Free to Play Gearing

Many players who are new to Guild Wars 2 struggle with the gearing process. There are lots of ways to obtain gear for your character, but many of them are inefficient, difficult to understand, or hard to access for new players. The process is even more difficult for Free to Play accounts, which are heavily limited in using the Trading Post to purchase gear from other players. This leaves one excellent source of endgame gear that many players overlook: Dungeons!

Before we get into Dungeon gear, let’s review some gearing basics. Below maximum level, gear is not particularly important. You will be able to get through much of the Personal Story just fine by using whatever equipment you happen to find as drops, obtain as story mission rewards, and purchase from Renown Heart vendors. Whenever you have a choice, however, we recommend focusing on equipment with the Power, Precision, and Ferocity stats, as these will provide the largest boost in Damage for most lower level builds. Condition Damage is generally not recommended- while Condition-based builds are effective in many organized endgame environments, it is difficult to gear them effectively without access to expansions, and even optimized condition builds usually cannot kill basic enemies as quickly as Power-focused ones.

As most of the game's content takes place at Level 80, the remainder of this guide is focused on gear for max level characters. There are several ways to obtain Level 80 equipment in Guild Wars 2; you can always try to Craft it yourself, but this is a long and difficult process, which is often both expensive and highly inefficient. Trading Post access is heavily restricted for Free to Play accounts, but you are still able to purchase some useful gear.

Our suggestion is to save up gold to purchase Ruby Orichalcum trinkets: 2 Rings, 2 Earrings, and an Amulet. Opal Orichalcum trinkets are another option, exchanging some raw Power for additional Critical Chance, which may yield higher damage on some builds.

Ascended quality trinkets can be purchased from certain vendors for Laurels, a timegated currency you can obtain through completing weekly objectives in the Wizard's Vault. Any of the Amulets and Rings with the Power, Precision, Ferocity stat combination (also known as Berserker’s gear) are generally advisable- Accessories are also available, but have a large fee on top of the Laurel cost, which makes them extremely expensive. Ascended Accessories can instead be bought in a Guild Hall for Guild Commendations.

Amulets are the cheapest trinkets to buy with Laurels, and give the most stats, making one a great investment. For Berserker's stats, you can purchase the , the , or the - all three function identically.

The World vs World gamemode is worth a footnote here, as its Laurel vendors will offer a 10 Laurel discount per item in exchange for 250 Badges of Honor. You can also acquire an exotic backpiece there for 50 Badges of Honor and 60 Silver. Even if you are not actively playing WvW, you may sometimes obtain Badges of Honor from Achievement Milestone Rewards, so keep an eye on your Wallet and try to spend your currencies efficiently.

Thus far, we have exclusively covered trinket acquisition. Unfortunately, there are some issues that make acquiring strong weapons, armor, and relics more difficult on a Free to Play account. F2P players can only purchase crafted gear from the TP, which is often far more expensive than random drop equivalents. Relics are effectively entirely inaccessible- without the ability to buy them on the TP, they must be Crafted directly, an extremely expensive process which is hard to recommend given their minimal benefits. Crafted weapons and armor are also pricey, and don’t come with runes or sigils, which in turn are even more expensive and difficult to obtain on a free account. (This is also why we don’t suggest using the TEID-07 Unified Vendor System in World vs World to buy your weapons and armor- as a free player, you have no easy means of obtaining upgrade components for these items, and they’re much worse without them.)

Fortunately, Dungeon gear comes with powerful runes and sigils pre-equipped, making things much easier! You just need to obtain enough gear to feel comfortable running Dungeons, then use loot from there to upgrade to a strong, endgame-ready build.

Dungeons are a core feature of the Guild Wars 2 base game. Your first dungeon, Ascalonian Catacombs, is unlocked at level 30, alongside the ability to use the Looking For Group tool (in your Contacts tab, which opens with the Y key by default). The core game has 8 total dungeons, which unlock as you reach specific level thresholds- you should get a letter in the mail from “Your Herald” for each new one. Dungeons tie into the main Personal Story questline of the game, and follow the story of Destiny’s Edge as they work to resolve their differences. While they may seem intimidating at first, dungeons are actually quite approachable, especially given how much stronger the average adventurer is now compared to their release over a decade ago.

To enter a dungeon, first you’ll want to head to Lion’s Arch, which unlocks at level 35. Once there, head to the south side of the city to find the Dungeon Merchant:

Speak to the charr on the staircase here, named “Dungeon Transportation”, to select a Dungeon.

Pressing the “LFG” button here will immediately open the Looking For Group tool to the appropriate category. If there aren’t any listings already up, feel free to make your own. Don’t worry about being expected to lead the group or know what you’re doing- just communicate clearly to your party what path of the dungeon you want to explore, with a message like “Story”, “P1”, “P2”, “Mursaat”, etc.

The second group in the image below specifically mentions Detha, the name of the second path in Ascalonian Catacombs, for clarity.

Dungeons in Guild Wars 2 are a little different than the ones you find in some other MMORPGs. Instead of being a fixed, linear route, dungeons have multiple versions, known as “paths”. The first time you enter a particular dungeon, you’ll play the Story Mode. Story Mode is generally the easiest version of a given dungeon, and covers the adventures of Destiny’s Edge through the area. After beating Story Mode and gaining a few more levels, you’ll unlock Explorable Mode, which lets you choose between multiple paths through the area, each with its own unique challenges. Explorable Mode paths are more challenging than Story Mode, but provide the unique Tales of Dungeon Delving currency, which you need in order to purchase the best dungeon gear.

The Gold and Tales of Dungeon Delving you’ve earned can be put to good use at a Dungeon Vendor, such as the one near the Aerodrome in Lion’s Arch. Each time you clear a path in a given dungeon, you unlock the ability to purchase some more rewards from that dungeon’s associated vendor tab, up to 7 paths in total being required for some items.

Our recommendation for new players is to buy a full set of Inquest armor from the Crucible of Eternity. This armor can be purchased in any weight, has Berserker’s stats (Power, Precision, Ferocity), and comes pre-slotted with , resulting in a powerful gear set for any class in the game. “Zerker’s” gear, as it’s often called, is used in many endgame builds in the "Power DPS" role, so this armor set makes for a good investment that can last you for a very long time, and can even be used for multiple builds on each class.