Guild Wars 2

I’m playing PvE exclusively at the moment, one character (Ranger), and don’t plan on PvPing at all (might do WvW, but a lot later). I’m still leveling and exploring a lot right now (which is great fun!), but am at a loss as to what to use the laurels I get from log-in rewards for. Amulets/rings/accessories seem tempting to save up for, but there’s soooo many. Not quite sure what infusions are (like runes?). And I don’t know if any of the Living World purchases are worth it, they seem mainly cosmetic. Heck, I’m half-tempted to get the Cat Tonic. Sooooo advice? What did y’all spend them on?

Behellagh.1468:

That’s of course assuming you want to do fractals.

@OP – what he means is that you can get ascended rings from doing fractals rather than spending laurels on them.

I would suggest getting an amulet (Distinguished Circle of Logic – zerk stats) with the karmic infusion (for karma). Then hoard a pile of laurels for future use as you will need them to make ascended weapons and gear (laurels are required to purchase the recipes). However, if you are really keen on spending them, most people use them to acquire T6 mats either to sell on the TP or to use in crafting (such as for legionaries).

Save em for an Ascended amulet. They’re account bound so you can get 1 and swap it around.

That’s of course assuming you want to do fractals.

Even without fractals the ascended amulets/rings/accessories have the highest stats. Go for ascended amulets and then if you need money go for tier 6 crafting material bags and sell those off.

If you’re going for the trinkets, go into World vs. World and use the vendors there. They required less laurels but you have to have tokens that you get from participate in World vs. World. Still a better deal.

And for accessories your cheapest bet is to find a guild that does guild missions. You can get guild commendations from them and use those in addition to laurels to unlock accessories. other wise you have to use laurels and “Globs of Ectoplasm” which are quite expensive.

How much you should “save” depends on how many characters you feel the need to outfit in Ascended Trinkets. I have a dozen toons and am outfitting them all (yes, I know they can share them….don’t want the hassle), so I need quite a few (and I don’t do Fractals so I use them for the rings as well).

As mentioned above, you can use 250 WvW badges to get you a Laurel discount on Trinkets from WvW NPC. Getting 250 badges usually takes less than an hour of running with a decent Zerg in EotM (and you earn a good bit of karma, XP and champ bags to boot).

If you have all the Ascended Trinkets you need, buy the T6 Crafting bags and sell (or use) the materials you get.

Silvatar.5379:

Behellagh.1468:

That’s of course assuming you want to do fractals.

@OP – what he means is that you can get ascended rings from doing fractals rather than spending laurels on them.

I would suggest getting an amulet (Distinguished Circle of Logic – zerk stats) with the karmic infusion (for karma). Then hoard a pile of laurels for future use as you will need them to make ascended weapons and gear (laurels are required to purchase the recipes). However, if you are really keen on spending them, most people use them to acquire T6 mats either to sell on the TP or to use in crafting (such as for legionaries).

This is nearly the same advice I give to guildies:

• Utility amulet (DCoL with Zerk is a good choice for nearly anyone) with the karmic infusion. (I have karmic as default, swapping to magical/MF for specific content, such as opening Lunar New Year’s envelopes.)
• Home instance nodes (watchwork for sure; quartz & candy corn can be obtained from the TP, so only worth it if you want to get daily mining credit more easily).
• At least one non-practical thing, e.g. a tonic, a mini.
• T6 mats to sell or to use.
• Save a few laurels for future additions to the list.

I’m totally being misunderstood here. I personally have no intention to ever do Fractals, ever. This makes the need to have trinkets that can hold an infusion slot rather pointless. I spent my first 75 laurels on a puppy and since then on Heavy Crafting Bags, selling off the T6 fine mats inside.

The notion that buying ascended jewelry is a no brainer assumes that players will naturally line up to run the Fractal treadmill to earn what exactly? The continuation of gear, stat and profession snobbery that permeates dungeons? Gee, that sounds like so much fun. Got to get in on some of that action.

Ascended accessory, utility slot items, Gold/MF infusions, otherwise useless/dyes/tonics.

Ascended items still good for PVE, will help in WVW.

If you want the gold, keep doing what you’re doing with the heavy crafting bags.

Don’t knock Ascended trinkets, though. I play only PvE and am buying as many Ascended trinkets as I can afford for my two mains. If you’ve taken a look at the stats, you will have noticed they’re a significant step up from exotic jewellery and worth the purchase, even for PvE. And you don’t need to use the agony infusion slots, the trinkets work fine with them empty.

Behellagh.1468:

I’m totally being misunderstood here. I personally have no intention to ever do Fractals, ever. This makes the need to have trinkets that can hold an infusion slot rather pointless. I spent my first 75 laurels on a puppy and since then on Heavy Crafting Bags, selling off the T6 fine mats inside.

The notion that buying ascended jewelry is a no brainer assumes that players will naturally line up to run the Fractal treadmill to earn what exactly? The continuation of gear, stat and profession snobbery that permeates dungeons? Gee, that sounds like so much fun. Got to get in on some of that action.

Wait, what? Ascended gear has better stats than exotic gear. Pink trinks are worth getting for PvE and WvW. The utility amulets can add a significant buff for karma, magic find, or experience gain. All other ‘infusion’ slots can be upgraded to get minor stat increases.

In short, the decision to get ascended gear has nothing to do with whether you ever run fractals or not. And that’s why my recommendations to guildies on where to spend laurels includes getting an ascended amulet.

PS I’m glad you spent some on something frivolous. The mini puppy is definitely a good choice.

Do you have your own private guild already?
NO?
WTFRUCRAZY?!?!

Nowadays it cost a gold to create one, but it´s well worth the money.
Then spend laurels on letters of commendation and use them while representing your private guild. Until you have enough to build your guild bank and get quite a nice addition to inventory space.

HawkMeister.4758:

Do you have your own private guild already?
NO?
WTFRUCRAZY?!?!

Nowadays it cost a gold to create one, but it´s well worth the money.
Then spend laurels on letters of commendation and use them while representing your private guild. Until you have enough to build your guild bank and get quite a nice addition to inventory space.

Good point! You will be very happy to have a 250 slot guild stash/bank/cave of your own. ^^

Heh, lets not get ahead of ourselves. The final 250 slot guild bank is quite the undertaking.
But getting the first 50 slot stash is very doable and a great investment for your starting laurels IMHO.

Just remember to NEVER stand down from your own guild or all is lost. :O

Behellagh.1468:

……
The notion that buying ascended jewelry is a no brainer assumes that players will naturally line up to run the Fractal treadmill to earn what exactly? The continuation of gear, stat and profession snobbery that permeates dungeons? Gee, that sounds like so much fun. Got to get in on some of that action.

Beyond your misgivings about that content, the Ascended pieces DO present some not-so-insignificant statistical benefit over Exotics. I’ve never filled an infusion slot, but they ARE there if I want to use them in the future.

Now if you are talking about running Fractals for the rings, I fully agree with you. I just buy them from WvW NPC after earning some badges.

But when they were first introduced ALL that I heard was you got to have them for Fractals. Save your laurels for Ascended stuff for Fractals. You’re an idiot if you spend them on anything else. Blah, blah, blah. NOBODY was talking about their stats outside of Fractals, only about the infusion slots you needed to get your AR up so you can do Level 10 Fractals and up.

Ive actually never seen the karmic infusions before, but I have also been living under a rock.. how many items have utlity slots in them? Does 1 infusion really increase karma gain from events by 15%? If so then People must be stacking em like craaazy?

nacario.9417:

Ive actually never seen the karmic infusions before, but I have also been living under a rock.. how many items have utlity slots in them? Does 1 infusion really increase karma gain from events by 15%? If so then People must be stacking em like craaazy?

Reference source: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion

“Utility infusions […] such slots are only available on certain amulets.”

Behellagh.1468:

But when they were first introduced ALL that I heard was you got to have them for Fractals. Save your laurels for Ascended stuff for Fractals. You’re an idiot if you spend them on anything else. Blah, blah, blah. NOBODY was talking about their stats outside of Fractals, only about the infusion slots you needed to get your AR up so you can do Level 10 Fractals and up.

Eh, people say a lot of stuff. The short story is still: there are good reasons to spend laurels on ascended gear even if you never do any fractals. Of course, you can play the game perfectly fine without Ascended gear, too. At a minimum, though, I’d splurge on the utility amulet with either karmic or mystical infusion for the buffs.