Guild Wars 2

I play PvE and WvW with a long term goal of “someday raids.” Never really been interested in PvP or fractals.

Recently, I’ve been looking into ascended gear and dabbling in collecting some of the materials needed to craft a set. In theory, it shouldn’t be difficult to craft, it’d just take a couple of months to make all of the damask/elonian leather and it’d be comparatively expensive to just buying a new set of exotics.

Having just taken a more in-depth look into the cost, however, I’m kind of wondering if the 500g+ sink is worth the price. I know historically it’s been said to be necessary for upper fractal levels, but is it needed for raiding? Or is it just something that’s kind of nice and useful to have?

It is something nice and useful to have, it gives you bigger room for error because you have better stats (by a little). It is by no means necessary though.
If you play the game for a long time, you will definitely want an ascended set eventually, because you’ll run out of stuff to invest into anyway. Your first set will probably have to be crafted (at least for the most part), but later on, you will be able to get most pieces of asc equipment for free (high level fractals, raids,…) and only craft those last few missing pieces.
It is expensive and gives you very small benefit over exotic. Is it worth it? That’s a question only you can answer. For some people it is very much worth it, for others not so much. Pragmatically speaking, that stat bonus you get, however small it is, is still better than dumping that money into a fancy skin. But again, that’s a matter of personal preference.

(Another nice benefit of having asc equipment is that you can change stats in mystic forge, although you lose the upgrade. This means you can update your build fairly cheaply in case the meta for your class changes.)

I would go for ascended weapons and trinkets at the very least, as the stat increases are more meaningful than armor. If you’re not in a hurry, you can then slowly chip away at the armor.

Remember, other than fractals, there are some cheap ways to get a few pieces of weapons and armors. I’m ignoring the low RNG options like pvp chests, Teq and TT wurm;
Weapons: elite spec collections
Armor: Leyline armor collection, bioluminescent armor collection
Backpack: Blood rubies vendor

Honestly, I don’t feel it’s remotely worth the price unless you have gold to burn and nothing better to burn it on. You can get plenty of ascended pieces without having to spend a ton of gold, and these should be more than sufficient to begin climbing the fractal ladder, which will increasingly provide more ascended gear as you progress.

Unless ascended gear is something you simply must have for your own reasons, I recommend acquiring it slowly over time by other means. At some point you’ll find you only have the odd piece missing from your set and crafting those might make a bit more sense.

Ascended is definitely needed for high level Fractals because of Agony. This isn’t simply a matter of it being harder and needing higher stats to beat, it’s straight-up you take damage every second (and will therefore die) unless you have Agony Resistance on your gear, and you can only get Agony Resistance on ascended gear.

For everything else the only benefit over exotics is a slight increase in stats. It helps but it’s not a game-changer.

You could always just make 1 piece and see how it goes. I made an ascended coat for my ranger just because I liked the skin and I didn’t find it too bad (although I was in the middle of making my 1st legendary so maybe it was just because it was easier than that). I’ve made the trousers too and keep thinking about finishing the set.

I have a full light and medium set sitting in my bank because they just do nothing to my game play. The heavy set I have on my rev because it was there and I could not be bothered to craft a new set. Really up to you op if you make them. They may turn out to be useful for me at one point but right now they just helped me get some achievements done.

It’s worth it for my needs… but they’re likely not the same as yours. I’m making ascended celestial everything.

The main reason I’m doing this is so that I can test builds on what ever character I’m playing without having to purchase/craft new armor/weapons. This also has the added benefit of not having to use up storage for any old gear that I think I might come back to (I have much of my bank devoted to this purpose).

A second reason is that it gives me a long-term project to work on…. very long term. I don’t expect to be done until the spring. Despite it being long-term, every week or so I’ve got a new piece to show for my effort.

So for me it’s not about the stats, it’s about having an endgame treadmill that benefits one of the things I love doing in the game: build experimentation.

~EW

I have a set for every weight and I have taken to putting the ascended set on any character I am playing regularly. The content is easier with ascended armor and I notice the difference when I’ve switched from exotics to ascended with new characters. I believe in ascended armor so much that I am currently working on crafting a Raiding set for my main character, so she will have two sets. Is it necessary? No. You can get by without it, but if there are two things I will sink gold into, convenience and boosting my character’s ability. The cosmetics come easily.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

But armor? No, it’s not worth buying ascended armor in my humble opinion. Not with gold at least. And if I had to guess? Sooner than later we’ll be able to farm something to buy ascended armor. If that’s the case, I’d seriously wait until the new map is open.

There is – Magnetite shards. And high-level fractals have a decent ascended drop rate. I still use Laurels and Guild Commendations for trinkets (Especially Accessories), because Blood Rubies aren’t worth the effort to make. There’s a whole world out there, not just Bloodstone Fen.

Emergencee.8259:

I play PvE and WvW with a long term goal of “someday raids.” Never really been interested in PvP or fractals.

For PvE a solid “No”

For WvW, you do get slightly better stats and can use the infusion slots for WvW infusions (to boost your stats by a tiny little more), but I would personally only upgrade the pants and torso slots. In that order. The pants upgrade gives you your biggest bang per upgrade buck.

As other have said already, upgrading you weapons and trinkets will help you out in all areas of the game because the difference from Exotics is more marked.

Thank you all so very much for your answers! They’ve all been immensely helpful to me and I’ve learned a ton.

I’ve luckily already got all ascended weapons and trinkets for the character in question (Tequatl’s been very kind to me in terms of weapon chests), so I’ve settled for just upgrading to a more suitably statted exotic set and some superior runes of strength. Once I’ve collected a bit more in raw materials, I’ll craft some ascended pants, but that’ll be a long term goal.

I’ll also give fractals another shot. I’ve heard they’re more fun in the higher levels and with a dedicated group (more experience and fewer wipe-outs than your run of the mill PUG), so maybe I’ll get some ascended drops once I bring my level up a bit.

Thanks again, you’re all fabulous!

I had the same dilemma, more with WvW as I don’t fractal. Since one can sit on many laurels getting amulet and rings are easy, trinkets if have globs; tho not all stats are there.

Weaps are the thing I’d go for first. Infusions for WvW help but are not imo as vital as high tier fractals simply due to the agony. But I do fine with full exotics say for most accessories. Esp if zerging or larger squad play. Roaming/small squads the infusions may help more.

And jealous of your tequatl drops! I have a warehouse full of spoons…