Shard of Crystallized Mists Essence
To get Shards to drop, you need to play on scale 51+, first of all. As for specific fractals, anything where loot dropping enemies will spawn is good. So basically, not the fractals everyone else will want to run. Swamp is bad, Molten Duo is bad, etc.
Volcanic gives you a good amount of Grawl right at the start. Urban Battleground enemies at the very beginning are endless and don’t drop loot, but once past the gate the groups of enemies in the streets will work. Snowblind has the stretch past the Elemental that normally people just run through, but if you kill all the Svanir and the wolves along the way to the boss you can get drops from them. Molten Furnace has a decent amount of enemies along the way to the boss. Thaumanova had some of the enemies stop dropping loot, but enough still do. Aetherblade Retreat and Cliffside will have things to kill. Perhaps the best overall will be Underground Facility, especially if you kill all the Dredge in the starting area outside the cages before starting with the pressure plate puzzles.
Even Jade Maw will be okay if you kill the enemies rather than just running through them.
In short, anything except Swamp, Molten Duo and Mai Trin will have some level of enemies to slay for goodies.
Hmmm I believe youre working on Unbound, not Ad Infinitum. Just saying.
A heretic’s voice in your head
A stargazer, releaser
Another thing to keep in mind with those drops in fractals is that you can promote/demote them.
If you have a lot of coagulated mist essence, or vials, you can promote them in the mystic forge to make the shards.
Look on the wiki for the recipe: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shard_of_Crystallized_Mists_Essence
Phoenix Ascendant [ASH] | Rank 80