Hunter's Insight – A Guild Wars 2 Blog

The Hungry Tyrian

The chef crafting profession is used most often to gain ten levels of experience without having to do much work or spend much gold. Often a few specific foods are made and then the profession is cast aside to be forgotten until the next alt requires a few easily gained levels.

Playing through the game, I often group up with people and notice that by and large only a single food is ever displayed beside the average player avatar. The omnomberry bar, 30% magic find, 40% gold find. Amongst my guild it is a must have for just about any dungeon, paying for itself as you play.

Rarely do I see any other foods being used even though the diversity and variety of foods is staggering. My aim here is to highlight some of the lesser known foods and demonstrate why they should be used more often.

I’ll try to concentrate on the most effective in both cost and usefulness for max level characters.

This is one aspect of Guild Wars 2 that I think is highly under-appreciated. Some foods can deliver staggering results.

What you should know about foods first

Foods and potions stack. You can eat a food, drink a potion, and get results from both. So even if you must have that omnomberry bar, you should probably drink a potion as well.

Due to the variety and levels of food available, often foods below max level are a bargain on the Auction House compared to their maxed out version, with minimal loss of stats. You’ll find some of these recommended as alternatives.

You will often find foods on the Auction House for less than the cost of their ingredients.

Foods or potions that increase a stat by a percentage can work really well for people who have maxed out a particular stat.

Pretty much all foods give a 10% experience boost but festival foods tend to give a 15% boost to experience.

What you need to know about potions first

There are essentially four types of potions, Slayer potions and Tuning Crystals crafted by Artificers, Maintenance Oils crafted by Huntsmen, and Sharpening Stones crafted by Weaponsmiths. Slayer potions are better for specific areas or specific dungeons. The other potions are generally geared towards builds that have stacked attributes in toughness and vitality.

Slayer potions are all over the place in both cost, usefulness and specificity. Obviously 10% versus undead is insanely useful in Orr but useless in Frostgorge. Their costs can be outrageous as well. One Potent potion (not even the max level) requires a corrupted core in the recipe, currently selling for around 60 silver. Discerning readers will have to come to their own conclusions about when and where to use slayer potions and how much to pay for them.

Finally, Slayer potions do more damage versus a particular type of monster, but don’t overlook that you actually take less damage from those monsters as well.

Okay, on to the foods.

Magic Find

Most Efficient

Omnomberry Bar: 30% magic find, 40% gold from monsters

By far the most popular food, I’d be a fool to not mention these. Aside from the obvious, more loot, there are still a couple of things to note.

Magic find always works better in a group as group damage counts towards doing the minimal damage for rewards. Or something like that. Trust me, you’ll note the difference.

The 40% gold find from monsters is not to be dismissed. If a champion drops 5 silver, you’ll make an extra 2. Many champions drop cash in dungeons, anywhere from 5 to 15 silver.

Best Alternative

Spicy Pumpkin Cookie: 30% Magic Find, +70 condition damage

A popular alternative to O-bars is the Spicy Pumpkin Cookie. It’s selling at about 1 silver at the moment and outside of a dungeon I’ve never felt gold find was particularly useful.

It lasts 45 minutes, a full 15 minutes longer than an O-bar.

There is one drawback in that it has the ability to turn you into a costumed brawler with costume brawl skills, until you exit out of course.

Easiest To Make

Cup of Lotus Fries: 30% magic find, +70 condition damage

Probably the quickest to make with the least amount of fuss or cost. These are currently selling just barely more than the SPC.

Defense

Most Efficient

Bowl of Poultry and Leek Soup: -36% condition duration, +60 vitality

A full 4 silver less than the Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup<, with only a 4% reduction in effectiveness.

Also much easier and cheaper to craft.

Best Alternative

Bowl of Saffron-scented Poultry Soup: 100% chance to remove a condition when you use a heal skill, +70 Healing

You’re likely to be healing if under the effects of a condition anyway right?

This sells for under 2 silver but the supply is weak.

Others

Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup: -40% condition duration, +70 Vitality

Obviously statistically better, it’s far more expensive.

Dodging

Most Efficient

Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew: 100% chance to gain might when you dodge.
+40% to Endurance refill rate

Forget about the Might here, this food is about dodging. If you’ve got yourself a situation in Guild Wars 2 where dodging is essential, and there are many of them, this food has your back.

Currently selling for 3s75c on the Auction House.

Kind of a pain to make yourself.

Best Alternative

Bowl of Meat and Winter Vegetable Stew: 80% chance to gain might when you dodge.
+30% to your Endurance refill rate

A 10% hit to that refill rate but the cost makes it appealing. It’s Currently selling at just under 1 silver.

Somehow I think BoOTaMS is slightly easier to make.

Downed Health

Most Efficient

Bowl of Fire Salsa: +100% downed health, +20% damage while downed

Are you a thief? This is the food for you.

Best Alternative

Don’t be a thief.

Potions

Most Efficient

Quality Maintenance Oil: Gain precision equal to 5% of your toughness
Gain precision equal to 3% of your vitality

These potions really depend on what stats you’ve built around and what you want more of.

All things the same, I’m going with Maintenance oil because I prefer a hard stat like precision over the condition damage of Tuning Crystals.

It’s also slightly cheaper and easier to make than Hardened Sharpening Stones, no refinement necessary, although a trip to the crafting merchant will require you to get jugs of water.

With 1000 toughness and 1000 vitality this equals out to about 80 precision. Not as good as a food but remember they’re not competing, they stack.

There is a mistake on the wording of the item, it says power where it should say precision.

If they are a viable alternative in the area you’re going to, you should always consider a slayer potion.

Best Alternative

Hardened Sharpening Stones: Gain power equal to 5% of your toughness
Gain power equal to 3% of your vitality

Slightly more expensive to make, power could very well be a better fit for your build.

The master version of the Oil, Crystals and Stones all use tier 6 crafting materials, limiting choice to the second best version of each.

Easiest To Make

Quality Tuning Crystal: Gain Condition damage equal to 5% of your toughness
Gain Condition damage equal to 3% of your vitality

Most expensive to make, and the easiest, but surprisingly also the cheapest to buy on the auction house, currently a bargain.

Obviously if you’d like to increase your condition damage rather than other stats this is the potion for you.

Health Regeneration

Most Efficient

Mango Pie: Gain health every second, +70 vitality

88 health a second is a lovely stat to have in a lot of situations. I’d prefer it to foods that reduce condition damage, steal health, or reduce condition duration. In a battle I’ll only have conditions on me part of the time, and stealing health is dependent on whether I’m getting critical hits.

This food is a steal at it’s current price of 45 copper.

Best Alternative

Peach Pie: Gain health every second, +60 Vitality

At 66 health a second Peach Pie is no slouch.

Oh you thought Mango Pie was cheap? 3 copper. These suckers are selling for 3 copper a piece.

Others

Omnomberry Ghost: 66% chance to steal life on critical, +70 precision

Popular and expensive but perfect for strong critical hit builds. With enough critical hits this would be able to heal people through nearly anything.

Part of its popularity stems from the ghostly visual effect it gives the player, lasting about 5 minutes.

Sells for over 6 silver.

Omnomberry Pie: 66% chance to steal life on critical, +70 precision

Exact same food as the Ghost but without the visual effect.

Sells for 1 silver less.

Same need for high critical hit percentage.

Karma

Most Efficient

Bowl of Chocolate Chip Ice Cream: Gain healing power equal to 1% of your vitality, +5% karma

None of the foods that give karma are particularly well supplied on the Auction House, but currently this is the cheapest.

There are only 7 foods that make karma, all ice creams, consider searching for the best deal.

Obviously these would most efficiently be used in conjunction with other means of increasing karma gain, such as a booster or 24 hour guild upgrade.

Easiest To Make

Bowl of Saffron-Mango Ice Cream: Gain healing power equal to 6% of your vitality, Gain healing power equal to 4% of your toughness, +5% karma

While not currently the cheapest to buy, easily the most well supplied, cheapest to make and easiest to make.

Vitality

Most Efficient

Plate of Tarragon Stuffed Poultry: Gain Vitality equal to 5% of Toughness, +160 Power when health below 50%

Depending on your toughness this is the most cost effective way to currently boost your vitality with food. Currently selling at a measly 4 copper.

Every build should have some toughness, so this should even with low toughness give at least 50 to 70 vitality.

Best Alternative

Plates of Lemongrass Poultry: Gain vitality equal to 6% of your toughness, +200 power when health below 50%

The slightly better version of tarragon stuffed poultry, lemongrass poultry sells for 2 silver more, but is still cheaper than the standard Loaf of omnomberry bread at over 7 silver, or Loaf of raspberry peach at 3s33c.

With a build in toughness of over 2000 my guildie gets just under 1k health from this food.

Others

Loaf of Raspberry Peach Bread: +80 vitality, +60 toughness

There are few straight up vitality foods at affordable prices, this is probably your best choice at just over 3 silver a piece.

Loaf of Zucchini Bread: +50 vitality, +40 toughness

While sporting half of the vitality of a Loaf of Omnomberry Bread, the max version, it also costs 10x less. A bargain currently selling below a silver.

Power

Most Efficient

Plate of Fire Flank Steak: +100 power, +70 condition damage

By far the most cost effective power food, selling for well under a silver.

Also one of the easiest high level foods to craft requiring only a slab of meat and ghost pepper.

Best Alternative

Plate of Steak and Asparagus: +80 Power, +60 Precision

The added precision here is nothing to sneeze at if you’re going for power.

The price is currently a bargain, under 1 silver.

Precision

Most Efficient

Bowl of Fancy Potato and Leek Soup: +100 Precision, +70 condition damage

One of the few cases where a max food sells for a reasonable amount.

Condition damage works for some precision builds but not others, choose accordingly.

Best Alternative

Bowl of Potato and Leek Soup: +80 Precision, +60 Condition Damage

An absolute bargain, currently selling for less than 10c.

Others

Bowl of Butternut Squash Soup: +80 precision, +8% critical damage

If you could use crit damage, this is a definite option, selling for 4 silver less than the max version, Bowl of Curry Butternut Squash Soup.

Toughness

Most Efficient

Bowl of Poultry Tarragon Pasta: +80 toughness, +60 precision

Selling at just under a silver this is the most cost efficient food for toughness.

Best Alternative

Bowl of Truffle Ravioli: +100 Toughness, +70 Precision

The cheapest max version of the toughness foods.

There aren’t many options with toughness foods, due to expense and lack of variety.

Currently selling above 2 silver.

Condition Damage

Most Efficient

Fancy Veggie Pizza: +28% condition duration, +60 condition damage

I chose Fancy over Rare Veggie Pizza because while it has only 12% less duration and 10 less condition damage it costs less than a silver while Rare costs over 4 silver.

This is an easy fix for conditions that aren’t lasting long enough for your build.

Most of the pizza foods are an absolute pain to make.

Best Alternative

Bowl of Snow Truffle Soup: +80 condition damage, +60 vitality

At half the cost of the max version, Bowl of Orrian Truffle Soup, it makes for a pretty good deal.

Placing a custom order is unuaully cheap for this item.

Others

Bowl of Fancy Creamy Mushroom Soup: +60 condition damage, +50 vitality

Bargain pricing.

In conclusion, where is the bacon? I really feel like Arenanet messed up on this one. The expansion had better have bacon. Or else.