JJ mathing things again

So my post the other day got me thinking about gear vs cost vs obtainability...I know I know survival>>>>stats but that ties into this as well.

Thankfully GW2 is less gear centric then most MMO's this is most notable when you compare lvl 80 rares to exotics...so lets do the basics:
Yellow to Orange and level changes appear most important regarding weapons, overall DPS of the weapon increases dramatically between quality changes, getting 78-80 exotic weapons should be a focus for everyone as everyone needs to do damage...that's the obvious and easy gear choice we'll get to stats though...

Armor, percentage wise going from yellow to orange armor appears less important as you're getting armor factor but not at the jump DPS changes in weapons, this should be a secondary goal to obtain as staying out of fire will keep you alive a lot longer than getting better armor and remember level 72 orange is a little better than level 80 yellow, so keep an eye out on the trading post for all options.

Jewelry, going from green to yellow to orange jewelry seems the least important, minimal stat jumps, minimal percentage increase and a whole lot of mats...I suggest getting lvl 80 green jewelry and waiting a long time before bothering with yellow and orange, and that's coming from a guy who can craft most of it, value vs stats is just NOT there for the high end stuff, at least not to focus on until your fat on money and globs of ecto.

Which brings me to stats, all of the above is based on allotment of stats on level/quality of weapons as well, the stats jumps from yellow to orange are minimal but present, so it's something to strive for but not something to focus on, as a level 80 competent player in full yellow gear you are viable and effective, the difference between you and a toon pimped in lvl 80 exotics is a gap easily covered by not getting killed on the first aoe. So what should you drop points on? Well that is where your spec, class, playstyle, etc all come into play, but remember a dead player takes time from others to rez and time off target so here's some of my suggestions...

Healing, healing makes your 6 button better and anything that helps the group, my healing is relatively high as I have alot of regen abilities for myself and my group making me help others and myself live longer and increase my overall damage...and in WvW live longer than my opponent. Just because you're "tankish" or full damage, this is one stat you shouldn't ignore, I suggest attempting to get your +healing high enough that your biggest self heal is for, at a minimum, half your health pool. This is for both PvP and PvE.

Toughness, everyone is going to get hit, you may think you're untouchable, but eventually we all get beat down when something goes wrong or game mechanics require it, toughness is mitigator, it can save your life, don't ignore it...I suggest getting enough that you feel you have time to react, ie evade roll out and use that massive healing I suggested first, experiment to find your sweet spot but don't ignore this stat completely just because you're DPS.

The rest are based on class and playstyle, I'm a crit rogue who rarely uses poisons so I don't care about condition damage, but another rogue who focuses on bleeds, dots, etc will...

So lets hear your inputs, right now I like my gear and I'm in a hodgepodge of 78-80 yellows, 71-80 oranges, green jewelry and lvl 80 orange daggers, I'd like better gear but at the same time, dungeun gear, karma gear, maybe even craftable seem like options I'll get to but currently in dungeuns, events, etc I don't feel like I'm not doing my part. I guess it's just further evidence why I'm still really liking this game, you never feel like you're really "behind."
JJ

And yes I may or may not have created spreadsheets to see the number differences and still have this opinion, and no I'm not making one to calcuate DPS as IMHO DPS in GW2 is a lot like DAoC, if you win you did your job, both in WvW and PvE.

True story vitality is another stat you shouldn't skimp on, but again hard to define as most classes have skill trees that build this up...as for condition damage everyone should be running with atleast two weapon skills, traits, skills, etc that remove 1-3 conditions or you are begging to be taking a dirt nap, at least in dungeuns and WvW.

JJ speaks the truth. This game is all about survival. You need good damage so it does not take 3 months to kill something, but if you are dead you do no damage. I leveled my warrior as a full DPS build with very little thought of survivability. Recently I tried a shout based aod healing build that focuses on damage but has the side effect of aoe heals every 5-10 seconds. I found this to be not only more effective in alot of situations but also more fun. I am helping my group survive, surviving longer myself, and still doing effective DPS.

Long story short... FREE YOUR MIND!! Don't allow the ideas of MMO's past to influence your build/play style in GW2.

Another thing to remember is that you have the ability to swap weapon sets. Which can really change things up if the situation warrants. At least for my Guardian if I move from my Sword/Torch to my Mace/Shield I just switched from DPS to more of a support role in a snap.

You are all DORKS!

So, as I spoke with most of you last night...the karma level 80 exotics appear to spread stats relatively nicely based on playstyle, not really gimping anything completely, each of the 6 sets have different stats spread across different slots, so you can feasibly stack the ones you really like and ignore the set bonuses by buying random pieces from each vendor (note some of those superior runes are 1g+ each on trading post so be sure you have the money or are willing to not have the bonus) or you can buy a whole set based on playstyle and get decent bonuses and spread stats. Pretty interesting all in all. So far I've been a big fan of a single set of gear for all time use so spreading stats hitting healing, vitality, power and precision...seems logical...and there's a set for that too.

Also the 6 slot bonus is very different between sets, so keep that in mind as well, the one I'm looking at is both pve and pvp useful again as mentioned above (remove a condition and gain all boons).

So why do we bring this up, you need karma for your legendary JJ are you insane!? Lets face it legendaries are far off, but more over, to recieve your legendary, you need 120g assuming you farm all your own mats, 500 honor tokens, and a bunch of dungeun tokens, not to mention the million other items from farming mobs...the three above however are key...assuming you farm events for money, which seems the most logical and efficient so far, on a good day lets say you make 1g per 3k by the time you have 120g you will have 360k karma, and 1g per 3k karma is good day from what I can tell...so than add on 500 honor badges, assuming you zerg surf which seems to be better odds of getting drops (more things to hit, more loot bags, better odds) than you'll be taking and defending areas, which give karma, a lot in fact but badges appear to be pretty rare (even when you solo people you seem to only get them every 3 or 4 kills), so big scheme of things this is probably another 300k+ karma, finally dungeun tokens, I haven't seen how much karma you get for a dungeun run since they added it to the rewards, but I'll assume it's better than a kick in the nuts...and you'll get that enough times to give you probably an even million karma when all legendary requirements are met...AND if you don't have world explore done, you still have hearts to finish...
Oh and even if you knocked all this out in say 30 days, that's still 40 jugs of karma (dailies+monthly)...or 180k more karma...sheesh

So yeah, just my 2 cents, karma is not a long pole, and if anyone has finished a dungeun explore mode, post the karma reward below. I think I'm going shopping for my Lyssa set tonight. Not that I'll ever wear it...stupid magic find!

PUlled the trigger on final pre-dungeun set of toys last night...210k karma and cleaning out my bank of jewels/orichalcum and an additional few gold to cover the missing mats=5 pieces of lvl80 Lyssa set armor (6th piece is lvl 78 but I prefer the stats and only missing 6 armor factor), 5 pieces of exotic 80 jewelry, to go with 2 lvl 80 daggers and a 78 shortbow, ready for farming people OR MoB's sir!

Overall sitting at about 1800 power, 40+% crit (with 60% damage), 15k hps with 6k heal (1k regen for 4 sec). Overall not too shabby, and really didn't kill what little money I've encountered so far.

Back armor still appears the long pole, best I can seem to find right now is the one from the guild vendor, but those are 5g for like a total of +3 or +4...that's over the story quest and mad king's back pieces. so really not worth it imho.

On the brighter side I can make pretty much all the fancy jewels now, won't be going back to off spec crafts until I farm a bunch more, so you have a week or two to hit me up for exotics, takes: 5 rare jewels (example: beryl orb), 5 globs of ectoplasm, and a bunch of orichalcum per item (14 ingots for earring, 15 for a ring, and 16 for a neck), if you want a piece I can't make I'll buy the recipe with karma, no biggie, think I'm only missing 2 or 3 and one is magic find which is eh for exotic. So if you want a full set you need: 5 sets of 5 orbs your pick of stats, 25 globs of ectoplasm, and 60 Orichalcum ingots. Just send it in the mail, I accept all payment methods for my time, including black/abyss dye, globs of ectoplasm, or a polite thank you

Working on the dye... Every time I get an unidentified dye I cross my fingers it's either a black dye or another purple HEHE!

Thanks for all the info JJ. And CONGRATS on the awesome gear. Still working on my karma... Not too far off...

awesome, good luck, remember 78 exotics are very viable if you already have one piece with the rune you're gunning for...nice to save 42k karma...I don't know if I'll ever upgrade my 78 gloves as they just fit in so nicely.