Guild Wars 2 news » Upcoming Changes to Attribute-Selectable Gear

Over the years, we’ve released many pieces of equipment that allow you to choose the attributes they provide to your character. Depending on the equipment’s source, the combinations that are available for you to choose from on each piece can vary wildly.

With the next release, we’re looking to reduce the confusion about which attribute combinations are available on any given piece of gear. Therefore, the majority of attribute-selectable equipment in the game will be updated to include all of the attribute combinations available to your account, based on the expansions you own. Legendary equipment will still have all attribute combinations available regardless of expansion ownership.

What This Means

When this change goes live, many pieces of attribute-selectable gear will reset. You’ll need to reselect the attribute combinations on your equipped gear and the gear in your inventory. If your equipped gear is affected, you will receive a hint reminding you to select attributes for it.

If you’re a Play for Free player—or if you purchased the core game before Play for Free was an option and you don’t own any expansions—attribute-selectable gear will only display a selection of attribute combinations that were released before Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™. If you own one expansion, you’ll get to choose attribute combinations from the core game as well as any introduced in that expansion. If you own both Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns and Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire™, you’ll have access to all of the attribute combinations.

Exceptions include the following:

• Crafted backpacks
• Elite specialization collection armor and weapon rewards
• Attribute combinations related to raids and fractals (Assaulter’s/Defender’s/Healer’s/Malicious)

Creating Consistency

The attribute selections available from Assaulter’s, Defender’s, Healer’s, and Malicious attribute-selectable gear are also being adjusted. The goal of this change is to make it more obvious which attributes will be available in each prefix family. Attributes on gear with the Assaulter’s prefix will now have either power or ferocity as a main attribute (although no attribute combination with ferocity as the primary attribute currently exists), or it will have two secondary attributes that support a power DPS playstyle. The Defender’s gear attribute selection likewise will have either toughness or vitality as a primary attribute, or both as secondary attributes. Healer’s gear will contain a choice with either healing power or concentration as a primary attribute, or both as secondary attributes. Malicious gear will have the requirement of condition damage or expertise as a main attribute, or both as secondary attributes. Celestial gear is being added to the Assaulter’s attribute selection, so it’s available on all four prefixes.

This results in the following changes:

Assaulter’s:

• Removed Bringer’s
• Removed Seraph
• Added Celestial
• Added Cavalier’s
• Added Harrier’s
• Added Knight’s
• Added Sinister
• Added Viper’s
• Added Wanderer’s

Defender’s:

• Added Crusader
• Added Dire
• Added Plaguedoctor’s
• Added Soldier’s

Healer’s:

• Removed Crusader
• Removed Nomad’s
• Removed Shaman’s
• Removed Zealot’s

Malicious:

• Removed Marshal’s
• Removed Settler’s

Additionally, we’re taking the opportunity to bring some Fractals of the Mists rewards into parity with the way we deliver raids rewards. Daily rewards obtained from fractals that provide a choice of ascended armor will now contain a choice of heavy, medium, or light attribute-selectable gear associated with their prefix (Assaulter’s, Defender’s, Healer’s, Malicious) instead of a long list of choices of gear limited to attributes available in the base game. This change will be retroactive and apply to any chests currently in player inventories.

We think these changes will help make attribute-selectable gear easier to understand and more rewarding to acquire. See you in game!