Crafting roadmap

[Leo.3428]

My goal was to evolve my crafting disciplines in parallel to evolving my characters, but I quickly ended up out of tier 1 materials, in particular jute scraps. I concluded that I had done something wrong, searched the web, found mostly advice about grinding Fractals and the Trading Post to make gold and buy materials, meaning that I would need to keep evolving my characters to level 80 and get ascended gear without any crafting discipline before I can get beyond tier 1 crafting. This looks to be upside down.

I tried farming starting maps but my characters are too high level to get basic materials from loot, and I was an annoyance to the new players trying to do the events there. So I sacrificed one character to create a brand new disposable character and stormed all the bandit caverns and centaur camps on the way. I had some better luck getting jute scrap. But it feels like playing Space Invaders, and the character levels up too fast even when trying to avoid all the map completion points. There is no fun in that.

So, either I missed something obvious, or crafting is grindy by design and is not for me. Any help is appreciated to clear up the situation :)

[Ojimaru.8970]

@Leo.3428 saidMy goal was to evolve my crafting disciplines in parallel to evolving my characters

Crafting in this game isn't like others. Firstly, incremental gain in stats do not make a significant difference in combat, thus making at-level equipment less necessary than you would expect from other games. Secondly, due to how the game, its population, and its economy has evolved over the years, low- to mid-level crafting materials are often more valuable than max-level materials; this has the adverse effect of making crafting as a very inefficient means of obtaining gear while leveling. Third, and as you yourself have noticed, your character tends to level very quickly in this game; this further disincentives spending too much time crafting that perfect low-level rare equipment, as you are usually better off buying one off the Trading Post.

meaning that I would need to keep evolving my characters to level 80 and get ascended gear without any crafting discipline before I can get beyond tier 1 crafting. This looks to be upside down.

That's taking the hyperbole a little far, but I understand the sentiment. Cloth and leather materials have always been harder to obtain than wood and metal ore, for sure. Once more, unlike other games, spending time farming mobs in one spot in Guild Wars 2 is extremely inefficient. While Fractals are certainly a good source of gold, it is not the only means acquire the currency. Running Heart of Thorn meta events, farming in the Silverwastes, completing daily achievements are but a few of the many ways to earn gold at level 80.

[Khisanth.2948]

@"Leo.3428" said:I tried farming starting maps but my characters are too high level to get basic materials from loot

That is an inaccurate description of how drops work. No matter your level loot will be split between area level and character level. Additionally sentient creatures will drop bags that depends on the creature level rather than your level. The content of the bags contain crafting materials and they don't care about level. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Container#Crafting_material_containers_by_tier

[crepuscular.9047]

the tiered crafting loot bags arent affected by your character's level, that's why people like to donkey farm Urgoth's pre chain

some loot bags do scale to your character level, like SW loot bags, here's the most recent discussion after the unid gear replaced direct item drop in Tyriahttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/31220/opening-bags-do-you-still-do-it-on-a-lower-level

but direct weapon armor drops, now replaced with unid gear are scaled to L80 https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Piece_of_Unidentified_Gear

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@"crepuscular.9047" said:[...]

but direct weapon armor drops, now replaced with unid gear are scaled to L80 https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Piece_of_Unidentified_Gear

Minor addendum: replaced at level 80. Lvl 1-79 characters still gets direct gear.

[wanya.1697]

I think you will need two dedicated characters to just open bags if you really dont want to buy the lower tier matsone around level 35 on around lvl 53on those characters you open up the unidentified gear bags you farm with your lvl 80 character and salvage the than lower level gear you gotother way which is also possible without low level characters is to buy low level gear from heart karma vendor throw into mysticforge and salvagebut overall the fastest way in my opinion would be to farm gold and just buy directly from tradepostBut I dont think it is practical to levelup your crafting disciplines to equip your character while you level it up you level up so fast it just makes no senseIn my opinion the only use of crafting gear is to build yourself a set of ascended gear for higher fractals and even that is more or less uselessas you can "farm" ascended gear in a combination of spvp season rewards and wvw pip chest rewards pretty easy no crafting disciplines needed at all

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

@"wanya.1697" said:I think you will need two dedicated characters to just open bags if you really dont want to buy the lower tier matsone around level 35 on around lvl 53on those characters you open up the unidentified gear bags

This doenst work.Wiki says The received equipment is attached to level 80 characters (item level doesn't scale with character level)https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Piece_of_Unidentified_Gear

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@Stalkingwolf.6035 said:

@"wanya.1697" said:I think you will need two dedicated characters to just open bags if you really dont want to buy the lower tier matsone around level 35 on around lvl 53on those characters you open up the unidentified gear bags

This doenst work.Wiki says

The received equipment is attached to level 80 characters (item level doesn't scale with character level)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Piece_of_Unidentified_Gear

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bag_of_Gear and the like gives item based on the level of the character that opens them. If 80 you get unidentified gear, if below you get stuff that matches your level.

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@Stalkingwolf.6035 said:

@"wanya.1697" said:I think you will need two dedicated characters to just open bags if you really dont want to buy the lower tier matsone around level 35 on around lvl 53on those characters you open up the unidentified gear bags

This doenst work.Wiki says

The received equipment is attached to level 80 characters (item level doesn't scale with character level)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Piece_of_Unidentified_Gear

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bag_of_Gear

and the like gives item based on the level of the character that opens them. If 80 you get unidentified gear, if below you get stuff that matches your level.

thats not what wanya said.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@Stalkingwolf.6035 said:

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@Stalkingwolf.6035 said:

@wanya.1697 said:I think you will need two dedicated characters to just open bags if you really dont want to buy the lower tier matsone around level 35 on around lvl 53on those characters you open up the unidentified gear bags

This doenst work.Wiki says

The received equipment is attached to level 80 characters (item level doesn't scale with character level)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Piece_of_Unidentified_Gear

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bag_of_Gear

and the like gives item based on the level of the character that opens them. If 80 you get unidentified gear, if below you get stuff that matches your level.

thats not what wanya said.

True, @wanya.1697 is correct is concept but wrong on the specific.Unidentified does not scale, neither do (most?/all?) of the HoT bags affected by Mafic Find. Most other bags that give gear does however scale, including champ bags.

[Leo.3428]

Thank you all so much for the help. I will study this during the weekend. Maybe I had a streak of bad luck when I tried to farm the Inquest, Nightmare Court, Bandits, etc. on the starter maps with high level characters, and a streak of slightly better luck with the brand new character, or these were special bags of the sort that scales to your level.

To clarify: I wasn't really hoping to craft armor and weapons for my rapidly growing level, but a few inventory chests and bags with runes of holding of increasing capacity along the way, then, once I had explored all the maps, craft a decent equipment and jump into WvW.

What puzzles me is where all the materials on the trading post come from, if not from some form of grinding forced by scarcity, which is not in the philosophy of the game as far as I understand it.

I will come back once I have digested the information. Thank you again to all!

[Ojimaru.8970]

@"Leo.3428" saidWhat puzzles me is where all the materials on the trading post come from,

"Champion Bags" (loot bags that drop from Champion-tier or above creatures) and Bags of Gear (most commonly from story quests and Silverwaste) give loot according the level of the character that opens it. Therefore, some players have characters they keep at specific levels (e.g. level 49) just to open these bags in order to get mid-tier items, which yield more valuable materials when salvaged.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@"Leo.3428" said:[...]What puzzles me is where all the materials on the trading post come from, if not from some form of grinding forced by scarcity, which is not in the philosophy of the game as far as I understand it.

While far from all, a lot comes from new players, as well as old players playing new characters. It's actually meant as a way of wealth transfer from "older" players to newer.

[Leo.3428]

@Ojimaru.8970 and @Tanner Blackfeather.6509 - Thank you! It makes more sense to me now.

One thing was wrong in my initial assumptions. I considered crafting central and trading secondary, but reality is the reverse of that. Crafting is functionally detached from the characters even if technically bound to them - this looks very weird in hindsight - and one really crafts only late in the game, with several characters to the rescue for one discipline and/or a heap of gold.

As a casual player, I will probably give up crafting and try WvW with whatever equipment I have. Let's see if this works.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@Leo.3428 said:@Ojimaru.8970 and @Tanner Blackfeather.6509 - Thank you! It makes more sense to me now.

One thing was wrong in my initial assumptions. I considered crafting central and trading secondary, but reality is the reverse of that. Crafting is functionally detached from the characters even if technically bound to them - this looks very weird in hindsight - and one really crafts only late in the game, with several characters to the rescue for one discipline and/or a heap of gold.

As a casual player, I will probably give up crafting and try WvW with whatever equipment I have. Let's see if this works.

Yeah, it's useful to really understand that the Trading Post is absolutely central in the game. Most of the reward structure is built around selling excess and putting the gold generated toward buying what you want.

There is also plenty of non-crafting routes to gear, depending on what stat combination you want.

[Ojimaru.8970]

@Leo.3428 said:@Ojimaru.8970 and @Tanner Blackfeather.6509 - Thank you! It makes more sense to me now.

One thing was wrong in my initial assumptions. I considered crafting central and trading secondary, but reality is the reverse of that. Crafting is functionally detached from the characters even if technically bound to them - this looks very weird in hindsight - and one really crafts only late in the game, with several characters to the rescue for one discipline and/or a heap of gold.

As a casual player, I will probably give up crafting and try WvW with whatever equipment I have. Let's see if this works.

Level crafting to 400 isn't all that expensive, each costing around 20-35g total, assuming no boosts and having bought all materials from the trading post (where available). If you have extra materials, you could also further reduce the cost through Discovering recipes (Discovering a new recipe through the Discovery tab yields a large amount of crafting XP, and is the most efficient means of gaining crafting ranks).

If you need equipment, depending on your interests, there are plenty of ways to get gear for far cheaper, compared to crafting. If you play PVE more, NPC vendors in endgame maps sell exotic equipment, usually at the cost of map-specific currencies; PVP and WVW each have their own Reward Tracks that will reward exotic armor and weapons; you can also purchase basic exotic equipment with Badges of Honor from WvW.

[Cyninja.2954]

@Leo.3428 said:What puzzles me is where all the materials on the trading post come from, if not from some form of grinding forced by scarcity, which is not in the philosophy of the game as far as I understand it.

Going to stop you right here chief (and correct this misconception). The game was not advertised with no grinding. That would be currently impossible for an MMO.

The game was advertised as:Play which ever content you want, and receive useful rewards.

That still applies since no matter what you do, you will always generate wealth in form of loot and gold rewards.

There is an added benefit of a very short itemization and the possibility of equipping characters in full exotic gear for little to no gold (by MMO standards).

As mentioned by others, the trading post is an essential factor in this approach since it allows the exchange of wealth generated into items/materials desired.

[Leo.3428]

Thanks a lot, @Tanner Blackfeather.6509 and @Ojimaru.8970 , I will look into these sources of gear when I get there. Yes, crafting discovery I used a lot once I learned that it was the way to go. This was also the reason for my shortage in materials ;)@Cyninja.2954 - It makes sense, thank you! I'll go my merry slow way with more confidence that I'm not playing it all wrong.

[Farwind.1796]

I have four level 400 crafters (Chef, Jeweler, Weaponsmith and Huntsman) and plan to do all the crafts to 400. I have never had to grind any of them so far (unless you consider the backpacks as grinding). They were all done with discoveries. I have never made more than one item unless I needed it for another recipe. I find this method to use the least amount of materials that I need. Now as you can see three of the crafts that I have done so far are crafts that can be done by just farming nodes (Jeweler, Chef, and Weaponsmith), so I have spent quite a bit of time running around low level areas to start them off. The Huntsman uses a lot of wood and leather as a substitute for cloth/fabric (jute) intensive recipes. I am saving for last the tailor profession just because the raw material (jute/fabric) is the hardest to come by and can only be had by kills. It is also the craft that uses the most of just one raw material (cloth/fabric). So I only have two pieces of advice. First, start with crafts that don't need a vast amount of one raw material unless that material can be found in nodes. and second, only do discoveries.

[Katastroff.1045]

Did you follow a guide like here?gw2crafts.net/

pwniversity.com/gw2/crafting

[Farwind.1796]

@"Farwind.1796" said:I have four level 400 crafters (Chef, Jeweler, Weaponsmith and Huntsman) and plan to do all the crafts to 400. I have never had to grind any of them so far (unless you consider the backpacks as grinding). They were all done with discoveries. I have never made more than one item unless I needed it for another recipe. I find this method to use the least amount of materials that I need. Now as you can see three of the crafts that I have done so far are crafts that can be done by just farming nodes (Jeweler, Chef, and Weaponsmith), so I have spent quite a bit of time running around low level areas to start them off. The Huntsman uses a lot of wood and leather as a substitute for cloth/fabric (jute) intensive recipes. I am saving for last the tailor profession just because the raw material (jute/fabric) is the hardest to come by and can only be had by kills. It is also the craft that uses the most of just one raw material (cloth/fabric). So I only have two pieces of advice. First, start with crafts that don't need a vast amount of one raw material unless that material can be found in nodes. and second, only do discoveries.

One thing I forgot to mention, I did not use the crating guides. though they seem to be best for doing it for the lowest cost. I always hate the "craft 15 of this or make 10 of that" routine. I just used the good ol' GW2 wiki to see what items could be crafted at what level and did only the discoverables.

[Leo.3428]

@Farwind.1796 - I gave up on Tailor first for this very reason. Very wise advice to start with the metal and wood disciplines! I now regret I picked tailor and artificer for my elementalist since I discovered I prefer daggers over staffs and stuff, but my warrior can craft the daggers - useless until I get to max level, I know. I'll have my thief do jewels and cooking (hope he won't be robbing). Also, indeed after a while I tried to do only discoveries with at least one element that was still gold color, to maximize the XPs.

@Katastroff.1045 - I bumped into these sites when searching why I was failing at crafting, and they are interesting. For the time being, I'm too new and all over the place to commit to such a meticulous plan, but when I lose my patience I'll probably be churning levels the industrial way.