Guild Wars 2

Level 23 newbie, loving the world design, but the game-play has raised some questions:

—Why craft?—
As I understand it I should be using the things that I find to craft items. I don’t really understand why? I haven’t managed to craft anything yet. I picked up some copper ore and it seemed like I should be able to make it into copper ingots, but I couldn’t work out how to in the GUI. So I sold the ore on the Trading Post to clear space in my bags.

—Why not sell everything?—
I am just listing everything I find on the Trading Post as “sell instantly”. Usually the difference between the “sell instantly” price and the best buyback price is just a few coppers, so it feels like an “infinite storage bag” at the moment. Sell everything and buy back what I need if I need it, for a small fee.

—What’s the money for?—
Sure it probably wastes some in-game money but then I don’t really have anything to spend the in-game money on either! I don’t see the need for better armour or weapons, because the game is not very challenging yet from a combat perspective, just using whatever weapons I find.

So, I’m mostly soloing my way through the game, using what I find, and selling everything else, making a pile of money for no reason, and wondering if I’m missing something.

Why craft?
Three reasons
1. Unique skins from crafted items (some are not buyable from the TP, such as the crafting backpieces, Wings of Dwayna etc.)
2. The only reliable way to get the best armor in the game (ascended, from each craft at 500)
3. Leveling, crafting gives experience, 8 levels at 400.

Why not sell everything?
Anything you sell the trading post takes 15% of so instantly you’ve just lost 15% of the value on that item, if it’s something you’ll need later it would make more sense to keep it. It’s also more expensive to buy things if you don’t place a buy order which also takes time to fill. Basic rule of thumb I’d go by is:
If you have to sell something don’t use the buy order , list it at 1 copper lower than lowest for sale (all that money adds up, the difference can be several gold on more expensive items.)
Most people keep a stockpile of some crafting materials just in-case they ever need them/ or to protect from price fluctuations. It sounds like you haven’t found the "store all collectables button, in your inventory at the top right corner there should be a drop down menu with that as an option, clicking that will automatically put your crafting materials into the bank no matter where you are (limit 250 for each material.)

What’s the money for?
Skins 99% of it is going to be for getting nice skins for your weapons and armor, In addition an exotic armor set can cost around 30g and an ascended armor set (the best in the game) cost around 500g (and 500 crafting as mentioned above).

Weapon wise legendary weapons are a large one costing over 1000g to make , and 2000-4000g to buy outright, again nice skins can be pretty expensive too.

Lastly farming large amounts of materials isn’t realistic in most cases so you’ll end up buying them from the TP.

EDIT: forgot to mention you can also convert gold to Gems the cash shop currency, and but account upgrades such as character slots, bag/bank space and so on.

Why craft?

Because it’s the only way to reliably get the top tier equipment (ascended) which is account bound so you have to craft your own. You also need it to make a legendary weapon and several other useful items.

Having said that you don’t actually need ascended equipment and all the other things are optional too. Many people don’t craft, or leave it until later when they know they need it.

If you want to craft it is confusing but not impossible to work it out. There are guides, both text and video, online or you can just experiment and you’ll figure it out eventually. Every crafting material shows you which crafting professions can use it, and once you’ve chosen a profession that matches the materials you have the short version is you use the production tab on the crafting menu to make basic components and the discovery tab to combine them into new items.

To use copper specifically you’ll need to buy tin from the Master Craftsman next to the crafting station and combine them into copper ingots, then use those to make weapon or armor parts, then combine them with other parts made with cloth (for armor) or wood (for weapons) to make finished weapons.

Clearing your bags doesn’t require selling your crafting materials. In the top right corner of your inventory there’s a cog wheel symbol. Click it and select ‘Deposit All Materials’. Any crafting materials in your inventory will be moved to the Material Storage tab in your bank vault. They’re then accessible from any bank or crafting table (and can be used to craft directly from storage, no need to move them into your inventory).

Selling everything

That’s another option, and a good one if you’re sure you won’t want to craft.

For a lot of items, particularly low level crafting materials, the prices have pretty much stabalised and the buy now and listing prices will be very similar. For other items the difference can be a lot, even hundreds of gold. It’s always a good idea to check both when selling or buying and consider if it’s worth placing a listing and waiting.

As for why it doesn’t function as infinite storage for items with stable prices there are two reasons:
1) Even those prices will fluctuate over time. If you decide you need a lot of copper ore at the same time as many other people (say for example when a new item is added that requires it) you’re going to pay a lot more than you got for selling the copper originally.
2) There are fees for using the Trading Post, so even if you sell something then buy it back at the same price you’ll lose money.

What’s the money for?

At low levels? Not a lot. You’re absolutely right that you can get by simply using equipment you get as drops.

But at level 80 there’s a lot of things to spend gold on. Admittedly very little of it is required to play the game (that’s one of the strengths of the game IMO, it’s very accessible even for casual players) but a lot of it is useful or desirable.

In particular ascended equipment is very expensive to make, and legendary weapons even more so. A lot of people like going after rare or attractive skins and those can also be very expensive.

Then there’s using gold to buy gems for items from the gem store, collection achievements, possibly guild upgrades, alternative equipment sets with different stats, levelling and gearing alts….there’s a lot to spend gold on.

You don’t craft for skins. You craft for stats. There are plenty of non-sellable stats that can only be crafted. So there. FYI, there are 3 armor skins and 1 weapon skin for every tier of crafting (every 10 levels) up to Level 80. At lvl 80 there are a few extra skins you can craft using rare lodestone drops. But the skins don’t differ depending on stats, so if you already have weapons/armor of stats that you want, then don’t worry about crafting.

To sell or not to sell, it all depends on how desperate for gold you are, and there will be times you’ll be desperate.

You won’t find difficult content exploring. Difficult content in this game is dungeons, fractals, WvW and PvP. If all you do is explore, that’s cool, whatever floats your boat, but you won’t need anything but a little bit of spacebar skill for the jumping puzzles.

You’re level 23, when you hit level 80 and ask ‘what do you do now that you’re level 80’ in the forums, you’ll see this thread really blow up.

asktoby.7890:

Level 23 newbie, loving the world design, but the game-play has raised some questions:

—Why craft?—
As I understand it I should be using the things that I find to craft items. I don’t really understand why? I haven’t managed to craft anything yet. I picked up some copper ore and it seemed like I should be able to make it into copper ingots, but I couldn’t work out how to in the GUI. So I sold the ore on the Trading Post to clear space in my bags.

Crafting is only important for getting end gear items. But for that purpose it is important to craft at some stage. Selling now means only that you will buy it later (which is perfectly fine, but you do loose 2 times 15% in taxes).

Copper ore is used as a main ingredient in three crafting disciplines. Jeweller (to make jewels), weaponsmith (to make metal weapons like swords and maces) and armorsmith (to make heavy armor).

A jeweller refines copper into copper ores. Weaonsmiths and armorsmiths refine them into nronze. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. So you will also need tin (which is not farmed but sold by the vendor next to the crafting station).

Once you got 10 copper ores and 1 lump of tin, you go to the crafting station for weaponsmith or armorsmith and go to the production tab. You now will see that under refinement that the line forbronze is highlighted with a number behind (indicating how much times you can craft this). You hit the button to make and your done.

To make a usuable item you also need to further get mats. and half fabrics.

e.g. for a sword you need to have three things.
1 pummel (requires bronze ingots)
1 blade (requires bronze ingots)
1 inscription (requires wood dowel and a fine material. The dowel is made from refined planks, that on thier turn are made out of wood you harvest. The fine material drops from lootbags or directly from foes. The exact fine material decides the stat of the sword you are making. For example a bone chip will make you a sword with +vitality and a vial of weak blood will make you a sword with +power)

Once you got these three ingredients you go to the discovery tab and put these three in (you got room for four cause higher level items require 4 things, but its ok to put in just three). Then it will say it can craft something so you do so. Then the recipe for that sword is added to your production tab and you got your first sword.

For a armorsmith pair of shoes it is simular.
You need:
1 bronze chain boot panel (made out of bronze ingots)
1 bronze chain boot lining (made out of refined jute and jute thread which you buy at the vendor)
1: jute insginia (simular to the inscription for a weapon. this requires more jute (and later on higher fabrics) and a fine material. the fine material will decide the stats of the boots).

Once you made these three you can discover the recipe for the boot.

Jeweller:
This ons is slightly different For an earring you need:
1: copper hook (made of copper ingots)
1: copper setting (made of copper ingots)
1: gemstone (the type of gem decides the type of stats on the earring, you don’t have to craft these)
These three can be discovered to get your first earring and to add theat recipe to your production tab.

There is a bit more to crafting at higher levels, but this should get you started on the three professions that use copper

…to be continued

asktoby.7890:

—Why not sell everything?—
I am just listing everything I find on the Trading Post as “sell instantly”. Usually the difference between the “sell instantly” price and the best buyback price is just a few coppers, so it feels like an “infinite storage bag” at the moment. Sell everything and buy back what I need if I need it, for a small fee.

That small fee is 15%
And yes you are paying for it. One way of making money is flipping. Those people put up buy offers to buy stuff cheap (the price you get when you hit “sell instantly”). Then they put it back on the tradepost (the actual flip) for a price atleast 16% higher. As the fee is 15% (5 procent to list it and 10% taxes) everything above it is profit for that trader.
Crafting materials are stored per stack in your material tab in the bank. So you have a lot of storage. Your better of keeping it.
further. it might be interesting to salvage green and blue weapons and armor with a salvage kit. It gives you a lot of material (special light armor materials are worth a lot) and it also gives you essences of luck that increases your accounts magic find. Magic find improves the drops you get and will make you money in the long term.

asktoby.7890:

—What’s the money for?—
Sure it probably wastes some in-game money but then I don’t really have anything to spend the in-game money on either! I don’t see the need for better armour or weapons, because the game is not very challenging yet from a combat perspective, just using whatever weapons I find.

Endgame gear is slightly more expensive. For a first time player you will need to save up some resources while levelling for the first time or farm a lil at max level, but it is not hard to get it at all (unless you want ascended gear, but trust me, it is not worth it on your first character at max level, it only makes you 3% stronger). The most money is going into moneysinks and into skins.

The endgame gear is easy to get, but the best skins are expensive.

The question is of opportunity cost. Is it better getting coin now that could be used for better gear but having to scrounge or buy the mats later when you start crafting, possibly at a higher price. Even if the price doesn’t increase in the future you would be paying 18% more (due to the 15% loss when you sold them).

So the question becomes one of can you use the coin those items and mats are worth today? If not keep them if you have the space.