Magi

My brother asked me recently to put together a build for him, the goal of which being to play GW2 at a relatively high resolution. Currently, no peripherals are needed, although the monitor he will be using has a 1240x1024 resolution. The monitor will be upgraded in the future to a 1080p resolution, so the processor/GPU needs enough beef to power GW2 at that resolution at a reasonable framerate.

I've mostly picked out all of the parts, but I'm not 100% sure on which GPU to choose. The last two benchmarks I have are from release, so I'm not sure if they're still valid. Links:

http://www.guildwars...ient-benchmark/
https://www.guildwar...nd-performance/

The build itself is as follows:


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($119.99 @ Amazon Canada)
CPU Cooler:  Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($28.45 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard:  Asus P8H77-I Mini ITX  LGA1155 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Canada Computers)
Memory:  Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($51.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage:  Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card:  HIS Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card  ($199.99 @ Memory Express)
Case:  BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case  ($79.99 @ Canada Computers)
Optical Drive:  Asus DVDE818A7T/BLK/B/GEN CD Reader, DVD Writer  ($18.70 @ DirectCanada)
Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($99.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $759.08
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-06 11:36 EST-0500)

The budget is $750 sharp, so there's a little bit of fat to trim. I put a 7850 in there as a placeholder so I could price out the other components with relative accuracy. Obviously, a PSU is lacking, as well, but that will come in when the GPU is chosen. I'd prefer a modular or semi-modular PSU to deal with the mess of cables in a smallish case, but it seems as though PSU prices have gone up quite a bit in the past few months, so that may be off the table. Also debating removing the Optical Drive from the list, because it's not really necessary. I can always take my bluray drive out of my rig and put it into his rig if the need arises to load something off of a CD. I hardly ever use my bluray drive, anyways. Lastly, I'd like to stay with Intel for the processor as you get much better performance for the money invested. I realize that's not everyone's view, and someone's going to try and convince me otherwise, but I just don't care.

Oh, and the case is non-negotiable. Apparently he has his sights set on the Prodigy (not that I can blame him, it is quite a nice little case).

Steve [Ecks] is rebuilding and recruiting players who are interested in dungeon/fractal content and speed clears thereof.

Our name derives from the phonetic spelling of X, which was our legion on Old and New Israphel in Aion. The Steve portion comes from the nickname we gave to the add spawned by the Telepathy Controller boss in Dark Poeta. We farmed that instance so much pre-1.8 we decided that he needed a name. Steve was a natural choice. We're a tight-knit group of players who have, in some cases, been playing together for 5+ years. Several of us were members of multiple guilds in the [SCAR] and [LOD] alliances for a considerable amount of time in GW1. Others draw their MMO beginnings from Rappelz and Runes of Magic. Yet others still from FPSs like Counter Strike and TF2.

X first rolled on Yaks Bend, and then decided to make the move to Maguuma for a change in community. Unfortunately, due to real life commitments and people returning to Aion, our guild has lost a significant number of its members. Ideally, we would like to become an extremely competitive guild focused on speed clearing and farming high-level PvE content. We'd like you to be part of our community, too. Here's what we're looking for in a recruit:

• A mesmer/guardian/warrior character. The builds we run in instances revolve around that current meta, and so it is greatly preferred that you have one of these three professions.
  
• The willingness to adjust gear and stat loadouts in order to fulfill specific party roles.
  
• Dungeon/Fractal experience not required, just the willingness to learn.
  
• The ability to listen to vent. Mics are not required, but listening is.

As a member of X, this is what we can offer you to help you become a better player:

• We offer advice on builds for all classes in game to optimize whatever playstyle you are going for.
  
• We have a core group of players always willing to lend a helping hand for leveling or if you need to farm an instance.
  
• We have an active vent server to hang out in with lots of odd personalities to talk to.
  
• We have free fashion advice for all applicants so they, too, can look fabulous at all times.

As I said, X is rebuilding. We ourselves aren't particularly advanced in fractals, mostly due to lacking the member power to form groups for it. Furthermore, we went from having a fully upgraded guild on Yaks Bend and several tens of thousands of points to starting back from zero on Maguuma. We don't have 24/7 buffs, nor do we have a large guild bank. However, what we can offer is the ability to grow and gear your character while learning dungeon content.

If you are interested, or have any questions, please feel free to PM me on the forums or in-game under the name Boonprot.6274. Other officers that can be reached are kartek.6428, Kaziks.9640, Muppet.6485, and UberNoob.2947.

Some people may argue that it is largely pointless to speculate about a future tier of gear when it has barely been released, and I would agree. However, it gets exceedingly tiresome to read thread after thread complaining about something that the vast majority of players hasn't put any effort into researching. This thread aims to remedy these misconceptions so we can have some constructive discussion.

I'd also like to apologize if this thread belongs elsewhere; I searched and hadn't found anything even remotely exhaustive pertaining to ascended items.

First of all, the goal of this thread is to provide a relatively sound prediction of the stat increases provided by the (relatively) new ascended tier of items. This is not a discussion of how incredibly game-breaking or difficult/expensive the gear is to acquire, nor is it a place to complain about some perceived "slippery slope." What this is, however, is a math-centric discussion where I wanted to project a reasonable estimation of the stat gains of ascended versus exotic tiers.

The first, and most obvious, problem is determining the power of the ascended tier relative to the others. The wiki provides a nice summary, but the data for the tier we want to examine is missing: http://wiki.guildwar..._rarity#Quality. We can draw two conclusions from this. Either the ascended tier will follow the pattern found between the rare and exotic tiers, providing a 185% power increase, relative to the base tier, or we could find a suitable regression. Obviously, to help choose our assumption, we can look at the already-released ascended items. Namely, the backslot items and the rings.

Rings:
Exotic: 67 + 48 + 48 = 163 + 55 = 218
Ascended: 108 + 68 + 68 = 244

Note that the extra 55 for the exotic piece comes from the stats provided by the jewel. I am also ignoring the agony and the extra stats provided by the upgraded infusions.

% Difference = (244 - 218) / 218 * 100% = 11.927%

Backslot:
Exotic: 22 + 16 + 16 = 54 + 48 = 102
Ascended: 56 + 35 + 35 = 126

Note again that the 48 is from the stats provided by the orb. Once again, the infusion stats are ignored.

% Difference = (126 - 102) / 102 * 100% = 23.529%

According to the wiki, if the 20% relative power increase pattern continues, the ascended tier should be 12.12% more powerful than the exotic tier. Proof:

Since the backslots tend to have reduced consistency stat progression-wise than rings (6.25% between rare and exotic, compared to 10.10% between rare and exotic for the rings), I chose 12% as my  overall conversion factor to approximate the ascended tier stats.

Next, I wanted to compare the exotic stats to the ascended stats. However, it is important to understand that you cannot compare the stat increase that the ascended tier provides over the exotic tier. This is because a very large and very significant portion of your stats are inherently provided by your character itself. At level 80, you have 916 base points in the four main attributes, and an additional 1400 that are gained via traits.

Character Based Stat Points = 916 * 4 + 1400 = 5064 stat points

The following are the calculations for the stat points for the gear tiers:

Exotic Tier:

So, for the exotic tier, your gear provides 43.05% of your overall stats.

Ascended Tier:

The ascended gear provides 45.89% of your overall stats.

To easily compare the two, we'll just find the difference.

45.89% - 43.05% = 2.84%

If, instead, the ascended gear turned out to be 20% more powerful than the exotic tier, the difference is 4.34%. If the ascended gear happened to be 40% more powerful than the exotic tier, the difference then becomes 7.70%.

To me, this seems like an awfully small stat increase to be complaining so much about. Furthermore, considering Agony resistance will undoubtedly become more and more widespread, I severely doubt it'll be anywhere near game-breaking. It may gate some content, but it's hardly the end of the world if you have to progress through earlier content to unlock further content. You didn't just start effectively traipsing through Orr at level 10, now, did you?

COMMENTS:

There are a few flaws, namely that I assumed zero stat point contribution via orbs placed in armor. However, since we are extrapolating the ascended gear stats off of their exotic counterparts, the results would be identical had we included the orbs. Furthermore, the rings show that the ascended tier shows an approximate 12% increase over the previous tier, including the jewel stats. Therefore, I believe it is a safe and accurate assumption to ignore the orb contribution.

Additionally, runes and sigils were ignored throughout. This was mostly to create an easier approximation and to form a sort of maximum "stat potential." That is, the effects of sigils and runes are far too diverse and varied to quantify into stat points.

In closing, please comment and correct any mistakes you find, or provide your own numbers/calculations so we can contrast and compare.