GW2 Reference: Rating the Specialization Ascended Weapons

This is a reference sheet for pve raiders with a stable of alts that are wondering whether it's worth going for any of the specialization ascended weapons that you unlock via achievements rather than crafting. Feel free to ignore if you: a) have a use for these, b) really like the skin/name, or c) only have 1-2 planned raiding alts [in which case, crafting specialized pve weapons is fine for you].

Since I main a guardian/dragonhunter and plan on getting my ele, mesmer, necro, ranger, and engineer into raiding shape, I have a need for a lot of ascended weapons and armor sets. Thus, going for specialization weapons lessens and diversifies the grind.

However, the nine ascended weapons in the specialization collection are not all created equal. For one thing, although you can pick their stats, you do so from a list of three choices, and those choices differ per weapon. That means that some weapons are not worth going for. Also, some weapons just aren't as useful to have as others, so unless you are dedicated to a class, it's just not worth it.

The chart below shows the name, class that you'll have to have at 80 and do HoT events, etc on for achievements, and my notes. 

• Bo (staff) [thief]: wrong stats.
• Dark Harvest (greatsword) [necro]: Zerk available. worth it for power reaper, warrior, guardian
• Fix-r-upper (hammer) [engi]: Zerk available, but hammer guardian is the only class that needs one
• Glint's Bastion (shield) [rev]: wrong stats.
• Horologicus (shield) [mesmer]: Zerk available. Probably worth it if you use your mesmer a lot, also useful for guardian
• North Wind (warhorn) [ele]: Assassin's available. You could switch stats around to use Fresh Air or Auramancer builds.
• Wild Abandon (torch) [warrior]: Sinister available. Warrior condi build uses viper's, but you could make it work.
• Ydalir (longbow) [guard]: Zerk available. Worth it if you use your guardian and use a longbow sometimes.
• Yggdrasil (staff) [ranger]: Cleric's available. Probably not worth it.

Here's my ranking by usefulness with no bias:

• Dark Harvest. The clear winner as many classes can use it.
• Fix-r-upper, Horologicus. If you use the classes that use these, worth it. Note that engi, the class you would use to get the hammer, doesn't use it most of the time. 
• North Wind, Wild Abandon, Yggdrasil, Ydalir. If you use the classes and builds that use these weapons, you could make it work. Just know that if builds shift out of the meta, you may end up with a useless ascended weapon. Guardian meta builds don't use longbow, but it's useful for doing certain mechanics in VG and Sab.
• Bo, Glint's Bastion. Completely worthless stats. 

Here's what I'll be going for, in probable order:

• Ydalir. It's awesome-looking and I need a longbow.
• The North Wind. Also cool-looking, and my ele needs weapons, but it seems like such a waste to craft a warhorn, so I'll work on this instead.
• Fix-r-upper. I love my engi, and I feel guilty grinding an ascended hammer for just one class.
• Horologicus. This one's iffy. It looks fantastic, but I'm not sure if I can commit to doing so much on my mesmer rather than just crafting.

I don't like the look of Dark Harvest and I already have an ascended greatsword. I'm crafting a zerk staff right now for ele and ranger, so doing a tough achievement just to get a cleric's at the end doesn't seem worth it, either. And I don't plan on finishing out a thief or rev, so the fact that their weapons aren't well-statted is quite convenient for me.