There are 8 crafting disciplines in Guild Wars 2. To learn a discipline look for the crafting station icons on your map in any big city after you've explored a little bit. Once there speak to the master close to the stations to learn a profession.
What you need to know is:
What do I need Trade Skills for?
What can I make with Trade Skills?
An Armorsmith makes Heavy armor (Used by soldiers) Runes and Metal boxes.
An Artificer makes Magical weapons (Focus, staves, scepters, and tridents) Sigils and Potions as well as Tuning Crystals.
A Chef Makes Food and Dyes.
A Huntsman makes Projectile weapons and off-hand utility items (Harpoon guns, longbows, pistols, rifles , shortbows, torches, and warhorns) as well as Sigils and Maintenance Oils.
A Jeweler makes fancy Jewelry like (Earrings, necklaces, and rings) as well as the Jewels that adorn them.
A Leatherworker makes Medium armor (Used by adventurers) as well as Runes and Leather packs.
A Tailor makes Light armor (Used by scholars) as well as Runes and Cloth bags.
A Weaponsmith makes Melee weapons and shields (Axes, daggers, greatswords, hammers, maces, shields, spears, swords) as well as Sigils and Sharpening Stones
What Trade Skills do I need to pair for making my Legendary Weapon?
That depends on the weapon you are going to make...I've included a list below.
What are the pro's and con's of doing professions on one or many characters?
While you can only have two active disciplines, you can swap between them without losing recipes. The cost per swap is 10 copper per crafting level (or 40 silver at max level). This allows you to all disciplines at maximum on one character if you are willing to pay the costs. Here are the pros and cons to each:
Using Alts
What you need to know is:
- Crafting takes place only at crafting stations
- You make components in the production panel, and then combine them in the discovery panel to Learn (discover) the recipe. This also actually creates the item you have just discovered.
- Once discovered, you make further items in your production panel.
- You can access your bank and bank collections tab from any Crafting Station.
- You can have 2 active, but learn all 8 on a single Character!!! (it costs a few silver to switch them back on)
- Chef uses the most Karma for vendor mats, everything else uses coin for vendor mats mostly.
What do I need Trade Skills for?
- They give huge amounts of XP. It's possible to level a character from Level 1 to 80 levelling several trades and not move from a crafting station.
- They are a good way of making money from otherwise cheap materials (with the right market research).
- Discovery is fun, as it's a mini-game in it's self.
- You need to have 2 matching trades to craft the Legendary Weapon skins should you be lucky enough to acquire one of the rare named weapons used in their production.
What can I make with Trade Skills?
An Armorsmith makes Heavy armor (Used by soldiers) Runes and Metal boxes.
An Artificer makes Magical weapons (Focus, staves, scepters, and tridents) Sigils and Potions as well as Tuning Crystals.
A Chef Makes Food and Dyes.
A Huntsman makes Projectile weapons and off-hand utility items (Harpoon guns, longbows, pistols, rifles , shortbows, torches, and warhorns) as well as Sigils and Maintenance Oils.
A Jeweler makes fancy Jewelry like (Earrings, necklaces, and rings) as well as the Jewels that adorn them.
A Leatherworker makes Medium armor (Used by adventurers) as well as Runes and Leather packs.
A Tailor makes Light armor (Used by scholars) as well as Runes and Cloth bags.
A Weaponsmith makes Melee weapons and shields (Axes, daggers, greatswords, hammers, maces, shields, spears, swords) as well as Sigils and Sharpening Stones
What Trade Skills do I need to pair for making my Legendary Weapon?
That depends on the weapon you are going to make...I've included a list below.
- Axe: Jeweler, Weaponsmith
- Dagger: Cook, Weaponsmith
- Greatsword: Armorsmith, Weaponsmith
- Hammer: Jeweler, Weaponsmith
- Mace: Armorsmith, Weaponsmith
- Shield: Armorsmith, Weaponsmith
- Sword: Artificer, Weaponsmith
- Spear: Leatherworker, Weaponsmith
- Longbow: Leatherworker, Huntsman
- Shortbow: Jeweler, Huntsman
- Rifle: Tailor, Huntsman
- Pistol: Armorsmith, Huntsman
- Torch: Unknown, Huntmsan
- Warhorn: Leatherworker, Huntmsan
- Speargun: Cook, Huntsman
- Focus: Jeweler, Artificer
- Scepter: Armorsmith, Artificer
- Staff: Cook, Artificer
- Trident: Leatherworker, Artificer
What are the pro's and con's of doing professions on one or many characters?
While you can only have two active disciplines, you can swap between them without losing recipes. The cost per swap is 10 copper per crafting level (or 40 silver at max level). This allows you to all disciplines at maximum on one character if you are willing to pay the costs. Here are the pros and cons to each:
Using Alts
- Pro – Cheaper… you don’t have to pay the fee for switching
- Pro – You get 20 free levels on your alt for maxing two professions
- Pro – More bag space between characters for intermediary components
- Con – You have to swap characters often.
- Con – This will make newbie areas slightly easier since your alts will all start at level 20. Guild Wars 2 level scaling mostly mitigates this effect but not completely (Some people may see this as a Pro).
- Note - If you go this route... make sure you put at least two weapon and armor recipes on the same characters. This will save karma when you buy rare / exotic recipes.
- Pro – Your main character is more “complete”
- Pro – 60 extra skill points on your main character (makes getting legendary weapons easier)
- Pro – You don’t have to swap characters to make an item
- Pro – You will be able to make the components for any epic weapon you want
- Pro - Some heart recipes are soul bound. Putting all your recipes on one character will make learning these easier.
- Con – This can get expensive if you switch often (40 silver may not break the bank, but it isn’t cheap either)
- Con – Space will get short and you will find yourself muling often.