Can you provide examples of this? I am having a hard time figuring out how Ascended equipment is easier to obtain than Exotic. I am genuinely interested because, as a returning player who stopped right before HoT, I am in the situation where I do not know how to proceed to update my gear (which was fully ascended) with the best stat choices for min-maxing my performance. Ring: Fractals, 10 pristine for red ring of death and the other one (berserker stats). Ring, Backpack, Accessory (unique, any stat): Pick up lws3 ep 3 from the gem store. You will unlock bitterfrost frontieer. Farm winterberries, you should get about 70 per character per day if you do hearts + chests. More characters helps here, and the farm is fairly quick with mounts. Use the winterberries to buy accessories. Ring, Backpack, Amulet (unique, any stat): I recommend bloodstone from lws3 ep 1 since they're stat swappable, but takes FOREVER to farm. But, in general, lw is just great for farming at least one type of ascended accessory. PvP also has realistically obtainable stat swappable accessories if you want to casually dab into the ranked season for lols. Backpack: Lots of achievements give one. My personal favourite are the PoF banner support achievements. If you're stuck on what to go for, pick ad infinitum - it'll take you through the steps to make a beta infused backpack with 2 infusion slots you can keep. Weapons: Elite spec weapons are probably the easiest to obtain off the top of my head. If they're the wrong stat, throw them in the mystic toilet with the exotic inscription of choice. Caladbolg is also a fun miniquest and a nice send off to traehearne, and can take the form of a gs, sword, scepter, shield or dagger. Armour: pvp is an option, but realistically just throw money at the problem. Use gw2 crafts to get 450 tailor (light), leatherworking (medium) or armoursmithing (heavy). Begin making your daily materials. In the meantime, you can get exotic stat swappable armour from verdant brink (bladed armour) or berserkers from the cathedral of silence in cursed shore.Thanks, but I still do not see how all these are more easily achievable (in terms of time/gold cost) than exotics :/