Guild Wars 2

Title says it all.
Is ascended armor needed for WvW roaming/dueling/zerging ?

Will playing WvW in exotics give me a significant disadvantage, or is ascended just not worth the cost? (if it was just one set of zerker it wouldn’t be an actual problem, but different situations require different builds)

No, a good player with ‘just’ exotics will destroy, no matter what the other is wearing.

aspirine.6852:

No, a good player with ‘just’ exotics will destroy, no matter what the other is wearing.

Half true. Its more based on the builds used Exotic armor is the minimum.

Ascended just allows you to min-max your stats much more effectively, sure somebody in exotics can kill someone in ascended but not having ascended is a disadvantage if you face somebody with equal skill to yourself.

Well you just need to play couple percentage better than full ascended geared player.

Nah, no need for ascended armor. I have ascended trinkets though, but armor wise I am still running exotic. No problems there. In some builds, some of my weapons are ascended, but I don’t feel that it is much of a difference.

In a duel of 2 equally skilled players with equal able builds the armor ascended vs exotic might make a difference. But such conditions apply rarely to WvW.

The risk of you running into a lone guy with the exact same skill as you is more or less zero. Thus the tiny difference in stats won’t really change much overall.

There was a thread with calculations and theorycrafting a long time ago, but I won’t bother trying to find it. Basically the end line was – full ascended gear is 13-15% better than full exotic. In most team/zerg fights however, this is unnoticeable. And as most said – to you run in a 1v1 situation, where the enemy beats you not because of his skill/build, but because of his gear is extremely rare.
If you want to duel though, I’d suggest starting to work on ascended. As a very active OS dueler myself, I have had situations where it actually mattered if I wear ascended, or not.

TBH, that 5% stat increase can make a difference in small scale fights (even in ZvZ I suppose). I, myself, have barely stayed alive with as low kitten HP (Yes, FIVE). If I was wearing Exotic, I would have been downed (and dead consequently). So yes, it does make a difference IMHO.

NiloyBardhan.9170:

TBH, that 5% stat increase can make a difference in small scale fights (even in ZvZ I suppose). I, myself, have barely stayed alive with as low kitten HP (Yes, FIVE). If I was wearing Exotic, I would have been downed (and dead consequently). So yes, it does make a difference IMHO.

Running around in zerker will still get you killed, no matter if you use Exotic or Ascended.

thanks for the responses

lordkrall.7241:

NiloyBardhan.9170:

TBH, that 5% stat increase can make a difference in small scale fights (even in ZvZ I suppose). I, myself, have barely stayed alive with as low kitten HP (Yes, FIVE). If I was wearing Exotic, I would have been downed (and dead consequently). So yes, it does make a difference IMHO.

Running around in zerker will still get you killed, no matter if you use Exotic or Ascended.

I never mentioned anything regarding zerker.

No, but you mentioned having “low as kitten HP” which would suggest you build around something that doesn’t give vitality.

I hope not, it’ll be months before I’m in a situation to even look at ascended crafting, but I started playing for the sale. I’m in rares, and not having the greatest time. It works out alright if I can hide in the group. In small fights, it seems to be an issue. I’m working on getting better and enough badges to get better gear. I have the WvW weapons, I just need to settle on an armor stat and get enough badges.

I use this to figure out my builds and gear.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/

It recommends valkyrie or berserker for nercro back line, and mix of solider with berserker or just full berserker for roaming. I’m debating trying full berserker and just do trial by fire until I learn to play better. That way I can use the set for PVE, Roaming, and blob fights. Then I just need to swap weapons and talents. Hmm….

Coyote.7031:

I hope not, it’ll be months before I’m in a situation to even look at ascended crafting, but I started playing for the sale. I’m in rares, and not having the greatest time. It works out alright if I can hide in the group. In small fights, it seems to be an issue. I’m working on getting better and enough badges to get better gear. I have the WvW weapons, I just need to settle on an armor stat and get enough badges.

I use this to figure out my builds and gear.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/

It recommends valkyrie or berserker for nercro back line, and mix of solider with berserker or just full berserker for roaming. I’m debating trying full berserker and just do trial by fire until I learn to play better. That way I can use the set for PVE, Roaming, and blob fights. Then I just need to swap weapons and talents. Hmm….

yeah I recommend starting with a berserker set of exotics, you can easily obtain it from the trading post, throught crafting or from dungeon tokens + it allows you to tackle the widest variety of content and it forces you to learn to dodge and use damage mitigation abilities

I started playing last year with a warrior in Soldier gear and with a shout-heal build, which basically means I didnt die in dungeons… and it got boring so quickly I actually stopped playing for a few months.

lordkrall.7241:

No, but you mentioned having “low as kitten HP” which would suggest you build around something that doesn’t give vitality.

Weird, I actually wrote my “low as five (in numerical) HP” which got changed to “low as kitten HP”…lol. I meant my HP went down to 5 (after taking dmg and before healing myself again) and I survived which might not have been possible if I was wearing exotic.

SirBiest.3071:

yeah I recommend starting with a berserker set of exotics, you can easily obtain it from the trading post, throught crafting or from dungeon tokens + it allows you to tackle the widest variety of content and it forces you to learn to dodge and use damage mitigation abilities

I started playing last year with a warrior in Soldier gear and with a shout-heal build, which basically means I didnt die in dungeons… and it got boring so quickly I actually stopped playing for a few months.

I’m working on karma gear and saving my crafting mats for when I get good runes, like scholar or travelers. Grenth gear is berserker stats. 42k a piece is fair and requires no upfront gold. It lets me save badges for weapons and doesn’t pick my pockets. It lets me save my gold for things like runes, bags, and maybe some gems for bank space. So I guess I’m really in half exotic gear if I run with my berserker pieces.

The difference in stats is not “tiny” it is quite substancial and will give you a reliable edge in close fights.

Anyone telling you anything different is either lying or an idiot.

If you can get it get it, trust me it will make a difference. Even just getting the chest and the pants ( the raw stat increase there is the greatest compared to the other slots) will make a notable difference. It will not guarantee your win but it will get you out of tight stituations.

Coyote.7031:

SirBiest.3071:

yeah I recommend starting with a berserker set of exotics, you can easily obtain it from the trading post, throught crafting or from dungeon tokens + it allows you to tackle the widest variety of content and it forces you to learn to dodge and use damage mitigation abilities

I started playing last year with a warrior in Soldier gear and with a shout-heal build, which basically means I didnt die in dungeons… and it got boring so quickly I actually stopped playing for a few months.

I’m working on karma gear and saving my crafting mats for when I get good runes, like scholar or travelers. Grenth gear is berserker stats. 42k a piece is fair and requires no upfront gold. It lets me save badges for weapons and doesn’t pick my pockets. It lets me save my gold for things like runes, bags, and maybe some gems for bank space. So I guess I’m really in half exotic gear if I run with my berserker pieces.

Before spending karma on gear, keep in mind that crafting a legendary requires large amounts of karma (an average of 1 million i think?). So before chugging away karma for items you can get for 5 gold, make sure you arent going to need it for a legendary which costs thousands of gold. I made that “mistake” because I didnt know better at the time :P

if facing equal skilled opponent you are at a disadvantage
if facing a slightly lesser skilled opponent opponent not much difference
if facing a scrub you have nothing to worry about

ascended is an advantage not a guarantee.
also, getting ascended trinkets is easy, especially if youre doing a fair amount of wvw.
and i do believe they said that they are going to make it easier to get precursors for the ascended gear in the HoT expansion.

Bazzoong.7145:

The difference in stats is not “tiny” it is quite substancial and will give you a reliable edge in close fights.

Anyone telling you anything different is either lying or an idiot.

If you can get it get it, trust me it will make a difference. Even just getting the chest and the pants ( the raw stat increase there is the greatest compared to the other slots) will make a notable difference. It will not guarantee your win but it will get you out of tight stituations.

5% is tiny in any way you look at it.

It’s not even a flat 5%.

Per the OP we’re only talking about armor. Armor has a much lower impact on your overall stats than weapons or trinkets have.

If this were a discussion on weapons, yes you absolutely want the ascended weapon. Trinkets as well, but they’re relatively inexpensive. Armor is trivial.

^

Ascended Armor is nothing more than a grind fest for a few more stats the armor that you gain is almost insignificant – maybe the infusions but meh

The weapons especially in POWER builds makes a noticeable difference but nothing too big but I would definitely go for the weapons first especially if you run a zerk build

Ascended Trinkets are essentially mandatory but they are easy to get

SirBiest.3071:

Before spending karma on gear, keep in mind that crafting a legendary requires large amounts of karma (an average of 1 million i think?). So before chugging away karma for items you can get for 5 gold, make sure you arent going to need it for a legendary which costs thousands of gold. I made that “mistake” because I didnt know better at the time :P

I have no plans to make a legendary at this time, but that’s good to know. Maybe when the expansion hits with the new system. There’s no way I’ll get enough gold to buy mats for it, and I’m not that lucky.

just remember they did say that getting your precursor for legendary will be changing with the HoT expansion. i believe they said it will be a massive quest to get them.might be better to wait and build up your gold karma and mats for when the expansion hits. maybe overall less expensive. tho who knows how far away the expansion is.

Atherakhia.4086:

It’s not even a flat 5%.

Per the OP we’re only talking about armor. Armor has a much lower impact on your overall stats than weapons or trinkets have.

If this were a discussion on weapons, yes you absolutely want the ascended weapon. Trinkets as well, but they’re relatively inexpensive. Armor is trivial.

This topic is indeed only inquiring about ascended ARMOR, because it is a drag to get. The core question was: do I need ascended armor sets for wvw or will exotics work just fine

SirBiest.3071:

Atherakhia.4086:

It’s not even a flat 5%.

Per the OP we’re only talking about armor. Armor has a much lower impact on your overall stats than weapons or trinkets have.

If this were a discussion on weapons, yes you absolutely want the ascended weapon. Trinkets as well, but they’re relatively inexpensive. Armor is trivial.

This topic is indeed only inquiring about ascended ARMOR, because it is a drag to get. The core question was: do I need ascended armor sets for wvw or will exotics work just fine

omg how dare people add extra info
smh

oneply.9586:

just remember they did say that getting your precursor for legendary will be changing with the HoT expansion. i believe they said it will be a massive quest to get them.might be better to wait and build up your gold karma and mats for when the expansion hits. maybe overall less expensive. tho who knows how far away the expansion is.

Challenging and even time consuming is fine, RNG is less fine. I would much rather have a very long and terrible quest that takes me a year to finish. I like the idea of having a long term goal and inching my way slowly forward. I just hope it isn’t stuff like get 10,000 mithril and come back, get 25,000 elder wood and come back. That wouldn’t be a challenge, it be a grind.

In my simple opinion you don’t need all the ascended set. Coat and leggins are the pieces where the difference is bigger… so you could make only them … and if you have time ad a piece one by one

It’s nice to have but it’s not necessary.

its too expensive to get >.<

@The argument of too expensive:

To get ascended trinkets is actually very easy… I am now throwing most of the ascended drops I get away, cuz… you know, there are tons of them in my inventory and bank already. Also weapons is fairly easy to get. To get a full armor is harder… but with weapons and trinkets the (already small) gap is closed a bit further… so I see no real issues here unless you wanna 1v1 duel all the time…

For 1v1 its more about your class and your build not so much the level of your armor. For zerg its more about numbers and organization builds play into it too (say full zerg melee gurd not going to last long enofe to do any thing in a fight.)

The big thing is ascended armor and over all all ascended level gear helps out power more then condition dmg. So when it comes down to the stander 1v1 condition dmg tends to be king you should not need to best gear to make it work.

Ascended armor? No.

It’s not nonexistent, but even if you’re going against people in full ascended vs full exotics, it’s not that horrible, plus not everyone has full ascended anyways. Furthermore, ascended armor provides the least benefit over exotics.

Ascended trinkets are pretty much an inevitable part of playing the game (only laurel + badges, though the earrings can suck), and thus the only investment long term I would recommend worrying about is the ascended weapons, which is probably the bigger boost anyways. Please do not break your bank over any of these. It is not worth doing that. You’re better off getting exotics and spending your gold on good food instead.

TyPin.9860:

@The argument of too expensive:

To get ascended trinkets is actually very easy… I am now throwing most of the ascended drops I get away, cuz… you know, there are tons of them in my inventory and bank already. Also weapons is fairly easy to get. To get a full armor is harder… but with weapons and trinkets the (already small) gap is closed a bit further… so I see no real issues here unless you wanna 1v1 duel all the time…

Men I got like 3 drops in my whole 2200+ hours of playing.

Rly? I threw already so many ascended trinkets away… weapons and armor don’t drop so much (of those I probably had like 2 or 3 drops myself) … but trinkets… I get rly annoyed when they drop these days… You gotta love RNG^^

You should aim for Ascended Weapon + Trinkets. The stat gain from armor is really tiny, so you can skip over it without missing much.

I would say no, not necessary, at least not the armor. They mention that they will be having more “powerful” infusions in HoT, though, and the only things you can infuse are legendaries and ascended. I would say the current defensive wvw infusions are fairly nice to have when clearing camps (a full set of defensive infusions on your armor/any trinks that take them could mean a 10% reduction of incoming damage against you, for example) but not really necessary.

Yeah, we gonna see, what those infusions do. But maybe they are more PvE related… maybe something like Agony Resistance or connected with the new masteries. So probably nothing to worry about WvW wise.

Not realy makes any difference. And the meta changes every 3-6 months so i think noone buy every kind of stats.

Coyote.7031:

I’m working on karma gear and saving my crafting mats for when I get good runes, like scholar or travelers.

Remember that you won’t be able to salvage your runes later if you put them on karma gear. Have you looked at the named armor sets with the stats you want on the trading post?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor

I would say that as a WvWer you might want to invest in ascended trinkets and weapons, but ascended armor is not so important.

I’d say ascended trinkets with WvW infusions is a must.

Ascended weapons is a nice to have and noticeable.

Ascended armor is barely worth it.

Rimmy.9217:

Coyote.7031:

I’m working on karma gear and saving my crafting mats for when I get good runes, like scholar or travelers.

Remember that you won’t be able to salvage your runes later if you put them on karma gear. Have you looked at the named armor sets with the stats you want on the trading post?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor

I don’t think I was clear, I’m saving my mats to make exotics to put scholars runes or travelers runes, and thus I can salvage them. The karma gear are place holders until I can farm enough mats. I only have about 6 blood so far. I haven’t decided which. I got one travelers from an exotic piece already, so maybe I’ll go that route. No more locus sigil for me.

Coyote.7031:

Rimmy.9217:

Coyote.7031:

I’m working on karma gear and saving my crafting mats for when I get good runes, like scholar or travelers.

Remember that you won’t be able to salvage your runes later if you put them on karma gear. Have you looked at the named armor sets with the stats you want on the trading post?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armor

I don’t think I was clear, I’m saving my mats to make exotics to put scholars runes or travelers runes, and thus I can salvage them. The karma gear are place holders until I can farm enough mats. I only have about 6 blood so far. I haven’t decided which. I got one travelers from an exotic piece already, so maybe I’ll go that route. No more locus sigil for me.

Yeah, I saw “mats” and “scholar’s runes” and figured you were just waiting on the lodestones to make the runes.

Those are two very different sets of runes though – I’m not sure I’d use traveler’s on a necro since there are much better choices that will give a huge increase to your damage or survivability. Can I guess that if you’re thinking scholar’s runes you’re intending to stay as a power necro?

Rimmy.9217:

Yeah, I saw “mats” and “scholar’s runes” and figured you were just waiting on the lodestones to make the runes.

Those are two very different sets of runes though – I’m not sure I’d use traveler’s on a necro since there are much better choices that will give a huge increase to your damage or survivability. Can I guess that if you’re thinking scholar’s runes you’re intending to stay as a power necro?

Yeah I went by the meta suggestions and 3 of the metas use Berserker, so I went power. Though I suppose the roaming build isn’t that meta, it’s listed under good. But this way I can use one set of a gear to enjoy myself in multiple roles. I can do PVE, dungeons, zergs, and roaming with only need trait changes and weapon swaps. Which saves me on some bag space for the time being. Though some say I should be Assassins for dungeons, but I’m not running speed runs so meh.

Scholars were listed for the PVE rune, roaming was Strength, and roaming was Travelers. All of which are a little pricy. I’m running a cheap set right now.

I’m tired of lagging behind in WvW so that’s why I thought Travelers might be good. I get the boon duration which helps, the speed to keep up, and it frees a slot on my bar for something more useful.

I didn’t even know till after that post I could make Scholar’s runes. I found the recipe for the rare one shortly after fiddling in the crafting window.

Coyote.7031:

Which saves me on some bag space for the time being.

If bag space is getting tight and, assuming you don’t want to splash out ten gold for a twenty slot bag, consider running some fractals. You can buy the twenty slot fractal bags fairly quickly using the fractal relics (dungeon tokens) you get.

Rimmy.9217:

Coyote.7031:

Which saves me on some bag space for the time being.

If bag space is getting tight and, assuming you don’t want to splash out ten gold for a twenty slot bag, consider running some fractals. You can buy the twenty slot fractal bags fairly quickly using the fractal relics (dungeon tokens) you get.

Don’t need 10 gold. Buy 3k candy corn and turn them into cobs then buy a halloween pail (20 slots). At current TP prices, as long as you place a buy order, it should only cost you about 3.5 – 3.75g per 3k corn.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Rimmy.9217:

Coyote.7031:

Which saves me on some bag space for the time being.

If bag space is getting tight and, assuming you don’t want to splash out ten gold for a twenty slot bag, consider running some fractals. You can buy the twenty slot fractal bags fairly quickly using the fractal relics (dungeon tokens) you get.

Don’t need 10 gold. Buy 3k candy corn and turn them into cobs then buy a halloween pail (20 slots). At current TP prices, as long as you place a buy order, it should only cost you about 3.5 – 3.75g per 3k corn.

Holy crap that’s almost as cheap as an 18 slot, but is a recipe needed, I would not have it.

Also I’m not sure an extra 8 slots is gonna save me much. But since I bought the deluxe I got influence thingies, which I used on a personal guild to get a guild bank. It’ll be ready in two days. And I might buy a bank slot too, have a single tab in my bank is a little rough.

Just steal the enemy bloodlust and you put the exotic vs ascended in your favor.

It helps out if you’re geared in full ascended, that’s not something anybody can deny.

The question you have to ask yourself is, can you be bothered to grind PvE of several weeks to get a gear set only viable for 1 character and 1 specialisation on that character? Can you be bothered with doing this grind all over again whenever a balance patch changes the meta (oh right, well okay, we don’t get those, but let’s pretend)?

If you can be bothered, then you will gain a ~13% statistical advantage vs. other players, and an even bigger advantage vs. NPC’s in WvW thanks to infusions (which helps you get the benefits from guard killer/defender abilities a little faster than others).

Personally, I cannot be bothered grinding PvE for one spec, especially with HoT coming later this year and I might find that either 1) Obtaining ascended gear becomes easier in HoT, 2) I need my gold for new and more important things in HoT, 3) HoT completely changes the meta, forcing me to get a brand new ascended set regardless.

Ultimately the choice is yours, it’s all about how much play time you have available to put up with the grind.