Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone
Which of ascended back items is cheapest to craft (except those from fractals).?

If you have the blade shards then the spinal one. Also take into consideration for the cost of getting a crafting profession high enough to craft it if not done so already.

I personally consider time when trying to decide the better one to get. If I can farm fractals for that one quicker than I can farm the gold/materials for the others, then of course I’m going to go for the fractal one.

I ended up going for the Fractal one, for much the reason Ayrilana suggested. I was not aware that you could use watchwork sprockets to get more blade shards, so despite only being 10 shards short of getting the first backpack, I destroyed them. After realizing my mistake, I weighed my options, and the Fractal backpiece was the easiest to get. It doesn’t require any crafting discipline, just doing enough Fractals to get the stuff, which I was already doing anyway to get other ascended gear.

Doesn’t frac one require 250 glob of ecto? That’s a ton imo. If i’m correct the spinal blade and mawdrey don’t require it for double infusion.

I’m shooting for the Light of Dwayna. And I’ll tell you, it’s costed me a fortune so far.
I’d say right now while the LS is going on, that maybe the vine’d be cheaper overall. But each one’s going to have it’s expensive parts.

Dwayna (grentch and lyssa too) are forced to use 15x bolt of damask (15g) 225g. You don’t have a choice. Spinal backpiece has a choice (deldrimor ignot or elonian or damask). Elonian best choice, Deldrimor after that. Damask kinda dumb choice. But it depends on your available crafting professions as well.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Doesn’t frac one require 250 glob of ecto? That’s a ton imo. If i’m correct the spinal blade and mawdrey don’t require it for double infusion.

For the infused version, yes. However, there’s really little reason to get an infused version unless you intend to often do high level fractals after you get the back item.

I’m trying to combine wvw infusion set with fractal infusion set with as few as possible ‘double pieces’. My thoughts where base infusion, would keep more wvw infusion slots free, and so i could make one set that both does frac and wvw. But it’s just a thought. Also i like karmic infusion in my amulet, + keep the accesoiries free (they are to hard to get to waste frac infusion on imo, same for legendary slots). So basically only way to do lvl 20 frac, without sacraficing slots, (i dont have infused rings yet, so i can’t go that route), is to get double infusion back item.

When ‘dulfy’ mentions ‘to infuse you gotta do X’ she means the +5 built in agony resistance right? I’m sure ascended backpieces don’t exist without the defensive infusion slot. Or am i wrong. Just trying to plan things. Making mawdrey, i have a spinal blade, and might make fractal capacitor, but the ecto’s put me off, and i have 1700 blade shards (so i can easely make two other spinal blades, if they are the cheapest +10 infusion backpack).

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Dwayna (grentch and lyssa too) are forced to use 15x bolt of damask (15g) 225g. You don’t have a choice. Spinal backpiece has a choice (deldrimor ignot or elonian or damask). Elonian best choice, Deldrimor after that. Damask kinda dumb choice. But it depends on your available crafting professions as well.

For the cost of Damask, you can just buy a craft up to 500 and then get Elonian or Deldrimor.

Heck, get both to 500 and then get Elonian and you’re still saving yourself some money.

As for + 5 and + 10 infusion backpacks. All ascended backpacks have access to infused versions (+ 10, I guess you called say), which is actually 2 infusion slots.The WvW infusions don’t come with Agony Resist. There are offensive infusion backpacks.

Since you have the blade shards, I would make that. I only did the fractal one once to get the skins. Also remember that you can get iron ore very easily off the rich nodes. I believe there are a few guides that show their usual locations.

By far the cheapest are the mystic forge ones as you need only 250 t6 rare mats and 50 ectos, plus skillpoints and coagulated mist essence.
If you really dont want to run a couple of low level fractals to get the essence, you can do it bloodstone dust as well but then you cant craft quiver of a thousand arrows/yakkingtons tale, which are the only mystic forge back pieces that let you choose your stats. If you have mist essence and use t6 claws, they go for ~130g.
Spinal Blade is just an option, if you already have the ~875 blade shards needed and craft the gift of blades with leatherworker but even then it might be more expensive but not sure. At least the amount of account bound mats is very high compared to mf pieces.

65-70 silver *250 (vial of powerfull blood), 38 silver *250 ecto. Sounds quite expensive not?

270 gold. That’s more then bolt of damask, chaos of lyssa price. (but there’s more to it then just damask).

If I have all the crafting professions at 500 but not a single Blade Shard, is the Tempered Spinal Blade Pack still the cheapest to make?

The time to farm the sprockets, or buy them off the TP, to convert to shards takes more time than it’s worth. It quickly becomes more expensive.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

65-70 silver *250 (vial of powerfull blood), 38 silver *250 ecto. Sounds quite expensive not?

270 gold. That’s more then bolt of damask, chaos of lyssa price. (but there’s more to it then just damask).

What do you need 250 t6 bloods and 250 ectos for?

Mystic Forge Back Pieces require only 50 ectos and if you spend a couple of hours to farm coagulated mist essence, you can use t6 claws (45s) to get zerker gear.

Wanze.8410:

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

65-70 silver *250 (vial of powerfull blood), 38 silver *250 ecto. Sounds quite expensive not?

270 gold. That’s more then bolt of damask, chaos of lyssa price. (but there’s more to it then just damask).

What do you need 250 t6 bloods and 250 ectos for?

Mystic Forge Back Pieces require only 50 ectos and if you spend a couple of hours to farm coagulated mist essence, you can use t6 claws (45s) to get zerker gear.

Infused version most likely.

Huh. I haven’t done the calculations, but I was under the impression that the Spinal Blades backpiece was still the cheapest option provided you go with Leatherworker for the Gift of Blades. (The personal grind needed to get the Vision Crystal, of course, may alter your decision.)

Zaxares.5419:

Huh. I haven’t done the calculations, but I was under the impression that the Spinal Blades backpiece was still the cheapest option provided you go with Leatherworker for the Gift of Blades. (The personal grind needed to get the Vision Crystal, of course, may alter your decision.)

If you have to forge/farm blade shards, thats the kicker.

The cheapest ascended back is mawdrey, u need 2 weeks in case you dont have the mysterious vine and just a little farm for clusters and geods. I made the ascended one with15g cuz i had to buy the lodestones

96 foxfire cluster is cheap to you? *60 silver, so 50g about.

And yes i’m purely talking about +10 infusion backpacks, (2x +5) NOT normal backpacks as i have like 9 plus normal ascended backpacks now. I’m purely talking about cheapest way to get as much +10 as possible. And blade shard recipe from +5 to +10 (if u understand dulfy correct), only costs gift of ascension (no prob to farm this for me), 10 DUST (ultra cheap compared to ecto upgrades), coagulated mist i think and the elonian wine.

The advantage of Mawdrey is that unlike the other ascended back items, every part of Mawdrey can be gathered without too much luck involved.

The foxfire clusters are the only random thing, but if you craft everything yourself, and are thus limited by the timegating, then it gets very doable and pretty cheap actually. But that also means it will take at least 3 weeks to finish it.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

96 foxfire cluster is cheap to you? *60 silver, so 50g about.

And yes i’m purely talking about +10 infusion backpacks, (2x +5) NOT normal backpacks as i have like 9 plus normal ascended backpacks now. I’m purely talking about cheapest way to get as much +10 as possible. And blade shard recipe from +5 to +10 (if u understand dulfy correct), only costs gift of ascension (no prob to farm this for me), 10 DUST (ultra cheap compared to ecto upgrades), coagulated mist i think and the elonian wine.

Well, considering that the OP asked for crafting prices for ascended packbacks except those from fractals, i am pretty sure he only cares about the stats and not agony infusions.

Evans.6347:

The advantage of Mawdrey is that unlike the other ascended back items, every part of Mawdrey can be gathered without too much luck involved.

The foxfire clusters are the only random thing, but if you craft everything yourself, and are thus limited by the timegating, then it gets very doable and pretty cheap actually. But that also means it will take at least 3 weeks to finish it.

Absolutely correct. Takes the longest to craft as it’s time gated, but it won’t cost you a penny if you decide to farm and gather all materials required. Which is not such a bad idea since it’s time gated anyway.

Also the upgrade to infused for Mawdrey is relatively painless.

OmniPotentes.4817:

Evans.6347:

The advantage of Mawdrey is that unlike the other ascended back items, every part of Mawdrey can be gathered without too much luck involved.

The foxfire clusters are the only random thing, but if you craft everything yourself, and are thus limited by the timegating, then it gets very doable and pretty cheap actually. But that also means it will take at least 3 weeks to finish it.

Absolutely correct. Takes the longest to craft as it’s time gated, but it won’t cost you a penny if you decide to farm and gather all materials required. Which is not such a bad idea since it’s time gated anyway.

Opportunity cost means this is incorrect as you can always sell some of the materials aquired (eg foxfire clusters which are valued at .6g each if i remember correctly). Plus theres time to farm them, which could be spent farming something else. At an assumed rate of 10g/h, 1 hour of farming foxfire clusters has ‘cost’ you 10g.

This isn’t meant to disuade anyone, or say its a bad idea. But saying ‘its free, just run around and collect everything’ isn’t technically correct.

Raina.8642:

OmniPotentes.4817:

Evans.6347:

The advantage of Mawdrey is that unlike the other ascended back items, every part of Mawdrey can be gathered without too much luck involved.

The foxfire clusters are the only random thing, but if you craft everything yourself, and are thus limited by the timegating, then it gets very doable and pretty cheap actually. But that also means it will take at least 3 weeks to finish it.

Absolutely correct. Takes the longest to craft as it’s time gated, but it won’t cost you a penny if you decide to farm and gather all materials required. Which is not such a bad idea since it’s time gated anyway.

Opportunity cost means this is incorrect as you can always sell some of the materials aquired (eg foxfire clusters which are valued at .6g each if i remember correctly). Plus theres time to farm them, which could be spent farming something else. At an assumed rate of 10g/h, 1 hour of farming foxfire clusters has ‘cost’ you 10g.

This isn’t meant to disuade anyone, or say its a bad idea. But saying ‘its free, just run around and collect everything’ isn’t technically correct.

I just started crafting my mawdrey yesterday because i wanted to see how the droprates are, if you feed it with bloodstone dust. I am just growing my ascended seedling atm, so i obviously bought some time-gated mats (on buy order) but there is no way, this thing is gonna be the cheapest one to craft. Even if you craft and gather all the timegated stuff yourself, the workload and cost is immense. You will need at least 2 hours every day for 30 days.
Funny enough, the thing holding me back now is actually bloodstone dust, i ran out of it. So its a couple of hours of EotM for me now. Go figure.

I feel your pain, right before Mawdrey was released, I got mad and condensed all my Dust. Now, I’m frantically tearing them apart to get Bloodstone (to craft Mawdrey before, and now to feed her).

Two days (time gated Quartz) and my Mawdrey should be ready, if i’ve done everything correctly.

One of the ‘plates’ cost litteraly nothing if you craft it yourself (some stupid 4 silver mats like t4 bones). Buying on tp is foolish unless you can’t wait. You loose like more then a gold per item. Firefox cluster one is slightly less worse, but still not as bad. I bought some at start, but then started farming them myself. Got some lucky streaks, enough to sustain. I also didnt ‘progress’ mawdrey at start. I made money with the timegated mats then (wich was a lot). Taking the ‘profit’ into account the payoff in the end is really low. Very low tbh. After the spinal blades (really cheap if you got the blade sharts), i would consider this one the cheapest, (if you totally understand how it works, how to efficiently gather all those items etc). If that’s not the case, or you gotta boost the price to bypass timegates, then it gets expensive indeed.

I just asked friends if they had the recipes unlocked then provided them the mats and had them craft it for me (assuming they weren’t making Mawdrey themselves). At the end, I had 3 other people crafting for me, on weird schedules (1 person one day, 2 people the next day), in addition to my own crafting.

As such, I did all of the “time-gate” in less than 14 days (even though it takes ~21 days of time-gate because of 7×3 food and 10×2 Charged Quartz).

Heck, I even told one of my friends I’d craft him the Glow Lamps as long as he provided everything but the Quartz because I have so many from the node (I don’t even charge my Quartz, I just strike the node and get around 1 Charged per week).

You are very lucky on the charged/week. For me it’s more like 1/14 days (although at the start i had way more luck, one time even 2 from one strike, however last months almost nothing. Luckely one this week, to shortcut the timegate to mawdrey. I think i’m going to charge it every day now. I got enough quartz and in home instance i meet the sp anyway (barely time loss). I had 32 backups, but i used up 20 for resell (not knowing i had to make cultivated backpiece), so now i’m making the last 8 (down to 2) for cultivated seed (i have what i need for mawdrey itself).

Yeah, I had 65 stored, and now I have about 15. Then again, I have a few thousand Quartz, so charging isn’t really a problem either (fully stocked home instance. Don’t regret the Wood or Copper/Silver/Gold nodes because free daily gathering in addition to chances at sprockets because op watchwork pick (well, not the wood, but that’s necessary for daily).

And the skill point is… useful, not that I ever use it (because it’s a hassle grabbing 25 Quartz).

Best possible outcome from Quartz Crystal Formation:
5 Quartz
1 Quartz
1 Charged Quartz Crystal
2 Watchwork Sprockets (Watchwork Pick)

For 3 strikes + 4th (or more!) strike with the same outcome. Probability is about the same as a Precursor, but hey it’s still there!

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

After the spinal blades (really cheap if you got the blade sharts), i would consider this one the cheapest, (if you totally understand how it works, how to efficiently gather all those items etc).

144 foxfire clusters at 40s: 58g
87 t5 dust at 1.15s: 1g
255 reagents: 4g
15 ectos: 6g
600 t5 leather: 0,5g
42 t5 venom: 1,5g
42 t5 blood: 2,5g
42 t5 bones: 1.5g
42 redmeat: 0,1g
42 ghost pepper: 0,8g
42 saffron: 0,3g
500 quartz: 1,75g
40 ori ingots: 4g
50 sunstone lump: 15g
10 onyx lodes: 10g
10 molten lodes: 10g
10 sprockets: 2g
16 AR+1 infusions: 1.6g

Makes 120g in raw tradeable mats. For the account bound stuff you need:

1000 Bloodstone Dust – ~400 champ bags
500-1200 geodes – ~75 dry top events
18 obsi shards: 36k karma
5 pristine frac relics – 5 full fractal runs
200 each asc dragonite and fragments

The cheapest mf asc backpiece comes at 120g as well, 140g, if you want selectable stats.
The account bound mats are the kicker, i guess. Even though you need 4 more skillpoints, you only need to make 1 fractal run for the mist essence, instead of farming drytop for hours, do 5 frac runs and farm 400 champ bags.

Interesting. Thanks for crunching the numbers, Wanze.

It’s also worth mentioning that Mawdrey will also require players to do the relevant Living Story chapters and run around collecting ingredients. (If they come in late and have to purchase the LS chapters for 200 gems apiece, that would be a major price hike too.)

Keep in mind, using the LS rewards (keys), you’ll not only get a few champ bags, but also Empyreal, and Dragonite.

Then, getting Geodes will also net you Karma, Champs Bags, and Mats. Champ Bags will also get you mats.

Etc, etc, etc… a lot of the rewards bleed into each other meaning you don’t actually spend 120g due to the account-bound mats.

Zaxares.5419:

Interesting. Thanks for crunching the numbers, Wanze.

It’s also worth mentioning that Mawdrey will also require players to do the relevant Living Story chapters and run around collecting ingredients. (If they come in late and have to purchase the LS chapters for 200 gems apiece, that would be a major price hike too.)

Yeah i forgot those mini dungeons and stuff, another couple of hours added to the workload.

Esplen.3940:

Keep in mind, using the LS rewards (keys), you’ll not only get a few champ bags, but also Empyreal, and Dragonite.

Then, getting Geodes will also net you Karma, Champs Bags, and Mats. Champ Bags will also get you mats.

Etc, etc, etc… a lot of the rewards bleed into each other meaning you don’t actually spend 120g due to the account-bound mats.

You are right that some account bound material acquisition will blend into each other, you will get champ bags, while farming geodes and if you farm eotm for dust, you will get the dragonite and fragments along the way, just like karma and skillpoints.
Nonetheless, the amount of account bound mats you need for mawdrey will require you to spend alot of hours running around and farm, complete the special mini dungeons etc., compared to getting 24 skillpoints and a fractals run for the mf piece.
In that time, i could farm the neccesary 140g for mf piece easily, so it costs actually way less, if you wager in opportunity costs.

Are foxfire clusters going to stay in the same permanently? I would assume so with the new permanent living story….

Yes, they are permanent additions to the game.

Which is why their price will only continue to fall as time goes on. Supply will keep on being injected into the economy, but the vast majority of players are only ever going to craft Mawdrey once (for the skin, and for Mawdrey II).

With the new craftable back items due in next week, we might see some ascended ones too.

Sariel V.7024:

With the new craftable back items due in next week, we might see some ascended ones too.

most likely not until jewelcrafting and cooking get expanded to 500, if ever.

Wanze-
And I quote from you:

“The cheapest mf asc backpiece comes at 120g as well, 140g, if you want selectable stats.”

“quiver of a thousand arrows/yakkingtons tale, which are the only mystic forge back pieces that let you choose your stats.”

Can you select stats on the fly, like a Legendary weapon?
Or does this mean you can choose their stats only once, when you forge them?

I’ve been unable to find much out about back pieces on the interwebs.

Thanks-

Shtos Vant.4182:

Wanze-
And I quote from you:

“The cheapest mf asc backpiece comes at 120g as well, 140g, if you want selectable stats.”

“quiver of a thousand arrows/yakkingtons tale, which are the only mystic forge back pieces that let you choose your stats.”

Can you select stats on the fly, like a Legendary weapon?
Or does this mean you can choose their stats only once, when you forge them?

I’ve been unable to find much out about back pieces on the interwebs.

Thanks-

Only once when you bind them to your account

You have to remember that Mawdrey “pays” itself back eventually, unlike any other backitem. I was lucky enough to get a Vision Crystal from her, which was a very nice surprise.

Honestly for the amount of money you are going to spend, I would personally go for the one you think looks the best. No reason to have a backpack you don’t like unless you intend on hiding it. Don’t forget that you can use the skins on multiple characters. I crafted the Light of Dwayna and it was worth every gold I dumped into it. I also have the ascended beta capitator which technically doesn’t cost anything but time. I would only suggest that route if you like fractals because it is a lot of grinding for it.