The more I play the More questions I have

[StabbersTheThird.6053]

Crazy game. Every day it's like "have anotha question". Here is the current list which I would absolutely love help with.

 

 

1) Are Gift of the Desert or Gift of Maguuma (Jungle? Idk) once per account or once per character? If they are once per account, how do I get more of those shiny legendaries? I can't pick just one D:!

 

2) In order to make sure I do not lose an excessive amount of money on crafting, can someone explain how the experience bar works? I know that when you enter a new tier (In my case, copper->iron->steel->darksteel->mithril->orichalcum), you want to max out by crafting the basic materials there. However, after I did that it seemed like I got tons of xp for discovering things that were about the level I was on. Do sigils, stones, and weapons give the same amount of discovery experience? Are the onlines guides for crafting really the best? I always feel like someone makes those then uses them to make tons of money. But then I did it on my own, and the listed price was 31g and I spent 61g.

 

3) I finally got my first pieces of ascended gear (YAY!) on my first character (Thief): Berserker amulet, berserker (attuned) ring. I also managed to loot a Celestial statted ring from the big creature in the fractals that you throw rocks at while it smacks you around with tentacles and jade golems. Here are the two questions. Once I get my second ring from today's dailies for my Thief, what is the best method to get more ascended gear (earrings, backpack, armor, and weapons)? I have 450 Weaponsmith and my second craft is at 0 if that is relevant. Second question is: which class/build uses Celestial stats in end game? I really liked them when I was playing my Weaver in pvp, but I don't know if that is end game viable and I've been told by my guild it gets kinda of elitist once you head for raids. And you can't play a game with raids and not go do raids. And I'm not sure if I'll be able to play my Thief in raids.

 

4) On my way to make my first legendary (HMS Divinity hype never ends) will it be better to gather the materials I need myself or to buy them off the market? Also, do I have to build Schooner->Frigate->Man'O'War->HMS Divinity? Or can I just build Man'O'War->Divinity?

 

5) If I swap my crafting professions, do they lose experience? For instance, if I need to make some ascended armor and I swap my weaponsmith to leatherworker, will my Weaponsmith go down to 0?

 

6) Who is Scarlet? I was doing the story quests and got to the part where I met the original crew (Eir, Logan, Rytlock, Taimi, Caithe) and the Lion's Arch looked WAY different. I asked people and they said Scarlet broke it. Then in Fractals Scarlet is mentioned EVERYWHERE. Scarlet broke a reactor. Scarlet broke the Mists. Scarlet broke this or that. Why did Scarlet break everything? Needless to say, she sounds like an actual boss which is why I grabbed the only Mini of her I could find.

 

7) I have one guild and we do random stuff together. Are there any guilds I can join that will do Fractals with me? Or Dungeons? Or raids when I get there? I ask around in LA and Spvp lobby but never really get a response.

 

8) What is the loot difference between Fractals, dungeons, and raids? I never see any parties for dungeons (I need to do them at least for achievements, but I wanna see the story of them too), fractal groups I see are only for dailies (my personal fractal level is 14 right now), and I can't figure out what is happening with raids to save my life.

 

9) I am playing Deadeye thief because I love dagger/dagger<->rifle a lot. Everyone hates them in pvp (to fight with or against). Why is that? Will I receive the same hate in raids when I get there, or will I be allowed to play my Deadeye?

 

10) What makes Istan the best place to grind money? Is there anywhere or anything comparable?

 

 

**Thanks for your time.**

[Game of Bones.8975]

I use gw2efficiency.com to answer many of the questions you asked regarding crafting vs. buying.

tentonhammer.com is also another site good for leveling up crafting discipllines with the least amount of gold and mats.

 

You don't lose any crafting level experience.

[Endless Soul.5178]

> @"StabbersTheThird.6053" said:

> Crazy game. Every day it's like "have anotha question". Here is the current list which I would absolutely love help with.

>

>

> 1) Are Gift of the Desert or Gift of Maguuma (Jungle? Idk) once per account or once per character? If they are once per account, how do I get more of those shiny legendaries? I can't pick just one D:!

 

> **Thanks for your time.**

 

I can definitely answer this one quickly. It's once per character.! :)

[StabbersTheThird.6053]

Yay I can get all the legos! Er, Legendaries. I'm going to call them legos. I forgot to ask: How do I get more obsidian shards? I have a bajeezus ton of those ascended things (Red, Yellow, and Blue things).

[Tenken.7342]

Scarlet's story is something you had to have been there to experience. Bits and pieces may be made available again through fractals in the future, but that's really speculation by the community. The following link is a good synopsis of her story. Reminds me of some good times in LWS1...

 

[Cyninja.2954]

> @"StabbersTheThird.6053" said:

> Crazy game. Every day it's like "have anotha question". Here is the current list which I would absolutely love help with.

>

>

> 1) Are Gift of the Desert or Gift of Maguuma (Jungle? Idk) once per account or once per character? If they are once per account, how do I get more of those shiny legendaries? I can't pick just one D:!

 

Per character. Most limited Gift items (Gift of exploration) can be gained per character. Very few are per Account and those are usually achievement point items.

 

> @"StabbersTheThird.6053" said:

>

> 2) In order to make sure I do not lose an excessive amount of money on crafting, can someone explain how the experience bar works? I know that when you enter a new tier (In my case, copper->iron->steel->darksteel->mithril->orichalcum), you want to max out by crafting the basic materials there. However, after I did that it seemed like I got tons of xp for discovering things that were about the level I was on. Do sigils, stones, and weapons give the same amount of discovery experience? Are the onlines guides for crafting really the best? I always feel like someone makes those then uses them to make tons of money. But then I did it on my own, and the listed price was 31g and I spent 61g.

 

Gw2crafts.net will give you the Total cost and guide to get to 400 and 500 for crafts.

 

> @"StabbersTheThird.6053" said:

>

> 3) I finally got my first pieces of ascended gear (YAY!) on my first character (Thief): Berserker amulet, berserker (attuned) ring. I also managed to loot a Celestial statted ring from the big creature in the fractals that you throw rocks at while it smacks you around with tentacles and jade golems. Here are the two questions. Once I get my second ring from today's dailies for my Thief, what is the best method to get more ascended gear (earrings, backpack, armor, and weapons)? I have 450 Weaponsmith and my second craft is at 0 if that is relevant. Second question is: which class/build uses Celestial stats in end game? I really liked them when I was playing my Weaver in pvp, but I don't know if that is end game viable and I've been told by my guild it gets kinda of elitist once you head for raids. And you can't play a game with raids and not go do raids. And I'm not sure if I'll be able to play my Thief in raids.

 

Check the Wiki on ascended trinkets. That will give a good over view where those can be gained.

 

Weapons are available viel achievement and the Knight of Thorn quest.

 

> @"StabbersTheThird.6053" said:

>

> 4) On my way to make my first legendary (HMS Divinity hype never ends) will it be better to gather the materials I need myself or to buy them off the market? Also, do I have to build Schooner->Frigate->Man'O'War->HMS Divinity? Or can I just build Man'O'War->Divinity?

 

I'd stay away from legendary for now. It's something many New players will burn out on.

 

> @"StabbersTheThird.6053" said:

>

> 5) If I swap my crafting professions, do they lose experience? For instance, if I need to make some ascended armor and I swap my weaponsmith to leatherworker, will my Weaponsmith go down to 0?

 

Changing crafts costs 10 copper per skill point of the craft you change to. Maximum 50s at rank 500.

 

Crafts stay at their level and experience even if Switches out of.

 

> @"StabbersTheThird.6053" said:

>

> 6) Who is Scarlet? I was doing the story quests and got to the part where I met the original crew (Eir, Logan, Rytlock, Taimi, Caithe) and the Lion's Arch looked WAY different. I asked people and they said Scarlet broke it. Then in Fractals Scarlet is mentioned EVERYWHERE. Scarlet broke a reactor. Scarlet broke the Mists. Scarlet broke this or that. Why did Scarlet break everything? Needless to say, she sounds like an actual boss which is why I grabbed the only Mini of her I could find.

 

Watch the ingame season 1 recap or watch a youtube video on season 1.

 

> @"StabbersTheThird.6053" said:

>

> 7) I have one guild and we do random stuff together. Are there any guilds I can join that will do Fractals with me? Or Dungeons? Or raids when I get there? I ask around in LA and Spvp lobby but never really get a response.

 

You can be in up to 5 guild. Feel free to diversify. Beware of guilds which demand for you to represent. That might create conflicts.

[Batel.9206]

> @"Tenken.7342" said:

> Scarlet's story is something you had to have been there to experience. Bits and pieces may be made available again through fractals in the future, but that's really speculation by the community. The following link is a good synopsis of her story. Reminds me of some good times in LWS1...

>

>

 

Here's another, more in-depth recap; it basically covers *everything*, recording most of the story instances and dialogue. It's also about three hours long, so grab some popcorn.

[starlinvf.1358]

Expanding on 2: its a basic EXP system and leveling system, except you have a diminishing return and a "crit chance" for bonus EXP. The Diminishing returns reduces the amount of Exp you gain depending on the number of sub-tiers you are "over" the level needed to learn the recipe. For instance, if you refine copper into bronze ingots, every 5 levels or so the amount of exp you get per ingot crafted drops. At Crafting level 25 in that discipline, you get 0 Exp for crafting a bronze ingot.

 

The math is important if you're looking to try and save coin on the leveling process..... but the simplified rules of thumb:

1. Refinement

2. Masterwork Discovery

3. Rare Components

4. Rare Discovery/Production

5. Exotic Components/Discovery if necessary

6. Exotic Production as a last resort. You can sometimes swap 5 and 6 if the Exotic item has a secondary value as crafting components or can be sold to recoup cost.

 

Crafted production to get up through the first segment of each tier/sub-tier, and try to avoid using discovery until production options at blue or lower (the crafting UI color codes known recipes based on how much EXP it can produce; starting at Orange, and eventually goes to white then grey when EXP it gives is 0). This is because Discovery isn't subject to Diminishing returns, but still only give amounts appropriate for their crafting level.

 

Its also recommended to not craft as you go, since crafting boosters cut your overall material cost by 25% on average. You want to amass a significant amount of materials (which you're gonna need a lot more then you think) and/or gold to stage a project, and then pop a crafting booster to maximize exp gains out of your finite material supply. Doing it all in one sitting is ideal (1 hour window for the crafting booster buff), but typically takes 1 and half due to having to stop periodically and look up information or make runs to the TP to pick up more materials. Trophies (Blood, fangs, etc) are usually the things you have the buy the most, as their drop rate is very low relative to how much is needed in crafting recipes. Also keep in mind crafting guides can't fully account for crafting boosters, since EXP crits are random.

 

[starlinvf.1358]

Expanding on 3: It depends on the stats you want. Core stats (Berserkers etc) are a mixed bag. Rings are cheapest/easiest to obtain, and will sometimes drop. But Amulets and Accessories are much more convoluted, and have a lot of Legacy vendors with vastly different value/cost. All 3 can be bought with Laurels, but Amulets are the only ones you should consider buying this way, as the other items are way more expensive and have better alternative vendors. But theres more on the specifics below. Back Pieces are pain to obtain in Core, and are only reliably gained via very expensive crafting recipes. But since Core tends to have the most desirable back piece skins, most people will make a few just to unlock the skins. The main alternative is the Fractal Capacitor; but while its cheaper on gold, its takes a LOT of fractal relics to produce an ascended version, and is very limited on what stats you can get.

 

Which brings us to the Main way people get ascended trinkets now. Living Story Season 3 introduced an alternative method to get ascended trinkets in a very straight forward manner (farm tokens). Living Story Season 4 does the same thing the for POF stats. All items are stat selectable (once), and can be promoted for extra infusion slots using the same MF recipes as any other Trinket. Being straight forward, and effectively 0 gold, is why its universally recommended to have at least 2 or 3 chapters in each block that will collectively give you access to all 6 trinket types.

 

 

The newest method are the Mist Trinkets. They are obtained via PvP, WvW or Fractals, and are Stat selectable (once) with every stat available in the game. They can also be reset fairly cheaply, so you can change stats whenever the meta sees a big shift. However, these items are comparatively expensive (can't be farmed) as they are bought with Time Gated currencies (Asc Shards, Skirmish Tickets, and Pristine Relics respectively).

 

Appendix: You can also purchase Trinkets via Raid Vendors, but decided to leave that out since you can't get them solo, and typically already need a full gear set even start playing in.

 

 

For Armor and weapons the most reliable methods are crafting them, and occasionally getting a weapon/armor box as a drop that you can repurpose the stats on later. You can sometimes get slightly discounted Weapons by doing the Elite spec weapon collections; but given that they are meant as a scavenger hunt, they take significantly more effort and might not even have the stats you want. One collection worth noting is the Caladbalg Side story if you Complete the Heart of Thorns story line. That Character can then do a quest to restore the Broken sword piece souvenir into a limited set of we weapons types, but has selectable stats for Core and HOT, can be reset, and can even change its weapon type between GS, Sw, Sc, Sh, Dagger.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

One of your best resources for questions is the Wiki (link above or in-game by typing /Wiki in the chat window).

You can post in the 'Looking for Guilds' sub-forum or just peruse the many recruitment posts there.

You can visit the 'Raids/Fractals/Dungeons' sub-forum for insights into those areas of content, or to ask specific questions.

 

Welcome to Tyria, and good luck.

 

[starlinvf.1358]

4. Given the amount of material needed, you'll eventually have buy at least some of the rare ones needed for the final promotion step. Since gen 2.5 doesn't have a lot time of mandatory gates, 75% of your effort and cost is wrapped up in processing materials and collecting tokens. The other 25% is effort needed to crate the promotion gifts, like map complete, gift of battle, gift of Wood/Metal and the Crafting disciplines that create them. And yes, you MUST go through all the crafting steps, since the recipes are unlocked in sequence.

 

Given how expensive and complicated Legendary gear production is, its highly recommended to stay away until you've already unlocked all the prerequsite crafting disciplines, mastery tracks (which are REQUIRED), are sitting on a substantial supply of various non-basic crafting materials (tokens, trophies, lodestones, etc) and have at least 700g to spare in case you need to buy supplies.

 

If you try to do it by collecting everything you need yourself........ I recommend you don't. Farming Mid-tier mats is extremely difficult once you're character is past that level band, and the Gen 2/2.5 weapon and the Legendary armor require substantial amounts of them. Even if you target farm them, the drop rate is so low overall, you're looking at a good 6 months of just focusing on that. But the bigger asspain is time gated mystic coins.... You're looking at 2 years of login rewards to get the 250 coins needed for the process. You can get it down to 1 year for the coins, provided you're willing to put in 230+ Hours into WvW and/or PvP reward tracks to get Mystic clovers that way.

 

I'd strongly suggest focusing mostly on getting a few characters situated with good builds, and getting decent with them, so they can use them to "do things" that generate things of value. Be it group PvE content for tokens, farming mats, doing dailies, leveling crafting up, trading stuff on the TP for gold, and just passively gathering and processing materials until you have enough of a supply to get started with. I didn't even start on my first legendary until a year and half in, and I only make 1 or 2 legendary weapons per year (mostly because I wait for dips in material prices, so I can buy the harder to farm ones in bulk).

[Daleon.8912]

> @"StabbersTheThird.6053" said:

> 5) If I swap my crafting professions, do they lose experience? For instance, if I need to make some ascended armor and I swap my weaponsmith to leatherworker, will my Weaponsmith go down to 0?

You don't lose the levels when swapping, but I still wouldn't recommend it due to the cost. Just make another character and level up the new crafting profession with that character. You have access to both professions for free that way.

 

[OrbitalButt.5708]

Scarlet was a mistake

[phs.6089]

Use this to level your crafting efficiently http://gw2crafts.net/leatherworking.html

 

Good article about gearing in GW2 https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Tanetris/So_You_Want_To_Gear_a_Character

 

People hate rifle DA in pvp as it brings nothing to team fights and being annoying to opposite team.

 

Istan farm arguably is the best in the game atm. Old good Silvewastes are still a good farm as well

 

P.S. HMS Divinity is generation 2 that will ask you for full HoT masteries in order to make Gift of Maguuma. Gift of Desert is juts as annoying