The following topic will be updated as the game goes on. Feedback and additional information are highly appreciated. At the moment this is work in progress.

Overview

• There are different types of armor available in the game: Light, Medium, Heavy. Each class can only wear one of them.
• There are six equipment slots: Head, Shoulder, Chest, Pants, Gloves and Shoes.
• As soon as your character is underwater a breathing apparatus is equipped automatically which replaces your head slot item for that time.
• Additionally each hero can equip 1x back slot item, 1x amulet, 2x rings and 2x accessories. All of these - except for the back slot item- can be crafted by a jewelcrafter.

Generally you will want to strive for the best possible gear. At one point, however, your character will have reached the highest possible amount of stats on one single item. At this point players have the opportunity to customize the visual appearance of their items to distinguish themselves from other players. To achieve this, a player can use transmutation stones and apply any gear or weapon skin to whatever highend equipment they are currently wearing. This is where low level items as well as literally any item you can find may become very attractive.

So what you want to do is figure out which stats your profession and/or build profits most from and then go for the respective gear. Once you feel comfortable with what you are wearing, it is time to customize your gear to your liking.

Acquisition

In Guild Wars 2, gear can be obtained in many different ways. Gear can be:

• crafted by the following professions: armorsmith, weaponsmith, tailor, artificer, huntsman (armor)
• crafted by a jeweler (accessories)
• looted from enemies
• a reward for a personal story mission
• a reward for 100%ing an area
• a reward for finishing a dungeon on story mode
• purchased from Karma vendors all around Tyria using Karma
• purchased from normal vendors using Gold

Crafted Armor

Armorsmiths, weaponsmiths, tailors, artificers and huntsmen can craft exotic items. These may vary in stats, depending on which Insignias/Inscriptions/etc. are being used.

• armorsmith (heavy), leatherworker (medium), and tailor (light) are the three armor-based crafting professions
• weaponsmith, huntsman, and artificer are the three weapon-based crafting professions

Extensive PDF file on craftable items and their required mats: Crafting Guide

How to craft Exotics (Armor + Weapons)

• Exoctic items consist of three components: Armor Slot Item #1, Armor Slot Item #2, 1x Insignia/Rune/Inscription (Note: From here on always 'Insignia')
• Armor Slot Items are the ones you can craft with the highest crafting material (e.g. Orichalcum or Gossamer)
• If you were to create Shoes you would need 1x Shoe Sole and 1x Shoe Upper + 1x Insignia of your choice
• Insignias define a certain stat combination. There are seven different ones in game: Carrion, Cleric's, Explorer's, Berserker's, Rampager's, Knight's and Valkyrie
• There is no limitation on how to mix and match your gear. You can go all Berserker or 2x Bers, 2x Knight and 2x Rampager
• In order to craft Insignias you need to buy the appropriate recipe from your profession trainer (karma) and learn how to do it
• Each Insignia requires: 5x Globs of Ectoplasm (salvage Yellows/Oranges for these), 5x high end refinements such as Gossamer Bolt or Orichalchum Ingot, 20x high crafting mats purchased from your profession trainer (e.g. thread, etc.) and 5x of the highest fine crafting components depending on which Insignia you want to create (Vial of Powerful Blood for Berserker for instance).
• Once you have 1x Insignia and both armor slot items you are all set :)

Cultural Armor

Every race gets a unique set of armor that is only available to characters belonging to the respective race. These items can be found and purchased in the associated capital cities. For each type of armor (light, medium and heavy) there are three tiers available. Tier 1-3 differ in skin and price. Armor gear can be purchased by using Gold as currency. Weapons need to be bought with Karma.

Prices Full Sets

• Tier 1 Cultural Armor Set 2.88 gold
• Tier 2 Cultural Armor Set 7.10 gold
• Tier 3 Cultural Armor Set 119 gold

Prices Weapons

• Tier 1 Weapon 9.800 Karma
• Tier 2 Weapon 35,000 Karma
• Tier 3 Weapon 63,000 Karma

Dungeon Armor

In order to get exotic dungeon sets you can exchange tokens for pieces of armor. Each dungeon has one unique item set for each type of armor (light, medium and heavy) which results in three sets per dungeon and a total of 8 sets for each type of armor. Additionally, every dungeon comes with its own unique set of weapons which can be purchased with tokens as well. Now, tokens can only be obtained by doing explorable mode dungeons. Each explorable mode dungeon rewards the player with a different kind of token, which means that there is a total of 8 tokens ingame. In order to buy armor or weapons you will end up farming a particular dungeon to get enough of the same tokens. Once you have collected enough of the same tokens (say Ascalonian Tears) you can purchase anything related to the dungeon you got your tokens from (in this case Ascalonian Catacombs).

• Generally each boss will drop 5 tokens
• If you complete an entire dungeon you will get and additional 15 tokens
• These numbers do not seem to difffer between the 3 paths of one single dungeon
• Note: As of now (09/05/2012) you will get 30 tokens by completing any path in Ascalonian Catacombs and 25 tokens in Caudecus' Manor
• All dungeon sets cost the same, except for the Ascalonian Catacombs set.

Prices Ascalonian Catacombs

• Helm 180 Ascalonian Tears
• Shoulder 160 Ascalonian Tears
• Chest 260 Ascalonian Tears
• Gloves 180 Ascalonian Tears
• Pants 240 Ascalonian Tears
• Shoes 180 Ascalonian Tears

Prices All Other Dungeons

• Helm 180 Tokens
• Shoulder 210 Tokens
• Chest 330 Tokens
• Gloves 180 Tokens
• Pants 300 Tokens
• Shoes 180 Tokens

Prices Weapons for All Dungeons

• 2-handed weapons 390 Tokens
• 1-handed weapons 300 Tokens
• Off-Hand weapon 210 Tokens

Dungeons with respective tokens

There are even more sets of gear in Guild Wars 2 (e.g. Ebon Hawk, Order gear, Karma Vendors in Orr). This topic will be updated accordingly. Feedback and information is highly appreciated.

Last Update: 10/09/2012 at 12:00 am GMT+1

The real deal. Legendaries. *Updated*

Legendary weapons are unique items that come with a very special skin & effect. Since none of them are more powerful than any other exotic weapon you can find in Tyria, these are only of cosmetic value. If you want to show off how awesome you and your character are, then this is the way to go! Warning: This will require a lot of time and appreciation of the game. If you are about to break down while attempting to craft these items try and look at a Quaggen picture. It always helps.

• Legendary weapons are crafted in the Mystic Forge
• Gifts and exotic weapons can be traded. Bloodstone Shards are soulbound and therefore not tradeable.
• Gifts and Statues can be crafted in the Mystic Forge; their respective recipes can be purchased from an NPC called Miyani (next to the Mystic Forge in Lion's Arch; not displying a crafter icon above her head)
• Each gift/statue recipe costs 10 gold and requires a discipline skill level of 400
• You need different kinds of material in order to craft gifts and statues. It will always take 4 different components (since you are using the Mystic Forge)
• Gift of Metal, for example, requires 250x of Orichalcum, Mithril, Darkstell and Platinum Ingots whereas Gift of Color requires 250x Crystaline Dust, 50x Opal Orbs, 250x Unidentified Dyes and 250x Ascalonian Tears (yes, the dungeon tokens)
• Bloodstone Shards cost 200 skill points (which you can earn via leveling and completing skill challenges even after you have hit level 80) and can be purchased from Miyani as well
• the last component is an exotic weapon which also requires many different kinds of components, e.g. Ascalonian Tears and highend crafting mats. Finding these recipes is very difficult at the moment.
• once you have all four components you can go ahead and craft your legendary weapon
• if you want more than one legendary item you will have to drop certain disciplines in order to pick up new ones (and max them, too!) Note: You can always go back and forth between your disciplines

Overview

• you will have to craft the six gifts mentioned in Step I-III
• combining the crafted gifts with additional mats in Step IV will give you three new gifts
• combining the three new gifts with your base exotic weapon in Step V will reward you with the legendary

I. Mystic Forge Gifts

Gift of Magic = t6 fang (250) + t6 scale (250) + T6 claw (250) + T6 bone (250)

Gift of Might = T6 Blood (250) + t6 Venom (250) + T6 totem (250) + T6 dust (250)

20-50 Random T6 mats or Mystic Clovers =Obsidian Shard (10) + Glob of Ectoplasm (10) + Crystal (10) + Mystic Coin (10)

1-3 Random T6 mats or Mystic Clovers= Glob of Ectoplasm (1) + Philosopher stone (6) + Obsidian Shard (1)+ t6 dust (1)

II. Crafted Gifts

Crafted Gift 1 = Gift of metal/wood/energy

Crafted Gift 2 = Gift of <uses Dungeon tokens>

III. WvW and Exploration Gifts

Gift of Battle = 500 Badges of honor

Gift of Exploration = 100% Map completion

IV. Component Creation

Gift of Mastery = Bloodstone shard + Gift of Exploration + Obsidian Shard (250) + Gift of Battle

Gift of 'Legendary' = Crafted Gift 1 + Crafted Gift 2 + Icy Runestone (100) + Superior Sigil of (see list below)

Gift of Fortune = Glob of Ectoplasm(250) + Mystic Clover(77) + Gift of Magic + Gift of Might

V. Your legendary

Legendary = Base Exotic + Gift of Fortune + Gift of <Legendary name> + Gift of Mastery

Sigil List for Gift of 'Legendary'

Sunrise = Superior Sigil of Strength

Twilight = Superior Sigil of Leeching

This is confirmed information collected from reddit and gw2guru. Additional info and feedback is highly appreciated.

Last Update: 10/05/2012 at 03:15 pm GMT+1

Thanks. This was actually a question that was on my mind, though I'm still only 51 (or something like that)

It's quite a haul to get these prestige shinies. Doubt I'll do that. I'll just 100% the map, play every dungeon at least once in story mode, and get whatever sexiness I earn over time in sPvP and WvW.

It takes way too much dedication to achieve many of these things - and times have changed and I am no longer a MMO-spring chicken - it's not my first rodeo. Good thing GW2's business model perfectly fits the bill. I can totally be a non-dedicated GW2 player, and still get to play and enjoy everything GW2 has to offer, at any time - stay perfectly competitive and viable, even if I take a lengthy time off. Love the core designs and concepts - ArenaNet's intents - so much!

Hell - who knows? Soon I'll be running out of unlocks in BF3, and I thought that'd be impossible. By the time the next expansion comes around, I might have pretty prestige duds on my Charr Ranger.

Now we just need somebody to do a good in-depth on legendary weapons. Making those things is turning out to be a lot more complicated than I originally thought.

Not sure if I'm missing something obvious, but discounting that there are a couple of corrections to make for your crafting info:

• armorsmith (heavy), leatherworker (medium), and tailor (light) are the three armor-based crafting professions
• weaponsmith, huntsman, and artificer are the three weapon-based crafting professions

It follows that the former would craft exotic armor and the latter would do exotic weapons.

@Dark_Lord_Spam said:

Not sure if I'm missing something obvious, but discounting that there are a couple of corrections to make for your crafting info:

• armorsmith (heavy), leatherworker (medium), and tailor (light) are the three armor-based crafting professions
• weaponsmith, huntsman, and artificer are the three weapon-based crafting professions

It follows that the former would craft exotic armor and the latter would do exotic weapons.

Pretty much! To specify, weaponsmith makes all melee weapons as well as shields, huntsman makes the non-magic ranged weapons (longbows, shortbows, rifles and pistols) and artificer makes the magical weapons (scepters, staves and focuses). It's probably worth adding jewelers into that, as they make rings, amulets and accessories. The only slot that's not crafted, as stated in the OP, are back slot items. I've only found two, both as rewards in my personal story.

All of them can make exotic gear of their respective item types.

Can we get a sticky on this, please? @Bahloo: I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I really hope you keep this updated. The OP is a really great start.

Thanks guys! I went ahead and updated the crafting section.

Looking through this guide, the crafting necessary for Legendary weapons, all the crazy sets that come from crafting...

Man, that's a lot of grinding and adventuring to do.

@Silvergun said:

Now we just need somebody to do a good in-depth on legendary weapons. Making those things is turning out to be a lot more complicated than I originally thought.

Working on it. This will hopefully go up by the end of the week. =)

I also added an extensive crafting overview to the OP.

• Updated OP with Dungeon/Token distribution
• Second post now contains legendary info

Are the gifts tradable?

as soon as/if my permanent get removed (i and a good amount of people have apparently gotten a permanent ban without any reason at least acording to GW2 forums) ill get on this.

if not then fuck that game

@Wuddel said:

Are the gifts tradable?

Gifts are tradable. Shards and exotic weapons are not. I will add this to the OP. Thanks, mister!

This shit cray. I'mma just stick to 100%-ing the map I think :)

@Bahloo said:

@Wuddel said:

Are the gifts tradable?

Gifts are tradable. Shards and exotic weapons are not. I will add this to the OP. Thanks, mister!

Actually, I'm pretty sure that's been changed in live. Pretty much everything we know about legendaries from the BWEs is now wrong, even down to what it takes to make the gifts. In fact, one of my guildies who has one of the 'of Rage' weapons and one of the gifts for its legendary tried putting both in the mystic forge last night, and reported that when he put the weapon in, the gift greyed out, suggesting that you don't simply combine 2 gifts, a bloodstone and a weapon and get your legendary.

That's why I'd love to see a guide for these, as at this point, I don't think anybody knows how to actually make one (even the 'of Rage' weapons are something of a mystery, guildmate bought his).

This thread is pretty full of win, especially that Legendary list. Good on you @Bahloo

@Silvergun said:

@Bahloo said:

@Wuddel said:

Are the gifts tradable?

Gifts are tradable. Shards and exotic weapons are not. I will add this to the OP. Thanks, mister!

Actually, I'm pretty sure that's been changed in live. Pretty much everything we know about legendaries from the BWEs is now wrong.

I can see them changing patterns and recipes just to throw people off come launch, but I do not expect them to change the way you can acquire all of the needed components. From what I know there is no reason to believe things have changed drastically, but if ANet really decidede to switch things up, then at least this will give you a good idea of what to expect in general. I did say you should take this with a grain of salt. ;-)

On another note, we are gathering some more information on how to work the Mystic Forge properly. There are some very interesting things sprouting at the moment. I will try and keep ths thread updated as we find out more.

@Bahloo said:

I can see them changing patterns and recipes just to throw people off come launch, but I do not expect them to change the way you can acquire all of the needed components. From what I know there is no reason to believe things have changed drastically, but if ANet really decidede to switch things up, then at least this will give you a good idea of what to expect in general. I did say you should take this with a grain of salt. ;-)

On another note, we are gathering some more information on how to work the Mystic Forge properly. There are some very interesting things sprouting at the moment. I will try and keep ths thread updated as we find out more.

Well I can say for sure that the Gift of Metal and the Gift of Light on the list are wrong. Gift of metal is now 250x Darksteel Ingots 250x Platinum Ingots 250x Mithril Ingots and 250x Orichalcum Ingots. Gift of Light is 250x Orichalcum Ingots, 250x Hardened Leather Squares 1x Gift of Ascalon and 100x of some lodestone I can't remember the name of. The items also appear to be BoA now.

One thing that I've heard speculated that's interesting is the use for the 2 'Gifts of Exploration' (name might be off) from 100%ing the map. They can be used in the mystic forge, and it's speculated that you can use them as wildcards to replace a gift when making a legendary since they can be used in the forge. As nobody has successfully crafted a legendary yet, it's too early to say for sure though.

Be sure to 'preview' every storyline reward, if it's an awesome skin. Some of those rewards use cultural skins, which cost you at least 10k Karma or a ton of gold, and transmutation stones are not that hard to come by - gem store and otherwise.

Legendaries are crazy. Exoctic weapons are on the Trading Post now, so I edited the OP accordingly.

There is new info on how to craft legendary weapons. This is the actual link and I shall incorporate it in the OP tomorrow. As you can see things are absolutely insane at the moment. Only a few people know a little bit about this topic and pretty much nobody wants to talk. Also most of the time people will be hushed and forced no to spill any new information. . .

Ergh.

I didn't get a chance to post it earlier but as a PSA to other warriors out there who have hit lvl80;

Do Not Buy A "Box Of Berserker's Draconic Armor"!

There's a set of maxed (orange) craftable gear called Berserker's Draconic Armor set - it's available in individual pieces or as a "box of berserker's draconic armor", which should contain the whole thing. HOWEVER, I purchased a box of this armor for 9.5 gold earlier in the week and there is a bug where the box generates Gladiator's gear (yellow, not orange), worth 1/5th of the cost of the set with much lower stats. Essentially I just lost 10 gold, which left me in a God Father esque "Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in!" feeling when it comes to the PvE / WvW gear treadmill. In fact, I think today was the first day since launch in which I didn't play for more than like an hour - really annoyed over here, I essentially lost 15 hours of gameplay.

Anyway, I think I'll be taking a short break from GW2 as one of my favourite book series' new issue is out on audible and I have some stuff to do for work. They've been somewhat responsive to the people with this issue and are saying they're working on a fix for this and similar ones BUT they are giving no timeframe for the fix, so I think I'm just effing done with PvE for now in general. Will probably hit up some PvP later in the week.

Gift of Stealth has been changed to Tailor I think.

Added "How to craft Exotics" to the first post.

Keep in mind that the way legendaries can be acquired is still somewhat of a mystery. Careful with the provided information.

EDIT: Is there a way for a mod or admin to add a third post at the top of this topic reserved for me and / or additional information? I would love to add a Mystic Foge section. Thank you!

@selfconfessedcynic: Pfffft rage quit.

For those like me who are going for the sexy as hell greatsword Twilight, I made up a nifty little chart that details everything you need to make it. I skipped some of the basics (for example I did not put that each mithril ingot = 2 mithril ore), but other than that everything is there. Hopefully it helps some of you guys out!

A few quick notes though:

• Each Mystic Clover recipe only has about a 1/3 chance of giving you one (hence the "Gift of Fortune")
• Most of these recipes need to be purchased for a good sum of money (I know some of them are 10g), so make you sure take that into account.

Just followed a link to Guru posts featuring these beauties:

Sunrise

Incinerator (way lower quality)

Legendary Post Updated

The second post has been updated greatly. Now you can find all the info you need in order to craft the Legendary. Everything single bit of information has been confirmed, so don't worry - and go for it! :)

It's a minor thing, but it would be cool if you added in a link (or a section) for the lvl 80 exotics you can buy with karma from the vendors at the various Cathedrals in Orr. All the info on the gear can be found here

Thanks for this, preordered this game in still don't have full exotics (took a long break), I think laurel's might be another new way of achieving end gear now as well

@xven: This guide is now somewhat outdated as the token prices of dungeon armor have changed, and it also doesn't contain anything about the laurel/fractal gear.

Best/easiest way to get exotic gear sets of the most commonly used stats (AC for power/vitality/toughness, CoF for power/prec/crit dmg) is still to run dungeons. Run fractal dailies (10, 20, etc) for chances to get ascended rings/tokens to redeem for ascended rings, and of course complete regular dailies/monthlies to get laurels to redeem for ascended amulets and rings.