Guild Wars 2 Legendary Armor Guide: Raids, Strikes, and PvP Paths
A clear breakdown of how to get legendary armor in Guild Wars 2 through raids, open-world play, or WvW, and what each path really costs.
Legendary armor is the big long-term goal in Guild Wars 2, and it earns the hype. Finish a set and it covers every level-80 character on your account through the Legendary Armory, swaps stats for free whenever you're out of combat, and never needs replacing. The catch isn't the idea. It's the grind. A full set takes weeks of focused play, a fat stack of gold, and a lot of running the same content over and over.
There are a few different roads in, and they don't all cost the same thing. People usually group them as raids, "strikes," and the PvP/WvW track. That middle label is loose, so here's the real picture up front: there is no dedicated strike-mission legendary armor set in the game. Challenge-mode strikes do drop Legendary Insights, which feed straight into the raid set. The actual second PvE path is the Obsidian set from the Secrets of the Obscure expansion, earned through open-world Rift Hunting. So when this guide talks about "the strike path," it's really covering the SotO/Obsidian set, plus how strikes fit into the raid currency flow.
Comparing the Raid, Strike Mission, and PvP/WvW Tracks
Three real options sit under those labels: the raid set (Perfected Envoy), the open-world set (Obsidian, from Secrets of the Obscure), and the competitive set (Triumphant Hero's for WvW, Glorious Hero's for PvP). They all end at the same kind of item, but the work looks pretty different for each.
The Raid Track: Perfected Envoy Armor
This is the original legendary armor, tied to the Heart of Thorns raids. You work through two collection achievements that send you across the first four raid wings (Spirit Vale, Salvation Pass, Stronghold of the Faithful, and Bastion of the Penitent), plus a handful of open-world events. The currency is the Legendary Insight, which drops once a week from each raid boss you kill. The payoff is flashy armor with wings that unfold out of the chest piece when you draw a weapon. Got a steady raid group? This is usually the fastest PvE route.
The "Strike" Track, Which Is Really the Obsidian Set
Here's where the label gets weird. Strikes themselves don't hand you a legendary armor set. What they do is drop Legendary Insights in challenge mode, so they're a way to feed the raid track without committing to full raid clears. The actual second PvE armor is Obsidian armor, added with Secrets of the Obscure in August 2023. You earn it through open-world Rift Hunting, SotO map currencies, and crafting inside the Wizard's Tower. No raid group needed at all. If your play schedule is irregular or you'd rather solo, this is the friendlier PvE path.
The Competitive Track: WvW and PvP
World vs World gets you Triumphant Hero's armor, with a fancier Mistforged version unlocked at WvW Rank 500. Structured PvP has its own set, Glorious Hero's armor, which is brutal to earn because it needs monthly Automated Tournament placements. For most players eyeing the competitive set, WvW is the realistic pick. You buy the ascended precursor from the Skirmish Supervisor for Skirmish Claim Tickets, then upgrade it in the Mystic Forge. No raid or strike currencies show up anywhere in this recipe.
The short version: raids reward group skill, Obsidian rewards open-world time, and the competitive track rewards raw hours in WvW. Pick based on what you already enjoy playing, because you're going to be doing a lot of it.
Gift of Mastery and Prowess Requirements
The naming here throws a lot of players off, so here's the straight answer first. Gift of Mastery is a legendary weapon component, not an armor one. Legendary armor uses a different gift for each path, and they're all named after the mode they come from. The word "prowess" does show up, just wearing different clothes.
Raid Armor Uses Gift of Prowess
One Gift of Prowess per Envoy piece, six total for a set. The recipe is:
- 25 Legendary Insights
- 1 Eldritch Scroll (bought for 50 Spirit Shards)
- 50 Obsidian Shards
- 1 Cube of Stabilized Dark Energy (which itself takes 500 Balls of Dark Energy and 75 Stabilizing Matrices)
You used to forge this in the Mystic Forge. Now that Legendary Insights live in the wallet, you just buy Gift of Prowess straight from Scholar Glenna (she's standing in every raid wing) or from the Magnetite Exchange vendors in the Aerodrome. The 25 Legendary Insights are the real gate on this one.
WvW Armor Uses the "of War" Gifts
Each piece needs Gift of War Prosperity, Gift of War Prowess, and Gift of War Dedication. The WvW prowess version swaps Legendary Insights for a Legendary War Insight, which runs 1,095 Skirmish Claim Tickets from the WvW vendor. Same idea, different currency, and a lot more weeks.
PvP Armor Uses the "of Competitive" Gifts
Gift of Competitive Prosperity, Gift of Competitive Prowess, and Gift of Competitive Dedication. These lean on PvP League Tickets and a Star of Glory instead of raid drops. The naming tells you the whole story: whatever your mode, there's a prowess gift waiting for it.
Obsidian Armor Uses Its Own Set Entirely
The SotO set skips the prowess naming and goes with Gift of Expertise (the big Amalgamated Rift Essence sink), Gift of Mighty or Magical Prosperity, and Gift of Stormy Skies. Different names, same structural slot. You still need the common sub-gifts under the hood.
When you're budgeting, the prowess gift is where the mode-specific currency lives. Raids want Legendary Insights, WvW wants Skirmish Claim Tickets, PvP wants League Tickets, and Obsidian wants rift essences. The Mystic Clovers, Obsidian Shards, Cube of Stabilized Dark Energy, and the Condensed Might and Magic gifts are shared across all four, so you'll be making those no matter which road you take.
Precursor Armor Pieces and Where to Farm Them
Every legendary armor piece starts life as an ascended precursor. You can't just buy the legendary outright off the Trading Post. Here's where each path's precursor comes from and what you'll be farming to get it.
Raid Precursors: The Envoy Collections
The base precursor is Refined Envoy armor, pulled from the Envoy Armor II: Refined Armor collection. That collection has you build a Crystalline Heart out of 100 Crystalline Ingots, then infuse that heart in 14 different spots. A bunch are open-world (the octovine meta in Auric Basin, several fractals, Dragon's Stand ley lines, the Great Tree in Tangled Depths), and the rest come from Bastion of the Penitent bosses (Cairn, the Samarog area, Rigom, and Deimos). The final step, the Redeemed Heart, needs you to /kneel at the Tree of Solitude, and it has to be done last or the collection won't tick.
Before that sits Envoy Armor I: Experimental Armor, an 18-item collection pulling drops from Wings 1 through 3, so Vale Guardian, the Spirit Woods, Gorseval, Sabetha, Matthias, Keep Construct, Xera, and the Twisted Castle. One Gorseval item, the Spirit Weave, needs five separate weekly Gorseval kills. That single requirement is what sets the minimum clock on a first raid set. For pieces past the first weight class, you craft them from Envoy Insignias, which cost more Legendary Insights plus Magnetite Shards from the raid vendor.
Obsidian Precursors: The Arcanum of Astral Pieces
Six of these, one per slot. Arcanum of Astral Thought is the head, Bearing the shoulders, Heartbeat the chest, Grasp the gloves, Stride the leggings, and Footprints the boots. Each one unlocks from its own collection achievement (Astral Thought, Bearing, and so on), then you buy it from Lyhr in the Wizard's Tower for a Lesser Vision Crystal. Farming those collections means Rift Hunting for Amalgamated Rift Essences plus grinding the four SotO map currencies. It's steady, soloable work with no weekly lockout.
WvW Precursors: Buy Them Straight Up
Ascended Triumphant Hero's armor comes from the Skirmish Supervisor vendor for Skirmish Claim Tickets plus Memories of Battle and Grandmaster Marks. One full weight's worth of pieces runs roughly 1,310 tickets. Want the glowy Mistforged version instead? That needs WvW Rank 500 first. One thing worth watching: if you stat-swap an ascended piece in the Mystic Forge, it goes generic and can't be used as a precursor anymore. Keep your precursor in its original stat combo until the legendary is finished.
PvP Precursors: The Hard Ones
Ardent Glorious and Glorious Hero's ascended armor. Glorious Hero's needs you to actually place in monthly Automated Tournaments, which is exactly why most players skip the PvP path for legendary armor entirely. It's listed here for completeness, not as a recommendation.
Time and Gold Cost Breakdown per Path
Here's where the talk gets real. All three paths are long, but they're long in different ways. The numbers below are pulled from the official wiki's stated figures where they exist. Gold amounts are ranges, because Trading Post prices move week to week, so check a live crafting calculator (gw2efficiency is the community standard) before you sink your gold into anything.
| Path | Main Gate | Weeks (one weight) | Mode Currency | |---|---|---|---| | Raid (Envoy) | Legendary Insights | ~5 first, ~4 after | 150 LI first set, 300 after | | Obsidian (SotO) | Rift Hunting + map currencies | multi-week, flexible | 12 Amalgamated Rift Essences per piece | | WvW (Triumphant Hero's) | Skirmish Claim Ticket cap | ~18, around 24 for Mistforged | roughly 7,880 tickets total | | PvP (Glorious Hero's) | Monthly tournament placement | months to years | League Tickets plus placement |
Raid (Envoy) Armor
The hard gate is Legendary Insights. A first set needs 150 LI, which works out to 50 per piece (25 for the Gift of Prowess, 25 for the Envoy Insignia). Every additional weight class needs 300 LI. You can earn up to about 77 LI a week if you clear everything, counting the daily raid bounties and the weekly Quickplay achievement. Challenge modes used to hand out bonus LI but don't anymore. Realistically, the first set takes around 5 weeks because of that five-kill Gorseval gate, and each set after takes at least 4 weeks. You'll also need 300 Provisioner Tokens for a full set, at 7 per vendor per week, which is a quiet long pole for a lot of players. Materials run somewhere in the 1,500 to 2,500 gold range, give or take.
Obsidian (SotO) Armor
No raid lockout here, so the clock is more flexible but still multi-week. The main grind is Rift Hunting for the 12 Amalgamated Rift Essences each piece needs, plus the four SotO map currencies (Ancient Coins, Static Charges, Pinches of Stardust, and Calcified Gasps). You also need 50 Provisioner Tokens per piece and level-500 crafting. Material cost sits in the same neighborhood as the raid set, roughly 2,000 to 3,000 gold when you value the materials with daily limits. The upside is that you can chip away at it solo whenever you've got a free hour.
WvW (Triumphant Hero's) Armor
This one is limited almost entirely by the weekly Skirmish Claim Ticket cap. A full non-Mistforged set runs about 7,880 tickets, which breaks down to roughly 1,310 for the precursor, plus 6,570 for six Legendary War Insights at 1,095 each, plus 3,000 for Certificates of Honor. You pull about 455 tickets a week if you hit the Diamond chest and do the weekly WvW achievements. That puts a single weight at around 18 weeks, or closer to 24 if you're going Mistforged. Memories of Battle add roughly another 3,000, which at about 135 a week is around 22 weeks, though you can buy those on the Trading Post to skip the wait. Gold cost per piece lands in the low-to-mid hundreds once the ticket grind is handled.
PvP (Glorious Hero's) Armor
The slowest of the lot. Monthly tournament placements gate the precursor, so unless you're a serious competitive player with a regular team, this path drags across months or even years. It's here for completeness, not as something to aim for.
The pattern is pretty clear. Raids cost time plus a solid group. Obsidian costs time plus solo grind. WvW costs the most raw weeks but needs zero group coordination. PvP costs your sanity. Pick the grind you can actually live with, because burnout halfway through a set is the real killer here.
Stat-Swapping Benefits Once Armor Is Complete
This is the payoff for all that work, and it's genuinely good. Once a piece is finished legendary, you can change its stat combination for free, any time you're out of combat, just by right-clicking the item. No Mystic Forge, no NPC, no gold, no cooldown. Want Berserker's for a damage build and then Trailblazer's for roaming? That's two clicks and you're set.
A few things make this better than it sounds at first glance.
Account-wide through the Legendary Armory. When you bind a legendary armor piece, it gets added to the Legendary Armory and can be equipped on every level-80 character on the account at the same time. No mailing gear back and forth. One finished set dresses the whole roster.
Per-template stats and upgrades. Each equipment template on a character can run a different stat combo, a different rune, and a different skin off the same legendary piece. So your ranger can run a healing setup on one template and a condition setup on another, both leaning on the same six pieces of armor. Swap as much as you like.
Runes and sigils come and go for free. Upgrade components in legendary gear slot and remove with a right-click. No Upgrade Extractor needed, nothing gets destroyed on the way out. You can keep tweaking your build without paying a tax every time.
Free transmutation. Skinning any item to match a legendary you've unlocked costs no Transmutation Charges. If you care at all about how your character looks, that adds up fast over a year of play.
All stat combos open. Every attribute combination is available regardless of which expansions you own. The lone exception is the legendary relic, which is its own separate item.
So the math behind "is legendary armor worth it" almost never comes down to one build. It comes down to never having to craft, buy, or juggle a second set of ascended gear again. The upfront cost is steep, no question. Once it's done, though, your whole account just has armor. For anyone who plays multiple characters or swaps builds often, that freedom is the whole reason to run any of the three grinds above. Finish one weight class and the next alt you level already has a full set waiting, in whatever stats the build calls for, at no extra cost.