The Hero's Challenge
Anarki
Some websites say that it can be done without ascending, and some websites say that you must ascend, can someone give me correct answer to this before I do it with my new character?
Murder In China
You have to ascend.
Cherno
You must ascend, because in order to get it you have to have done one of the path's quests before she gives it to you. And you can't do the paths quests until you have ascended.
AeroLion
What the above posters said. It used be slightly bugged in that you could get the quest after not having ascended/completed a profession change but it was fixed quite a while ago. Those websites are probably not up to date.