Guild Wars 2

I really don’t know what to title but it involves a few things…

Can I get the same quality gear just by PvE’ing than if I craft as I go to 80(I plan on crafting anyway) or is it easier to simply use what is dropped and aim to use crafting as an end-game thing?
Is armorsmithing better to begin with than weaponsmithing?
I imagine weaponsmithing as only to craft end-game weapons so that’s why I ask. I figure armorsmithing has more benefit for leveling because you obviously have 6 armor slots and only 2 weapon slots (im a Guard).

You can also use karma vendor gear or use blues of your level and keep them up to date, then resell them after since they don’t bind (what I did).

Both will be used for ascended item crafting eventually. Ascended armorsmithing just hasn’t been introduced yet.

How much time does legendary crafting take compared to ascended? Ty

I know you have to do map completion for legendaries but that’s about all I know

So, in your opinion, what should I level first? What would benefit a Guard most? Or does it all depend?

Thanks.

It sounds like you’re relatively new to the game (is this your first character?) so I wouldn’t worry about crafting, personally, until you’ve at least got that first character pretty far along in the story, or even completed. Armor and weapons you get from karma vendors and Personal Story rewards are an excellent way to stay reasonably-equipped, as long as you’re doing renown hearts in each area.

The reason I say this is that crafting is much easier once you’ve built up a supply of crafting materials and money to feed it with. I like to do a lot of crafting at once, usually with a guide, and that’s easier if I’ve already gathered the materials I need, or can afford to just buy what I don’t already have enough of via the Trading Post.

I’ve been trying to raise my Guardian’s crafting level as he levels normally, but since crafted items have a level requirement, I’m usually left holding armor he can’t use yet, and I’m just not finding it that much more useful than gearing myself from drops and karma.

Crixus.8570:

How much time does legendary crafting take compared to ascended? Ty

It depends. If you have the gold to bring your craft to 500, then you only need to worry about the time gated materials. It took me about two weeks to craft an ascended weapon, and I did harvest runs daily to get the materials for the spiritwood planks and ignots, finally spending about 20 gold because I got impatient from ~480-500.

Legendaries are, for the most part, a gold and karma grind. So there’s no timeframe, it just takes as long as it takes you to get enough gold. 

time gated? is that like things you can only get during certain times of the week?

When rhapsody says “time gated materials,” it’s a reference to materials like Glob of Elder Spirit Residue, which can only be crafted once per day. Since they’re account bound, if you need, say, nine Spirit Residue to make the ascended staff, it’s going to take you at least nine days to refine them even if you have the supplies.

The time-gated materials for weapons are Spirit Residue, Thick Elonian Cord, and Lump of Mithrillium.

I want to mentioned that if you plan on buying armor from the trading post; wait. The prices will drops significantly once ascended armor is available to be crafted.

The guy asked about Legendary and nobody mentioned the Precursor requirement?

THAT is the limiting factor by about a 100 miles. I suggest you don’t even think about a Legendary weapon until you find a Precursor (will save you lots of wasted time and money).

Never buy ANY equipment sans Jewelry pre-80 is my suggestion. It is not needed to level. Check all green drops for use and salvage everything up to about LVL 65 (selling mats on TP if not using them for crafting).

Save karma and gold for level 80 gear. You will thank me later.

Totally overlooked the Legendary question.

I’ve been playing since launch, and I’m still not thinking seriously about making a Legendary, largely because of the massive cost for the precursor. (A “precursor” is player slang for a specific weapon you need to make a Legendary; basically the base you transform/upgrade.) They’re extremely rare, extremely expensive, and I agree that they’re the most limiting factor.

I wouldn’t worry about ascended gear at this stage, either; there’s plenty of time to learn about that once you’re level 80. As for buying equipment on the Trading Post, I wouldn’t recommend it until you’re near the endgame. It’s just not worth the time and hassle, when you can get so much level-appropriate gear from karma vendors.

I crafted both armor smithing and weapon smithing at the same time while leveling my main. But the only way I was able to keep up with the mats was to clean all of the zones of a given level (do all 1-15 level zones first because I needed copper, etc.), and it seemed my crafting was always behind my actual level (so I rarely was able to craft something better than what dropped). I didn’t mind it that much though. I relied mostly on drops and karma merchants to gear up my main. But when it caught up, I did end of crafting my rare and then exotic armor/weapons.

For my alts, I force them to go around in whatever they can get from drops/heart vendors. And really, you aren’t forced to keep your gear “up to par”. I was using a lvl 20 axe on my ranger at lvl ~65 or so, until one finally dropped for him. And on my necro I realized I was using armor 20+ levels behind when a random item dropped for her. (Mind you that’s all for just normal PvE, if you want to run dungeons, it’s preferred to have the best gear you can at the time).

Another free alternative (if very open to chance). When you get to lvl 40+ (could be 45) every world boss that you help kill will give at least 1 rare item to you at your level. If you like the world boss encounters, it’s a good way to get rares, and can be a “free” way to outfit yourself.

Also, if you do your dailies now, you can save up laurels to get ascended tier trinkets when you get to 80.

Technically the “cheapest” way to get things are as follows:

Rings: from the Fractals of the Mist dungeon (any even lvl at 10+ has a chance to drop a ring 1/day, and you get 1 pristine fractal relic per day, and you can always buy the ring you want for 10 pristine fractal relic)

Amulets: If you have WvW badges you can get them for less laurels from the WvW merchant.

Earrings: If you are part of a decent sized guild you get can ascended earrings with guild commendations.

Otherwise, you can get rings/amulets/earrings all with laurels (and ectos, a high level crafting ingredient, for earrings).

Redenaz.8631:

Totally overlooked the Legendary question.

I’ve been playing since launch, and I’m still not thinking seriously about making a Legendary, largely because of the massive cost for the precursor. (A “precursor” is player slang for a specific weapon you need to make a Legendary; basically the base you transform/upgrade.) They’re extremely rare, extremely expensive, and I agree that they’re the most limiting factor.

I wouldn’t worry about ascended gear at this stage, either; there’s plenty of time to learn about that once you’re level 80. As for buying equipment on the Trading Post, I wouldn’t recommend it until you’re near the endgame. It’s just not worth the time and hassle, when you can get so much level-appropriate gear from karma vendors.

Even without the precursor costs, a legendary still requires a ton of grind/money. It is no different from any ascended weapon that you can craft (with the exception that it can change stats when out of combat), so it’s just a very expensive skin. Then “easiest” things for it are getting 1 mil karma, the 500 dungeon tokens, and the 100 base gold required (icy lodestones). Everything else will either cost a lot to buy, or will take a long time to grind.

As for ascended weapons, don’t worry about them that much. They give ~6-13% damage increase, and while that’s noticeable, you don’t need to rush to get there. Exotic (or even rares) will serve you well as you save up. And sadly, they’re a bit of a grind to get (and most of us assume the same will be with ascended armor).

But if you want to get a head start, just mine/chop everything you see.

The precursor wasn’t forgotten: it is a part of that gold/karma grind I mentioned above. If you bought every single material to level your craft, it would be cheaper than the cost of a legendary. The only benefit of having a legendary is that you can change your weapon stats. And rainbows.

I would not consider myself a ‘normal’ player, but I started three characters at the same time so I could level six crafting profession with my players and never have to “buy” my gear. This took WAY longer, but I found it a fun challenge as I enjoy crafting which many just find a chore.

My Ranger did Leatherworker and Weaponsmith, my Necro did Tailor and Artificer, and my Engineer did Huntsman and Jeweler. I later had my Warrior do Armorsmith and Cook, which where not really needed by the first three. Cooking should be the last profession you attempt as it is much more difficult than the others.

If leveling your character is the most important, you can forget about crafting, but with the addition of account wide magic find, the crafting ‘leftovers’ can now be salvaged for extra luck so it’s a nice benefit. Be sure to check out a crafting guide if you don’t want to learn the hard way what the most efficient way to level is.

I would say do a bit of research first on what you want to try. I know when I first started I want to MAX DPS, while that is very viable I suggest you do a more defensive build (whatever class you might be). I good place to look is in the GW2 Class Forums, generally people there are pretty helpful aside from a few who browse other people’s class to complain and gripe about them. Then I would take a few minutes to read through http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Equipment_acquisition_by_stats and figure the best course to get your armor/gear you need, like if I needed PVT (Power, Toughness, Vitality) gear I might run Sorrwos Embrace, Ascolonian Catacombs, and Honor of the Waves (whichever is easiet to you first then move up) and maybe buy a few pieces of Karma PVT gear so you can have some dungeon tokens for the weapons. This way instead of taking 10 days to get all the gear from one dungeon you can get it in maybe 3-4 days (obviously it all depends on how much time you have to play).

Also I used PVT as an example, I don’t recomend to ever go THAT tanky in a dungeon. Before you do run though, be curteous enough to buy level 80 yellows of the same type of gear you are looking to build upon. They are extremely cheap compared to their exotic counter part and is about 10% less in stats, you will die less and contribute more than being in Greens/Blues. While most dungeon people will tolerate lower skilled/geared players (elitist are a small minorty but they do exist) it would be nice if they didn’t have to literally carry you through the whole dungeon.