How to Get Celestial Armor in Guild Wars 2: A Comprehensive Guide
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The quest for powerful gear is a cornerstone of the Guild Wars 2 experience, and Celestial armor stands out as a particularly versatile choice for many players. This guide will provide a detailed breakdown of how to acquire Celestial armor in Guild Wars 2, including the necessary steps and related frequently asked questions.
Directly Obtaining Celestial Armor: The Crafting Route
Unlike some other armor types in Guild Wars 2, Celestial armor isn’t directly crafted. Instead, you’ll need to stat-change existing ascended armor using specific recipes. This process involves utilizing Celestial Orichalcum Imbued Inscriptions (for weapons) and Celestial Intricate Gossamer Insignias (for armor). These crucial recipes are not readily available for purchase, but are instead acquired as a random drop from Pact Supply Network Agents.
Here’s a breakdown of the process:
- Acquire Ascended Armor: You’ll need a piece of ascended armor that you wish to stat-change. Ascended armor can be obtained in various ways, discussed later.
- Obtain Celestial Recipe: You will need to get either a Celestial Orichalcum Imbued Inscription or Celestial Intricate Gossamer Insignia recipe as a random drop from Pact Supply Network Agents. The Pact Supply Network Agents are located in major cities and offer a rotating selection of goods, including a chance for the desired recipes. Check their inventory daily.
- Craft the Insignia/Inscription: Once you have the recipe, you will need to craft the inscription or insignia by gathering required crafting materials. This usually involves components like orichalcum ingots, ancient wood logs, spools of gossamer, and other rarer materials depending on the recipe and tier.
- Stat-Change Your Ascended Gear: With the crafted inscription or insignia in hand, you can use the Mystic Forge to stat-change your ascended armor piece, giving it the desired celestial attribute combination. This converts the existing stats to celestial, which grants Power, Precision, Toughness, Vitality, Concentration, Condition Damage, Expertise, Ferocity, and Healing Power.
Understanding the Importance of Celestial Attributes
Before delving deeper into the acquisition methods, it’s important to understand the significance of Celestial attributes. Unlike single-focus attribute combinations, Celestial provides a balanced approach, covering nearly every primary and secondary stat in the game. This makes it a versatile choice for builds that require a bit of everything. While it might not achieve the highest single-stat outputs of other builds, it is ideal for support, tank, and hybrid roles, or for players who desire well rounded stats.
Obtaining Ascended Gear for Stat-Changing
Since crafting Celestial armor directly isn’t an option, you need to first acquire ascended armor that you will later stat change. Here are the most reliable methods:
- Random Drops from End-Game Content: Participating in PvP, WvW, and instanced PvE activities like Fractals or Raids can yield ascended armor pieces as random drops.
- Purchasing from Vendors: Raids and Icebrood Saga Strikes offer the most consistent way to obtain ascended armor by purchasing directly from vendors using specific currencies and gold. This is typically the fastest but requires progress in that end game content
- WvW and PvP Vendors: You can buy ascended armor for Grandmaster Marks and other currencies from vendors in the PvP lobby and WvW borderlands.
Gathering Crafting Materials
The creation of the Celestial Orichalcum Imbued Inscriptions and Celestial Intricate Gossamer Insignias requires a variety of crafting materials. These can be sourced through:
- Gathering: Mining nodes for Orichalcum Ore and chopping trees for Ancient Wood Logs.
- Purchasing from the Trading Post: Buying materials from other players through the in-game trading post, which can be a fast method but requires gold.
- Completing events and metas: Participating in events will also provide you with materials.
- Dismantling: Destroying unwanted gear can yield materials, but is less reliable than gathering or purchase.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some frequently asked questions related to obtaining Celestial armor in Guild Wars 2:
1. What exactly does “Celestial” mean in Guild Wars 2 gear?
Celestial is a prefix for equipment that provides a balanced spread of all attributes: Power, Precision, Toughness, Vitality, Concentration, Condition Damage, Expertise, Ferocity, and Healing Power. This combination makes it useful for hybrid roles and support builds.
2. What are Pact Supply Network Agents?
These are NPCs found in major cities that rotate the items they sell daily. These vendors are the primary way to obtain the recipe for the Celestial inscriptions and insignias used to convert gear to Celestial stats. Check them daily.
3. What is the drop rate for the Celestial recipes from Pact Supply Agents?
The drop rate for Celestial recipes is random and can be quite low. You may need to check the agents daily for a while before the recipe becomes available.
4. Is Ascended gear the best in the game?
Ascended gear is the second-highest tier of equipment in Guild Wars 2. Legendary gear is the highest, but the difference in stats is marginal. Ascended gear is preferred because it has infusion slots that provide slight additional stats and is more accessible than legendary gear.
5. Can you craft ascended armor directly?
Ascended armor cannot be crafted directly. You have to obtain it through various in-game methods. Ascended armor is then stat-changed through crafting.
6. Where else can I obtain ascended gear besides crafting?
You can get ascended gear from end-game content, like Fractals, Raids, and WvW, as well as through PvP and WvW vendors.
7. Can you discover ascended recipes?
While some ascended item recipes are discoverable, the recipes for Celestial inscriptions/insignias are NOT discoverable. They are only found in Pact Supply Network Agents’ inventory.
8. How often can you get ascended gear to drop?
The drop rate for ascended gear is random, with some players experiencing multiple drops per day, while others have to wait several days. It depends largely on luck.
9. Can I get ascended gear from WvW?
Yes, you can acquire ascended gear from WvW vendors using specific currencies, gold, and Grandmaster Marks.
10. Is Legendary armor much better than Ascended gear?
Legendary armor and Ascended gear share similar stats. The main difference lies in the appearance, customization options, and convenience of use, rather than significantly higher stats.
11. How much better is ascended than exotic gear?
Ascended gear provides about 5% more stats than exotic gear, plus the ability to add infusions for a further 1-2% stat boost, resulting in approximately a 10% increase in DPS on average.
12. Are there other ways to get Celestial gear?
Celestial is not a gear type, but an attribute combo, meaning it is found on ascended gear that has been stat-changed using Celestial inscriptions/insignias.
13. Can you get ascended armor from Fractals?
Yes, Daily Fractal chests have a small chance of rewarding an ascended armor chest, which can then be converted.
14. What are infusion slots?
These are slots on ascended gear that allows you to further upgrade your stats by inserting infusions.
15. What does stat changing do?
Stat changing is the process of using the Mystic Forge with recipes and ascended gear to change the attributes it provides. This is critical for getting the desired Celestial stats.
By following the steps outlined above and taking advantage of the various methods for obtaining ascended gear, you’ll be well on your way to acquiring Celestial armor in Guild Wars 2. The balance of stats provided by the Celestial prefix is valuable for many different playstyles and builds.