End Game Gearing Guide [Updated 5/13/2016]

[Windemere]

I've been seeing more questions lately about end game gearing so I figured it was time to make a sticky here that we can try to keep updated with helpful guides and information. If you have experience or information in a particular area, please feel free to reply to this thread and I can update the original posts with it.

While Guild Wars 2 is not as gear focused at end game as many other theme park MMOs, it does have it, and it can get pretty complicated. It consists of obtaining pieces of equipment that are of Ascended or Legendary quality. Legendary weapons are essentially a special class of Ascended weapons, where the stats can be changed to any of the available combinations while out of combat. Keep in mind that the boosts you get from Ascended gear over exotic gear is not huge, so don't think that you're severely hindered without it. It does add up though, and will be necessary if you decide to participate in raids and high level fractals. Anyway, here are some guides on how to get started with it!

1. Getting Started

2. Ascended Trinkets

3. Ascended and Legendary Weapons (WIP)

4. Ascended Armor (WIP)

5. Ascended Back Piece

6. Gearing for High Level Fractals

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1. Determine Your Needs.

Obtaining variants of Ascended gear can be pretty time consuming so be sure that you're getting items that make sense for your play style. You should consider checking out the community rated builds for your profession and review the recommended equipment for the role(s) you intend to perform:

Meta Battle Wiki

In particular, you are looking for the recommended "triple attribute" (Berserker, Soldier, Viper, etc.) stat as it will dictate the specific pieces you want to acquire. You should also take note of the recommended runes, sigils, and infusions that will eventually be slotted into your Ascended Gear.

Note: When the Meta Battle Wiki refers to 'earrings', they are talking about Ascended 'accessories'.


2. Find the Corresponding Pieces

Once you know which stat combinations make sense for you, find the pieces that match up:

Ascended Armor
Ascended Weapons / Legendary Weapons
Ascended Amulets
Ascended Rings
Ascended Accessories
Ascended Backpack Items

For armor, take into account the light/medium/heavy restriction with the desired stat combo. So for instance, a medium armor wearing player looking for berserker stats would want to acquire "Zojja's Guise" for the chest piece.

2.1 Modifying Stats on Ascended Armor and Weapons

If you already have an Ascended Armor or Weapon item but it doesn't have your ideal stats, you can use the Mystic Forge to alter them.

Ascended Armor Attribute Change
Ascended Weapon Attribute Change

This is actually an important tip to keep in mind when crafting as well, since it may be a lot cheaper to craft an item with non-deal stats and then just convert it in the forge.

3. Choose Your Path

Most items have more than one way to obtain them. Some examples:

• Ascended armor and Ascended Weapons: These can be crafted via an expensive and time consuming process, or you can try your hand at RNG via drops from Ascended Chests.
• Legendary Weapons: These have their own difficult paths of crafting precursors and greater gift materials.
• Ascended Amulets: Can be purchased in various ways from Laurel Merchants and other special vendors.
• Ascended rings: Can be purchased from laurel and fractal vendors or received as drops from chests from fractals, ranked WvW, and PvP tracks.
• Ascended accessories: Can be purchased from laurel merchants and the guild commendation trader or received by completing achievements for getting random drops from guild mission weekly events.
• Backpack items: These can be crafted, bought from the fractal vendor, or obtained through collection achievements.

As you can see, there is no "one way" (usually) of obtaining the Ascended item of your choice. You'll need to investigate on a case by case basis and choose a path that works for you. Many of them are long term goals, so don't get discouraged.


4. Difficulty Level

This is a general breakdown of the difficulty level of acquiring the various Ascended items (1 being easiest).

1. Ascended Amulets: These are relatively cheap from the laurel merchants. Just by getting achievements and daily login rewards you can obtain these fairly easily.

2. Ascended Rings: These can be obtained with 10 pristine fractal relics. You get 1 pristine fractal relic per daily fractal achievement. Rings can also drop from the fractal chests themselves, so it's not hard to get a pair of rings in just one to two weeks of work.

3. Ascended Accessories: There are a few different paths for obtaining these depending on the desired stat combo. They tend to take longer than amulets and rings, but are fairly straightforward.

4. Ascended Weapons, Armor, and Backpack. At the time of writing this document, drop rates for Ascended weapon crates seems to be high enough to make it worthwhile to run Tequatl and hope for a drop. There are also Specialization Achievements that provide ascended weapons related to your HoT specialization. There are several different backpacks that have trade offs between time investment versus spending gold for obtaining them. Prioritizing between the three really depends on your available crafting professions and materials, as well as preferred playstyle, though standard protocol seems to indicate that people tend to focus on getting their weapons before armor.

[Windemere]

Ascended Trinkets consist of amulets, rings, and accessories. They are typically the first pieces of Ascended gear acquired due to the relatively straightforward path towards obtaining them.


Amulets: Quick Reference Chart

Laurel Vendor: Available for 30 laurels, the vendor sells a variety of amulets containing the following stat prefix combinations

Apothecary, Berserker, Captain, Cavalier, Celestial, Cleric, Dire, Knight, Marauder, Nomad, Rabid, Rampage, Sinister, Soldier, and Valkyrie.

Achievements:

Vigil's Honor / Whisper's Secret / Priory's History: Contain Crusader stats and are obtained by unlocking all 36 weapon and armor skins associated with the respective order.

Mordem Loop: Completed through the Heart of Thorns Act IV Mastery achievement, it has selectable quadruple stats.

Mystic Forge:

Vial of Salt: It has wide variety of selectable stats.

Forsaken Thicket Raid: Only obtainable from raid boss drops or Magnetite Shards.

• Talisman of Garr: Selectable Healing Power stats.
• Talisman of Holt: Selectable Toughness stats.
• Talisman of Irwyn: Selectable Condition Damage stats.
• Talisman of Manton: Selectable Power stats.

Rings: Quick Reference Chart

Ascended rings are typically obtained by doing Fractals of the Mists. There are, however, alternative ways of acquiring them if you simply dislike fractals or are in a hurry.

Note: You cannot equip two identical rings. Atuning or infusing a ring will change its identity such that you can wear its non-atuned or non-infused version at the same time, but probably not the best long-term approach since they may eventually collide when wanting to infuse and atune both of them.

Fractal Vendor: (BUY-2046 PFR)

• 10 Pristine Fractal Relics: These are obtained by completing daily achievements inside the Fractals of the Mists.

Laurel Merchants:

• 35 laurels
• 25 laurels + 250 bandit crests

Forsaken Thicket Raid:

• 175 Magnetite Shards + 10 gold

Accessories: Quick Reference Chart

Note: You cannot equip two identical accessories.

Vendors

You can purchase accessories directly with the following stat prefix combinations: Apothecary, Berserker, Captain, Cavalier, Celestial, Cleric, Dire, Knight, Marauder, Nomad, Rabid, Rampage, Sinister, Soldier, and Valkyrie.

• Laurel Vendor: 40 laurels + 50 globs of ectoplasm
• Guild Officer: 12 guild commendations + 5 gold
• Scholar Glenna: 200 Magnetite shards + 10 gold
• 200 WvW Tournament Tickets

Achievements: Once unlocked, duplicates can be purchased.

Assassin

• Zhaitain's Claw (Off. Infusion) Unlock all 37 weapon and armor skins from Ruined City of Arah dungeon.
• DeLana's Coinpurse (Def. Infusion) Unlock all 37 weapon and armor skins from Caudecus's Manor dungeon.

Sentinel

• Kudu's Phasing Matrix (Off. Infusion) Unlock all 37 weapon and armor skins from Crucible of Eternity dungeon.
• Adelbern's Burden - (Def. Infusion) Unlock all 37 weapon and armor skins from Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon.

Carrion

• Baelfire's Ember- (Off. Infusion) Unlock all 37 weapon and armor skins from Citadel of Flame dungeon.
• Forgeman's Gear - (Def. Infusion) Unlock all 37 weapon and armor skins from Sorrow's Embrace dungeon.

Magi

• Ban'e Tooth - (Off. Infusion) Unlock all 37 weapon and armor skins from Honor of the Waves dungeon.
• Faolain's Blossom - (Def. Infusion) Unlock all 37 weapon and armor skins from Twilight Arbor dungeon.

[/list]

Forsaken Thicket Raid: Only obtainable from raid boss drops or 250 Magnetite Shards + 4 gold.

• Spectral Balm: Selectable Healing Power stats.
• Spectral Juju: Selectable Condition Damage stats.
• Spectral Talisman: Selectable Power stats.
• Spectral Ward: Selectable Toughness stats.

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Reserved

[Windemere]

Reserved

[Windemere]

Ascended back items can be obtained by completing achievements or various crafting recipes, most of which involve the mystic forge. A table of all the various items can be found in the Ascended Back Item wiki page.

1. Crafting

Finite Result: Defensive Infusion slot with Selectable stats. This is also a precursor to the Ad Infinitum legendary back item.

• GW2 Efficiency Crafting Calculation

Spinal Blades collection: See the wiki page for details. This is a complicated process that begins by obtaining a Spinal Blade Blueprint and then crafting all the lower rarity levels up until the ascended rank. There are several different versions but they all share a similar impressive skin similar to the Tempered Spinal Blades.

2. Mystic Forge

Quiver and Book Recipes

There are several mystic forge recipes with quiver or book skin appearances that begin with the same basic ingredients below and then add a few additional ones depending on offensive of defensive infusion slot and preferred stat combination:

• 1 x Vial of Condensed Mists Essence or 250 Piles of Bloodstone Dust
• 50 x Glob of Ectoplasm
• 250 x Tier 6 rare crafting material
  
  Offensive Infusions:
  • Add 240 x Philosopher's Stones
  Quiver of Swift Flight: Berserker (Vials of Powerful Blood)
  Bowyer's Delight: Soldier (Vicious Fangs)
  Sights Be True: Cavalier (Armored Scale)
  Endless Quiver: Rabid (Ancient Bone)
  Quiver of a Thousand Arrows: Selectable (Vicious Claw)
  Defensive Infusions:
  • Add 40 Mystic Crystals
  Book of Secrets: Berserker (Vials of Powerful Blood)
  Koss on Koss: Soldier (Vicious Fangs)
  Symon's History of Ascalon: Cavalier (Armored Scale)
  Tome of the Rubicon: Rabid (Ancient Bone)
  There with Yakkington: Selectable (Vicious Claw)

Icy Runestone Recipes

Contain a Defensive Infusion slot with Selectable stats and require the following ingredients:

• 50 x Icy Runestone
• 15 x Bolt of Damask
• 1 x Vision Crystal

Bough of Melandru

• 7 x Evergreen Lodestone.

Chaos of Lyssa

• 20 x Pile of Crystaline Dust.

Light of Dwayna

• 7 x Charged Lodestone.

Shadow of Grenth

• 10 x Glacial Lodestone.

Fractal Recipes

Start with the following ingredients and add the final appropriate one for the desired infusion type:

• 1 x Vial of Condensed Mists Essence
• 1 x Gift of Ascension
• 1 x Prototype Fractal Capacitor
  
  The ascended version will take on the same stat combination (Berserker, Soldier, Rabid, Cavalier) as the Prototype Fractal Capacitor used in the forge.
  
  Offensive Infusions:
  • Add Add 40 Mystic Crystals
  Defensive Infusions:
  • Add 240 x Philosopher's Stones

Achievement Recipes

Contain a Defensive Infusion slot with Selectable stats:

• Luminate's Backplate: Requires completing 13 achievements, many of which are related to Auric Basic.
  
  Lightbringer's Pack: Requires unlocking 10 achievements related to weapon collections and other Heart of Thorns achievements.
  
  Magister's Pack: Requires unlocking 10 achievements related to weapon collections and other Heart of Thorns achievements.
  
  Warmaster's Pack: Requires unlocking 10 achievements related to weapon collections and other Heart of Thorns achievements.

Special Recipes

Sclerite Karka Shell: Defensive Infusion slot with Apothecary stats. NOTE: This item cannot be infused!

• 1 x Sclerite Karka Shell
• 250 x Karka Shell
• 100 x Passion Flower
• 50 x Glob of Ectoplasm

3. Achievements

Mawdrey: Defensive Infusion slot with Selectable stats. Requires Living Season 2 and plays out similar to a scavenger hunt.

[Windemere]

Fractals introduce a mechanic called Agony beginning at fractal scale 20, which places a constant damage tick on players in certain situations. In order to minimize the damage from Agony, players need to add infusions to their Ascended gear that will increase their Agony Resistance (AR).

Quick Reference Guide for Adding AR

There are two primary types of infusions you will need depending on the upgrade slot:

Versatile Infusion: Placed in Offensive/Defensive/Utility infusion slots.

• +5 Versatile Simple Infusion available from BUY-4373 merchant for 75 fractals relics and some copper.
• +7 Versatile Simple Infusion (masterwork) available from Dessa's Krewe merchant for 1 Versatile Simple Infusion + 75 fractal relics.

Agony Infusion: Placed in Agony Infusion Slots.

• Can be crafted by Artficers using two identical Agony Infusions with a Thermocatalytic Reagent to create a single infusion with one additional point of resistance.
• Can be purchased from Dessa's Krewe merchant.
• Can be purchased from Trading Post.

Suggested Progression Path:

1. Ascended Amulet
   • Insert a +5 versatile infusion in your offensive or defensive infusion slot.
2. Ascended Rings
   • Get two ascended rings with your preferred stats - one with an offensive infusion slot and one with a defensive infusion slot.
   • Atune each ring.
   • Add +5 Agony Infusions to each agony infusion slot (or higher AR as needed but +5 is a good start).
   • Add +5 Versatile Infusions to your respective offensive and defensive infusion slots on the rings.
3. Ascended Weapons, Armor, and Backpack
   • Add +5 Versatile simple infusions to the available offensive or defensive infusion slots as you acquire ascended pieces.
4. Infused Rings
   • Infuse each ring and insert a +5 or higher agony infusion to the new agony infusion slot.
5. Infused Backpack
   • Infuse your backpack and insert a +5 or higher agony infusion to the new agony infusion slot.
6. Upgrade Existing Infusions as Needed
   • Purchase an Infusion Extraction Device.
   • Remove +5 Versatile infusions with your extraction device and use them to buy +7 Versatile Infusions as replacements.
   • Remove +N Agony Infusions and use them to craft or purchase new ones with higher AR.

How Much Agony Resistance Do I Need?

The table below outlines how much agony resistance you need in order to minimize the effects of agony for a given fractal scale level. For those looking to maximize agony resistance, the wiki recommends: "The best combination to achieve 150 AR is the use of +7 Versatile Simple Infusions on all armor, weapons, and on the six slots available on your trinkets. Then in the five agony infusion slots use three (3) +10 AR infusions and two (2) +11 AR infusions."




Other Infusion Types

Besides the versatile and agony infusion types referenced in the quick reference guide, there are also offensive, defensive, and utility infusions available. These allow you to add agony resistance plus some other nominal main stat boost. The reason why they are not suggested in the quick reference guide is twofold: The maximum AR they provide is only +5 and they are relatively expensive to craft. These might be more useful to people who want to raid and get the additional stat boosts where agony resistance is not even needed. For people looking to do progressively higher level fractals, it is more optimal to focus on the higher levels of agony resistance over the nominal main stat boosts.

[Windemere]

Updated the guide on gearing for high level fractals.

[Windemere]

I have completed the initial draft of the Trinkets section. Please feel free to add any feedback, corrections, or tips here and I'll incorporate them into the guides.

[Windemere]

I re-wrote the section on gearing for high level fractals to be much more streamlined and to the point. My first attempt kind of looked like the GW2 wiki threw up on our forums.