So I hit 80, what now?

I got my Guardian (Vynn Mystborn) to 80 last night, and without the strong direction of levelling I find myself wondering what to do now!  Does anyone have any good suggestions for where to start?

I figure I'm going to need to become more social and start running Dungeons with people but before I do that I want to make sure I have a spec that works in Dungeons and probably want to get myself a full set of level 80 gear in stats that work for me instead of a mix of random items I grabbed while levelling.

I know the dungeons are going to have a levelling curve for me before I am fully up to speed but I don't want to go in to them with bad spec and gear because that is just setting me up to fail the party.

What gear should I be aiming at?  Full level 80 greens?  Full level 80 rares?  What's the best way to go about getting them - do I just go to the TP?  Is it better if I gather the mats and then craft them?  I know Gaiscioch has the marketplace but if I have the mats but not the crafting skill is there a way I can contact a guild crafter to turn them into gear for me?  Is there a fee for (either money, mats or contribution points) for that?

Anyone have any ideas or advice?  It would be greatly appreciated!

Level 80 greens are inexpensive on the TP. I normally start there, then save up cash/mats for Rares and Exotics. Don't forget to upgrade your jewelry as well. Working toward map completion is a good way to make money when you're just coming off the leveling game. I have a set of green Explorer's (magic find) gear that I use for this. Also, the level 70+ zones reward two random Exotics upon completion - you might get lucky and wind up with something you can wear, or maybe get a couple of gold on the TP. I'm not the most well versed on running dungeons, but, in the ones I've done, my spec hasn't really mattered. I try to balance offense, defense, and support, and I've done well in dungeons thus far. I've not heard that there are any "required" specs for any of the current dungeons. If you have the mats but not the skill to craft an item, you can always place a Marketplace order, and check the "Player Provided Mats" box before you hit submit. Then one of the crafters can contact you to talk about it.

Pete :) Everything about your post makes me smile. In no specific order... 1. For gear, please try and use the marketplace here on the website. You may not have accumulated any contribution points to request items yet, but even if you don't craft you can gather and contribute those items to the guild crafters via the marketplace and earn contribution. This will also help you rank up over time. Why is this such a cool thing to do? First, it gives your guild crafters the opportunity to make gear for you at no real cost to your character beyond contributing the raw materials that may already be sitting in your bank. As a crafter, I love making things for my friends. I cry a little when guildmates buy things on the trading post that I could have made for them. When my level 50 guardian needed gear last weekend I requested it (even though she is a 400 armorsmith and could have made it herself). Why? Because a guildmate was happy to have the opportunity to fill an order and make something for me, earning artisan points for themselves. There is no fee for crafters to make you something. Just donate items until you have enough contribution to order what you want. If you need any help with this there are plenty of Elders who can help in-game. I will be on tomorrow night and can craft for you in game to get you started on some dungeon gear - no charge. I have 400 armorsmith and jeweler and 300 weaponsmith I will finish up this weekend :) 2. Map completion is awesome. Completing zones over level 70 will earn you exotics. You may not want/be able to use them all but you can sell them for much needed gold. You'll also get tons of Karma this way. In the end you'll get a little gold star over your head and feel really special. 3. Run dungeons. This is one of the best ways to make friends and learn how to play your character better. Kitasha has a novice dungeon event every Sunday for people learning how to run dungeons. I host story mode dungeons as I have time and will add them to the calendar (a bit spotty through the Holidays). 4. HAVE FUN!

» Edited on: 2012-11-28 10:52:09

Pete, What spec are you going for on your Gaurdian. Do you want to be the guy in the front or are you looking for more of a support role. I have a level 80 Guardian and my gear is cleric armor and my jewelry is a mix of toughness and power and my weapons are pre/crit. I like this because it gives me some heals and some survivability. I have a set of rare cleric armor made up for my 73 warrior but you can have them in exchange for the mats so I can make my guy a new set when he hits 80 and I also have a 400 Armorsmith and Jeweler and Artificer so if you need anything made hit me up. AGGRO.6475

» Edited on: 2012-11-28 11:51:30

I'll contribute this because assuming I understood everything Twilah said correctly I don't think she mentioned it. There is an option for the GSCH Marketplace when ordering an item to select that you are providing the materials which reduces the contribution "cost" to 1/10 of the cost without items. Alternatively if you have the materials you can ask in guild chat and chances are someone will make it for you on the spot or whenever they are available. As far as build and gear, first you must decide what you like to do as far as which weapons you enjoy, which skills you like using and how you like contributing to the group. I would advise answering a few of these questions about your character before you start selecting the gear you want to use because it definitely plays a role in stat selection.

Thanks Gaspara you are correct :) I was assuming he has no contribution points to order anything since he has not yet used the market place and got tunnel vision explaining how he could build some up to get started. Even if we just make things for free and send it, I am very proactive about helping folks learn to use the marketplace and earn contribution by donating. It not only helps the player rank up over time, it helps the guild crafters fullfill various other work orders.

My suggestion for you (If you want to do dungeons and gear up): 0. Make sure you already zone cleared the lv70+ regions like Orr and Frostgorge (To get the mats, and gear) 1. Buy lv78 exotics on TP ( New to dungeons? Pick at least one defensive stat of either toughness or vitality ) 2. Starting doing dungeons 3. Get lv80 exotic armour 4. Get a full rune set 5. Get a lv80 exotic trinkets 3. , 4. and 5. you should be careful about, as it takes planning, you don't want to buy your first full set of these and regret, make sure it works with your build.

» Edited on: 2012-11-28 12:30:13

Funny, on a side note I am reading The Well of Ascension for the third time right now... also my thief in Skyrim is Vin Renoux.

Thanks for all your responses and positive support! Twilah, I actually came to your Story Mode event last week and got Caudecus' Manor Story Mode completed. I had picked up Ascalonian Catacombs earlier the previous week and I do intend to do Twilight Arbor Sunday morning with you if you get enough interest! I'll try to make Kitasha's events also. I have 1,143 Family Vault Credits right now, I haven't used the Marketplace yet but I did browse throught it a few weeks ago to check it out. I have no idea 1,143 Credits will "buy" me but hopefully it will cover some crafting fees if I have the materials. Spec wise, I don't want to go fully support since there are so many zones I havent completed yet (I'm at 36% world completion) and I haven't completed a single 70+ Zone so I'll need to be able to handle myself wandering solo around Orr. I also read somewhere that taking some time each day to run around and hit the active Oricalchum (sic?) nodes is a good way to save up some money (or materials) and I hear they are mostly in Orr? I have been looking at a 0/10/30/30/0 (http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/70142-after-100s-of-hours-my-final-guardian-build/) build from gw2guru that seems interesting but I'm not sure if I need to get gear first for it to work (It looks like it relies somewhat on Superior Runes of the Soldier on your armour) and to be honest I'm a little hesitant to drop the crutch that is the "Renewed Justice" trait if I'm going to be running around farming and exploring solo. As far as weapons, I'm a little sick of Greatsword for the time being, I spent too many of the last 80 levels waving one around so I'm thinking Hammer for one of my equipped weapons, maybe Sword/Focus for the other with a Staff and/or Sceptre in my bags for when I want swiftness or ranged attacks. I do like me some Mace also for those times when I need to solo a Champion so who knows, maybe I'll be Mace/Focus as my second set or just carry a spare one for those situations. I will definitely try to utilise the Marketplace as much as possible in gearing up though. My first step might have to be to get a set of green Explorers (or whatever MF gear works best) armour to wear exploring while I work out a weapon set/spec. Then once I know my spec/weapons I'll invest in trying to get a yellow set of gear crafted. Thanks all for the advice!

Well, as you can see from the detailed replies, there's quite a lot to do... and they're just replying directly to the areas that you queried about in your post. That's a fraction of "what to do" that's available. :D Since they answered your questions, I'll just add that I suggest you "socialize", get involved with the event calendar, watch the various guild chats, maybe Raidcall, I'm not a frequent RC user, so not sure what they talk about in there, but branch out socially and find which areas of the game you're interested in. From there, you'll discover many things to do, of which you would not be aware of if you didn't socialize. Soloing the levels is easy, but people miss out and learning the vastness of the game. There's a lot more available, even while leveling, than just killing mobs and completing hearts. But be assured that there is a lot to do. I have over 900 hours played and I'm still discovering new things to do. :)

Don't forget about the 3 dragons. Usually someone will announce it in guildchat. Possible chance of rares or exotics. Even if you don't get those, it's good money.

Don't forget the jumping puzzles! There is one for every zone and city! There are also plenty of achievements on your char under the hero tab that you can work on. For instance I am working on my slayer achievements currently which requires you to kill 1000 of various monsters. You can also try another play style like working on WvW or PVP. This is a whole new world for those who have never done it. So you can start earning your badges of honor for a legendary weapon if this is something you are interested in doing. Another thing you can do is start another character. If you enjoy the leveling up process why not start another one with a different class/personal story. The story is different for every class, every race, and every time you make different choices as you progress. I for one plan to start another class one so I can choose to join the priory instead of the order of whispers. This also has achievements under the hero tab I can not get with my current character.

On my guardian, I very much enjoy the "Altruistic Healing" spec for groups. The basic idea is everytime you give an ally a boon, you get healed. I'm pretty sure there's a version of it in our classes & builds forum here. Both of my 80s have a set of exotic armor from karma. Each armor piece costs 42,000 karma. If you've been doing your daily and monthly achievements, you prob'ly earned a lot of karma jugs. You get the armor from special karma vendors that are not always up. http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/ Get in and give dungeons a try, including the new fractals. You have to learn by doing. I keep my builds the same, in terms of trait point allocation, but switch my utilities and which trait bonuses are active, to be more group-oriented. Have fun!â„¢

Pete, With a guild our size you should never run solo there is always someone that would group up with you. Just ask in guild chat or on rc. That's is one of the best thing about this family My friends and I are on every night and we are looking to start at AC and do all of the first runs on the dungeons. So hit me up I am on after 7pm CST.

Sekkerhund: Yeah I hang out in raidcall usually in the lobby but don't usually talk much. I've been attending some things but my schedule can make it a little awkward. I have been doing Prissy's Map Completion and now I'm 80 and will have reasonable gear/spec I'll do more dungeons as I won't feel like a burden on the group. Durav: Yes, I *definitely* want to fight the 3 dragons (and do all the other awesome content!) Kiakline: I did some Jumping Puzzles but soemtimes they can get frustrating, I'm not a huge Achievement hound either. I have been to a few WvW events so I'm not opposed to WvW or sPvP but it's not my main focus, especially with so much of the world undiscovered (to me). As far as alts... Well I confess I do have 8 characters, I levelled them all to 25 before I made myself pick 1 and get to 80. I have picked 2 more I'm working toward 80 much more leisurely (they are 35 now I think) so I always have alts to fall back on if bored, but I wanted to do stuff with my 80 too! Mulch: Yes the 0/10/30/30/0 spec I like is an Altruistic Healing spec with Empowered Might (grant might on crits) based around shouts. This seems great as a group spec, but AH seems significantly weaker when solo right? Also I don't know how expensive 6 Superior rune of the Soldier (for condition removal on shout) will be so maybe I need to gather some better gear before I can make that spec work for me in both solo and group environments. Karma wise, I don't know how much I have... I quit playing for about 6 weeks and my daily achievements prior to that are spread between 8 characters. I know I saved all the Jugs/Drops of Liquid Karma I have received since I got back but I kinda didn't want to *waste* 80 levels of karma on something before I knew exactly what I wanted. Aggro: Thanks, I'll look you up. I don't think I need the Cleric gear you offered before because I don't think I want +healing. I'm definitely interested in grouping up for stuff be it dungeons or just random open world stuff. I'm EST and my playtime varies due to a tight schedule. 10-midnight EST is the most reliable time for me, but some days (most often mondays/thursdays) I can get on earlier, weekends can be a crap shoot.

When I hit 80 on my Mesmer I had about 36% map completion. I am at 90% now, done all but the big cities and WvW. It was a lot of fun running through all the zones doing vistas and DE's. I do enjoy solo more than I should, but on every map I met some interesting players and would often run into guildies. I would have adventures with others for a bit until our goals diverged. There were so many epic champion fights with one to three other players I would stumble into out there. That exploration took me weeks, I fell to my doom several times, and I made enough gold and Karma to gather up a set of exotics while doing so. While many people complain about Orr I found exploring very corner fun with a group or even alone. There are some POI's and skill points that are a challenge to get solo, but that was part of the enjoyment for me. I am finally at the point where I will start running dungeons (never been in one in GW2) and some WvW. So yes there is still a lot to do at 80, I feel like the game is just starting.

I'm an altaholic though I'm not maxed out on characters yet. =D Two of my characters are 80. Briseadh, my guardian, has been 80 for some time and I used guildies to get her in full exotic everything along with runes, sigils. Cliste, my thief, is a new 80 who has rolled over rank 80 a few times and I only have her in a combo of high L70 rares and exotics along with green armor fill-ins I made myself. So I hop around my characters based on how well I feel when I am playing and who needs help or if an event is going on. Like yesterday I ran Cliste in Blazeridge for the gathering zerg Jexia ran because I did not have the whole map opened up. Now she just needs 9 of the 15 hearts for a map completion when I feel like doing that. Briseadh has been played in Fractals and other dungeons some as well as WvW. I have world completion on her. She is played a tad bit less in the last couple of weeks due to wanting to play different character classes. However, I am far from done with her. There is just way too much to do in this game and I have definitely not seen it all. A note on jumping puzzles. There are some zones with more than one, some with as many as FOUR! I've found puzzles that have timing that you actually can't do solo, but there are stopping points on the way and if some reactivates the timer the people at the stopping point and move on. Some of these puzzles have been a blast with a guild crew trying them out.

GW2 dungeons are different from other games. Never worry about being a burden, they're designed for casuals and average gear, regardless of what you might hear from others. If someone /gu LFM and your toon is high enough to get in the door, go. All you need is gear that's at least upgraded to your level (easy to do, I just buy from TP every 5-7 levels) and a group that doesn't want to speed farm the dungeon. You might run into that with a PUG, but never with a family group.

I don't worry about people being mad at me for being a burden, but if I feel like I'm not contributing then I'll feel like a burden and won't have fun. Now I'll feel more comfortable being able to contribute to the party!

http://guildwars2hub.com/features/editorials/80-things-do-level-80 ^.^ That is a fun little list of possible things to do. I am doing number 33 from the list: raise spvp rank. I am absorbed in sPvP at the moment, that is a fun thing to do. <3 Of course you can do this at lvl 1 too, but its so dang fun with a little gold star next to you name (from map completion).

» Edited on: 2012-12-01 11:23:27

As far as contributing to the group goes, don't underestimate the value of simply being present. I know I am not the only one who sometimes has trouble finding enough people to run a dungeon. Being the fifth, even if new to the dungeon, could mean the difference between a dungeon run, and NO dungeon run. As long as you're willing to ask questions and learn, you're an ideal party member!

Ok as a heads up to others who might have the same question I'll give some feedback on my experiences the past few days. I started off by buying a full "Magic Find" set, full green explorers (power/precision/MF) armour and weapons, mf runes, sigil of luck, mf jewelry and some peach tarts. Not the best possible MF gear, but I think it was certainly a "sweet spot" as far as cost/effectiveness went. I then went out to Orr and ran around and to be honest, I was underwhelmed. I guess the posts/guides/advice I had got to MF farm Orr Events was outdated and the spawn timers on events were much reduced. When I did find a nice chain I got quite a few drops, mostly blues, some greens and a single yellow. I'm not saying dont invest in a MF set, It's probably great to wear while running round getting orichalcum nodes, ancient wood, omnomberries and 100% map completion (and the 2 free exotics you get for doing so in lvl 70+ zones) just don't expect to make a ton of money/karma open world like people used to from events like explorer plinx. I was then persuaded to try out the dungeons, I had planned on making my fortune on Orr while playing with specs and using my new found wealth to get a set of rare armour/weapons crafted so by the time I started doing explorables I had good enough gear and spec to help compensate my lack of experience but now plans changed and I jumped in an Ascalonian Catacombs Explorable 2 run. Well it went great, the guildmember leading explained the fights to me, everything went smoothly and I got my first 66 ascalon tears, pulled a 79 exotic out of the chest at the end and made (I think) over 1 gold in cash money between drops and reward. So it seems that dungeons may indeed be the best way to make money at 80 (or at least the best way I found so far) and I have been hearing that Fractals may be even better. Hope my experience helps other new 80's!

I have also found that doing dungeons is the best way to earn gold. I have also noticed that when you kill a foe that has not been killed in a while that you gain tons of bonus exp. I have also noticed that they drop better items. I play too much if that is possible. So I tend to not do the same things over and over. I use a different place in the world daily to do my dailies. I alternate between doing dungeons and doing WvW. Since trying this method, I have been getting better drops without "Magic Find" gear however I do eat peach tarts and find that is enough to get "better" drops. I have have only been doing this method for a week now and have made more money than I did for 2 weeks of "normal" playing of farming the areas everyone told me to and doing the dungeons that I have read give the best drops. Maybe there is something to straying off the beaten path. ;-)

Past statements from the Devs say that Magic Find only affects the quality chance of loot that drops from an NPC. It does not affect Chests or anything else. People use MF for situations where there are lots of NPCs to AOE farm, or for farming NPCs of Veteran and Champion strength. That's all, MF is actually pretty limited in use.