Just hit 80 - Now what?

[chazus]

I don't play GW2 a great deal, but I do enjoy it. One of the things that irks me though is that I realize that I understand -very- little of the game. I've managed to get to level 80 pretty much going from zone to zone and clearing it, and I've been happy with that.

What I'd like to know is, (outside of continuing to clear stuff), how do I approach endgame?

I know a great deal has changed with Heart of Thorns, so a lot of older posts don't apply anymore.

What I'd LIKE to do is get some nicer gear, without too much commitment.

I'm not really interested in PVP, and I'm not sure I have the time commitment for raids/dungeons. However I have no idea how the crafting system, grinding, economy works.

What's the easiest/best way to go about getting some slightly higher tier stuff? Are there certain places/items to go for?

[Svifnymr]

Depends on what you want, really.
Yellow/Rare stuff is 20-30s each, or get some exotics for a couple gold each, unless you want the most desirable ones. That's if you want to just buy off the Trading Post.

You can head to Orr, Straights of Devestation, Malchors Leap, Cursed Shores, complete each zone and get some exotic gear of level 76/78 (Straights might be 70). Do the Temples and you can buy some exotic gear for karma. You can hop around to the various World Bosses (timer at Dulfy: http://dulfy.net/2014/04/23/event-timer/ ) and get some rare gear there too.

Crafting is fairly straightforward, hit up the wiki for specifics, but it's generally make a couple pieces (like a boot sole and a boot body) and a stat-specific item, "merge" them via discovery and that gives you the recipe to reuse. It gets expensive at the top, and you need crafting to get Ascended items reliably.

Dungeons got their profitability cut a while ago, but they don't really require much setup unless you're trying to speed run. Just hit the wiki for the basics and then find a group in the group finder.


The new HoT zones are each tied to a meta event. Easiest way to victory is to hit up the group finder for a taxi to a dedicated zone, especially for Dragons Stand. There's also a raid there.

[chazus]

The new HoT zones are each tied to a meta event. Easiest way to victory is to hit up the group finder for a taxi to a dedicated zone, especially for Dragons Stand. There's also a raid there.

I probably should have mentioned that I don't have HoT, and I'm not sure I'm going to get it just yet (maybe if it drops in price), so I know I'm missing some stuff there.

[Svifnymr]

I probably should have mentioned that I don't have HoT, and I'm not sure I'm going to get it just yet (maybe if it drops in price), so I know I'm missing some stuff there.

Yeah, I figured from your post. There's still a lot of folks hopping around doing World Bosses and Silverwastes is also a zone with a metaevent that is pretty regularly done.

[Deleted]

I'm assuming you're on a new account and this is your first character.

If so, these two guides will give you a quick idea of the gearing path (both have been edited up to date as of Nov+Dec 2015):

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/for...Up-at-Level-80

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/...d-at-level-80/

To summarise the main points:

If you have HoT, just unlocking your elite will give you access to a spec-specific exotic weapon. For other weapons, either buy them from TP (if you find a bargain), get them from WvW Badge of Honor +1g http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Weap..._(NPC)#vendor2 , get a drop, or craft one.

Log in each day to get your Laurels. Find a guild that does missions on your schedule, and do these each week/often as you can. Spend the currencies on ascended accessories.

Start running dungeons, fractals (neither of these take very long), meta event maps like Silverwastes, and world bosses, for crafting materials/chances at loot/money/currency to buy items.

For ascended armor, crafting is the most reliable route but it's also time-consuming and/or expensive. Keep gathering materials and skilling up the discipline you need. Full mat breakdown for a full set can be seen here: http://dulfy.net/2013/12/12/gw2-asce...rafting-guide/.

[Tuesdays]

I haven't played in almost a year, but you can get decent exotics via dungeons, I'm sure they haven't changed the corner stacking method people use to do them so it should be fairly fast, though extremely boring.

[Arewn]

Exotics are the second best gear tier, and aren't all that far behind Ascended (the best gear tier) gear in terms of stats. In fact, many people use some exotics even in raids. On top of that, they are relatively cheap/easy/quick to get. So for your purposes, you'll want exotic gear for the most part.

Your gear consists of armor (head, shoulders, chest, gloves, legs, feet), weapons, and jewelry (back, 2x rings, 2x accessories, amulet).

You can get exotic armor for karma from the god temples in Orr. So that's likely going to be your first stop. The different temples sell armor with different stats, you can find out more on the wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Temple (the karma merchant column) Your stat options from the temple vendors are Rampagers, Rabid, Clerics, Magi, and Berserker.
Of the 3 before mentioned categories (armor, weapons, jewelry), the difference between exotic and ascended armor is the least significant (and most expensive), and even raiders often don't bother to upgrade. So even if you eventually want ascended gear, you can likely ignore ascended armor.

For weapons, I would honestly suggest just buying them from the trading post. Each weapon will cost you a few gold. Just start off buying what ever weapon you use most, and expand from there. You'll likely eventually want one of each weapon you're class can wield. In the meantime, pick up some level 80 masterwork (green) weapons for a few silver on the Trading Post or from drops.

Alternatively, you can run dungeons for both weapons and armor. The dungeons will give you tokens which can be exchanged for weapons and armor. Additionally, they'll reward you with materials from killing things and gold, which you can then spend on more gear. With that said, dungeon rewards were nerfed with HoT's launch because Arena Net wanted to shift the focus towards other content. Tokens were untouched, so you can still farm those, but the other rewards are lackluster and you may have trouble finding groups to run them with.

Crafting isn't terribly complicated, and is well explained here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting
You can find guides for efficient/cheap ways to level crafting on google, such as this one http://www.guildwars2-crafting.com/crafting-guides/
You may be interested in crafting your weapon or armor instead. Depends what kind of player you are. If you like gathering and farming, then have at thee. You need it at level 400 for exotics.
If you eventually want ascended weapons, then I'd recommending leveling your weapon craft. You need it at 500 for ascended.

For jewelry, I would recommend getting ascended. You can buy or craft exotic jewelry, but it's relatively expensive. On the flip side, ascended jewelry is easy to get, and provides a fair increase in stats over exotics. You're probably aware of the daily login rewards you've been getting. Every once in a while, you'll get laurels (a currency) from these login rewards. You can spend those laurels on ascended jewelry. It's as simple as that, and is really just a matter of patience.
You can speed up the process in two ways:
Rings can be acquired from Fractals of the Mists http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractals_of_the_Mists. You can get them as random drops from daily fractal rewards, or you can buy them with the fractal tokens you get.
You can additionally make a back piece with materials (and tokens) that drop in fractals.
Accessories can be purchased for Guild Commendations. Guild Comms are a currency you get from completing guild missions (weekly lockout on the rewards). Just look for a guild that says it actively does guild missions.

Regardless, you'll likely want to get your amulet with laurels.


So my minimum-commitment gearing strategy if I was in your shoes would be; buy exotic armor for karma. Buy weapons from the trading post, exotics for my main weapons, masterwork for my less-used weapons. And simply wait for laurels from login rewards to get ascended jewelry, buying masterwork jewelry to fill my empty slots in the meantime.
Since you've been playing long enough to reach 80, I'd assume you already have enough karma for the armor, enough gold for a few weapons, and some laurels to start buying jewelry with. If not, farming the big group event chains in Orr, Silverwastes, and the Heart of Thorns maps (if you have it) will net you karma and gold (or at the least, materials which you can sell for gold).

[Dartz1979]

if gw 2 was free to play i prolly would give it a go

[Deleted]

if gw 2 was free to play i prolly would give it a go

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/play-for-free-today/

[akaTheDude]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/play-for-free-today/

I would recommend it. I am SUPER NEW to GW2 and I am only lvl 11 and it is pretty fun so far. The only thing that worries me about this game, is that I have heard....so this might not be true, but the end game PvE is lacking and you can only PvP. I am hoping this isnt true because this seems like PvE could be really good.

[Svifnymr]

I would recommend it. I am SUPER NEW to GW2 and I am only lvl 11 and it is pretty fun so far. The only thing that worries me about this game, is that I have heard....so this might not be true, but the end game PvE is lacking and you can only PvP. I am hoping this isnt true because this seems like PvE could be really good.

On launch, the game was designed that when you hit max level you continue doing what you did all along. You can return to old events through downleveling or you can run through level 80 zones, but the gameplay didn't suddenly change.
Folks on the internet decreed "no endgame!" and so the expansion features a raid (with more coming), and 4 zones designed around meta events. Yet, folks on the internet are still saying "no endgame!" even though it has just as much/ more of the content as any other MMO. Sure it needs more sPvP arenas, but that doesn't mean it lacks sPvP...

There's no gear treadmill, so your gear (at max) will not suddenly become worthless for the next content update.