Armor Question.

So I have been looking everywhere for the answer to this question, but I cannot seem to find it.. Say, the armor in the Sunspear Sanctuary compared to the Vabbian armor. They have the same stats, and same armor. But one costs much, much more than the other. Is there a real difference in them other than looks?

No difference at all - purely aesthetics.

Even between the 2 elites (Sunspear Elite vs Vabbian) the prices are vastly different SE @ 15K + cheap materials for each piece compared to the Vabbian 5K + materials costing rather more than the GDP of a 3rd world country....

Armor is a status symbol. The fact that u can spend a bunch of money on armor only because it looks better and doesn't provide any extra tangible benefit shows that u play a lot and are wealthy within the game. Many long time players eventually acquire many different armor sets and mix and match until they find a combination that suits their preference.

Well, yes. Of course, you can acquire -some- of the Vabbian materials via quests and then trading in the, well, trade contracts. I might also add that when it comes to some of the more expensive armour sets, specially those including gemstones, you can actually see the difference, so ingame it's logical as well. Adding sparkly stuff to your armour is going to make it cost more.

For an example of that, check out the differences between 1k Luxon and 15k Luxon armour sets. There's a lot more jade on the latter - which justifies the increased amount of jadeite you pay for it. Presumably that would also mean a superior craftsman, so more gold.

As for why people buy the expensive sets - well, they like it. For them, it's worth it.

debatable
especially wit the proph and a few factions...i think many of the elite options actually look worse

i hardly think all the ppl who buy fow armour have good fashion sense
they're jus attracted by anyth.... ooh look a shiny penny! @__@

Lol, I think my necs FoW is ugly. Its cool, but ugly. I also spent too much time getting mats for it not to use it. :P

Well I bought my Norn War set so that it would go in the Hall of Monuments as I want to fill my hall for example.

that armor was like 150K!!! Looks kewl and actually does something.. hopefully for GW2

I would agree with you there. I also like some of the non-elite armor better than the elite version.

lol! And I think you are right there also.

Some of the coolest armor sets ingame that I've seen were actually bits and pieces from elite and non-elite armor, that just looked very cool together.

elite armor is just shinier versions of their non-elite parts. there ok for the most part but for some the non elite looks better, and of course the best armor set is an armor set made by more than one type of armor set, mix and match to your heart's content or your wallets limit.

Any armor that costs 1k per piece (+mats) has the same functionality of armor that costs more. The only difference is the displayability in your Hall of Monuments, and the looks. Only prestige (elite) armor is displayable in the Hall of Monuments, and thus will give you some mysterious unlock in GW2.