Guild Wars 2

I played a few months at GW2 launch and quit soon after Ascended gear was released. I just returned about 2-3 months ago, so I never really got deep into the game. I got my wife to return with me…but she quit after a few weeks. She just couldn’t get back into the game. So now I’m playing the game solo, which is actually how I prefer to play this game.

However, I was struggling to enjoy this game solo since I didn’t have any objectives in mind. Then, I saw a picture of Astralaria and I knew I wanted it.

I did some research and it seemed like the majority of crafting this axe could be soloed (not having to form actual parties/squads i.e. World bosses). I saw that some fractals need to be run, and that I have to participate in some WvW. Having done neither of these activities before, I don’t know how attainable they are for a casual solo player.

Some of the drops seemed to be from fractals bosses that spawn at 4,8,12, etc.. Does that mean I can just farm the lowest level fractal to get the drop? I heard fractals 1-25 are puggable… I have no idea how long WvW level 8 would take, or how good I have to be to get to level 8. Would I need a squad/party dedicated to WvW and farm for months?

And before I get flamed, I’d like to note that I am NOT complaining that legendaries require group play or that it should be easier to craft. I think it’s cool that crafting Astralaria takes players through a journey. I’d just like to know whether I have a fair chance at completing the journey before spending all of my gold and discovering that I actually can’t.

Can’t help you with fractals, but as for wvw rank 8 is fairly easy. Most of the time you can just follow a tag mindlessly and get a few ranks. If you want to spend as little time as possible, flip camps whenever you pass them and follow a tag whenever you see an active one. All in all I know I can get 8 ranks in just a few hours during primetime.

Does that mean I can just farm the lowest level fractal to get the drop?

yes, you can farm the lowest level (although iirc they don’t need farming and are guaranteed drops), and most of the low level fractals are soloable/douable (depending on switches, like in swamp or dredge fractals)

Here are the following things that require a group:
Cliffside Fractal
Molten Boss Fractal
Swampland Fractal

Here are world bosses needing you to join and group and taxi to the map and not just show up:
Tarir (taxi to a full map to guarantee but any map so long as you’re 10 minutes early should be fine)
Chak Gerent (show up 30 minutes earlier and taxi into a map)
Dragon Stand (there is two things in the map to do, but are able to be done in one run, plus you can map in the same run you complete it since you have to map the map anyhow)

There are other things that require groups, like Karka Queen, but you can just show up for these events and get them done so it’s not that big of a deal. Fractals can be done at the lowest levels so pug away.

For WvW, I’d start doing dailies so you can use the potions to speed up getting a gift of battle. If you stick to the easy dailies (camps, guards, land, veteran, ruins), you should be able to get 2-4 pots a day and you only need 80 to complete the track. You’ll probably finish this before the rest of the requirements so long as you keep up on it.

I don’t know if you looked at the GW2 wiki for what you have to do for every step. However with that said there is some amount of group play like you described. Either it being world bosses or fractals. Beyond that there is only the gift of battle for WvW which forces you into that game mode. I try to use certain experience boosters and guild hall wvw consumable to make it quick/painless. Even doing the WvW dailies for their rewards helps quite a bit. You can pay those other PvP and WvW currencies through the trading post. Everything else is pretty much solo-able.

I am trying to remember my hurdles for this collection since I did them back in March and April of this year. Perhaps Oola’s Lab which is a RNG wait to get the key to get inside. A bit of silverwaste and dry top for their currencies can feel a bit tedious at times, unless you like farming those areas. Fractals you can do low level, but it’s harder to find people to help you.

So it’s really not that bad overall. I also have a few other tips. Remember you can craft augmented gemstones. Especially having the crystal to orb refinement option in jeweler is pretty nifty (if you have it). If you have multiple (non-free to play) accounts log in every day to save on paying out for mystic coins. Calculate the number of currency you need from each of the Heart of Thorn areas. I try to shoot for 2,050 of each of the first 3 maps currencies. So that way when you get to Dragon Stand you can spend what you have left over on a stack of Machete’s. It’s easier and faster way to get your Crystalline Ore. You probably will not use the full stack of Machete’s, since the rng for the noxious pods can give you 1, 3, 10, 14 Crystalline Ore. Nevertheless the extra insurance against terrible rng is a nice thing to have.

Finally it’s nice your going for this collections because it does not involve Vinetooth Prime. If anything that bugged me more for collection via group play it was that event. Furthermore bugged events can hinder your progress for certain things. It’s the only other major downside to these legendary collections.

The HoT legendary weapons are absolutely doable without a dedicated friend-base. The only sacrifice you might have to make is fitting the timing of certain events (like the HoT map metas) into your IRL schedule. The items from fractals are guaranteed drops and you can get them from the lowest level fractals. For WvW, all you need to do is participate, so find a tag and run around with them. To get through the WvW track completely you’ll need to spend about 8-12 hrs, depending on how good the group is, how many dailies you get, and what boosters you have.

I just made Chuka and Champawat. The group oriented stuff was the fractals, the WvW and it also require several meta events in HoT maps and core tyria maps.

The core tyria stuff is super easy. There are usually always people around doing the world bosses.

Don’t be scared of the fractals. They do require you to use the lfg, but there are usually always people doing these tier 1 fractals for their legendaries or for the daily or whatever. They are also super easy and the item is a guaranteed drop, so you only need to do it once.

WvW…again, pretty easy. Just go to a map that has a commander tag up and follow the zerg.

The “hardest” thing I had to do to complete was actually the events on the HoT maps. Not the big boss events like Dragon Stand or the Chak Gerent. There are always people doing those and you can use the lfg to taxi onto a good map. It’s actually the smaller meta events, like the Ordance camp (Blighted Tree) event in VB that gave me the most trouble. Hopefully your collection does not require this event because no one seems to like to do it and it is hard to solo (that stupid salvage parts part takes FOREVER and night will end up hitting before the event completes and you fail. -_-) You have to just keep trying. Maybe ask in map chat for help. Hell, if you need help on one of these things feel free to whisper me in game and I will gladly help out.

Thank you for the responses.

I did go to the Gw2 Wiki to look at all of the ingredients. However, I’ve been away from the game for the last 4 years so a lot of it doesn’t make sense to me until I research every single component/sub-component…and there were a LOT.

I was afraid I’d have to be performing in the top 10% of the playerbase or something in order to complete the fractal/WvW parts.

I’ve done all of the HoT metas by finding organized groups in LFG so I’m not too worried about those. I guess I should try to do it before PoF drops and everyone goes over to Elona though.