The Road to 50: A guide to filling your Guild Wars Hall of Monuments (IV)

Today's focus is one I've been looking forward to all week: Guild Wars armor. It's a completely frivolous and cosmetic part of the game after a certain point -- max armor is max armor regardless of the outward appearance -- but there are some great options out there.

As always, the Hall of Monuments calculator rewards variety. You'll need to have seven elite armor sets, with three specific types in the mix: Luxon or Kurzick, Vabbian, and Obsidian. These are obtained with varying degrees of difficulty, so we'll look at them all.

Follow along after the jump and we'll look at how to get the full eight points in this monument.

Let's begin by taking a general look at elite armor. First, it's important to understand about the headpieces. Since not every profession has a special headpiece for every armor set, headpieces aren't necessary for displaying an armor set in the Hall of Monuments. Once you've got the gloves, shoes, chest piece, and leg piece, you're all set.

Your next step is to decide what you want. You need a total of seven sets: Vabbian, Kurzick/Luxon, Obsidian, and four of anything. Let's look at the "four of anything" part first, then I'll address the other three sets. Ideally, you want to find sets that you like and that fit within what you want to spend with regard to materials.

For those four sets, my suggestion is to start by browsing the armor art. The Guild Wars wiki has screenshots of every set linked from the main armor page. Click on the profession you're interested in for a gallery, and look at the sets labeled "prestige armor." If something catches your eye, you can click the "male" and "female" links at the bottom of each image for a closer look at the picture. If you click the name of the armor itself, you'll get a page telling you which materials are needed to craft each piece and where the crafter is located.

This is a good time to pause and talk about materials. Often you'll find that prestige armor requires rare materials for crafting, and there are a couple of ways to obtain those. You can purchase from a rare materials trader or another player, or try to farm the item, but I prefer to use my material and item stash whenever possible. It saves money, and when you're dealing with rare materials you have an extra option.

Artisans will craft almost any rare material for you in exchange for a common material or two and some gold. It's a good idea to always look into that option when you find you need rare materials and don't have them on hand. Simply look over the chart on the Artisan page, see what the artisans need to craft it, and see how much of the common materials you have on hand. It may or may not be a better deal depending on current rare material costs, but with prices spiking on many items right now you can save a lot of cash that way.

The actual cost for each piece is 10-15 platinum, depending on what you get, and the materials vary. It's nearly impossible to make recommendations on which sets to purchase due to the various types available, personal preference, and what each player can and will spend, so look through the armor art, check your storage, and see where you want to strike that balance!

Kurzick/Luxon armor

This is the first of three specific sets you have to have to get all eight points in your hall. My suggestion for these is that you take a look at the Kurzick armor art page and the Luxon armor art page, scroll down to the elite section, and see what you like out of the professions that you play. For Kurzick elite armor, you have to have access to Vasburg Armory, and for Luxon, Leviathan Pits.

The crafter will need different materials for each set depending on the profession, but all Kurzick armor will require Amber Chunks and all Luxon armor will require Jadeite Shards. This is where it gets a bit tricky, because thanks to the current Hall of Monuments frenzy, these two items are difficult and expensive to obtain right now. Artisans don't craft them either, so that's not an option like it is with other elite armor.

As always, I advise patience -- if you want to get the armor right now, you're going to pay a lot more, either at the trader or from other players. Once you've chosen your Luxon or Kurzick armor, check the sections in the Jade and Amber links I gave to see how to start accumulating it over time. There are lists of enemies that drop the items and a list of drops that can be salvaged with for a chance to obtain them. For now, go that route. In a few weeks when the market settles down, check with the trader or other players.

If you are accumulating Luxon or Kurzick faction in methods that we talked about yesterday, you can also visit a Kurzick Bureaucrat or Luxon Scavenger -- they offer Amber and Jadeite in exchange for faction.

Vabbian armor

Vabbian armor creates a similar situation with regard to materials. It's crafted in the Kodash Bazaar in Nightfall and requires the use of Sapphires and Rubies. These items are extremely expensive right now and can't be crafted by artisans, so just like before I suggest patience and a look at how to obtain them in the other ways listed.

You do have one option that will help quite a bit, and that is the use of Trade Contracts. You can obtain these through various quests, listed in the link, and exchange seven of them for a Ruby or Sapphire with a Vabbi Trade Official in the Kodash Bazaar.

Obsidian armor

Bying Obsidian armor -- commonly called Fissure of Woe or FoW -- is the equivalent of paying cash for a new car. It's easily the most expensive item in the game outside of the super-high-end player market, so just remind yourself that it's not a race and you have plenty of time here. A full set requires over one hundred Globs of Ectoplasm and one hundred Obsidian Shards.

You can obtain these items in three ways: killing creatures in The Fissure of Woe for Obsidian Shards and in The Underworld for Globs of Ectoplasm, purchasing them from a rare materials trader, or purchasing them from other players.

Again, I counsel plenty of patience here. This one's going to take a while -- it's meant to take a while. Just relax, play, have some fun, and pick up your materials in small amounts as you go.

Once you've gained all of your materials, you'll have to do a few quests in the Fissure of Woe to get to the crafter. There's no going back for storage once you're there, so you'll want to triple-check your inventory for materials and money before you leave.

There you have it -- one of the most fun guides for me to write this week! Tomorrow we'll cover weapons in the final installment of The Road to 50. I'll see you then!