Getting full Ascended w/out crafting, inconsistent, or am I doing something wrong?

[SamuelW.2685]

Hi everyone,

I've made it a goal of mine to get full ascended, specifically Cavaliers cause I'm using Lord Hizen's Bladesworn build that utilizes the same stats, and I'm using the same build cause I'm having a absolute blast in the open world, I haven't done a single piece of instanced group content yet and I've been doing very well for myself.

But now that I'm actually working toward getting ascended, I'm having trouble even getting some of the gear, the jewellery is fine, I'm doing just living world, but when consulting guides or videos, the info, at least to how I interpret it, sums up to "get lucky with world bosses or fractals or craft lol."

So I need to ask, is that true? I really don't wanna craft, I'll probably need to level one or two up for 32 slot bags, but that's fine, I can live with limited bag space, but do I really, really need to craft if I wanna get consistent ascended? Is farming world bosses and fractals really that suboptimal when it comes to gearing? 

And I know what some of you are thinking, "stop being a child, level up a crafter" , but HERE"S THE THING,  I downloaded GW2 cause I wanted to enjoy things like the day to day gameplay, things like the open world, getting achievements, doing at some point instanced content, I didn't come here to craft. I'm saying I wanna earn my gear through playing the game, not grinding what might as well be a crappy minigame. 

And for the record, it's not cause I dislike crafting in games, I just bitterly hate in here, I have over 1k hours in ARK: Survival Evolved, and crafting was one of my fav activities in that game, but that cause it's part of the CORE GAMEPLAY LOOP of that game (and also isn't a total slog unlike here), you CANNOT progress without crafting there, here, it's been optional for my first 150 hours, but now it's starting to feel like I'm being backed into a corner.

 

[Farohna.6247]

Lol ok so it's not as bad as ARK.  The materials tend to build up just as you play.  Doing dailies helps not only for some mats but also for gold, and you can buy what you need on many things.  Drops for ascended in open world aren't great, don't expect to see those frequently.

So you can do some achievements for weapons and gear.  Fractals, WvW, and PvP all have ascended gear available for purchase but you will need to work on it.   They are not a one day thing.  

Living world seasons offer many accessories, trinkets,  and back pieces that ascended.  

Crafting is possibly the fastest way?  But you don't have to do it, just depends on how much time you wish to invest in different areas of the game. If you're primarily wanting to play open world, your best bets would be achievements and crafting.  Good luck and have fun!

[Drall.2419]

I have the same dislike of crafting. 
I raised crafting for the weapons, it felt worth it for the specialization collections.
Since ascended are really mandatory only for fractals, you can get them doing fractals.  Kinda makes sense. I suspect you knew that one. 
The other place I found is with doing strike missions in eye of the north.  By leveling the story on 2 characters I was able to get the chest piece.

Anyways, all I have.

 

[Astralporing.1957]

Notice that the difference between exotics and ascended is the least noticeable on armor. You can easily "make do" with ascended trinkets and exotic armor. You should definitely try to get ascended weapons, but those are significantly easier to get than the armor.

[Khisanth.2948]

44 minutes ago, SamuelW.2685 said:

But now that I'm actually working toward getting ascended, I'm having trouble even getting some of the gear, the jewellery is fine, I'm doing just living world, but when consulting guides or videos, the info, at least to how I interpret it, sums up to "get lucky with world bosses or fractals or craft lol."

Strikes doesn't require luck.

 

44 minutes ago, SamuelW.2685 said:

So I need to ask, is that true? I really don't wanna craft, I'll probably need to level one or two up for 32 slot bags, but that's fine, I can live with limited bag space, but do I really, really need to craft if I wanna get consistent ascended? Is farming world bosses and fractals really that suboptimal when it comes to gearing? 

For bags you should max your slots first. 113g for the bag slot but 142/199g for the 32 slot bag and that is only adding 12 slots vs 20 slots.

Unless you are someone who can't stick with your characters and there is a high chance you will delete the character.

 

You can also get two ascended armor chest through achievements https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_Armor_Chest

Those can cover the coat and pants since they are the most expensive slots. Between those and the trinkets you can progress a fair ways up fractals. The elite spec weapons and Caladbolg can cover the weapons dependings on what you use.

Completing the machined weapon collection https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Machined_Weapons_(achievement)

and 4 episodes of the "Return to" achievements can get you another one https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_Weapon_Chest_(Seasons_of_the_Dragon)

Edited May 25, 2022 by Khisanth.2948

[Serephen.3420]

You can get ascended armour from raids, strikes and wvw too.

[attractiveman.7164]

Strikes, do every strike once a day and you'll have a full set using the shards. You can convert the eod strike shards in eye of the north.no crafting necessary

[Orthonen.9470]

You can do rated PvP, and WvW and I believe fractals(but I'm not sure) to get the cheapest deals for ascended armor. If you do raiding you can also trade armor using magnetite and skip the whole crafting process, possible even be cheaper.

[Fuchslein.8639]

1 hour ago, Aridon.8362 said:

You can do rated PvP, and WvW and I believe fractals(but I'm not sure) to get the cheapest deals for ascended armor. If you do raiding you can also trade armor using magnetite and skip the whole crafting process, possible even be cheaper.

The thing with fractals is, you need asc to play the higher tier fractals where Asc drops quite often.

t1, t2 and even t3 drop rarly asc armor or weapons. At least as far as my experience goes, when i play fractals i get one or two asc boxes every week for t4, but for T3 i dropped nothing. But i know other who did, but really rare.

So, for Fractals is more like Craft while you go, because the Vendor who sells armor also need these badge which you need to craft first. Which is just so stupid and i personally know no one who ever made this, because its not really cheaper then just crafting it yourself. The last time, a year ago, it was even more expensive ...

----

But as other people said, Asc is not really that much of difference to Exotic, expect for the jewelery and you said you have this already. Asc weapon give u a slightly buff, why in my Raid-times it was always recommend to do the weapons first. But i even raided a loooong~ time with just full Exotic as DPS and it was never a problem what dps concerns. So, you don't need to rush and can just play the game and earn your'e armore trough strikes and stuff.

Edited May 26, 2022 by Fuchslein.8639

[Rasimir.6239]

10 hours ago, SamuelW.2685 said:

but HERE"S THE THING,  I downloaded GW2 cause I wanted to enjoy things like the day to day gameplay, things like the open world, getting achievements, doing at some point instanced content, I didn't come here to craft

You can do all that (including getting pretty far into fractals) easily without ascended armor.

This is not a game where equipment is going to carry you, and only max-tier equipment is viable for endgame. On the contrary, at start ascended won't save you if you don't get a grasp on the combat system, and once you've got that grasp, you can easily do open world and story content including most (if not all) achievements in that content with sub-optimal builds of exotic and even lesser quality.

 

Get exotic armor, try getting a hang of the game, enjoy open world and instanced content alike, and you'll have enough resources and currency to start getting ascended armor in no time.

[Danikat.8537]

You don't have to rely on random drops to get ascended equipment without crafting. Doing strike missions, fractals, raids, WvW or PvP will give you currencies (as a guarenteed drop) which can be used to buy it from vendors. The currency is different for each mode, and it will take a while to get enough, but it's a reliable way to get ascended equipment without crafting.

Also if you're not planning to do higher tier Fractals or spend a lot of time in strikes, raids or WvW you don't need ascended. The difference between ascended and exotic is relatively small and most of the game is balanced around exotics. Fractals is the only area which strictly requires it, the others it's useful but not essential. (In other words ascended is a largely a self-contained system, if you're doing content where you need it then you'll be able to get it, and if not you don't need to worry.) For PvP it's completely useless because that has it's own equipment.

[CashCow.9548]

OP you do realise the only reason you need ascended armor set for is to "grind" t3-t4 fractals... since you dont like grinding... what do you need the armor set for...??? Is my question...

[Khisanth.2948]

9 hours ago, Aridon.8362 said:

You can do rated PvP, and WvW

Yes but not really. Factually speaking yes you can but it isn't very practical without crafting due to the requirement for the marks. Forgot how long it took to get the marks in PvP but it is 10 weeks for WvW.

5 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Also if you're not planning to do higher tier Fractals or spend a lot of time in strikes, raids or WvW you don't need ascended. The difference between ascended and exotic is relatively small and most of the game is balanced around exotics. Fractals is the only area which strictly requires it, the others it's useful but not essential. (In other words ascended is a largely a self-contained system, if you're doing content where you need it then you'll be able to get it, and if not you don't need to worry.) For PvP it's completely useless because that has it's own equipment.

You can get through t3 with weapon and trinkets

[Strider Pj.2193]

As far as the ‘32 slot bags’:  I personally would convert gold to gems and buy bag slots and bank tabs before I made bigger bags…. 
 

It’s generally cheaper per spot.  Once you have maxed your bag and bank slots out, then work towards the larger bags

 

Especially if you get them on sale.  

Edited May 26, 2022 by Strider Pj.2193

[Gibson.4036]

I'm not sure why "need" always ends up being brought into gear acquisition. It's BiS gear, and that means it's the natural end goal for setting up a character.

Sure, newcomers who see builds and think they will get destroyed in open world content if they don't get the listed ascended gear should be informed they'll do fine on exotics. But if someone has set a goal of completing their character in full ascended, it's weird how quickly the forums will tell them they shouldn't want it.

[SinisterSeven.2781]

you dont have to craft it, but you *do* have to grind either raids, fractals or one of the pvp modes for currencies to convert into ascended gear, + whatever requirements they have for it on top of that.

 

then i think you can skip crafting asc trinkets by just dogpiling laurels from daily login bonus.

 

then from there you can just buy the 'inscription' or 'insignia' to mystic toilet stat swap. just getting any peice of ascended is enough, cause you can statswap them. hope you haven't been throwing out any ascended armor/weapon chests that have dropped!

[SuavePuppy.2809]

I would suggest doing Strikes if you really don't want to craft. The "EZ3" are very accessible and the prophet shard currency can be spent on ascended gear at the Eye of the North. 

[SinisterSlay.6973]

A point for crafting though.  It's really easy.  Just follow a level up guide.  You can find tons of them.  Max level crafting usually is like a half hour task, then you can make ascended somewhat easily.  There is a time gate on ingredients so you can usually make 1 piece of armor a week and one weapon.

[Fuchslein.8639]

1 hour ago, SinisterSlay.6973 said:

A point for crafting though.  It's really easy.  Just follow a level up guide.  You can find tons of them.  Max level crafting usually is like a half hour task, then you can make ascended somewhat easily.  There is a time gate on ingredients so you can usually make 1 piece of armor a week and one weapon.

Exactly and some stuff is only trough crafting available. Plus, you need to lvl up all professions one time only. So in long term it's not that expensive.

And he could even farm the mats whitout buying them by doing strikes and co. so he beats two birds with one stone.

[Dante.1508]

No not really.. Anet made owpve crafting or some version of pvp /wvw to get ascended.. No sane casual person would chase strikes, raids or even fractals for Ascended gears.. thats just crazy town.

As far as i know there is zero ways to collect Ascended gear or weapons in owpve (outside of knight of the thorn).. its just not possible. Which is dead silly.

Edited May 27, 2022 by Dante.1508

[Vayne.8563]

9 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I'm not sure why "need" always ends up being brought into gear acquisition. It's BiS gear, and that means it's the natural end goal for setting up a character.

Sure, newcomers who see builds and think they will get destroyed in open world content if they don't get the listed ascended gear should be informed they'll do fine on exotics. But if someone has set a goal of completing their character in full ascended, it's weird how quickly the forums will tell them they shouldn't want it.

Actually, it's entirely possible that people say they don't need it because they realize in many other games, you need BIS gear to do all the content, where here it's only fractals that requires it. It's so different from other games, it makes sense to tell people they don't actually need it, because many people will think they do. They think you can't raid without full ascended, and that's just not the case.

[Dante.1508]

5 minutes ago, Vayne.8563 said:

Actually, it's entirely possible that people say they don't need it because they realize in many other games, you need BIS gear to do all the content, where here it's only fractals that requires it. It's so different from other games, it makes sense to tell people they don't actually need it, because many people will think they do. They think you can't raid without full ascended, and that's just not the case.

May not be needed but it very much helps.. a lot.

[Vilin.8056]

1 hour ago, Dante.1508 said:

May not be needed but it very much helps.. a lot.

Quite the opposite.

A 15% gear difference of 5K dps isn't going to make any noticeable difference. However, by synchronizing stats, traits, skill and rotation, a player's performance can increase by over 500% even in exotic form. If he wish to become even more powerful, he can make a powerful support class in a different preset in exotic from at a fraction of the cost.

In OP's case, if he wish to acquire ascended gears without any forms of crafting, the fastest shortcut would be raid and strike missions, starting with exotic gears with proper build craft, then trade-in raid/strike currencies for ascended gears of choice. The game does provide a way to do this. But if he's so behind on the skill gap that these contents are so out of reach, then he will have to grind crafting level like everybody else.

Edited May 27, 2022 by Vilin.8056

[Danikat.8537]

12 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I'm not sure why "need" always ends up being brought into gear acquisition. It's BiS gear, and that means it's the natural end goal for setting up a character.

Sure, newcomers who see builds and think they will get destroyed in open world content if they don't get the listed ascended gear should be informed they'll do fine on exotics. But if someone has set a goal of completing their character in full ascended, it's weird how quickly the forums will tell them they shouldn't want it.

If that was the only point being made then I'd agree it's unhelpful. But I think it's worth mentioning alongside suggesting ways to get it because a lot of players who aim for full ascended and get frustrated with the process are in exactly that situation.

There was a more extreme example not that long ago, where someone was asking for advice on getting full legendary equipment before doing raids, WvW or PvP and getting frustrated that it seemed to be impossible (which it is). It turned out their last MMO was Elder Scrolls Online where legendary is also the name of the top tier, but in that game it's a normal tier, slightly more expensive to craft and slightly rarer drops than the others but still obtained the same way and trivial to get compared to GW2 legendaries. So when they heard legendary was also the top tier in GW2 they assumed that, just like in ESO, they should get that before doing end-game content and by assuming this MMO is just like their last one missed two very important points: their goal is impossible and no sane person will insist on full legendary equipment in GW2.

With ascended it's even more common for people to assume they'll need it for everything, so I think it's worth making sure they understand the goal they've chosen, especially if they're getting frustrated with it.

Even if they choose to keep going at least it ensures they know they don't have to put off a lot of the stuff they want to play until after they've got full ascended.

Edited May 27, 2022 by Danikat.8537

[Vayne.8563]

4 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

May not be needed but it very much helps.. a lot.

I disagree completely.  If I have ascended accessories and exotic armor and weapons (as I do on most of my characters) I see almost no difference in any area of the game.  Not dungeons. Not lower level fractals. Not even strikes.