How do I obtain Ascended gear?

Question

I'm looking for information on how to earn Ascended tier items in Guild Wars 2, to make high-level runs of the new dungeon, Fractals of the Mists, easier. This tier of loot is between Exotic and Legendary for those that did not know.

When running through FotM, you can pick up 'Vials of Condensed Mists', which I can only assume are crafting materials for either infusions or Ascended gear. There are infusions and a Gift of Ascension available for sale (for FotM tokens) from a merchant in the FotM lobby. So, my main questions are:

• How does one use these materials (Vials, infusions) for crafting?
• Are backpieces and jewelry the only items you can make (as ANet said), or has anyone made any weapons?
• Are there any other infusions available?

Answer 1

So far only trinkets have ascended versions. A list of all ascended items and how to acquire them can be found on the official wiki.

Vials, Globs, and Shards of Mists Essence are used in the creation and promotion of ascended back pieces.

Infusions are upgrade components that can be added to ascended equipment. Infusions come in four basic types: offensive, defensive, utility, and omni. Offensive, defensive, and utility infusions can each only be used on their respective type of infusion slot, while omni infusions can be used on either offensive or defensive slots. Infusions crafted in the Mystic Forge will have agony resistance +5, those obtained from laurel merchants in WvW will have +1% damage to guards (for offensive) or -1% damage from guards (for defensive), and those from PvE laurel merchants have neither.