Draknos

March 29, 2013
JQ vs. BG vs. SoR

The big three!



Kneel!

It's funny how Arena Net manages to surprise no one.

Another hard nerf to grinding money last night, at the same time as the amount of money you need to spend to be on par is ever increased. It's really laughable how a statement like the T6 requirements for infused back braces being too high, is apparently well received by the players? It's the most common strategy known to P2W MMO's.

- The developers introduce an item that only the people on the far side of the spectrum will pay real money to acquire.
- The developers admit this is a mistake, and lowers the price after a month or two.
- The people who didn't feel it was worth buying previously spend money on it now instead.
- The developers are received as heroes by the community (lol).
- The developers do the exact same "mistake" in the next patch, and repeats the above things.

A disgusting way of making money, but hey, the GW2 community seems to be oblivious and even thankful >.<.
I've lost so much respect in Arena Net in the last few weeks that I'm not even motivated to log in anymore.

Sandwichmancer = Unbalanced, still needs a lot of work before release.

What?! You hated Minion Mastery in GW1?! Ah... well, to each their own opinion. But I'll not drag on that. *Gives evil glare*

I've haven't played Necromancer intensely since BWE2, (so I can keep the feeling fresh when I go back to it on launch) so I am not entirely sure how it works now. But these are my thoughts running on memories that are possibly outdated and maybe inconsistent compared to other thoughts... Please keep that in mind:

Playing Necromancer up to level 50 before he got wiped for BWE3, I feel the Minions were "ok" but they were lacking. In GW1 I myself mained as a MM Necromancer and went to Curses when it wasn't needed. For this game I am doing the same, I am mainly going as a MM then switching to Conditioma-...ugh I don't like that term at all... a Condition+Control Based Necromancer when needed (I'm going to make up a new term one of these days). Minions, from what I've seen compared to how they were in GW1 they feel like they are lacking. Part of it is indeed the AI... unfortunately it doesn't simply work like:

"Ok! Mr.Fiend bite Dredge Rifleman's head off! Ah good boy, good giant floating fleshy Rider thingy... here's some blood of the master!" (Ok, actually it might work like that to a small extent with the Shadow Fiend's Haunt command...)

But really, they attack who they feel like attacking, but that isn't what is wrong here in my case. The fact is that they don't even respond at all half the time. You can be all alone with your army of Bone Horrors when all of the sudden BOOM! A giant rainbow unicorn of doom flies down and begins to turn you inside out, while your minions will just stand there and stare into the void blankly when they should be protecting their master from a organ donor's demise. What I want to happen is the minions to notice the enemies attacking me and retaliate. Or when I am not under attack, I want to be able to attack a foe and make my minions go berserk and attack "something" as well. But when it works, the damage feels alright... maybe an entire minion army will feel like a player using auto attack every two-three seconds... personally I think the AI may be a bit bad compared to the old game because of the way aggravation works in this game compared to the other. But hey once again I could be completely wrong and could've observed wrong.

Now read me on this one, I ran through the Catacombs a good number of times as a MM, and I will say they don't act too well as a damage sponge. So Health is indeed the next issue I am aware of. 250 years ago, I ran joyfully with an army of 10-11 Bone Horrors, Vampiric Horrors and Jagged Horrors about two head lengths shorter of a Norn, they were able to swarm a group of enemies, body block them completely, and wail on them as the rest of my heroic party did the other 85% of the damage. End of the battle, thanks to my blood donations and nearly passing out from the blood loss (reason why people hated minion upkeep, I understand), most minions are safe and sound, or new ones have arisen via portals given off by the release of life energies of the dead bodies of my enemies. Idealy, the minions were important to the team and acted literally as a meat shield for the rest of the party, while actually doing an ok amount of damage.

Go 250 years into the apparent present day, my band of heroic adventurers delve into the Catacombs... I spec myself completely into Death Magic and forms of Minion Mastery. Step into the crypt when suddenly... a Wild Giant Spider Queen appears! Apparently with the ability to make millions of babies within a minute every minute, and my minions, devolved to Skeletal Rats, die the second I raise them... the party and myself end up death leveling her children until finally killing her the same time it would've taken to get Legendary Defender of Ascalon the old fashioned way. Ok maybe that wasn't a good enough example...

Next case scenario, I run into a group of Graveling Skelk, summon a possibly mighty band of fleshy horrors... but no, while they can distract enemies in Dungeons at some cases, really they die as soon as they are raised. Or on a specific case, I see three Gravelings in front of me, all my minions are... not in sight... after spamming and hitting all my staff skills, I turn around, and see three bone minions drinking lemonade and reading novels, Mr. Flesh Golem is sleeping, the shadow fiend and blood fiend are trying to figure out how a high-five works, and the bone fiend is attempting to mate with a nearby whiptail devourer. Ok, I'll be honest, they didn't do any of those... really they just stood still and stared into the void as though they were watching a rainbow unicorn of doom frolicking in the woods or something. It's not until I had actually used the skill Haunt for my Shadow Fiend to move into position and begin to attack one of the Gravelings, actually blinding it before it could pounce and knock down the friendly Theif... but then died in a puff of smoke shortly after the Graveling noticed its presence. I commanded Rigor Mortis on the Bone Fiend, and it immobilized itself and only began to attack when one of the Warriors kited behind me. I called Charge on the Flesh Golem, to which it did... into a pillar... and died on the nearby traps... the Graveling that ran behind me loses interest in the Warrior and then notices a bone minion, they finally begin to attack it, but each gets killed within 2-3 hits, before I even managed to finish casting Mark of Blood to try and heal them. After that, it notices the bone fiend and turns it into a pile of ground meat and bone shards. In the end I ran around in circles screaming and plotting marks as the graveling chased me around the room, with minions causing at most three seconds of distraction or minimal damage when I called them.

However, I did indeed find myself in a situation where a single minion proved to be vital in the Dungeon. During the Explorable Mode in the Catacombs, there was a part where we needed to defend a Durmand Priory Charr from a swarm of gravelings using a series of operational traps. At the end of the event, a Graveling Breeder appears and generally rushes through the traps and kills the Charr we are protecting, usually it passes over the traps at half health remaining... After a number of failed attempts, we figured we were not setting off traps correctly, and ended up trying to learn the exact position a creature had to be in order to pull of a successful spike trap. I decided to use a Flesh Wurm as a marking spot for my own trap, not only that, I used Staff Markings as well on the Flesh Wurm to help with some damage output if needed. What happened without realizing it, the Flesh Wurm attracted the attention of all the Gravelings, and the operated traps successfully went on a mass Graveling killing spree. All damage to the Wurm was remarkably healed up by my usage of Mark of Blood. When the champion Graveling Breeder appeared, it began to attack the Flesh Wurm, but was feared away from Mark of the Reaper and on the trip back to the Wurm it died with millions of hole pierced through its body. Four attempts all failed on that final Graveling Breeder, finally the event succeeded, all thanks to Fear usage and the Flesh Wurm... It was satisfying.

Summing things up... General PvE the minions can find their brighter moments... after trying and trying with unresponsive AI, your minions Finally decide to attack, but damage isn't that great, however... it can push just enough to help with that harder kill. Yet damage soaking is almost just not noticeable at all with their extremely low health, even when you are actively trying to heal them... and in dungeons they fall much shorter in utility and die in an eye's blink. While things like Haunt and Charge can be useful for a half's second breathing room with your party, it feels like you can get the job done better using another necromancer ability that does something similar in another fashion. But it does feel like they can do remarkable things on special scenarios... yet it isn't enough to make things feel as well as they should be.

But hey, if you like Minions like I do go ahead and run around as a Minion Master. I'm doing the same and placing 30 points into Death Magic first thing... just that I'll be switching out utilities and traits when I know/observe they won't be working as well as intended.

Introduction
This FAQ explains what you need to know about gear and how its attributes are distributed. I'll predominantly aim this at level 80 equipment as we can talk about all equipment rarities. The reason for this FAQ is:

• To explain how attributes are distributed at level 80
  
• To answer some common misconceptions
  
• Illustrate the methods and difficulty of obtaining equipment

If not stated, the tables in this FAQ are from the GW2 wiki or self made.

**Warning** - Long read, there is a summary section at the end.

Basics
Equipment Rarity
Each item has a quality which indicates the rarity or nature of the base modifications available on the item.  The following is the rarity in ascending order:

• Junk = Gray
  
• Common = White
  
• Fine = Blue
  
• Masterwork = Green
  
• Rare = Yellow
  
• Exotic = Orange
  
• Ascended = Pink
  
• Legendary = Purple

Attribute Allocation
Is all gear the same?
No, as you level all gear increases in terms of stats and defence rating.

At any given level, is all gear the same?
This is where there are many misconceptions. For any given level, attributes and defence ratings are not the same UNLESS they are the same rarity also. Here's an example of two great swords at level 80 (Image from reddit poster ardikus).



The rest of this post will explain why they are not the same and what to expect at level 80 in terms of gear and how its stats are distributed. The last section will contain the known methods of obtaining maximum stat gear.

Why does gear provide stats in PvE but not PvP?
Answer? It's a trick question. PvP gear has stats... but not every bit of gear has it, in fact only two do. The amulet and the jewel that goes in it.Have you ever wondered why AN made amulets so powerful? It's obvious with a bit of thought. Amulets are there to replace stats on the rest of your gear. It would be a pain to have 6 gear slots, 5 trinket slots, a back pack slot AND weapon slots all with stats - especially if you want to change your build. Most people know roughly what they want, whether it be power, crit or condition build,What AN have done is simply taken all the stats off of 'gear' and put it into one concise place... the Amulet. In BWE 1 they also had ring/ earring slots but quite rightly realised that they didn't need them and instead amalgamated those slots from 5 items with 25/15/15 stats to one jewel for the amulet with 125/75/75 stats (i.e. same stats overall).

So what about PvE?
Well AN have simply broken down the stats you got from amulets and put them back on armour, weapons and accessories. There will be no +798/569/569 amulet, those stats now belong on gear, trinkets etc.If you now think with the mentality that the super powerful amulet has been split amongst gear, then you'll realise different builds concentrate on different skills. Condition builds don't need power, so the exotic great sword in the image would be ideal. While heavy dd builds would like the stat choices of the other great sword. Bottom line, not all builds will focus on the same stats so just because a weapon doesn't have power does it mean it's useless.

Therefore, how can we compare two items if they have different stats?
Easy for weapons, as you can also look at its damage stat (weapon strength). Max weapon strength for a great sword in PVP is 995-1,100. It's logical PvE will be the same and as you can see Exotics max weapon strength is 995-1,100. Rares only have a max weapon strength of 882-975.

Ok, so what about stats for non-weapons, can you compare the two? Yes, you can look at the defence rating for the piece or because AN loves symmetry you can look at the stats. Don't look at how they're distributed (in terms of power, precision etc) but look at the numbers.

• Exotic 128/128/179
  
• Rare 113/113/158

Each stat is approximately 13% higher on the exotic than the rare.

What if I want an Exotic but don't like how the stats are distributed?
Not all weapons/ armour will be the same. There will be different exotics where one might have power/ precision/ condition damage, another has power/ vitality/ toughness and so forth. The bottom line is all exotics will be distributed in a 128/128/179 manner for 2-Handed weapons at L80.Similarly almost all rare 2-Handers at level 80 will have their 3 stats in a 113/113/158 manner. Masterworks will be closer to 100/100/140 (i.e. 13% less powerful etc).

How many attributes does gear have?
At level 1 all gear has only one attribute. As you level up it increases to three at level 80. There will be some exception where level 80 gear has four stats - these pieces of gear usually have a non-primary attribute as the fourth stat at the expense of lowering the other three primary attributes.e.g.

Level 80 Exotic Greats sword A
Power179Toughness128Vitality128
Vs
Level 80 Exotic Greatsword B
Power179Toughness98Vitality98Crit Damage 5%

To compensate for the crit damage bonus to weapon B, it's vitality and toughness stats were reduced. However, AN have reduced them proportionately to so that both weapons have equal "power" overall. This does not mean A will hit as hard as B.Instead, add all the attribute points in weapon A (it comes to 435) and weapon B (comes to 375 + 5% crit damage). AN value the 5% crit damage to be equivalent to 50 primary attribute points.

Edit: As has been pointed out, in terms of literal numbers although AN is fairly consistent, they don't necessarily rely on objective evidence to balance their game but subjective evidence such as player feedback/ internal testing plays a role.For instance, the celestial amulet has a total stat point of 1704 + 15% crit. The Berserker's amulet meanwhile has a total stat point of 1651 + 15% crit. Thus one amulet has 53 extra stat points so gives you more bang for your buck. However, very few players will ever pick the celestial amulet as specialising in a few stats seems to be more beneficial than spreading them out. AN have obviously 'buffed' the amulet to offer more incentive, that's my take on it.Wildclaw points out crit damage is worth more points/ percent on amulets than jewels. I again think AN have done this based upon subjective player feedback. Who wants 1% crit damage bonus at 80. Seems rather low. At the same time, AN once had 31% crit damage bonus on their amulets, that seemed rather high. So it looks like AN are tweaking numbers for balance.

The last thing Wildclaw points out is something which on paper looks better than it should. Most jewels provide 125/75/75 distribution = 275 total stat points. Interestingly the Rampager jewel provides 125/75/45/45 = 290 stat points. It is effectively providing 15 free points. Again this is probably from feedback AN got that having 2 low stats of 37.5 wasn't enough incentive and they changed it.One has to remember AN only added vitality as a fourth stat since BWE2. This was almost certainly due to the fact the squishy classes (Thief and Elemetalist) had low base health pools and defence. Thus they were struggling to obtain high damage builds without 12k healths in BWE1. So AN buffed the power jewellery with vitality so these damage builds could have an extra 3k health.To add to all of this, if we look at runes we can see divinity rune offer the best bang for your buck in terms of overall stat points. Most 6 set runes have 205 total stat points and a 6th set ability. The divinity rune have 240 stat points but also 18% crit damage. The latter provides more crit + damage than any other 6 set rune. AN have most likely done this based upon their internal testing but it is a interesting point to bear in mind.Most weapons will only have 3 stats at 80 but remember this:

• Weapons have stats to represent the stats taken from amulets. Whenever you are picking gear, the sum total of all the stats on all pieces of gear is equivalent to one amulet. Yes that includes the weapon and accessories. In fact weapons make up almost 25% of an amulet!
  

Do all pieces of gear have stats?
In a nutshell, yes. There are 12 main pieces that contribute: 6 equipment slots, 5 trinket slots and your weapon. If you have 2 weapon sets, it's the one you are wielding. Below I've provided an image of a level 35 Asura in cultural armour. In it I have included the caption for the amulet and to act as a reference, the chest piece.As you can see, amulets have stats but they are significantly reduced compared to PvP


So all exotic gear has a 179/128/128 distribution?
No! Only 2 Handed exotics have that distribution. Below is what other pieces of exotics have at level 80.

• 2-H Weapon = 179/128/128
  
• 1-H Weapon = 90/64/64
  
• Head = 45/32/32
  
• Shoulder = 34/24/24
  
• Chest = 101/72/72
  
• Hands = 34/24/24
  
• Legs = 67/48/48
  
• Feet = 34/24/24
  
• Rings = 67/48/48
  
• Earrings = 56/40/40
  
• Amulet = 90/64/64
  
• Backpack = 22/16/16*     

*Note all numbers in red are estimates (based upon up scaling of rare level backpack) as no exotic backpack has been seen yetSource for the exotic Jewellery stats: http://www.gw2db.com...ysocola-jewel-sAs you can see, the sum total of the weapon plus equipment slots make one amulet.That is if you add all 6 equipment slots (head, shoulder, chest, glove, leg, boot), 5 trinket slots (Amulet, 2x Rings, 2x Earrings) and the main weapon (either two 1 handed weapons OR one 2 handed weapon) you get roughly 798/569/569, the left over stats are meant to reflect the jewel which goes into the amulet.So you may have to rethink that 'precision' sword as it will eat into your stat allocation elsewhere

Ok, so all gear at level 80 will have the same attribute allocation setup if they are from the same rarity?
Yes!!! So all exotic axes at level 80 will have a 90/64/64 distribution while rare axes at 80 will be 79/57/57.The difference between exotics will be how the attributes are set up?Exactly, so some exotic swords will be power/precision/condition damage while others are vitality/toughness/healing. But both swords will have a 90/64/64 distribution.

So exotic gear is always better than other gear?
Yes with one huge caveat, that is both items must be of the same level. A level 70 exotic helm is not necessarily better than an 80 masterwork helm. You should only compare items of the same rarity and level for true comparisons.From a pure personal point of view, I found on average for any piece of equipment I found, each level of rarity is equivalent to 2-3 levels.e.g. A green level 10 power sword was as good as a blue level 13 sword which was as good as a white level 15 sword.

Edit: The new gear level Ascended will be the max tier set.


Obtaining Gear
Can I get all gear rarities from level 1?No, see the following:

• Common  = Level 1-80
  
• Fine = Level 1-80
  
• Masterwork = Level 10-80
  
• Rare = Level 35-80
  
• Exotic = Level 60-80
  
• Ascended = Level 80
  
• Legendary = Level 80

Where do I get the gear from?

• Common = Mob Drops, Chest Rewards, Merchants
  
• Fine = Mob Drops, Chest Rewards, Karma Merchants, Crafting, Mystic Forge
  
• Masterwork = Mob Drops, Chest Rewards, Karma Merchants, Crafting, Mystic Forge, Map Completion
  
• Rare = Mob Drops, Chest Rewards, Karma Merchants, Cultural Vendor Merchants, Crafting, Mystic Forge, Dungeon Token Rewards, Map Completion
  
• Exotic = Mystic Forge, Dungeon Token Rewards, WvW Merchants, Crafting, Chest Rewards, Mob Drops, Map Completion, Purchased from TP
  
• Ascended = Fractal of the Mists
  
• Legendary = Mystic Forge

How difficult is it to get level 80 exotic gear?
It depends on play time and the method of choice. Most exotic pieces run at 2-3g. For a typical player this is a couple of hours of gold farming per piece. Below I go into depth about total times.

Dungeon Tokens
Each dungeon has its own unique tokens. Going the dungeon route path, it will cost you:

• 2-Hander = 390 tokens
  
• 1-Hander (main hand) = 300 tokens
  
• 1-Hander (off hand) = 210 tokens
  
• Head = 180 tokens
  
• Shoulder = 210 tokens
  
• Chest = 330 tokens
  
• Glove = 180 tokens
  
• Leg = 300 tokens
  
• Feet = 180 tokens
  
• Total (6-Piece (Full) Set) = 1380 tokens
  
• Total (2-H + Full Set) = 1770 tokens
  
• Total (Main + Off Hand + Full Set) = 1890 tokens

Dungeon tokens are obtained by completing explorable mode runs of each dungeon. Each dungeon on nets 60 tokens for each completed explorable mode run for first run of the day. Thats 180 tokens a day. The dungeons have a DR (diminishing returns) system where if run too quickly, subsequent runs will net lower tokens amount. The tokens are character bound so repeating the dungeon on an alt for the first time will net 60 tokens provided you have allowed sufficient time for DR to have worn off - this is usually 1-2 hours.

If we want a full set of level 80 exotic gear we would need to run:1380/60 = 23 Dungeon runs

For a 2 handed weapon we would need to run:390/60 = 6.5= 7 runs

For a main and off hand we would need to run:510/60= 8.5= 9 runs

A person who wants a full set of exotics and a main and off hand from the same dungeon vendor would need to do 30-32 dungeon runs.


WvW

For those wondering, badges of honours are rewards dropped by opposing players, mobs and from keep sieges. They may often be concealed in loot bags.

• Head = 260 Badges of Honour
  
• Shoulder = 229 Badges of Honour
  
• Chest = 312 Badges of Honour
  
• Glove = 188 Badges of Honour
  
• Leg = 292 Badges of Honour
  
• Feet = 208 Badges of Honour
  
• Total (6-Piece (Full) Set) = 1489 Badges of Honour

How hard is it to get badges of honour?From a typical 1hr hectic WvW play the average player will get 10-20 badges depending on luck and remembering to loot corpses too!Being optimistic, at 20 badges/hour that means:1489/20 = 74.45= 75 hours.

Crafting
When I initially made this thread I stated at this time we had no evidence to say what exact role crafting plays in making exotics. Nirgal though kindly pointed me in the direction of a few hidden pages in GW2DB.I'll link one inscription and one insignia.Valkyrie Ancient Inscription - http://www.gw2db.com...ed:created-fromValkyrie Gossamer Insignia - http://www.gw2db.com...amer-insignia-s. Since going live crafted items have been a main source of players gearing up on exotics. They cost around 2-3g per piece and are readily available from the TP.

But if they're much easier to get than the other exotics why bother getting the other exotics?
The most likely reason is for different skins. All the base level 80 exotic set looks like this:


A lot of people will find them unappealing and thus hunt the other exotics for skins.

Why have exotic dungeon skins which look the same as the rare skins when you can just transmute a rare skin over a crafted exotic?
This is a mute question now, AN obviously saw this error and now all rare gear from dungeon vendors have a boring singular look and not the dungeon armour look.

What stats can I get?

I said all exotic gear has the same total power i.e. all chest pieces would be 101/72/72 etc. Well, GW2 uses 8 stats on it's PvE gear that we are aware of:

• Condition Damage
  
• Critical Damage
  
• Healing Power
  
• Magic Find
  
• Power
  
• Precision
  
• Toughness
  
• Vitality

Using GW2DB we can see (also seen in earlier crafting) there are only 7 different Insignias/ inscriptions:

• Berserker's = Crit Damage/ Power (main)/ Precision
  
• Explorer's = Magic Find (main)/ Power/ Precision
  
• Knight's = Power/ Precision/ Toughness (main)
  
• Carrion = Condition Damage (main)/ Power/ Vitality
  
• Rampager's = Condition Damage/ Power/ Precision (main)
  
• Valkyrie = Criti Damage/ Power (main)/ Vitality
  
• Cleric's = Healing Power (main)/ Power/ Toughness

*New* Crafted L80 Jewellery Exotic

• Chrysocola Jewellery: Condition Damage (main)/ Power/ Vitality
  
• Beryl Jewellery: Power (main)/ Crit Damage/ Vitality
  
• Coral Jewellery: Precision (main)/ Condition Damage/ Power
  
• Emerald Jewellery: Precision (main)/ Toughness/ Power
  
• Opal Jewellery: Magic Find (main)/ Power/ Precision
  
• Ruby Jewellery: Power (main)/ Crit Damage/ Precision
  
• Sapphire Jewellery: Healing (main)/ Power/ Toughness

This wiki is a good start for further info:http://wiki.guildwar...iki/InscriptionSo crafted exotic items at 80 will have one of the above eight stat sets.However, there are eight variables which come in threes meaning there are at least 56 distinct combinations. If only eight are covered here, what about the rest? Where is the soldier set (power/ toughness/ vitality)?

Basically, the other exotics will make up some of the remaining stat combinations. You must also remember you could have one 2H exotic with 179/128/128 power/precision/condition damage which is different from a 2H exotic with 179/128/128 condition damage/power/precision. In the former power is the main stat while the latter has condition damage. So there are actually more than 56 combination of stats.That being said you can expect the 'other' methods of obtaining exotics to have skins you may want also. Whether they are worth the time to grind or not is up to you. I am a little surprised that the soldier set isn't one of the crafted sets but I guess it will be one of the more desirable ones. It's also intriguing that all the crafted sets have power.

Karma
Karma can be exchanged for exotic weapons at any of the high priest temples in Orr and by the vendor near the Arah entrance. To gain access to these vendors your server must be in control of the temple. Each piece  costs 42k karma. Below is an image (produced by dulfy user Blazer) of which stats each temple has. Note there are currently no exotic weapons which can be with karma.



Mystic Forge

The mystic forge can prodcue exotic gear. It can produce this via set ways and random ways. The random method involves throwing in 4 items of the same rarity. To get a guaranteed exotic if you throw 4 exotics in you will get a different exotic. If you throw 4 rares in you have a 20% chance of getting an exotic item out. You must throw the same type of rares to get that type of gear e.g. 4 greatswords for a greatsword. Throwing 3 greatswords + 1 hammer = random weapon.

The set recipe is for weapons only at this time but produces some of the most prestigious skins, some on par with legendaries.

All known recipes for these exotics follow the same formula.

Eldritch Scroll (50 skill points) + X Mystic Coins + ??? + ???

Here is a link to the wiki of current known recipes: http://wiki.guildwar...rge/Other_Items

A relatively cheap way of obtaining exotic weapons is using the forge to make the mystic weapon. Total material costs will be about 1-1.5g. Here's the wiki link:

http://wiki.guildwar...i/Mystic_weapon


Chest Rewards
Confirmed that at least they can be rare rewards from meta event bosses. One was obtained off of the Lvl 15 starter zone meta event so it's not only in L80 areas.

Also jumping puzzle chests and dungeon chests may now reward exotics.

Map Completion
Completing any of the following zones will reward you with 2 exotic items:

• Fireheart Rise
  
• Mount Maelstrom
  
• Straits of Devestation
  
• Frostgorge Sounds
  
• Malchor's Leap
  
• Cursed Shores

Monster Drops
The final confirmed way to get exotics is random drops from monsters. The rate is extremely low but monsters in cursed shore have been known to drop legendary precursors too.


How difficult is it to get Legendary gear?
Much harder than exotics and there are only known legendary weapons. We now know that the recipe for legendary weapons are:

I'll refer you to Xagaroth's guru guide as the requirements have been beefed up considerably since beta:

http://www.guildwars...-weapons-guide/


Ascended Gear

What is this?
A new gear rarity introduced in the November update with an 8% stat improvement over exotics and the ability to use infusion slots.




How do I get it?
The Nov update will only introduce jewellery and back slots but the items are obtained from the mystic forge using items obtained from the fractal of the mists dungeons. Whether all the components come from the new dungeon or not is not yet known.

Why a gear treadmill?
AN have come out and said they do not expect there to be any other armour rarities introduced in the foreseeable future. The main reason for there introduction was 2 fold:

1. They want to introduce infusion slots to the armour - these slots allow infusion items to go in which are designed to aid damage reduction/ damage increase etc against the bosses in the new dungeon.

2. They felt there was a gap between exotics and legendaries that needed to be filled. By this, they mean time. A full set of exotic can be ground out 2-3 days, a legendary will take 2-3 months. AN wanted an item players (specifically the more hardcore) strive towards which falls in-between the two.

So why not just upgrade exotics?
The main reason I feel is you'll always have the easier exotics to obtain (crafted ones). Having such items in the game means you cannot fill the 'time discrepancy' of their attainment with them. If you say well those armour pieces shouldn;t have infusion slots and only the harder exotic pieces should then you have introduced a 2 tier exotic system.

But why the stat increase?
The main reason is if you are going to make this the 'best-in-slot' item then there has to be some differentiation between exotic and it if people are going to put 'considerable' more effort to attain them. Remember, these items are likely going to need weeks to get each as that's the time gap in gear attainment the game currently has. To drive players to go for a new gear system needs some incentives beyond aesthetics.

All in all, I think this was an oversight by AN and ascended gear should have been in game from the start. They are simply trying to fix that issue by introducing them now. They know they have gone back on their promise of no gear treadmill but at the same time they felt without doing this they could not expand the game to forfil content for the more hardcore. Also many casual players have completed their exotic sets and are about to hit the legendary wall - potentially months of grind for nothing. This set allows AN to fill that void, offers more content and the infusion design (though many regard as lazy) is a tried and tested method to keep players playing.

For those with legendary weapons, they will be ungraded to ascended stats in the future.


Summary

• All level 80 gear is not the same
  
• Exotic Gear WAS the max level gear in terms of stats - replaced by Ascended gear on 15th Nov 2012
  
• PvE gear is designed by breaking up the stats of the PvP 798/569/569 amulet and putting it back on gear
  
• Exotic gear at level 80 has 13% better stats than a Rare 80 item. Ascended gear has 8% better stats than Exotic gear.
  
• All level 80 exotic gear will have the same "total attribute" points but different gear will have different attribute allocations e.g one exotic glove is 34/24/24 in power/precision/vitality while another is 34/24/24 in toughness/vitality/healing
  
• The confirmed ways of obtaining exotics are: dungeon tokens, WvW, crafting, chest rewards, mob drops, karma and the mystic forge.
  
• There are at least 8 crafted exotic sets that require globs of ectoplasm.
  
• Exotic gear has many obtainable ways.
  
• Ascended gear and Legendary gear will be the newest tier - AN have no intention to introduce further tiers

Edit 1: Added new section on what pieces of gear have stats

Edit 2: Added small addendum to clarify adding all stats of PvE gear = 1 PvP Amulet

Edit 3: Exotics can be crafted, but what does this mean? Large new section.

Edit 4: Amended the summary to reflect new info.

Edit 5: Added what attributes belong to the known exotic dungeon sets.

Edit 6: Hopefully my final edit, added a disclaimer section just to emphasise all the above info is fact or logic based on evidence. However, it is by no means a 'definitive' faq.

Edit 7: Legendary items are now purple in colour. Credit to Beorn the Berserker

Edit 8: Added 2 sections, one to take into account that in PvP not everything is 100% equal in stat terms (I knew this before but as someone's picked up on it I'll explain why I thing AN have deviated slightly from there normal way (this part will be a hypothesis). Also I am going to amend the skill points obtained in WvW resets because the last 5 times we've played the game, they have not reset.

Edit 9: Expanded the other ways section for more clarity.

Edit 10: Edited grammar on weapon strength for clarity. Thanks to Guru user Padraig.

Edit 11: Now have accurate data on exotic jewellery so have updated info on how much stats they give - it's slightly more than I predicted but this is expected as I did not take into account the jewel which goes into the amulet. Also included new section on what stats the different crafted jewellery give.

Edit 12: Added to dungeon section that higher level dungeons have more explorable paths.

Edit 13: Exotics as chest rewards (at leasr for meta events) are in. None of the regular karma vendors sell exotics but have yet to complete Malch Leap to see what the 2 vendors there sell.

Edit 14: Huge edit - all gear information now correct as of 14th Nov 2012, ascended gear information added.