getting first ascended gear

hi guys so i have played and completed the pof story and also unlocked some of the mounts (besides bettle and jackal), currently doing HoT chap 7...been joining some fracs and dungeons ....i wish to get my first ascended weapon, or armor, any suggestion on easiest way to get them? thanks!

At the end of of Heart of Thorns, there's an ascended weapon that's very easy to get. A day after the last boss, you get a letter from a sylvari asking to meet. Follow that through (maybe using a guide for the first part which is a tour of different places and a complete loveletter to the map design team) and you unlock an ascended weapon. It's limited to sword, greatsword, dagger, ~~axe ~~ sceptre or shield and certain stats, but it's a decent first ascended weapon for most people and attainable after a quest you can do in about an hour.

Look at the https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Specialization_Collections. The ones for PoF aren't super hard to do. Basically, you have to do one of lots of kind of activity (one bounty, one map completion, one jackal teleport puzzle etc) and visit a few locations, do a few events etc. This will unlock a free version of whatever weapon comes with the elite spec (e.g. axe for mirage, shield for chronomancer). HoT has them too, but they're a bit harder as they're often a bit grindy to get certain currencies to get certain things and several are locked behind masteries.

For armour, if you're doing fractals, it may be worth crafting grandmaster marks and purchasing the armour from the golem in the fractal lobby. You'll need fractal research pages, which you should get a slow trickle of as you do fractals.

You can also craft them directly yourself at crafting skill 500. You can buy recipes from the master crafters (the ones with the craft icon above their heads).

Every day, craft one of each of the "ectoplasmic refinement" things as you can only do one a day of each and you'll need a good few to get a full set. Occasionally T1 and T2 fractals can drop ascended gear, but it's quite rare.

The easiest way to get ascended gear is to farm the season 3 maps...you can get a full set of ascended accessories in about a week. Ascended weapons and armor will take much longer because many of the materials are time-gated. Legendary weapons and armor will take much much longer than their ascended equivalents.

You can get ascended weapons from the various specialization collections that came with PoF.

They do drop with some regularity in higher tier fractals as well (I have gotten them in T2, but only rarely), though you'll need to already have some ascended gear (trinkets and weapons) to actually play in those tiers.

Thanks guys for the info.

@GW Noob.6038 said:The easiest way to get ascended gear is to farm the season 3 maps...you can get a full set of ascended accessories in about a week. Ascended weapons and armor will take much longer because many of the materials are time-gated. Legendary weapons and armor will take much much longer than their ascended equivalents.

Any idea which map in specific in living world 3? Should I do more fracs instead to get pristine for trinkets?

@DHung.5263 said:Thanks guys for the info.

@"GW Noob.6038" said:The easiest way to get ascended gear is to farm the season 3 maps...you can get a full set of ascended accessories in about a week. Ascended weapons and armor will take much longer because many of the materials are time-gated. Legendary weapons and armor will take much much longer than their ascended equivalents.

First tell us what stat you are looking to get.Cus if you need core like berserk, they easiest is:Amulet from wvw laurel merchant by this time you surely have some wvw curency from achievement you need 200? and 20 laurels for amulet.if you don't have, amulet is 30 laurels from ay laurel vendor in C.TyriaRings: fractal merchant you need 20 pristine relics for 2 rings, don't by the same time, they don't stack.Earring I dunno how active you were with guild missions but if you have 24 guild commendation, your guild vendor would be happy to get you pairIf you have 12, get one from G.Vendor and farm one from Sandwept Isle(easy, nice map to farm) it's LW4 map

back to LW3ring, earring back item from Bitterfrost Second ring from Dragonic monsAmulet, Lake Doric or Sirens Landing up to you, what you prefer, to be killed by white mantle or by undead :)I prefer Sirens also pearls are better to farm then jade.Second earring from Ember bay

There is also Bloodstone Fen that isn't easy farm with back, amulet and ring on vendor. Those can reset stats.

I dunno what class you play, but if you need GS, shiled, dagger, scepter or sword. Do the side story 'Knight of the Thorns'

@DHung.5263 said:Thanks guys for the info.

@GW Noob.6038 said:The easiest way to get ascended gear is to farm the season 3 maps...you can get a full set of ascended accessories in about a week. Ascended weapons and armor will take much longer because many of the materials are time-gated. Legendary weapons and armor will take much much longer than their ascended equivalents.

The best map is the Bitterfrost Frontier...you can collect approximately 70 - 80 Winterberries per character per day. Plus, you can buy Karmic Retribution from the vendor there...this allows you to receive lots of extra Karma as you kill things. Thus you can farm both Winterberries and Karma at the same time. All the other maps are just as good, just not as fast as in Bitterfrost. The second best map for farming, imo, is Draconis Mons...there you can farm lots of Primal Orchids which can be exchanged for ascended trinkets. I haven't done any Fractals, yet, so I can't speak to it's efficiency...you can get ascended armor pieces in Fractals, so do them by all means.

thanks for all the info and tips :)

Btw Is the ascended weapons from HOT completion = account bound or soulbound?

Edit: Yes just saw the ascended is account bound

@DHung.5263 said:Btw Is the ascended weapons from HOT completion = account bound or soulbound?

Edit: Yes just saw the ascended is account bound

In fact, all ascended items are account bound.

Depending on your level of crafting, you can also purchase Ascended Weapons and Armor from the vendors in the Fractal Lobby (talk to Bling: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/BLING-9009)

The requirement will be:

• Grandmaster marks for the type of equipment (Weaponsmith, Leatherworking, etc)
• Fractal Research Pages (earned by completing the Recommended Fractal daily, 1 page each for T1, T2 and T3)
• Fractal Relics that you earn from completing fractals
• Gold (because..why not)

If you have the required crafting profession at 500, you'll be able to craft the Grandmaster marks. The rest of the requirements are earned just by doing fractals on a regular basis.

I would start, though, with @"GW Noob.6038" suggestion: get a full set of ascended rings, trinkets and back piece, as that will give you enough infusion slots to get the agony resistance you need for all of T1 and half of T2, which makes farming fractals a lot easier.

Alternatively if you play WvW there are reward tracks that lead to ascended armor and weapons, again requiring Grandmaster marks and WvW currency.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hero_Weapon_Reward_Trackhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Triumphant_Armor_Reward_Track

Both methods take a bit of time, but they allow you to progressively earn ascended armor and weapons.

Also @Gulbasaur.1865 suggestion, I don't know if all the PoF weapon specialization's require you have the Jackal, but the last two I completed did, so if you don't already have that mount and you may want to work towards it. The Beetle is optional unless you want to race.

For what it's worth, ascended gear is hard to get at first on a new account, but it does eventually get easier. If you keep playing fractals you'll eventually be vendoring unwanted ascended rings like the rest of us :)

Agreeing with @"Turkeyspit.3965" on the rings/accessories but I think the rings should have higher priority due to the fact they can be "infused" and "attuned" to generate more slots for agony infusions.

If you have to craft ascended equipment, I suggest doing weapons first, then armor. For armor, the order from most expensive to least expensive (in mats, not in price): chest, leg, head, shoulders/gloves/boots. Ascended weapons/armor have infusion slots but I recommend waiting until you can get a combo infusion (adds +X to a stat as well as agony resistance).

Amulets have Enrichment slots that use specific enrichments. Basic ones can be bought from the laurel vendor for 10 (karma/EXP bonus) or 20 (magic/coin bonus) laurels, respectively. You can also buy ascended amulets, rings and accessories from the vendor for 30/35/40 laurels, respectively, with the exception that Accessories also require 50 ecto for purchase.

@altermaven.7385 said:If you have to craft ascended equipment, I suggest doing weapons first, then armor. For armor, the order from most expensive to least expensive (in mats, not in price): chest, leg, head, shoulders/gloves/boots.

Totally agree. Chest > legs > head > everything else is also the order from most stats to least, so you'll get more bang for your buck if you do it in that order.

For trinkets, it's amulet > ring > earring > back piece for stats. If you want them to run fractals, rings can have 3 infusion slots, backs 2, earrings 1 and amulets 0 (but has different bonus option). Ascended rings drop semi-frequently.

You're correct on amulets. I think ever since the infusions rework that no longer had 3 tiers of infusions (utility/offense/defense) they've basically broken down the items into two actual things: offense/defense infusions are now just "infusions", and what was once utility infusions (excpet for Agony resist which is Defense to the new tier, and thus "infusion") is now called "enrichments". Amulets are the only equipment that receive these. So infusions like agony resistance, + to stats, and a few certain other stat-related boons are now infusions, but those such as +% to magic find, exp, gold... those are now enrichments and use the amulet slot.