Is Ascended gear extremely hard to get in this game?

[firedragon.8953]

My advice for most casual players is not to worry about ascended unless they are trying to do high tier fractals.

If you want to do high tier fractals, I suggest using wizards vault, strike missions, and raids. All give easy access to stat selectable non-crafted ascended gear while only needing a good exotic set to complete. Of course you can also craft them, and once you're used to crafting and collecting the right mats, they're actually not difficult at all.

But, after you get one character decked out in ascended gear to work on T4 fractals, just do T4 fractals. 

Personally, I got most of my ascended gear through raids, either drops or using the raid currency to buy it. I know raiding isn't for everyone, but after doing it I never had to worry about ascended again (and also got legendary armor to boot).

If you don't want to do high tier fractals or lots of WvW, honestly, I'd just forget about ascended gear, except for trinkets (which are easy with laurel vendors and Living World S3 currencies).

[CelticFay.8351]

You can get ascended trinkets fairly easy by buying them with fractal currency and/or laurels that you can get from doing WV,

 

You can get a free ascended backpiece from doing PvP/WvW. Reach rank level 20 in PvP and play ranked matches, get PvP league tickets and buy all 4 wings from the sylvari vendor with the big flashy wings and combine all 4 in the mystic forge. 

 

You can get 3 pieces of ascended armor every ~3 months for 400 AA each (the reset is less than a month from now, you could get full ascended armor in a month), alternatively you can do raids in exotic gear and do the achievements for the envoy armor which is the precursor for a legendary armor. You can also get  (~5 gold each + other currencies) cheap ascended armor by playing PvP/WvW. 

 

You can get ascended weapons in the WV one for 600 AA every ~3 months, by playing PvP/WvW, raids or completing collections for the elite specializations. And if you do HoT story line you get a free ascended (Caladbolg). 

 

You can play on just exotic gear for all end game content as ascended is a very small improvement from exotic, other than T3 and T4 fractals which you need infusions for agony resistance. 

[CelticFay.8351]

On 4/13/2024 at 12:36 AM, Sinsear.5068 said:

Kind of a pain, kind of a cost, but not extremely hard neither

Cost? In a month from now I'm going to have a character in full ascended gear very cheaply 

 

Backpiece: PvP backpack, costs only season tickets that I get just by playing PvP

 

Trinkets: vial of salt (free pvp amulet), fractal and laurel vendors, free

 

Weapons: 1 two-handed from PvP (5 gold), 1 main-hand from HoT story (Caladbolg), 1 off-hand (when I finish my HoT collection) 

 

Armor: WV

 

And you only need ascended to do high tier fractals 

Edited April 18 by CelticFay.8351

[Geoff Fey.1035]

As well, it's possible to get 1 Legendary Armour every 3 weeks by playing under 2hrs per day, 3 days a week.

• Daily: 6 Provisioner Tokens [3-4 minutes alt-swapping]
• Once per day, no more than 5 times each [under 30 minutes each OR chain back-to-back under under 1.5hrs]
  • Skywatch Meta & collecting magic for Pinch of Stardust
  • Amnytas Meta & collecting magic for Static Charges
  • Inner Nayos & collecting magic for Congealed Screams
• Once per day, no more than 3 per week: Convergences [approx. 25 minutes each]
• Map Completion or Light Lanterns in each map 5 times
  • Skywatch Lanterns - can do this while waiting for Meta timers
  • Amnytas Lanterns - can do this while waiting for Meta timers
  • Inner Nayos Lanterns - takes 10-15 min/completion 

Even if you don't have the gold & materials, I'd recommend doing this as you'll get plenty of both.

[Lucy.3728]

8 hours ago, CelticFay.8351 said:

1 main-hand from HoT story (Caladbolg)

As if any ascended item from HoT is easy to obtain.

As I experienced it, it takes time to fill tedious achievements.

And WV offers only celestial and berserker as useful stats. Everything else was outdated years before WV got implemented.

[Sobx.1758]

1 hour ago, Lucy.3728 said:

As if any ascended item from HoT is easy to obtain.

Well.. it is.

1 hour ago, Lucy.3728 said:

And WV offers only celestial and berserker as useful stats. Everything else was outdated years before WV got implemented.

Then stat swap it.

 

18 hours ago, firedragon.8953 said:

My advice for most casual players is not to worry about ascended unless they are trying to do high tier fractals.

Yup, agreed.

Edited April 18 by Sobx.1758

[CelticFay.8351]

14 hours ago, Lucy.3728 said:

As if any ascended item from HoT is easy to obtain.

As I experienced it, it takes time to fill tedious achievements.

And WV offers only celestial and berserker as useful stats. Everything else was outdated years before WV got implemented.

It literally is that easy... There are dozens of guides out there if you need help. Yeah sure you won't complete the achievements by playing the game passively without knowing where to go, but just focus on your goal, it's not that complicated. WV offer a large variety of stat selections and if you want to change the stats just go to the mystic forge... It's far more simple and cheaper than to craft ascended gear yourself, specially when Legendaries need so many ectos... 

[Tula.6021]

27 minutes ago, CelticFay.8351 said:

It literally is that easy... There are dozens of guides out there if you need help

If you are already proposing a guide, an external guide I assume, then how can you say it's easy? My definition of easy: short and simple in the game without external resources.

The daily and weekly tasks are easy.
It's easy to exchange the points you collect for rewards.

Completing multiple achievements to get an item, well that depends on how easy they are to achieve and how well written the individual steps are.

I'm fairly new and I find the game very cumbersome at times without these external aids. Simple or easy is not the word that comes to mind.

Edited April 19 by Tula.6021

[Geoff Fey.1035]

4 hours ago, Tula.6021 said:

My definition of easy: short and simple in the game without external resources.

Almost every MMO that exists is never this easy--especially when you're talking about end-game content and gear.

Check out the guide on the Official GW2 Wiki <-- Probably THE best resource for players getting Ascended in the entire game.

I've been playing since Beta and yet every so often (before getting Legendaries) I would come back to it just to get a refresher on where to go and what to do to get things for buildcrafting. The community keeps it updated to include new methods, trading post links, as well as commentary on different runes and sigils so you can explore alternatives depending on your situation/needs.. It's probably the best resource for this and put together quite nicely.

 

[Inssengrimm.7924]

The Ascended gear is more of a convinience thing.

Exotic: Non-customizable, soulbind to character.
Ascended: Customizable through Mystic Forge recipee, account wide.
Legendary: Customizable, account wide, multicharacter.

For example, many many many classes have a "celestial" build arround, for most if not all kinds of content, investing on an ascended celestial set could be a nice thing to do, many of your characters could be able to use it by just transfering it through the Bank. Legendary gear is on a completely diferent league in terms of convinience, but also on how you obtain it, very long projects if you cannot dedicate many hours to this vice.

For everything else and just be capable, Exotic is the way to go.

[CelticFay.8351]

On 4/19/2024 at 10:36 AM, Tula.6021 said:

If you are already proposing a guide, an external guide I assume, then how can you say it's easy? My definition of easy: short and simple in the game without external resources.

The daily and weekly tasks are easy.
It's easy to exchange the points you collect for rewards.

Completing multiple achievements to get an item, well that depends on how easy they are to achieve and how well written the individual steps are.

I'm fairly new and I find the game very cumbersome at times without these external aids. Simple or easy is not the word that comes to mind.

To get the ascended HoT weapon is as simple as running around the maps and finding things, you don't need to fight anything and it can be done without external guides, but if you don't fancy going on an easter egg hunt you can find 5 min videos on the exact location and getting this ascended weapon takes less than 1 hour of gameplay... We're talking about the BEST gear in the game, and it's already too easy to get, yet people keep complaining that they want their freebies full ascended gear the minute they reach level 80

[Mewsha.3561]

I wouldn't say it's hard, but it takes more time if you're strictly and open world player. I just went the crafting route for my first ascended set since I maxed out all my crafting. I think that new players should focus on getting those ascended chests from the Wizard's Vault though. There's no shame in mixing ascended and exotic until you get your full set either. It's going to take time. Raid and Strike groups simply ask that you have at least exotics, a viable build, and a willingness to learn. You can even do low level fractals.

Find the prefix stats you want, and figure out through the wiki how you will get them. You can also stat change a lot of ascended items, just make sure you remove any infusions or sigils you don't want to lose. So if there's an achievement that grants an ascended weapon, but you don't want those stats, you can change it for pretty cheap.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stat_changing#Ascended_weapons_and_armor

I'll sometimes have an ascended weapon lying around or armor pieces with stats I'm no longer using, and that feature helped me a lot. As for backpacks and trinkets, the list to get them is long. I got most of mine from LW3, LW4, and Icebrood Saga vendors or achievements. You can even start working on your Seasons of the Dragon achievement in order to unlock a legendary amulet while you're at it. It also gives you a lot of other goodies (like a 32 slot bag). Might as well since you'll be there farming currency.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Prismatic_Champion's_Regalia

[Lucy.3728]

On 4/18/2024 at 10:13 PM, Sobx.1758 said:

Then stat swap it.

I'm working on the minstrel one. Too expensive for swaps.

On 4/19/2024 at 3:52 PM, Geoff Fey.1035 said:

Almost every MMO that exists is never this easy--especially when you're talking about end-game content and gear.

WvW is this easy. Unless you don't like wvw.
On my main account: I need something ascended? I go to the wvw vendor and buy it.

Just on my other accounts I'm not as much active in wvw and thus don't have the needed currencies in the amounts to buy it all. So I know how the OP feels there too. Sure if it's just Berserker or Celestial, then it's 2-3 circles of the vault. But for stuff like Minstrel, it's either expensive or time consuming.

But I only equip my wvw characters with ascended stuff. The pve ones remain exotic.

Edited April 21 by Lucy.3728

[Sobx.1758]

1 hour ago, Lucy.3728 said:

I'm working on the minstrel one. Too expensive for swaps.

What do you mean too expensive for swaps? Looks like you forgot what you're responding to?

[Lucy.3728]

3 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

What do you mean too expensive for swaps? Looks like you forgot what you're responding to?

Nope. You suggested throwing the ascended armor from the vw in the mystic forge to stat swap it.

Or didn't you?

Seen what a minstrel insignia costs? You can't buy it.

[Sobx.1758]

12 minutes ago, Lucy.3728 said:

Nope. You suggested throwing the ascended armor from the vw in the mystic forge to stat swap it.

Or didn't you?

Seen what a minstrel insignia costs? You can't buy it.

In that case, I misunderstood what you said there, sorry. The reason I misunderstood it though is because the insignia doesn't really cost that much? Berserker insignia costs 5,2g, minstrel 2,5g more than that. I don't see how this disqualifies it from stat swapping "into it" through mystic forge? (crafting prices in both cases)

Edited April 21 by Sobx.1758

[Lucy.3728]

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

In that case, I misunderstood what you said there, sorry. The reason I misunderstood it though is because the insignia doesn't really cost that much? Berserker insignia costs 5,2g, minstrel 2,5g more than that. I don't see how this disqualifies it from stat swapping "into it" through mystic forge? (crafting prices in both cases)

1 minstrel insignia, for 1 piece of armor, costs about 7 gold to craft. But for crafting you need to level crafting before. That comes on top. I guess about 14 gold for level 400.

To stat swap any ascended armor and weapons for my mesmer or guard for support it'd be:

6 minstrel insignias = 41.50 gold
3 minstrel inscriptions = 18.80 gold

About 61 gold just to stat swap. https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/calculator/a~0!b~1!c~0!d~6-73227;3-72875

+crafting leveling
and trinkets. Unfortunately one can't buy the needed trinkets for laurels.

[Sobx.1758]

23 minutes ago, Lucy.3728 said:

1 minstrel insignia, for 1 piece of armor, costs about 7 gold to craft. But for crafting you need to level crafting before. That comes on top. I guess about 14 gold for level 400.

To stat swap any ascended armor and weapons for my mesmer or guard for support it'd be:

6 minstrel insignias = 41.50 gold
3 minstrel inscriptions = 18.80 gold

About 61 gold just to stat swap. https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/calculator/a~0!b~1!c~0!d~6-73227;3-72875

+crafting leveling
and trinkets. Unfortunately one can't buy the needed trinkets for laurels.

Good point on including leveling crafting, I wasn't taking that into consideration. The whole thing is still easly covered by the limited 6aa gold +MC from WV. Because of that, I really don't see that as something that's prohibitive or hard to get.

[Tula.6021]

On 4/19/2024 at 3:52 PM, Geoff Fey.1035 said:

Check out the guide on the Official GW2 Wiki <-- Probably THE best resource for players getting Ascended in the entire game.

Thank you, a really good compilation.

[Cuks.8241]

On 4/16/2024 at 5:01 AM, Daenxi.4530 said:

Yes its mind blowing how non chalant people are being about the difference this makes, very misleading to new players.

Yes and no. 10-12.5% of stat increase might not be insignificant to an experienced player. But for a new player. I mean if you do 20k dps on build with a ceiling of 40k dps, sure ascended will push you to 22k. But there are many much more critical adjustments to your gameplay you can make that will be much more significant. Usually in improving your mechanics.