The Agonizing Guide (agony and agony resistance) OUTDATED

[Arvinthir 38]

I am one of those psychos who actually like fractals, and as such am quite often getting questions about their main characteristic, Agony. So to spare any of you, who are looking to get into higher scale fractals, the effort of researching and asking around about this, I have decided to make a guide on it.

In this guide, I will be covering what agony is and how it is fought. I will also provide information on how to equip yourself with agony resistance as efficiently as possible.

The cold, hard facts:

First off, this guide was created assuming you have the Heart of Thorns expansion. Some merchants/items are inaccessible to you if you do not have it.

What is Agony?

First, we need to be clear on what Agony actually is.

Agony is an effect that we only encounter in Fractals of the Mists, scales 20 and higher. This debuff is applied through boss attacks, traps and sometimes even when simply entering an area. Agony reduces the affected player's health by a certain precentage every second and reduces healing by ~50% per stack. It is also not affected by condition removal and its effects can only be mitigated by agony resistance.

Agony Resistance

As mentioned before, agony resistance (AR) is the only way to combat Agony. But how does it work?

Agony resistance is a stat that is found in Infusions. The way it works is that every point of agony resistance reduces the health loss (caused by agony) by 1.2 percentage points, to a minimum of 1% health lost per second. However, the higher the scale of the fractal, the more damage one stack of agony does. Therefore you need more agony resistance the higher you go. A complete table of this can be found on the wiki.

The useful stuff:

Infusions

Now, an Infusion is an upgrade component (much like runes and sigils) that can only be put into ascended equipement, legendary weapons and some non-ascended back items (e.g. Elegant Armorsmith's Backpack). Not all infusions grant agony resistance, some provide a combination of it and something else, some provide completely different stats (e.g. magic find). For any interested, here is a full list of existing infusions.

For our fractal needs, we will only be focusing on two types of infuisons:

• Versatile Simple Infusions (masterwork), which provide us with 7 AR
• Agony infusions, which can provide up to (and more than) 20 AR

How to get these infusions?

Versatile Simple Infusions (masterwork) can only be acquired by doing the following:

First, we need to get a Versatile Simple Infusion (fine), which can be bought from BUY-4373 for 75 Fractal Relics and 64 Copper. He is located in FOTM.

 

We will then to talk to this guy: (requires HoT expansion)

He will take us to another island, where one of Dessa's Krewe will trade our Versatile Simple Infusion (+5) and 75 Fractal Relics for a Versatile Simple Infusion (+7).

 

Agony Infusions are a completely different thing.

Agony Infusions can be found in different versions, each telling us how much AR it holds. (e.g. +1, +2, +3, ..., +19, +20)

Each next infusion can be made by the artificer proffesion from two previous ones and a Thermocatalytic Reagent. For instance, a (+2) agony infusion will require two (+1) agony infusions and a reagent. A (+5) infusion will require two (+4) infusions and a reagent, etc. A (+10) infusion will therefore requre 512 (+1) infusions and 511 reagents.

If you do not have the artificer profession leveled to 100, the forementioned merchant will exchange agony infusions at the same price as crafting. (requires HoT expansion) (ty Tharaqon)

Agony Infusions (+1) are a common drop from fractals, therefore if you often do them, you will end up with a nice amount. However all agony infusions are tradeable and can be bought from the Trading Post.

Where to put the infusions?

Versatile Simple Infusions can be put into any infusion slot (offensive/defensive/utility), which can be found on all ascended gear. However, they cannot be put into agony infusion slots.

 

Agony Infusions can only be put into Agony Infusion Slots. Only infused and attuned ascended rings/backpacks have these.

How to gear up for fractals:

Each fractal scale has a recommended amount of agony resistance. This is the amount required for agony to only make you lose 1% health per second (per stack). At scale 100 (highest level), this amount is 150 AR. This means that the maximum amount of agony resistance, you will need, is 150.

The most effective way of doing this is to:

• Put Versatile Simple Infusions (+7) into all armor, both weapons (two-handed weapons have 2 slots), all trinkets, rings and back. You will need a character fully equipped with ascended gear for this. This way we fill up 14 offensive/defensive infusion slots.

• Doing this, we're up to 98 AR. We still need 52 AR. This we get through Agony Infusions. The cheapest way to do this is to get four (+10) agony infusions and one (+12) OR three (+10) and two (+11). We put these into agony infusion slots in our backpack and two rings. For this to work, the backpack must be infused, the rings must be infused AND attuned.

Note! Agony Resistance is counted for the items you are currently using! That means if you weapon swap to a weapon that does not have any AR in its slots, the AR in the other weapon will not count towards your total AR. This means that you will probably need to get infusions for the other set as well.
Same goes for aquatic weapons and aquatic headgear. With the new fractals, ascended aquatic headgear has been introduced for that very reason! (However, for the highest aquatic fractal, you'll only need 106 AR, so if you have enough AR everywhere else, you shouldn't have to worry about that).

Getting infused/attuned gear:

An ascended backpack or a ring can be infused by using a Gift of Ascension (and some other stuff) in the mystic forge, along with an uninfused version. List of recipies.

Now for the rings. Most people consider it a waste of resources to infuse rings as infused rings often drop from fractals and daily fractal chests. However, you will have to attune at least two rings. For that you will need an ascended ring you wish to attune, Agonized Essence, a (+1) agony infusion and a Philosopher's Stone. Chuck them into the Mystic Toilet and voila, an attuned ring. (requires HoT expansion)

Note! Your ring does not have to be previously infused if you wish to attune it! You can attune any ascended rings. (ty Tharaqon)

Note! Attuning rings WILL destroy any infusions they may have. For safe removal of them, the Dessa's Krewe member can sell you the Infusion Extraction Device. (This is also useful if you ever mess up your infusions or want to relocate them):

This concludes the guide on agony and agony resistance. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! See you all in fractals!

Honorable mention goes to my guildmate Aesha, for teaching me about this stuff.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Arvinthir

[Susimusta 48]

Bravo! *claps her hands*

However if you have a lot of the materials required for infusing rings and you just don't seem to get a drop of the one with stats you need (they drop a _lot_ less since the change), you can just buy and infuse one, or infuse an existing one in my opinion. So I wouldn't call it necessarily  

1 hour ago, Arvinthir said:

absolutely is a waste of resources

since you will lose a lot of AR for not having infused rings.

But otherwise very clear and well constructed guide on the basics of Agony resistance.

[Tharaqon 4]

I am one of those nutheads that also likes  fractals, and found 4 things I would like to add:

1st: Some people have the misconception that your rings must be infused before you can attune them.
This is NOT the case, you can attune ANY ascended ring. This makes it so much easier to reach the
mid-high ranks a bit faster.. and since attuning a ring costs ~24 silver, it's well worth the cost.

2nd: In order to be able to attune a ring, you ALSO need HoT (just like for the +7 versatile infusions).
So yea.. f2p has a bit of a tough time here. (this is because you need to unlock the merchant in your
mastery tree).

3rd: To upgrade agony infusions (the +1, +2, +3 etc) you can either craft as artificer as arvinthis said with
2*n infusions + 1 catalyst = 1 n+1 infusion
OR
(again, needs HoT) 'buy' the upgrades from the same merchant as for attuning rings and getting the +7s.
He does not allow buying all ranks, but the ranks he does sell are exactly as expensive as crafting yourself
via artificer. I believe he sells all odd valued agony infusions up untill +9 or +11.. but I haven't looked into
that much because I have an artificer. I just know it's possible to do it via merchant

4th: For those with HoT and the mastery, the same merchant as mentioned a bazillion times already,
also sells extraction devices. so you don't have to destroy all your lovely infusions every time you upgrade
something. sells for I believe 24 silver as well.. again well worth it.

for the rest, good guide. might have helped me if it existed sooner

Cheers,
Tharaqon

 

edit: thought of 4th thing

Edited February 4, 2016 by Tharaqon

[Arvinthir 38]

The 4th point is already in there Tharaqon

Thank you both for your input, I have updated the guide. Seems that a few things slipped my mind when I was getting this together at 1AM 

[Susimusta 48]

No worries at all, we all are just ourselves and our effort when we are alone, but when we combine our forces, we create something better than either of us on our own could've. That's how communities work.

[Arvinthir 38]

Don't get me wrong, I love some constructive criticism. If you think I missed anything else, speak up

[Tharaqon 4]

Oh I did miss the 4th point, my bad then. And yea, together we're better than alone as susi said so I figured ^^

Again, great guide!

also, I like how you changed  'absolutely a waste of resources' to most people consider..'

[Nasurelin 57]

I want to add few remarks.

On 3.02.2016 at 0:13 AM, Arvinthir said:

Versatile Simple Infusions can be put into any infusion slot (offensive/defensive), which can be found on all ascended gear.

I'd like to suggest slight change here so it sounds more clearly:

Quote

Versatile Simple Infusions can be put into any infusion slot (offensive/defensive/utility), which can be found on all ascended gear. Exception are Agony Infusion Slots which can't hold Versatile Simple Infusions.

 

Also it might be worth mentioning there are 2 additional AR sources. First is Mistlock Singularties mastery which allows using objects of the same name. They grant Rigorous Certainty effect and it not only revives downed but also rises AR by 5. Second comes from Dessa's Krewe NPC (bazillion-and-first mention ). This NPC (she? he? it?) sells Anguished Tear of Alba which is a potion granting 2 effects. Effect with name same as potion gives 10 AR for 30 min but, as I understand it, this AR does not stack with other sources. So it's only worth it when starting adventure with AR.

While having less then 150 AR (yet) there are 2 ways to check which fractals are available. Check it at wiki or enter fractal lobby, set scale and look in top right corner of screen and it's mentioned there.

In the end some more complex situations which aren't covered above but also are totally unimportant  usually. Like Arvinthir wrote in OP, Versatile Simple Infusions (VSIs) can only be source of AR from 14 slots. In detail it's 6 armor slots, 2 accessories, 2 rings, 1 back item and 1 amulet. Remaining 2 slots are: both on two-handed weapon OR 1 on main hand weapon and 1 on off hand weapon. Why I go through such details? 2 reasons. First reason applies to classes with 2 weapon sets and to all classes in situations when using non-default weapons: if infusions are in slots of 1st set and not in 2nd set, swapping sets lowers AR - that's why 14 and not 16 slots. When using non-default weapons (example: let's say some mesmer runs with greatsword in 1st set and staff in 2nd set by default, but for some specific situation this mesmer needs to swap staff to scepter+focus which are ready in bags) if those weapons have no infusions then swapping to them lowers AR. Thus when buying VSIs I suggest filling slots on both sets at the same time and avoid situational swapping to weapons w/o infusions unless when rest of equipment gives surplus of AR. Second reason applies to one fractal only, Aquatic Ruins fractal. It's similar: while underwater weapons are replaced by aquatic weapons and headgear is replaced by aquatic headgear - ground items' infusions aren't contributing to AR. There are 3 solutions, either avoid Aquatic Ruins or have surplus AR on other items or have ascended/legendary aquatic items filled with VSIs. When accumulating AR I suggest to leave weapons and headgear slots as last to fill. Also bear in mind that while top fractal (100) requires 150 AR, top Aquatic Ruins fractal requires only 106 AR.

[Arvinthir 38]

Thanks for the notes, everything you wrote is true!

I've edited the Simple Infusion bit for clarity, ty

The reason I didn't include Tear of Alba and Mistlock Singularities is because they are not reliable sources of AR, the Tear gives 10 flat AR and is unstackable. Therefore, if you have 15 AR from, say, infusions, and the Tear (which gives 10), you'll have 15 AR total. ANET math at its best.
For mistlock singularities, you should never rely on them for extra AR, as you lose them once you get hit below the threshold and then your AR suddenly dips and you're even worse off.

The last point you raise is a great one! Slipped my mind and I've added it to the guide! ^^

 

[Arvinthir 38]

Just noting that this guide is now out of date. ANet has changed the way infusions work. You can now basically use any infusion in any slot (except amulet). So just stack them up until you have 150. (Combinations of 7ar, 8ar and 9ar are most commonly used and cheapest options).