Ascended gear w/infusion vs. Exotic w/gems if you're not doing fractals?

[Taymar.5496]

Just got my first ascended ring, black ice band and noticed that the infusions I can upgrade it with are much weaker than some of the gems I can put in an exotic ring. I think I understand the basics of the fractals/agony infusions thing, but I haven't done fractals. Most of my playing is open world PvE, world bosses etc.

 

My question is - if I don't need the agony resistance, will ascended rings, earrings, and trinkets/backpack still give me higher stats than exotic w/gems? The only other ascended item I have is a weapon which I crafted, so I'm not sure if armor has the rune slots as well as infusions.

 

thanks for any advice.

 

[Krystal.3271]

Ascended accessories have higher stat to compensate for the lack of gem slot imo. Agony Resistance (AR) is only needed for fractal, other PvE contents, even raid, don't need it. Oh hey, I found a perfect answer for your concern from reddit: [https://reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/86i4vf/ascended_gear_for_pve/dw59u7b](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/86i4vf/ascended_gear_for_pve/dw59u7b "https://reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/86i4vf/ascended_gear_for_pve/dw59u7b")

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Taymar.5496" said:

> Just got my first ascended ring, black ice band and noticed that the infusions I can upgrade it with are much weaker than some of the gems I can put in an exotic ring. I think I understand the basics of the fractals/agony infusions thing, but I haven't done fractals. Most of my playing is open world PvE, world bosses etc.

>

> My question is - if I don't need the agony resistance, will ascended rings, earrings, and trinkets/backpack still give me higher stats than exotic w/gems? The only other ascended item I have is a weapon which I crafted, so I'm not sure if armor has the rune slots as well as infusions.

>

> thanks for any advice.

>

 

Ascended trinkets have stats that already include the equivalent of jewels. There is absolutely zero reason to worry about infusions unless you fall into one of these categories:

* You fractal (in which case AR+x infusions are fine; you don't need stats)

* You play at a high level in WvW (in which case, WvW infusions are fine)

* You want cosmetic auras (in which case, the stats don't matter)

* You are richer than 87% of the community so you can afford the huge premium for a modest amount of stat boosts.

 

tl;dr you're all set with you black ice band; just choose the prefix and move on to the next

[phs.6089]

check this when you have bit time

 

[Taymar.5496]

Awesome, thanks all - much appreciated.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

The clearest example that shows how ascended trinkets already contain the jewel is the "X & Y" stats: Berserker&Valkyrie is Berserker base stat with a Valkyrie "jewel" so POW/pre/fer + POW/fer/vit.

You'll notice the difference between the total Precision and Ferocity is equal to the total Vitality.

[Astralporing.1957]

Originally the ascended stat display was more clear about what is going on. See for example this:

https://uploads-7965.kxcdn.com/image_cache/40/40330-51330ebc4b720ed1c68450b9ff34762e-1547807686-server.jpg

 

As you can see, there are two stat blocks here - base and upgrade (the "jewel"). Looking at it you know that there _is_ an upgrade slot, it's simply already filled. One of the later game updates however merged those two stat blocks into one to let you better see how much stats they give. This had an unfortunate sideeffect of lesser clarity as far as upgrades are concerned.

 

So, in short, you don't have to worry. The ascended trinket gives more stats than exotic trinket + slotted gem combo. Infusions add even more stats on top of it (but as you can see, the increase they offer isn't that big, especially compared to cost, so you can safely ignore them).