Guild Wars 2

Or just revisit old areas to collect crafting supplies? I’ve been level 80 for a while now and my Artificer and Tailor levels are still around 175. No matter how slow I do the story or how much time I put into collecting supplies I always seem to barely move the needle and then run out of stuff. And of course none of the equipment I make is useful to my character. I don’t think it ever has been.

I personally would level cooking. You can get to level 400 with mostly using karma food.
http://www.gw2crafts.net/cooking_karma.html and it’s fairly cheap. After that you can use the cooking mats you harvest to make yourself level 80 food which is always useful.

The rest of it, I wouldn’t bother until or unless you decide to make a Legendary or ascended gear. If you don’t have exotics yet you can ask a guildie to craft level 80 exotics for you if you supply the mats or put in a buy order to get as cheaply as possible.

Your choice, really.
Anet would love it if you buy gems, transfer to gold and buy all mats. This is the reason farming is generally the slowest method of aquiring almost anyhting in this game.
I believe most people farm gold in whatever way they find bearable and then buy the mats they need.
Some simply give up

use a crafting booster while crafting, goes up quicker

On the same topic, but not necessarily directed at you, is should you craft at all?

I haven’t seen a real benefit of maxing your crafting for anything other than vanity items. Sure, ascended gear gives a slight bonus increase and if you find yourself capable of the grind, then being stacked in all ascended gear has a some what noticeable cumulative effect, but if you weren’t trying to deck yourself out in the best, I’d argue that max crafting offers you no real benefit other than the XP for leveling. You get one crafting up to 350 for minimal investment, just to salvage scrap to more useful items to sell on the AH and then buy everything else you need off the AH. I’ve maxed them all and looking back, it was a tremendous time and money sink.

But if you’re looking for specific items that you really want or want the ability to craft some of these newer skins (like the fossil or vine backpack) or ascended gear, then you’ll want to work at it. If you’re just here to pew pew and have a good time, you’re not missing anything by skipping it.

Save your money…buy it on the AH.

Yes.

/thread

Craft through discovery or use recipes from karma vendors to gain more experience. You don’t have to use the TP to level.

Look for crafting guides too as they can be good for letting you know which materials you need, plus quantities. Basically help to level crafting fast. Make no mistake though, certain crafting disciplines can be expensive.

You don’t have to use the TP…..but why would you not want to?

I use a combinatino of both. I farm mats mainly in high level zones (lvl 60 – 80) and sell those I don’t need, then I buy other mats. But if you play the game often and have several alts etc. you should have enough to craft to 400. 500 can be a bit rough though.