Guild Wars 2

I barely played when GW2 came out (only the beta and maybe 2-3 weeks after release). I gave it a 2nd chance last week and enjoy it so far. I always hated crafting in MMOs but now that my Thief is lvl 80 and fully geared with a transmog I like, I was thinking about it for my warrior/guardian. It seems like a mess, I don’t enjoy it and don’t want to spend much on it. I mainly just wanted to have it for more transmog options but I can find these for cheap on the TP while I could make a lot of money selling my mats.

Can I just sell all my mats and buy the few items I want for transmog for cheap or would that be shooting myself in the foot for the long run? I’m just wondering because it seems as if crafting is necessary late game in order to make ascended gear (I saw that you can buy rings and accessories but when it comes down to weapons and armor, all I see are crafting recipes). Am I missing something or is it required for end game WvW and PvE (fractals I guess).

I mostly plan on doing sPvP (I know gear doesn’t matter here) with casual WvW and PvE with friends (a bit of dungeons and fractals but PvE isn’t my cup of tea).

To an extent yes it is.

For WvW/PvE content

You’ll want to have the armor specific crafting of whatever class you play at 500 to make ascended armor.

Same thing goes for weapons.

It’s not entirely required though as you can get the drops from playing, although currently the odds are low.

So it really boils down to if its something you desire now or can wait on.

PvP you can just use whatever you get your hands on as the trinket system is all that matters there (outside of wearing 3 pieces of armor for the defense check)

It’s only really necessary higher end fractals as ascended gear had a slot to put Agony infusions. Agony is basically an HP degen during the end boss of fractals. The higher the levels get, the more it degens. Agony infusions counter that. It basically acts as a game mechanic gear check of sorts. WvW and other PvE it doesn’t matter tooo much but it does give a bit more armor value over exotic. All that aside though, I’d say it’d be worth investing in a set some day since now you can swap the stats on it fairly easily and cheaply as opposed to crafting/buying an entirely new set of exotic armor. You will lose any agony infusions and runes during the stat swap however which i guess makes it a bit more expensive depending on the upgrades you had in the armor.

i know some of though ascended trinkets can come from the Laural vender and wvw stuff, how much it help with infusion i can’t say, but every bit helps I am sure.

It’s not stricly necessary, as you can get lucky with drops, but you are still highly unlikely to get a full set of BiS gear without crafting.

Let’s put it this way: If you think crafting sucks because of how grindy it is, wait till you see what it takes to get ascended gear without crafting.

You can reliably get everything except ascended armor and weapons through means other than crafting.

Ascended armor offers a 5% stat boost over exotic armor (which you can buy off the TP or get from drops fairly easily).

Ascended Jewelry can be easily gotten through Laruels, WvW, Guild missions, and fractals.

You can get ascended armor/weapons through random drops, but they are very very very rare (i’ve gotten 5 in 3000 hours of play).

However the 5% stat boost is not needed to complete any open world content or dungeons. The only place it is “needed” is fractals, where you need agony resist. However you can do fractals 1-40 using only agony resist on your jewelry. So the only part of the game you need ascended armor/weapons is fractal level 41-50.

Additionally in all zones under level 80 your gear is scaled to exotic level maximum so it is actually 0 benifit to have ascended armor in all but 3 zones and 2 dungeons. This of course will change with HoT since all the HoT zones are level 80.

Hope that helps clear things up for you!

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Ascended armor offers a 5% stat boost over exotic armor (which you can buy off the TP or get from drops fairly easily).

It’s the infusion slots that matter, not the stats. If you have no interest in doing fractals ascended armor is nice, but not necessary, because the ability to carry Agony Resist is the one thing that makes ascended armor a big deal.

Aetrion.8295:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Ascended armor offers a 5% stat boost over exotic armor (which you can buy off the TP or get from drops fairly easily).

It’s the infusion slots that matter, not the stats. If you have no interest in doing fractals ascended armor is nice, but not necessary, because the ability to carry Agony Resist is the one thing that makes ascended armor a big deal.

Pretty much this. If you’re not interested in making ascended armor or weapons, OP, then there’s no real reason to craft up to 500.

Depending on the legendary weapon, you may need to level some crafting disciplines up to 400 if you want to make one. It’s also very nice to be able to craft what you need instead of having to buy your new gear off the tp or dungeon/PvP farm for it. I enjoy making gear for my alts once they’ve hit level 80.