Guild Wars 2

So I am an 80 ele. I am plugging away daily at the places of power to get those charged quartz crystals for the cele gear.

However, most every thing else is quite confusing to me. So I meed an end-game back piece, but where to start? There is the crafting one, but that is only lvl 78, so I guess I don’t go there.

I can use the forge, I think, but I need mystic crystals and I have no idea if I have any of those, as there doesn’t seem to be a spot for them in the crafting section of the bank.

I can trade mcguffins into some trader some where for some other mcguffins to trade in at the forge to make an exotic piece that will later need to be mcguffined up to ascended after I get the goods to do that by trading in other mcguffins to other vendors, etc, etc, etc… And that is just for the one back piece.

I look at my crafting materials (so much random junk) and I have ZERO idea where to start.

I have 435 tailoring and max jc, but I think that means nothing cause I need to use the forge now? But before I head to the forge, I need mystic crystals too, and then there are the forge shards which can replace needed items when crafting… or upgrading… or something? And then, when I go to the forge, all I see are freaking SALVAGE KITS on the left? What monkey designed this counter-intuitive mess?

Anyways, is there a link explaining this from the ground up besides the crafting info on the wiki, which is a labyrinthine mess of links to materials for gear that I am not not even sure I need.

Other than this aspect of the game, everything else has been a refreshing user experience. However, this is a mess.

If you put a RARE T5 jewel on the LVL 78 back-piece it has slightly better stats than any Exotic LVL 80 back-piece available….. If you want the skinny on all the available back pieces, go to the wiki (yeah, I know it’s not always the best but all the info IS there):
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Back_item

Keep in mind that tossing stuff in the Mystic Forge is not the same as crafting (there are no crafting requirements to use the Forge)….tho often the terms are confusingly used interchangeably. If you are going to the Forge and not seeing materials or items you thing should be Forgeable, make sure you don’t have the items in a protected container (i.e. Equipment or Invisible bag) as that will prevent them from being displayed (that also goes for NPCs that need to see items so you can sell or trade them in).

Have you viewed the Mystic Forge page on the wiki? (again, Forge is not related to crafting per se): http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Forge

Hope that helps, but if you have specific questions, just ask.

maybe have a bash at creating maudrey? IF you did the living story you can build maudrey. And im confident i saw a vendor selling the recipe for the spinal blade back piece I cant recall the currency for it though.