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Guild Wars 2 Legendaries - incredibly expensive and prestigious items

In most MMORPGs, there are a few incredibly expensive and prestigious items. Getting them requires a lot of skill most of the time, but also determination and patience. They’re tough to acquire – way out of reach for newbies and casual players. In some games, these pieces of equipment provide a lot of extra power; in others – it’s all about looks and dignity.

In Guild Wars 2, there’s a single set of Legendary armor that comes in three versions (heavy, medium, and light). Weapons offer significantly larger freedom of choice – the total number of them is 37. It means that you have at least two options for each type of weapon. Besides, the players can get the 5 Legendary trinkets for completing specific chapters of the Living Story and for their achievements in PvP. You can also acquire three back items of this tier through PvP or Fractals of the Mist. Finally, there’s a possibility of crafting the Legendary Runes and Legendary Sigil.

In terms of statistics, the Legendary gear is equally strong as the significantly cheaper Ascended equipment. However, there’s more to them than just the visual splendor. The practical aspect of Legendaries allows the player to change the stat profile of these items freely. It means that you’ll be able to get the optimal stats for multiple builds without having to use another item. When all of your gear pieces are Legendary, you can flip your entire build upside down and still make sure that all your stats and attributes are on the same page.  

Mystic Forge and the Mechanics of Legendary Crafting

The Guild Wars 2 Legendary items are crafted at the special station called Mystic Forge. You can access it at multiple locations in the game, but the easiest option is Lion’s Arch. Even the items related to PvP achievements have to be crafted in the Mystic Forge – the achievements just provide some of the key components.

In general, crafting Legendaries in Guild Wars 2 is a multi-stage process that requires a lot of expensive materials and unique components that are only available through accomplishing specific goals (map completion, fractals, raids, PvP achievements, et cetera). As we mentioned, the Legendary items are reserved to only the best and most consistent players willing to put in a lot of effort.

Even though Mystic Forge works similarly to a crafting station, it’s not associated with any of the crafting disciplines. Every Guild Wars 2 character can use it to create items. At the same time, multiple crafting disciplines may come in handy over the course of the long crafting process. Only the final stages take place at the Mystic Forge. In essence, there’s a lot of preparation to do beforehand, and a lot of it involves crafting, especially if you want to make your Legendaries from scratch.

A majority of Legendary recipes require a precursor item. It’s a special Ascended or Exotic item that gets elevated to the Legendary tier in the Mystic Forge. This rule is especially prevalent for weapons and armor pieces. Getting the precursors can be related to finishing achievements or crafting.

The second category of key components is called Gifts. There are a lot of them in the game, and each one is acquired differently. Multiple ones are rewards for the completion of specific maps (so you can only get them once on a single character). Others are available through the maxed out crafting disciplines – the only thing that limits you here is the supply of rare and valuable materials. A few gifts can be bought from select vendors for the zone-exclusive currency or tokens. There’s also the Gift of Battle that’s available through PvP – it’s a part of the WvW reward track.

Finally, there are the Greater Gifts – you get them by combining Gifts with expensive materials in the Mystic Forge. This category includes Gifts of Mastery and Gifts of the Legendary Weapons (each weapon has a dedicated one). The majority of recipes for Legendaries use the precursor piece and three Greater Gifts. As you have probably figured out by now, that’s a lot of achievements to complete, materials to farm, and components to craft. Even really proficient GW2 veterans need 2-3 months to craft a Legendary weapon from scratch.   

Legendary Weapons

Let’s begin with the biggest and most important category of GW2 Legendaries – the weapons. As we mentioned, there are 37 Legendary weapons currently in Guild Wars 2. They are divided into two generations.

First Generation Legendaries

The first generation has been a part of GW2 since the beginning. The full list of these weapons looks like this: Bifrost, Bolt, The Dreamer, The Flameseeker Prophecies, Frenzy, Frostfang, Howler, Incinerator, The Juggernaut, Kudzu, Kraitkin, Kamohoali’I Kotaki, Meteorlogicus, The Minstrel, The Moot, The Predator, Quip, Rodgort, Sunrise, Twilight and Eternity.

All the first generation Legendaries have similar recipes: Gift of Mastery, Gift of Fortune, the unique precursor weapon, and the item-specific Gift. The only exception to that rule is Eternity. It has a unique recipe, as it’s crafted from two pre-existing Legendaries: Sunrise and Twilight. Additionally, it requires 5 Piles of Crystalline Dust and 10 Philosopher’s Stones.

First Generation Legendary Recipes

Since almost all the recipes feature the same two Gifts, let’s take a look at them. Gift of Fortune is a Greater Gift that consists of: 250 Globs of Ectoplasm, 77 Mystic Clovers, Gift of Magic, and Gift of Might. The two component-Gifts are simply crafted in the Mystic Forge from large amounts of tier 6 materials. It is the part that you can easily buy with gold - get the necessary mats from the Trading Post, and you’re good to go. Of course, you can also farm them.

Meanwhile, the Gift of Mastery requires some grinding. To craft it, you’re going to need 250 Obsidian Shards, 1 Bloodstone Shard, Gift of Exploration, and Gift of Battle. A character receives two Gifts of Exploration for the world completion (completing all the base game’s maps). The Gift of Battle can only be acquired through the World versus World Reward Track. The original idea was to make sure that the players who strive for Legendaries, have to prove themselves in multiple different areas of the game: farming materials, crafting, completing maps, and fighting in PvP.  

Unsurprisingly, getting the precursor weapons isn’t that easy either. You can get them as random world drops and find them in boxes that have a chance of containing Exotic/Ascended gear (including jumping puzzles, bonus world boss chests, and various chests in dungeons). Moreover, there’s a chance of getting them as rewards for killing Raid Bosses and completing Guild Missions.

Besides, there’s the infamous method that utilizes the Mystic Forge: combining four rare or exotic pieces of equipment with the average level of 75 or higher will grant you a random exotic item, with a small chance of it being a precursor. That being said, neither of these methods can be considered reliable, especially if you’re looking for a single, specific item (and you probably are, since you don’t want just any Legendary weapon).

Fortunately, there’s another, limited way of obtaining the precursors. After completing the special collection achievement, you’ll get the opportunity to craft the desired precursor weapon once on your account. Of course, the achievement is relatively time-consuming, but at least it guarantees a positive outcome.

Second Generation Legendaries

The second generation of Legendaries has been added in the expansions. In contrast to many other MMORPGs, there’s no power creep in Guild Wars 2. The second generation is exactly as powerful as the first one. There are 16 Legendaries here: Astralaria, The Binding of Ipos, Chuka and Champawat, Claw of the Khan-Ur, Eureka, Exordium, Flames of War, The HMS Divinity, HOPE, Nevermore, Pharus, Sharur, The Shining Blade, Shooshadoo, Verdarach, and Xiuquatl.

Once more, the recipes follow a similar principle. Again, we have the weapon-specific Gifts and precursors. Instead of the Gift of Fortune, they use another item called Mystic Tribute. It consists of two Gifts of Condensed Magic, two Gifts of Condensed Might, 77 Mystic Clovers, and 250 Mystic Coins. Once again, it’s the farming part of the recipe, crafting these four Gifts requires a considerable amount of tier 6 materials.

As the last component, we have the Gift of Maguuma Mastery (in the majority of recipes can be substituted with Gift of Desert Mastery). These items require map completion of the respective expansions and some additional achievements as well as items. Overall, the second generation’s Legendaries are more expensive, but they can be acquired entirely through PvE gameplay.

Legendary Armor

Similarly to weapons, GW2 Legendary Armor isn’t stronger than the cheaper and easier to get (but still pretty expensive) Ascended gear. You will only get the looks and the precious ability to change stats (which is even more valuable on armor pieces).

The GW2 Legendary Armor Set is called Perfected Envoy Armor. Each piece requires a unique precursor, as well as Gift of Prosperity, Gift of Prowess, and Gift of Dedication. The precursors are available after you complete the Envoy Armor II: Refined Armor collection. It requires a lot of Crystalline Ingots as well as some infusions in HoT zones and fractals.

Gift of Prosperity is the classic gold sink – it consists of a Gift of Condensed Magic, Gift of Condensed Might, 15 Mystic Clovers, and a Gift of Craftsmanship (available for 50 Provisioner’s Tokens). Gift of Prowess requires 25 Legendary Insights, 50 Obsidian Shards, 1 Eldritch Scroll (bought for Spirit Shards), and 1 Cube of Stabilized Dark Energy. The Legendary Insights are the biggest problem here since you can only get them by raiding. Moreover, there’s a time limit - you can only get them once per week from a single raid.  

The whole armor set consists of six pieces: helmet, shoulders, coat, gloves, leggings, and boots. It means that you’re going to need six times the materials and gifts required for the recipe! Moreover, you can also unlock other skins for your Legendary Armor through structured PvP and World versus World.

Legendary Rune and Sigil

As we mentioned, the ability to swap the attribute distribution freely is a great asset of Legendary equipment. That being said, besides the base gear stats, weapons are also empowered by sigils, and armor pieces get extra stats from runes. There are two solutions to this problem. First of all, you can simply own all the runes and sigils that you might need and swap them when necessary. The other option is getting the Legendary Runes and Sigils – they also provide the possibility of changing statistics.

The recipes for both of these items are very similar – they also utilize the components that we discussed earlier. You’re going to need a Gift of Craftsmanship, Gift of Concentrated Might, and Gift of Concentrated Magic. The final ingredient is respectively: Gift of Runes and Gift of Sigils. They both utilize expensive crafting materials like Globs of Ectoplasm, Obsidian Shards, and Mystic Clovers. Runes and sigils are some of the few Legendaries that don’t provide any visual effects.

Legendary Trinkets

Currently, there are five Legendary Trinkets in Guild Wars 2: one amulet (Transcendence), two rings (Coalescence and Conflux), and two accessories (Aurora and Vision). Just like the other Legendaries, they’re crafted in the Mystic Forge. It’s important to note that Transcendence is exclusive to PvP, and Conflux only works in World versus World.

The recipes for the three PvE-focused trinkets are pretty standard. They utilize precursors, Mystic Tribute, and two specific Gifts. The precursors can be obtained in the PvE content. To unlock Aurora, you have to finish the Living World Season 3 storyline. Vision becomes available upon completing the Season 4. To craft Coalescence, you’re going to have to beat all three Path of Fire raids: Hall of Chains, Mythwright Gambit, and The Key of Ahdashim.

The necessary Greater Gifts require different ingredients. For instance: besides the precursor and Mystic Tribute, Aurora requires Gift of Sentience and Gift of Draconic Mastery. The first one requires multiple PvP achievements, and the second one is focused on farming area-specific materials. Once more, you have to play various types of GW2 content to get a Legendary item.

While trinkets are not exactly the most visible items on your character’s model, the Legendaries provide an interesting addition. A character with one of them equipped will be surrounded by an aura. Moreover, when they draw out their weapon, four orbs will start to rotate above the player.

Legendary Back Items

Finally, we reached the back items. They provide the least amount of stats out of all the GW2 equipment. On the other hand, who wouldn’t want a cool set of wings to put on their character’s back? Currently, there are three options, and each item is associated with a different part of the game: Ad Infinitum (Fractals of the Mist), The Ascension (Ranked PvP), and Warbringer (WvW - this is the only one that’s not a pair of wings).

Ad Infinitum is crafted with 1 Gift of Infinity, 1 Gift of Ascension, 1 Gift of Fortune, and the precursor item called Unbound. The precursor and one of the Gifts are obtainable by completing the four collections associated with the item (you will do it by clearing fractals). The two remaining Gifts require tier 6 materials and Fractal Relics.

The Ascension and Warbringer also require Gift of Fortune. The remaining Gifts or their components can be earned as rewards for your accomplishments in the respective PvP modes.

GW2 Legendaries

As we discussed, Guild Wars 2 Legendaries don’t provide any flat stat bonuses. Instead, they give you a convenient opportunity to swap stats as you please. This type of tool is extremely valuable for a game like Guild Wars 2. They also make your character look even more impressive. Is it worth the massive commitment and time investment that they require? You have to make your own mind. Legendaries aren’t a must for every GW2 player, but they can act as a great goal to strive for in the endgame. As it usually works in situations like this, the hard work required to get the item only adds to the ultimate satisfaction and prestige associated with reaching the Holy Grail.

FAQ

How do you get Legendary Items in GW2?

Legendary items are crafted in the Mystic Forge. They require a lot of expensive materials and unique components.

How many Legendary Insights do you need for a Legendary Armor set?

The first armor set requires 150 Legendary Insights. Every subsequent one will need 300 of them.  

How many Mystic Clovers do I need for a Legendary Weapon in GW2?

77 Mystic Clovers are required in each Legendary Weapon recipe. The number is identical in Gift of Fortune and Mystic Tribute, so it doesn’t matter whether you’re going for a first or second generation Legendary Weapon.