30 replies to this topic

[BlaineTog]

Maybe it's just me but I'm going on 4 characters now and I'm finding it hard to find a high-level set of armor I actually like more than lower-level stuff.  Even though I feel like I want to celebrate my characters' rise to 80 by decking them out in snazzy new duds, for every single one of them I've cobbled together a look by around level 30-40 that I end up liking more than any of the expensive armors and then I just carry it forward with transmutation stones.

Anyone else share my pain?  I want to perform some conspicuous consumption, darnit!

Edited by BlaineTog, 28 February 2013 - 02:13 AM.

[NerfHerder]

I have even transmuted level 80 exotics/rares to look like blue/green/white, lower level, gear.

[FoxBat]

I'm fairly convinced that the crafted exotics look intentionally garbage to encourage T-stone use. Watch how female light armor gets gradually more risque as you level up until it suddenly reverts to bland at 80 exotic.

[Trei]

Yes I do like the low level gear looks better.
I just wish we could somehow exchange basic stones for fine.

Needing to use a fine stone on a low level model just because the target gear is lvl 80 really feels like I wasted one.

[Coren]

I admit non exotic/rare medium armor looks great (for the most part). To be honest, most medium armor looks super cool on asura in my opinion. Put on ascalonian medium armor on asura and it looks so sleek.

[Vysander]

Totally agree. Lvl 80 exotic medium armor looks like a skirt. lvl 78 exotic armor, bad ass assassin...

[Tyrantscreed]

Medium armor in general is garbage. All that trench coat...Luckily, I'm a norn, so I can buy cultural and transmute lol

Edited by Tyrantscreed, 28 February 2013 - 04:20 PM.

[Gunuin]

I am not at level 80 yet, as I am spending any little time I have on GW2 trading on the TP, but I do agree.

I really like my level 40-50 pirate gear for my ranger.

[MisterB]

In my case, the question is irrelevant due to the transmutation system. Transmutation intentionally designs inconvenience into character customization, and then sells the solution. The only alternative is random chance, which can also be purchased. So they are asking players to pay to remove an inconvenience that they created or remove the random element that was also intended.

I prefer not to pay for this particular design model, so i use the Hall of Monuments very frequently instead.

[Omedon]

I knew how I'd look at 80, from looking in my bags, by the time I was level 30.  Zero desire to own a single dungeon set, and even the legendary weapons aren't sufficiently superior to asuran designs, which I adore, to bother pursuing.

As a result, GW2 exists for me as  a zero pressure game, and I feel no "compulsion" to log on to grind for anything, playing only to scratch the "GW2 is fun" itch, and to hang out with the guild on Sundays.  It's glorious!

[Ritualist]

It depends:
I love the max adventurer options:




As for soldiers:



and scholars:




I prefer the non-max options.

[Bloggi]

Well it really depends, all up to personal preference. Acolyte Pants is a favorite amongst human female toons, as everyone might have noted by now. It's essentially starter leggings. All my toons usually look like hobos while being leveled and it's only at 80 that they get their 'final look'.

On most of my toons I use a mix and match of armor, some of them low level. I'll try to get a screenie up when I get home and upload it to this post. It shows how I chose to mix a standard Pirate's Hat and Outlaw shoulders (low level crafted shoulder piece) on my thief.

Spoiler

Edit: Screens uploaded.

Edited by Bloggi, 02 March 2013 - 05:10 AM.

[Karuro]

It's the case with my ele. I don't want her to run around in undies and a lot of armor don't appeal to me.
She's currently wearing Devout. Will probably swap the top later on. Thinking of crafted Acolyte. Rest stays devout, prolly.
In GW1, I liked my Ancient with 1.5k kurzick top mix.

With my Thief, only the coat will be an exotic skin (Which kinda makes up 70% of the outfit already..).

Edited by Karuro, 02 March 2013 - 12:16 AM.

[Ledge Researcher Darrin]

I don't like the trench/duster look on the medium armor. Blah! That's the biggest reason why I don't play those classes.

I also don't like the giant dress thing for Draconic. That fighting dress just looks horribad.

Thankfully, I like using Berserker gear, and I can use the basic transmuting stones to make sub-80 Exotic Berserker armor look like whatever at minimal cost to me.

The Temple armor, I may have to live with for a while, though

As for Light/Scholar stuff, I actually do like the crafted Exotic stuff. I really don't like Masquerade armor at all.  Feathered was okay.

[BlaineTog]

Ledge Researcher Darrin, on 02 March 2013 - 04:35 AM, said:

I don't like the trench/duster look on the medium armor. Blah! That's the biggest reason why I don't play those classes.

Yeah, I've been having trouble with that as well.  Fortunately, I found this set for my female human thief, which looks pretty good with a different pair of pants, no shoulder or head armor showing, and all-black dye.

[Sword Hammer Axe]

I think it's a decent spread. There's for the flash and for the more regular/realistic look. There're tons of armor I don't like as a whole, but that I love individual parts of. I do, however, have a big problem with the leather armor. Too few different options. It all looks like you wanna cover yourself from head to toe. I still managed to ger my Engineer and my Ranger probably, but I worry what to do with my thief as I really don't want him to slip in his jacket.

[Fizzypop]

Yes, none of my characters wear max level looks. I have no idea why the max level gear looks so crappy.

[Kovares]

MisterB, on 01 March 2013 - 09:25 PM, said:

In my case, the question is irrelevant due to the transmutation system. Transmutation intentionally designs inconvenience into character customization, and then sells the solution. The only alternative is random chance, which can also be purchased. So they are asking players to pay to remove an inconvenience that they created or remove the random element that was also intended.

I prefer not to pay for this particular design model, so i use the Hall of Monuments very frequently instead.

This. Transmutation stones are nice, but ultimately, they are only a replacement for real customizability that was put in place so they could more conveniently charge you for each use.

The "perfect" solution for character customization in terms of freedom for the player would be a system that uses model unlocks instead of actual items, something like dcuo did. If they had still wanted to use "items" instead of just slider options, so that players could get the feeling of more "tangible" rewards, an appearance slot system would have been superior in every way except for monetization, which is the reason we got transmutation stones. So I don't really think we should be "thankful" for having at least those available, although admittedly, they are better then nothing.

That being said, I greatly enjoyed the hom armos for all my light and heavy armor characters, and in fact I think that the hom light armor matches the mesmer profession better then any other set available, so I'm personally still quite happy with what we have.

Edited by Kovares, 02 March 2013 - 01:59 PM.

[Xsiriss]

DCUO definitely got it right, and it's f2p. I think it's eithr laziness on anet's part or them artificially prolonging content by making you have different gear for both builds and cosmetics.

[Midnight_Tea]

Yeah, I feel like the dungeon sets and the high level armors are a bit too gaudy, a bit too "look at me! look at me!~". But given the effort it takes to get some of those, I think that's kind of the point. The point is to show off more than to look good. But I do prefer the lower level armors often because if I were an adventurer sort I wouldn't feel right adventuring while dressed like a stage performer. Well, unless I was a mesmer, which I usually am so eh.

Edited by Midnight_Tea, 02 March 2013 - 02:25 PM.

[Loperdos]

I've actually found that for some weapon and armor skins, the mid-range are the best looking, especially compared with some of the dungeon armors.  Some of them are decent, some are pretty cool looking, but not really the way I envision my characters.  Just recently hopped back into Orr and am running through, looking at the various Karma vendors across the region (not the temple/God armors, but just the "generic" karma vendors) and I've been relatively surprised with the skins with how well some of them seem to fit the persona of a few of my characters.  Once I get my lower lvls up to 80, I'm definitely going to be trekking across Orr to get some of the karma skins.

Side note, I totally agree that there should be a way to convert normal transmutation stones into fine ones...I have WAY too many normal and not nearly enough fine ones.

Edited by Loperdos, 02 March 2013 - 06:11 PM.

[Z3r0Fear]

The armor in this game is horrible. I have no motivation at all for getting it and mostly run around in greens most of the time. If they made the armor look better then possibly but its obvious they rushed it because they ran out of time. I'm also not amused at how WvW does not have its own set of armor so that people all start off equal and even and have its own level system. They should have delayed the game but instead decided to cash in and now they are losing people to other games because they are to busy making new stuff when they should be fixing the old stuff.

[Reason on Cooldown]

I've been rocking my starter Guardian pauldrons for 80 levels.  But that's because I really like how they look.  Honestly I didn't look too close at how good/bad the 80 armor appeared, as I figured I would just find the skins I liked for my look in the game and Xmute, 80 or not.  But perhaps that's a slight difference in objectives.  Some people want cool looking 80 exo.  I just wanted to find the "best in slot" skins for the look I was going for.  I am using the 80 heavy HotW chest though.

I am far more disappointed in the 80 crafted weapons.  They all look like crap, IMO.  Both rare and exo.  Now maybe the krait weapons might go wither certain looks, but the pearl weapons.......   I would have hoped that putting the effort into maxxing out weapon crafting would yield some tangible reward.  Second time I've made THAT mistake in an MMO. lol

It's fine though......however my alts may be a bit pissed at me when they see I've raided the fine Xmute stone vault.

[Bloggi]

Reason on Cooldown, on 02 March 2013 - 07:38 PM, said:

I've been rocking my starter Guardian pauldrons for 80 levels.  But that's because I really like how they look.

Agree. IMHO the Guardian pauldrons and the Necro death mask are two of the most iconic starter armor pieces in the game.

Spoiler

Edit: More screenies.

Edited by Bloggi, 03 March 2013 - 12:10 AM.

[Reason on Cooldown]

Bloggi, on 02 March 2013 - 11:56 PM, said:

Agree. IMHO the Guardian pauldrons and the Necro death mask are two of the most iconic starter armor pieces in the game.

Now for the plot twist.  I chose the OTHER Guardian pauldrons.  But you're right, that one is iconic.

Spoiler

Edited by Reason on Cooldown, 03 March 2013 - 01:27 AM.

[Kymeric]

I agree.

It seems like the higher the armor, the more bulky and overwrought it looks.  I like some of the lower level armor because it still looks like it fits the character's form.

[Impmon]

I hate most of the light armor as it all appears to have been designed for a female character model.  Most of it looks horrible on a charr.  I actually use Tier 1 light armor on my 80th elementalist because its the only set of armor that actually looks like it was designed for a charr.

[syrin]

Not at all, I'm one of the few who hate risqué female armor and find the lower end armor much more suitable to my taste. I think out of the exotic crafted 80 the only one I liked was the female heavy armor.

[Wordsworth]

the medium armor does look good in lower levels except the very fist couple. I recently just transmuted from the revealing ninja thief armor everyone wears to one of the mid crafted ones.

[lotusindigo]

I don't agree at all. I can't wait for the day when I can deck out all 4 of my Sylvari in cultural armors. The medieval European theme they're currently sporting just looks wrong on them.