12 replies to this topic

[Bloodreaver]

I have one level 80 (Thief) and 7 alts at various stages.  I have not used any weapons or armor higher than masterwork except for a rare shortbow and rare hat that were soulbound to my thief (and only started using those 2 a couple of days ago).  Despite this, I have beaten AC and Arah storymodes, and have gotten well over 30 kills in WvW with probably half as many deaths.  I refuse to get sucked into the cosmetic aspects of weapons and armor until they are made account-bound and not soulbound.  I also hate paying the repair cost, and long-ago figured out that I could just buy Blues and Greens off the TP for 1-2 copper more than they sell to the merchant, and never have to worry about damaging armor because I could just sell it and buy more.  So I had completely ignored exotics up to this point because I told myself that I would never blow my gold on them until Anet makes changes.

However, after playing WvW and experiencing the two dungeons, and comparing the Masterwork weapons I have been using to Exotics, and I have realized that I at least need to equip my toons with exotic weapons.  Exotics do approximately 200 more damage than Masterwork weapons O_O

So that got me thinking about Badges of Honor, Karma, Crafting, and Mystic Forge gambling to get the exotic stuff (or rares temporarily) I need.  And that got me thinking about questions I have had for awhile or thought up in response to these new needs.  I apologize in advance if I am only supposed to post 1 question at a time, but many of these are inter-related and they all tie together in how they affect myself and others.  Hopefully the answers here help others, maybe even get a sticky   

And by all means, please link to the wiki or another post if my question has been answered already.

So here goes:


1) If you had to choose only one attribute/type for your Exotic weapons (Berserker's or Soldier's, etc), and you were not worried about matching the Exotic weapon with Exotic armor because you would not be getting any Exotic armor, what would that be?  Is your answer profession specific?

For example, on a thief, assuming you would change the Masterwork grade Armor and Jewelry to suite the situation, what would your Exotic sword be?  Berserker's?  Soldier's?  Put another way, would having a Berserker's sword be more of a loss when running another type of build than not having a Berserker's sword when running a Berserker's build?


2) How much does the secondary weapon's rarity (and therefore, damage and stats) matter?  That is, when running a Sword/Pistol Thief or an Axe/Axe Warrior, how is the secondary weapon's damage calculated?  Do the stats combine to increase the base attack?


3) Even though I am resistant to buying Exotic armor, I did do a comparison, and a full set of Exotic armor has:

189 more Defense
60 more Power
40 more Precision
3% more Critical Damage

than Masterwork (both sets being compared were Berserker's).  Can anyone break down how important that difference is for your survivability (the armor and weapon stats vs trait bonuses and jewelry bonuses)


Mystic Forge questions:

4) Has anyone figured out what the chance of getting a higher rarity is when combing 4 armor or weapons of the same type?  If you combine 4 Berserker's Masterwork Coats and get a rare coat, will that rare coat be Berserker's?

I am way too risk-averse to gamble 4 rares, but considering that I can buy Masterwork stuff for 1-2 copper over the merchant price, that might be worth the risk, if the % chance is favorable.  Rares are selling for 40silver on average right now, so if it would cost 80silver to try 10 times with Masterwork stuff (10x 4 Masterwork @ 2silver each = 80silver), it would need to be roughly a 30% chance of success to be profitable (30% of 10 is 3, 3x rares at 40silver each = 1.2 gold, +40silver profit).  However, I am pretty sure that if I farmed my own mithril and elder wood, and only bought the potent blood and large fangs, etc, at 1 silver each (they may be higher now, but at one point they were about that price), it should only cost 15silver to craft Rares.  So it would probably still be more profitable to craft than to forge.

5) Can you put damaged or broken (or souldbound) armor in the Mystic Forge?  Someone said that he was not worried about buying soulbound rares because he could always salvage or mystic forge them later.



And 2 questions that I think I know the answer to but it would be nice to confirm:

6) Fine Transmutation Stones are for level 80 armor I know, but does that include even Fine rarity (Blue) armor?  Would seem like a huge waste to spend a Fine Transmutation Stone on a Blue rarity armor piece.  If that is the case, then only would want sets of level 79 armor if one wanted to be able to only have to use regular transmutation stones, right?

7) Has anyone calculated the most efficient method of acquiring exotics with regards to Badges of Honor, Karma, or Crafting (which I would imagine would usually be better than buying, but would assume buying the Globs of Ectoplasm), remembering that Badges of Honor are account-wide while Karma is soulbound?


Thank you very much, and hopefully the answers can get out to more players.

Edited by Bloodreaver, 03 February 2013 - 01:33 PM.

[Encoded]

7) Has anyone calculated the most efficient method of acquiring exotics with regards to Badges of Honor, Karma, or Crafting (which I would imagine would usually be better than buying, but would assume buying the Globs of Ectoplasm), remembering that Badges of Honor are account-wide while Karma is soulbound?


Have you thought about using the dungeon tokens to get them? Cof and AC are two of the easiest and shortest dungeons and you'd be able to get a full exotic set of armor if you ran both of these for a few days or less if your only going for weapons. + You can always transmute them if you dont like the look.

Edited by Encoded, 03 February 2013 - 02:02 PM.

[Bloodreaver]

Great point, I just caught that in another thread I was reading, thank you.

[typographie]

Sorry, I'm cherry-picking a couple questions that I am equipped to answer..

2) How much does the secondary weapon's rarity (and therefore, damage and stats) matter?

Stats on your offhand weapon (such as power, precision, etc.) add to your totals and affect your character's damage. However, the damage of your offhand weapon matters only when you're actually using (i.e. striking with) that weapon's skills.

For most classes, that's the last two skills on your bar. For a thief, offhand weapon damage also applies to your dual skill (#3).

Someone said that he was not worried about buying soulbound rares because he could always salvage or mystic forge them later.

You can't buy soulbound items, as far as I know. If you put a soulbound item in your bank, you can't even pick it up with your own alt—you certainly cannot sell them on the trading post. You may be able to use your own soulbound items in the forge, I'm not sure about that.

6) Fine Transmutation Stones are for level 80 armor I know, but does that include even Fine rarity (Blue) armor?

Fine transmutation stones are necessary anytime one of the two items you're transmuting has a level requirement of 80, rarity is not considered. But its not a waste if you want the skin from the blue piece. I transmuted my level 20 karma shoulders onto an exotic level 80 piece, because I wanted that appearance.

7) Has anyone calculated the most efficient method of acquiring exotics with regards to Badges of Honor, Karma, or Crafting?

Karma and Badges of Honor are probably the most wasteful ways to get exotic level 80 gear. The karma gear is worthwhile only if you really want the unique skin, as the stats are available from dungeons. Crafting isn't too bad, but it does require more farming than dungeons usually do.

[lalangamena]

the cheapest (zero gold) way to get exotic armor set soloing is to wait about a month.

do daily each day, finish monthly. you will get ~40 karma jars.

get 50% karma booster (from black lion chest or from personal story reward)  - if you have access to 10% karma guild banner use it also.
drink all the karma.

40*4500*1.5*1.1=~300K karma

each karma piece is 42.5K.
you need six for armor.  and you also have enough karma for exotic amulet at the same place.

for thief get the armor with the mix of power/tough/vit and condi/prec /tough
when the main pieces: chest, leggings,helm are  p/t/v and the minors are c/p/t

use jewelry as complementary stats (depend on your build, i would say: knight/berserker  ) .

during this month you will get enough gold to buy the exotic weapon from the AH.
as a thief you must have shortbow as secondary weapon.
the main weapons is up to you ofc...



why not dungeons?
dungeons require five people group, not everybody have the time to do dungeons on daily basis or to find a proper group
(in order to get full dungeon gear you need to run two dungeons each day for almost a month, easiest is COF1 and COF2 on daily basis)

while dailies are quick, and can be done alone and in your own pace.

P.S. don't fall for the mystic toilet casino...
its only use to transform 250 t5 mats to ~10-20 t6 and  two cores to lodestone.
all the rest is gambling when you will probably lose all you money and gear to it.

Edited by lalangamena, 04 February 2013 - 03:48 PM.

[Cheese]

I roll as a thief myself and am going for Berserker's weapons and jewelery. After browsing a few threads and guides it seems the best way to go. For me at least. But I think for any thief really. You can get plenty of survivability from traits and from your armor. So am getting Berserker's weapons and jewelery purely to boost my damage.

As for Mystic Forge. I mostly use it when I've acquired 4 rare weapons/armor pieces and feel like gambling. I've gotten back items that cost more than 10x as much as those 4 rare items but I've also gotten back a single rare item. So pretty much wasting the other 3 I used to get it. But you can test it out yourself. Go buy a few masterwork armor pieces/weapons and stick them in the Mystic Forge . You could also get karma gear and try it with that. Last time I checked you could use karma items in the Mystic Forge.

But the easiest way to get exotic gear would be dungeons. CoF and AC specifically. I've only done CoF so far, because that vendor has the kind of stats I want (Berserker's and Carrion). And that dungeon is EASY. It really is. You can do path 1 and 2 in 30mins - 1h depending on how good your group is. This morning I did both paths and it took me 40mins to complete both. You get 120+ tokens. Depends on how many Bags of Wonderous Goods you get, each of those gives you +3 tokens. I ran CoF with both my Thief and Warrior and was able to get over 240+ tokens per day. And you get around 1,5-2g for running path 1 and 2.

Crafting or buying your exotic gear from the Traiding Post can be expensive. I did it with my Warrior. I crafted her exotic armor and while saving over 10g I still ended up spending something like 18g on it. Though, depending on how many skill points and Mystic Coins you have it might be really cheap to craft your weapons in the Mystic Forge. I made my Thief a Mystic Crescent and it cost me under 1g I think. All depends on how much you're willing to spend though

So check some Mystic Forge recipes and there might be some cheap exotics on the Trading Post.

And using Fine Transmutation stones when you like the armor is definitely not a waste. All comes down to personal preference. If you like the look of a blue quality item then go for it

[ScorpioSpork]

1) Berserker's vs Soldier's Armor and 2) How much does the secondary weapon's rarity (and therefore, damage and stats) matter?  

I'm combining your first two questions because the answers are related. First let's start by comparing a 1h Berserker's and Soldier's weapons:

Berserkers: 90 Power, 64 Precision, 5% Crit Damage
Soldiers: 90 Power, 64 Toughness, 64 Vitality

The 64 precision Berserker's provides translates to an additional 3% crit chance. That seems small, but when paired with a second Berserker's 1h weapon, you get an additional 6% crit chance when you're using those weapons. Since you have two 1h weapons equipped, you can easily spare a slot for a Superior Sigil of Accuracy for another 5% crit chance. So from your weapons alone, you would have a minimum of a 15% crit chance (4% base, 6% from weapons, and 5% from the sigil) and you'll do an additional 10% more damage whenever you crit.

Berserker's provides far more dps than Soldier's. And by combining two 1h weapons together, the stats they provide are doubled. Unfortunately, I can't answer your question about weapon damage and how that applies, but the stats are enough of a reason to upgrade to exotics.


4) Has anyone figured out what the chance of getting a higher rarity is when combing 4 armor or weapons of the same type?

According to the wiki, it's a 20% chance. I definitely think it's more profitable to craft than to try your luck with the Mystic Forge. You can always check prices for specific pieces before you craft. Berserker's gear has always sold well.


6) Fine Transmutation Stones

As long as at least one of the items involved is level 80, you'll need Fine Transmutation Stones. I would save them until you're ready to transfer the look you want onto the exotic stats you want, unless you don't mind shelling out money or gold for more stones when you inevitably upgrade your gear. But if you just plan on wearing level 79 gear, then you can use all the regular stones you want.


7) Has anyone calculated the most efficient method of acquiring exotics with regards to Badges of Honor, Karma, or Crafting (which I would imagine would usually be better than buying, but would assume buying the Globs of Ectoplasm), remembering that Badges of Honor are account-wide while Karma is soulbound?

I vote for running dungeons. Even if you only ever clear AC, you'll still earn a lot of gold. Badges take the longest, and you only have one set of stats to choose from. Both Karma and Crafting are really good options, too. But if you're short on gold, run dungeons.

[typographie]

lalangamena, on 04 February 2013 - 03:48 PM, said:

why not dungeons?
dungeons require five people group, not everybody have the time to do dungeons on daily basis or to find a proper group
(in order to get full dungeon gear you need to run two dungeons each day for almost a month, easiest is COF1 and COF2 on daily basis)

A full set of CoF armor is 1380 tokens. Assuming only three runs and 180 tokens per day (you actually get more from Bags of Wonderous Goods, and you aren't technically limited to 3 runs per day) that's only eight days for a full set. If someone doesn't have time to get farming groups for CoF runs, how long is it going to take them to farm up 255,000 karma?

Not to mention the fact that karma armor is only available in Soldier, Rabid and Magi stats. Soldier may be borderline useful for the OP, but those are generally three extremely specialized armor sets. If someone wanted Berserker, they're probably better off with cheap crafted rares than farming karma for a month to buy exotics with the wrong stats.

Edited by typographie, 05 February 2013 - 03:15 PM.

[lalangamena]

typographie, on 05 February 2013 - 03:08 PM, said:

A full set of CoF armor is 1380 tokens. Assuming only three runs and 180 tokens per day (you actually get more from Bags of Wonderous Goods, and you aren't technically limited to 3 runs per day) that's only eight days for a full set. If someone doesn't have time to get farming groups for CoF runs, how long is it going to take them to farm up 255,000 karma?

you get 60 dungeon tokens only the first time you run a dungeon.
you can relatively easy get 120 tokens per day  (via cof1 and cof2, nobody pug cof3)

it will take you 12 days of grinding two dungeons each day, if you can find a party.

it takes ~40 minutes per day , playing solo on your own time , completing dailies and little more effort to complete monthly (five dungeons for current monthly).
for a single month in order to get 300000 karma.

if you have the time and the friends, yes run dungeons all the way, in theory you CAN get 180 tokens a day and a full set in a week, but if you don't...  stick do dailies easy karma grind. (I can also suggest grinding WWW events for karma  for five hours a day for 40K karma and get the karma gear in a week also)

[typographie]

lalangamena, on 05 February 2013 - 03:22 PM, said:

it will take you 12 days of grinding two dungeons each day, if you can find a party.

If we're really comparing apples to apples, we're talking about farming AC for Soldier's gear, since a Berserker set from CoF isn't even available for purchase using karma. And AC can most certainly be farmed by pugs every day in all three paths.

12 days in CoF gets you a Berserker's set. A month of karma (or a week at 5 hours a day, apparently) gets you Soldier's, Rabid or Magi's.

[AKGeo]

typographie, on 04 February 2013 - 02:53 PM, said:

Sorry, I'm cherry-picking a couple questions that I am equipped to answer..

2) How much does the secondary weapon's rarity (and therefore, damage and stats) matter?

Stats on your offhand weapon (such as power, precision, etc.) add to your totals and affect your character's damage. However, the damage of your offhand weapon matters only when you're actually using (i.e. striking with) that weapon's skills.

For most classes, that's the last two skills on your bar. For a thief, offhand weapon damage also applies to your dual skill (#3).

This is wrong. If you notice your stats when you equip weapons, you get a total power boost when you equip an offhand in addition to your main hand, and that goes down if you equip a lower rarity/stat but otherwise equivalent item. you'll also notice that most two-handed weapons have exactly double the stats as two equivalent-rarity and prefix one-handed weapons. There are differences such as those between greatsword and hammer, for instance, but they're pretty much double. So you're putting out the same damage with those two one-handed weapons using any damaging skills with the same base damage as you are with a two-handed weapon.

My warrior's axe puts out the same damage per attack as its hammer or greatsword, when coupled with a matching exotic offhand of any type. Individual skills using individual weapons don't make a difference.

Edited by AKGeo, 05 February 2013 - 11:58 PM.

[MeltyLotus]

If you transmute a soulbound skin to a white item(non-soulbound on use) and use the white items stats the skin will become account bound.

https://forum-en.gui...soulbound-skins

It's doubtful they will make them account bound when you can use stones to it.

[typographie]

AKGeo, on 05 February 2013 - 11:56 PM, said:

This is wrong. If you notice your stats when you equip weapons, you get a total power boost when you equip an offhand in addition to your main hand, and that goes down if you equip a lower rarity/stat but otherwise equivalent item.

I think you're comparing your stats with and without an offhand equipped that has a +Power stat on it, which of course does increase your damage passively when equipped in any slot and I pointed that out in my post.

Go to Heart of the Mists (so you're looking at weapons with nothing other than damage), get naked, unlearn your traits and make sure you're dual-wielding two one-handers. Watching your character's Attack stat, unequip your offhand. You'll notice your Attack doesn't change. Check your mainhand skill tooltips; similarly, no change.

Hack away at a golem with your '1' skill with and without your offhand equipped.. though there's some randomization involved you should do reasonably close to identical damage regardless of the presence of an offhand.

Edited by typographie, 06 February 2013 - 06:39 AM.