Dayquil1923

That's what a vocal minority accomplishes.

People think the game is very bad, but in reality it's just a couple of people whining about a small part of the game.
Result is everybody forgets the good parts of the game.

But people that can remain objective and keep a distance from forums like this can give their opinion, and apparently some of these people think GW2 is GOTY.

Guardian "Anchor" Build through Altruistic Healing

Video Guide found below:


Speed runs of various dungeons can be found on my page so you can see the build in action, more are being added every week:
https://www.youtube.com/strife025

I have also received feedback on what builds we use for warriors and mesmers, my recent guide regarding this subject can be found in the respective subforum:
http://www.guildwars...-dungeon-build/
http://www.guildwars...dungeon-groups/
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Updated 2/24/13:

Overview:
This guide should provide you a starting point for running Guardian in an organized dungeon group that focuses on speed runs. Because of the nature of both traits and utilities, Guardian is the best "tanky" class to use as an anchor in organized dungeon runs. What this means is that typically in speed runs, you want one class that has higher toughness then the other 4 classes, and is built to survive while holding agro without giving up too much dps. This is what this build allows you to do, while giving the other party members freedom to run full berserker to focus on DPS. In my personal groups, we run 1 guard/3 war/1 mesmer as seen from my other guides and dungeon walkthroughs, while in high level fractals where reflections are key, this can be changed to 2 guard/2 war/1 mes. Below I will explain the reasoning behind my choices, and you also have the option to watch my various dungeon guides from different class perspectives to see how it all works out in a real world setting.
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Build & Equipment:
http://gw2buildcraft...d.17.16.19.1i|e

Thanks to gw2buildcraft, you can now see all my gear and traits in the link above. Instead of listing everything out, I will explain why I went knights armor, berserker ascended gear, and list my full weapon choices below.

As far as gear goes, the reason you go for Berserker Ascended gear is because it has the highest crit damage ratios besides exquisite jewels, per below:

• 5 stat points - upgrade slot of trinkets and backpack
  
• 7 points - Ascended Back Piece
  
• 8.5 stat points - Ascended Rings
  
• 8.7 stat points - Ascended Earrings
  
• 9.4 stat points - Ascended Amulet
  
• 10 stat points- traits (not an equipment, but listed for comparison)
  
• 12 stat points - glove, shoulder and boots
  
• 12.8 stat points - 1H weapons and amulet
  
• 13.33 stat points - Earring
  
• 14 stat points - Backpack (rare version from guild armorsmith)
  
• 14.22 stat points - 2H weapons
  
• 14.4 stat points - Coat
  
• 16 stat points - Ring, helm and legging

What this means is, you lose less minor stat points by going for berserker gear higher on the list if you are making a balanced build with knights/berserker pieces. With Knights weapons, I also have the ability to switch to ascended berserker earrings in the future when they are released, while still maintaining close to 3k armor and most likely having good berserker ratios still.

Soldier Runes are one of the best runes in my opinion, by having three AoE shouts which also remove conditions, it really frees up the utility slots of the other 4 members of your group. A big part of being a successful guardian, is watching that party window and knowing when to use shouts for both condition removal and also minimizing damage. These runes are also extremely valuable when running through trash of various dungeons, especially harder runs like in TA or Arah.

The following list are the weapons I use which are statted based on the situation/combination I use them in:
Greatsword with Power/Prec/Toughness and 5% crit chance sigil
Hammer with Power/Prec/Toughness and 5% crit chance
Staff with Prec/Vit/Healing and 50% energy on swap
Scepter with Power/Prec/Tough and 50% energy on swap
Focus with Power/Prec/Crit and 5% crit chance
Shield with Power/Tough/Vit and 5% crit chance
Sword with Power/Prec/Crit and Bloodlust +10 power stacks
Mace with Power/Tough/Vit and 30% chance to heal
I don't have/use a torch.

Knights gear (Power/Prec/Toughness) can be crafted or comes from SE and Arah dungeon tokens.
Berserker gear (Power/Prec/Crit Dmg) can be crafted or comes from CoF, CoE, and Arah dungeon tokens.

The reason I took the sigils I did in the weapons I did are because of the situations and combinations I use them in.

Greatsword and Hammer with 5% crit chance are their for both increased damage from criticals, and also because crit chance synergizes well with life steal food and AH.

Staff and Scepter with Energy Sigils are so I always have that extra dodge available when I need to get out of melee range. This allows me to instantly dodge + heal in any situation, sit back and stack might stacks with staff 4 (more heals) or range dps with scepter in the rare instance I need to get out of melee range because of low health.

By keeping the 5% crit chance runes on my offhand weapons, I will always have 5% crit with my 1-hand weapons.

Now this gear isn't set in stone for this build, this is just what I've found from play experience works for me and my group. Around 3k armor allows the Guardian to maintain agro from the 4 other berserker classes who have ~2100 armor (or less in the mesmer's case). The lower your armor value falls, the harder it is to maintain agro. 3k is a good balance with the current ascended gear that allows you to draw agro and still do respectable damage as the tanky anchor role.

If you need more survivability or don't have ascended gear, you can always go more knights jewelery. If you WvW alot, then arguably P/V/T gear is better then berserker as well, where more health is key and berserker gear on a guardian isn't really ideal. It just depends on your playstyle and what you enjoy doing.

Also for any high crit % class, Omnomberry Ghosts/Pies (or even lesser versions like Mixed Berry and Blackberry) are a key component to survival. <Edit> This food now has an internal cooldown of 1s, meaning you can only heal at most, once every second, which realistically, is probably more along the lines of ~1.5s on average. It is still the best food for getting back health in a high crit build though, so I still use it on all my classes for harder encounters. For pure damage, something like the 100 power/70 precision food will be better, or other pure damage foods when you don't need healing.
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Basics:
First off, the actual build is a typical boon/shout build that heals. This is NOT a pure support build, it is a tanky DPS build whose primary focus is to deal moderate damage while relieving pressure from your party as the anchor. Many people don't seem to realize how valuable Altruistic Healing is in a group setting, while both allowing you to passively support through shouts, soak damage, and still deal significant amounts of damage yourself.

The first thing you want is enough health to survive conditions and large spikes, but not spec too much health where it dimishes your effective hp from healing. In PvE vitality on gear isn't required, because of the lower amount of conditions in most instances and the fact that most large damage moves can be avoided through dodging. The toughness from all gear slots really helps to increase your e-hp because of the huge amount of heals the guardian has making toughness more valuable once you get an adequate hp pool. In addition, you have a large amount of power for direct damage and retaliation damage, plus precision (and bonus from the major trait) to push your crit chance up to levels where you will apply might stacks and life steal procs from crit a good amount of the time.

As far as Greatsword vs Hammer is concerned, they are good for different reasons. If you know you won't need ranged weapons at all, then having both on swap is ideal. In high level fractals if you run 2 guardians, you always want one with Hammer and one with GS, with Scepter/Focus or Shield on your offhand.

Greatsword's strength comes from it's AoE pull, the blind/leap, and the burst heal from Whirling Wrath coupled with Life Steal food.
Hammer's strength comes from near 100% protection uptime, more sustained healing from the symbol ticking on a 5 melee group, and Ring of Warding for certain pulls to interrupt groups of mobs.

Learning when each weapon is valuable is just something that comes from playing Guardian and getting your own experience. I will say that I primarily use Greatsword, Hammer, Staff, and Scepter/Focus and don't really touch the other weapons that often.
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Traits:
The main focus of this build is Altruistic Healing in the Valor Line. This coupled with the more crit based traits in the Honor line, and a high crit chance/toughness build, allows you to be the anchor for your group so that the other 4 members can focus on DPS.

With Altruistic healing your base heal per boon with this build is 72 for each boon per person (including yourself). In addition, all symbols which continuously proc 1 sec boons will heal at every tick and might stacks act as individual boons meaning 5 might stacks = 5x72.
Virtue of resolve = 102 per tick
Regeneration buff = 168 per tick
Dodge Roll Heal = 429 heal per roll in AoE

As you can see, we have a large amount of ways to keep sustained healing. If you are able to time your dodge rolls (also why I use superior sigil of energy on certain weapons) you can "tank" for a good portion of time, including protection boons.

The Honor line focuses more on cooldowns and utilizing crits through Empowering Might and Vigorous precision. You also have the option to run Pure of Voice which stacks with runes of the soldier in the rare case you need even more condition removal.

The main reason you put your last 10 points in virtues is for the excellent options that it gives you for reflects, which are key in a few named dungeons and a variety of fractals, especially at 30+. The added benefit is that all your virtues proc boons on your group, which is nice with AH as well.

Skills:
Shouts will be the primary utility skills that you will be using. They synergize with AH to give you heals, provide valuable defensive boons for the entire party, and remove conditions with Soldier Runes.

The two shouts you will have on most of the time are 'Hold the Line' and 'Stand Your Ground'. These are both low cooldown to utilize condition removal, and 'Stand Your Ground' especially is valuable for a variety of boss and trash run encounters to prevent yourself from being knocked down or stunned.

Your third utility slot will be situational with either reflects, or 'Retreat'/'Save Yourselves'. Retreat should be used for trash running and for any fight where an extra Aegis would be extremely useful, like the Destroyer in CoE 3. 'Save Yourselves' is great for taking multiple conditions from your party, as a 2nd stun breaker, or for any fights where you really don't need an extra Aegis for the group and you find yourself holding more agro where the boon uptime would be more beneficial.

As far as reflects go, your primary options are either Wall of Reflection or Shield of the Avenger (Spirit Shield). In general, you will be using Wall of Reflection most of the time, because it actually reflects damage and has a shorter cooldown. On a few fractals, you will want both wall and shield up, which is most prevalent in the Harpy fractal. 100% reflection uptime from 2 guardians makes fractals like the harpy and shaman fractal extremely easy, which is one huge benefit of guardians in your group. Because Spirit Shield can now take damage and be destroyed, you do need to be smarter in it's placement so it will still absorb projectiles but not be hit by melee attacks.

The dungeons where I generally use reflects include:
- CM dungeon
- Certain bosses in TA
- Certain bosses in SE
- Magg Defend in CoF
- Certain bosses in HotW
- Certain bosses in Arah
- All of Harpy Fractal
- All of Dredge Fractal
- Both bosses in Shaman Fractal
- Both bosses in Swamp Fractal
- Situationally in Ascalon Fractal
- At the Ice Elemental in Snow Fractal
- Situationally in Colossus Fractal

There could be some areas I'm forgetting, but for the most part, those are the key areas where reflects are valuable. Part of learning the Guardian class is just knowing when you will need to swap skills for certain situations, which really applies to all classes.
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Conclusion:
This is obviously not the only way to play guardian, and for many people may not even be the "best." There are many other viable guardian builds based on a situation or playstyle. From my personal experience though, I believe this is the "best" build for me. It is highly flexible, does good damage, provides excellent support for a speed run group running 4 berserker classes, and can be used for a variety of settings.

Hopefully this will help some other guardians out, especially for running some of the harder dungeons in the game.

Good luck!

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.

So because you bugged out right after the patch this is the worst thing to happen to gw2? Lol, I thought I was gonna read some proper arguments about how the update was bad.
This is just pathetic. But at least it gave me a good laugh.

Why do people continue to say "lack of updates"? Do you expect a new major patch fixing every broken dynamic of the game every week, or? It has been a little over one month since release. They have released a major patch that fixed many of the common bugs in-game that numerous people were complaining about, balanced some professions and changed some schemes that were not meant to be part of the game. They're going to be releasing an in-game Halloween event towards the end of the month (a big thing in Guild Wars) which will release loads of temporary new content, give a boost to the economy (think of events as stimulus packages), etc. If you're expecting more common patches, sorry you're going to be disappointed. Areanet is smarter than that. Common patches have flaws, they fix minuscule amounts of content that leave people complaining, balances will not be done correctly and have to be fixed the next week. They can not make calculated decisions that fast. There would be more problems in the updates than in the content already in place of the game, leaving them with more work to fix for the next week. It has been a month for crying out loud, I will continue to say this! The PvP balance is better than it ever was, the issues with botting and other related things is far less prominent than the first month of almost any other MMO on the market and you're still complaining about issues. Give them 3 months, 5 months. Let things run their course.

I really hate to get all "fanboy" in threads like this and act like the little boy sitting on Arenanet's lap, but these demands are often time downright unintelligent and reflect upon the fact that most players know very little about game maintenance and have unreal expectations as to how it should be handled.

As far as the "gem store" issue. I agree, and you can thank some staff changes within Arenanet for that. They're going to continue to push it, but as of right now Guild Wars 2 is not 'play to win' and we can cross our fingers that it will never become that way. I think the whole of Arenanet as a studio has the integrity to never let the game cross that line. Until then, they can push the gem store as much as they want as long as it really doesn't affect gameplay. I will continue to ignore it, and those who use it can continue to use it.

1. Name your server so we can actually discuss that part of your question.
2. You're in a dead zone. A place the majority of players haven't yet reached. Or the majority of players have already moved on from.
3. You're in a crappy zone. A place where people have access to but don't because, well.. (I'm looking at you, Lornar's Pass)
4. You're playing outside of prime time.
5. The people in that zone simply don't want to do whatever you're doing. (I'm looking at you, Megalodon's)
6. Everyone is dead. You're the last person on Earth. This is an automated message.

So there are people on this forum who say GW2 lacks content/is boring etc. Lets get the small one out of the way first. If you don't enjoy GW2, thats ok. If you are finding it boring, that's ok too. For all intensive discussion purposes, GW2 can be the worst game to ever exist, taking the crown from E.T.. That's ok.

But now, apparently, there is a lack of content. Remember, this is different to 'I don't find the content fun'. There is also the exclamations that there is no new content, when the game has neared the end of its first month.

So I ask you this first; what is your /age. How much did you pay for the game? I paid the full 60 USD. The last game I paid 60USD for which lasted me over 30 hours was Dark Souls. It took me 30 hours to complete the game for the first time, and considerably less on subsequent playthrus. I clocked about 90 hours total in the end.

At the time of writing this, I have spent 110 hours in GW2. None of which was in AFK. I considered all 110 hours of that time spent, fun. But fun, is beside the point in this topic, just to reiterate. What I find fun doesn't equate to what others find fun. But I'm completing content in the game, designed by the developers. My map completion is 31% and I've peppered some of that play time in with PvP and dungeon runs.

I paid 60USD for this. Not a cent more. Which other 60USD AAA game have you played recently that offered more than 30 hours of game time on your first play through. I say 30 because a skillful player, unaided by others, only doing PvE content, will probably have hit 80 and slayed the final boss. Why has it suddenly become expected of Arenanet to churn out new content like it is a subscription MMO?

Then there are those who say 'I'm going back to WoW' like it is a threat to Arenanet or the forum community. I don't care as much as the next guy. Why can't you play both games at once? Do you not have OTHER 60USD games installed on your computer? Does playing WoW delete those games from your hard drive?


TL;DR: This is a 60USD game, you can probably count with one hand how many other 60USD games that have constant content updates for free, with content that can last over 50hrs. Regardless of how fun you find this game or not, it is not lacking content.

I really don't understand why everyone cry about all the recent nerfs
In fact, am I the only one who likes them?
First of all, what's the freaking rush? seriously, the game is not a month old and everyone is in a crazy haste to get everything available RIGHT NOW

You can see whiners everywhere:
"Cultural armor is so expensive it's over 250k karma"
"I need to make CoF like 25-40 times before I can get my whole set"
"Legendary items are too damn expensive"

WELL OF COURSE IT IS! IT'S FREAKING END-GAME LUXURY ARMOR/WEAPON
It has the same stats as every other level 80 exotic which is easily obtainable in the TP or simply by crafting but "noooooooooooooo we must get THAT item". and of course it's going to be hard to get, what's the point otherwise? Everyone in the map has complete [Insert dungeon name here] set with legendary weapon and the game loses it's value after 2-3 months ...

Did none of you play GW1? Did none of you get the Obsidian armor set? a freaking 1000k worth of armor. I know I did. I farmed my ass off to get this armor with what not method (FoWSC, 600/Smith , 600/SS, 55, 330Rit, SoS Rit, UW SF, Raptor farm, Glacial shroud farm...) day by day for like 3 or 4 months but when I finally had it fully black dyed with sup runes I felt godly. So maybe I'm just a bad farmer / have the worst luck but it shouldn't take anyone 2 days to get those kind of stuff

I'm not living in a fantasy world that gw2 will be completely farm-free but come on, just play the game and enjoy it, I have a level 80 character and I didn't even reached orr. I'm just having fun roaming around the world completing stuff, having fun with friends / guilidies doing jumping puzzles or whatever, leveling alts etc etc...

I hear a lot of whining on the forums. Okay, fair enough, I expect that. However, these people that have problems with the game towards the point that they regret their purchase are beginning to think that they are part of the majority. They couldn't be more wrong.

I'd just like to take a moment here to say something for the silent majority.

We love this game.
We're having lots of fun.
Yeah, there are some bugs that suck, but for the most part, it's a great way to spend a few hours.

Sorry if you thought we didn't like it, but we do. Sorry if you thought ANet is losing customers left and right, but they aren't. They have us. So whine. Complain and threaten and troll and do whatever you wish. Just know that you are a minority, a hedge case, and just because you don't love this game, doesn't mean we don't.

I'm not saying this game is perfect. I'm saying that I agree with the design decisions and the direction. If you don't, please play something else, because you're going to ruin it for us.

**edit for clarity**

Shiftedgw2, on 19 September 2012 - 06:24 PM, said:

The game was officially released on August 28th. That's 542 hours 23 mins before the time of your post. You have played 300+ hours. That means you have spent more than 55% of the total available time in your life playing this game since launch. Hoping you had at least 6 hours of daily sleep, you ended up playing nearly 75% of the every waking hour of your life in last 3 weeks or so.

I think the game got bored of you and decided not to offer you any more fun till you take some rest and help yourself in the process.

I say that jokingly. But, in all honesty, the impact of sitting on your butt 75% of the day will take heavy toll on your body. It does not matter how old you are. You will have serious issues with your health if you don't take a break now.

Nox_Aeterna, on 04 September 2012 - 05:23 AM, said:

I'm really confused. The game has been out for a little over a week, and you expect to already be handed max stat gear for no effort at all? What is the point of that? Why even have stats at all then? I thought the game was meant to be played for months, years even. No, the game shouldnt be a gear treadmill, but for gods sakes expect a little bit of effort for your gear.

Yes, things should be accessible for casual players, but that shouldnt mean things should be handed to you when you hit 80. The game is meant to be played long term. Not in a week.

Dayquil1923, on 23 August 2012 - 09:08 PM, said: