Guild Wars 2

Seeing as how huge of an investment making ascended is I’d like some input from more experienced players.
1) Zerkers or? My main concern with making zerkers gear is that come the HoT release they will nerf the hell out of it and I end up with some very expensive skins. Am I wrong to suspect this or is this a concern some of you have?

2) I know ascended really isn’t needed until you get into high level fractals, which I may add I haven’t run yet, as such is zerkers still that way to go or do you want more defense at that point?

3) Kinda related but weapon wise currently I have 1 berserkers staff/1 bunker staff (from a pvp reward luckily enough), 1 zerker dagger and 1 zerker focus. Should I bother making a second ascended dagger or a scepter? Or would those be used infrequently enough that having exotic weapons would suffice? (as a side note, unless some of the new legendaries are really cool I have little interest in making one)

For reference as to what I do, mainly easy dungeons as d/f or staff for certain situations. I’d like to start running Arah, but I don’t really have anyone to group with to learn it. I’d also like to eventually get into doing fractals, which I’ve hardly touched so far.

P.S I’ve also thought about making the entire set without the inscriptions and leaving it that way until HoT drops, but I’m not sure if I should do that or just make the set right away

1) At this point there shouldn’t be anyone out there able to answer this question with 100% certinity.
Keep in mind that this is only my own opinion.
Meta will change in some way, with the introduction of the new class and the nerfs occurring this game in the next months.
As always for new content all of us will be inexperienced not knowing which skills will do best or which build will get the job done, as efficent as possible.
But with time and playing the content, the player base will get used to the new boss’ mechanics, making it possibly – my opinion – to survive even with zerker gear.
Also, as far as I can recall – Colin also stated that he wouldn’t want us to go all over again and bring the whole ‘grinding for gear’ topic up again.
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The new content will have its challenges but with the time passing, surviving as a glass canon should be possible.
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2) That really depends. If you’re runnning with guildies or friends there shouldn’t be a problem running zerk. Even with certain pug teams, as long as the players in the party know what they are doing there shouldn’t be a problem running zerk either.
At the end of the day it all comes down to – get the fractal done. If you find yourself dying a lot, go get more defensive gear.
I for myself get the job done with zerk gear so, I think you’re good to go as long as you know your rotations, right builds to use for each encounter and dodging.
Also keep in mind that you don’t really need ascended armor at the moment.
Trinkets can give a minimal of 30 agony resistance + plus weapon 10 will give a total of 40 agony resistance. Running fractals up to level 39 shouldn’t be a problem that way.

3) When it comes to weapons they are always better to craft first. The additional boost of ascended weapons is around 5%.
That solely depends on your own dungeon clearing. If you want to make the most out of your weapons I would recommend different sets.
But for most of the time you’re good to go with zerk weapons and some good sigils on them.

The additional damage boost only occurs when hitting level 80 and playing while in 80. When in dungeons – current thing – your level be adjusted making acended gear equal to exotic gear.

To some things up. It’s your decision. I would wait and craft the right armor when there will be more intell on the new meta or how to gear up.
Still I would just go for it, if you can’t wait. It’s just a game and 600 gold aren’t that difficult to get.

Best of luck

Thank you for the very detailed reply, I think I’ll just stretch out the crafting process as long as possible and if news about HoT is out then I’ll do the possible new meta, otherwise zerk it is.

That’s what I am doing Memories Lost. I am just continuously gathering finished Ascended materials (wood, metal, cloth, leather) and sitting on them for the most part until HOT.

For all you know when HOT comes out there could be some uber awesome class specialization for another class you may want to play and you will totally regret that 300-500g worth of gear you put on a class you don’t play anymore let alone the meta changing.

Also there’s already a thread in the HOT forums about how Blind is basically considered another CC effect for boss defiance bars. So the perma blind thing that people are using in dungeons and what not is likely going to be a thing of the past. What affect that has on people for Zerker gear will have to be seen.

What are you going to do with the gear? If you get downleveled, the bonuses over exotic are really minor or non-existent.

Honestly, I wish I had skipped making my ascended armor and invested the time and money into getting a legendary. And then once I had that, just worked on ascended armor, because I had nothing better to do.

The only reason it is necessary is to run higher level fractals.

Personally, I went with celestial armor as I find it to be more useful, but I PvP a lot. My trinkets are ascended berserkers, because I find getting new trinkets to be a lot easier than recrafting a new set of armor. After I get my legendary, I will probably make ascended berserker weapons.

As far as getting the materials, world boss trains will give you plenty of dragon ore and running dungeons and fractals will give you plenty of the rest. Both are a great way to make cash and gather materials. Running in the EotM’s zerg will generate plenty of all three types of ascended materials, but the loot isn’t quite as good as world boss trains.

I recommend starting with armor. You make an investment into leveling one crafting skill in order to get 6 ascended items where as weapons requires you to level artificer and/or weaponsmith, depending on what your main build is.

I did legs and chest last, because they require the most investment.