Is it just me or does armor skin choices feel a bit lacking?

[Ruisen.9471]

Considering that fashion wars are a big part of the endgame, does anyone else feel that the amount of armour skins to choose from feels a bit lacking?

Almost all of the gem store skin pieces aren't available except for rare sales, and for outfits, you're forced to take the entire outfit, so you can't really mix and match the pieces, which is a shame since alot of outfits have some pretty cool armour pieces. Overall, it feels a bit restricting, and it doesn't really feel like you have alot to choose from at any given time.

 

Edit: To rephrase a bit, its not that there's a lack of skins, but a lack of unique styles of skins.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

Full sets alone, for asura females alone:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Asura_female_heavy_armor

 

* PvE: 52 sets

* Longevity: 4

* Competitive game modes: 10

* Gem Shop: 7

* Raids: 3

 

**PvE: 52**

 

* Dungeons: 8

* Orders: 3

* Cultural: 3 per weight

* Crafted: 9

* Karma: 5

* Looted: 6

* Living World/Core: 6

* HoT Story: 3

* PoF Story + LS4: 9

 

**Longevity: 4**

 

* Achievement Points: 3

* Anniversary: 1

 

**Competitive Modes: 10**

* Competitive (basic): 2

* PvP (earned): 4

* WvW (earned): 4

 

**Other: 10**

 

* Gem Shop: 7

* Raids: 3

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> for outfits, you're forced to take the entire outfit, so you can't really mix and match the pieces, which is a shame since alot of outfits have some pretty cool armour pieces.

There's no such thing as "pieces of outfits." They are specifically designed to work singly, not in combination with other skins. They are a fourth weight, incompatible in any meaningful sense to light, medium, or heavy pieces.

 

The reason? It's 8-10 times cheaper to not have to worry about integration, which is why ANet can churn new Outfits seemingly every month, while new armor sets are delivered on special occasions (part of Sagas or Stories or expansions, or rewards for special content).

 

It's fair to point out that some Outfits have some great designs, and fair to ask that those designs get their own mix & match pieces. Just keep in mind: the design is the least expensive component, from the development side, so it's not very likely. ANet prefers new over copy & paste.

 

Full disclosure: plenty of Outfits that I will never, ever buy because of one element of the design that I can't accept. I'd love to see some of the outfits offered in multiple configurations, to avoid that. At the same time, I think it's fine because we get enough Outfits that I only need to like a few.

[Taril.8619]

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> Full sets alone, for asura females alone:

 

It's worth noting, that while there may be a large number of skins with different names, their appearances aren't always dramatically different.

 

Such as how the vast majority of medium chest pieces are some form of leather coat, or how many light armour leggings are a skirt + tights.

 

This kind of repetitive design results in very small amounts of options to really make unique looks when 90% of what you have available looks so similar, even if there's a good number of different items.

[Nubarus.9268]

I have zero issues making nice looking armor combinations. I only failed at one, my Sylvari Renegade. I was unable to make a nice looking heavy combination that did not clip with my weapons so I ended up searching for a costume. All the other 8 use combination sets, some even from 5 or 6 different armor sets.

[The Fear.3865]

Buttcapes... Stop the madness

[Solanum.6983]

A lot of the armor skins do tend to follow the same styles, Medium armor especially.

I wish they'd look at the current galleries before releasing a new set and see what hasn't been done before instead of another bulky set with a skirt for everyone.

[Kichwas.7152]

The game has an insane amount of wardrobe designs...

...

...that all look way too similar.

 

The bulk of it all comes down to a few over-repeated themes. Most serious of which is the whole 'thou shalt not show any butts or who unto thee and thine whom shalt be smited most heinously' thing...

 

That or... someone in the design department has a men in skirts fetish... with a minor affliction for women in skirts as well.

 

[Khisanth.2948]

Depends on race, gender, profession and preference.

 

Pants for light armor female human character? Lacking.

Pants for medium armor female human character? Plenty of options.

Heavy armor without a bunch of stuff hanging from your waist or buttcape? Good luck. :/

[Trise.2865]

tl;dr: It's just you.

[SLOTH.5231]

Yep everybody running around looking exactly the same. Same infusions same backpeice same little round bubbles floating around same mounts same dye I mean we are all exactly the same.

[Zephire.8049]

Sometimes there's not a piece that fits what I'm going for but other than that I'm very happy with the sheer number of skins in GW2. There are valid complaints about it and some issues, but lack of choice isn't one of them given there are thousands of armour skins thus infinite combinations. Throw dyes into the mix and you very rarely see a character that's close to identical to yours.

 

According to gw2efficiency, there's 6,394 back, armour, weapon, and gathering item skins. If you can't find a combo you like with that amount (or even just half that), there's not much Arenanet can do for you and a few new skins won't change that.

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Ruisen.9471" said:

> Considering that fashion wars are a big part of the endgame, does anyone else feel that the amount of armour skins to choose from feels a bit lacking?

> Almost all of the gem store skin pieces aren't available except for rare sales, and for outfits, you're forced to take the entire outfit, so you can't really mix and match the pieces, which is a shame since alot of outfits have some pretty cool armour pieces. Overall, it feels a bit restricting, and it doesn't really feel like you have alot to choose from at any given time.

 

If you're only considering gem store armour skins and outfits then yes your options will be very limited. But that's because the majority of armour skins come from in-game sources. However most of those only come from specific places, so unless you know to look out for them they're easy to miss.

 

I recommend using either the [Wiki's armour galleries](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sylvari_male_heavy_armor) (links at the bottom of the page to choose your race and armour weight) or the wardrobe in-game to find skins. In case you're not already aware you can access the wardrobe by going to the bank and then clicking on the 3rd icon on the left side of the menu. The Wiki galleries are probably the quickest way to get an overview of what's available, and makes it easy to find out how skins are obtained, but the wardrobe has the advantage of showing stand-alone pieces too, and letting you see how they look combined on your character. (Click on any skin to preview it, you can combine multiple pieces in the preview window.)

 

Of course you might find you really like something and then have to spend a lot of time and effort to get it, but that's half the reason players say fasion wars is part of the end-game, obtaining skins you like is a bit part of the incentive for playing content in this game.

 

> @"Taril.8619" said:

> > @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > Full sets alone, for asura females alone:

>

> It's worth noting, that while there may be a large number of skins with different names, their appearances aren't always dramatically different.

>

> Such as how the vast majority of medium chest pieces are some form of leather coat, or how many light armour leggings are a skirt + tights.

>

> This kind of repetitive design results in very small amounts of options to really make unique looks when 90% of what you have available looks so similar, even if there's a good number of different items.

 

Even when they use the same general shape I find I prefer some over others. For example on female characters the medium Koda coat and Whispers coat have the same overall shape, but given the choice I will always choose the Kodan one for my ranger (even though she's a Whispers agent) because I prefer the pattern, the way it dyes and the way it moves. But I'm sure there will be someone reading this who thinks I'm mad for saying that because the Whispers one is _obviously_ better in every way. I'd rather have both variations and let players have more of a chance to find ones which are just right for what they want than have Anet focusing on making everything look wildly different to everything which has come before so if there's one which isn't really what you want but not totally wrong either you have to use it because it's the best you're ever going to get.

 

I admit some themes are easier to do than others, for example if you want to make a light armoured charater look like they're wearing heavy armour for a 'battle mage' theme your options are limited, but it's still possible (although then I'd probably just use an outfit). The only time I've tried to do something and couldn't manage it at all it's a cosplay idea where the character wears something very distictive.

[krz.1327]

all medium armor looks the same because of buttcapes, you're basically forced to wear sneakthief

 

I feel like gw1 armors were more memorable

[Roda.7468]

I really REALLY want pants for my female casters. Plain pants with no skirts or bandoliers attached to them. I want more tops that aren't just overdesigned lingere or shirts with plunging necklines/boob cups. I want more heavy armor that doesn't have random holes in it or boob plate. And medium armors could do with some more differing sillouettes. And we need more armors that aren't just tailored to human senses of fashion.

[kettering.6823]

> @"SLOTH.5231" said:

> Yep everybody running around looking exactly the same. Same infusions same backpeice same little round bubbles floating around same mounts same dye I mean we are all exactly the same.

 

imo this has more to do with a lack of desire to experiment and mix-and-match than it does with the lack of available skins. I have 15 characters and none of them look the same, and most look quite unique to a bulk of other characters I see. One of my favourite things to do in the game is make unique outfits/appearances for my characters.

[Swagger.1459]

> @"Ruisen.9471" said:

> Considering that fashion wars are a big part of the endgame, does anyone else feel that the amount of armour skins to choose from feels a bit lacking?

> Almost all of the gem store skin pieces aren't available except for rare sales, and for outfits, you're forced to take the entire outfit, so you can't really mix and match the pieces, which is a shame since alot of outfits have some pretty cool armour pieces. Overall, it feels a bit restricting, and it doesn't really feel like you have alot to choose from at any given time.

 

I’m sure we could all come up with hundreds of different armor ideas we’d like to see in-game, but I think we’ve got lots of options...

 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_armor_sets

[IndigoSundown.5419]

While there are a plethora of options, too many share the same design themes as most of their "cousins" in the same category (i.e., female light, heavy, male medium coats, etc.). What this means is that _if_ you dislike that design theme (e.g., skirts and butt capes or long coats), then the options get restricted dramatically. Another flaw (for me, at least) in armor skin design is that too many of the skins are baroque or otherwise overly ornate. Combine the two factors and the range of choice is narrowed still further.

 

One could say that dislike for certain design themes is a _player_ choice. However, skin preferences are part and parcel of the cosmetic aspect of the endgame. Narrowing options down via rigid stylistic choices cannot help but impact the aesthetic choices of such players, and imo this is not a good thing. For me, as much as GW graphics were not as good as GW2's, armor variety was better in GW, despite that there were dramatically fewer choices.

[Hannelore.8153]

You don't know true suffering until you've tried to make a Medium-armor female Asura look good. Pretty much the only look you can make, no matter what you try, is "bathrobe with daggers", excepting a few sets like the Warbeast armor.

[Yggranya.5201]

As for me, as soon as i got my asura warrior to max level i bought the electromagnetic armor set and used it for years, only changing the helmet. When i finally got tired of looking the same, i got the pit fighter set as a contrast to the full-body armor. Also perhaps more fitting armor to go with the revenge axes which i adore above all others, now and forever. Nothing can compare.

 

To get to my point, I think mixing and matching looks dumb. Note that i said it is what **I** think.

[Frostfang.5109]

I still cant make a good tribal look after EIGHT years!!! (with much skin showing like in the light version) for medium charr, mostly because of lack of.... most pieces (not all, but most.

[Hot Boy.7138]

i've been feeling that way for a long time. back in 2012 to 2013 anet used to put full armor sets in the gem store. they were awesome and we got them regularly. But we complained that we'd rather not have them in the gem store. we said we preferred to have them in game where we can earn them instead. Anet listened, and since then we've gotten full armor sets drastically less frequently, and worse quality than what we would have gotten had we let them continue to monetize it. since then they have started to release boots, shoulders, helms, and gloves, but i dont think we've gotten any chest/pants int the gem store. If I could go back in time, i wouldn't have complained about anet putting armor sets in the gem store. Cause now I would greatly prefer them over the endless amount of outfits.

[yefluke.3168]

I have 25 characters.... still... a lot of variety to choose , mix and match.

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Hot Boy.7138" said:

> i've been feeling that way for a long time. back in 2012 to 2013 anet used to put full armor sets in the gem store. they were awesome and we got them regularly. But we complained that we'd rather not have them in the gem store. we said we preferred to have them in game where we can earn them instead. Anet listened, and since then we've gotten full armor sets drastically less frequently, and worse quality than what we would have gotten had we let them continue to monetize it. since then they have started to release boots, shoulders, helms, and gloves, but i dont think we've gotten any chest/pants int the gem store. If I could go back in time, i wouldn't have complained about anet putting armor sets in the gem store. Cause now I would greatly prefer them over the endless amount of outfits.

 

April 2014 was the last time they added a new full armour set to the gem store. That means in 21 months (August 2012 - April 2014) they added 7 sets for each armour weight to the game via the gem store. Between PoF and Season 4 we got 9 new sets for each armour weight, over a similar time period. (September 2017 - May 2019) and I may be forgetting ones which were added to other areas of the game (like WvW) during the same period of time. And that's on top of all the odd pieces which continue to be added to the gem store.

[jokke.6239]

I actually began using outfits a lot even with the lack of mixing different pieces. When you have a lot of outfits it's very cool to be able to switch look every day without having to worry about transmutation charges, they add up if you want to switch that often.

But can we please get the option to at the very least use helmet skin with outfits? It seems like it wouldn't cause any issues. I've even seen helmet skins work with outfits in preview window.