There's 3 currencies that are used
Spoiler:
Gold: While gold isn't used at all in endgame gearing it stays relevant for 1-40 early game as there isn't set pieces and you'll be filling a good portion of you slots with gear bought with gold. For instance in T1 you'll only be able to buy chest, boots, and weapons set pieces with PvP currencies, so you'll need to use gold to fill all your other slots. The best way to obtain gold is to look for every blue quest in warcamps and inside scenarios. These are kill X amount of player/win Scenario repeatable that turn in for gold + xp ALWAYS pick these up and complete them. Grinding mobs is also a decent way to make gold selling random drops although you should never need to if you are ontop of repeatable blue quests.
Look for "renown" vendors inside t1 warcamp and in your capital city, they will sell the offpieces you need to fill like say gloves, jewelry etc... AH prices are usually gouged really high but you can find deals there too, make sure to use correct filters for you class/level.
Scenario Emblems: Obtainable from any scenario (battleground) used all the way from level 1 to endgame, this is what you'll be using to buy weapons and off set gear (tank gear for dps, dps gear for healers etc...)
Efficiently farming emblems is something you'll want to worry about once you are 40/50 since the grind will ramp up significantly. Not all scenarios are created equally and it comes down to time spent inside each.
The absolute BEST scenario to farm emblems is Thunder Valley, whenever this scenario is available only que for it you should get near instant pops and because of how the scenario is played it doesn't matter so much if you win or lose bc even premade vs terrible pugs the pugs will usually score at least 300 points. There are some scenario that just take too long to complete and pug groups get absolutely nothing if they lose like talabec damn, high pass cemetery, serpents passage, howling gorge, and black fire basin just do yourself a favor if you are solo queing and never touch these.
Medallions: Obtainable from kills in the RvR lakes these are used for the main sets of gear your class will want to use. Not much to this just go in the lakes kill ppl and then spend them at the correct vendor.
The more kills you get INSIDE YOUR GROUP NOT WARBAND the better you can farm these, if you join a pug warband make sure your group has good aoe damage classes or just RDPS in general, as scummy as it might sound trying to get into groups with say more sorcs/bw or magus/engineer will make it so you get more medallions than being in a group that say has a wh and 3 tanks or a bunch of unguarded MDPS. And it should also be obvious you want at least 1 healer in your party as well. Again its group based not warband based. Or better yet just group with your friends and avoid pugging :^).
Medallion gear is also rewarded from gold bags although this really doesn't matter until you are 40/40+ as you should in general play get enough medallions to buy all the sets up to annihilator. Higher tier medallions break down into 5 of the lower tier (this also goes for scenario emblems). So for instance you are trying to buy your devastator set at level 29 but you dont have enough soldier medallions you can purchase soldier medallion bags/crates with officer medallions. because you are fighting high RR players from level 16+ after t1 you'll have plenty of medallions of higher tier and it should never be a problem to get all the sets up to conq. Never downgrade invader medallions, and on some classes vanq.
Besides currency there are 3 other methods (besides random drops) that are used as well.
Influence Rewards: Every RvR pairing in every tier has influence rewards (the blue/teal bar on your screen inside said zones) there are 3 tiers of rewards which are all generally useful offpieces. You can collect these rewards at a Rally Master in the warcamp.
Dungeons: More of a lategame progression system on this server (40+) Drops and influence rewards inside these reward some of the best gear to mix with other sets and eventually weapons etc... There is a level 16 dungeon that rewards a set of gear, but it's only worth doing if you really want to just do some pve for a bit its very quickly power creeped.
RvR Bags: Rewarded at the end of the zone based on your contribution and the rewards based on your RR these will reward powerful offpieces like jewelry, capes, even weapons after R16.
Look for "renown" vendors inside t1 warcamp and in your capital city, they will sell the offpieces you need to fill like say gloves, jewelry etc... AH prices are usually gouged really high but you can find deals there too, make sure to use correct filters for you class/level.
Scenario Emblems: Obtainable from any scenario (battleground) used all the way from level 1 to endgame, this is what you'll be using to buy weapons and off set gear (tank gear for dps, dps gear for healers etc...)
Efficiently farming emblems is something you'll want to worry about once you are 40/50 since the grind will ramp up significantly. Not all scenarios are created equally and it comes down to time spent inside each.
The absolute BEST scenario to farm emblems is Thunder Valley, whenever this scenario is available only que for it you should get near instant pops and because of how the scenario is played it doesn't matter so much if you win or lose bc even premade vs terrible pugs the pugs will usually score at least 300 points. There are some scenario that just take too long to complete and pug groups get absolutely nothing if they lose like talabec damn, high pass cemetery, serpents passage, howling gorge, and black fire basin just do yourself a favor if you are solo queing and never touch these.
Medallions: Obtainable from kills in the RvR lakes these are used for the main sets of gear your class will want to use. Not much to this just go in the lakes kill ppl and then spend them at the correct vendor.
The more kills you get INSIDE YOUR GROUP NOT WARBAND the better you can farm these, if you join a pug warband make sure your group has good aoe damage classes or just RDPS in general, as scummy as it might sound trying to get into groups with say more sorcs/bw or magus/engineer will make it so you get more medallions than being in a group that say has a wh and 3 tanks or a bunch of unguarded MDPS. And it should also be obvious you want at least 1 healer in your party as well. Again its group based not warband based. Or better yet just group with your friends and avoid pugging :^).
Medallion gear is also rewarded from gold bags although this really doesn't matter until you are 40/40+ as you should in general play get enough medallions to buy all the sets up to annihilator. Higher tier medallions break down into 5 of the lower tier (this also goes for scenario emblems). So for instance you are trying to buy your devastator set at level 29 but you dont have enough soldier medallions you can purchase soldier medallion bags/crates with officer medallions. because you are fighting high RR players from level 16+ after t1 you'll have plenty of medallions of higher tier and it should never be a problem to get all the sets up to conq. Never downgrade invader medallions, and on some classes vanq.
Besides currency there are 3 other methods (besides random drops) that are used as well.
Influence Rewards: Every RvR pairing in every tier has influence rewards (the blue/teal bar on your screen inside said zones) there are 3 tiers of rewards which are all generally useful offpieces. You can collect these rewards at a Rally Master in the warcamp.
Dungeons: More of a lategame progression system on this server (40+) Drops and influence rewards inside these reward some of the best gear to mix with other sets and eventually weapons etc... There is a level 16 dungeon that rewards a set of gear, but it's only worth doing if you really want to just do some pve for a bit its very quickly power creeped.
RvR Bags: Rewarded at the end of the zone based on your contribution and the rewards based on your RR these will reward powerful offpieces like jewelry, capes, even weapons after R16.
Generally what I do in T1
Spoiler:
Level 5: Buy weapons and gloves from a renown gear merchant in nordland
Level 7: buy 4 of the only jewelry you can get from renown merchant
Level 8: buy your decimator gear from a recruits medallion merchant (boots/chest) or alternatively from an emblem merchant for the off set. As well as any other pieces you can get from the renown merchants like belt etc...
Level 10: buy your emblem weapon
If you receive any drops or influence rewards that are better than you have during any of this just use them, you will not be able to actually buy shoulders,helm, or capes until around level 19 or so, you'll have to get lucky drops at lower levels from mobs or other players or alternatively on the AH. And from here on out check the vendors located in your capitol city (they are in the Undercroft in IC or the War Quarters in Altdorf) every 5 levels or so and replace any gear you have with stuff you can buy that's better. The bolster will take care of you very well, there's no need to constantly worry about upgrading your gear every level. Just remember to for instance buy you next RvR set which from T1 would be the Obliterator set which you can wear at level ~18, or the SC set equivalent if you want. Then devastator at ~28, annihilator 36 and so on. Just check out all the vendors, look for big upgrades say you are level 21 and notice that at 24 there's a new emblem weapon available from the soldier emblem merchant just keep that in mind and go back and get it when you hit 24 etc...
Level 7: buy 4 of the only jewelry you can get from renown merchant
Level 8: buy your decimator gear from a recruits medallion merchant (boots/chest) or alternatively from an emblem merchant for the off set. As well as any other pieces you can get from the renown merchants like belt etc...
Level 10: buy your emblem weapon
If you receive any drops or influence rewards that are better than you have during any of this just use them, you will not be able to actually buy shoulders,helm, or capes until around level 19 or so, you'll have to get lucky drops at lower levels from mobs or other players or alternatively on the AH. And from here on out check the vendors located in your capitol city (they are in the Undercroft in IC or the War Quarters in Altdorf) every 5 levels or so and replace any gear you have with stuff you can buy that's better. The bolster will take care of you very well, there's no need to constantly worry about upgrading your gear every level. Just remember to for instance buy you next RvR set which from T1 would be the Obliterator set which you can wear at level ~18, or the SC set equivalent if you want. Then devastator at ~28, annihilator 36 and so on. Just check out all the vendors, look for big upgrades say you are level 21 and notice that at 24 there's a new emblem weapon available from the soldier emblem merchant just keep that in mind and go back and get it when you hit 24 etc...
Entry level 40 t4 gear:
Spoiler:
So now you lost your bolster and now gear really matters at 40/40 you should be in full annihilator or mercenary gear, influence or vendor belt, your 34 SC weapon(s) or purple dropped/influence, vendor jewelry or random jewelry you got from bags in RvR/influence. So now you want to be working on what I'd consider entry level gear for this bracket and that is...
Full conq/dom/vanq, Subjagator/SC weapons, Genisis jewelry, beastlord 3pc.
Conq/vanq are obtained from gold bags from taking a zone, and medallions (here's where you decide if its worth breaking down vanq medallions into conq to speed up progression). This is your first 6pc set because it has a belt. Vanquisher is obtainable from bags once you are RR50+. Dominator gear is the conq equivalent scenario set, which may be easier to obtain but is an offset so it may not be that great for your class/spec.
Dominator and Sc weapons come from... scenarios. Just remember if you want to get it done fast wait for thunder valley week and go ham.
Subjagator weapons comes from purple/gold bags. Generally speaking the level 40/40 scenario weapons are better for casters/healers though.
Genesis jewelry set comes from blue, purple, and gold bags from zone flips.
Beastlord is a PvE set you want to do all the quests to get the Pocket item, jewel piece and cape. You need a full group for this. (there's plenty of guides for this) You want to use this 3pc with 3pc genesis. So for instance the full setup on say slayer would be 2 subjagator 1h weapons, 6pc conq/vanq, 3pc beastlord, 3pc genesis. 5pc genesis might be a consideration if you have a really hard time finding groups for beastlord.
This setup will stop you from being canon fodder and is a good entry set for t4.
About what you should take from bags. Specifically gold/purple bags. I would recommend getting genesis pieces you need from gold bags that have boots/gloves/belt that you need because these 3 pieces of gear are pretty cheap to buy with medallions, and getting stuck in genesis hell (constantly getting dupes from bags) is not fun. If you plan on skipping conq for vanq same thing, if you are sub 50 just take the genesis pieces. You may also opt to take subjagator here as well. Generally speaking the hardest things to obtain from bags will be Vanq Chest/helm/shoulders and the last 2 pieces of genesis you need.
After this it's invader and Sov from forts/city and Sentinel/bloodlord from City dungeons and bastion stair. This tends to be pretty class specific and I'd recommend asking players what to do, but all of these can be worked on regardless.
Full conq/dom/vanq, Subjagator/SC weapons, Genisis jewelry, beastlord 3pc.
Conq/vanq are obtained from gold bags from taking a zone, and medallions (here's where you decide if its worth breaking down vanq medallions into conq to speed up progression). This is your first 6pc set because it has a belt. Vanquisher is obtainable from bags once you are RR50+. Dominator gear is the conq equivalent scenario set, which may be easier to obtain but is an offset so it may not be that great for your class/spec.
Dominator and Sc weapons come from... scenarios. Just remember if you want to get it done fast wait for thunder valley week and go ham.
Subjagator weapons comes from purple/gold bags. Generally speaking the level 40/40 scenario weapons are better for casters/healers though.
Genesis jewelry set comes from blue, purple, and gold bags from zone flips.
Beastlord is a PvE set you want to do all the quests to get the Pocket item, jewel piece and cape. You need a full group for this. (there's plenty of guides for this) You want to use this 3pc with 3pc genesis. So for instance the full setup on say slayer would be 2 subjagator 1h weapons, 6pc conq/vanq, 3pc beastlord, 3pc genesis. 5pc genesis might be a consideration if you have a really hard time finding groups for beastlord.
This setup will stop you from being canon fodder and is a good entry set for t4.
About what you should take from bags. Specifically gold/purple bags. I would recommend getting genesis pieces you need from gold bags that have boots/gloves/belt that you need because these 3 pieces of gear are pretty cheap to buy with medallions, and getting stuck in genesis hell (constantly getting dupes from bags) is not fun. If you plan on skipping conq for vanq same thing, if you are sub 50 just take the genesis pieces. You may also opt to take subjagator here as well. Generally speaking the hardest things to obtain from bags will be Vanq Chest/helm/shoulders and the last 2 pieces of genesis you need.
After this it's invader and Sov from forts/city and Sentinel/bloodlord from City dungeons and bastion stair. This tends to be pretty class specific and I'd recommend asking players what to do, but all of these can be worked on regardless.
