Guild Wars 2

What is the quickest way to get a precursor? (In my case, zap)

Buy it off the trading post?

The absolute quickest way would be to buy it from the TP (if you have enough gold) or buy gems, convert to gold, and then buy it from the TP. As for whether the forge or collection is “faster”, there’s no real way to answer it because the forge relies on RNG. You could get lucky and get it on your first forge attempt, or you could spend 500+g trying before getting it, or you could never get it. The collection doesn’t really take too much time, but it does take a lot of ascended mats (costly) and doing stuff in various parts of pve.

Depending on the weapon to make it through a collection requires fractals and map collection of Tyria. I am assuming that you are talking about precursors that can be bought, because HoT legendaries are even harder to make. You need HoT map completion, you need to have all of the mastery lines completed. Even if you are talking about a Tyrian weapon, you need the legendary mastery line completed to finish the weapon. It is quite a process if you are just starting out in the game. I’ve been playing since September and I still need 11 mastery points to make my final weapon. I am struggling to complete those stupid kitten ed adventures. If I had to do it over again I might have went with a buyable precursor, I think the HoT legendary weapons are harder to make because of all the grind of the maps to get the correct currencies to make those legendaries, plus the mastery issue. I wouldn’t invest myself in HoT legendaries had I known I would only be making one of them. I thought there would be other interesting HoT weapons to make. Since they cancelled my end game content I doubt I will buy the next expansion. I feel betrayed and angry over it.

I’ve got 6,800hrs and have yet to see any precursor. Grinding the gold in SW so I could buy the precursor off of trader was faster. But hey, maybe RNGesus will like you better than he does me.

Thanks for the responses!
So buying it off the trading post is perhaps the best way?
I have 975 gold atm, about as much the zap is.

Also, can i equip the precursor and still use it to craft the legendary?

Ophidia Moonstone.2587:

Depending on the weapon to make it through a collection requires fractals and map collection of Tyria. I am assuming that you are talking about precursors that can be bought, because HoT legendaries are even harder to make. You need HoT map completion, you need to have all of the mastery lines completed. Even if you are talking about a Tyrian weapon, you need the legendary mastery line completed to finish the weapon. It is quite a process if you are just starting out in the game. I’ve been playing since September and I still need 11 mastery points to make my final weapon. I am struggling to complete those stupid kitten ed adventures. If I had to do it over again I might have went with a buyable precursor, I think the HoT legendary weapons are harder to make because of all the grind of the maps to get the correct currencies to make those legendaries, plus the mastery issue. I wouldn’t invest myself in HoT legendaries had I known I would only be making one of them. I thought there would be other interesting HoT weapons to make. Since they cancelled my end game content I doubt I will buy the next expansion. I feel betrayed and angry over it.

The HoT currencies are trivial to get now. I can probably get as much or more in a day now that I would have in a week before the patch.

Frank.3791:

Thanks for the responses!
So buying it off the trading post is perhaps the best way?
I have 975 gold atm, about as much the zap is.

Also, can i equip the precursor and still use it to craft the legendary?

Yes and yes. Just don’t transmute another skin onto the precursor weapon.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Frank.3791:

Thanks for the responses!
So buying it off the trading post is perhaps the best way?
I have 975 gold atm, about as much the zap is.

Also, can i equip the precursor and still use it to craft the legendary?

Yes and yes. Just don’t transmute another skin onto the precursor weapon.

That wouldn’t change it into a different item. That only a problem for the old transmutation system.

There is no “best” way. It really depends on your interests:

• The collection method guarantees you’ll get one and you can build up to it as quickly or as slowly as you like. Recommended for people interested in the journey, rather than the destination.
• Mystic Forge: do you feel lucky? The average player is going to lose money at this (while a minority will save a ton). Recommended for people who like to gamble.
• Buying it off the TP: fastest. Recommended for people who just want to be done with it or who have more coin than time..

PS tip for buying high-priced items on the TP:
Put in a very, very low buy offer, with whatever you can afford. When you can, remove the offer and add some coin to make a new, bigger offer.

• That reserves your funds, however meager, for the intended purpose — you’re unlikely to spend on something else.
• It keeps you from spending too much time checking prices and agonizing over the right amount to offer.
• Best of all, if you’re lucky, the market sometimes changes briefly and quickly, and you’ll end up paying a lot less than what you expected.

(Of course, requires that you’re not in a rush — the cost of hurrying your purchase is steep.)

Good luck!

I prefer pulling it off from TP, precursor cost has stabilitized for quite a long time. I dont enjoy gambling as i cant accept the fate if losing over 100+ gold. Doing achievemnet is okay to me at first until i found some tasks locked behind stuffs that i hate to do.

I place my target on Dusk and i’ve already done some achievements, but i stopped when i saw fractial. Which is the same reason i stopped Mawdey II.

I got my Zap off of a trash mob in SW I think or maybe it was DT. Didn’t even realize I had gotten it until I started to clean out my bags, lol.