Guild Wars 2

So I have never put a lot of effort into my characters, nothing ascended or anything, but decided to put more effort into my Ranger, loving the profession
And basically, I want the Bolt, Legendary Sword, but have no idea how to start on it, all I know is I need map completion, a ton of gold that I don’t currently have, and like 500 metalwork or whatever Sword is in

Start with the mystic Clover, in that way you can get more T6 materials for the Gift of Magic/Might

Do you want to save the gold to buy your precursor, or do you want to do the crafting journey?

Jethro.9376:

Start with the mystic Clover, in that way you can get more T6 materials for the Gift of Magic/Might

I think I’m just about to get one from the Gift of Battle reward track

Felahr.9830:

Do you want to save the gold to buy your precursor, or do you want to do the crafting journey?

If the crafting journey will save me from having to save up like 1,000+ gold then yes please

In the end the cost will be comparable (though you can farm up pieces). The difference is you spend as you go rather than having to save a lump sum and you can gather various mats yourself. I haven’t looked at Bolt’s list but I imagine it’s mostly metal to gather? Which is just a matter of finding the good node areas and cycling alts through.

There may be some frustration if you have to complete events that are chronically bugged.

MrThompson.8347:

Jethro.9376:

Start with the mystic Clover, in that way you can get more T6 materials for the Gift of Magic/Might

I think I’m just about to get one from the Gift of Battle reward track

Completing the track gets you 2 clovers. Making a legendary requires 77 clovers.

MrThompson.8347:

Felahr.9830:

Do you want to save the gold to buy your precursor, or do you want to do the crafting journey?

If the crafting journey will save me from having to save up like 1,000+ gold then yes please

Buying Zap is less than 750g. Around 650g if you use a buy order. Crafting still requires around 500g worth of stuff if you gathered all of that and sold it instead so the difference is about 150g to 250g.

Note that the difference can be drastically different. There are some that cost nearly double to craft versus buying.

My advice is start by looking at this page: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bolt

That lists everything you need and a bit of info on how to get it. Have a look through the list and maybe read the wiki pages for each item. Try to decide which parts are going to take the longest and/or make you go “Oh no, I have to do all of that!” so you can start those first and space them out. (For example I can’t stand the thought of running the same dungeon every night, so I start working on the dungeon tokens early on so I can do runs as and when I feel like it.)

But I strongly recommend you don’t work on just one thing at a time because a lot of things work together. For example making Mystic Clovers in the Mystic Forge will also get you T6 materials for the Gift of Might and Gift of Magic, and ore and gossamer you’ll need for the Gift of Bolt. Likewise map completion will get you not just gold and materials but karma which you can use to buy obsidian.

Also save your gold. Which doesn’t mean start grinding. It means save it – think about all the things you currently spend gold on and unless you cannot play without it or it’s a limited-time thing you literally can’t get later stop buying it. For example I collect mini pets, I normally buy one as soon as I have enough gold but I haven’t gotten any since I started working on the Bifrost and as a result I’ve managed to save up hundreds of gold without grinding. I’m not getting gold any faster than usual (which for me is about 4g a day), but because I’m not spending it at times I’ve had over 200g. (Then I spend it on stuff for my legendary.)

But also don’t be too quick to spend gold on things if you don’t have a lot or find it difficult to earn. Most legendary components can be bought, but they can be obtained in other ways too. For example you could spend a fortune buying 500 ectoplasm, 231+ Mystic Coins and 250 of each T6 mat and finish the Gift of Fortune in one day. Or you could wait until you’ve done everything else, saving up materials as you go and you’ll find you need to spend a lot less.

The only thing you have to spend gold on is the 100 Icy Runestones, which will cost you 100g. Everything else you have options and should pick the ones that are best for you.

Finally accept right at the start that it’s going to take a long time, probably several months. Which doesn’t mean you have to stop everything you normally do and only work on your legendary for all of that time, it’s highly likely a lot of things you do normally will contribute to making it (even playing the story will get you materials and currencies you can use). But you should be aware that making a legendary is a long-term commitment, not something you can expect to dash out in a week before you move on to the next thing.

Khisanth.2948:

MrThompson.8347:

Jethro.9376:

Start with the mystic Clover, in that way you can get more T6 materials for the Gift of Magic/Might

I think I’m just about to get one from the Gift of Battle reward track

Completing the track gets you 2 clovers. Making a legendary requires 77 clovers.

MrThompson.8347:

Felahr.9830:

Do you want to save the gold to buy your precursor, or do you want to do the crafting journey?

If the crafting journey will save me from having to save up like 1,000+ gold then yes please

Buying Zap is less than 750g. Around 650g if you use a buy order. Crafting still requires around 500g worth of stuff if you gathered all of that and sold it instead so the difference is about 150g to 250g.

Note that the difference can be drastically different. There are some that cost nearly double to craft versus buying.

Cost isn’t the only consideration though. I crafted the Legend even though I knew for a fact it was considerably cheaper to buy it. I’d previously bought The Lover and I found the process of crafting the precursor much more enjoyable, and actually quicker.

Making 4g and spending it on materials that allowed me to check off one little part of the next stage of the collection felt much more like I was getting somewhere than making 4g and adding it to the slowly growing pile in my bank which felt like it was never going to match the buy orders on the TP. Plus I really enjoyed the collection/scavenger hunt aspects.

When I finished saving gold and bought The Lover I then took a 1 month break from working on my legendary because I was sick of it. When I finished crafting the Bifrost I immediately moved over to the next tab of my spreadsheet (yes, I have a spreadsheet) to see what I needed to work on next because I was excited to finish the process.

i think you should buy the precursor, its much cheaper and saves you a lot of time.
how much information have you gather about creating the precursor?

you do realized you have to do the following, right?
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bolt_I:_The_Experimental_Sword
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bolt_II:_The_Perfected_Sword
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bolt_III:_Zap

last week, i crafted my first legend and im glad i bought the precursor. i was all excited to know i was going to craft my own precursor until i found out about the things and gold i was still going to spend on it. what a disappointment! well at least for me since i dont have much play time for gw2.

also, how long have you played gw2?
i been playing since released and i didnt know had over 2mil karma, bunch of dungeon tokens, over 1k spirit shards, master 3 or 4 to lvl 500 professions of crafting and etc. so went it came down to it, i just needed the tear 6 materials, other materials and thats pretty much where all the value of the legend comes to.

Danikat.8537:

Cost isn’t the only consideration though. I crafted the Legend even though I knew for a fact it was considerably cheaper to buy it. I’d previously bought The Lover and I found the process of crafting the precursor much more enjoyable, and actually quicker.

Then there is the other consideration. Zap’s collection involves at least one frequently broken event.

Cost is a huge consideration when you talk about speed. Crafting cost 2.5x as much as buying The Energizer. That means you can gather half as much stuff and sell all of it then buy it. Gathering half the stuff should be much faster than gathering all the stuff and then there is the time saved not having to get the account bound items.

Making 4g and spending it on materials that allowed me to check off one little part of the next stage of the collection felt much more like I was getting somewhere than making 4g and adding it to the slowly growing pile in my bank which felt like it was never going to match the buy orders on the TP. Plus I really enjoyed the collection/scavenger hunt aspects.

The collections are a mixed bag. Some might enjoy it. Some hate it. I am mostly neutral. Unfortunately once you have gone through collection 2 there is no going back since that already took a big chunk of gold/materials.

How I start my non-HoT legendaries:
1. Precursor. Do I want to buy it from the TP or craft it? Or maybe you want to try your luck in the mystic forge (not recommended). I tend to buy my precursor last, but it’s probably better to place a low-ish buy order to see if it fills over the course of getting the rest of the legendary in order.
2. Every legendary needs Gift of Fortune and Gift of Mastery. Break these down into their components and write out the materials.
3. Weapon-specific Gift broken down into materials.
4. Start slowly buying the materials, while thinking about which parts I actually want to work for, and which I just want to mass-buy. I tend to set a goal like “today I’m going to place buy orders so that each T6 is at 150.” You can do it however, but it makes me feel like I’m keeping some kind of progress and order.

Special note about Mystic Clovers- These are quite expensive with the rise in price of the Mystic Coin. Some reward tracks give you 7 Mystic Clovers for completion (non-repeatable reward tracks). These tracks are Silverwastes, Verdant Brink, Auric Basin, and Tangled Depths. If you play both PvP and WvW, that’s 56 Mystic Clovers. Since the mystic forge recipe for mystic clovers also rewards T6 materials, it is recommended to obtain your 77 clovers before buying T6.

rhapsody.3615:

Special note about Mystic Clovers- These are quite expensive with the rise in price of the Mystic Coin. Some reward tracks give you 7 Mystic Clovers for completion (non-repeatable reward tracks). These tracks are Silverwastes, Verdant Brink, Auric Basin, and Tangled Depths. If you play both PvP and WvW, that’s 56 Mystic Clovers. Since the mystic forge recipe for mystic clovers also rewards T6 materials, it is recommended to obtain your 77 clovers before buying T6.

You also end up with getting two clovers from getting the gift of battle and you have to get the gift of battle anyway so the number to aim for is actually 75.