Craft it or Buy it

[tooslow]

I am debating on which course to take, Craft-it or Buy-it.
Do I invest the time and money into crafting my gear, weapons, jewlery and food or do I just buy these things off of the Trading Post.
I just re-rolled my characters and really need to decide before they get very far.
So what do you nice people think about this?
Sell all of the items I gather/harvest and just buy my gears on the Trading Post with the money I make from them, or shall I invest the time and money into making them for myself?
Your input will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

[Lagger]

Selling stuff won't get you far enough to buy much on the TP. You'll need to figure out a proper income somehow either way.

[Kendel]

I personally stopped crafting because the items on the trading post are fairly cheap. A little bit of farming and you can buy most of what you need if not find it yourself at endgame. Crafting is hard to make any real profit from at the moment but it may be worth having later on. Only problem is it takes a large investment to get it making stuff that I actually need. more than if I just bought the items.

[lcpdragonslayer]

I think it's probably cheaper to buy your end-game stuff from the Trading Post rather than invest in 400 levels of crafting (800 if you're wanting 400 for the armour & weapon-making crafts for your class), but one of the good ways to earn gold in this game is to craft stuff and sell it... so it's kind of circular in that way.

Crafting is fun which is why I do it. Farming materials is a pain though and I can see why it turns a lot of people off. Ultimately it depends on whether you have enjoyed crafting assuming you did some before you rerolled. If you haven't, then don't craft. You can still earn gold doing dungeons, selling the materials you don't need, and selling loot on the Trading Post.

[Rellin]

Sell it all and buy whatever you need. I hit level 80 this weekend and bought myself exotic 3 level 80 weapons (daggers and shortbow) and 4 of my 6 pieces of exotic armor. I am sure I will have enough tonight or tomorrow for the last two pieces. The only thing I have not sold any of are my crafting materials, as I will try to level them for shits and giggles once I have all my armor and weapons and stuff. If I had sold all my crafting stuff I would have tons more gold.

[shokenaw]

Its a buyers market right now and should you chose to you can take advantage of that. While you may not take a loss because you're gathering most materials yourself, if you were to buy the materials off the TP to craft you would be taking a loss. The value of exotics is being dramatically underplayed (level 80 ones) as people perhaps forget or don't understand that you're crafting the highest stat gear in the game and from there everything else is cosmetic. Legendary weapons do not count and even if they did the stat bonus (a little under 2%) on them is hardly worth the time and effort if stats were the only thing you're looking for in an item.

I personally bought my level 80 gear as a way to support the economy. I understand that supply and demand has these items dropping in price - but the value of them should remain. How much would you spend to get a best in slot piece of raid gear (gold wise) in any other game? That's basically what the crafted exotics are in this game.

[Zorac]

Selling stuff won't get you far enough to buy much on the TP. You'll need to figure out a proper income somehow either way.

I sell half of what I gather daily just from running around completing areas never refarming areas or events and I have bought 2 complete sets of exotic armor and superior runes/sigils and jewels. Total I think I spent around 30 gold and have 4 or 5 gold in the bank. I bought gems once with rl money, but spent them on toon slots and back space. I bough gems with in game gold and used it on some dye packs which I resold and since I got a couple wanted rare dyes made some on that, but over all farming and selling mats in the TP is pretty good.

As I said I sell about half, the other half I am slowly lvling up my different crafting skills, not very quick cause well there is just so much other to do.

[Delvoire]

I think you should buy stuff off the TP.. so that way someone will be buying all the stuff I throw on there for sale

[Mitchrapp]

One big advantage of leveling to 400, the huge XP gain. Once you're at 400, exotic's take less money even buying the stuff individually rather than farming, over buying the item. Do some farm, salvage and TP can be much cheaper than going straight to TP and buying exotic gear.

Though, lower level blues and greens can be quite reasonable.

[tooslow]

Thank you all for your suggestions and generous input.
My characters, a Ranger and Necro, are both at level 25 and up to this point I have been able to equip them using drops, rewards and by purchasing from the Trading Post.
Some things I have experienced, 1) is that even though other players say that after completing a heart you can buy karma gear in your level range I find that the gear is usually below my level, is not what I can use or the stats do not meet my requirements/needs 2) the gear coin merchants also have gear that does not meet my level or the stats do not meet my requirements or when it would be an upgrade the upgrade is so minimal that it’s not worth the coin it takes to buy it 3) and that after level 10ish the drops I get are not for my profession, level or the stats are not what …etc.

This is where I go look on the Trading Post to find upgrades and while I have managed to find some appropriate equipment to procure that generally meets my requirements that after level 20 for both characters, it appears to have become much more difficult to find the equipment that I desire. It seems, even though there are untold numbers of goods available for purchase at a very reasonable price, the sellers seem to be just dumping their unwanteds or leveling combines onto the market and there are very few goods that meet my needs. (It may be that I am not looking at the market correctly)

Well, this is where I want to do my own crafting so I can make the gear and equipment that has the properties that I desire. This is what I did in the last two MMO’s I played, because there were rarely any of the upgrades I wanted on the market and drops or rewards were junk.
I am not really looking for level 80 equipment now or any exotic gear and I plan to spend a lot of time playing at the levels 25 through 60 or so. Neither do I plan on making coin from crafting, as I have never used crafting in any MMO to make coin. What I do like to do is have the best equipment I can get for the level that I am currently at. I also do find crafting in an MMO a fun activity when it isn’t too difficult but still with some degree of challenge.

Now while I do have a lot of the 1st tier crafting materials, that will get me to level 75, it will be the next tiers that are going to cause me problems as I have not spent much time in the 25+ level zones. So I know I will have to go to the Trading Post to get some of the necessary materials (venom sacs, fangs, claws and such don’t just grow on trees). This is where the expense will come into play and maybe to such a degree that I may not have the desire to continue crafting my own.

In conclusion, what I will do is to level my characters and craft as much gear and equipment as I can for as long as I can and do my best to have fun and enjoy the challenge of fine crafting.
Thank you for your input and I will continue to browse these forums to further my understanding of the game and all of the features it offers.