GUIDES

Thoughts From a Beginning Guild Wars 2 Crafter, Part 1

Crafting - oh man!! When I first started hearing the word crafting, my thought was sewing, knitting, stained glass painting. Ha Ha… What an eye-opener it was.  More vocabulary arose: Armorsmith, Artificer, Chef, Huntsman, Jeweler, Leatherworker, Tailor, Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, Chef, Jeweler. Even though I won’t talk about some of these crafts until Part 2, I wanted to explain what they make for you.

Armorsmiths make Heavy Armor (boots, coats, gloves, leggings, helmets, and shoulders), Inventory Packs and Runes

Artificers make Scepters Tridents, Staffs, Foci, Sigils and Potions

Chefs make food to consume for extra Buffs and Health.

Huntsmen make Guns, Bows, Warhorns, and Torches, as well as Sigils

Jewelers make Rings, Amulets, and Earrings. You can transmorph gemstones to higher levels too.

Leatherworkers make Medium Armor, Inventory Packs and Runes

Tailors make Light Armor, Inventory Packs and Runes

Weaponsmiths make Axes, Daggers, Hammers, Greatswords, Maces, Shields, Spears, and Swords, as well as Sigils

There are a few steps that you need to remember to before you actually start crafting in Guild Wars 2.  I am not an expert and would not be able to explain the higher level crafting. That being said, I do know how to get started. This will be another pictorial guide on how to craft.

To become a legendary crafter, you need to start by acquiring supplies.  And that means the little steps first. These are: buying the proper tools; equipping your tools, and then gathering materials. Even though there are some materials you can buy, you can just work for them too.

1st Step - Buying tools.

Note: You are awarded a set of copper tools at level 9.

Find a merchant in one of the beginning areas. The easy ones to remember are in Divinity’s Reach and Lion’s Arch. You will start out with a copper sickle, axe and pick.  As your character levels up and goes to higher level areas, you will progress up with Iron, Steel, Darksteel, Mithril and Orichalcum tools. I usually buy 2 or 3 sets depending on how many bags you carry.

Equipping Your Tools

The tools will not show up to use until you “Equip” them. Press ‘I’ for Inventory and Press ‘H’ for Hero. I double clicked on the tools in my inventory, one at a time.  In the picture above, I  added them to the Hero Equipment page (yellow circle). Now you are ready to go find ingredients to use for crafting.

There are a few ways to get crafting materials: Farming for things like trees, ore and herb located on your minimap; fighting different critters and foes; and breaking down gear and equipment.

Farming Crafting Supplies

Locating Trees, Ore and Herbs

The yellow circle shows herbs and root veggies. The orange rectangle shows logs(trees), herbs (3-green leafs), and ore (a grey triangle).   Once you find these you move your character toward the area and they should light up with yellow words (see picture below).  

Chopping, Mining and Gathering

The picture above has 2 ovals. One around the tree name and the word “chop”.  Press “F” and you now have chopped a tree.  You will get a box to the right of your screen that says “Unclaimed loot”(below).  Click on them.  They will land in your Inventory bag.  This is the same for ore and herbs.

Deposit Materials

To deposit your materials press “I” for Inventory. Go up to the gear in the right hand corner of your inventory box and click -  You will see “Deposit all Materials”. Click it and your crafting supplies will be deposited in your crafting bank.  [I must note at this time that your crafting material storage can fill up.  If an item isn’t deposited that may be why.]

Other Ways to Acquire Materials

There are other ways to get materials. When you fight a foe, you may also acquire bags with gear and crafting materials. Below are some different types of bags and goodies you will receive. You can also break down unusable equipment/gear and can get other crafting materials.  

Fighting Foes

As you fight some spiders and loot, the things you receive will scroll on the right side of your screen. This fight, I received equipment to break down for crafting materials and other things to sell.

Receiving Bags

In the yellow square (above) are some bags you receive from fighting foes.  Double click to open the bag.  In so doing, you will receive items that you can break down and acquire more crafting items and other things of use.

Breaking Down Gear

Buy a salvage kit from your local merchant (above). There are different salvage kits depending on what level you are. In the beginning, a crude salvage kit is all you need to break down materials.

To break down gear, double click your salvage kit (orange arrow above). When you do this it will turn all the things you can’t break down to the color red and the things you can break down are open. Take your cursor over to the item to be broken down and click.  You will see other items appeared, including craft items.

The picture below (yellow squares) shows some of what appears. Deposit all materials…

After you are done, depositing and breaking down you can go to the merchant (above) and sell what is left.  If your crafting bank for a particular item is full -- like the thin leather section in the yellow circle below -- you can put the overflow items in your bank.  The picture below also shows how many craft items you receive in bigger battles of PVE and WVW. Its a great place to store some of your extra crafting tools collected for your new characters you make later.  

Part 1 Overview

The things talked about here will get you started on your way to being a crafter.  Let’s review what we learned.  

  • You can go to a local merchant to buy tools for gathering and salvage kits, and to sell extra items not needed.
  • The main ways to receive crafting materials including how to: farm and deposit them into the craft bank; fight foes to receive items; and break down equipment.  

As you open your map and collect these items, you will next learn how to craft these items into Weapons, Armor, Runes, Sigils, Potions, Food and much much more.  Stay tuned for the next step in Part 2 of the Thoughts of a Beginning Crafter.

Published: September 17th, 2015   |  4,889 Reads

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.

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