Guild Wars 2

Hey guys haven’t played in about a year or so and just logged in last night. It seems like a lot has changed / been added since I was away and I’m feeling very lost. I last played when the living world first started and just need some guidance on what’s happening end game now. I’m full exotic but I guess ascended is the best now? Are these dungeon drops or crafted? If anyone would be kind enough to take the time and just give me a rundown to help ease me back in I’d be very grateful. Thanks!

Legendary is technically the highest tier not ascended. But you can only craft legendary weapons. The legendary ones share the same stats as Ascended so stat wise they are the same.
Ascended is tied for the highest stats right now. The armor/weapons are crafted while the trinkets can be bought with laurels and by doing FoTM. There is a way of obtaining the armor and weapons as drops in WvW by ranking up… but the chance of actually getting one is really small ( I wouldn’t bet my chances on it!).

They have increased crafting cap from 400 to 500 and once you reach the 500 cap you can craft ascended gear. TBH Ascended stats only have a slight advantage of exotics, I would say somewhere about a 5% increase in stats if you compare a full exotic set vs a full ascended set. Also it will take hundreds of gold to craft a set of armor and the crafting is time gated so will take you some time to do that as well.

Ascended is only really required in fractals of the mists dungeons (entrance is in gendarran fields at the moment, but was in lion’s arch). It is only required in the higher levels of that dungeon (fractals are leveled, if you do them more often you can increase the difficulty. To survive at higher levels you need to survive a special condition unique for that dungeon called agony, to resist this you need ascended gear with an agony infusion).

The differens in stats for all other things can be compensated by using food. so don’t bother. If you enjoy the game, then ascended is a nice (and expensive) grind, but it is not a requirement at all.

Ascended for a lot of people is not worth it, full stop. I believe the ascended chestpieces give only 6 more stat points then the Exotic ones, and exotic looks better for a start, beacuse you can choose all the pretty different styles.

If you do ascended gears, it can take a minimum of 36 days to make it, due to the fact the stuff is time-gated, so keep that in mind, its also disgustingly expensive.