Guild Wars 2

I went ahead and maxed out Armorsmithing to make a Vision Crystal for Caladbolg and decided to craft a set of ascended armor. I’ve got everything ready – except the 5 Lesser Vision Crystals. I can make the coat when the Chest of Loyalty pops in about a week, and I can craft a Lesser Crystal if I get a bit more Dragonite Ore. Dragonite, Bloodstone, and Empyreal mats are my only bottlenecks at the moment, and I was wondering what you guys would prescribe as far as farming them.

I skimmed over the wiki and learned that Winterberry Bushes seem to be a good source for Dragonite Ore. Airship Cargos drop Bloostone Dust and Empyreal Fragments – which is handy, considering the piles of crowbars I have from Mastery grinding (Ydalir requires all Exalted Masteries). I figure I’ll go through A Crack in the Ice first and get back to Verdant Brink on a cargo zerg or something… VB zergs are a thing, right?

What do you recommend?

The map currency nodes in new maps are a good source. Berries for dragonite ore as you mentioned; bloodstone crystals/jade fragments for bloodstone dust and petrified wood for empyreal fragments. Also, if you have a lot of alts, I’d recommend jumping puzzles for fragments.

or if you want to make some gold while you are at it check the LFG for a SW chest farm.

You have a lot of choices and none of them are “quick,” so choose which method is least objectionable to you.

Silverwastes chest farming is a great alternative:

• Chests can drop either dragonite or empyreals
• Champ bags (which you get from the chests sometimes, and from events as you earn yourself keys/crests) will drop bloodstone dust (if opened on L80 toons).

There are a number of “efficient routes” for taking an L80 to lots of JPs quickly; that’s a good way to focus just on Empyreals.

MikeyGrey.2496:

The map currency nodes in new maps are a good source. Berries for dragonite ore as you mentioned; bloodstone crystals/jade fragments for bloodstone dust and petrified wood for empyreal fragments. Also, if you have a lot of alts, I’d recommend jumping puzzles for fragments.

I’ve been meaning to ask: can you use TP to Friend items to enter the new maps without buying story arcs? The wiki doesn’t mention it either on the item’s page or under the “Getting There” section of the new maps.

Thanks your your replies! I’m sure it won’t take long to get my set of armor thanks to you.

I believe Season 3 maps are locked (by any means of access) to those that have not unlocked the Episodes.

VectorVineyard.8379:

MikeyGrey.2496:

The map currency nodes in new maps are a good source. Berries for dragonite ore as you mentioned; bloodstone crystals/jade fragments for bloodstone dust and petrified wood for empyreal fragments. Also, if you have a lot of alts, I’d recommend jumping puzzles for fragments.

I’ve been meaning to ask: can you use TP to Friend items to enter the new maps without buying story arcs? The wiki doesn’t mention it either on the item’s page or under the “Getting There” section of the new maps.

Thanks your your replies! I’m sure it won’t take long to get my set of armor thanks to you.

If you have the map/episode unlocked on your account, you can TP to a friend to get there. I did that on one of my toons for Ember Bay. If you don’t have it unlocked, my understanding is you can’t get there, period.

Thinking back, I think that I had to do the first story/prologue for HoT to get from the silverwastes into Verdant Brink. One it was unlocked on one toon, I could get the rest in there without entering the story.

I have Lake Doric unlocked on all of my toons, but only the one (or two) that have done the story can just walk in from DR.

You need to have LW3 episodes unlocked (or bought if you was not online when they was free) for your account. As soon as you have those episodes unlocked, all your characters can transport there with teleport to friend or with teleportation scrolls (which are sold on those maps). It is not necessary to do the story on all characters just to get there.
I did the same. Story only with my main character and for rest of characters, I am using teleportation scrolls in shared slots.

BTW, Bitterfrost map is great both for Dragonite ore (from winterberry nodes) and for Empyreal fragments (from chests in Bitterfrost).

The Bitterfrost Frontier map can just be walked into by any character after being unlocked once. Other maps need to be unlocked by per character basis, using story, scroll or teleport to friend.
All of them require their respective LS chapter unlocked on account to enter, all of them also require HoT to enter.

VectorVineyard.8379:

MikeyGrey.2496:

The map currency nodes in new maps are a good source. Berries for dragonite ore as you mentioned; bloodstone crystals/jade fragments for bloodstone dust and petrified wood for empyreal fragments. Also, if you have a lot of alts, I’d recommend jumping puzzles for fragments.

I’ve been meaning to ask: can you use TP to Friend items to enter the new maps without buying story arcs? The wiki doesn’t mention it either on the item’s page or under the “Getting There” section of the new maps.

Thanks your your replies! I’m sure it won’t take long to get my set of armor thanks to you.

I had someone in party trying to get to maps using ttp without actually having those areas unlocked for the account. He got sent to LA and used up the ttp as well

Makes sense. I only have the latter two story arcs of Season 3 unlocked, so I won’t be able to get to Bloodstone Fen and Ember Bay.

Thanks for your help!

UPDATE: Lesser Vision Crystals are given as rewards for the Exotic Attire and Rare Regalia achievement collections, so I bought the skins I didn’t already have and crafted two more pieces, for a total of 3/6 ascended armor pieces after yesterday’s trip to Bitterfrost Frontier!