Guild Wars 2

Weapons i get, hell even rings/amulets i get since they are so easy to acquire.
But armor? I mean a full set without infusions of say berserke’sr nets you 14 more power and 11 more precision/ferocity. Then ad +30 of the stat of your choice. So a little more than a free might stack.

How the hell is this a requirement? According to this https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/31wbip/ascended_vs_exotic_gear_comparison_spreedsheet it’s a 1.8% difference for just the armor.

Can someone explain to me why this miniscule improvement is a must have?

its not,

now,
If you are planning on puggin, I would suggest you finish the sets, its really not all that hard.
If you are getting in with a guild group. then thats between you and them.

It is not required to have a group in ascended gear to do the raid but it is greatly advised unless you can expect almost perfect play.
Pugs or those who still have trouble with some content go by the rule of bringing as few variables as possible. That is why they will take the safer approach with their gear, food, composition, player experience and strategy.
The miniscule improvements like ascended over exotic and max food over low level food or none make a much bigger difference once you multiply those stats by ten people.
You can kind of understand why people want to have the best gear and the best food possible from everyone in their group once you have seen Gorseval drop to your conditions 2-3secs after everyone whiped.

A lot of the complaining seems to come from those who are upset that they got excluded for various reasons even if those reasons make sense…

Loads of people run full exotic in raids and beat the bosses. I think its more a requirement to check your standards. Better people tend to have full ascended.

There is absolutely no requirement to have ascended armor to complete the raid. It’s impossible to tune fights around a 2% difference in stats (it’s literally +36 stats – you get the same amount by using the best food as opposed to cheaper options). Weapons and trinkets provide a MUCH larger dps increase and while groups have beaten the raid in fully exotic everything, these upgrades are much more “required” for the average group.

Unfortunately, there is a somewhat loose correlation between having ascended armor and being a better player, so pug groups are going to “require” you to meet this standard. (More time played → having ascended gear → being a better player???) Clearly this correlation is a lose one. I, for example, did not have ascended armor when I started raiding and instead completed my set with drops and magnetite shards over many weeks while raiding with my group. I would consider myself a better-than-average player (though not top tier), clearing the entire raid by the second week and having it on farm quickly after that. We were killing the bosses comfortably while I still had my exotic armor on and since switching to ascended armor I have literally not felt a difference in my dps. I’m sure it exists, but it is barely noticeable.

And then there are terrible players who have just put enough hours in that they had the gold to create their set, but still have no idea how to play their class. The unfortunate reality is that any control pugs can get they will (and honestly should) take. These bosses are fairly difficult to pug so people do all they can to ensure success.

Though if anyone tells you that ascended armor is required to beat these bosses, they are flat out wrong and there’s proof of that….

Its definitely not required, it could be seen as a signifier for how much experience or devotion you have to the class/game to gear it in Ascended. Statwise though I would call it optional.