Your first ascended set: what it is for and what it is not
Ascended is the last gear tier, and for most of the game it barely matters. Here is when it does.
Ascended is the highest gear tier in Guild Wars 2 that you can realistically aim at, and the honest summary is that for most of the game it barely matters. The stat difference over exotic is a few per cent. If somebody tells you that you need ascended to play the game, they are wrong.
There are two reasons to want it anyway, and only one of them is about power.
Reason one: infusions
Ascended and legendary equipment has infusion slots. Exotic does not. Infusions are where Agony Resistance comes from, and Agony Resistance is what gates the higher fractal tiers.
This is the real reason, and it is conditional: if fractals are not in your plans, this reason does not apply to you.
Reason two: stat swapping
Ascended trinkets and armour can often have their stats reselected, which matters if you play several builds on one character. It is a convenience rather than a power increase, and it is a genuine one.
The order that costs least
Not all ascended pieces cost the same, and the difference is large.
- Trinkets first. Rings, accessories and the amulet are by a wide margin the cheapest ascended pieces, and several sources hand them over for currencies you accumulate without trying. They also carry infusion slots like anything else.
- Back item. Usually cheap, often from a collection you may have partly done already.
- Weapons. Crafted, and the first place you meet the time-gated materials.
- Armour last. Six pieces, the most expensive, and the most time-gated. This is the part that takes weeks rather than days, and it is the part with the smallest stat return.
The time gates
Ascended crafting depends on materials that can only be made once a day. No amount of gold removes that, and it is the reason a set takes weeks even for somebody who could afford to buy every tradable component outright.
Plan around it rather than against it: start the daily crafts before you need them, and the wait happens while you are doing something else.
What not to do
Do not replace a working exotic set piece by piece while raising nothing else. A full exotic set with the right stats beats a half-finished ascended one, and the half-finished state can last months.