Guild Wars 2

I stopped buying keys for a while, saved all my geodes, waited for a Tier 4 and bought my centipede recipe. Dropped it off in my bank, picked it up with my Charr level 450 Armorsmith, and read it.
Unfortunately it’s a Weaponsmith recipe, DOH! The Charr had 5 in weaponsmithing, and another alt has 400.
I submitted a ticket and was informed that it was an item that could not be replaced (which makes sense, since they can’t unread it on one alt, so they have to guard against double-dipping). So I either need to work on 400 more geodes or spend gold leveling this alt’s Weaponsmithing. Seems like a simple “Do you really want to read this 400 level recipe?” when the char is below level 10 in a craft might be a much better design.
Live and learn.

Definitely, read your recipes before you use and learn them. I figured that the Piquant and Meaty plant foods were both Chef recipes, and accordingly learned both on my Chef character.

I wound up having to buy another 50 geode recipe for my huntsman.

All recipes have tooltips saying what disciplines and what levels they require. Make sure that one of your characters meet the requirements before you buy/read a recipe.

Pyx.1906:

I submitted a ticket and was informed that it was an item that could not be replaced (which makes sense, since they can’t unread it on one alt, so they have to guard against double-dipping).

Seeing as it’s an account bound item, there is no reason to guard against double dipping. It doesn’t matter if one or one hundred characters on your account can craft the weapon. There is no benefit at all.

I was just trying to make myself feel better about spending $$$$ gold to max a second alt in weaponsmithing. It does seem like bad design, but there is definitely a policy in place against correcting it. I still think it could be solved by a warning when an alt tries to read a high level recipe at rock bottom levels. I don’t even know why this alt had level 5 in weaponsmithing in the first place. A costly accident.

Will agree with OP. Be careful. For some reason I thought the recipes would be account bound or something. I mean my Guardian doesn’t even have Artificer yet I could learn the recipe, which basically equated to me throwing all of those geodes out of the window. Stung a little bit, but I learned.

Why would you think a weapon would be made by an Armorsmith, exactly? Unless you just plain didn’t know that the recipe made a weapon, but if you spend 400 geodes on something you should at least know what you’re getting out of it.

A warning would be nice I suppose, but at the same time, any time you’re getting something that expensive you should really be paying careful attention.

I did something similar (with the Piquant plant food recipe) because I foolishly assumed it would be an account-wide unlock. I have all my crafting disciplines on one character except cooking, so transferring the recipe over slipped my mind.

Cost me about 50 geodes, but now I know.

Why do you assume it’d be account bound? What recipes have ever been account bound?

ViralVarda.2739:

Why do you assume it’d be account bound? What recipes have ever been account bound?

I’ve only ever purchased recipes that I wanted and at the time you’re on the character who is crafting them (the recipes from the crafting vendor). And every other recipe I’ve ever gotten in a drop has been for an insignia which is cross craft, so I would use those.

I seriously have just been able to avoid ever accidentally using a recipe for a craft my current character didn’t have. I guess I assumed it would say something like “you don’t have the Artificer skill on this character” if I tried to use one that was say, Artificer only, or let me use it and have it unlock on my character that had Artificer. I mean I seriously used it on one character, hopped on my alt that had artificer and was very confused when I couldn’t find it.

I’m not really a big crafter. Leveled them up for the XP, AP, and then of course to craft Ascended items, but I was always on the character that had armor/weapon smith.

No other excuse than I made a poor assumption. Luckily I have plenty of Geodes so it didn’t hurt too badly.

ViralVarda.2739:

Why do you assume it’d be account bound? What recipes have ever been account bound?

Well considering that Bank and Collectibles are both account-accessed, it’s understandable that someone might get confused. You can craft with account-access materials, so why not recipes too?

I’m not saying it should or shouldn’t be a feature, but I’ve almost been tripped up by it before.

Isn’t the requirement for a recipe green if you meet it and red if you don’t?

Adamantium.3682:

Isn’t the requirement for a recipe green if you meet it and red if you don’t?

Only if you have trained at profession. If you haver rained say, Hunter and Cook, the recipe for a sword won’t be red or green. And you can learn the recipe, but you can’t use it.

It might be a nice QoL update for ANet to put in a check that says, “Your character has not reached the requisite level to craft this recipe! Are you sure you want to learn it?” That check is absent if the character has the appropriate level in the matching craft skill.