Armor, ascending and upgrades Oh My

There are a few things I still don't understand - some very basic

Not in any order:

1) Armor - is there an advantage to have a "matching set"? Or can you mix-n-match for a different look?
1a) What level(s) can you get some of the more 'special' armor? I can find pictures of the different armor and I can find info on Where To Get it but no idea what level a character needs to be to venture into these areas.
1b) Upgrading armor - I still don't really understand the runes, transcribtion etc to make better stats on your armor/weapons. Can you only get these from salvaging or rune dealer?

2) All kinds of info on Ascending - but I can't find a How-To. What level is my character when this is possible? I have one character that really needs a different 2nd profession and need to "Ascend" first (from what I understand). Have I missed the right wiki or info??

3) Henchies - is there a rule-of-thumb on How-To pick the best ones for different professions/quests/missions? Same thing with Hero's?

4) Are there any Walkthrough's for the different areas - for returning or new players? Something that is really basic?

Thanks I am so sorry to ask so many questions BUT I am afraid I will burn-out on this game before I understand what I am doing - OR get so frustrated I just quit.

Yes I have read the wiki's and have them in my Favorites!

Shoot! I put this into the wrong forum! I thought I was in Question/Answers - So sorry!

1. no
1a. By normal progression, around level 20 in Prophecies and slightly earlier in the other chapters.
1b. Runes and Insignias, used to upgrade armor, are obtainable through salvaging or the rune trader. Inscriptions, used to upgrade weapons, are obtainable only through salvaging (and trading).

2. It's something you'll come across as you progress through the storyline.

3. Not really. Melee henchmen and heroes suffer from poor AI, though. It's usually best to avoid them.

4. Both wikis have comprehensive walkthroughs.

For henchies:

In a party of 8 you usually want 2 prot/healing characters. There are usually two monk henchmen available and those should be taken. In Factions you can sometimes choose a restoration ritualist henchmen instead of one of these. Of course, your heroes can replace these if you want. And I'd stay away from most melee henchmen, like lemming said.

No advantage. Mix-n-match, dye, etc. to get unique combinations and cool looking armor. Read up on Armor Level or Armor Rating on the wiki. Each piece only protects hits on that area. So for instance, if you have a chest armor with 70 AL and leg armor with 40 AL you only have 40 armor on your legs and if a hit lands there it'll do more damage. It's best to have the same (max) armor level across all pieces but having different types of armor (elite luxon chest, elite kurzick legs, etc.) doesn't matter. Elite armors only offer cooler looks, not better protection vs. standard max armor.

Generally speaking, if you do the primary quests and missions and follow the story line, by the time you get into an area, you should be high enough level to be there. So, once you're there, get the best armor available (armor level-wise, not coolest looking)

Available from salvages, rune traders, other players, etc. Open party and look for traders selling runes and insignias. Read wiki articles on runes and insignias. Join a guild and ask mates for help with runes and insignias.


Again, by the time you get to the area just through normal story progression, you should be high enough level to ascend. You can theoretically have someone run you in Prophecies and be ascended at a low level. But it's best to just play the game (press "L" and do the primary quests and all co-operative missions) and level up via the natural progression of the story.


Melee AI (warriors, dervs, sins) sucks. Ranged classes and caster classes FTW. But casters are squishier so try to keep them off the front line. Learn about flagging heroes and henchies to place them and spread them out to protect against Area of Effect (AoE) damage.


I think you'll find lots of info on the guild wars wiki site on how to play as any given class. There are also articles on every primary quest and mission, best tactics and walkthroughs including how to acheive bonus for each mission, etc.

I'll say it one more time: Join a guild. It's called *Guild* Wars. Guild mates are quite helpful. Post in the forums here on GwG that you are looking for a guild (there is a specific forum for it) and read the posts in the forum where guilds are looking for players. Chat w/ some folks and find a guild. Have fun.

1) Only matching (and elite) armor sets can be added to your Hall of Monuments (if you decide you want some rewards in GW2).

What compaigns do you have? That would help us give you more direct answers for ascension.

When I first started playing, I didn't understand anything about armor, runes etc... but I just kept going and figured it out along the way. You will to, so be patient and don't give up. You'll get it, trust me. And Wiki has terrific walkthroughs and all missions and quests. It also has detailed analysis on each henchmen such as what spells they have at what level and their pros and cons. Just type in the henchman's name in the wiki search.

People here say don't use henchmen, but there are times when you don't have a choice. I have my Legendary Vanquisher and Legendary Guardian titles (which probably means nothing to you at this point, but to make it simple I've basically beaten all the games in HM) and I did *most* of that with heros and henchmen. So they're better than nothing.

Do you have heros? They're customizable henchmen. You can get them in Nightfall and EotN. It's worth it.

Good luck and don't give up!

Before Hom - armor was mixed according to the individuals owns likes and a lot of times players mixed 2 or 3 diff armors to have a different look as 3000 identical sins in same armor doesnt make you look cool ( example ) and on guru you will see requests for chrs with mixed armor sets still - maybe in screenshot section not sure..
I think everything else has been covered by others - also joining a guild is a mixed experiance but only because each guild is different in how they treat new players - some wont touch a newbie because they find them annoying with questions and offer nothing at the time back to the guild ( experiance in areas etc ) but other guilds will welcome a newbie because they see potential in a new player who in time will be of help.

basically for armor if you can get there you can have the armor (with the exception of eye armor which require a level 5 in their particular faction to talk to the armor crafter). Max armor is 60 armor rating for casters and then goes up from there for the different melee ones. There is almost no benefit from having a 'set' of armor (HoM is it), so mix and match as you please.

henchmen, thats a tough one, everyone has an idea of what they think is best --FOR THEM, which may or may not work for you. Though on the whole, I would usually take a hero monk as my first choice, from there it really depends on which chapter, what you are doing and such.

ascending...in prophecies is probably the hardest and most complicated...in factions and nightfall its just a quest/mission and you are done....(factions you need to complete napuli quarter mission and nightfall Hunted! quest)...and this stuff is only necessary if you want to do some of the elite areas.

No advantage whatsoever. Feel free to mix and match as you like.

There is no level requirement for getting any armor piece. However, to get a few of the prestige armor pieces in Eye of the North you'll be required to attain a certain rank in one of the factions (Norn, Ebon Vanguard, etc.) If you know where the cracks are, you can get max armor very early on in the game (theoretically you could even get max armor at level 1 or 2 so long as you have the money to spend on it and on getting runs/ferries to the right places)

To get runes and insignia for armor, you can either buy them from the trader, buy them from another player or salvage them off a drop. PvP characters may equip their armor with any unlocked rune/insignia for their class for free.

Again, there's no specific level requirement here. To ascend, you must only complete a certain mission/quest in your starting campaign (or in some cases a different campaign). If you're in prophecies, completing Augury Rock will be it, in Factions the Nahpui Quarter mission, etc. These can theoretically be done at any level (though it may prove difficult). I myself once ascended a necromancer at level 12 at Augury Rock, and its possible to do it at a lower level.

Generally speaking, you should avoid melee henchies whenever possible. This may change with an upcoming update, but for now head this rule. You'll want to make sure you always have 1 healing/protting character for every 4 characters, but there is some flexibility to this rule as well. Until you have a lot of skills unlocked, its better to run henchmen than heroes, since the heroes only use skills that you have unlocked. Alternatively, you could research some of the better hero builds and specifically unlock those skills for them to use.

There are various walkthroughs you can find (for a given profession for example) on this site through the subforums. For more detailed info about a foe, drop, zone, skill, etc. you should pretty much always go to the official wiki. You can access it in game by using the F10 key, or by typing "/wiki [topic]". For example, if you want to know about the skill "Dragon Slash
you'd type "/wiki Dragon Slash" (without the quotes).

To avoid getting burned out, it helps to find some players in game who have been around a long time or who know the game inside and out. Joining a guild/alliance theoretically helps with this too. This, hopefully, will prevent you from running to the forums every 5 minutes Good hunting.

You can mix & match styles to your heart's content. What you want to look at is the armor rating of the pieces. Here's something to keep in mind... "max armor" means the maximum armor rating you can get for your primary profession. For an elementalist, mesmer, necromancer, ritualist or monk, that's 60. For a ranger, assassin or dervish it's 70. For a warrior or paragon it is 80. A set of obsidian armor may LOOK "better" (to some people, anyway)... and it is an "elite" armor you can add into your Hall of Monuments... but it is not better armor than what you can get in say, Droknar's Forge. It still will only offer you an AR of 60, 70 or 80 depending upon your primary profession. This list of armorers will help you figure out where you can pick up the maximum AR armor for your profession.

Also, keep in mind - your armor rating is not figured by "adding up" the AR on your armor. So it isn't that you have head 60 + chest 60 + gloves 60 + legs 60 + boots 60 = 300 AR. The AR on each piece of armor is how much armor you have on that part of your body against damage directed at that part of your body. In other words... it would be a bad idea to have a 15 AR piece of armor on your chest... because then you'd only have 15 armor against any attacks that hit you in the chest... even if you've got 60 AR on all your other pieces. So while you may want to mix & match armor styles, in terms of appearance...I wouldn't advise mixing & matching the AR amounts. Get them all the same.

It's worth noting that bonuses to armor on items like weapons, foci and shields DO affect all of your armor. So let's say you are an elementalist with max armor (60 AL) on head, chest, gloves, legs & boots. If you happen to be carrying an armor +8 shield, you now have 68 AL on your head, on your chest, on your gloves, on your legs and on your boots.

Conversely, an insignia with an armor bonus only affects the AR for the piece of armor it is placed on. So a +10 vs elemental damage insignia on your head is only giving you +10 vs elemental on your head... not on your other pieces.


Unless another player gives them to you, yes... you'll only get them through salvaging or by buying them from a rune trader. Personally, my feeling is that they are worth buying as soon as you have the gold to do it.

Runes & insignia can be confusing. It took me a while to understand how they worked and what was going to be useful for me. You'll notice that some of them are "non-stacking." Good example of this are the Vigor runes. There is no point in putting more than one Vigor rune on your set of armor. The health benefits do not stack. So you won't get an extra 150 health points by sticking three Superior Vigor runes on your armor. Only one of them will count (+50).


It depends on what campaign your character is in - if Prophecies, and you haven't paid someone to "run" you... you're probably going to be lvl 20 before you Ascend. It's a little faster in the other campaigns, but you're still probably going to have leveled up to 20 before you get to the proper missions. In Prophecies, you make your way to the Crystal Desert, you do the missions at Thirsty River, Dunes of Despair & Elona Reach, and then you do the Augury Rock mission to Ascend. You must complete Thirsty, Dunes & Elona in order to do Augury. I haven't done an Ascension in the other campaigns, so someone else would have to explain how/when that happens.

My personal rule-of-thumb is that I try to always take a hero/henchie with healing of one sort or another. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, someone is able to heal. My main character is a Prophecies native... when I was preparing for the aforementioned Ascension missions, someone recommended that I go into Nightfall & EotN and get myself a few heroes. I did, and I pretty much always have my necromancer & ritualist heroes with me, and then a third one based on what I will be facing. My necro and rit can usually handle the healing since I tend to be a careful player. Some areas without fleshy foes, my necro (as a minion master, anyway) is useless... so I have to look at what I'll be facing and choose a replacement from there. Honestly, I tend to read the Wiki about whatever mission or area I'm going into, and decide who to bring based on what foes I'm going to be facing.

The best walkthroughs are on the Wiki itself. Just search for the name of the quest or mission and read the walkthroughs. Look at the Notes at the bottom - this helps you figure out what skills you'll want to bring, which helps you figure out which heroes to take. I've found the Wiki walkthroughs to be VERY comprehensive and useful.

First off, forget most of what you learned about armor in Norrath. It does not apply here.

There is no ingame bonus for any armor nor any set bonus. Mix and match all you want. Max prot armor here is max..period. FoW armor gives no benefits to playing the game over 1k armor at all, it is just visual. Elite only means "cost more".

For a lot of it, all that is required is to make it to the vendor/crafter. In some cases this means you have to play the game through.. in others it means you only have to manage getting to the outpost..you can be ferried to docks or ran to many places in Proph.

A couple crafters are in explorable areas. KC in factions has two. Sunspear Elite is sold in an instance you create by questing. you rescue the crafter and it appears in your "secret" base in Kourna.

Some outposts are locked until you finish certain quests. Mainly in NF but also for others. A couple areas you only get to by winning a campaign..like Elite Canthan.

EoTN is restricted by Faction.. like Kunark was. You have to be level 5 in rank before the respective armor crafters will talk to you. Luxon and Kurzick are tied to your individual faction with them.. not account or guild.

In any case.. there is no rush. Common 1k armor will do just as good a job as any other..and you can rune it with the best and later salvage it with perfect kits for no loss..

Re heroes.. have fun. Only the hardest PvE requires an optimum party. Just like EQ was..go play without stressing over the min maxers laws of gaming. I use Jora a lot just cause I like her. You need to learn what hench have as skills..and pick that way. I used a monk hero in Proph..proph hench monk are pretty terrible.. touch rez..but on the other hand I vanquished Elona with Hench monk no problem.

I cannot stress enough for you to just go "play the game".. that is the attraction of GW. Many players in GW are like the raider snobs in EQ..they just use different criteria for thier snobbishness. "Ping build" instead of showing your fabled whatever.. "show stones", assuming 1k armor means "noob". Ignore them. I finished all of proph with Hench..a pet.. and wearing non-insignia Krytan collector armor on my ranger cause I liked the look. I learned more about playing the game that way than I ever would have slavishly following forum advice and pvxwiki builds.

I do things for funny reasons.. and manage..
I don't like minions and I don't like looking at Master or Olias..but manage to play without either most of the time. Nothing is written in stone. Just Play.

Also..take ingame pug criticism with a grain of salt.. Leeeeroy the War is going to blame your "noob build" for the party wipe regardless of his own actions anyway...I don't know how many times I have gone on and H/H'd a mission no prob after grouping with some ragequitting Leeeroy who blamed my build for his/her inadequacies. Never assume pugs have a clue re playing.

2) http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ascension

Particularly:
"Ascended characters can change their secondary professions and enter the Realms of the Gods; however, these benefits are not exclusive to Ascended characters, they are also available to characters who are Weh no Su, and to Elonian characters who have completed the Hunted! quest"

Doppleganger is fun times.

Mix and match armour pieces to your hearts content
exception if your getting one of the elite armours and want to place it in your hom then you need everything but the headpiece from each set.
You cannot enter a mixed set.

Ascending your character firstly lets you increase your attribute points to 200 and at the same time allows access to an npc which lets you change your secondary class.
Each change to another class costs a small amount of money the first time you do it and is afterwards free.

Ascending in Prophesies is quite a way into the game its a lot faster in Factions and even faster in Nightfall.
Note you have to ascend in the game you created your character in

Wow - a lot of info to take in. I appreciate it a lot - Thanks!

I didn't realize that Because The Armor LOOKED the SAME that it had different stats! I went to a crafter - saw the same armor I had on - and moved on = NOT looking at the STATS! Geeesh I think I need new reading glasses!

It is the Basics that will trip you up all the time! THANKS AGAIN!!

This is only for NF, to the best of my knowledge. Only NF characters can "ascend" through the "Hunted!" quest. Tyrian characters can skip the doppelganger and do "Weh Na Soh" or whatever, and vice versa.

However, at least in Prophecies, I think the last 15 attribute pts only become available after ascension.

I'd like to second Lasai's advice. The best thing about GW is that it allows you to play pretty much anyway you like. You should listen to others' advice, but ultimately it's about you. As long as you do something because you enjoy it, not because you didn't know better.

I explored large parts of Cantha, Tyria and Elona without doing the primary quests and before I was level 20 (with different characters). Just because I found it fun to travel and pick secondary quests here and there, talking to NPCs, even those without a green exclamation point over their heads, listening to their conversations etc. (you can sometimes get quests that way too!) And you get to see stuff you don't get see if you stick to the primaries. I think plenty of people could share stories about "I did it my way".

So... I think pretty much all your questions were answered, save for the henchies/heroes issue which draws different viewpoints.

Here's my handful of cents:

* Henchies and heroes are useful! Sure, they can act dumb sometimes, and of course they cannot be as good as actual humans, communicating and acting in sync. The again, getting random humans to do that can be problematic as well. So the rule of thumb is: friends/guild mates > henchies/heroes > random players (aka. "pug"). I've accomplished plenty playing solo with h/h and so have others.

* Read the description for henchies on the wiki. Most of them have a rundown of pros and cons. Also read recommendations and description for the mission or quest. That's how you decide what henchies to get. After a while and some practice you will be able to just look at the foes you will meet and pick henchies yourself.

* Customize your heroes as you do your characters! Experiment with skill builds, change their equipment and attribute point allocation, use the controls. When you find a good combo save it as a template. Try to add something from their secondary (which you can change anytime at will). Get them more skills, runes etc. So many choices can be overwhelming at first but stick with it, it gets easier.

* Pick henchies from where they are greater level. If you can start a quest from two outposts but one has greater level henchies (or a greater party size, or a henchie not found at the other place), consider starting from there, even if it's farther away. (As long as you don't enter another outpost on the way -- that would reset the henchies to what that outpost has to offer.)

* You can use the party window (P) to quickly add/remove heroes/henchies. You don't have to locate them in the outpost, click on them etc.

Urcscumug - very good advice and very well put!

You are right - it is very overwelming (at first) - there are soo many choices and actions that we can take to change the game = hero/hench choices and customizing, quests to take, areas to explore, armor/weapon along with the upgrade possibilities.

Then we go along and realize we have been doing something wrong - example - I looked at the 'new' armor options from a crafter and Because They LOOKED the same I never looked at the STATS of said armor. So I stayed with the armor I had on (25 vs 40 protect) and upgraded some of the pieces ONLY to realize I needed to pay attention to the STATS - that the New crafted was really a Brand New Armor and much better than what I was wearing!!

It is SOO easy to miss some of the finer points of this game as there are so many Bigger points to pay attention to

Thanks for the input - I really appreciate it.