After having restarted the game, I am now on my third warrior. The first is somewhere in the Shiverpeak Mountains, having received her calling and now living the life of a pious nun
The second began life in Cantha, a true warrior relying mostly on her strength and trusty axe ~ a Defender of the Luxons, rising in rank and power... But little does she know that across the great divide, her twin sister has also taken up arms; a young warrior loyal to the Kurzicks...
I have played mostly on my main account, rushing through content in order to get my characters ready for GvG or just creating PvP characters. My 2nd account has remained dormant although I do have a level 20 Dervish and a baby Paragon who are mostly sitting in Kamadan as additional storage.
Seeing that I have unused character slots, I decided to create a warrior in Cantha as well as a monk in pre-searing, and may also start a mesmer or elementalist in Istan. The idea is to follow the stat range provided in Red Fireball's:
GW gear stat ranges
Please post pictures so I can add the numbers into the table and the community has a way to verify it this way
| req | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| Axe max | 6-12 | 6-12 | 6-14 | 6-17 | 7-19 | 6-22 7-21 | 6-24 7-21 | 6-25 7-21 | 6-27 7-21 | 6-28 7-21 | 6-28 | 6-28 | 6-28 | 6-28 |
| Axe min | 2-5 | 5-10 | 5-10 | 5-10 | 5-10 | 5-10 | 5-11 | 5-13 | 5-15 | 5-23 6-17 | 5-22 6-19 | 5-22 | 5-25 | 6-27 |
| Bow max | 9-13 | 9-14 | 10-16 | 11-18 | 12-20 | 13-22 | 14-24 |
After having left Shing Jea Monastery at level 2, Amber has been repeatedly farming Sunqua Vale to see if we can equal or better the minimum and maximum stats for 0 requirement items:
| Axe | The most common drops are Tribal Axe, Crude Axe, as well as the Rusty Axe ~ the minimum damage of 2-5 which was a drop from pre-searing Ascalon is difficult to beat, and my maximum was only 5-11. Most axes were within 3-5 or 3-6 range, but this dropped from a Sensali Fighter today ~ |
| Bow | The most common drops are Naga Shortbow, Naga Longbow, Wooden Flatbow, Feathered Flatbow, and the Shortbow (rare) ~ most drops come with a minimum damage of 4-6 so very common indeed, but Amber's maximum was only an 8-11 purple from a chest drop. I brought in my main account warrior Jade for a quick run in normal mode and she got an uncommon 8-12 Shortbow from a Shing Jea chest as well. Incredibly, most inherent mods on low damage bows (single digits) from chest drops were + dmg while hexed, but Amber's feathered flatbow drop from yesterday will be a keeper for pulls: Jade went one better today...
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| Daggers | If I ever see another Kamas again, I'll @#$@%#...
Almost a third of the drops (whites/blues) were with minimum damage of 1-3 but otherwise, 2-3 or 2-4. I may have to move to another map to see if I can get higher, but as I began to test Amber against the hidden Lesser Oni, I was fortunate to get a keeper:
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| Focus | Paper Fan seems to be the most rare when compared to other off-hands. Minimum (+3) and maximum (+6) range for 0 requirement off-hands are easily found as common drops as well as chest drops:
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| Hammer | The Bludgeoner and Supreme Bludgeoner are probably the rare skins for this area, with Wolf Hammer being the more common as well as the likes of Ball Hammer, Runic, etc... Although Amber could easily find the minimum of 4-6, anything above 8-10 just wouldn't drop unless it was with a requirement from a chest:
If only it didn't have req 5, it would have been a new hammer stat for 0 requirement Hammers... And Jade just has to rub it in with her single run on this day...
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| Shield | Anything between Armor 4 to 6 is common, with Kappa Shield being the most common drop. Thought I would never find max unless it was from a chest, but Ziinjuu was kind to drop the staff and also this yesterday:
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| Staff | Minimum and maximum for white/blue easily achieved, but purples are difficult and also rare since they are dependent on chest drops. Will have to see what the other maps provide. |
| Sword | Sunqua Blade found in Sunqua Vale sounds about right... They make up 99% of the sword drops and most tend to have a damage of 3-5. Didn't get any swords from chest drops either so could not get beyond single digit damages. Thought minimum damage of 3-4 was another impossibility until Jade almost merch this:
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| Wand | Was hoping for something lower than 4-6 but I guess I'll have to work a little harder in another map or campaign... Didn't think I would get max either but everything seemed to drop at almost exactly the same time as I was thinking of moving on to Panjiang Peninsula...
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The idea is to move on to the following quest at level 10 or when I have accumulated a stack of Mantid Pincer. I currently have 230 pincers so my final run tonight should do it, and I am also a quarter of the way to level 10 anyways...
I will return to SV in the future as I chickened out on Amber's mini vanquisher attempt of the map... There are two foes that I will not attempt as a new warrior without a secondary ~ Red Yeti (lvl 12) & Yingko the Skull Claw
Jade's wounds run deep after she failed her early survivor years... Will also need to complete green drops for the map...
Amber picked up Jin's Hornbow today after getting Ziinjuu's Sanctuary yesterday...
Jade didn't want to be left out so she picked up Ziinjuu's Sanctuary today and followed up with a HM chest run in Zhengjo Temple where there's always one or two easy chest...
Amber: <show off>
Jade: Anyone want to buy a clean 200gv high req SOtW?
I am not playing Melandru's Accord thus have transferred some gear as well as funds from my main account in order to be able to clear the area and retrieve every drop without having to worry about exceeding inventory space.
Salvage kits are an explorer's best friend so I tend to break down any white martial weapons and off-hands apart from staves and bows unless I do struggle with inventory space. Blues are identified since some may have added value (there's always at least one or two).
While identification kits are bought from the merchant in Shing Jea Monastery, the salvage kits are exchanged with Hai Lae:
as well as Hao Zhang in Shing Jea Monastery:
At the end of a complete run, I tend to add about 200-300 gold to the coffers... It's a measly sum but it's the stored trophies that will help later on in-game.
42 Feathered Scalps, 250 Mantid Pincers, 79 Naga Hides, & 37 Copper Crimson Skull Coins later, and it is time to move on to Panjiang Peninsula where I'll be collecting 250 Naga Hides for next week's (16th March 2026) exchange with Nicholas the Traveler.
NOTE: It is definitely easier to go in with a level 20 fully geared character and one-shot everything for better loot as well as item drop stats. Anything above level 5 on the map will probably drop an uncommon (purple) item as was the case with the Lesser Oni today:
Sad it's one req higher...
However, repeatedly targeting a single mob such as the Lesser Oni (lvl 9 NM/lvl 23 HM), which pops up along the cliff just north of Tsumei Village will not work due to the game's 'diminishing returns' mechanism.
Purple uncommon drops in normal mode tend to have a gold value of between 14-30 after having been identified so using lockpicks on the chest would be better although Shing Jea chest keys do drop quite often. A lvl 20 running in normal mode would probably also get one or two rare materials in the form of a Monstrous Eye or a Monstrous Fang while clearing the map.
Would like to bring a lvl Mesmer here some day for Hard Mode...
