Guild Wars 2

Are there any non crafting ways to get up to full ascended gear, I hate crafting in any MMO and unfortunately GW2 is no different. Is there a way to get stat cap or will I have to grind out and use crafting?

Or don’t worry about it. I have multiple characters that do all the content in only exotic armor. The only thing you need that armor for is well, nothing.

You can get ascended armor chests from various sources, but that takes ages and isn’t very reliable.

Ascended equipment can also be found in monster loot.. but lucking into a complete set in the right stats could take years.

in the ~1000 hours I’ve played since it was added, I’ve gotten 2 ascended drops.

Jewellery can be obtained with laurels.

The difference in stats between exotic and ascended is 2-3 stat points per piece. Better off just eating food – the stat difference on ascended wont make any difference at all and if you don’t enjoy crafting it wont make you feel like you are missing anything.

If you feel really brave…you can get ascended armour from completing some of the more difficult collections..

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Ascended equipment can also be found in monster loot.. but lucking into a complete set in the right stats could take years.

in the ~1000 hours I’ve played since it was added, I’ve gotten 2 ascended drops.

I’m not sure how many hours I’ve played since weapons/armor were put in, but I’ve gotten zero Ascended drops. Based on that rate, my chances of getting a full kit of Ascended for even one of my 8 80’s approaches negative infinity.

Randulf.7614:

Jewellery can be obtained with laurels.

The difference in stats between exotic and ascended is 2-3 stat points per piece. Better off just eating food – the stat difference on ascended wont make any difference at all and if you don’t enjoy crafting it wont make you feel like you are missing anything.

If you feel really brave…you can get ascended armour from completing some of the more difficult collections..

^ This is a good point. The difference in Ascended stats on jewelry over exotic jewelry is a fairly big jump. The jump for armor not so much. Just get the ascended jewelry and get the armor drops as they come.

Fractals of the mists can reward ascended armor chests rarely, I do 2 tiers pretty much every day for this chance alone. You’ll mostly get rings though, and there’s also a small chance for skins instead of an armor chest. I have a character dedicated to just holding on to the trash ascended rings I don’t need, he’s full up on 100 rings and I’m still getting more.

WvW bonus chests have a very low chance to reward ascended weapon/armor chests.

Guild missions that reward items such as bounty, rush, puzzle, and challenge all have a low chance for ascended weapon/armor chests.

And lastly, champion bags also have a very low chance for ascended equipment. This includes certain PvP loot boxes available from reward tracks.

If you want to maximize your chances for ascended gear you should do the above guild missions every single week, as many fractal tiers above 11 as you can stomach, farm a handful of champion bags, complete a tier or two of a PvP reward track, and rank up in WvW a few times every single day.

You might not get a full set of exactly the stats you want, but you can save yourself a lot of gold with every ascended chest that drops.

I’m up to 5 ascended armor chests, and 2 ascended weapon chests, mainly from just fractals and champion bags. I stopped playing PvP because hotjoin is god awful at the moment with too many team droppers/swappers, and I don’t enjoy WvW either, nor do I want to a join a large guild just for missions. But if you’re consistent with all of them you’ll definitely see some ascended gear drops.

No, if you are after an ascended armor set, your only real way to get it in a reasonable time is to craft. You can’t rely on the super rare chance to drop one random piece with random stats, unless you don’t care about it and would happily run around with 6 different stats on each armor piece

Chests can drop from various things such as champ bags, wvw chests, fractal dailies etc. The chance is legendary slim however, especially if you’re aiming for
specific stats. The only reasonable and efficient way of acquiring weapons and armor is crafting.

IndigoSundown.5419:

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Ascended equipment can also be found in monster loot.. but lucking into a complete set in the right stats could take years.

in the ~1000 hours I’ve played since it was added, I’ve gotten 2 ascended drops.

I’m not sure how many hours I’ve played since weapons/armor were put in, but I’ve gotten zero Ascended drops. Based on that rate, my chances of getting a full kit of Ascended for even one of my 8 80’s approaches negative infinity.

Interesting, so far I’ve gotten 2 armor chests and a weapon chest from pvp boxes, 2 rings from wvw, a weapon chest from tequatl, and I haven’t played nearly as long as you guys have.

I’m also fractal level 32, if that makes any difference at all.

ive gotten over 25 ascended armor chests, about 4 weapon chests. youll be fine

Iason Evan.3806:

Or don’t worry about it. I have multiple characters that do all the content in only exotic armor. The only thing you need that armor for is well, nothing.

This.

It’s merely time/goldsink for people that play 24/7.