Here’s my advice for anyone gearing up a character for fractals:
Buy ascended trinkets first – I’d say you should buy rings absolutely first if you’re really hurting for agony resist since they allow the most agony slots per item once upgraded, but you also get rings as rewards, so it’s possible you’ll get the rings you need as drops instead. However, overall, trinkets are some of the easiest pieces to buy. You can buy many of these with laurels and badges of honor. The one exception is backpieces, since these are usually harder to acquire.
See below for a full list of trinkets and all the ways to acquire them:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_trinket
Once you gain the materials, you can ‘infuse’ rings to get an extra slot that allow you to use those tradeable agony infusions. You can also ‘attune’ rings for an extra slot, although you will need to complete the first tier of the Fractal mastery to get access to the vendor for this. Rings that are both ‘infused’ and ‘attuned’ will have 3 slots for agony resist, which is 3x more than any other piece of gear (except for your back piece, which can be ‘infused’).
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infused_equipment
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attuned_equipment
Craft ascended weapons second – Trinkets and weapons are the biggest increase to stats when upgrading from exotic to ascended. You may not want to slot agony infusions into your weapons until you absolutely need to since you may use different weapons on different encounters and will need to slot twice if you weapon swap (eles and engis are exempt from this), but ascended weapons are still really helpful to boost your dps.
Craft ascended armor last – This will give you 6 more slots for agony infusions, but the stat difference between exotic and ascended armor is miniscule. Crafting a full set of armor is also expensive and if you can get lucky enough to get an armor box, it can save you a lot of gold, even if you have to change the stats.
