Thoughts of a Beginning Crafter, Part 2 - GuildWars 2
Welcome back for Part 2 of beginning crafting. Now that you have collected a lot of crafting materials, we can start crafting…
There are 8 crafting stations: Tailor, Armorsmith, Leatherworker, Artificer, Huntsman, Weaponsmith, Jeweler and Chef. You can find these stations all around the map. Talking to advanced crafters, they inform me that you could craft all on one character without paying for a “Crafting License”(800 gems), but it will cost silver to switch back to the one that is deactivated. To save gold, it is best to do some of the crafts together on one character. The reasoning behind this comes from using the same crafting components in the groups of 3 below. The craft groupings are:
- Tailor, Armorsmith, Leatherworker
- Artificer, Huntsman, Weaponsmith
- Jeweler
- Chef
My hope is to give you the basics on how to start these crafts. The stations all work the same way. For example, if I am showing you how the station works in jeweling, the steps work the same as the other crafting stations, but the recipes you acquire and the crafting items needed will change.
The steps I will illustrate for you are:
- Finding the Crafting stations
- Talking to the Crafting Trainer
- What is the Side-Bar List showing me and how do I use them?
- Changing Crafts
- Advancing your Crafting to a Higher Level
- Where to Buy Crafting Supplies and Recipes
Finding the Crafting stations
Every zone has crafting stations. The one shown below is in Divinity’s Reach. You will find a trainer for that craft and a crafting station at the symbols below.
Talking to the Crafting Trainer
Press “F” when you find the trainer. Click on “Please teach me to be a ……” Then - off to the Crafting Table!
Opening the Crafting Table
After talking to the Trainer, go to your crafting table and press “F” to open the table. Now you are ready to start crafting. When you open the crafting table you might ask, “ What are those crazy symbols to the left of the window?” First thing it does is drop you down to the second section - Production. I want to explain a bit of all the sections first, then will go into detail.
What Does the Side-Bar List Show Me and How to Use Them?
There are 5 sections on the side-bar (from top to bottom): Discovery, Production, Your Bank, Materials Collection and your Wardrobe Collection. The Discovery section is where you make/find new recipes for your craft. The Production Section is where you start crafting the basic items so you have enough materials to find recipes. The Bank is where you store the extra materials that will be used for crafting, your crafting components and misc. other stuff you want to keep. The Materials Collection is where you go to find out what you have and what you need. The Wardrobe Collection is not actually part of crafting, but is still a place you can look at what wardrobe pieces that have been acquired and things you still need.
Discovery - Finding new Recipes
The Discovery section will show you what materials you have available to use. The items that can be used at your level are clear and the items at a higher level are red. We will come back to this section because this is the second step for the jeweling craft. We need to deal with the Production section first. Note: For other crafts you can do discovery first when refinement isn’t necessary.
Production - Making your items
Production is the section where you create components for your products. As you discover recipes, this also becomes the place that stores the recipes for your creations.
We will start with refinement for the jeweler. In the figure below, you need to refine your ore. Click on Copper ingot and a recipe appears to the right. It tells you how much copper ore is needed to make an ingot. Press craft and walla - you made your first item. With refinement, usually, the “Craft All” button is ok to use. There are some cases with other professions, where it is a bad idea. [For example, when it comes to planks, dowels, bronze and steel. Sometimes you will want a plank - so you don’t want to refine all the planks into dowels. For bronze/steel, you need copper ore/iron ore, so you don’t want to put all your ore into ingots.] After you refine the ore, move to crafting your components. Do a few of each until you figure out what you actually need.
Your Bank
Storage for extra crafting and other things you want to keep
Your Bank is an extra place to store things when you want more room in your character’s inventory bags. It is for things you don’t want to sell or extra crafting items that don’t fit in your Material Storage. At this point, it is best to save them in your bank for use when you empty your material storage while crafting.
Material Storage - All your crafting materials are stored here.
The Material Storage area has enough room for 250 of the same item. You may view what you have by clicking the button on the left. It looks like 9 squares inside a larger square.
Note: At the Black Lion Trader you can go to “upgrades” and buy a “Storage Expander” with gems, if you need more space.
Wardrobe Collection
This area will show you all the types of wardrobe armor you have opened. It also includes the items collected as you level, both in crafting and out in the world.
Changing Crafts
To switch crafts, Talk to a trainer and ask him to teach you the new craft.
Ask to deactivate the other. As shown below, I asked to deactivate leatherworker to become an armorsmith. When you do this, the craft you deactivate is still stored at the level you acquired. All you have to do is ask for the craft back. [Note: There will be a silver charge each time you switch back to a craft you deactivated, but it is minimal in the grand spectrum of crafting.] You may have up to 2 different crafts, before having to do this step. Personally, I find it is good to have the 3 crafts all at the same level so you can be using the same tier of materials as you level up.
Advancing your Crafting to a Higher Level
Steps are basically the same as lower level. The only difference is that you will have more items opened up and more recipes to discover. The 3 basic things you will be doing are production, discovery and breaking down the small items you made.
1 - Production
In the picture below, you will see many items to be refined and then others to make. My suggestions would be to refine (#1) the iron ingot and the soft and green wood planks. Then go to Potions (#2). You will see numbers to the right side of the items. Those tell you how many of that item you may make. Some recipes take the same material, so my suggestion is to make a few of each item at first and then when you go to the discovery panel, there is more variety for finding recipes.
Another thing with Production is the colors of the items crafted. On the picture below, you will see three arrows. The top arrow (gold lettering), will level your crafting. The second arrow (red lettering) is too high for your craft level. You can’t craft those items yet. And the bottom arrow (greyed out lettering) are things you can make, but it won’t increase your crafting level. Sometimes you need to craft these items to discover more recipes. The discovery of the items will help in leveling.
2 - Discovering Recipes
In the picture below - I discovered a Minor Sigil of the Night. Below the title are the ingredients needed to make the sigil. The more recipes you discover, the higher your level will go. I find breaking down what I make, gives me more supply to make and discover more.
3 - Breaking down the small items you made.
This is the same as breaking down the items you earned in fighting foes. Find the Item you made in your inventory. Double click on one of your salvage kits and click on that item. By salvaging the items made, you receive more “luck” for your characters. Deposit all materials and either sell the extra materials or save it in your bank.
Once you get to a higher level, you can start using some of the items you make, to clothe and dress your characters.
Where to Buy Crafting Supplies and Recipes
If you are lazy ;-) or in a hurry and have a lot of laurels, karma and gold, you can buy crafting supplies, crafting starter kits and recipes. The vendors to look for are: Laurel, Heart/Karma, Craft Trainer and the Black Lion Trader. The pictures below will show you what can be received. Note: most of the recipes are for high level crafters.
Laurel Vendor
This Laurel vendor, in Divinity’s Reach, is where you can purchase your crafting starter kits and ascended weapon recipes. First picture shows the kits for your different crafts. You can find similar vendors in other areas too.
Crafting starter kits (below) - you can only buy one, for each craft, per account.
The same vendor also sells weapon recipes and many other items of use for higher level players.
Heart and Karma Vendors
This Karma vendor in the Grove sells cooking supplies. You can find them around in all the worlds. A heart vendor is also a karma vendor. You can get different items at each one of them.
Craft Trainer Crafting Supplies
Ask the craft trainer for supplies. You will see multiple bags down the left side. There are lots of items for sale including inscription recipes (picture below). You can find ascended weapon recipes, too. These are for high level crafters.
Black Lion Trader
The Black Lion Trader has many crafting supplies and recipes, armor, weapons, food and the like.
As I was writing this, I have been able to level my jeweler to the top level of 400. My other crafters are also on there way to max. It is a lot of farming, fighting and fun to get the materials. I think that is what Guild Wars 2 is about: Having fun in whatever you choose to do. Thank you, Gaiscioch Family, for helping through my journeys!!!
About the Author
GmaFog
Senior Editor
As GmaFog loves to adventure in life, she gets excited about everything surrounding her. In addition to working as a Web Production Assistant for Franchise Update Media, she voluntarily writes and edits for Gaiscioch Magazine. She attends Westside Christian Church and loves going on missions trips to Rwanda with Africa New Life Ministries. In her spare time, Gma plays games with The Gaiscioch [GSCH] Family and grandsons; dabbles in photography; and explores crafting ideas. You can always ask her questions, as she enjoys helping others, in-game and out.
About Guild Wars 2
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