Orbs of power no longer exist.

Dalden, on 04 August 2012 - 06:03 AM, said:

So, say i've gathered a very pretty set of exotic gear, I can't wear that into Pvp? If an amulet takes over all the stats of gear in pvp, then why does what we look like matter? Shouldn't I be able to wear what I want in pvp if all the stats are nulled anyways?

And does WvWvW count as Pvp?

Basically, WvW and PvE uses one set of equipment and PvP uses another (but all PvP gear is classed as exotic i.e. max stat). I've explained PvE and WvW equipment in the faq pretty thoroughly.

In sPvP you get glory and it fills your pvp leveling bar so you can gain pvp ranks. With the glory you get from pvp matches you can buy reward chests (gold, silver, bronze) from vendors depending on your glory rank. So if your pvp rank was 3 you could buy from glory rank vendors up to level 3.

Each chest has a chance of having gear, if it has gear you don't want these items can be salvaged into components. Then there is a mystic forge in pvp (separate to the PvE mystic forge) where you can throw 4 of these components in to get weapons and armour too.

In effect, AN have made 2 separate games and split how you 'level' in PvP compared to PvE/WvW. You can still look cool in pvp but you do it in a different way. Almost all skins available in PvE are available in PvP through chest rewards or the mystic forge but remember, all PvP gear has the same stats as the starter ones so new skins are for looks purely - this is different in PvE. Hope that clears the two up.

I could add this to the faq but I think it's kinda long and it's aimed at people who have some knowledge of the game already (hence the title @80!).

Edited by Terra, 04 August 2012 - 11:26 AM.

[Lord_Demosthene]

Dalden, on 04 August 2012 - 06:03 AM, said:

And does WvWvW count as Pvp?

Unfortunately, it doesn't. Only structured/hot-join is free from this mess, and WvW is yet to prove what it actually is ... but what I've experienced first-hand is that there is always a handful of people AFKing in spawn point salvaging PvP gear, generally socialising or out of the keep after nodes and other PvE-oriented objectives, and that kinda pisses off any serious WvW players out there, though they won't say it upfront. WvW is not exactly PvE with open-world PvP, design wise, but it's various elements promote this kind of thinking and might even incite hardcore PvEers to do their 'farming', 'gathering' or what-not nonsense in WvW for added fun, taking up precious player slots that could otherwise decide which server wins in the very end.

It's simply counter-intuitive and sends the wrong message what WvW actually is. I remember how in ol' Guild Wars Alliance Battles were laughed at, as congregation of mentally challenged and manually handicapped players playing without any aim or strategy and pretending to win. And yet, as I see it, the ol' good AB is superior to WvW in many departments - equal number of players per side always, instant gear creation (for PvP toons), overly simplistic and easy to understand scoring system, quicker matches, PvP-only content, auto-kick for being AFK. Irony is at me, frankly, but back in the day when we heard first words of WvW mode in GW2, I thought it would be a kind of massive Alliance Battles/Battlegrounds or whatever from other games, not a Free-For-All Do-What-You-Want PvE with faction-based PvP.

I've seen quite a handful of guilds taking WvW seriously throughout past BWEs and Stress Tests, but I can see them question their very purpose now that cat's out the bag ... when it comes to competitive WvW guilds/players there is no kind of official recognition either, besides local fame, and if that isn't fixed WvW will indeed degenerate to a random noob fest commonly abbreviated as AB, despite it's clearly superior design in many departments PvP-wise.

Oh, the irony ... I see Anet wanted well, but it didn't quite work out for them. Or was this intended? If that's working exactly as intended, then what's up with misleading information about WvW for the past 2 years? Up until exotic gear nonsense and recent XP/loot nerfs, there was no doubt that playing in WvW was self-sustainable to adequately build your character in time.

Edited by Lord_Demosthene, 04 August 2012 - 11:30 AM.

[Terra]

Threeleaf, on 04 August 2012 - 10:29 AM, said:

Great post, but deeply disappointing if true.

What you're saying is that for a few stat combinations it's easy to get top quality gear, but for most players, wanting stat combinations that aren't the basic vanilla set of 8, the gear grind is going to be a huge part of the game.

At this time yeah that appears to be the case. However, I've shown what 8 stat combination they are giving in my faq and beserker's (power/ prec/ crit) is one of them. It's a popular choice for many players so at least it's there for some. I would have like soldier's though (power/ vit/ toughness) i.e. the 'balanced' one but who knows, it may be easier to get than we think.

[Sheldor]

Lord_Demosthene, on 04 August 2012 - 11:27 AM, said:

Unfortunately, it doesn't. Only structured/hot-join is free from this mess, and WvW is yet to prove what it actually is ... but what I've experienced first-hand is that there is always a handful of people AFKing in spawn point salvaging PvP gear, generally socialising or out of the keep after nodes and other PvE-oriented objectives, and that kinda pisses off any serious WvW players out there, though they won't say it upfront. WvW is not exactly PvE with open-world PvP, design wise, but it's various elements promote this kind of thinking and might even incite hardcore PvEers to do their 'farming', 'gathering' or what-not nonsense in WvW for added fun, taking up precious player slots that could otherwise decide which server wins in the very end.

It's simply counter-intuitive and sends the wrong message what WvW actually is. I remember how in ol' Guild Wars Alliance Battles were laughed at, as congregation of mentally challenged and manually handicapped players playing without any aim or strategy and pretending to win. And yet, as I see it, the ol' good AB is superior to WvW in many departments - equal number of players per side always, instant gear creation (for PvP toons), overly simplistic and easy to understand scoring system, quicker matches, PvP-only content, auto-kick for being AFK. Irony is at me, frankly, but back in the day when we heard first words of WvW mode in GW2, I thought it would be a kind of massive Alliance Battles/Battlegrounds or whatever from other games, not a Free-For-All Do-What-You-Want PvE with faction-based PvP.

I've seen quite a handful of guilds taking WvW seriously throughout past BWEs and Stress Tests, but I can see them question their very purpose now that cat's out the bag ... when it comes to competitive WvW guilds/players there is no kind of official recognition either, besides local fame, and if that isn't fixed WvW will indeed degenerate to a random noob fest commonly abbreviated as AB, despite it's clearly superior design in many departments PvP-wise.

Oh, the irony ... I see Anet wanted well, but it didn't quite work out for them. Or was this intended? If that's working exactly as intended, then what's up with misleading information about WvW for the past 2 years? Up until exotic gear nonsense and recent XP/loot nerfs, there was no doubt that playing in WvW was self-sustainable to adequately build your character in time.

I can see your point and I kind of agree, about the taking up slots thing. But people off doing their own thing in a PvP environment is exactly what open-world PvP is. There is still plenty of ways to help the cause without following the herd. Sure, communication and teamwork by everyone would be great, but if it isn't that leaves weaknesses in the other teams too. Go farm the other teams farmers.

[Teste]

The problem with this topic is that it's too premature.

The OP states that exotic armor is limited to level 60 and above. We have seen a big total of zero level 60 areas in the game. Ergo, we simply don't know yet if level 60 and above enemies will drop exotic armor, if merchants (both gold and karma ones) at level 60 and above areas will sell exotic armors, and so on.

Claiming "ArenaNet has lied to us when they said maxed armors and weapons would be easy to get" is premature. If it's true, that would be a very bad thing, indeed. However, just as the OP recently went from "no exotic in crafting" to "here are the exotic crafting weapons", it's likely that high level areas will give exotic items.

A simple way of seeing this would be in World versus World. Items earned there are scaled to the level of the character, right? So it's possible that someone at level 60 or above (of which there weren't that many people) could have got an exotic weapon as a drop. While the probability of this actually having happened is very low, if it happened at least once we would know that access to exotic weapons isn't as grind-based as the OP here implies.

[Lord_Demosthene]

What I'd like to see for once are WvW vendors for everything, and in the PvP lobby, rather than faction bases throughout the map (I'd leave only the instructor, bank and armour repairer intact, plus the blueprint guys). There would be 3 tiers of WvW vendors:

a) Tier 1

- vendor selling 'white' items for gold, levels 1-40, no stat bonuses at all
- vendor selling 'blue' items for a combination of gold and karma, levels 1-40, standard stat bonuses (rampager, knight etc.)
- vendor selling minor runes for a combination of gold and karma
- vendor selling level 1-40 accessories for a combination of gold and karma
- vendor selling level 40 exotic gear for badges of honour

a) Tier 2

- vendor selling 'white' items for gold, levels 41-60, no stat bonuses at all
- vendor selling 'blue' items for a combination of gold and karma, levels 41-60, standard stat bonuses (rampager, knight etc.)
- vendor selling major runes for a combination of gold and karma
- vendor selling level 41-60 accessories for a combination of gold and karma
- vendor selling level 60 exotic gear for badges of honour

a) Tier 3

- vendor selling 'white' items for gold, levels 61-80, no stat bonuses at all
- vendor selling 'blue' items for a combination of gold and karma, levels 61-80, standard stat bonuses (rampager, knight etc.)
- vendor selling superior runes for a combination of gold and karma
- vendor selling level 61-80 accessories for a combination of gold and karma
- vendor selling level 80 exotic gear for badges of honour

For obvious reasons, runes, equipment items (armour & weapons) and accessories would be bound to the character using them, so that WvW stays as karma & gold sink, without interrupting the flow of PvE economy with influx of WvW-created gear and upgrades.

PS. Why move these vendors out of WvW maps? To cut on players sitting in the base, contributing nothing to the fight. Spaces are limited, you know.

Edited by Lord_Demosthene, 04 August 2012 - 04:33 PM.

[Teste]

Lord_Demosthene, on 04 August 2012 - 12:22 PM, said:

- vendor selling level 40 exotic gear for badges of honour

As mentioned in the OP here, that doesn't exist. Exotic gear begins at level 60.

Lord_Demosthene, on 04 August 2012 - 12:22 PM, said:

Spaces are limited, you know.

That's the more important issue. It would be better if ArenaNet increased the population cap in World versus World than if they just took merchants from there.

[Terra]

Teste, on 04 August 2012 - 12:12 PM, said:

The problem with this topic is that it's too premature.

The OP states that exotic armor is limited to level 60 and above. We have seen a big total of zero level 60 areas in the game. Ergo, we simply don't know yet if level 60 and above enemies will drop exotic armor, if merchants (both gold and karma ones) at level 60 and above areas will sell exotic armors, and so on.

Claiming "ArenaNet has lied to us when they said maxed armors and weapons would be easy to get" is premature. If it's true, that would be a very bad thing, indeed. However, just as the OP recently went from "no exotic in crafting" to "here are the exotic crafting weapons", it's likely that high level areas will give exotic items.

A simple way of seeing this would be in World versus World. Items earned there are scaled to the level of the character, right? So it's possible that someone at level 60 or above (of which there weren't that many people) could have got an exotic weapon as a drop. While the probability of this actually having happened is very low, if it happened at least once we would know that access to exotic weapons isn't as grind-based as the OP here implies.

I've only stated known ways, not all the ways and explicitly state the word known in the faq. Like I said we'll have to wait until release for all the info but I managed to get to level 65 in BW2 and I only got one rare, a few masterworks and mainly junk drops from wvw. I know if it is a rare drop that by me not getting it doesn't mean it's not possible. However in the 30 WvW levels I got (from 35-65) no exotics dropped and I didn't get a rare until level 50. We know though rares are available at 35.

Everything in the post is fact, if new information comes along it will be updated. I know it doesn't answer everything (it can't until the game is out). However, it provides a sound basis for people who are planning ahead on what to expect. A lot of people didn't know that the amulet stats have been broken down from PvP into PvE gear. This is really important to know as the stats on you weapon contribute 23% of your total gear stats, the amulet and chest piece contribute 9% and 12.5% of total stats respectively. The faq is just something for people to mull over and offer further insight.

[Teste]

Terra, on 04 August 2012 - 12:42 PM, said:

I've only stated known ways, not all the ways and explicitly state the word known in the faq.

Yes, you have, but people's perception doesn't always match reality. From earlier posts in this topic:

Quote

Ok wow, so the idea that everybody will be able to achieve the best gear for level 80 easily is now completely dispersed... I was under the impression that the stuff you could buy from traders was max stat gear.

Quote

Very good read. I never realized exotics would be that hard to come by especially not off dungeon runs.

Quote

Casual PUGgers will be in for a lot of grief, though ... "LF 2 more for Orr, full exotic set or kick!". The message previously was clear, end-game gear is end-game gear no matter how it looks or how rare it is ... why would they back down on their own word and introduce a stat bonus to exotic items now? It clearly doesn't serve their design philosophy ... or should I say, marketing campaign. It's funny how many things have changed back from the days of their original manifesto towards more traditional MMO gameplay and better game monetisation in spite of their anti-grind anti-grief argument.

And so on, and so on. The idea that the ways listed in the OP are the only ways to get exotic items (as opposed to the only currently known ways to get those items) has already spread in this topic.

[Terra]

Uder, on 03 August 2012 - 08:22 PM, said:

Many thx, great guide!

Wonder if someone previewed the exotic lvl60 invader gear from the wvw vendor? Couldn't find something.

This is the scholar L60 set, not that impressive imo.

Edited by Terra, 04 August 2012 - 01:18 PM.

[Terra]

Teste, on 04 August 2012 - 01:09 PM, said:

Yes, you have, but people's perception doesn't always match reality. From earlier posts in this topic:







And so on, and so on. The idea that the ways listed in the OP are the only ways to get exotic items (as opposed to the only currently known ways to get those items) has already spread in this topic.

To be fair, all three of those comments were before I put the crafting section in and thus I asked the mod to add an updated to the title so people who have read the thread can be made aware of some new info I got.

Also, it does not detract from the point that the WvW and dungeon token methods are in the game and they must be there for a reason. I've already mentioned purely for skins for dungeon sets does not make sense as one would just buy rare sets (for less than half the dungeon tokens) and then transmute over their own exotics. Those sets must have some stats which AN think the player base would value as high or desirable.

Edit: Also forgot to mention that there are more than 50 combination AN can make exotic armour have. However, making ONE set is extremely taxing for AN because one new set means a male/ female version, one for each of the 5 races and then there are 3 different profession types (scholar/ heavy/ medium) = 2 x 5 x3 = 30 new pieces per set.

There are 6 L80 exotic dungeon sets, 8 crafting sets and at least 1 wvw set. That still leaves a lot of room for AN to make sets with different stats (rather than overlap on pre existing sets). As such, at the cost of 30 designs per set (that doesn't take into account those sets may well have weapon skins attached = 19 more designs) it is unlikely AN will have every possible stat combination of exotics. Actually I'd be surprised if they have half those sets available. We'll just have to see.

Edited by Terra, 04 August 2012 - 01:29 PM.

[Lord_Demosthene]

@Terra

For as long as exotics obtained in WvW and PvE, respectively, allow the same level of customisation as PvP-only amulets, I'm sold. Until that is confirmed, however, I'll retain my doubts.

@Teste

I'm not one to jump on a leap of faith. The discussion in this thread is concerned with facts, confirmed information. If you have new information, please do contribute. Otherwise, don't disprove an argument on the basis of not liking it - rather, find counter-evidence instead.

WvW is the third major gameplay mode in the game, offering different experience and content to PvE and PvP alike. It's not an afterthought, PvPvE mashup or whatever, but a league of it's own. Respect it and it's players. If anything, distinguished WvW guilds should provoke an interview, Q&A session, Podcast or blog post from Anet, to address these very issues. Why? Because so far, WvW is the least defined addition to the game, and the playerbase can't make informed decisions about it.

Game release is due in mere 3 weeks, and major WvW guilds don't even know if the gamemode suits their needs and expectations to the fullest, or if there are any critical drawbacks to it. If anything, now is the time to raise voice and get some answers, not when the game is already released and any potential fix is in a horizon of 6-9 months, after long internal deliberations and discussions at Anet office.

[tallanx]

Terra, on 04 August 2012 - 01:22 PM, said:

Also, it does not detract from the point that the WvW and dungeon token methods are in the game and they must be there for a reason. I've already mentioned purely for skins for dungeon sets does not make sense as one would just buy rare sets (for less than half the dungeon tokens) and then transmute over their own exotics. Those sets must have some stats which AN think the player base would value as high or desirable.

My personal assumption is that making the Rare have the same skin as the Exotic is Anet's way of saying

"if you only want the skin, and have gotten the stats from another piece of exotic gear elsewhere, you don't have to work as hard on the skin since the total amount of effort you spent will be about the same"

Since when you think about it, to get the crafted stuff people either need to gather a lot of gold to buy it from the AH, or spend a lot of time levelling their crafting and then more time/gold gathering the materials.

Also, I suspect (pure speculation) that in the higher level areas like Orr, there will be merchant NPCs selling exotic gear.

Edited by tallanx, 04 August 2012 - 05:50 PM.

[Psydrome]

So we don't have specific boss drops?  Maybe an update for in the future, as they did with green weapons in gw1?

[Jiminy]

Thanks for the post. Very informative indeed.

All the online character buildiers I've found and for PvP. Does anyone know if there is a PvE/WvW based builder out there?

[Terra]

Jiminy, on 06 August 2012 - 01:40 AM, said:

Thanks for the post. Very informative indeed.

All the online character buildiers I've found and for PvP. Does anyone know if there is a PvE/WvW based builder out there?

There aren't any unfortunately. At this time we don't know all the exotic gear available and which stats are on them and so it's impossible to make one. But, I have listed enough info in the faq that you could mess about with the numbers in notepad or one a piece of paper or something and decide how you are going to divide the stats.

[EasymodeX]

Wow, so WvW uses PvE gear that scales and requires an acquisition grind?

That's pretty *ing stupid.