Board Thread:Questions and Answers Forum/@comment-26322332-20150603131654/@comment-26355186-20150603142430

When you ascend a piece of gear from the normal game or from The Dark Below DLC, the attack/defence value will not be maxed out, you have to upgrade it to the max stats. However, if a gun is already at max, either 300 or 331, it will get to 365 damage after ascending. It all depends on how far you have upgraded the gun before ascending. This applies to "old" gear, gear from House of Wolves with 331 as damage will be upgraded to 365 directly. So to answer that last question, both yes and no. No, it is not required to ascend twice. Yes, it is direct to 365 but you have to upgrade it normally first.