New Player who can't understand how to craft and upgrade my armor. Please help.

[NOTFORTHEVIEWS]

So really quickly for anyone looking to help I dont care about strongest or most popular. I'm simply trying to understand how to craft and upgrade for my character.

[Danson]

How new are you? Are we talking level 80 gear or below? Crafting has never really been the go-to for me for gear. There's a karma vendor in Orr that sells exotic gear, or you can get a full seat through PvP, or by simply buying a set for relatively cheap (a few gold). If you do want to craft, you have to level up the Armorer skill.

[cvt007]

Armor in this game isn't the same as most other MMOs. At level 80 (the max) gear strength isn't random, you dont need to try running for a god roll weapon or armor.

For example, at level 80 an exotic light armor headgear has the same armor or damage reduction as another exotic light armor headgear, the difference comes in which other stats outside of that are on it.

These stats sometimes come pre-loaded onto a dropped piece of gear or can chosen from a set list. Values don't change, just the combinations they come in so if you check the wiki you'll know what exactly you're getting. A piece of exotic gear from the base game will be just as strong as exotic gear from the DLC.

The highest rarity you don't have to sell your soul over grinding for is Ascended gear. It has the same strength as Legendary gear but is easier to get. It cant be bought or sold from other players so you will need to go out of your way to get it.

At under level 80 just pick the gear that fits what you want. Once you hit lvl 80 focus on this:
Start at getting full exotic gear --> then transition to full or some ascended (you can beat the DLC's with just exotic if you want but it makes things eaiser with ascended) --> then if you're dedicated enough get legendary gear but its a hell of a process so don't stress over it.

[DarkSlayer197]

Crafting is one way to get new gear. Certainly can be a gold sink, however it is very useful long term.

There are a total of 9 crafting disciplines currently. The 10th one will be added for Janthir. Amorsmith for heavy weight armor classes. Leatherworker for medium weight armor classes. Tailoring for light armor classes. Jeweler for trinkets. Chef for food. Artificer for magical weapons (staff, scepter, etc). Huntsman for projectile ranged weapons (pistols, rifles, bows, warhorn, etc). Weaponsmith for melee weapons (axes, swords, daggers, etc). Scribe for guild related stuff.

For leveling up, you'll cycle through your gear pretty regularly. So crafting isn't worth it. Once you're at level 80 (the level cap), that is when crafting becomes useful. You can spend resources to craft special gear (sometimes more flashy than standard gear for fashion), and perhaps to get a more niche stat related gear that isn't so easily obtainable (like Marauder, Dragon, Minstral, etc).

To level up your crafting discipline, you just craft. The items that require a higher level of said discipline will further increase its level. Though anything labeled gray will not grant any further XP. The max level for most crafts is 500 (sounds high, but it really isn't). Most people use a quick guide like https://gw2crafts.net/armorcraft_fast.html to quickly level up their desired discipline. Though you can take your time if you like.

[DarkSlayer197]

Originally posted by cvt007:

At under level 80 just pick the gear that fits what you want. Once you hit lvl 80 focus on this:
Start at getting full exotic gear --> then transition to full or some ascended (you can beat the DLC's with just exotic if you want but it makes things eaiser with ascended) --> then if you're dedicated enough get legendary gear but its a hell of a process so don't stress over it.

I highly recommend going for Legendary armor as soon as you can personally (except the Obsidian armor. Very dumb how expensive that set is). Legendary armor is fairly cheap to make and makes going for other armor a thing of the past. It also frees your inventory space for the need to hold multiple sets of armor with different stats.

Legendary weapons and trinkets however... yes those are a pain.

[SinisterSlay]

Also which part don't you understand? The game throws new equipment at you for leveling up, and as said, when you get to Orr, just use Karma and buy exotic armor, which is almost the best you can get before ascended. You can end game no problem with the stuff from Orr.

I am not super certain how easy it is to craft as a free player since so much of the market is blocked. But I do recall being able to buy unstatted equipment from the trade post and applying runes and stuff yourself instead. But you can also just buy the white level 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 stuff at every generic merchant and not be a lot weaker than everyone else and ride that until you get to Orr.

[NOTFORTHEVIEWS]

Thank you to everyone that has responded. You have completely cleared things up for me. Long story short I'm someone who creates their own lore, study the story and incorporate the crafting and armor leveling system into my story. From what I've gathered this system isn't worth that at all. Thank you all.

[HyperKnight]

Originally posted by NOTFORTHEVIEWS:

From what I've gathered this system isn't worth that at all.

Not exactly. There are many players who don't like to craft so you can get some gold by selling crafted exotics.

[Tirandys]

For long term you will eventually want every crafting discipline at max level. I think there are 2 ways to accomplish this.

1 character can learn 2 crafting disciplines (up to 4 if you spend gold in the gem store). But I think you can learn every crafting discipline on 1 character by leveling 1 craft and then forgetting it. The learn another until you have mastered every crafting discipline on the character. I don't think you lose crafting levels by forgetting a craft, but don't know for sure.

The other way is to have alts and learn 2 crafting discipline on each character, transfer stuff through the bank from character as you need that craft.

[nazeer28]

There is a site called I believe gw2crafts.net it has guides on normal or fast ways of crafting.

The ways you can acquire ascendant items nowadays are much more easier then they were before.

If you are interested in achievements or Legendary items then it is most likely the way to go.

[cvt007]

Originally posted by DarkSlayer197:

Originally posted by cvt007:

At under level 80 just pick the gear that fits what you want. Once you hit lvl 80 focus on this:
Start at getting full exotic gear --> then transition to full or some ascended (you can beat the DLC's with just exotic if you want but it makes things eaiser with ascended) --> then if you're dedicated enough get legendary gear but its a hell of a process so don't stress over it.

I highly recommend going for Legendary armor as soon as you can personally (except the Obsidian armor. Very dumb how expensive that set is). Legendary armor is fairly cheap to make and makes going for other armor a thing of the past. It also frees your inventory space for the need to hold multiple sets of armor with different stats.

Legendary weapons and trinkets however... yes those are a pain.

You say this like it isn't a long time consuming process.