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BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE GW2 BLOG KREWE!
Upgradeable Armor Sets in GW2
Have you ever felt that tinge of embarrassment that comes from being somewhere and seeing someone wearing the same outfit as you have on? In the original Guild Wars my character's armor would often give me that same feeling. I remember getting my first set of Obsidian armor for my warrior and dyeing it black... so cool looking... but exactly like every other warrior wearing black Obsidian armor. SIGH.  Thankfully that feeling will be a thing of the past, as the Guild Wars 2 development team have been hard at work providing a variety of options to give players the freedom to make characters that are truly unique and personalized.
Another new addition to GW2 armor is that you'll need to repair it! Thankfully that repair process won't need to be done as often as other games require it but you'll still need to make some running repairs at some stage.
Martin Kerstein explains how this works...
"Every time you get defeated (so after you have been downed and failed to rally) one piece of your armor gets damaged. Once all your armor pieces are damaged, they will break - and you will have to repair or replace it. Armor pieces do not get destroyed, they just become useless unless you repair them. It is very different from a durability system other games use, as you cannot avoid being hit by opponents - but you can avoid getting defeated by skilled play. So if you never get defeated, you will never have to repair a single piece of armor. |
In GW2 the appearance of the professions will be divided up by weight class. For example, a warrior will share the heavy armor class with the guardian, giving access to all the heavy armors instead of just one branch. The added variety and more robust customisation options will let you personalise your character and create your own unique personal identity.Guild Wars 2 armor is divided into six interchangeable parts: helmet / headgear, shoulders, coat, gloves, legs and boots. There is also the ability to have one piece of armor replace multiple pieces. For instance, if your human warrior has an elaborate coat with built-in shoulders and helmet, this is available as one piece and replaces the three pieces on your body. This principle also works with full outfits. Designing armor this way allows outfits that don't have to adhere to the modular design, allowing for greater diversity.We already know that there will be three types of armor... Light, Medium and Heavy. Scholars wear light armor, adventurers wear medium armor and soldiers wear heavy armor. In Guild Wars 2, armor SETS will be available (6 pieces per set) and as you collect more armor pieces from each set you'll be able to link cumulative set bonuses to an upgrade component that you can apply to your armor, essentially giving you the ability to make your own custom sets of armor!There are a number of ways to aquire armor sets in GW2. There are some that can be bought from merchants, some that you can craft, and some that you get from karma vendors. Then there are the "rare" armor sets that you can aquire from conquering explorable dungeons. As a reward for completing these dungeons you'll receive tokens which you can exchange for pieces of a rare armor set.A system known as "transmutation" will let you take two items of the same type and merge them together to create a completely new item. Transmutation stones are consumable items with a single charge that allow you to take two armor pieces or weapons and create a new piece of equipment that combines the look and stats that you want from each piece.For instance, if you really like the look of one set of gloves but you've acquired another set of gloves with better stats, you can use a transmutation stone to merge the look of your old gloves with the stats of the new gloves and combine the two items into your perfect set of gloves (transmutation also works with weaponry in the same way).There is a catch though... it's yet to be decided whether it will be possible to aquire Transmutation Stones through the normal course of playing the game or through purchase from the in-game store... for real money. Micro-transactions... the way to get people to pay for playing the game without having a monthly fee.Now, that's not all folks!Each piece of armor (and every weapon) in Guild Wars 2 has an inherent bonus (which is fixed), as well as an upgrade slot that an upgrade component can be applied to for extra bonuses. The types of upgrade components will vary depending on the item.For instance, a crest is an upgrade component for light armor that can be applied to the open upgrade slot on any of your light armor pieces. For example, you could apply the Crest of the Dragon to your boots to get +100 health, or apply the Crest of the Legion to your gloves to gain +10 intelligence, and so on. The more matching crests you have on your armor, the greater the bonuses.
For example... A Tailor could make this cloth crest for light armor.
Crest of the Legion (1/6)
- +10 Intelligence
- +20 Perception
- +100 Maximum Health
- Thunderclap (50% chance on Critical)
- +5% Critical Chance
- +10 to all Attributes
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The more crests of the same kind that you have on your armor (up to the set's maximum number), the better the bonuses you will receive.
So if you used one Crest of the Legion on each of your six armor pieces, you would end up having all of the bonuses in the list above.Add to this the new and versatile dye system with up to three separate customizable dye colors per individual piece of armor and you really do have the scope to be UNIQUE!! (Read more about the GW2 Dye System here... ). With all those options there's no reason why your Guild Wars 2 characters won't look totally unique and BE totally unique. No more embarrassment FTW!
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