Just Hit 80 - Need Some General Advice

[Frost]

I just hit level 80 in-game, i'm not through the core story yet but i'm working on that, after core i'm planning on doing other story content as chronologically as possible.

How does one acquire ascended gear? I grabbed a full set of exotic from the TP for cheap (mix of berserker stats and vit for survivability) so that should be good enough for now, but i'd like to upgrade at some point. Didn't find any back items or underwater helmets though, at least non that are level 80.

Does it matter which masteries i level up? Little confused about this system and i'm currently just sinking xp into whatever it sets up for me currently. I noticed most core masteries are just straight up unavailable and i have no idea how to unlock them.

Not really looking to jump straight into raids or dungeons or the other thing (fractals?), but i'd like to know if there is anything i can do outside of all that to potentially get some gear/xp etc. I know crafting is a way to get some of both but i'd rather not jump into that rabbit hole quite yet. It looks like a giant time sink and grind that i'm not quite ready for.

Any advice would be helpful, thanks for reading.

[[RvB] RedArmyGrif]

Technically you don't need Ascended gear for anything aside from Fractals of the Mists, that set of exotic armor will do you just fine.

It honestly doesn't matter what you level up, but I would recommend looking into what masteries you need for certain story bits (you don't need any for core, but Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire require some specific masteries to progress)

Crafting isn't really a great way to get EXP, a better way is to run events on maps and do hearts/explore.

[ta24-b2]

there are vendors who sell ascended backpacks on the maps introduced in living world season 3. Also here you have an overview of all (?) avaible backs https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_back_item. the masteries are divided around the addons, so you can only lvl heart of thorns masteries on heart of thornes maps and so on. I would start with gliding. Another way to get ascended gear would be pvp or wvw, though both do take some time as you need to get the currency first and unlock the armor by buying the exotic equivalent first.

[𝒶מƚ𝑒]

I just hit level 80... Now What? - A Guild Wars 2 Guide
https://youtu.be/AFGP3Le_WjI

[mysaga]

RvB RedArmyGrif eredeti hozzászólása:

Technically you don't need Ascended gear for anything aside from Fractals of the Mists, that set of exotic armor will do you just fine.

Slight correction here: Fractals T1 (Level 1-25) is exactly meant to start working on ascended gear, you only need it for the higher tiers because of the agony resistance required.

[[RvB] RedArmyGrif]

mysaga eredeti hozzászólása:

RvB RedArmyGrif eredeti hozzászólása:

Technically you don't need Ascended gear for anything aside from Fractals of the Mists, that set of exotic armor will do you just fine.

Slight correction here: Fractals T1 (Level 1-25) is exactly meant to start working on ascended gear, you only need it for the higher tiers because of the agony resistance required.

My bad, I don't do Fractals much lol

[Tyrian Mollusk]

Frost eredeti hozzászólása:

Does it matter which masteries i level up? Little confused about this system and i'm currently just sinking xp into whatever it sets up for me currently. I noticed most core masteries are just straight up unavailable and i have no idea how to unlock them.

Yes, it does matter. Masteries are basically a way to XP-gate things after you are at the level cap, and they take both a good chunk of XP and "mastery points" which are specific to achievements and locations. You have to get mastery points doing specific things, so they will limit what you can advance until you get enough. Mastery points are also specific to the part of the game they go with. For example, to advance a Heart of Thorns mastery bar, you need mastery points that come from Heart of Thorns (and remember that HoT includes living season 3). Base game or Path of Fire mastery points won't work. This can matter if you need something and it's locked by the mastery system.

HoT has several points that block until you unlock the first mastery on a track, so opening those tracks and getting the first bar filled is a priority to be allowed to do the story. Unlocking the vendors in the Verdant Brink is also good, because it lets you earn stat-selectable exotic armor just by playing the map meta event. Stat selectable is really nice, because you can pick any prefix you have unlocked (you unlock them by buying expansions, so you likely have all the ones that matter), without having to go through the tedious crafting gates or buy pricey pierces from the trading post.

Path of Fire similarly has a number of things that are blocked by upgrading your mount abilities, so having PoF mastery points set aside for those is useful. End of Dragons is pretty mediocre on mastery stuff, because that's just EoD everywhere: mediocre.

If you get to where you can't bank XP in a mastery bar, don't sweat it too much. That XP will still go toward earning a spirit shard, even though you can't see the bar filling (the mastery bar always takes priority until you have all masteries in that area completed).

If you have living season 3, ascended backpacks, accessories, rings, and underwater helmets can be had there by doing map activities and spending the map currency at the special vendor. Each area has a little different selection on what they offer. LS3E1 has rings that let you cheaply reset the stats, which is nice while you decide on your build.

Ascended armor you mainly need to craft your first set and that will make it a lot easier to get more sets and weapons through fractals (note that the ascended accessories and such above may be enough to get you through fractals to earning armor without crafting, I'm no fractal expert). If you don't want to fractal (which requires a group), then you can basically only craft your armor, which is pretty tedious and annoyingly time-gated. Some ascended weapons have an alternative path by doing achievement collections for an elite specialization, but they are fairly lengthy in themselves, and may still involve some crafting.

[Frost]

I appreciate the responses, really helpful info here.

[ta24-b2]

also just for your interest, ♥♥♥♥ the ministry guard - those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cant be trusted

[Saber]

wiki guide [wiki.guildwars2.com]
This might also help with getting some gear .

As for how can you get ascended stuff a lot of people use to just craft the first set . It will take you few days of daily crafts per armor part . You can also get some parts as drops from first set of fractals if you are lucky ,Strikes pvp/wvw also have a way of getting ascended sets but you will probably need do a lot of the content in each of those before being able to pick up a part of armor .

As for dungeons . They are a nice place to start with pve . You can get 0.5-1.5g per dungeon path + rare and 100 dungeon tokens + stuff to salvage for mats .
After completing 8 different dungeon paths you get 5g and 150 dungeon token bonus .

Dungeon path rewards for each one reset daily .

Some of the world bosses like Tequatl the Sunless also have a chance for an ascended drop .
And even if you dont get the ascended stuff you still get 2g each day you kill him + mats .