Is it still more expensive to craft Yassith gear directly?

Compared to going the roundabout way of crafting something regular then using the Mystic Forge to change stats?

If you don't have easy access to Fulgurite and would have to buy your Jeweled Damask Patches or Jeweled Deldrimor Steel Plated Dowels from the TP, then yes, crafting ascended gear with core Tyria stats and then using the Mystic Forge to stat change is still somewhat cheaper.

gw2efficiency is your friend. Looking up ascended chest armor we get (not using crafting cooldowns but buying the materials off the TP, otherwise prices change but not ranking between cheap and expensive):

Zintl Breastplate 67g 46sFerratus's Breastplate 67g 53s...Yassith's Breastplate 72g 18sZojja's Breastplate 72g 56s...Pahua's Breastplate 84g 13sMaklain's Breastplate 87g 86s

for heavy armors. This is pure gold cost and not factoring in for special materials used like Fulgurite.

Is it still more expensive to craft Yassith gear directly?No, and it wasn't really true for very long in the first place.

The short story is that it's almost always more economically efficient to directly craft any gear you need. The exceptions are

• If you don't already know the relevant recipe(s), transforming can save 8-20 gold (per item) over direct..
• If you don't already have fulgurite, transforming can save you time (~1-3 hours/item) or money (~10-20g/item)
• If you can obtain the exotic insignia/inscription cheaply through other sources (e.g. as a choice from a reward.

• Yassith's Doublet: 54 gold
• Hronk's Doublet: 50 gold
• Viper's Exotic Insignia: 5 gold + 5 globs of ecto (under a gold these days)

There was only ever a brief period of time when it made more economic sense to craft and transform for Viper's stats. This is primarily because 95% of the crafting materials are identical. The biggest cost difference is in the making of the exotic insignia (or inscription for weapons), and you need that for both the direct & roundabout methods, so you can't avoid the expense.

However, there are two additional hidden costs that most people don't consider:

• The fulgurite requirement for HoT stats adds ~19g in TP costs for insignia and ~8g for inscriptions or it takes at least one round of each HoT meta to farm your own.
• The recipe requirements have various costs, with Yassith's recipes being negligible while Hronk's (magi) are worth about 8g each (5 laurels + 3 gold) and Tizlak's (commander) are worth ~10g.

Zintl Breastplate 67g 46sMaklain's Breastplate 87g 86s

While that implies there's a 20g savings in starting with Zintl's, to turn that into Maklain's, you still need a Minstrel's Intricate Gossamer Insignia, and that's worth 20 gold in materials (plus the ecto and the Anthology of Heroes, which are both negligible expenses for a lot of people, especially relative to the total costs).

I changed a full zerker light set (ascended) to trailblazer using the forge and tbh I didn't see it being cheaper. I'm currently unlocking wvw gear, no annoying mats to get and I can choose the stats.

Thanks everyone, you've all been real helpful!

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

Zintl Breastplate 67g 46sMaklain's Breastplate 87g 86s

Yah, that is the real comparison. Using gw2efficiency crafting calculator gives us:

• Zintl Breastplate plus transform: 67g 14s 70c
• Maklain's Breastplate: 66g 74s 68c

Both calculated using "buy price" on the trading post, and not using my own materials. As you can see, the transform is marginally more expensive in this specific case. As @Illconceived Was Na.9781 says, the ecto and the spirit shards are not significant parts of the cost, compared to the base items. (Also, note the total cost goes up by ~ 20 gold, but the relationship remains roughly the same, if you opt to buy rather than make the daily cooldown items.)