Noob questions on Gift of Exploration and legendary weapon completion?

Please bear with me if my questions are all over the place since I'm still trying to learn and what I need to know about legendary crafting etc because I am a little bit confused. I am actually aiming for sunrise and I think I can't go for Eternity since I don't have a lot of time somewhere in sep. If I could hold it off from shelling out gold to get that gift. This is probably my long term goal and idk how long it'd take me.

Which maps in Tyria that I need to complete? It says POF and HOT maps are not needed for completion unless I go for certain expansion's legendary or I might be reading wiki wrong about it?Are LW2 and LW3 maps needed for completion?Do I have to get WvW completion maps as well, such as going to EB, other 3 battlegrounds and Obsidian Sanctum or EotM? I know about Gift of Battle in order to get legendary.Jumping puzzles are needed? I am actually bad at those orzI've heard you can buy gift of exploration and how does this work? They give me the mats and craft it or there is another way of doing it since some are account bounds?How long does it take and how long did it take you to get your first or second legendary?

I am actually farming gold in Dragonfall because it is faster atm and working on progressing in fractals as well. Any help is appreciated.

Hey there.

1*The only maps you need to 100% are the core Tyria maps that released with the original game.These maps are:Kryta: Queensdale, Kessex Hills, Gendarran Fields, Hirathi Hinterlands and Bloodtide Coast, Lions Arch and Divinity's Reach.

Ascalon: Plains of Ashford, Diessa Plateau, Fields of Ruin, Blazeridge Steppes, Iron Marches, Fireheart Rise and Black Citadel.

Siverpeak Mountains: Wayfarers Foothills, Snowden Drifts, Lonar's Pass, Dredgehaunt Cliffs, Timberline Falls, Frostgorge sound and Hoelbrak.

Maguuma Jungle/Tarnished Coast: Caledon Forest, Metrica Province, Brisban Wildlands, Sparkfly Fen, Mount Maelstrom, Rata Sum and The Grove.

Ruins of Orr: Straits of Devastation, Malchor's Leap and Cursed Shore.

In the case of towns, some of the locations you need to visit are in the home instances as well as other smaller instanced areas such as the Throne Room in Divinity's Reach etc.

2*When the game first launched you did have to complete WvW maps but this annoyed a lot of people who didn't care for WvW (I speak from expeirence) since we would go there and typically end up getting destroyed by WvW players.. and by players I mean lynch mobs/zergs XD pretty much lambs to the slaughter which caused a lot of resentment and anger towards the game mode and for some of us, ruined it entirely.Anet eventually removed the WvW map requirement thankfully so now you only need to complete the original PvE maps.

3*Completing all Jumping puzzles is not needed, there are a few points of interest, vistas or skill points which you'll need to complete a jumping segment to get too and there are a couple of jumping puzzles which will have a Vista, PoI or skill point within them.Vista on top of the wall in Ascalon requires completing Wall Breach Blitz jumping puzzle.The Vizier's Tower is another which has a Vista and Skillpoint at the end.If you're having trouble with them though hopefully you'll be able to get a Mesmer to help you, there are often Mesmers in JP's helping people specially when that JP is a daily.I noticed however that you said you are farming in Dragonfall therefore I know you have Path of Fire and therefore mounts..I can't share exactly how but I can tell you that a significant amount of jumping puzzles can be cheezed using mounts and a little creativity so that's something to keep in mind, specially if you have the bond of faith mastery which is like the ultimate jumping puzzle skipping tool lol

4*I have no idea about buying gifts of exploration, they are account bound and to my knowledge/ignorance I know no way of buying them.

5*Personally, it took me several years before I got my first legendary.This was due to lack of precursors and my unwillingness to pay lots of money for them and all the materials I needed to upgrade them to legends.I prefer to work slowely towards a legendary goal, playing normally and saving up materials etc until it only costs me a small investment to finish the legend.This means it takes me a good while to make progress on them.. but someone who is actively farming and focusing on getting that legend done can achieve it in as little as a few weeks or so I hear.. those truly dedicated and armed with the time and know how can make multiple legends in a fortnight apparently.

I'm not a good candidate for legendary seeker though as I honestly don't care for the vast majority of Legendary weapons.Most of them seem ugly to me or obnoxiously excessive in their effects.. Sunrise, Twilight, Meteorlogicus and Dreamer are some examples of legends I find hidiously ugly and out of place in the game..But generally there are only a handful of legendaries that I actually like and want to eventually make.Atm I have made 4 but only kept 2 and am casually working towards my 3rd keeper.I've made and sold Quip and Kudzu for nice profit and only made them to sell as I do not like either of them.I've made and kept Frenzy and Kamohoali'i Kotaki as they are skins I found worked very well with specific characters.. their visual styles and colour schemes etc.I'm working on The Shining Blade, Kraitkin and Chuka and Champawat but only focusing on Shining Blade atm.

Hopefully this will all be helpful to you, Best of luck going for your Sunrise ^^

@Teratus.2859 Thank you so much for a long and informative explanation in my post and listing the maps that I need to explore. I thought I had to capture every single objective in WvW and I was dreading for Obsidian Sanctum because of Jumping Puzzles. I remember it took me awhile to get the goggles in Dry Top after for having to redo it more than five times to get to the top lol! This cleared up my confusion about it :) Glad to know that I only need core Tyria maps for this. I had only watched a few videos which were old and during when the game was in its early days iirc.I also agree with having bond of faith mastery and glad to have gotten it. It helped me get to places that my mounts couldn't reach. I forgot about mounts when I was typing this, and only a few areas that would dismount me or couldn't glide to some places.Also, I've seen players that have their legendaries with 50 to 99 masteries in their belt and thought they probably bought it, Idk. Anyways thank you for the response,

@Haisse VI.8125 said:*I've heard you can buy gift of exploration and how does this work? They give me the mats and craft it or there is another way of doing it since some are account bounds?

Nope, that's how this works. In general the other way around though, you craft the legendary and then sell it with a premium of around 400-600 gold more than crafting it costs for the account bound materials.

Getting the Gift of Exploration is one of the fastest things to get done. Gift of Battle takes another 6-8 hours of WvW, again quite fast. The major time sinks are mostly the gold materials required and some of the account bound items like Mystic Clovers (unless you make use of WvW and Spvp reward tracks).

@Haisse VI.8125 said:*How long does it take and how long did it take you to get your first or second legendary?

1-1.5 years for my first one. It's not a journey you take on lightly unless you plan to credit card warrior your way past the gold requirements.

@Haisse VI.8125 said:I am actually farming gold in Dragonfall because it is faster atm and working on progressing in fractals as well. Any help is appreciated.

If you are new to the game I would be very generous with the time you give yourself with crafting your first legendary. Many players have burned out on the journey.

@Haisse VI.8125 said:@Teratus.2859 Thank you so much for a long and informative explanation in my post and listing the maps that I need to explore. I thought I had to capture every single objective in WvW and I was dreading for Obsidian Sanctum because of Jumping Puzzles. I remember it took me awhile to get the goggles in Dry Top after for having to redo it more than five times to get to the top lol! This cleared up my confusion about it :) Glad to know that I only need core Tyria maps for this. I had only watched a few videos which were old and during when the game was in its early days iirc.I also agree with having bond of faith mastery and glad to have gotten it. It helped me get to places that my mounts couldn't reach. I forgot about mounts when I was typing this, and only a few areas that would dismount me or couldn't glide to some places.Also, I've seen players that have their legendaries with 50 to 99 masteries in their belt and thought they probably bought it, Idk. Anyways thank you for the response,

Np ^^

Your fears of Obsidian Sanctum were a very real nightmare for us who've been in the game since launch XDHaving to do those WvW maps for world completion was not fun lolI recall a lot of thieves used to stealth hide small groups in the shadow section of that jumping puzzle and ambush players trying to get though it.One minute you're walking in the darkness, next 15 players de-steath and gank you >.<That happened to me several times lolThen there were those times you needed that one POI way up on the map and just before you get it a whole zerg obliterates you XD

Yeah bond of faith is great fun :DYou can get really creative with it and bypass a lot of JP's.I dunno if Anet consider it an exploit though, I still run JP's normally from time to time just for fun.I don't really see much difference in using Bond of Faith to bypass restrictions than using Mesmer portals to do the same thing.I actually get a lot of enjoyment figuring out ways to get to the chest without doing the puzzle ^^

Note, if you are crafting the precursor for a gen 1 legendary there will be jump puzzles you have to complete unrelated to map completion. This can totally be avoided for a gen 1 legendary by buying the precursor off the TP or if you are lucky and get one to drop. Gen 2 precursors can't be bought on the TP and don't drop from loot or mystic forge. Early gen 2 you have to do the collections which require various jumping puzzles depending on which one you are doing as part of the collection. For a 2.5 legendary it isn't an issue outside of any jump puzzle type places involved in HoT or PoF map completion.

For example here is the list of tasks for Sunrise III for crafting the Dawn precursor:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sunrise_III:_Dawn

As you can see it involves several JPs.