Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’ve been reading the forums a lot and I’m still trying to get my bearings here. So:

Is it really worth leveling up your crafting? I found out that with a few silver you can decently equip your character if you’re willing to buy it all from TP. Not to mention the occasional lucky drop and the karma gear you get some times. This at lvl 38, selling just some random blues to vendor and greens on TP, I managed to hoard myself the wealth of 3 gold.

I find leveling 2 crafts at the same time impossible, since even one requires buying some mats from now and then out of frustration. You can’t possibly be cool about gathering all those extra mats for master-working all the time… So this eats up money and time. Only if you’re lucky you’ll be able to perfectly level it for your needs. I obviously abandoned this idea for my 38 ranger, but I was considering if it’s really worth it to try it on my 20 guardian who likes to forge weapons.

I mean, if I even start selling all the mats I’m hoarding, I’ll get even more money, making it easier to equip via TP. But maybe I’m missing something. Between all the complaints of no profit out of nothing, broken economy, messy TP and extra-cheap-inflation of items on the market, doesn’t it make sense to ditch crafting and just buy everything if it’s so cheap?

Mind you, I’m not proposing this mentality for everyone. I’m not trying to imagine the global implications of this if everyone starts doing it. Just for myself.

If by “Worth” you mean make money then based on this I’d say no. If you want get some quick levels via other means then maybe.

Worth all around to get your crafting up? Well it feels good when you can make all sorts of gear for your 2nd character, but other than that, not at all. Sell all your mats and and just buy gear as you go. Best looking gear isn’t even craftable anyways.

Having 400 in something can be helpful.

I know im specifically getting 400 jeweler, because I have the mats I need to make the level 80 exotic accessories already simply from playing the game. And thus I dont need to blow 3g+ per accessory, or try and find a trustworthy 400 jeweler to make it for me

Crafting probably is worth it for the level cap stuff. But for the purposes of making your own stuff as you level I’m not convinced yet it is worth the effort. I may have taken the wrong approach to leveling and done something wrong. I’m awaiting answer to that question in another thread. But I have managed to level myself to 40 from 15 simply focusing on crafting my two crafts. This means I’m 15 levels ahead of the level of content I’m currently at and 5 levels higher than the gear I will discover with the stuff I’m almost done gathering to complete tier 2 of the crafts. I’ll likely wind up almost 10 levels higher than that gear which means at an increasing rate I’ll push higher than the gear I will make with the gathered ingredients. So by the time I have all that I need to complete tier 3 I’ll likely be 15-20 levels higher than the gear I make with it.

Now as far as it being worth it as an income source. It can be if you gather all the materials to make the stuff you sell. But very few things appear to actually sell for more than the vender price + 15% TP fee because the supply exceeds the demand and/or there is no demand for the items and are being tossed on the TP like all of the stuff we would otherwise sell to the venders because they are trash items. And you get more doing that than selling them on the TP for vender + 1c.

Either tons of people aren’t aware of that or don’t care that they get less coin doing that or combination of both. But either way it hurts everyone in the long run if there is something that actually has a demand no matter how small that winds up getting the suppliers selling at a loss compared to the vender because they can’t be bothered to set the floor price to a minimal profit so that everyone interested in selling stuff that has a very small demand won’t feel like they can’t provide that service because the vender gives them a better deal.

After all even if everyone who ever sells one of those items lists them for that minimal 1c profit after TP fee lists at that price they will all sell their item eventually because of the FIFO system. and since they would all be at the floor already nobody can undercut to jump the line. So to address the situation and make everything profitable that has a demand (no matter how small), even if some or many items this means only 1c profit, the floor price for the TP has to change to account for the 15% fee.

Thanks for the answers.

I wasn’t thinking only at the profitable side of crafting when I asked. I didn’t start it up to get rich out of it. I meant helping yourself by crafting items and if the xp out of it is enough.

As I see it so far, sure, you can level easily with it, but so is everything else in the game. Completing 100% of an area gives you a lot of xp, there are a lot of zones to explore and try out, even if they are lower than your level.
Regarding gear, I already said there are alternate options. Crafting stuff with the stats you want is helpful, but I’m not that picky. Yet.
Profit wasn’t my target, but even so, it’s no man’s land out there atm.

I admit that it’s a nice crafting system. Out of all the MMO’s I tried out there, this was the only one I liked. But so far, I don’t see many advantages for pouring that much time and money into it. As a middle ground choice, I guess I’ll not sell all my mats all of a sudden, but I’m not going to seriously get into crafting either. Who knows, I might get bored at lvl 80 and in need of a hobby. Money seems ok so far anyway.

Thanks for the help.

As I see it, the only benefit of crafting is to make the items you want, with the stats you want. No matter how wide the choice of items can be on the TP, you won’t always find what you want. With crafting, you can get what you want.

Other than that, it is a time and money sink. As you progress through the first half of the game, the best craft is hunter/miner/harvester/woodcutter, selling what you get on the TP, and buying what you need. Once you reach level 40, crafting starts to get really useful. My advice would be to stockpile money until you reach level 40, and from then level your crafting with the money you kept. By discovering recipes, it is incredibly fast.

ultimately, it will be cheaper just to farm for your own mats, buy a few you’re lacking, and just ask someone else to craft for you. it helps if you’re in a guild where you have all crafters with 400 for every craft. else, find a reliable crafter to craft for you (and tip him/her of course!)

but really, crafting is not a viable way to make money right now. Although personally, I don’t find that a problem mainly because it is “easy” to level your crafting to 400. with the sheer volume of 400 crafters around, you can’t really expect all of them to get a profit. If all 400 crafters expect a profit from an artificial price floor, prices would certainly rise.