Ascended armor, but which one? Crafted or PvP/WvW?

Hi!

After some months of playing I have now identified a need of ascended armor set in near/mid future. I'm progressing slowly but steadily towards higher tier fractals and I will need more AR, and I would like to prepare myself already. I am running out of infusion slots in trinkets, and I have no false hopes to be able to fill them with high tier infusions (13+) when the time comes. To get more slots for infusions, I need ascended armor pieces (and weapons, but let's concentrate on armor now).

I could take two possible paths now:

1) Use rewards (ascended shards of glory, grandmaster marks) which I have gained from PvP and WvW to get ascended armor pieces,

2) Push crafting a bit to be able to craft pieces for me, and save PvP/WvW tokens for later (or trinkets or such).

What I am worried here is that isn't it so that PvP/WvW ascended armor pieces can be upgraded to legendary later? So, if I now craft a set for me, would I find myself in a situation where I would still need to get PvP/WvW pieces if I want legendary ones? I am pretty sure that I will spend time in PvP & WvW in future, too, but I am not that sure if and how much I am going to raid in future (never been there yet).

Just to clarify, no, I am not in a need of legendary armor at the moment. And in legendary pieces I am only interested about stat swapping, not skins.

Some more question: Isn't it so that you get WvW ascended armor pieces by "upgrading" exotic ones from reward track? So that I need first to get the exotic piece, and after that I can purchase corresponding ascended piece. Is there any differences if the purchased piece is Triumphant Hero or Mistforged Triumphant Hero in terms of possibly later upgrading the piece to legendary? How about PvP side, is it just as simple as purchasing ascended piece from vendor, and it is then ready to be upgraded to legendary at some point of distant future?

I'd appreciate all recommendations, insights, considerations and information! Please ask if something sounds confusing, I am anything but familiar with these gearing things. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I rephrased the question, hope it is more clear now: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/371404/#Comment_371404

EDIT: Found some extra info & discussion here: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/19404/crafting-wvw-legendary-armor - is it really so that if you stat-swap WvW piece in mystic forge, it does not count as legendary precursor? Does the same hold true to PvP asc pieces, too?

EDIT2: Yes, it seems that do not throw your PvP/WvW ascended pieces to Mystic Forge in hope to change stats: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/10445/pvp-legendary-armor

You basically upgrade the WvW set, so you wouldn’t need another set for legendary unless you want two sets (a legendary and an ascended). Both sets can be upgraded to legendary. You might want to look at the wiki page for legendary armor if you want to eventually go that route or need more information.

I can’t answer whether crafting or PvP/WvW is better. It depends how you value the various currencies, what other things you want, etc.

A few tips just in case you don’t know:If you haven’t infused and attuned your rings, do that for extra slots. There’s also a back attunement, but it’s not worth the cost.Be sure to extract infusions if infusions are worth more than 24s.+9s, +7s, and +5s can have stats added, so if you want to go that route you might want to plan agony resist accordingly.If you do crafting, gw2crafts.net will help level crafting; gw2efficiency.com can help craft the actual gear.

Thanks for answers & comments!

@Richard.8207 said:You basically upgrade the WvW set, so you wouldn’t need another set for legendary unless you want two sets (a legendary and an ascended). Both sets can be upgraded to legendary. You might want to look at the wiki page for legendary armor if you want to eventually go that route or need more information.

Yes, I have been examining those pages closely, but without that much experience, I feel being overwhelmed and confused :)

I can’t answer whether crafting or PvP/WvW is better. It depends how you value the various currencies, what other things you want, etc.

I have already used asc shards for trinkets to be able to choose stats (Marauder, Minstrel) I can't find from standard sources (laurel, guild, fractal vendors). Also, their stat resetting is relatively simple (if I have understood it correctly) improving reuse, also on other toons.

If you haven’t infused and attuned your rings, do that for extra slots. There’s also a back attunement, but it’s not worth the cost.

Yes, both rings are attuned and infused, and yes, I looked the cost to infuse back item and it was bit too salty for me for one extra slot.

+9s, +7s, and +5s can have stats added, so if you want to go that route you might want to plan agony resist accordingly.

Interesting! Haven't looked those ones yet!

If you do crafting, gw2crafts.net will help level crafting; gw2efficiency.com can help craft the actual gear.

Thanks for these links!

Be careful on changing the stats on the WvW Ascended armor. If you do, you will not be able to upgrade them into the Legendary version.

@Loosmaster.8263, that's a good warning, indeed! I am very pleased to be warned about that, it would been a catastrophe to realize it too late! I hope PvP & WvW asc armors get some item to reset their stats soon :)

I think I need to rephrase the question a bit: if I go to trash my hard-earned tokens to PvP & WvW asc armor pieces in hope to take an advantage to convert them to legendaries in distant future, will I be regretting that? Is there something more urgent to use PvP & WvW tokens, some items or abilities I will need before even thinking about legendary upgrade?

@TamX.1870 said:@Loosmaster.8263, that's a good warning, indeed! I am very pleased to be warned about that, it would been a catastrophe to realize it too late! I hope PvP & WvW asc armors get some item to reset their stats soon :)

I think I need to rephrase the question a bit: if I go to trash my hard-earned tokens to PvP & WvW asc armor pieces in hope to take an advantage to convert them to legendaries in distant future, will I be regretting that? Is there something more urgent to use PvP & WvW tokens, some items or abilities I will need before even thinking about legendary upgrade?

You can reset them in the Mystic Forge. Anthology of Heroes, Globs, Inscription (Exotic) of the stats you want and the armor piece.

@Loosmaster.8263 said:You can reset them in the Mystic Forge. Anthology of Heroes, Globs, Inscription (Exotic) of the stats you want and the armor piece.

But then you cant later convert it to legendary, right? You dont get PvP/WvW armor back, instead you get something like Zojja's armor, and that cant be upgraded to lege? What I was wishing, would be some item to reset the piece so that you can choose the stats again. Like with PvP trinkets. EDIT: By all means, if I have understood that wrong, correct me before I make wrong choices!

Correct but it's only the version that you purchase with Grand Master marks that you don't want to change.

@Loosmaster.8263 said:Correct but it's only the version that you purchase with Grand Master marks that you don't want to change.

And those ones are the ones that can be upgraded to legendary, right? Crafted ascended cannot be upgraded, pieces taken to mystic forge to change stats can not be upgraded, pieces bought from fractal lobby can not be upgraded, right? Sorry if this sounds stupid repeating and such, but I just mean that I'd like to be sure what I am buying and what I get with my tokens. I think it is better ask than be sorry later :)

I'm not 100% sure about the PvP set. But only the WvW Ascended armor purchased with tickets/Grand Master marks are upgradeable to Legendary. Do not refrorge.

The next set above those "Mist Forged Triumphant Heros" is basically just skins.

@"Loosmaster.8263" said:I'm not 100% sure about the PvP set. But only the WvW Ascended armor purchased with tickets/Grand Master marks are upgradeable to Legendary. Do not refrorge.

The next set above those "Mist Forged Triumphant Heros" is basically just skins.

OK, thanks a lot! Yes, WvW track has those skins, too, and two sets where one is rank gated and only for skin, but the one w/o rank requirement can also be upgraded, if I have understood Wiki and threads in this forums correctly. And yes, that do-not-reforge warning is more than important, without thinking it you would go to mystic forge to change stats as usual to get piece you need at that moment!

The reason for it is because the Devs said the game cannot determine it's original form.

@Loosmaster.8263 said:The reason for it is because the Devs said the game cannot determine it's original form.

Yeah. That I understand. Mystic Forge does not convert items, it creates new ones.

That's why I said it could be good if we could get an item similar to Mist Capacitor (which AFAIK resets the PvP trinkets in inventory) for PvP/WvW armors, too, so that if you ever want to change the stats of your precious pieces, you'd have a choice to do that without taking them to MF and loose the potential to upgrade those pieces later to lege.

EDIT: It could be even so that you couldnt change the PvP/WvW piece stats in mystic forge, to prevent accidents.

EDIT2: Would be in fact useful to all precursors, so that you'd need first take an action to make them from precursors to regular ascended before changing stats in MF.

Any changes to WvW is put on the slow boat to China... maybe in a couple of years.

@"Loosmaster.8263" said:Any changes to WvW is put on the slow boat to China... maybe in a couple of years.

Hahah! I thought we ended the sailing boat era like 200 years ago, but you're right that these motored vehicles does not make it any faster :D

EDIT: The more I think, the more I am up for a "precursor fixater" item, an item applied to any precursor (any item that can be upgraded to legendary) to make it a regular fractal asc piece, which can be stat-changed in MF. If you try to take any precursor, no matter which source, to MF, it would inform you to first fixate the piece to regular.