This guide is intended to help level 80 characters gear up for high-end PvE content such as fractals and raids, or who simply want to make the most of their character in terms of PvE effectiveness. Similar strategies apply to gearing for WvW, but as I am not a high-end WvW'er, I make no claims about what ideal builds for WvW are. Structured PvP, of course, has its own standardized stats, so none of this applies there.

Many of the stat combinations require either the Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire expansions to select them. If you do not own Path of Fire, for instance, you will not have access to Harrier's stats, and if you do not own Heart of Thorns, you will not have access to Viper's stats, no matter what you do (with the exception of legendary items being able to always select any stats). If you are missing either one or both of those expansions, your options for viable builds will likely be limited to power damage builds that use Berserker's armor.

Before you start [ edit ]

So let's start with the basics. First and foremost, exotic armor is fine for literally all content except tier 4 fractals. Tier 1 & 2 fractals are absolutely fine without a single piece of ascended armor. Tier 3, it'll be slightly easier to get the Agony Resistance (AR) you need with a couple pieces of ascended armor, but still doable. Raiding doesn't require AR, and the stat increase is minimal. So go ahead and forget about ascended armor until you're at least in tier 3 fractals, by which point you've hopefully had an armorbox or few drop for you.

The thing you absolutely do want pretty much as soon as you hit 80 and know that you're going to take this character seriously are ascended trinkets (amulet, backpiece, accessories (a.k.a. earrings), and rings). We'll come back to those in a minute. The other thing you should work toward is an ascended weapon for your primary weapon (the 2-hand or main-hand weapon you do your most damage with; typically the melee weapon if you have a melee set and a ranged set). Don't worry about the offhand right away, but you may need the mainhand of the 2nd set depending on your class's standard rotation. Weapon is a bit harder than trinkets, so don't feel bad about picking up an exotic while you start working toward the ascended, but at least one ascended weapon is generally standard for more serious raiding groups, because the base damage increase makes a huge difference.

Now before you go grabbing exotics and ascendeds, you need to figure out what stats you're actually aiming for. To keep this simple, in 9 cases out of 10, you're aiming for Berserker stats if you're direct damage, Viper stats if you're condition damage, Harrier stats if you're a healer, and Diviner stats if you're a boon support. Absolutely perfect optimization may involve mixing one or two pieces of Sinister with your Viper, Assassin's to cap out crit chance with power builds, or suchlike (consult Snowcrow's for raids, discretize for fractals or MetaBattle for details), but for simplicity's sake I'm focusing on those four stats. Also, before deciding, make sure the class you want to play has a viable meta build of the type you're aiming for, for the game mode you're intending. Every profession has at least one viable power DPS, condi DPS, and healer option (except heal warrior is not a thing in PvE) with a few other support and niche builds. In general though, fractals and dungeons want power damage, and for raids it heavily depends on the boss and team composition. Also, if you're thinking about starting with a condi, healer, or support just have a quick glance at the Viper, Harrier, and Diviner Armor section and take note of potential complications.

Trinkets [ edit ]

One important note about ascended trinkets is that most of them (exceptions will be noted) have the property Unique. This property is irrelevant for backpacks and amulets, but for accessories and rings it means you cannot equip two of the same at the same time. You cannot wear two Blood Ruby Bands, even if one is has Viper stats and the other is has Sinister stats, but you can wear one regular Blood Ruby Band and one that has been Attuned or Infused, as these count as different items. This is only a stopgap measure if you're planning to eventually do the highest level Fractals, since you'll eventually want both rings Attuned and Infused for the maximum number of infusion slots. Accessories cannot be attuned/infused. If the only stat you want is Berserker, check the Berserker trinkets section as those may be easier for you to get.

Living World Trinkets (aka easiest trinkets) [ edit ]

In Living World Season 3 and Living World Season 4, there are multiple methods to obtain stat selectable trinkets, spread across multiple episodes. No matter which episode you select, all trinkets acquired in this way can select any stat combination available to your account. This is the best way to get expansion stats (Viper's, Harrier's, Diviner's, etc.) for trinkets and still a cheap farm-able option for core stats as well (like Berserker's). All the stat selectable trinkets require Unbound or Volatile Magic in addition to the map specific currency. For some of the Season 4 maps, pre-stat selected trinkets with Plaguedoctor's or Diviner's stats are available. However, since they cost laurels and sometimes additional ectos, they are not advised over the other stat selectable options presented below.

Note 1: The Siren's Landing backpacks are not available from Provisioner Anlana, but rather from the map's Renown Heart NPCs. Note 2: The amulet is unlocked for sale only after completing The Hunger collection. Note 3: The Accessory is unlocked for sale only after completing Idolatry achievement.

Living World episodes are permanently unlocked for free by logging into any character during their release window (i.e. from when it releases until the next one releases, meaning the most recent one is always available), or may be purchased from the Gem Store. Living story season 3 requires HoT and season 4 requires PoF to access them but not to unlock them.

A Crack in the Ice (S3E3) is currently considered the most desirable episode for ascended trinkets for two main reasons. First, it can cover a total of four trinkets (including one attuned ring and one non-attuned). Second, Winterberry Bushes in Bitterfrost Frontier guarantee 1-3 Winterberries per node and each node can be harvested once per character per day (compared to nodes in the other maps that can be 0-3 of their item, and have an account wide limit for harvesting). With an average of about 50 harvested per character per day, you can quickly rack up the Winterberries needed and convert the extras into more Unbound Magic to cover that part of the cost as well.

In Season 4, War Eternal is the most desirable episode for similar reasons to A Crack in the Ice. Mistborn Motes are easy to farm in large quantities, and any extra can be converted to Volatile Magic. They drop from both the gatherable Motes as well as from chests, and the chests are renewable and endlessly farmable.

The most ideal setup currently is to have both A Crack in the Ice and War Eternal unlocked. This provides you with all six trinkets with easily farmable currencies. It will require a total of 900 Winterberries, 375 Mistborn Motes, 11,000 Unbound Magic, and 9,000 Volatile Magic for a complete set of trinkets. If you do not have one or both of these episodes unlocked, mix and match episodes to provide 2 rings, 2 accessories, an amulet, and a backpack.

Final rewards for Living World PvP and WvW reward tracks also offer map currencies of their associated Living World maps as a reward choice.

Berserker Only Trinkets [ edit ]

Fractal rings [ edit ]

Fair warning: if you're interested in Viper, Magi, Harrier, or Diviner you can skip this section and the next two. See you at Mist Trinkets.

Okay, so you want Berserker stuff. Fractal rings are so called because the primary method to acquire them is either for them to drop in Fractals of the Mists or to buy them from BUY-2046 PFR for Pristine Fractal Relics, which are acquired from Daily Fractals daily achievements. If you have some understanding friends who are proficient at higher-level fractals, they can carry you through the tier 2 or even tier 3 dailies even before you hit level 80 and have your rings waiting for you. While these rings, like most ascended trinkets, are Unique, there are two different ones available for each stat set, so just get one of each.

You'll see on each ring's page that there are other vendors selling them for different currencies. None of them are anywhere near as good a deal as the Pristine Fractal Relics. If you're not going to get them from Fractals, just get an Living World ring instead.

Guild Mission accessories [ edit ]

Guild Mission accessories, as one might expect, come from doing Guild Missions. Specifically, while they can rarely drop as part of the weekly personal reward popup chest, generally they're bought from a Guild commendation trader for 12 Guild Commendations and 5 gold. 'Easy' and 'Medium' guild missions award 1 Guild Commendation apiece, while 'Hard' ones award 2. If you have a fully upgraded guild that does PvE missions, that means 10-11 Guild Commendations per week. You don't need to be level 80 for most guild missions; the exact level needed depends on the mission, but some are doable as low as level 15, and the majority are doable by level 60.

Note: you can only get personal rewards from each guild mission 'slot' once per week, even if you do them more than once in multiple guilds that have different missions in that slot.

As with Fractal rings, Guild Mission accessories are Unique but come two to a stat set, so get one of each. Or get one along with an Living World accessory. Your call.

Laurel amulets [ edit ]

Laurel amulets can be purchased from Laurel Merchants for 30 Laurels, or from WvW Laurel Merchants for 20 Laurels + 250 Badges of Honor. If you have the Badges of Honor, the latter is probably the better deal. The reason there are three different Laurel amulets for each stat set is that they used to have different infusion slot types; this has since been replaced with enrichment slots and there is now no difference between the three. Pick whichever one you like the flavor text of.

Mist trinkets [ edit ]

Mist trinkets are special stat-selectable trinkets where any stat combination can be selected and they are non-Unique, meaning it is possible to equip both ring and accessory slots with two copies of the same item. They can also be reset by using a Mist Capacitor, allowing you to change to a different stat combination if desired. You will need to own Heart of Thorns to select Viper and Path of Fire to select Harrier or Diviner. There are three methods available to obtain mist trinkets: Fractals of the Mists, Player vs Player, and World vs World.

World vs World Mist trinkets using WvW currency can be purchased from Skirmish Supervisor for WvW Skirmish Claim Tickets and Memories of Battle. WvW Skirmish Claim Tickets are earned from completing the Skirmish reward track. A maximum of 365 can be earned per week.

Memories of Battle can be purchased off the Trading Post and earned from completing the Skirmish reward track as well.

Raid trinkets [ edit ]

Unlike most trinkets, the trinkets available from Raids are not Unique, meaning that you can equip two of the same ring or two of the same accessory without issue. Each trinket is associated with a Raid Boss who must be defeated once on the account before you can purchase it from Scholar Glenna in that raid wing. The trinket may also rarely drop when defeating that same boss.

Raid items are separated into 4 types: Assaulter's, Defender's, Healer's, and Malicious. As their names suggest they contain gear with primary stats of power/ferocity (or two secondary power damage stats), toughness/vitality (or both as secondary), healing power/concentration (or both as secondary), and condition damage/expertise (or both as secondary) based stats respectively. Celestial is included in all. Notable PvE stats in each type are as follows:

Assaulter's: Assassin's, Berserker's , Cavalier's, Commander's, Diviner's , Grieving, Harrier’s , Knight's, Marshal's, Sinister, and Viper’s .

Assassin's, , Cavalier's, Commander's, , Grieving, , Knight's, Marshal's, Sinister, and . Defender's: Cavalier's, Giver's, Harrier's , Knight's, Minstrel's, Shaman's, and Trailblazer's.

Cavalier's, Giver's, , Knight's, Minstrel's, Shaman's, and Trailblazer's. Healer's: Diviner's , Giver's, Harrier's , Magi's, Marshal's, Minstrel's, and Seraph.

, Giver's, , Magi's, Marshal's, Minstrel's, and Seraph. Malicious: Grieving, Seraph, Shaman's, Sinister, Trailblazer's, and Viper's.





Miscellaneous trinkets [ edit ]

This covers any other ascended trinket (besides back pieces which are in the next section) available from achievements, the Mystic Forge, special scavenger hunts, etc.

All stat selectable:

Predefined stats:

Other back pieces [ edit ]

For completeness sake, here are additional ascended back pieces available through other methods. The Unbound Magic back pieces are easier and cheaper.

Berserker Only:

All stat selectable:

Additionally, Legendary back items can select any stats, including Berserker, Viper, and Magi, and may be switched between them at will out of combat. As one might expect of a Legendary item, the path to create one is long and expensive.

Ad Infinitum - Fractal Legendary

The Ascension - PvP Legendary

Warbringer - WvW Legendary

Weapons [ edit ]

So the weapon. Unless you're fortunate, chances are you're going to need to level Weaponsmith, Huntsman, or Artificer (depending on the weapon type you need) to 500. Consult a guide like http://gw2crafts.net/ if you don't already have an alt with the appropriate crafting leveled and want to do this quickly.

Now I said 'unless you're fortunate'. The most obvious alternative is if you have a weapon box drop for you. These can technically drop anywhere, but your best chances for them are in fractals, doing Tequatl the Sunless for Tequatl's Hoard or opening Dragonfall chests for Gift of Aurene (container) (all stat selectable). Don't worry if they're the wrong stats; we can fix that in the Mystic Forge. All you need is an ascended weapon of the type you want, an exotic inscription of the stat you want (either crafted or bought off the Trading Post), an Anthology of Heroes bought from Miyani for 10 Spirit Shards, and 5 Globs of Ectoplasm (see Stat changing for more details).

An alternative is if the weapon type you need is a Greatsword, Sword, Dagger, Shield, or Scepter. Thanks to a recent update, then all you have to do is finish the Heart of Thorns personal story and reforge Caladbolg. You'll be able to turn it into one of those four weapon types (or a shield, but shield is not a main hand weapon) and select any stat combination.

If you have most of your HoT masteries maxed out and need the specialization weapon for either your class or that of a level 80 alt, you can also consider Specialization Collections weapons. These weapons have very limited stat selection options, but can be swapped to different stats with the same Mystic Forge recipe mentioned above for weapon boxes.

Some Examples are:

Again, check the full list of Elite specialization equipment for other weapons.

A few other collection achievements also provide an ascended weapon, though they're not for the faint of heart. Included here for completeness, but you're generally better off just crafting.

Trading Post [ edit ]

If the other options don't work for you or you want something fast the trading post has cheap named weapons to get which can be a good way of getting needed sigils or holding you over until you upgrade to ascended.

Weapon crafting and vending [ edit ]

So you don't have any weapon boxes, none of the Regrown Caladbolgs work for you, the achievement weapons are out of reach, and you have 0 Magnetite Shards since this will be your first raid character. Well, then you need to do some crafting. As stated above, before you proceed, you'll need a character on your account to have level 500 of Weaponsmith, Huntsman, or Artificer (depending on weapon type). You now have two options: you can either craft the weapon directly, or you can craft Grandmaster Marks and use these along with mode-specific currencies and a small amount of gold to purchase the weapon from BLING-9009 or Ascended Weapon League Vendor.

I have provided a table below comparing costs for various mainhand and 2-hand weapons used in the current raid meta. Costs are based on Trading Post buy order prices from the API for base items before all crafting and do not include one-time expenses for recipe sheets, nor do they include opportunity costs for strictly accountbound currencies/items such as Karma, Fractal Research Pages, or Ascended Shards of Glory.

These costs also do not reflect that it is sometimes cheaper to buy intermediate ingredients such as ingots from the TP rather than buying the ore and crafting them into ingots. For this kind of granular comparison, visit [1] and enter the name of the weapon you want to craft for the direct crafting method; or enter the Grandmaster Mark for the discipline needed (Grandmaster Weaponsmith's Mark, Grandmaster Huntsman's Mark, or Grandmaster Artificer's Mark), set the quantity to 3, and then add 5 gold to the result for the vendor method.

Armor [ edit ]

No, seriously, don't worry about ascended armor right away. Really don't. The one exception to this is if you're going viper/harrier/diviner and already have sufficient resources in either armor boxes or crafting levels and materials, or Magnetite Shards (in which case it's weird that you're bothering with this guide). So let's talk about exotic armor.

Berserker Armor [ edit ]

Berserker armor has the widest variety of potential ways to acquire a set of exotic armor. Each of the sets have their pros and cons in terms of cost, ease, and speed of acquisition, as well as personal appeal of the associated armor skins. Consider which one(s) best fit your goals and playstyle and pick one, or do a bit of everything. Also see the following section of all stat selectable armor for more options:

Loot/Trading Post:

Zhed's/Nika's/Devona's armor - Random drop loot. Can also be bought very cheaply from the Trading Post, comes with runes in it that are decent temporary options. This is my go to suggestion for quick gear.

Dungeons:

WvW:

Collection:

Karma:

Temple armor - Bought from Keeper Jonez Deadrun for Karma. WARNING: This armor is unsalvageable, which makes it a distinctly non-ideal choice if you're going to put expensive runes in it

Crafted:

Specialization Collection:

Other:

Viper/Harrier/Diviner and Stat-Selectable Armor [ edit ]

First, as you might've guessed from the one exception mentioned in the lead of the armor section, expansion stats are going to be a bit more difficult than Berserker and Magi. Most of the ways to get stat selectable exotics come from the expansions and living story which is generally designed for level 80 characters who are already in exotics (If you already have a geared level 80 character, skip down to the list starting at "Heart of Thorns" right below). You're going to need something to wear in the meantime, so your basic options are:

pick up some cheap exotic armor from the TP/crafting/dungeons/karma: Carrion/Rabid (if going viper) see Condi Alternatives section below Magi (if going harrier) see Magi section below Berserker (if going diviner) only a couple of alternatives see Diviner section below stick with a power build for your class until you have your new armor set ready; or start with a different character and come back to this one later.

Once you've made that decision, here are your options for acquiring exotic stat selectable armor (can select any attribute combination you have access to):

Heart of Thorns:

Season 3:

Season 4:

PvP/WvW:

Crafting:

Notes:

If you're going for the PvP/WvW Reward Tracks rather than the meta-achievements remember to pick up the relevant Guild Enhancements if your guild has them unlocked, and remember that completing Dailies in these game modes award Potions of PvP Reward and Potions of WvW Rewards to boost your progress. If you do go with achievements, just take a look at the achievements they require first, the ones with many more achievements than required for the mastery are usually easier to get.

Living World Story achievement reward armors, Living World Story reward track armors, Lunatic armor, and Ornate Guild armor do not soulbind when equipped, meaning they can be passed between alts of the same armor weight class if you have, for example, both a condi thief and a condi engi, or a condi ele and a condi necro.

Condi Alternatives [ edit ]

All of these options lack any condition duration which dramatically increases your damage in longer fights. You should expect to deal much lower damage compared to actual viper gear. This can be partially mitigated with runes and sigils that have flat duration increases. Core stat condition damage gear will be very close to the berserker options above with a few changes.

Magi [ edit ]

If going for Magi exotic armor, this one's super-simple: Do Ascalonian Catacombs explorable mode and/or the equivalent PvP/WvW dungeon reward tracks for Ascalonian Catacombs armor. Not only do you get Magi exotic armor, but it includes a Superior Rune of the Monk in each piece, which is the ideal rune for a healer.

Ascalonian Catacombs armor - Purchased for Ascalonian Tears from completing the explorable mode of Ascalonian Catacombs. The PvP and WvW dungeon reward track also provides both tokens and your choice of an armor piece as its final reward.

Ascalonian Tears from completing the explorable mode of Ascalonian Catacombs. The PvP and WvW dungeon reward track also provides both tokens and your choice of an armor piece as its final reward. Crafted Magi's armor is also very cheap on the Trading Post, grinding the gold for it will be a lot faster than grinding the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon. You will still need to use Ascalonian Catacombs' Monk Runes for most heal builds.

Other exotic stat options for healer/support:

Zealot's - Offensive power stats with healing power minor. Usually your utility and skills don't have a ton of damage as a support but this is a decent alternative though it is missing the much needed concentration that most builds want from harrier's.

Giver's - Has both the healing power and concentration that you want but has major toughness which will cause issues with tanking in raids (some bosses attack whoever has highest toughness). Also means you have no damaging stats yourself.

Cleric's - Alternative to Magi but has power/toughness instead of precision/vitality. Can cause tanking issues as mentioned with giver, Magi is usually the better choice between the two.

Minstrel's - Like with clerics, it can cause toughness issues. Provides no offensive stats and is difficult to get like givers. PvE will prefer Harriers.

Diviner [ edit ]

Commander's gear is also an option but it trades damage and boon duration for toughness and isn't much easier to get.

But what about ascended armor? [ edit ]

Okay, okay... Ascended armor boxes come in two basic varieties: named chests, which allow you to pick any piece of armor with a particular stat set, and select-stat chests, which allow you to pick any stat in the specific set but only for one particular armor slot. The former can drop anywhere, but the latter are only from Fractals. A third special type is Pile of Regurgitated Armor, which only comes from Triple Trouble as a very rare drop and gives you your choice of a Helm, Gloves, or Shoulders.

Relevant PvE stats in each set:

Assaulter's: Assassin's, Berserker's , Cavalier's, Commander's, Diviner's , Grieving, Harrier’s , Knight's, Marshal's, Sinister, and Viper’s .

, Cavalier's, Commander's, , Grieving, , Knight's, Marshal's, Sinister, and . Defender's: Cavalier's, Giver's, Harrier's , Knight's, Minstrel's, Shaman's, and Trailblazer's.

, Knight's, Minstrel's, Shaman's, and Trailblazer's. Healer's: Diviner's , Giver's, Harrier's , Magi's, Marshal's, Minstrel's, and Seraph.

, Giver's, , Magi's, Marshal's, Minstrel's, and Seraph. Malicious: Grieving, Seraph, Shaman's, Sinister, Trailblazer's, and Viper's.

If you're after Berserker, Viper, Harrier or Diviner but have the wrong type of armor box, not to worry! As with ascended weapons, we can change the stats in the Mystic Forge. To do this, combine a piece of ascended armor of the correct type (e.g. if you want a Heavy Helm, make sure you're using a Heavy Helm), an exotic insignia of the stat you want (either crafted or bought off the Trading Post), an Anthology of Heroes bought from Miyani for 10 Spirit Shards, and 5 Globs of Ectoplasm.

There are also a few collection achievements that offer an ascended armor box as a reward, but as with the ascended weapon collections, they're not for the faint of heart.

And for completeness, similar to the table for ascended weapons, this full table has ascended armor by stat type approximating costs to craft or buy from the Fractal/PvP vendors, based on base ingredient prices pulled from the Trading Post API.

Infusions [ edit ]

Ascended armor comes with infusion slots just like trinkets which is useful for getting into higher level fractals later on. In most cases if you are working on fractals you'll be putting +9 Agony Infusions in these slots. There are upgraded +9 infusions that also give +5 to a stat type. These stat infusions are very expensive and add very little to your build overall (>2% DPS). You will realistically only need the infusions at all if you are doing fractals on the character or you wish to perfect your build. In general they are the very last thing you work on.

Runes and Sigils [ edit ]

While getting the properly-statted weapons, armor, and trinkets are important, what you put IN them in terms of runes and sigils is just as important. Your build guide should have rune and sigil recommendations, and while they can seem like a daunting extra cost, they are a critical part of making your character effective at its role. As a general rule, unless you have DPS tests to back you up, make sure you have the runes and sigils recommended by your build guide before you enter high-end content where your group will be counting on you (e.g. t4 fractals and raids), and never substitute minor/major runes and sigils when the superior version is called for.

IMPORTANT NOTE: if you're putting expensive runes or sigils into exotic equipment, make sure it's salvageable so that you can recover the upgrade with a Black Lion Salvage Kit if/when you move up to ascended gear. Check, double-check, and triple-check this before you apply the rune/sigil. Please.

Runes [ edit ]

These are acquisition methods for typical example runes. The uses mentioned are broad generalities as of the time of this writing. As always, consult your build guide for what you should be using.





Sigils [ edit ]

These are acquisition methods for common sigils. The uses mentioned are broad generalities as of the time of this writing. As always, consult your build guide for what you should be using.

Support Superior Sigil of Concentration - Used to help cap out boon duration. Crafted by 225 Scribe (no recipe sheet required) or salvaged with a Black Lion Salvage Kit from Candy Cane weapons. The sigil is not account bound, so it can be purchased from the TP or crafted by a friend though it's usually way cheaper from the TP or weapons.



Food [ edit ]

This section mostly only applies to raids, where the group is generally racing an Enraged timer if they don't get a kill fast enough. Food is pretty unnecessary in low tier fractals but is expected in most Tier 4 groups and especially challenge mode (CM) on fractal 99 and 100. "Food" is something of a misnomer, as it encompasses both actual Food as well as Utility items, with the expectation that you use both. These consumables typically give a 30 or 60 minute buff (unless extended with a Metabolic Primer for food or Utility Primer for utility items) that increases stats relevant to your role; generally your build guide will tell you what the recommended food for your build is, so, as always, consult your build guide. Food

Utility

In Fractals specific utility potions can be used based on the fractal, a list can be found on the fractal page in the sigils & potions section. Powerful Potion of Slaying Scarlet's Armies ( … ) would be an example of one such potion.

See also [ edit ]

Thanks [ edit ]