Not Inscribable?

So I was doing some chest runs this afternoon and came across a beautiful req. 9 Ancient Axe.. Well, the only mod it had on it was "dmg +19% vs. Undead" - which is lame but I can fix that, right? So I try to add a 15^50 mod to it and it won't work. It gives me the red circle of death that says you can't upgrade this weapon... Every other weapon I have I can add it to.

So this makes me wonder, does a weapon have to already have an inscription on it to add one to it? Can we not add the inscriptions to the inscriptionless? If so this sucks.. or maybe I just am getting screwed on this one..

Someone enlighten me please.

It's a gold req. 9 Ancient Axe with that one mod on it...

If you got the axe in Tyria or Cantha, you're out of luck. ANet hasn't introduced the inscription or offhand mod systems to those weapons. Only Elonian goodies have that.

In order to inscribe a weapon/item it has to have:
a) an inscription on it already or
b) a slot for it (it will say inscription: none)

So ya, not what you wanted to hear, I know, but (at least for now) theres nothing you can do but farm undead with it (lucky for you their are plenty of those here). I think they did this so you couldn't go and add inscriptions to weapons outside elona (ie maxed gpb, dwarven battle axes, mursaat weapons...) to give people a reason to purchase this expansion. (Like mat storage, but if you noticed, now everyone can get this...so maybe this will change sometime in the near/distant future).

Thanks for clearing it up. I was farming in the Desolation areas... and trying to find some good stuff. I was excited about the req 9... then was bummed when i could do anything to it :/

Not all Elonian weapons are inscribable... which is sad considering some things you find would be perfect to be inscribed.

You can craft stuff with free slots too
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/9148/insclo2.png