Guild Wars 2

It makes perfect sense that you can’t use higher level crafting materials right off the bat, both from a game design perspective and a realistic perspective.

From a game design perspective, crafting the best stuff at the very start makes it pointless to include any sort of player economy. In a game like GW2 that gives experience for crafting, it’s even more important for there to be a progression.

From a realistic perspective, go take any class on – for example – jewelry making. When you start out, you’re not going to be given diamonds and gold and told to make jewelry. You’re started with less expensive, easier to use materials. This applies to just about any crafting profession – woodcarvers start with softer woods when they’re learning, blacksmiths often start with bronze and iron, and tailors often start with linens. You will literally never meet a real world craftsperson that learned their craft on premium materials.

Oh, I agree with you, it’s not a great recipe and having just one purpose (of arguable usefulness) is silly. I was just offering an explanation.

Maybe it’s not working right?

Do booster multipacks stack with one another? It’s possible they intended it to save us some bank space.

You gotta start somewhere. Each crafting discipline starts out using the low-level crafting materials and low level items, and you work your way up to high level crafting materials and high level items. If you do it right (maximize your experience gain by refining materials until it provides no further experience, THEN actually crafting), you’ll be crafting level-appropriate gear in no time.

What I’m wondering is why you expected to be making level 40 items right off the bat.