Guild Wars 2

The wiki and forums have conflicting/unclear information on this, so can someone from Anet please clarify?

• Wiki – staff CANNOT be crafted outside the Halloween event: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Crossing
• Forums – staff CANNOT be crafted outside the Halloween event: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/The-Crossing-Staff/2997867
• Forums – staff CAN be crafted outside the Halloween event: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/Can-I-craft-The-Crossing-staff-now/first#post4375901

I know that the recipes for Gift of Souls and the three versions of Superior Sigil of the Night (artificer/huntsman/weaponsmith) are only available during the event, but that’s not what I’m getting at. Those recipes are only seasonally available, that’s clear enough. What’s not clear is whether the staff itself is only seasonally craftable, or whether you can get those seasonal recipes during the event, then craft the staff itself later once you have assembled all the materials. If it’s only craftable during the Halloween event, then you only have two weeks to get all of this (also assumes crafting the sigils):

• 12,000 candy corn
• 10,000 nougat centers
• 500 Knowledge Crystals (from CoE)
• 270 Orichalcum Ingots
• 100 Crystal Lodestones
• 100 Mystic Coins
• 40 Globs of Ectoplasm
• 40 bottles of Elonian Wine
• 20 Onyx/Charged/Glacial Lodestones (artificer/huntsman/weaponsmith)
• 10 piles of Crystalline Dust
• 1 Eldritch Scroll

This isn’t a complaint about the cost (although it’s pretty steep). I want the staff and am completely willing to sink the materials into making it. This is a question about the time allotted to get all of that together. If you already have the recipes for the sigil and the gift, can you make the staff in the Mystic Forge at any time, or do you only have two weeks and if you can’t grind all that out in such a short time (or don’t have the game gold to buy it outright) you’re out of luck?

Due to the conflicting and unclear information cited above, an official answer from Anet would be appreciated.

The first forum link is actually from last year in Sep/Oct (the time stamp on the posts doesnt seem to state the year), when the recipe for the crossing was actually disabled, as mentioned in the patch notes from Sep 3rd 2013:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-September-3-2013/first#post2822986

The Mystic Forge recipes for The Mad Moon, Arachnophobia, and The Crossing have been temporarily disabled. They will be updated and return at Halloween.

Last year they changed the recipe from regular mf recipes to what we have now.
So only the old recipe got temporarily disabled and then replaced by the one we have now, which hasnt been disabled ever since.
In 2012, the refined versions of nougat/spiders/skulls didnt exist.

I got both points of view from people in chat both in and out of my guild, so I went to the wiki. The wiki is where I came up with a big WTF because of this quote: “All three mystic forge recipes related to this weapon are only available during Halloween and are disabled after the festivities conclude.” I was reading that as the gift recipe, the sigil recipe (if the 3 versions are considered as 1 thing), and the weapon recipe itself. Then I came to the forums and found basically the same conflicting info as in game chat. If the staff is in fact craftable outside the Halloween event then that wiki page should probably be edited to specify that only the sigil and gift recipes get disabled.

The seasonal mats are not really a big deal since they drop like rain in the labyrinth this year, but the lodestones are another story. Not to mention that CoE has been more or less abandoned during times I can play because of the holiday events, so even with begging guildies and trying to pug there’s not much chance at getting the necessary quantity of Knowledge Crystals until the event wraps up. If I don’t have enough to make the thing until Thanksgiving or later, that’s fine. I just want to be sure that I won’t have to wait another whole year just to make it, since I already have the sigils and the gift recipe now.

All of the recipes are craftable any time. The sigils, the gift, everything.

The only thing that gets removed after Halloween (or did last year, anyway, no telling if it will for sure this year) is the vendor that converts Candy Corn to Cobs and the special materials (Fangs, Nougat, Skulls) into their refined versions. Which interferes with creating the Gift recipe from the Forge, but nothing else.

Electro.4173:

All of the recipes are craftable any time. The sigils, the gift, everything.

The only thing that gets removed after Halloween (or did last year, anyway, no telling if it will for sure this year) is the vendor that converts Candy Corn to Cobs and the special materials (Fangs, Nougat, Skulls) into their refined versions. Which interferes with creating the Gift recipe from the Forge, but nothing else.

Sonder the Seller actually still offered corn cobs year round but not the refined versions of skulls, spiders and nougat.

Just to sum up for clarity:

• The sigil and gift recipes are only sourced from a temporary/seasonal vendor, so those recipes must be purchased during the event. Otherwise, you must spend game gold for the recipes on the TP once the event is over.
• Nothing actually gets “disabled,” so if you have the recipes and materials for the gift, sigil and staff, you can craft/forge any or all of them at any time of the year.

Am I understanding all of that correctly? The wording on the wiki is really misleading if that’s the case, and that’s probably where most players are going to look rather than here in the forums. Continued ability to trade in for refined versions of all the holiday mats (or at the very least the Tyria’s Best Nougat Centers needed for the gift recipe) might be another question worth answering.

It would still really be helpful to have some official word on all of this, since it looks like it hasn’t been consistent from year to year.

Teknomancer.4895:

Just to sum up for clarity:

• The sigil and gift recipes are only sourced from a temporary/seasonal vendor, so those recipes must be purchased during the event. Otherwise, you must spend game gold for the recipes on the TP once the event is over.
• Nothing actually gets “disabled,” so if you have the recipes and materials for the gift, sigil and staff, you can craft/forge any or all of them at any time of the year.

Am I understanding all of that correctly? The wording on the wiki is really misleading if that’s the case, and that’s probably where most players are going to look rather than here in the forums. Continued ability to trade in for refined versions of all the holiday mats (or at the very least the Tyria’s Best Nougat Centers needed for the gift recipe) might be another question worth answering.

It would still really be helpful to have some official word on all of this, since it looks like it hasn’t been consistent from year to year.

The recipes for the gifts and the sigils (and mad king runes) are all made in the mystic forge, they dont come from a vendor (the sigil/rune recipes additionally drop from ToT Bags, which are basically available year round), so they wont be disabled or unavailable at any time. But technically, you dont even need any of these recipes because you can buy all ingredients for the crossing (or the crossing itself) on the TP, and during certain times, that might be even cheaper (due to the high cost of the recipes).

The only thing which got disabled between halloween this year and last year was the ability to “refine” nougat/spiders/skulls but those are only need to forge the recipes for the gifts itself, they arent an ingredient in any halloween weapons.

As long as you have the recipe for the Gift, you can craft The Crossing, Arachnophobia, and The Mad Moon shield at any time. You can even just purchase the Gift off of the trading post if you do not have the recipe.