Ascended WvW Armor

[DoctorOverlord.8620]

I probably shouldn't be posting this late since my brain is foggy, but I want to ask about getting WvW Ascended armor vs. Crafting.

After you unlock the Exotic Triumphant armor pieces through the armor reward track, a full set of Ascended Triumphant WvW armor costs 1310 tickets, 1550 Memories and 13 gold according to the wiki. Okay, great.  But then you need 20 Grandmaster Marks, and you can only get 3 Grandmaster Mark Shards every week? (One for each of the final tiers of bronze, silver and gold Skirmish reward chests)   It takes 10 Mark Shards to get one Mark, so you need 200 Mark Shards at 3/week?   That's ~66 weeks to get a full set of armor if you try to get the Shards solely through WvW?

So I guess we're supposed to craft the Shards, not get them through WvW?  But then the WvW armor is more expensive than just directly crafting Ascended Armor according the number I've looked up (I'm not going to type out all of those)  So what's the point?

Like I said, it's late so maybe I'm completely missing something.  (This whole system seems pointlessly complicated with too many needless currencies and conversions).

Edited October 26, 2021 by DoctorOverlord.8620

[ArchonWing.9480]

Yea it's trash, especially with the cost of Memories of Battle. But even before that the Marks system is useless because waiting a year for ascended armor is silly.  Just craft it normally.

You only get the WvW ascended to use as a precursor to a legendary, or get the skin. In some rare cases if you need some funky obscure stats, you could do that as they are stat selectable.

Come to think about it, I should probably throw all my mark shards  in the garbage. (I have legendary armor though)

Edited October 26, 2021 by ArchonWing.9480

[Zok.4956]

43 minutes ago, ArchonWing.9480 said:

Come to think about it, I should probably throw all my mark shards  in the garbage. (I have legendary armor though)

Do not throw them in the garbage. You can still use them for ascended weapons.

I have legendary armor and legendary armor works well with the "armory".

But legendary weapons do not work well with the armory. If I want to equiq/use a different weapon for a specific situation and I do not want to waste a complete equiqment slot/template (they are expensive and you only have 6 slots at all) for this, I have to uneqiq the weapon and then the legendary loses its stats and upgrades and I have to redo it. For this situation it is much faster to use several ascended weapons and use them from the inventory.

But I agree that the Marks-system in WvW is more or less useless and kind of broken and should be optimized a lot. WvW players should be able to get ascended armor/weapons faster in WvW.

Edited October 26, 2021 by Zok.4956

[subversiontwo.7501]

1 hour ago, Zok.4956 said:

Do not throw them in the garbage. You can still use them for ascended weapons.

At which point you can sell the memories for 50g, take the additional 5g for the weapon, go craft a PvE weapon for the 55g and throw both the marks and the tickets in the trash ☺️

WvW itemisation still essentially tells you to go play PvE instead.

[Zape.2094]

Im encountering the exact same issue. I have the gold. I have the tickets. I have the memories of battle. What I dont have is the kittening grandmaster mark shards, because it takes bloody ages to get them at this point, and I do not do anything beside WvW (I dont PvE nor craft).

 

Best,

Zape

[Infusion.7149]

3 hours ago, Zape.2094 said:

Im encountering the exact same issue. I have the gold. I have the tickets. I have the memories of battle. What I dont have is the kittening grandmaster mark shards, because it takes bloody ages to get them at this point, and I do not do anything beside WvW (I dont PvE nor craft).

 

Best,

Zape

Until they wake up and change grandmaster mark shards you can earn the marks in PVP ranked or just craft them

[Zape.2094]

20 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Until they wake up and change grandmaster mark shards you can earn the marks in PVP ranked or just craft them

Is getting them in PvP faster / easier? And crafting, what level do I need to do it? And how much does each of them cost approximately?

Thanks!

Best,

Z

[Justine.6351]

If I recall correctly the wvw reward system thingy also grants you the crafting material so it shouldn't "cost you more" unless you are starting to think about your materials from a potential profit standpoint.

[ASP.8093]

Crafting Grandmaster Marks:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grandmaster_Mark

[Infusion.7149]

14 minutes ago, Zape.2094 said:

Is getting them in PvP faster / easier? And crafting, what level do I need to do it? And how much does each of them cost approximately?

Thanks!

Best,

Z

Depends on your win rate, it's probably slower after Feb 2020 damage nerfs but have a look at https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Box_of_Grandmaster_Marks

Fastest way is going to be crafting, ~8 to 10g
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grandmaster_Leatherworker's_Mark
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grandmaster_Armorsmith's_Mark
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grandmaster_Tailor's_Mark

[Zape.2094]

1 minute ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Depends on your win rate, it's probably slower after Feb 2020 damage nerfs but have a look at https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Box_of_Grandmaster_Marks

Fastest way is going to be crafting, ~8 to 10g
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grandmaster_Leatherworker's_Mark
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grandmaster_Armorsmith's_Mark
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grandmaster_Tailor's_Mark

Thanks a ton captain! I think I'll have to pick up crafting 😉

Best,

Zape

[Faccina.5091]

took me less time to craft the whole set pve than get one single piece in wvw 🤨

[ArchonWing.9480]

15 hours ago, Zok.4956 said:

Do not throw them in the garbage. You can still use them for ascended weapons.

For just the price of the Memories, you can almost have 2 ascended weapons lol: https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/calculator/a~0!b~1!c~0!d~1-46762

Even if I were to buy all the deldrimor and spiritwood, not waiting for any time gates, and for some reason I want to hoard mithril, this still comes down to just 43 gold. And keep in mind that greatswords are metal heavy. Spiritwood is so cheap  that it's being sold at a loss. For example, Zojja's staff costs 36g even when everything is bought.

 

Unless you already have enough shards, it's basically lighting gold on fire. And this was true even when Memories were cheap. The entire merchant's collection is like this.*

It's not lighting stuff on fire in these few edge cases:

* You don't have 500 of the crafting profession for that particular weapon, but then you can't craft the marks anyways, and are entirely dependent on shards.

* You want to craft Celestial.

* You want to craft those fancy stats from Living World that require Living world inscriptions.. But it costs 55 gold to unlock the chapter anyways.

* You don't own HoT or PoF.

Except for buying the expansion and crafting Celestial, all of these things can be mitigated by just selling the MoBs. Of course the problem is waiting for shards isn't really any faster than waiting for Charged Quartz.

 

You can get the skins for them if you like them though.  But I don't even think the ascended skin is different from the exotic.

Part of this has to do with Ascended being cheaper to craft overall but it just is magnified by that and the MoB being a bit pricey.

* I guess the WvW ascended rings aren't horrible. They're expensive, but it may be the only way to get stat selectable infused rings for people that don't do fractals. But an extra infusion slot isn't exactly groundbreaking. It is a step towards Conflux though.  Earrings and Amulets are not a good choice, because they don't do anything special besides being stat selectable and should only be considered if you can't access the Living Story chapters with them.

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by ArchonWing.9480

[Skitza.4069]

So I'm returning after being away 6 years or so. I mainly played WvW before so I returned with around 20 gold to my name as WvW was never a place to make any money. I was super excited when I found out you could get ascended gear in WvW! So I loaded up a triumphant reward track and got started. I didn't really pay attention to what was needed until I unlocked my first piece and just checked where I was on progress. Man was that a disappointment.

 

Yup you can get 104 memories in a week but you know how long it takes to do that as a returning player who mostly wvw'd before there was even a wvw rank system? 40 hours of play time if you are in a match up where you are third. A full work week. Holy cats. 24 hours if you are in first...which is still insane. I've since hit rank 150 and have the bonus pip from the wood box making times 24h when i'm in third (I currently am) and only 17h if I were in first...more than 2 hours a night every night for a game just to farm a worth while amount of memories. Awesome. I thought to my self perhaps I can earn them in other ways, you know WvW ways like capping stuff, killing enemies, and such. Nope. Why? Can I spend my badges of honor to get them?? No? Why? The pip system needs to be changed up as well, front load the first couple of wvw ranks and the previous participation to make the time required less insane for someone just starting out.

 

Then the marks! I was like oh cool I think I picked up 3 of those, nope. I picked up three shards. Then I did the math the OP did and found myself wondering if the 66 week time window to gather them was a joke. SURELY I could buy these for badges of honor or some other WvW currency to speed this up? Nope. But I can craft for them yay...so 32g in marks I need to craft and 47.5g in memories to make a chest armor I can make for 48g currently. A net loss of 31.5g. I guess it can be used for the legendary? I don't know it just seems wrong. I also got some Emblems of the Avenger and Emblems of the Conqueror but they are worthless as well, why not let me exchange them for marks? Oh and proofs of heroics, I noticed I was getting them as well. Can I use them to buy marks or memories? Also no.

 

Overall it is cool they added some stuff, it really is..but on one hand I do have something I can sell now to fund my set of crafted ascended armor. On the other hand the fact that the ascended set from WvW is basically throwing away 180g if I want to get it instead makes me sad.

[DoctorOverlord.8620]

Thanks everyone for the replies and comments.  It's good to know my disbelief over the current WvW gear system is shared by everyone else it seems.   I don't know why they didn't simply make crafting gear quicker and more expensive and WvW gear take more time but be cheaper.  To make WvW gear acquisition more expensive AND take an absolutely absurd amount of time is what politely could be called a questionable design choice, but then WvW has been GW2's redheaded stepchild. WvW rewards when the game was released were worse than they are now, but in spite of that, it's always been one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game for many, so players still did it.

At least ArenaNet is giving more attention to WvW and promising to improve things in EoD. Perhaps the Grandmaster Marks/Ascended gear will be one the areas ANet will update with the upcoming WvW reward changes they mentioned.

 

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by DoctorOverlord.8620

[kamikharzeeh.8016]

i have to say ... it is still sort of fine for the "playing too much Wvw" people like me. yet, it also takes quite a long time, not gonna lie there, to gain a full ascended set even.

 

and i did, from the very start of my gw2 playtime, never bother with crafting. by time u get a lot more ascended stuff than you'll ever need, still i feel it's unfair / low / slow considering the time investment.

[Boh.4568]

I played WvW randomly for some months, just having fun without caring for pips and tickets, and just recently I tried going for legendary armor. I had enough tickets/memories to buy the whole ascended triumphant set (had to craft some grandmaster marks still) and forge two pieces of legendary armor.

Now that I'm completely ticketless and I'm reading these threads, I'm starting to feel the pressure of the diamond chest. I felt better as an ignorant.

I blame you all for this!

[Zape.2094]

2 hours ago, kamikharzeeh.8016 said:

i have to say ... it is still sort of fine for the "playing too much Wvw" people like me. yet, it also takes quite a long time, not gonna lie there, to gain a full ascended set even.

 

and i did, from the very start of my gw2 playtime, never bother with crafting. by time u get a lot more ascended stuff than you'll ever need, still i feel it's unfair / low / slow considering the time investment.

If you do not craft nor play PvP it is far from "sort of fine". It takes about 66 weeks which is a year and a half just to get the shards for ascended armor. At 4 hours a day play time (with which from the start you probably wont even get the full reward, but lets say you do for the sake of the argument), thats 1848 hours invested. For ascended. Armor. Want to get weapons too? No problem, that'll be another 44 weeks. And we're over 2 years of CONSTANTLY playing 4 hours a day. For ascended.

Sorry, but this is far from fine lol.

As the lads have suggested, there are alternatives, which are crafting and PvP, and those make everything much easier, but if you solely play WvW, it is not even remotely close to being "sort of fine". Even if you play too much WvW. Which I do btw, this week I got last skirmish chest on tuesday. WvW is quite literally all I play in this game, and Ive been around for a couple of years, and yeah, Im still MILES off getting full ascended. 

 

Best,

Z

[Infusion.7149]

2 hours ago, Boh.4568 said:

I played WvW randomly for some months, just having fun without caring for pips and tickets, and just recently I tried going for legendary armor. I had enough tickets/memories to buy the whole ascended triumphant set (had to craft some grandmaster marks still) and forge two pieces of legendary armor.

Now that I'm completely ticketless and I'm reading these threads, I'm starting to feel the pressure of the diamond chest. I felt better as an ignorant.

I blame you all for this!

Eh if you're not having fun you're doing WVW wrong... we played for years before skirmish tickets existed while losing gold playing WVW.

Repairs used to cost gold. Upgrades used to cost gold and the siege costed multiple times what it does now. There was also no ascended food so everything was at your own cost. Ascended armor used to be 300g a PIECE , on par with what legendary armor is now but gems to gold would only get you maybe 10g at best (see https://www.gw2spidy.com/gem) for every $10, now gems get you ~155g per $10.

The poor WvW commander was a common thing, asking for siege donations.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Infusion.7149

[Zok.4956]

19 hours ago, Skitza.4069 said:

I guess it can be used for the legendary?

The Ascended Triumphant Hero's armor (T2 skin) and the Ascended Mistforged Triumphant Hero's armor (T3 skin) are the pre-cursors for the legendary armor with the same skin.

I do not know if you can still use them as pre-cursor after you transmute them. But if you would later stat-swap the ascended items in the mystic forge they become another item that can not be used anymore as pre-cursor for  legendary armor.

So, to be on the safe side: Do not transmute them and do not stat-swap them if you want to use them for the Legendary.

To be able to buy the T3-ascended gear you must have unlocked the T2-skin. And to be able to buy the T2 skin you must have unlocked the T1 skin etc.

BTW: If you plan to build the Legendary with the T3-skin it is cheaper to buy the exotic version of the T2-gear to unlock the T2 skin.

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Zok.4956

[Infusion.7149]

@Zok You cannot use the ascended WVW pieces as precursors after stat swapping them in mystic forge. It's the same as weapon precursors.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Infusion.7149

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

The purpose of the WvW armor is as a precursor to Legendary armor. If you just want plain Ascended armor, craft it and it'll be much cheaper. Its Fractal armor that's absurdly expensive since you can't take it to Legendary status unlike raids or the competitive game modes.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Hannelore.8153

[kamikharzeeh.8016]

@Hannelore.8153 really not sure there. by time u will always have "too many" ascended armor pieces. i did never do fracts much, but i noticed the huge droprate of ascended things, esp random armor parts. 

 

the major critic here is the gaining time, and that really take far too long for the time spent within wvw, the threat creator is surely correct here. u notice that when u make a new account, first u have like nothing and the skirmish claim tickets as well as the grandmaster shards are grossly timegated, no matter how "good" or experienced u are within the gamemode.

[Zok.4956]

16 hours ago, Infusion.7149 said:

@Zok You cannot use the ascended WVW pieces as precursors after stat swapping them in mystic forge. It's the same as weapon precursors.

I know. Thats what I wrote. 

[Veprovina.4876]

You only get ascended WvW armor if you plan to make it Legendary later because they're precursors.