During this past weekend's Guild Wars 2 closed beta event, we spent some time learning some of the intricacies of the crafting system. We've got some thoughts to share about GW2 crafting that you won't want to miss. Did you try it? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Let me start by saying that I really enjoy crafting in my MMOs. I feel like it adds an extra dimension to the game. I enjoy the feeling of self-sufficiency being able to craft gives me and hey, the ability to help my guildmates with stuff doesn’t hurt either. So, it was without hesitation that after creating my Norn Thief this past weekend in Guild Wars 2’s first beta weekend that I set off to find some skill trainers. Around level six or so, I made my way to Hoelbrak, the Norn city and signed up with the Cooking and Leatherworking disciplines. Since GW2 thieves use medium armor, Leatherworking seemed like a good idea and, as in many games, cooking seemed like it would be practical for my own needs, guildmates, and to put on the market.

Read more of Christina Gonzalez's Guild Wars 2 Crafting Preview.

I disagree with "The distribution of materials also seems to want to keep pace with the player level". As an Artificer and Weaponsmith the gathering modes were way ahead of my crafting level. Example - iron requires level 75 and I was level 24 at the end of the beta. Although I enjoyed some of the crafting I was disappointed that the receipes for the items (not the components) depended upon uncommon drops (exampe: vial of weak blood). I spent most of my time (I was a Norn) just building components to level my crafting skill and that only went so far. I enjoyed the discovery process but never discovered anything because I was too low in crafting level.

The way that I see it is that the crafting system is meant for high level toons with a load of time on their hands. It is not meant to be used "on you way up".  That, to me, is disappointing.

Originally posted by tordurbar

The way that I see it is that the crafting system is meant for high level toons with a load of time on their hands. It is not meant to be used "on you way up".  That, to me, is disappointing.

I agree. During my time in Beta, all I was able to make was components for stuff that I couldn't make, as I was out of Weak Vial of Blood, or couldn't grind my craft skill up enough as I didn't have the higher level mats I needed.

ArenaNet needs to "normalise" it's crafting recipes, so the level with the character, rather than just being there for the end game. 

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Originally posted by tordurbar I disagree with "The distribution of materials also seems to want to keep pace with the player level". As an Artificer and Weaponsmith the gathering modes were way ahead of my crafting level. Example - iron requires level 75 and I was level 24 at the end of the beta. Although I enjoyed some of the crafting I was disappointed that the receipes for the items (not the components) depended upon uncommon drops (exampe: vial of weak blood). I spent most of my time (I was a Norn) just building components to level my crafting skill and that only went so far. I enjoyed the discovery process but never discovered anything because I was too low in crafting level. The way that I see it is that the crafting system is meant for high level toons with a load of time on their hands. It is not meant to be used "on you way up".  That, to me, is disappointing.  

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Originally posted by EvilGeek

 

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Originally posted by tordurbar I disagree with "The distribution of materials also seems to want to keep pace with the player level". As an Artificer and Weaponsmith the gathering modes were way ahead of my crafting level. Example - iron requires level 75 and I was level 24 at the end of the beta. Although I enjoyed some of the crafting I was disappointed that the receipes for the items (not the components) depended upon uncommon drops (exampe: vial of weak blood). I spent most of my time (I was a Norn) just building components to level my crafting skill and that only went so far. I enjoyed the discovery process but never discovered anything because I was too low in crafting level. The way that I see it is that the crafting system is meant for high level toons with a load of time on their hands. It is not meant to be used "on you way up".  That, to me, is disappointing.  

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I had absolutely no problem leveling my crafting to keep pace with my character level. Every five levels offered new items for both tailor and artificer, from level 10, through 15 and on to 20 I was able to craft gear that was better than the drops I had received.

 

 

Please tell me how you did this. The only way I can see this happening is if you are part of a big guild with a lot of your buddies providing the mats you need to build the items. That is my disappointment - GW2 seems to cater for the crafting "professional" not for the "common" player.

"As someone that loves crafting, there’s a certain feeling that I should be able to at least try to make a recipe that’s technically above my level, even if I might fail."

Not sure what you mean there, I crafted level 10 gear at level 6 or 7 by experimenting. High level craft is red rather than yellow.

"Being able to afford materials is sometimes an issue too, especially if you’re trying to do two crafting disciplines."

I think that's pretty standard if you are trying to do 2 crafts at once with your first characted, especially since cooking is designed to be expensive and more for an alt once you have plenty of mats in the bank.

Which brings me to two things you missed:

1. There is no boring wait to craft large stacks. The more you craft the faster it goes. This is a breath of fresh air over other mmos. No longer do you have to spend an entire evening crafting.

2. Bank storage. This is awesome and like the GW1 shared storage for materials but expanded and includes lots of cooking ingerient storage as well as mats for all other crafts. Maybe you missed this but there is a bank tab on the left to take you to this and is extra to the standard 30 slots (expandable). It adds 100s of slots to bank storage and there's also storage for minis.

This is the best crafting I have seen in an mmo. I felt I could craft some gear for my level, it doesn't punish with crit failures, it isn't time consuming if you gather as you go, storage is catered for, and it's interesting enough too. Hats off to ArenaNet.

If mats like Vials of Blood were too easy to come by it would make crafting too easy imho. I got enough for personal use and if I wanted more for selling gear in the AH then I probably need to buy them there too.

The only issue I had with the crafting system is the massive amount of crafting items that can be found. I normally would LOVE to see a system with such a variety of items and materials but not in one where bag space is so limited.

Perhaps if they added a materials bag that is apart from the rest, even just a 10 slot bag(free) and then have to buy to have it expanded. As is, I may not participate in that aspect of the game which will cut down the games lifespan for me as I am always into crafting in MMOs.

It only requires a small change for me to fully support it as it is a nice crafting system.

I'm not sure what was going on with your problems finding mats.  I spent almost my entire beta exploring the world exlusively and doing the random event I came across and harvesting most nodes.  I ended up with tons of metal, wood, jute, leather, vials.. so much that I had to go back to my bank a couple times to make inventory space.  I was too interested in exploring to craft this time.. maybe next beta weekend I'll try the crafting side.

By time I was 22 I had a ton of mats.  Oh, you also didn't really mention that you can change crafting skills and not lose progress, thus being able to learn them all.  Just saying, since it's a crafting preview...

1. Salvage kits: used to decon salavagable items. If you explore you can find REALLY good salvage kits (blue quality) that have much higher success rates.

2. Harvesting metal nodes give you the possibility of getting gems to insert into the upgrade slots of your armor. This is good for people who are out harvesting, but wouldn't want to craft. They can get drops to insert into their empty armor slots.

A side note on harvesting.. use the tool required. If you don't need an expensive harvest tool to harvest the node you're at, use the cheaper tool.

And everyone can harvest a node.. which is pretty sweet. No more rushing people to a node.  And those rich nodes, schweeeet!

Originally posted by jtcgs

The only issue I had with the crafting system is the massive amount of crafting items that can be found. I normally would LOVE to see a system with such a variety of items and materials but not in one where bag space is so limited.

Perhaps if they added a materials bag that is apart from the rest, even just a 10 slot bag(free) and then have to buy to have it expanded. As is, I may not participate in that aspect of the game which will cut down the games lifespan for me as I am always into crafting in MMOs.

It only requires a small change for me to fully support it as it is a nice crafting system.

They have that. Actually, let me explain this because it was one of the best features in the game.

In your bank, there is a second tab for collectables and mini-pets. Every basic crafting item you can place in this tab and it will not take up bank space. Not only that, but you can also put the combined items in there as well. For example, jute cloth and jute bolts both can go in there.

On top of that, you can right click basic crafting materials and send them straight to your collectibles bank from anywhere in the world. It made the space in your inventory not seem so tight. What I did is carry around like 50 salvage kits at all times and converted items I wasn't going to use into basic mats and then sent them to my collectibles bank. It made my inventory feel plenty large.

Now there are some crafting items that do not go in there at this point. Tiny Claws, Weak Blood, etc. All those little things that you get from enemies do not currently go in that tab and so they are the things that tend to take up space. I'm hoping they add functionality in the bank for those items to go in there as well.

Originally posted by colddog04

On top of that, you can right click basic crafting materials and send them straight to your collectibles bank from anywhere in the world. It made the space in your inventory not seem so tight. What I did is carry around like 50 salvage kits at all times and converted items I wasn't going to use into basic mats and then sent them to my collectibles bank. It made my inventory feel plenty large.

Wow, didn't even see that. Thanks!

Originally posted by Lavec

"As someone that loves crafting, there’s a certain feeling that I should be able to at least try to make a recipe that’s technically above my level, even if I might fail."

Not sure what you mean there, I crafted level 10 gear at level 6 or 7 by experimenting. High level craft is red rather than yellow.

I believe there is a certain level of "wiggle room" in crafting skill. If an unknown recipee requires your skill level to be 15, it'll let you do it if you are at 10 or so. I know a few recipees I discovered had a lvl requirement slightly above my own but still worked. I never got my crafting all that high, but I'm assuming that for something like a 50 item, you'll just need to be at 45 or so.

Hey guys, I wrote this and I just want to clarify a few things.

There was so much to do in the game, and while I did place a major emphasis on crafting, there was just not a lot of time to get the full picture. I had to concentrate on Cooking and Leatherworking for this article because of those constraints. I too was affected by server and login issues for a good while on Saturday. Also, different disciplines have different rates. For example, even with a skill level of 24, I couldn't craft the level 25 armors in red in my list. Nor level 25 recipes that were discoverable - like the blueberry tart, which I tested out since it was on the wiki. I had issues with being unable to craft foods that were skill 25 when I was under that. So if you were able to do so, I'll have to investigate.

Once the game launches or there are more beta weekends, I'd love to delve into all eight disciplines.

-To those who pointed out my not mentioning the storage for common crafting mats - thanks for putting it out there. I loved discovering that storage and indeed it was an omission.

I had two characters, one that was a weaponsmith and another that was a leatherworker. I was able to craft items that I was able to use almost constantly. And they were better than the ones I found as loot. Someone mentioned that you needed drop like, "vial of weak blood" and this might be true but I did find a way around it. If you crafted an Insignia and the hilt and blade of a weapon and then combined that into a new recipe, it crafts it for you and gives you the new recipe based on the insignia without needing the Vial of Weak Blood. It uses the insignia instead. 

I had to do it this way because for some reason the AH would not sell me any vials of weak blood but I was able to get my crafting up to about level 60 without (or barely having any) weak blood. 

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Originally posted by tordurbar

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Originally posted by EvilGeek  

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Originally posted by tordurbar I disagree with "The distribution of materials also seems to want to keep pace with the player level". As an Artificer and Weaponsmith the gathering modes were way ahead of my crafting level. Example - iron requires level 75 and I was level 24 at the end of the beta. Although I enjoyed some of the crafting I was disappointed that the receipes for the items (not the components) depended upon uncommon drops (exampe: vial of weak blood). I spent most of my time (I was a Norn) just building components to level my crafting skill and that only went so far. I enjoyed the discovery process but never discovered anything because I was too low in crafting level. The way that I see it is that the crafting system is meant for high level toons with a load of time on their hands. It is not meant to be used "on you way up".  That, to me, is disappointing.  

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I had absolutely no problem leveling my crafting to keep pace with my character level. Every five levels offered new items for both tailor and artificer, from level 10, through 15 and on to 20 I was able to craft gear that was better than the drops I had received.    

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Please tell me how you did this. The only way I can see this happening is if you are part of a big guild with a lot of your buddies providing the mats you need to build the items. That is my disappointment - GW2 seems to cater for the crafting "professional" not for the "common" player.

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I used salvage kits on every item I didn't use, this gave me plenty of cloth for tailoring. Gathering wood and metals along with the salvaged mats gave me plenty for my artificer. I also quickly noted that the most effective way to level crafting was via discovery. They gave me a starter recipe for each light armour piece, this used a 'mighty' insignia which could be crafted using weak blood, the other insignia (precise, vital, healing etc) didn't have associated recipes, by creating the basic mats for a piece and creating an insignia I didn't have the recipe for I could 'discover' a new item, gave way more xp than trying to level up making multiples of the original recipes your given to start.

Finding the creature drop mats to make the different insignia is just about being observant, there were some I rarely seemed to get because I didn't encounter the creature type that dropped them very often. I ended up spending over 20 silver to get my artificer from 25 to 50 because of those creature drops. When the game goes live though I can see me grinding away on the right mobs to complete all the available discoveries.

I hope I don't come across as elitist but I think crafting should reward effort, otherwise there's no viable economy for crafted goods if everyone can make useful items easily all of the time.