When should I start crafting?
Crafting gives you some really great XP and can level you much faster than just completing dynamic events. Here’s a nice guide…
Welcome to GW2!
My opinion is to not worry about leveling. Enjoy the game. Do hearts and Dynamic Events. Try WvW. The levels will come.
Once you play for a while, then worry about crafting. I personally waited until I was about 60, and then only because I wanted to try it. Now I am maxed in 5 or 6 of them.
The point is that you can craft at any level. You don’t EVER have to craft if you so choose. Do it when you want to.
Cheers!
Level 80 Elementalist
First, welcome to GW2
I started crafting when I was around lvl 70. basicaly to reach lvl 80 faster.
one good Idea, is to go to maps from ur lvl, so u can gather the required material u need to craft. it can get out of hand (gold wise) if u dont have what needed to craft. go by the maps, and gather everything, and do crafting together.
This is what i did, I tell it to everyone:
for my first character i did all the stuff like hearts and personal story till level 50 or so. then i used almars guide to gathering in blazeridge steppes to get about 2g every 30 min (resets every hour). So i did that got to lvl 65 or so (this is including a couple of random hearts and some personal story levels). Then i used the gold i got to craft to lvl 80. Still havent finished story though :p
Master crafter and I’d say don’t worry about leveling guides yet since you have no materials or gold at level 5. I’d save up crafting materials for your second character after you get to the level cap with the first. Or save some mats but pick up a useful crafting profession as soon as you start.
I picked up cooking first since food buffs were not regular drop loot. But like now, food is so cheap on the trading post, it’s hardly worth doing if you are trying to make gold from it. But for me at least, it wasn’t about making gold but not needing to spend gold on stuff I needed early on. Now that the game is a year old, there are less people to buy that low/mid level stuff, apart from rare items that cooking isn’t so popular for.
But on each character, I picked up one or two crafts that I could use for that character class as I leveled them up. So, even “(simple)” items were useful to me. Then you just keep gathering-tools on you as you play the game, which a lot of people hate but I don’t have a problem with. If you don’t like gathering, then like I mentioned, save up what you do get and use it on your second character after leveling the first. A lot of people buy mats to do crafting to level up their next character fast. I didn’t, not buy mats at least, and I’m at master crafter and finishing my 8th class to 80.
So to run it down:
1. No don’t bother early on
a. if you hate crafting or gathering
b. doing it just to make money
2. Yes start right away
a. you like crafting and gathering
b. doing it to make what you need
And I wouldn’t suggest making five characters right away and loading them with crafts, you will never keep up with the resource needs. Well… early on it’s not so bad, lots of mats, but mid levels are where needed mats are a bit harder to come by. imo the best way to do it is just focus on one character at a time, once you figure out which one you want to level up first.
Crafting is expensive, and difficult to effectively do in the beginning. However, once you do manage to get some money (usually by level forty or so) you can craft levels. I recommend starting with cooking. It takes ~2g to max it out, and will give you 10 levels. After that, all the other crafts are 5g+ to max.
http://gw2crafts.net/
This is an excellent guide to crafting. It calculates multiple possible paths to maxing a crafting discipline, and finds the cheapest one based on current prices. It also lists every necessary step, and will tell you how much gold you need to do each step.
To be honest, crafting is much better for leveling up your second, third, fourth, etc. character, rather than your first. But it still can help.
On my first character, I did chef as soon as I could because food is the most useful with the variety of buffs.
It can be expensive but you can buy food ingredients with karma.
Other stuff I wouldn’t worry much about, mats can be expensive to buy. If you hit every node when you clear you maps, you should have a good supply of mats when you are close to 80. You may need to buy some stuff if your loot luck isn’t very good.
I speak for my self and no one else. Only fools believe they speak for a majority.
When I first started the game, I didn’t even touch crafting until I was level 70 because I didn’t need to.
When you get to the point where you have enough disposable income to spend on leveling and not enough interest in map completion, then you can worry about it.
Craft whenever you can. Due to upcoming changes, it’ll be nice if you can max out some of the professions relevant to you.
When I mean “whenever you can”. I mean when you don’t go out of your way for it. So if it involves interrupting your gameplay or breaking your bank, don’t do it. It would be a good idea not to buy any just for crafting until you get close to 80— use what you have on hand.
When you are close to 80, you can start aggressively crafting— it’ll level you up to 80.
If you don’t like it, then just wait until you have good stockpile of gold@ level 80 and just buy the materials.
The other thing is of course to pick a profession that generates stuff relevant to you. So tailor for light armor class , leatherworker for medium armor class, armorsmith for heavy armor. Although I wouldn’t go for weapon/armor crafting until later— it is quite expensive and annoying.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
I’ve recently crafted two professions to 400, nearly 12 months into playing my main. I can safely attest to it being wholly unnecessary for normal gameplay and gearing up. My preference and suggestion is to make sure you complete your dailies and monthlies (most of the time mine are done before i even track them) andnd accumulating that karma to buy your gear with.
It’s easy enough to level on greens and then jump straight to exotics from Orr karma vendors.
Disclaimer: by all means, craft away if it floats your boat – just saying you shouldn’t feel you have to.