noob Question - items Colors...Whats the deal?

Alright...I'm new to GW, but not to MMO's in general...I've played alot of <cough> WoW, and LOTRO, and so forth, but I must be dense or something. I'm not getting which colored items are better than others.

Can someone explain to me like I'm a 4yo, please?

And BTW...Great Site!

Crag - PvE Ele/N - just Staring out and I love it so far.

This page explains it pretty well:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Item_rarity

And yeah, it's not really like current MMOs.

This game came out mere months after WoW ('04), when the "WoW" color tier system wasn't global yet.

GW 2 will fix it I think.

Thanks!

GW 2 is why I started GW...It looks amazing so far for a 2005 game...I think it beats WoW hands down, and such a small footprint on my PC, too...it's incredible to think that this technology was available in 2005...boggles my mind actually.

Thanks again!

Also to note (which I don't see mentioned on the item rarity chart)

All weapons obtained from collector NPCs and crafter NPCs will always (with like 4 exceptions you don't have to worry about right now) will always be blue, regardless of stats. Ie, some blues near the end of the game will have gold stats because they come from collectors.

Also, since weapons can be upgraded (via salvaging weapon mods using expert salvage kits or better), any weapon, regardless of color (except white since adding a mod changes its color), can have good stats if a player has modified it. Ie, I can salvage weapon mods from a gold weapon, put those mods on a purple, and the purple will now have the exact same stats as that gold, but it will still be purple.

This is incredibly important to pay attention to. A lot of ignorant players get in to the mindset that "Gold is best. I must have gold."

A purple Scimitar with a damage rating of 15-22 (max) and an inscription slot, and a merchant value of 120g, is effectively the same as a gold Scimitar with a damage rating of 15-22 (max) and an inscription slot, and a merchant value of 400g. You likely won't natively get perfect mods on that purple scimitar, but you can put perfect mods on it, customize it, and you've basically only just lost out on 120g that you would have gotten from the merchant.

The only thing that makes gold items better than the others is that they're most likely to have perfect mods, ID'ing them contributes to your Wisdom track, and merchant NPCs will usually pay a bit more for them.

Additionally, it's usually blue items that have the max-stat but less-than-9 requirement (e.g. 15-22 damage sword requiring 8 Swordsmanship). With the right mods, these can be quite valuable to other players.

On the subject of blues -- collector weapons are your best friend. If you can find one that has the mod/inscription you need built in, it saves you having to hunt the pieces down individually.

That's weapons. Armor is a bit different: A blue armor drop will always have a minor rune on it; purple will have a major rune; gold will have a superior rune. It's important to pay attention to all armor drops, as any color can contain the valuable Survivor insignia. It's also important to get to know the Rune Trader NPC. Some runes are very, very valuable and should be salvaged off with an expert or better kit for your personal use or to sell to the trader. Take note of those runes (e.g. Minor Soul Reaping, all the Vigors) for your future reference.

Color of items doesn't actually make a difference in the "stats" of an item, just its rarity. Additionally just because an items color states that it is "rare" doesn't always mean it is desirable. For example a Voltaic Spear may be a gold rarity, which is more "common" than a green's "unique" rarity rating, but there are many greens that get thrown away or sold to a merchant do to over farming or lack of interest.

Also a rare item in guild wars only adds looks (and not always that) to the item. A basic short sword skin will do that same damage as an emerald blade.

"Gotta have gold" mentality is from before the inscription system. Before inscriptions gold meant max mods, 2 possible mods on shields and focii. It would be unlikely to find a 15 stanced on a purple. Stuff like Zealous and Vampiric were only on Golds.

This doesn't matter now with inscribables.

Also, before inscriptions it was hard to get 20/20 wands and collector/crafter weapons were blues (20/20 wands from Leviathan Pits or Vasburg Armory for example). I didn't bother switching to inscription stuff except for staff, seeing how a "Forget me not" costs like 30k.

Wow! All great info, Thanks! I'm really liking the game so far and have a few prof combos that I'm playing. Ele/N, Rngr/N, and W/Rngr. I really like the Ele/N, and also the W/Rngr, but feel I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I'm partial to the Melee or DPS toon, so Healer is not for me as a rule, but there are exceptions, and GW is so different from any other traditional mmo that I'm really enjoying myself.

I was just totally not understanding the weapon system, and now I understand it a bit better. And ingame last night I kinda figured out how the incripstions work, although I fouled up a pretty nice purple sword by adding something stupid over a nicer mod...live and learn. My W/Rngr is level 9, and is now playing in Kinya Prov, so I'm enjoying that. I started a toon in all three expansions, and generally play H/H, trying to gigure things out.

Sorry for the long post.

I always welcome criticism and tips so feel free to PM or post.

Thanks again!

Oh, another thing to point out (just since you mentioned specifically what your secondary profession was), later in the game, you can change your secondary around as many times as you want. So that isn't a big deal if you find a combo you don't like.

That's great to know! I thought I was stuck.

Another thing to remember is that unique, quest, collector or crafted items will do much less damage/give much less energy if you don't meet the Requirement of the item. However, dropped items (from mobs or chests) will do half damage/give half energy if you don't meet the req.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Weapons (under the Linked attribute section)