Guild Wars 2

This requires an item that requires a Ball of Dark Energy. To do that, you must salvage an ascended weapons or armor piece, or a few trinkets (other than rings).

But, where are we supposed to get those items? They don’t seem to drop as loot, at least nowhere I’ve been. Only rings drop, and they won’t salvage to Balls.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_trinket
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_armor
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_weapon

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ball_of_Dark_Energy

I hate to tell you this, but to construct finite result, you’ll need a 2nd ball.

Thankfully all the balls for subsequent tiers can be obtained by salvaging the previous tier’s back piece.

Crafting them yourself and then salvaging is the most reliable option. Craft a weapon that’s relatively cheap. Salvaging it usually gives reusable crafting components so the second one will be cheaper. (Because yes, you will need 2 balls to kick start the process.)

For inspiration, here’s what I did.
For the first ball, I was lucky enough the get an ascended box out of fotm daily, not sure wether it was an armor or weapon box but it was something I did not need badly so I just picked a missing skin and salvaged it. First ball done.
For the second ball, I craftet some medium ascended gloves, since I ranger/thief/engi are the classes I don’t play that much anyway and I also missed that skin. Salvaged it, second ball done.

Now I’m saving matrixes to finish the third tier backpiece (needs 375 d’oh…)

Rats. I was hoping there was material missing on the wiki. I should have known.

Well, considering I don’t even have all my characters in ascended gear yet, I guess this is a ways down the road. But, thanks for the info!