What are the highest level 80 armour values?

Question

Now that I've reached lv80 I'd like to pickup some lv80 armour items to round out my character. I'm currently using lv70-76 exotics and rares.

So far I can only see three viable options,
1) Orr karma vendors - save up 252k karma and buy a set.
- Gates of Arah medium coat has 338 armour
2) Order armour - 8g8s
- Medium coat has 299 armour
3) Craft some armour
- This option I'm not sure of, or what armour values it has. My leatherworking is about 279 at time of writing

Please can someone show me the various 'tiers' of lv80 armour, where to get them and how much they cost?
I've been poking about on this page, but the information is sparse. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_armor_sets

Answer 1

First thing to know about items, exotic items have the highest stats possible. Crafting a legendary item won't up the stats, only change the skin (maybe something else, but it won't influence your damage output or resistance).

Considering this, all you need is to find your best way of getting an exotic set.

1. Farm a dungeon and exchange the dungeons tokens against items (sellers are in Lyon's Arch). The prices are given in the link you posted.
2. Craft it yourself, you need to be 400 in crafting and you will need lvl 400 crafting components such as Orichalcum and Ectoplams.
3. Buy it at the trading post. Weirdly, it is there that I have found it the least expensive. It's even cheaper than crafting it yourself (you can get most for 2 or 3 gold a piece).
4. Karma vendors, but I unfortunately don't know much about these. I don't know if they sell exotic items.

For non-exotic items, they will have weaker stats (rare for example is just a simpler version of the exotic item), but all the same. Two rares of the same type (heavy, medium, light) will have the same armor. So to answer your question, tiers would simply be:

1. Fine (blue)
2. Masterwork (green)
3. Rare (yellow)
4. Exotic (orange) or Legendary (red)