Guild Wars 2

It seems to me that crafting was added as another way to level which is great can never have to many ways to level! BUT… it does feel like it is impossible to make a profit off of crafting, anyone else feel the same?

Correct. Crafting was designed as another source of experience and gear, not as a means to earn money. The way to make money off it is to sell the materials you don’t need — that’s why everyone has all the gathering disciplines. There’s a few niches that can potentially earn you a little coin, but by and large you’re not going to make money off crafting.

To make money crafting you have to add value some how. In some games you can add value in your item quality, in others you can add value with rare patterns most other crafter’s don’t have. (I was STILL selling Hide of the Wild to twinks in WoW before I quit and I got that pattern at 60).

Currently neither of those options exist in GW because anyone can discover the patterns and put them on the TP. Since people want skillups (because they give xp) they are willing to sell for less than the cost to make. Some of this slack is already drying up but it will exist for a while. (Eventually most non easy items will come in at just over buy +15%).

I’ve had some luck selling quality pants, some vests and shoulders since they take more materials to craft people don’t want to skill on them. Not all of them make money, and they might not make money all the time (because if anyone finds out they might undercut me or what have you). Usually I have to buy insignia’s people are selling for a loss to make money.

Eventually you will likely be able to make gold for vanity armor if any exists.

The concept of having crafting only for experience gain and item production, but not as a method for players to profit through a healthy economic system is very short-sighted. The game has been out a month and I’ve already got one character at level 80. In comparison, it took me much longer to hit 60 in Vanilla WoW – but relatively the same time as D3.

The good news is that even at 80 I’m only sitting just above 50% map completion and there still seems plenty of stuff for me to do. So realistically, I don’t need crafting as a method of gaining experience. It’s for this reason that it’s important to provide ongoing value from the system.

What really gets me, especially noticeable in making jewelry, is that many recipes take items that sell decently to vendors and yet somehow when you put them together the sum of your craft is an instant sell to vendor loss. With the exception of certain stones, you’re better off selling to vendor – or for the rocks with preferable stats you can squeeze a little more selling the raw component on the TP.

So, honestly, you’re better off just being a supplier. You’ll still get experience points from node farming and killing stuff along the way. You’ll just end up with a lot more currency to buy the things you want at the end of the day.

If we remain in a place where people are only paying vendor+15%, just NPC.

I really want to see the crafting scene revamped. I love playing the market in games and figuring out the dynamics of supply and demand. The idea that crafting should not be profitable will only end up hurting the game in the long run.

I don’t even see them paying NPC+15% – the vast number of items I tried to sell were listed at NPC+1 copper. I’ve since just vendored everything I made or had drop since it would provide me with more profit. Even salvaging the items is worse than vending and then buying the raw mats off the AH. An item that might give 60 copper could break down to two pieces of leather worth half that.

Socks.4159:

I don’t even see them paying NPC+15% – the vast number of items I tried to sell were listed at NPC+1 copper. I’ve since just vendored everything I made or had drop since it would provide me with more profit. Even salvaging the items is worse than vending and then buying the raw mats off the AH. An item that might give 60 copper could break down to two pieces of leather worth half that.

After Mastering both Jewelry and tailoring I can definitely attest, its usually actually cheaper to sell to a vendor, then to pay the listing fee and hidden taxes. And the market stays un-flooded with items that are only selling for 1/4 to 1/2 their cost to make in some cases.

The beauty of vending the trash that could be salvaged is that the materials will slowly trickle out of the market except from those that are suppliers directly. This increases the price for the mats, thus increases the price for the finished products for those items that ARE actually in demand. (namely obscure cooking materials)

tl;dr = it pays and pays well to be a supplier.

But the price of mats is already above the price of what the items sell for unfortunately.

I craft an insignia and spend 11 silver to make it. And then make master boots, and the item sells for 1-2 silver. Not exactly what I call a profit making trade.

But your tl:dr is highly accurate. The gold I’ve spent on tailoring hasn’t paid for itself for a second. And most of the jewelry I crafted, could have easily been purchased for not much more. But that’s only because of other craftsman like myself.

I like that it’s not supposed to be for profit. If it was, everyone would take the crafts that make the most money, and the prices would down, and the same thing would happen. Crafted things are bought by the players, not Anet. The money is in selling mats, so that others can craft, and up their own things (cooking benefits the cooker and all of their friends, just to get rid of the food x_x) and things for-cost for their friends to up their own level (leatherworker makes bags for guildies for cost of the mats).

Also, cooking levels you faster than Artificing. But I still can’t find lemons.

Crafting in a game without higher stats is pretty useless, other than for bags and skins i suppose and right now there are not rare drop recipes which could make it more useful

Can’t use crafting to to level until the drop rates are adjusted. Unless of course the endless grind for mats (blood, bones, etc.) is how we’re supposed to level via crafting?

Crafting is for leveling.

Gem Store is for Profit.

Maybe a profit for anet gem purchasing… sure is not profitable for the crafter.

I have hit level 400 in artificing and tailoring today, and really I just lost money. I regret having done the effort because there are more enjoyable ways to level up. Crafting is a complete money sink.

I’d be so incredibly rich if i had just thought to buy my (light) armor on the TP instead of crafting it. i hit 400 in tailor a couple of days ago. i’m almost there with artificing but am dead broke as usual so it will be a while… it’s a very expensive way to level. but i would like to master every crafting profession (completionist over here) so i likely won’t give up just yet.

It’s very simple

Crafting is conversion as follows:

materials → experience + finished good

The finished good will always be worth less than the materials because experience has a non zero value.

The only crafting that will be profitable is that which occurs at level 400.

Didn’t see it mentioned, but crafting is also a way of obtaining a legendary weapon. you can craft some of the components that are needed for the forge.

it certainly feels like it’s mostly for experience though.

bit of both really make crap items then buy karma recipes make double what u spend to make repeat and turn a profit or a very small lost geting 400

I don’t care about TP profits; I don’t post on it. I do care about spending HOURS farming an entire zone and not getting enough mats to make ONE (1) item. That’s just ridiculous.

Wormfodder.2051:

I don’t care about TP profits; I don’t post on it. I do care about spending HOURS farming an entire zone and not getting enough mats to make ONE (1) item. That’s just ridiculous.

This. 1000x this.

I normally can make a profit (or at the least cover most of my expense) by crafting the recipe available for purchase from the trade master. They yield huge xp and are normally in such short supply that they actually sell.

I’ve only really been doing cooking, i’m at about 300 now and it’s given me loads of exp, but the food doesn’t really sell on the AH, you can make a bit of money by selling ingredients though (i’d imagine) I haven’t actually sold any ingredients yet…

SteepledHat.1345:

I normally can make a profit (or at the least cover most of my expense) by crafting the recipe available for purchase from the trade master. They yield huge xp and are normally in such short supply that they actually sell.

That can be generalized to “make profit by crafting Rare items”. GW2 might not be a gear based game but people still want their stats.

SkittleArmageddon.8075:

I’ve only really been doing cooking, i’m at about 300 now and it’s given me loads of exp, but the food doesn’t really sell on the AH, you can make a bit of money by selling ingredients though (i’d imagine) I haven’t actually sold any ingredients yet…

Got any Vanilla Beans?
Currently around 1s 80c each and still climbing …

I’ve made roughly 260g from crafting over the past 4 days.

Profits are there. You just have to find them, and creative ways to cut costs.

My creative way to cut costs was to get the mats myself. Not really a practical option anymore. And as I said, having to line someone else’s pockets constantly just to level anything but cooking (love that profession) and jewelcrafting is just asinine. We shouldn’t be pigeonholed into throwing cash at the TP, it should be an option, not a necessity.

When you think about it, its pure profit. You gather free materials and make items you can sell to npc for profit. Some are just too lazy to farm/gather so they spend money on the ingredients and I’m guilty of that too. I’ve level my JC with pure gathering as I explore Tyria so it can be done. Cooking on the other hand, can be bothersome with some ingredients so buying them off TP would be best.

JC is very easy to level. It’s the professions that require blood, bones, etc. that are problematic to level. I’m not too lazy to farm, I spent hours farming and getting maybe enough mats to make one item. My problem is that I’m tired of spending my gaming hours farming for little to no result instead of doing the more fun things like WPvP. Crafting is an integral part of character progression for me and right now, I feel like I can’t go anywhere without spending tons of coin I don’t have. I like gathering, I don’t like spending money on things I should be able to get on my own.

I have seen discussion of crafting for leveling, profit and better gear. There is another reason to craft that I did not see mentioned: Achievments. If you want to do the GW2 equivalent of GW1 title accumulation, crafting is an important way to do it. I intend to max all craftin disciplines on my achievment character. From a game perspective, it also provides another gold sink to curb inflation.

I have everything but armorsmith and weaponsmith maxed and those 2 will be getting close soon. I find it fun and I feel like ok with saying this is the only game where going out to gather the mats to craft didn’t feel like a chore to me.

I like the idea of being able to gain experience through crafting but I think more can be done to add value to it.

Perhaps a means for players to diversify and specialize in their crafts? Specializations such as the following below that can also be tiered (Rank 1 / Rank 2 / Rank 3 etc…);

1. Enhanced durability (+ 5% / 10 % / 15 % / 20 % / 25%)
2. Stat Boost (+ 1% / 3% / 5% / 7% / 10%)
3. Additional Stats (Item can have more than one attribute)
4. Additional sockets (+ 1 socket / 2 socket / 3 socket)
5. Additional color option (I.e an item with one color palette choice now gets two etc)
6. Comfortable (improve energy regeneration by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%)
7. Light Weight (improve weapon skill cooldown by 0.5%/1%/1.5%/2%/2.5%)
8. Potent (improves weapon dmg/healing by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%)
9. Reinforcement (improves armor bonuses by 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%)
10. Radiant (extends the radius of ally friendly skills by 1/2/3/4/5 range)
11. Reverse Engineer (Allows learning of a recipe by salvaging raid/dungeon dropped items)

etc…
This ensures no two crafter will be similar to one another. And if done similarly to how we put points into traits, this will also mean that crafters will not be able to specialize in everything and will have to be selective on what they want to be known for.

To add on, these specialization could also be a form of rewards for characters completing certain crafting tasks, which can range from mundane to down-right challenging. This might give crafters more things to do and extend the life of the game.

I’ve made roughly 260g from crafting over the past 4 days.
Profits are there. You just have to find them, and creative ways to cut costs.

Same here, not that much but around 50g so far.

A chuckled a little when I see posts saying “Crafting doesn’t make any profit”.

hopefully with the dr fixes we see some improvement tonight.

Is that in their notes? Honestly they can make the drop rates whatever they want. Some noob is still going to sell it for less than the value of the mats, which means whoever is farming all that stuff and claiming “pure profit” is really losing money in the crafting process.

When crafting i cant keep making as many items as i want to. I can with casings and linings or insignias but not the actual armor, only one of each kind, why is that? I thought the point of experimenting was to learn what you can make, to use or to sell them, but what good does it do to only make things one time? I agree that the dynamics of the game with respect to crafting as a way to earn gold will cause problems as time goes on. It seem like much of the things for sale are posted by GW and not players as away to make more money from use bying what we need to craft. if you recall on day one you could buy lvl 80 gear.