Guild Wars 2

When I first saw the option of buying Ascended armor via grandmaster mark, I was pretty excited thinking I would have an alternative way of obtaining ascended gear other than crafting.

When I finally looked at the grandmaster mark recipes, I was very disappointed and confused.

Each mark requires 4 daily crafting components, and each cost more than the non discounted versions on the TP, the cheapest armor piece requires would require 12 daily components compare to 9 required by normal crafting. So just that, it would cost more gold to craft 3 marks than crafting the armor piece directly. On top of that I have to pay in ascended shards of glory or fractal pages plus gold to purchase the piece.

So my question is, what’s the point?

There honestly isn’t a point. Its just as expensive, or more depending on the stats you want, to “purchase” ascended armor via crafting these marks than it costs to just craft ascended armor.

The only difference is that you don’t need vision crystals anymore, so no more bloodstone dust/empyreal fragments/dragonite ore/obsidian shards. That’s it.

OriOri.8724:

The only difference is that you don’t need vision crystals anymore, so no more bloodstone dust/empyreal fragments/dragonite ore/obsidian shards. That’s it.

Lmao, like those cost anything…

They cost time.

Of course buying from tp is more expensive than crafting. I’m making good money by crafting mark components
But the material cost when you craft the daily parts yourself will make the armor cheaper (not for all stats)

I had 300 ascended shards from last season and will be getting 300 more this season. This is enough for head, shoulders, gloves and feet. Given i’m getting trailblazer (lillys ) stats these 4 pieces will save me almost 100g.

So the point is; I can enjoy pvp and do my daily crafting so in the medium-long run I can get my expensive armor as a nice bonus.

OriOri.8724:

There honestly isn’t a point. Its just as expensive, or more depending on the stats you want, to “purchase” ascended armor via crafting these marks than it costs to just craft ascended armor.

The only difference is that you don’t need vision crystals anymore, so no more bloodstone dust/empyreal fragments/dragonite ore/obsidian shards. That’s it.

Um, there are lots of differences between the two methods. I’ve covered several in another thread

Marks require a blend of T6 fine (rather than a lot of one or two), a lot less T2-4 basics, more T5 basics, zero ascended, and significantly no hardened leather.

Currently, the market prices might be similar, but that can change (and probably will) as we reach the new equilibrium in 4-6 weeks or more. One method might end up being a lot easier for people who stick to certain game modes, for example people who do a lot of fractals will end up having plenty of the necessary mats by the time they earn enough of the fractal currencies.

It’s worth it if you are going for a HoT stat which costs a arm and a leg cough trailblazer cough Minstrel cough