Ascended Crafting

I got my Thief to 80 during HoT, and I'm now playing PoF. I've largely stashed all the materials I've found to date, sold some overflow and have about 50g. I'm currently equipped in exotics. I've only played PvE to date, either solo or in a pair with a friend. I join in on map events, but haven't been in dungeons or raids. I might dabble in WvW eventually, but am unlikely to get into PvP.

I'm thinking that I'd like to acquire some better gear, so am considering crafting. I have a lower level Guardian that I levelled Armorsmithing on, for the XP, ability to refine, and to see how expensive it is. With my stored mats, I made it to 425 without really buying anything. I have a few questions, and would be grateful if anyone can offer advice:

1. Whether to craft at all?I assume that I should, as I expect to be playing the game long term. I believe there is no other straightforward way to gear up further (outside of raiding). Is that right?

2. What disciplines to learn?I have read that crafting a weapon is more beneficial than armour. Is that true? The problem is that as a Thief, I'm currently on Staff (Artificer) and Shortbow (Huntsman). Do I learn them both? and Leatherworker too? Does a weapon take so long to craft that I might as well only pick one discipline and just do that?

3. How to store my Bloodstone Dust and Dragonite Ore?I can refine them on my Artificer (with a few more levels). I see that these can be used for other things, but as I have a few stacks of each, should I just refine them into Bloodstone Bricks and Dragonite Ingots? If I do that am I wasting a resource better spent on something else?

Any advice on crafting in general given my situation and current playstyle would be much appreciated! :)

Crafting is the only reliable means of getting ascended. Especially for the account bound stat combinations.

You need 5 brick, 5 ingot and 5 star for a vision crystal for every weapon so you can prepare appropriately. There aren't really any great alternative uses for these except maybe the toxic consumable items.

1. Whether to Craft at All: I have found that crafting ascended weapons isn't very important TO ME because there are so many collections that will give them as rewards. I also do fractals and boxes for weapons drop much more often than boxes for armor.

Crafting armor is the only reliable/time efficient way to get it (also the most expensive), but if you just plan on doing solo PvE it isnt worth it. For raids/high level fractals it would be. The main difference between Ascended Armor is that it can be infused with Agony Resistance and it is Account Bound so you can always switch it between characters. So if you just find yourself doing Solo PvE and story, or even world events, you don't need ascended armor. If you want to dive into raiding it is nice but from what I can tell not required, and for Fractals past lvl 70~ they will become required because of the agony resistance needed.

2. What Disciplines to Learn: This depends on what class you play.Heavy Armor - Weaponsmithing (Weapons), Armorsmith (Armor)Medium Armor- Huntsman (If using ranged weapons), Leatherworking (Armor)Light Armor- Artificing (If using mage-type weapons), Tailoring (Armor)

3. Just refine those items if you wish. Bloodstone Dust, Star Fragments, and Dragonite Ore are so easy to obtain that I delete 90% of it.

@Thornbury.4179 said:2. What disciplines to learn?I have read that crafting a weapon is more beneficial than armour. Is that true? The problem is that as a Thief, I'm currently on Staff (Artificer) and Shortbow (Huntsman). Do I learn them both? and Leatherworker too? Does a weapon take so long to craft that I might as well only pick one discipline and just do that?

You can get an ascended staff by completing the Daredevil Specialization Collection, so no need for Artificer. You also don't need a Shortbow as you will rarely, if ever, use it in a combat situation. So I would advise to focus on Leatherworking.

Thank you, I'll probably get the Guardian up to 450 so that I can refine the bricks etc. while I decide on the best way forward.

There is a Thief collection I can get for an ascended staff, but some grind. I need five more HoT Mastery levels, involving getting 14 more HoT mastery points. However, doing that will generate HoT currency which can be used to buy Obsidian Shards using the Ley-Energy Matter Converter (if I can get it). Is this a path that is worth starting on? I can then use my mats on my alternate weapon, or armour. Is the Ley-Energy Matter Converter the best way to get Obsidian Shards, or is there a PoF method that's more efficient now?

The road to an ascended weapon/piece of armour seems so long, that I want to be sure I'm on the right one before I commit. I'm OK with HoT stuff, as I still haven't fully completed it, but if I'm going to be blocked because everyone is in PoF, and I'm running around empty maps, then I might be wasting effort.

Please let me know if you feel grinding the Ascended Staff from the HoT collection is more effort than it's worth.

@Ojimaru.8970 said:You can get an ascended staff by completing the Daredevil Specialization Collection, so no need for Artificer. You also don't need a Shortbow as you will rarely, if ever, use it in a combat situation. So I would advise to focus on Leatherworking.

Ah, great. I'll continue with this, thanks. I'll level leatherworking on the thief as well. On a side note, I tend to use shortbow as my alt, largely for mobility, but then it becomes what I use for ranged attacks, especially ranged AOE. Of course since getting a mount the mobility isn't so useful....

Should I be swapping Shortbow with another combo? Dual Pistol?

@Thornbury.4179 said:

@Ojimaru.8970 said:You can get an ascended staff by completing the Daredevil Specialization Collection, so no need for Artificer. You also don't need a Shortbow as you will rarely, if ever, use it in a combat situation. So I would advise to focus on Leatherworking.

Ah, great. I'll continue with this, thanks. I'll level leatherworking on the thief as well. On a side note, I tend to use shortbow as my alt, largely for mobility, but then it becomes what I use for ranged attacks, especially ranged AOE. Of course since getting a mount the mobility isn't so useful....

If you need a ranged AOE weapon for open world, an exotic Shortbow will do just fine. If you need a ranged option for Fractals or Raids, then go for Pistol/Pistol.

@Thornbury.4179 said:Thank you, I'll probably get the Guardian up to 450 so that I can refine the bricks etc. while I decide on the best way forward.

There is a Thief collection I can get for an ascended staff, but some grind. I need five more HoT Mastery levels, involving getting 14 more HoT mastery points. However, doing that will generate HoT currency which can be used to buy Obsidian Shards using the Ley-Energy Matter Converter (if I can get it). Is this a path that is worth starting on? I can then use my mats on my alternate weapon, or armour. Is the Ley-Energy Matter Converter the best way to get Obsidian Shards, or is there a PoF method that's more efficient now?

The road to an ascended weapon/piece of armour seems so long, that I want to be sure I'm on the right one before I commit. I'm OK with HoT stuff, as I still haven't fully completed it, but if I'm going to be blocked because everyone is in PoF, and I'm running around empty maps, then I might be wasting effort.

Please let me know if you feel grinding the Ascended Staff from the HoT collection is more effort than it's worth.

Your HoT plan is fine. But after getting your staff, IMO doing Silverwastes is the best way to get Obsidian Shards. Also you will easily get Bandit Crests (the map currency) which you can then spend on more Obsidian Shards.

@Khisanth.2948 said:Crafting is the only reliable means of getting ascended. Especially for the account bound stat combinations.

Tell that to the people with bank tabs full of ascended boxes from doing fractal dailies or raiding, or PvP for that matter.

@Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:Crafting is the only reliable means of getting ascended. Especially for the account bound stat combinations.

Tell that to the people with bank tabs full of ascended boxes from doing fractal dailies or raiding, or PvP for that matter.

You have to start somewhere, my first ascended armor set was crafted. After that, I only craft single pieces, for example when I want gloves but only get the other pieces as drops for weeks. I wished we could exchange the chests with other players. I would trade a chest armor for boots sometimes, and others have plenty of boot chests but need a chest piece.

Obsidian shards I always buy with karma. The other currencies are more valuable to me, especially when I have to map complete Dry Top with several characters for Geodes to pay for a Legendary item. Crafting has its place, especially when you don't already have ascended armor. You can do raids with exotics to get ascended chests, or you can beat Tequatl and Triple Trouble on a daily basis and wait for a lucky drop, but you cannot get into high level fractals without ascended gear. Doing fractals is easier than raids, and since you get rewards daily, it's the best source for ascended gear.

At some point in the game, you want something specific, and not hope for a chest to drop, and that's why I maxed all crafts except cooking, jewellery and scribing. Now, if I really want a piece of gear immediately, I just craft it. I also crafted a legendary weapon and working on Nevermore, so maxed crafts are a requirement anyway. Only thing I couldn't craft would be that rainbow staff because apparently, you need to cook colors ^^ But I'm not planning to craft it anyway.

You can get 114 cheap Agony Resistance with ascended trinkets, backpack (uninfused because it costs 60 gold) and staff and Anguished Tear of Alba, and with that you can play the first 5 Tier 4 fractals. If you have 250 globs of ectoplasm, you can infuse the backpack and get another 9 AR. Without a single piece of ascended armor, you can play up to level 85 fractal. I would go for trinkets first, then backpack, then weapon. Even if you get no ascended armor chest as drop then, you get enough gold to max Leatherworking.

I assume that you want to play fractals. If you don't want to play fractals, you don't really need ascended armor, it has only slightly better stats than exotics.

@Faaris.8013 said:

@Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:Crafting is the only reliable means of getting ascended. Especially for the account bound stat combinations.

Tell that to the people with bank tabs full of ascended boxes from doing fractal dailies or raiding, or PvP for that matter.

Not sure if you are referring to me or the OP, but I did craft all my ascended armor, maybe a dozen sets or so? Plus like 80 weapons, 6 legendaries, but now I have bank tabs full of chest drops and nothing to use them on. I was just pointing out that crafting is not the only way. I know plenty of people who never crafted any and got all theirs through fractals though.

For Obsidian shards, I chest farm SW, you get loads and they cost nothing. Then you can convert your karma into more gold.

Here's a good video by Brazil on how to ascended gear-up your character without crafting. -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xxH0xIjGag

@Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582 said:Not sure if you are referring to me or the OP, but I did craft all my ascended armor, maybe a dozen sets or so? Plus like 80 weapons, 6 legendaries, but now I have bank tabs full of chest drops and nothing to use them on. I was just pointing out that crafting is not the only way. I know plenty of people who never crafted any and got all theirs through fractals though.

For Obsidian shards, I chest farm SW, you get loads and they cost nothing. Then you can convert your karma into more gold.

My first paragraph refered to you, the rest to OP. But it's interesting to see that you thought you have to list how many pixels you got in GW2 to make sure strangers on an internet forum don't think you are new to the game.

@Faaris.8013 said:

@"Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582" said:Not sure if you are referring to me or the OP, but I did craft all my ascended armor, maybe a dozen sets or so? Plus like 80 weapons, 6 legendaries, but now I have bank tabs full of chest drops and nothing to use them on. I was just pointing out that crafting is not the only way. I know plenty of people who never crafted any and got all theirs through fractals though.

For Obsidian shards, I chest farm SW, you get loads and they cost nothing. Then you can convert your karma into more gold.

I wasn't bragging, because it's nothing to brag about. I was merely trying to illustrate experience, the same way you mentioned crafting yours and legendary etc. I answered as if you had written the entire post to me, because it's not like you made that clear. Would you prefer I word it some other way? "I have crafted enough ascended and legendary items to know how to go about doing it? Who cares about who has what anyway? I really couldn't care less about anyone's opinion on what I have or haven't got on my account or whether they think I am new or whatever, it is irrelevant.

Don't you think it's equally interesting that you jumped to conclusions and thought you needed to point out that you thought I was bragging to strangers on an internet forum? Typically that would be the end-result of jealousy, but in this case there is nothing to be jealous about so I don't get it.

Thanks again for all the input - much appreciated! I'm not actually heading for fractals at the moment. I haven't actually been in a dungeon at all yet, as there is just so much stuff to do in the world. I'm going to continue on the HoT stuff for now, and try unlock the staff. Just unlocking all the points on a map is a challenge in HoT (without googling how to get everywhere) and I'm enjoying that. I join in on any events as I come across them. Still so much new content to me!

I'll also level up my leatherworking, and see how that goes. If nothing else, it'll give me some more room in my mat storage, as I'll be able to refine more items.

Thanks again for the tips :D