Guild Wars 2

I’m 350ish leatherworker.. I don’t have a ton of time to farm dungeons, so am I best off gathering the mats necessary to craft a set of armor myself, or are they not quite worth the trouble? Thanks in advance.

Well, without some more detail, it is hard to advise you. What stats are you looking for?

I use pistols in PvE, and Rifle in WvW for the range, so I’ve stuck to mostly +condition dmg gear so far.

So for damage you could make a rampagers set for power/precision/cond. dmg. Carrion set with cond. dmg/pow/vit.

i was considering making a guide and posting it.

As an engi, I recommend at least 3 armor sets.
First set at 80 ought to be a rare, yellow crafted set of:

Explorers noble

This is power/prec/magic find. If you have alot of cash, go ahead and skip to exotic explorers.
This will act as your power direct damage set in most circumstances, while you dungeon, farm, and WvW.
Once, you can afford it, get the exotic version of the set.

While doing those things, you now want to build 2 more sets of gear.
A power, prec, crit damage beserker set.
And a prec/tough/cond condition set.

The best way to get this gear is to get it bit by bit.

Orr has “god” sets for karma.
http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/
A great guide. 42k per piece. not too much if you do DE’s and WvW.
Likely can buy 2 peices by 80.
This is where you get your prec/tough/cond gear. it can not be crafted.
Honor of the Waves, and Twilight Arbor ALSO have prec/tough/cond gear.
However, you should use those tokens to buy prec/tough/cond PISTOLS, which cost a TON, and are hard to come by.
While the 42k karma is very cheap in comparison for the armor.

Your beserker power set, will come from 2 places.
CoF is the most likely source. Tokens for Citidal of flame will let you buy power/prec/crit damage armor. Other dugeons do have the same stats, I think Ascalon does iirc, but CoF runs are more common.
Your grenade/flamethrower/bomb build you need this for, does not have a high priority for rifle, as weapon stats are not used with kits. So those tokens are for ARMOR, not guns, like I stated prec/tough/cond tokens are for.
Beserkers crafted exotic gear is fairly cheap as well. You can speed up your acquisition of this stat accolation via crafted gear if you wish.

Engineers tend to be a class that needs precision more than others.
What with sharpshooter and incendiary powder being so accessible and powerful.

I recommend condition damage/precision and a toughness, with high points in alchemy for a vitality boost. Take some elixirs and a flamethrower or grenade kit for high procs.

Something like:

10- Incendiary Powder
30- Swiftness on Crit, 20% faster cooldown for pistols, pistols pierce
0
30- Vigor on swiftness, 20% faster elixirs, elixirs remove conditions
0

If you’re going with Bombs, Flamethrower, or any other spec that will see you close to the action, I highly recommend Knight’s armor and Emerald jewelry.

I currently have a mix of rare/exotic Knights, and a mix of Emerald and Coral jewels for a Bomb spec. I really enjoy it, and I know if I ever switch to Flamethrower I won’t have to shell out a lot of cash to get new stats.

At the moment, getting your crafting to level 400 just so you can craft yourself a set is not worth it.

You are better off buying the materials and asked a friend/guildie to craft for you; or
Buying the armor/weapon off from the trading posts.