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ASCENDED ARMOR

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Post by The Unbunny Sun Nov 02, 2014 12:49 pm

I finally completed my first piece of Ascended Armor and from this learning experience, would like to share my thoughts.  As is so common with me, these thoughts fall into the "I wish I'd known how expensive these mistakes would be" category.  Hope this saves you folks some financial pain.


1. You must buy ascended insignia recipes like you buy rare and exotic insignia recipes, they are not automatic.
2. To make an ascended insignia, you must have in your possession an exotic insignia that corresponds (as I discovered after I opened my ascended insignia recipe); ie. an exotic rabid insignia to make an ascended rabid insignia.
3. Be methodical in selecting which insignia recipe(s) you buy, not all corresponding exotic insignia are craftable (as I discovered after chose which ascended insignia to buy (se above)).  If you don't mind having to find (emphasis on the "find" part) armor which contains the exotic insignia you need to salvage it (you cant salvage crafted or temple armor), then it doesn't matter which recipe you buy.  If you prefer to be certain of crafting the exotic so you can reliably proceed to make your ascended, then make sure you can craft the exotic first as buying Exotic insignia on a per use basis can be expensive (also see #4 below RE: expensive).
4. You must buy crafting recipes for ascended armor, they are not discoverable in the crafting window.  Each type of armor (Rabid, Berserkers, Givers, etc) must be  purchased separately just as insignia recipes must be purchased separately.  By the time you are making Ascended, you probably know your favorite play style(s) and do not need to spend the 18 gold and 30 laurels for each possible Ascended set.

It doesn't pay to enter into actual recipe purchases and crafting projects at the Ascended level with out experienced counsel.  Going it alone can (and probably will) be expensive and frustrating.  Seriously consider finding a trustworthy person who has done it to guide you in this financially hazardous adventure.
The Unbunny
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Join date : 2012-01-04
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Post by The Unbunny Sat Nov 08, 2014 1:46 pm

Updated and finished above post.
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Post by BlondieJess Thu Nov 13, 2014 1:27 pm

We should try and get Max's input on this thread too. It seems like he devotes a great deal of time to weaponry and armor.
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ASCENDED ARMOR Empty Nosce te ipsum, Nosce Lorica, Nosce Inimicus

Post by Infernum Maximus Fri Nov 14, 2014 4:26 am

"Know thyself, Know your armor, Know your enemy"

A few thoughts on Ascended gear....

1) The primary usage for ascended is - for now - moderate tier fractals, level 10 and above. The infusion slot for Agony Resistance is the main difference that separates exotic gear from ascended. Unlike other MMO's, it is unnecessary in GW2 to 'grind for this type of gear in order to remain competitive in game. Instead, consider the process as a goal or challenge to push your character to it's highest potential.

That being said -

a. The slight increase in stats
b. The higher defense stat / damage stat for each armor piece or weapon
c. The ascended trinket stats

- can improve general character performance. If you are pursuing endgame goals beyond reaching level 80, this may be for you.

But know thyself - it can be a fatally bad decision: fatal to your in game wallet, your time, and your fun. Make sure you are the type of player who enjoys moderately time consuming goals and achieving the end results for your effort. 

2) Account-bound is king. A major benefit of Ascended gear is that it can be used across multiple characters on your account - provided they have the same armor class.
a. The trinkets have no limitations with respect to class
b. The weapons are limited only by profession.

So know your armor - This aspect should be considered heavily when deciding to pursue ascended gear. With an investment of this magnitude, getting the most use out of your new gear is paramount. Carefully consider which build will best benefit all of your characters that share the same armor class or weapons before making a final decision. This is not required, but it may help you focus your choice.

3) Keep your enemies closer. When going for Ascended gear, the build you choose is everything, especially considering that, like all crafted gear, it cannot be changed later. Unless AreanaNet develops Legendary Armor with changeable stats, you won't be getting any second chances.
This requires that
a. You know the foes you expect to face using the gear
b. You know the play style and type of build you expect to run MOST OFTEN

In order to pick the best stat combination for your play style, you must know thy enemy - well enough that your armor accentuates the skills and traits you plan to use in game.

Lastly, I caution for patience, patience, patience. With so many new stat combination entering the game without notice, it'd be a real shame to pick an armor or weapon type now, only to find out that one better suited to your needs is just on the horizon. Try pursuing the Tier 6 and 7 materials first, enough that you can at least make one full set of whatever  class you wish - even better would be a full set for all three types (light, medium, and heavy) since they all don't use exactly the same materials.
It is possible that while you pursue the materials, you may get some ascended drops that will lessen your effort or change the build you want. You will also amass gold along the way, which can finance your gear crafting without it feeling so much like a grind.

Build up your collections a.s.a.p - especially the cloth materials below gossamer, and lower level ores, including Iron, Platinum, and Mithril.  Ascended gear requires a painful amount of silk and iron, though generally, the weapons aren't quite as bad as the armor.

As a rule, I salvage almost everything with cloth (not so much the leather, though that doesn't hurt), provided it is below the level of rare and less than 2 silver on average. As a level 80, low level cloth is actually hard to come by unless you grind forever or have substantial resources. Additionally, crafting all high level gear alone can be very challenging. Consider getting a group - that means you, guildies - a few people who all want better gear. You can farm different areas simultaneously and trade/share, or work together to amass more materials. It can also reduce the grindy feel of the process by sharing the burden.

Finally, take your chances! There are several events in game, as well as collection and achievement tracks that can reward ascended gear. Obviously it is rare, but you will ultimately gain other materials you will need, and you may get lucky.

Infernum Maximus

Join date : 2014-11-13

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Post by The Unbunny Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:36 am

First: Max: WOW!  What an excellent post.  For a guy who "doesn't do forums," you very well do do forums very well!  Wonderfully useful; points the observant, listening reader right where they need to go.  Everything I'm about to say works out to, "what he said!"

On the lucky note: I got two particularly lucky hits in BL Chests about two weeks ago - a Permanent Black Lion Trader Contract (summons a BL Trader to your location to sell stuff and pick up basic supplies) and a Black Lion Ticket (allows selection of one weapon skin at the BL Weapon trader (sometimes)).  The contract eventually sold for 330 gold.  The ticket was trading 1 for 1 for tempest skins.  I did a search for "Tempest" at BL and found the highest priced skin was a focus.  I traded for a Tempest Focus skin which I then listed and sold for 70 gold.  In 2 days I was up 300 gold after trading fees.

Less profitable was my realization that If I bought an Augur's Stone for 20 skill points, I could use my new wealth to make a Whisperblade which I knew to be very pricey.  I made and sold this at a net profit of 8 gold.  The question here is: are you willing to part with 20 skill points for 8 gold.  Bunni zu Heltzer has a few hundred points piled around so it didn't hurt, but I'm not sure the value was there.  My point here is if gold is at a premium for you, this may be a way to gain low percentage ROI with a high degree of certainty provided you are willing to sacrifice skill points to get itOn the subject of collections, I increased my stack size to 500 - not big enough.  Get the 1000 size stack if you are going to pursue this.  I have built one Ascended weapon and consider weapons to be well worthwhile.  I have  built one Ascended armor piece and am disappointed - but I don't play fractals.  If you are going to build one piece of armor, make it the chest.  Material cost is the same for all parts and the chest has the biggest increase in defense and stats.

I agree with Max on the effectiveness of Exotics - I played with Masterwork and then Rare in Orr for quite a while and was actually able to beat all but Zhaitan's dungeon with Masterwork armor, and I got through that with Rare the first time.  The sharp increase in expense for Exotic seemed questionable to me at the time, but having it I feel well suited to take on pretty much everything in the game including PvP now that I have a decent computer.  Here is where Max's post is going to benefit me the most.  Since I don't do Fractals, I will be sticking with Exotic armor for the most part though I will probably invest in Ascended weapons.  Now I can focus on enjoying the game - he was right, I was losing interest again because of the time I found myself planning to commit to material collection.

After reading Max's post, I see I will enjoy a unique advantage.  In GW1 I worked out ONE skill set per character which I used everywhere.  Over time, one or two skills would change, but outside of new skills being released, my toons basically had one set of skills throughout my 7+ year run in the game.  I bring that philosophy with me in GW2.  Max said it this way, "Know thyself."  I knew how I wanted to play in GW1 and I set my toons up for that.  In GW2 the game mechanics make that more difficult, but in Bunni zu Heltzer's case, I have been successful in coming up with one skill/attribute set which my play-style can work with across the entire game.

This begs a note on my play style.  About 8 months into GW1 I found a well written treatise on how to play a Monk.  I had built a healer that was proving more and more difficult to play as area difficulty and party size grew, and I needed to refine my play style.  This treatise asserted that a good monk could do 90% of their job using only 2 buttons.  The author insisted that, for training purposes, you should load only 2 skills and learn to do your job that way.  The rest of the buttons, he asserted, were to give you room for special purpose skills which you would need like resurrections, condition removal, remove diseases, and boon application.  I modified this to "do my job with 4 buttons with 4 special purpose buttons" and used it across all my GW1 toons - and found myself well trained for GW2.  Because I use a skill set on buttons 6-10 that fits my way of thinking, I find I can "solve the puzzle" by letting the way I think work with the skills I have in the situation I'm in most of the time.  This makes selection of one set of weapon attributes easier.

Another place Max's input will be affecting my game-play.  One I accumulate a stack of refined goods, I will no longer be selling the basic materials each time I get a stack - I will be putting them in the Guild Bank.  That may be a simple way for us to enhance Max's suggestion of farming in teams - our team does not all have to be on at the same time!

Again, Max, well done!  Thank you!  Anytime you want to share any more of your thoughts in this well thought out, well presented, fully articulated style, I will be taking the time to read it!
The Unbunny
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Post by Ravenscroft Fri Nov 14, 2014 2:37 pm

For whisperblade i think you meant 50 skillpoints for a Eldritch scroll as part of that recipe, yes very expensive but potentially a profit. 

Also material cost is not the same for all armor peices, Chest is the same cost as the weapons, but all other pieces use a lesser vision crystal which costs 3 less bloodstone bricks, dragonite ingots and empyreal stars. 

This is fairly minor in some regards to the cost of the item but its no small thing. 

you can get vision crystals and lesser vision crystals from some of the collections they released. I have achieved the rare skins collection (cant remember what its called)

I have spent a lot of time doing ascended crafting as well and have also found it to be an end game goal, but entirely overpriced and not at all necessary unless you really want to pursue fractals of the mists. 

I estimated at one time that it would cost about 200gold just to level my crafting from 400 to 500 to begin doing the ascended crafting, and then you need all the mats for the ascended items. 

If they made it possible to sell your products i would say its worth it because lots of ppl wont take the time to do it, and we could work out trade arrangements among ourselves, but alas they have not done that. 

I have completed 500 weaponsmith and armorsmith and have made multiple pieces in both. 

I am slowly working on tailor and artificer when i need to refine something but havent gotten motivated to make the investment. I have also so far acquired 1 ascended armor piece as a drop and one ascended ring, both in WvW over many months.
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