Should not be a grind. As I mentioned in another thread the lack of a story behind these weapons makes it a grind. After thinking through the process I have come up with some rough ideas, maybe they could do the armor differently?
While out saving Tyria you find a scrap of paper on the corpse of some hapless enemy you managed to overcome. That small, almost illegible scrap of paper leads you to some forgotten corner of the realm where after exhaustive searching you uncover the hilt of an ancient broadsword. That is all you can find, the hilt, so you tuck it away in your pack and go about your adventures. (the rng part)
So now you have the hilt to an ascended or legendary weapon. Up to this point the hilt can be traded (if for example you do not want a broadsword) or sold. If you decide to keep the relic and show it to a certain master weaponsmith (this can easily be randomized so it is not for example the one at the forge in Divinity’s Reach) who recognizes the maker’s mark on the hilt. This directs you to another master weaponsmith who tells you that his great grandfather had made that mark. (all this is done in a personal instance such as that you went through with your personal story) After going through boxes of old records he finds notes on how the sword was made and what special properties it had imbued in it. After some convincing he agrees to walk you through the steps required to reforge the sword as the wielder of the weapon is the one that must do the actual forging.
Now he is needful of the materials but even though you may be an accomplished weaponsmith forging a blade such as this one requires you to learn the art anew. THAT way the requirements for iron, steel, darksteel, mithril and up ingots makes sense. As well you can do it in steps." Iron first, when you have accomplished all I can teach you using iron we can progress to steel."
Even though you may hate crafting, and many do, you are not actually crafting at this point. You do not need to be a level 500 weaponsmith and you can progress at your own pace. (one reason for making this a personal instance) Each one of the ingredients for each of the steps in the reforging of the weapon has it’s own lesson to be learned and there is a STORY behind why a specific component or reagent is needed. They are not just all collected and “poof” you have an Ascended weapon.
So even if the material requirements stay the same by putting a story in place that engages the person you remove some of that “grind” aspect from it.
As I stated at the beginning these were just some roughed out ideas to show how a proper story can remove the “grind” and replace it with something a bit more interesting. Each different weapon type can have it’s own story behind it, some lore and history and even if it took 5,000 iron bars I for one would find it much more believable. 