Ascended Gear Question(s)

[scrimCD.1027]

Background - I'm a new player. I have just recently leveled a Necro to 80 after finishing the main story and most of HoT. What I would like to do next, alongside level another character, is start working towards ascended gear.. but I'm a little hung up on the process.

 

As far as I can tell, you have to craft it. Each character gets two specialties for crafting, so I've composed a character assortment that compliments one another in terms of crafting overlap so I can (eventually) have full sets of ascended gear on all of my characters intended for different things - Dungeons, Raids, Fractals, WvW, etc. Until this point, I've assumed that you level your crafting skill, acquire the ascended recipe, and then craft the item based on the required materials. This evening, I read that you can craft ANY ascended gear, and then stat swap it to the one you'd like by using the mystic forge and the appropriate insignia.

 

Can someone please provide a simplified, bullet point, overview of the various methods of crafting ascended gear [or point me towards something of that ilk]. I've been reading the wiki, this forum, and otherwise researching; but as this is my first MMO I find myself getting a tad bit lost in it all.

 

Very much appreciate any and all insight.

[Sephylon.4938]

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_crafting

or

https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/calculator/a~0!b~1!c~0!d~1-48072

 

P.S

stat swapping only applies to armor and weapons, you can't stat swap (most) accessories. Also you can only craft within your chosen discipline: Light armor from tailor, medium from leather worker, heavy from armor smith, etc

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

The primary reasons to stat swap: you get a drop with stats you don't use, you want to save the cost of buying the recipes, or the ascended version requires grinding fulgurite (or something similar), which is the case for Viper's.

 

Otherwise, if you already have the recipes, it's easiest & cheapest to craft them yourself.

 

Examples:

* Your weaponsmith knows the recipe for a Hronk (Magi) Axe, but you want Zojja. You save some gold/laurels by buying a magi inscription, crafting the Hronk Axe, crafting a berserker's inscription, and the reforging the axe with undesired stats to the new one.

* Your tailor knows the recipe for Yassith (Viper's) & Zojja's (zerker) gloves, but you hate hate hate doing HoT metas. The Viper's recipe requires a bunch of fulgurite, which combines mats that only drop from VB/AB/TD. So you craft Zojja, reforge to Yassith. This costs more than making Yassith directly, but it means you can do it without grinding for the mats.

* Alternative to above: I use my fulgurite for (a) HoT legendary weapons and/or (b) making and selling jeweled patches or dowels. Therefore, it ends up being a net savings for me to convert to Yassith's rather than crafting it directly.

 

****

 

> @"Sephylon.4938" said:

> https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_crafting

> or

> https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/calculator/a~0!b~1!c~0!d~1-48072

>

> P.S

> stat swapping only applies to armor and weapons, you can't stat swap (most) accessories. Also you can only craft within your chosen discipline: Light armor from tailor, medium from leather worker, heavy from armor smith, etc

 

Clarification: "stat swapping" is a short hand for "destroy the original item with original stats and replace it with the same item type with different stats." The distinction matters if the gear item has upgrades (or you have nostalgia for the 'color' text of the original skin).

 

[Reverielle.3972]

As usual, Illconceived provides good advice.

 

**My advice would be to jump right in and start working on your first piece of ascended clothing, there is nothing like actually learning by doing I think.** The first requirement of this will be to get your Tailoring skill to level 450, if you haven't done so already, one of the easiest way to do this is by discovering new exotic recipes via the 'Discovery' section of your crafting window.

 

Once at level 450, you will then be able to start crafting some of the component items required for ascended clothing, such as Spool of Silk Weaving Thread, Spool of Thick Elonian Cord, Bolt of Damask and Elonian Leather Square. As well as Bloodstone Brick, Dragonite Ingot and Empyreal Star. (Note the first two can only be crafted once-daily, so it's best to focus on them and build up a bit of a stock first.) All of those can be crafted once you reach 450, and can help in your final progress to 500, though exotic equipment discovery I still believe is one of the easiest ways if you're in a hurry.

 

When you reach 500, then you can actually make an ascended item. As was said above, a Master Tailor NPC will have ascended recipes for you to purchase that cover all the basic stats, though Laurel merchants will do too, as well as Heart Merchants in the Path of Fire desert, and also for sale at the Black Lion Traders. Don't be too worried about making an item with the wrong stats, as - once again said above - changing that item for another one with a different stat allocation is not all that difficult and uses the mystic forge.

[ButcherofMalakir.4067]

To get ascended gear you dont need crafting at all. For raids (like training discord I am part of) you only need ascended weapons and trinkets. Armor can be exotic. You can get ascended trinkets from ls3 maps and ascended weapons from specialization and caladbolg collections. Once you raid for some time you can buy armor for magnetide shards.

[Tails.9372]

> @"scrimCD.1027" said:

> As far as I can tell, you have to craft it.

No you don't, you can just kill veteran creatures in WvW until you have a full set of ascended gear.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"scrimCD.1027" said:

> This evening, I read that you can craft ANY ascended gear, and then stat swap it to the one you'd like by using the mystic forge and the appropriate insignia.

 

That is correct and a much better options price-wise than crafting certain ascended gear directly (like Viper's). If you have enough Spirit Shards, stat swapping armor and weapon stats to the more expensive stats is definitely a good idea. :+1:

 

> Can someone please provide a simplified, bullet point, overview of the various methods of crafting ascended gear

 

For crafting PvE gear, the links already provided in this thread should help. However, there is also a way to craft ascended armor and weapons via PvP/WvW/Fractals, for which you will require the [Grandmaster Mark](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grandmaster_Mark "Grandmaster Mark") recipes. Also, ascended gear exists as rare drops in Fractals or can be obtained with Raid currency. As for ascended trinkets, check [this link](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_trinket "this link").

 

I know it's quite confusing to a new player, I wish there weren't so many different methods of acquisition. If you are unsure, take your time. Getting full ascended gear isn't an urgency, especially if you are new to the game. I was in a hurry like you a couple of years ago, and I regret having put myself under such pressure regarding perfect gear (as I did a few miscalculations etc.).

 

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"scrimCD.1027" said:

> > This evening, I read that you can craft ANY ascended gear, and then stat swap it to the one you'd like by using the mystic forge and the appropriate insignia.

>

> That is correct and a much better options price-wise than crafting certain ascended gear directly (like Viper's). If you have enough Spirit Shards, stat swapping armor and weapon stats to the more expensive stats is definitely a good idea. :+1:

 

Incorrect. Ignoring cost of purchasing the recepies and assuming you craft the timegated materials yourself there is no statswapping that saves any noticable amount of gold. Stat swapping to a HoT stat *does* save the need for fulgurite. See the post by @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" above.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Tanner Blackfeather.6509" said:

> Incorrect. Ignoring cost of purchasing the recepies and assuming you craft the timegated materials yourself there is no statswapping that saves any noticable amount of gold. **Stat swapping to a HoT stat *does* save the need for fulgurite.**

 

That's what I was talking about. You are right, "price-wise" wasn't the proper terminology as it is misleading. But the materials required are costly, like Obsidian Shards (for which you will need, for instance, plenty of Unbound Magic farming as well as some gold). "Timegated" hits the nail on the head.

[alchemist.6851]

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> > @"scrimCD.1027" said:

> > As far as I can tell, you have to craft it.

> No you don't, you can just kill veteran creatures in WvW until you have a full set of ascended gear.

 

is this really true? how rare are the drops?

[Oogabooga.3812]

> @"scrimCD.1027" said:

> Background - I'm a new player. I have just recently leveled a Necro to 80 after finishing the main story and most of HoT. What I would like to do next, alongside level another character, is start working towards ascended gear.. but I'm a little hung up on the process.

>

> As far as I can tell, you have to craft it. Each character gets two specialties for crafting, so I've composed a character assortment that compliments one another in terms of crafting overlap so I can (eventually) have full sets of ascended gear on all of my characters intended for different things - Dungeons, Raids, Fractals, WvW, etc. Until this point, I've assumed that you level your crafting skill, acquire the ascended recipe, and then craft the item based on the required materials. This evening, I read that you can craft ANY ascended gear, and then stat swap it to the one you'd like by using the mystic forge and the appropriate insignia.

>

> Can someone please provide a simplified, bullet point, overview of the various methods of crafting ascended gear [or point me towards something of that ilk]. I've been reading the wiki, this forum, and otherwise researching; but as this is my first MMO I find myself getting a tad bit lost in it all.

>

> Very much appreciate any and all insight.

 

Let me start with trinkets:

 

All trinkets - you can PVE maps like Bloodstone Fen, Bitterfrost Frontier, Lake Doric, and other Living Story maps to get the currencies to buy them from their merchants. Alternatively, you can do PVP or WVW reward tracks of these maps to get currency faster.

 

Rings - I would suggest fractals. You can do tier 1 fractals with no ascended gear and receive Pristine Fractal relics, which can be used to buy rings.

 

Accessories - these can be purchased from Laurel vendors for globs of ectoplasm and laurels. You can also purchase them from the wvw merchant. But the easiest way is using Guild Commendations.

 

Amulets - I would suggest using WvW vendors for Badges of Honor.

 

Back pieces - many collection achievements will reward you with one. Also purchaseable in fractals for limited stat selection.

 

Now as for armor and weapons, yes you can craft them, but there are other ways of attaining them. You can purchase them from the fractal vendor if you have the Grandmaster marks (tailor for your necro) and currency. The WVW vendors also sell them for WVW tickets and memories of battle. These have selectable stats so you don't need to re-stat them. Reward chests will rarely drop them from fractals, map metas, raids, wvw rank chests, etc. but it does happen.

 

Bottom line: you don't need to wait to have ascended gear to do wvw, dungeons, fractals, and raids. I'd especially suggest start doing fractals, as tier 1 is easy enough to survive and learn the mechanics. Plus the rewards are good.

 

This is not an exhaustive list but rather my suggestions.

[Cyninja.2954]

> @"alchemist.6851" said:

> > @"Tails.9372" said:

> > > @"scrimCD.1027" said:

> > > As far as I can tell, you have to craft it.

> > No you don't, you can just kill veteran creatures in WvW until you have a full set of ascended gear.

>

> is this really true? how rare are the drops?

 

Very rare and no, it's not really an option. That's not even considering that you have no control over what type of armor or weapon type drops.

[Cyninja.2954]

> @"Oogabooga.3812" said:

> > @"scrimCD.1027" said:

> > Background - I'm a new player. I have just recently leveled a Necro to 80 after finishing the main story and most of HoT. What I would like to do next, alongside level another character, is start working towards ascended gear.. but I'm a little hung up on the process.

> >

> > As far as I can tell, you have to craft it. Each character gets two specialties for crafting, so I've composed a character assortment that compliments one another in terms of crafting overlap so I can (eventually) have full sets of ascended gear on all of my characters intended for different things - Dungeons, Raids, Fractals, WvW, etc. Until this point, I've assumed that you level your crafting skill, acquire the ascended recipe, and then craft the item based on the required materials. This evening, I read that you can craft ANY ascended gear, and then stat swap it to the one you'd like by using the mystic forge and the appropriate insignia.

> >

> > Can someone please provide a simplified, bullet point, overview of the various methods of crafting ascended gear [or point me towards something of that ilk]. I've been reading the wiki, this forum, and otherwise researching; but as this is my first MMO I find myself getting a tad bit lost in it all.

> >

> > Very much appreciate any and all insight.

>

> Let me start with trinkets:

>

> All trinkets - you can PVE maps like Bloodstone Fen, Bitterfrost Frontier, Lake Doric, and other Living Story maps to get the currencies to buy them from their merchants. Alternatively, you can do PVP or WVW reward tracks of these maps to get currency faster.

>

> Rings - I would suggest fractals. You can do tier 1 fractals with no ascended gear and receive Pristine Fractal relics, which can be used to buy rings.

>

> Accessories - these can be purchased from Laurel vendors for globs of ectoplasm and laurels. You can also purchase them from the wvw merchant. But the easiest way is using Guild Commendations.

>

> Amulets - I would suggest using WvW vendors for Badges of Honor.

>

> Back pieces - many collection achievements will reward you with one. Also purchaseable in fractals for limited stat selection.

>

> Now as for armor and weapons, yes you can craft them, but there are other ways of attaining them. You can purchase them from the fractal vendor if you have the Grandmaster marks (tailor for your necro) and currency. The WVW vendors also sell them for WVW tickets and memories of battle. These have selectable stats so you don't need to re-stat them. Reward chests will rarely drop them from fractals, map metas, raids, wvw rank chests, etc. but it does happen.

>

> Bottom line: you don't need to wait to have ascended gear to do wvw, dungeons, fractals, and raids. I'd especially suggest start doing fractals, as tier 1 is easy enough to survive and learn the mechanics. Plus the rewards are good.

>

> This is not an exhaustive list but rather my suggestions.

 

^

Just had to quote this and as usual some of the other forum regulars have given more good advice.

 

**Don't start with ascended armor crafting UNLESS you are about to hit T4 fractals and need the agony resistance.**

[Tails.9372]

> @"alchemist.6851" said:

> > @"Tails.9372" said:

> > > @"scrimCD.1027" said:

> > > As far as I can tell, you have to craft it.

> > No you don't, you can just kill veteran creatures in WvW until you have a full set of ascended gear.

>

> is this really true? how rare are the drops?

Yes but it doesn't drop from enemies, there is an item set called "[Triumphant Hero's armor](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Triumphant_Hero%27s_armor "Triumphant Hero's armor")" which can be bought with items you obtain through the various reward systems and the only thing you need to do in order to get these items is maintaining a participation rank of 3 or higher which can be achieved by killing veteran creatures (there are also weapons, trinkets and a legendary backpack).

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> > @"alchemist.6851" said:

> > > @"Tails.9372" said:

> > > > @"scrimCD.1027" said:

> > > > As far as I can tell, you have to craft it.

> > > No you don't, you can just kill veteran creatures in WvW until you have a full set of ascended gear.

> >

> > is this really true? how rare are the drops?

> Yes but it doesn't drop from enemies, there is an item set called "[Triumphant Hero's armor](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Triumphant_Hero%27s_armor "Triumphant Hero's armor")" which can be bought with items you obtain through the various reward systems and the only thing you need to do in order to get these items is maintaining a participation rank of 3 or higher which can be achieved by killing veteran creatures (there are also weapons, trinkets and a legendary backpack).

 

Just don't expect it to be quick if you rely solely on this approach.

 

A full set of armor requires 20 marks. Each mark takes 10 shards. You can get 3 shards per week. That is over 66 weeks.

 

[MauChann.3081]

There is a lot of vanilla pve collections you can do that have ascended weapons as reward. Not only the elite spec collections because those have only 3 set stats you can pick from. The other collection chests you can always make up to your preference with using the ol' mystic toilet stat reform. That's how I geared 50% of one of my characters with ascended.