Guild Wars 2

Hello , I have a friend that wants to join guild wars 2 as f2p and he asked me some questions and i havent been playing for too much to give him a good answer so maybe the community might help.
He asked me if there is anyway to make gold or be part of the market as first and also is it possible to make the best gear in the game as free to play ?
Another question was assuming all the elite specializations are op , what good class / build woud you suggest for a free to play player in WvW so he doesnt spend all the time and realize he is totaly trash after in comparison with a game owner.

It is possible to make gold even on the TP, but free accounts are restricted in what they can buy or sell. Still, raw material like logs and ore do sell well.
Crafting ascended gear is possible. Because laurels are nearly non-existant for Free accounts one needs to play Dry Top or Silverwastes to gain insignia/inscription recipe and have a friend willing to get the weapon or armor recipe for them (or be lucky and get them as drops). The stats can be changed in tve Mystic Forge.
Crafting Exotic gear is much easier and exo really is good enough.
WvW is a team effort mostly and any class can be part of that. Just find a build that is right.

So what class would be the best pick for a f2p player?

I’d say being part of the market is rather restricted, because you cannot sell or buy nonbasic items on the TP. However, selling materials is mostly possible so he can definately make some gold, especially the silverwastes are open to all. That starts at lv80 though.

Crafting ascended gear is not easy, as Garambola pointed out. Laurels are an accountbound currency with which you can buy ascended recipes and they are only attainable in the daily login reward chests of paid accounts and in reward chests you get for having 100/250/500/1000/1500… achievement points.

Additionally, however, he will have serious problems in getting the crafting professions to 500, because I believe he cannot use the TP for some of the required materials. Of course you could buy them for him, but he won’t be able to send the money back until he purchased HoT. I’d just stick to exotics, they are enough.

HoT is not needed for WvW. There are several builds that don’t use the specialization, for example here is a link to a mesmer build:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_Burst_Shatter
IIRC, your friend will have to level up a to level 60 before he can enter WvW, but levelling is rather fast anyway.

He will have to live with some restrictions, but playing with a F2P account is definately possible. Just be prepared to wait for him a lot, as his inventory will be very limited and he will need to empty it regularly.

As Garambola said it’s not really possible to play the market on a free account because you can’t buy or sell a lot of items on the TP (even if he signs up for an authenticator it won’t remove this restriction).

You can trade a lot of basic crafting materials, and some of them are worth quite a bit of money at the moment, but since you also can’t buy many things there’s not really that much need for gold.

I’d definitely recommend levelling at least 1 crafting profession though, so he can make his own equipment. I disagree that it’s not possible to get to level 500 crafting. It will take long because you can’t buy the time-gated materials, but it’s still possible. But I also think sticking with exotics is fine. The only areas where you need ascended are high level Fractals and raids. Raids are exclusive to HoT and if he gets to the point of doing high level Fractals it’s probably time to decide he’s committed to the game and can justify buying it.

As for what profession to pick I think it’s the same advice we give anyone: pick one you enjoy. I think it’s a mistake to assume all elite specialisations are OP and he will automatically be at a disadvantage if he doesn’t pick them. But also if he’s playing something he doesn’t enjoy he’s unlikely to get far enough through the game for it to be worth worrying about.

But if you’re really concerned look up some popular builds and find ones that don’t need elite specs.

I didn’t say it was impossible to get crafting to 500, only that there will be some serious problems. To be more precise, he won’t be able to buy the cheaper insignias and inscriptions, wich will make levelling a lot more expensive. I am not sure if he can buy T6 fine mats and ectos, so it could be that he would even need to farm those himself.

I’ve always used the recipes bought from the crafting merchants with karma to level from 400 to 500. That and making ascended materials.

Are those not available to free accounts, or are you talking about something else?

I am talking about the salvaged magi’s/dire/… insignias and inscriptions, as they are the cheapest ones available. One insignia costs ~60s on the TP, compaired to crafting costs of roughly 5-6g for the other insignias. For inscriptions the savings are less, but still very noticeable.

I have a free account in addition to the two paid ones. I have leveled weaponsmith to 500 and made an Ascended Greatsword. It does take work, but it is possible. I explained earlier how.

Exotics are easier, but there is one big obstacle. The tier 6 materials are rares and thus cannot no longer be purchased from the TP by a free player. They can be looted though, so it is not impossible. And with the prices of t6 mats being much less than they used to be, perhaps friends are willing to send aid.

Exotics can be bought from the TP, but only those crafted by other players. Sigils and Runes cannot be bought. Also one can get exotic gear from PvP tracks and WvW for badges. And of course from dungeons.

Note: Exotic (or Ascended) is only a concern after leveling to 80.