Guild Wars 2

While running a weaponsmith up the crafting leveling chain, I ran into an anomaly where I only got 1/2 the discovery XP I expected, an hence have gotten stuck on progression.

Specifically, the 2nd third of the tier 4 leveling portion (hard wood and platnium, level 250 to level 275) requires making 4 each of 3 different inscriptions, then discovering 12 new recipes using the inscriptions. In this case I discovered 3 axe types, 3 mace types, 3 hammers, and 3 spears. Starting at crafting level 250, I should have come out above 275 after making the inscriptions and the discoveries. I only got about half that, and have used up all the methods available to grow the character. (i.e. I am sitting at 268 and I need to be at 275) I even made a single 5th type of inscription and discovers one axe worth of that to get to the 268, and see I’ll not reach 275.

I do not understand why this happened. The previous week I’d run up an artificer, to level 500, with no issues. I’m looking at the 12 weaponsmith items I made, and all are indeed crafted. However, I noticed when crafting them that I only got about 1 level per discovery, and it’s usually around 2, so after 12 I’d should have gotten all the 25 needed to progress to the next third of the tier, and another inscription level.

I am an experienced crafter, having a main account with all 8 crafters maxed, and am doing this on a grandkids account since they have limited play time and I’d like them to craft their tier 6 weapons themselves, but they’ll never run them up to 400.

1. What did I do wrong, if anything? This approach has worked 11 other times over the years, and can do it on autopilot. However, ANET is changing a lot to things currently, so I don’t know if the system became bugged as I neared the Tuesday update time, or if I just did something wrong and might avoid it in the future.

2. What do I do to reach 275?

You can always discover other inscriptions and weapons…… Theres more then 12 types. Or you could try discovering Sigils.

One of the bigger changes recently was the removal of The Power of the Mists. It provided a passive boost to “critical crafting” of about 20% for most of the week. That alone could count for a 10-20% drop in crafting XP gain.

There are other active buffs that you might have used for your main that aren’t available for your grandkids’ account.

gw2crafts.net is a website that offers the least-cost method to max crafting ranks, along with a shopping list. I strongly recommend using that, as you can’t go wrong. There are some caveats:

• You can save by refining things that can’t be bought on the TP: luck for the first rank of artificer (buy some ecto to salvage; sell the resulting dust); refining bloodstone, dragonite, empyreal; etc.
• The shopping list/order is true for the moment, so don’t refresh the page (as things will change) until done.
• The site doesn’t account for critical crafting; you’ll need fewer mats/items than it predicts, if you are using the relevant buffs.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

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There are other active buffs that you might have used for your main that aren’t available for your grandkids’ account.

gw2crafts.net is a website that offers the least-cost method to max crafting ranks, along with a shopping list.

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Thanks for the reply. This one is a real puzzler and you’re knowledgeable of the game, so I’ll give more detail and see if you can figure it out.

My main account crafters were done years ago. All were level 400 within the first few months after launch, and each reached 500 within a few weeks of eligibility, which as you remember, was phased. I mentioned it in the OP that only to show I had background in crafting.

Cost is not an issue, as my main account has had a mostly full bank of ingredients for years. I don’t craft for a living, only for the account, so once done, the rest just accrues. The only cost is the crafter supplier items, like coal and primordium, etc, which is trivial. Just transfer mats and grind on.

My comparisons were between two grand kid accounts, which I own. I started running up a crafter early last week, after they reached level 80 in Tyria and gotten their elite in HoT. Both accounts are about a year old, were raised from scratch (no level 80 token) and if they have any bonuses, I’m not aware of them.

I ran an artificer to level 500 last week without difficulty, dusting off a online crafting guide that has proved reliable in the past. I had to change a couple of the inscriptions names (due to magic find leaving the game) but that’s easy, and I make the ones that use the same ingredient tokens (claws, scales) the the older named ones did.

Each level is straightforward, and I observed that running the guide routine produced about 28 levels against the 25 needed to each the next portion of the each tier. I.e. all were “safe”. Each tier is a rinse and repeat of the previous one.

I started the weaponsmith, on the 2nd grand kid account not long after finishing the first one. (It only takes a short hour to reach level 400. ) I stopped at tier 3, with no issues whatever.

I resumed over this past weekend, and I hit the wall at tier 4, the first one I did. As mentioned above, I made 4 copies of 3 different inscriptions, and did 12 discoveries. I have a typo in the OP. I only reached level 260 (starting at level 250) so only got 10 crafting levels for 12 discoveries and 12 inscriptions. I made a 5th set just to pay attention to the discovery XP, and it runs around 1 level per, and that’s in the 260 also.

Something was clearly wrong. So wrong that I doubted I’d even made the right thing. However, there in the inventory are 12 unique darksteel items, the correct tier, and there in the recipe book are the new recipes. They are the only recipes with color, all the others having been grayed out, as expected.

So why the low discovery XP? Usually in situations like this, I look for my own error. It’s hard to find it with the inventory and the recipe book staring me in the face. Was it an ANET issue?

I cannot change the amount of XP I get for a discovery. That’s done on the server side. All I can do is grind them out. One can debate the exactness of 12 items, but it has been correct in the past, including last week, and certainly should not be off by over a factor of 2 unless ANET has changed something, perhaps inadvertently.

We were within 2 days of a massive update to character stats, and ANET is known for slipping things in early that they think are ready, so they get downloaded in advance.
Perhaps I chose a bad time or got some spaghetti effect of stats changes elsewhere. My crafter is only level 12.

Ideas?

Recipes haven’t changed that much and I’d really urge you to drop old crafting guides and go with gw2crafts.net — it dynamically adjusts to the game which your older guides don’t.

However, for the sake of troubleshooting, let’s ignore that. To troubleshoot, can you make some screenshots? What’s in discovery? What’s on the crafting panel? What’s in your bank?

While you’re doing that, have you checked to make sure you don’t have any filters turned on? Are you sure you’re using the relevant items rather than something with a near-identical name (of which there are many)?

I’ve run myself out of time. I leave on a 5 week trip 2 days hence, or would have troubleshot already. It will have to wait until my return. I can type here in the forums during breaks, so thought to find a quick solution ("it was bugged over the weekend while they changed things for the massive incoming “balance” update, or “that tier has been bugged for months in weaponsmith and they’ve not fixed it yet”, etc.)

A day ago I threw myself at the mercy of the support ticket service. One can only get XP from recipes that are not grayed out, which are only the ones in the particular third of a tier one is working on. Once out of that tier, they gray out also. In this case the 4 recipes supplied for the inscriptions, and then the 12 recipes discovered during the leveling process. The items are in the inventory, the recipes are in the recipe book in color, so I’ve done the work. The XP is computed on the server, and I have no control over it. There is such a big shortfall that it’s not a matter of some slight bonus not in place.

I’m not worried about the particular forum the guide comes from, which is why I mentioned the notion of the leveling strategy. Make 12 inscriptions, do 12 discoveries. I’ve not had time to look at yours, but it has to be close to that. The one I use just reminds me of the notion for the leveling. You can substitue inscriptions of the same tier, etc.

Thanks for taking the time, and I’ll necro this thread to let you know the final solution in a few weeks.

Based on what you’ve said… it’s likely that you’ve somehow changed the order of discovery. At any given tier, there are usually 3 lesser and 3 greater recipes, that otherwise appear identical (they use nearly identical combinations of items). If you do the 3 lesser first, you can then discover the greaters still. But not the other way around (although this might vary a bit depending on critical crafting).

This is another reason why I prefer using gw2crafts.net — it’s always correct about the order (as well as the ingredients).

Again, nothing has changed in crafting recipes that would have had this big an impact. I can explain part of the difference by the loss of Power of the Mists.

I’ll keep an eye out for your update. Have fun on your trip.