Guides/Starting out
Attributes and prefixes: how to read Berserker on a helmet
The nine attributes, what each does in numbers, and how to read names like Viper’s or Trailblazer’s. The minimum you need before your first gear purchase.
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Gear in Guild Wars 2 has no “power level”. Every piece carries a prefix, a set of attributes instead. A Berserker’s Helm and a Viper’s Helm can share a rarity and a price and still play nothing alike.
This is what to understand before your first trip to the trading post, because buying the wrong thing is easy.
The nine attributes
Power raises direct strike damage.
Precision raises critical chance. At 80 the base is 5%, and every 21 Precision above 1000 adds another 1%.
Toughness raises armour, which means less incoming strike damage.
Vitality raises health. Each point gives 10 health.
Ferocity raises critical damage. The base is 150%, and every 15 Ferocity adds 1%.
Condition Damage raises damage from conditions: burning, poison, bleeding.
Expertise raises condition duration, 15 for each 1%.
Concentration raises boon duration, also 15 per 1%.
Healing Power raises all healing you do, your own included.
Agony Resistance sits apart. It matters in high-level fractals and nowhere else.
Two schools of damage
🔴 The thing that matters most to a newcomer: the game runs two independent damage systems.
Power hits immediately. Condition Damage hits over time.
They barely mix. Power gear on a condition build means half the damage in both directions. Decide how you want to hit first, then buy.
How to read a prefix
Every prefix has a major attribute, shown as the large number, and one to three minor ones, all sharing a smaller value.
The common ones:
| Prefix | Major | Minor |
|---|---|---|
| Berserker’s | Power | Precision, Ferocity |
| Assassin’s | Precision | Power, Ferocity |
| Marauder’s | Power | Precision, Vitality, Ferocity |
| Soldier’s | Power | Toughness, Vitality |
| Viper’s | Power | Condition Damage, Precision, Expertise |
| Grieving | Power | Condition Damage, Precision, Ferocity |
| Rabid | Condition Damage | Precision, Toughness |
| Dire | Condition Damage | Toughness, Vitality |
| Trailblazer’s | Toughness | Condition Damage, Vitality, Expertise |
| Ritualist’s | Vitality | Condition Damage, Concentration, Expertise |
| Harrier’s | Power | Healing Power, Concentration |
| Minstrel’s | Toughness | Healing Power, Vitality, Concentration |
| Magi’s | Healing Power | Precision, Vitality |
| Cleric’s | Healing Power | Power, Toughness |
| Diviner’s | Power | Concentration, Precision, Ferocity |
| Celestial | all nine equally | none |
What a newcomer should buy
Berserker’s is the standard for strike damage. Cheap, legible, works everywhere.
Marauder’s is Berserker’s with Vitality traded for part of the damage. If you die often, take it and feel no shame about it.
Viper’s is the standard for condition damage.
Celestial gives a little of everything. It sounds like a compromise and it is, but for the open world and solo play it is the most convenient set you can own: one kit covers any build.
Trailblazer’s is the sturdiest condition set. It kills slowly and it kills even when you play carelessly.
Practical advice
Buy nothing before 80. Gear changes every couple of levels, and money spent earlier burns.
At 80, buy a full set of exotic in one prefix (what to do at 80). Exotic costs a fraction of ascended, and the attribute gap is around 5%.
Check prices piece by piece before buying a set in one click. Parts of the same set can differ in price by an order of magnitude.