Guild Wars 2

Until now I have had a really good time with Guild Wars 2. Despite some horrible bugs here and there, the heart renown system and the events and meta events give a really enjoyable experience that goes completely against the regular philosophy of mmo’s where you compete with everyone for the limited resources. In Guild Wars 2, the journey is supposed to be funnier than the destination, but there is an aspect that is not going quite well with this new philosophy. Tailoring (and in that extent leatherworking) are not fun at all of a journey, and feel extremely grindy.

The main great difference with the other proffessions, is that while I can mine, chop or gather my way through the main components of each recipe, in Tailoring and Leatherworking I am condemned to pray for the RNG gods to give me a certain drop that then I have to salvage (by buying a salvage kit that costs money) making them some sort of glorified recylcing system.

But I have to ask why? why is this the only way to get my mats for my new robe? why am I forced to get the odds and ends of already used, sweaty and odorous clothes in order to make me a new one? Having so many different types of resource nodes for the rest of proffessions, I’m quite surprised we don’t have a jute node or a sheep node or a skinning knive to get some leather; but instead we have the horrible old “god I hope it drops” that is not fun at all. Traversing vast jungles or mesas in the search of that potato plant is fun. Killing a bajillion humanoids for half a dozen scraps is not.

At the current state of the drops, and crafting requisites, this two professions are extremely imbalanced. In my quest to get a 100% map completion, I have already finished two starting zones completely (Caledon Forest and Metrica Province) and I haven’t collected even enough jute to get past 30 in Tailoring. At this rate I only have two options to level up my Tailoring. Or I start grinding like there is no tomorrow, or I buy those mats on the AH. The first one doesn’t seem to be an option, as there seems to be some mechanism that reduces the drop rate whenever you start killing too many of the same map; and the second one is not as well, as the Jute scraps are being sold at 30 copper a piece, and the 1 or 2 hundred I need to finish leveling it are far beyond my economic possibilities (and I think I have a healthy amount of money for my level). Its hard to me to believe this, but at its current state, Tailoring and Leatherworking are worse than the ones in World of Warcraft (and I believed it was impossible to go down further) as there is no skinning, and the fact that while in WoW it was a drop that could or could not occur, here is a drop that may occur among other drops, that may or may not occur.

Even Cooking, that had a warning of expensivenes before selecting it has proven to be easier and funnier than Tailoring. At this current state, buying my armor at the AH is cheaper and more efficient than trying to make it, so I am forced to leave it aside until level cap where I hope I have enough money to level it up just to get to the high end craft.

I hope this is problems are adressed in a proper way, as they tarnish an otherwise good system

It’s annoying I agree but think of it this way, salvage kit = leather/cloth gathering tool. Also if you go ahead and salvage all the white/blue medium/light armor pieces you’d normally just sell to the merchant you’ll be sitting quite well for your leather/cloth.

Not sure if you’re already doing this but with that route I never had to buy leather/cloth for my crafting. That is until I put crafting on hold because of ridiculous fine material costs, but that’s another story entirely.

I salvaged everything and banked it all up till around level 60. Then the Fine Crafting Materials started draining my bank so I started selling the gear after 60. I don’t have leatherworking or tailoring but I easily have enough materials to level one of them to 400 off what I salvaged while I leveled.

I understand your frustration – although while not to the same degree, Armorsmithing is (ironically) almost as bad. Example: full set of 80 exotic gear is 30-something ore and 70-something cloth, I find that amusing to say the least. For any tier in AS while leveling, CLOTH was the item preventing me from skilling up…

I can’t speak for tailor but I can certainly speak for Leatherworker and Huntsman. I salvaged every single piece of medium armor that I collected from level 3 (when I could afford my first set of tools) to level 80. And I saved every claw, totem and scale. Every one. And by the way, I’m an explorer. I’ll go WAY out of my way to grab a node of ore, tree etc. And of course, kill things along the way.

I ran out of materials leveling huntsman to around 275, wood at first, then fine materials. And leatherworking is now stalled (maybe permanently) at 75 because I refuse to go farm in lower level zones until the rates are more appropriate and I’m not spending my hard earned copper on items that should have dropped while I was leveling up.

The drop rates are just too low and need to be adjusted if you’re using two crafts that share mats which is to say, if you’re doing two crafts.

Healerith.5921:

I don’t have leatherworking or tailoring but I easily have enough materials to level one of them to 400 off what I salvaged while I leveled.

I Highly doubt so. While it could seem that you have a lot of those materials from a foreign standpoint (that is, outside Leatherworking and Tailoring) you need quite beyond a lot to be really be able to level it. I read somewhere that you need at least 360 Jute scraps to level Tailoring to 75 and that is using a highly optimized method to use the crafting exp to its fullest. But you have to follow a guide and that’s not fun

I think the best way to solve this problems is, as I stated earlier, making resource nodes for this professions. Obviously Jute is a plant and there is nothing wrong with having a wild sheep that you can shear for is wool. You can even go to for a mini-game style where you adopt a lamb and then you raise it for its wool. It’s all in the realm of possibilities and it will be far more enjoyable than the current system.

And as for leatherworking, skinning is a no-brainer.

I would love to see cloth and leather gathered like the other gathering nodes. Leather should be skinned from creatures, cloth like cotton gathered from cotton shrubs, silk gathered from spiders, grubs and worms. Relying on RNG drops seems contradicting when compared to other gathering techniques. Utilise the harvesting sickle tool for cloth and create a new slot for a skinning tool.

I was thinking same thing and in tailoring am in the same position. I just gave up on tailoring and I sell the jute scraps because they make more money then wasting them on crafting junk

Sorry to be annoying but…

I thought this initially as I was levelling tailoring until it occurred to me: Without this element there’d be a lot smaller economy.

The required amounts to craft are MEANT to be too high as you level to force up demand. This demand is then supplied by people wanting to make money from harvesting.

The game as a whole would be far poorer without this element.

It’s true that crafting is a bit hard on GW2. For leveling you must hope in some random drops like scale, bones and blood.

However, whend you arrive to 400 you can craft the BEST of the BEST. So I think the sistem is fine now.

Finding a few random things that salvage into jute scrap are very few and far between. Throw in the anti farming code and finding them is not worth the effort compared to say the easier crafts where you gather the stuff you need reliably.

Discovery is your best friend.

1) Wayyy more xp

2) Far less materials

3) 1 and 2

Zaganna.6034:

It’s true that crafting is a bit hard on GW2. For leveling you must hope in some random drops like scale, bones and blood.

However, whend you arrive to 400 you can craft the BEST of the BEST. So I think the sistem is fine now.

That’s where Fine materials enter into equation. It’s fine to have some elusive reagents to make the system mysterious and interesting, and adding certain value to some finished products to sell for a good value in the TP. The real problem is that Leather and Cloth are treated as Fine materials, as there is no secure node where you can get them like the other materials like wood and minerals. veins and sapplings are not affected by the anti farming protection, leather and cloth are.

And even if they weren’t affected it is still extremely boring. Grinding was boring, is boring and will always be boring. The only time when grinding is acceptable is if the goal outweights the tedium of doing the same thing over and over and over and over again. This itself comes against the journey > goal philosophy of the game. I am not having fun leveling up my Tailoring, and based on the responses so far, many other people aren’t as well.

juiceman.2870:

Finding a few random things that salvage into jute scrap are very few and far between. Throw in the anti farming code and finding them is not worth the effort compared to say the easier crafts where you gather the stuff you need reliably.

The anti farming code is by far my most hated thing about this game. I’m one of those wierd people that actually enjoy grinding mobs and farming/gathering for hours on end. This anti farming thing is literally anti fun.

Well there is obviously a huge difference between how people are doing things. After completing tailoring, armorsmithing and leatherworker I still have an extra 250 Jute Scraps plus 24 of the refined item.

One thing I’ll note is that efficient map completion is directly opposed material gathering. Attempting to finish all lower level maps before moving on to higher level maps will also leave you blocked on higher materials.

As for the cost of materials they look reasonable on the market. Usually around 1silver each, +/- 20c. A bit of planning also helps, put in buy orders for things you will be needing for the next tier. I am too lazy to do that but I’ve seen several occasions where I could have saved a bunch.

It is also important to note that if you are going for the cheapest/most efficient way of leveling crafting then you should never craft any item more than once. The only exception I’ve encountered to this is Cooking and Potions at the 350 level in Artificer but even those cases were around 7 of the same item. You can also buy the components to do the unlocks rather than crafting them yourself. It isn’t always the case but you can get those for cheaper than the sum of their materials. Right now Jute Scrap is 29c, Jute Breeches Lining is 3c and that requires 2 Jute Scraps.

It doesn’t matter if you can’t/won’t be using the items you craft since they are either going to be resold for vendor price(DO NOT sell on TP for vendor+1) or recycled anyway. Which salvage kit you use also matters. I use the Fine Salvage Kit as soon as I could afford buying them consistently.

There is a fairly easy way to compare how much each of us is salvaging. Go into the Achievements tab in your Hero panel.
Under Tradesman I have 21 points in Salvage Master and 12 points in Agent of Entropy.

Last but not least, nothing should be exempt from salvaging. If neither the vendor price nor market price is good for an item then just salvage it.

If you can also i would heavily advise using the mystic salvage kit once you’re looking for hard to get stuff. Combine in mf the green, yelloe and blue salvage kits and 3 mf stones (Bought at tp for 250 gems for 5pcs). Yes the gems might be expensive but you get 250 uses and compared to buying the yellow ones over and over again, it comes up much much cheaper. When you desperately need every bit of resource mat, you wanna get those farmed stuff for their hard works price

Khisanth.2948:

Well there is obviously a huge difference between how people are doing things. After completing tailoring, armorsmithing and leatherworker I still have an extra 250 Jute Scraps plus 24 of the refined item.

One thing I’ll note is that efficient map completion is directly opposed material gathering. Attempting to finish all lower level maps before moving on to higher level maps will also leave you blocked on higher materials.

As for the cost of materials they look reasonable on the market. Usually around 1silver each, +/- 20c. A bit of planning also helps, put in buy orders for things you will be needing for the next tier. I am too lazy to do that but I’ve seen several occasions where I could have saved a bunch.

It is also important to note that if you are going for the cheapest/most efficient way of leveling crafting then you should never craft any item more than once. The only exception I’ve encountered to this is Cooking and Potions at the 350 level in Artificer but even those cases were around 7 of the same item. You can also buy the components to do the unlocks rather than crafting them yourself. It isn’t always the case but you can get those for cheaper than the sum of their materials. Right now Jute Scrap is 29c, Jute Breeches Lining is 3c and that requires 2 Jute Scraps.

It doesn’t matter if you can’t/won’t be using the items you craft since they are either going to be resold for vendor price(DO NOT sell on TP for vendor+1) or recycled anyway. Which salvage kit you use also matters. I use the Fine Salvage Kit as soon as I could afford buying them consistently.

There is a fairly easy way to compare how much each of us is salvaging. Go into the Achievements tab in your Hero panel.
Under Tradesman I have 21 points in Salvage Master and 12 points in Agent of Entropy.

Last but not least, nothing should be exempt from salvaging. If neither the vendor price nor market price is good for an item then just salvage it.

if 29 copper seems a reasonable price to you, and considering you have already completed 3 or more professions, I assume that you are max level. Of course with the economy of max level those prices will seem reasonable, but with the economy of mid-low levels, it’s a lot of money.

In the end you can beat the anti-farming code with just more farming, as counter intuitive as it sounds. With all the free time you could have at lvl 80, having completed all the content you are interested in (and if you are somehow still interested in the game) of course you can grind your way out of 400 to any of the professions, but that’s beyond the point. That means they are completely useless and that are just there for some exotic rewards at the ultra high end of the profession. That’s counter intuitive.

I don’t think the Professions to be useless. When I started leveling it with my first mats I was able to make some pretty good items that I was able to wear for a couple of levels. I can assume (or hope) that the progression keeps steady, and really the only drawback is that the mats are difficult to get.

Keep in mind I am not asking for better drops., I am asking for a different and better way to get them. I really feel this just salvage method is a detriment compared to the other proffessions and is even a step back in the evolution of the genre. What we really need is a different method to gather our maths, make them gathereable; it’s completely crazy to think that the only way I have to make me a new fancy robe is by stripping others of their old and withered clothes and then joining patch by patch to make a new one.

Just spent an hour farming low level bandits, and doing several events like the ones where they try and blow up the pipes. I’m an over leveled ranger and all I got to show for it was 23 jute scraps in an hour. That sucks, and it makes me more likely to log out instead of playing.

Just spent an hour farming low level bandits, and doing several events like the ones where they try and blow up the pipes. I’m an over leveled ranger and all I got to show for it was 23 jute scraps in an hour. That sucks, and it makes me more likely to log out instead of playing.

The thing goes worse. On my server there was a bug that made a bandit spawn point just in the middle of a seraph camp. A lot of people tried to clear the zone to make something happen but they just kept spawning and spawning. The amount of killed bandit could easily be counted in the thousands and even after that I didn’t get more than 10 jute scraps.

Maybe I’m lucky or something… I’m a 400 armorsmith, cook and a jeweler. I also leveled Leatherworker past 205. I craft for my friends and guildies and still have about 200+ jute and ~100 jute cloth. It seems like ppl don’t salvage everything (I mean everything, no exceptions, starting from lvl 1). Currently I’m more ore and especially leather starved (tier 4 leather though, only got 112 of it :S) And ofc fine mats. Bloody claws of venom bone fangs.

What i want to know is why if you need cloth for AS to make items, you never get any back when you salvage a heavy armour item….
The biggest problem with most crafting is the cloth… yet only light armour gives cloth?
I am sure other crafting requires it aswell and likely have the same frustration that is the most expensive mat…

CrasH.7549:

What i want to know is why if you need cloth for AS to make items, you never get any back when you salvage a heavy armour item….
The biggest problem with most crafting is the cloth… yet only light armour gives cloth?
I am sure other crafting requires it aswell and likely have the same frustration that is the most expensive mat…

According to what other posters have said, you need cloth for all armor, but of course for Tailoring you need it in scores.

And to all people who said that you need to salvage all armor from level 1, here are some things you are ignoring:

- Light armor might give cloth but might also give leather
- Medium armor might give leather but might also give cloth
- I have only got minerals from heavy armor
- karma armor cannot be salvaged
- weapons never give cloth or leather

There is not doubt that you can power level Tailoring or Leatherworking at level 80. Here the question is the viability of those Professions as at their current state they are practically useless for a mid-level character (and I’m talking for a first character, not for your second of third alt). If their are only supposed to be power leveled to get the right to craft those legendaries, I’d rather have a gold sink of something like 200 gold to get that right, It will be more efficient for the player and for the servers.

It’s a drop rate issue, not a mechanics issue. There’s plenty of leather around and it’s got the same gathering mechanism. They just need to tweak the drop rates and drop tables a bit.

How hard is it to get jute from faction right now? I haven’t checked it since the release day, when there was no TP for a serious price comparison and you could still salvage without an intermediate trip to the forge.

I’m right there with you. I’m level 42s and the best armor I can make with leatherworkings is 30. Has nothing to do with lack of discovery. I out leveled the starting zone and then the zone after that and didn’t have enough mats to even get to 75. That’s right, I was level 25 and I was struggling to make level 10 armor!

Now I find myself in the same dilemma. I’m sitting here in a zone that’s 7 levels beneath me trying to get enough leather/cloth to catch up.

Jewelcrafting, not a problem. I can farm more copper/silver if I need it without a problem. I currently need gold, but that’s because I haven’t started playing in zones with gold… because I’m still trying to get level for crafting 10 levels beneath me.

I love how arenanet continues to ignore the problem.

Sparkie.3465:

It’s a drop rate issue, not a mechanics issue. There’s plenty of leather around and it’s got the same gathering mechanism. They just need to tweak the drop rates and drop tables a bit.

It’s absolutely a mechanics issue.

The loot tables change based on level. Instead of getting scrap and armor to salvage for the level 15 zone you’re in, you get scrap and armor for your level 30 character which would be great if you needed those mats, but you don’t.

Arnaros.5324:

if 29 copper seems a reasonable price to you, and considering you have already completed 3 or more professions, I assume that you are max level. Of course with the economy of max level those prices will seem reasonable, but with the economy of mid-low levels, it’s a lot of money.

In the end you can beat the anti-farming code with just more farming, as counter intuitive as it sounds. With all the free time you could have at lvl 80, having completed all the content you are interested in (and if you are somehow still interested in the game) of course you can grind your way out of 400 to any of the professions, but that’s beyond the point. That means they are completely useless and that are just there for some exotic rewards at the ultra high end of the profession. That’s counter intuitive.

I don’t think the Professions to be useless. When I started leveling it with my first mats I was able to make some pretty good items that I was able to wear for a couple of levels. I can assume (or hope) that the progression keeps steady, and really the only drawback is that the mats are difficult to get.

Keep in mind I am not asking for better drops., I am asking for a different and better way to get them. I really feel this just salvage method is a detriment compared to the other proffessions and is even a step back in the evolution of the genre. What we really need is a different method to gather our maths, make them gathereable; it’s completely crazy to think that the only way I have to make me a new fancy robe is by stripping others of their old and withered clothes and then joining patch by patch to make a new one.

You have misread what I wrote, 29c is for the Jute Scrap but instead of buying the jute you could have bought the Jute Breeches Lining for 3c even though it takes 2 Jute Scraps to make. That was merely advice on how you can get somethings for less.

Actual acceptable prices for me? 10c for things like scrap/log. 1s for the fine crafting materials.

I am done with all three in their jute using stages, not done as in 400 in all three. Got done with jute when I was around 50-60.

I don’t really farm so the anti-farming doesn’t affect me at all. I’ve done a total of 1 hour 15 minutes farming weak blood to see if +10% Magic Find made any difference(results inconclusive due to bad testing methodology). What I do is keep track of which type of mob drops which type of material and make sure I kill those when I come across them rather than running by.

Edit: Since I only ever buy stuff and never sell I guess higher drop rates can only benefit me …. yeah we need higher rates :p

A mate of mine told me today that they made a change to the cook crafting which made a lot of its material drop from other sources, one of them being those bags humanoids carry around. This makes cloth drop rates compete with cook mats, as well as other craft mats.

When i started playing my elementalist i had no issues leveling my tailoring, but now I have a hell of a time, even though I’m a leather worker. I had salvaged and saved everything on 3 different alts up to level 8 each, and got another char to level 16 and I still haven’t hit 75. I ran around like a madman, repeated dynamic events over and over, and just farmed for what felt like an eternity, and still i have just barely gotten over 70.

If this was any other game I would be fine with it, but by boasting about “no grinding” they put themselves out there. I am currently bracing myself for a long grind up to level 80 cause if this is what the low level crafting is like, I wonder what it will be like later on.

It’s not wise to make everyone dependable on such a fickle recourse. It bumps up the prices on AH and forces people to find other ways of getting through the grind.