The Hungry Tyrian
February 9, 2013 at 2:54 pm | Posted in Crafting, Guild Wars 2, mmorpg, PvE | 8 CommentsTags: crafting, Guild Wars 2, MMO, mmorpg
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Choosing A Crafting Profession
June 8, 2012 at 11:51 am | Posted in Crafting, Guild Wars 2, mmorpg | 8 CommentsTags: crafting, Guild Wars 2, MMO, mmorpg
For the most part picking a crafting profession in Guild Wars 2 will be pretty easy. You want to use pistols, go with Huntsman, you want to be a scholar go with Tailor. Straight-forward. You don’t have to think too hard if all you want to do is have useful crafting professions for personal use.
However there are a few things to consider for the more discerning player.
I think most people, at least at first, won’t want the complication of leveling two crafting professions at once. The Guild Wars 2 crafting professions don’t appear particularly complicated (at least at low levels) but managing the needs of two disciplines at launch might be too much of a bother. With that in mind you’re left with a simple question.
What is more important for you? What do you want most out of crafting? Armour, weapons, profit, or bagspace?
Generally speaking you have 6 pieces of armour, and at most you’ll be switching between 4 weapons. By virtue of numbers an armour crafting profession would appear to be the most convenient. You’ll be able to make more things for yourself while leveling.
But that isn’t the only advantage of going with an armour profession. Tailor, armoursmith, and leatherworker can create bags. Increasing your inventory space will be a priority for some people.
The only drawback for armour smiths will be that most materials will drop from mobs instead of being gathered from nodes. Depending on a persons playstyle this may affect their choice.
Of course the above reasoning doesn’t take into consideration other motivations. What if your intent is purely profit?
I think one of the most profitable crafted items will be bags, in the early days at least. That makes armour crafting even more desirable, and with their ability to make runes (though I haven’t seen how yet) it should make those professions very popular.
So popular it has the potential to make those professions less profitable. A glut of users all making the same things could potentially flood the market. This is where weapon crafting, cooking and jewelcrafting could be profitable in the long term.
Jewelcrafting in particular caught my eye as being potentially profitable. Jewelry didn’t appear to drop much in my time playing. Perhaps it was an aspect of low level play or my own bad luck, but I had to make do with the occasional personal story reward to fill out my jewelry slots. Karma vendors had some available as well but you didn’t really get to pick the stats that came with them, unless you want to hunt around from vendor to vendor. Both options are rather unimpressive in any case.
On the other hand it’s hard to say how useful cooking will be. Cooking seems to have a class of nodes all to itself, so it doesn’t lend itself to a second crafting profession very well. I’m also told by friends that it requires a great number of ingredients per recipe. There are also numerous consumables available from merchants, so a cook would have to compete (though I haven’t had a chance to compare) with those items. Aside from that it’s difficult to gauge how popular foods will be. They aren’t a requirement like, weapons, armour, or even jewelry.
Cooking also has a seeming drawback in that harvesting sickles only have 50 uses. I haven’t investigated the consequences of this, but offhand if cooking requires more resources, and you get less uses from gathering tools, it could mean a number of things. Higher costs might mean fewer cooks, higher prices, and possibly higher profits if supply is low. I’ll have to look closer at it eventually.
And that is essentially what I’ve been considering as far as choosing a crafting profession in Guild Wars 2. Eventually I’m sure I’ll have a character that has mastered each. In the beginning however I’m definitely leaning towards a leatherworker, since I’ve decided on my first 3 characters being medium armoured adventurers and I want a ton of bag space. Although that probably means I’ll have the same armour designs on 3 characters quite a bit.
World Of Craftcraft
June 7, 2012 at 1:04 pm | Posted in Crafting, Guild Wars 2, mmorpg | 15 CommentsTags: crafting, Guild Wars 2, MMO, mmorpg
I like Guild Wars 2 crafting. There are problems with it but on the whole it is well put together. It treads a thin line between simplicity and complexity. It’s also far less of a grind than any other crafting system I’ve ever tried, not that I’ve tried many.
Collecting materials isn’t particularly hard. You’ll need to gather resources like ore and wood, and kill mobs for trophy materials like tiny claws or tiny venom sacs. For the most part I didn’t have any problems coming up with enough of these and certainly the auction house had plenty to offer.
You’ll need to refine that ore into ingots, make planks out of your wood, and combine planks with your trophies to get inscriptions. Weapons (and I’ll assume armour) are made of two components, plus the inscription. For instance, a dagger hilt, a dagger blade, and inscription. Most weapons will require one component to be made of ingots, the other to be made of wood, or some combination. Resources are usually very evenly split with a few exceptions.
I thought it could have been more even in some cases, such as the dagger. It doesn’t require wood or leather for either piece requiring 2 ingots for the hilt and 3 for the blade. An easy way to even out its resource sink would be to add a leather/wood component to the hilt. Swords typically had something of that sort for grip.
Most of my experience was with weaponsmithing and huntsman. I found that I had to make a maximum of 6 to 8 weapons (I think) to be able to reach the next level bracket. So a couple of level 10 pistols, a level 10 rifle, and a few other items before I could make level 15 weapons.
Obviously I could only use some of the weapons I made, which meant I either would end up salvaging my own recently made weapons, or throwing them on the auction house. Some games would have you make dozens of useless unwanted items to level your crafting, but I can see them being bought in this game. They are superior and useful better than what you’ll find from drops or merchants.
Refining your materials, making the components, creating the inscription, forging the item, everything adds to your crafting level and your experience bar. It’s one of the things I like most about crafting here. It’s time well spent in numerous ways, with items you can use, no lengthy process or progress bars, and a significant amount of experience to level from.
One of two negative things I have to say about crafting is that the user interface is quite irritating. I can only imagine how frustrating it might be to reach max level in crafting and have to sort through the many varying levels and names of items. The categories are sorted by type (rifle, warhorn, dagger, sword) but within those menus I can see the lists getting quite long and confusing.
I’m only going by memory here, but as I recall, you could make 3 different types of pistols per bracket. For instance a resilient, vital, or mighty pistol. Denoting toughness, vitality, or power bonuses (the potential complexity in the context of builds is awe inspiring) on the weapon. You’re going to have quite a few different types of pistols on your way to max level and the menu isn’t equipped to handle it smoothly.
Not to mention how irritating it is to close the pistol portion of the menu only to have it re-open each time you pull up the UI.
Overall I find the crafting system in Guild Wars 2 to be exemplary. It feels quick, natural, and intuitive. Easy to get in and out of. I played Rift, SWTOR, and LOTRO all without feeling tempted to try out crafting but in Tyria it was like I was being dumb not to get into crafting.
Tooling Around
May 31, 2012 at 12:31 pm | Posted in Guild Wars 2, mmorpg | 26 CommentsTags: crafting, gathering, Guild Wars 2, MMO, mmorpg
World of Craftcraft
One thing I discovered during the Beta Weekend Event in Guild Wars 2 was that gathering suddenly had a barrier to entry. You must equip gathering tools, a logging axe, mining pick, or harvesting sickle before gathering from a node. They have 100, 100 and 50 uses respectively.
It had always been my impression that Arenanet was shooting for a more open approach to gathering. That certainly seemed the case with how they designed nodes to be available independently to each player. One didn’t have to go competing for nodes with others.
So imagine my surprise when I walked up to a node only to receive a message about needing equipment.
If truth be told I had envisioned a socialist paradise where anyone who wanted to help out their guild would walk up to any node, gather some materials, and later deposit them in the guild bank for all to use. Alas, there is a Stalin to every Lenin.
On an immersion level I suppose it makes sense to carry around tools to hack down trees and so forth instead of chopping away with a long sword. Yet on a broader level of game design I only find it to be cumbersome. A nuisance.
If I’m out in the wilderness gathering and my tools evaporate in my hands, that is an annoyance. Having to spend coin to use fast travel to a merchant to buy the tools with karma or gold, then return using even more coin seems aggravating. Of course that being said I’m not currently able to play the game so I can’t say for sure it is aggravating.
Then there is the annoyance of using cheap tools to harvest low level materials while I keep higher level tools in my inventory to keep on hand for high level materials.
Unfortunately there is a practical and understandable reason for these tools. A gold sink. A free and unlimited labour force unendingly supplying materials for crafting would likely have been the death of a stable economy. It is probably the sole reason for the existence of tools, and admittedly very necessary.
I’m not a fan but I can’t even think of a single alternative that would make crafting better off.
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