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Attributes & Accessories, Buff Value and Where Do they Work?

ennymithennymith Member UncommonPosts: 121

I can't seem to get a grip on what appears to be an important part of creating a successful GW2 toon.

While the GW2 Wiki describes how things like amulets buff a toons attribute stats, I can't get a handle on the scale of the improvements these make. Granted the numbers are there, but since I don't have beta access I have no way to really see what they mean in  the big picture.

Just how big of a difference does getting tricked out with accessories make, are we talking a little or a great deal?

In which playfields/game modes  are these accessory based attribute buffs active.

Perhaps if someone could point me to a resource that explains the overall skills/gear/attributes mechanic and where the buffs are effective, I would appreciate it.

Of course if I am making wrong assumptions or bad inferences, by all means educate me.

Comments

  • botrytisbotrytis Member RarePosts: 3,363

    I think this is where A.Net is still working. I would wait as it will change by the next BWE.


  • moosecatlolmoosecatlol Member RarePosts: 1,530

    So you're wanting to know about accessories and how they work correct?

    Accessories are simply pieces of armor that can have adorned jewels in them. Adorned Jewels provide better stats than regular gems by about 10-15%.

    The only accessory that cannot be slotted with an adorned jewel is the back piece, which technically isn't an accessory, but is still in the works it seems like, as Guild Backpacks seems to be the only cape slot armor that you can attain.

    Gear in general is important to being successful in Guild Wars 2, in PvE and World Vs. World at least. The scaling system impacts your gear in such a way that it feels as if it is degrading in effectiveness as you level up. An example would be you are a level 30 character wearing level 25 Gear, when you get scaled down to say level 25, it calculates the stats on your gear as if you were wearing level 20 gear. The best way to obtain gear of proper level is to do crafting, where you can upgrade your gear every 5 levels.

    You can still obtain gear as drops, but generally the gear will be 6 levels lower than you, unless you're fighting level apporpriate monsters. Accessories however are the rarest of drops from monsters.

    So your best bet is to do crafting, not only do you get good exp from crafting, but you can also keep your gear on par with your level.

  • cooper85cooper85 Member Posts: 386

    Correct me if I'm wrong OP. You are asking how much does gear matter. If so that's a good question. I remember in swtor the buff was so huge that the only stat that seemed to matter was the PvP stat.

  • terrantterrant Member Posts: 1,683

    I had some (admittedly not epic-level) amulet/trinket items. they tend to provide a bonus to one stat somewhat higher than a 1-stat piece of equivalent tier armor. I can't remember exact numbers right now. Enough to make a difference, but it wasn't like I was suddenlty a god with them or gimped without.

  • NeferaNefera Member Posts: 426
    Originally posted by terrant

    Enough to make a difference, but it wasn't like I was suddenlty a god with them or gimped without.

    I'd go with the above answer. Accessories will improve your stats somewhat, but won't carry you through the more difficult content.

  • aesperusaesperus Member UncommonPosts: 5,135

    To answer the OP. This is a somewhat tricky subject to answer.

    It matters much less so than other MMOs, in the sense that taking a hit of say ~50 points in a given stat will not really land you a noticeable difference. You will see a big difference when swapping between a lvl 6 piece and a lvl 80 piece, though.

    How stats really impact the character really comes into play once you start using traits. For example, a Warrior who focuses on crit (precision) plays a lot different than a warrior who focuses on raw damage (power) and plays a lot differently from a warrior who focuses on conditions (malice / expertise). Classes like the necro / mesmer can really focus heavily on conditions and function as more DoT oriented classes, or they can focus more heavily on crits & dmg and try and be more bursty.

    All of these decisions also play off what weapon you are choosing as well. For example, a sword / sword warrior is going to be stacking quite a lot of bleeds, where as a greatsword warrior is more for burst damage.

    So how this all fits together is basically this:

    Choice of Class -> choice of weapon -> choice of heal / utility -> choice of traits -> choice of stats -> choice of gear

    Is the order of importance when it comes to building a toon. Gear is definitely the least important, but it's something that is really needed to lock in whatever build you decide to go with. Deciding to swap out one crit / power amulet for one with more health probably won't make a HUGE difference, but that's exactly the thing. You're sacrificing a higher crit chance for a little more health, thus making your character hit less hard for no real benefit. Another example would be a conditions build. Having all those amulets and trinkets may be essential towards keeping those conditions on your target long enough to keep your rotation of debuffs up. Sacrifice one, and you may not be able to keep all conditions on your target at all times.

    There is a lot of room for customization, and they do help, but they are definitely the last thing you want to consider when building a toon in this game. A crit warrior will still be a crit warrior w/ out fancy crit talismans, but someone with all those accessories will have an edge.

  • grimm6thgrimm6th Member Posts: 973
    Originally posted by aesperus

    ...sacrificing a higher crit chance for a little more health, thus making your character hit less hard for no real benefit...

    no...real...benefit...I'm going to have to disagree with you here.  The difference between 25% and 30% crit chance is small, in terms of pure damage, and I would much rather have more health to keep me fighting longer.

     

    To each, his own, I guess.

    I used to TL;DR, but then I took a bullet point to the footnote.

  • AIMonsterAIMonster Member UncommonPosts: 2,059

    Your attributes actually matter as much as a regular MMO.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  What is different about Guild Wars 2 is that there isn't as much as an "Item Level" difference on the "endgame" gear as say WoW or Rift.  You won't see jumps like going from "Tier 1" to "Tier 2", as any level 80 item of the same rarity should have a similar item level.  The closest example one could give is the original Guild Wars where item attributes were important, but the end game gear was all similar in power.

    You will want to keep your gear as up to date as possible.  Try to replace blues with equal level greens and equal level greens with equal level rares.  Make sure your armor pieces have Runes, your weapons have Sigils, and your Accessories have jewels.  If you can't obtain Runes for your armor gems that aren't adorned are good alternatives too.  Make sure you add the latest gems and jewels whenever you upgrade too.

    You can actually lose effectiveness in WvWvW if you neglect your gear too much.  I saw my health pool go down starting in the 40s when I was having a hard time obtaining gear due to being limited availability of higher level in the gear in the game (yes, lower level areas can still drop gear at your level, but having no means of obtaining karma gear hurt as I simply wasn't getting gear fast enough).  I hit level 53 in beta and I can tell you I was running WvWvW with much lower stats scaled than at 30.

    Here is a quote from the Team Legacy forums explaining how attributes break down into combat if you prefer to look at a little bet of math behind it:

    (P + M * 35) * (W/ 1000) * SC / (T + A - (V * 30) ) = Total Damage

    P = You're power
    w = You're weapons skill coefficient
    M = Might stacks
    V = Vulnerability stacks
    T = Toughness
    A = Targets Armor
    W = Weapon power

  • HomituHomitu Member UncommonPosts: 2,030

    Thus far, this thread has me thoroughly confused.  From the OP's use of the word "buff," which to me has traditionally meant a temporary boost in power independent from gear, to many replies in this thread appearing to have little to do with the original post.

    The OP seems mostly concerned about amulets, which are, as far as I know, purely structured PvP accessories (not WvW, not PvE).  These do not provide buffs; rather, they give you huge chunks of stats to play around with.  You can use them to compensate for a lack of a particular stat in your trait build or to accentuate stats you are already stacking.  You can freely purchase several of them and equip them as you wish to try out different stat combinations.  Last BWE they removed all other accessories in structured pvp.

    Compared to other stat sources, amulets easily appear to be the hugest.  Essentially this seems to decrease the relevance stats from traits and places the focus back on the active and passive effects of the trait skills you acquire.

    Concerning accessories in PvE, I've found just the opposite to be true...at least through the first 30 some levels.  Accessories, mostly gained from karma vendors, feel immensely insignificant relative to the passive stat increases you get from placing one point down a trait tier.  I haven't encountered a PvE amulet and can't find any information on them.   

  • MagnnarotMagnnarot Member Posts: 50
    Originally posted by Homitu

    Thus far, this thread has me thoroughly confused.  From the OP's use of the word "buff," which to me has traditionally meant a temporary boost in power independent from gear, to many replies in this thread appearing to have little to do with the original post.

    The OP seems mostly concerned about amulets, which are, as far as I know, purely structured PvP accessories (not WvW, not PvE).  These do not provide buffs; rather, they give you huge chunks of stats to play around with.  You can use them to compensate for a lack of a particular stat in your trait build or to accentuate stats you are already stacking.  You can freely purchase several of them and equip them as you wish to try out different stat combinations.  Last BWE they removed all other accessories in structured pvp.

    Compared to other stat sources, amulets easily appear to be the hugest.  Essentially this seems to decrease the relevance stats from traits and places the focus back on the active and passive effects of the trait skills you acquire.

    Concerning accessories in PvE, I've found just the opposite to be true...at least through the first 30 some levels.  Accessories, mostly gained from karma vendors, feel immensely insignificant relative to the passive stat increases you get from placing one point down a trait tier.  I haven't encountered a PvE amulet and can't find any information on them.   

    Amulets are also used in PvE, but the first one you have access to is around lvl 32 from a karma vendor in gendarran fields, as far as I know.

  • ennymithennymith Member UncommonPosts: 121
    Originally posted by Magnum2103

    (P + M * 35) * (W/ 1000) * SC / (T + A - (V * 30) ) = Total Damage

    P = You're power
    w = You're weapons skill coefficient
    M = Might stacks
    V = Vulnerability stacks
    T = Toughness
    A = Targets Armor
    W = Weapon power

    Can anyone explain what SC stands for in the above?

    I appreciate all the responses, however I am still confused about where accessory buffs are active:

    PVM

    5x5PVP

    WvWvW

    Thanks,

  • andre369andre369 Member UncommonPosts: 970

    Pretty sure this piece of the game still need a lot of work. In BWE2 in sPvP you couldnt even wear all the accesories, only one piece. In BWE1 you could wear all of them, dont know why this is though. 

  • KyelthisKyelthis Member UncommonPosts: 287
    Originally posted by andre369

    Pretty sure this piece of the game still need a lot of work. In BWE2 in sPvP you couldnt even wear all the accesories, only one piece. In BWE1 you could wear all of them, dont know why this is though. 

    Well, they consolidated the stats of the couple of pieces you could wear in BWE1 into a single item in BWE2.

     

    To the OP: There's calculations done on every stat so far except healing, which seems to be a mystery until someone runs numbers on it. Hopefully by next BWE we'll have the numbers on healing too to see how well that stat affects combat and builds.

  • p_c_sousap_c_sousa Member Posts: 620
    Originally posted by andre369

    Pretty sure this piece of the game still need a lot of work. In BWE2 in sPvP you couldnt even wear all the accesories, only one piece. In BWE1 you could wear all of them, dont know why this is though. 

    because Arenanet change the system jewel

  • TwoThreeFourTwoThreeFour Member UncommonPosts: 2,155
    Originally posted by ennymith
    Originally posted by Magnum2103

    (P + M * 35) * (W/ 1000) * SC / (T + A - (V * 30) ) = Total Damage

    P = You're power
    w = You're weapons skill coefficient
    M = Might stacks
    V = Vulnerability stacks
    T = Toughness
    A = Targets Armor
    W = Weapon power

    Can anyone explain what SC stands for in the above?

    I appreciate all the responses, however I am still confused about where accessory buffs are active:

    PVM

    5x5PVP

    WvWvW

    Thanks,

    Seems to be skill coefficient. 

  • NaqajNaqaj Member UncommonPosts: 1,673
    Originally posted by ennymith

    Can anyone explain what SC stands for in the above?

    I appreciate all the responses, however I am still confused about where accessory buffs are active:

    PVM

    5x5PVP

    WvWvW

    Thanks,

    The stats(avoid 'buffs', means something different) on accessories/gear are active, and of comparable magnitude, in all the game areas. You will be using different gear in structured PVP then in PvE/WvW though.

    Lvl 80 sPVP gear has essentially the same stats as lvl 80 PvE gear, but your character will have a different gear set for either of those, since sPvP characters are seperated from the rest of the game in that regard.

  • aesperusaesperus Member UncommonPosts: 5,135
    Originally posted by ennymith

    I can't seem to get a grip on what appears to be an important part of creating a successful GW2 toon.

    While the GW2 Wiki describes how things like amulets buff a toons attribute stats, I can't get a handle on the scale of the improvements these make. Granted the numbers are there, but since I don't have beta access I have no way to really see what they mean in  the big picture.

    Just how big of a difference does getting tricked out with accessories make, are we talking a little or a great deal?

    In which playfields/game modes  are these accessory based attribute buffs active.

    Perhaps if someone could point me to a resource that explains the overall skills/gear/attributes mechanic and where the buffs are effective, I would appreciate it.

    Of course if I am making wrong assumptions or bad inferences, by all means educate me.

    Erm... didn't you already make another thread about this? (Not amulets specifically, but gear in general).

    I'm also pretty sure I already responded to that thread as well. (as did many others). The order of significance, when it comes to how powerful your character is, goes as follows:

    1) weapons skills (making sure you have them unlocked / weapon swap)

    2) utility skills (getting the right combination for your weapons + fully unlocked)

    3) traits (again, synergy with your gear)

    4) sigils (this is mostly due to sigils like superior doom, which gives on crit for weapon swap. These may get nerfed soon, though.)

    5) how good your armor / weapons are

    6) how good your amulets / trinkets are

    ---------------------  or -----------------------

    weapon skills -> utility skills -> traits -> sigils -> weapon / armor stats -> amulet / trinket stats

    ------------------------------------------------

    EDIT:

    Removed the explanation, here are some helpful links for you to browse through instead:

    Warrior Burst Spec (this video does a good job explaining his choices, and how they affect his character).

    Team Legacy Breakdown on stats for PvP.

     

  • RequiamerRequiamer Member Posts: 2,034
    Originally posted by Magnnarot
    Originally posted by Homitu

    Thus far, this thread has me thoroughly confused.  From the OP's use of the word "buff," which to me has traditionally meant a temporary boost in power independent from gear, to many replies in this thread appearing to have little to do with the original post.

    The OP seems mostly concerned about amulets, which are, as far as I know, purely structured PvP accessories (not WvW, not PvE).  These do not provide buffs; rather, they give you huge chunks of stats to play around with.  You can use them to compensate for a lack of a particular stat in your trait build or to accentuate stats you are already stacking.  You can freely purchase several of them and equip them as you wish to try out different stat combinations.  Last BWE they removed all other accessories in structured pvp.

    Compared to other stat sources, amulets easily appear to be the hugest.  Essentially this seems to decrease the relevance stats from traits and places the focus back on the active and passive effects of the trait skills you acquire.

    Concerning accessories in PvE, I've found just the opposite to be true...at least through the first 30 some levels.  Accessories, mostly gained from karma vendors, feel immensely insignificant relative to the passive stat increases you get from placing one point down a trait tier.  I haven't encountered a PvE amulet and can't find any information on them.   

    Amulets are also used in PvE, but the first one you have access to is around lvl 32 from a karma vendor in gendarran fields, as far as I know.

    I think you can find some at lower level, i think around lv25+ in some karma vendor, my toon is 27 and i purchased some already. But ye you need to level a bit before finding them.

  • ennymithennymith Member UncommonPosts: 121

    I appreciate the thought and effort that have gone into the many replies, however, I still don't get it.

    Sounds the card game Bridge to me.  I have read the rules, but they make no sense to me.

    If it can not be explained in a couple of sentences, I don't think is is going accessible the general MMO market.

    If I didn't have a thick skin, I might be getting annoyed at the elitist vibe some people are giving off in thier 'helpful' responses.

    So I will be checking out the latest suggested reading/viewing and check in laters.

     

  • MeowheadMeowhead Member UncommonPosts: 3,716
    Originally posted by ennymith

    I appreciate the thought and effort that have gone into the many replies, however, I still don't get it.

    Sounds the card game Bridge to me.  I have read the rules, but they make no sense to me.

    If it can not be explained in a couple of sentences, I don't think is is going accessible the general MMO market.

    If I didn't have a thick skin, I might be getting annoyed at the elitist vibe some people are giving off in thier 'helpful' responses.

    So I will be checking out the latest suggested reading/viewing and check in laters.

     

    There's two types of accessories, with varying levels of meaning in a build.

    In EVERY MODE except structured PvP, accessories are... well, there's two earrings, two rings, and a necklace, I believe.  They add a decent amount to your stat, but no more than say... a piece of armor, (You have 6 pieces of armor, so about half your gear stat bonuses come from armor, and half from accessories.  About) and you get a lot of your stats from what traits you pick.

    In SPvP, it seems like they smushed all the accessories into a single amulet that gives a huge block of stats (Half your gear bonuses, singlehandedly).  I might be wrong on this, so I'll have to double check, but I think that's how it works.  They did that so that an amulet is a really big, obvious part of rounding off your build.  I'm not sure how it compares to the stats you get from traits themselves, but I do know that just having an offense or defense oriented amulet can singlehandedly shift your build quite a bit along the defensiveness spectrum.

     

  • ennymithennymith Member UncommonPosts: 121

    Thanks Meowhead, between your answer and my reading in depth many of the previous suggestions, it appears to me that:

    1. In SPVP you are given access to all 'effective' gear and your base stats are maxed while in SPVP.  This is such a cool concept but it is not readily apparent if you have not played the betas. 

    2. In WvW, you get your base stats and level maxed, however your gear is your resonsibility. 

    3. In PVE, you have to level yourself and stats, and again gear is your responsibility.

    It appears that in SPVP, you get a free access to various buffing accessories.

    In PVE and WvW, any buffing items you get have to be bought, crafted, looted, etc. and they 'work' in WvW and PVE.

    Now since beta players have been getting bags of free gems, they have been able to purchase just about any gear they want and have not had to spend time grinding for it. 

    I say if it's good enough for Beta, gems should be free forever.

  • MeowheadMeowhead Member UncommonPosts: 3,716
    Originally posted by ennymith

     

    Now since beta players have been getting bags of free gems, they have been able to purchase just about any gear they want and have not had to spend time grinding for it. 

    I say if it's good enough for Beta, gems should be free forever.

     Actually, uhm... with the gem/gold exchange rate the way it was, more people exchanged gold for gems that I'm aware of, than the other way around.

    Honestly, I wanted the stuff youg et with gems (None of which is gear) WAY more than I wanted more gear. :)

    Just by crafting, or spending karma, you can get best possible gear for your level, no need to get extra gold from trading gems.

    On the other hand, gems got me stuff like the pirate costume, dye packs, minifigs, glasses, cook outfit.... cosmetic stuff I wanted. D:

    You make karma/money at a rate acceptable to kee pyourself fully outfitted for your level at any time.

     

  • HomituHomitu Member UncommonPosts: 2,030
    Originally posted by ennymith

    Now since beta players have been getting bags of free gems, they have been able to purchase just about any gear they want and have not had to spend time grinding for it. 

    I say if it's good enough for Beta, gems should be free forever.

    1.  You can't purchase any combat gear with gems. 

    2.  Because there was such an overload of gems in the beta, and because nobody really had any gold because everyone was new, the gold > gem exchange rate was completely out of whack. 

    3.  You also can't buy any good combat gear with gold.  You get all the good stuff while leveling up via karma.  All the other gear was random drops or white gear off vendors (which weren't nearly as useless as in most MMOs, and which were super cheap.)

    One way or another, nobody was able to(and never will be able to)  "purchase just about any gear they wanted" without playing the game and getting karma.  

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