Guild Wars 2

seems like when ever a i level a guy i fall behind on armor. Like my armor is for a level 25 or 20 when i am 30 or 35. Is the best way to get this stuff is just to craft it all? or buy it?
any and all input is great

Crafting is a typical way to get on-level armor, and I craft armor for my alts.

On my first character, I either ran around with under-leveled armor until I found something better, or I bought it on the TP if I had the money.

Another way if you don’t have the crafting materials available on hand (or the necessary skill level to craft decent gear), is to switch starting zones. Since all zones scale your character, do full map completion for zones that match your armor level. This worked great for me especially when I was starting out and had no money. When I completed the Queensdale Map,. I went to Caledon Forest, then Metrica Province, etc. Good way to gather up crafting materials and money which you could use to either level crafting or buy TP. At this stage in the game, a lot of gear below 80 can be bought for cheap. I’d advise against getting rares though. Green items will do just fine.

I change gear every 15 or 20 levels. But once I hit level 70, I stop getting gear until I’m 80.

Caelos Silvermoon.2759:

(…) or buy TP. At this stage in the game, a lot of gear below 80 can be bought for cheap. I’d advise against getting rares though. Green items will do just fine.

Just agreeing with this. Whenever I felt like my character was really falling behind, I cruised the trading post for on/near-level masterworks. They’re fairly cheap, usually, and replacing my 5 worst pieces of armor / trinkets tended to be a great second wind in terms of power. I could be wrong on the prices, but I think you can get pretty far on 20 silver.

1-2 dungeon path runs will get you around 1 piece of level 80 armor. Figure out what stats you want and then see which dungeon armor provides those stats. Then figure out what runes you want and craft or buy them. Personally I think crafting your weapons is gonna be cheaper than buying outright. Farm rings and backpiece from FotM. Buy your amulet with Laurels. Craft or buy your jewellery.

I always just crafted my weapons and armor, and bought jewelry. Until you get up to exotics, it’s pretty cheap to do this even if you have to buy some mats to do it.

Just make sure you keep up with the latest gear, I did it every 15 levels when I could craft the next Masterwork (green) tier. Rares typically aren’t worth it, and you can worry about Exotics once you hit 80.

spacewhales.4289:

seems like when ever a i level a guy i fall behind on armor. Like my armor is for a level 25 or 20 when i am 30 or 35. Is the best way to get this stuff is just to craft it all? or buy it?
any and all input is great

Don’t bother with it too much and equip what you find and is better then your current. Nothing wrong with being 10 levels behind with gear.

You can craft if you want and have the materials, but I wouldn’t spend too much coin on it.

Nice thing about crafting though is that it gains you levels ridiculously fast, so if getting to 80 quickly is a priority I would definitely consider it.

What I’ve done was find armor on the TP that sells for 1c more than the npc price… and there is a LOT of it on there. When you’re done with it, just NPC it. That allows you to keep your gear up to date. Normally you can just find blues/greens on the TP for 1c more… that’s fine… just use those. Rares aren’t better for many levels vs greens/blues. It’s better to have up to date blues/greens vs old rares.

If you want to craft as well I would suggest jewel crafting as your first. Jewelry doesn’t keep upgrading at the same rate that you can find new blue/green armor/weapons. It’s fine for it to be a little old. It also has the benefit of being very easy and not requiring any of the blue claw/fang/whatever mats. You can get everything you need for it just from mining.

Or you want level even faster, you can pair up JC with LW and have no required material conflicts

Crafting is a good method, but it can also be expensive. The loss of gold not being able to sell the blue mats (claws/fangs) when you’re just starting out will add up. There are ways to mitigate that though.

A tip for when you’re crafting armor/weapons is that you can buy the insignia component with orders and save gold. Often it’s under 1/2 the price to order it off of the TP Vs. make the insignia yourself with the blue mats. Don’t buy it str8 off of listings… wait for the orders to be filled. You can then sell the blue mats yourself and pocket the difference.