Dawn: Buy or craft?

I already made the mistake with the Juggernaught thinking it would be cheaper when it turned out that doing the collection was probably as, if not more, expensive than outright buying the precursor...

If you're looking strictly to gold cost and don't find enjoyment in the collections - buy. Always. Even if buying is a bit more expensive, because then you do what you want to get that gold, instead of what the collection requires - that time easily balances out the difference.

If you do enjoy the collections, check out https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/legendaries to see how the prices compare, and weigh that against what the collections will require.

@"Tanner Blackfeather.6509" said:If you're looking strictly to gold cost and don't find enjoyment in the collections - buy. Always. Even if buying is a bit more expensive, because then you do what you want to get that gold, instead of what the collection requires - that time easily balances out the difference.

If you do enjoy the collections, check out https://gw2efficiency.com/crafting/legendaries to see how the prices compare, and weigh that against what the collections will require.

This is my advice, too:

• If money is an object, always buy. GW2 efficiency doesn't account for the effort or wait time or loading screens required; those are very costly to the cost-conscious player.
• If you genuinely like the scavenger hunts (and many are clever, fun, cute, or some combination), then the collections are worth it anyhow.
• If you aren't sure, start the tier 1 collection. It's sometimes without specific costs, so you can see if you like the concept for that particular precursor.

And as a final note: with all the downward market trends (due to unID gear, Palawadanamultiloot, etc), precursor prices are at historic lows for the most part. The difference saved is less significant today than it will be for some time. That probably means that "if you have to ask, you're going to prefer to afford the TP version" and skip the collection; there just won't be enough cost savings the other way to make it worth your time.

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:If you're looking strictly to gold cost and don't find enjoyment in the collections - buy.

I greatly enjoyed doing the collection for the Juggernaught - until you got to the stage where you basically had to just throw gold at it. Going around and feeding/capturing the little oozes and stuff was good fun before that.

@Oglaf.1074 said:

@"Tanner Blackfeather.6509" said:If you're looking strictly to gold cost and don't find enjoyment in the collections - buy.

Then I'd recommend looking at the prices, and looking through the collections on the wiki. Knowing going in that the material sink collection is there can make it a lot better - you kind of accept "well, here's the gold cost".

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@Oglaf.1074 said:

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:If you're looking strictly to gold cost and don't find enjoyment in the collections - buy.

Aye, that was mostly why I hated it so. I was expecting it all to be just doing stuff to get the Precursor - the "throw gold at it via crafting materials" caught me off guard because I didn't expect it at all. Goes without saying it kinda soured the whole experience. :D

@Oglaf.1074 said:

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@Oglaf.1074 said:

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:If you're looking strictly to gold cost and don't find enjoyment in the collections - buy.

It's a lot less tedious if you expect it and plan ahead. Start daily crafts in time to not have to buy or wait too much, throw buy orders ahead of time for stuff you don't want to farm (I don't like Southsun, so I buy Passion Flowers and Karka Shells), and look over ahead of time what account bound currencies needs to be farmed. Do it right, and you can breeze through the second collection :)

@Oglaf.1074 said:

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:If you're looking strictly to gold cost and don't find enjoyment in the collections - buy.

Then do just the Tier 1 bit. Save T2-3 for when you're bored and don't mind throwing gold at a project (in the form of materials). That's what I've been doing myself.