Guild Wars 2

Is there a guide that focuses on the cheapest way to level weaponsmithing to 500? All the guides I’ve seen are “buy X mats from the TP” and seem to focus on the fastest time to 500, at the expense of ~150 gold. What’s the cheapest way to get to 500, considering I will need to craft the ascended components that’s required anyway?

gw2crafts.net

specifically: http://www.gw2crafts.net/weaponcraft_400.html

It has leveling guides from 0-400 and 400-500. The second one I linked shows the cheapest way to get to 500.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that using crafting boosters benefits hugely. It increases the critical exp you get from crafting, which means you’ll get to 500 faster (so you’ll use less materials).

Also keep in mind for a lot of mats you need to craft level you can place buy orders under the buy now price and they usually fill rather fast. I think gw2crafts.net uses buy now prices. However, especially for lower level mats buy orders can be filled quickly. That will save you some coin as long as you don’t mind waiting a bit for the orders to fill.

I guess what I’m wondering specifically is, since a lot of the components needed for ascended weapons can be crafted at 450, won’t it be a wasteful to level up to 500 first and then craft all the ascended stuff? I was thinking maybe follow the guide to 450, craft the ascended stuff, then finish up the last few levels. Thoughts?

Altair.8402:

I guess what I’m wondering specifically is, since a lot of the components needed for ascended weapons can be crafted at 450, won’t it be a wasteful to level up to 500 first and then craft all the ascended stuff? I was thinking maybe follow the guide to 450, craft the ascended stuff, then finish up the last few levels. Thoughts?

The stuff you can do at 450 is timegated and doesnt give too much exp, so it will take a long time.

Meh, the 450 stuff won’t get you very much experience. Technically speaking, it’s more optimal (experience-wise) to do it that way, but in the long run, it won’t make much difference. You’re going to get the huge majority of your experience from exotic crafting. I typically start with the most valuable items to get more gold back.

No, it’s really better to just go ahead and get to 500. The ascended things you can make at 450 are refined bloodstone/empyreal/dragonite and the ecto refinement items (just a couple of those, and they can only be made once per day) for bolts/ingots/squares, and you’ll quickly max out of the exp gained from those.

When you get to 450, I’d stop there and refine all of the ascended materials that you will need to make your weapons. Then create the ingots and so forth. Once this is done, level the rest of the way to 500 and then create the rest of the parts that you need.

If you plan on crafting, rather than buy the ingots and so on from the TP, you’re going to be time-gated anyway. May as well save some extra gold by using the refinement to level up the craft.

Ok, thanks for the advice guys!