Guild Wars 2

I’m not complaining, I’m not whining. I just want to know if and when money will ever become more plentiful. I hit lvl 27 last night, and I still feel poor.

Is there a point when rewards will start to dish out some cash? Getting 20c from an event just feels like a smack in the face.

The most cash here you don’t make from direct money, besides dungeons, but from selling crafting mats at the TP. So for example harvest every iron ore node you see and if you don’t need it yourself sell it at the TP.

Prices of those mats are often changing so you have to take a look now and then into the TP and get a feeling for whats worth selling and what not at the moment.

Hmm, so If i plan on getting all the tradeskills, kiss all my money goodbye

Crafting is mostly a moneysink in this game, since you can also level your characters fast with crafting, so a lot people do that with their alts. This leads to the fact that often crafted stuff is cheaper in the TP than what the mats cost you need for it.

So personally i mostly just buy blue / green stuff from the TP when i level a new character and sell the mats instead.

Since its your first character i would simply avoid crafting until you maybe have your 1st lvl 80 character and earn some more money, and start then with crafting if you want.

However .. in the end you should play like you personally enjoy it the most

Yeah, the best ways to earn money is to play the TP, or run dungeons/world events. But at lvl 27 you have a way to go before then, so in the meantime just play and have fun, there isn’t much you need a lot of money for at this point anyway. Just have fun and roll with it!

Took me ages to get my first gold. After that the rate slowly increased. Now, even without really trying, it’s easy to get several gold a day. I’m mostly a farmer and get my gold from harvesting/selling mats and random drops.

I suggest you find a newbie-friendly guild who will run dungeons with you even if you’re not lvl 80 yet. Each explorable path yields at least 1g per day.

kileran.1485:

Hmm, so If i plan on getting all the tradeskills, kiss all my money goodbye

That’s a SURE way to kiss all your money good bye and depending on the content you want to do, you might not even need tradeskills.

Once you get a hang of the game you’ll slowly start making more money. Something I suggest doing is to either

a.) sell all the equipment you don’t need on the black lion tp

or

b.) salvage everything, then sell the mats on the black lion tp

that’s where a huge portion of my money comes from

Level 68.
Do world bosses. Salvage any rares you aren’t going to use with a master salvage kit or mystic salvage kit. Sell the ecto. That is easily 1g+ per boss without much effort. Level 68 is because you need lv68+ rares to get ectos from salvaging.

Actually you could start at lv40. That is when you start getting the bonus chest with the rare. Some low level items are suprisingly expensive. Always check the prices on the TP before doing anything with an item.

Level 27 is a decent spot to be. That is around the right range for getting items that will salvage into wool scraps. The second most expensive type of cloth scrap(the other being linen).

kileran.1485:

Hmm, so If i plan on getting all the tradeskills, kiss all my money goodbye

Depends if you’re thinking short term or long term. I’ve maxed every trade skill and I have plenty of money. It’s definitely a cash sink though, unless you farm all the mats. And then you’re farming them and not selling them.

People who farm and sell mats are going to have more money than people who farm mats and use them…but once you level up, then you can sell them.

In the mean time, gather everything.

As for money there are a few ways to make more money, but I don’t think money drops from the sky in this game. You have to play to get it. Dungeon runs are probably fastest.

As the others said, don’t worry so much about money at this point. If it’s getting to 80 ya want head to the Edge of the Mists (EotM) and ride the zerg or start doing dungeons. Both will net you enough cash to keep ya going.

I am leveling a new warrior and didn’t want to pay the TP prices for gear, so I decided to finish off my Armorsmithing that has sat idle at 200 on one of my 80s. In the course of a couple of hours I got it to max 500. Having 5 level 80 toons I already had a lot of mats to start with, but still had to buy some off of the TP, too. I started with 70 gold, spent 20 gold on mats leaving me with 50 gold. I sold what I crafted and walked away with a total of 139 gold when I was done.

This being your first time around this scenario wont help you much, but just to serve as an example as to what you can expect later on. Don’t worry about money NOW. In time it will come.

You will gradually start getting more money as you level up, and you’ll also get more options to earn money such as more valuable gathering nodes and dungeons.

But as other people have said at any level the majority of your money won’t come directly. It comes from selling items you get, or salvaging them and selling the crafting materials.

(You can also level up crafting, I’m working on getting them all to max level. But you have to accept that you’re going to make gold slower while you do it because you can’t sell off the materials.)

50 silver… i believe that is the reward for doing the level 30 dungeon

The best way to get above the poverty line in this game is SAVE, SAVE, SAVE (i.e. don’t spend) while leveling to 80. Here are a few drops of wisdom from me to you:

1. The Open World Zone game is NOT hard.
2. You do NOT need equipment equal to your level to progress.
3. Unless gear is 20 levels below your level, do not consider buying any gear (with gold or Karma). If you DO buy some gear, do it from the TP and put in a custom buy order (you will have to wait for the order to fill, so do it before you actually need it) rather than buy it immediately (at a higher price).
4. Note that EVERY piece of gear you use prior to reaching level 80 will be discarded along the way to 80, so minimizing that equipment’s cost to you is your # 1 priority before you reach 80.
5. Craft new gear every 15 levels (at GREEN Masterwork levels) if possible. This is difficult to achieve on your first character.
6. Every copper and karma point you save now is going to be there for you to spend when you reach LVL 80 and start working on obtaining your “final” gear.
7. I suggest you refrain from using transmutation charges on your “look” prior to reaching LVL 80. They are frankly wasted (as you you will discard the equipment), but if you just HAVE to look good while leveling, try to minimize using the charges as much as possible as you will NEED the charges when you reach 80 and start spending them on gear you will likely keep for a long time.
8. When selecting your story rewards, you may be better served in the long run by selecting SKINS to unlock rather than stat combos. Note that during the selection process, the description tells you whether or not the skin is unlocked on your account or not AND you can right click on the item picture and select PREVIEW to look at the item on your character.

Exceptions to the above:

• At LVL 40, you may want to consider spending karma on a cultural Rare (YELLOW) weapon or 2 (those weapon should be good well into your 60s or 70s). Don’t go crazy as these items are rather expensive in terms of Karma and Karma is more difficult to obtain now and you may need it later on. Also, consider selecting SKINS you like rather than more desireable stat combos as the weapons themselves will eventually have to be destroyed (you can’t salvage Karma purchased items) but the SKINS will remain available to your account forever.
• If you do not advance your Jewelry (one of the best crafts to do on your first character) so you can craft Jewelry at every 15th level (20, 35, 50, 65), then consider buying some green jewelry off the TP at those levels. The reason for this is the same reason it’s good to learn Jewelry as a craft first. There are no Jewelry drops in the game (as apposed to you being able to upgrade your armor and weapons from drops) and while you can get a few pieces from story missions, those are far and few between.

Once you figure it out can you let me know?

Brother Grimm.5176:

Snip

• If you do not advance your Jewelry (one of the best crafts to do on your first character) so you can craft Jewelry at every 15th level (20, 35, 50, 65), then consider buying some green jewelry off the TP at those levels. The reason for this is the same reason it’s good to learn Jewelry as a craft first. There are no Jewelry drops in the game (as apposed to you being able to upgrade your armor and weapons from drops) and while you can get a few pieces from story missions, those are far and few between.

There is another source for jewelry you didn’t mention. Many of the heart vendors sell trinkets at their level. For example, the very first heart in Queensdale sells earrings.

A list of items sold by karma merchants:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_karma_merchant_items

Astral Projections.7320:

There is another source for jewelry you didn’t mention. Many of the heart vendors sell trinkets at their level. For example, the very first heart in Queensdale sells earrings.

A list of items sold by karma merchants:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_karma_merchant_items

Yes, but I still suggest saving karma whenever possible. You will likely need it after LVL 80. Karma no longer falls from the sky like it used to.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Astral Projections.7320:

There is another source for jewelry you didn’t mention. Many of the heart vendors sell trinkets at their level. For example, the very first heart in Queensdale sells earrings.

A list of items sold by karma merchants:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_karma_merchant_items

Yes, but I still suggest saving karma whenever possible. You will likely need it after LVL 80. Karma no longer falls from the sky like it used to.

True. But OP was specifically asking about cash, not karma. If you are not going to make a legendary or buy temple karma armor then there is plenty to use while leveling.

Leveling up jewelry instead of selling the mats will cost him gold. If he wishes to save both karma and gold, he could farm the mats for a specific set of jewelry and ask a guildie to craft them using those mats.

Jewlery is however one of the cheapest professions to level, so if he wants to do some crafting its maybe the best choice for the first character.

If this is your first char expect to be “poor” until you hit 80 then the gold will start to flow.

You actually get more money from regular play at lower levels. Weapons and armor that drop from mobs scale with your level and so do the materials you salvage from them. Because most people are level 80, the overwhelming majority of dropped gear is level 80 too so you get primarily tier 5 and tier 6 mats from them. This floods the market with tons of those mats while tiers 2-4 (between about levels 20-60) tend to be worth a lot more.

The real money at level 80 comes from running dungeons since the gold rewards from those are huge. You will always get 1.26g minimum per dungeon run not including drops and chests from inside the dungeon itself. Some of the “harder” (according to Anet apparently) ones will net you as much as 3 gold per (Arah).

When does cash start becoming more plentiful?

For 90% of GW2 players NEVER.

The exceptions are those willing to buy gems to buy gold and those who have figured out ways to earn lots of gold per hour, but this still invoves 100’s to 1,000’s of hours gameplay to become mega rich.

How rich is “rich”? I’m pretty noob at GW2 but came over from EVE, and the GW2 market is super easy to profit from. Starting from around 10g I made about 300g in two weeks of trading before I got bored with trading and started actually playing the game again. I’m very unlikely to ever craft an Ascended item (I’ve got no crafting skills above 100), so I just don’t need money for anything. I can buy plenty of exotic items for my toons and get within 10%-15% of the min-max-meta.

Each incremental bit of performance costs more than the bit before, so when are you rich?

intently.4502:

How rich is “rich”?
…….
so when are you rich?

Excellent questions. I’ve never had over 120g, don’t play the TP much and am STILL decking out all my Alts (8 LVL 80s) with Exotics. I plan on making some Ascended weapons and am collecting and refining the materials as I slowly level the crafting to 500 (I’m in no rush).

I seriously have never felt “poor” but obviously can’t afford uber-expensive items (tho I do splurge on some armor and weapons now and then). I certainly feel “comfortable” and in no way pressured to keep up with other players in terms of gear grind. I just watch what I spend and TRY to make decent decisions when using the TP. To me, this game just does not put actual pressure on any player to grind for gear beyond a certain point (tho I know some players seem to disagree with that view).

From my point of view, if you ever had 1000g in your wallet, that would be “rich”.

What is the difference in effectiveness between someone geared in exotics and someone geared in Ascended?

According to the wiki, Ascended armor major stats sum to 1087 and exotics sum to 1003. So Ascended has 8.3% more stats. That’s a meaningful difference, but not huge. Not enough for me to grind.

intently.4502:

What is the difference in effectiveness between someone geared in exotics and someone geared in Ascended?

According to the wiki, Ascended armor major stats sum to 1087 and exotics sum to 1003. So Ascended has 8.3% more stats. That’s a meaningful difference, but not huge. Not enough for me to grind.

Without being more specific as to which stat combinations you prefer, estimating the increase in effectiveness between exotic and Ascended is difficult at best. Some stats (vitality, for example) provide a linear increase. Some provide a multiplicative increase (power, healing power). Power benefits from a further boost from Ascended weapons due to the fact that damage is a product that includes both the Power stat and the Weapon Strength stat. Further, attack skills that have a damage coefficient greater than 1.0 also multiply the increases offered by the Ascended Power stat, and its cousins in effectiveness, Precision and Ferocity.

Healing Power, on the other hand, benefits less from the Ascended increase because most of the skill coefficients are less than 1.0, meaning that the Ascended increase has less effect.

Just as a guesstimate, Ascended Berserker probably fares slightly better than the 8.3% you cite. Before the Ferocity change in April, the most thorough estimates were a damage increase of ~14%, but Ferocity ate into that a fair bit and I’ve not rerun the calculations. Other sets, like Shaman’s or Clerics, are probably below the 8.3% due to the effect of healing power.

intently.4502:

What is the difference in effectiveness between someone geared in exotics and someone geared in Ascended?
……
That’s a meaningful difference, but not huge. Not enough for me to grind.

This is the general consensus on Ascended Armor. Ascended Weapons are generally considered worth the extra effort as a variety of damage increasing mechanics an make the Ascended vs Exotic weapon damage spread upwards of nearly 15% while the low end is at least 7% increase).

Brother Grimm.5176:

Ascended Weapons are generally considered worth the extra effort as a variety of damage increasing mechanics an make the Ascended vs Exotic weapon damage spread upwards of nearly 15% while the low end is at least 7% increase).

Weapons have normally 5% more .. 1050 instead of 1000. I think dagger have a little more.
But since it only affects skills you do with that weapon its 5% at best if you don’t use either skill on a second non ascended weapon and no utility skills that do damage.

However .. yeah .. at least that brings much more than the maybe 5% more defense and 1% more stats from 6 pieces of armor that cost you 500-800g

I’m not talking about the flat % increase in stats but the POTENTIAL damage increase. BEST case with Zerker (pre-Ferocity) was calculated out to give a possible 14.6% damage increase with Ascended weapons. I think after the Ferocity change, this is down to 10-12% MAX damage increase (for FULL ascended Zerker sets).

Brother Grimm.5176:

I’m not talking about the flat % increase in stats but the POTENTIAL damage increase. BEST case with Zerker (pre-Ferocity) was calculated out to give a possible 14.6% damage increase with Ascended weapons. I think after the Ferocity change, this is down to 10-12% MAX damage increase (for FULL ascended Zerker sets).

I don’t think that’s possible but I would love to see where someone figured this out.

You get the base damage increase (which can be determined as a DIRECT % increase) and you get a very SMALL increase in stats. If the direct % increase from base damage is 5%, then the stats increase would have to be another 5% to bring that to a 10% increase overall. IIRC, the stats increase in no way can make up that extra 5%. THey just aren’t big enough.

Brother Grimm.5176:

I’m not talking about the flat % increase in stats but the POTENTIAL damage increase. BEST case with Zerker (pre-Ferocity) was calculated out to give a possible 14.6% damage increase with Ascended weapons. I think after the Ferocity change, this is down to 10-12% MAX damage increase (for FULL ascended Zerker sets).

Thats more the accumulated damage from weapon AND stat increase from trinkets maybe. The weapon gives just 5% more base damage, and nearly nothing in stats, so its in the end just 5% .. maybe 5,05% because of the stats.

I had no problem making money and I just started around 2 months ago. All you have to do is gather every crafting material you come across while doing map completion and you’ll be raking in gold without realizing it. By the time I reached level 40 I had 30 gold and some nice gear + 400 chef.