Guild Wars 2

Hey folks =) First post!

I’ve been playing MMO’s since the launch of Ultima Online and I’ve always been one to craft stuff for myself as I level. It’s always been reasonable craft stuff at a level that is appropriate for my characters as they level. WoW kind of changed that with a shortage of and/or gross overpricing of materials.

I started GW2 a week or two ago and am now lvl 25. I’ve been trying to work on weapon smithing and have been following a leveling guide for it. A friend of mine was kind enough to give me 50 silver to start out with and I’d managed to get to 85 silver in leveling my character.

I decided to start working on my weaponsmithing so that I could have weapons to match my level, which was 20 at the time. I’ve kept every collectable I’ve come across and hit every tree and ore node I came across, yet when it came time to start crafting I was grossly below the required items for 0-75 skill. I went to the trading post thinking to purchase the remaining materials I required as farming the stuff myself seems almost intentionally sparse in drop rates. I figured with the items being stuff that drop off lvls 1-20 npcs that the prices would be affordable for a new player. To my surprise the cost of 1 of the 100+ items I was going to need was already twice as much as any piece of gear I was able to sell on the Trading post. I ended up going from 85 silver to something like 35 silver, an absolute fortune for someone just starting out.

Now I was lucky enough to have a friend give me some silver to start me out, but my question is: How would someone starting with an empty wallet ever hope to work a tradeskill matching their level? The prices for such basic components were leaps and bounds over what a new player could realistically afford. Is this due to folks gouging the market because some lvl 80 might be starting an alt with lvl 80 gold able to pay inflated prices?

Kind of discouraging when a handful of claws from lvl 10 animals cost enough to buy myself a full set of armor at lvl 20.

Is this a normal thing on GW2 servers?

Honestly, you don’t. anything you craft will cost you more than buying from TP. Crafting is almost purely a form of Exp and fast leveling characters, that’s why prices are higher.

No one farms low level zones for mats – less supply, more demand from “speed levelers” = higher price.

Not fun to say but crafting is pretty pointless from a “make my own gear as I progress” standpoint unless you take pride in that.

Thanks for the quick response, and…bummer.

First of all, I’m faaairly new to the game. Didn’t start REALLY playing until a couple of months ago, so my advice is probably not the best there is, but this is what I did, and I don’t regret it

I just leveled my character to 400 in Armorsmithing, and the only reason I did so was to be able to craft Foefire’s Essence, which I’m still working on. I just followed a guide, cause I had no idea how to do it all by myself, and I certainly didn’t have the time to really figure it out. Instead of farming for the mats needed, I decided to take the easy way and just buy the stuff from the trading post. The total cost was like… somewhere between 10-20 gold. I don’t remember exactly how much it took, but it was definitely expensive. But I rarely spend my money so I had a lot saved up after leveling my guy to 80. So, if you want to level a crafting discipline to 400 and you aren’t in a rush, this is my advice, honestly: Just level your guy up to 80 and save up as much money as you can in the meantime, and just buy the mats. And while you’re leveling you’ll of course be able to save all the crafting items you know you’ll need, so you won’t have to buy as much when you hit 80

Anyway, here’s the page with the guides. They’re pretty good; my Armorsmithing guide got me to 399 out of 400, just had to craft one little item and I was done
http://www.guildwars2-crafting.com/crafting-guides/

Hope I helped!

I would suggest just playing the game, your personal story, exploring and so on and armor suited for you level will drop.

In the meantime keep collecting mats. Because if you ever want to make a Legendary weapon you will need some crafting skills at 400.

I started with chef on all my chars cause those mats seem te be easier to get in low levels and the buffs can be helpful while you play.

The only crafting I would really recommend while leveling is cooking. That one is useful. Weapons and armor, not so much. Cheaper to buy what you need every 10 levels or so. The only reason to learn crafting is either for a title, to convert raw material to finished so they don’t fill up inventory or for max level items at level 80. For those things you can wait till you are level 80 and have a full inventory.

No one farms low level zones for mats -Wrong! If I need crafting material, I’ll farm low level areas as part of my daily. Buying stuff on the TP, will just remove any profit from selling any crafted items.