User:Intricity/Gearing to Ascended

Calculations on how long it would take for a new player to obtain full ascended gear.

Pre-requisites

• Full FExotic gear.
• An armor crafting profession at level 500.
• A weapon crafting profession at level 500.

Foreword

This calculation will assume the player will do all of the steps concurrently. Initially, all items will be Berserker stats. Calculations on how long it will take for another stat will be provided afterwards. These calculations will not include ascended equipment obtained from achievements or lucky drops from world bosses or dailies.

Because this is focused on a completely new player, they will most likely not have access to the Fractal Research Pages from 99 and 100 challenge motes. Tier 4 fractals are also off limits.

While PvP and WvW are also valid places to obtain ascended equipment, this will be focused more on PvE only methods.

Time required may be off by a day if things were done before daily reset.

Rings

The easiest place to start out at is with the rings. At this point, players should have access to tier 1 Fractals. By doing the the three Tier 1 daily fractals and the daily recommended fractal, they will obtain 4 Pristine Fractal Relics.

From BUY-2046 PFR merchant located within the Mistlock Observatory they can purchase these two items:

Item	Cost
Ring of Red Death	10
Crystalline Band	10

These items are unique, therefore a player can only equip one of these at a time.

Time Required: 3 days each (5 days total)

Accessory

The cheapest method to obtain accessories is by doing Guild Missions for Guild Commendations. Guild Missions only reward their commendations once per week. Assuming only PvE Guild missions are done, a player can obtain 10-11 Guild Commendations a week.

From the Guild Commendation Trader located within the Guild Hall or Guild Initiative Headquarters, players can purchase these items:

Item	Cost
Althea's Ashes	12
Magister's Field Journal	12

These items are unique, therefore a player can only equip one of these at a time.

Time Required: 21 days (14 days if a WvW or PvP opportunity is done in addition to all other missions)

Amulet

There are two methods to obtain an amulet.

The first is not available to a free-to-play player cannot obtain because they are purchased from the Laurel Merchant and require Laurels. Laurels are only obtained through the daily log in rewards. A maximum of 35 laurels can be obtained per week, with an additional 20 if they choose the Chest of Plentiful Laurels from the Chest of Loyalty.

Time Required: 23 days

The second option is to purchase a Mist Pendant from BUY-2046 PFR. Rings and Accessories may also be purchased at the same price, however they are omitted due to how long it would take compared to the above two methods.

Item	Cost
Mist Pendant	100  + 2

Pristine Fractal Relics are limited based on the highest tier of fractals you can do.

Time Required

Tier 1 - 25 days

Tier 2 - 13 days

Tier 3 - 9 days

• Note: An extra 5 days must be added due to rings also using Pristine Fractal Relics.

Back Item

There are no easy accessible back items for new players without purchasing Living World Season 3. However, if you do not want to purchase it (or cannot), you have the following options.

Prototype Fractal Capacitor

The first option is the Prototype Fractal Capacitor, upgraded from the FExotic Prototype Fractal Capacitor. This item is also required for the Ad Infinitum collection.

Item	Materials	Cost
Prototype Fractal Capacitor|	1 Prototype Fractal Capacitor	1,350  + 21  12
	1 Gift of Ascension	500  + 25  20
	1 Vial of Condensed Mists Essence	30  + 32
	40 Mystic Crystal or 240 Philosopher's Stone	24
Total:		1,880  + 24  + 78  32

Assuming only tier 1 daily fractals are done, a player can obtain ~25 Fractal Relics per day. If tier 2 fractals can be done, a player can obtain ~45 Fractal Relics per day. This also removes the cost for the Vial of Condensed Mists Essence because they have a chance of dropping from killing enemies. If tier 3 fractals can be done, a player can obtain ~75 Fractal Relics per day.

Time Required

Tier 1 - 76 days

Tier 2 - 42 days

Tier 3 - 25 days

Tempered Spinal Blades

Another possible option is the Tempered Spinal Blades pack. In order to craft it, you will need to have beaten the Nightmare Fractal (scale 24, 49, 74 or 99). You will also need at least 1 Blade Shard which can drop from Aetherblades enemies within the fractals. A total of 925 Blade Shards will be required to craft this backpack.

To obtain the backpiece, you will need to use the Mystic Forge recipe to upgrade Watchwork Sprockets into Blade Shards. (See the Blade Shard Page for the recipe)

The recipe will give 10-16 Blade Shards per use. In total you will need around 2890-4625 Watchwork Sprockets. (Approximately 70-111 )

You will also need to craft a Gift of Blades whose recipe can be purchased from Miyani. This step will require at least 15 days, unless the materials are bought from the Trading Post.

Time Required: 0-15 days

• Note: This is also the cheapest back item to be infused.

Mawdrey

Obtaining this backpack will require at Living World Season 2 The Dragon's Reach: Part 2. See Mawdrey for a guide.

Time Required: 0-21 days

Other

There are several back items that are crafted using the Mystic Forge. They may be crafted as long as you have the materials for them.

• Quiver of Swift Flight
• Book of Secrets
• Quiver of a Thousand Arrows
• There with Yakkington: A Traveler's Tale

The time required for these vary based on whether you buy all the materials or farm for them yourself.

Weapons

The cheapest Ascended Weapon will always be through getting a lucky drop from these sources. However, this method has a time of 0 to infinity. Therefore, crafting is recommended.

Recipes may be bought from a Master craftsman and costs ~45-47  per weapon. If you have enough money to buy the materials off the trading post, this method does not take much time. If you choose to craft the Deldrimor Steel Ingots, Spiritwood Planks, and/or Elonian Leather Square, then you will require one day per item because they are daily timegated. Depending on the weapon you are crafting, this will take 2-4 days.

Another method is to craft Grandmaster Marks and purchase them from BLING-9009, which will cost ~30-35  per weapon. However, weapons that can be purchased can only be weapons that particular crafting profession can craft. For example, an Artificer can craft staffs so the Grandmaster Artificer's Mark can be used to purchase them. However, they cannot be used to purchase swords or longbows. Only one Grandmaster Mark can be crafted per day due to requiring Glob of Elder Spirit Residue, Lump of Mithrillium], and Spool of Thick Elonian Cord.

Grandmaster Marks are also timegated by how quickly you can obtain 24 Fractal Research Pages. They can only be obtained through daily recommended fractals. Because this takes a longer time to obtain compared to Grandmaster Marks, this is used to calculate the required time instead.

TIme Required for crafting: 0 days (3-6 days if crafting the ascended materials)

Time Required for research pages

Tier 1 - 24 days

Tier 2 - 12 days

Tier 3 - 8 days

Armor

The most time consuming method because there are 6 pieces. This section follows the same methods as the weapon section above. Ascended armor can be gotten as a lucky drop from these sources.

Recipes to craft them may be purchased from a Master craftsman and each piece will costs ~50  per piece in terms of materials. If all ascended crafting materials are purchased off the trading post, this method will take very little time. If each material is crafted yourself, this method will take 24-36 days for all pieces depending on the armor weight. See here.

Grandmaster Marks may also be used. Each piece requires a different amount of Fractal Research Pages.

Piece	Pages Required	Days Required
		Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3
Helm, Shoulders, Gloves, Boots	12	12	6	4
Legging	16	16	8	6
Chest	24	24	12	6
Total	88	88	44	30

Final Totals

Item	Days Required
Rings	5 days
Accessories	14-21 days
Amulet	9-25 days
Back item	Varies depending on choice (15-76 days)
Weapon	8-24 days
Armor	30-88 days

Rings, accessories, amulet and back item are can be obtained independently of each other. In other words, in order to have a full set of ascended trinkets and back item, it will require a minimum of 23 days and a maximum of 30 days.

Weapons and Armor are most likely done one after the other because they require the same materials. Using grandmaster marks is the recommended method of crafting because it uses less crafting materials overall. However if time is a problem, then crafting each piece will take a minimum of 0 days (if all materials are purchased, however this will be extremely expensive). There is a maximum of 36 days for armor. Weapons will take between 3 and 6 days. In total, it will take ~45-50 days to obtain all armor and weapons.

If using only grandmaster marks, it will take them 112 days to be fully ascended (assuming they do not attempt tier 2, 3 or 4 fractals).

Other stats

For players trying to obtain stats other than Berserkers, there are multiple ways of doing so.

Living World Season 3 trinkets (Requires Heart of Thorns)

In order to obtain a full set of trinkets from Living World Season 3, players will need a minimum of three chapters for a total of 600 . Living World Season 3 Complete Pack can be purchased instead for a total of 960 . The complete pack will be reduced to 480  after the three chapters are purchased. These trinkets are limited to stats available in Central Tyria and Heart of Thorns.

If purchasing separately, chapters 2 (Rising Flames) and 3 (A Crack in the Ice) are required and should be prioritized in order to be able to obtain a full set of trinkets. For the remaining trinkets, you have a choice between chapter 1 (Out of the Shadows) or 5 (Flashpoint)

Rising Flames - Accessory

A Crack in the Ice - Ring and Accessory

Out of the Shadows - Amulet and Ring

Flashpoint - Amulet and Ring

Rings and Accessories are unique and therefore must be split between two maps. Back items can be obtained in all maps.

While Flashpoint and Out of the Shadows both allow purchase of the same trinkets, the ones purchased from the latter are more of a hassle to obtain but can have their stats reset by using a Bloodstone Capacitor.

Out of the three maps chosen, obtaining Frozen Winterberry from Bitterfrost Frontier is the quickest way of obtaining Unbound Magic, which is used to purchase the trinkets in every map. You will require 20,000 Unbound Magic in order to purchase every trinket along with 500 Frozen Winterberry, 150 Petrified Wood, and 225 Fire Orchid Blossom or Blood Ruby (depending on the last story chapter you choose).

On average, you will obtain ~1000 unbound magic daily from consuming all of your winterberries. This means you will require a approximately 20 days to obtain the required Unbound Magic. There will be an additional 10 days to obtain all the Winterberry required to purchase the trinkets. The rest of the items can also be obtained within this time period.

Time Required: 3-5 days per trinket. Maximum of 30 days.

Note: Time taken is cut in half for each additional character used to gather materials. Certain items have limits on them preventing people from gathering more than a certain amount of materials per day, therefore the absolute minimum time you can take is 5-7 days. (Winterberries have no limit)

Mists Trinkets

Mists Trinkets can be purchased from BUY-2046 PFR for 100 Pristine Fractal Relic and 2 Integrated Fractal Matrix. These trinkets are not unique and therefore you can have a full set using just them. These trinkets have all stats available and can have their selected stat reset by using a Mist Capacitor.

Pristine Fractal Relics are limited based on the highest tier of fractals you can do.

• Tier 1 - 4
• Tier 2 - 8
• Tier 3 - 12
• Tier 4 - 15

Time Required: 7-25 days for each trinket

Grandmaster Marks

Items purchased using grandmaster marks have all stats available and can be 20%-25% cheaper than crafting the piece directly. In the case of Minstrel and Trailblazer stats, it is 50% cheaper.

Final words

No one method should be followed when gearing to ascended. These methods can be done at the same time as another one, especially doing fractals daily. Daily fractal chests, starting from tier 2 onwards, have a chance of rewarding ascended crafting materials, which should help save some gold when crafting.

At the soonest, one can gear a character on a new account in full ascended in less than 7 days if they were given enough gold to level their crafts and purchase all ascended crafting materials (approximately 500 ).

For most people, it would probably take around 25-40 days to fully gear their character if they desired.