It’s almost 5:00 AM. I normally keep strange hours, but this latest day has been an impressive run even for me. Not impressive because I’ve rocked it, though naturally I did. Impressive because I finally closed in on the last piece of the medium Obsidian Armor set!

I won’t repeat all the benefits of legendary equipment in ArenaNet’s GW2. They are already discussed in previous posts on the subject. I can tell you that the grind … even though it felt a little hellish while in the midst of it… is all worth it.

Now, I can outfit all my medium armor-wearing toons just as soon as they reach level 8, with the stats they need … and didn’t I *just* say I wasn’t going to rehash the benefits?

It’s worth it.

I still have two sets to do, but I have to level some characters before I can make a run at them. Which means I get to spend my time on any GW2 map I so choose while I gain experience for my other characters and otherwise enjoy the fruits of my labor.

If you want any advice on crafting the legendary Obsidian Armor set, it’s this: keep track of everything.

As I mentioned previously, I started a spreadsheet. The final recipes that produced the finished armor pieces were on the left, then the components of those pieces to the right of those, and the components of *those* pieces further to the right, until I reached the very base materials used in all components.

Trying to do it all at once is a very frustrating experience. There are materials that you need in two forms: loose and condensed, for want of better terms. You need to collect Pinches of Stardust (and other materials) to make a Gift of Persistence. You need a Gift of Persistence for each piece.

You also need to collect five Pouches of Stardust (and other materials) for the Gift of Expertise. You need a Gift of Expertise for each piece.

A Pouch of Stardust is made by combining 250 Pinches of Stardust.

It’s that kind of thing through and through. It can get ugly confusing if you aren’t tracking things carefully.

The other benefit of the spreadsheet is to give you a sense of accomplishing something during the grind, which I saw one player refer to as “demoralizing” in-game. It really can feel like you’re getting nowhere, or as this player put it, “working for weeks and weeks with nothing to show for it.”

As I progressed through the grind, there were times I felt like that. I won’t go so far as to say demoralizing, but I think the player was speaking a little tongue-in-cheek anyway. But as I finished off my Gifts of Persistence, I got to grey that out on my spreadsheet. Which meant I saw progress even when it didn’t feel like I was making much headway in the game.

As I worked on my Gifts of Expertise, I deducted the amount of base materials I’d already used from the amount I needed to finish. That might not seem like a big deal. Five Pouches of Stardust. So what? Well, remember that 5 Pouches of Stardust is 1250 Pinches of Stardust. (You can also get Pouches already condensed as options in Hero Reward Chests for meta events in Amnytas. Same with the other map materials on their perspective maps.) Reducing the base total by 1250 seemed like a much bigger deal.

Towards the end of the grind, my spreadsheet became a dark grey patch of accomplishments with only a few bright spots of things I still needed to do. And… before I knew it almost, I was done!

I’m not a patient person. Having a way to track my progress every single day proved that even a failed convergence or meta was moving me in the right direction, and probably saved my neighbors from hearing me cackle as I slowly went mad.

And here is the result! This is the default skin for the medium Obsidian Armor Set as worn by my main, Yahoo Arglebargle. The default colors are brown and a different shade of brown. I went with frost blue (which mostly looks white) and sky blue to give it a little snap. But, as I mentioned in previous posts, I can change all the stats of my armor at will, and I can change the appearance to match that of any medium armor skin I’ve already unlocked.

Snazzy, huh? (I blurred the background a little too much. Sorry.)

If you’re a Guildie (or thinking of becoming one), and have considered legendary armor, I can’t recommend the Open World Obsidian Armor Set enough. It does require one to purchase Secrets of the Obscure, and even though that isn’t my favorite expansion to play through, the rewards are… well, legendary. And I did it all without having to set foot in PvP, WvW, or a single Raid or Fractal. (Not that these are things to avoid, they’re just things that often require party participation and where your success hinges on how well other people do).