Obsidian

I have played this game for 4 years, and have learned and done so much and overall have had a great experience.


But the one thing I have yet to do is obtain a set of Obsidian armor. I'd like to acheive this, but I'm not sure how to even begin. I've read all the money making threads, and attempted those within my skill level, but nothing seems to be working well. I apologize if this is outside forum guidelines, but I'm clueless as to how to begin. Any help anyone could offer or any advice would be great and I thank you in advance.

Advice on what? Making money? Just use whatever money making method you find the best out of the ones you've found. Powertrading is an alternative if you know what you're doing.

PS: If you do all the missions, vanquishing, etc for all continents you should be getting close, if not already at 1000k or so without farming. This is what I've found though, other people may not have as much (it depends on how much you spend).

Learn UW and FoW SC. Do DoA in NM or HM to get an armbrace or 2. Do Zaishen Missions and Bounties on every character when they are easy, and convert all coins to zkeys and sell for 5k each. Trap Zaishen Elite for 6k faction per day, zkey and sell. Do Wanted Quests for oppressors and sell.

Your best bet is to farm up the materials, or at least a majority of the materials, rather than buying them. An SoS rit can do it - if you have a ritualist. If you haven't played an SoS farming build then start off with areas that are more forgiving to get used to it.

Have you been in the Underworld and Fissure of Woe? Working through them with your guild is a good way to start, since there are pop-ups, quests, etc that you need to be aware of. Then once you have a little familiarity you can start going in solo to farm for ectos and shards.

PvXwiki lists builds, and there may be other FoW or UW farming options out there. Alternately, as Marty mentioned, finding a way to make oodles of cash allows you to buy the materials. I think ecto go for 15 per 100k. You need 105 so that is 700k just for the ecto, not to mention the 105 shards.

The mesmer/assassin or assassin/mesmer ToPK farm is very easy and fast. I used that, alone, to get obby armor on my chars.

I was in the same boat as you... i had played for 4 years and no obby... so I did what Luminarus said... I sold z-keys, nick items, and i also farmed feathers... 1 stack of feathers is 1 ecto... 1 z key sometimes trades for 1 ecto(well not as much now but they did) generally u just have to save ALL of your money and/or trade items into ectos and shards

PS: salvage all iron items cause 1 stack is 4k-5k easy money there too I do that frequently now

but in a sense of how to tackle it start with ectos or shards; amass all of the 1 item then move to next... dont try and get both at the same time... thats just what i learned

As everyone is trying to explain, there is no easy shortcut way to get the gold and materials required for Obsidian Armor. You will have to farm the materials yourself by doing FoW and UW or farm other materials (feathers, granite, etc.) for the gold to purchase them. You will need to save every gold piece you can. It is time consuming and often boring, but you will eventually reach your goal.

or assassin/any
becuz theres a build for every single secondary to farm that area.

Take your time and try to aquire the expensive materials one at a time. You could for example set yourself a goal of "buy 1 ecto and 1 obsi per day played".
Observe the prices. Currently, obsidian shards seem to be gone up very much, so you might wait and look how it develops. Buy from players, who sell at a lower price the merchant charges.

Thanks everyone some really good tips here. I have a rit and a sin and I'll start farming as soon as possible.


One other question, what is the return rate on ToPK farming ectos?

Whether UW or ToPK, the drop rate depends on your personal luck. Ectos are a rare material so are not subject to loot scaling. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Loot_scaling

preety random. When i farmed there i coild get 3 ecto an hour.. then for the next 4 hours i could get nothing. ToPK is really weird with their ecto droprates like that.

Pretty sure that ectos as uncommon drops, as it says on your link.

If you think you are lucky then do UWSC or SOOSC. I don't recommend FOWSC: it is a huge waste of time. Then if you land some money off of that power trade. Ideally you should get it in 3 weeks TOPS.

my husband and I have been saving up for fow armor for the last few years (ok I started this year he started 5 years ago)...neither of us do elite missions et al. we just play the game and when we have enough funds and the price is low convert some to ecto (shards are easy to get in the fissure even just doing the first quests with heroes)....other than that just playing the game, doing the zaishen stuff (has good amount of plat in return) as well as doing the wik stuff too.
Yes it will take some time to get all of them, but its a nice goal to work towards.

making money is terribly easy. for every dungeon whos chest drops something sickeningly overpriced, there's a speedclear for. you'll get a few in no time, they're pretty common.

and selling them will be cake, because even though bds are the most single common item in guild wars, people will continue to pay out the ass for them for eternity. the key to getting rich is taking advantage of people, and that's the truth. above is only one example, but i can tell you questing in pve for chump change will get you nowhere fast.