Guild Wars 2

Everyone is saying discoveries grants the most experience. I open up the discoveries and only 1 or 2 items sit in the item for me to drag over? I am level 40 so this has me wondering why I have so few things used for discovery or am I approaching this all wrong

Well, you do need to put the stuff you want to use into your inventory, otherwise it won’t show up. Just having it in the bank is not enough for discoveries.
Then you can combine stuff.
You might need to create stuff first too like hilts and such to combine with.

Oh ok that was my main problem then cause i was always freeing up inventory space, thanks

It depends on what disciplines you have.

Weaponsmith, for example: in each level range you have 3 or 4 new inscriptions – you want to use the highest level inscriptions possible. Then, depending on your level, you’ll have type (bronze, iron, etc) for all your components. You can technically make 1 of each item with 1 of each inscription (say you had 10 weapons you could make and 8 total inscriptions – that’s 80 possible combinations). However, you’ll get the most EXP from using your highest-tier inscriptions with your highest-tier components sets (the 2 items for making a weapon).

So if you have 4 inscriptions in your current tier (they’re usually gold on your list the entirety of that level range), craft each one and then craft 4 of a weapon set to correspond: for example, 4 dagger blades and 4 dagger hilts. Then use discovery to make 1 of each combination – 4 in total. Then repeat that for every weapon.

The same applies to the other main crafts using FCM usually. Artificer and Jeweler are a bit different, and cooking is an entirely different beast altogether. You also have to make sure to pull crafting materials from your collection into your inventory if you want to try to craft new items using your base stuff. Personally, I get a ton of EXP just from making 1 of each combination of each weapon until I reach the next level range and the next set of inscriptions. Also, you can make items on your recipe list that are listed in gold for a decent amount of EXP, but it won’t be anything like discoveries. That’s why I usually make the components first, before discovery, while they’re still gold and give more exp instead of like, none. Unlike inscriptions, they tend to make no exp very quickly, whereas that tier of inscriptions usually stay gold for me until the next tier.

I have cooking and artificing (both at very beginning stages below 75)
I am contemplating changing artifice to armorsmith though (but that’s another topic)

In my experience so far, it’s best to just focus on one crafting path instead of trying to level two. It can get pretty pricey buying those mats, so try to ditch 1 for the other.

Also, discoveries really do give you the most experience. For artificing (what I leveled), you have to have at least 2 components of each weapon (so for a staff, you would need a staff head and a staff shaft), and then add 1 inscription to it (add a magical property to it). The higher level the materials, the more experience you’ll get from discovering them.

You can leave the crafting materials in your bank. But it’s not crafting materials that ‘generally’ get used for discoveries, its the items that you make ‘using’ the crafting materials. Those initial items don’t need discovering because they unlock automatically.

For Example. If you’re a weaponsmith you’ll use your crafting materials to create an inscription, and the two parts of the weapon you wish to discover (e.g. a hilt and blade). The inscription and weapon parts are automatically added to the production pane when you reach the appropriate level (no discovery required) so you need to create them before they will show anything much in the discovery pane.

SandraSolace.7682:

Well, you do need to put the stuff you want to use into your inventory, otherwise it won’t show up. Just having it in the bank is not enough for discoveries.
Then you can combine stuff.
You might need to create stuff first too like hilts and such to combine with.

I’m happy the devs are working on letting us discover direct from the bank as they have already done for production… Cant wait for it to go live.