Guild Wars 2

so who else out grew iron level zones before they had even 1/3 of what was needed? its scary how much iron is needed for a single craft profession.

The iron is a doddle compared to the kitten totems/blood/fangs etc. But yes, out leveling crafting is a tad annoying, although the karma merchants and drops/quest rewards do mean equipment isn’t usually an issue, but it would be nice to craft your own at your own level!

When you finish exploring a map you get a reward with lots of materials, that may help getting the iron you need. I never had problems with the metals, wood and herbs; instead, as Cerebelum mentioned, I was always short on totems/scales/blood etc.

I didn’t really have much of an issue, but my wife and son did. There are clear playstyle differences that were likely an impact.

My son does not watch the minimap for resources. Thats strike 1 against him; he will walk right past a node because he doesn’t know it is there. He also doesn’t 100% zones—strike 2. Lastly, he is a coward. He overstays a zone because he is afraid of the challenge in the next zone (after 80 levels of that, the mid-70s blues he was wearing were just a touch underpowered for him) so he never has access to appropriate resources. Strike 3; he can’t craft.

My wife is OCD when it comes to nodes; if it appears on the minimap, it is being harvested. Period. She does 100% zones, but not always, and completing at a casual pace means she gets a nice chunk of exp from repeating dailies, which means out-leveling content, which in turn leads to skipping over zones that have some materials. That said, she keeps her tradeskills close to level-appropriate; she goes out of her way to acquire the materials she needs. By keeping skills current, the pain of retro-harvesting materials is lessened.

I leveled fast; my goal was to 100% at least one zone a day (noting that I only really got to play 2 days a week). My OCD isn’t as bad when it comes to harvesting nodes, but I look out for them and will go out of my way for something I need (carrots and onions are not on the ‘need’ pile, but you can never have too much copper). Because of the zones I visited and the pace at which I leveled, I hit an iron shortfall, but had an overabundance of all other materials. Had I spent more time in Harathi Hinterlands, it probably wouldn’t have been a problem; 100%ing the zones prior and using my main to help out my family members boosted me enough to skip the 35-45 tier of zones.

Just buy from TP. I don’t see what the problem is… Iron is cheap which would suggest there’s a bounty of materials available compared to need.

After working towards map completion and taking a break from crafting, I ended up with three stacks of iron.
On my other characters, I have a problem with outleveling crafting materials, but on my first one it wasn’t an issue.
You can always just go back to the level areas that have iron. It’s everywhere and you still get some sort of experience.

Chaotic Storm.2815:

so who else out grew iron level zones before they had even 1/3 of what was needed? its scary how much iron is needed for a single craft profession.

Outgrew level zones? This game downscales your level so it’s impossible to outgrow any level zone.

Also, if you’re looking for a level 80 zone with iron nodes, try the WvW borderlands. Just be sure to pull your weight while you’re there.

Grumpy.8365:

Just buy from TP. I don’t see what the problem is… Iron is cheap which would suggest there’s a bounty of materials available compared to need.

People always reply this way… this works fine if this is an alt or you buy game money with real money.

But if that is your first toon and you are leveling crafting as you level you are POOR untill higher level even iron when purchased in quantity is expensive for you

Really? Iron?

I dont think any other ore is as abundant, and available across such a large scale of levels as iron is.

Copper is the starting zones, plus a bit of the 2nd zones(~lv17). Then iron starts, and stays there untill lv50s when it starts getting faded out.

power levelling always forces this situation. Casual leveling as a side effect generally has the opposite effect. It is a tough balancing act for the designers and they have it down pretty good considering the number who disagree with the OP. Crafting is not at all necessary but a nice diversion.